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Morena Baccarin will serve as a narrator for the Lady Midnight audiobook. This actress (pictured, via) has become well-known for taking on roles in literary-themed projects such as the Gotham TV series and the Deadpool film adaptation.

Lady Midnight will be the first installment of Cassandra Clare’s newest young adult trilogy, The Dark Artifices. The story will be set in the Shadowhunters universe. Clare intends for this project to be a sequel to the six-part Mortal Instruments series. She announced on Twitter that the audiobook will be released on March 8.

Here’s more from USA Today: “It’s been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses. Together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn’t lead her in treacherous directions…” (via The Fandom)

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Our list of the best new kids books for September highlights some amazing books from many different genres: non-fiction, reality fiction, fantasy, and even a beautiful picture book that addresses gender identity. Take a gander and let us know which titles and covers catch your eye ... Read the rest of this post

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Two more actors have been cast in the Shadowhunters TV show. Harry Shum Jr. will play a warlock named Magnus Bane and Alan Van Sprang will play a villain named Valentine.

The story for this project was adapted from The Mortal Instruments series written by young adult novelist Cassandra Clare. According to Clare’s Tumblr page, ABC Family has set the premiere date for early 2016.

Here’s more from Variety.com: “Shum previously showcased his dance moves as Mike Chang in the Fox show \"Glee\" which recently finished its sixth and final season. \"Shadowhunters\" is produced by Constantin Film, with Ed Decter and McG serving as executive producers. McG will direct the pilot.”

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The team at Simon & Schuster has ordered new covers for the paperback editions of two Cassandra Clare young adult series. These books will be published in September 2015.

The Tor.com blog unveiled all the designs for the Infernal Devices trilogy. Clare herself has shared the six Mortal Instruments covers on her Tumblr page. We’ve embedded the image for the Clockwork Angel jacket above—what do you think?

Illustrator Cliff Nielsen created the artwork for all nine jackets. For Nielsen, “reimagining these covers has been an exercise in trying to capture that emotion through iconography. It has been an attempt to personally connect with these beloved characters and their fictional lives, and share it as a visual parable to the throngs of Cassandra’s fans, past present and future.”

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Six actors have joined the cast for the Shadowhunters TV show. Variety reports that Katherine McNamara will play Clary Fray, Dominic Sherwood will play Jace Herondale, Alberto Rosende will play Simon Lewis, Emeraude Toubia will play Isabelle Lightwood, Matthew Daddario will play Alec Lightwood, and Isaiah Mustafa will play Luke Garroway.

The story for this project was adapted from The Mortal Instruments series written by young adult novelist Cassandra Clare. At this point in time, the premiere date for this 13-episode drama has not been announced.

Here’s more from The Hollywood Reporter: “Based on the best-selling young adult fantasy book series, Shadowhunters follows Clary Fray, who finds out on her 18th birthday that she is not who she thinks she is, but rather comes from a long line of Shadowhunters — human-angel hybrids who hunt down demons. When her mother is kidnapped, Clary is thrown into the world of demon hunting with mysterious Shadowhunter Jace and her best friend, Simon. Now living among faeries, warlocks, vampires and werewolves, Clary begins a journey of self-discovery as she learns more about her past and what her future may hold.”

 

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ABC Family has given the green light for a TV show based on Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments young adult novels. The executives plan to create a 13-episode drama series.

Here’s more from The Hollywood Reporter: “Constantin Film will produce, and Ed Decter (Helix, Unforgettable, The Client List) is on board to serve as showrunner and executive producer…Production will begin in May in Toronto.”

Back in August 2013, Constantin released a feature film adaptation of the first book City of Bones. No announcements have been made as to whether or not the lead actors of that movie, Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower, will come back to reprise their roles as Clary Fray and Jace Wayland. (via Variety.com)

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[Kelly Link will be at Powell's City of Books for a reading on Wednesday, February 18, at 7:30 p.m. Click here for details.] In a joint social media call-out, authors Kelly Link, Holly Black, and Cassandra Clare invited readers to ask them anything they wanted. Below are some of those questions and responses. Q: Where [...]

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Cassandra Clare will collaborate with three fellow young adult novelists, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, and Robin Wasserman. The four writers will be working on a new novella series called Tales From The Shadowhunter Academy (similar to The Bane Chronicles short story collection).

According to Clare’s blog post, each of the ten novellas will come out on a monthly basis as eBooks. Once all ten novellas have been digitally published, they will be compiled in a print book.

Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, will release the first one, entitled Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy, on February 17th. Clare announced on her Facebook page that Devon Bostick, an actor on The 100 television series, has signed on to narrate the audiobook edition of this book.

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I'm behind in reviews, so I'm doing a few round ups of titles -- better a couple paragraphs than nothing!

Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper. Little, Brown. 2014. Reviewed from ARC.

Salt and Storm is set in an alternate 1860s, where witches and magic are real. Avery is the granddaughter of the witch of Prince Island, and should have been trained and raised to be the next witch. Except, her mother -- who refuses to have anything to do with magic or witchcraft -- drags Avery away from her grandmother and forbids her to see her. At sixteen, Avery is trying to escape her mother's control and claim her inheritance.

What I liked most about Salt and Storm is that Avery wasn't aware of the full picture. She knew what she knew, believed she had the full picture, believe she knew the real story about the witches of Prince Island. She thought she knew herself, but it turns out things aren't what she thinks they are. Which means what she wants isn't what she thinks it is. I also like the historical information in here, about life on nineteenth century islands.

The Raven Cycle #3: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater. Scholastic, 2014. Review copy from publisher. Sequel to The Raven Boys (Book 1) and The Dream Thieves (Book 2).

This continues the story of the search in Virginia for a missing Welsh king. The searchers are prep school students Richard Gansey III (the driving force behind the search), his friends Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch, and Noah Czerny, and local girl Blue Sargent.

By the events of Blue Lily, Lily Blue, I'm not going to lie: it's complicated. There are a mess of characters, plus the search, plus the issues that the characters are dealing with in the present. Gansey is driven by his search; Ronan discovered dangerous family secrets, including his own ability to pull things out of dreams into the real world; Adam is a scholarship student with the drive for more and a serious, well earned chip on his shoulder. Noah has his own issues.

And Blue: Blue is from a family of psychics, without any real power herself, and with a curse upon her: her kiss will kill her true love. And since she's falling hard for Gansey, and since one of her aunts foresaw Gansey's death, it's, well, messy. Like life. Now take life and add in magic and history, myth and legend.

Readers know that I like when teen books have interesting adult characters: well, this has them and then some. The enigmatic Mr. Gray -- I mean, how often is a hired killer so sympathetic and likable? (And yes, I keep picturing him as Norman Reedus). Blue's mother has disappeared, but this allows other adults to move center. And Mr. Gray's boss also enters into the picture. It's not just magic and myth that is a danger.

The only frustration with Blue Lily, Lily Blue is there is still one more book in the series. So while the adventure moves forward, and questions are answered, there's still so much more to find out!


The Iron Trial (Book One of Magisterium) by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare. Scholastic. 2014. Review copy from publisher.

The Iron Trial starts a series set in the modern world, where magic is real -- but hidden. Twelve-year-old Callum's father has done everything possible to keep Callum away from this world. Call is supposed to do everything possible to fail his entrance tests to the Magisterium, a school of magic hidden in the United States. Instead, Call finds himself in the Magisterium, studying magic, and finding out his father hasn't been totally honest with him. Magic isn't the big, dangerous, evil he's been told about.

Most of this book is the "forming" part of an adventure story: Call discovering the truth about magic, that it's not a simple matter of good or evil, and Call forging friendships and allies (and sometimes enemies and frenemies) with his fellow students. He also has to study magic, and it's not all fun and games -- it's also hard work. (And, well, fun. Because magic!)

Part of what Call learns about are some epic battles from over ten years before, including those who fought on the good side and the bad side. (Magic is neither good nor bad, but those who practice it -- they fall on those two sides.) Call is sometimes frustratingly ignorant about magic and his own family's connection to it, but it works for the book -- the reader learns as Call learns.

The ending of the book -- oh, the ending! Personally, I felt as if the story was just truly beginning with the ending, and that the real story will be next year, now that the reader, and Call, has the full knowledge of what is going on. Or do we know as much as we think?



















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© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy

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Google has analyzed the searches that took place during 2014. The company has unveiled the ten books that were trending throughout this year.

Helen Oyeyemi’s Boy, Snow, Bird claimed the top spot on this list. The other nine titles come from a variety of different genres; almost all of them have become hit bestsellers and award winners.

We’ve collected free samples of all the books on the list for your reading pleasure after the jump. What do you think?
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Percy Jackson series author Rick Riordan has unveiled a list of his favorite books that he read in 2014.

Riordan confesses that he reads “a wide mix of books. Some are middle grade, some YA, some adult, some fiction and some nonfiction.”

Riordan listed 21 titles in a blog post including Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky, The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber, and City of Bones (the Mortal Instruments series) by Cassandra Clare. What do you think?

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Goodreads has announced the winners of this year’s Goodreads Choice Awards. With 46,154 votes, Landline by Rainbow Rowell has won in the Best Fiction category.

We’ve linked to samples of all the winning titles below. Did your favorite writer make it to the end?

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Constantin Film plans to create a TV show based on the Mortal Instruments books. Last year, the movie studio released a movie version of the first installment in Cassandra Clare’s young adult series, City of Bones.

The story for the TV show will follow the plot from City of Bones. No announcements have been made as to whether or not the stars of the film adaptation, Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower, will come on board for this project to reprise their roles as Clary Fray and Jace Wayland.

According to the press release, Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, two filmmakers who worked on the feature film, will serve as executive producers for the TV show. Ed Decter has signed on as the showrunner.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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The Lets-Read-and-Find-Out Science series is our best selling kids series this month and offers wonderful selections for seasonal science and beyond.

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Here are some literary events to pencil in your calendar this week.

To get your event posted on our calendar, visit our Facebook Your Literary Event page. Please post your event at least one week prior to its date.

Holly Black and Cassandra Clare will appear at Books of Wonder for the launch of their new middle grade novel, The Iron Trial. Celebrate with them on Tuesday, September 9th starting 5 p.m. (New York, NY)

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Wow! This month is proof of good reads, everything remains the same on our best selling kids series list; including the blast from the past ... the Mr. Men and Little Miss books.

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This month we have a blast from the past on top of The Children’s Book Review’s best selling kids series list. Who remembers the Mr. Men and Little Miss books?

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Thanks to World Cup Soccer, the new Magic Tree House book, Soccer on Sunday, has the series on top of The Children’s Book Review’s best selling kids series list.

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Best Selling Books for Kids This month, DK Readers: Star Wars are on top of The Children’s Book Review’s best selling kids series list.

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We’ve collected the books debuting on Indiebound’s Indie Bestseller List for the week ending June 01, 2014–a sneak peek at the books everybody will be talking about next month. (Debuted at #3 in Children's Fiction Series) The Mortal Instruments: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare: "Darkness has descended on the Shadowhunter world. Chaos and destruction overwhelm the Nephilim as Clary, Jace, Simon, and their friends band together to fight the greatest evil they have ever faced: Clary’s own brother." (May 2014) continued...

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou has debuted on Apple’s Top Paid iBooks in the U.S. this week at No. 3. Apple has released its top selling books list for paid books from iBooks in the U.S. for week ending 5/26/14. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green leads the list followed by City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare. We’ve included Apple’s entire list after the jump. continued...

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