Can you name the poet who wrote, “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons?” Here’s a hint: he won the Nobel Prize in Literature on this day in 1948.
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THE HEADLINEWhat big book clubs are reading this monthNovember is here, and along with all the fall baking, weather changes, and blanket cuddles comes a new round of book club selection announcements.
- While each of these great book clubs has its own focus—from genres to themes—they all have virtual components and end with discussions and/or author chats.
The Audacious Book Club: The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
What they said about the book: “Next month in the Audacious Book Club, we’re talking about The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires. I hope you’ll join us at The Audacity to discuss this excellent novel throughout the month of November.”
Reese’s Book Club: The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders
What Reese said about the book: “The Reese’s Book Club November Pick is HERE! Introducing The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders. It’s a warm, atmospheric family saga about legacy, identity, and how the past lives on in all of us.”
The Stacks Book Club: Famesick by Lena Dunham
What The Stacks Book Club said about the book: “…We are going to be reading Famesick, a memoir by Lena Dunham. We will be talking about the book right here on the podcast on Wednesday, November 25, and if you’d like to be part of our virtual book club conversation around this book with the rest of the Stacks pack, you need to go to patreon.com/thestacks to join, and then add December 1 to your calendar.”
Browse what a bunch of other notable book clubs are picking this month here.
FANFICTIONFanfiction’s #1 resource goes darkFanfiction writers and readers are mourning. Archive of Our Own, or AO3, had to shut down without warning due to a hacking event. The site that boasts 11 million registered users and 18 million works of fanfic might be down for weeks.
Fanfiction readers are legion, and these works have become a major force in reading culture. As English professor Anne Jamison, author of Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World, pointed out to The New York Times, AO3 can offer the only LGBTQ+ content available to readers in countries where queer relationships are criminalized.
Fanfics have even become traditional publishing bestsellers:
- Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James (Twilight fanfic)
- The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood (Star Wars fanfic)
- Alchemised by SenLin Yu (Harry Potter fanfic; needless to say, a thousand boos to JK Rowling)
The response to the shutdown is exactly what you’d expect from an entrenched fandom community, with one X user invoking the almighty Mamdani to help bring back the good-good. Others are scouting out resources and downloaded libraries to help prop up their community during the outage.
AO3 might be down for up to four weeks, with the possibility of bringing the site back in a “degraded state.” Reportedly, no data has been deleted as a result of the security incident, but AO3 hasn’t ruled out a stolen user database.
Rebecca Tushnet, an AO3 founder (and legal scholar at Harvard Law School–fancy!), told The Times that the team is prioritizing safety over speed. – SZW
ROMANTASY AFLAMELove is always an adventure–and the stakes are always highThe popularity of romantasy isn’t dying down. We can point to the megastars of the subgenre like Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J. Maas for helping keep the passion for it alive.
As the genre has grown and evolved over the last several years, it’s offered a wider array of stories and voices. One area that’s been especially booming? Romantasy adventure stories, including those where the plot involves a puzzle or series of challenges for the characters to work through (collaboratively or not!). Here are some reads that involve journeys or quests that raise the stakes—and the romantic tension.
- The Crimson Throne by Sara Raasch and Beth Revis – In an enemies-to-lovers historical romantasy adventure inspired by the real rivalry of Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I, a fae prince and the son of an English lord from warring countries are brought together by a shared enemy.
- The Lost Guardian by Natalia Hernandez* – Santiago’s quiet life as an archaeologist is turned upside down when he’s sent a map to the lost tomb of the final Incan emperor. He’s now racing against the clock–and tomb raiders–to secure the treasure believed to be inside, and he’ll need the assistance of a Peruvian woman named Ali to understand the map.
- To Dream in Darkness by Ann Liang – Leaning more heavily into historical fantasy than romantasy, per se–but with plenty of romantic tension!–this story follows two gods who strike a bargain and embark on a journey that will have severe consequences for both of them. Bonus: it’s set in China’s celestial realm.
- Of Flames and Fallacies by Courtney Whims – When Katerina finds a contraband dragon egg buried in her dad’s grave, she knows she has a lot of challenges ahead to get the hatchling to the secret land where it can be safe and free. The only person who can help her? Her former romantic partner.
Then, if you’re hungry for your own romantasy puzzle adventure, check out Queen of Swords: A Romantasy Puzzle Quest by Sara Sehdev and Dr. Gareth Moore. It’s an interactive romantasy adventure where you engage with various puzzles throughout the story.
*A message from our sponsor
ADAPTATION NATIONThe latest page-to-screen newsBuckle up, friends. It’s been a busy couple weeks in Adaptation Nation.
- A24 has optioned Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding and its sequel, The Brightness, for TV with Sean Durkin (The Iron Claw) attached to showrun and direct.
- HBO is planning a miniseries reboot of The Birds inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s film adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier story, starring Succession‘s Sarah Snook.
- Austen fans can enjoy a first look at The Other Bennet Sister‘s upcoming Christmas special.
- Mary J. Blige is among the executive producers for a TV series Universal Television is developing based on Queen Sugar author Natalie Baszile’s novel Friends and Family.
- A Great Gatsby-inspired police procedural (we live in a weird time timeline, y’all) with a gender-flipped Nick (Nicole) Carraway is in the works at NBC.
- AMC is bringing back the infamous sandworm popcorn buckets for the launch of Dune: Part Three.
- Sunrise on the Reaping is getting a 29-track tie-in album featuring songs by Tyler Childers, Ella Langley, and more.
- Netflix has ordered a YA series based on Curtis Sittenfeld’s boarding school novel, Prep.
Photo credit: John Scalzi
John Scalzi is the bestselling author of Monsters of Ohio, out this week from Tor. Below, he recommends three of his favorite recent sci-fi and fantasy reads.
One of the tragic ironies of being a science fiction writer is that often you don’t have all that much time to be a science fiction reader: there are deadlines, and travel, and all the other things that conspire to keep you from reading other people’s books. Nevertheless, here are three books that I enjoyed this year in the field of science fiction and fantasy.
Disclosure: I have at one point or another blurbed all of these authors, so obviously my biases will be showing.
Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim: We often feel like we are a completely different person when we travel from home to some other place. In this fantastic debut novel, that is an actual literal thing that happens. Individuals split off into two whenever there is an international border, and clearly complications will ensue. This is a ridiculously good book for being just a first novel, and I expect that it will show up on best of the year lists and possibly also for award consideration.
A Wall is Also a Road by Annalee Newitz: One of the things that science fiction excels at is imagining alien intelligences and other modes of being, but this novel absolutely runs with this concept, since one of the major characters here just happens to be a slime mold. As they very frequently do in their fiction, Annalee Newitz does an excellent job here of getting into the headspace of an unexpected set of characters and bringing us along. It makes for great reading. Also, the cover to this book is possibly my favorite of any book this year.
Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky: A crime noir in a future city where all the major characters are cute furry woodland animals? Sure, why not? Adrian Tchaikovsky is seriously annoying (complimentary) not only because he releases so many books and so many different kinds of books, but also because almost all of them are just plain terrific. So is this one. It’s got raccoon private investigators! It’s just infuriating how good he is.
COMICSNon-superhero graphic novels that should be adaptedGood news in adaptation land! ND Stevenson’s Scarlet Morning is in the process of being adapted by Kate Herron (Loki) for Amazon MGM. This got us thinking about Stevenson’s other adapted work, 2023’s Oscar-nominated Nimona, and other non-superhero graphic novels that should be adapted.
Below is a slice-of-life comic, a cute sapphic romance, a bestselling space opera, and other comics that I think would all do well onscreen:
- If You’ll Have Me by Eunnie: This super-cute sapphic slow-burn is set in college and follows sweetie-pie Momo, who is perhaps a little naive in the way of love, as she develops a friendship (and something more) with the super hot and way more experienced PG.
- Saga by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples: We need more space opera adaptations just in general, and this story of lovers from opposite sides of a war starting a family has all the elements of good TV. And with 370k+ ratings on Goodreads, I’m sure it would have a big viewership.
- Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser, Robyn Smith: This Bronx-set slice-of-life comic feels like a love letter to sisterhood and friendships. It follows four Black women—Kim, Tanisha, Davene, and Cookie—as they enact their self-care routines.
- This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Nicole Goux: In the ‘80s at an all-girl boarding school, Uber-popular student Elizabeth Wilberton dies the morning after her performance as Juliet. Everyone is saying it was a result of suicide, but outcast Abby Kita thinks differently, and she’s determined to get to the truth.
- Brownstone by Samuel Teer, Mar Julia: One summer, teenager Almudena navigates helping the Guatemalan father she only just met with fixing a dilapidated brownstone, understanding his quick Spanish, and figuring out what her identity means for her. This is another award-winner that I think would crush it with views. —EE
Did you know? Growing up in China in the 1970s, Li did not have access to a library until she was in middle school.
CRITICAL LINKINGYou are now free to roam about the internetA new app for book lovers aims to compete with Amazon and Goodreads.
Check out the best new LGBTQ books of November.
Literary magazine and publisher Tin House is now on Substack.
The New York Times terminated a romance columnist’s contract after she criticized the paper’s coverage of rape allegations against the president.
Here’s a 2027 release pitched to fans of Liz Moore and Tana French.
END NOTESWritten by Rebecca Schinsky, Jeff O’Neal, S. Zainab Williams, Kelly Jensen, Danika Ellis, and Erica Ezeifedi. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.
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