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Welcome to your weekly roundup of book news and literary highlights from 

This week, true-crime fans mourn the loss of a prolific writer — and a radical piece of poetry makes its way to the stage.

Ann Rule knew just how to terrify readers: Tell the truth.

In her 30-year career, she wrote dozens of books about high-profile crimes, from serial killers to notorious bank robbers. She pulled her stories from the evening news, and her books convinced more than one reader to double-check the locks on their doors.

Rule died this week at 83. Though she spent decades writing about detectives, she once had law enforcement aspirations of her own. She joined the Seattle Police Department right out of college, but a failed eye exam put an end to her career. Instead, she turned to writing.

Her first book, "The Stranger Beside Me," made her a household name. The book follows the crimes of serial killer Ted Bundy, whom Rule knew personally. Bundy and Rule were colleagues in the early 1970s, when they answered phones together at a Seattle crisis center.

When news about Bundy first broke, Rule refused to believe he was a killer. Later, as she wrote in "Stranger," she came to terms with the atrocities her friend had committed.

She continued to write true-crime novels about other shocking crimes, churning out one or more books per year. Her last published book was 2013's "Practice to Deceive," about a 2003 murder on Whidbey Island off the coast of Washington state.

Ever dreamed of spending the night in a bookstore, wandering the aisles and pulling down whatever catches your eye?

In Japan, you can now do just that. "Book and Bed" is 

The hotel is built to resemble a bookstore, with hundreds of books lining the shelves for guests to enjoy. And the sleeping arrangements? Those are also on the shelves. Visitors settle in for the night in small capsules tucked amongst the books.

The price for a night at this bookish retreat has not yet been released.

Claudia Rankine's "Citizen: An American Lyric," is a powerful piece of poetry that reinvigorated national conversations about race when it was published last year.


 hailed it as "part protest lyric, part art book," saying it was "a dazzling expression of the painful double consciousness of black life in America."  

In "Citizen," Rankine explores everything from how Serena Williams is treated on the tennis court to how the government handled Hurricane Katrina. Now, a new audience will experience Rankine's words through a stage adaptation opening in Los Angeles on Aug. 1.

Poet Claudia Rankine's latest examines being black in America

Graywolf Press, the publisher of "Citizen," 

"My deepest hope," Sachs said. "Is that audiences, when seeing the play, see themselves. And ask themselves: Do I do that? Have I ever thought that? Said that? Done that?

Book briefs: Spend the night in a bookstore

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