Author: Jamie Canaves

App Writes Haiku Based On Your Location

Keeping in mind that anything you use that’s free means you are the product OpenStreetMap Haiku is a fun app that writes a poem based on your geographical data. An added fun element with AI: Will you get a brilliant Haiku or one that makes little sense?

Even If You Don’t Read Romance This News Should Matter To All

Just as everyone was ditching work for the Christmas holiday break it became publicly known that the Romance Writers of America (RWA) board had sanctioned romance author Courtney Milan, a Chinese American woman, for tweeting that white author Kathryn Lynn Davis’ novel is a “racist mess.” Everything since then has basically been the lights being turned on at RWA spotlighting a lot of issues, many people quitting, and RWA continuing to make things worse. Here’s the breakdown of what’s been happening and here’s Mikki Kendall talking about how the issue of refusing to be inclusive and gate keeping is bigger than the romance genre.

T.S. Elliot Muse Letters Unveiled After 60 Years

Around 1,000 letters written by T.S. Eliot to his muse Emily Hale will be available this Thursday at Princeton University Library to students, researchers, and scholars after 60 years of being sealed in storage. “In 1956, Hale donated the letters under an agreement they wouldn’t be opened until 50 years after either her or Eliot’s death, whichever came second.”

30 Debut Authors Pick Fave Books Of Decade

Bustle asked 30 authors who had a debut book in the last decade what their favorite book of the decade was to create this very eclectic and awesome list of books. Bonus: the authors explain why they chose their pick.

Charles Dickens And The Literary Pirates That Kept Stealing His Work

Watching or reading your annual rewatch/reread of A Christmas Carol? Why not also read about the pirating of Charles Dickens’ famous ghostly Christmas story in the 1840s and how the trial affected his later work.

A Warm Welcome To The Library

The nonprofit organization Operation Warm has organized the event A Warm Welcome to the Library with participating libraries, helping librarians teach families the resources available to them along with giving out new coats and books. “‘These events attracted families who had never been inside their neighborhood library,’ McChesney says. ‘We find that if we can get a child into their neighborhood library, they are very likely to return.’”

Carrie Is Back

Another Stephen King adaptation is in the works: Carrie is being adapted into an FX limited series. While there isn’t a lot of info yet, the one thing coming from sources is that “Carrie White will likely be played by either a trans performer or an actress of color…” Give me #ownvoice writer(s) and all the popcorn will be made.

Another Remake Of An Adaptation

Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity was adapted to film in 2000 starring John Cusack as the heartbroken list making man and Lisa Bonet as his love interest. Now Hulu is adapting the story into a series starring Zoë Kravitz, Lisa Bonet’s daughter, in the titular role. I see what they did there and I like it! You can check out the teaser trailer for the show that will premiere February 14th.

Terrifying

Ijeoma Oluo, writer and author of So You Want To Talk About Race, was recently swatted: trolls called 911 with a false report of a double murder in her home. The goal of swatting is to have police basically show up swat style endangering and terrifying the target. In order to stop this process of weaponizing of the 911 system “Seattle police are sharing their know-how with law enforcement agencies throughout the country, while calling on lawmakers to make swatting a federal crime.”

Watch Megan Abbott’s Dare Me Now!

Ahead of its December 29th TV premiere USA Network has streamed the first episode of Megan Abbott’s Dare Me Adaptation. The novel, and show, center around a group of high school cheerleaders, their new coach, and a murder–and it’s deliciously perfect like all of Abbott’s work. Watch the full first episode, Coup D’État!

Nerding Over Data

Clearly because The New York Public Library loves me, they’ve released the data on their top 10 most checked out books for the year. It’s separated by system-wide and then by branches: Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island.

Oh Look: More Nerding Over Data

Take the above NYPL most checked out books list and compare it to the D.C. Public Library’s list of most checked out books of the year. This list got separated by fiction, nonfiction, print, ebook, and magazines.

Best Selling Book Of The Decade

Place your bets on what the best selling book of the decade is–I’ll wait… Got it? Okay, the best selling book of the decade in the U.S., according to NPD Bookscan, is E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey. 15.2 million copies were sold from 2010 through 2019. And super interesting: Over the decade, fiction dropped from being 80% of the top best sellers to 32% and 6.5 billion print books were sold and 1.8 billion e-books. Data, yum-yum!

The Gift That Are These Cats’ Reviews

I’m not really sure what is happening but after the embargo was lifted on reviewers opining over the film Cats, the claws came out. It isn’t that reviewers are saying they disliked the film, but apparently it’s so bad and weird that they’ve taken to some pretty wild and hilarious descriptions. All I know is these reviews, and Baby Yodita, are giving me life so keep them both coming.

J.K. Rowling’s Transphobic Tweet

J.K. Rowling decided to take to Twitter with a transphobic tweet as she defended the transphobic side in a British legal case. Maya Forstater, contracted with the Centre for Global Development as a consultant, made several transphobic comments leading CGD to not renew her contract. Forstater sued. The court ruled in favor of CGD and against Forstater: “is absolutist in her view of sex and … will refer to a person by the sex she considered appropriate even if it violates their dignity and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. The approach is not worthy of respect in a democratic society.” J.K. Rowling wants everyone to know she stands with Forstater.

It’s Still Love! Maybe?

Jenny Han had a hit with her popular novel series To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before which Netflix then turned into a hit with its film adaptation starring Lana Condor and Noah Centineo. It was all the gooey feels and laughs we needed. Now we get more Lara Jean and Peter as Netflix just dropped the trailer for the sequel, To All The Boys P.S. I Still Love You. They’re still in love! But then another letter recipient shows up and he’s adorable…

Great News For Uzo Aduba Fans!

She’s signed on to play Aunty Uju in the HBO Max series adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah. She joins Lupita Nyong’o (also showrunner) and Zackary Momoh in this story about Nigerian immigrants in love who were separated from each other as they left Nigeria for the West. Always here for an epic love story and amazing casting.

Libby Now Has Push Notifications

For library patrons who use the Libby app to read their library ebooks and audiobooks great news: you now have push notifications! Want to know when that book you’ve had on hold is yours? Ping! Need a reminder your loan is about to expire? Ping!

Judge Rules No Money For Snowden

Employment contracts with the NSA and the Central Intelligence Agency have a requirement that any book published by the employee must be submitted prepublication for review. For obvious reasons Edward Snowden did not comply with that before publishing his memoir Permanent Record. A judge has now ruled that the U.S. government is entitled to all proceeds from the book.

The Far Side Returns

It’s been 24 years since The Far Side creator Gary Larson put out new work, having retired his surreal comic in 1995. For fans who have been waiting a long time, the wait is finally over as TheFarSide.com has officially launched. The site will show previously unseen sketches and cartoons, and new work, but his publishers, Andrews McMeel, also admitted, “In truth, we really have no idea what might show up. But, on the other hand, what’s changed?”

Awesome!

An online literary journal and event series, inQluded–which launched in 2018 and put out its first issue in June–“provides a space for young queer, trans, and intersex black and Indigenous writers of color (QTIBIPOC).” QTIBIPOC writers between the ages of 13 and 30 can submit work in various genres and inQluded is designed to help them get a foot in the door.

Tournament of Books Shortlist

Playing off of March Madness, Tournament of Books pits two books against each other each week of March, with one advancing to the next round, until there’s just one book–the winner-standing! And we now have the shortlist for the 2020 matches. I love so many books on this list; every round is going to be filled with celebration and heartbreak.

Another Shortlist!

This time for the Oscars: Hair Love has made the shortlist for the 92nd Academy Awards in the Animated Short Film category. You can see the short film here and you can pick up a copy of the book Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry, Vashti Harrison (Illustrator).

Apple TV+ Now Has Books

Apple TV+’s bookish show Ghostwriter, a remake of the ’90s show, now has books to go along with the show. First up are classics with the Ghostwriter branding on them (The Jungle Book and Alice in Wonderland), and coming very soon are original stories that will include puzzles, vocabulary guides, and reading games.