This Week In Books
February 23, 2024 Edition
Valentine’s Day, Schmalentines Day. I will not be satisfied with a single day to celebrate love. February shall be Love Month henceforth. And what warms the cockles of my heart more than the book world? Nothing. Books are my only love. And the book world reciprocates my affection because look what it has delivered! A roundup of love, laughs, librarians, even a lawsuit – plus Bigfoot and Josh Brolin and Bluey and more. Cue the wonderful absurdity:
Romancing The Readers: It should surprise no one that romance novels are having a moment. There’s even been a sharp rise in romance-only bookstores to serve what was once thought of (probably by men) as a niche market. No longer are these steamy tomes sequestered at the back of B&N, now they have entire stores of their own. In fact, romance has mingled with other genres (see romantasy or sports romance) to create its own juggernaut reading culture. The truth is that romance has always been the top selling genre, but, thanks to Booktok and Gen Z, the novels that were once passed around without their covers are now openly discussed on socials. Our only complaint? We miss Fabio.
Lit Girl Summer: Speaking of Gen Z’s love of reading, supermodel Kaia Gerber is set to become the next tastemaker in the book industry. Last week she officially launched her literary book club dedicated to getting more young people reading. This is the natural evolution of her Instagram book club where she has hosted authors and artists for quite some time. Not alone in her pursuit of literary influence, she is joined by other celebrities like Kendall Jenner and Timothée Chalamet who, when spotted in public with a book, have driven sales and online book discourse. All of this is confirmation that Gen Z is turning back to the written word and integrating it with new technologies in an organic way that moves the needle for book sales. And as we know, sales impact what books get published next. The Xennial in me might object to these skinny babies taking charge, but I have to hand it to them–they’re crushing it. That said, I need a book hero to rise up for my generation–where the books are great, snark reigns supreme, crop tops were never invented, and no one judges the elastic waistband. Anyone volunteer as tribute?
Yes, But Are Those Young Celebrities Really Reading These Books? This question is not as jaded as it might sound. Last year the New York Times ran a feature on an elusive “book stylist” who has created a rather lucrative gig pairing the young and beautiful with books in order to achieve a specific kind of intellectual aesthetic. In the same way these celebrities hire stylists to curate their wardrobe, they now hire stylists to curate their bookshelves. As someone who is–and I say this with all humility–absolutely perfect for the job, I want to know why I was never notified about this position? Where do I lodge a complaint? Where can I send my resume?
How Cupig Was Born: In a heartwarming origin story Publishers Weekly tells us how The New York Times bestselling children’s book, Cupig, was born. The portly porker with terrible aim and a soft spot for love began as a scribbled Valentines note from illustrator Rob Sayegh Jr. to his wife. The note made its way to a publishing meeting–as love notes so often do–and the idea of a Valentine’s book where everyone breaks up was born. Released in November 2023, the book’s immediate success has spurred on the purchase of a sequel and a new book featuring a holiday themed mouse detective named Chrismouse. I am here for all the anthropomorphized animal holiday hijinks!
The Queen Of Football Romance: Step aside, Taylor Swift, the true queen of football romance is here. Susan Elizabeth Phillips, the 79 year old romance author, best known for her wildly popular series about the Chicago Stars football team, is thought to have pioneered the sports romance sub-genre. Phillips began writing in the genre almost thirty years ago and her tenth football romance will be published this month. With millions of copies sold, Ms. Phillips can rest assured that no one will claim the sports romance crown any time soon. Unless Taylor Swift turns from penning songs to novels. In that case we’re all out of a job.
The Letter of Love: Laura McNeil’s new novel, The Swan’s Nest, recounts the true-love story of Elizabeth Barret Browning and Robert Browning. Barret was a shut-in with health problems who thought her best years were behind her when Browning began writing to her. The two poets fell in love over the course of five month’s correspondence before they actually met. Robert’s words to Elizabeth in his 47th letter are:
“that I loved
You from my soul, and gave you my life, as much of it
As you would take,–and all that is done, not to be
Altered now.”
Call me old school but this is WAY more romantic than all this swipe right business. Forget dating apps or “situationships” let’s start judging potential suitors by their handwriting and ability to turn a phrase. Nothing builds anticipation like having to wait a week for another missive. And the postscript? Swoon! Keep an eye out for The Swan’s Nest, releasing next month.
Penning Poison: Historian Emily Cockayne wrote Penning Poison, a book about the history of hate mail in Britain. Exploring the ways that humans will unleash vitriol on others as long as they can remain anonymous, she uncovered the story of the Littlehampton Libels in the 1920s. {Warning: genuinely creative use of properly foul language in these links, all the more astounding for the generation in which they were written}. The case starts off with a spinster accusing her neighbor of sending hateful, foul mouthed letters. The letters were so foul, the newspaper would not print them nor could they be used as evidence in the eventual court case. Not only is this a fascinating tidbit from history, it inspired an adaptation to film. Wicked Little Letters, a comic thriller will be released nationwide in the US in April. In the meantime, anyone who appreciates a creative insult that would make even the Bard blush, will enjoy the trailer.
Letter To The School Board: When Khaled Hosseini discovered that his novel The Kite Runner was on the list of banned books in Brevard County Florida, he didn’t take to social media to complain. Instead he wrote them a letter. In it he shared excerpts from correspondence he received from high school kids detailing how his book impacted them. In response, the school board decided that his book should remain available on shelves. Other counties in Florida still have Hosseini’s book on the chopping block, but at least in Brevard a reasoned response and a plea for understanding made headway against the banning spree. Lesson learned: the written word has power to change hearts and minds.
Backpedaling Bans: Ron Desantis held a press conference last week where he acknowledged that book bans have gone too far in Florida. Seeking to limit bad-faith objections and the politicalization of the review process, he is backing a proposal that will charge a fee for excessive objections to books or for objecting to books without actually having a child that attends school in the district. This has gotten complicated really fast–as do all instances where the government gets involved. At this rate, Gen Z will skip libraries altogether and read their novels on TikTok. Don’t laugh. TikTok recently announced the launch of its own publishing company.
Outlaw Librarians: West Virginia recently proposed a law that seeks to prosecute librarians for having “obscene” books in libraries. What is this, the Wild West? Are we going to have our local librarians featured on wanted posters? Will we force them to ride off into the sunset with quick-draw paperbacks on their hips? And what is the definition of obscene? According to West Virginia, it’s anything "an average person believes depicts or describes sexually explicit conduct." But how do you define “average?” Must someone take an IQ test before lodging a complaint? The bill also defines obscenity as anything “a reasonable person would find lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.” I wonder what these politicians would do if we were to apply these standards to the laws they write? This one is hardly “reasonable.” Not to mention the fact that it lacks literary, artistic, scientific and political value.
Class (Action Lawsuit) Dismissed: A federal judge dismissed a large portion of the lawsuit brought against OpenAI by multiple authors for copyright infringement. This is the second time they have been sent back to the drawing board to reframe their case–the first being back in November. I wonder how many times will they get the chance for a do-over? This feels like a bad remake of Groundhog Day written by AI.
AI Art: Tor Books is drawing heat this week for using AI generated art for the cover of New York Times bestselling book Gothikana. This isn’t the first time Tor has come under fire for its use of AI covers. In 2022 they drew similar criticism for using AI for Christoper Paolini’s Fractal Noise, but claimed ignorance of the origins of the material. Should publishing try to keep AI out of every aspect of book creation or is it ok to use AI generated art? What say you?
The Outsiders Heads to Broadway: SE Hinton’s iconic coming of age tale, The Outsiders, is headed to Broadway. The novel, written when Hinton was 16 years old, was first published in 1967–when she was 18. It has sold 15 million copies and counting and has never gone out of print. In 1983 it was adapted to film by Francis Ford Coppola and is now is making its way to the stage, produced by Angelina Jolie. The New York Times profiled the cast and crew of the soon to be Broadway musical as they took a roadtrip to visit Hinton in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The fact that this book has struck a nerve with multiple generations and continues to be both a bestseller and a topic of contention just proves that Ponyboy will forever and always stay gold.
Expanding My Vocabulary: Excuse me while I make myself a girl dinner, sit back, and analyze whether my favorite novels pass the Bechdel test. In the pursuit of worlding, Dictionary.com released a whole list of new words for 2024. And now I’m exhausted. I have enough trouble remembering the words I already know much less trying to inject words like greedflation into my lexicon, casually as if I already knew them.
Spy in Disguise: The CIA’s former chief of disguise, Jonna Mendez, wrote her story of being a woman spy during the Cold War. In True Face: A Woman’s Life In The CIA, Unmasked spans her career starting from being a secretary to her eventual rise to Chief of Disguise. Mendez also partnered with her husband Antonio Mendez on their bestselling books The Moscow Rules and Argo–which went on to be an Academy Award winning film directed by and starring Ben Afleck. Check out this People Magazine profile of Jonna Mendez in preparation of her book release next month. If there is anything that grabs our interest, it’s an indomitable woman who rises to the top of her field in the face of cultural norms and sexist oppression. And she did it with style.
Bookseller Bonus Round Two: Not satisfied with the Christmas bonus he gave to booksellers around the country, James Patterson announced a second round of bonuses this week. This is to celebrate the release of his new book The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians which comes out in April. You can go and nominate your favorite bookseller for them to be eligible for a bonus of up to $500. Buy a book, read a book, nominate a bookseller. The circle is complete.
The Guardian Takes Down Goodreads: The Guardian had a lot to say about Goodreads this week and none of it was good. The book review site owned by Amazon has been in the news a lot these past few months for its review bombing controversies and the extreme negativity that sometimes boils over. As authors, this is such a tricky area for us–we want people to read and review our books, but sometimes the mob (or is it bots?) takes over and that can ruin an author’s career. Or what about when an author ruins their own career? Do you read a book (or not) based on its Goodreads reviews? Are you a fan?
The Secret History of Bigfoot: Author and self proclaimed skeptic, John O’Connor, spent a year traveling the country, researching, and interviewing Bigfoot enthusiasts to research The Secret History of Bigfoot. Who is this great hairy beast? Why can’t we ever seem to get a clear picture of him? What exactly is he doing in the woods? We might never know the answer to any of these questions. But O’Connor does give us a deep dive into the culture and psychology behind one of our oldest cryptid obsessions.
Dune’s Poetic Verse: The actor turned poet, Josh Brolin, partnered with cinematographer Greig Fraser to bring us Dune: Exposures, a book combining Fraser’s behind the scenes photography with Brolin’s poetry about the movie Dune. So not only can he convincingly play a purple testicle of a super villain but now he can bring us to our knees with imaginative verse–is there anything the man can’t do?
One Giant Leap For One Small Boy: In a heartwarming story of galactic proportions we bring you the BBC’s profile of Aston Smith, the 11 year old boy with autism and ADHD who wrote a book about space and donated proceeds to astronomy research in the UK. Things About Space is a perfect example of one person making a difference with sheer determination and turning what others would see as a disability into a superpower.
So Why Did You Write All Those Boring Parts?: Publishers Weekly asked children’s authors about their favorite questions they ever received from kids. Ranging from the funny - “So, why did you write all those boring parts?” to the profound - “How does your spirituality and religious upbringing impact the stories you write?” children have a way of cutting through the fluff and getting to the heart of the matter. Sophie Blackall recounts being on tour for her book, If I Were A Horse, and being asked the question “Were you a horse when you were a kid?” Blackall turned the question around to the boy and his answer is so absolutely perfect, I will let him take it from here: “I would be a python and I would live in my dad’s hot tub and I’d put bubbles in there and go to sleep on the bubbles.” Me too, kid, me too.
Bluey Books: Everyone’s favorite Australian cattle dog has launched a reading centered YouTube channel with celebrity guest narrators. Unlike other kid’s TV shows, Bluey is adored by kids, teens, and adults alike. Bluey. Reading. Celebrity guests. I see nothing to hate here.
End Of Story - Or Is It?: In 2018 Dan Mallory released his debut novel, The Woman In The Window, under the pseudonym AJ Finn. It was a breakout hit and was adapted to film starring Amy Adams. Then in February of 2019, The New Yorker published a huge take-down piece on Mallory/Finn revealing how he duped the book world. Mallory held several positions at multiple publishing houses and allegedly fabricated illnesses, padded his resume with a fake degree, and embellished a traumatic past among other offenses. The article cast a pall over his writing career and he has been remarkably quiet since. But now he is back with a new release, End Of Story, and we can’t help but ask: Will publishing forgive him? Does his checkered past add to his appeal as an author? Do readers even care as long as he delivers a good story?
Deep Dive: See below for all the extra deep cuts of this week’s book news.
USA Today reviewed Good Material by Dolly Alderton
Andy Weir released a free short story celebrating ten years of The Martian.
In his memoir, The Girls, Stan Zimmerman recalls his career as a screenwriter for some of TV’s most iconic shows.
A Short Story Of Nearly Everything will be an animated series narrated by Richard Ayoade
Richard Osman has announced a new book series: We Solve Murders
Disney’s hit adaptation of Percy Jackson is coming back with Season 2
Kate McKinnon’s (weird Barbie) children’s book
Toni Morrison on why writing for Black people is difficult
Yes, the Hugo Awards controversy was censorship.
The Guardian gives us a look into the true Capote (make sure check out Marybeth Whalen’s Feud book roundup)
People Magazine offers an exclusive excerpt from Laura Dave’s new book The Night We Lost Him
Instagram of the Week: Check out The Language Nerds breakdown of the absolute order adjectives must go in. I dare you to mix it up and try it the wrong way round. It will melt your brain.
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Like Melinda and Jan, I use Goodreads to track my reading. Unless I know the reviewer, I ignore the reviews. I trust reviews and recommendations from authors I read and respect. I was happier with it before Ammy bought it out, but I do find it useful. I'd hate to lose it.
I also use Goodreads to keep track of my reading and what others are reading. I will usually look at the reviews of a book after I have finished it to see if I agree with them or they agree with me. I would hate for Goodreads to go away!