Book Lovers: Meta-textual Romances edition

Step aside, enemies-to-lovers; editor-to-lover may be the newest romantic trope. Romances set in the world of publishing certainly seem to be having a moment, no doubt spurred on by the wild success of Emily Henry’s Beach Read in 2020 and her follow-up, Book Lovers (currently a Peak Pick!), this year. Get out your red pen and get ready for a sweltering summer read with these steamy romances. Who knew publishing could be so hot?

Overworked and underpaid editorial assistant Izzy needs to get her publishing house’s most difficult author, Beau, to turn in his manuscript so she can secure a long overdue promotion, in Jasmine Guillory’s By the Book. Izzy may be in over her head with said writer who’s in just as much of a rut as she is, but as she works with Beau, they discover they may have more than just a deadline to bring them together.

In Kris Ripper’s charming friends-to-lovers romance, Book Boyfriend, PK dreams of being a writer while working as an editorial assistant. PK’s best friend, Art, who he’s secretly been in love with since a drunken college kiss, needs a place to crash after a bad break-up. Unable to have a real-life romantic relationship with Art, PK writes out his HEA dreams. But when the book takes off and everyone seems to be in love with the fictional version of himself, including Art (who doesn’t know PK is the author), PK’s plan to win Art over backfires and he finds himself at risk of losing not only his fantasy HEA, but also his best friend.

Going for #BookBingoNW2022 Blackout? Shoot the moon with these tips

It’s almost mid-August, and maybe you’ve had an especially good summer for reading. Perhaps you’ve been playing Summer Book Bingo (or Bingo de Libros) and you’ve filled in enough squares that the once impossible-seeming goal of Blackout seems actually … attainable.

One of many Blackouts from last year’s Summer Book Bingo.

Except that you’ve left the most challenging squares for last, and you’re not really sure if certain books “count,” and you want to make you’re on the up-and-up (after all, what’s lower than cheating at honor system Book Bingo?), but you also want the satisfaction of seeing all 25 squares filled in.

That’s my situation. Although as a Library staff member, I can’t officially enter Summer Book Bingo (cards due Sept. 6 by the way), I can enter the staff version of the contest. And on my second year of Book Bingo, I’m as obsessed as any Bookstagrammer. So I turned to a few Library experts for their tips on honorably going for blackout. In the process, they answered a few other pressing questions that come up from bingo players.

Yes, audiobooks count — and you will need them: Most of you probably know that audiobooks are, well, books. It’s just a different format. So fill in those squares with as many audiobooks as you complete (matching the category, of course). My personal tip for using this to your bingo advantage: Ditch your podcast habit for the summer and listen to audiobooks. Through the magical Libby app, you can borrow, listen and fill in squares while walking the dog, running errands and doing housework.

#BookBingoNW2022: Health or Healthcare Workers

Summer Book Bingo 2022 deadline is looming! As Sept. 6 draws near, here are some suggestions for folks trying to fill their Health or healthcare workers square – two novels that imagine the lives of nurses, plus nonfiction about building healthcare infrastructure, reflections on medical advancements, and two books for common health concerns.

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
Over three days in Dublin, Ireland during the 1918 flu epidemic, nurse Julia Power works the quarantined maternity ward in an understaffed city hospital where pregnant women with influenza prepare to give birth. (historical fiction)

Lazaretto by Diane McKinney-Whetstone
In Civil War-era Philadelphia, Sylvia works as a nurse-in-training to a local midwife at Lazaretto Hospital, which is an anchor to an African American community. On the night of President Lincoln’s assassination, Sylvia helps deliver the baby of a Black maid, Meda, an event that ties together Sylvia and Meda’s lives. (historical fiction)

Sisters of Mokama by Jyoti Thottam
The true story of six Kentucky nuns who in 1947 traveled to Bihar in northern India to build a hospital, provide necessary medical care, and open a nursing school to train local women. Thottam, of The New York Times, pulls from 20 years of research, 60+ interviews, and the story of her mother, who was one of the young Indian women taken in as a nursing student.

The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town by Brian Alexander
A portrait of a small nonprofit hospital in Bryan, OH that sheds light on health care in America. From fall 2018 through summer 2020, journalist Alexander interviewed hospital personnel, patients, and others to get a full picture of how hospitals survive – or don’t.

Recent and upcoming Book-to-Screen Adaptations

It’s easy to wonder sometimes if there are any new ideas in Hollywood, as so many movies and TV series are adapted from books, plays, comics, etc. But the best adaptations make the original content feel fresh and new, drawing audiences back to the source material. Continuing our tradition of books-to-screen posts, here are some of the latest options for this year’s Book Bingo book-to-screen category.

Several classics have been adapted (again) recently from Jane Austen’s Emma, to Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, to Shakespeare’s Macbeth (in a film directed by none other than Joel Cohen). In July, Austen’s Persuasion receives a similar treatment as Autumn de Wilde’s 2020 film Emma, a fresh, cheeky, pastel-infused take on one of Austen’s most problematic heroines starring Anya Taylor-Joy. The latest of many adaptations, Carrie Cracknell’s Persuasion premieres on Netflix on July 15^th, and features Dakota Johnson, Cosmo Jarvis, and Henry Golding in yet another rich, dashing romantic lead. Also worth watching/reading in the classics/historical category is Gentleman Jack, an HBO series adapted from the memoir The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister, or ParkChan-Wook’s 2016 film The Handmaiden, adapted from Sarah Waters’ 2002 novel Fingersmith. 

Paul Gallico’s charming 1957 novel Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, about a London charwoman who falls in love with a client’s Dior dress and decides she simply must have one of her own, is getting a big-screen movie release

#BookBingoNW2022: A book about books

This summer, slow-down from the modern virtual world of the internet and open up the older virtual world of the book. Contemplate this way we humans choose to share and expand those worlds of our joint imaginations, oh and complete your “Book about Books” #BookBingoNW2022 square at the same time!

As the saying goes – so many books, so little time (& so many ways to fill this square) – a category that literally encompasses a full lifetime of possible reading – here are just a few titles to kick off from this summer:

Autumn Rounds by Jaques Poulin– an elegant and slightly melancholic volume set in Quebec with a delightful eye for detail. The novel begins as the Driver of a milk delivery truck-turned-bookmobile checks beneath his vehicle for cats before starting out on his deliveries – “in case any have been drawn to shelter there by the lingering scent of milk.” The Driver sets out on his presumptive “last route” to deliver books in the company of a traveling circus troupe, becoming more and more enamored of their leader Marie, whose beauty recalls him to life. The small format of this book complements the intimacy of the story and makes it an easy companion for travel.

Snarky Literary Agent Nora meets aloof Editor Charlie, in Book Lovers by Emily Henry (an SPL Peak Picks* selection). Rich with sentences such as; …“youthful skin would make a woman more money (true in both acting and waitressing), good underwear would make her more confident (so far, so true), and good books would make her happy (universal truth),” the book provides both an amusing parody of the publishing world and a satisfying rom-com read with the hot chemistry of the two antagonistic lead characters intact – making it a perfect beach read selection.