Worldwide rights to the adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s latest, Atmosphere, have been claimed by Black Bear Pictures. The distribution news dropped late last week. Black Bear, by the way, is the production company behind the Train Dreams adaptation…and Wicker.

If you’re just catching up on this TJR adaptation, here’s what we know about it so far:

This is not TJR’s first adaptation rodeo. Atmosphere will join six more completed and in progress adapted works:

Whew, she is one busy author. Learn more about Atmosphere and why it’s worth the hype. – SZW

Reader-in-Chief Barack Obama released all six episodes (chapters?) of his new podcast (audiobook?), A Great Book, in one fell swoop last week.

The series opens strong with Obama and America’s other dad, Tom Hanks, discussing Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead. The pair reflect on faith, fatherhood, fiction’s ability to impart moral framework, and the magic of ordinary time.

Things get heavier in the next episode, in which Obama and Ta-Nehisi Coates take on James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time.

Watch our conversation about the Obama podcast project, the week’s biggest adaptation news, and more on the Book Riot Podcast, now available on YouTube.

J. K. Rowling’s name was once synonymous with one of the most beloved franchises in history: Harry Potter. Now, though, she spends most of her time online attacking trans women (or women she suspects are trans).

She puts her money where her mouth is, donating to anti-trans organizations to lobby against trans rights.

There are some simple ways to prioritize the safety, well-being, and rights of trans people over any lingering Harry Potter nostalgia you might have, including not spending money on Harry Potter and boycotting the HBO adaptation.

That just scratches the surface, though. If we want to counteract the marketing power behind the HBO adaptation, we need to get loud.

Here are three ways the Harry Potter backlash has already begun, ahead of the adaptation.

How can you contribute? These are just a few examples, but it will depend on your context. Consider where you can make the biggest difference, both online and in person.

The Harry Potter backlash has been happening for years, but expect it to heat up in the coming months. I hope to see you there. —DE

There aren’t as many print magazines for children and tweens as there once were. Sure, you can still subscribe to Ranger Rick or Nat Geo Kids and others, but some of the most beloved periodicals of millennial and Gen X youth have become but fond memories.

But one intrepid former editor for American Girl magazine hopes she can help bring back that particular gem. Aubre Andrus is currently campaigning to get Mattel to bring the publication back, and you can follow her journey on social media. She’s shared some fun insider intel about the mag, including that the beloved Care and Keeping Of You book—which has sold over six million copies—was born out of the magazine’s “Help” column. 

Those efforts are a reminder of some of the gems the ’90s and early ’00s had when it came to children’s and tween magazines: 

American Girl magazine published from 1993 to 2019. A branch of the beloved doll and book company, what made the magazine so radical is that it was advertisement-free from day one. This one targeted girls between 8 and 14, and it was packed with crafts, activities, advice columns, articles, and more.

Dinosaurs! Magazine ran for over 100 issues, ending in 1995. This UK magazine was also released in the US, and each issue focused on a single dinosaur. There were 3D comics, images, and facts about that particular species. Some issues even included activities that let you build your own dino.

Zillions magazine was the children’s spinoff of Consumer Reports, and it published from 1993 to 2000. This advertisement-free magazine was developed with children, and its pages included stories about budgeting and saving, reviews of products for kids (so kids could decide whether or not to spend their money on them!), and dove deep into things like how advertisements can manipulate you. It was kid-tested and kid-approved.

Let yourself fall down the childhood memory hole with even more nostalgic children’s magazines and nostalgic teen magazines.  – KJ

What’s better than a good whodunit? A whodunit with demons, monsters, sorceresses, and space ships, of course! Here are five fantastic sci-fi and fantasy books that dip into the mystery genre, courtesy of Liberty Hardy.

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall –  A fun fantasy novel that reimagines Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous characters, and where the detective is a sorceress.

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal – A famous inventor and heiress is traveling on a space liner when her honeymoon is interrupted by a murder.

The Shamshine Blind by Paz Pardo – In a sci-noir story set in an alternate United States where emotions have been weaponized, an agent is investigating the black market sale of chemical weapons.

Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk – A dark queer fantasy set in a magical Chicago steeped in magic about a detective who sold her soul to save her brother’s life, but has more to lose now that she’s fallen in love…

The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead – An elevator inspector who can perform safety checks by using her powers of intuition is framed for an accident she had no hand in.

Read more about each SFF mystery. —VD

Sarah Blakley-Cartwright is the author of Heavy Cream, a novel about a teenage girl finding mother figures in unconventional places. It’s out tomorrow from Simon & Schuster. Below, Sarah Blakley-Cartwright recommends four books that complicate motherhood.

Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou: Motherhood, in this telling, is not something fixed, either by biology or destiny. Rather than something that, once abandoned, must be permanently forfeited, motherhood is conceived of in this story as a relationship that can be built even belatedly, with enough attention and instructive, thoughtful action.

A Woman’s Battles and Transformations by Édouard Louis: Édouard Louis’s mother embodies a version of motherhood as something forged under titanic economic, social, and bodily pressures. She is a woman shaped by circumstance, a victim of structural forces, who then caused great damage to her young sons in turn. And yet, in a stunning reversal, the mother reveals herself not to be so stable, as she commits to actively reshaping herself. The story of motherhood, here, becomes something revisable.

The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr: Mary Karr’s mother is glamorous, gun-wielding, alcoholic, and enigmatic, having been married and divorced six times in the marshy oil-refinery town of Leechfield, East Texas, twice to the girls’ father. The reader misses her anytime she is not on the page. No mind that her daughters wonder if she might shoot them as they sleep. This mother cannot be reduced. The book never attempts to resolve her. She is dangerous, funny, depressive, and magnetic. And you miss her when she’s gone.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson: Jeanette Winterson’s mother exerts a totalizing influence. In an almost godlike way, the mother both creates and enforces, only allowing her daughter to glimpse certain parts of the world, permitting only those realities that align with her vision. Separation, ultimately, between the two becomes immensely fraught, as it is not only emotional but ontological. Attempting to leave her mother requires the daughter to reinvent the world.

This is an excerpt: check out Sarah Blakley-Cartwright’s full thoughts on each of these books at Book Riot.

Did you know? In 2021, more than 400 students in Fairfax, VA protested the removal of Evison’s novel, Lawn Boy, from district schools.

Booksmaxx your travel with a stay at one of the world’s most literary hotels.

Austenites, this one’s for you: which Dashwood sister are you?

Nerd out with a catalog of all the ships in The Iliad.

Barbara Kingsolver still believes in the power of fiction.

Colleen Hoover shares her thoughts on an It Ends With Us movie sequel.

Written by Rebecca Schinsky, Sharifah Williams, Danika Ellis, Kelly Jensen, and Vanessa Diaz. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.

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