Author: Jamie Canaves

Stephen King Quit Facebook

Facebook has continued to receive backlash related to its decision to not fact check political ads and now Stephen King has made his position clear: announcing to his 5.6 million Twitter followers, where political ads have been banned since October, the horror novelist explained he’d deleted his Facebook page because of the platform’s “flood of false information allowed in its political advertising.”

Hair Love Team Invites Teen Suspended For Dreadlocks To Oscars

The team behind the short and book Hair Love (Matthew A. Cherry, Dwyane Wade, Gabrielle Union) invited high school student DeAndre Arnold to the Oscars after finding out his school had banned him from walking graduation and suspended him unless he cut his dreadlocks. “‘We love the way that you carry yourself and we wanted to do something special for you,’ Wade told Arnold. ‘You and your mother Sandy are the official guests of the Oscar-nominated team behind ‘Hair Love’ at the 2020 Academy Awards.'”

UK Harry Potter Subscription Box

If you live in the UK and want the magical feeling of opening a subscription box filled with Harry Potter goodies, Geek Gear Boxes  has got you covered! Boxes include “a t-shirt, exclusive art print and at least four other products, and they can be personalised with your house colours.” You also have the option of boxes for kids or adults.

David E. Kelley’s New Adaptation

After recent HBO hit Big Little Lies, David E. Kelley is returning to his network TV home where he used to have procedural hits. ABC has ordered The Big Sky based on C.J. Box’s Cassie Dewell series first book The Highway. I’m gonna make popcorn for this one.

Gabriel García Márquez Exhibit!

Want to see Gabriel García Márquez’s life journey and writing process? You have until July 19th to visit the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin to see the Gabriel García Márquez: The Making of a Global Writer exhibit. “’This is the first major exhibition of García Márquez’s work in life using his personal archives,’ Santana-Acuña says. ‘So there are things that even García Márquez scholars have never seen before.’” Curator Álvaro Santana-Acuña has an upcoming book Ascent to Glory: How One Hundred Years of Solitude Was Written and Became a Global Classic.

Hello, Gorgeous Book!

Lilliam Rivera has an upcoming retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice (fateful love story of Apollos’ son and the muse Calliope), which she’s set in the Bronx: Never Look Back. And EW has the cover reveal (so purdy!) and you can read an excerpt–which is what I’m gonna go do right now. Bye!

Dave Matthews Writes Children’s Books

Singer-songwriter Dave Matthews has written a middle grade fantasy novel with children’s author Clete Barrett Smith: If We Were Giants. “’Having spent my childhood exploring the forests of Virginia and time as an adult with the San people of South Africa, I really respect a life balanced with nature,’ Matthews said in a statement. ‘I’m thrilled to be working with Clete and Disney Publishing to tell a story that focuses on the importance of the environment.’”

Free Poetry Reading!

On February 22nd, at Emory University’s Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, Nikki Giovanni will be giving a free poetry reading. Tickets won’t be sold so, if you want to attend, get there early because it’ll be limited. Can’t make it? Hate crowds? You can read her wonderful book, A Good Cry: What We Learn From Tears and Laughter, all by yourself. And she has a TEDx Talk!

Trailer Time!

The HBO miniseries adaptation of Philip Roth’s 2004 alternate American history novel, The Plot Against America, has a trailer! Coming in March, it stars Zoe Kazan, Morgan Spector, Winona Ryder, and John Turturro.

American Dirt Publisher’s Statement

The publishers of American Dirt, the not #ownvoices novel about Mexican immigrants that has been criticized by the Latinx community, have put out a statement regarding their publication, advertising, and book tour changes. While it starts by sounding like an apology for missteps they made, it ends by pulling out the dog-whistle where Latinx are portrayed as threatening people. It seems like, once again, the people Cummins claims to write for are on the receiving end of harmful misrepresentation; meanwhile, she’s portrayed as the victim.

The Pale Horse Trailer!

Agatha Christie’s The Pale Horse has gotten the Amazon Studios adaptation treatment and now we have a trailer! The two-episode limited series will stream on March 13th and stars Rufus Sewell as Mark Easterbrook, a dude who learns his name was on a list found on a dead woman. Oh, and did I mention a group of witches are the murder suspects?!

More Exciting Adaptation News!

Disney+’s Stargirl’s producers, The Gotham Group, have optioned the upcoming YA novel The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed. Allison Davis will adapt the “coming-of-age story of a wealthy African-American teenager whose family gets caught in the vortex of the 1992 Los Angeles riots” with Wanuri Kahiu directing.

Author of The Handmaid’s Tale Pens Poetry Collection

You may know Margaret Atwood for her novels and adaptations but she was first a poet, having published her first collection in 1961. This fall we’ll be getting another poetry collection that will explore “’absences and endings, ageing and retrospection’ that will also feature werewolves, aliens and sirens.” Very cool.

2020 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists

The finalists for categories including book, short story collections, essays, biographies, and literary science have been announced! This is my favorite kind of list because it has books I’m so excited are finalists: A Prayer for Travelers (for crime readers!); Sabrina & Corina (for short story collection fans!); Trick Mirror (for essay/memoir fans!). And books I hadn’t heard of but am racing out to get right now: Big Familia (Adult fiction!); Be Recorder (poetry!). The winners will be announced March 2nd at the ceremony hosted by Seth Meyers!

2019 Diversity Baseline Survey Results

Since 2015 Lee & Low Books has been releasing an annual baseline survey in order to give actual data on how publishing is doing regarding diversity. I’ll start with the good news: more diverse children’s books are being published. And some of the bad news: “There is no discernible change to any of the other racial categories. In other words, the field is just as White today as it was four years ago.”

Americans Went To Libraries More Than Movies

According to a Gallup poll, Americans made more trips to the library in 2019 than other activities including concerts, movies, museums, and sporting events. “‘Despite the proliferation of digital-based activities over the past two decades — including digital books, podcasts, streaming entertainment services and advanced gaming — libraries have endured as a place Americans visit nearly monthly on average,’ according to the Gallup report.”

Newbery Award Winners

The famous children’s literary prizes were awarded so here’s another excellent list to get books from. And doubly exciting, it’s the first time a graphic novel won: Jerry Craft’s The New Kid won the 2020 John Newbery Medal.

Will A Leaked Book Affect Impeachment Trial?

One of the many battles in the current impeachment trial of President Trump is whether witnesses will be allowed to testify. On Monday, after former national security adviser John Bolton’s book manuscript was leaked, it was reported that an increasing number of GOP Senators now want to hear from Bolton before the trial ends. “’I think it’s increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton,’ Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Monday, repeatedly calling Bolton’s testimony ‘relevant.’”

6 People Needed To Turn Book Page

The world’s largest handmade book is located in a village in Hungary with less than 300 people, Szinpetri, and 6 people and a machine are needed to turn a page. That’s a big book! The creator of the book, Béla Varga, said “It’s unique not only because of the size but because of the techniques: it was made like ancient codes, with wooden tables from Sweden and with the leather of 13 cows from Argentina.”

And The Grammy Goes To:

Michelle Obama! Her memoir Becoming won for Best Spoken Word Album. All the congratulations–and if you haven’t gotten to this one yet, it really is worth all the hype its gotten.

And More Congratulations!

The American Library association awarded the 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction to Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction to Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham. So many excellent books to read, I need more reading time!

More Mean Girls

So let’s see if I get this right: The movie Mean Girls, which was based on the book Queen Bees and Wannabes, became a Broadway play and now that Broadway play is going to be adapted into a film. Hollywood is gonna Hollywood, I guess. Anyhoo, Tina Fey will once again write the script.

Parents Want Book Banned Even Though Their Kid Can Opt Out

Because it’s never actually about “I don’t want my kid to read this” parents want Brandy Colbert’s Little & Lion to be removed from the approved reading list by the Palm Beach County School Board even though parents can already opt their kids out of reading it. The book explores mental illness and has a main bisexual character and as explained by the Palm Beach County assistant superintendent was selected because “It is important to select books that feature characters who represent all of the students in our classrooms, and the books selected as part of the grant are part of the efforts in this goal.”

Surprise!

One of Book Riot’s favorite authors, Roxane Gay, is going to be on The L Word according to this very excited Tweet from the Showtime show’s account. I love spotting books and authors on shows and in films!