This Week In Books
January 14, 2024 Edition
It has been a remarkably quiet week in the world of books. No jaws were dropped, no corn was popped. This is why we hate January. So, let’s get to what little drama we could find:
Florida Is At It Again: We try to keep this a safe place for book love and light mockery but Florida keeps popping up in our feeds this week. We can’t keep up with the number of books being banned in Escambia County Schools: Anne Frank’s Diary; works by Agatha Christie, Stephen King, Lee Child, David Baldacci, Ann Patchet, John Grisham, and Nicholas Sparks to name a few of the 1600-plus. Even Bill O’Rielly got a couple of books yanked from the shelves. The situation became downright ridiculous when it was reported that they are now banning the dictionary and encyclopedia (although that claim may be exaggerated). Escambia County Schools insist they aren’t banning anything yet, they have just removed these items from school shelves “pending review” in order to comply with Florida’s new book law that prohibits anything with “violence”, “scariness”, and “sexual conduct”, on school shelves. At this rate there won’t be any books left. What next? Newsletters? No doubt we will be first on the chopping block. With last week’s heavy pizzle references and Shakespeare invectives, we expect this newsletter to get banned in Florida at any moment. And we will never apologize. Pizzle jokes forever!
Lauren Groff Opens A Bookstore: Author Lauren Groff recently announced that she will be opening a bookstore in Gainesville, Florida this spring. The store will focus on Florida authors and banned books. Given what’s going on in Escambia County, Groff is going to need a bigger store.
The OG View Master: Leeds Central Library in the UK is displaying a set of magic lantern slides dating back to 1906. Meant to be projected onto a wall, and including a script to be read aloud, these slides feature illustrations from classic stories like Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Aladdin. This is way more magical than the old school View Master we had as kids. Anyone else remember those? Or did we just show our age?
Greta Does Narnia: Fresh off her Golden Globes win for Barbie, Greta Gerwig reveals that she is terrified of her next project: The Chronicles of Narnia. And well she should be after the mass outrage and protests for what Disney did to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We will never forgive them. But Greta Gerwig didn’t do us wrong with Barbie so we will trust her with this. For now. As long as she gives us the Puddleglum we deserve. And by “deserve” we of course mean Benedict Cumberbatch.
Rangers Apprentice Series Adapted To Film: Back in the 1990s, John Flanagan was writing a series of short stories to get his son interested in reading. The stories featured an orphan boy who was apprenticed to a group of skilled warriors called Rangers who were tasked to keep the kingdom safe from attackers. Flanagan unearthed those stories a decade later and reformatted them into a novel–The Ruins of Gorlan. That book blossomed into an international bestselling 11 book series with multiple spin offs and will now be made into a movie franchise. See? When you teach the kids to read, magical things happen.
Little Book Club On The Prairie: If you’ve been yearning for simpler times, and we’re talking WAY simpler times: times of pinafores and bonnets, you’re in luck. Melissa Gilbert (yes, Half Pint from Little House on The Prairie) has added a book club to her Modern Prairie business. Prairie Pages Book Club looks at women-authored classics to rediscover what they mean now. Their first book? Little House In The Big Woods, of course. We will be first in line for this direct shot of wholesomeness and nostalgia.
The Book of Elsewhere: America’s favorite action hero boyfriend (and by all accounts great human being), Keanue Reeves, is dipping his toe in novel waters by partnering with China Mieville to adapt Reeves’ BRZRKR comic books into a novel. Promising a John Wick-through-the-ages kind of vibe, The Book of Elsewhere will no doubt please Reeves fans immensely. (And all of the teenage boys that we know). The BRZRKR comics are also reportedly being adapted to both live action and anime film versions by Netflix. Be prepared for Keannu Reeves everywhere, all the time. I have to say: I don’t hate it.
The Queen’s Podcast Falls Flat: The Guardian came in with some harsh criticism for Queen Consort Camilla’s new reading venture. Overall, they view the first two episodes as a big snoozefest with an odd interview structure and Camilla pretty much MIA. Turns out the only royal who has a genuinely entertaining book show is Sarah Ferguson. Her YouTube show Story Time with Fergie and Friends features Fergie reading children’s books and playing with stuffed animals. A little disturbing. But entertaining nonetheless. Oh, those Royals never disappoint, do they?
One Day You Won’t Cry When You Watch This Movie (But that day is not today): Netflix has adapted David Nicholls internationally bestselling book One Day and it releases on February 8th. The ultimate “will they won’t they?”, the novel drops in on two lovers’ lives on the same day each year over two decades. The book was previously adapted for the big screen in 2011 and we are still heartbroken from that one. (We’re not crying, you’re crying).
Bravery In Literature: Judy Blume is set to receive the inaugural Eleanor Roosevelt Lifetime Achievement Award for Bravery in Literature. Blume’s book, Are You The God? It’s Me Margaret, has been controversial since its publication in 1970 because it dared to feature a young girl’s honest experience with religion and–this is the real book banner–menstruation. The big lesson here is that it’s not religion and politics that will get you banned–it’s religion and bodily functions.
Dancing With The Devil: Bluestone Media and Walden Media are set to begin filming Nuremburg, a film based on Jack El-Hai’s book The Nazi & The Psychiatrist. It will star Russell Crowe as Hermann Goring, and Rami Malek as the American psychiatrist whose job it was to determine if he was fit to stand trial. We don’t know about you, but we already have chills.
Instagram of the Week: Reid Mood, of Moons Rare Books, sat down with Winnie the Pooh. It’s fine. We’re fine. Just pass the tissue:
Catch Up with
.See what
is up to.
I'm catching up this week, but this issue was good stuff as always! Keep it coming:)