Hello, Book Friends!
Welcome to another Monday Book Radar. Still coming to you from the hospital, so keep thinking those healing thoughts. We’re doing okay, though. Thanks to everyone who has been checking in. Anyway, you’re not here for my life update. You’re here for the books. And honestly, I am, too. So let’s do this.
Book Deals and Reveals
Crime Reads shared the cover of Maureen Johnson’s Death at Morning House, the author’s first standalone YA mystery in years. It’s out from Harper Teen this August.
Here’s another cover reveal for an upcoming August release: Gabi Burton’s Drown Me With Dreams, the sequel to Sing Me to Sleep. Get ready; it’s out on August 20.
Hugo Award-winning author Nghi Vo has a new novella coming out soon from Tor Publishing Group. The City in Glass has been pitched as This Is How You Lose the Time War meets Good Omens. It’s coming this fall.
Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal are returning to Broadway for an upcoming revival of Shakespeare’s Othello. The play opens in the spring of 2025.
Waleed Zuaiter’s FlipNarrative has optioned the rights to Shannon Chakraborty’s novel The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. The plan is to develop the novel into a multi-season series and gaming platform.
In a bidding war, 20th Century Studios won theatrical distribution rights to Imagine Entertainment‘s thriller Whalefall, based on the Daniel Kraus novel published last summer by MTV Books.
Jessica Biel is publishing a children’s book about periods. A Kids Book About Periods, which aims to de-stigmatize the topic of menstruation, will be published by A Kids Co. this spring. “People don’t talk enough about periods,” Biel told PEOPLE. “I’ve always felt strongly that we need to normalize the discussion around periods and as a parent, writing this book felt like an organic way to engage kids in the conversation from early on.”
Dakota Johnson has announced her new book club. TeaTime Book Club’s first monthly pick is Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino.
Book Riot Recommends
Hi, welcome to everyone’s favorite segment of Book Radar called Book Riot Recommends. This is where I’ll talk to you about all the books I’m reading, the books I’m loving, and the books I can’t wait to read and love in the near future. I think you’re going to love them too!
Want to make your book club the best club? Sign up for our In the Club newsletter. In the Club will deliver recommendations for the best books to discuss in your book clubs. From buzzy new releases to brilliant throwbacks, the books highlighted in this newsletter will drive your book club discussions. We’ll also share some book club-friendly recipes and interesting bookish updates from all over. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations, plus community features. In other words, we’ll keep you well-met, well-read, and well-fed. Sign up today!
Prepare Your Shelves!
Memory Piece by Lisa Ko (Riverhead Books, March 19)
Lisa Ko’s 2016 novel The Leavers was an unforgettable read and a major award-winner. This debut novel won the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction. Now Ko is back with her second novel, and, no, we are in no way looking at a sophomore slump here. Memory Piece is, dare I say it, even better. I know I’m a huge sucker for stories about childhood friendships (especially friendships between girls), so I am a little biased here. But I feel like this story has a little something for everyone.
The story follows three friends through multiple decades, starting in the 1980s and going all the way into the 2040s (yes, the future). As children in the early 1980s, best friends Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are bonded together through their shared alienation, their artistic pursuits, and their hopes for the future.
Years later, as adults, Giselle, Jackie, and Ellen’s dreams and aspirations have diverged and taken them all in different directions. Giselle becomes a performance artist, Jackie works as a coder, and Ellen is a community activist. As their definition of success and their priorities change, so do their friendships. The world they live in now might be different from the one they imagined for themselves in their childhoods, but their pursuit of satisfying, meaningful lives remains a central part of their stories.
What I’m Reading This Week
Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
Nestlings by Nat Cassidy
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
Codename: Sailor V by Naoko Takeuchi
Dead Girls Walking by Sami Ellis
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones
Monday Memes
Now, this is the kind of hot girl era I can get behind.
And Here’s A Cat Picture!
I was looking through my husband’s phone, and I found this really cute picture of Murray as a tiny kitten, so I thought I would share! Of course, I love Murray as he is now, but it’s nice to look back at what a tiny, sweet kitten he used to be. Look at how big his feet were!
Well, friends, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your Monday, and we’ll chat again on Thursday!