We’ve been wrong the last five times we’ve called Peak Adaptation, and it doesn’t look like we’re going to be right anytime soon thanks to a new partnership between Simon & Schuster and The Black List.

Film and TV pros searching for their next bookish blockbuster can now access metadata for more than 6,000 S&S titles on The Black List platform, which also supports screenwriters seeking studio production and authors looking for literary agents and publishing deals.

Adaptations are a high-friction business. As founder and CEO of The Black List Franklin Leonard explains, “It’s no secret that great books are a source of extraordinary screen stories, but efficient discovery remains a challenge.”

We love to see publishers thinking expansively about how to reach wider audiences, and we can’t wait to see more—and better—page-to-screen projects as a result of this initiative. — RJS

…It isn’t even the past, at least for some of the characters in this week’s featured new releases.

We’ve got more of the week’s most exciting new books for you right here.

A biting feminist retelling of the story of Lilith

Coiled at the Roots is the highly anticipated sequel to the instant bestseller Terror at the Gates, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Scarlett St. Clair.

Betrayed by those closest to her, Lilith rises from the shadows of her past to claim the power she was born to wield in this seductive urban romantasy.

Preorder your copy today, and don’t miss the deluxe paperback edition of Terror at the Gates, now available with exclusive cover art and gorgeous designed edges.

Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet sparked a global phenomenon, and in 2024, the New York Times named My Brilliant Friend—the first book in the series—the best book of the century so far. That’s a big deal!

So what does it take to be #1, and what does the selection reveal about modern reading habits and values?

Find out on this week’s episode Zero to Well-Read, as we explore the book that ignited “Ferrante Fever” and the mysterious author readers praise for capturing girlhood and female friendship like no one else.

There’s no pressure like being asked to choose your book club’s next read. Make your life easier and take a page from the big book club selections this month.

📚 See more of the month’s biggest book club reads.

100,000+ audiobooks. $8.25 a month.

ElevenReader gives you more listening than Spotify Premium at a fraction of what Audible costs. Enjoy 20 hours a month of bestsellers, hidden gems, and guilty pleasures, plus sleep timers, background soundscapes that actually match the mood, and the ability to turn your unread articles and documents into audio so you can finally clear the backlog.

Start with 10 free hours when you search ElevenReader in the app store or visit their website.

Not to brag, but Book Riot has a whole lot of talented writers doing incredible things. Lately, we’ve had a big batch of new releases and book deal announcements from our writers, and I wanted to shout them out here.

Many of these don’t have covers or preorders available yet, but you’re going to want to make a note to follow up closer to the publication date. They’re worth the wait!

Ariel Delgado Dixon is the author of Sourland, out June 23rd from Random House. Below, she discusses why she set her new novel on a weed farm.

The best and worst day I ever had was spent haying. I was a new farmhand, and it was the last searingly dry summer day suitable for harvesting hay, which required tossing fifty-pound square bales up onto a moving flatbed, then unloading them again, bale by bale, into the barn.

There were three of us in long sleeves, pink-faced, scratchy with chaff. I almost threw up. But the shame of being the broken link in the chain is powerful, and somehow I kept going, surprising myself when I came back the next day for more.

Farming is like that: pained, jubilant, cooperative. When I wrote Sourland, set on a weed farm in Northern California, I wanted it to contain that full spectrum, the sowing and the reaping both. 

A farm is a little universe, down to the microbes in the soil, up to the thousand-pound, dome-eyed beasts they call livestock, and beyond, into clouds and weather.

A novel is the same, a wordy terrarium. Sprinkle in illicit drugs and the stakes climb. Droughts, mold, pests, and piss-poor luck are standard hazards of cultivation, but marijuana is the great compounder.

There is the law to contend with, not to mention rippers, double-crossers, the fickle violence of the black market. It’s the price of doing business, and a way of life.

In Sourland, I wanted to preserve this proud strain of outlaw farmer, and pay tribute to this pocket of the Wild West before it’s gone like smoke in the wind.

Thriftbooks looked across more than 19 million titles to find the books readers keep choosing, loving, and returning to. Here are the 250 books that rose to the top. Shop the list now!

Did you know? Andy Weir has aphantasia, the inability to voluntarily visualize mental images.

😎 Build your summer TBR with reading recs from famous authors.

🚀 Mark your calendars for Project Hail Mary‘s streaming release date.

😴 Snuggle up in pajamas inspired by Emily Henry books.

🌈 Read harder this Pride Month with some of our favorite queer books.

📬 Discover even more book news and recs by signing up for the Best of Book Riot.

Written by Rebecca Schinsky, Danika Ellis, and Jeff O’Neal. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.

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