Buzz Worthy News: April 18th, 2016

18 April, 2016 Buzz Worthy News 6 comments

BWN-bee-graphicWelcome to Buzz Worthy News where the stories are awesome and not at all well-written. Need your YA industry news? Never fear, Kate Copeseeley is here to give it to you straight.

In this week’s Buzz Worthy News: 50 Gazillion Trailers, Good Omens Adaption, Booktour Boycotts, and Thomas Jefferson Novel Reinvents Past. All this and more!
Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly news post bringing you all the best information about the book and blogging world, particularly for the venn diagram of people who overlap between the two.

This week the week of a thousand trailers, guys. No joke, I think there’s like 17.

All The Trailers:

First is Game of Thrones. I don’t even like this show and I found the trailer compelling. I also found myself wondering what will be the same as the books and what will be different this season.

Next up is Suicide Squad. Man, this trailer is creeptastic. But I’ll be honest, anything with Will Smith wearing a tank-top and I’m in. 🙂

I couldn’t find this one on youtube like the others, but here is a CRAY car ride scene from the new AMC show, Preacher, based on the Garth Ennis comic of the same name. I can tell that this show is not for me, based on the near heart attack I had while watching this clip.

Another comic based movie is Dr. Strange, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. It looks innnnnterestinggggg. It’s one of those I can’t really picture as an in depth movie, though.

We also have the highly anticipated Fantastic Beasts with another trailer, this time featuring Newt Scamander’s arrival in New York City.

It’s weird that they’re saying this is set in New York City. I mean, I’m just gonna leave this comment here, make of it what you will.

https://twitter.com/NotLikeFreddy/status/719358893759959040

So that’s the trailers. Now onto the news!

 

Remake of The Grinch That Stole Christmas

BenedictCSpeaking of Benedict Cumberbatch, he will be starring (as the voice, anyway) in the new Grinch Stole Christmas.

Set to bow this November, “The Grinch That Stole Christmas” tells the tale of the Grinch who plots to ruin Christmas for the residents of his neighboring village of Whoville. Pete Candeland and and Yarrow Cheney are directing.

Personally I think that Cumberbatch will make an excellent grinch and I’m pretty happy that this will be a cartoon and NOT a live-action version.

Source

 

Fahrenheit 451 Film

451This was one of my husband’s fave books when he was in school, so I think he’s going to be pretty pumped about this news: HBO is making this film adaption and has already chosen a director and producers.

The 1953 dystopian novel, largely considered one of author Ray Bradbury’s best works, is currently in development for a film adaption at the network. The HBO team tapped 99 Homes’ Ramin Bahrani as writer and director. He’ll also serve as executive producer alongside Alan Gasmer (Vikings) and Peter Jaysen (You Me Her).

Fahrenheit 451 has previously been transformed for both screen and stage, most notably for the 1966 Brit drama from François Truffaut. Its story takes place in a futuristic American society in which all books have been banned, with “firemen” burning any they may come across. Though controversial, the classic novel has been touted as a cornerstone for high school literature.

We don’t have any other details as yet.

Source

Neil Gaiman To Head Good Omens Adaption

Good-Omens-200Oh boy, I am super super excited about this one! I love this book so much. Neil Gaiman has announced he’ll be working on a six part miniseries for the book he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett.

Combining the best of both Pratchett and Gaiman’s writing styles, Good Omens is by turns dark, philosophical and barkingly funny. Angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley have got rather fond of Earth and are thusly annoyed to discover that the Antichrist is going to show up and bring it to an end.

[Gaiman] had previously vetoed any chance of a screen version in the wake of Pratchett’s death, saying that they had a pact to only work on Good Omens projects together. But a letter from Pratchett to Gaiman, written to be read posthumously, gave Gaiman the necessary blessing to go it alone.

Awwww… *sniff* no I’m not crying.

Source

New Novel Puts Jefferson and Hemings In Controversial Relationship

stephenoconnorSallyHemingsWell, I would love to sit here and say that there are no concerning stories in the world of book news this week, but this one popped up on my radar and I was like:

jon-stewart-why

So I guess some old white dude wrote about TJ and Sally Hemings and the obsession the former president had for her. And at first I was like, well, this could be interesting, highlighting how his unhealthy and twisted love for this young girl was horrifying and caused him to use slavery to his benefit. But no.

Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings, judging from early reviews, is most interested in exploring potential ambiguities of their relationship. The book wonders: Did Hemings perhaps enjoy it? To what extent was she complicit?

According to Kirkus, in this novel Hemings enthusiastically consents to the relationship: “And so, when some half hour after Sally Hemings arrives late at the upstairs parlor, and Thomas Jefferson confesses breathlessly that he would very much like to lie with her as a man lies with his wife … she whispers that she would like that, too. …”

NPR quotes a passage in which she whispers ecstatically to Jefferson, “I want us always to be as we are here … where we are only our eyes, our hands, those parts of us made for each other by nature, where our only words are the ones we whisper in the little caves we make between pillow, cheek and lips.”

The Washington Post cites O’Connor’s assertion in the afterword that “Hemings’s feelings for Jefferson might well have fallen somewhere along the spectrum between love and Stockholm syndrome.”

And the book reviews for this book, are mostly positive? Like, people admire how O’Connor juxtaposes love and slavery?? Do you have anything to say about that Jon?

JonAngry

To quote Vox, who says pretty much exactly what the concerning portion of this viewpoint is:

This controversy is merely the most recent example of Jefferson being pushed off his pedestal as the formerly unassailable father of American progressivism. As it becomes more and more difficult to ignore the fact that he repeatedly raped a child whom he owned, he’s gone from American demigod to American demon. Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemingsis unlikely to change that view.

Or here, have some thoughts from the twitter over this new book:

https://twitter.com/KateHarding/status/718182995111182336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/rgay/status/718157505168277505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Source

Boycott In North Carolina Affects Bookish People

In response to the new bill in North Carolina many who object have canceled events, boycotting shopping districts, etc. The problem arises when shopkeepers, etc, do not support the new bill, but are affected anyway.

From Bookriot:

Authors have also selected to not appear at events, in solidarity with the LGBTQIA communities. Other authors, including the 250+ children’s and young adult authors who signed this notice stated they will continue supporting their readers and fans in North Carolina.

Sherman Alexie is one of the big names who decided to cancel an upcoming children’s event in North Carolina.

What isn’t being considered is the message it sends to the individuals who have to live with these laws upon them. Events like concerts and book signings are meant for the local community; this is why they happen in places like indie bookstores and libraries and schools — they’re meant to engage a community. For authors like Alexie, they’re an opportunity for an audience to see someone who may be different from them, to hear stories about and by people who add a different thread to the fabric. Choosing to pull an event for a children’s book release means those children — the very children living under legalized discrimination — are being told they are not worth the time or energy of an author. And by sending that message, those kids don’t have the opportunity to be enlightened, to be educated, or to be entertained by someone who may create a massive ripple in their lives for the good.

It’s an excellent point, and something worth considering!

Source

 

Interesting Links

Coming Out As A Gay Children’s Book Author

Communities seem largely unaware of library services

10 Celebrity Books We DON’T Need to Read