This Week's Books in the News

Book Cover For Harper Lee’s Upcoming Novel Uncovered

HarperCollins have released the image that is to grace the book cover of author Harper Lee’s much-anticipated novel ‘Go Set a Watchman’; the author’s first release in 40 years after her acclaimed novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’.

The cover, designed by Jarrod Taylor from HarperCollins, has stayed true to the style of Lee’s first novel and is a classic image of a dark tree with yellow leaves and a photo of an approaching steam train on yellow tracks.

The choice of image, according to the publishing house was that ‘there are so many wonderful parts of ‘Go Set a Watchman,’ that it was hard to pick just one iconic image to represent the book,” and so, Michael Morrison, the president and publisher of HarperCollins, said in a statement said that the choice was made because ‘Go Set a Watchman’ begins with Scout’s train ride home, but more profoundly, it is about the journey Harper Lee’s beloved characters have taken in the subsequent 20 years of their lives.”

The book is expected to be out in July.

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Spielberg To Bring Ernest Cline’s ‘Ready Player One’ To The Big Screen

Deadline revealed yesterday that the sci-fi novel ‘Ready Player One’ written by Ernest Cline in 2011 is to come to the big screen directed by Steven Spielberg. The author's latest novel 'Armada' will be released in July and is now ready for pre-order.

The book itself relies on major 80s pop culture and references and this might, due to rights issues, delay the actual production. Amazingly, the director appears in the 2011 book as well as references to some of his works like Indiana Jones and E.T.

The book, published by Random House, received an Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association division of the American Library Association and won the 2012 Prometheus Award.

‘Ready Player One’ is set in the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place. We're out of oil. We've wrecked the climate. Famine, poverty, and disease are widespread.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia where you can be anything you want to be, where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade is obsessed by the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this alternate reality: OASIS founder James Halliday, who dies with no heir, has promised that control of the OASIS - and his massive fortune - will go to the person who can solve the riddles he has left scattered throughout his creation.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that the riddles are based in the culture of the late twentieth century. And then Wade stumbles onto the key to the first puzzle. Suddenly, he finds himself pitted against thousands of competitors in a desperate race to claim the ultimate prize, a chase that soon takes on terrifying real-world dimensions - and that will leave both Wade and his world profoundly changed.