First things first: exciting news for our Catalyst readers! Every Friday of August, we’ll be hosting a sale on our website featuring titles of a certain theme. Today’s sale – 40% off both the physical and e-books of all of our Children’s and YA titles when you use the code SUMMERFRIDAYS at checkout! Tune in every Friday to find out the theme of next week’s sale. Next Friday (drum roll please!), our literary ladies take the stage with a sale on all female-authored Catalyst titles!
“It” is official! Stephen King has a new novel coming out next March. Matthew McConaughey is adding “author” to his résumé, and Lebron James is getting in the (writing) game with a new children’s book. Team Edward? You’re going to love this: Stephanie Meyer, the YA goddess who gave us Twilight, just gave us one more. Midnight Sun hit shelves this week and the series’ cult following is going berserk. Ryan Reynolds is making a movie based an essay in the popular New Yorker column, “Shouts & Murmurs,” and Dan Sheehan’s announcement of it makes the news even better.
Still behind on reading the 2020 Booker longlist? Let Electric Lit decide your next pick for you, based on your quarantine habits. And because I’m a sucker for a good book quiz, head over to Book Riot to find out what pop culture librarian you are.
Valeria Luiselli has a problem with you turning your protagonist into a butterfly (and some really good points on how Latin American authors are being limited by the magical realism label) – and speaking of butterflies, here’s a much-needed pick-me-up about two young women who catalyzed a generation of conservationists with their paintings of Australian butterflies back in the nineteenth century.
Here’s a thought-provoking piece from Book Riot on why self-help books can feel shaming for people with executive function disorders like ADHD. Also on Book Riot: the best romance reads with curvy leading ladies, five Afro-Latinx writers you should know, and a super cute way to help save the US Postal service – that also compiles over a dozen fun book lists for your perusing pleasure. Book Riot also hosted a Women’s Suffrage Day on their site with an onslaught of amazing articles and book lists all about suffragettes, including this collection of suffragette poetry.
This week is the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan. Read how literature can help us contemplate and cope with the memory of these events. For more Japanese literature, read up on how Yukio Mishima’s translations are having a comeback, or get your locked-room mystery fix with two Japanese crime novels.
Okay, technically this is from last week, but ICYMI: Kate Reed Petty investigates online book events and asks: why are we trying so hard to recreate bookstore events on Zoom when the possibilities are endless? She also gives us 9 clever (and hilarious) ideas for new types of book events. Count us in for shelf bingo!
Another ICYMI (but everyone is talking about it): some excerpts leaked from a new tell-all on everyone’s favorite royals-gone-rogue, Harry and Meghan, set to publish in August, and the drama is hotter than a cup of English Breakfast. And since we’re all obsessed with political family feuds at the moment, here’s some news: Mary Trump’s book on Uncle Donald sold more copies in its first week than Donald Trump’s book Art of the Deal sold… ever.
Have you checked out LitHub‘s new video series on songwriters? Episode 2 was released on Wednesday, featuring Jazz Pianist Marcus Roberts. Catch up on Episode 1 if you haven’t seen it, which features songwriters Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell. The series benefits Mighty Writers, a non-profit that teaches reading and writing to low-income and marginalized students in Philadelphia.
At the Washington Post, Bennett Minton tells us what his grade-school textbooks got wrong about slavery, and the Hollywood Reporter reports on abuse in the comic book industry. And because we all need to hear it: Toni Morrison on being more than just our work.