Author: Maria Cristina Garcia Lynch

Sponsored by The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring, and Fierce Reads

Lunella Lafayette Is Coming To The Disney Channel

D23 has been one wild ride we’re still catching up on. But we’re pausing to appreciate the news of a Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur animated adaptation in the works! Read more here.

Audible Captions Prompt Lawsuit

The courts are getting into the ontological weeds with this one… A group of major publishers is suing Audible over a new feature that presents listeners with transcripts of audiobook narration, potentially infringing on publishers’ rights to the original written books.

Books Above Clouds

Take a virtual tour of a newly designed bookshop in Shanghai’s tallest building. These photos are quite stunning!

Sponsored by Book Riot Insiders.

Textbook Trials and Tribulations

With college courses either in session or looming on the horizon, it’s time for the semi-annual reminder that textbook pricing is a whole lot of yikes, and there are no winners among students or publishers. This piece shares some of the ways higher ed publishers and institutions are disrupting traditional textbook distribution.

Joan Watson Look Book

“Elementary” is one of our favorite Holmesian adaptations, and Lucy Liu’s Joan Watson is a role model in countless ways. Here’s a post if you’re looking to steal her style.

Say It With Me Now: All Art Is Political

So Art Spiegelman is a comics legend. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Maus, the postmodern graphic novel/memoir about Spiegelman’s father’s Holocaust memories. He was asked to contribute an introduction to a Folio Society collection of Marvel Golden Age comics, and he wrote an excellent essay about how comic book superheroes were some of the first and most powerful ways popular culture pushed back against fascism. He drew comparisons between the 1940s and the present era. And Marvel asked that he revise his essay to be apolitical. Instead, Spiegelman withdrew it, submitting it to the Guardian instead. You can read his essay in its entirety here.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Postcards for a Songbird by Rebekah Crane.

J. D. Salinger Goes Digital

I’ve got to admit: I hadn’t noticed that J. D. Salinger’s books were unavailable in ebook format. I checked them off my reading list in high school way before ebooks were a thing. But it turns out that the first ebook editions of his work come out this week, just in time for this year’s crop of American Lit students to download.

Children’s Literature Takes On Climate Change

Some of the most impressive climate activists out there are the children who stand to lose the most by adults’ inaction. Those kids are inspiring their peers to read more about literally saving the world.

Nicely Done, Dave’s Drive-In Liquor Store

Jeff Rise was helping his local library move donated books to storage in between annual fundraising sales when he wondered if it might be better to get a local business to host the library sale year-round. His establishment, Dave’s Drive-In Liquor Store, became that business, and they’ve raised thousands of dollars.

Sponsored by Book Riot’s Tailored Book Recommendation service!

Melissa & Doug, Publishers

Anyone who has browsed children’s toys knows the Melissa & Doug brand. Now, browsers of children’s books will be coming across the name on a newly launched line of children’s books to be published in-house.

In More Kid Lit News

We just put out a Literary Tourism guide to Kansas City, and it will be out of date already by next year, for a most delightful reason. Former booksellers there are set to open a twentieth century children’s literature museum with immersive, inclusive exhibits.

Technically, Most Star Trek Properties Are Prequels to the Picard Show, but You Know What We Mean

If you’re a SFF Yeah! listener, you heard me and Jenn get excited about the announcement of a new Star Trek series featuring Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Now there’s more to be pumped about: we’re going to get a prequel to the new show in the form of a novel and a comic miniseries!

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Libro.fm

A Centenarian Debut Poet

There really isn’t an upper-limit for the age of debut authors. Just ask Sarah Yerkes, who at 101 years old has just released her first collection of poems.

Legolasless

You know Amazon’s upcoming series set sometime before Fellowship of the Ring? According to the elfin archer himself, the show will not feature Tolkien adaptation regular Orlando Bloom.

Nonhumans in Children’s Books Outnumber Black People

In 2018, 27% of children’s books featured nonhuman characters, while only 10% featured black characters. “Black children shouldn’t have to settle for books they can’t relate to.”

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin.

Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards

Presented annually at SDCC, the Eisner Awards honors achievement in comic books. This year’s complete list of winners can be found here. Shout-out to Book Riot favorite The Prince and the Dressmaker and its writer/artist Jen Wang for winning in two categories!

SUPERMAN RETURNS’s Superman Returns

…the actor, that is. Brandon Routh has been playing The Atom in the Arrowverse since 2014. But in the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, Routh is set to portray a version of Superman that all signs indicate will pay homage to Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s Kingdom Come man of steel.

Marvel Announces…A Lot

Of course Marvel’s presentation in Hall H was going to be mind-blowing. But nobody could have predicted it was going to be MIND-BLOWING. Check out this ranking of some of the reveals we got last night.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Famous People: A debut novel by Justin Kuritzkes and Henry Holt & Co.

Herne Bay Book Ripper

Police in Herne Bay are investigating the case of an anonymous vandal who has been ripping pages all over the seaside town. It’s tempting to laugh at the absurdity, but the main target is a hospice charity shop, which has had over a hundred books ruined.

Middle-Earth MMO

Remember how Amazon bought the rights to The Lord of the Rings? Expect a free-to-play massively multiplayer online game based on the series to be available sometime in the future.

Life of Pi Astonishes On Stage

There’s a stage adaptation of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi playing in Sheffield for one more week, and you’ve got to check out this rave review if only to see how the tiger is brought to life onstage.

We’ve got a $200 gift card to the Book Riot Store up for grabs, courtesy of the BookCon Newsletter. Click here, or the image below to enter!

Where’s Waldo LARP

For the entire month of July, bookstores and libraries across the country are hosting an IRL Waldo scavenger hunt.

Be Suspicious Of Valuable Comics On The Market

The Friends of Seattle Public Library nonprofit was gearing up for a mid-month comic book sale, where donated first editions (many mint) of Marvel, DC, and indie comics were to be on offer. Those books have been lost in a break-in.

Tune In To A Bedtime Story

Every evening, sisters Zaria (thirteen years old) and Hailey (eight years old) read a library book live on Instagram and Facebook. Zaria told her local paper, “We were already reading each night, but we thought it would be beneficial for children who may not have the same luxury.”

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Penguin Teen.

Podcasts Plus Poetry

It’s no coincidence that podcasts and poetry are both flourishing right now. Why do the two go together so well? Read on to find out, and get some listening recommendations while you’re at it.

That Time A Shape-Shifting Villain Stuffed Herself Down Batman’s Throat

Batman: The Animated Series was many a child’s introduction to comic book superheroes. And if you think it had a lot of body horror, sequel series Batman: Beyond has something to say: “Hold my beer.”

In Other Comics News

Here’s a post on io9 contextualizing a blog post by writer and artist Sina Grace, who reveals some of the struggles he experienced over the course of working with Marvel on Iceman.  The news that a major comics publisher doesn’t support its marginalized creators in meaningfully concrete ways isn’t surprising, but it’s disappointing nonetheless.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Libro.fm

Lots Happening Over At DC

…and we don’t just mean the District of Columbia where ALA conference attendees are currently having the best time. No, we’re talking about Detective Comics, where groundbreaking imprint Vertigo is no more. Imprints Ink and Zoom have also been shuttered in a surprise consolidation plan. But a day later, at the aforementioned librarian summit, DC announced a slew of new titles. We’ll keep you posted?

Book Critical Of Mass Incarceration Un-Banned In Prisons

Arizona corrections officials had prohibited prisoners from reading Chokehold: Policing Black Men by former federal prosecutor Paul Butler. That ban has now been reversed.

This Is Fantastic (And Tampon Taxes Are Not)

So in Germany, tampons and other sanitary products are taxed at a rate of 19%. The justification? They’re luxury goods. Meanwhile, books are taxed at a rate of 7%. Founders of a sanitary product company looked at this situation and decided to publish a book…containing tampons.