Book News You Can Use 8/14/15

Today's Friday Reads is God Help The Child by Toni Morrison.  My book club is meeting for the first time in a while on Sunday and this is the book that was selected.  I'm more than half-way through and I'm still trying to figure out where this book's going.  It seems like several of the members have read it and enjoyed it. At least the place we're having the meeting has awesome food.

Relax in Paradise Ann McGovern, Brook Stephenson and David Nobbs.

A 100-year-old J. R. R. Tolkien book will be published.

Another deceased author that will also have his work published is Truman Capote.  There will also be a book about his friendship with Harper Lee.

Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay TOGETHER in one article, interviewing each other.

Roxane is also working on a Young Adult novel that will be released in 2017.

James McBride's next book will be about James Brown.

Romance writer Beverly Jenkins talks about her frustration when she starting writing historical African-American romance novels.

Naomi Jackson has been getting a lot of press about The Star Side of Bird Hill (here and here).  She also wrote an essay about her feelings regarding the high-profile deaths of African-American women (including one that I knew personally).

The Iceburg Slim biography has also been getting a lot of press (here, here and here).

And one more book that is getting some press (and which I found out about this week) is Bright Lights (here and here).

Nalo Hopkinson's new book got a review in NPR.

The Hairdresser of Harare will finally be released in the United States! Here's a review.

The TV adaptation of Let The Church Say Amen will finally see the light of day on August 29. Here is a preview.

Just Kids and The Notebook are being developed for TV.

A writer talked about her love for the Baby-Sitters Club (and her chance encounter with Ann M. Martin).

One barber is giving away free back-to-school haircuts as long as his clients read to him.