YA Novel THIS IS MY AMERICA Will Be a Series and More Book Radar!

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

cover of jonny appleseed by joshua whitehead

Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead is being adapted for the screen.

This Is My America by Kim Johnson is being developed as a series for HBO Max.

Here’s the cover reveal of Eyes That Speak to the Stars by Joanna Ho and Dung Ho.

These are the top 48 books of the year so far on Goodreads.

Madison Taylor Baez has joined the cast of the Showtime series remake of Let the Right One In.

The world premiere of the new Dune adaptation will happen at the 2021 Venice Film Festival.

Rafe Spall will join Natalie Portman in the adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s Days of Abandonment.

And Jack Huston will join Lulu Wang and Nicole Kidman in Expats, the series adaptation of The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee.

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:

Cackle by Rachel Harrison (Berkley, October 5)

So if you’ve been reading the newsletter or listening to All the Books for a while now, you know that I lost my dogpanned mind over Rachel Harrison’s The Return. It was a super creepy novel about friendship, set partly in Maine. I loved it with the heat of a thousand suns.

This time, Harrison is also revisiting friendship and relationships, but with witches. Annie is a teacher in Manhattan, involved in what she thinks is her forever-relationship. Then Sam, her boyfriend of ten years, unceremoniously dumps her. Distraught and adrift, she accepts a new teaching position in a tiny, tiny town in Vermont. Even though the village is adorable and all the people are friendly, Annie is miserable at first. Her apartment is full of spiders, she has no friends, and her students are unruly and mock her openly during class. It makes her even sadder and she spends her free time missing Sam and trying to find hopeful subtext in his text messages.

Then Annie meets Sophie. Sophie is literally the most beautiful, charming woman Annie has ever seen, and she wants to be Annie’s friend! Sophie wants Annie to start recognizing her own potential and stop moping around about her boyfriend. And at first, their friendship is wonderful and Annie is so happy. She’s feeling more confident and isn’t taking anymore guff from her students. But she’s also terrified to sleep at Sophie’s enormous mansion in the woods after a harrowing overnight stay, and the townspeople all seem to be afraid of Sophie. Plus Sophie has become a bit more meddlesome and demanding of Annie’s time. Annie is starting to worry that there might be dangerous repercussions to letting Sophie down…

The heart of this book is a story of friendship and self-worth. Sophie wants Annie to recognize that she is a beautiful person worthy of love. It’s also about witches and the treatment of independent, strong women throughout history. But then it’s also a scary story of ghosts and the unknown. Let’s just say that I have been afraid to open my basement door ever since I read this book! I thought it was wicked charming and creepy, and I especially loved Ralph. (You’ll see.)

(CW for infidelity, murder, sexism, and death.)

What I’m reading this week.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

Objects of Desire: Stories by Clare Sestanovich

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke

Groan-worthy joke of the week:

Why is Peter Pan always flying? Because he Neverlands.

And this is funny:

Here’s a Beauty and the Beast origin story you don’t hear about.

Happy things:

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

Music! I’ve had to take a lot of car trips recently, which means I get to listen to music! It’s something I rarely do at home, because I cannot read while there is music playing. So I turn the stereo in my truck all the way up (yes, I’m that driver, I’m sorry) and rock out on the road. Here’s a playlist I made last summer that is once again all I want to listen to. (*Roger Daltrey voice* Meet the new playlist, same as the old playlist.)
Purrli: This website makes the relaxing sounds of a cat purring.

And here’s a cat picture!

an orange cat with its head resting on a blue book

Farrokh is trying to read by osmosis.

Trivia answer: My Year Abroad by Chang-rae Lee.

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