EarlyWord

The trailer has just been released for the TV series adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s The White Princess, set to air on the STARZ channel some time in 2017.

The sequel to BBC’s 2013 series The White Queen, adapted from the first novels of Philippa Gregory’s the “Cousins’ War” series, which also ran on STARZ, it features the same writer/director team and stars Jacob Collins-Levy as Henry VII, Jodie Comer as Princess Elizabeth, Essie Davis as Elizabeth Woodville, Joanne Whalley as the Duchesss of Burgundy, Michelle Fairley as Margaret Beaufort and Suki Waterhouse as Cecily of York.

The sound track features a haunting version of Johnny Cash’s I Walk the Line by Halsey (incongruously, it is also used for the new Power Rangers trailer).

Below, Gregory, who serves as executive producer on the series, describes the history behind the novel.

The final book in the series, The King’s Curse was published in 2014.

The June 2nd debut of the new Wonder Woman film is just six months away making it high time, according to  PopSugar to “Brush Up on Her Story From the Comics.” It may also be a good time to create virtual and actual displays.

There’s much to choose from. As PopSugar points out, the warrior princess has her roots in the 1940s so there is a long list of print titles detailing her adventures. WorldCat shows over 4,000 titles in libraries. For introductions and reading guides to the various series, turn to Comic Book Herald and Den of Geek! 

It’s also a good time to pull out the 2014 title,  The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore (PRH/Knopf; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample) which received strong reviews, including those from Entertainment Weekly and the NYT .

EW gave in an A, saying it is “a great read. It has nearly everything you might want in a page-turner: tales of S&M, skeletons in the closet, a believe-it-or-not weirdness in its biographical details, and something else that secretly powers even the most ”serious” feminist history — fun.”

Tie-in editions are upcoming

Wonder Woman: The Official Movie Novelization, Nancy Holder (PRH/Titan Books, June 6, 2017). Following what has become a tradition for superhero movies, the novelization arrives after the movie release, to avoid spoilers.

Wonder Woman: The Art and Making of the Film, Sharon Gosling (PRH/Titan Books, May 30, 2017).

Wonder Woman Movie Deluxe Junior Novel, Steve Korte (HC/HarperFestival, May 2, 2017) as well as several leveled readers (see our catalog of tie-ins for a full list).

Libraries in need of extra copies of the book, as opposed to the screenplay, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, are in luck.

After being out of print for years, it is being re-released with a new forward and jacket. It will also contain updated “content that reflects the exciting developments in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World” according to a Scholastic press release.

The book will be published simultaneously in print and as a Pottermore eBook edition.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Hogwarts Library Book)
Newt Scamander, J.K. Rowling
Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic)
On Sale Date: March 14, 2017
ISBN 9781338132311, 1338132318
Hardcover | 128 pages |$12.99 USD

It’s big week for readers’ advisors, with a dozen librarian and bookseller picks arriving. In addition, a series often mentioned as a librarian favorite, the Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman returns with The Burning Page: An Invisible Library Novel (PRH/ROC; OverDrive Sample). The first (The Invisible Library) and second (The Masked City) were both LibraryReads picks (and here).

The titles highlighted below, and several other notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar Week of Jan. 9, 2017

Media Attention

Furious George: My Forty Years Surviving NBA Divas, Clueless GMs, and Poor Shot Selection, George Karl, Curt Sampson (HarperCollins/Harper; HarperLuxe; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample).

The subtitle says it all. George Karl is a no-hold-barred former NBA coach. Excerpts from the book began making headlines at the end of last month, including the New York Post‘s “George Karl sounds more deranged every day.”

Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower’s Final Mission. Bret Baier, Catherine Whitney (HarperCollins/Morrow; HarperLuxe; HarperAudio).

The author is the host of Fox News Special Report, recently ranked as the third most-watched cable news show, giving him a ready platform to promote his book. It focuses on Eisenhower’s farewell address, which famously warned of the dangers of the “the military-industrial complex.” Kirkus calls it “A focused and timely study of Eisenhower’s significant speech and the sticky transition to JFK’s inherited new world.”

A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life, Ayelet Waldman (PRH/Knopf; OverDrive Sample).

Waldman, who successfully treated her mood swings with small doses of LSD, is set to be interviewed on ABC’s Nightline on Jan. 18. Her book is a People Pick this week, “Her entertaining journal interweaves drug-related research … with scenes from her famous marriage to writer Michael Chabon.” It will also be reviewed widely.

A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (PRH/Knopf; HighBridge Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Ulrich, a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and a MacArthur Fellow, is scheduled to be interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air on Jan 17. 1. Kirkus says her “deeply researched, well-informed history [draws] on a rich trove of diaries and letters [and] the author follows many Mormon families as they confronted poverty, illness, privations, and persecution in their quest to establish a community where they could practice their faith and enact their social vision.”

Peer Picks

Five LibraryReads picks come out this week.

The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden (PRH/Del Rey; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“We journey to 14th century Russia where the old ways still hold sway in the outlying villages and spirits and magical creatures are real. When Vasya’s stepmother and the new village priest try to end the pagan offerings, it us up to Vasya to stop the Bear from awakening. Can she find the strength to accept who she really is and protect her family and village? This magical story captivated me and pulled me fully into that world. The last third and the pulse-pounding finish had me on the edge of my seat.” — Joseph Jones, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Cuyahoga, OH

Additional Buzz: It is also an Indie Next pick and a GalleyChat selection. We featured Arden as part of our PRH EarlyReads Author chats. The debut has earned a rare four-star pre-pub sweep, with glowing reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.

The Dry, Jane Harper (Macmillan/Flatiron Books; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“’Luke lied. You lied. Be at the funeral.’ These eight words will change everything for Agent Aaron Falk, summoned by the father or his former best friend. It appears Luke went on a rampage, murdering his wife, son, and then himself. At Luke’s father’s request, Aaron agrees to look into the murders/suicide and learns that the small town has long held grudges and secrets that may be best kept hidden in this atmospheric, chilling complex tale of anger and revenge.” — Jennifer Winberry, Hunterdon County Library, Flemington, NJ

Additional Buzz: It is an Indie Next selection and a GalleyChat title. Reese Witherspoon optioned it in advance of publication. It got three pre-pub stars, from Booklist, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly. The Guardian features the book in a column on Australian fiction.

The Second Mrs. Hockaday, Susan Rivers (Workman/Algonquin Books; HighBridge Audio).

“Placidia is seventeen when she marries Major Hockaday, an older man and recent widower with a child. After he is recalled to service in the Civil War, she must manage his farm and take care of his son and all with little help. When he returns, it is to find that she has given birth, and said to have murdered the child. Told in journal entries, letters, and court documents, we learn about her life and the answers to this puzzling and horrifically charged event. A dark book that highlights the amazing strength so many of these women had to develop.” — Diane Scholl, Batavia Public Library, Batavia, IL

Additional Buzz: Another book to get triple nods, it is an Indie Next selection and a GalleyChat pick. Rivers is getting focused local attention (and here) so librarians in North Carolina should take particular note.

Her Every Fear, Peter Swanson (HC/William Morrow; HC Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“Kate Priddy is moving to Boston to swap apartments with her cousin. Haunted by an abusive ex, she wants to leave behind her previous life. But when her neighbor, Audrey Marshall, is murdered, Kate is drawn into a web of fear even darker than her past. Varying points of view add new perspectives to the narrative as the book goes on; the mystery of what really happened to Audrey is just a part of the intrigue as we delve into the minds of imperfect, broken people. As a fan of Swanson’s previous work, I was not disappointed.” — Cari Dubiel, Twinsburg Public Library, Twinsburgh, OH

Additional Buzz: It too is an Indie Next title and a GalleyChat pick.

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth, Lindsey Lee Johnson (PRH/Random House; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Not for the faint of heart, Johnson’s first book is a beautifully crafted work that delves into the perils of teen-dom in a wealthy, insulated California neighborhood. The story opens with the suicide of an outcast middle-school boy. Fast forward to high school, where seemingly minor struggles of both teens and adults expose themselves to be deeply ominous, leaving few untouched by the ensuing tragedies. As the plot slowly builds, the intricate web of relationships that intertwine the lives of characters and the events that they experience become apparent, ultimately returning full circle.” — Amy Christiansen, Jefferson County Public Library, Wheat Ridge, CO

Additional Buzz: In the new issue of People as the “Book of the Week,” called a “stunning debut [that] … explores the fallout among a group of teens … who prove, in the end, less entitled than simply empty and searching. An eye-opener.” It is also an Indie Next selection and a GalleyChat title. Librarians recently chatted with the author as part of our  PRH EarlyReads Author chat program.

Seven additional Indie Next picks also hit shelves:

The Midnight Cool, Lydia Peelle (HC; HC Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“The journey of middle-aged swindler Billy and his young, idealistic partner Charles is a journey into the history and heart of the oft-maligned American dream. As the nation considers whether it will join World War I, Billy and Charles must weigh the merits of freedom against patriotic obligation, their life on the road against the temptation of putting down roots, and their diverging desires against the love and loyalty they bear for each other. As Billy says, ‘I reckon that’s the beauty and the shame of it, all at once.’ Peelle’s exploration of this beauty and shame is exquisitely wrought, richly populated, and ultimately devastating. I finished the novel in tears.” —Mairead Small Staid, Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI

The Sleepwalker, Chris Bohjalian (PRH/ Doubleday; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Once again, master storyteller Bohjalian has crafted a thoughtful, suspenseful novel that grabs hold and doesn’t let go until the end. Exploring the world of sleepwalking and parasomnia, he recounts the story of the night Liana’s mother disappeared. At turns a harrowing mystery and a heartbreaking tale of a family coping with their mother’s affliction, The Sleepwalker is filled with beautiful prose that culminates in a twist readers never see coming.” —Kathleen Carey, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, NY

Additional Buzz: The Washington Post, in an early and rave review, calls it a “spooky thriller … a dark, Hitchcockian novel … Like many of Bohjalian’s novels, this neo-New England gothic ends with a surprising and most satisfying twist. It was so deliciously dark that I reread The Sleepwalker to pick up on all the subtle clues this clever novelist dropped with poetically perfect precision throughout.”

It is heralded by an appropriately creepy book trailer:

Two Days Gone, Randall Silvis (Sourcebooks Landmark; Recorded Books; OverDrive Sample).

“This is the perfect dead-of-winter read! Ryan DeMarco is shocked to learn that his friend Thomas Huston, an internationally bestselling author, has disappeared into the woods, leaving his slaughtered family behind in their once-serene home. How could a man who has it all – perfect career, perfect wife, perfect kids — become such a monster? This is the question DeMarco sets out to answer, all while on a wild chase to track down Huston before he freezes to death in the harsh northern Pennsylvania winter.” —Maggie Henriksen, Saturn Booksellers, Gaylord, MI

Burning Bright, Nick Petrie (PRH/G.P. Putnam’s Sons; Penguin Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Burning Bright solidifies Petrie’s place among the best thriller writers working today. His hero, Peter Ash, wanders from town to town, living outdoors because his PTSD will not allow him to remain inside walls for very long. When he discovers a woman on the run from shadowy killers, Ash knows he must help her in spite of his near-crippling claustrophobia. Petrie gives us characters we love, warts and all, and there is a true sense of forward propulsion to his action-packed tale. Peter Ash is a hero for today and Burning Bright puts Petrie in the company of Lee Child and Robert Ludlum.” —William Carl, Wellesley Books, Wellesley, MA

The River at Night, Erica Ferencik (S&S/Gallery/Scout Press; S&S Audio).

“What would you do to save the lives of your friends? In this debut novel, Winifred and her three friends are about to find out. Instead of a trip to a comfortable, fancy resort in some exotic destination, they embark on an excursion to the Allagash wilderness in upstate Maine. What happens next is everyone’s nightmare, yet it leads to the kind of wisdom few people ever achieve. This is a tense, disturbing, yet satisfying story of the strength of friendship in the face of a severe challenge.” —Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore, Spokane, WA

Fever Dream, Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell (PRH/Riverhead Books; Penguin Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Haunting, foreboding, eerie, and ominous, Schweblin’s Fever Dream is the first of the Argentine author’s books to appear in English. Despite its brevity, Fever Dream throbs with a quickened pulse, as heightening tension is its most effective quality. An intriguing yet purposefully vague plot adds to the story’s mystique, one of peril, poison, and the unexplained terror of worms. Metaphorical in scope, Schweblin’s impressively constructed tale leaves much to the imagination but is all the richer for doing so. Unsettling and compelling, this is a delirious, potent novel not to be overlooked.” —Jeremy Garber, Powell’s Books, Portland, OR

Additional Buzz: The New Yorker has a review, writing “Hundreds of novels have flooded me with heartbreak or compassion, but very few—maybe none—have made me feel libidinous or spooked. No previous book, at least, has filled me with unease the way Fever Dream did.

Lucky Boy, Shanthi Sekaran (PRH/G.P. Putnam’s Sons; Penguin Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Soli is an 18-year-old Mexican girl who enters the U.S. illegally and gives birth to a baby boy. Rashi and Kavya Reddy are an Indian-American couple in Berkeley who have unsuccessfully tried to have children. Their stories intersect when Soli is arrested and her baby is taken from her by Child Protective Services and given into foster care with the Reddys, who become attached to baby Ignacio and want to adopt him. Sekaran does a good job describing the trials and tribulations of illegal immigrants, and Soli’s hope of regaining custody rings true. A compelling read that examines very topical parental rights and immigration issues.” —Valerie Koehler, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, TX

Additional Buzz: It earned three pre-pub starred reviews, from Booklist, Kirkus, and Library Journal. Among several other books listed here, Bustle picks it as one of “17 Of January 2017’s Best Fiction Books To Bring An Electrifying Start to Your New Year.”

Tie-ins

There are no tie-ins this week. For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins.

The glitzy award season starts Sunday, Jan. 8 with the Golden Globes, which honors both film and TV and is known for being less formal than the Oscars, in no small part because drinks are available to the guests throughout the evening.

There are many literary connections among the nominees, from Outlander and Game of Thrones to Fences and The Night Manager.

LitHub offers a run down of them all, along with the awards each is up for and a short summary.

Perhaps even more interesting is their list of snubs, which they call “frankly outrageous.” Titles that did not make the cut this year include The Handmaiden, Orange is the New Black, Love & Friendship, and Certain Women.

About The Handmaiden, LitHub says, “The movie is gorgeous, sensual, terrifying, and an utterly captivating experience—more captivating even than its source material. It’s a stunning achievement, and it should really get every award.”

Love & Friendship is defended with “A generally underrated (or at least under-discussed) film this year, but actually great. Whit Stillman! Kate Beckinsale! Chloë Sevigny! Jane Austen, except meaner than you remember! Well-acted, lively, and satisfyingly acerbic.”

LitHub also lists The Girl on the Train but says “Just kidding. Even Emily Blunt couldn’t save this movie.”

EW offers a full list of the nominees and where they can be viewed.

The new year will be “a feast” for books, according to The Millions in their just-released “Most Anticipated: The Great First-Half 2017 Book Preview.” 

Their choices tend towards the literary, but they include many authors with a ready audience, including Dan Chaon, Ill Will (PRH/Ballantine; RH Audio; March 7), Joshua Ferris, The Dinner Party (Hachette/Little, Brown; May 2), and Elizabeth Strout, Anything Is Possible (PRH/RH; RH Audio; April 25).

Haruki Murakami, Richard Russo, George Saunders, Roxane Gay, J.M. Coetzee, Jesmyn Ward, and Cormac McCarthy are also part of the gathering.

Not on that list is the expected blockbuster of the summer, the second novel by Paula Hawkins, Into the Water (PRH/Riverhead; RH Audio/BOT; May 2). As we noted earlier, Entertainment Weekly includes it in their picks of “The 23 Most Anticipated Books of 2017,” 

EW also features All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai (PRH/Dutton; Penguin Audio; OverDrive Sample; Feb, 7.), a debut about “A man from a utopian parallel universe [who] ends up in our 2016 after a time-travel mishap.” The book is also the number one title on the February Indie Next list.

Join our online chat with the author on Jan. 11.

Links to both lists are posted on the right, under the header “Season Previews.” We add links as new lists arrive.

Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove (S&S/Atria, July 2014) is taking off again, rising on Amazon and building yet another holds queue. Already generally exceeding a 3:1 ratio in print (in some libraries we checked it is as high as 15:1) the second wave of attention is due to the film’s release On Demand and on disc. Holds for the film version are topping 44:1.

The movie recently made the Oscar shortlist in the Foreign Film category, meaning it has made the second round-cut (one more winnowing will be made by Jan. 15th to decide the five final nominees – IndieWire explains  the complicated and insider-y process).

Entertainment Weekly gave the film a strong B+ review, writing it “is a darkly funny, tragic, and ultimately heartwarming tearjerker.”

The Washington Post says it is like St. Vincent and Gran Torino but “a bit riskier and more intriguing.”

NPR takes a contrarian view, writing it “won’t win Best Foreign Film this year, nor should it, but it’s worth your time, and it’s easy to see why this proudly populist movie was a smash hit in Sweden … [the] modest dramedy … is as sweetly sincere as it is market-driven, with gusts of saving black comedy rolling in to rescue it from excess goo.”

Like Backman’s books, a large part of the film’s buzz is based on word of mouth. IndieWire reports it opened with modest results and then grew steadily at every theater that ran it. When “other high-profile movies like Birth of a Nation, American Pastoral, and American Honey declined at the box office, arthouse exhibitors turned to Ove. And it just kept chugging along.”

Backman keeps chugging along too. See our stories about his rise and next books.

Robert Harris’s newest novel, Conclave (PRH/Knopf; RH Audio; OverDrive Sample), about the political and personal machinations of electing a pope, is getting rave reviews, so glowing, it just appeared on BookMark‘s list of “Most Talked About Books.”

Many readers’ advisors who consider Harris a favorite will not be surprised. Harris writes bestselling historical fiction such as Pompeii and Fatherland as well as contemporary works, such as The Ghost (which was adapted into the feature film The Ghost Writer starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan). Conclave is a contemporary thriller set in the Vatican.

The Guardian opens its review with this gripping lure:

“I am about to use a word I have never knowingly used in any review of any book ever. During my 25-odd years of writing about books I have done my best to avoid cliches, slipshod summaries, oracular pronouncements and indeed anything else that might appear emblazoned on a book jacket. Nonetheless, there is only one possible word to describe Robert Harris’s new novel, and it is this: unputdownable.”

The NYT says that its culminating denouement is “so provocatively scandalous” it “could become a Catholic version of The Satanic Verses.”

The SF Chronicle writes “you eavesdrop on clandestine intrigues and late-night missions that play out in the shadows of the Vatican labyrinth … the author’s strong writing freshens the familiar with color, and his keen sense of character humanizes the baroque proceedings.”

WSJ says “Robert Harris is a master storyteller and accomplished craftsman who, like Graham Greene and Somerset Maugham, marries a searching moral imagination to his rare ability to tell a compelling tale. He understands that people read novels for pleasure, not under compulsion.” (subscription may be required)

Despite the strong reviews and Harris’s auto-buy reputation, holds are light at libraries we checked. That might be due to the timing of the book (it came out just a few weeks after the election) and its subject matter (a contentious, heated battle for power). It has not appeared on best seller lists.

As a result, readers’ advisory librarians may be able to put this book into patron’s hands. Based on the reviews, it’s a good bet to hand-sell.

At this time of the year, with all the new titles released on health and fitness, some of which are based on questionable information, it’s refreshing to learn about one  by a Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist and a health psychologist. Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel appeared on CBS This Morning yesterday to discuss their new book The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample).

As a result, the book is racing up the Amazon charts, jumping from #3,292 to #10.

A telomere is like the cap end of a shoelace that keeps it from fraying. Telomeres protect chromosomes and “can help reduce chronic disease and improve wellbeing, all the way down to our cells and all the way through our lives.”

The authors say that specific lifestyle changes, such as eating better, sleeping a bit more, getting exercise, and having a good frame of mind strengthens telomeres. Certain styles of thinking, such as pessimism and hostility, weaken them by exaggerating stress responses.  “Telomeres are listening to your thoughts” and are responding in kind, they say. All manner of toxic situations impact telomeres, from suffering discrimination to exposure to toxic chemicals.

Demand in libraries has not yet caught up with Amazon and holds are generally under a 3:1 ratio.

This month’s GalleyChat has ended. Read the transcript below and please join us for the next episode on Tuesday, Feb. 7th – 4 to 5 p.m. EDT (3:30 for virtual cocktails). Details here.

Now that the holidays are over, you may be faced with a mountainous to-do list.

We feel your pain. If you’re going to Midwinter, you’ll feel even worse if you forget to sign up for the AAP/LibraryReads author events. Hurry, the deadline is just ten days away. RSVP with your interest in attending by Friday, January 13 and you’ll hear back from the AAP on whether they can accommodate your request:

AAP LibraryReads Best In Debut Authors, Saturday, January 21, 2017 3 pm – 4 pm. RSVP here. See the list of the authors here.

AAP LibraryReads BookTalk Breakfast, Monday, January 23rd, 2017 8:30 am – 10 am. RSVP here. See the list of the authors here.

And don’t forget to sign up for the publisher buzz sessions. Not only are they great for gaining insight on upcoming books, they are an opportunity to snag hot ARCs. Some of the publishers ask for an RSVP so they’ll have enough snacks and copies to go around (check the ads on our site).

For Midwinter novices, PW offers librarians’ tips on “How to Maximize ALA Midwinter” (subscription required).

Emily Fridlund’s debut novel, History of Wolves (Atlantic Monthly Press; Recorded Books; OverDrive Sample), just got a rave review on NPR’s web site.

Calling it “electrifying,” reviewer Michael Schaub says it “isn’t a typical thriller any more than it’s a typical coming-of-age novel; Fridlund does a remarkable job transcending genres without sacrificing the suspense that builds steadily in the book … History of Wolves is as beautiful and as icy as the Minnesota woods where it’s set, and with her first book, Fridlund has already proven herself to be a singular talent.”

Among other buzz, it is an Amazon best of the month title as well as their featured debut for January. As we pointed out in Titles to Know for the week, People magazines picks it in the new issue, calling it, “a compelling portrait of a troubled adolescent trying to find her way in a new and frightening world.” It is also the #1 Indie Pick this month.

Holds are growing, ranging from 3:1 to 12:1 where ordering is light. One library we checked has a 25:1 ratio, triggering a large second order. 

Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (Houghton Mifflin, 1986) will premiere on April 26, 2017.

To mark the release date, Hulu issued a set of first photos revealing some of the costumes and settings. The photos nudged the book higher on Amazon’s sales charts.

A tie-in has also been announced, The Handmaid’s Tale (Movie Tie-in), (PRH/Anchor, trade pbk; March 28, 2017)

The ten-episode dystopian drama stars Elisabeth Moss, who made her name on Mad Men, as Offred, the central character and a handmaid, a rare fertile woman who has become the property of the state, forced to conceive against her will. Joseph Fiennes stars as The Commander, to whom Offred is assigned. Yvonne Strahovski plays Serena Joy, The Commander’s wife. Jordana Blake, Samira Wiley, Max Minghella, Madeline Brewer, Ann Dowd, and O-T Fagbenle round out the cast. Atwood serves as a consulting producer.

Update: Gilmore Girls‘ Alexis Bledel has joined the cast, and a new trailer has been released.

Two high-profile film adaptations expand nationwide this week, Hidden Figures and A Monster Calls (see our coverage from their Oscar-qualifying opening week).

On NBC, a new series based on The Wizard of Oz begins.

Emerald City is billed as a “modern reimagining” of the backstory of L. Frank Baum’s famous tale.

After a rocky path to the screen, involving delays and major changes in the lead team, it finally premieres Jan. 6 at 9 EST and will run for 10 episodes in its opening season. Tarsem Singh (Mirror Mirror, Self/less) directs. Shaun Cassidy (Cold Case) serves as executive producer.

Deadline Hollywood says the show is “gunning for” the Game of Thrones label, writing it offers a “dark new take” in which “Dorothy [is] transported by tornado along with a K9 police dog into a mystical land of competing realms, lethal warriors, dark magic and a bloody battle for supremacy.”

ScreenCrush calls it an “ultra-ultra-ultra-gritty take” and details the cast: “Adria Arjona as Dorothy Gale (complete with K9 police dog Toto), Dracula star Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Scarecrow-type Lucas, Florence Kasumba as the Wicked Witch of the East, Joely Richardson as Glinda, [and] Vincent D’Onofrio as the Wizard of Oz.”

Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature tops LitHub‘s list of the 50 biggest literary stories of the year, writing “Regardless of how you feel about Dylan, this was the rare kind of ‘literary’ news that made its way to front pages everywhere.”

The second biggest story was less happy for its subject, the unmasking of Elena Ferrante.

The rise of poetry is #5. LitHub writes “poets.org saw its biggest surge of shares in four years … And in the most famous example of pop-culture/poetry crossover, Beyoncé collaborated with poet Warsan Shire’s when writing her visual album Lemonade.” The editor of Poetry Magazine wrote a piece for The Atlantic explaining why poems are at the forefront once more, “When people are under pressure of any kind, they turn to poetry. That’s why poetry is with us at the most important occasions in our lives: weddings, funerals, anniversaries. When Kobe Bryant retired, the first thing he seems to have done was write a poem.”

At #18 LitHub marks the return of book clubs, pointing out that Emma Waston, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Reese Witherspoon began sharing books and Oprah’s Book Club relaunched.

Nos. 17 and 18 acknowledge the roles of two other women taking on critical roles in the book world. Pamela Paul became the editor of the New York Times Book Review, “one of the most powerful positions in the book world [she is] Only the second woman ever to head the Grey Lady’s literary coverage” they write. Also, Lisa Lucas became the executive director of the National Book Foundation. Beating all of them out, however, is #7, Carla Hayden becoming Librarian of Congress.

If you haven’t yet had your fill of year-end summaries, LitHub also features “The Year’s Best Overlooked Books, According to Booksellers” and “Literary Podcasters Best of 2016 (and Most Anticipated in 2017).”