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Today In Books

Librarian Sues Over Firing After Drag Queen Story Hour: Today In Books

Librarian Sues Over Firing After Drag Queen Story Hour

Jonathan Newton, who was a librarian for seventeen years at South Carolina’s Five Forks Branch, is suing after being forced to resign over a Drag Queen Story Hour event that riled up the phobics. “Newton alleges that his Greenville County Library System supervisor, Beverly James, expressed opposition to the event, at which drag queens read to children, and, in forcing him out, bowed to political pressure from leaders in Greenville County.”

Dolly Has A Poem

Social distancing surely isn’t going to keep Dolly Parton from entertaining us. Being a songwriter, it’s not surprising that she’s a natural poet too. She put that skill, and her humor, to use and wrote us a poem about how hard being in quarantine is. Watch her recite her poem.

Ramona Quimby Creator Turns 104

Beverly Cleary, the author and creator of the pesky five-year-old Ramona Quimby–who helped generations of children make sense of emotions while being small in a big world that didn’t always make much sense–celebrated her 104th birthday. And this joke has left me really wanting to read a comic where Ramona pesters the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

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Today In Books

Beautiful Cover Art For Thai Harry Potter Books: Today In Books

Beautiful Cover Art For Thai Harry Potter Books

Thai publisher Nanmeebooks is celebrating the Harry Potter franchise with special 20th-anniversary edition covers designed by artist Arch Polar. They are absolutely gorgeous. And someone get me this animated series now!

Storybook Aims To Help Kids Cope With Covid-19

50+ humanitarian organizations have come together to create a storybook for children with the hopes of helping them understand and cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Ario, the main character in My Hero is You, How Kids can fight Covid-19!, teaches kids how to protect against the virus while also helping them navigate their many emotions during this difficult time.

One of the Earliest Known Uses of the “F-word”

What might be the oldest recorded use of the F-word is in the National Library of Scotland thanks to George Bannatyne being stuck at home in 1568 due to a plague. It’s an interesting, entertaining, immature, and funny story worth a few minutes of your time today and I’m just gonna be saying “Wan fukkit funling” forever and ever.

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Today In Books

Poetry Themed Paris Review Crossword: Today In Books

Poetry Themed Paris Review Crossword

The Paris Review has a free crossword puzzle perfectly themed for Poetry Month. You can fill it out digitally on the webpage, or you can print it out and pencil or pen it–hope you know your poets!

L.A. Times Book Prizes Ceremony

We can now all attend the L.A. Times Book Prizes ceremony because it will now be virtual. And free! The ceremony will announce the fourteen winners, who will give brief acceptance speeches, on April 17th at 8 a.m. Pacific Time. I’ll be attending in my snazzy PJs.

Independent Press Fundraiser

Coffee House Press, the Minnesota nonprofit independent press, has started a nonprofit fundraiser: Coffee House Writers Project (CHWP). The initiatives goal is “to commission new, short digital-only literary works from writers whose ability to support themselves has been affected by the COVID-19 health crisis.” A donation of $5 or more gets you a one-year Coffee House Press membership, which has a retail price of $35.

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Today In Books

Pulitzer Prize Announcement Postponed: Today In Books

Pulitzer Prize Announcement Postponed

Some of the members of the Pulitzer Prize Board are journalists who have been focused on covering the COVID-19 pandemic, leading the Board to announce that this year’s Pulitzer Prize winners will be announced on May 4th instead of the original date of April 20th. The traditional award luncheon that is held at Columbia University will also be postponed to a later date, those details will be forthcoming.

2020 Hugo Awards Finalists!

The Hugo Awards, awarding the best in sci-fi and fantasy, have announced the finalists in Best Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Series, Graphic Novel–and so many more categories! If you’re looking to find your next amazing read you have a ton of choices and if you need some help picking, here are some personal favorites: The Deep by Rivers Solomon; This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone; Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker; The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow; Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.

Treats For Bibliophiles

Social media and the news is all about the pandemic and election right now, plus every post imaginable in what to read and watch while social distancing. Which can be hard to navigate and scroll through, so the Guardian has an updating list of the best free activities being offered right now for bibliophiles. There’s online literary festivals, live concerts, book recommendations, creative challenges, and more!

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Unusual Suspects

Mystery & Thrillers Based On Pop Culture 🔪

Hi mystery fans! We made it through another week and that is something to celebrate. I found you a fair amount of interesting things to click, a bunch of things to watch (HBO is giving non-subscribers free stuff to watch!), and awesome Kindle deals you should rush to if you haven’t yet read.

From Book Riot And Around The Internet

The Onlly Child cover imageFive authors of Korean thrillers you should be reading, by Paula Woods

How I, the Parson of a Humble English Murder Village, Am Practicing Safe Social Distancing

10 Funny Mystery Authors Like Janet Evanovich

Here’s author Mindy Mejia recommending some great reads

In conservative Poland, gay literary couple ‘Maryla Szymiczkowa’ are cutting a defiant path

36 Mystery and Thriller Recommendations Based on Pop Culture

Enter to Win a $250 Gift Card to Barnes and Noble!

News And Adaptations

Crime Writers Of Color has a new podcast hosted by author Robert Justice!

Our very own Rioter Tirzah Price has an upcoming Jane Austen murder mystery series starting withe Pride & Premeditation (Harper Teen, 2021)!

The Best British Murder Mystery Shows to Stream Right Now

18 Thriller TV Shows on Netflix That Will Keep You Deep in Suspense

Crime author Don Winslow teases novella collection Broken

COVID-19 Updates from the Bookish World

Watch Now

Just Mercy cover imageFOR FREE: HBO Is Making 39 Movies And Shows Available For Free In Case You Need Something To Watch (Great crime shows, including adaptations or ones with excellent book companions like Bad Blood (on Kindle deal below!); Just Mercy; Adnan’s Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial.)

Apple TV+:On Friday, April 3, Apple TV+ releases all 10 episodes of the first season of its mystery-thriller “Home Before Dark.” Inspired by the life of Hilde Lysiak, a young journalist who gained national notoriety at age nine when she scooped a local homicide case in her Pennsylvania hometown…” And Lysiak also has a children’s book series based on her real-life journalist career: Hero Dog! (Hilde Cracks the Case #1) by Hilde Lysiak, Matthew Lysiak, Joanne Lew-Vriethoff (illustrations)

Reminder: Season 3 of Killing Eve (Based on Luke Jennings‘ series) returns Sunday, April 12 at 9 p.m. ET on BBC America and AMC!

Kindle Deals

cover image: zoomed in on half of a japanese woman's face as tear rolls down her faceIf you’re a fan of character-driven crime fiction with a mystery: Penance by Kanae Minato, Philip Gabriel (Translator) is $4.99! (Review) (Sorry, I do not remember trigger warnings.)

And another Japanese crime fiction novel from an author whose entire catalog is worth reading: Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino, Rebecca Copeland (Translator) is $4.99! (Sorry, I do not remember trigger warnings.)

If you still haven’t read it now is a great time: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty is $2.99! (I don’t remember TWs but will say rape, PTSD, partner abuse.)

bad blood by john carreyrou cover imageHere is a completely bananapants narrative nonfiction that I promise even if you have zero interest in any of the subject you won’t be able to put it down: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
by John Carreyrou (Review) (TW: suicide)

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See 2020 upcoming releases. An Unusual Suspects Pinterest board. Get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

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Today In Books

Plan To Turn Oscar Wilde’s Prison Into Arts Centre Rejected: Today In Books

Plan To Turn Oscar Wilde’s Prison Into Arts Centre Rejected

First a bit of history on HM Reading Prison: it jailed Oscar Wilde in 1895 for two years (he wrote about it in his poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”); in 2014 it stopped being a working jail; last year it went up for sale. Stephen Fry and Julian Barnes joined other writers and campaigners to convert the prison into an arts centre but the bid has been rejected by the Ministry of Justice.

B&N Distribution Center Employees Diagnosed With COVID-19

Employees at a Barnes & Noble distribution center in Monroe, New Jersey received a letter informing them that nine of their coworkers have COVID-19 symptoms and five of those nine have officially been diagnosed by doctors. Barnes & Noble has no plans to close the facility saying it will continue its daily cleaning along with a deep cleaning on Good Friday.

Child Journalist Gets Apple TV+ Series

Apple TV+ has a new series inspired by Hilde Lysiak, a child journalist who at the age of nine “scooped a local homicide case in her Pennsylvania hometown.” Home Before Dark‘s first season, 10 episodes, is now streaming on Apple TV+. And Lysiak also has a children’s book mystery series you can check out: Hero Dog!: A Branches Book (Hilde Cracks the Case #1) by Hilde Lysiak, Matthew Lysiak.

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Unusual Suspects

Procedural, Thriller, and Historical Mystery 🔪

Hello mystery fans! I hope you and yours are safe and healthy, and you’re doing as best as can be expected right now. I’m going to keep trying to find you escapes in the form of mystery books, and I got three for you this week: the third in a great procedural series; a historical mystery for Agatha Christie fans; and a thriller that veers into pandemic territory for those of you out there who I keep seeing turning to Station Eleven and apocalypse books.

Trail of Echoes (Detective Elouise Norton #3) by Rachel Howzell Hall: I really enjoy this series, which follows homicide detective Elouise “Lou” Norton in L.A. (If you want reviews for book 1 and book 2.) This time around Lou gets taken back to the building she grew up in when a thirteen-year-old girl is found dead at a park. Sadly, there’s a pattern of talented young girls who are disappearing, and soon someone is taunting investigators.

Lou is snarky, determined, refuses to take crap, and will not stop until she figures out who is responsible. You get the personal aspect of a case that hits close to home for the detective, her working with her new-ish partner Colin Taggert, her relationship with her boss, her awesome friendships, and her trying to date. Hall is very skilled at bringing to life communities that home different races and ethnicities while giving them many different voices. If you’re a fan of police detective procedurals, you should definitely pick this series up! (TW rape, statutory/ discussion of suicide, attempts)

Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing cover imageMrs. Mohr Goes Missing (Profesorowa Szczupaczyńska #1) by Maryla Szymiczkowa (Pseudonym for Jacek Dehnel and Piotr Tarczyński), Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Translator): This is a great mystery, especially perfect for fans of Agatha Christie. Zofia Turbotynska is a 38-year-old woman living in 1893 Cracow, Poland. She’s married to a university professor who should thank her for all the help with his career, but she’s a woman living in a time when she can’t really do much, so she’s desperately bored. Until a woman goes missing from a nursing home and she decides to use her love of mystery novels and her intelligence to solve the case. Of course she can’t tell her husband or the mother superior in charge of the nursing home, so all of her questionings and sleuthing will be done in secret.

Turbotynska is a fun, witty, very opinionated character, and the book reads like a nod to Agatha Christie that is infused with interesting history! (TW mentions infertility/ discussions of addiction/ past domestic abuse mentioned)

The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian: If you’ve been with me awhile, you know I prefer to pick up my crime books knowing as little info about them as possible, which is what I did in this case. And I recommend it, but also will note this caught me by surprise taking a turn into pandemic territory (whoopsie!), but it’s a really good thriller and I listened to the audiobook in a day regardless. Alexis and Austin are a recent couple who have taken a trip to Vietnam so that Austin can do a cycling tour and most importantly pay respect to where his father died during the war. Alexis, an ER doctor in the U.S., is waiting for his return back from cycling when she realizes something is wrong. He should have already been back. Or he would have called. Soon Austin is missing, Alexis is back to work in the U.S., the FBI are trying to figure out what happened, and Alexis learns that maybe Austin was never truthful with her…

This is one of those books that takes you into really interesting places, like the E.R. and on cycling tours, as you slowly learn what is really happening in relation to the mystery–all as the tension keeps ramping up!  (TW MC has history of self-harm, details/ mentions murder suicide, details/ ER stories recounted/ recounts past war scenes)

And here’s Book Riot’s continued COVID-19 Updates from the Bookish World.

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See 2020 upcoming releases. An Unusual Suspects Pinterest board. Get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

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Today In Books

Jam To These Songs With Literary References: Today In Books

Jam To These Songs With Literary References

While so many of us are out here singing the wrong lyrics and jamming to songs we have no idea the meaning behind, it makes sense that the literary references in many songs would be missed. With nods to Leaves of Grass, George Orwell, The Catcher In The Rye, and more here are ten popular songs clearly written by bibliophiles.

Get Your Classic Horror Read On

Are you behind on reading the horror classics? Great news: you can download these eight classics to read right now, free from Project Gutenberg. And if horror is not your thing, there’s a roundup of Sci-Fi classics too!

The New York Public Library’s Virtual Book Club

We’re all about the virtual right now to help us stay engaged, connected, and doing some of the things that were routine. Like book club time, which NYPL is offering virtually to New Yorkers. The first selected book is Deacon King Kong by James McBride and can be downloaded free using the library’s e-reading app SimplyE. The live-streamed book club chat will be held April 30th at 7pm, so get that book read New Yorkers!

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Today In Books

Marvel Offers 12 Popular Comics Free Via App: Today In Books

Marvel Offers 12 Popular Comics Free Via App

Through the Marvel Unlimited app, users will have access to 12 popular Marvel comics free of charge until May 4th. If you’re downloading the app just for these comics, select the free comics option and there is currently no trial subscription or need to give a credit card. Check out the titles and get your comic read on.

Bush Was Terrified Of Pandemic In 2005 After Reading Book

President George W. Bush read an advanced copy of historian John M. Barry’s The Great Influenza while vacationing in 2005 which, according to Tom Bossert, left Bush obsessed with preparing for a pandemic. “‘A pandemic is a lot like a forest fire,’ Bush said at the time. ‘If caught early it might be extinguished with limited damage. If allowed to smolder, undetected, it can grow to an inferno that can spread quickly beyond our ability to control it.'”

A Great Chat With Stacey Abrams

Stacey Abrams spoke with American Libraries about her two nonprofits (Fair Fight and Fair Count), her upcoming book (Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America), her family’s book club, and the role our libraries play in society. Spoiler alert, she’s awesome: “We are nerds to our core and we love reading.”

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Today In Books

Modern Items Spotted in LITTLE WOMEN Film: Today In Books

Modern Items Spotted in Little Women Film

Whoopsie! A fan’s rewatching of the latest Little Women film, directed by Greta Gerwig, had them spotting a water bottle and hydro flask in a scene’s background. Things the March sisters probably didn’t have.

Free Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Audiobook

You can now listen to the Stephen Fry narrated Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone/Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone streamed for free on Audible. And it’s also available in Spanish, French, Italian, German and Japanese.

Barnes & Noble Cuts Back

A lot of Barnes & Noble employees have been temporarily laid off and 500+ stores have temporarily closed, but according to B&N they are still giving health care benefits to the furloughed employees. In states where it can, it’s still offering curb-side pickup and allowing up to 10 customers into stores at a time.