Category: Today In Books

Students Protest Royal Shakespeare Company And Get Results

BP’s sponsorship of the Royal Shakespeare Company was recently boycotted by students who believe the oil and gas company is “actively destroying our futures.” The sponsorship, which began in 2011, helped reduce the ticket price for students. The Royal Shakespeare Company “‘could not ignore’ the ‘strength of feeling'” and has announced it will end its deal with BP. Read all about it here.

Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction

The longlist for the ninth annual Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction has been announced! Some much buzzed about books are on the list, like Normal People and On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and some that I believe are new to the award lists like Dominicana! And we got two true crime books on the nonfiction list: Furious Hours (about the true crime book Harper Lee wanted to write) and Say Nothing (a look at the Troubles via a kidnapping). Check out all the books here!

Audiobook Listening Up

While most of the Pew Research Center survey’s data has remained pretty consistent in recent years (7 in 10 adults have still read a book in the last year), there was a notable change: Americans who said they listened to audiobooks increased from 14% to 20%. That just warms my little ears! You can check out the study and data here.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Author’s New Book!

If you’ve been waiting for a new book from Susanna Clarke, author of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, your fifteen year wait is soon to end! Her next novel Piranesi will be an alternate history with magic and it’ll be in readers hot little hands in September 2020. Read more here.

An Ember in the Ashes Graphic Novel!

I’m just going to assume you’ve all read Sabaa Tahir’s fantastic  An Ember in the Ashes fantasy series so you’re all going to be as excited as me to learn that Boom! Studios will be putting out graphic novels for the series. A Thief Among the Trees: An Ember in the Ashes Graphic Novel will start off the trilogy of prequels! All the details here.

Chelsea Handler Memoir Adaptation

Universal TV won a competitive bidding situation to develop Chelsea Handler’s memoir Life Will Be the Death of Me into a series with Handler set as executive producer. If you’ve already read all her memoirs and can’t wait for the new series you can check out all the things she’s currently involved in here.

New Harry Potter Collection At Pottery Barn

If you’re looking for holiday gifts (for yourself or others), or want to spruce up your home with some Harry Potter nostalgia, Pottery Barn has got you covered. From throw pillows to twinkly lights–there’s even a floating candle (if you got mucho money)! Check out the magical collection here.

Dolly Parton Signs Book Deal

According to Page Six, a source revealed to them that Dolly Parton signed a book deal with Chronicle Books and Recorded Books. Her selection of publisher is reportedly due to her interest in wanting a term license so the audiobook rights can return to her in the future. I just care that we’re getting a Dolly Parton audiobook!

PRH Audio Releases Free Professionally-Read Version of the Ukraine Whistleblower Complaint

Penguin Random House Audio has released Saskia Maarleveld reading the Whistleblower Complaint that was released by the House Intelligence Committee. You can listen to it for free here.

Spider-Man: Home Again

I can barely keep up with real world news, and escapist news is coming almost as fast and furiously. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is sticking around the MCU now, apparently. And the social media posts he and Zendaya shared to mark the reversal are *chef’s kiss*.

“War of the Worlds” Trailer Drops

H. G. Wells’s sci-fi novel The War of the Worlds is getting an adaptation by the BBC later this year, but you’re getting the trailer right now.

Syria’s Secret Library

Did you know in 2013 there was a literal underground library run by a 14-year-old five miles southwest of Damascus? Learn more here. And if you want to dive deeper, check out Syria’s Secret Library, the recent book that tells this remarkable story.

History Of Free Internet In Public Libraries

Here’s a story many probably don’t know about: how librarian Jean Armour Polly worked in the ’90s to get the internet to the public via libraries, starting with a library in Liverpool, New York. And this was back when it was not the internet we know today. She was just inducted into the Internet Hall Of Fame and you should totally read about her here.

The Tides Are Turning?

After constant adaptation news I guess it was only a matter of time before cancellations and shelved-project news started coming in. Hulu will not be moving forward with the Ghost Rider series starring Gabriel Luna. It’s being blamed on a “creative impasse” and I am bummed not to have Luna as Robbie Reyes in his own series.

New Imprints!

Hearst Magazines is launching two new imprints for illustrated lifestyle books: Hearst Home and Hearst Kids. The first three book releases for Spring 2020 will be a Keto cookbook, kid’s cookbook, and a look at the amount of sugar hidden in our food. You can learn more here.

Bill Gates’ Tote Bag Of Books

While Bill Gates is known to read and share his book recommendations, a new Netflix docuseries, Inside Bill’s Brain, highlights just how important reading is to him. And how big a part of his life it is: he carries a tote bag of books (15 hardcover!) basically everywhere. Read more about his bookish life here.

Ready The TBR

I’ve got more award nominated novels: the 2019 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize shortlist has been announced! Check out the seven novels–including lyrical, crime, and literary–in the running for the $10,000 cash award here.

The New York Times Bestseller Lists Changes. Again.

Two years after dropping graphic novels/manga and mass market paperbacks from its bestseller lists, NYT announced they will return. There will also be children’s lists that include middle grade and YA paperbacks and because of overlap with nonfiction the science and sports lists are getting the ax this time around.

Libraries Working To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Not only have the 59 branches in Brooklyn Public Library’s system reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 40% since 2006, their goal is to become a “net zero agency.” You can read about this, including the climate-friendly policies they put in place, here.

Banned Books Week And Prisons

This year we’ve seen many headlines spotlighting the problem with prisons’ book censorship–and those are just the ones that got attention. Now, during Banned Books Week, PEN America has released a detailed report looking at the issue of book banning in prisons.

Tom Ripley Cast

Showtime’s adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley has found its Tom with Fleabag’s hot priest. I will never again refer to him by anything but hot priest, but for the sake of highlighting news for you it’s Andrew Scott who will be playing the role Matt Damon played in the 1999 adaptation. You can get all the details here.

Read A Novel On Instagram Stories

A year ago the New York Public Library started Insta Novels: placing the full text of novels with small animations on Instagram Stories. And people are clearly enjoying it seeing as 300,000+ people have read the Insta Novels on NYPL’s account. Check it out here.

MacArthur Fellowships “Genius” Grants Winners

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced the winners of the 2019 MacArthur fellowships and congratulations to all, especially authors Lynda Barry, Valeria Luiselli, and Ocean Vuong. Click here to see all the winners, including literary scholars and a classic literature translator.

Short Story Collection By Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro–The Strain co-author and writer/director of Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water–is working on a collection of short stories for Amazon Original Stories. The 2021 releasing collection “will introduce a world of strange happenings, otherworldly horror, and dark fantasy.” So basically very much a del Toro work!

New $40 Million Public Library

50,000+ books. Chinese and Spanish sections. Art installations. Cyber center. Rooftop seating. A floor for teens. An education center for the environment. Those are just some of the attractions of Hunters Point library, a $40 million development, in Queens, N.Y. Check out this incredibly gorgeous library and all its amenities here.

Smart Bitches Book Search

Smart Bitches, an awesome site dedicated to romance, has a new book search feature. Select a genre, theme, and archetype and you’ll be rewarded with a suggested book. Play around with it here, and they’re taking feedback if you like to opine.

UNpregnant Adaptation

HBO Max–not to be confused with HBO Go–has lined up one of its first features for the upcoming streaming service: an adaptation of Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplan’s YA novel UNpregnant. The funny road trip novel, about a girl in need of a legal abortion after her boyfriend tampered with the condom, is set to start filming in New Mexico. You can check out the team working on the adaptation and the actresses who have signed on here.

Oprah Has A New Book Club!

And Oprah Winfrey’s first book selected for this global book club with Apple is–drum roll, please!–The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates will be interviewed by Winfrey on Oprah’s Book Club, a new Apple TV+ series that will premiere November 1st. And if you buy Oprah’s Book Club selections through Apple Books, a contribution will be made to the American Library Association. Really looking forward to see all the books that will be chosen!

Banned Books Week Is Upon Us

The 11 most challenged books of 2018–absolutely no drum roll for this BS–have been released by the ALA: “at least 347 challenges were filed seeking to remove 483 books from libraries or schools.” And the phobics have been busy as more than half of the challenged books were targeted because of LGBTQIA+ content. You can check out the list here.

Know Her Name

Chanel Miller has written a memoir, Know My Name, publicly coming forward as the woman sexually assaulted by Brock Turner: “‘I am a victim, I have no qualms with this word, only with the idea that it is all that I am,’ she writes. ‘However, I am not Brock Turner’s victim. I am not his anything.'” Learn about Miller, as a full person, and her memoir here.