Book Beat: The Grishaverse Heads to Netflix, and Readers Debate The KonMari Method

Hello, readers! It’s Emily here again to share the latest in literary news. This week I have the Canada Reads longlist, some Netflix news, and the latest bookish online debate.

The Canada Reads Longlist is Here

One of Canada’s biggest literary events of the year has begun with the announcement of the 2019 Canada Reads Longlist. For those of you who didn’t follow our coverage last year, Canada Reads is a televised event where Canadian books compete, debate-style, until a final winner is declared.

This year, the theme is One Book To Move You, and the fifteen longlisted books will “disturb and disrupt, inspire and incite, and move readers to feel, to think, and to act,” according to CBC.

  • Homes by Abu Bakr al Rabeeah & Winnie Yeung
  • Suzanne by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, translated by Rhonda Mullins
  • Brother by David Chariandy
  • By Chance Alone by Max Eisen
  • Corvus by Harold R. Johnson
  • The Boy on the Beach by Tima Kurdi
  • That Time I Loved You by Carrianne Leung
  • An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim
  • Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
  • The Crazy Game by Clint Malarchuk, with Dan Robson
  • Life on the Ground Floor by James Maskalyk
  • All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
  • This Accident of Being Lost by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
  • The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary by Andrew Westoll
  • The Woo-Woo by Lindsay Wong

The shortlist will be announced on January 31, and the debates will take place on March 25-28. So if you want to get in on the action, get your TBR list ready.

The Grishaverse is Headed To Netflix

Leigh Bardugo’s fans have something to look forward to; Netflix has greenlit a Grishaverse series! The eight-episode adaptation will be created, written, and executive produced by Eric Heisser (writer of Netflix’s Birdbox), and bring together stories and characters from both Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows.

Bardugo will serve as an executive producer along with Pouya Shahbazian (the Divergent series) and a few others from 21 Laps Entertainment, the company behind the 2016 adaptation of Arrival and Stranger Things.

Marie Kondo vs Book Lovers/Hoarders

In other Netflix news, the new show Tidying Up With Marie Kondo has caused debate among readers. The show, which draws on Kondo’s bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, follows Kondo as she helps families clean and organise their homes. In one episode, she asks a couple to consider their book piles and the couple ends up getting rid of a sizeable amount of literature.

Some book-lovers got up in arms at the mere questioning of keeping piles of books (regardless of whether or not they’ll be read or enjoyed).

Others thought the reaction was a bit much and called out some of the racism of certain critiques of Kondo’s method.

The truth is, Kondo doesn’t demand you get rid of all your books. She just asks you if they spark joy. She clarified as much in a recent New York Times interview, saying that if you value them and they give you joy, then you should keep them.

Out This Week:

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

Famous in a Small Town by Emma Mills

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

The Dreamers

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