'Sharp Objects' on HBO, a playlist for your rosé romance, and books for the beach at the end of the world

Plus, new books about young refugees, critics' picks and more books [Amy Adams in 'Sharp Objects']( Anne Marie Fox/HBO Gillian Flynn's wildly successful Gone Girl helped spawn a batch of best-selling mystery novels featuring complex female protagonists. That was sweet revenge for Flynn, whose first novel, Sharp Objects, had been turned down by publishers who didn't think people wanted to read stories about less-than-perfect women. Now, Sharp Objects has been adapted as a limited series for HBO, and our own Lynn Neary [spoke to Flynn and the show's director.]( [Romance and Rose]( Samantha Clark & Eslah Attar/NPR "So what One Pairing could ever be more True than that of roséwave and romance fiction?" asks Margaret Willison. "Both lifestyles are all about celebrating the straightforward pleasure of common delights without guilt, whether that means the unalloyed giddiness of a Carly Rae Jepsen bop or the pure satisfaction of a perfectly constructed happily ever after." [Check out her playlist for your rosé romance here](. ['The Elementals,' by Michael McDowell]( In honor of our summer horror poll, author, horror nerd and poll judge Grady Hendrix is here to talk about the paperback horror boom kicked off by Ira Levin's best-selling Rosemary's Baby in 1967. "Levin's precision-engineered satanic thriller unleashed a trickle of satanic paperbacks," Hendrix says, "but 1971's one-two punch of William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist and Thomas Tryon's The Other turned that trickle into a tidal wave. After that, if it had Satan on the cover, it sold." At least until Hannibal Lecter came along and bent everyone's brain a different way. Evil children? Evil skeletons? Evil animals? Evil ... suits? [Look no further.]( ['Only Lovers Left Alive,' by Dave Wallis]( "You know it's been a long year when people ask for summer reads and you find yourself recommending Cherie Dimaline's [The Marrow Thieves]( says critic Genevieve Valentine, "in which Indigenous North Americans band together to escape government hunters in the wake of societal collapse — as a comforting story. (Hey, at least everybody's banding together.)" If you, like Valentine, prefer a little doom and gloom in your beach books, [have we got a list for you!]( ['Refugee,' by Alan Gratz]( In the adult world, the Supreme Court has upheld a travel ban from some mostly Muslim nations, and refugee arrivals from Syria as well as other Middle East hot spots have slowed to a trickle. Political leaders claim refugees are a threat. But in the world of children's literature, there's a new trend towards putting stories about resilient young Muslim refugees front and center. Reporter Deb Amos talked to the publishers and authors involved in some of these books -- [and the kids who're reading them](. Also this week, critic Michael Schaub says Kate Christensen's The Last Cruise "plays out a lot like a '50s disaster movie, [and that's a good thing]( Our own Ron Elving [digs into The Fall of Wisconsin]( a book that contextualizes Wisconsin's 2016 flip from blue to red. And Heller McAlpin calls Ottessa Moshfegh's new My Year of Rest and Relaxation ["bizarrely fascinating]( [The Last Cruise, by Kate Christensen]( ['The Fall of Wisconsin,' by Dan Kaufman]( ['My Year of Rest and Relaxation,' by Ottessa Moshfegh]( Happy reading! [Facebook]( [Twitter]( You received this message because you're subscribed to our Books emails. | [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy]( | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002 [NPR]