Category: Today In Books

Surprising Items Stolen From Libraries

We hear library theft and assume book, maybe map or important documents. But here’s a fun list (for curious readers, not for the libraries) that shows surprising things stolen from libraries like skeletons, swords, and even a presidential rocking chair. I’d like to propose that maybe the skeleton grabbed his favorite weapon and seat and peaced out–someone write this book!

Edwidge Danticat For The Double-Win

Edwidge Danticat won the Story Prize in 2005 for The Dew Breaker and now, fifteen years later, she’s once again taking home the Story Prize. This time for her story collection, Everything Inside. Double congrats!

Judy Blume Adaptation

Judy Blume’s coming-of-age novel Summer Sisters will be coming to television. The 1998 novel will be adapted into a limited series at Hulu with Liz Tigelaar (Little Fires Everywhere adaptation) set to write, executive produce, and be the showrunner–“Sources say she sent the author a fan letter 20 years ago in which she asked to adapt it for TV.”

Book Scandal Leads To Jail Time

Last year, The Baltimore Sun published an article accusing then Mayor Catherine Pugh of having the medical system pay her for her self-published kids’ health book, Healthy Holly, when she was on the board of the University of Maryland Medical System. She has since resigned as mayor and yesterday was sentenced to three years in prison, three years probation, and ordered to pay around $412,000 in restitution while also forfeiting almost $670,000 worth of property.

The Reading Machine

Here’s an interesting article looking at the future of reading and books by looking at a machine designed to read and then create its own book of poetry. “Once every page in the book has been read, interpreted, and illustrated, the system publishes the results using an online printing service. The resulting volume is then added to a growing archive we call The Library of Nonhuman Books.” More like the no-humans-needed machine, am I right?

Merger Time

The 150+ year-old Brooklyn Historical Society is planning to merge with the Brooklyn Public Library, which will combine their impressive collections at BHS’ 1881 Brooklyn Heights headquarters. Bonus: “Admission to Brooklyn Historical’s exhibitions and collections will be free to the public.”

International Booker Dozen

The 2020 International Booker Prize Longlist (the Booker Dozen) has been announced, celebrating translated fiction from around the world. Looking to read more translated work? You can’t go wrong picking any of these books–I for one am currently reading, and loving, The Memory Police.

Ava DuVernay And Victoria Mahoney To The Rescue

After previous attempts to adapt Octavia Butler’s Dawn fell through, Ava DuVernay and Victoria Mahoney have stepped in to get the job done! Mahoney (first woman to direct a Star Wars movie) will write and direct the first episode, and DuVernay (A Wrinkle In Time; When They See Us) will be executive producer for the Amazon Studios ordered series.

Talmud Accepted Into US’s National Library of Congress

For the first time ever, the book of Talmud will be in the National Library of Congress. The work took Rabbi Adin Even Israel Steinsaltz 8 years to translate from Hebrew to English and will be celebrated tonight with an event. “‘It’s a great honor for the both Diaspora and Israeli Jews to receive such honor from a great institution as important as the US National Library of Congress. For all the Talmud’s thousands of years of existence, it is very exciting and meaningful for us, especially during times like these, when Judaism suffers from antisemitism,’ announced Mani Even Israel, the head of the Steinsaltz center.”

Adorable Bike Libraries In Afghanistan

Afghanistan has low adult literacy rates–“about 45% for men, and about 17% for women”–due to years of war, so University student Idress Siyawash has created Read Books to help. On a weekly basis Siyawash and fellow University students travel on bikes with adorable libraries to rural areas: “Our idea is to show that reading can be fun, and explain why education is so important.”

This Is Huge

Right now you can use the Smithsonian Open Access, which has 3 million digital items collected from the “Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.”

Posthumous Book From U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings

We’re Better Than This by Baltimore Rep. Elijah Cummings, which was 95% completed when he passed away, will publish in June. The book, “part memoir, part call to action”, was completed by his wife Rockeymoore Cummings who worked with Cummings’ ghostwriter James Dale. I’m going to need tissues, my face is wet.

Not A Good Look For Disney

We cheered when Disney+ announced they were adapting Becky Albertalli’s novel into a series, Love, Simon. But now we’re booing as the streaming company no longer wants to air the show: “Disney felt many issues explored on the show, including alcohol use and sexual exploration, would not fit in with the family-friendly content on Disney Plus.” Hulu, owned by Disney and Comcast in a joint venture, will air the 10-episode season in June.

Library of Congress Acquires 100,000 New Pictures

For the first time, a Washington, D.C. institution has acquired a comprehensive archive of work by an African American photographer: Shawn Walker. His photographs, negatives, and transparencies show life in Harlem from 1963 to the present. “I am so satisfied that this work has found a home in such a prestigious institution and can finally be shared with the world.”

Project Luminous Revealed

More Star Wars books! Spanning across genres and age categories, Project Luminous will release a series of books, in phases, set in the High Republic Era, 200 years before The Skywalker Saga. The first five books have been announced individually written by Justina Ireland, Daniel José Older, Charles Soule, Cavan Scott, Claudia Gray.

Who Should Decide Which Books Are Allowed In Prison?

It’s not just schools where books are being banned, prisons in the U.S. routinely ban books to the detriment of inmates. Books that teach languages like Arabic and American Sign Language are banned along with books about justice and showing POC/marginalized voices humanity. Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf however is not banned in Kansas state prisons. The policies behind the bans are not transparent and totally inconsistent.

Jane Goodall’s New Book

Jane Goodall, the primatologist known for her research work with chimpanzees in Africa, has teamed up with The Book Of Joy author Doug Abrams for an upcoming book: The Book Of Hope. “Through both Jane’s observation and the latest scientific research, readers will experience the resilience of nature to recover from the harm we have inflicted and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of loss and devastation.”

R.L. Stine + Garbage Pail Kids!

No, I didn’t just randomly throw darts at a board filled with pop culture things and come away with those two. The Goosebumps author R.L. Stine will be writing a middle grade series based on Garbage Pail Kids! The first book, Welcome to Smellville, will be out this fall. Yes, there are stickers and the cover looks exactly as you’d imagine!

She Used Library Books To Learn How To Run. Next, She’s Racing At The Olympic Trials.

In the realm of “wow, libraries can teach you how to do anything,” check out this story about Paula Pridgen, who is set to run in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. What makes her story so incredible is that she came to running in her early twenties, and taught herself how to run by checking out books from the library. Even though she’s grateful to just be running in the trials and doesn’t expect to win, we wish this library power user all the luck!

Asian American Content Banner Launches With Valence Media Investment

A new production company with a special focus on developing Asian American stories for film and TV has just launched, and here’s the most exciting bit–one of their first options is Maurene Goo’s YA novel, I Believe in a Thing Called Love! We really hope it makes it into production!

Elon Musk Shares The Science Fiction Book Series That Inspired Him To Start SpaceX

Any guesses as to which foundational sci-fi series inspired Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, to reach for the stars? (Hint, hint.) Unsurprisingly, it’s Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, which Musk recommended on Twitter last week. He’s spoken before about his desire to help humanity keep moving forward, and he sees space exploration as an integral part of that step. Here’s hoping he helps bring sci-fi possibilities to life!

Typewriters Make Comeback With Kids

Time to feel old! A shop in Philadelphia teaches a typewriting class and kids are showing up and enjoying learning to type like they did in the olden days. “As one girl in the video explains, she likes how typewriting forces you to focus on what you’re writing because you won’t be able to easily fix your mistakes.” The grass is always greener… I guess.

Fiction Matters

The HBO series adaptation of the Watchmen comic taught a moment in history that many were unaware of: the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921, when a white mob descended on a predominantly Black neighborhood killing hundreds of Black people and leaving thousands homeless. Now it seems the show’s opening scenes may have spotlighted one of the country’s worst moments, moving schools to finally officially teach it. “Oklahoma’s education department will provide the framework of a curriculum in April that’s designed to provide ‘extra support and resources’ when teaching students about the massacre. It will be officially incorporated into lesson plans beginning in the fall.”

Manners For Kids

A medieval conduct book for kids, The Lytille Childrenes Lytil Boke, meant to teach children table manners (Don’t burp or pick your nose!) has now been digitized as part of the British Library’s new children’s literature website, Discovering Children’s Books. The site also has “original manuscripts, interviews and drafts by authors from Lewis Carroll to Jacqueline Wilson.” What a time to be alive.

Dan Brown’s First Picture Book

You may know Dan Brown for The Da Vinci Code and his thriller series starring Robert Langdon–Tom Hanks in the films–but he’s now venturing into children’s book author territory with his first picture book Wild Symphony, illustrated by Susan Batori. And there’s more: the book will be accompanied by a classical music album also by Dan Brown who is a musician.

Rage Baking

Simon & Schuster just published Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women’s Voices as a collection of essays and recipes by many women giving voice to the political act of “rage baking.” Problem is that Tangerine Jones’s voice isn’t in the book, or even acknowledged, even though her social media handles and website are all “ragebaking.” Jones started using the phrase, hashtag included, in 2015 when she began using baking as self care because “Being black in America means you’re solid in the knowledge that folks don’t give a true flying fuck about you or anyone who looks like you.”

2019 Bram Stoker Awards

Looking for your next horror or dark fiction read? Perfect timing, the 2019 Bram Stoker Awards finalists have just been announced! Go forth and read with your dark little hearts. Ps: Five Midnights is getting a sequel!!

Book That Should Have Been Titled Vagina Reissued 17 Years Later

In 2003, Catherine Blackledge published The Story of V, having lost the battle to have her informative history of the vagina book titled Vagina. Times have changed enough that the reissue couldn’t be titled Vagina, because it would have gotten lost amongst similarly titled books, so instead Blackledge settled on Raising the Skirt: The Unsung Power of the Vagina–that new cover, I screamed! The Guardian has a great piece on why the book was originally written, a look at the author, changes since, and the reissue.

Digital Libraries Continue To Be Amazing

Want to scroll through pretty science and nature images? Looking for a nice flower print? A tattoo design? The Biodiversity Heritage Library has an amazing digitized collection online ranging in category from A History of Cats: 1858-1922 to Women in Natural History.

New Musical! New Musical!

Co-writing team Kristen and Bobby Lopez, known for writing the film scores for Frozen and Coco, have set their sites on their next project: The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang. They’re working on the music for the musical adaptation along with playwright Amy Herzog. So exciting!