Category: Today In Books

Apple Calls For Recall & Destruction Of Tell-All Book

Former German App Store manager Tom Sadowski has a tell-all book released in Germany, App Store Confidential, that Apple claims violates employee confidentiality agreements. They’ve hired lawyers who have ordered “to cease deliveries of book orders, to recall all copies of the book that are already in circulation, and to destroy all manuscripts of the book.”

LeBron James Adds Children’s Book Author To Resume

I Promise by LeBron James and illustrated by Nina Mata is a picture book releasing this year named after the elementary school James founded in 2018. “’Books have the ability to teach, inspire, and bring people together,’ said James in a statement.” We’re also looking forward to him publishing a middle-grade novel next year!

Penguin’s Going Green

Bertelsmann, Penguin Random House’s parent company, announced that it would be carbon neutral by 2030. Now Markus Dohle, PRH global CEO, has sent a letter outlining PRH’s role in helping to achieve Bertelsmann’s goal. From reducing its carbon emissions, aiming to be fully green energy in two years, and saying “’we are fully on track’ to reach the publisher’s goal of sourcing 100% of its paper from certified mills.”

Israeli Librarians Win Wikipedia Contest

The Wikipedia Library and the International Federation of Library Associations hold a biannual competition, One Librarian, One Reference aka #1Lib1Ref, which asks librarians around the world to create new Wikipedia pages and add references to update existing ones. Israeli librarians took first place for making 4,700 edits in three weeks. The awards aren’t based on the location of the librarians but rather the language.

True Grit Author Passed Away

Whether you know about the teen girl who set out to avenge her father’s murder from the novel or either film adaptation (there’s 2!), the story of True Grit is thanks to author Charles Portis, who passed away in Little Rock, Arkansas at the age of 86. The elusive author left us some exceptional work that we’re forever grateful for.

Amateur Porn Filming Not Welcome In Library–Obviously

An unidentified woman apparently filmed a ten minute pornographic film in and around a Santa Monica, California public library during business hours–including boasting about not getting caught. “Children don’t need to be exposed to this. If you want to do porn, stick to the hotels.”

Gulliver’s Travels Fanfiction Was A Thing In 1700s

I don’t know what life event would require you to know the trivia that Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels inspired readers to create fan art and fanfiction but now you know and you’re welcome. Fans delighted–or cringed-at the idea of Lemuel Gulliver receiving a Lilliputian enema and Gulliver’s wife complaining in poems about her husband’s absence.

Bookstore Donates To Mermaids When Customers Buy JK Rowling’s Books

The Second Shelf, a Soho, London feminist bookstore, said when a customer buys one of JK Rowling’s books it makes a donation to Mermaids, the British charity and advocacy organization that supports gender variant and transgender youth. The article explains it’s in response to Rowling’s transphobic tweets.

Celebrity Death Prompts Book Donations

Caroline Flack’s death has led to a flooding of book donations being offered to anyone who feels like they may need Matt Haig’s memoir Reasons to Stay Alive. “I’m getting thousands of DMs from people who need the book, and who are telling me why,” bookseller Simon Key said on Monday. “This book has made a difference – lots of people have said it saved their lives. And this is not just about people getting the book, it’s about how they’re getting it. They’ve been brave enough to ask for it, and that’s a step forward.”

NYPL Lions Are Reading Large, Lion-Sized Books!

Patience and Fortitude, the iconic lions sitting outside of the New York Public Library, are showing off new reading material! The lions have been given giant, lion-sized copies of The Great Gatsby and Beloved to celebrate 125 Books We Love, the library’s list of 125 favorite books to celebrate their 125th birthday.

The Most Commonly Stolen Book At The San Francisco Public Library May Surprise You

Speaking of libraries, can you guess which book is most commonly stolen at the San Francisco Public Library? It’s in fact a selection of books all by the same author–Michael Savage. Savage is local to the area and was surprised to hear the news, although the conservative talk host hopes that people are then reading the books. Librarians are equally surprised and baffled as to why his books go missing.

Bookworms, Get Booking: This Denmark Hostel Is A Former Public Library

If you’re prone to wanderlust, you may want to look away! A new hostel in Aarhus, Denmark has opened at the site of a former library, and the design is sleek, elegant, and it honors the building’s bookish origins. You can rent a sleeping pod for as little as $33 per night!

Romance Writers of America Still A Mess

Right before Christmas 2019, Romance Writers of America decided to sanction Courtney Milan, top-selling Chinese-American romance author and at the time RWA Board Member and Ethics Committee Chair, for saying something racist was racist. Things only got worse for RWA from there when the curtains got pulled back. And the fallout has continued months later: “the remaining board members of the Romance Writers of America resigned and announced a special election to fill the board seats for the remainder of their terms.” If you need/want a recap here you go.

More Happy Than Not Indeed

Adam Silvera’s More Happy Than Not is getting the adaptation treatment at HBO as a one-hour series. If you haven’t already read this book, put your fingers in your ears and say “lalalalalalala” and go read it. I am super curious to see how they pull this off and can’t wait!

Get Your Tickets!

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez was adapted into a play by Isaac Gomez for Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. And the world premiere now has two additional public performances with tickets now on sale for Wednesday, March 4 at 7:30pm and Friday, March 13 at 7:30pm. If you can make it snatch these up now! Or curl up with the book. Or both, why not both?

Send A Digital Old-Fashioned Valentine From The Library

Staff at the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections selected images from their digital archives so that you can choose from 11 Valentine’s Day e-cards to send some love. The images date as far back as 1907 so if you love e-cards, history, and libraries, go to town. Or just share with the bibliophiles in your life.

The Ripped Bodice Awards!

The Ripped Bodice, an excellent romance bookstore in L.A., has announced their 2019 Awards for Excellence in Romantic Fiction. The entire list is fantastic–if you missed any, or all of these novels, treat your shelf and self! If you can’t decide, I pick Get A Life, Chloe Brown for you. Ask me again in five minutes and I’ll give you another one from the list though, they’re all so good.

The Batman Camera Test

We’re getting another Batman. This time with Robert Pattinson in the Batsuit and Matt Reeves behind the camera. Want to get a taste of what it’ll look like? Here’s a look at the “Camera Test.”

Kaepernick Memoir Publishing Co & Audible Deal

Colin Kaepernick, former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers and activist, has launched a publishing company, Kaepernick Publishing, which will publish his “part political awakening and part memoir.” The audiobook version of the book will be an Audible exclusive, and he’s also signed with Audible to create projects that are “focused on amplifying the voices of notable authors, creators and other influential figures.”

Youngest Bond Theme Song Writer

Billie Eilish and brother Finneas have been hired to write and record the theme song for No Time To Die, the upcoming 25th James Bond film. “Eilish is a perfect, moody, Zeitgeist-y fit for Bond 25. No Time to Die feels like a turning point in the franchise, as it will be directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and co-written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.”

An Open Letter And Invitation To Oprah

While #DignidadLiteraria, the group created in the wake of American Dirt to champion needed change in publishing, has met with leaders at Macmillan and Flatiron, Oprah has yet to accept the group’s invitation to sit down in private and talk to them. So they’ve offered one more invitation. “It’s imperative that we discuss the ​actual problem: the continued underrepresentation of Latinx authors in publishing and in your highly influential book club.”

Watch Netflix Adaptation Without Subscription

Whether they’re spreading the love the week of Valentine’s or deploying very smart marketing, anyone without a Netflix subscription still wins: You can watch the adaptation of Jenny Han’s To All The Boy’s I’ve Loved Before free, without a subscription. You have until March 9th so make that popcorn and let your heart get hugged. I’ll be watching the just dropped sequel!

Get Ready To Crave Mexican Food

The largest (that we know of) North American collection of Mexican and Mexican-American cookbooks is at the University of Texas at San Antonio, which began in 2001 with roughly a 550 book donation and has grown to over 2,000 cookbooks. “Written in flowery scripts and stained with the cooks’ DNA, these recipe-packed tomes feel like living histories that inform our present as much as they illuminate the past.” And good news: so far half of the books have been digitized! Abuelita better have jotted down measurements and cooking times is all I’m saying.

Book Festival!

On April 25th at American University’s Washington College of Law the annual National Antiracist Book Festival will take place to host, celebrate, and bring together the nation’s leading antiracist writers. And this year’s lineup so far has some amazing authors who have written some of our favorite books: Pachinko; The Yellow House; Brown Girl Dreaming; Dominicana; Know My Name–I’ll stop before I list every single author, it’s such a fantastic lineup.

Missy Elliott, John Mulaney Join Cinderella

The upcoming Cinderella film, starring Camila Cabello as Cinderella, officially has the most ridiculously awesome cast and every day more amazing people join. We knew about Pierce Brosnan, Billy Porter, Idina Menzel and now it looks like Minnie Driver is in along with Missy Elliot, John Mulaney, and James Corden–who is producing the film.

White Supremacy Books Kicked From Amazon

Third-party sellers have previously had anti-Semitic/white supremacy items removed from sale on Amazon, but books have not faced the same response. In what appears to be a change in policy Amazon has now removed several anti-Semetic/white supremacy books from sale on its site.

Once Again

The Trump administration, in its budget proposal for 2021, has once again set its target on eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “After three years of consistent pushback from library advocates and Congress itself, the administration still has not gotten the message: eliminating federal funding for libraries is to forego opportunities to serve veterans, upskill underemployed Americans, start and grow small businesses, teach our kids to read, and give greater access to people with print disabilities in our communities.”

Mural To Commemorate Victims Of Jack The Ripper

Hallie Rubenhold–social historian and author of The Five, which finally gave voice to the victims of Jack the Ripper–is planning a mural to honor the women and hopefully draw attention away from the Ripper tours. “Shouldn’t these women also be remembered, in a vibrant, colourful way?”

Impact of Coronavirus On Publishing

While celebration of the Lunar New Year closes many Chinese companies for weeks, the 2019-nCoV, known as the Coronoavirus, will keep many closed for longer. Some people can continue their work from home, but bookstores are closed, and jobs that need printing presses, and trade shows are all being affected. In coping with the pandemic “…more than 75 Chinese publishers are offering free online courses, e-books and audiobooks for the public during the period when people are forced to stay at home.”

And The Winner Is…

Hair Love for best animated short film! Matthew Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver accepted the Oscar for the beautiful short film that began as a Kickstarter campaign in 2017 and was inspired by Cherry seeing “videos of black fathers lovingly styling their daughters’ hair.” And yes there is a fantastic book that is illustrated by Vashti Harrison.