Category: Today In Books

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In “Don’t Be Either Of These Guys” News

Russian scientific engineer Sergey Savitsky stabbed his colleague Oleg Beloguzov while working in an isolated station in Antarctica. The reason apparently is Beloguzov kept ruining the ending of books. Beloguzov was taken to a hospital in Chile and it is said he will recover. Savitsky was deported and arrested in Russia. The incident is now being investigated.

Zoë Kravitz’s New Video PSAs For The ALA

Zoë Kravitz is awesome. And libraries are awesome. So this is a perfect match, really. See her beautiful new READ® poster (which is also available for purchase) and check out her Books Are Magical video!

Do You Like To Vote For Best Books?

Goodreads Best Books of 2018 Choice Awards is now open and ready for voting! I squealed when I saw The Widows of Malabar Hill made it for mysteries! I was going to start naming other amazing books in different categories–like An American Marriage–but then I saw there’s a new category this year: Best of the Best. And there’s so many good choices! *Waves at Cravings by Chrissy Teigen, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng–Oh, this is going to be impossible to vote on!

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Sherlock’s First Appearance For Sale

Sherlock made his first appearance in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887 when it published A Study In Scarlet. Until now, there were 33 known copies to still exist but I guess someone cleaned out an attic because it looks like a 34th is up for sale on AbeBooks.com. Before you get excited about being the owner, know you’ll need 75 grand!

Unseen Sylvia Plath Short Story To Be Published

It feels like the year of all the unseen things being found and published, no? This time Faber will be publishing in January Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom, the short story Plath wrote in 1952 while at Smith College.

Creator Of The “Shitty Media Men” List Sells Book

Moira Donegan, who created what became called the Shitty Media Men list which was essentially a crowd-sourced whisper network shared document, has sold a book to Scribner. The book is described as “The perfect introduction to the political and moral challenges of the #MeToo movement.”

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This edition of Today In Books is sponsored by Waterhouse Press.

Ntozake Shange, 1948-2018

I don’t really know what to say about the loss of groundbreaking literary and theatre artist Ntozake Shange. So visit Essence and read how black women memorialized her on Twitter, and then maybe pick up for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf.

Shirtless FSU Book Guy

Clemson was absolutely demolishing Florida State. A shirtless FSU fan took out a book and started reading. The Internet fell in love. And we now know that this icon is FSU professor Bruce Thyer, and that he was reading Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places.

It’s Never Too Late To Return an Overdue Book

You may have heard about the copy of Spoon River Anthology that was checked out from a Louisiana library in 1934…and returned on October 1 of this year. Currently, the maximum fine is $3, but the library waived it. Yet the story doesn’t end there! This week, the family who returned the book donated $1,542.65 to the library in memory of their late mother, who had borrowed the book as an eleven-year-old. Why that strange number? Late fees in 1934 were $0.05 per day, of course.

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This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Shadow Mountain Publishing.

The Library of Congress Invites You To Transcribe!

Via crowd.loc.gov you can volunteer to transcribe historical work “and tag digitized images of text materials from the Library’s collections.” Basically, it’s a tour you can take through history while helping to get access to handwritten works online!

Iowa Public Library Is Exploring Legal Action

after a homophobic patron checked out LGBTQ+ books and burned them. If you’re stocked up on seeing all the hate everywhere, the library gave info if you’d like to send them LGBTQ+ books to replace their loss.

2018 National Book Awards Host Is…

Nick Offerman! Along with being a great actor, he is utterly delightful as a human being, and being that he’s also a bestselling author, this is such a great choice.

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This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Duchess by Design by Maya Rodale

Clueless Is Getting A Remake

Clueless, loosely based on Emma by Jane Austen, will get a remake, which will be produced by Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip) and written by Marquita Robinson (Glow). I may not be a fan of remakes but with that team I’m totally in and excited!

Winners Of The 2018 Kirkus Prizes Announced

It’s that time of year when winners and best of lists are everywhere. And today we’ve got the 2018 Kirkus Prize winners for fiction, nonfiction, and young readers! Congrats!

Drag Queen Story Hour Rocks On!

A group of conservative Christian activists who hoped to stop Drag Queen Story Hour from public libraries in Houston got a ruling from Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal: “There is no basis to support the requested relief. The application is denied.” Rock on Drag Queen Story, rock on!

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This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Better Not Pout by Annabeth Albert

Beastie Boys Book Gets Awesome Stars Narrating The Audiobook

Fight for your right to party and have awesome celebrities on your audiobook is apparently how the Beastie Boys are rolling these days. The Beastie Boys Book (that’s the actual title) releases on October 30th and is a memoir chronicling their rise to fame told in a series of 1st person anecdotes from collaborators and, of course, A-list celebrity friends. Some audiobook narrators are Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Maddow, Jon Stewart, Snoop Dogg, Elvis Costello, Steve Buscemi, Tim Meadows…

Where Are My Board Game Fans At?

We’re getting a board game based on Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Starting in the summer of 2019 we can “travel around England and Europe, attending social engagements and performing feats of magic in the hope of becoming the most celebrated magician of the age.”

Humble Book Bundle: Get The Vote Out

Humble puts together awesome digital packages of comics and books and lets you decide how much you want to pay for it. Currently it has a Get The Vote Out package filled with titles and all the proceeds go to the ACLU. Sounds like a win-win!

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This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by HMHTeen.

Stephen King Short Story Adaptation Sold For $1

Nope, not missing zeros or a typo! Stephen King has a section on his website, Dollar Babies, of short stories that is encouragement for film students to adapt his stories. Way to support education!

Here’s An Awesome Rabbit Hole To Get Lost Down

The Archive of Hispanic Literature has added new recordings to its historical collection of close to 800 audio recordings of Luso-Hispanic writers. It also includes, for the first time, recordings of works in indigenous languages, such as the recording of Mexican scholar Ángel María Garibay (1892–1967), who reads Aztec poetry in Nahuatl and Spanish… It’s so awesome, click the link in the article and listen to amazing writers you’ve probably never heard of before! (Technology and libraries are amazing!)

An Edgar Allen Poe Adaptation Has Been Found After 50 Years

Okay, so I for one think this is the beginning of a horror movie and no one should watch it, but I guess I’ll be the character in the movie no one listens to. A 20-minute adaptation of The Tell-Tale Heart from 1953 (directed by J.B. Williams and starring Stanley Baker, produced by Adelphi Films) has been found in the attic of a Scottish home. People, clean out your attics more often!

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This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Flatiron Books, publishers of Be The Person Your Dog Thinks You Are.

I Mean Wizards Need Lawyers Too, Right?

An interface between Fantasy Fiction Literature and Law: Special focus on Rowling’s Potterverse will be an available course for 4th and 5th year law students at the National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkota. “Students will learn to apply legal principles in a completely new scenario, and understand how things will work through insights into a wizarding world constantly under government surveillance.“–Fun and educational!

Turns Out John Carpenter’s The Thing Was Based On A Novel

An unpublished novel-length manuscript has been discovered and a small press wants to publish it. Read more about the Kickstarter campaign to get it published and about the discovery. I’ll just be hiding under the covers.

Wonder Woman Wait Is Now Longer!

Originally set to release in fall of 2019 Wonder Woman 1984 has now made us all wait longer to see some rocking ’80s fashion: It will now be in theaters June 5, 2020. Yay for getting the summer blockbuster treatment but, I mean, can we have good things sooner, please?!

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This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Home and Away by Candice Montgomery. Get it here or click on the cover image below for more information.

Poetry Hunters Is A Thing

And two poetry hunters, Erin Singer and Zachary Turpin, found four previously unknown poems and an essay by Anne Sexton. Anyone else now want Poetry Hunter on a business card?

Why, Netflix? Why?!

No, really, I want Netflix to explain why they cancelled Luke Cage. There are the usual rumors, “the age old Hollywood ‘creative differences’ and the inability for the parties involved to reach a deal on how to move forward, according to sources” but that always gets said. And since Netflix is super secretive with revealing its viewing stats, we may never know how popular Luke Cage was, but it definitely should have gotten a 3rd season.

Does Your Life Need Twice As Much Mark Ruffalo?

If so you’re going to want to watch HBO’s adaptation of Wally Lamb’s I Know This Much Is True. Mark Ruffalo will be playing twins in the six-episode limited drama series that just got the green light.

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This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by The Kingfisher Secret from McClelland & Stewart.

Really Cool Free iOS App Plays Perfect Sound Effects While You Read

Your iPhone, iPad or connected speakers play sound effects or music as you read allowed using voice recognition technology. Okay, so this is perfect for when you’re reading to kids, but also I’m gonna start reading everything out loud. My dog’s gonna be so confused!

Shortlist For TS Elliot Prize Announced

The prize, which celebrates the best poetry published around the world this year, awards one poet £25,000 and each shortlisted poet £1,500. And not surprising considering the state of the world this years shortlist is “intensely political.” Check them out!

The Hypnotist’s Love Story Lands At ABC

Heather Graham, who will star in and produce, sold the adaptation rights to Liane Moriarty’s novel The Hypnotist’s Love Story. More Moriarty TV series in the world works for us.

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