Around the same time I take stock of my past year of reading, I also look forward to the upcoming year. 2019 will see a lot of exciting books and book-related events that excite and intrigue me. Here are a few of them. What are you most looking forward to in your bookish life in 2019?

The His Dark Materials tv series

I’ve been looking forward to this BBC adaptation of all three books in Philip Pullman’s trilogy (my favorite books of all time) since it was announced in 2015. Production moved predictably slowly, with directorial and casting announcements stretching over years, but the end of 2018 brought the news that filming had wrapped on the first series of eight episodes, which includes the entirety of the first book in the trilogy, The Golden Compass (Northern Lights in the UK). Though I can’t find an official air date, I’m assuming (hoping!) that it will air sometime this year. HBO has secured the rights for American audiences.

I have high hopes for the quality of the series, especially as it compares to the very lackluster feature film from 2007. The tv series is produced by Bad Wolf and New Line Cinema, both studios with a good track record, and directed by Tom Hooper, who also directed such films as The King’s Speech and Les Miserables. It’s written by Jack Thorne, a co-writer of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage play (hopefully he chose to include the very important ending of the first book in this first series, instead of surgically removing it for minimal impact as the 2007 film did).

The casting choices are curious to me; I think the ones from 2007 were actually very good, and the choices for this new adaptation deviate pretty strongly. I can’t say I wholly approve, but I’m going to withhold judgment. Lyra is portrayed by Dafne Keen, who did a very good job as the child with Wolverine-like superpowers in Logan. James McAvoy and Ruth Wilson play Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter, and Lin-Manuel Miranda attempts to fill Sam Elliott’s very big shoes by taking on the role of Texan Lee Scoresby.

Fans have been waiting a long time for a high-quality screen adaptation of these books, and I’m hoping the BBC will do it right. Time will tell.

 

A new Ruth Ware mystery

Ruth Ware burst onto the adult mystery scene in 2015 with In a Dark, Dark Wood and has released one book a year since (and it seems like they just keep getting better!). I love that she writes standalones in a world of neverending mystery series that feel impossible to break into. I also love her complicated, nuanced female protagonists and detailed, twisty plots. Her novel for 2019 is called The Turn of the Key, and it’s about a woman who applies for a nannying gig that pays an impossibly high salary – and later ends up in prison awaiting trial for the murder of a child. While I’m generally not a fan of mysteries featuring murdered children, plot synopses never do a Ruth Ware novel justice, and I anticipate this one will be just as good as her others.

 

A fourth Wayward Children novella by Seanan McGuire

While I think this series of novellas has been uneven (I didn’t care for the third book at all), I can usually count on McGuire to write an intriguing, weird, and unsettling entry in her Wayward Children series each year. In an Absent Dream tells the story of Katherine Lundy, the 80-something woman who looks like an eight year old girl. It follows her time in the goblin market after she discovers her own door, and how she found her way back to Miss Eleanor’s Home for Wayward Children. I’m counting on the fact that this book will be just as strange as the others.

 

A sequel to Mirage by Somaiya Daud

Mirage was one of my favorite reads of 2018, and I’m so happy to see that there will be a sequel, though it doesn’t yet have a more specific release date than 2019. It’s called Court of Lions and will chronicle the further adventures of Amani, the girl forced to serve as the body double for the hated princess Maram, half-Vathek and cruel daughter of the conqueror of Amani’s home moon. While Mirage didn’t exactly end on a cliffhanger, it’s clear there is a lot more to come for Amani and Maram, and I can’t wait to read all about it.

By the way, I’m so pleased that we selected Mirage as one of our Cybils finalists in the Young Adult Speculative Fiction category this year. You can read my brief review from my year-end post here.