Dear Book Friends,
Well. It’s been a week. I love my cats to death, but one of them… well he owes me a new computer. Word of advice to everyone: don’t leave water next to your open computer when you have three cats in the house. I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Anyway, onward and upward, right? We’re still here, and I’m on a borrowed computer for the time being, so let’s talk books.
Book Deals and Reveals
Simon & Schuster will soon be publishing Awad’s latest novel Rouge. The publisher describes the novel as a “horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother’s unexpected death sends her into a warped pursuit of youth & beauty.” Rouge will be released on September 12.
Greta Thunberg released a new book entitled The Climate Book, and the Twitter community has thoughts. The main critique? That the book is printed on paper, when it would be better for the environment to publish an ebook.
New editions of Roald Dahl’s books have been edited for less offensive language and more inclusivity. Publisher Puffin wrote in a statement included in the books, “The wonderful words of Roald Dahl can transport you to different worlds and introduce you to the most marvelous characters. This book was written many years ago, and so we regularly review the language to ensure that it can continue to be enjoyed by all today.”
Just days after Netflix announced a release date for the upcoming Bridgerton spin-off series Queen Charlotte, Shondaland has announced another expansion to the “Bridgerverse”: Queen Charlotte is getting her very own book.
In honor of the 30th anniversary of the beloved anime/manga series, Jimmy Choo has launched a collection inspired by Sailor Moon.
Margeaux Weston, the nonfiction editor at the Hugo Award-winning literary magazine FIYAH, has announced a new nonfiction middle grade collection. Everything but Typical will highlight the lives of a diverse group of influential people who are also neurodivergent, including Simone Biles, Greta Thunberg, Armani Williams, Octavia Butler, and more.
Amazon has released a new trailer of Daisy Jones and the Six ahead of the series’ March 3rd premiere.
Vermont author Lloyd Devereux Richards is now a bestselling author more than a decade after publishing his first novel, Stone Maidens, and it’s all thanks to the TikTok account his daughter created to promote his work.
Authors like Roxanne Gay and Alexander Chee have signed an open letter to The New York Times calling out their anti-trans coverage.
PEN America has counted and reviewed the most banned picture books from 2021-2022 and found a few common elements.
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!
Can’t Wait for This One
The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan (ECW, April 18)
Of course, it’s not all about book covers. But I’m a Libra. Aesthetics matter to me. And this book cover is doing a lot of good work. It’s bright, it’s exciting, and yeah, it’s also super creepy. Like…what is growing out of this apartment building? How can you not want to read this one? Thankfully we don’t have to wait too, too long. Just a few more months and you can be reading this book on the bus while strangers eye the cover and wonder, “what is this interesting person reading? That cover slaps.”
Okay, but what about the inside of the book, you ask? This is a horror novel about an evil apartment complex with a dangerous mold manifestation. Yeah, all mold is dangerous, but I mean, like, this mold has A MIND OF ITS OWN. The Marigold is a luxury apartment complex that hasn’t sold as well as expected. In fact, the building is only half full. And next to it lie the unfinished remains of the Marigold II that never was.
But what’s truly scary is what lies beneath the Marigold II. And when public health inspector Cathy Jin investigates the toxic mold growing in the building, she discovers just how horrifying the growth around the Marigold(s) is. This satirical horror novel takes on gentrification, the false promises of luxury living, ecological issues of the modern age, and more.
Words of Literary Wisdom
“Does he not know the rules, though? Slashers aren’t into guns. One of the papers she wrote for Mr. Holmes, even, back in the days of extra credit, was how the reason bullets never can take the slasher down is that they’re not in the gun economy at all, are far outside it, like there’s some unspoken deal in place: I won’t use you, you can’t hurt me.”
Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones
And Here’s A Cat Picture!… Wait.
What’s this? No cat picture? Like I said, I am on a borrowed computer right now and I don’t have easy access to my iCloud. I’m so sorry. I’m promise I’m not punishing my cat for ruining my life. He can still be famous. But for now, check out the Instagram from my fave cat cafe in Seattle, NEKO Cat Cafe. And if you want to support them, they have cute merch and they ship!
And that’s all for today, my sweet friends. Thanks so much for showing up. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Emily