Bookish Deaths and Anniversaries, and More Updates for Libraries

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When libraries are being attacked and censorship is wreaking havoc across the country, it’s very easy for the more mundane library updates to get pushed to the side. So here’s a solid resource roundup for comics, audiobooks, book adaptations, and more!

New & Upcoming Titles

  • Book Rioters picked out the best books coming out in April, plus April picks for mysteries/thrillers/true crime, SFF, romance, historical fiction, horror, nonfiction, children’s books.
  • And if that’s not enough, here are the biggest April picks from Amazon, Barnes & Noble (adults, teens, children), Kirkus, LA Times, New York Times, Time, Town & Country, Vanity Fair, and Washington Post.

All Things Comics

  • Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series is getting a graphic novel adaptation.
  • Sales for kids’ graphic novels in the UK are booming.
  • 12 book-to-graphic-novel adaptations for kids.
  • 7 comics about trauma.
  • 8 graphic novels set in New York City.
  • Comics about trans women.
  • Middle grade graphic novels about crushes.

Audiophilia

  • Spotify is expanding its audiobook reach to include self-published authors.
  • Check it out: The Spoken World is a new podcast exploring the global audiobook boom.
  • The most-anticipated audiobooks for April from LitHub and Barnes & Noble.
  • Is listening to an audiobook considered “cheating?” (No!! It’s not!!)
  • 11 excellent fiction audiobooks by female authors.
  • 10 great audiobooks for National Poetry Month.
  • 6 nail-biting thrillers on audio.

Book Adaptations in the News

(These adaptation updates have been collecting in my notes for a couple months now, so…there are a lot.)

cover of The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus
  • Emma Knight’s The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus is getting a series adaptation at Amazon.
  • Disney might have “screwed up big time” by letting go of the rights to Children of Blood and Bone.
  • Crazy Rich Asians is now getting a TV series adaptation.
  • Rachel Weisz is starring in Netflix’s adaptation of Julia May Jonas’s Vladimir.
  • Netflix is producing another adaptation of Stephen King’s Cujo.
  • Martin Scorsese is adapting Marilynne Robinson’s Home.
  • Gulliver’s Travels is getting a TV adaptation.
  • Verity gets a May 2026 release date.
  • Percy Jackson & the Olympians has been renewed for a third season with Disney+.
  • Robert de Niro is starring in the adaptation of Alex North’s thriller, The Whisper Man, which if you haven’t read already, is hella creepy.
  • Sunrise on the Reaping gets a screenwriter and a production date.
  • Juno Temple is starring in the Apple+ series adaptation of Holly Gramazio’s The Husbands.

Deaths and Anniversaries

  • L.J. Smith, author of the Vampire Diaries series, has died at 66.
  • Actor and author Richard Chamberlain has died at 90.
  • Actor and author Val Kilmer has died at 65.
  • 100 years of The Great Gatsby.
  • Revisiting House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski on its 25th anniversary.
  • Celebrating 20 years of The Glass Castle.

Award News

  • The finalists for the 2024 Nebula Awards have been announced.
  • The winners of the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Awards have been announced.

    The 2025 PEN America Literary Awards longlists have been announced.

  • Fiona McFarlane wins the 2025 Story Prize for Highway Thirteen.
  • Here are the shortlists for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction.
  • The shortlist for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award has been released.

Source : Bookish Deaths and Anniversaries, and More Updates for Libraries