Hello, book lovers! As you read this, I am currently on day three of my reading staycation. My plan is to read backlist and reread favorite books from the last few years. I can’t wait to share what books I loved! In the meantime, here is a bunch of fabulous book-related news to feast your brains on. I hope everything in your world is marvelous and you have something wonderful to read. Enjoy your upcoming week, and be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty
Sponsored by Hush, My Inner Sleuth by M.E. Meegs
This serpentine saga opens in the year 1947 at a New England women’s college, where the ever-playful Betty escapes a meddlesome narrator by slipping her friend Willie a mickey and assuming her identity. Undaunted, the plucky storyteller adopts Willie as her new protagonist and travels with her to L.A.
Soon after their arrival, the pulp-inflected ghost of Skip Ryker—a recently atomized Hollywood detective—hijacks the head of the literarily precocious Willie in hopes of solving his murder. What follows is a comic saga of intrusive narrators, metafictional backstabbing, and one very peculiar psyche. (Accepting ARC requests now…)
P.S. Don’t forget that Book Riot is giving away 15 of the year’s best mysteries so far! Enter to win here.
Here’s this week’s trivia question: What famous novel features a character named Homer Simpson? (The answer is at the bottom of the newsletter.)
Deals, Reals, and Squeals!
Lorne Michaels, Aidy Bryant adapting Lindy West memoir Shrill.
Exciting news: There’s a new Nicole Dennis-Benn novel on the way!
Release date set for Michael B. Jordan legal drama Just Mercy.
Susan Orlean’s next book is about libraries.
David Tennant shared more info about Good Omens.
Seith Mann to adapt BLACK comic.
Girl Waits with Gun to be adapted as a series.
Alex Segura’s Pete Hernandez series to become a show.
Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now is going to be a show. (The book releases tomorrow.)
Jurnee Smollett-Bell joins HBO’s Lovecraft Country.
George R.R. Martin announced a release date for his next book, Winds of Winter. JUST KIDDING! That’s never coming. His new book is called Fire & Blood.
Amy Adams will star in the adaptation of The Woman in the Window.
Renée Zellweger and Louie Anderson to star in adaptation of Heft.
A new trilogy in the world of Miss Peregrine is coming.
Here’s the weekly Stephen King news: The Long Walk headed to the big screen.
Naomi Watts, Sophia Lillis to star in Burning Season, based on the story of Laura van den Berg.
The Heathen comic is coming to the big screen.
David Copperfield cast adds Tilda Swinton and Hugh Laurie alongside Dev Patel.
Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City to get a television series sequel.
Hulu is developing a series based on Less Than Zero. (Why-o?)
Cover Reveals
Here’s the gorgeous cover of The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar. (Counterpoint, 2019)
Sneak Peeks
Here’s the first look at Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects. (Omg Sophia Lillis is the perfect pick to play young Amy Adams.)
And here it is, the first trailer for Crazy Rich Asians!
Here’s the trailer for the adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s Burning.
A new look at the Fantastic Beasts film.
Here’s a new teaser trailer for Dietland.
Book Riot Recommends
At Book Riot, I work on the New Books! email, the All the Books! podcast about new releases, and the Book Riot Insiders New Release Index. I am very fortunate to get to read a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week!
Sick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour (Harper Perennial, June 5)
Khakpur has two wonderful novels under her belt. Now she takes readers on a personal journey through her life and her struggles with late-stage Lyme’s disease, and what it’s like to live with a chronic illness. She explores her illness by way of the different places she has lived, and explains how she manages the impact her illness has on her mental and physical health, and the toll it has taken. Perfect for fans of Brain on Fire.
Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin (William Morrow, June 26)
Bolin examines America’s national obsession with stories surrounding dead girls. Her essays include examinations of Twin Peaks, Serial, and works by Joan Didion and James Baldwin, as well as a discussion of the information and narratives surrounding dead girls that we absorb every day. This is wise, fascinating stuff.
What I’m reading this week.
Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Swan Song by Robert McCammon
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Non-book-related recommendation.
Two words: Janelle Monae. She has a new album and a 48-minute accompanying short film.
And this is funny.
Maybe I am The Vanisher.
Trivia answer: The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West, first published in 1939.