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New Rowling: Now and in November

J.K. Rowling has a new children's work. She released the first two chapters of, The Ickabog, yesterday. Rowling says it is a fairy tale “about truth and the abuse of power.” She wrote it long ago and used it as a bedtime story for her kids. The rest of the story will come out online in 34 daily pieces through July 10.

A printed edition, along with audio and ebook versions, will come out in November from Scholastic, with art work from submissions from children.

Rowling has a page with details on all, but the story is also getting wide coverage.

Reviews

The NYT reviews The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (Riverhead: Penguin): “Bennett excels in conjuring the silences of families and in evoking atmosphere.” Also, Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy by David Frum (Harper): “Frum’s intellectual journey is what makes this book so fascinating. He can look at our current condition with fresh eyes, earned through humiliating experience. It is a humility to which the rest of us should aspire.” The “Otherworldly” column is out.

The Washington Post reviews The Motion of the Body Through Space by Lionel Shriver (Harper; LJ starred review): “sets up Shriver’s arguments without any subtlety … this is a novel more determined to make its point than to make us consider the profound mystery of what it means to tend a body for the long haul.”

NPR reviews St. Christopher on Pluto by Nancy McKinley (West Virginia University Press): “'Covert' is a good way to characterize how this droll novel-in-stories delivers its social commentary.”

Briefly Noted

Johny Pitts wins the Jhalak Prize: Book of the Year by a Writer of Color for Afropean: Notes from Black Europe (Allen Lane). The announcement is via video. The Guardian has a feature story.

Tor.com is releasing “micro-excerpts” of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini (Tor Books: Macmillan) this week, spread out over a range of media sources. Also, an excerpt of Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera (Bloomsbury YA: Macmillan).

Dean Koontz releases a first look at his next novel, Elsewhere (Thomas & Mercer: Amazon). It arrives on Oct. 20. Entertainment Weekly has the excerpt.

Robyn Carr is back, after eight years, with a new Virgin River novel, Return to Virgin River (MIRA: Harper). It will publish on Oct. 12. Viewers know the series as well from the Netflix adaptation. Entertainment Weekly has details.

In more forthcoming book news, the band Gorillaz is publishing a book, Gorillaz Almanac (Z2 Comics). It will arrive in October. Paste reports.

A new chapter is up for Never Say You Can’t Survive by Charlie Jane Anders.

The Washington Post gathers some “Transporting audiobooks.”

CrimeReads suggests “5 Debut Novels You Should Read This May.”

Electric Lit offers “9 Books About the Burden of Female Beauty Standards” as selected by Christina Chiu, Beauty (2040 Books).

Autostraddle selects “60 Queer and Feminist Books Coming Your Way in Summer 2020.”

Shondaland features Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (Quill Tree Books: Harper; SLJ starred review).

The Washington Post writes about The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic).

Emily Henry, Beach Read (Berkley: Penguin), answers Entertainment Weekly’s “What’s In A Page” questions. Also, Entertainment Weekly interviews Francine Pascal, Little Crew of Butchers (Blackstone). She might be best known for her Sweet Valley High books, but she has an adult novel out this week.

Bitch Media interviews Rachel Wilkerson Miller, The Art of Showing Up: How to Be There for Yourself and Your People (The Experiment: Workman; LJ starred review).

Electric Lit interviews Mary South, You Will Never Be Forgotten: Stories (FSG: Macmillan).

BookExpo featured a panel about what has changed in RA and collection development in the face of the pandemic. Shelf Awareness has a summary report on the program and also one on the “Audiobooks & Consumer Behavior” program (video is not yet posted). LibraryReads had BookExpo programing too, interviews with writers with forthcoming titles (watch them here and here).

LJ’s Day of Dialog is tomorrow. Videos will be posted for free watching all day long and remain up until August.

Vox’s “Ask a Book Critic” has a new column of book suggestions.

Author Alison Roman posts about her present and future on Instagram, which she says will include a newsletter. The L.A. Times reports.

George R.R. Martin has bought a railroad line.

COVID-19 Reading and RA/Collection Development Resources

The forthcoming Star Wars “The High Republic” new series of books, the first of which were due out in August, have been pushed back until January 2021. io9 reports.

The NYT writes about a the novel The Fat Years by Chan Koonchung (Nan A. Talese: Random House), a work that asks “How quickly can a whole nation forget about a catastrophe?”

Literary Hub offers “12 new books to keep the quarantine blues at bay.”

Biographer Anthony Bailey has died from the novel coronavirus. The NYT reports.

Authors on Air

Naomi Novik’s forthcoming Scholomance series gets optioned for a film. Amazon plans a series based on the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books. Deadline reports.

Rights sell for Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. Annapurna Television plans a limited series. Variety reports.

N0S4A2 gets a season 2 trailer. It is based on the Joe Hill novel and will return to AMC on June 21.

Love, Victor gets a trailer. It is set in the same world as Love, Simon, which was inspired by Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. It will premiere on Hulu on June 19.

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