Author: Liberty Hardy

Hello, lovely people. I know I am always excited and enthusiastic about books, but I want you to know that it’s hard out there, and I hope you are all doing well. I appreciate you all. Be kind to yourself and remember you’re important! I hope everything in your world is marvelous as it can be and you’re reading something wonderful. Enjoy your upcoming week, and be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty

As part of Season 2 of our podcast series Annotated, we are giving away 10 of the best books about books of 2017. Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click the image below:

PS – Don’t forget we’re giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Enter here by June 21st!

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What is the name of Don Quixote’s squire in the novel by Cervantes?

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Barry Jenkins will direct the series adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad.

Rainbow Rowell sent the bookish internet into a frenzy with the announcement of a new book in 2020.

J.K. Rowling says she’ll write another children’s book after Fantastic Beasts 3.

HBO orders a Game of Thrones prequel pilot.

The Gender Games by Juno Dawson will be a television show, picking up where the book leaves off.

Leslie Odom Jr., Freida Pinto, Cynthia Erivo, and Orlando Bloom join the cast of Needle in a Timestack, based on a short story by Robert Silverberg.

Donald Glover reportedly on shortlist to star as Willy Wonka in a new film.

American Gods casts new actors for season 2 characters.

Daniel Radcliffe, Bobby Cannavale, and Cherry Jones will star in Broadway’s The Lifespan of a Fact.

Knopf wins debut novel about Dr. Zhivago for seven figures.

Brian Allen Carr (omg I love him) has a new book coming in 2019.

Gwenda Bond will write the first Stranger Things book!

Michael Wolf is writing a follow-up to Fire and Fury.

James McAvoy and Clarke Peters join the BBC One adaptation of His Dark Materials.

And Lizzy Caplan will join the cast of the Are You Sleeping? adaptation.

Cover Reveals

Here’s the cover for The Cold Is in Her Bones by Peternelle van Arsdale (Margaret McElderry Books, January 22, 2019)

Nnedi Okorafor shared the cover of the upcoming Binti omnibus. (DAW Books, February 5, 2019)

Here’s Two Can Keep a Secret, the follow-up to One Of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus. (Delacorte Press, January 8, 2019)

And the gorgeous cover of Cindy Pon’s Ruse, the follow-up to Want. (Simon Pulse, January 22, 2019)

Sneak Peeks

Here’s the official trailer for HBO’s Sharp Objects adaptation.

Here’s the first trailer for Widows, based on the novel by Lynda La Plante.

And the first trailer for Peter Jackson’s Mortal Engines film.

And the first look at Claire Foy as Lisbeth Salander in the new The Girl… movie.

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!

Loved, loved, loved:

Fruit of the Drunken Tree: A Novel by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (Doubleday, July 31)

Inspired by the author’s own experiences, this is the story of seven-year-old Chula, who lives a carefree life with her sister in a gated community in Bogotá. But when a young woman from the guerilla-occupied section of the city is hired as her family’s live-in maid, Chula begins to learn about privilege and the encroaching violence, crime, and conflict that is taking place beyond the walls.

Excited to read:

Seventeen: A Novel by Hideo Yokoyama, Louise Heal Kawai (Translator) (MCD, November 13)

I am a big fan of Yokoyama’s huge police procedural, Six Four, so I can’t wait to get my hands on his new one. It’s about an air disaster in 1985 and an unsolved mystery seventeen years later. I am also a fan of this new wave of books coming out that take place during the years I was growing up (Every Other Weekend, You All Grow Up and Leave Me, Marlena) because I can’t remember anything special about those years myself but I love reading about them and going, “OH YAH I FORGOT ABOUT THAT.”

What I’m reading this week.

Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers) by Becky Chambers

Accidentally Like a Martyr: The Tortured Art of Warren Zevon by James Campion

A Gentleman’s Murder by Christopher Huang

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Non-book-related recommendation.

Look at cute animals pictures. I’ll start you off: Here is a kitten named Chai, and omg, she is the cutest.

And this is funny.

Rakesh Saytal is revealing a different story from his childhood every day in June for Pride Month.

Trivia answer: Sancho Panza.

Happy June, readers! It’s not a huge news day, as most of publishing turned its attention to BookExpo last week, but I still have some great book-related news and recommendations for you! Because I love you and I like you. I hope everything in your world is marvelous and you’re reading something wonderful. Enjoy your upcoming week, and be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Hangman by Jack Heath, new from Hanover Square Press.

An addictive debut thriller starring an FBI consultant with a peculiar taste for crime and punishment…

A boy vanishes on his way home from school. His frantic mother receives a ransom call: pay or else. Enter Timothy Blake, an FBI consultant with a knack for solving impossible cases but whose expertise comes at a price: every time he saves a life, he also takes one. But this kidnapper is more cunning and ruthless than any he’s faced before. And he’s been assigned a new partner within the Bureau: a woman linked to the past he’s so desperate to forget.

PS – Don’t forget we’re giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Enter here by June 21st!

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What was Maurice Sendak’s original title for Where The Wild Things Are?

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Ooooo! Space Opera by Catherynne Valente is going to be a music-themed film!

Charles Melton joins Yara Shahidi in The Sun Is Also a Star.

Zack Snyder says The Fountainhead is his next project. (Y tho?)

Joe Hill’s Locke & Key series will find a home at Netflix.

Comic relief is the thing with feathers: Hailee Steinfeld to star in Emily Dickinson comedy series.

Timothée Chalamet, Robert Pattinson, Joel Edgerton, Ben Mendelsohn, and Lily-Rose Depp will star in The King, based on Shakespeare’s Henry the IV and V.

Cover Reveals

Teen Vogue scooped the exclusive first look at Dealing in Dreams from Lilliam Rivera. (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, March 5, 2019)

Here’s the first look at Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty’s upcoming novel Nine Perfect Strangers. (Flatiron Books, November 6)

Megan Mullally revealed the cover of The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, the book she cowrote with her husband, Nick Offerman. (Dutton, October 2)

And here’s the first peek at the US cover of Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore. (Knopf, October 9)

And Penguin Teen just revealed the cover of Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte. (Penguin Teen, February 26, 2019)

And lucky attendees at BookExpo got the first look at Samantha Shannon’s upcoming epic novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree. (Bloomsbury Publishing, February 26, 2019)

Sneak Peeks

Here’s the first trailer for the Ursula K. Le Guin documentary.

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!

Loved, loved, loved:

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Doubleday, November 20)

Oooooo, this book packs a lot in less than 200 pages. Korede is a nurse in Nigeria. She is also the person she calls when her gorgeous younger sister Ayoola needs help cleaning up her mess. And by “mess,” I mean “bodies”. So far, three of them. Korede’s loyalty lies with her sister, so she always helps hide the evidence, but her loyalties are tested when the doctor Korede has loved from afar starts dating Ayoola. On the surface a thriller, this is actually a smart novel about beauty standards, sexism, and violence against women.

Excited to read:

Lost Soul, Be at Peace by Maggie Thrash (Candlewick, October 9)

YESSSSSSSSS! A follow-up to Honor Girl! This one is about a period of depression Thrash experienced in eleventh grade. She did a tremendous job being so honest and smart about awkward situations, scary feelings, and real life in Honor Girl, I’m sure this one will be fantastic as well! I can’t wait to read it.

What I’m reading this week.

The Witch Elm by Tana French

If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim

Treeborne by Caleb Johnson

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Non-book-related recommendation.

I just started watching The Terror on AMC and WHOO is it great. I haven’t actually read the book by Dan Simmons (WHO AM I?!?) but I am hella-enjoying this show about British explorers in the Arctic in the mid-19th century who are trapped in the ice and being pursued by…something. Possibly. It’s so creepy! Plus it has my boyfriend Ciarán Hinds. I’m pretty sure he and Tobias Menzies are contractually obligated to appear in the same shows every few years.

And this is funny.

And now it’s stuck in your head too.

Trivia answer: Where the Wild Horses Are.

Happy Monday! If you’re in the States, that means it’s a holiday for you today. Whether you are working or have the day off, I hope you get lots of time to read books today. I have a ton of exciting book-related news for you, and I hope everything in your world is marvelous and you’re reading something wonderful. Enjoy your upcoming week, and be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Claire Messud’s The Burning Girl, now on sale in paperback from W. W. Norton.

Julia and Cassie have been friends since nursery school. They have shared everything, including their desire to escape the stifling limitations of their birthplace. But as the girls enter adolescence, their paths diverge and Cassie sets out on a journey that will put her life in danger and shatter her oldest friendship. The Burning Girl is a complex examination of the stories we tell ourselves about youth and friendship, and straddles, expertly, childhood’s imaginary worlds and painful adult reality―crafting a true, immediate portrait of female adolescence. A New York Times bestseller and finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

PS – Don’t forget we’re giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Enter here by June 21st!

Here’s this week’s trivia question: In Percy Jackson & the Olympians, what is the Greek name for Percy’s pen/sword?

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Jennifer Egan is working on a companion book to Visit From the Goon Squad.

Morgan Parker has sold a YA novel.

Random House Children’s to publish book by Parkland students.

Idris Elba to star in and direct The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Netflix.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries set for a movie adaptation.

HBO’s Watchmen pilot casts Regina King, Don Johnson, four more.

The Vampire Diaries is getting a spinoff show.

The Hate U Give movie has a release date!

George R.R. Martin’s The Ice Dragon to become an animated film.

There’s a new adaptation of The House of Spirits in the works. (Won’t be hard to beat the first one imo.)

John Malkovich to play Hercule Poirot in The ABC Murders.

Netflix lands Dee Rees’ political thriller The Last Thing He Wanted, based on the book by Joan Didion.

Lisbeth Salander to return in new comic book series.

The Firefly crew returns in a brand new book series.

The Baby-Sitters Club series being shopped for a TV adaptation.

There is a new Sarah Gailey novella on the way!

And a new book from Zan Romanoff!

Felicity Huffman acquired the rights to The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats, the 2009 novel by Hesh Kestin.

Cover Reveals

The cover to Michelle Obama’s memoir has been revealed! (Crown, November 13)

Here’s the first look at Spin, a thriller about hip hop and death, on the way from Lamar Giles. (Scholastic Press, January 29, 2019)

Mackenzi Lee shared the epigraph for A Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy.

Sneak Peeks

Here’s the first look at Down a Dark Hall, (loosely) based on the novel by Lois Duncan.

And here’s the full trailer for Mowgli, the live-action version of The Jungle Book directed by Golem Andy Serkis.

Here’s the first trailer for Christopher Robin, about a grown-up CR in need of help from his old friends Pooh and the gang.

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!

Loved, loved, loved:

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker (Random House, January 15, 2019)

We’re only half way through 2018 but I’m pretty sure I’ve already read my favorite book of 2019. Set in a small college town, The Dreamers is a gorgeously heartbreaking story about a wildly contagious illness that causes people to fall asleep and not wake up. Its origins are unknown and as scientists work to figure out the mystery and find a cure, the town around them falls apart. This book put me in a trance and wrapped itself around my brain. It is so beautifully written. I was a huge fan of KTW’s first book, The Age of Miracles, and I loved this one even more!

Excited to read:

My Brother’s Husband, Volume 2 by Gengoroh Tagame (Pantheon Graphic Novels, September 18)

In the first volume, we learn about Yaichi a single dad living with his daughter, Kana, in Tokyo. When Yaichi’s estranged twin brother Ryoji dies, Ryoji’s husband, Mike, comes to visit them. As Kana endlessly questions “Uncle Mike” about his life in Canada and the details of his marriage to an uncle she never met, Yaichi slowly comes to realize what caused the rift between him and his brother, and how having Mike around is helping them both to heal. It is an incredibly charming book that I highly recommend you read before the second one comes out! As for me, I was delighted to learn about a second volume and I cannot wait to read it!

What I’m reading this week.

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

Beloved Poison by E.S. Thomson

The Day the Sun Died by Yan Lianke

An Easy Death by Charlene Harris

Non-book-related recommendation.

OMG ARE YOU WATCHING KILLING EVE???? Two words: Sandra Oh. The season finale was last night, so you can binge the whole thing now, start to finish. Get on it. (Er, unless excessive violence and bloodshed is not your thing, then maybe skip it. That’s cool, too.)

And this is funny.

Here’s Mark Oshiro with a little funny/scary wordplay based on his wonderful new novel Anger is a Gift.

Trivia answer: Anaklusmos (or Riptide) 

Helloooooooooo! Welcome to another week filled with books and…well, books, because let’s be honest, what else do you need, right? I have a ton of exciting book-related news for you today. I hope everything in your world is marvelous and you’re reading something wonderful. Enjoy your upcoming week, and be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty

PS – Don’t forget we’re giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Enter here by June 21st!

Sponsored by The Plastic Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

Magicians are pitted against one another to make the next big discovery in Charlie N. Holmberg’s fascinating new read in The Paper Magician series.

Alvie Brechenmacher came to London to study under world-renowned magician Marion Praff. Little did she know she would make a discovery that could change the world of magic forever. Now a rival is after the plans, and in the high-stakes world of magical discovery, not everyone plays fair . . .

Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg returns to the enchanting world of The Paper Magician.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What famous author drowned after his boat sank and was later cremated on a beach in Italy?

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Riz Ahmed and Mindy Kaling want to write a Ms. Marvel movie together.

There’s a documentary about Ursula K. Le Guin on the way.

Kristen Stewart is adapting Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Chronology of Water.

Sharp Objects gets a premiere date.

Beastie Boys announce massive 600-page book.

Clifford the Big Red Dog returning to TV in 2019.

Elisabeth Moss, Michael Stuhlbarg to star in a Shirley Jackson thriller.

Queer Eye fashion expert Tan France to publish memoir.

Steven Spielberg and Leonardo DiCaprio are talking about reteaming for a Ulysses S. Grant biopic, based on the book by Ron Chernow.

Stephen King & Joe Hill’s In the Tall Grass to become a film at Neflix.

Sarah J. Maas to release her first adult fantasy series.

Cover Reveals

Fest your eyes on Sangu Mandanna’s young adult novel, A Spark of White Fire. (Sky Pony Press, September 4)

Here’s the first peek at Tear Me Apart, a new thriller by J.T. Ellison! (MIRA, August 28)

Scholastic rolled out a preview of the new edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. (Scholastic, October 9)

And here’s the new Marissa Meyer’s book, Archenemies, the sequel to Renegades. (Feiwel& Friends, November 6)

Sneak Peeks

Here’s the full trailer for The Passage, based on the trilogy by Justin Cronin.

SyFy released the trailers for Nightflyers and 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 I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week!

How to Love a Jamaican: Stories by Alexia Arthurs (Ballentine Books, July 24)

The hot short story collection of July! Featuring vibrant, poignant stories about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home, full of love, identity, resentment, and ghosts. This debut has already had its praises sung by Zadie Smith, Kaitlyn Greenidge, Carmen Maria Machado, Naomi Jackson and more!

The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley (MCD, July 17)

A modern retelling of the literary classic Beowulf, set is suburbia. Willa leads a privileged life in a gated community with her husband and her son, Dylan. Dana is a war veteran living in a cave outside town with her son, Gren. When Gren escapes his home and runs off with Dylan, the women living in two very different worlds meet. This is wildly inventive!

What I’m reading this week.

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Dodging and Burning: A Mystery by John Copenhaver

Riddance: Or: The Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing-Mouth Children by Shelley Jackson

Useful Phrases for Immigrants by May-lee Chai

Off the Cliff: How the Making of Thelma & Louise Drove Hollywood to the Edge by Becky Aikman

Non-book-related recommendation.

If you listen to All the Books, you know that I have a Red Bull addiction, which is bad, because it is terrible for you. I gave it up in January, and have since been drinking tea (yuck) for my caffeine. But last week, I bought a Hi-Ball Organic Energy Drink at the health food store. IT WAS DELICIOUS. I had the Blood Orange, and it tasted like a mimosa without the buzz but with the BZZZZZZZZ! I have found my new caffeine god.

And this is funny.

One of the cutest/most mortifying bookseller misunderstandings ever.

Trivia answer: Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Welcome to the beginning of another week that is filled with bookish possibility! Today I have a ton of exciting book-related news for you. I hope everything in your world is marvelous and you’re reading something wonderful. Enjoy your upcoming week, and be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What popular character first appeared as the protagonist of an 1883 children’s novel by Italian author Carlo Collodi?

Sponsored by Vault Comics

NYT best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson and TV writer-producer Steven L. Sears collaborate with artist Mike Ratera to bring to life this sci-fi story about space exploration, aliens, and war. Joe Human is taken to a harsh P.O.W. camp on a distant planet where he will be examined, tortured, and forced to endure experiments that rip into his very mind, as the alien Krael seek to answer the question: What is human? At 192 pages, this full-length hardback graphic novel also offers an original novella written by Anderson and Sears with art by Nathan Gooden.

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

AMC greenlights Dietland companion talk show hosted by Aisha Tyler.

Sherlock Holmes 3 coming to theaters Christmas of 2020.

Justina Ireland is writing a Star Wars book!

Fox will be home to The Passage, starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar. 

How To Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran to be a feature film.

Tomi Adeyemi announced the title and release date of the second Legacy of Orisha book!

Kate Walsh has joined The Umbrella Academy cast.

There’s going to be a new Friday Night Lights film.

Hulu has ordered a limited series based on John Green’s Looking for Alaska.

Here’s all the latest news on the Captain Marvel movie.

Corbin Bernsen and Annette O’Toole join Marvel’s The Punisher At Netflix.

Vanity Fair takes a look at the new Little Women adaptation.

Film rights have sold to The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan, a thriller due out July 3 in the US.

Chelsea Clinton to publish children’s book for young activists, Start Now!

Cover Reveals

Jacqueline Woodson revealed the cover and an excerpt of Harbor Me. (Nancy Paulsen Books, August 28)

And here’s the gorgeous cover of Roshani Chokshi’s new series, The Gilded Wolves. (Wednesday Books, January 15, 2019)

And the cover for Upon a Burning Throne by Ashok Banker is so beautiful. (John Joseph Adams, May 7, 2019)

All today’s covers are so gorgeous! Here’s the first peek at Unholy Lands by Lavie Tidhar. (Tachyon Publications, October 16)

Sneak Peeks

Here’s the most recent trailer for Deadpool 2 (featuring David Beckham).

Deborah Harkness revealed the first images of the Bishop/Mather family from the Discovery of Witches adaptation.

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 I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week!

A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney (Imprint, September 25)

This is a badass retelling of Alice in Wonderland set in Atlanta, where Alice is a warrior who fights monsters in the dream world of Wonderland. When her mentor is poisoned, she must travel deep into the heart of Wonderland for the antidote, but can she retrieve it before she loses her head? I thought I was tired of Alice retellings but this one changed my mind. It’s awesome.

Bad Man by Dathan Auerbach (Doubleday, August 7)

Five years after Ben’s little brother Eric disappeared, Ben gets a job working in the grocery store where Eric was last seen. Right away, he can tell there is something wrong with the store, and after wondering all this time what happened to Eric, Ben is quite certain he’s going to be sorry to learn the answer. I read this at bedtime because I’m a masochist, apparently. If you enjoy being creeped out, mark this one down now!

What I’m reading this week.

Furyborn by Claire Legrand

Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon

Blood Highway by Gina Wohlsdorf

Providence by Caroline Kepnes

Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li

Non-book-related recommendation.

These two wrap-ups about the Met Gala by authors Genevieve Valentine and Patricia Lockwood (and her mom) are the funniest things you’ll read this week.

And this is funny.

Have you seen Alistair, Colin Dickey’s dog? He is the cutest.

Trivia answer: Pinocchio.