Category: Today In Books

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Today In Books

You Can Now Take a Cruise Inspired by GONE GIRL: Today in Books

She-Hulk Star Jameela Jamil Defends the Character’s Look on the Show

When Jameela Jamil’s look in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was unveiled, there were quite a few criticisms, and Jamil understands where fans are coming from. Jamil, who plays antagonist Titania opposite Tatiana Maslany’s She-Hulk, said Marvel fans are right to encourage the company to make appropriate changes to their content when needed. “As long as it isn’t done in a cruel or toxic way, I’m with the Marvel fan base when they push for more — I’m into it,” she said. The first look at Jamil’s character was first posted on July 8th, and you can see it here. She-Hulk comes to Disney+ on August 17th.

Yale Announces 2022 Frederick Douglass Book Prize Finalists

Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition has announced the finalists for the 24th annual Frederick Douglass Book Prize. The annual prize of $25,000 is one of the most coveted awards for the study of the African American experience. The finalists are: Tiya Miles for All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake (Random House); Jennifer L. Morgan for Reckoning with Slavery: Gender, Kinship, and Capitalism in the Early Black Atlantic (Duke University Press); and Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh for The Souls of Womenfolk: The Religious Cultures of Enslaved Women in the Lower South (University of North Carolina Press). The winner will be announced in February 2023.

You Can Now Take a Cruise Inspired by Gone Girl

If you read Gone Girl and wished there was a cruise themed around Gillian Flynn’s popular thriller, you’re in luck. Gillian Flynn is offering fans the chance to revisit the novel while on a Gone Girl cruise to celebrate the book’s 10th anniversary. The Avalon Waterways cruise will travel along the Danube River from “Budapest to Vienna and beyond.” Flynn will also be aboard to sign books and sit down for Q&As. There are still tickets available, and the ship sets sail September 15-22.

Barack Obama’s 2022 Summer Reading List

It’s that time of year when we gather ’round and discuss former President Barack Obama’s reading list for the summer!

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Will Ryan Gosling Join the Marvel Cinematic Universe?: Today in Books

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Teaser Trailer Nabs 172 Million Views in 24 Hours

The first Black Panther: Wakanda Forever teaser trailer was able to nab 172 million views in its first 24 hours, becoming one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s top trailer debuts for a superhero movie. This is nearly double the 88 million views the original Black Panther teaser trailer received in 2017. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will hit theaters on November 11th.

Austin Public Library’s Banned Camp Stands Up to Book Bans in Texas

Texas leads the country in book bans with 713 across 16 districts, and now Austin Public Library is standing against book bans with Banned Camp. Banned Camp is a series of free events hosted by the Austin Public Library in partnership with BookPeople. All summer, these events will focus on the books dealing with race, LGBTQ+ issues, and sexuality that are being taken off shelves across the country. Meghan Goel, BookPeople’s Children’s Book Buyer and Programming Director, said, “This summer we want to invite families and readers of all ages to explore recently challenged books with us; to read broadly and critically; to openly discuss which books strike chords with us as readers and what they made us think about.” The next Banned Camp event is a Read-Watch-Talk Movie Matinee viewing of The Color Purple on Saturday, July 30th. For more details and a full list of events, head to Austin Public Library’s Banned Camp Events page.

Will Ryan Gosling Join the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Is Ryan Gosling joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Nothing is official as of yet, but Gosling has expressed interest in playing Ghost Rider, and Keven Feige, president of Marvel Studios, told MTV News at Comic-Con that he’d “love to find a place” for Gosling in the MCU. “Gosling’s unbelievable. Ryan is amazing,” Feige said. “I’d love to find a place for him in the MCU. He’s dressed up as Ken on Venice Beach and gets more press than giant movies coming out that weekend. It’s amazing.” You can watch Fiege’s full interview here.

Florida Teachers Told to Remove Classroom Libraries for Review

Following the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Florida teachers have been told to pull their classroom libraries until each title has been approved.

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AMC Releases Full Trailer for INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE: Today in Books

Nightfire Proves Love is Real with Chuck Tingle’s Horror Novel Camp Damascus

Tor Nightfire’s senior editor Kelly Lonesome has acquired two new horror novels from two time Hugo-award finalist Dr. Chuck Tingle. The first novel is entitles Camp Damascus and is scheduled for a July 18, 2023 release. “I am so excited to expand the reaches of The Tingleverse with Tor Nightfire,” said Tingle. “While short romantic Tinglers will continue on their usual self-published schedule, Nightfire will be the home of Chuck’s longform horror releases, and I cannot think of a better place to prove love is real even when you’re frightened.”

AMC Releases Full Trailer for Interview with the Vampire

AMC has released the full trailer for their upcoming series based on Anne Rice’s beloved novel Interview with the Vampire. The seven-episode season will not cover all of the events of Rice’s first novel, but producers are hoping they’ll get to continue to tell the rest of the story in future seasons. They’re also looking to create a whole expanded universe based on all of Rice’s novels. “The books are so much fun, and they’re so different,” said executive producer Mark Johnson. “It’s hard to believe sometimes that they’re connected, but they are. While one might be about vampires and one might be about witches and one might be about God knows what, they are all connected. You guys will tell us whether this will be a franchise or not but I believe that this world, the Anne Rice world, is going to go on for some time on AMC.” Interview with the Vampire premieres on AMC and AMC Plus on Sunday, October 2nd.

School District Given LGBTQ-Affirming Books, but Parents Objected

LGBTQ-affirming books donated to Solana Beach School District schools have been met with objections from parents. Over the past three years, Orange County native Keiko Feldman, co-founder of the non-profit Open Books, has helped donate over 15,000 LGBTQ-affirming children’s books to more than 1,000 public school libraries, mostly in California. Feldman says the idea is to show kids that it’s okay to be LGBTQ. But when Feldman dropped off books last year in Solana Beach — a North County district of 2,800 students in kindergarten through sixth grade — at a teacher’s request, not all parents were happy about it. Some parents and community members complained to the district, arguing that the books were inappropriate for elementary school libraries. Now the district has stopped the books from going into circulation due to the controversy.

Book Riot Will Match Your Donation to the National Network of Abortion Funds

This week, we’re matching up to $2500 in donations to the National Network of Abortion Funds. Here’s how to take part.

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Julie Plec and Universal TV Option YA Books WE WERE LIARS, FAMILY OF LIARS, and AGAIN AGAIN By E. Lockhart: Today in Books

Marvel Studios’ Powerful New ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Trailer Debuts At Comic-Con

Marvel Studios released a new two-minute trailer at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday of its new Black Panther film “Wakanda Forever,” which is scheduled for theater release on November 11th. The trailer features Namor and the kingdom of Atlantis as well as a glimpse of a mysterious new Black Panther.

Julie Plec and Universal TV Option YA Books We Were Liars, Family of Liars, and Again Again By E. Lockhart

Julie Plec’s My So-Called Company and Universal Television have acquired the rights to We Were Liars, Family of Liars, and Again Again by E. Lockhart. Carina Adly MacKenzie and Lockhart will co-write the adaptation of Again Again, with MacKenzie as showrunner and MacKenzie, Plec, and Plec’s partner at MSCC, Emily Cummins, as executive producers. Plec will adapt We Were Liars and Family of Liars.

The Kite Runner Brings Life in Afghanistan to Broadway

On Thursday night, a stage adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 best-selling novel, The Kite Runner, opened on Broadway for a limited run. The play got its first professional performance in 2009 and the Broadway production is a restaging of a version that was done in Nottingham, England, in 2013 and subsequently in London’s West End twice.

2022 World Fantasy Awards Finalists Announced

The World Fantasy Awards Finalists for 2022 have been announced, celebrating outstanding fantasy fiction works that were published the previous calendar year.

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Disney Developing New Musical Comedy PENELOPE: Today in Books

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Shares Cover of Debut Novel

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, the New York Times Bestselling Author of Friday Black, has shared the cover of his upcoming debut novel on Instagram. The novel, entitled Chain-Gang All-Stars, features artwork by Kimberly Glyder. Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir, said of Adjei-Brenyah’s novel, “In a narrative world where the real is growingly more unbelievable than the make believe, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Chain-Gang All-Stars is an uncanny, singular feat of literature. I’ve never read satire so bruising, so brolic, so tender and really, so pitch-perfect. It’s nuts brilliant. Just read it!” The book is available for pre-order now and will be released on April 4th, 2023.

Hong Kong Publishers Excluded from Book Fair

At least three booksellers say they were banned from Hong Kong’s annual book fair for selling books that were deemed politically sensitive. Publishers Hillway Culture, Humming Publishing, and Kind Of Culture were all rejected from the trade fair. The city’s trade development council, which organises the fair, refused to comment on the rejections, only saying that not every application would be successful.

Disney Developing New Musical Comedy Penelope

Disney is developing a new musical comedy, Penelope, which will be a unique twist on the classic fairy tale “The Princess and the Pea.” Exact plot details are being kept under wraps, but we do know that the script is being written by Robert Sudduth, and Will Gluck is producing through his Olive Bridge banner. Sources say that the project is being developed for a theatrical release.

What Would Help You Fight Book Bans?

A survey to help you better fight book bans, plus this week’s censorship news from Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, and more.

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Legendary Comic Book Writer Alan Grant Dies at Age 73: Today in Books

Read an Excerpt from Preeti Chhibber’s Novel Spider-man’s Social Dilemma

Preeti Chhibber’s middle-grade novel Spider-Man’s Social Dilemma comes out on July 26th from Marvel Press, and Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive excerpt from the upcoming book. Chibber says the message from Marvel asking her to to write an original Spider-man story was, “the best email I’ve ever gotten in my entire life!” Marvel gave Chibber a lot of flexibility in crafting this new novel after she nailed the voice of Peter Parker in the Spider-man: Far From Home 2019 tie-in book, Peter and Ned’s Ultimate Travel Journal. The new novel is set a few months after Peter Parker gains his powers, and it focuses on Peter balancing the demands of being a superhero with teen pressures like group projects, being late to class, and crushing on his next-door neighbor.

Wheel of Time Gets Early Season 3 Renewal

Amazon’s Prime Video has given an early season three renewal to the fantasy series Wheel of Time. The renewal was announced on Thursday at Comic-Con. Season three will be based on The Shadow Rising, the fourth book in Robert Jordan’s 14-volume series. Wheel of TIme was renewed for its second season back in May 2021, six months before its series debut. The streamer hasn’t set a season two premiere date yet.

Legendary Comic Book Writer Alan Grant Dies at Age 73

Influential Batman and Judge Dredd writer Alan Grant has died at the age of 73. His wife Susan Grant announced his death via Facebook. “I have no words,” she wrote. “Alan died this morning.” No cause of death has been revealed. “Horribly saddened to hear of the passing of Alan Grant,” said fellow Batman writer, Tom King. “Lobo, LEGION, Batman—these books questioned what superhero comics could be and do: they were sharply, cooly cynical and yet oddly—and wonderfully—they contained a powerful, warm undercurrent of hope. Hell of a writer. RIP.”

New Michelle Obama Book Coming This Fall

Former First Lady Michelle Obama has a new book, The Light We Carry, coming out November 15, 2022.

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HBO Releases Full-Length Trailer for HOUSE OF THE DRAGON: Today in Books

H.E.R. to Star as Belle in ABC’s Beauty and the Beast Special

Grammy and Academy Award-winning singer-songwriter H.E.R will be playing Belle in ABC’s upcoming animated and live-action blended special, Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration. This will be the first time an Afro Filipina woman has played the role of Belle on screen. “I can’t believe I get to be a part of the Beauty and the Beast legacy. The world will see a Black and Filipino Belle!” said H.E.R. “I have always wanted to be a Disney princess, and I get to work with two wonderful directors Hamish Hamilton and my favorite, Jon M. Chu. It is very surreal and I couldn’t be more grateful.”

Christina Ricci Stars as Harley Quinn in New Spotify Series

Spotify has announced their latest audio series produced in partnership with Warner Bros. and DC, Harley Quinn & The Joker: Sound Mind, which will star Christina Ricci as Harley Quinn. Joining her will be Billy Magnussen as the Joker and Justin Hartley as Batman. The audio series is developed, written, and directed by Eli Horowitz (Homecoming), and tells the story of Harley Quinn’s descent to infamy from the perspective of Harley Quinn herself.

HBO Releases Full-Length Trailer for House of the Dragon

HBO has released the full-length trailer for its upcoming series House of the Dragon. The series premiere was also announced: the first episode drops on August 21, just a month from now. The 10-episode season is based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, which set is 300 years before Game of Thrones. Martin told The Hollywood Reporter that fans should expect the show to be “powerful…visceral…dark… There’s no Arya — a character everybody’s going to love. They’re all flawed. They’re all human. They do good things. They do bad things. They’re driven by lust for power, jealousy, old wounds — just like human beings. Just like I wrote them.”

10 New Full-Cast Audiobooks to Listen to for an Incredible Reading Experience

A full cast of narrators brings an audiobook to life in totally new and unexpected ways. Here are some of the latest you can’t miss.

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Get a First Look at Rupi Kaur’s HEALING THROUGH WORDS: Today in Books

Netflix Greenlights Japanese Thriller Series Burn the House Down

Netflix has greenlit the Japanese mystery thriller series Burn the House Down, based on the manga by Moyashi Fujisawa. The manga series began publication in Kodansha’s Kiss magazine in 2017. It was an immediate hit, and there have been many adaptation offers in the past few years. Director Yuichiro Hirakawa has signed on to helm the series, and screenwriter Arisa Kaneko is writing the adaptation. The series will star Mei Nagano and Kyoka Suzuki. Burn the House Down will be the first Netflix project for both of them. Netflix says the series is expected to release in 2023.

Here’s a First Look at Rupi Kaur’s Writing Book Healing Through Words

Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive first look at poet Rupi Kaur’s writing book Healing Through Words. “I’ve written three books, but sometimes I think my readers think it’s really easy and I never get writer’s block, but that’s not true,” Kaur told Entertainment Weekly. “In Healing Through Words, I share all of my secrets and hopefully lay down the pathway for [my readers] to feel inspired and creative. Sometimes finding inspiration and getting creative is work. So hopefully I’ve been able to take that work out by creating these exercises and made it easier on the person who’s approaching the book.” Healing Through Words will be in bookstores everywhere on September 27th, and it’s available for preorder now.

Jennifer Down Wins 2022 Miles Franklin Award for Bodies of Light

Melbourne author Jennifer Down has won the 2022 Miles Franklin Award for her sophomore novel Bodies of Light. The Miles Franklin Award is given to a novel “of the highest literary merit [that] presents Australian life in any of its phases.” Down said that the books on this year’s shortlist “speak to the breadth and depth of storytelling emerging in Australia at the moment … It feels cool to be part of that cohort.” You can read a guide to the literary prize’s shortlist here.

The Rise of Environmental Book Clubs

Public interest in the environment has seen a meteoric rise in recent years. As a result, so has the number of environmental book clubs.

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Peter Dinklage Joins HUNGER GAMES Prequel Cast: Today in Books

Bolu Babalola is Writing a Sequel to Summer Hit Novel Honey & Spice

Bolu Babalola’s romance Honey & Spice, which was Reese’s Book Club pick for July, is getting a sequel, Sun Under Skin. This second novel will revisit Kiki and Malakai, the protagonists of Honey & Spice, this time jumping ahead to their future. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bolu Babalola explained, “As much as [Kiki and Malakai’s] love is very much real, I wanted it to be grounded in reality — they’re going to grow up, mature, figure out who they are apart from each other, and I really wanted to see how their romance and love would fare in that context, as adults who have lived a little more, know themselves a little more. Does their love grow too? Did they need to grow apart in order to be together properly?” The novel is expected to hit shelves in 2024.

TikTok Launches Official Book Club

Due to the runaway popularity of #BookTok on the TikTok app, TikTok is now launching an official book club. The TikTok Book Club will be open to everyone, much like #BookTok is, but with an organized structure. Each month, a new book will be announced within the app. Community members will be able to read along and share their thoughts. There will also be a special Book Club hub within the app, which is where announcements about the book club will be shared. There will also be a team of “BookTok Laureates,” a group of five TikTokkers who will dive into each novel and share their thoughts on the app. At the end of the month, the five will host a TikTok Live session to discuss the book. The first TikTok Book Club pick? Jane Austen’s Persuasion, just in time for the Netflix adaptation!

Peter Dinklage Joins the Cast of Hunger Games Prequel

Peter Dinklage has joined the cast of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the upcoming Hunger Games prequel. The Game of Thrones star will be playing the role of Casca Highbottom, the Dean of the school that young Coriolanus attends. “Dean Highbottom is one of the most powerful people in Snow’s life. As the austere and vindictive face of the games, he sets the rules that will determine every aspect of Coriolanus’s fate, I’m thrilled that Peter will be bringing him to life,” the movie’s director, Francis Lawrence, said in a statement. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes premieres in theaters on November 17, 2023.

Attendees Attacked at Canadian Drag Queen Story Hour

The area’s first ever Pride event was disrupted when a man got out of a truck and allegedly began swinging a flagpole at attendees.

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Netflix’s SEX EDUCATION Gets A Manga Adaptation: Today in Books

Tessa Bailey Sells Three More Romantic Comedy Novels to Avon

Bestselling author Tessa Bailey has sold three more romantic comedy novels to Nicole Fischer at Avon. The books, which are currently untitled, include a duology and one standalone, and the first book is set for a fall 2023 release. Avon promises the novels will be “chock-full of Bailey’s signature humor, steam, and heart.” Bailey has sold more than a million copies total of her bestsellers It Happened One Summer (2021) and Hook, Line, and Sinker (2022).

Netflix’s Sex Education Gets A Manga Adaptation

Netflix’s hit series Sex Education is getting a manga adaptation. The manga comes from Kadokawa’s Global Comic label and will be drawn by John Tarrachine, who most recently wrote and drew the 2020 manga Umi ga Harishu End Roll. The first issue of the manga is already done and available on Kadokawa’s Comic Bridge website now.

Brooklyn Public Library Offers Free Library Cards

The Brooklyn Public Library is offering free library cards to anyone in the U.S. aged 13 to 21 who wants to check out books digitally. The initiative, called Books UnBanned, was created in response to a nationwide wave of book bans and restrictions. You can read more about the program on the Brooklyn Public Library’s website.

YA Summer Romance Adaptations to Stream Right Now

There are plenty of YA adaptations coming out, but here are a few romances to check out for extra summer-y vibes.