Welcome to Buzz Worthy News where the stories are awesome (or at least fun to read). Need your book industry news? Never fear, Kate Copeseeley is here to give it to you straight.
In this week’s Buzz Worthy News: My Cousin Rachel Trailer, Lizzie Bennet Diaries News, and #NewYorkTimes Bestseller List Changes. 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.
My Cousin Rachel
Damn this looks so sad!
Nina Dobrev Will Be Back For the Final Ep Of TVD
Okay, Delena fans! You will get your wish for the finale of The Vampire Diaries!
After months of anxious speculation, Nina Dobrev on Thursday confirmed that Vampire Diaries fans have not seen the last of her.
Just as she did with her initial departure, the actress announced her return via Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPvFgMAASH9/
“I’m thrilled to bring this show to an end the way we always intended — with Nina back to help us say goodbye,” executive producer Julie Plec said in a statement. Adds fellow EP Kevin Williamson, “I’m so excited to have Nina back to ensure our farewell episode is truly epic!”
Though Dobrev has been seen fairly regularly throughout this final season (via flashbacks), she hasn’t filmed any new scenes since wrapping Season 6 in 2015. She did, however, record fresh audio for the Season 7 finale, in which Sybil mimicked Elena’s voice to lure Damon into the Armory vault.
“I reached out and said,’ We can either cobble it together from a bunch of episodes, or you can come in and see everybody and do ADR,” executive producer Julie Plec told TVLine of Dobrev’s vocal cameo. “She chose to do it in person, which was great, because it was a nice little personal Nina visit.”
This makes me happy, because to me, the show was dead in the water without her, but Delena has never been my ship, so… yay, I guess?
A Lizzie Bennet Wedding
Start
squeeing fangirls… Ashley Clements posted the following picture on her Twitter and the internet has been buzzing about it ever since!
So incredibly grateful to these talented people who read my first screenplay out loud last night. It was so good to visit my old friends ❤ pic.twitter.com/ofJKfCWwVg
— Ashley Clements (@TheAshleyClem) January 24, 2017
The manuscript says there’s a wedding coming so that should be fun! I guess this means I should get on watching the series, huh?
Jane Austen Toothpaste???
And speaking of Jane Austen, you can now buy some Austen Toothpaste to keep your pearly whites in good shape, thanks to McPhee.com
THE GENTEEL DENTAL HYGIENE OF THE EARLY 1800s
It takes a well-mannered toothpaste to have a graceful and properly comported regime of dental health. If you want to attract a husband with a good yearly income, he’s going to be concerned about the status of your teeth. The tube of this toothpaste is decorated with the image of Jane Austen and flavored like the petals of a rose. Because, in our opinion, nothing captures the romance and incisive social observations of Jane Austen’s novels quite like a rose-flavored toothpaste. While you might think that the UK of the early 1800s is romantic, your own personal Mr. Darcy might prefer a bit more oral hygiene. Each tube contains 2.5 oz. of pleasant paste.
Looks like fun, but I’m not sure I could use this for myself.
New Marvel Cover Inspired By Beyonce
I love it when we get pop cultural elements showing up in different places! And no doubt if anyone’s going to be referenced, it’s gonna be the queen of everything, Beyonce.
One of the covers of Marvel’s new comic series, “America,” features Beyonce’s now iconic top hat and style.
“America” centers on America Chavez, a Latina LGBTQ teen. She wears a hat and necklace similar to the black hat and silver necklace Beyonce donned in last year’s “Formation” music video.
Chavez’s hat, however, is white and blue and outfitted with stars similar to the American flag.
Captain Marvel and Monica Rambeau are also featured on the cover, which was created by Marvel artist Joe Quinones.
Marvel’s new character, Chavez, was first introduced in 2011 in “Vengeance.” Thanks to young adult writer Gabby Rivera, Chavez is getting her own comic book series that will follow her as she tries to balance saving the earth from alien invaders and maintaining a personal and professional life. The series will launch in March, according to a Marvel rep.
Maggie Stiefvater Announces New Book
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
I HAVE BEEN WAITING.
The Raven Cycle may have concluded last year, but Maggie Stiefvater fans have something to look forward to in 2017.
The Raven King author announced the news Friday morning on Twitter. “My next YA novel, a standalone, is coming out 10.10 and is called ALL THE CROOKED SAINTS.”
So far nothing is known about the book other than some artwork Stiefvater herself created and tweeted following her announcement. The piece depicts two hands reaching for one another with an image of an owl’s face in each palm. The owl in the lower hand is slightly darker.
https://twitter.com/mstiefvater/status/824997011548049408
Wait, what? This isn’t the Ronan series I was promised???? Oh, well, it will probably still be awesome, but I’m a bit sad right now, not gonna lie.
George Orwell’s 1984 Hits Bestseller List
Since President Trump’s election, there has been an uptick in purchases of dystopian fiction. One is example is George Orwell’s 1984:
The dystopian fiction drew flocks of book buyers after Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway’s comment about “alternative facts.”
The publisher of George Orwell’s novel “1984” has ordered a 75,000 copy reprint of the book after sales spiked earlier this week, CNN reports.
“That is a substantial reprint,” a spokesman for Penguin told CNN, “and larger than our typical reprint for ‘1984.’”
The novel, which was the No. 1 bestselling book on Amazon as of Wednesday morning, was referenced by many in the press after comments made by Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway.
Conway was discussing President Trump’s inauguration and a news conference held by Sean Spicer that attempted to convince members of the media that the swearing-in ceremony drew “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.”
Conway told “Meet the Press”’ moderator Chuck Todd, “You’re saying it’s a falsehood, and Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.”
Commentators immediately seized on Conway’s use of the phrase “alternative facts,” comparing it to “Newspeak,” the euphemistic language that often inverted meaning in “1984” that the tyrannical government used to deceive and control its residents.
“1984,” first published in 1949, is Orwell’s vision of a dystopian future in which the British government has been taken over by a totalitarian regime that employs propaganda and rewrites history at will.
In the Guardian, Orwell expert Tim Crook, a communications professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, wrote that Trump’s first days in office have been “an explosion of propagandist grapeshot.”
“But Trump takes doublethink to a new extreme, and if Orwell were alive today, I imagine Trump would amuse and horrify him at the same time,” Crook wrote. “The key message in Nineteen Eighty-Four is that the purpose of propaganda is to narrow and limit human consciousness,confuse human conscience, and control and narrow the range of thinking.”
This isn’t the only time there has been a renewal of interest in 1984. In 2013 it became a bestseller again after Edward Snowden released the information about the NSA’s illegal and country-wide surveillance program.
New York Times Best Seller List Makes Changes
There are mixed feelings about the following New York Times announcement:
“Beginning February 5, the New York Times will eliminate a number of print but mostly online-only bestseller lists.
In recent years, we introduced a number of new lists as an experiment, many of which are being discontinued. We will continue to cover all of these genres of books in our news coverage (in print and online). The change allows us to devote more space and resources to our coverage beyond the bestseller lists.
Our major lists will remain, including: Top 15 Hardcover Fiction, Top 15 Hardcover Nonfiction, Top 15 Combined Print and E Fiction, Top 15 Combined Print and E Nonfiction, Top 10 Children’s Hardcover Picture Books, Top 10 Children’s Middle Grade Hardcover Chapter Books, Top 10 Children’s Young Adult Hardcover Chapter Books, and Top 10 Children’s Series. Several more including Paperback Trade Fiction, Paperback Nonfiction, Business, Sports, Science, and Advice Miscellaneous will remain online. Readers will be notified that individual lists will no longer be compiled and updated by the New York Times on the relevant article pages.”
One of the most controversial decisions is the one to eliminate the graphic novel and mass market paperback lists. And it’s all because of needed honesty in reporting:
Week after week, The New York Times best seller lists revealed that the American comics industry is anything but dominated by young adult men and the superhero comics they shove into plastic bags. Last week’s lists — which could now be the last ones The New York Times ever publishes — were topped with Ghosts, a female-led young adult coming-of-age story from perennial Times best seller Raina Tegelmeier, on the paperback side, and a graphic novel adaptation of science fiction grande dame Octavia Butler’s Kindred on the hardcover side.
Wait, I just took a closer look: Tegelmeier actually has three books on the list right now. Also there? Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and March: Part One, congressman John Lewis’ graphic novel memoir of his experience as a core part of the American Civil Rights Movement.
In glaring contrast to the monthly sales numbers of single issue comics, the Times’ best seller list regularly featured books that aimed squarely at a young female and literary adult audiences. American comics is a perpetually struggling industry, where the first proposed solution to every problem is to appeal to the “core audience.” That is, young male adults interested in action-oriented power fantasies. The Times’ list was incontrovertible evidence that a larger audience is there, just waiting to be catered to.
As a retailer, citing the list has been such a quick and effective way of welcoming unsure newcomers into the world of comics.
— Juliet Kahn (@prynnette) January 26, 2017
"You think you don't belong here? Well, the NYT bestseller list, which I KNOW you've heard of, says otherwise. You ARE this industry."
— Juliet Kahn (@prynnette) January 26, 2017
Pamela Paul, editor of the New York Times Book Review, tweeted about the restructuring of the best seller lists:
https://twitter.com/PamelaPaulNYT/status/824715801404076033
https://twitter.com/PamelaPaulNYT/status/824716100193710080
https://twitter.com/PamelaPaulNYT/status/824716407069937671
Some aren’t buying it, though. Will they really review these books more often to compensate? Or is this mere lip-service that will quickly be proven untrue?
Beth W
Lizzie Bennet Diaries FLAIL! That’s super exciting, thank you.
And yes to all the Daphne du Maurier. That movie is going to be fraught with drama. Fraught, I say.
Carina Olsen
As always, aaamazing news post Kate 😀 Thank you so much for sharing sweetie. <3 So many interesting things. I cannot wait for the new Maggie book 😀 Eee! It's going to be so so good. <3 And oh, so so sad about the New York Times list thing 🙁
Kate Copeseeley
Glad you liked it! Have a great day, Carina!