All posts tagged: Books

Great Scott! A Close Read of MacKenzie Scott’s Ambitious Substack Novel

Published by Sam Flores

Long before she became one of the most fiscally generous people in history, Scott wanted to write fiction. She attended Princeton, drawn in by the prospect of studying with Toni Morrison; the vaunted author would advise Scott on her thesis project, a novel-length manuscript titled The Fathering Water. Morrison later told Vogue that Scott was “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes…really one of the best.” Morrison continued to champion Scott following graduation, introducing Scott to her own agent, Amanda “Binky” Urban. Urban signed Scott as a client. (It’s not clear whether Urban’s agency, CAA, still represents Scott; a representative for the company didn’t respond to a request for comment.) In 2005, Fourth Estate published Scott’s debut novel, The Testing of Luther Albright, a quiet, emotionally exacting character excavation that unspools the life of the titular Luther—an engineer whose copper piping system begins to fail in the wake of an earthquake. (His inability to plumb his own emotions also causes a rift between him and his family.) The novel won …

A Hit Author’s Film Adaptation Went Horribly Wrong. What Happened on the Set of ‘Children of Blood and Bone’?

Published by Sam Flores

Adeyemi didn’t respond publicly to Stenberg’s post at the time, but some sources believe this is when the tension between the author and the team behind the adaptation was first sparked. Though insiders say Adeyemi had been involved in the casting process and had been supportive and excited by Stenberg’s casting from the get-go, their relationship became strained after Stenberg’s video. Adeyemi would later share on TikTok a screengrab from a February 2025 text chain with Stenberg in which the author speaks harshly to the star: “Do not ever use my name in an interview or video again. Do not text me. Do not call me.” Adeyemi arrived on set two days after Stenberg’s social media post, according to a source with ties to the movie. She filmed a cameo in which she plays a character present during a training sequence with Mama Agba (Davis), who is mentoring Zélie (Mbedu). But the tension between the author and actor became palpable on set, the source says, and difficult to navigate. After she returned from filming, Adeyemi …

Picture Books With Collage Illustrations

Published by Jenni Sidey

Join over 300,000 readers who get the latest book buzz, smart commentary, and must-read picks delivered straight to their inbox.<\/p>”,”thumbnail_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Book-Riot-Newsletter-mock_1000-150×150.jpg”,”category_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/newsletter\/book-riot-newsletter\/”,”checked”:true},{“name”:”Literary Activism”,”listname”:”BookRiot_LiteraryActivism”,”sfmc_name”:”BookRiot_LiteraryActivism”,”description”:” News you can use plus tips and tools for the fight against censorship and other bookish activism!<\/p>”,”thumbnail_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/LiteraryActivism_600x600-150×150.png”,”category_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/newsletter\/literary-activism\/”,”checked”:true},{“name”:”The Fright Stuff”,”listname”:”BookRiot_TheFrightStuff”,”sfmc_name”:”BookRiot_TheFrightStuff”,”description”:”Ready for some thrills and chills? Sign up to receive the latest and greatest from the world of horror.”,”thumbnail_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/TheFrightStuff_600x600-150×150.png”,”category_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/newsletter\/the-fright-stuff\/”,”checked”:true},{“name”:”Book Deals”,”listname”:”BookRiot_BookDeals”,”sfmc_name”:”BookRiot_BookDeals”,”description”:” Sign up for our Book Deals<\/strong> newsletter and get up to 80% off books you actually want to read.<\/p>”,”thumbnail_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/BookDeals_600x600-150×150.png”,”category_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/newsletter\/book-deals\/”,”checked”:true},{“name”:”Kissing Books”,”listname”:”BookRiot_KissingBooks”,”sfmc_name”:”BookRiot_KissingBooks”,”description”:” Sign up for Kissing Books<\/strong> to receive news, book recommendations, and more for residents of Romancelandia.<\/p>”,”thumbnail_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/KissingBooks_600x600-150×150.png”,”category_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/newsletter\/kissing-books\/”,”checked”:true}]”> Subscribe to Selected No Thanks Source link

Emily St. John Mandel Books: A Reading Pathway

Published by Jenni Sidey

I first got lost in the mesmerizing world of an Emily St. John Mandel book when I read Station Eleven in 2021, back when we were still adjusting to life amidst COVID-19. It was cathartic to read a pandemic story during a pandemic. Mandel’s beautiful, affecting writing moved me in ways that left behind a permanent impression. It’s been four years since her last release, but we’re finally getting a new book from the author. Emily St. John Mandel’s highly anticipated book, Exit Party, publishes on September 15th. It’s a book her U.S. editor, Jenny Jackson, describes as “heady and intellectually rigorous, but poignant and emotional,” noting the “incredibly high EQ that permeates Emily’s books.” This is exactly how I’d describe Emily St. John Mandel’s works. They’re nebulous, deep, and emotive. There’s a puzzling quality to them as Mandel weaves together threads of different characters, timelines, and genres. They make you think, but something I like as much or even more than that, they make you feel. Her books touch upon human nature and the …

3 Books That Blend Sci-Fi and Historical Fiction

Published by Jenni Sidey

Nikki Finke Didn’t Write a Memoir

Published by Daniella Wilson

News that Nikki Finke had left behind a memoir — and that her estate was seeking a publisher — had half of Hollywood hyperventilating into their Erewhon shopping bags last week. It proved that even from beyond the grave, the late Deadline founder, who spent years terrorizing studio executives with her incendiary scoops, could still send shivers down the industry’s spine, especially with the prospect of a posthumous tell-all that, as one tabloid put it, “promised to spill the tea on the town’s titans.” Except it turns out there is no terrifying tell-all, no score-settling, tea-spilling memoir at all. Finke had indeed spent decades working on a manuscript before her death, at 68, in 2022. But what she was writing couldn’t have been less ominous if it were a pop-up book. It was a history of CAA during the 1980s. The mix-up is understandable. When entertainment reporter Matt Hamilton broke the story about the manuscript on Aug.  5 for the digital news startup L.A. Material, he never called it a memoir. He described it only …

Julie Andrews on Writing Shy Children’s Book With Daughter, Disney Doc

Published by Daniella Wilson

When speaking with Julie Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, expect them to finish each other’s sentences. “By the time the book is done, we never know who contributed what line. It’s such a joint effort … We often say we finish each other’s sentences,” Hamilton tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Which you can probably tell,” Andrews, sitting next to her daughter, adds laughing. “But that’s how we write,” Hamilton says. “We literally talk out loud. We write out loud, finishing each other’s sentences. So by the time it it all ends up on the page, and then we revise and revise and revise, we never know who’s responsible for what.” Together, Andrews and Hamilton have written over 35 children’s books across multiple formats: picture books, board books, leveled readers, chapter books, middle grade novels, poetry anthologies and two memoirs. This time, they’re teaming once again on a new children’s book, Shy (out Tuesday from Abrams Books). The synopsis reads, “Shy is the smallest and quietest pup at the shelter. The world feels big, loud and …

Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and the Misreading of Science Fiction

Published by skeptic

Adams was in good company. For more than a century, many science fiction writers had used plots involving founding colonies on other planets as a way to indict imperialism on Earth. (Imperialists, for their part, liked to talk about colonizing space, too: Cecil Rhodes himself said, “I would annex the planets if I could.”) That young Elon Musk read Hitchhiker’s Guide in South Africa and, failing to perceive its indictment of apartheid, took it as a lesson in the importance of asking the right question is hardly surprising. He was a kid. It’s that he stuck to that interpretation into his late middle age that’s odd, especially because much of the book today reads like a spoof of Musk himself. The antihero of Hitchhiker’s Guide is Zaphod Beeblebrox, a two-headed, three-armed megalomaniac, voted “Worst Dressed Sentient Being in the Known Universe for the seventh time,” inventor of the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, once called “the Best Bang since the Big One,” and part-time president of the Imperial Galactic Government, a mere figurehead, chosen not by …

What’s Next for LGBTQ Picture Books?

Published by Jenni Sidey

If you want to get a sense of the history of LGBTQ children’s literature, the Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children’s Book Special Collection in the Mechanics’ Institute in San Francisco is a great place to start. It’s made up of 200+ LGBTQ children’s books published between 1969 and 2023. Library manager Myles Cooper spoke with me about how the collection got started and how you can access it. The collection began with Randall Tarpey-Schwed, an antiquarian and a member of the Mechanics’ Institute. He and his husband were looking for books to read with their daughters that represented their family. Then, the collection grew as Tarpey-Schwed prioritized early editions of LGBTQ literature. The Kids Are All Right Sign up to The Kids Are All Right to receive news and recommendations from the world of kid lit and middle grade books. Join over 300,000 readers who get the latest book buzz, smart commentary, and must-read picks delivered straight to their inbox.<\/p>”,”thumbnail_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Book-Riot-Newsletter-mock_1000-150×150.jpg”,”category_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/newsletter\/book-riot-newsletter\/”,”checked”:true},{“name”:”Literary Activism”,”listname”:”BookRiot_LiteraryActivism”,”sfmc_name”:”BookRiot_LiteraryActivism”,”description”:” News you can use plus tips and tools for the fight against censorship and other bookish activism!<\/p>”,”thumbnail_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/LiteraryActivism_600x600-150×150.png”,”category_url”:”https:\/\/bookriot.com\/newsletter\/literary-activism\/”,”checked”:true},{“name”:”The …

3 of the Funniest Sci-Fi Books You Can Read

Published by Jenni Sidey

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All posts tagged: Books

Great Scott! A Close Read of MacKenzie Scott’s Ambitious Substack Novel

A Hit Author’s Film Adaptation Went Horribly Wrong. What Happened on the Set of ‘Children of Blood and Bone’?

Picture Books With Collage Illustrations

Emily St. John Mandel Books: A Reading Pathway

3 Books That Blend Sci-Fi and Historical Fiction

Nikki Finke Didn’t Write a Memoir

Julie Andrews on Writing Shy Children’s Book With Daughter, Disney Doc

Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and the Misreading of Science Fiction

What’s Next for LGBTQ Picture Books?

3 of the Funniest Sci-Fi Books You Can Read