This Week In Books
June 23, 2024 Edition
Chris Whitaker wins the publishing lottery, Elin Hilderbrand swan dives into a career shift, Stephen King gives us a Stranger Things(ish) new t.v. show, Percival Everett teams up with Hollywood’s best, V.E. Schwab is well on the way to world domination, and Shakespeare is back, baby.
B&N Buys Tattered Cover: Book giant Barnes & Noble is buying the beloved Colorado bookstore chain, Tattered Cover. Tattered Cover is an icon in independent bookselling and has been a successful model for decades. However, they have struggled in the last several years with a succession of new ownership and a challenging social and political environment since the pandemic, culminating in filing for bankruptcy last year. Barnes & Noble has itself come back from the brink in recent years with new CEO James Daunt at the helm. Daunt was hired by Barnes & Noble in 2019 after successfully bringing B&N equivalent, Waterstones, back to life in the UK. Daunt’s unique approach has been to deemphasize a corporate atmosphere and instead give each store the autonomy to order and display books in the way that meets their individual retail needs. The book giant plans to keep the Tattered Cover name and operate it beneath the Barnes & Nobles umbrella–a plan that has a record of success similar to what Waterstones (under Daunt) achieved in the UK. Daunt spoke to the Denver Gazette about his plans for the four remaining Tattered Cover stores: “Our job is, in a corporate sense, just to give them the infrastructure and the capitalization, which allows them to run really good bookstores. Barnes & Noble stopped being the ‘You've Got Mail’ corporate beast when I took over. I'm not that.” Let’s hope this story has a Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks rom-com happy ending too.
Elin’s Swan Song: Three weeks ago Elin Hilderbrand officially announced her retirement from writing beach reads with the release of Swan Song, her last Nantucket beach read book. This week she sat down with the Today show to clarify what that means, to talk about her unique path to publication and massive success, and to look forward to what is next. Hilderbrand began warning fans of her impending retirement back in 2021. While some might be tempted to wonder what the big deal is, why the long offramp to retirement, why announce it to the world in this way, it is important to remember that she has exclusively written Nantucket books for the last 25 years and her audience has come to expect–and look forward–to them. We think it is smart of Hildebrand to be so gentle and clear with her readers. Giving them time to adjust to her evolution as an author will only help her future endeavors. And while summer reading lists will never be the same without the new Hilderbrand, we are excited to see what comes next.
Lady In The Lake: AppleTV released the trailer for their adaptation of Laura Lippman’s 2019 bestselling novel Lady in The Lake.
(Not So) Fragile Threads of Power: Fantasy author V.E. Schwab is wielding some serious book deal magic these days. Schwab just landed a mega 7 figure book deal for her next novel, Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil, which releases in March 2025. Schwab has built a name for herself writing approachable fantasy and her fanbase has grown with every novel. Her 2020 novel The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, about a young woman who makes a deal with the devil, spent over 40 weeks on the NYT bestseller list. We’re delighted to see Schwab continue her journey toward world domination.
The Institute: MGM+ has ordered a series based on the 2019 Stephen King thriller, The Institute. The novel is about Luke, a 12 year old boy with special abilities who is kidnapped and taken to (you guessed it) the Institute–an organization dedicated to extracting the abilities from him and other similar children. The series will star Ben Barnes (of Shadow and Bones fame) as a glorified security guard of sorts called a night knocker. I don’t exactly know what a night knocker is, but Ben Barnes isn’t hard to look at and I’m thinking that most viewers will open the door when he comes knocking…ahem…at night.
World’s Largest Shakespeare Library Re-Opens in DC: After four long years of renovations, the Folger Shakespeare Library has re-opened with all new exhibits. The crown jewel, previously only available to scholars, is the collection of 82 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio–the first time Shakepeare’s works were printed in one volume just a few years after his death. No two copies are the same as the wear and tear of the last 400 years has taken their toll. In addition to the First Folio collection, the museum also includes a Shakespeare insult generator, rare manuscripts, and (what no Shakespeare museum would be complete without) a theater. It’s been a while since we broke out the pizzle jokes so maybe we need to go visit this insult generator in person?
To Be Seen Reading: We talk frequently about the new hot trend of being seen reading. Vogue Business ran an article this week about how all the high fashion brands are leaning into this trend with free book pop ups, book themed exhibitions, literary clubs, and partnerships with prestigious literary prizes. Stars and trend setters all have their own book clubs: Kaia Gerber, Dua Lipa, Dakota Johson. Even legendary designer Marc Jacobs posts a weekly selfie with a book titled “the reading hour”. Vogue supposes that by aligning themselves with books, brands can signal that they aren’t about “fast fashion” but instead equate their brands with the permanence and quality of literature. But this trend is not just limited to fashion these days. Taco Bell, Loews Hotels, and Olive & June are all aligning themselves with books. It has become not so much what you are reading as what you are seen to be reading. The truth is readers have always known books are hot. We are the true lit-girls. Gilbert Blythe was our first love, and we will still be here actually reading long after the cultural trends move on to something else.
FairyLoot’s Big Boom: FairyLoot, the fantasy book subscription service, is having a big moment right now. Founded in 2016, and dedicated to shipping the newest and buzziest fantasy and romantasy titles, FairyLoot has become a king-maker in the genre. They currently ship tens of thousands of boxes each month and a FairyLoot pick almost guarantees a spot on the bestseller lists. They also specialize in special edition copies of the books with stained edges, custom covers, and endpapers often exclusive to their company. Here is my money, take it all!
Get Jiro: Anthony Bourdain’s legacy lives on in a new adaptation. Bourdain partnered with Joel Rose in 2012 to author Get Jiro–a graphic novel about a mysterious sushi chef in a dystopian future where master chefs are the ruling class and a reservation to their restaurants is to kill for. Adult Swim has ordered the books to be made into an animated series. There is nothing we don’t love about this. Anthony Bourdain! Fiction! Sushi!
Amazon’s Top 20: Amazon released their top 20 books of 2024 (so far). Not just bestsellers, these books are personally championed by Amazon’s editorial team. Topping that list is James by Percival Everett (naturally) but we also see a few books from the major book clubs: The Ministry of Time, Malas, First Lie Wins, and more. We even spy one of our faves on that list: I Cheerfully Refuse. How many of these books have you read? What did you just add to your TBR?
Read The Classics With AI: The New York Times profiled AI company Rebind Publishing this week. Rebind is an AI powered tool for classic literature with a twist. The twist is that they have hired experts to lend their wealth of knowledge to power AI chatbots. Imagine talking with Margaret Atwood about a Tale Of Two Cities, or Deepak Chopra on Buddhism, or Roxanne Gay on The Age of Innocence. Now we can have the Margaret Atwood AI chatbot cliff notes version of classic literature of our dreams nightmares.
My Book To Screen Dream Team: Deadline announced that Taika Waititi is in talks to adapt James by Percival Everett for film. Everett will write the screenplay and Steven Speilberg is on board to produce. Yes, yes, and yes! When can I preorder tickets?
All The Colors Of The Dark: Chris Whitaker’s soon to be released novel All The Colors Of The Dark is getting a ton of buzz right now. It is July’s Read With Jenna book club pick, one of Amazon’s Top 20, and the rights have already been sold for adaptation. And–Plot Twist!--it hasn’t even published yet. That’s a lot of momentum for a novel that won’t release until June 25th. We applaud Whitaker for winning the equivalent of the publishing lottery!
Catch Up with Ariel over at I’m So Glad You Asked where she is talking about finding your voice.
Marybeth is chronicling the path to her newest novel over at I Will Tell You This.
'Gilbert Blythe was our first love' 💕💯