The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

A Hulu series based on Curtis Sittenfeld's Rodham is in the works.

A Hulu series based on Curtis Sittenfeld’s latest novel Rodham is in the works. The novel is an alternate history of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s life in which she dates (and definitely sleeps with) Bill, but ultimately decides not to marry him. Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

YA superstar Jason Reynolds just sold his debut novel for adults.

Today, Simon and Schuster announced that their imprint Scribner will be publishing the debut novel for adults from #1 New York Times bestselling children’s book author Jason Reynolds, whose books include Look Both Ways and Ghost, both finalists for the Read more >

By Emily Temple

How to write about a 4-year-old poet’s book deal without getting sad.

This is definitely a clickbait title because I don’t really know the answer. In contemplating Nadim Shamma-Sourgen’s recently announced book deal with Walker Books (who will publish a collection of his “astonishing” poetry next summer) I have spent the last Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Victorian fans of Dracula made vampire-slaying kits for fun.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that vampires make for the best entertainment content. They do, they just do, and they always have. In the latest news about humankind’s obsession with vampires, Aimee Ortiz reports in The New York Times that Read more >

By Olivia Rutigliano

The BLM movement is inspiring a boom in diverse children's literature.

Illustration by Bea Jackson. From Skin Like Mine (2016) by Latishia M. Perry   When a friend of mine, a former teacher, told me the subject of a children’s book he wants to write—an allegory about how the criminal justice Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Irvine Welsh and Bret Easton Ellis are creating a satirical tv show about a tabloid magazine.

Do we really need this right now? Fine. I’ll blog, you decide: according to Deadline, Irvine Welsh and Bret Easton Ellis are developing a series about “American tabloid culture” that will “chronicle a weekly publication across decades, a place where Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

HBO Max assembles a sexy dream team—ft. Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves—to read you bedtime stories.

Remember in the early days of quarantine when celebrities were framing their Instagram attention-seeking as a public service? (Okay, yes, we were as guilty as anyone of writing breathless blogs about stars generously reading books aloud, but in our defense, Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Jonathan Lethem will publish a novel in serial form over 10 years in this new star-studded lit mag.

Now on the list of beautiful things I’d like to have in my apartment: the new literary magazine INQUE, created by Granta editor Dan Crowe and Matt Willey, formerly the art director at The New York Times Magazine. The magazine will Read more >

By Corinne Segal

15 new books to add to your TBR pile.

The sun is shining, the temperatures are rising, and the books just keep on coming! Here are fifteen of the biggest new titles hitting bookshelves today. * Adrian Tomine, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist (Drawn & Quarterly) “A hilarious, Read more >

By Katie Yee

Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington cast in adaptation of Rumaan Alam's Leave the World Behind.

Today in adaptation news: Neflix has won the rights to adapt Rumaan Alam’s forthcoming novel Leave the World Behind, with Sam Esmail—of Mr Robot and Homecoming fame—directing, and Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington starring. In the novel, an unspecified global Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

All the books mentioned in Clueless.

Clueless, one of the best literary adaptations of the 90s, has just turned twenty-five. And would Lit Hub miss out on a chance to celebrate it? AS IF. Because of the pandemic, we can’t celebrate by making a cameo at Read more >

By Olivia Rutigliano

Noted immortal Keanu Reeves to bless our lives with a comic book in October.

Noted immortal man, Keanu Reeves, is writing a comic book with the help of bestselling graphic novelist Matt Kindt. Called BRZRKR, the first of 12 issues will debut in October just in time to save the world / distract us Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

A math teacher has painted 45 book rocks to hide in her local library (when it reopens).

Look, these days, I’ll take my cheering wherever I can get it. And this weekend, Ella Dickson put a smile on my face with her thread of book rocks, each one painstakingly painted to look like a novel. They are Read more >

By Emily Temple

It's a good day to rewatch John Lewis accepting the National Book Award.

In case you forgot: in 2016, legendary civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, along with co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell, for his graphic novel March: Book Three, the Read more >

By Emily Temple

J.K. Rowling's sales suddenly slowed down in June. I wonder why.

Variety reports that sales for J.K. Rowling’s books slowed down in June, in a period that appears to be somewhat of an anomaly for the author, as well as out of step with the wider industry. Last year, as sales Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Why do people on the internet care so much about how other people organize their books?

Yet again, a debate about color-coordinated bookshelves has sprung up on the internet. This time, it was catalyzed by a tweet from writer and journalist Jennifer Wright, which features said bookshelf style as well as a very fun dress (which is Read more >

By Emily Temple

A new emergency fund will help literary organizations hit hard by the pandemic.

Let’s welcome Friday with a little bit of light. This morning, three major arts nonprofits, supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, announced a $3.5 million fund that will be used to give one-time grants (between $5,000 Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Still stuck at home? Read these 7 books in which . . . very little happens.

I started writing this post as a counterpoint to the “describe your favorite book in the most boring way possible” trend. It was meant to be something along the lines of “describe a plotless book in the most exciting way Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Take a look at the dreamy book tunnels in this beautiful Beijing bookstore.

Here’s another one for our ever-growing post-quarantine travel wish lists (assuming U.S. passports aren’t just cancelled forever now): Beijing’s Zhongshuge bookstore, which features some very dreamy book tunnels. According to X+Living, the design firm behind the literary wonderland, the tunnels Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Mary Trump's book sold almost a million copies by the end of its publication day.

Mary Trump’s book Too Much Is Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, which focuses on the history of the Trump family and the psychology of the president, had sold 950,000 copies by the end of Tuesday, Read more >

By Corinne Segal