Book Pulse
B&N’s plan for Diverse Editions gets called “literary blackface.” Vendetta Road by Christine Feehan leads eight new books onto the bestseller lists. The Witcher helps a new audiobook top that list. Susanna Clarke releases a teaser about Piranesi.
Mary Higgins Clark has died. Golden in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel (In Death, Book 50) by J. D. Robb leads holds this week. Reese Witherspoon’s February book club pick is The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister. In Costco Connection, influential book buyer Pennie Clark Ianniciello picks The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson as her February choice. The 2019 Locus Recommended Reading List is out. Lin Manuel Miranda confirms that a Hamilton film is on the way “sooner rather than later."
Concerns about threats of violence around American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins prompt statements from WaPo, PEN America, and others; more alternative reading lists are out as well. There are also new booklists for February. A bookselling startup takes on Amazon. LJ has a report on the state of the Macmillan embargo. Jerry Seinfeld will have a book about comedy out on Oct. 6. Witches, Norse mythology, and new series dominate page-to-screen adaptations this week.
Nicole Kidman is involved with two new adaptations, including Liane Moriarty’s forthcoming Nine Perfect Strangers. Paradox by Catherine Coulter leads holds this week but The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon is winning the buzz contest. Will Smith is writing a book with Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.
Lost material from Malcolm X has been bought by the Schomburg Center at the NYPL. Get ready for another Trump book, this one from Omarosa Manigault-Newman. Worldcon, the SFF convention where the Hugo awards are selected, is facing a backlash from attendees and authors. Ushering in the weekend, there are several adaptations.
Eight new bestsellers arrive and the 2018 World Fantasy Awards finalists are announced. Plenty of new adaptations are in the works too, including a project by Reese Witherspoon and a film version of Shirley Jackson’s "The Lottery."
Hamilton might be headed to the movies. The comic series Saga is taking at least a one-year break. Sarah Jessica Parker picks three summer reads. Haruki Murakami is censored in Hong Kong.
History is made with the Man Booker longlist. Romance favorite Julia Quinn's Bridgerton books will be adapted for Netflix. Jane Austen's first buyer was likely a man she loathed.
Ghosted by Rosie Walsh leads holds this week, the Eisner Awards are out, and the Man Booker longlist is on deck for tomorrow. Plus, librarians have much to say about an op-ed in Forbes about replacing libraries with Amazon.