Category: Today In Books

Pennywise Returns In 2019

Send in the clowns. Stephen King’s IT will return to theaters for a sequel on September 6, 2019. I don’t think anyone’s surprised what with the success of the first, which became the top-grossing horror film of all time domestically. The upcoming release will continue the story with the kids returning to Derry as adults. And guess who’s been waiting all smiles and balloons? The kids from the first film will likely return for flashbacks, but the director has yet to be confirmed.

Author Junot Díaz Calls For Help For Puerto Rico

The author of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao called for help for hurricane-battered Puerto Rico. The American territory suffered terrible losses, including lives and resources, from Hurricane Maria. Díaz delivered his remarks at a Massachusetts fundraiser. A native of the Dominican Republic, the author said people need to unite to help Puerto Rico heal in the wake of devastation. If you’re looking for a way to help, check out this effort from Restless Books.

The Book Of Mormon Becomes The Most Expensive Manuscript Ever Sold

The manuscript, previously in the possession of the Community of Christ, was sold to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for $35m. According to the Community of Christ who announced the sale price, it’s the highest ever paid for a manuscript. In second place is Bill Gates’s $30.8m purchase of Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester. Although, Mark James of the antiquarian booksellers Bernard Quaritch made a good point when he said “$31m in 1994 would be worth much more now.” The LDS plans to display the manuscripts to the public in the coming months, and the Community of Christ will retain the rights to publish and protect the copyrights of its editions of the Book of Mormon.

Thank you to The Blind by A.F. Brady, published by Park Row Books, for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

An addictive psychological suspense debut about a woman who goes so far off the deep end, she might never make it back up…

As the best psychologist at Typhlos, Manhattan’s most challenging psychiatric institution, Sam James believes if she can’t save herself, she’ll save someone else. This savior complex serves her well in helping patients battle their inner demons. When a mysterious patient is admitted, Sam is determined to unlock his secrets and his psyche, but his twisted past leads to some terrifying discoveries about her own life. And so the mind games begin.

Ladies Represent!

I was over here raising the roof when the National Book Foundation announced this year’s 5 Under 35 honorees. All of the honorees are women and three are women of color. What what. The 2017 list is: Lesley Nneka Arimah, author of What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky: Stories; Halle Butler, author of Jillian; Zinzi Clemmons, author of What We Lose; Leopoldine Core, author of When Watched: Stories; and Weike Wang, author of Chemistry. An all-woman list has only occurred once before.

Today In Adaptations

Marlon James is writing the adaptation of his Man Booker Prize-winning novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. The chief director of the HBO series Insecure, Melina Matsoukas, is behind the series’ development, and she’s on board to direct as well as executive produce the show. James will also executive produce in addition to writing the script. It is comforting when the author is deeply involved in the adaptation.

Enjoy A Banned Book This Week

Banned Books Week kicked off and people are celebrating the freedom to read all over the nation and the web. The Banned Books Week Coalition shouted out a bunch of activities being hosted by their sponsor organizations. Readers are encouraged to participate in everything from theatrical performances and bookstore parties to online advocacy. So celebrate your right to read and enjoy a banned book this week.

Thank you to After the Eclipse by Sarah Perry for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

When Sarah Perry was twelve, she saw a partial eclipse of the sun, an event she took as a sign of good fortune for her and her mother, Crystal. But two days later, Crystal was murdered in their home in rural Maine, just a few feet from Sarah’s bedroom. The killer escaped unseen; it would take the police twelve years to find him. After the Eclipse is the story of a murder, an investigation, and a trial; but more than that it is an exquisite memorial for a mother stolen from her daughter.

Diana Gabaldon Says Outlander is Over…Probably

In an interview last week, Outlander series author Diana Gabaldon said that she knows exactly how the last book will end and that it will probably be at the end of book 10. Apparently, a mysterious incident in the first book is the key to the story’s finale, so Outlander fans, rev your conjecture engines.

Kenneth Branagh Will Narrate New Audiobook Version of Murder on the Orient Express

As part of the run-up to the release of his new film adaptation of Christie’s most famous work, Kenneth Branagh will record a new narration of Murder on the Orient Express. The new version will be available on October 19th, just a few weeks before the film premieres on November 10th.

A Deep Dive into the Archive

The Village Voice has a great profile of the archives of the New York Public Library, featuring the so-called “most interested man in the world.” It would seem that the rising tide of interesting paper document produced over the last few centuries has led to a glut of collected, and largely unprocessed, information. The work of archivists might be among the most important least heralded anywhere.

Today in Books is sponsored by Rakuten Kobo Inc:

Calling all listeners—audiobooks are now available from Kobo. Find all your eBooks and audiobooks together in the FREE Kobo App for iOS and Android. Save with a subscription for the best deal on audiobooks—your first 30 days are FREE.

Black Mirror Gets A 3-Volume Book Series

Every time I hear Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven Is a Place on Earth, I think of Black Mirror. Every time I have a nightmare, I’m certain it’s thanks to some Black Mirror remnant floating in my subconscious. Fans, prepare for more nightmare fodder–the sort you can physically carry around with you. We’ll be seeing the first volume of a three-volume Black Mirror book series in May 2018. Show creator Charlie Brooker will edit the volume, which will feature stories by writers including Sylvain Neuvel (Sleeping Giants) and Claire North (The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August).

Hidden Figures Author Joins NASA to Honor African-American Mathematician

Margot Lee Shetterly, author of Hidden Figures, joined additional dignitaries to honor Katherine Johnson, a former NASA employee and one of the central figures in Shetterly’s book. The book highlighted the lives and work of the black women who stepped in as human computers, and whose calculations were integral during wartime in the U.S. 99-year-old Johnson cut the ribbon for the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The event aired live on NASA Television earlier this afternoon, but I bet you can dig up a video online.

It Becomes All-Time Highest-Grossing Horror Film

Whether you love the Stephen King story or want to throw a brick through the window of every person who’s posted a picture of Pennywise on social, the masses have been parking themselves in theater seats across the country, desperate to be scared out of their minds. In fact, so many people wanted to see the newest adaptation that ticket sales pushed past The Exorcist to make It the highest-grossing horror film of all time. The movie has earned $236.3 million. That’s a lot of circus tickets.

Thank you to Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel, from Entangled Teen, for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.

Angie Dovage can tell there’s more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. She can’t know she’ll be thrown into a battle between good and evil with Reece right in the center of it—and he’s not human.

Still, she knows something most don’t. The secrets her town holds could kill them all. But falling in love with a harbinger of death could be even more dangerous.

The Hobbit Turns 80

Look, Stephen King, we know you turned 70 today–we see you. But guess what? The Hobbit has you beat by a whole decade, so step aside for a moment. It seems contrary to wish a book a good one by dredging up its old reviews, but that’s what we’re doing I guess. It’s not so bad. C.S. Lewis called J.R.R. Tolkien’s tale a classic-in-the-making. Okay, Stephen King. You can have a slice of cake too. Here’s what your local paper and neighbors had to say about you on your birthday.

Tom Hanks To Star In And Produce A Man Called Ove

That’s right. Uncle Hanks is all in on the adaptation of Fredrik Backman’s international best-seller. The book, originally written in Swedish, is about a solitary curmudgeon whose life is changed by the young family that moves in down the block. But is Hanks too lovable to play Carl Fredricksen–er, Ove? I intend to find out. Rita Wilson (Hank’s wife) and Fredrik Wikstrom Nicastro, who produced the Swedish adaptation, are also on board to produce.

Jessica Williams Will Play A Sci-Fi Writer In Her Comedy Series

Jessica Williams, you’re so fun and hilarious, and I cannot wait to watch this show. Williams will write and star in a new Showtime comedy series where she plays an aspiring science fiction writer in Brooklyn. I wonder if she’s getting the inside scoop from N.K. Jemisin. Or if sci-fi writers will cameo on the show! If we can’t enjoy ourselves at the intersection where comedy and geekery meet, I don’t need to know you.

Thank you to Rakuten Kobo Inc. for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

Calling all listeners—audiobooks are now available from Kobo. Find all your eBooks and audiobooks together in the FREE Kobo App for iOS and Android. Save with a subscription for the best deal on audiobooks—your first 30 days are FREE.

The Art of Fielding Author Sued Over Copyright Infringement

Charles Green, a former college baseball player, is suing best-selling The Art of Fielding author Chad Harbach. Green alleges that Harbach copied many elements of his manuscript, Bucky’s 9th, including “the specific climax and denouement.” According to Green, the screenplay, which was later reworked into a novel, was shared widely among publishing and entertainment professionals, which is when he believes Harbach had the opportunity to pounce. Only time and an expensive lawsuit will tell.

Clinton’s Memoir Sees Highest Nonfiction Opening In 5 Years

Hillary Clinton’s memoir What Happened sold 300,000 copies, and the book’s hardcover sales made it the highest opening for a nonfiction release in five years. Divisive as the book may seem, based on the rating incident where Amazon had to bulk remove polarizing (mostly negative) reviews from reviewers who were not verified purchasers, readers are buying up those copies. Sales exceeded first week numbers for her 2014 book Hard Choices.

Racist Trolls Will Never Stop Whining About Black Hermione

Racist trolls lost their lids when illustrator Anoosha Syed posted a depiction of Hermione Granger as a black girl. Syed pointed out that the books never stated Hermione or Harry’s race (Harry was depicted with a darker skin tone, and trolls took offense to that as well), and that she can draw WTF she wants. Syed drew the characters as she imagined them. She was shocked by the backlash, but the artistic community and people who heard about the attacks showed up to support her online.

Thank you to The Summer That Made Us by Robyn Carr for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

Robyn Carr has crafted a beautifully woven story about the complexities of family dynamics and the value of strong female relationships.

For the Hempsteads summers were idyllic at the family house on Lake Waseka. The lake was a magical place, a haven where they were happy and carefree. Until the summer that changed everything.

After an accidental drowning turned the lake house into a site of tragedy and grief, it was closed up. But one woman is determined to draw her family together again, and the only way that can happen is to return to the lake and face the truth.

Neil Gaiman Gives Good Omens #BTS

We got a first look at David Tennant and Michael Sheen in the upcoming adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens, thanks to Gaiman’s Twitter activity. And he didn’t stop with the one photo. Today, Gaiman continued to tweet everything from an adorable, curious squirrel on set and atmosphere dressed in Victorian garb, ratcheting up the anticipation for this production. I both can’t help but look, but also want to see it through fresh eyes that first airing.

Google Now Shows What Ebooks Are Available In Your Local Library

Google added a new Search feature that shows if your local library has the ebook you’re looking for in stock. This is great news for people like me whose reading life heavily relies on ebook library loans. Apps like Libby have made it easier to search for ebooks, but we all use Google so much in our daily lives, it can’t hurt to have one more convenient way to look up availability, especially if you’re on your desktop.

Honey & Wax Announce First Winner Of Annual Book-Collecting Prize

Brooklyn’s Honey & Wax Booksellers have announced the winner of their first annual book-collecting prize. The winnings go to twenty-nine-year-old Jessica Kahan, an Ohio librarian who has collected about three hundred popular American romance novels of the 1920s and 1930s. H&W’s Heather O’Donnell and Rebecca Romney initiated the prize hoping to “encourage young women who are actively collecting books to own and share that part of their lives, and to think strategically about the future of their collections.” Kahan will receive a thousand dollars, and five honorable mentions will each receive two hundred dollars.

Sponsored by Finding Grace, the chilling new drama from Warren Adler that gets to the heart of brainwashing and its power to corrupt and control.

When their twenty-three-year-old daughter Grace goes missing, divorcees Harry and Paulie are forced to leave behind their newly constructed lives to track her down on a sunny farm in California. Seemingly unharmed, the two soon learn that she is actually in the clutches of a notorious cult. Under the spell of mind control, she denies Harry and Paulie as her family, leaving them to search for answers in the most desperate of places. Harry and Paulie race to bring Grace back home – but will she ever be able to return? How do you help someone who doesn’t know they’re lost?

Readers Hide Books Globally to Celebrate Goodreads’ Anniversary

Today, Goodreads tasked readers to hide books for people to find, read, and pass on as part of their ten-year anniversary celebration. Goodreads teamed up with The Book Fairies to make the magic happen. If you want to see what and where books were hidden by participants, look up #goodreadsturns10, #hideabookday, and #ibelieveinbookfairies on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or check out the article for Goodreads’ curated selection.

Hulu’s Handmaid’s Tale Series Wins an Emmy

This past Sunday, Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale won an Emmy for outstanding drama and, in light of the win, Atwood spoke to PEOPLE about renewed interest in her story. The book, which made it back onto bestseller lists after the recent election, are about a totalitarian theocracy where women are stripped of all agency. “There’s a precedent in real life for everything in the book,” she told PEOPLE. “I decided not to put anything in that somebody somewhere hadn’t already done. But you write these books so they won’t come true.” If only, Ms. Atwood. If only.

Do Celebrity Book Blurbs “Blackmail” Readers?

Man Booker Prize judge Colin Thubron resurrected what The Guardian opines is an old publishing grievance when he complained that star endorsements “‘almost blackmail’ readers into feeling that ‘you’re either intellectually or morally incompetent if you don’t love this book or you’ve failed if you haven’t understood it.'” The Guardian went on to recount earlier dark tales of publishing where, for instance, blurbers are sent unsolicited manuscripts with the hope they’ll regurgitate the publishers’ endorsements whether or not they read the book. No surprises here, but certainly smirk-worthy.

Thank you to The Book of Separation by Tova Mirvis, published in hardcover and ebook from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

Born and raised in a tight-knit Orthodox Jewish family, Tova Mirvis committed herself to observing the rules and rituals prescribed by this way of life. She married a man from within the fold and began a family. But at age forty, Tova decides to leave her husband and her faith. This is a memoir about what it means to free the part of yourself that has been suppressed, even if it means walking away from the only life you’ve ever known. Honest and courageous, Tova shows us how she learns to silence her fears on her own path to happiness.

The Voynich Manuscript Finally Solved (?)

For more than a century, The Voynich Manuscript has been an enigma. The 500-year-old manuscript is written in some unknown language and its provenance is equally cloudy. Scholars, linguists, and interested amateurs have been trying to crack if for decades, Nicholas Gibbs, a scholar of medieval medical history claims to have figured it out. In essence, he believes the inscrutable writing is a variety of Latin in an indiosyncratic shorthand and that the book itself is a bespoke book about women’s hygiene. However, some other scholars are already questioning his analysis. Where is Robert Langdon when you need him?

Roxane Gay and Ashley Ford Talk About the Black Literary Community

This isn’t news exactly, but this conversation with Roxane Gay and Ashley Ford about mentorship, publishing, and writing is terrific reading. They talk about how important early encouragement is, the difference a good mentor can make, and the necessity of getting real, first-hand information about the day-to-day experience of being a black woman in publishing.

U.S. House of Representatives Fully Funds NEH, NEA, and Federal Library Funding

Despite rhetoric from the Trump administration suggesting that the White House would almost fully eliminated federal arts and library funding, on Thursday the House voted (211-198) to pass HR 3354, which basically maintains current funding levels. The bill will still have to go through reconciliation with the Senate, but most expect that to happen without much friction. Whew.

Today in Books is sponsored by Rakuten Kobo Inc:

Calling all listeners—audiobooks are now available from Kobo. Find all your eBooks and audiobooks together in the FREE Kobo App for iOS and Android. Save with a subscription for the best deal on audiobooks—your first 30 days are FREE.

The National Book Award for Fiction Longlist

Thank you! The National Book Foundation released their Fiction longlist and look who we have here: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (there might’ve been some words if this one hadn’t made it on), The Leavers by Lisa Ko, and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, among seven other buzzy titles. What do you think about the list–any missed predictions?

Get the #BTS On Harry Potter With An Upcoming Documentary

I know I’ve been saying I’m over all things Harry Potter, but this is the thing I didn’t know I needed from the franchise. The BBC (yay!) will premiere the documentary Harry Potter: A History of Magic in honor of the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The documentary will deal with the origins of the world of Hogwarts, and feature an interview with J.K. Rowling. The doc doesn’t seem to have an air date yet, so stay tuned.

Lost Ezra Pound Poem Found In Castle–Obviously

I’m done with stories about discoveries of unpublished works written by famous authors. Hahaha jk! A lost Ezra Pound poem was published in The Paris Review. First of all, the poem was found in a castle. A CASTLE. Where does one sign up to find themselves in these situations? Secondly, on why it might never have been published the discoverer said, “It is too tender, too small.” What? Are we still talking about Pound?

Sponsored by Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel from Entangled Teen.

Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.

Angie Dovage can tell there’s more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. She can’t know she’ll be thrown into a battle between good and evil with Reece right in the center of it—and he’s not human.

Still, she knows something most don’t. The secrets her town holds could kill them all. But falling in love with a harbinger of death could be even more dangerous.