Author: Liberty Hardy

Welcome back to Monday, readers! Book news slows down for November and December, but I am still plumbing the depths of the interwebs to find you choice bits! I have a few great things to share with you today, including my newest pick. (I still can’t believe I got to read it!) Enjoy your upcoming week, be kind to yourself as well as others, and remember that I love you and I like you. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

She possessed a stunning beauty. She also possessed a stunning mind. Could the world handle both? Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich’s plans while at her husband’s side, understanding more than anyone would guess. She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star. But she kept a secret more shocking than her heritage or her marriage: she was a scientist. And she knew a few secrets about the enemy. She had an idea that might help the country fight the Nazis…if anyone would listen to her.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.” This is the first line of what classic novel? (Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

File under ‘EEEEEEEEE!’: Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus, has announced her next novel!

Malala Yousafzai is working on a book about refugees.

There’s a film adaptation of the Color Purple musical in development.

Lifetime is adapting Pride and Prejudice with contemporary spin set in Atlanta.

Gabrielle Union to produce and star in an adaptation of The Perfect Find.

John Boyega, Letitia Wright to star in Hold Back the Stars adaptation.

The book about the Malaysian finance scandal, Billion Dollar Whale, is being turned into a film.

HBO and David Simon are adapting Philip Roth’s novel, The Plot Against America.

Jeremy Irons to play Ozymandias in HBO’s Watchmen series.

Cover Reveals

Here’s the first look at Alex Segura’s upcoming Pete Fernandez mystery, Miami Midnight. (Polis Books, July 16, 2019)

And the cover reveal of The Wise and the Wicked by Rebecca Podos. (Balzer + Bray, May 28, 2019)

And the spooky cover of Last Things by Jacqueline West. (Greenwillow Books, May 7, 2019)

And last but not least, the reveal of Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson.

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!

Loved, loved, loved:

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray, February 5, 2019)

Yes, you read that right! Galleys are out and I dropped everything and read it and…IT’S GREAT. It’s about the talented daughter of a hip hop legend. Bri wants to be a famous rapper, but her first attempt is taken and distorted by the media and society, and she must push back against the world to prove herself. Thomas has written a wonderful novel about race, class, and stereotypes.

Excited to read:

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press, June 4, 2019)

I loved Vuong’s poetry collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, so I cannot wait to see how he uses his beautiful words in a novel.

What I’m reading this week.

The Plotters: A Novel by Un-su Kim

Sea Sirens (A Trot & Cap’n Bill Adventure) by Amy Chu and Janet K. Lee

Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

The Lonesome Bodybuilder: Stories by Yukiko Motoya, Asa Yoneda (translator)

And this is funny.

And now YMCA is stuck in your head too.

Trivia answer: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

You made it to the bottom! Thanks for reading! – xo, L

Hello, and good Monday to you, readers! I hope you got in an extra hour of reading this weekend, if you are in a place to where you had to turn back the clocks. It’s my favorite weekend of the year! A WHOLE EXTRA HOUR TO READ. (And, yep, I get really cranky when we lose that hour.) I have lots of fun things to tell you today. Enjoy your upcoming week, be kind to yourself as well as others, and remember that I love you and I like you. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

“The perfect thriller.” – A.J. Finn author of The Woman in the Window Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. She is a famous painter and her husband, Gabriel, an in-demand fashion photographer. Until one evening, when Gabriel returns home late from work and Alicia shoots him five times in the face and then never speaks another word. Alicia’s refusal to talk turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, and she is hidden away at the Grove, a secure psychiatric unit. Enter Theo Faber, a psychotherapist who is obsessed with working with Alicia to unravel the mystery of why. Shocking, thought-provoking, and deeply twisted, The Silent Patient is a spellbinding psychological thriller about violence, obsession, and the dark side of passion.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: Who said “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it?” (Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Hooray! The Kiss Quotient is coming to the big screen!

CBS orders pilot sitcom from Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan.

Unseen Sylvia Plath short story to be published in 2019.

Zoraida Cordova and Natalie Parker are releasing a YA vampire anthology in called Vampires Never Get Old.

John Green announced the Looking for Alaska cast.

The Obamas are adapting The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis for Netflix.

ABC has nabbed the rights to Maybe You Should Talk To Someone, based on Lori Gottlieb’s upcoming memoir.

Terry Pratchett’s Discworld adaptation,The Watch, will be on BBC America.

Stephen King adaptation news of the week: Joyland will be a television series.

Lesley Kara’s The Rumour is also being adapted for television.

And so is Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Molly Ringwald will join the cast of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City.

And here’s the second official Dolly Parton song from the Dumplin’ soundtrack.

Sneak Peeks

These are the first images from the BBC’s adaptation of Watership Down by Richard Adams.

Here’s a new trailer for The Passage series.

The date for the second It movie was announced.

Cover Reveals

Here’s the first look at New Suns, an anthology edited by Nisi Shawl. (Solaris, March 12, 2019)

And the cover reveal of These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling. (Razorbill, May 28, 2019)

Here’s the cover *and* an excerpt of Wanderers by Chuck Wendig. (Del Rey, July 9, 2019)

And the first look at Lock Every Door by Riley Siger. (Dutton, July 2, 2019)

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!

Loved, loved, loved:

Book Love by Debbie Tung (Andrews McMeel Publishing, January 1, 2019)

Mark down this little gift book for yourself and everyone in your life who loves books. Any bibliophile will recognize themselves in these adorable cartoons about book lovers and their passion for books.

Excited to read:

The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory (Berkley, July 16, 2019)

YAY YAY YAY! There’s a third book in the “Wedding Date” series coming this summer. I loved The Wedding Date, and I loved The Proposal even more, so I can’t wait to see what Guillory has in store for us this time. This one is about two people who hate one another who have to play nice for their mutual best friend’s bridal party.

What I’m reading this week.

Family Trust by Kathy Wang

The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco

Blame This on the Boogie by Rina Ayuyang

City of Ash and Red: A Novel by Hye-young Pyun and Sora Kim-Russell

In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum

And this is funny.

This feeder will make you scream.

Trivia answer: Maya Angelou

You made it to the bottom! Thanks for reading! – xo, L

Welcome to another Monday! It wasn’t a particularly big news week, but I still want to share a few things with you. And who is dressing up for Halloween? Me, I’m going to be a bookworm. As in, it’s just another day for me. (But maybe some day I’ll dress up!) Whatever you decide, be sure to enjoy your upcoming week, be kind to yourself as well as others, and remember that I love you and I like you. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Interweave

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OH! And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for your personal library.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: Who said, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” (Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Muslim YA novel Internment by Samria Ahmed is getting the adaptation treatment.

A fan fiction story is being published as the latest novel in the Three-Body Problem world.

Matthew Broderick will star in the Netflix adaptation of the graphic novel Daybreak.

Kickstarter project will publish an undiscovered novel that inspired The Thing.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell to become a board game.

Rio filmmaker Carlos Saldanha to direct The Phantom Tollbooth.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese to reteam on Killers of the Flower Moon adaptation.

Elizabeth Strout announced a forthcoming book featuring Olive Kitteridge.

Sneak Peeks

Here’s the first official image of Jennifer Aniston from the adaptation of Dumplin’. (The book also got a new tie-in cover.)

Cover Reveals

Here’s the first look at the cover of Never-Contented Things by Sarah Porter. (Tor Teen, March 19, 2019)

Queer Eye star Tan France revealed the cover of his first book, Naturally Tan. (St. Martin’s Press, May 14, 2019)

And the cover reveal of Storm Blown by Nick Courage (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, July 16, 2019)

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!

Loved, loved, loved:

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives with her father, her mother taken many years before by guards, never to be seen again. But then Lei herself is taken and brought before the king, to be groomed as one of the king’s consorts. But Lei isn’t about to let tradition dictate her life. And when she falls in love, she gets wrapped up in a dangerous plot of justice and revenge.

Excited to read:

Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark

From the hosts of the wildly popular My Favorite Murder podcast. I love listening to this show, especially while I’m at acupuncture. It makes me giggle to know I’m sitting in a dark room with strangers while two women dish on serial killers.

What I’m reading this week.

Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi and Joshua David Stein

Frost by Marianna Baer

The Other Americans by Laila Lalami

Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz

An Unexplained Death: The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere by Mikita Brottman

And this is funny.

You won’t be-leaf your eyes. (Sorry not sorry.)

Trivia answer: Dr. Seuss.

Happy Monday, my little page-hungry readers! It’s the start of the week, which means the reading possibilities are infinite! Grab a stack of books, throw your phone in a drawer, and settle in for lots of reading time. Er, after you read this newsletter. As usual, I have tons of fabulous book-related news today. SO MANY COVER REVEALS. Enjoy your upcoming week, be kind to yourself as well as others, and remember that I love you and I like you. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Flatiron Books, publishers of Be The Person Your Dog Thinks You Are.

With full-color illustrations by The New Yorker’s Liza Donnelly, a humorous and heartfelt book that shows us that even when we’re at our worst, our dog thinks we’re the best!

OH! And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for your personal library.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What author had a father who was a general under Napoleon and a son who was also a writer? (Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body And Other Parties is going to be an anthology series on FX.

Nik Dodani will write the script for a movie version of Blue Boy, based on the novel by Rakesh Satyal.

Will Smith is writing a memoir. (If it doesn’t start with “Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down,” I’m not reading it.)

Chrissy Teigen is working on a cookbook for kids.

Reese Witherspoon is executive producing a comedy for ABC based on Sara Saedi’s memoir Americanized: Rebel Without A Green Card.

Olympic gold medalist and protester Tommie Smith partners with Derrick Barnes on new graphic memoir.

Michael B. Jordan to star in and produce hitman tale The Silver Bear.

Mark Ruffalo will star in Wally Lamb’s I Know This Much Is True for HBO.

There’s a Twelfth Night-inspired musical TV series in the works.

And a Dorian Gray TV series too.

Heather Graham will star in and produce an adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s Hypnotist’s Love Story.

Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret to become a movie.

Cover Reveals

Let’s try this again! (I forgot the link last week, d’oh!) Daniel José Older revealed the cover of Freedom Fire, the second Dactyl Hill Squad book. (Arthur A. Levine Books, May 14, 2019)

There’s a new Tea Dragon book on the way: Check out The Tea Dragon Festival!

Here’s the cover for The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O’Meara! (Hanover Square Press, March 5, 2019)

Nnedi Okorafor revealed the cover of her first nonfiction book, Broken Places and Outer Spaces. (Simon and Schuster, June 18, 2019) She also revealed the cover for her Black Panther spinoff comic, Shuri!

Vulture shared the first look at Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib. (University of Texas Press, February 1, 2019)

Here’s the first peek at There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon! (Simon Pulse, May 14, 2019)

V.E. Schwab’s out-of-print first book, The Near-Witch, is being reissued with a new cover! (Titan Books, March 12, 2019)

And finally, B&N has the cover reveal of The Dragon Republic, the sequel to R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War.

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!

Loved, loved, loved:

Loading Penguin Hugs: Heartwarming Comics from Chibird by Jacqueline Chen Andrews McMeel Publishing, November 13)

These are the adorable motivational comics we can all use right now. If you use the internet, you’ve probably already seen one of them. (Like ‘sending virtual hug‘.) Buy a copy for all your friends AND one for yourself, because you deserve kindness too.

Excited to read:

The Gone Dead: A Novel by Chanelle Benz (Ecco Books, June 25, 2018)

I looooooooved her story collection, The Man who Shot My Out Eye is Dead, so I am HERE FOR THIS. The synopsis tells me it’s about a woman who returns to the place where her father died when she was four, only to learn that something happened to her too on that day thirty years ago. I MUST READ THIS NOW.

What I’m reading this week.

Suffer the Children by Craig DiLouie

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors: A Novel by Sonali Dev

Finding Baba Yaga: A Short Novel in Verse by Jane Yolen

Boy Swallows Universe: A Novel by Trent Dalton

Beijing Payback: A Novel by Daniel Nieh

And this is funny.

Actual LOL.

Trivia answer: Alexandre Dumas.

Welcome back, book lovers! It was a VERY exciting week for book news last week. And I don’t just mean the National Book Award finalists. So many announcements! I have lots of that fabulous news today. Enjoy your upcoming week, be kind to yourself as well as others, and remember that I love you and I like you. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

In a palace of illusions, nothing is what it seems. One girl must compete to become the next empress while keeping her keeping her identity and forbidden magic a secret in this Ancient Japan-inspired standalone fantasy.

OH! And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for your personal library.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What was the first name of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple? (Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Gabrielle Union acquired the film rights to 500 Words Or Less.

MUPPET ARMS: One of our eagle-eyed Rioters, Jessica Esquire, spotted a sign at The Frankfurt Book Fair announcing the arrival of a novel from Ta-Nehisi Coates in 2019!!!

To celebrate the third anniversary of the release of Carry On, Rainbow Rowell shared a sentence from her upcoming book, Wayward Son.

Lakeith Stanfield will star with Chris Evans and Daniel Craig in Knives Out.

Renée Ahdieh is writing a new YA vampire series!

And Sandhya Menon is writing an adult rom-com!

Sneak Peeks

Here’s the first official trailer for the remake of Pet Sematary!

And some of the biggest news out of NYCC was the first trailer for Good Omens. (I would like David Tennant to be in everything, please and thank you.)

And here’s a look at several of the characters in the upcoming Umbrella Academy series.

And the trailer for the series adaptation of The Little Drummer Girl.

Cover Reveals

Alyssa Cole tweeted the first look at a new Reluctant Royals book: A Prince on Paper. (Avon, April 30, 2019)

Katherine Howe announced the follow-up to The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane: The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs. (Henry Holt and Co., June 25, 2019)

Here’s the first look at Tiffany Jackson’s Let Me Hear a Rhyme. (Katherine Tegen Books, May 21, 2019)

And Daniel José Older revealed the cover of Freedom Fire, the second Dactyl Hill Squad book. (Arthur A. Levine Books, May 14, 2019)

And Mira Jacob shared the cover of Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations. (One World, March 26, 2019)

And scroll down to see the just-revealed cover of The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead!

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!

Note: Both of these are super early releases, so I apologize, the covers haven’t been revealed yet.

Loved, loved, loved:

The Lost Man by Jane Harper (Flatiron Books, February 5, 2019)

Harper just keeps getting better and better! This is a tense mystery about three brothers in a VERY remote part of Australia. One of the brothers has just died under strange circumstances and another brother – the black sheep of the family – comes home to find out why. (He is his brother’s closest neighbor and he still lives three hours away. It’s THAT remote.) The story is really well-written, but it’s her description of the country itself, with its harsh climate and isolation, that make this exceptional.

Excited to read:

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, July 30, 2018)

Pretty sure that wherever you are in the world, you heard me squealing when this was announced last week. I am a huge fan of all of Whitehead’s books, so I am over the moon at this news! This novel is going to be about a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

What I’m reading this week.

Upon a Burning Throne by Ashok K. Banker

Famous Adopted People by Alice Stephens

Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves by Glory Edim

Melmoth: A Novel by Sarah Perry

The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency) by John Scalzi

And this is funny.

This made me laugh more than it should have.

Trivia answer: Jane.