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Awards & Book News

Canisia Lubrin’s Code Noir: Fictions (Soft Skull) wins the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction; NPR has coverage, as does CBC.

The new Read with Jenna book club pick is The Names by Florence Knapp (Viking: Pamela Dorman), Kirkus reports.

Edgar Award winners are announced.

Winners of the UK’s Charles Tyrwhitt Sports Book Awards are announced.

Writers’ Union of Canada reveals the shortlist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for the best first collection of short fiction by a Canadian author; CBC has coverage.

The longlists for the League of Canadian Poets Prizes are announced, CBC reports.

Publishers Weekly summarizes the first hearing in ALA v. Sonderling, as ALA pushes to preserve IMLS staff.

Page to Screen

May 2

Bonjour Tristesse, based on the 1954 novel by Françoise Sagan. Greenwich Entertainment. Reviews | Trailer

Thunderbolts*, based on associated titles. Marvel Studios. Reviews | Trailer

May 6

Finding Nicole, based on Finding Nicole: A True Story of Love, Loss, Betrayal, Fear and Hope by Nicole Beverly. Freestyle Digital Media. Reviews | Trailer

Reviews

Washington Post reviews Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf): “For all his silliness, Hiaasen is working in a grand tradition that stretches back to Mikhail Bulgakov satirizing Stalinism and Charlie Chaplin mocking Hitler. At his best, he can pack a paragraph with so many little parodic bangs that it feels like a fireworks display, when the explosions come so fast you stop saying ‘Ahhh’ and just stand in slack-jawed bedazzlement”; Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend by Jason Bailey (Abrams): “By now, Dr. Melfi would be demanding a robust interrogation of Gandolfini’s childhood, but Bailey’s investigations hit a wall here. All we get, really, are a dad who was frugal and swore a lot and a mother who was ‘introspective, depressed, a little judgmental’”; Went to London, Took the Dog: The Diary of a 60-Year-Old Runaway by Nina Stibbe (Picador UK): “The appreciation of the book may provide something of a Rorschach test: If you are already a Stibbe enthusiast, you will probably be charmed by her writerly life, her dashing about to book festivals, her interactions with her many famous friends”; and four newly translated novels: Journey to the Edge of Life by Tezer Özlü, tr. by Maureen Freely (Transit), The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica, tr. by Sarah Moses (Scribner; LJ starred review), The Frog in the Throat by Markus Werner, tr. by Michael Hofmann (NYRB), and The Living and the Rest by José Eduardo Agualusa, tr. by Daniel Hahn (Archipelago).

LA Times reviews The Manor of Dreams by Christina Li (Avid Reader): “The book falls short in its attempt to tie Yin Manor’s haunted nature to the exploitation of the thousands of Chinese migrants who built the Western half of the first transcontinental railroad, however. It’s an evocative through line, to be sure, but it’s given short shrift, and doesn’t end up having the emotional or political impact that it might have. On the whole, though, The Manor of Dreams is a swift and enjoyable read, increasingly spooky, with a surprising queer romance twining its way through.”

Briefly Noted

Novelist and literary critic Margaret Drabble, author of Margaret Drabble on the Romantics (Thames & Hudson), shares “The Books of My Life” with The Guardian.

CrimeReads interviews Margot Douaihy, author of the Sister Holiday mysteries.

CrimeReads has part two of its round table on the state of the mystery.

Publishers Weekly interviews Michael Kelly, the publisher of Boom! Studios, the comics house that was recently acquired by Penguin Random House.

NYT has “7 New Books We Recommend This Week.”

People looks back on the best books of April.

Washington Post gathers 10 noteworthy books for May.

Vulture identifies “8 New Books You Should Read This May.”

LA Times suggests 10 books to read in May.

Time offers the best new books to read in May.

LitHub selects May’s best sci-fi and fantasy books and seven new poetry collections to read in May.

CBC lists “36 Canadian books you should be reading in May.”

Publishers Weekly recommends four recent books about racism in U.S. education.

The BBC has used AI to create writing classes taught by “Agatha Christie,” The Guardian reports.

Authors on Air

NPR’s Fresh Air re-airs an interview with David Grann, author of The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (Doubleday), which is being adapted for the screen by Martin Scorsese.

There’s a new episode of The LitHub Podcast, featuring an interview with the publishers of poetry press After Hours Editions.

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