OCTOBER 11, 2019

Happy Friday, and congratulations to all the Nobel Prize recipients, including Literature winner Olga Tokarczuk! But there was also a non-author honoree who caught our eye…

TFW you’re 97 and you win one of the world’s biggest honors.

I’m very happy to have been able to live this long! Humble words from one of this year’s Nobel Prize winners, John B. Goodenough (who also wins our unofficial Name of the Week award 🏆). Goodenough was part of the team who won this year’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry, awarded to three scientists whose work contributed to the invention of the Lithium-Ion battery—which, as the Nobel committee notes, not only fuels your mobile phone activity, but also helps cut down on fossil fuels due to its use in electric cars. But don’t tell that first bit to Ann Patchett (author of one of Editor Emily’s favorites for this fall, The Dutch House), who revealed this week she doesn’t even have a smartphone.

Speaking of trailblazers…

After a career marked by being largely underestimated by Hollywood, actor/producer/movie mogul Tyler Perry unveiled his epically large new studios in Atlanta last weekend with a two-day star-studded grand opening, complete with church services and grand performances. The 330-acre complex is reportedly larger than that of three top LA studios combined. He dedicated his 12 sound stages to Black celebrities who inspired him, such as Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah, who were on hand for the festivities, as well as the recently deceased Diahann Carroll, to whom he paid tribute on Instagram.

A book-world controversy.

BuzzFeed reported on the similarities between Kim Michele Richardson’s novel The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and best-selling author Jojo Moyes’s new release, The Giver of Stars. The overlap is undeniable, but it also seems unlikely Moyes could’ve been exposed to Richardson’s work before beginning her own research. The dispute reminded Editor Katie of a story Elizabeth Gilbert shares in Big Magic. Gilbert believes ideas exist all around us, and if one is begging for your attention, you need to nurture it—otherwise, it will find a home with someone else. Gilbert once had an idea for a novel set in the Amazon, but she let it fly away, and she firmly believes it found its home in Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder (and we know it didn’t get there by smartphone!). We can’t help thinking there’s something to this mystical notion of the origins of novels.

Supreme season kicked off.

The Supreme Court returned to session this past Monday, and three of the cases heard this week deal with whether the federal law barring employment discrimination on the basis of sex extends its protections to LGBTQIA+ people. This effectively sets the court up to punch the tires on the Civil Rights Act of 1964—the definitive history on it can be found here—as plaintiff lawyers lean on the Act to make their case. This is in no way the only hot-button issue on the docket this session, with immigration and abortion rights up for debate in the coming months. As always, we’ll keep our ears out for any clarifying listens to help untangle the headlines.

Short stuff:

  • CBS announced it will launch a miniseries based on James Comey’s memoir A Higher Loyalty. Jeff Daniels is set to star as the former FBI Director, and President Donald Trump will be portrayed by Brendan Gleeson.
  • Author and poet Staceyann Chin visited Audible to celebrate National Coming Out Day and talk about her Audible original Motherstruck!, her true story of being a Jamaican-American woman, who happens to be a lesbian, trying to have a baby in her mid-30s.
  • We had a good laugh at the expense of everyone’s favorite sans-serif punching bag, Comic Sans. If you too love font humor, we have just the cozy mystery series for you!
  • Thirty years after the fall of the wall, David Hasselhoff is still big in Berlin—but we knew that already ;)
  • The New York Times reported on the heated debate around theater etiquette in the mobile age. We hate to pick sides of the figurative theater aisle, but we’ll just say we think we’ve found a happy middle ground.
Till Next Week!
—the audible editors

Audiobooks in This Edition

The Dutch House Audiolibro Por Ann Patchett arte de portada
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek Audiolibro Por Kim Michele Richardson arte de portada
The Giver of Stars Audiolibro Por Jojo Moyes arte de portada
Big Magic Audiolibro Por Elizabeth Gilbert arte de portada
State of Wonder Audiolibro Por Ann Patchett arte de portada
Higher Is Waiting Audiolibro Por Tyler Perry arte de portada
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_webcro768_stickypopup