Category: Today In Books

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Today In Books

New York Public Library makes banned books available for free: Today in Books

New York Public Library makes banned books available for free

In response to more than 1,500 books challenged to be removed from libraries in the last year, New York Public Libraries launched an initiative called Books for All, which aims to make some banned books available to everyone (regardless of library card-carrying status) for free. The initiative allows readers 13 and older to access commonly banned books through the library’s app through the end of May — free from wait times or fines.

How to see Amanda Gorman and much more as the Festival of Books returns

Amanda Gorman, the nation’s youngest inaugural poet, will return to her hometown Festival of Books L.A. Times Main Stage as the headliner on April 23rd. She will be discussing her latest poetry collection written during the depths of the pandemic, Call Us What We Carry.

Utah high school students turn a YA novel into a musical

Students at Olympus High School in Holladay, Utah are creating a musical based on Marissa Meyer’s YA novel Heartless. The students started to work on the project in 2019, emailed Meyer’s assistant, and less than a month later, got a response expressing support. Now, the production will hit the stage of CenterPoint Legacy Theatre in Centerville on April 22.

A Picture Book About Unicorns Was Banned in an Ohio School District

Picture book author, Jason Tharp, was invited for a visit to an elementary school in Buckeye Valley School District in Ohio. However, he was told not not to read from his book It’s Okay To Be a Unicorn! after a parent complained assuming the book had LGBTQ content because there was a rainbow on the front cover.

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What We’ll Be Reading Next Year Based on Trends from the London Book Fair: Today in Books

Henry Golding Joins Chuck Klosterman Adaptation Downtown Owl

Henry Golding has joined the cast of Downtown Owl, an adaptation of Chuck Klosterman’s New York Times bestselling novel of the same name. This film is the directorial debut of Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater. Golding will appear in the film alongside Rabe. Ed Harris, Vanessa Hudgens, Finn Wittrock, Jack Dylan Grazer, and August Blanco Rosenstein are also cast in the movie.

What Will We Be Reading Next Year?: 5 Trends from the London Book Fair

After two years off due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the London Book Fair returned last week, and The Guardian took note of some of the biggest trends at the fair and what they say about what we can expect to read in the next year. What can we expect? More fiction books written by celebrities, more books that will help readers understand Ukrainian/Russian relations, more adaptations of Greek mythology, more dark and troubling stories from the perspective of women, and more self-help books to help readers cope with the anxieties of modern life.

These Parents are Fighting for Diverse Books

Despite the vocal groups of parents who are calling for book bans across the country, there are still millions of parents who want their children to have access to books featuring characters of all races and backgrounds and books that include LGBTQ+ families. Two moms in Maine have been working on this issue for years, and have created valuable resources for parents around the country who want their children to have access to diverse books. Dr. Krista Arsonson has created Diverse BookFinder, which includes over 4,000 books with an impressive search feature. Alli Harper created the book subscription service OurShelves, which curates diverse book boxes for children. Read more about these resources and their mission here!

Potential Increase to Library Budget and What You Can Do to Help

President Biden is proposing a much needed increase to the federal budget for library services. Here’s what you can do to help it go through.

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Obamas’ Higher Ground Signs on to Netflix Adaptation of LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND: Today in Books

Ocean Vuong Shares His Reading List with the New York Times

Ocean Vuong’s poetry collection Time is a Mother was released earlier this month, and now the poet and author has shared his reading list with the New York Times. Authors mentioned include Toni Morrison, Ernest J. Gaines, Kenzaburo Oe, Cynthia Cruz, Jason Reynolds, Jia Tolentino, and many more.

Obamas’ Higher Ground Signs on to Netflix Adaptation of Leave the World Behind

Higher Ground, the production company founded by former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, has signed on to Netflix’s adaptation of Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. The film will star Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, and Myha’la Herrold. Sam Esmail, the creator of Mr. Robot and Homecoming, wrote and directed the adaptation.

Wipf and Stock Publishers to Pull Bad and Boujee from Distribution

Wipf and Stock Publishers have initiated the removal and ceased distribution of the book Bad and Boujee: Toward a Trap Feminist Theology after the book was criticized on many platforms. Cascade, an imprint of Wipf and Stock, originally published Bad and Boujee on February 22nd. The book’s goal is to engage “with the overlap of black experience, hip-hop music, ethics, and feminism to focus on a subsection known as ‘trap feminism’ and construct a Trap Feminist Theology.” The problem? Author Jennifer M. Buck is white. On April 11th, popular Christian writer and podcaster Jo Luehmann criticized Bad and Boujee on her Instagram account, asking Buck how she was qualified to write a book on the experience of Black women. On April 13th and 14th, several Black women authors, academics, and theologians took to Twitter to criticize the book and share their perspective. Jim Tedrick, Wipf and Stock’s director of publications, said the publisher has “initiated the removal [of] the book from publication and distribution.”

What Do School Boards Do?: This Week’s Book Censorship News

A look at what role the school board plays, particularly with book challenges. That and this week’s roundup of censorship news.

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Taylor Jenkins Reid Unveils Cover for CARRIE SOTO IS BACK: Today in Books

Brandon Taylor’s Filthy Animals Wins This Year’s Story Prize

The winner of this year’s Story Prize is Brandon Taylor’s Filthy Animals. The judges praised Filthy Animals for “the power, precision, and emotional acuity of its writing.” The Story Prize’s top prize of $20,000 is one of the largest first-prize amounts of any annual U.S. book award for fiction. For 18 years, The Story Prize has annually honored the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction. This year’s winner Brandon Taylor was also recently named a 2022-2023 Fellow at the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

The National Book Foundation Announces the 2022 5 Under 35 Honorees

The National Book Foundation has named five debut fiction writers as the 5 under 35 honorees. This year’s honorees were each selected by past National Book Award Winners, Finalists, and Longlisted authors, or writers previously recognized by the 5 Under 35 program. The honorees for 2022 are Alexandra Chang, Joseph Han, Crystal Hana Kim, Clare Sestanovich, and Alyssa Songsiridej. Both the 2022 and 2021 5 Under 35 honorees will be celebrated at an invitation-only ceremony in New York City this June.

Taylor Jenkins Reid Unveils Cover for Carrie Soto is Back

If you’ve been anxiously awaiting more news about Taylor Jenkins Reid’s forthcoming novel Carrie Soto is Back, here it is: Taylor Jenkins Reid has unveiled the cover of her highly anticipated novel. Reid wrote on Instagram, “She acts like she’s better than everyone. She doesn’t smile enough. She doesn’t thank anyone when she wins. She thinks the world revolves around her. But she is the best tennis player in the history of the sport. Whether you like it or not. And I love that about her. I cannot wait to share this story with you. This is the most fun I’ve ever had writing a book.” Carrie Soto is Back is out on August 30th.

High School Students Share How Book Bans Affect Their Lives

One high school English teacher shares what her students have to say about book bans and the role reading plays in their lives.

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Orbit Books Reveals Cover for N.K. Jemisin’s THE WORLD WE MAKE: Today in Books

Marvel’s IRONHEART Finds Its Directors

Marvel’s Disney+ series Ironheart has hired Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes as directors. Bailey will direct episodes one through three, while Barnes will helm the back half, episodes four to six. Additionally, Ryan Coogler has joined the project as executive producer alongside Chinaka Hodge, Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, and Zoie Nagelhout. Ironheart will star Dominique Thorne, who plays Riri Williams. Riri is a brilliant teenage inventor who builds her own version of the Iron Man suit in an MIT dorm.

Dey Street Buys Gucci Guru Alessandro Michele’s Fashion Philosophy Book

Alessandro Michele, the creative director of Gucci, has sold a currently untitled book of “fashion philosophy” to Harper Collins imprint Dey Street. The book, set to be published in spring 2023, was written with Paris philosophy professor Emanuele Coccia, author of The Life of Plants. Dey Street said in a statement that Michele’s book will “show how traditionally distinct forms of creativity and intellectual pursuit—fashion and philosophy—are inextricably intertwined.”

Orbit Books Reveals Cover for N.K. Jemisin’s The World We Make

Earlier this week, Orbit Books shared the cover reveal for N.K. Jemisin’s The World We Make, the second book in The Great Cities duology. The cover design is by Lauren Panepinto, who has also worked on the covers for many other N.K. Jemisin titles. The World We Make is available for preorder now and will be out on November 1st.

What Books Belong in the Queer YA Canon?

What queer YA books should be included in the YA canon? Here are a few ideas.

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Hulu Sets Premiere Date for CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS: Today in Books

Sandhya Menon Announces Her Next Adult Romance Novel

On Instagram earlier today, Sandhya Menon announced the details of her second adult rom com novel The Sizzle Paradox, which she will publish under her adult romance pen name Lily Menon. Menon shared a starred review from Kirkus, which reads, “Menon’s latest novel follows the unbeatable rom-com blueprint of laugh-out-loud moments…and sweltering sex scenes… A 5 out of 5 on the romance scale.” The Sizzle Paradox will be out from St. Martin’s Griffin on July 14th.

Hulu Sets Premiere Date for Conversations with Friends

Hulu has set the premiere date for their upcoming series adaptation of Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. The 12-episode series will premiere on the streaming service on May 15th. Conversations With Friends will simultaneously debut on BBC Three. Hulu also released an extended trailer for the series on Monday. The trailer marks the debut of a new Phoebe Bridgers song, “Sidelines.” The series will star Sasha Lane, Joe Alwyn, Jemimia Kirke, and newcomer Alison Oliver, in her first-ever screen credit.

Random House and Sugar23 Partner to Launch Book Imprint

Penguin Random House’s Random House division is teaming up with Sugar23, a TV/film and content management and media production house, to launch the imprint Sugar23 Books. The launch of Sugar23 Books/Random House will effectively end the publishing program of a previously established Sugar23 book imprint launched at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2020. In a release, Sugar23 founder Michael Sugar praised Random House’s “track record of publishing masterful storytellers and amplifying stories.”

Nimona is Being Made into a Netflix Movie

Nimona by ND Stevenson is being adapted into a film. A previous movie version of Nimona was cancelled when the studio closed, but it’s now being adapted by Netflix and will be out in 2023.

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

Disney+ Casts Walker Scobell as Title Role in Percy Jackson Series

Walker Scobell has landed the title role in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Disney+’s series adaptation of author Rick Riordan’s best-selling novels. “Walker Scobell is an incredibly talented young man who blew us away with his audition tapes for the role of Percy,” Riordan wrote on his website. “Many of you recently discovered how great Walker is when you watched his movie The Adam Project, in which Walker lit up the screen as a younger version of Ryan Reynolds’ character. We were fortunate enough to audition Walker months before that movie came out, but the film only confirmed what we already knew about his talent. It was obvious to me and the rest of the team that Walker had the perfect mix of comedic timing, sweetness, rebelliousness, snark and heroism to embody our hero Percy Jackson.”

AMC Releases First Teaser Trailer for Interview with the Vampire

AMC has released the first teaser trailer of the upcoming series adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire. AMC has also released the official logo for the show, and a release window. We should expect the series to premier in fall 2022. Just in time for Halloween!

Alice Walker Headlines 2022 Mississippi Book Festival

After two years of being virtual due to COVID-19, the Mississippi Book Festival is set to return in-person this year, with author Alice Walker headlining, exactly 40 years after the release of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple. “We are thrilled to have Alice Walker back in the city where she once lived and the place where her daughter was born,” Mississippi Book Festival Executive Director Ellen Daniels said. “Her appearance will be a homecoming of sorts for her and we are honored that book lovers and festival-goers will have the opportunity to share in that moment.” The festival plans to announce more attending authors in the coming weeks. You can find out more about it here.

6 Databases Offered by Public Libraries to Know and Try

From genealogy services to archives of primary resources, discover some of the databases offered by public libraries across the country.

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New Yorkers Returned Almost 100,000 Old Library Books: Today in Books

New Yorkers Returned Almost 100,000 Old Library Books After Late Fees Were Eliminated

In October 2021, New York City’s three major library systems, Queens, Brooklyn, and New York Public Libraries, announced that late fees on borrowed materials would be canceled as part of a joint initiative. Since then, almost 100,000 books have made their return back to libraries across the city.

2022 Hugo Award Finalists Announced

The finalists for the 2022 Hugo Awards, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book have been announced! The full list of finalists can be found on the 2022 Hugo Awards page.

Author Sues New York Prisons For Banning Book About the Attica Uprising

Heather Ann Thompson, the author of Blood in the Water: The 1971 Uprising at Attica Prison and Its Legacy, is suing the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervisions (DOCCS) for banning her book from the Attica prison and others in the state. Blood in the Water details the uprising of over 1,200 incarcerated people at the Attica Correctional Facility in 1971 due to dismal living standards. Thompson seeks to share Blood in the Water with the incarcerated New Yorkers who stand to benefit most from that insight.

Williamson County (TN) Schools Lock Students Out of Digital Resources

This week, in response to a couple of complaints from parents about books available in the digital library app Epic!, the Williamson County (TN) district removed access to the app for review.

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Whoopi Goldberg to Play Bird Woman in ANANSI BOYS TV Series from Neil Gaiman: Today in Books

Tom Hiddleston is Starring in Apple’s The White Darkness

Apple has given a straight-to-series order for The White Darkness, which is based on the nonfiction book by David Grann and will star Tom Hiddleston. The series is a co-production between Universal Content Productions and Apple Studios, and it comes from showrunners Soo Hugh and Mark Heyman. The White Darkness will be the second series for Hugh at Apple following the critically acclaimed adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko. The series will also be the second project for Hiddleston at Apple, as the Loki star will also appear opposite Clare Danes in the Apple’s forthcoming The Essex Serpent, an adaptation of the novel by Sarah Perry.

DC and Webtoon Announce new Vixen, Red Hood, and Zatanna Titles

DC and WEBTOON have announced a new trio of titles that will be joining the platform later this year: Vixen: NYC, Red Hood: Outlaws, and Zatanna & The Ripper. Vixen, written by Jasmine Walls with lead artist Manou Azumi, will be out on May 26th. The two other new titles will be released later in 2022.

Whoopi Goldberg to Play Bird Woman in Anansi Boys TV Series from Neil Gaiman

Whoopi Goldberg is joining Amazon Studios’ Anansi Boys, a new TV series based on the fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman. Goldberg has been cast as Bird Woman, God of the Birds. She is the main villain opposite protagonist Charlie Nancy (Malachi Kirby). Gaiman, who serves as co-showrunner, writer, and executive producer on the project, said he’d always thought of Goldberg as Bird Woman when writing the book. In a statement about the casting, Goldberg said, “I have been a fan of this book for a very long time and when Neil Gaiman told me it was being brought to the screen, I did everything I could to be part of it to help make people aware of Anansi and all his magic.”

National Organization Offers No Actionable Support to Help Librarians with Book Bans

This week’s book censorship news includes a look at what the American Library Association is—and is not—doing right now.

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DRAG RACE Icons Trixie Mattel and Katya Reveal Cover for New Book: Today in Books

Andre Holland to Play Black Panther Leader in Apple TV Show

Moonlight star Andre Holland will play the leader of the Black Panthers in a limited series for Apple TV. The Big Cigar will be a six-episode series based on the Playboy magazine article that detailed how Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton escaped to Cuba. Jim Hecht, who co-created HBO’s Winning Time based on the book by Jeff Pearlman, will write the script and executive produce The Big Cigar. Janine Sherman Barrois, who created TNT’s Claws and OWN’s Kings of Napa, will serve as showrunner. Don Cheadle is set to direct the first two episodes.

Drag Race Icons Trixie Mattel and Katya Reveal Cover of New Book

Entertainment Weekly has the exclusive cover reveal for UNHhhh and Drag Race icons Trixie Mattel and Katya’s second book, Working Girls: Trixie & Katya’s Guide to Professional Womanhood. Trixie Mattel says, “I love our cover. Part of why I love it is because it is giving kind of ‘go girl, give us nothing corporate PowerPoint.’ It looks like on Drag Race when they have them do a fake book.” Working Girls follows Trixie Mattel and Katya’s New York Times bestselling debut, Trixie & Katya’s Guide to Modern Womanhood, which came out in 2020. Their new book is now available for preorder and will hit shelves on October 25th.

Penguin Launches Little Clothbound Classics Series

Penguin Classics is launching a Little Clothbound Classics series, which will star publishing this August. The series will be collectable, small-format editions of stories and short novels. Penguin hopes to showcase the range and diversity of their classics list. The collection will include works by Leo Tolstoy, Franz Kafka, Jane Austen, Virigina Woolf, Yuko Tutshima, and Arthur Schnitzler, just to name a few. Each of the 48 books in the collection will be bound with brightly colored cloth and stamped with foil. Coralie Bickford-Smith will design the covers, and Jessica Harrison will serve as the editor of the series.

Cover Reveal and Excerpt: Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Rayborn

Check out the exclusive cover reveal of Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain Age and read an excerpt from this action-packed thriller!