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S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.
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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Louise Penny, author of the award-winning Armand Gamache series of murder mysteries, is bowing out of U.S. appearances in light of the current trade war happening between the U.S. and her home country, Canada. Penny, who’s been touring the U.S. for the past two decades, said this in a statement posted to her site and her Facebook:
I can hardly believe I’m saying this, but given the ongoing threat of an unprovoked trade war against Canada by the US president, I do not feel I can enter the United States. At least not until that economic sword, that could throw hundreds of thousands of Canadians (as well as Americans) into poverty, is removed completely. There are, of course, other things the American president is doing that make visiting the USA unpalatable.
The U.S. is playing a terrible game of tariffs with countries including Canada, which is putting up a good fight. Canada has removed U.S.-made alcohol from shelves and threatened a tariff on electricity sent to their neighbor in response to steep tariff threats from the White House (not to mention Trump’s wild insistence that Canada become our 51st state). So, who could blame Penny? There are folks in the U.S. who wish they could boycott the U.S.
More Anne Rice Adaptations Incoming?
When I think of Anne Rice adaptations, I think of how much I wanted to be Aaliyah in Queen of the Damned when that much-panned adaptation hit the screens. That is not the news–the news is that Anne Rice’s estate has a new partnership poised to make her ever adaptable works even more expansive and publicized. In case you didn’t know, Rice’s son, Christopher Rice, controls the estate’s literary properties alongside fellow author Eric Shaw Quinn as Dinner Partners LLC. They’ve signed with InkWell Management and Literate “to promote the late author’s available works across all media for series and film adaptations.” I hear AMC’s The Vampire Chronicles is VERY good and there’s no shortage of works by Rice (under Anne Rice, Anne Rampling, and A.N. Roquelaure), so I’m not mad at the news–I just want to know which new adaptation I’ll keep promising my bestie I’ll watch only to avoid committing to yet another streaming platform.
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Terry Brooks Passes Shannara Series to Delilah S. Dawson
This year’s Galaphile: The First Druids of Shannara will be Terry Brooks’ final Shannara novel. The prolific author announced his retirement at Emerald City Comic Con and that he was passing the Shannara series on to the author of Guillotine and host of Star Wars books, among other works. Brooks explained that he wasn’t following the traditional route of passing series on posthumously because he wanted to see what came of it next, and it sounded like he might have a voice in Dawson’s direction with the series. This wouldn’t be the first time Dawson collaborated with another author–Kill the Farm Boy was co-authored by Kevin Hearne–and she’s similarly not new with spinning tales from existing, epic stories considering her work with the Star Wars franchise.
The Best Book Covers of the Year So Far
Do you already have a favorite book cover for the top half of the year? Mine might be Make Your Way Home by Carrie R. Moore, which I just got in the mail and haven’t been able to stop staring at (cover art design by Beth Steidle and art by Uzo Njoku). We’ve got even more excellent book covers to rest your eyes on.
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