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Awards & News

Library of Congress names Cuban-American writer Meg Medina as the new National Ambassador For Young People's Literature, making her the first Latinx ambassador in the program's history. NPR's Morning Edtion has coverage.  

ALA honors 10 librarians with the 2023 I Love My Librarian Award.

Mariana Enríquez, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Tiffany Tsao are named judges for the 2023 Desperate Literature Prize. The Bookseller reports. 

The January and February Loanstars list is out featuring top pick Spare by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex (Random House). Slate reviews, saying “much of Spare reads like a good novel.”  More Spare coverage hits Salon, Bustle, Vogue, and on Vanity Fair’s podcast DYNASTY: The Windsors. Plus, LitHub covers rumors of a possible 4-book deal. 

The Complete Buzz Books 2023: Spring/Summer by Publishers Lunch is available now. 

Bookwire expands Its Text-to-Speech audiobook offer with Google. Publishing Perspectives reports. 

Sales of the Jan. 6 report have been “relatively slow compared to other blockbuster government reports.” NPR’s Morning Edition reports. 

Reviews

NYT reviews Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter by John Hendrickson (Knopf): “part of what Hendrickson writes about so beautifully is the movement to destigmatize the condition; instead of trying to run away from it, some stutterers accept it as a part of who they are.” And, The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House by Chris Whipple (Scribner): “It is a herculean effort. For any future writer eager to describe Biden’s first two years, this will be the book cited first and most often. Those eager to really understand the historic impact and import of the Biden presidency, however, will likely require a sequel. There are, after all, 50 additional floors — and perhaps even more — to go.”  Also, there are short reviews of books about watches. 

The Washington Post reviews The World and All That It Holds by Aleksandar Hemon (MCD): “The real miracle of The World and All That It Holds is that despite holding so much, we come to know the fragile joys of this one melancholy man so well that he feels written into our own past.”

LA Times reviews I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction by Kidada E. Williams (Bloomsbury; LJ starred review): “The new book’s power derives from its eye-level approach, as Williams homes in on several newly freed Black families while they struggle in the months after the war to establish footing on hostile ground, only to find every incremental gain met with violence, every small victory a prelude to further struggle.”

OprahDaily reviews The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet's Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence by David Waldstreicher (FSG), due out March 7th: “Hers was a short but remarkable life, one that is especially inspiring in our times because of her fervent belief that her voice mattered, that she should be heard, and that she could shape public opinion on concerns of race, freedom, and democracy.”

Autostraddle reviews Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt (Tor Nightfire): “is not going to be for everyone. It’s a graphic book with difficult themes, and it offers no easy answers or pat conclusions. But it’s exactly these facts that make the book so valuable.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for top title hold, The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Grand Central). 

AARP has a new “Weekly Read.”

Canada Reads winner Michelle Good will publish an essay collection, Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada, due out from Harper Collins in May. CBC has details. 

USA Today chats with John Hendrickson about writing his new book, Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter (Knopf). 

The Washington Post interviews Stephen A. Smith about his new memoir, Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes (Gallery/13A). 

Esquire talks with Matthew Salesses about his new book, The Sense of Wonder (Little, Brown), and “how years of watching basketball and K-dramas paid off.”

Bonnie Bartlett Daniels reveals details from her marriage to Boy Meets World actor William Daniels in her new memoir, Middle of the Rainbow (BearManor), at People. 

Kai Thomas discusses his new novel, In the Upper Country (Viking; LJ starred review), at Shondaland. 

The Atlantic looks at Janet Malcolm’s new memoir, Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory (FSG), and the “murkiness of autobiography.”

ElectricLit has a conversation with Adam Vitcavage, creator of Debutiful, a podcast and website that elevates debut authors. 

Roxane Gay reveals covers from the first two books to be published by her new imprint, Roxane Gay Books, at LitHub. 

CrimeReads asks: “Does Historical Accuracy Matter in Historical Fiction?”

Vogue declares: “The Age of Adulting Is Over.”

LitHub shares 18 new books for the week. 

NYT highlights 8 newly published titles. 

NYPL suggests “Where to Start With Russell Banks.”

ElectricLit has 9 novels about finding meaning in work. 

BookRiot has 8 books about getting older, 9 cheerful reads, 8 goal-setting books, and a reflection on the future of libraries. 

“Jonathan Raban, travel writer and novelist, dies aged 80.” The Guardian has an obituary.

Authors on Air

NPR’s Morning Edition talks with Ilyon Woo about her new book, Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom (S. & S.; LJ starred review).

LA Times highlights a new PBS American Experience documentary, Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space, and how it “captured Zora Neale Hurston's radical authenticity.” Essence talks with Peabody-winning Director/Writer/Producer Tracy Heather Strain about the project. 

AV Club highlights the series in development Murder By The Book, that’s “like Murder, She Wrote but about someone on Bookstagram rather than someone who writes mystery novels.”

Michael Ende’s Momo, “is getting a big-canvas, English-language screen adaption.” Deadline reports. 

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