Michelle Obama To Release Memoir

Former First Lady Michelle Obama has announced she will be releasing a memoir later this year.

Entitled Becoming, the book, published by Crown Publishing Group, is due to be released November 13th, according to Entertainment Weekly. 

The former FLOTUS announced on Twitter “Writing BECOMING has been a deeply personal experience. I talk about my roots and how a girl from the South Side found her voice. I hope my journey inspires readers to find the courage to become whoever they aspire to be. I can’t wait to share my story.”

In a release from the publisher, they wrote “Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her — from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it — in her own words and on her own terms.”

 

Get your pre-order ready, folks.

‘Pretty Little Liars’ Author To Debut First Adult Fiction Novel

She’s already published dozens of books, had them adapted for television and became a huge bestseller, but now Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game author Sara Shepard is set to release her first adult fiction novel.

According to Entertainment Weekly, The Elizas is about a debut novelist (sound familiar?) named Eliza who claims she was pushed when she was found at the bottom of a hotel pool. Her family assumes it was just another failed suicide attempt. In an effort to prove them wrong, Eliza begins to investigate her own death and find that her life and character’s life are intertwining. Memory loss from the accident doesn’t help either.

Creepy, huh? Shepard knows a thing or two about creepy thrillers.

The Elizas is set to be released on April 17th. EW has an exclusive available excerpt now.

‘Fault In Our Stars’ Author to Publish New Novel This Year

It’s only been two years since John Green’s popular storytelling was made famous by the movie Paper Towns. The Fault In Our Stars came out in theaters the year before. But it’s been almost six (!!!) since his last novel was released. The wait for new John Green material is finally over.

According to Entertainment Weekly, The Fault In Our Stars author is publishing a new book entitled Turtles All The Way Down, set to be released on October 10th, 2017. Like his other novels, Turtles All The Way Down is said to focus on a teenager looking for something more. The novel centers on 16-year-old Aza Holmes, who is battling mental illness and searching for a fugitive billionaire.

Publishers describe the book as a story “about lifelong friendship, the intimacy of an unexpected reunion, Star Wars fan fiction and tuatara.”

Considering his last novel was The Fault In Our Stars and went on to become a huge international bestseller, there’s no doubt this book, too, will do well and maybe lead to another YA movie?

Ivanka Trump Promoting Her Book Solely on Social Media

Ivanka Trump’s book Women Who Work is not the first book she’s written and promoted, but it is the first book she’s written and only been allowed to promote in one place: social media.

According to The New York Times, Trump promised not to promote her career advice book for women through a tour or media appearances. According to a spokeswomen, Trump consulted with the Office of Government Ethics. Because it would be “unethical” to promote something for her own “private gain” in her now public service capacity (as an official, but unpaid government employee in the White House), she can’t promote the book the way an author normally would.

So she’s sticking to social media, taking to Facebook and Instagram to plug the book.

Meanwhile, according to Entertainment Weekly, the book itself is not garnering particularly good reviews.

Tom Hanks To Release Book of Short Stories About Typewriters

When you’ve spent so much of your professional life reading, analyzing, interpreting and acting out scripts, you learn a thing or two about the written word.

That goes for actor Tom Hanks, who’s now proving his chops in his debut book with Alfred A. Knopf, entitled Uncommon Type: Some Stories, due for an October release, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The book features 17 short stories revolving around typewriters, but ranging in story and style. Hanks started working on the stories two years ago and released a statement about the project:

“In the two years of working on the stories. I made movies in New York, Berlin, Budapest, and Atlanta and wrote in all of them. I wrote in hotels during press tours. I wrote on vacation. I wrote on planes, at home, and in the office. When I could actually make a schedule, and keep to it, I wrote in the mornings from nine to one.”

In recent years, there have been a lot of jokes made about how Tom Hanks feels like “America’s Dad.” He even did a bit about it on SNL in October. Much in the way that everyone wants to see what their “dad” does, they also want to read what he has to say. I have no doubt that Hanks’ book will not only sell well, but will also be impeccably written. He’s just …that kind of guy.

‘X-Files Origins’ YA Books Due in January

If you’re a lover of The X-Files and the recent reboot wasn’t enough for you, there’s no need to worry. According to Entertainment Weekly, just after the new year, a pair of young adult fiction novels will be released detailing Mulder and Scully as teenagers in the late 1970s.

The X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate and The X-Files Origins: Agent of Chaos are set to be released on January 3rd and tell the stories of how events in Mulder’s and Scully’s lives led to the professions they entered.

Honestly, I don’t know that adults will be rushing to the bookstore to pick up copies of these books unless it’s for their children. This is clearly the authors’ and publishers’ attempt at trying to pull a younger audience into The X-Files fandom. If successful, it would certainly give young kids something to talk about with their parents. But that’s if it succeeds.

Entertainment Weekly has several excerpts from the new books. 

‘Mad Men’ Creator Matthew Weiner Pens Novel

Finally, a celebrity who’s not writing a self-indulgent memoir but who’s gracing us with what he has already proven to do so well: fiction. “Mad Men’ creator and writer Matthew Weiner has written his first novel, according to The New York Times.

It took him about nine months to write the novel, Heather, the Totality, which is expected to be published by Little, Brown in the fall of 2017. The book sounds absolutely fascinating and perfectly creepy — telling the story of a teenager named Heather from the perspective of multiple characters who are obsessed with her, be it her parents or others vying for her attention.

Publishers who have read it say it’s similar to Henry James or Edgar Allan Poe and is “psychologically very chilling” and “very clever.”

Though Mad Men wasn’t necessarily written with that feeling or tone in mind, I always felt that certain episodes had it — as viewers and other characters just waited and waited for the seemingly inevitable collapse of Don Draper. Same with Tony Soprano in The Sopranos, for which Matthew Weiner also wrote.

Weiner is a man who’s already mastered the craft of writing. This novel is simply a different format, but it doesn’t mean it will be any less artful than that which he’s already created.

‘Pretty Little Liars’ Star To Release Book of Essays

Is life imitating art or is art imitating life here? According to Entertainment Weekly actor Ian Harding, who plays teacher and writer Ezra Fitz on Pretty Little Liars, is releasing his own book of essays entitled Odd Birds this coming May.

His character on the teen phenomenon of a show is a writer and author, so it’s interesting to learn he writes in real life. While I’m deeply curious as to whether he got into writing since playing a writer on the show or if the show creators wrote that into the series, knowing that Harding himself liked to write, I’m also a little confused about the description of his book, as Isabella Biedenharn explains.

Harding will publish his essay collection, Odd Birds, in May 2017, EW can announce exclusively. Odd Birds will chronicle Harding’s life in Hollywood — including anecdotes from PLL — through the lens of bird watching, making it a fascinating and funny journey for readers of both celebrity memoirs and nature books.

How someone tells anecdotes about a teen television series through the lens of bird watching is pretty baffling to me. But I am interested to know if he’s as a good a writer as they make his character out to be on PLL!

Harry Potter Exhibit in the Works

Did I call it or did I call it? J.K. Rowling et al keep finding ways to make Harry Potter relevant. According to Entertainment Weekly, a new Harry Potter exhibit will open next year at the British Library.

The exhibit will commemorate the 20th — can you believe it?? Yes, I said 20TH! — anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first book of the Harry Potter series (aka Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the U.S.). The exhibit will include things from J.K. Rowling’s archives and other goodies from British publisher Bloomsbury. The exhibit will be open October 20, 2017 until February 28, 2018.

All of this comes with the news that the latest addition to Harry Potter‘s universe, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, has sold more than three million copies.

‘Dance Moms’ 13-Year-Old Star To Pen Memoir, Fiction Trilogy

Some people spend their entire lives writing to pen the perfect book. For Maddie Zeigler, it only took 13  years. But wait. That is her entire life considering the Dance Moms star is just 13  years old.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Zeigler is working on writing both a memoir and a YA trilogy about dance for Gallery Books and Aladdin Books. The Maddie Diaries will reflect on her years starring the Lifetime reality TV show Dance Moms. It will also include advice and lessons for teens and dancers. It’s set to be released in March of 2017.

Her fiction novels will also be about — you guessed it! — young dancers. The novels are set to be released in the Fall 2017, Fall 2018 and Fall 2019.

IMHO, there will always be a market for people who want to read about dancers — whether it’s young people who dream of being professional dancers or those — like me — who used to dance and feel a sense of nostalgia when they read books about it (see Astonish Me).

Zeigler is a famous dancer, best known for Dance Moms and for playing mini-Sia in many of popstar Sia’s music videos and performances. Currently Zeigler is a judge on the kids version of So You Think You Can Dance.