Category: Today In Books

Obama Lists His Book Recommendations For 2017

Over the holidays, Barack Obama shared 10 of his 2017 book recommendations with the internet. The former president and known bookworm’s picks included The Power by Naomi Alderman, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, and Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. The list included a couple bonus picks for basketball fans, and you can check out the full Facebook post for his music recommendations.

First Teaser For A Series Of Unfortunate Events Season 2

It’s here, fans. The second season of the Netflix series, based on Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events books, will premiere March 30.

The David Bowie Book Club Launches

David Bowie’s son, director and screenwriter Duncan Jones, has launched the David Bowie Book Club, inviting participants to read the legend’s favorite books. The reading selections will be based on Bowie’s Top 100 must-read books, and Jones announced via Twitter that the first title will be Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd. If you want to participate, you have until February 1st to read the novel.

Don’t forget–we’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year! Click here to enter.

Today in Books is sponsored by TarcherPerigee, publisher of My Friend Fear by Meera Lee Patel.

From the bestselling author of Start Where You Are comes a vibrantly inspiring look at making peace with fear–to become our truest selves.

On the heels of her bestselling journal Start Where You Are, author and illustrator Meera Lee Patel takes us deeper into her artistic vision and emotional journey in this stunning new four-color book. A mix of personal reflections, inspirational quotes, questions for reflection, and breathtaking watercolor visuals, My Friend Fear asserts that having big fear is an opportunity to make big changes and to discover the remarkable potential inside ourselves.

The Origins Of A Christmas Carol

BBC got into the spirit with an article on the origins of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. From his views on the wealthy to a visit with his disabled nephew to the sight of impoverished families starving on the street, Dickens’ experiences and post-Industrial Revolution England provided plenty of inspiration and passion to create change. Read the full article to learn more about Dickens and his classic Christmas tale.

NYPL’s Top Checkouts

The New York Public Library reported on the year’s top 10 checkouts. The data collected was system-wide and for The Bronx, Staten Island, and Manhattan. The top three, system-wide, were Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Underground Railroad: A Novel by Colson Whitehead, and Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance. The top checkouts in the boroughs were TASC: Test Assessing Secondary Completion: Strategies, Practice, & Review, 2017-2018 by Kaplan for The Bronx; The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood for Manhattan; and The Award by Danielle Steel for Staten Island.

A Working Class Writers Collective

Author Kit de Waal is behind a working class writers’ movement. She voiced a need to see more working class voices in literature, and, in response, a working class writers’ collective has formed, and an Unbound anthology titled Common People, featuring new and published working class authors and edited by de Waal, was launched. Author Carmen Marcus reached out to other writers on Twitter and began the movement after hearing de Waal speak on the lack of diversity in publishing for “Where Are All the Working Class Writers?” a BBC Radio 4 documentary.

We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter.

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Literary Agency Dedicated To Diverse Voices Receives Major Grant

The Good Agency, a new literary agency dedicated to championing under-represented voices in publishing, is receiving a grant for over half a million pounds. The grant comes from Arts Council England as part of ACE’s Ambition for Excellence Project, which offers grants funded by the National Lottery. ACE literature director Sarah Crown called the grant “a significant first step in the Arts Council’s commitment to promoting and sustaining diversity in the publishing sector.”

The Writing Community Aids Matthew Salesses’ Family

Individuals from the Asian American writing community are working to aid author Matthew Salesses’ wife, Cathreen, who was diagnosed with cancer. The diagnosis arrived shortly after the birth of the Salesses’ second child. Author Margaret Rhee has organized a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the family as Cathreen undergoes treatment in South Korea for stomach cancer.

Ovid Pardoned For Mysterious Crimes

Rome’s city council has lifted a sentence that banished Ovid from Rome. The pardon arrived on the 2,000th anniversary of the poet’s death. It’s remains unclear what crime he committed that sent him to a remote town on the Black Sea. Of the crime, Ovid wrote that he “must be silent about” it, lest he “re-open the wounds.”

We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter.

Season 1 of our new podcast series Annotated is complete! Each episode is about 20 minutes long and is great for fans of podcasts like This American Life. Go here to check it out, or just click the image below:

3,500 Occult Manuscripts Will Be Digitized

The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown donated €300,000 to Amsterdam’s Ritman Library (the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica House of Living Books), enabling the library to digitize thousands of “pre-1900 texts on alchemy, astrology, magic, and theosophy,” said Thu-Huong Ha at Quartz. The digitized manuscripts will be made freely available online.

2018 PEN America Literary Awards Longlists

The 2018 PEN America Literary Awards Longlists were announced. The awards cover fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essays, science writing, sports writing, translation, and more. Titles that made it on the list include Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang, My Soul Looks Back: A Memoir by Jessica B. Harris, and Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou. Click the link for the full lists.

The Hate U Give: The Most Searched-For Book On Goodreads In 2017

Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give was the most searched-for book on Goodreads this year, according to data provided by Goodreads. The New York Times bestseller remains a buzzy title, most recently encountering controversy over a banning of the book by a Texas school district. The story follows a 16-year-old black girl who witnesses the death of her childhood friend at the hands of police.

We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter.

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This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by The Love Letters of Abelard & Lily by Laura Creedle:

Roxane Gay Signs Comic Book Deal

You can scroll down the feed to learn more about it and get the reactions, but, in essence, Roxane Gay signed a deal for a six-episode series about three generations of black women master thieves working together on a heist. Epic. Gay has previously worked in comics, writing Black Panther: World of Wakanda with Ta-Nehisi Coates before it was unexpectedly canceled.

Literary Twitter Reacts To Article About Jane Austen’s Marital Status

When The Washington Post decided to celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday by sharing an article not so much about her talents as a writer, but about her talents as they relate to her spinsterhood, they sparked the ire of literary Twitter. The title of the piece is “Jane Austen was the master of the marriage plot. But she remained single.” You can bet authors, celebrities, and Austen fans showed up to lampoon both title and article.

Travel Guides For African Americans In The Segregated U.S. Reissued

The Green Books–a series of travel books written for African Americans traveling in the segregated US–have been reprinted with sales topping 10,000 copies. The series listed the places black people were allowed to stay, shop, and eat. The first edition was published in 1936 by Harlem postal worker Victor Hugo Green, and the series continued to be published until the end of legal segregation. The books depict a practical reality of the abstract concept of segregation for those who didn’t experience it firsthand, said Nat Gertler, publisher at About Comics, and the individual behind reprints of the Green Books.

Don’t forget! We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter.

The Little Women Miniseries Trailer Is Out

We got a 30-second peek at the Little Women miniseries courtesy of a new trailer. Angela Lansbury stars as Aunt March, alongside Maya Hawke as Jo, Emily Watson as Marmee, Willa Fitzgerald as Meg, Annes Elwy as Beth, Kathryn Newton as Amy, and Jonah Hauer-King as Laurie. The PBS/BBC miniseries airs on PBS on May 13, 2018.

“Cat Person” Author’s Debut Book Reaches $1 Million At Auction

A new book from the author of the viral short story “Cat Person” is reportedly reaching $1 million dollars at auction. Kristen Roupenian’s debut short story collection, You Know You Want This, sold to a UK publisher for a “high five figure sum,” but in the U.S. 11 bidders have pushed the price tag over $1 million. Originally published in the New Yorker, “Cat Person” follows a college student’s awful sexual episode with a misogynist.

James Patterson Ups His Holiday Bookstore Bonus Program

This year, author James Patterson increased the total dollar amount of his Holiday Bookstore Bonus Program by $100,00 for a total pool of $350,000. He also more than doubled the number of booksellers who will receive a bonus for a total of 320. Recipients include booksellers and bookstore owners at stores in areas hit by hurricanes and wildfires, as well as established bookstores like Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon.

And don’t forget–we’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year! Click here to enter.

Today in Books is sponsored by Running Press Book Publishers.

Smash the patriarchy this holiday season with great gifts for your favorite females from Running Press. Give the gifts of confidence, creativity, humor, magic, and self-care with books for every woman in your life: YOU ARE A BADASS for her entrepreneurial spirit, PATTERN BEHAVIOR for some nostalgic laughs, PRACTICAL MAGIC for weekend witches, FEMINIST ICON CROSS-STITCH for year-round craftivism, and SLOW BEAUTY for natural and nourishing mindfulness.

New Novel From Zora Neale Hurston

In spring 2018, we’re getting a new book by Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” was unpublished when Hurston died in 1960. The story is about “the last known survivor of the slave trade who was illegally smuggled from Africa on the last slave ship to the U.S.” Hurston, who was an anthropologist as well as a writer, based the novel on her interviews with a survivor of the slave trade who told her about his capture and bondage fifty years after the slave trade was outlawed.

Amandla Stenberg To Star In Darkest Minds Adaptation

Amandla Stenberg will star in a film adaptation of Alexandra Bracken’s YA dystopian novel The Darkest Minds. The story follows 16-year-old Ruby who’s on the run from a government “rehabilitation camp” for children with abilities. In her search for a safe haven, she joins up with a group of similarly afflicted kids. The film will be directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2).

Authors Guild Releases Report On Translation Pay (It’s Not Great)

The Authors Guild released a report on working conditions for translators in the U.S. According to the report, 65% of literary translators earned less than $20,000 in gross income in 2016 with only about 8% earning $60,000-$100,000. The survey also noted that income for literary translators hasn’t changed significantly over the past five years. While only 39% reported spending more than half of their working time on translation projects, only 17% reported earning more than half of their income strictly from translation work.

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Prepare For More Scandinavian Lifestyle Titles

Make room, hygge, there are some new kids on the block. Namely lykke (happiness), lagom (not too much, not too little), and dostadning (uh, death cleaning). The New York Times profiled three books shuffling for space alongside still-trending hygge, which is the booknerd-friendly Danish word for coziness: The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People; Lagom: The Swedish Art of Living a Balanced, Healthy Life; and The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Make Your Loved Ones’ Lives Easier and Your Own Life More Pleasant. You can bet this isn’t the last time we see those words in the book world.

Wait, There’s A Tolkien Movie?

Nicholas Hoult will star as J.R.R. Tolkien in a film that explores the author’s formative years. Tolkien, which just wrapped filming, follows the Lord of the Rings author into the outbreak of World War I, delves into his friendship with a group of outcasts, and, in effect, explores the inspiration for his Middle-earth novels. The film also stars Lily Collins as Tolkien’s wife, Edith, and is directed by Dome Karukoski.

The Serpent King Will Be Adapted

Jeff Zentner’s The Serpent King has been optioned for film and television, according to a Twitter post from producer Matt Sutherland. The Young Adult novel follows a group of outcasts preparing to graduate high school and leave their small town.

We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter.

Today in Books is sponsored by David Kranes, abracadabra, University of Nevada Press.

Abracadabra begins with Mark Goodson, a seemingly well-adjusted married man, disappearing during a magic act. It falls to a former professional football player, Elko Wells, to uncover the far darker story of Mark’s marriage and family and weave together a story at once compelling and true. Magicians and misdirection, gambling, down-on-one’s-luck, the crazed sense of possibility and impossibility, mistaken identity, impersonators and body doubles, people acting bizarrely with all sorts of chaos, and overlaps thrown in for good measure. The twists this plot takes are all but impossible to anticipate. Reading Abracadabra is deliciously magical.

Amazon Releases Year In Books List

This Year in Books celebrated the books that defined 2017, and highlighted some of the year’s most-read books. It probably comes as no surprise that Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale received that distinction in the Fiction genre. Nonfiction’s most-read book was Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. These picks reflect customers’ favorite Kindle and Audible books. Check out the page for all sorts of Amazon-gleaned data for 2017.

A Predictive Keyboard Writes A Harry Potter Story

Using J.K. Rowling’s books, a predictive keyboard wrote a new Harry Potter story and it is good stuff. “Good” meaning hilarious. The story is titled, Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash. Here’s a taste: “He saw Harry and immediately began to eat Hermione’s family. Ron’s Ron shirt was just as bad as Ron himself.” Pure gold.

The Seattle Public Library Tweets Criminal Justice Reform

The Seattle Public Library announced on Twitter that they teamed with some of the city’s legal advocates to discuss criminal justice, and equity and inclusion. What followed was a thread sharing facts, information, and resources on the racial disparities present in our criminal justice system. If you want to join in and share facts from reputable sources, tag @SPLBuzz and use the #criminaljustice hashtag through the end of the year.

We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter, or just click the image below.

Nimona Creator To Reboot She-Ra For Netflix

You read right. The Eisner Award-winning creator of Nimona and Lumberjanes, Noelle Stevenson, is showrunning a She-Ra reboot for Netflix. The series is being described as “an epic and timely tale that celebrates female friendship and empowerment, led by a warrior princess tailor made for today.” Netflix members worldwide will get the She-Ra reboot in 2018. May it be as wonderful as Nimona.

Feminism Declared Merriam-Webster’s Word Of The Year

Merriam-Webster wasn’t about to let Dictionary.com give all the side-eye by naming “complicit” their word of the year. So MW announced “feminism” as their 2017 selection. Alright, it isn’t a competition, and 2017 has given us enough side-eye to go around and then some. News coverage of the Women’s March on Washington D.C. led to a spike in look-ups for feminism, according to MW. Searches spiked again when Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s advisor, said she didn’t consider herself a feminist, and again around the releases of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and the Wonder Woman film.

The 2018 Poem-A-Day Series

The Academy of American Poets announced its selection of 12 guest editors for the 2018 Poem-a-Day series. Each guest judge will curate a month of poems for the daily poetry series sharing previously unpublished poems by today’s poets. The guest judges include poet laureate of the United States Tracy K. Smith, Pushcart Prize recipient Kaveh Akbar, and Lamba Literary Award-winner Dawn Lundy Martin.

And, in case you missed it, we’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year! Click here to enter.

Today in Books is sponsored by Running Press Book Publishers.

Smash the patriarchy this holiday season with great gifts for your favorite females from Running Press. Give the gifts of confidence, creativity, humor, magic, and self-care with books for every woman in your life: YOU ARE A BADASS for her entrepreneurial spirit, PATTERN BEHAVIOR for some nostalgic laughs, PRACTICAL MAGIC for weekend witches, FEMINIST ICON CROSS-STITCH for year-round craftivism, and SLOW BEAUTY for natural and nourishing mindfulness.