Category: Today In Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by BoGoDo Press and And So We Die, Having First Slept by Jennifer Spiegel.

Study Gives Thumbs-Up To Rereading

Today in what toddlers already figured out: A recent study found that repetition of things we’ve already read/seen has its benefits. Ed O’Brien, the author of the study, lays out a case for why we shouldn’t necessarily skip what we’ve already ingested to seek the new and unexplored. As someone who has spent hours trying to select the next book to read, rather than picking up an old favorite, I totally see his points. Read his thoughts here.

Prince’s Memoir Forthcoming

In bittersweet news: The Beautiful Ones, the memoir Prince was working on when he died, will be published by Random House on October 29th. It will combine his unfinished manuscript with lyrics and rare photographs. I’m going to read it with a tub of ice cream and box of tissues.

And In Reverse Adaptation News

The very popular Broadway play The Prom is being adapted into a YA novel. Saundra Mitchell worked with the original creators to write the novel which will hit shelves September 10th. Check out the cover and all about it here.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by The Art of Losing by Lizzy Mason and Soho Press.

Nobody Gets Married

Give me all of the fairytale retellings with a modern, progressive twist, especially if they’re written by Rebecca Solnit. Cinderella Liberator is a retelling of the fairy tale classic where “nobody gets married, nobody becomes a princess, the prince needs liberation too.” It’s out on May 7th and I want, want, want.

Better Late than Never in our Happily Ever Afters

The Romance Writers of America (RWA) may finally be getting with the program: they’ve posted a job opening for an Outside Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Consultant. Here’s hoping the next 20 years of RITA awards won’t be marred by such abysmal BIPOC representation.

Nnedi Okorafor, Doer of All the Things

Need Okorafor has been slaying us for years with books like the Binti trilogy and Akata Witch. We now know that in addition to developing Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed with Viola Davis, Okorafor is also creating her own TV company. The name? Africanfuturism Productions, Inc. Keep killing’ it, Nnedi.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by our $100 Amazon gift card giveaway! Enter here.

Library Lends Out Taxidermic Specimens

All you need is an Anchorage public library card to check out Taxidermy specimens from the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS) located at the University of Alaska Anchorage campus. “The only item not available for circulation: the black bear that stands crouched amongst the library’s bookshelves and tables. ‘It’s just too big to check out,’ Rozen says.”

Penguin Random House Reader Loyalty Program

Penguin Random House will now reward you for buying PRH titles. Create a free account on their site, enter basic proof you’ve purchased a PRH title, and accumulate points. 120 points will get you a reward code to be “redeemed for free PRH books, up to a $30 value, on PRH.com.” All the deets here.

Wattpad + Sony Pictures

Wattpad, a community for writers to upload their work, has partnered with Sony Pictures. Sony now has first-look rights to all the up-and-coming stories on Wattpad. Here’s hoping this means new voices will be getting a seat at the adaptation table.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by New Harbinger Publications.

Grateful Dead Graphic Novel Forthcoming

Calling all Deadheads! The formation/early years of the Grateful Dead will get an in-depth look in Grateful Dead Origins by Chris Miskiewicz and Noah Van Sciver. It’ll be published by Z2 Comics in 2020 as a standard and limited-run collector’s deluxe edition and of course will have exclusive downloads of the band’s music. More details here.

Exciting Death on the Nile Adaptation Casting News

Letitia Wright (Black Panther) has just joined Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Jodie Comer, and Kenneth Branagh in the upcoming Fox adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. She’ll play Rosalie Otterbourne, a lead suspect in the murder of a young heiress who was vacationing in Egypt.

New Young People’s Laureate For London

Congratulations to poet Theresa Lola, the third young people’s laureate! “During the one-year post, Lola said she wants to encourage young people to ‘use the power and the emotion of language to celebrate themselves.’” Read more about Lola and her mission here.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by the audiobook edition of Saving Meghan by D. J. Palmer.

Charlotte Brontë’s Hair On Antiques Roadshow

The Brontë Society believes a ring found in a Welsh attic containing a braid of hair is “very likely” Charlotte Brontë’s. A woman recently went on the Antiques Roadshow in Erddig, north Wales to show the ring which is inscribed with Brontë’s name and date of death. Click here to find out how much they valued the ring at.

World Book Day = Free Ebooks!

In celebration of World Book Day Amazon has nine Kindle ebooks, from around the world, that you can download for free so long as Amazon operates in your country. Get one, get all–try a new genre or start a book club to read them all!

Official Big Little Lies 2 Teaser Trailer

Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies HBO adaptation will continue beyond the book with a season two that kept the original cast and added MERYL STREEP! I won’t say much for those who still need to go marathon season 1 but looks like MIL is gonna be trouble and some people are gonna be their own demise… Catch the teaser here! And mark June 2nd on your calendars for the show’s return.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by the audiobook edition of The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves.

Bookmobiles Are Coming To You, New York

Starting in June, for the Bronx, and fall, for Staten Island and Manhattan, residents will get to browse 1,000 books (for all ages) check out, return, renew, and get a library card from one of NYPL’s bookmobiles. Vroom vroom, check them out here.

Unseen Kafka Works May Get Seen

A decade-long battle over several safe-deposit boxes has reached a verdict that has many speculating that we may finally get to see unfinished and unpublished work by Franz Kafka. “The judgment of the Swiss court completes the preparation of the National Library of Israel to accept the entire literary estate of Max Brod, which will be properly handled and will be made available to the wider public in Israel and the world.” (What if it’s just boxes filled with bugs?…)

Get Your Creepy On

The official trailer for the adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived In The Castle is here. The film, about the surviving family members after an arsenic poisoning, will be in theaters on May 17th–maybe skip the popcorn this time.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by HMH.

Unknown Daphne du Maurier Poems Discovered

Thanks to the auctioning of items by Daphne du Maurier’s husband’s secretary’s daughter, two previously unknown poems written by Maurier have been discovered. Tucked behind a framed photograph of the author are two poems written ten years before the publication of Rebecca.

600+ Books Looted After WWII Have Been Recovered

In 2017 Tania Grégoire sent 150 antique books to Sotheby’s for auction. The books were immediately flagged. Thanks to a few markings the books were linked to the University of Bonn in Germany which has an extensive catalogue of books that went missing. After learning that the books Grégoire had tried to auction were most likely looted, her father having been stationed during the war in Bonn, she led authorities to 450 more books. You can read more here, including the University’s press release.

Netflix Is Buying All The Book Rights

If it feels like every day we’re hearing about book rights being sold to Netflix it’s probably because they are. Not only have they been on a buying spree but 50 of the projects are being turned into series. PW takes you into the world of Netflix adaptations here.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by New Harbinger Publications.

Snacks Or Snakes Confusion After Library Typo

Let’s start the week with a good laugh! Pflugerville Public Library placed an ad in the paper about their anti-prom event which was gonna be fun thanks to a DJ and a photo booth and snakes–*record scratch!* They meant snacks, obviously, and assumed everyone would realize that but nope suddenly they had many calls about “snakes in the library?!” Thanks to a good sense of humor all around this got even funnier.

We’re Getting More SHRILL!

This is not a drill: Shrill, based on Lindy West’s memoir, has been renewed for season two on Hulu and this can not get here fast enough!

Saga Knows Its End Date

The saga that is Saga now has an official end in sight. Issue #54 of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ graphic novel was its exact middle point and from there on we’re on course to the end. I love this comic and have to say this is great news because, as much as I want the things I love to exist forever in theory, I really hate that so many things run longer than they should.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Dynamite.

Love, Simon Will Also Be A Series

Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda got the film adaptation treatment in 2018 and it looks like we’ll be seeing even more of Simon thanks to Disney+. The upcoming streaming service acquired the novel’s rights during the whole 21st Century Fox takeover and they’re planning on creating a series.

A New Horror Imprint

Joining Tor, Forge, Tor Teen & Starscape, and Tor.com Publishing is the new horror imprint Nightfire. The new imprint will publish horror novels, novellas, short story collections and also has plans for podcasts, graphic novels, and more media. While we wait for the first release, slated for 2021, check out more info here.

Calling The Wedding Date and The Proposal Fans!

Jasmine Guillory is blessing us again with an upcoming romance set in the world of The Wedding Date series. This time we’ll follow single mom and social worker Vivian Forest on a Christmas trip to Sandringham–but why am I telling you this when you can instead read an exclusive first look here.