Category: This Week In Books

2016’s Most Banned Books

The American Library Association releases a top ten list every year of the previous year’s most challenged and banned books. Over half the list from 2016 consists of books challenged for having LBGTQ characters (that bigots feel comfortable calling for books to be banned is unsurprising, but still frustrating), but one stand-out from the year is the Little Bill series of children’s books written by Bill Cosby. The reasons cited for the challenges are the criminal allegations of rape and sexual assault against the author. Yet another chapter in the age-old debate of whether or not books written by objectively awful people deserve space in the public conversation.

Unseen Sylvia Plath Letters Reveal Domestic Abuse

Previously unseen letters from Sylvia Plath to her therapist written a week before her suicide reveal her husband, the poet Ted Hughes, beat her two days before her miscarriage and was also verbally abusive. Their marriage was already known to be tempestuous (and Hughes was a known adulterer), and readers’ fascination with their relationship has continued well past the death of both writers. These new facts will likely fuel that fire for years to come.

The Good News Corner!

And now for the happy news! Margot Lee Shetterly, author of the hugely successful Hidden Figures, has a new book deal for two books that tell the stories of “extraordinary ordinary African-Americans whose contributions to American history have, for one reason or another, been untold, unseen, or overlooked.” The first will focus on the prominent African-American families of Baltimore, along with racist community policies those families faced and continue to face in the city.

Angela Maria Spring, a former manager of Politics and Prose bookstore in D.C., is opening a new bookstore staffed by people of color and focusing on diverse stories. The publishing industry, including bookstores, is notoriously white, which creates a cycle of white stories being published and hand-sold. A direct initiative to combat that, which Spring says is part of her resistance in the current political climate, is welcome and needed.

Thanks to The Widow of Wall Street by Randy Susan Meyers for sponsoring this week’s newsletter.

A provocative new novel by bestselling author Randy Susan Meyers about the seemingly blind love of a wife for her husband as he conquers Wall Street, and her extraordinary, perhaps foolish, loyalty during his precipitous fall.

When Phoebe learns her husband’s triumph and vast reach rests on an elaborate Ponzi scheme her world unravels. Her children refuse to see her if she remains at their father’s side, but abandoning him feels cruel and impossible.

From penthouse to prison, Randy Susan Meyers’s latest novel exposes a woman struggling to survive and then redefine her life as her world crumbles.

Uncle Joe is On the Way

Following in the footsteps of their presidential partners, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, have secured a joint book deal with Macmillan imprint Flatiron Books. The contract reportedly went into at least seven figures and will include two books from the former veep and one from Jill. No release dates have been set. If you need us, we’ll be over here hoping for a the Bidens will team up with the Obamas for a joint book tour of unspeakable coolness. (Do it for the memes, Joe!)

First “Official” Black Lives Matter Memoir in the Works

Speaking of exciting developments at Macmillan! Patrisse Cullors, a cofounder of the Black Lives Matter movement, has inked a high-six-figure deal (with cowriter and journalist asha bandele) for her memoir, When They Call You a Terrorist. St. Martin’s Press executive editor Monique Patterson won the book at auction, competing against six other houses. Angela Davis will write the foreword.

For the hat trick: This week, Macmillan launched Reading Without Walls, an initiative to encourage kids and their parents, teachers, and librarians to expand their literary horizons. If you’ve seen Book Riot’s own Read Harder Challenge, you know we love this idea.

A Map of Aural Tendencies

This week in Cool Interactive Tech with Questionable Methodology: Audible released data (kind of) about the relative popularity of various audiobook genres across the U.S. Have a scroll and see how much your state digs horror, sci-fi, humor, and more. We’d love to have a peek at the raw data that went into this, but given Amazon’s notorious reluctance to release actual numbers for, well, anything, we’ll have to be content with interesting approximations.

Thanks to Strong is the New Pretty by Kate T. Parker for sponsoring This Week in Books.

Girls being fearless. Girls being silly. Girls being wild, stubborn, and proud. Girls whose faces are smeared with dirt and lit up with joy. Strong Is the New Pretty celebrates, through more than 175 memorable photographs, the strength and spirit of girls being 100% themselves. Real beauty isn’t about being a certain size, acting a certain way, wearing the right clothes, or having your hair done (or even brushed). Real beauty is about being your authentic self and owning it.

I’ve just moved house and donated probably hundreds of books I didn’t like or won’t ever read, so this article that offers a behind-the-scenes look at working at bookstores that accept donations was so interesting. It’s mostly tips about how to make the employees’ lives easier. Did you know that houses with cats make bad houses from which to donate books? I did not. They don’t want your encyclopedia sets. Or bootleg audiobooks (people bootleg audiobooks?). If you wouldn’t pay $5 for the book, no one else will likely do it, either. Who knew!

Women over the age of 60 in the Indian village Fangane are getting chance to learn to read thanks to a “grandmother’s school.” Only 65% of Indian women are literate, compared to 82% of men (sexism and child marriages are cited as the main reasons), and this school offers classes for two hours a day, six days a week, timed so the women can finish their daily work or chores as well.

In news straight out of 2004, Microsoft is opening a digital bookstore that will allow users to read on Microsoft Edge, the new browser that’s replacing Explorer (finally). The store will be available starting April 11th, with the new Microsoft update scheduled for that day. The store will offer “hundreds of thousands” of both back and front list titles. With Amazon, Kobo, and B&N already pretty solid in the digital book world, the question of how much impact this will actually have is an open one.

Thanks to Unbound Worlds’ Cage Match 2017 for sponsoring this week’s newsletter.

Cage Match is back! Unbound Worlds is pitting science fiction characters against fantasy characters in a battle-to-the-death tournament, and you can win a collection of all 32 books featured in the competition. Enter now for your chance to win this library of sci-fi and fantasy titles!

The Kids Are All Right

What began as a first-grade class project has become a best-selling book! Last year, Nia Mya Reese of Birmingham, Alabama wrote a book about how to deal with an troublesome sibling. She and her parents turned it into a summer project and recently published the finished product, How to Deal With and Care For Your Annoying Little Brother, and it has flown up the charts. At this writing, Nia Mya holds the #1 and #3 spots in the “siblings” and “school-age children” categories respectively. We’re not sure how many copies have sold, but we do know this: Nia Mya, you’re our hero of the week.

Black Eyed Peas to Publish Original Graphic Novel

Entertainment Weekly reported this week that the Black Eyed Peas (yes, Fergie and the gang) have partnered with Marvel to write an original graphic novel. Masters of the Sun – The Zombie Chronicles follows hip-hop fan Zulu-X and his crew as they take on an alien God who attacks Los Angeles and turns the residents into zombies. Aside from the fact that this whole shebang sounds like it was spit out of the Comics Industry Mad Libs Engine (and Marvel Editor in Chief Axel Alonso’s dubious claim that “Few artists have done more to embed hip-hop in popular culture than will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas”), this one is weird and interesting enough that my curiosity might overwhelm my extreme side-eye. The cover is pretty rad, too.

Pride and Prejudice and Neo-Nazis

Speaking of unexpected combinations and extreme side-eye! Members of the alt-right movement have begun quoting Jane Austen and referring to her novels as “blueprints for a white nationalist “ethno-state.” (Whatever the hell that means.) Anyone who has actually read Austen knows that she wasn’t really about that white male patriarchal system, so I guess the real headline here is (shocker) neo-Nazis don’t read.

Thanks to Things I Should Have Known by Claire LaZebnik for sponsoring This Week in Books.

From the author of Epic Fail comes the story of Chloe Mitchell: a girl on a quest to find love for her autistic sister, Ivy. Ethan, Ivy’s classmate, seems like the perfect match. It’s unfortunate that his older brother, David, is one of Chloe’s least favorite people but Chloe can deal, especially when she realizes that David is as devoted to Ethan as she is to Ivy. Winsome and witty, this is a novel about sisterhood, autism, and first love. Things I Should Have Known will steal readers’ hearts and remind us all of a different kind of normal.

Arsenic and Old Glasses?

A new theory based on an examination of three of Jane Austen’s old pairs of glasses says the author might have died from accidental arsenic poisoning. The glasses show evidence that Austen’s vision went downhill close to her death, and that she possibly developed cataracts (a sign of arsenic poisoning). Speculation about Austen’s skin pigmentation near the end of her life also points to possible accidental arsenic ingestion. Of course, the actual cause of her death is still an open mystery, and one we’re not likely to solve with existing evidence. While accidental poisoning from toxic substances was more common in Regency England than it is now, this evidence is scant.

Young Readers Are Sticking to Print Books 

Ebook sales in the UK have fallen for the second year in a row while physical bookstore sales have risen, and it looks like younger readers are driving the reversal. While the huge numbers of adult coloring book sales probably has something to do with this (alas, you still can’t color on your Nook or Kindle), a 2016 Nielsen survey of readers 16-24 showed that 62% of them prefer to read a physical book to a digital one. Also a notable trend: use of tablets and phones overtook dedicated ereaders as the device of choice for reading digital books. Perhaps younger readers spend so much time looking at screens otherwise, they want a physical book for their reading?

We’re Getting a New Lisbeth

Sony is releasing their adaptation of The Girl in the Spider’s Web in October of 2018, and they’re doing it with a whole new cast. The company is conducting a “global search” for the next Lisbeth Salander, making the lucky actress the third to play the role on the big screen. It’s disappointing that we won’t see Rooney Mara back in the role (she was so perfect). Maybe Lisbeth will become the Doctor Who of thriller movies–same great character, new actress every few years.

Thanks to Unbound Worlds’ Cage Match for sponsoring this week’s newsletter.

Cage Match is back! Unbound Worlds is pitting science fiction characters against fantasy characters in a battle-to-the-death tournament, and you can win a collection of all 32 books featured in the competition. Enter now for your chance to win this library of sci-fi and fantasy titles!

A Chapter a Day Keeps the Reaper at Bay 

A new longitudinal study out of the Yale University School of Public Health indicates that people who read books live longer (in this case, 23 months longer on average) than those who do not. Researchers have been following the same group of more 3,563 adults aged 50+ for over a decade and speculate that the cognitive processes involved specifically in reading books provide a “survival advantage.” If you’re wondering about confounding factors, rest assured that the result holds even when controlling for income and education level. This study defined readers as those who read books for more than 3.5 hours per week, but it indicates that even 30 minutes a day can make a difference. Books: they’re what the doctor ordered!

American Library Association Updates Fact-Checking for the Trump Era

Not sure if what you’re reading is fake news or alternative facts? The CRAAP test, long used by librarians and educators to help students and patrons evaluate the reliability of sources, is here for you. (The oh-so-appropriate acronym stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Appropriate, Purpose.) In light of the President’s repeated dismissal of legitimate news sources and his complicated relationship with facts, the ALA is updating the test’s criteria to encourage added scrutiny of the authority component, determining if the creator/writer of the news source is actually an expert.

“Book” Your Next Airbnb Adventure

Peeping other people’s bookshelves is one of the unsung pleasures of staying in homes instead of hotels when you travel. This week, BuzzFeed rounded up 18 bookalicious Airbnbs around the world, guaranteed to satisfy all your readerly voyeuristic urges. Exhibit A: this bonkers gorgeous bedroom in a Garden District mansion in New Orleans.

Thanks to The Book That Made Me, edited by Judith Ridge, for sponsoring This Week in Books.

What if you could look inside your favorite authors’ heads and see the book that led them to become who they are today? What was the book that made them fall in love, or made them understand something for the first time? What was the book that made them feel challenged in ways they never knew they could be, emotionally, intellectually, or politically? What book made them readers, or made them writers, or made them laugh, think, or cry? Join thirty-one top children’s and young adult authors as they explore the books, stories, and experiences that changed them as readers — for good.

HarperCollins Introduces Two Book Rec Bots on Facebook

Jumping on the bandwagon of businesses incorporating Facebook Messenger into sales and customer service, HarperCollins has rolled out two artificial intelligence-powered book rec bots. The BookGenie and Epic Reads (YA-specific) bots purport to help readers find new (HarperCollins, natch) books to read based on their taste, mood, and past favorites. This feels like the future, but is it fully baked? One Rioter took it for a test spin.

Penguin Random House Lands Obamas’ Book Deal

After a heated auction reportedly involving several publishing houses, Penguin Random House has landed the deal to publish forthcoming books by both Barack and Michelle Obama. Rumor has it that the joint contract went for $65 million, though speculation about that figure–and the number of books the Obamas will write for it–abounds. From what we at Riot HQ can tell, this deal is historic for its price tag and its unique nature; when else has a publisher acquired separately-written books from two people in one go? (Know of an example? Hit reply tell us!)

Dr. Seuss’s Wacky Taxidermy

This week’s installment of Before They Were (Literary) Stars is one of the more memorable ones I’ve seen. Decades before he became Dr. Seuss, Theodor Geisel spent his childhood near the zoo where his father worked. When Geisel moved away to New York City, his father began sending him beaks, antlers, and horns from deceased zoo animals. Geisel created sculptures from papier-mâche and the assorted parts. The products are wacky and whimsical creatures that may reveal the origins of the imaginary beasts in his stories.

Thanks to Everything Belongs to Us by Yoojin Grace Wuertz for sponsoring This Week in Books.

Seoul, 1978. At South Korea’s top university, the nation’s best and brightest compete to join the professional elite of an authoritarian regime. Success could lead to a life of rarefied privilege and wealth; failure means being left irrevocably behind. In this sweeping yet intimate debut, Yoojin Grace Wuertz details four intertwining lives that are rife with turmoil and desire, private anxieties and public betrayals, dashed hopes and broken dreams—while a nation moves toward prosperity at any cost.

Long-Lost Walt Whitman Novel Discovered

In 1852, three years before the first publication of Leaves of Grass, an anonymously written serial mystery novel entitled “Life and Adventures of Jack Engle” appeared in the New York Times. Last summer, a graduate student at the University of Houston rediscovered the piece, and it was confirmed this week that the anonymous author was Walt Whitman. While the writing contains hints of the material Whitman would refine in the work that made him famous, this novel seems to be one of the “crude and boyish pieces” he wished to see, as he wrote in 1882, “dropp’d into oblivion.” Well, Uncle Walt, hope 165 years of oblivion was enough for you. Cat’s out of the bag.

Hero of the Week: Seattle School Librarians Raise 1000+ Books for the Homeless

Kate Eads is a librarian at Seattle’s Northgate Elementary School, where nearly one in four students in homeless. When one girl told her about how she spends her after-school hours at a family resource center called Mary’s Place–often wandering aimlessly with nothing to do–before returning to a tent city at night, Eads resolved to find a way to get books for the kids who want them. By partnering with a nearby school with a more affluent population, she created a donation that has yielded more than one thousand books for the kids and families who use Mary’s Place. Buoyed by their success, Eads and her partner librarians intend to extend the donation drive to other schools and resource center locations. Readers who wish to support their efforts can do so here.

Mall of America Seeks Writer in Residence

In celebration of its upcoming 25th anniversary, the Mall of America is seeking a writer-in-residence to “spend five days deeply immersed in the Mall atmosphere while writing on-the-fly impressions.” Don’t worry, this isn’t a Tom-Hanks-in-Terminal situation; the winner will spend their nights in the hotel attached to the mall (because that’s a real thing), receive a $400 gift card to buy food and drinks, and get a $2500 honorarium. There are a lot of ways this could go, and we’d love to see a scrappy young writer run off with it. Applications are open!

Thanks to Volumes for sponsoring This Week in Books.

Listen to your audiobooks with Volumes, a free app powered by Penguin Random House Audio. Get free audiobooks and sample new content with the new and improved app. Download from the iTunes store now.

New Books from Gaiman and Pullman

Neil Gaiman and Philip Pullman both announced new books related to their already-published material: Gaiman, a sequel to Neverwhere, and Pullman a companion trilogy to His Dark Materials. Gaiman cites his work with the UN Refugee Agency as the inspiration for the sequel, called The Seven Sisters. Pullman doesn’t seem to name a direct reason for new books in the Dark Materials universe, but the original books are deeply concerned with the anti-intellectual nature of religious fundamentalism, and we could always use more considerations of that topic, especially now.

First Trailer for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The HBO limited series adaptation of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks finally has a trailer (hey-o, Oprah!). Seems like this adaptation has been in the works for years. It’s hard to tell how true the series will be to the book (and therefore to real life), but so far, looks good. It’s a story that needs to be told, and if you haven’t read the book, read it before the series premieres on April 22!

People of Color Accounted for 22% of Children’s Book Characters Last Year

The Cooperative Children’s Book Center out of the University of Wisconsin tracks the diversity of children’s literature year by year (and has since the mid-’90s), and this year about 22% of characters in children’s books were people of color. Twenty years ago, that number was 9%. As with many things in publishing, progress is slow, but happening. The CCBC credits teachers who were searching for books for their minority students that represented them with the creation of the study–go, teachers!

Thanks to A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom for sponsoring this week’s newsletter.

For Mel Hannigan, bipolar disorder makes life unpredictable. Her latest struggle is balancing her growing feelings in a new relationship with her instinct to conceal her diagnosis by keeping everyone at arm’s length. But when a former friend confronts Mel with the truth about the way their relationship ended, deeply buried secrets threaten to upend her shaky equilibrium.

As the walls of Mel’s compartmentalized world crumble, she fears that no one will accept her if they discover what she’s been hiding. But would her friends really abandon her if they learned the truth? More importantly, can Mel risk everything to find out?

New Films to Portray Mary Shelley and Virginia Woolf

We like to think we stay pretty on-top of book-related film news around the Riot, but this week brought notice of to new-to-us films about landmark female writers. A biopic of Mary Shelley, focusing on her relationship with Percy Bysshe Shelley, has (apparently!) been in the works for a few years now. Bop on over to Tor.com for a first look at Elle Fanning as the Frankstein scribe. Meanwhile, from the Department of We Couldn’t Be More Excited, Eva Green and Gemma Arterton will play Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf in a film about the historic pair’s longterm romantic relationship.

Anonymous Book Fairy Distributes Free Books to Support the Resistance

A customer of San Francisco’s beloved Booksmith purchased 50 copies of George Orwell’s 1984 last week and left them at the store, where they were displayed with a sign exhorting customers to “Read up! Fight back!” Booksmith owner Christin Evans reports that the copies were quickly snapped up, prompting the unnamed benefactor to a repeat performance with Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts. Other customers have since been inspired to follow suit. This is rad in its own right, but could it be the start of a larger movement to use reading to encourage resistance?

New Salman Rushdie Novel to Take on Trump

Speaking of books as resistance, news broke this week that Salman Rushdie’s thirteenth novel, The Golden House, due out this September, will take on the last eight years in American politics and feature “the insurgence of a ruthlessly ambitious, narcissistic, media-savvy villain sporting makeup and coloured hair.” Rushdie is certainly no stranger to the intersection of literature and politics. His history makes him uniquely positioned to resist threats of retribution, and his record of success and critical acclaim will make him a tough target for the predictable backlash tweets asserting he’s a washed up has-been. Sad! This will be a good one to watch.

Thanks to The Cruelty by Scott Bergstrom for sponsoring This Week in Books.

Taken meets The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Bourne Identity in this action-packed debut thriller (optioned for film by Jerry Bruckheimer) about a girl who must train as an assassin to deal with the gangsters who have kidnapped her father.