Author: Sharifah Williams

The Hobbit Turns 80

Look, Stephen King, we know you turned 70 today–we see you. But guess what? The Hobbit has you beat by a whole decade, so step aside for a moment. It seems contrary to wish a book a good one by dredging up its old reviews, but that’s what we’re doing I guess. It’s not so bad. C.S. Lewis called J.R.R. Tolkien’s tale a classic-in-the-making. Okay, Stephen King. You can have a slice of cake too. Here’s what your local paper and neighbors had to say about you on your birthday.

Tom Hanks To Star In And Produce A Man Called Ove

That’s right. Uncle Hanks is all in on the adaptation of Fredrik Backman’s international best-seller. The book, originally written in Swedish, is about a solitary curmudgeon whose life is changed by the young family that moves in down the block. But is Hanks too lovable to play Carl Fredricksen–er, Ove? I intend to find out. Rita Wilson (Hank’s wife) and Fredrik Wikstrom Nicastro, who produced the Swedish adaptation, are also on board to produce.

Jessica Williams Will Play A Sci-Fi Writer In Her Comedy Series

Jessica Williams, you’re so fun and hilarious, and I cannot wait to watch this show. Williams will write and star in a new Showtime comedy series where she plays an aspiring science fiction writer in Brooklyn. I wonder if she’s getting the inside scoop from N.K. Jemisin. Or if sci-fi writers will cameo on the show! If we can’t enjoy ourselves at the intersection where comedy and geekery meet, I don’t need to know you.

Thank you to Rakuten Kobo Inc. for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

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The Art of Fielding Author Sued Over Copyright Infringement

Charles Green, a former college baseball player, is suing best-selling The Art of Fielding author Chad Harbach. Green alleges that Harbach copied many elements of his manuscript, Bucky’s 9th, including “the specific climax and denouement.” According to Green, the screenplay, which was later reworked into a novel, was shared widely among publishing and entertainment professionals, which is when he believes Harbach had the opportunity to pounce. Only time and an expensive lawsuit will tell.

Clinton’s Memoir Sees Highest Nonfiction Opening In 5 Years

Hillary Clinton’s memoir What Happened sold 300,000 copies, and the book’s hardcover sales made it the highest opening for a nonfiction release in five years. Divisive as the book may seem, based on the rating incident where Amazon had to bulk remove polarizing (mostly negative) reviews from reviewers who were not verified purchasers, readers are buying up those copies. Sales exceeded first week numbers for her 2014 book Hard Choices.

Racist Trolls Will Never Stop Whining About Black Hermione

Racist trolls lost their lids when illustrator Anoosha Syed posted a depiction of Hermione Granger as a black girl. Syed pointed out that the books never stated Hermione or Harry’s race (Harry was depicted with a darker skin tone, and trolls took offense to that as well), and that she can draw WTF she wants. Syed drew the characters as she imagined them. She was shocked by the backlash, but the artistic community and people who heard about the attacks showed up to support her online.

Thank you to The Summer That Made Us by Robyn Carr for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

Robyn Carr has crafted a beautifully woven story about the complexities of family dynamics and the value of strong female relationships.

For the Hempsteads summers were idyllic at the family house on Lake Waseka. The lake was a magical place, a haven where they were happy and carefree. Until the summer that changed everything.

After an accidental drowning turned the lake house into a site of tragedy and grief, it was closed up. But one woman is determined to draw her family together again, and the only way that can happen is to return to the lake and face the truth.

Neil Gaiman Gives Good Omens #BTS

We got a first look at David Tennant and Michael Sheen in the upcoming adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens, thanks to Gaiman’s Twitter activity. And he didn’t stop with the one photo. Today, Gaiman continued to tweet everything from an adorable, curious squirrel on set and atmosphere dressed in Victorian garb, ratcheting up the anticipation for this production. I both can’t help but look, but also want to see it through fresh eyes that first airing.

Google Now Shows What Ebooks Are Available In Your Local Library

Google added a new Search feature that shows if your local library has the ebook you’re looking for in stock. This is great news for people like me whose reading life heavily relies on ebook library loans. Apps like Libby have made it easier to search for ebooks, but we all use Google so much in our daily lives, it can’t hurt to have one more convenient way to look up availability, especially if you’re on your desktop.

Honey & Wax Announce First Winner Of Annual Book-Collecting Prize

Brooklyn’s Honey & Wax Booksellers have announced the winner of their first annual book-collecting prize. The winnings go to twenty-nine-year-old Jessica Kahan, an Ohio librarian who has collected about three hundred popular American romance novels of the 1920s and 1930s. H&W’s Heather O’Donnell and Rebecca Romney initiated the prize hoping to “encourage young women who are actively collecting books to own and share that part of their lives, and to think strategically about the future of their collections.” Kahan will receive a thousand dollars, and five honorable mentions will each receive two hundred dollars.

Sponsored by Finding Grace, the chilling new drama from Warren Adler that gets to the heart of brainwashing and its power to corrupt and control.

When their twenty-three-year-old daughter Grace goes missing, divorcees Harry and Paulie are forced to leave behind their newly constructed lives to track her down on a sunny farm in California. Seemingly unharmed, the two soon learn that she is actually in the clutches of a notorious cult. Under the spell of mind control, she denies Harry and Paulie as her family, leaving them to search for answers in the most desperate of places. Harry and Paulie race to bring Grace back home – but will she ever be able to return? How do you help someone who doesn’t know they’re lost?

Readers Hide Books Globally to Celebrate Goodreads’ Anniversary

Today, Goodreads tasked readers to hide books for people to find, read, and pass on as part of their ten-year anniversary celebration. Goodreads teamed up with The Book Fairies to make the magic happen. If you want to see what and where books were hidden by participants, look up #goodreadsturns10, #hideabookday, and #ibelieveinbookfairies on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or check out the article for Goodreads’ curated selection.

Hulu’s Handmaid’s Tale Series Wins an Emmy

This past Sunday, Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale won an Emmy for outstanding drama and, in light of the win, Atwood spoke to PEOPLE about renewed interest in her story. The book, which made it back onto bestseller lists after the recent election, are about a totalitarian theocracy where women are stripped of all agency. “There’s a precedent in real life for everything in the book,” she told PEOPLE. “I decided not to put anything in that somebody somewhere hadn’t already done. But you write these books so they won’t come true.” If only, Ms. Atwood. If only.

Do Celebrity Book Blurbs “Blackmail” Readers?

Man Booker Prize judge Colin Thubron resurrected what The Guardian opines is an old publishing grievance when he complained that star endorsements “‘almost blackmail’ readers into feeling that ‘you’re either intellectually or morally incompetent if you don’t love this book or you’ve failed if you haven’t understood it.'” The Guardian went on to recount earlier dark tales of publishing where, for instance, blurbers are sent unsolicited manuscripts with the hope they’ll regurgitate the publishers’ endorsements whether or not they read the book. No surprises here, but certainly smirk-worthy.

Thank you to The Book of Separation by Tova Mirvis, published in hardcover and ebook from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

Born and raised in a tight-knit Orthodox Jewish family, Tova Mirvis committed herself to observing the rules and rituals prescribed by this way of life. She married a man from within the fold and began a family. But at age forty, Tova decides to leave her husband and her faith. This is a memoir about what it means to free the part of yourself that has been suppressed, even if it means walking away from the only life you’ve ever known. Honest and courageous, Tova shows us how she learns to silence her fears on her own path to happiness.

The National Book Award for Fiction Longlist

Thank you! The National Book Foundation released their Fiction longlist and look who we have here: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (there might’ve been some words if this one hadn’t made it on), The Leavers by Lisa Ko, and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, among seven other buzzy titles. What do you think about the list–any missed predictions?

Get the #BTS On Harry Potter With An Upcoming Documentary

I know I’ve been saying I’m over all things Harry Potter, but this is the thing I didn’t know I needed from the franchise. The BBC (yay!) will premiere the documentary Harry Potter: A History of Magic in honor of the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The documentary will deal with the origins of the world of Hogwarts, and feature an interview with J.K. Rowling. The doc doesn’t seem to have an air date yet, so stay tuned.

Lost Ezra Pound Poem Found In Castle–Obviously

I’m done with stories about discoveries of unpublished works written by famous authors. Hahaha jk! A lost Ezra Pound poem was published in The Paris Review. First of all, the poem was found in a castle. A CASTLE. Where does one sign up to find themselves in these situations? Secondly, on why it might never have been published the discoverer said, “It is too tender, too small.” What? Are we still talking about Pound?

Sponsored by Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel from Entangled Teen.

Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.

Angie Dovage can tell there’s more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. She can’t know she’ll be thrown into a battle between good and evil with Reece right in the center of it—and he’s not human.

Still, she knows something most don’t. The secrets her town holds could kill them all. But falling in love with a harbinger of death could be even more dangerous.

Amazon Removes Hundreds Of Reviews For What Happened

Isn’t the internet exhausting sometimes? Slate reported that Amazon had to remove hundreds of reviews of What Happened, Hillary Clinton’s memoir. The listing drew over 1,500 reviews the morning after it was posted with most reviews giving the book either one or five stars. Few of those reviews (338) were posted by Verified Purchasers. Amazon removed both negative and positive reviews from unverified purchasers, which jumped the rating from 3.2 up to 4.9.

Books On Race And Politics Lead National Book Award Nonfiction Longlist

The Los Angeles Times noted that books on race and politics lead the National Book Award longlist for Nonfiction. The 10 finalists include “four books directly addressing the history of race relations between blacks and whites in America; two that consider conservative forces in American culture; and one, by Naomi Klein, that advocates for progressive action during Donald Trump’s presidency.” Check out the article for the full list.

Teacher Creates Harry Potter Wonderland For Students

A teacher in Oregon spent 70 hours creating a Harry Potter themed classroom for his students. Kyle Hubler of Evergreen Middle School in Hillsboro brought his own Harry Potter merchandise to school and set to work decorating his new classroom a month before the start of the school year. He said he did it because his students love the books and because of the impact the series had on him as a kid. “The lessons in the books about acceptance, loyalty, and integrity stayed with me and inform a lot of the philosophy I have in my approach to teaching and how I interact with my students,” said Hubler.

Sponsored by Rakuten Kobo Inc.

Calling all listeners—audiobooks are now available from Kobo. Find all your eBooks and audiobooks together in the FREE Kobo App for iOS and Android. Save with a subscription for the best deal on audiobooks—your first 30 days are FREE.

The Man Booker Prize Shortlist Announcement

Among the titles to make it on the shortlist are Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, and History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund. According to the Guardian piece announcing the winners, judges were questioned about the Americanization of the UK award. Half of the authors selected for the shortlist are from the US. I was sure we’d see Arundhati Roy listed, but there you go.

Aaand We’ve Got The National Book Awards Longlist For Poetry

As mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, the National Book Awards is releasing their longlist in pieces. Today they released the longlist for Poetry and, what with the proliferation of Instagram poets, I wonder if a lot more readers will pay attention to the list this year, compared to recent years. You won’t find Rupi Kaur here, but Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith made the list, as did three debut collections, including When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen.

Solving The Mystery of My Immortal

I find this story fascinating, even though I was only recently initiated into the mysteries of My Immortal. We are talking about the tale dubbed the worst fanfic ever and its mysterious writer. Vox wrote an in-depth piece about this fanfic phenomenon and the work’s author, Rose Christo, who reemerged and revealed her true identity after about 10 years of silence. You can read all about the legend of My Immortal, Christo’s upcoming memoir, and how it’s all connected to that other what-the-what story about Lani Sarem of Handbook for Mortals and New York Times best-seller list infamy.

Sponsored by Finding Grace, the chilling new drama from Warren Adler that gets to the heart of brainwashing and its power to corrupt and control.

When their twenty-three-year-old daughter Grace goes missing, divorcees Harry and Paulie are forced to leave behind their newly constructed lives to track her down on a sunny farm in California. Seemingly unharmed, the two soon learn that she is actually in the clutches of a notorious cult. Under the spell of mind control, she denies Harry and Paulie as her family, leaving them to search for answers in the most desperate of places. Harry and Paulie race to bring Grace back home – but will she ever be able to return? How do you help someone who doesn’t know they’re lost?

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The National Book Awards Longlist Is Here…In Parts

It’s awards season and if you’re the type of reader who enjoys keeping up with the lists, you’ll have plenty of books to add to your TBR now that the National Book Awards longlist is being announced. Caveat: the National Book Foundation will be announcing one category from its longlist each day this week. First up is Young People’s Literature with titles including The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez, and more. Check it out!

Kirkus’ New Diversity In Children’s Books Initiative

Kirkus announced a new initiative aimed at confronting the dearth of diversity in children’s books. Kirkus Collections will work to help librarians find books by and about marginalized people. Because standard subject headings aren’t always helpful in locating diverse books, this new tool features curated lists with headers like “Black & Disabled,” “Latinx Read-Alouds,” and “LGBTQIAP Love Stories.” Through positive reviews, the use of metadata, and filters, librarians will be able to browse and search for vetted books for their diverse patrons. Very interesting!

All The Books Hillary Clinton Name Drops In Her Memoir

What Happened, Hillary Clinton’s memoir about her presidential campaign, came out this week and the buzz is real. TIME has already published a list of all the books she mentions in the memoir. They include some classics we’ve been hearing a lot about recently, like George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, also Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, and poetry by Maya Angelou. If you’re curious, you can take a look at the full list, or read the book and break up the sorrow with little moments of discovery.

Thanks to The Summer That Made Us by Robyn Carr for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

Robyn Carr has crafted a beautifully woven story about the complexities of family dynamics and the value of strong female relationships.

For the Hempsteads summers were idyllic at the family house on Lake Waseka. The lake was a magical place, a haven where they were happy and carefree. Until the summer that changed everything.

After an accidental drowning turned the lake house into a site of tragedy and grief, it was closed up. But one woman is determined to draw her family together again, and the only way that can happen is to return to the lake and face the truth.

5 Previously Unreleased Kurt Vonnegut Stories Will Be Published

It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the steamrolling of Terry Pratchett’s hard drive (at his behest), and here we are today, talking about the unearthing of five previously unpublished stories by Kurt Vonnegut. The short stories, discovered by Vonnegut’s friend Dan Wakefield and scholar Jerome Klinkowitz, will be published in a collection titled Complete Stories, out later this month. But, again, do we really need the scrapped works of deceased authors?

ABC Commits To Modern Pride And Prejudice Drama

Jane Austen fans rejoice (or gnash your teeth). ABC has committed to a put pilot for Eligible, a drama series based on the book Eligible: A Modern Retelling Of Pride And Prejudice by Curtis Sittenfeld. The series, developed by some of the people behind the CW’s Beauty & the Beast, and I, and Pretty Little Liars, revives familiar themes. You can’t have a P&P adaptation without Elizabeth Liz Bennett falling for the mysterious Darcy against her better judgment. The series will also follow the five Bennet sisters on their journeys to find love.

Book Shopping And Bowel Movements

In totally weird book stories, BuzzFeed published a piece about something called the Mariko Aoki phenomenon. This…event is described as feeling a sudden urge to defecate when you walk into a bookstore. Why? What? How? Who knows! But plenty of people have claimed to experience it. If you experience the Mariko Aoki phenomenon, please do not let us know.

Thank you to Small Beer Press, publisher of The River Bank
by Kij Johnson, for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

Dive into the world of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows with staunch Mole, sociable Water Rat, severe Badger, and troublesome and ebullient Toad of Toad Hall. They are joined here by a young mole lady “Authoress”, Beryl, and her dear friend, Rabbit. There are adventures, a double kidnapping, lost letters, a series of sensational novels, two (threatened) marriages, and family secrets revealed at just the right moment. With color endpapers and incidental illustrations throughout, The River Bank “neatly captures the quaint whimsy of Grahame’s original book. . . . and fill[s] in some gaps for a modern readership.” (Publishers Weekly)

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