Author: Maria Cristina Garcia Lynch

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Litworld Publishing House. Gestation is available for free today! Download your copy by clicking the image below.

Sing It, Sister

Ann Brashare’s The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants got turned into a movie that embodied the spirit of female friendship so thoroughly that the four principal actors are still BFFs. And now the rights to the film have been acquired for development as a stage musical.

Fall for Shuri Series

Everyone’s favorite Wakandan (yeah, we said it) is going to get her own ongoing comics series. It’ll be dropping in October, and has got maybe the most perfect writer in Afrofuturist extraordinaire Nnedi Okorafor whose Binti has been a recent favorite around the Riot.

A Political Memoir Prompts 2020 Speculation

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by California Senator Kamala Harris is forthcoming from Penguin Press. The publication date of January 2019 has many wondering if the political memoir is a prelude to a presidential campaign.

Don’t forget–we’re giving away $500 of this year’s best YA books (so far)! Click here to enter.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by BookishFirst. Read excerpts, share your thoughts, earn points, and win FREE books. Get 500 points just for joining! Sign up at BookishFirst.com.

Gee, Wonder Woman and G. Willow Wilson

This fall, DC’s Wonder Woman ongoing series gets a new creative team in writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Cary Nord. We know and love Wilson forever for creating teen superhero Ms. Marvel, and we’re looking forward to seeing what she does with Diana.

Oldest Odyssey Excerpt Discovered

This one’s for the archaeology, classics, and history nerds out there: researchers have found a clay tablet from the third century A.D. containing thirteen verses from Homer’s Odyssey. The epic oral poem is way older than that, but this is now the oldest known written form of it.

The Handmaid’s Tale Wine Comes and Goes

We got all worked up over this really, really, really, REALLY bad marketing tie-in that compared the women of Gilead to wines available for purchase (Ofglen’s Cabernet Sauvignon had a “warm, spicy finish”). And less than twenty-four hours later, the collection has been cancelled. If only our outcries over more egregious offenses were addressed as quickly and satisfactorily.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Litworld Publishing House. Get Patch 17 for FREE today by clicking the cover below:

Author, Can You Spare a Dime? (No, They Cannot)

I don’t think any clear-eyed person decides to become an author in order to accumulate obscene wealth. But as it turns out, it’s almost impossible to eke out a living by writing alone. A new report by the UK nonprofit Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society says that professional writers have a median income of under £10,500 a year, or $13,774. And like their counterparts across all industries, women authors are earning just 75% of what men get.

J. K. Rowling Gets Her Letter

Authors in the UK have another reason to envy outlier J. K. Rowling: she just got invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures in the Writer category. She joins 927 other new members, 49% of whom are female. But my favorite stat about the new class? The new additions mean the people of color in the Academy have doubled since 2015…to 16% of overall membership. It’s a low bar, but we need something to celebrate.

First Look at Kristen Wiig in “Wonder Woman 1984”

More film adaptation news! It’s the teensiest of sneak peeks, but director Patty Jenkins shared a photo of Kristen Wiig as Barbara Minerva, aka Wonder Woman villain the Cheetah. She’s shown in a museum, wearing an outfit I am sure my mild-mannered mom had back then, so we’ll have to wait for a more Cheetah-licious lewk later.

This edition of Today In Books is sponsored by Running Press and Cats on Catnip by Andrew Marttila.

“Forrest Gump” Director in Negotiations for Roald Dahl Adaptation 

Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis is wrapping up talks to adapt Roald Dahl’s The Witches, according to a piece inVariety. If the deal goes through, Zemeckis will serve as both scriptwriter and director. And if “Back to the Future” is any indicator, he’s good at that flavor of multitasking.

Audiobooks Are Making That Paper

Sales data from the American Audiobook Association shows that 2017 was a very good year for audiobook titles. The $2.8 billion in U.S. sales is a 22.7% increase over 2016. Those dolla dolla bills don’t tell the whole story of audio’s popularity, though. According to the same research, 43% of listeners said they downloaded an audiobook from their library.

Go Buy Stuff from Comics Hero Greg Pak

Today on Twitter, Greg Pak announced that through July he’d be donating all money spent at his shop to the excellent organizations RAICES and the Texas Civil Rights Project. We’re not talking his profits. He is giving the entire purchase price. He’d probably raise more if he were offering audiobooks, but go get yourself some amazing comics for a good cause!

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Visible Empire by Hannah Pittard.

Women’s Prize for Fiction

Kamila Shamsie has won the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction in recognition of her seventh novel, Home Fire. Rioter Deepali Agarwal writes that this retelling of Sophocles’ Antigone “follows the lives of orphans Isma and her twin siblings Aneeka and Parvaiz after Parvaiz joins the media arm of the Islamic State.”

Netflix’s Running Total: 39 Reasons

We’re getting a third season of “13 Reasons Why,” the controversial adaptation of a YA book by a controversial author. The series started streaming in March of 2017 and has featured suicide, sexual assault, and a school shooting plot.

Haruki Murakami Is Very Haruki Murakami

The prolific Japanese novelist will host “Murakami Radio—Run and Songs” on August 5. He’ll be sharing selections from his personal music collection with a focus on the tunes he likes to listen to as he trains for ultramarathons. Nobody is surprised and everybody is delighted.

We’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

Tolkien Goes Back to School

There’s going to be an epic Tolkien exhibit at Oxford from June 1 to October 31. You can go ahead and spend all your money getting yourself to England, because the exhibit is going to be totally free. And if you think you’ve been there and done that, think again: there will be some never-before-seen items on display, including a “3D, specially-commissioned map of Middle-Earth.” (Isn’t that just called “New Zealand”…?)

The Library of Congress Levels Up in Comics

Bow down to Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, whose work to make a home for comics at the Library of Congress has culminated in an unprecedented comic book donation valued in the millions. The benefactor is Stephen A. Geppi, a major player in comics publishing for the past thirty years. As he put it, “Can you imagine having Action Comics No. 1 sitting right next to the Gutenberg Bible in a display?” Maybe we’ll get just that when the library starts displaying select items from this acquisition sometime this summer.

Hailee Steinfeld to Wander Funny as a Cloud

I can’t say that Emily Dickinson has ever made me crack a rib laughing, but that might change soon. Apple has given “Dickinson” a straight-to-series order, with Oscar-nominated actor and singer Hailee Steinfeld as the belle of Amherst. No news yet on how Apple plans to distribute this scripted comedy.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Disney Publishing Worldwide’s Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe.

Philip Roth (1933-2018)

The literary world is remembering prolific novelist Philip Roth, who passed away in New York this week. Contributor Rachel Manwill notes that “The only major literary prize Roth hadn’t won was the Nobel, though he was often considered a favorite among speculators. He reportedly waited for a call from the Nobel committee every year at his agent’s office, ready to embark on a publicity tour for the elusive honor that never came.” The New York Times has collected the reviews they gave his work over the years if you’d like to read more.

Romance Novelist Becomes Gubernatorial Nominee

There are so many reasons to be excited that Stacey Abrams is now the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia. But the most delightful reason is that Abrams is also Selena Montgomery, author of eight romance thrillers.

Idris Elba Hunches His Back for Netflix

Netflix is giving us a feature film modern retelling of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Idris Elba is going to have his fingerprints all over it. He’s starring in it, directing it, and producing it, and we can’t wait!

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Clara Voyant by Rachelle Delaney.

Tom Wolfe (1931-2018)

The literary world is remembering journalist, novelist, and sharp dresser Tom Wolfe, who passed away in New York this week. Contributor Sarah S. Davis notes that “more coverage of Wolfe’s passing is in The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and New York magazine, three publications he wrote for during his life.”

New Anne Frank Pages

Did you know that Anne Frank’s notebooks are removed from storage only every 10 years? During the most recent examination, researchers at the Anne Frank House were able to use new photo-imaging technology and discovered two previously concealed pages that demonstrate Frank’s developing literary tone.

Nobody Is Laughing

The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, the UK’s only prize for comic fiction, will go unawarded this year. The judges lament that of the sixty-two novels under consideration, exactly zero got more than a “wry smile” out of them. And no, they are too polite to release the longlist.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Surface Tension by Mike Mullin.

Atticus Finch v. Atticus Finch

A court will decide if Aaron Sorkin’s stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird is sufficiently faithful to the book—and soon. The granting of the producer’s motion to expedite the proceedings effectively consolidated the suit in Alabama and the one in New York, and set a trial date for June 4 in Manhattan. It’s the same day as the 2018 Tony Awards, so theatre geeks have a lot to…look forward to?

Avengers Team Up with Little Free Library

After acquiring the rights to Spider Man, Disney must know that with great power comes great responsibility. And we think they’re using that power wisely: “Avengers: Infinity War”-themed Little Free Libraries will be popping up nine U.S. communities on Saturday. Disney, in partnership with Little Free Library and First Book, will make sure the libraries are operational for the next two years.

Speaking of Doctor Strange…

I never say no to an audiobook read by Benedict Cumberbatch. And now I have a new nonfiction audiobook on my TBR (TBL?). So I’m going to learn all about the nature of time because Mr. Cumberbatch will read me The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli. They should really get that man to narrate terms of service. Like, all of them.