Author: Liberty Hardy

Happy Monday, readers! I enjoyed a lovely vacation and read a ton of great books that I will be sharing all over Book Riot and the internet in the coming months. But I am also happy to be back! Today I have a bunch of fabulous 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

Sponsored by Endling #1: The Last by Katherine Applegate, the bestselling author of The One and Only Ivan!

Byx is the youngest member of her dairne pack, a rare doglike species. Rumored to have remarkable abilities, dairnes have been hunted to near-extinction in the war-torn kingdom of Nedarra. When her pack is lured into a trap and wiped out, it seems Byx may be the last of her species: an endling.

As Byx sets out on a quest to find a safe haven—and perhaps even another of her kind—she meets new allies, who each have their own motivations for joining her. They begin as strangers and grow to be their own kind of family, and together they will uncover a secret that will threaten the existence of not just the dairnes, but every other creature in their world.

P.S. Don’t forget that Book Riot is giving away 15 of the year’s best mysteries so far! Enter to win here.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What classic novel features the villainous Cathy Ames?

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Guillermo del Toro is making a film of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark!

Reese Witherspoon announced her first book: Whiskey in a Teacup.

Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants 3 is going to happen.

Cherie Dimaline’s award-winning novel, The Marrow Thieves, is coming to the small screen.

Series based on The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is in the works.

Hulu has renewed The Handmaid’s Tale for a third season.

Octavia Spencer is turning Are You Sleeping? into a series (which is being produced by Reese Witherspoon.)

Yesssssssss: Lydia Millet’s Sweet Lamb of Heaven is going to be a film.

And so is Mackenzi Lee’s Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue!

Sony Pictures Television acquires Wattpad story Death Is My BFF.

Jenny Slate, Alex Sharp, Zach Galifianakis, Gillian Anderson to star in the adaptation of Rebecca Dinerstein’s The Sunlit Night.

Jasper Fforde announced a new book: Early Riser.

Hold on to your Achilles tendons: John Lithgow has joined the Pet Sematary remake.

Roomies by Christina Lauren in getting a big screen adaptation.

Cover Reveals

Alyssa Cole shared the cover for An Unconditional Freedom, the last book in the Loyal League series. (Kensington, February 26, 2019)

Leigh Bardugo revealed the cover for King of Scars! (Imprint, January 29, 2019)

Josiah Bancroft shared the cover for The Hod King. (Orbit, December 4)

Check out the gorgeous hardcover editions of the Binti trilogy! (Tor.com, July 24)

Happily Ever After has the cover reveal of Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers. (HMH Books for Young Readers, February 5, 2019)

Here’s the first look at Sarah Pinsker’s collection Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea. (Small Beer Press, March 2019)

And The Mary Sue debuted the cover of In An Absent Dream, the fourth book in Seanan McGuire’s Hugo and Nebula Award-winning series The Wayward Children. (Tor.com, January 8, 2019)

Sneak Peeks

Here’s the first trailer for A Simple Favor, based on the novel by Darcey Bell.

Here’s the first look at Strange Angel, about rocket scientist and occultist Jack Parsons, and loosely based on the book by George Pendle.

Here’s the new trailer for Ant Man and The Wasp.

Here’s a peek at Kiernan Shipka at Sabrina, from the upcoming Netflix series.

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!

Clock Dance by Anne Tyler (Knopf, July 10)

A new Anne Tyler novel is a thing I live for. I find reading her to be like being enveloped in a warm, fuzzy blanket. Her writing is so lovely and calming. This new novel is about a older woman, who has lived a relatively safe and uneventful life, who makes an impulsive decision to fly across the country, based on an unexpected phone call from a stranger.

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman

Fifteen wonderful stories reimagining the folklore and mythology of East and South Asia, written by such amazing authors as Renée Ahdieh, Sona Charaipotra, Preeti Chhibber, Melissa de la Cruz, Julie Kagawa, Cindy Pon, and Alyssa Wong. This beauty was compiled by the team behind We Need Diverse Books.

What I’m reading this week.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Bad Man by Dathan Auerbach

This Body’s Not Big Enough for the Both of Us by Edgar Cantero

All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung

The Wicked King by Holly Black

Non-book-related recommendation.

Two words: Collateral is worth watching for Carey Mulligan’s performance alone. Her acting is jaw-dropping.

And this is funny.

Author Sam Sykes has made up his own titles for some seriously dark episodes of Friends.

Trivia answer: East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

Hello, book lovers! As you read this, I am currently on day three of my reading staycation.  My plan is to read backlist and reread favorite books from the last few years. I can’t wait to share what books I loved! In the meantime, here is a bunch of fabulous book-related news to feast your brains on. I hope everything in your world is marvelous and you have something wonderful to read. Enjoy your upcoming week, and be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Hush, My Inner Sleuth by M.E. Meegs

This serpentine saga opens in the year 1947 at a New England women’s college, where the ever-playful Betty escapes a meddlesome narrator by slipping her friend Willie a mickey and assuming her identity. Undaunted, the plucky storyteller adopts Willie as her new protagonist and travels with her to L.A.

Soon after their arrival, the pulp-inflected ghost of Skip Ryker—a recently atomized Hollywood detective—hijacks the head of the literarily precocious Willie in  hopes of solving his murder. What follows is a comic saga of intrusive narrators, metafictional backstabbing, and one very peculiar psyche. (Accepting ARC requests now…)

P.S. Don’t forget that Book Riot is giving away 15 of the year’s best mysteries so far! Enter to win here.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What famous novel features a character named Homer Simpson? (The answer is at the bottom of the newsletter.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Lorne Michaels, Aidy Bryant adapting Lindy West memoir Shrill.

Exciting news: There’s a new Nicole Dennis-Benn novel on the way!

Release date set for Michael B. Jordan legal drama Just Mercy.

Susan Orlean’s next book is about libraries.

David Tennant shared more info about Good Omens.

Seith Mann to adapt BLACK comic.

Girl Waits with Gun to be adapted as a series.

Alex Segura’s Pete Hernandez series to become a show.

Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now is going to be a show. (The book releases tomorrow.)

Jurnee Smollett-Bell joins HBO’s Lovecraft Country.

George R.R. Martin announced a release date for his next book, Winds of Winter. JUST KIDDING! That’s never coming. His new book is called Fire & Blood.

Amy Adams will star in the adaptation of The Woman in the Window.

Renée Zellweger and Louie Anderson to star in adaptation of Heft.

A new trilogy in the world of Miss Peregrine is coming.

Here’s the weekly Stephen King news: The Long Walk headed to the big screen.

Naomi Watts, Sophia Lillis to star in Burning Season, based on the story of Laura van den Berg.

The Heathen comic is coming to the big screen.

David Copperfield cast adds Tilda Swinton and Hugh Laurie alongside Dev Patel.

Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City to get a television series sequel.

Hulu is developing a series based on Less Than Zero. (Why-o?)

Cover Reveals

Here’s the gorgeous cover of The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar. (Counterpoint, 2019)

Sneak Peeks

Here’s the first look at Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects. (Omg Sophia Lillis is the perfect pick to play young Amy Adams.)

And here it is, the first trailer for Crazy Rich Asians!

Here’s the trailer for the adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s Burning.

A new look at the Fantastic Beasts film.

Here’s a new teaser trailer for Dietland.

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!

Sick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour (Harper Perennial, June 5)

Khakpur has two wonderful novels under her belt. Now she takes readers on a personal journey through her life and her struggles with late-stage Lyme’s disease, and what it’s like to live with a chronic illness. She explores her illness by way of the different places she has lived, and explains how she manages the impact her illness has on her mental and physical health, and the toll it has taken. Perfect for fans of Brain on Fire.

Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin (William Morrow, June 26)

Bolin examines America’s national obsession with stories surrounding dead girls. Her essays include examinations of Twin Peaks, Serial, and works by Joan Didion and James Baldwin, as well as a discussion of the information and narratives surrounding dead girls that we absorb every day. This is wise, fascinating stuff.

What I’m reading this week.

Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Swan Song by Robert McCammon

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Non-book-related recommendation.

Two words: Janelle Monae. She has a new album and a 48-minute accompanying short film.

And this is funny.

Maybe I am The Vanisher.

Trivia answer: The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West, first published in 1939.

Welcome to another week filled with fabulous books and exciting book news! I hope everything in your world is marvelous and you have something wonderful to read. Enjoy your upcoming week, and be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Murder to the Metal by Annie Hogsett, from Poisoned Pen Press.

In the second book in the Somebody’s Bound to Wind Up Dead Mystery series, Allie and Tom now reside in a rented nine-thousand-square-foot lakeside mansion and have started the T&A Detective Agency to solve “mysteries of the heart” by using Tom’s lottery winnings. Their first case is funny with lots of sparkle and includes a sinister, twisty plot. Fans of romantic, comic mysteries will be delighted.

P.S. Don’t forget that Book Riot is giving away 15 of the year’s best mysteries so far! Enter to win here.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What was first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1771?

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Nicole Kidman will star in the adaptation of The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer.

Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day to be adapted for the stage.

Ben Folds is writing his first book.

Kyra Sedgwick’s directorial debut is an adaptation of Sara Zarr’s Story of a Girl.

Gillian Flynn is doing a new series for Amazon.

Alisha Rai has a new series on the way!

And so does Kwame Mbalia!

Ian Somerhalder to star in vampire series V-Wars, based on the Jonathan Maberry novel.

GASP! Prince’s official memoir will be released later this year.

Adaptation of William Gibson’s The Peripheral in the works at Amazon.

Common in talks to join Tiffany Haddish, Melissa McCarthy and Elizabeth Moss in The Kitchen.

The Prince and The Dressmaker is going to be a film! I AM SO EXCITED.

Jacqueline Carey announced a new novel set in the Kushiel’s Dart universe.

Amanda Seyfried joins Milo Ventimiglia in The Art of Racing In The Rain.

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical will launch its national tour in Chicago.

Deadly Class comic to become a television series.

National Geographic Channel orders Ebola virus drama The Hot Zone.

It star Sophia Lillis to star in Nancy Drew And The Hidden Staircase.

Cover Reveals

Glory Edim’s book has a cover! Behold: Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves. (Ballantine Books, October 16)

Here’s the first look at Jasmine Guillory’s new book, The Proposal. (Berkley, September 4)

Jacqueline Woodson is back with The Day You Begin, a new picture book, illustrated by Rafael López. (Nancy Paulsen Books, August 28)

Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs are teaming up for a dark new series. Here’s a peek at The Dark Deep. (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, October 2)

Sneak Peeks

The official trailer for Crazy Rich Asians drops today! Here’s a peek.

Here’s a peek at the real fake novel from Younger.

And an excerpt from Starless by Jacqueline Carey.

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!

Small Country by Gaël Faye

This novel has won some serious prizes, so I had to read it and see what all the fuss was about. AND WOW. It’s a slim novel but it packs a HUGE punch. It’s narrated by a young boy named Gaby in Burundi, beginning right before the start of the genocide in Rwanda and Burundi in the 1990s. It offers a look at life for his family in the midst of violence and fear, as seen through the eyes of a ten-year-old, and how it changes them forever. It is lovely and brutal and will stay with you for a long time.

The Book of M by Peng Shepard

Fans of Station Eleven, listen up! In a dystopian near-future world, people have begun to lose their shadows. And not in a cutesy Peter Pan way—when someone loses their shadow in this book, it means they are destined to also lose their memory shortly after. Fear has caused mass chaos and struggles for power, and the world is a bleak place, and it is up to the remaining survivors to find a cure before they lose their own shadows. This one is g-r-e-a-t.

What I’m reading this week.

Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao

Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden

Wildcard by Marie Lu

Our House by Louise Candlish

Non-book-related recommendation.

I am disappointed with book adaptations 99% of the time but I just watched I Remember You, based on the novel by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, and it was really good! If you like scary movies, I recommend it. It’s currently streaming on Netflix.

And this is funny.

Have I mentioned that Rabih Alameddine posts the best gifs?

Trivia answer: Encyclopedia Britannica.

Hello, you glorious word hoarders! There is a ton of exciting stuff for me to share with you today, so I’m going to get right to it! I hope everything in your world is marvelous and you have something wonderful to read. Enjoy your upcoming week, and be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty

P.S. Don’t forget that Book Riot is giving away 15 of the year’s best mysteries so far! Enter to win here.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What novel ends with the line, “It is a far better thing I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known”? (Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

HBO Docs bought the rights to Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.

Jenny Han announced the premiere date of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.

‘New’ JRR Tolkien book to be published in 2018.

The female-led, sci-fi thriller The Hidden Girl, a short story by Ken Liu, is being adapted for the screen. 

AMC orders ten episodes of Joe Hill’s NOS4A2.

David Yoon’s Frankly in Love acquired by Penguin Young Readers.

Apple to develop series based on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy.

Nafiza Azad’s first book is on the way!

Wesley The Owl book is getting a screen adaptation by The Jim Henson Company.

Paramount Pictures is adapting Aru Shah And The End Of Time. ( I *loved* this book!)

John Krasinski is adapting Cecil Castellucci’s short story We Have Always Lived on Mars.

Mariah Carey is writing a memoir.

Clare Beams has a new novel coming! (I loooooove We Show What We Have Learned.) 

Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin At The End Of The World is headed to the screen.

Kyle Chandler replaces George Clooney in the Catch-22 lead role.

Megan Abbott’s Dare Me is coming to television!

Cover Reveals

Book Riot has the first look at Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri. (Orbit, November 13)

Here’s the look at the new Nic Stone: Odd One Out. (October 9, Crown Books for Young Readers)

First look! Ann Leckie has a new fantasy trilogy on the way. The first, The Raven Tower, is headed our way in early 2019.

Sneak Peeks

Lifetime rolled out the first trailer for You, based on the thriller by Caroline Kepnes.

It’s Frankenstein’s 200th anniversary, and there are a ton of Frank-related things headed our way, including a Mary Shelley film starring Elle Fanning.

Here’s our first look at Jason Statham as chum: The trailer for THE MEG has arrived.

Here’s a listen of the audio of Not That Bad, the forthcoming anthology edited by Roxane Gay.

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!

The Descent of Monsters (The Tensorate Series) by JY Yang (July 31, Tor.com)

The third book in the Tensorate series is coming and rejoice! For it is as wonderful as the first two books. This time there’s an escaped experiment, a lot of carnage, and an investigator who must figure out what really happened. I love these wildly imaginative stories so much!

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott (July 17, Little, Brown and Company)

I adore Megan Abbott and devoured this new one in one sitting! It’s about two high school friends, a horrible secret, and a newly formed rivalry a decade later. Kit thought she had out the truth about Diane behind her, but when Diane turns out to be Kit’s competition for a new position at the lab, all Kit’s hidden feelings about their past are about to boil over.

What I’m reading this week.

A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney

The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) by L.C. Rosen

For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Helig

Non-book-related recommendation.

Did you know Ben & Jerry’s have a line of non-dairy ice cream and it’s DELICIOUS? I eat vegan, so this is exciting for me, but my bf is a total carnivore and he also agrees they’re amazing. My favorites are Cinnamon Buns and Chunky Monkey. (Cuz you know I’ve tried them all.)

And this is funny.

Favorite Sean Penn novel joke.

Trivia answer: A Tale of Two Cities.

Hello and welcome to another Monday! I am excited to share this week’s newsletter with you because I have added a couple new categories to get even more book information (and non-book information) out into the world. I am like a little book bee, pollinating your TBRs, buzz buzz! I hope everything in your world is marvelous and you have something wonderful to read. Enjoy your upcoming week, and be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Flatiron Books and Legendary by Stephanie Garber

After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free.  She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and the time to repay the debt has come.

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Kenneth Branagh will star in the adaptation of A Gentleman in Moscow, based on the novel by Amor Towles.

Rebecca Roanhorse is writing an Anasazi-inspired epic fantasy.

Octavia Spencer will be producing the film Mumbet, based on the book A Free Woman on God’s Earth by Jana Laiz and Ann-Elizabeth Barnes.

Neil Gaiman Is bringing the Gormenghast fantasy series back to television.

Kathryn Hahn to star in the pilot of HBO’s adaption of Tom Perotta’s Mrs. Fletcher.

Hugh Laurie joins George Clooney’s adaptation of Catch-22.

Tana French announced a new novel coming in October: The Witch Elm.

From the “They’ve Been Trying to Make This for Years” files: FX orders Y: The Last Man pilot.

C.B. Strike, the miniseries based on J.K. Rowlings’ Cormoran Strike novels (written as Robert Gailbraith), gets a release date.

Cover Reveals

I had the tremendous honor of revealing the cover for Little, the new novel by Edward Carey! (Riverhead Books,October 23)

Sneak Peeks

Hot damn: The first full-length trailer for Fahrenheit 451 is here.

Here’s the first look at the BBC’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds.

Showtime released the teaser trailer for Patrick Melrose, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

Here’s another trailer for How to Talk to Girls at Parties, based on the Neil Gaiman short story.

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!

What Should Be Wild by Julia Fine (Harper, May 8)

A dark modern fairy tale, about a young girl who can kill people with a touch – and bring them back to life just as easily. (Think Ned the Pie Maker 2.0, ad infinitum.) Because of her condition, Maisie has always been kept hidden away at her family’s home, where she is raised (and studied) by her scientist father. But when he disappears, Maisie must go looking for him in the one place he told her never to go: the dark woods. If you like your stories a bit strange, this captivating novel is for you.

The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon (Riverhead Books, July 31)

An incendiary (I’m the worst) novel about a Korean American college student named Phoebe who is drawn into a religious extremist cult that may have ties to her family. After bombings rip through several buildings in the town, she disappears, and her friend, Will, obsessively searches for her and for the answers. Can the young woman he knows really be responsible for such violence?

What I’m reading this week.

Sarai and the Meaning of Awesome by Sarai Gonzalez and Monica Brown

Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura (Author),‎ Kalau Almony (Translator)

You All Grow Up and Leave Me: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession by Piper Weiss

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Non-book-related recommendation.

I started exercising at the beginning of the year (UGH) and this song helps me keep the beat.

And this is funny.

I cannot stop laughing at Jami Attenberg’s Instagram post about her dog’s butt because I am really eight years old.