The 2022 Diverse Book Awards Shortlist Is Announced | Book Pulse

Shortlists are announced for the 2022 Diverse Book Awards and Kindle Storyteller Award. Author interviews are plentiful this week, including conversations with Jarvis Jay Masters, Melissa Villaseñor, Kamila Shamsie, Ling Ma, Sonya Huber, Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemim, Chelsea Martin, Linda Ronstadt, Constance Wu, Calvin Kasulke, Abdulrazak Gurnah, and Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman; also, rare and early interviews with Cormac McCarthy. There will be a new partnership in book adaptations between Titan Books and Alcon Publishing.

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Awards & Buzzy Book News

The 2022 Diverse Book Awards shortlist is announced.

The 2022 Kindle Storyteller Award shortlist is announced.

Same Sky Publishing has won the 2022 Prix Voltaire laureate award from the International Publishers Association for “upholding the freedom to publish and enabling others to exercise their right to freedom of expression.”

The Root’s “It’s Lit” vertical looks forward to “October 2022 Books by Black Authors.”

Salon reports on authors fighting “against limiting libraries’ digital rights.”

Romance authors are mobilizing for reproductive rights,” according to Bustle.

Page to Screen

September 30:

The Good House, based on the book by Ann Leary. Lionsgate. Reviews | Trailer

Luckiest Girl Alive, based on the book by Jessica Knoll. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

Rainbow, based on the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

My Best Friend’s Exorcism, based on the book by Grady Hendrix. Prime Video. No reviews | Trailer

The Greatest Beer Run Ever, based on the book by Joanna Molloy and John “Chickie” Donohue. Apple TV+. Reviews | Trailer

October 2:

Coroner, based on the Jenny Cooper novels by M. R. Hall. CW. No reviews | Trailer

Interview with the Vampire, based on the book by Anne Rice. AMC. Reviews | Trailer

The Walking Dead, based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. AMC. Reviews | Trailer

October 5:

Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, based on a novella by Stephen King from the collection of If It Bleeds. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

Kung Fu, based on the Tao Te Ching. CW. Reviews | Trailer

October 6:

Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler, based on associated titles. HBO Max. Reviews | Trailer

October 7:

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, based on a story by Bernard Waber. Sony Pictures. No reviews | Trailer

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, based on the book by Gabrielle Zevin. Vertical Entertainment. No reviews | Trailer

All Quiet on the Western Front, based on the book by Erich Maria Remarque. Netflix. Reviews | Trailer

Hellraiser, based on the novella The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker. Hulu. No reviews | Trailer

Catherine Called Birdy, based on the book by Karen Cushman. Amazon Studios. Reviews  | Trailer

The Midnight Club, based on the book by Christopher Pike. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

Werewolf by Night, based on associated titles. Disney+. Reviews | Trailer

October 8:

Pumpkin Everything, based on the book by Beth Labonte. Hallmark. No reviews | No trailer

Lit Hub provides a list of literary film and TV for October.

Reviews

NYT reviews Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk, tr. by Ekin Oklap (Knopf): “Pamuk’s delight in art and artifice is inextricable from his realistic accounts of disease, poisonings and assassinations, political intrigue, cultural and religious enmity, gender inequity and medical futility.” Plus, When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe (Doubleday): “The portrait this book creates is one of a company chasing profits, spreading the gospel of downsizing and offshoring, its leaders virtually unmoored from any guiding principles or moral code.” 

The Washington Post also reviews When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe (Doubleday): “In a masterful work of investigative journalism building on their reporting for the New York Times, Bogdanich and Forsythe pierce through McKinsey’s ‘culture of secrecy’—a process they describe as ‘akin to chasing shadows’—to unearth conflicts of interest, corruption, hypocrisy and strategic blunders that read like a prosecutor’s indictment.” And, Eliot After “The Waste Land” by Robert Crawford (Picador): “Crawford details, with remarkable scholarly evenhandedness, a life of almost soap-operatically ‘complex, contradictory messiness.’” Plus, reviews on books detailing “Putin’s centuries-long march into Ukraine,” including A Short History of Russia: How the World’s Largest Country Invented Itself, from the Pagans to Putin by Mark Galeotti (Hanover Square), Russia: Myths and Realities by Rodric Braithewaite (Pegasus), and The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes (Metropolitan: Macmillan).

Datebook reviews American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis by Adam Hochschild (Mariner: Houghton Harcourt; LJ starred review): “A potent reminder of what happens when open discourse is systemically punished. The story happens to be more than 100 years old, which doesn’t mean it can’t happen again.”

NPR reviews Solito by Javier Zamora (Hogarth): “an important book that refocuses the immigration debate by writing about—and from the perspective of—the most important aspect of it: the people who leave home behind and risk everything to look for a better life in the United States.”

Locus Magazine reviews Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi (Titan): “a gritty narrative about battling alcoholism and inner demons, leaving the past behind, and the power of friendship. It’s also a coming-of-age tale submerged in the harsh realities of a broken small town.” Also, Hooked by A. C. Wise (Titan): “A revelatory and entertaining tale that shrewdly delves into shadows of the past as well as the relationships of those who survive trauma and loss.” Plus, Bliss Montage by Ling Ma (Farrar): “Narratives stop rather than come to an end. This isn’t a flaw but rather recognition that the biggest lie perpetuated by the ‘bliss montage’ is that life can be neatly edited together with all the messiness and loose threads removed.”

Book Marks shares “The Best Reviewed Books of the Month.”

Briefly Noted

Jarvis Jay Masters, author of That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row (HarperOne), talks to Oprah’s Book Club about “writing and the simple pleasures we take for granted outside prison walls.”

Entertainment Weekly talks to comedian Melissa Villaseñor about her new book Whoops…I’m Awesome: A Workbook with Activities, Art, and Stories for Embracing Your Wonderfully Awesome Self (Chronicle), “embracing her culture, how SNL shaped her—and where she hopes it will lead.”

Electric Lit interviews Kamila Shamsie about the “driving forces” behind her novel Best of Friends (Riverhead).

Ling Ma, Bliss Montage (Farrar), chats about “her creative process, deciding to become a writer, and how working at Playboy inspired the story ‘Yeti Lovemaking’” with Bustle.

Sonya Huber, Voice First: A Writer’s Manifesto (Univ. of Nebraska), speaks to The Rumpus about “writing disability, academic ableism, and finding and celebrating our voices.”

Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemim, author of Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories (Amistad), talks about her “childhood, family lore and experience as an immigrant in the United States” in a conversation with Essence

Chelsea Martin chats with Shondaland about “money and creativity, interiority in art, humor, and loving her characters” in her new book Tell Me I’m an Artist (Soft Skull).

Linda Ronstadt discusses her new memoir Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands (Heyday) and her Mexican American heritage with Vogue

Today speaks to Constance Wu about her new memoirMaking a Scene (Scribner), and explores its subjects. Also, Javier Zamora recommends 5 books to read after his memoir Solito (Hogarth).

Calvin Kasulke, author of Several People Are Typing (Doubleday), shares writing and reading advice with Lit Hub

NYT uncovers rare and early Cormac McCarthy interviews.

Andrew Sean Greer, Less Is Lost (Little, Brown), talks about the best sex he has ever read with Vulture, featuring Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way

Town and Country covers news about Tom Hanks’s debut novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, due out from Knopf in May 2023.

Reality TV star Deepti Vempati of Love Is Blind, author of the recently released independently published memoir I Choose Myself, talks about her relationship experiences in an interview with People.

Tor.com shares an excerpt from The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore (Ace: Berkeley; LJ starred review). 

Bustle explores the concept of the “hot girl book.”

Electric Lit shares “8 Novels About Monstrous Mothers.”

CrimeReads has “The Best New True Crime Books Out Now.”

Popsugar shares a massive list of “299 Best New Books of 2022 To Add to Your Reading List.”

Book Riot supplies booklists of “great new queer horror,” “10 Compelling Series Where Book Two Is Even Better Than the First,” and 9 read-alikes for Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom (Vintage).

Tor.com lists “Five Genderbent SFF Retellings and Reimaginings.”

NYT recommends 12 new books this week.

Amazon shares the “Best Books of September.”

Vanity Fair recommends 8 books for the month.

Authors on Air

Abdulrazak Gurnah, Afterlives (Riverhead), discusses the “effects of colonial rule in East Africa” in an interview with PBS News Hour.

Brené Brown speaks to Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman about their book The Love Prescription: Seven Days to More Intimacy, Connection, and Joy (Penguin Life) as the first of three interviews in a series about relationships on the Unlocking Us podcast.

Actors Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid discuss their thoughts on starring in the adaption of Anne Rice’s novel Interview With the Vampire (Knopf) with NYT.

NPR’s All Things Considered features Andrew Dominik, director of a new movie adaptation of the novel Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco), speaking about how “the unhappiness of Marilyn Monroe should come as no surprise.”

Titan Books will be partnering with Alcon Publishing, a “book unit of the production entity behind films and series.” Deadline has the details.

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