Author: Jamie Canaves

Crime Author Lied About Murdered Wife

French author Stéphane Bourgoin, who has sold millions of crime books about serial killers, has been exposed as a fraud, having lied about FBI training at Quantico and interviewing Charles Manson. In an interview admitting his deceits, he also stated he made up having a wife who was murdered by a serial killer, and that he borrowed the story from a real victim whom he had met briefly.

To The Post Office! (Online Store Of Course)

The USPS is celebrating the 1920s Harlem Renaissance with gorgeous stamps honoring some of the cultural and literary voices of the movement. The 20 forever stamps release on May 21st (you can pre-order!) with graphically designed portraits of “novelist Nella Larsen; bibliophile and historian Arturo Alfonso Schomburg; poet Anne Spencer; and writer, philosopher, educator and arts advocate Alain Locke, who is known as the dean of the Harlem Renaissance.”

Ferrante To Netflix!

HBO may have adapted Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend into a series, but Netflix and Fandango snagged her next novel The Lying Life of Adults for adaptation. The novel, already published in Italy, was originally set for US publishing in June, but has moved to September because of the pandemic. You can check out the Netflix trailer announcement.

Neuroscientist On Why Reading May Be Hard Right Now

For some, the pandemic has finally given them time to tackle their TBR, and, for others, they’ve found themselves suddenly unable to read. Maybe you’re floundering between the two? Either way, the current state of the world has changed a lot of things, including regular habits which we were using for comfort. Constance Grady at Vox called neuroscientist and psychologist Oliver J. Robinson to discuss why some readers have found themselves unable to read during this time.

Miniature Books In Lockdown

Inspired by the time the Brontë children made stamp-size books for their toy soldiers, Jacqueline Wilson and Axel Scheffler, with the British Library, are asking kids to make their own miniature books. You can check out the miniature books the library has and let kids share their own creations using the hashtag #DiscoveringChildrensBooks or email the learning@bl.uk –there’s going to be a virtual bookshelf created!

Best Translated Books Awards

We have finalists for the 2020 Best Translated Books Awards for fiction and poetry! This certainly is a great time to feel less stuck at home by picking up a book from different countries around the world–and there’s something for different genre readers, including crime (Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones) and SFF (The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder). P.S.: If you’re doing the Read Harder Challenge, Drive Your Plow is perfect for #3.

Hamilton On Disney+ Sooooooooon!

The film version of Hamilton will debut on Disney+ on July 3, over a full year ahead of the originally planned theatrical release.

Inside A Secret Library

A young group of Syrians are fighting for their future by collecting books from abandoned and bombed buildings and homes for the secret library they built: “We could see that it was vital to create a library in order to continue our education.” BBC World Affairs correspondent Mike Thomson wrote about these brave Syrians in Syria’s Secret Library: Reading and Redemption in a Town Under Siege and talked to NPR about the group of book lovers.

Bathtub Poetry

What do you do when you are writing your upcoming book in a book-themed coffee shop and now that shop is closed because of a pandemic? You light candles, put on music, get into the bathtub and write poetry that you share with the world–at least that’s what Alicia Jo Rabins has done, creating “Bathtub Pandemic Poems.”

Libraries Help With Legal Matters

Lots of people can’t afford legal aid and many people need help with civil cases–no matter how much Law & Order you’ve seen. That’s where libraries have been stepping in and offering a connection between patrons and legal aid. “We’ll get quotes on comment cards about how relieved patrons feel to have finally spoken to an attorney about a matter that may have been worrying them for a long time.”

Bloodsuckers Return

Before you roll your eyes at the return of vampires, hear me out: publishing has a habit of taking a book that is super popular (Twilight) and then flooding the market with more of that before pulling the curtain and saying no more. The problem is that the curtain gets pulled before authors of color/marginalized voices are allowed a seat at the table. So hurray for the resurrection of vampire books again from authors we love like Caleb Roehrig and Zoraida Córdova!

Saved From The Bin

By now you’ve probably heard that there are rare editions of Harry Potter books that fetch quite a few dollars in auctions. Turns out that in 2008 a Buckinghamshire teacher spotted some Harry Potter books being thrown away by a library and scooped five of them up, feeling bad for them, and thinking she’d have them for her children–possibly future grandchildren. And what a brilliant momentary choice because it turns out they were rare editions that are now going to auction.

Archie Has His Own Bookclub

In Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s video the other day, where Meghan read Duck! Rabbit? to their son Archie for charity and his first birthday, fans noticed an interesting sticker on the book: “Archie’s Book Club.” Turns out the book was a gift from Oprah, and Archie got his very own book club sticker modeled after the Oprah’s Book Club sticker. Adorable!

Attend BookExpo & BookCon This Month Virtually

After having date changes and then being cancelled, it has been announced that BookExpo and BookCon 2020 will happen this month, virtually of course. All the info regarding programming can be found on their Facebook pages and the dates are May 26-29 for BookExpo Online and May 30 and 31 for BookCon Online. Virtually see you there–or something.

Good Luck

Okay, so this isn’t news, but if you need something “bookish” to take your mind off of *gestures wildly at everything* have fun trying to find the pencil hidden amongst this stack of books. Oh, yeah, the average person apparently can do it in 20 seconds. I have not found it yet. I am not average.

Excalibur!

Tom Wheeler and Frank Miller’s graphic novel Cursed has been adapted into a Netflix series and we have the first look. It’s a fantasy based on Arthurian mythology and here you can get the first look at Katherine Langfor, playing Nimue, wielding Excalibur!

We Have A Date And Teaser!

Watch the first teaser trailer for the Baby-Sitters club series coming to Netflix this July!

Guns N’ Roses + James Patterson Collab Picture Book

Crime author James Patterson’s imprint Jimmy Patterson Books and the band Guns N’ Roses have collaborated on a children’s picture book. The book, named after one of the band’s famous songs, follows the adventures of their manager’s niece and nephew who grew up on the road touring with the band. You can pre-order Sweet Child o’ Mine, which will publish in September and is illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin.

Christopher Pike + Netflix

The Midnight Club by Christopher Pike is being adapted into a Netflix series by the team that created The Haunting of Bly Manor, the followup to The Haunting of Hill House adaptation. Pike is known for his teen horror novels in the ’90s that, at least in my experience, had middle school and elementary students daring each other to read the books. Chain Letter was no joke!

More Story For The Hazel Wood

For fans of Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood and The Night Country you’re getting more! Releasing at the beginning of 2021 (may this cleanse the New Year) will be Tales From the Hinterland, “all of the long-awaited dark and twisted backstories to all of its fairy-tale characters.”

And Another Reading For Charity!

The Lord of the Rings‘ Gollum (Andy Serkis) will read The Hobbit online as a fundraising effort to benefit the NHS.

Bookseller Imprisoned In China Publishes Smuggled Out Poetry

Gui Minhai, a Chinese-born Swedish citizen, is serving a 10-year sentence for selling “gossipy texts on Chinese political leaders” in a bookstore in Hong Kong. Swedish publishing house Kaunitz-Olsson distributed poems on Tuesday written by Minhai, and printed in Chinese and Swedish, that were smuggled out of the Chinese prison: “It would be embarrassing To stop writing poems Because the poetry has been caged.”

Here’s Your Happy Moment For The Day

Here’s Meghan Markle reading Duck! Rabbit! to Archie for his first birthday, filmed by Prince Harry. The adorable video was posted to the Save With Stories Instagram account, Jennifer Garner and Amy Adams collaboration with Save the Children and No Kid Hungry. And clearly Archie is one of us, trying to smuggle in a second book while being read to.

Nicole Kidman Keeps Working On All The Adaptations

Nicole Kidman has a first-look deal with Amazon through her Blossom Films banner and has signed on as executive producer to the adaptation of Kimberly McCreight’s A Good Marriage. This is not Kidman’s first time working with McCreight’s work, as her other novel Reconstructing Amelia is being adapted by Blossom Films for HBO. And if you love mysteries you can hear Liberty rave about A Good Marriage on All the Books!

Prince Harry & Meghan Markle Cooperated In Upcoming Tell-All

Releasing August 11th will be Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family. Now, you may be wondering why we’re telling you about yet another tell-all book about the royal family. This one is a bit different in that it’s being said Harry & Meghan cooperated with the authors Omid Scobie (Harper’s Bazaar royal editor) and Carolyn Durand (Elle magazine’s royal correspondent) in order to “finally present the truth of misreported stories.” Fastest pre-buy in the history of pre-buys.

Harry Potter Digital Escape Room

Looking for something to entertain the kids? Maybe the whole family? Or just you, a grown adult who loves HP? Try a Harry Potter digital escape room created by Sydney Krawiec, a Youth Services Librarian at Pennsylvania’s Peters Township Public Library. Did I mention you’ll be learning along the way? Because escaping relies on answering questions and solving riddles about the Dewey Decimal System (told you it was designed by a librarian) and solving math problems (I may be stuck here forever!). Go have fun!

We Have Winners!

The International Board on Books for Young People announced at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (virtually of course!) the winners of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards. The prize for writing went to Jacqueline Woodson and for illustration went to Albertine. All the congrats!

If Famous Celebrities Reading Harry Potter To You Is Your Dream:

Daniel Radcliffe will lead an all-star read-along of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.