Category: Book news

Texas Book Festival announces hybrid format for 2021 Festival

The 26th annual Texas Book Festival in October will consist of virtual events and in-person activities. Photo: Texas Book Festival, used with permission.

Texas Book Festival is excited to announce that the 26th annual Texas Book Festival will take place October 25 through October 31 as a hybrid event. Starting Monday, October 25, virtual sessions will lead up to the Festival Weekend on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol and along Congress Avenue in downtown Austin. The Festival will include a diverse lineup of established, emerging, and debut literary talent of all ages. (Texas Book Festival, 2021)

The 2020 all Virtual Festival featured more than 175 authors, illustrators, poets, journalists, artists, and thought leaders including Matthew McConaughey, Dean Koontz, and Erin Brockovich. The annual First Edition Literary Gala was held virtually and raised more than $600,000 to fund all the nonprofit organization’s literary and literacy programs.

In 2021, book enthusiasts can look forward to the return of everything they love about the Texas Book Festival, including a terrific author lineup, timely and thoughtful panel topics, food trucks, a Saturday evening Lit Crawl, and more.

The 2021 Texas Teen Book Festival will also take place during the hybrid Festival, featuring conversations with acclaimed Young Adult authors. The annual First Edition Literary Gala will take place Friday, October 29 as an in-person celebration featuring some of literature’s brightest stars and storytellers, with indoor and outdoor seating options.
Guests can attend sessions in the outdoor tents and are welcome to visit the in-person and virtual Exhibitor Marketplace, which features book publishers big and small, university presses, booksellers, independent authors, and a wide variety of items for the literary shopper.

With a vision to inspire Texans of all ages, the Texas Book Festival connects authors and readers through experiences that celebrate the culture of literacy, ideas, and imagination. Founded in 1995 by former First Lady Laura Bush, Mary Margaret Farabee, and a group of volunteers, the nonprofit Texas Book Festival promotes the joys of reading and writing through its annual Festival Weekend, the Texas Teen Book Festival, the Reading Rock Stars Title I elementary school program, the Real Reads Title I middle and high school program, grants to Texas libraries, and year-round literary programming. This year’s hybrid Texas Book Festival will take place from October 25 through October 31, with virtual events October 25 – 28 and the Festival Weekend taking place on the grounds of the Texas Capitol October 30 – 31, featuring renowned authors, panels, book signings, and children’s activities. Thanks to generous donors, sponsors, and volunteers, the Festival remains free and open to the public.

“Festival-goers have shared with us how eager they are to see us return downtown, safety permitting. And now, encouraged by growing vaccination numbers and only after many conversations with authors, publishers, attendees, partners, other event organizations, and the City of Austin, we’re eager as well. We’ll never abandon what we learned about virtual, though—readers told us they enjoyed that too. Stepping into the hybrid space provides everyone the opportunity to participate in a big, vibrant, diverse Festival program, virtually or in-person.” – Literary Director Matthew Patin.

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Texas Book Festival

Television adaptation: ‘Lisey’s Story’ by Stephen King

Stephen King’s ‘Lisey’s Story’ has been adapted into a horror drama miniseries for Apple TV+. Photo: amazon

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes “If It Bleeds,” “The Institute,” “Elevation,” “The Outsider,” “Sleeping Beauties” (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: “End of Watch,” “Finders Keepers,” and “Mr. Mercedes” (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel “11/22/63” was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. His 2016 novel “Lisey’s Story” is about Lisey Landon, the widow of a famous and wildly successful novelist, Scott Landon and consists of two stories-Lisey’s in the present, and that of her dead husband’s life, as remembered by Lisey. It has been adapted into a miniseries scheduled to premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday June 4, 2021. It stars Julianne Moore as Lisey Landon and Clive Owen as Scott Landon. (amazon, 2021)

Lisey lost her husband Scott two years ago, after a twenty-five year marriage of profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-winning, bestselling novelist and an extremely complicated man. Early in their relationship, before they married, Lisey knew there was a place Scott went—a place that both terrified and healed him, could eat him alive or give him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now it is Lisey’s turn to face Scott’s demons, to go to that terrifying place known as Boo’ya Moon. What begins as a widow’s effort to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited. Lisey has a hard time keeping herself grounded in this world, often finding that she slips back to Boo’ya Moon in her sleep and sometimes while awake.

Television adaptation: ‘The Underground Railroad’ by Colson Whitehead

The adaptation of ‘The Underground Railroad’ is now available on Amazon Prime Video. Photo: amazon

Colson Whitehead is the author eight novels and two works on non-fiction, including “The Underground Railroad,” which received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Carnegie Medal, the Heartland Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Hurston-Wright Award, and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Whitehead’s “The Nickel Boys” received the Pulitzer Prize, The Kirkus Prize, and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. He is a recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur Fellowship. “The Underground Railroad” has been adapted into a TV series for Amazon by Barry Jenkins and is now available for viewing on Amazon Prime Video. It chronicles a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South and stars Thuso Mbedu and Aaron Pierre. (amazon, 2021)

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him.

In Colson Whitehead’s novel, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman’s will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share.

It is a fictional “alternative reality” story of people attempting an escape from slavery in the southern United States in the 1800s. In reality, “The Underground Railroad” was a network of abolitionists, hidden routes, and safe houses that helped enslaved African-Americans escape to freedom in the early to mid-1800s. In the novel and the series, it is an actual railroad complete with engineers, conductors, tracks, and tunnels.

Photo: google

First impression: There are a total of ten episodes, all released on May 14, 2021. After watching the first, I doubt I will watch the rest of the series. I love historical dramas, but this one has too much graphic violence for me. I have not read the book, so my opinion is based solely on the first episode of the television series. While I understand the director/producer wanted to make the African American slavery experience as real as possible on screen, for me the whipping and burning alive scenes of a slave who attempted escape were too graphic. These topics are not new to me, I have read and watched other films about them, but I think I will skip this one. If the use of gratuitous violence does not bother you, this is an interesting series on the subject of slavery.

Upcoming new book: ‘Jesus Christ Movie Star’ by Phil Hall

‘Jesus Christ Movie Star’ by Phil Hall will be released on Monday, June 7, 2021. Photo: amazon

Phil Hall is the author of the critically acclaimed books “The History of Independent Cinema” and “In Search of Lost Films” and host of the award-winning podcast The Online Movie Show. BearManor Media is proud to present “Jesus Christ Movie Star,” the new book by the award-winning film historian and podcaster Phil Hall. The 176-page illustrated book will be available beginning on June 7 in a $22.00 paperback edition and a $32.00 hardcover edition. (CW-PR, 2021)

In “Jesus Christ Movie Star,” Phil Hall takes the reader on the most extraordinary odyssey in cinematic studies by tracing how filmmakers from across the years and around the world have sought to fill theaters with the story of Jesus. Beloved classics and bizarre curios are part of this memorable journey as the “light of the world” brings illumination through the lens of a movie projector. The life of Jesus Christ has challenged and inspired filmmakers from the pioneering works of the late 1890s through today’s digital cinema. No other life story has been the subject of so many films, with so many wildly different interpretations. The big screen Jesus has traveled through multimillion dollar epics and microbudget underground films, recreating the miracles of the Gospels while also advocating for modern political issues. Moviegoers have seen Jesus walk on water and conquer death, and also break into show tunes and play straight man to a zany Bette Midler. Films about Jesus have inspired a diverse range of controversies, ranging from a groundbreaking copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Thomas Edison to an intellectual scandal that rocked the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair to accusations of anti-Semitism against Mel Gibson’s distinctive interpretation of the New Testament. 

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Release of ‘Jesus Christ Movie Star’ by Phil Hall

Upcoming new book: ‘Zero Fail’ by Carol Leonnig

“Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service’ is Carol Leonnig’s new book, out May 18, 2021. Photo: amazon

Carol Leonnig is a national investigative reporter at The Washington Post, where she has worked since 2000. A three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and co-author of the #1 The New York Times bestseller “A Very Stable Genius,” Leonnig is also an on-air contributor to NBC News and MSNBC. Her new book “Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service” is the first and definitive account of the rise and fall of the Secret Service, from the Kennedy assassination to the alarming mismanagement of the Obama and Trump years, right up to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6. It will be released on Tuesday, May 18, 2021. (amazon, 2021)

Carol Leonnig has been reporting on the Secret Service for The Washington Post for most of the last decade, bringing to light the secrets, scandals, and shortcomings that plague the agency today—from a toxic work culture to dangerously outdated equipment to the deep resentment within the ranks at key agency leaders, who put protecting the agency’s once-hallowed image before fixing its flaws. But the Secret Service was not always so troubled.

The Secret Service was born in 1865, in the wake of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but its story begins in earnest in 1963, with the death of John F. Kennedy. Shocked into reform by its failure to protect the president on that fateful day in Dallas, this once-sleepy agency was radically transformed into an elite, highly trained unit that would redeem itself several times, most famously in 1981 by thwarting an assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan. But this reputation for courage and excellence would not last forever. By Barack Obama’s presidency, the once-proud Secret Service was running on fumes and beset by mistakes and alarming lapses in judgment: break-ins at the White House, an armed gunman firing into the windows of the residence while confused agents stood by, and a massive prostitution scandal among agents in Cartagena, to name just a few. With Donald Trump’s arrival, a series of promised reforms were cast aside, as a president disdainful of public service instead abused the Secret Service to rack up political and personal gains.

To explore these problems in the ranks, Leonnig interviewed dozens of current and former agents, government officials, and whistleblowers who put their jobs on the line to speak out about a hobbled agency that is in desperate need of reform. “I will be forever grateful to them for risking their careers,” she writes, “not because they wanted to share tantalizing gossip about presidents and their families, but because they know that the Service is broken and needs fixing. By telling their story, they hope to revive the Service they love.”

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New book release: ‘The Plot’ by Jean Hanff Korelitz

‘The Plot’ is Jean Hanff Korelitz’ exciting new novel. Photo: amazon

Jean Hanff Korelitz is the author of the novels “You Should Have Known Better” (adapted for HBO as “The Undoing” by David E. Kelley, and starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant and Donald Sutherland), “Admission” (adapted as the 2013 film starring Tina Fey), “The Devil and Webster,” “The White Rose,” “The Sabbath River,” and “A Jury of Her Peers.” Korelitz is the founder of BOOKTHEWRITER, a New York City based service that “Pop-Up Book Groups” where readers can discuss books with their authors. Her new novel, “The Plot” is a propulsive read about a story too good not to steal, and the writer who steals it and was just released this week. (amazon, 2021)

In “The Plot,” Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he is teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what is left of his self-respect; he has not written―let alone published―anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he does not need Jake’s help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then he hears the plot.

Jake returns to the downward trajectory of his own career and braces himself for the supernova publication of Evan Parker’s first novel: but it never comes. When he discovers that his former student has died, presumably without ever completing his book, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that―a story that absolutely needs to be told.

In a few short years, all of Evan Parker’s predictions have come true, but Jake is the author enjoying the wave. He is wealthy, famous, praised and read all over the world. But at the height of his glorious new life, an e-mail arrives, the first barrage in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: You are a thief, it says. As Jake struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from his readers and his publishers, he begins to learn more about his late student, and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him. Who was Evan Parker, and how did he get the idea for his “sure thing” of a novel? What is the real story behind the plot, and who stole it from whom?

Upcoming new book: ‘Harry Harambee’s Kenyan Sundowner’ by Gerald Everett Jones

Gerald Everett Jones’ new novel will be released on June 29, 2021. Photo: amazon

Gerald Everett Jones is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Monica, California. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Dramatists Guild, Women’s National Book Association, and Film Independent (FIND), as well as a board member of the Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC). He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the College of Letters, Wesleyan University, where he studied under novelists Peter Boynton, F.D. Reeve, and Jerzy Kosinski. “Harry Harambee’s Kenyan Sundowner,” his new book, is about a lonely widower from Los Angeles who buys a tour package to East Africa on the promise of hookups and parties. What he finds instead are new reasons to live. It will be released on Tuesday June 29, 2021 and is available for preorder now in trade paperback and e-book formats from booksellers worldwide, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Google Books, and Rakuten Kobo. (Black Château, 2021)

LaPuerta Books and Media announces the release of “Harry Harambee’s Kenyan Sundowner,” the eleventh novel by award-winning author Gerald Everett Jones. This is literary fiction with geopolitical overtones, reminiscent of “The Heart of the Matter” by Graham Greene and “The Constant Gardener” by John le Carré.

Locals tease main character Harry with the surname “Harambee,” the Kenyan national motto meaning something like, One for All. He is not sure whether that means he is being played. Slick Italian tour operator Aldo Barbieri convinces Harry to join a group of adventuresome “voluntourists.” In a sleepy resort town on the white sands of the Indian Ocean, Harry does not find the promised excitement with local ladies. Instead, he meets Esther Mwemba, a demure widow who works as a bookkeeper. The attraction is strong and mutual, but Harry gets worried when he finds out that Esther and Aldo have a history. They introduce him to Victor Skebelsky, rumored to be the meanest man in town. Skebelsky has a plan to convert his grand colonial home and residential compound into a rehab center – as a tax dodge. The scheme calls for Harry to head up the charity. He could live like a wealthy diplomat without costing him a shilling. Harry has to come to terms with questions at the heart of his character: Is corruption a fact of life everywhere? Is all love transactional?

LaPuerta Books and Media is the small-press imprint of La Puerta Productions, Santa Monica, CA. The LaPuerta imprint and its logo, an open door, symbolize unlimited access to knowledge, opportunity, innovation, fascination, and delight. In its support for authors and thought leaders, the publisher’s mission is to help influential voices achieve worldwide platforms.

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Release of ‘Harry Harambee’s Kenyan Sundowner’ by Gerald Everett Jones

Movie adaptation: ‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’ by Michael Koryta

The movie adaptation of Michael Koryta’s ‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’ will be out on Friday, May 14, 2021. Photo: google

Michael Koryta is The New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including “The Prophet.” His last three novels, “The Ridge,” “The Cypress House,” and “So Cold the River” were all The New York Times notable books and nominated for several national and international awards. Koryta’s work has been translated into more than twenty languages. A former private investigator and newspaper reporter, Koryta graduated from Indiana University with a degree in criminal justice. His 2014 book “Those Who Wish Me Dead” has been adapted into a movie of the same name and will be released in United States on Friday, May 14, 2021 in theaters and on HBO Max. It stars Angelina Jolie and  Nicholas Hoult. (amazon, 2021)

In “Those Who Wish Me Dead,” when fourteen-year-old Jace Wilson witnesses a brutal murder, he is plunged into a new life, issued a false identity and hidden in a wilderness skills program for troubled teens. The plan is to get Jace off the grid while police find the two killers. The result is the start of a nightmare. The killers, known as the Blackwell Brothers, are slaughtering anyone who gets in their way in a methodical quest to reach him. Now all that remains between them and the boy are Ethan and Allison Serbin, who run the wilderness survival program; Hannah Faber, who occupies a lonely fire lookout tower; and endless miles of desolate Montana mountains. The clock is ticking, the mountains are burning, and those who wish Jace Wilson dead are no longer far behind.

Upcoming new book release: ‘The Devil May Dance: A Novel’ by Jake Tapper

‘The Devil May Dance: A Novel’ by Jake Tapper will be released on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. Photo: amazon

Jake Tapper is an American journalist and author. He is the Lead Washington Anchor for CNN and hosts the weekday television news show The Lead with Jake Tapper and co-hosts the Sunday morning public affairs program State of the Union. He is the author of “The Hellfire Club” which is being turned into a TV series by HBO Max and “The Outpost,” which became a celebrated film release in 2020. In his new book “The Devil May Dance: A Novel” (Charlie and Margaret Marder Mystery), Charlie and Margaret discover the dark side of Hollywood. It will be released on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. (amazon, 2021)

In “The Devil May Dance: A Novel,” Charlie and Margaret Marder, political stars in 1960s Washington DC, know all too well how the tangled web of power in the nation’s capital can operate. But while they long to settle into the comforts of home, Attorney General Robert Kennedy has other plans. He needs them to investigate a potential threat not only to the presidency, but to the security of the United States itself.

Charlie and Margaret quickly find themselves on a flight to sunny Los Angeles, where they will face off against a dazzling world of stars and studios. At the center of their investigation is Frank Sinatra, a close friend of President John F. Kennedy and a rumored mob crony, whom Charlie and Margaret must befriend to get the inside scoop. But in a town built on illusions, where friends and foes all look alike, nothing is easy, and drinks by the pool at the Sands and late-night adventures with the Rat Pack soon lead to a body in the trunk of their car. Before they know it, Charlie and Margaret are being pursued by sinister forces from Hollywood’s stages to the newly founded Church of Scientology, facing off against the darkest and most secret side of Hollywood’s power.

As the Academy Awards loom, and someone near and dear to Margaret goes missing, Charlie and Margaret find the clock is not only ticking but running out. Someone out there knows what they have uncovered and cannot let them leave alive. Corruption and ambition form a deadly mix in this fast-paced sequel to “The Hellfire Club.”

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Award-winning Icelandic thriller: ‘Double Blind: The Icelandic Manuscript Murders’ by Sara Winokur

‘Double Blind: The Icelandic Manuscript Murders’ is a must-read for anyone who plans to explore this Nordic Country. Photo: amazon

Sara Winokur is an author, geneticist, researcher and author. She has a master’s degree in cytogenetics and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics. Her research helped identify mutations underlying muscular dystrophy, Huntington’s disease, dwarfism, and a rare craniofacial syndrome. She continues to work as a consultant on potential therapies for genetic disease. Sara is also a world-traveler and has visited all seven continents. Iceland is one of her favorite destinations. “Double Blind: The Icelandic Manuscript Murders,” an intense, bone-chilling crime thriller that will keep readers at the edge of their seats from page one, is Sara’s debut novel. It is available in paperback and digital format on Amazon and other major retailers. (Black Château, 2021)

For US vaccinated citizens who miss traveling to Europe and are ready to embark on their next adventure, Iceland is one of the few available destinations. Author and world-traveler Sara Winokur depicts Iceland vividly in her award-winning mystery thriller, “Double Blind: The Icelandic Manuscript Murders.” The book, praised by Kirkus Review as “a riveting mystery tale with a compelling lead character,” dives deep into the culture, history, food, genetics, Viking settlements, and gorgeous landscapes of the Land of Fire and Ice.

As the world opens for travel again, and people wait to embark on their next vacation, a book like “Double Blind” is the escapism needed. Winokur is a geneticist and has researched diseases like Huntington’s disease and muscular dystrophy. Her unique blend of expertise means she can weave all these insights into her writing to captivate readers and adventure-seekers.

In “Double Blind,” a young boy disappears in the chill of North Iceland. Twenty years later, a mysterious poem lands on the desk of his twin sister Brynja, a forensic geneticist, and rekindles her hopes that her brother might be alive. As Brynja unravels the clues, more poems arrive, each bearing dire consequences for those who receive them: the guard of the medieval manuscript of Icelandic sagas that possibly has the answer to her burning question, the prime minister’s secretary, the local pastor. Is the poet out to stop Brynja from finding her brother and shut down her access to the DNA database? Or is the verse maker simply a psychopath copycat killer? Fighting the visual auras that have plagued her since childhood and now threaten everything she holds dear, Brynja must summon the strength to navigate the twisted labyrinth of the poet’s mind and confront the dark secret buried in her family’s past. “Double Blind: The Icelandic Manuscript Murders” is a wild ride through the cultural landscape of Iceland, from rural farmsteads to icy fjords to the high-tech world of DNA forensics.