Holy CATS, it is hot here in Maine. But everything is green and the air smells so good – it’s perfect reading weather. I hope it’s lovely where you are, too. (But, um, Colorado, what was up with that snow???) Here’s a bunch of bookish news to start your week off right. And remember, I love you and I like you. – xoxo, Liberty

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Sponsored by the Lessons In Control Series

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Seductive.

Charming.

Dominant.

Dean Sova is everything Maya Clery craves. From the first touch, their connection is intense. After leaving her troubled past behind, Maya thought she was happy—she is happy—but meeting Dean forces her to acknowledge dark needs she longs to explore yet has never had the courage to face.  

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All the Deal News You Can Use

Jordan Peele to produce HBO series Lovecraft Country (based on the book by Matt Ruff) with J.J. Abrams, Misha Green.

The Chaperone, based on Laura Moriarty’s best-selling American novel, will reunite Elizabeth McGovern and Julian Fellowes. 

Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness to be developed as a limited series.

Netflix is developing and producing a new English-language drama series based on the fantasy saga The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski.

Daveed Diggs (of Hamilton fame) is set to star in TNT’s Snowpiercer pilot.

Ian McKellen, Gabriel Byrne and Connie Nielsen are set to star in Hamlet Revenant.

Today in Why Stop at Four: A fifth Game of Thrones spin-off is in the works.

Universal has bought the movie rights to the New York Times column You May Want to Marry My Husband, written by the late author Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

Grace And Frankie actress June Diane Raphael is writing a book to help women run for office.

Cover Reveals

Book Riot got the exclusive cover reveal of Jen Wang’s The Princess and the Dressmaker!

The Mary Sue revealed the shiny new cover of Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh.

And last but not least, the cover of Caleb Roehrig’s new thriller, White Rabbit.

Sneak Peeks!

The Alienist series is coming! I looooove this novel. (It’s hard to believe it has been 23 years since its release. I got the book right before *cough* graduation *cough*.)

Netflix debuts first images from its new miniseries based on Alias Grace, the Margaret Atwood novel.

 The first trailer for The Glass Castle, starring Brie Larson and Woody Harrelson.

The trailer for The Hippopotamus, based on the novel by Stephen Fry.

The trailer for The Limehouse Golem, based on Peter Ackroyd’s 1994 novel Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem.

Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning star in How to Talk to Girls at Parties, based on the short story by Neil Gaiman.

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 Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden (June 13, Harper Voyager)

Can a young girl, a politician, a pop diva, and a teen stop the rise of a powerful demigoddess who is set on making her big hellish comeback? You should read this and find out because WOW WOW WOW. If I had to sum this up in two words: banana pants. This fantastic futuristic South African novel has witches, robots, genetic engineering, and mammal/crustacean sex. And that’s just for starters!

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (June 27, Katherine Tegen Books)

A bisexual British lord heads out on a wild world journey with his best friend/secret crush in this fun 18th century romp! Monty has reached an age when he is expected to finally settle down and act like a gentleman. But before he does, he takes his BFF Percy on one last adventure around the globe, which quickly turns dangerous – both romantically and to their actual lives! This is fun with a capital “YES.”

And this is funny.

Who is driving the car?

At least there’s one good thing about Mondays: It’s time for Book Radar! Sit back, relax, and check out deals, cover reveals and more upcoming book goodness. – xoxo, Liberty

All the Deal News You Can Use

Donald Glover is making an adult, animated Deadpool television series because he loves us.

Anne Rice shared some details about her upcoming Vampire Chronicles television series. 

James Patterson convinced Bill Clinton to write his next book for him collaborate on a new book.

Bryan Cranston is bringing The Dangerous Book for Boys to the small screen.

George R. R. Martin’s 1980 supernatural sci-fi novella Nightflyers is being turned into a TV series.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is officially coming to Broadway next spring.

There’s a pub date for Artemis, Andy Weir’s follow-up to The Martian! Surprising no one: the film rights were snatched up right away.

In more unsurprising news, Starz has already renewed American Gods for a second season.

There’s a Hellboy reboot in the works with Stranger Things’ star David Harbour.

New Curtis Sittenfeld novel will imagine Hillary Clinton’s life without Bill.

Julia Roberts will star is a film adaptation of The Bookseller.

Tom Hanks will star in the film version of The News of the World. (This was one of my favorite books of 2016!)

Cover Reveals

Out in 2018: Whitney Gardner’s Chaotic Good cover is fabulous!

Nick Harkaway has a new novel coming! It’s called Gnomon and its cover is fin-ally here.

Here’s the fancy cover for Martha Brockenbrough’s Alexander Hamilton, Revolutionary.

I immediately clicked this link when I saw “Indiana Jones set in space.” It’s an upcoming book from Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner.

Sneak Peeks!

Shonda Rhimes tweeted the first look at Still Star-Crossed, her television sequel to Romeo And Juliet.

A new trailer for the new adaptation of Stephen King’s It. And there’s one for The Mist. (I may have to make a whole separate column just for SK adaptation news.)

Get your tissues ready: It’s the new trailer for Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything movie.

The trailer for the Blade Runner sequel, Blade Runner 2049, looks batty.

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!

Today I want to mention a couple upcoming sequels I just read and loved, so you have plenty of time to read the first books before these come out!

One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns) by Kendare Blake (Sept. 19, HarperTeen): Last year I read the first book, Three Dark Crowns, and was like WHOAAAAA. It’s about three sisters who must fight each other to the death to decide who will be king. And it’s so dark and twisted and sexy! Every time I thought it couldn’t get twistier, IT DID. And it ended in a cliffhanger that had me clamoring for the next book. WHICH IS SO GOOD. It’s a kick-ass, magicky, medieval extravaganza!

The Dire King: A Jackaby Novel by William Ritter (Aug. 22, Algonquin Young Readers):This is the fourth – and last – adventure of Jackaby and Miss Rook. I am having so many feeling about finishing up this series. It has been so much fun! It’s like a mash-up of Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And unlike the last book in a lot of series, I loved this one.

And this is funny.

A little Cher book humor at the library.

Happy Monday, readers! It’s Liberty, back again with deals and reveals and more upcoming book goodness. I never get tired of talking about books!

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This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Invisible Dead by Sam Wiebe.

An ex-cop who navigates by a moral compass stubbornly jammed at true north, Dave Wakeland is a talented private investigator with next to zero business sense.

He continues to be drawn to cases that are usually impossible to solve and frequently don’t pay. Whatever ghosts drive him, they seem to drive him inexorably toward danger –a journey he’s content to take so long as it means finding out what happened to someone the rest of the world seems happy enough to forget. With nothing to protect him but his wit and his empathy for the downtrodden and disenfranchised, Wakeland is on the case.

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All the Deal News You Can Use

Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda and Candice Bergen are making a movie about reading Fifty Shades of Grey.

BBC to adapt Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy as its first period drama with a non-white cast.

An adaptation of Little Women is in series development at CW. And a film as well!

Stephen King’s Firestarter is getting a remake.

HBO announces four (!!!) Game of Thrones spin-offs.

Tor Books announces a new fiction imprint dedicated to experimental storytelling.

Anna Paquin & Terrence Howard to guest on Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams for Amazon.

There’s a bidding war over Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s Modern Love column.

Adrienne Celt, author of The Daughters, sold a second novel to Bloomsbury.

The Dryad of Fairmont Park by Eric Smith is coming in spring of 2018.

Jeremy Renner will star as Doc Holliday in adaptations of the Mary Doria Russell novels.

Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series is in development.

Cover Reveals

The new cover for The Speaker, the second book in Traci Chee’s Sea of Ink and Gold series, has landed! It’s out Nov. 17.

And speaking of second books, here’s the cover for The Dragons of Nova, the new book in Elisa Kova’s Loom Saga. It’s out July 11.

Here’s the seventh installment in Quirk Book’s Star Wars/Shakespeare mash-up series, The Force Doth Awaken, out on Oct. 3.

Joe Hill’s Stranger Weather, out Oct. 24, has a dazzling cover.

And there’s a lovely cover for Supriya Kelkar’s Ahimsa, out Oct. 1.

Wowza!

Check out the trailer for The Dark Tower adaptation featuring my boyfriend Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey.

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!

Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong

When Ruth’s life slips out of her control and she gets rid of both her job and her fiancé, she decides to visit her parents and spend some time collecting her thoughts. But Ruth’s priorities suddenly change once she arrives and discovers her ailing father has started losing his memory. This is a funny, and sad, debut novel about family and what is most important in life. (July 11)

Sip by Brian Allen Carr

I am a HUGE FAN of Carr, and could not be more excited about Sip, his first novel. A post-apocalyptic western nightmare, set in a world overrun by people who have discovered they can get high by ingesting the shadows of living things. But beware the shadow sippers, because if you lose your shadow, you’ll lose your soul. If you like smart, crazy, and crazy-smart novels, this is the book for you. (Aug. 29)

And this is funny.

If book reviews were written as fanfiction.

 

Hello, readers! It’s Liberty, here to tell you about deals and reveals and more upcoming book goodness. Thanks to Swapna for kicking off the Book Radar – I am excited to take the reins. I have so much to tell you!

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This week’s newsletter is sponsored by The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder.

A bitingly funny, hugely entertaining novel in which a fractured family from the Chicago suburbs must gather in London for their eldest daughter’s marriage to an upper-crust Englishman, proving that the harder we strain against the ties that bind, the tighter they hold us close.

 

 

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All the Deal News You Can Use

Tahereh Mafi will return to the Shatter Me series with three new books, beginning with Restore Me in early 2018.

Hanover Square Press will publish The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O’Meara, about the life of Milicent Patrick, the first woman to design a movie monster.

Anika Noni Rose and her production company Roaring Virgin Productions have optioned TV and film rights to Shadowshaper, Daniel José Older’s bestselling YA fantasy series.

The Miss Fisher movie is called Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears. There’s also plans for a prequel TV spin-off focused on a younger version of Phryne investigating some of her first mysteries.

Joe Hill has a novella collection called Strange Weather coming Oct. 24 from William Morrow.

Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio & Robert De Niro are considering working on the big screen adaptation of David Grann’s Killers Of The Flower Moon.

A live-action/animated movie version of the 1958 children’s book Danny and the Dinosaur is now in development.

The Night Of star Riz Ahmed has joined Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly, and Jake Gyllenhaal in The Sisters Brothers.

HBO is making a Fahrenheit 451 movie starring Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon!

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the  award-winning book exploring racial injustice in America, will be brought to the Apollo stage next April.

Mystery author Reed Farrel Coleman will help Michael Mann write the prequel to Mann’s 1995 film Heat.

Mindy Kaling has optioned Alyssa Mastromonaco’s White House memoir Who Thought This Was A Good Idea? for television.

Love it or hate it, word is that Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why will be getting a second-season renewal soon.

Rick Riordan Presents, Disney-Hyperion’s newest imprint, will publish Jennifer Cervantes’s Storm Runner, Roshani Chokshi’s Aru Shah and the End of Time, and Yoon Ha Lee’s Dragon Pearl. All are set for release in 2018.

Cover Reveals

Amy Tan’s memoir, Where the Past Began, will be coming out Oct. 17 from Ecco.

Look at the gorgeous cover for A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena, coming Feb. 27, 2018!

Wiley Cash’s latest, The Last Ballad, has a cover and a release date: Out Oct. 3 from William Morrow.

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!

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay (June 13)

Gay pours everything she has into this memoir about her personal experiences with food and weight, examining the physical and psychological aspects of her decisions with regards to both, starting with her childhood and a terrible act of violence. It is a wildly insightful and personal memoir that will both ruin and inspire you. It blew me away.

Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard (June 13)

Comedian and actor Izzard is one of my favorite people on the planet, so I dropped everything and read this as soon as I got it! He’s so smart and hilarious. This is a sweet, moving memoir about his life, starting with the death of his mother when he was six, and taking readers through his schooling, street performances, stand-up comedy, marathon running, and screen acting. Izzard is a kind, funny human, with lots of smart things to say about love and gender. I think we’d be great BFFs.

And this is funny.

Epic Reads made a playlist for book nerds.

 

Swapna here again! This will be my last Book Radar, but fear not—I’m handing the reins over to Liberty, and I know she’ll do an excellent job keeping you all up to date on the newest releases.

All the Deal News You Can Use

Penguin Press will be publishing Hillaryland by Lissa Muscatine, who was Hillary Clinton’s chief speechwriter. She worked with the former presidential nominee, Secretary of State, Senator, and first lady for over 25 years.

Han Kang, author of The Vegetarian, will be publishing The White Book, a novel about grief and loss, with Hogarth in Fall 2017.

That forever-in-development Wheel of Time TV series, based on Robert Jordan’s hit fantasy series, finally has an update: It’s been picked up by Sony Pictures Television.

Robert Stone and Alan Andres have written a narrative history of stories about the race to the Moon, called Chasing the Moon, to be published by Ballantine. The release of the book, in 2019, will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing and a limited PBS series.

Hidden Figures author Margot Lee Shetterly will be writing two new books with Viking about extraordinary African American figures whose histories and legacies have been “hidden.”

Book Riot Recommends

We’ve got two new reviews for you today! I absolutely adored both these books—they felt fresh and new, and they’re both perfect for any reading situation from the beach to a busy commute.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows – Balli Kaur Jaswal (June 13)

This delightful novel features Nikki, a young Londoner who pays the bills by tending bar. That might not seem out of the ordinary, but for Nikki, who is from a traditional Punjabi Sikh community, it’s seen as an act of rebellion by her mother. On an impulse, Nikki responds to an ad at the local temple for a creative writing instructor—after all, as a law school dropout, she does have some writing experience. But what she doesn’t expect is that a group of widows will become regulars in her class—and that they have other types of “creative writing” in mind. This novel is funny and warm, with a sympathetic main character in Nikki. Jaswal does an excellent job bringing Sikh values to life for the reader, showing how the traditional can exist alongside the modern, but also making sure to tell the story of a group of women mostly forgotten by society.

Cocoa Beach – Beatriz Williams (June 27)

Beatriz Williams is the queen of the historical beach read, and she’s in fine form for her latest, Cocoa Beach. Virginia Fortescue met and fell in love with her husband on the battlegrounds of World War I, and now he’s dead. He survived the war, but not his own misdeeds, and he’s paid the ultimate price for them. Estranged from her husband at the time of his death, Virginia has travelled to Cocoa Beach, Florida, to settle her husband’s estate and see if she can move on with her life. But even in death, her husband isn’t finished keeping secrets. This is a breezy, escapist read, and the twists and turns will keep readers hooked as they try to puzzle out what exactly happened between Virginia and her husband.

Insiders

If you need even more Book Riot in your life than just this newsletter, we’ve launched a new subscription program called Insiders. You can have access to exclusive content such as behind-the-scenes newsletters, a dedicated Read Harder podcast, and much more, depending on your subscription level. Check out the Insiders site for more details, price points (it starts at just $3/month!) and to sign up!

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This newsletter is sponsored by Not a Sound by Heather Gudenkauf.

When a tragic accident leaves nurse Amelia Winn deaf, she spirals into a depression that ultimately causes her to lose everything that matters—her job, her husband, David, and her stepdaughter, Nora. Now, two years later and with the help of her hearing dog, Stitch, she is finally getting back on her feet. But when she discovers the body of a fellow nurse in the dense bush by the river, deep in the woods near her cabin, she is plunged into a disturbing mystery that could shatter the carefully reconstructed pieces of her life all over again.

Hello all, Swapna here! Welcome to the first issue of Book Radar, Book Riot’s newsletter focusing on all things pre-publication. Wondering what awesome book deals or book-to-movie news has just been announced? Want to know what upcoming books you should be excited about? Then you’re in the right place.

If you need even more Book Riot in your life than just this newsletter, we’ve launched a new subscription program called Insiders. You can have access to exclusive content such as behind-the-scenes newsletters, a dedicated Read Harder podcast, and much more, depending on your subscription level. Check out the Insiders site for more details, price points (it starts at just $3/month!) and to sign up!

All the Book News You Can Use

Is Margaret Atwood writing a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale?

Knopf is publishing the fifth book in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, called The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye.

Laila Lalami has announced two forthcoming books. The Other Americans, from Pantheon Books, is about the death of a Moroccan immigrant in a California town. It will be followed by The Colonial Citizens, a nonfiction book about America’s relationship with its Muslim denizens.

Celebrity book deal alert! Grand Central will be publishing The CW’s Crazy Ex Girlfriend star Rachel Bloom’s memoir.

6 Questions for Sandhya Menon

If you haven’t heard of Sandhya Menon’s upcoming novel When Dimple Met Rishi (Simon Pulse, May 30), you’re missing out on one of the most buzzed-about releases of the year (and definitely one of 2017’s best covers). We sat down with Menon and asked her a few questions for our inaugural newsletter.

Tell us just one thing you want readers to know about your book.

WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI is for anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider. See, we do get happy endings!

What’s your Hogwarts house?

When I took the test I got Gryffindor. But knowing myself, I’d say I’m more like a Gryffilpuff.

Has a book ever changed your life? If so, which book?

I have to say Sophie Kinsella’s books. It was when I read her Shopaholic series and then watched an interview with her that I began to consider I could write lighthearted, funny romance, let alone a novel-length work.

What’s the story you wish someone else would write, so you could read it?

A really good psychological thriller set in a boarding school and featuring ethnic minority protagonists. I’m a sucker for boarding schools and ethnic diversity!

What genre have you never written in, but want to?

I think I’d make a good horror writer! I grew up on Stephen King and Shirley Jackson, so it’d be fun to see if I could pull it off.

What do you want the first line of your obituary to be?

Nevertheless, she persisted.

Book Riot Recommends

I’ve read quite a few books that release this summer, and I’ve already been stunned and heartbroken, thrilled and devastated by the books we’re lucky enough to have coming out. Here are just two that I highly recommend.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Taylor Jenkins Reid (Atria Books, June 13)

Reid has been getting better and better with every novel, and her latest might just be her best yet. Monique is working at a magazine, a low woman on the totem pole, when she receives startling news: Reclusive Hollywood legend Evelyn Hugo is willing to do a print feature for the magazine, but only if Monique is the reporter on the story. Monique is baffled, but more than willing to sit down with Evelyn. But it turns out that the starlet has something entirely different in mind, and Monique struggles to figure out exactly what Evelyn wants from her. Reading this book, it’s difficult to believe that the Cuban American bombshell actress is fictional; Reid excels at creating complicated imperfect characters, and none is so stunning as Evelyn Hugo herself.

Chemistry – Weike Wang (Knopf, May 23)

The narrator of Chemistry may be unnamed, but that doesn’t make her life any less complicated. She’s been on autopilot her entire life, pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry at Boston University, but she isn’t sure that’s what she wants anymore. The narrator chafes under the demands and expectation of her Chinese parents, and for the first time, she’s ready to ask, “What do I want?” The stream-of-consciousness narrative style isn’t for everybody, but it allows the reader to get to know the main character on intimate terms and celebrate as she makes choices for herself, rather than everyone around her.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Salt Houses by Hala Alyan.

“In her debut novel, Alyan tells the story of a Palestinian family that is uprooted by the Six-Day War of 1967 and Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. This heartbreaking and important story examines displacement, belonging, and family in a lyrical style.”  —The Millions, “Most Anticipated: The Great 2017 Book Preview”

“Reading Salt Houses is like having your coffee grounds read: cosmic, foreboding and titillating all at once.” —Aline Ohanesian, author of Orhan’s Inheritance

“Salt Houses illuminates the heartache and permanent unsettledness experienced by refugees all over the world.” —Bustle, “15 New Authors You’re Going To Be Obsessed With This Year”

In his more formative years, my dad was a radar man in the Navy. It’s interesting to consider that with today’s modern technology, I would suspect that just about everything he did back then has since been completely overhauled, deprecated, and otherwise rendered obsolete. Radar, as we know it, is no longer a viable way of detecting precise movements that a military unit requests.

It’s interesting then to take a step back and ponder what other technical formats have since been made obsolete during our own times. Surely, we would feel very out of place in this day and age if we suddenly found ourselves in a position where we have to use a payphone. Remember card catalogs? It’s hard to believe these were still the standard 25 years ago as I was going through grade school.