This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao.
His Dark Materials Will Be Adapted For Television
Dafne Keen, X-23 in Logan, will play Lyra Belacqua, and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda has been cast as cowboy and adventurer Lee Scoresby. The adaptation of the three books comprising Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials will be an eight-part series helmed by Tom Hooper, director of The King’s Speech. Pre-production is expected to start this fall. Let’s hope the TV adaptation fares better than The Golden Compass film adaptation, which was…not great.
Indie Bookstore Forced To Remove LGBTQ Book From School Fair
Avid Bookshop pulled out of a book fair at Athens Academy after the school demanded that the shop remove copies of Newbery medalist Richard Peck’s The Best Man from their display. The book about a middle-schooler who becomes the best man at the wedding of two men had previously been approved for display by the school, but an administrator demanded its removal after a parent was overheard saying, “Is this what we’re teaching our children?” Mounting public pressure forced the school to send a letter to parents explaining the situation, and Athens Academy will host a forum on the issue in the spring.
2018 Women’s Prize For Fiction Longlist
The UK Prize celebrating excellence, originality, and accessibility in writing by women throughout the world announced the 2018 longlist on International Women’s Day. The 16 longlisted fiction titles include The Idiot by Elif Batuman, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, and, not missing a beat, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. Look for the shortlist on April 23.