Happy Pub Day!

Alright, the sunshine is now shining at least 50% more, flowers are blooming, and yet we are still staying inside reading and avoiding pollen season!

It was a busy week for us last week with not one but two Nook conversations!

One we can't share until next Tuesday (although I’m close to spoiling it - keep reading), but here’s our Book Club Edition of the Author Talks Podcast with the Blockbuster Certified Will Packer, author of the instant New York Times bestselling book Who Better Than You?

Will Packer is the film producer behind #1 box office movies such as:

• Ride Along

• Girls Trip

• Think Like a Man

• Straight Outta Compton

• Stomp the Yard

…and many more!

This conversation is a must-listen!

Enjoy!

Spring Flings:

• 📚 April Book Club Picks

•  📺 Emily Henry and Meta’s AI Pirating

• 📖 New The Hunger Games Boo

This Week On Bookum:

It’s official—we have our two picks for April…

The Bookum Club pick of the month is… (gotta love a dramatic pause)

✨ AUDITION by Katie Kitamura! ✨

Our special guest host for the month is the wonderful Helen (@readwithneleh).

And we are pleased to announce that Katie Kitamura will join us for a special conversation about the book on April 29th at 6 PM EST!

Summary:

"Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day—partner, parent, creator, muse—and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately."

But that’s not all…

As you know, the Founders Club (business & entrepreneur books) is reading Rewrite Your Rules by Morgan DeBaun, CEO and Founder of Blavity and AfroTech!

Alright, I can’t keep a secret (Told you)… Morgan DeBaun has also joined us for a conversation on the book! (Conversation releases next Tuesday!)

Summary:

"In her transformative book, Rewrite Your Rules, DeBaun delivers a powerful call to action: redefine the guiding principles of your life. This isn’t about minor adjustments; it’s about radically transforming what you believe is possible, challenging you to break free from societal expectations and design your own path."

Join one or both of the Bookum book clubs this April as we discuss these books on the Bookum App! 📚 www.bookumapp.com

This Week in The Book World:

As you are well aware, Emily Henry has a new book coming out on April 22, 2025, called Great Big Beautiful Life.

But everything is not so great, big, or beautiful in the book world right now—especially when it comes to Meta.

In an article by Alex Reisner titled "The Unbelievable Scale of AI's Pirated-Books Problem," it was revealed that Meta (Facebook, Threads, Instagram, etc.) pirated millions of books to train its AI.

One of the authors affected? Emily Henry.

She took to her Instagram account yesterday to express her understandable frustration about the pure theft happening in the book world right now. (Attached above!)

The publishing industry is already challenging to navigate when it comes to protecting authors' intellectual property, but with AI emerging, it has become even more invasive!

Check out the full article and, if you’re an author, use the search tool below to see if your book(s) has been pirated: Search tool for authors

This Week in Publishing:

Classic Bookum—not leaving much time for the finale!

The rave of the week in the book world has been the release of the second Hunger Games prequel—Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins!

Summary:

"As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes."

Add this book to your TBR and head over to Bookum—we’ll be discussing it next Saturday, April 6th, on Nooks! 📖🔥

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Happy Reading!

Download Bookum on Apple or Android Here!

See you next week!

Footnotes (Aka other articles we are reading and Bookum content):

Bookum Author Talks Podcast with John Robinson “The King of The Groove” - https://youtu.be/96P8G0-Rv2E

Hanif Abdurraqib among National Book Critics Circle Award winners - https://matternews.org/culture/words/hanif-abdurraqib-among-national-book-critics-circle-award-winners/