Mary Bakija

Whether you want to spot birds in your own backyard or make dedicated birding treks, these suggestions will help you get started.

Library groups, authors, bookstores, and more have been speaking out against a recent rise in anti-Asian hate crimes and the recent murders in Atlanta, including pieces in the L.A. Times by Steph Cha, Your House Will Pay, and Sanjena Sathian, Gold Diggers, and interviews with Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings. Forthcoming book news includes Please Don't Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson, Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands by Linda Ronstadt, and Child of Light by Terry Brooks. Joe Pickett, a 10-episode series based on the C.J. Box novels, is in the works. Plus, some adaptations out this week are City of Lies, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and The Runaway Bunny.

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson starts at No. 1 on both the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list and the USA Today Best-Selling Books list. Other new nonfiction titles debuting on bestsellers lists include Everything Will Be Okay by Dana Perino and How to Do the Work by Dr. Nicole LePera. Forthcoming book news includes the first English translation of Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts: Character Files, a memoir from renowned sports agent Rich Paul, and a book of essays from comedian and actress Iliza Shlesinger. The shortlist for the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism is up. City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit by Elmore Leonard will be adapted as a series for FX by the creators of Justified, and Warner Bros. and DC Films will adapt the comic Hourman as a feature film. Plus, the American Booksellers Association calls for the break up of Amazon.

Oprah's latest Book Club focuses on the four Gilead novels by Marilynne Robinson: Gilead, Home, Lila, and Jack. The April book club pick from BuzzFeed is Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia. Nicole Krauss has won the 2021 Sami Rohr Inspiration Award for Fiction. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch will narrate the audiobook version of Double Blind by Edward St. Aubyn. The forthcoming In the Heights: Finding Home will look at Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway debut. Plus, the NYT speaks with a woman who recently returned a book to the Queens Public Library in New York—it was 63 years overdue.

The April Library Reads list is up, and the top pick is The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan. The Year of Peril: America in 1942 by Tracy Campbell wins the New-York Historical Society’s Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize, and the finalists for the Nebula Awards and the Lambda Literary Awards are out. In forthcoming book news, actor Idris Elba is working on several children's books, and Hip-Hop (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano is due out Oct. 5. Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic by Glenn Frankel gets a 4-star review from USA Today. Plus, see a trailer for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Win by Harlan Coben leads library holds this week. Other titles in demand include Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs, The Dating Plan by Sara Desai, and Not Dark Yet by Peter Robinson. The People "Picks" book of the week is We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker. In awards news, Blowout by Rachel Maddow won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album, and the USC Libraries Scripter Awards, which honor the authors and directors of adaptations, go to Nomadland and The Queen’s Gambit. The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin has been optioned for series development. Plus, information about $135 million in relief funding that the NEH will distribute to libraries, archives, academic institutions, and more. 

Zack Snyder's Justice League, the four-hour director's cut of the 2017 film based on the DC Comics superhero team, premiers on HBO Max next week. In other news, a feature based on Writers & Lovers by Lily King, a series based on City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab, and a limited series of Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner are all in the works. Books getting positive reviews include Her Here by Amanda Dennis, You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by Elizabeth Becke, and The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee. Plus, a look at legislation in progress in Maryland regarding ebooks and public libraries.

Life After Death by Sister Souljah debuts at No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list and No. 2 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list. Other new titles on fiction bestseller lists this week include Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, Later by Stephen King, and Dark Sky by C.J. Box. Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff and Beyond Order by Jordan B. Peterson are new to the nonfiction bestseller lists. Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America by Alec MacGillis, a new release about Amazon, gets positive reviews from the L.A. Times and the NYT, while The Washington Post digs into Amazon's ebook policies and how they're impacting libraries. In awards news, the 2021 Shortlist Finalists for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize are announced, with Danielle Evans, Jenny Offill, Darin Strauss, and Lysley Tenorio up for the $50,000 prize; and the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction is also out. Adaptation news includes series in the works for Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison and The Burning Girls by CJ Tudor.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw wins the 2020 Story Prize, which awards a $20,000 prize to collections of short fiction. Author Norton Juster, best known for The Phantom Tollbooth and The Dot and the Line, has died at age 91. The Off-Broadway opening for Blindness, an immersive audio adaptation of the book by José Saramago, is set for April 2. Adaptations in the works include an animated series based on the graphic novel series Slam! co-creted by Pamela Ribon and Veronica Fish, and a series based on The Wives by Tarryn Fisher. Plus, the Loanstars April list is up, and EarlyWord's GalleyChat for March is out.