Category: Today In Books

The Oxford Dictionary Word Of The Year Is…

It has been a year so really there were quite a few options I would have guessed could be the Oxford Word of the Year: “a word or expression shown through usage evidence to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, and have lasting potential as a term of cultural significance.” And the winner is “climate emergency,” which by September was more than 100 times more commonly used than the previous year and beat out all other words used to modify “emergency.”

Rare Virginia Woolf Materials

Rare correspondence, unique photographs, original artwork, printed books, and ephemera have been acquired by the New York Public Library to add to their Virginia Woolf library collection. “With this new acquisition, The New York Public Library holds what is arguably the most complete and important collection of Virginia Woolf material in the world.”

Congrats!

Last night at the 2019 National Book Awards–hosted by LeVar Burton–awards for Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature were announced! Special awards were also handed out, like John Waters presenting novelist and activist Edmund White with the Distinguished Contribution to American Letters awards.

Watch The 70th National Book Awards Live

Tonight, November 20th, you can tuck yourself in with a book and tune into this live stream at 7:15 pm ET to watch the 70th National Book Awards, which LeVar Burton is hosting! Who will win the Young People’s Literature, Translated Literature, Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction awards?

New Day More Hate

Upshur County public library in West Virginia library removed the picture book Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack from shelves because of homophobic protesters. Daniel Haack “hit back at protesters, suggesting that anyone concerned the book could ‘turn someone gay’ should remember ‘all the gay adults who grew up only reading about straight romances.’”

Awesome New Imprint

Heartdrum is a new imprint from HarperCollins Children’s Books which will focus on publishing books by Native creators. Running the imprint, which will begin publishing in 2021, are Cynthia Leitich Smith who is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation and Rosemary Brosnan. “The Heartdrum name and logo pay tribute to the connection between the drumbeat and the heartbeat it evokes of the Native community.”

Elvis’ Granddaughter Will Be Daisy Jones

Taylor Jenkins Reid’s hit book Daisy Jones and the Six is being adapted into an Amazon series and the fictional 1970s band lead singer, Daisy Jones, will be played by Riley Keough–Elvis Presley’s granddaughter. Another adaptation score for Reese Witherspoon who got the book rights before the book had even published. I loved the audiobook–and its amazing ensemble cast–so I’m super curious to see how the series comes together!

UC Berkeley’s Scanning Service

UC Berkeley has expanded their scanning service that converts print material to an electronic format to also be available for faculty members, instructors, and visiting scholars with print disabilities. Georgina Kleege, a campus English professor: “In the past, if there was a book or article in the library which was not already available in electronic form I would have to get it and scan it myself, which can be very time-consuming. That’s time I could be spending doing research, reading student papers, preparing lectures.”

Even More Lord Of The Rings

Amazon hasn’t even aired its Lord Of The Rings series yet–it’s thought to premiere in 2021–but they’ve already officially ordered season 2 of the show. They must either really, really like it or believe in putting all the eggs in one basket. Guess we’ll just have to wait a couple years to find out!

Pippi Longstocking Musical Circus Show

Pippi Longstocking’s 75th anniversary is in 2020, and to honor her Pop House Productions and the Astrid Lindgren Company are collaborating with Cirkus Cirkör for a musical circus show! “Imagine being in the audience when Pippi goes to the circus; it’s totally irresistible! Pippi wants to play and not just sit in her place, so this will be great fun.” Being that the show will run next summer in Sweden, I’d like to request the show be filmed so the whole world can see it, please and thank you.

The Parsonage Museum Won!

The Brontë Society succeeded in having the winning bid for the tiny book written by Charlotte Brontë when she was fourteen from a Paris auction. “The works were created for Charlotte’s toy soldiers and document an imaginary world created by the family called Glass Town” and is returning to where it had been written 189 years ago–thanks to over 1,000 people who donated money to help them win the auction.

Awesome Book Club, Awesome Library

Chicago rapper Noname, who started a book club to highlight writers of color, announced that the Chicago Public Library will take reservations for her book club picks. Her book club features “two monthly selections — one ‘informative text’ and another ‘creative work.’”

Best Book Series Of The Decade

I was expecting year-end best-ofs, but somehow the concurrent end of the decade has caught me completely off-guard. Yet Entertainment Weekly’s naming of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels as the best series of the 2010s is still relatively unsurprising.

Children’s Book By WNBA Center

Kayla Alexander is seriously talented. Not only is she a center for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, but she is also the author and illustrator of a children’s book. The Magic of Basketball is inspired by both Alexander’s experience on the court and her experience as a young reader looking for representation.

The Legend(s) Of Sleepy Hollow

Some people are spinning holiday tunes already, but others just can’t let spooky season go. If you’re one of the latter, you’ll enjoy this rundown of all the versions of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Manus Island Detention Author Freed

Behrouz Boochani, Kurdish Iranian refugee and journalist who wrote No Friend But the Mountains, has been freed after forcibly being held for six years by Australia’s offshore processing regime. He transmitted his book via the WhatsApp while detained and it went on to win the Victorian prize for literature. “Everyone in Manus carries so many painful memories, we can never leave them on that island … but I am happy in my heart: I feel free.”

Fantastic Longlist

So many amazing books published this year, I love seeing them on all these fantastic roundup and prize lists. Like the Aspen Words Literary Prize, which announced its longlist: “It is one of the few focused exclusively on fiction with a social impact.” The shortlist will be announced in February 2020 and the winner in April 2020. Plenty of time to read these twelve novels and four short story collections!

Getting Books Into Kids Hands

After Columbia County Schools’ pulled Nic Stone’s Dear Martin from the recommended reading list she decided to hold a community event to speak up and hand out free copies of her book. “It is my aim with every book I write to show children of color, specifically African American children, as heroes of the stories they’re a part of,” she said.

100 Best Books Of 2019

Time has selected the must-read books that published in 2019 and there is plenty on this list for readers no matter what genre or category you like to read in. Divided into Realistic Fiction, Suspense & Altered Worlds, Literature in Translation, Short Stories & Poetry, Memoir & Essays, History & Politics, Society & Science, and True Crime & Journalism there are so many fantastic books on this list, certainly your next favorite read is on there.

Cornell University Library Has A Problem

The Cornell Universtiy’s Mui Ho Fine Arts Library in Ithaca is being criticized for its grated floor. Because the floors are see-thru patrons feel uncomfortable wearing skirts and dresses because anyone below will be getting a view up. The architect, Wolfgang Tschapeller, is against the suggestion of covering the grates with non see-thru material: “the flow of space and flow of air are essential for the project.”

It Gets Worse

All the earned bad press surrounding the Nobel Prize for Literature is clearly not behind the committee. Peter Handke was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature this year, which got much criticism because of his denial of the Serb genocide of Muslims in Bosnia. Apparently two of the Nobel jurors responded to criticism by citing the book sources they used to make up their minds. The books support conspiracy theories and “vast rewriting of history.“

Barnes & Noble Redesign

We had a lot of Barnes & Noble news during the will-they-sell period and then it feels like after the sale–to the Elliott Management Corp.–news just got quiet again. Or maybe it’s that all the other world news is so loud. Anyhoo, it looks like its new CEO, James Daunt, has started putting his input on the look of stores starting with the Virginia Beach location which is now smaller but more efficient and focused on books.

Much Ado About Nothing Comes To PBS!

If you missed the all-Black cast for The Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park Production of Much Ado About Nothing it is your lucky day: It will premiere Wednesday, November 22nd at 9/8c on PBS! It stars Danielle Brooks (OITNB) and you can check out a clip with the announcement. Make the popcorn!

Spike Lee Sets New Project!

Hot off the heels of directing the adaptation BlacKkKlansman, Spike Lee is looking at another adaptation: he’ll direct the adaptation of Prince of Cats, Ron Wimberly’s graphic novel “described as an ’80s-set hip-hop take on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, with the tragic star-crossed love story seen through the eyes of Tybalt, Juliet’s angry and duel-loving cousin.”

Time’s Best Books Of The Decade

We’re ending a year and a decade so bring on the Best of 2019 and Best of Decade lists! Time chose 10 best novels of the 2010’s and they also picked their 10 best nonfiction books of the decade. Any of your favorites make the list?

Keep It Public

The Brontë Parsonage Museum is trying to keep a Charlotte Brontë manuscript from going into a private collection. The item will be up for auction in Paris on November 18th and the museum is trying to raise the money to win the bid in order to make the manuscript, written by 14-year-old Brontë, available to visitors and scholars.

Maintenance Worker’s Novel Adapted To Hallmark Christmas Movie

Rikk Dunlap, a maintenance worker at a Chicago high school, got his novel The Christmas Tree Lot adapted into a Hallmark Christmas film before the novel’s publication. You can watch Christmas Under the Stars–starring Jesse Metcalfe, Jocelyn Gauthier, and Anthony Bolognese–on November 16th on Hallmark.

Amazon Cuts Book Orders To Publishers

Apparently Amazon’s warehouses are full and to reduce product congestion they have been cutting back on their orders to publishers. Independent publishers are feeling the cutbacks: “One publisher reported that an order placed last week was about 75% lower than an order placed last year at this time.”

Game Of Thrones Monopoly

Maybe the GOT fans in your life hated the ending so much you can’t see yourself gifting them the DVDs, but how about GOT Monopoly? You can play while the studios figure out which spinoffs will make it to our TVs and which will be axed.

Best Of 2019 Begins

Let the floodgates of everyone’s Best Of Lists break because here come all the lists. And here’s Kirkus’ Best Books of 2019. They’ve got eight categories including romance, debut, and memorable fictional families.