Author: Jamie Canaves

Barack Obama To Speak At Booker Prize Ceremony

The Booker prize ceremony will be held online this year, as the pandemic continues, on November 19th. It seems fitting that since the ceremony was moved from the 17th to the 19th to avoid too much bookish clashing on one day–the 17th is the release of Obama’s memoir A Promised Land–that Obama will be one of the speakers at the ceremony. He’ll join fellow authors and former winners Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, and Bernardine Evaristo.

Oprah & Brad Pitt To Adapt Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates’ novel The Water Dancer will be adapted by Kamilah Forbes, Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films, and Brad Pitt’s Plan B. MGM’s film group statement: “Ta-Nehisi’s debut fiction novel has at its heart, a beautiful character in Hiram Walker, whose personal odyssey weaves the supernatural and spiritual, with the terrible reality of the forced separations endured by enslaved people and their families for centuries.”

Chicago Public Libraries Benefit From Eliminating Fines

Chicago Public Libraries eliminated late fees, which collected around $800,000 to $900,000 a year, and are finding what is gained is worth more than the fees collected: the return of patrons and valuable books. 11,000 patrons who had fees removed ended up renewing or replacing their library cards and book checkout increased by 7%.

Reading Through Difficult Times: Books and Their Readers in 1918–1920

What were people reading during the Influenza epidemic of 1918-1920? A deep dive into the reading habits of that era.

Time’s Must-Read Books of 2020

We’ve hit the time of year when Best Of lists begin and Time has put out a gorgeous page showcasing the covers of 100 fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books that they have deemed the must-read books of 2020. Nonfiction includes The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, Wandering in Strange Lands by Morgan Jerkins, Open Book by Jessica Simpson and so many other great titles. In fiction you have literary works, (The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich), crime fiction (Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara), romance (One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London), horror (The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones), and more genres.

Brené Brown Chats With Gabby Rivera

Author Brené Brown, who you may also know from her popular TED Talk, “The Power of Vulnerability,” is also a podcast host. Her recent Unlocking Us episode is a conversation with author Gabby Rivera, whose novel Juliet Takes a Breath will soon release as a graphic novel adaptation, and who was the first Latina to write for Marvel Comics.

Humble Book Bundle’s Be the Change Supporting The ALA

Humble Bundle sells digital content that supports charities in bundles where you choose how much you want to pay. Currently they have a bundle, Be The Change, which supports the American Library Association. Starting at the $1 tier of bundles there is amazing content, including Goldie Vance Vol 1 and the graphic novel adaptation of Parable of the Sower.

10 Books About Foster Care For Adults And Kids

Books about foster care help everyone from foster parents to children in care navigate the various aspects of the system.

2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlist Announced

Fifteen books are on the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlist– a $35,000 annual award for fiction with social impact. Thirteen are novels, two are short story collections, and five of them are debuts. It’s definitely an outstanding list to pick your next amazing read from.

The Wrath and The Dawn Will Be Adapted

Renee Ahdieh’s epic fantasy novel The Wrath and the Dawn–which has one of the best narrated audiobooks–is being adapted into a TV series, optioned by 1212 Entertainment. Renee Ahdieh said, “It is such an honor to see The Wrath and the Dawn on Time Magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Fantasy Novels, and I am thrilled to see Shahrzad’s story and rich world of One Thousand and One Nights come to life on screen as a returning TV series.”

Reese Witherspoon’s November YA Pick

Reese Witherspoon’s book club keeps picking fantastic YA titles. Including the just revealed November title A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey, which follows a Cuban-American Miami girl after the loss of her abuela, ended romantic relationship, and ended friendship on a forced recovery trip to a small English town. Prepare to crave Cuban food.

What Happens When a Community Loses Its Newspaper?

Taking a look at alternative news sources and the impacts of missing media, in questioning what happens when a community loses its newspaper.

Blue Ivy Carter Narrates Audiobook Hair Love

Blue Ivy Carter, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s eight-year-old daughter, has added audiobook narrator to her resume. You can hear her narrate Matthew A. Cherry and Vashti Harrison’s book Hair Love based on the short film of the same name, which won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

Ruby Bridges Wrote A Children’s Book

Ruby Bridges, now a civil rights activist, was the first African-American child to desegregate William Frantz Elementary School in 1960 when she was six years old. Norman Rockwell painted the iconic image The Problem We All Live With in 1964, showing Ruby Bridges walking into school escorted by U.S. Marshals beside a wall with a racist slur. Now Bridges has written a children’s book telling her story and documenting the historic moment, This is Your Time.

Feminist Philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft Honored With Statue 200 Years Later

English writer Mary Wollstonecraft was a philosopher and women’s rights activist most known for her 1792 published work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. Now, after ten years of fundraising, the first memorial sculpture of her has gone up in Newington Green, London. You can check out the statue, said to “definitely promote comment,” and learn about Wollstonecraft, who was of course vilified during her life. Suffragist Millicent Fawcett helped restore her reputation a century after her death; Wollstonecraft died shortly after giving birth to her second daughter, Frankenstein author Mary Shelley.

Welcome to Winter Reading Day

Whether you greet the seasonal change with delight or dismay, we hope you’ll join us for some of our favorite winter reading picks!

Readers Rush To Buy Kamala Harris’ Books

Four books by or about Vice President-elect Kamala Harris made it to Amazon’s top 10 on Sunday. Two are her authored books: one for children, Superheroes Are Everywhere, and the other her memoir, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. Also on the list are a children’s book authored by Harris’ niece, Meena Harris, Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea, and a children’s biography authored by Nikki Grimes, Kamala Harris: Rooted in Justice. Kamala Harris made history as the first woman, first Black, and first South Asian vice-president.

60 Years Later, Woman Unknowingly Purchases Book Owned in Childhood

JoAnne Craig purchased a used 1949 copy of Black Beauty by Anna Sewell recently, remembering that her brother had given her a copy on her sixth birthday as a present. When she sat down to read the book, she discovered a delightful surprise: She had just purchased the actual book her brother had bought her sixty years ago. On the final page was the inscription, “Sept. 23, 1960, Happy birthday, love Tom.”

Powell’s Books Sells Book-Scented Fragrance

Want to smell like a bookstore? Or at least be reminded of the smell? The Oregon-based chain of bookstores, Powell’s City of Books, has a unisex fragrance for you they claim does just that. Being that it just went on sale and there are already 1,225 orders for the $24.99 fragrance, it sounds like many people need a scent hit of books.

Non-ALA Book Awards for Children’s and YA Books

The ALA isn’t the only organization that honors the best children’s and young adult books of the year. Check out these other children’s book awards.

Lawsuit Filed Over Rights To Truman Capote’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s

A lawsuit filed claims that Truman Capote set up a charity trust before his death which owns the rights to a prequel, sequel, or television series inspired by the 1961 film Breakfast At Tiffany’s, which is based on Capote’s novella of the same name. The purpose of the lawsuit is to get back the rights that were sold to Paramount for $300,000 in 1991 since they have yet to make anything and others have shown interest.

The Root Launches New Podcast

For bookish podcast fans, here’s a new one to keep your ears warm: The Root Presents: It’s Lit! “The Root Presents: It’s Lit! centers the voices and ideas of Black writers—not only authors but journalists and essayists; thought leaders and dreamers; poets and playwrights; screenwriters and songwriters. It’s Lit! stands at the intersection of Black literature and Black lives—because both matter.”

Raven Leilani’s Luster Wins $50,000 Kirkus prize

The Kirkus Prize for fiction winner is Raven Leilani’s Luster, a novel about a young Black artist who begins a relationship with a white man in an open marriage which ultimately leads to her relationship with his family. Two other $50,000 honors were announced: Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream by Mychal Denzel Smith for best nonfiction; I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James for best young people’s literature.

LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special Trailer

Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewie, Rose, and the droids will reunite for a celebration on Life Day in the The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special. It will stream on Nov. 17th on Disney+ and we have a trailer!

Hugh Laurie & Emilia Clarke To Voice Terry Pratchett Adaptation

Terry Pratchett’s Carnegie Medal-winning novel The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, from the Discworld series, is being adapted into an animated film with the support of the Pratchett estate. Joining the voice cast are Hugh Laurie (House) and Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones).

Camilla Pang is Youngest and First Writer Of Color to Win Royal Society Prize

Through the prism of her autism spectrum disorder, Dr. Camilla Pang wrote her debut exploring the complexities of human behavior using science, Explaining Humans. It won the Royal Society prize, making Dr. Camilla Pang, at 28, the youngest writer and the first writer of color to win the £25,000 prize. All the congrats!

What Was the First Audiobook?

Did you know the first audiobooks were created by The American Association for The Blind? Read on to know more!