Author: Liberty Hardy

Happy Monday, book lovers! I attended the fall conference for the New England Booksellers Association last week and, WOW, are there amazing books on their way next year! I can’t wait to talk about them over the coming months. (You can see my haul on Instagram.) Today, I have lots of fabulous book-related bits. Enjoy your upcoming week, be kind to yourself as well as others, and remember that I love you and I like you. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

In fifteenth-century France, the convent of St. Mortain provides sanctuary to girls seeking refuge from the cruelty of the outside world. But sanctuary comes at a price—and each of Death’s Handmaids pay it in blood. Grave Mercy, Dark Triumph, and Mortal Heart make up the New York Times bestselling His Fair Assassins trilogy: where romance, magic, and political intrigue collide. Fans of Marie Lu’s The Young Elites and Kiersten White’s And I Darken will love this seductive dark fantasy collection.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: Who coined the phrase ‘Wars of the Roses’?

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Zoe Kravitz will star in the High Fidelity reboot. (Her mom was in the original!) (Also, how is this book 23 years old already??!?)

From the “I Didn’t See That Coming” files: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will be on the writing staff of the Veronica Mars revival. (This totally counts as book news, since he’s also an author. Plus, it’s mind-blowing.)

The Editor by Steve Rowley will be made into a film.

Guillermo Del Toro and Cornelia Funke are writing a Pan’s Labyrinth book.

Lindy West announced a new book: The Witches Are Coming!

Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay may become an opera.

The Female Persuasion will be made into a film and Nicole Kidman will be a producer.

Eva Green & Eve Hewson to star in BBC Two’s adaptation of The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton.

The CW is developing a series based on The Lifeboat Clique by Kathy Parks.

Paul McCartney announced his children’s book, Hey Grandude.

And What If It’s Us by Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli is going to be a film.

Sneak Peeks

Here’s the first chapter of Gwenda Bond’s upcoming Stranger Things book about Eleven’s mother.

Here’s the first trailer for Dark Phoenix, the new X-Men movie.

Cover Reveals

We Need Diverse Books shared the first look at Just South of Home by Karen Musing. (Simon Kids, May 7, 2019)

Holy xenomorphs! Here’s the first look at Alien: Echo, a young adult novel set in the Alien-verse. (Imprint, April 9, 2019)

Tor.com revealed a million (okay, nine) amazing upcoming covers, including Sylvain Neuvel and Seanan McGuire.

Here’s the gorgeous cover of With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. (HarperTeen, May 7, 2019)

Here’s the first look at Sarah Gailey’s upcoming novel Magic for Liars. (Tor Books, June 4, 2019)

Book Riot Recommends 

At Book Riot, I work on the New Books! email, the All the Books! podcast about new releases, and the Book Riot Insiders New Release Index. I am very fortunate to get to read a lot of upcoming titles, and learn about a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week so you can add them to your TBR!

Loved, loved, loved:

Daisy Jones & The Six: A Novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballentine Books, March 5, 2019)

I loved this rocking novel of a 1970s rock band in California and the story of their meteoric rise and the truth behind why they split up. And the cover gives me Almost Famous/Exile in Guyville vibes.

Excited to read:

Boy Swallows Universe: A Novel by Trent Dalton (HarperCollins, April 2, 2019)

Each time you attend a book convention, the reps always have a book they are putting in people’s hands immediately. This year, the amazing HarperCollins rep pushed this debut Australian novel at me before I had even finished stepping to the table, and it sounds a bit like A Fraction of the Whole, another Australian novel I love, so I am 100% on board to read this one.

What I’m reading this week.

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

Body Leaping Backward: Memoir of a Delinquent Girlhood by Maureen Stanton

Insurrecto by Gina Apostol

The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy) by S. A Chakraborty

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

And this is funny.

Helen Ellis, with the obvious answer.

Trivia answer: Sir Walter Scott.

Welcome to Monday, book lovers! It’s another glorious week of book news and new releases. And it’s finally not suffocatingly hot here in Maine, so I can read outside. I hope you had a great weekend and are reading something that is knocking your socks off. (PSA: Don’t try walking if your socks are knocking.) Enjoy your upcoming week. And be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Disney Publishing Worldwide

Gilmore Girls and Pretty Little Liars go Southern in this comedic mystery about, Sawyer, a girl raised by a down-on-her-luck single mom who allows her wealthy grandmother to bribe her into becoming a proper Southern debutante—all in the hopes of finding out who her father is. Sawyer quickly discovers that her family isn’t the only mainstay of high society with skeletons in their closet. As she navigates the twisted relationships between her new friends and their powerful parents, Sawyer’s search for the truth about her own origins is just the beginning.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: Before becoming a science fiction/fantasy writer full time, what author’s most famous professional achievement was an engineering contribution to the machine used to make Pringles potato chips?

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Amy Pascal’s Pascal Pictures has acquired Ayesha at Last, a Muslim romantic dramedy novel by Uzma Jalaluddin.

Angelina Jolie will star in The Kept, based on the novel by James Scott.

Pharrell Williams joins the new animated version of The Grinch as the narrator.

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe got a book deal.

And speaking of former FBI directors, James Comey’s A Higher Loyalty is (probably) going to be a miniseries.

Michael B. Jordan will star in a new Tom Clancy film series.

Mary Robinette Kowal will publish two new Lady Astronaut novels.

Chris Evans will star in the adaptation of Defending Jacob.

Simon Pulse acquires YA novel inspired by Black Panther.

Bond 25 gets Cary Joji Fukunaga as its new director.

A new book about Joy Division is on the way next spring.

There’s going to be reissues of a few of the old horror books featured in Paperbacks from Hell.

Sneak Peeks

Get ready: The trailer for Captain Marvel dropped.

Here’s the first trailer for The Haunting of Hill House.

The Twitter thread between Chuck Wendig and Sam Sykes is now a film. Here’s the trailer for You Might Be the Killer.

And here’s the full trailer for Mary Poppins Returns.

Anne Rice’s upcoming Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat has illustrations.

Here’s the trailer for If Beale Street Could Talk.

Here’s a clip from We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Book Riot Recommends 

At Book Riot, I work on the New Books! email, the All the Books! podcast about new releases, and the Book Riot Insiders New Release Index. I am very fortunate to get to read a lot of upcoming titles, and learn about a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week so you can add them to your TBR!

Loved, loved, loved:

The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi and Cathy Hirano

This is a fantastic YA fantasy novel, about a young girl named Elin who inherits her mother’s ability to talk to the beasts of the land, which puts her in a powerful but dangerous position in the kingdom. She must try to keep her head while figuring out a way to keep the animals from harm during the coming war. It’s heartbreaking and magical, and Elin is a wonderful, complex heroine. (Henry Holt & Company, March 26, 2019)

Excited to read:

Southern Lady Code: Essays by Helen Ellis (Doubleday, April 16, 2019)

Helen Ellis is one of the most entertaining people on social media, plus she’s an awesome writer. I loved her other books, American Housewife and Eating the Cheshire Cat. This is a collection of essays, which I hope includes one about the time she taught Colson Whitehead to play competitive poker.

What I’m reading this week.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

A Small Charred Face by Kazuki Sakuraba

Blood Cruise by Mats Strandberg

The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

And this is funny.

Hey, Game of Thrones fans, you see it too, right?

Trivia answer: Gene Wolfe.

Happy Monday, book lovers! As you are reading this, I am on vacation and knee-deep in backlist titles. (Hopefully. I can’t actually predict the future.) I can’t wait tell you about everything I’ll read this week! I hope you get time off to read soon. Enjoy your upcoming week. And be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Libby, the one-tap reading app from your library and OverDrive

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P.S. Don’t forget we’re giving away a 6-month subscription to OwlCrate Jr! Enter here!

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What poet joined the army under the name Silas Tomkyn Cumberbatch?

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

The film adaptation of Dumplin’ lands at Netflix.

Kevin Nguyen has sold his first novel!

Leesa Cross-Smith is publishing a story collection and a novel in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

The Gossip Girl creators are developing a Nancy Drew show.

Benjamin Percy has a sci-fi trilogy on the way.

The Ripped Bodice romance bookstore inked a deal with Sony Pictures TV.

Zachary Quinto, Ashleigh Cummings to star in NOS4A2.

Dean Norris joins Guillermo del Toro’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Matthew Norman has sold his third novel.

And Lauren Beukes has a new novel on the way too!

Kate Bush is publishing a book of lyrics, and David Mitchell is writing the introduction.

Kenya Barris looking at potential adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between The World And Me.

The BBC has already ordered a second season of His Dark Materials before the first has even aired.

Rosamund Pike will star in the series adaptation of The Banker’s Wife.

Glennon Doyle’s Love Warrior is being made into a film by Oprah.

Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder is in development for television.

Cover Reveals

Here’s the first look at Laurie Halse Anderson’s powerful memoir SHOUT. (Viking Books for Young Readers, March 12, 2019)

And Bustle also has the first peek at The Suspect by Fiona Barton. (Berkley, January 22, 2019)

And they have the first look at Watch Us Rise by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan. (Bloomsbury YA, February 12, 2019)

And Rainbow Rowell shared the cover for her first graphic novel, Pumpkinheads, which is illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks. (First Second Books, August 27, 2019)

Sneak Peeks

Lana Condor tweeted a peek at her role in Deadly Class.

Oooooooo: Here’s the first teaser trailer for The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

And here’s the teaser trailer for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.

Book Riot Recommends 

At Book Riot, I work on the New Books! email, the All the Books! podcast about new releases, and the Book Riot Insiders New Release Index. I am very fortunate to get to read a lot of upcoming titles, and learn about a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week so you can add them to your TBR!

Loved, loved, loved:

Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken (Ecco, February 5, 2019)

A new Elizabeth McCracken novel is a reason to celebrate! Bertha Truitt mysteriously arrives in a small New England town. No one knows about her past, and she’s not talking. Bertha starts a family and opens a bowling alley. After her death, a perosn from her past appears in town, and the enigma that was Bertha is unraveled. I loved, loved, loved this book. And just look at that cover!

Excited to read:

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (April 2019)

This is in such beginning stages, there isn’t even a description for it yet, but it’s by Holmes, who hosts the Pop Culture Happy Hour on NPR, and that’s all I need to know to be excited to read it.

What I’m reading this week.

The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi, Cathy Hirano (translator)

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

Maeve in America: Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else by Maeve Higgins

No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

And this is funny.

THESE OTTERS. The scrubbing! The teeth! Lolololol!

Trivia answer: Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Goodness grape juice, I missed you so much! It was weird not doing the newsletter last week. I resorted to telling my cats all the publishing news. (SPOILER: They didn’t care.) But I’m back, baby, and ready to talk books! I held onto a few things from the week before, because they’re still exciting, and also have new news. So please enjoy this newsletter and please enjoy your upcoming week. And be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Under My Skin by Lisa Unger, new from Park Row Books.

Bestselling author Lisa Unger delivers an addictive psychological thriller about a woman on the hunt for her husband’s killer.  

What if the nightmares are actually memories? It’s been a year since Poppy’s husband, Jack, was brutally murdered. In the immediate aftermath, Poppy spiraled into an oblivion of grief, disappearing for several days only to turn up ragged and confused.

The case was never solved, and those lost days continue to haunt her. As her vivid nightmares intensify into daily blackouts, she starts to lose track of what is real. But her terrible dreams might hold the key to what really happened to Jack…

Oh, and don’t forget that Book Riot wants to hear about the ins-n-outs of your reading life – come share them with us in our Fall Reader Survey!

Here’s this week’s trivia question: Who is the first author ever to win a Hugo award for Best Novel three years in a row? (Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Brother by David Chariandy is being made into a film.

The First Wives Club is going to be a television series.

The cast has been chosen for Guillermo del Toro’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark adaptation.

Susan Swan’s novel The Biggest Modern Woman of the World is being adapted for television.

Lena Waithe acquires rights to Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid.

Alyssa Cole is writing a SFF romance Audible original.

Avatar: The Last Airbender universe to expand with new novels.

Gillian Flynn drops news of another book.

And Daniel José Older is working on a third Shadowshaper book.

The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock is going to be made into a film.

Henry Cavill will star in the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher.

The BBC is developing the classic murder mystery novel The Beast Must Die.

Mrs. Doubtfire (which, believe it or not, was a novel first) is being made into a musical.

Black Sails star Luke Arnold is publishing a fantasy series.

Cover Reveals

YAY YAY YAY! Here’s the first look at Aru Shah and the Song of Death (Pandava Series) by Roshani Chokshi (Rick Riordan Presents, April 16, 2019)

Here’s the first peek at the cover of To Night Owl From Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer (Dial Books, February 12, 2019)

Here’s the first look at the cover of Glimmer of Hope, the book the March For Our Lives founders wrote. (Razorbill, October 16)

Sneak Peeks

Here’s Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci in the trailer for The Children Act, based on the novel by Ian McEwan.

And here’s Cate Blanchett and Jack Black in the trailer for The House with the Clock In Its Walls.

Watch the first teaser trailer for HBO’s adaptation of My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.

And speaking of HBO, here’s the first trailer for Miss Sherlock.

Here’s the first look at Netflix’s adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

Here’s a look at the cast of Deadly Class.

Book Riot Recommends 

At Book Riot, I work on the New Books! email, the All the Books! podcast about new releases, and the Book Riot Insiders New Release Index. I am very fortunate to get to read a lot of upcoming titles, and learn about a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week so you can add them to your TBR!

Loved, loved, loved:

As Long as We Both Shall Live by JoAnn Chaney

Ohhhhhhhh, this was just as wonderful as I hoped it would be! I am a HUGE fan of her last novel, What You Don’t Know. This one is about two detectives working hard to prove that a man murdered both his wives. Chaney tells you in the first few pages who is going to die and I STILL got all anxious waiting to find out what happened. That’s great storytelling.

Excited to read:

Quotients by Tracy O’Neill

I actually know nothing about this book except that it exists and is coming out in 2019. In the meantime, I may reread her novel The Hopeful, which is fantastic. You should too.

What I’m reading this week.

The Tiger Flu by Larissa Lai

These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore

The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock: A Novel by Imogen Hermes Gowar

Miracle Submarine: A Novel by Angie Kim

Sorry by Zoran Drvenkar, Shaun Whiteside (Translator)

And this is funny.

Meow, meow meow meow, meooooooow.

Trivia answer: N.K. Jemisin.

Happy Monday, book lovers! It has been another slowish news week, but news will take off in the publishing world again in the next few weeks, because fall book season is WILD. Until then, I still have a couple of great things to share with you. Because I love you and I like you. Enjoy your upcoming week, and be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Epic Reads

When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, especially the judgmental and arrogant Darius. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into an unexpected understanding…and something more.  But with family problems and college applications hovering on the horizon, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick’s changing landscape, or lose it all.

Starring all characters of color, American Street author Ibi Zoboi skillfully balances cultural identity, class, and gentrification against the heady magic of first love in her vibrant reimagining of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

PS – Don’t forget we’re giving away 16 of the great books mentioned on the Recommended podcast! Enter here by August 31st for a chance to win.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What famous writer had several butterflies named after his characters? (Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Hollywood is going ahead with the Crazy Rich Asians sequel.

Dopesick by Beth Macy, about America’s opioid crisis, is being made into a show for Fox.

Snoop Dogg is publishing a cookbook called From Crook to Cook.

iO9 has a list of every Ursula K. Le Guin adaptation in the works.

Eve Ewing is writing Ironheart for Marvel.

Cecelia Ahern’s upcoming story collection, Roar, is going to be a television series.

Andrea Tang has sold the rights to her novel about sentient mechanical dragons. That’s right: SENTIENT. MECHANICAL. DRAGONS.

HBO has picked up another series based on a Tom Perotta book: Mrs. Fletcher, starring Kathryn Hahn.

Three new Harry Potter books (as in about Harry Potter) are coming this October.

Showtime is developing a series based on Kill Creek.

Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp sold the rights to his first novel, Cold Storage, to Paramount.

And the adaptation rights to two upcoming books, The Revenge of Magic and Star-Crossed: A Novel, have been snagged by Stampede.

Apple orders a series based on Issac Asimov’s Foundation novels.

Dylan Farrow is writing two YA fantasy novels.

Cover Reveals

Riverhead released the first look at Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi, the upcoming Helen Oyeyemi novel. (Riverhead Books, March 5, 2019)

And here’s the first look at N.K. Jemisin’s upcoming story collection How Long ’Til Black Future Month? (Orbit, November 27)

Sneak Peeks

There’s a new trailer for The Hate U Give.

Book Riot Recommends 

At Book Riot, I work on the New Books! email, the All the Books! podcast about new releases, and the Book Riot Insiders New Release Index. I am very fortunate to get to read a lot of upcoming titles, and learn about a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week so you can add them to your TBR!

Loved, loved, loved:

A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself by William Boyle (Pegasus, March 5, 2019)

Imagine if Charles Portis wrote a mash-up of Two Days in the Valley and The Sopranos: You’d have this book, a smart, gritty crime novel about loss, second chances, and the Mafia. Mob widow Rena (rightfully) knocks her disgusting neighbor on the head with an ashtray and steals his car, setting off a chain of events that sends her in the direction of other people’s comeuppances and coincidences. It’s dark and funny, just the way I like them.

Excited to read:

The Memory Police: A Novel by Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder (translator) (Pantheon, May 14, 2019)

This is being called an Orwellian novel about state surveillance on an unnamed island. I don’t know much more, but I love The Housekeeper and the Professor and Revenge, so I am looking forward to getting my hands on this one. Keep an eye on the release date – the e-book version is listed as August, so I don’t know which one is actually right. Let’s hope it’s May!

What I’m reading this week.

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman

Seventeen: A Novel by Hideo Yokoyama, Louise Heal Kawai (Translator)

The Golden State by Lydia Kiesling

Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

Grand Theft Horse by G. Neri and Corban Wilkin

And this is funny.

This one made me actually LOL.

Trivia answer: Vladimir Nabokov.