Categories
Book Radar

THE ECHO WIFE To Be a Feature Film and More Book Radar!

It’s Monday! Today is the first day of the rest of your…week. I hope you had a relaxing weekend, if it was possible. I read books (shocking!) and added more stickers to my office walls. They are 95% covered now, and it is 100% the room that I always dreamed of when I was young. (Being an adult is rad!) Related: Does anyone remember Stickers Magazine? I used to get it at Toys “R” Us. I wish I still had all the issues. The magazine is also where I got the address to write to Soleil Moon Frye, who sent me an autographed picture in return. (I wish I still had that, too.)

Moving on: I have some exciting book news for you today and a look at an excellent upcoming novel about spies in Silicon Valley, plus cover reveals, a terrible pun, toe beans, and trivia! Let’s get started, shall we?

Here’s Monday’s trivia question: What year was the inaugural Newbery Medal awarded? (Scroll to the bottom for the answer.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey is going to be a feature film.

Here’s the first trailer for Without Remorse, starring Michael B. Jordan.

Here’s the cover reveal for the mass market edition of The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang.

Alyssa Cole is partnering with Oneill Jones for a graphic novel.

Waubgeshig Rice and Jennifer David have started a new podcast, Storykeepers, to be an audio book club on Indigenous lit.

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters will be a TV series.

Wu-Tang Clan is releasing a limited edition photo book encased in a 400-pound chamber.

Here’s the trailer for HBO Max’s adaptation of The Runaway Bunny.

Check out the cover reveal for Any Sign of Life by Rae Carson.

Here’s an update on the new Goosebumps TV series.

Take a peek at Jeff Vandermeer’s upcoming endangered species conspiracy novel Hummingbird Salamander.

A new Jumanji movie is in early development.

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 learn about a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week so you can add them to your TBR! (It will now be books I loved on Mondays and books I’m excited to read on Thursdays. YAY, BOOKS!)

Loved, loved, loved: 

Impostor Syndrome by Kathy Wang (Custom House, June 15)

Recently, my husband and I started watching The Americans. I have heard nothing but amazing things about it, and maybe it gets better as you go along, but we stopped watching after about 10 episodes. For me, the whole “Will they get caught this time? How about this episode? Now?” got old for me really fast. I’m not saying it’s bad, don’t @ me. Maybe I’ll even go back to it at a later time.

I do generally like spy stories, which is why I enjoyed Impostor Syndrome so much. Like The Americans, it’s about a Russian operative living in the United States as an American. But this story is set in the present day. It’s about Julia Lerner, a Russian spy who has been living in the U.S. for years. She’s living and working in Silicon Valley as COO of Tangerine, one of the world’s largest tech companies. Her accomplishments are vast and she has settled nicely into her glamorous, high profile life, while also planning for the arrival of her first baby with her husband.

But now her home country is asking more of her: they want her to give them access to her computer’s systems, so they can install a backdoor to all the email accounts and messages sent through Tangerine. But this bigger ask comes with greater risk, and Julia isn’t so sure she wants to give up her new life anymore. And she knows a lot of new tricks to keep from losing the things she loves.

Alice Lu is an employee at Tangerine who works behind the scenes in IT, making sure all the systems are running smoothly. One day, while doing a routine check up of Tangerine’s servers, she discovers that a privacy loophole that isn’t supposed to be there anymore. And not only does this extremely limited access to all of Tangerine’s user’s information exist, someone is using it to dump large amounts of data.

At first, Alice is sure she should tell someone. But the allure of being able to see anything anyone is emailing or messaging pulls her in, especially when she realizes she can spy on specific people from a tragic incident in her past who were never properly punished. And then when Alice discovers who is responsible for sharing all the data, it takes it to a whole new level of danger and accountability.

I loved both Alice and Julia. They felt very real, and I understood and even sympathized with their actions and motivations. Julia has a family and an incredible job, and now she is being asked to risk it all. And Alice now has the tools at her fingertips to get the revenge she has always craved. I also think Wang does a great job spinning an espionage story in the current technological world, and I really enjoyed the outcome.

(CW for racist remarks and actions, violence, infidelity, chemical abuse, sexism and sexist language, and a mother threatened with the loss of her child.)

What I’m reading this week.

Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge

Scorpion by Christian Cantrell

The Night We Burned by S. F. Kosa

Victim F: From Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors by Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn with Nicole Weisensee Egan

Dear Miss Metropolitan by Carolyn Ferrell

Groan-worthy joke of the week: 

What does a bee use to brush its hair? A honeycomb.

And this is funny:

Another “thing that would make me sad, but makes me laugh instead, because it’s a book reference.”

Happy things:

Here are a few things I enjoy that I thought you might like as well:

  • Modern Family: This show makes me laugh a lot. I am a big fan of people falling down and/or getting hit in the head. my favorite parts now are Stella the dog and how evil and sarcastic Lily has become.
  • Joseph’s Chocolate Hommus: This is my favorite treat!
  • Jigsaw puzzles! Yup, still puzzling.
  • Purrli: This website makes the relaxing sounds of a cat purring.

And here’s a cat picture!

“Please speak into the microphone.” Zevon, putting his best foot forward.

Trivia answer: 1922.

Remember that whatever you are doing or watching or reading this week, I am sending you love and hugs. Please be safe, and be mindful of others. It takes no effort to be kind. I’ll see you again on Thursday. – xoxo, Liberty