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Big Books of the Week

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny (Minotaur; LJ starred review) leads holds this week. 

Other titles in demand include:

Cat Kid Comic Club: Collaborations by Dav Pilkey, Dav Pilkey (Graphix)

The Reluctant Countess by Eloisa James (Avon)

Leopard's Scar by Christine Feehan (Berkley)

You Can Hide by Rebecca Zanetti (Zebra)

These books and others publishing the week of Nov. 28, 2022 are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Four Indie Next picks publish this week:

Shotgun Seamstress: An Anthology by Osa Atoe (Soft Skull)

“Shotgun Seamstress scratches a deep itch for more diverse representation in music writing and publishing. In eight collected zines written by and about marginalized punk trailblazers, Osa Atoe proves that form follows function.”—Audrey Parks, New Dominion Bookshop, Charlottesville, VA

All the Broken Places by John Boyne (Pamela Dorman Books)

“Gretel Fernsby is a character for the ages! She’s a 91-year-old full of guilt with stories to tell. Boyne writes her with great compassion — maybe more than she deserves — and brings alive a story spanning decades and continents.”—Claire Benedict, Bear Pond Books, Montpelier, VT

Winterland by Rae Meadows (Henry Holt & Co.)

“Rae Meadows’ Winterland is more than a story of women, and more than an expose of the abuse young gymnasts endure. It is a moving portrait of an authoritarian country and how hard it is to know when or how to stand up to what we know is wrong.”—Sarah Bagby, Watermark Books & Café, Wichita, KS

A Quiet Life by Ethan Joella (Scribner)

“A touching novel that is meant to be read with a warm cup of tea. A Quiet Life beautifully explores how loss, in its many forms, can lead to new hope in the most unexpected places.”—Angela Pursel, The Next Chapter Bookstore, Hermiston, OR

In the Media

The People "Picks" book of the week is A Coastline Is an Immeasurable Thing: A Memoir Across Three Continents by Mary-Alice Daniel (Ecco). Also getting attention are Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen (Algonquin; LJ starred review), and The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz (Harper; LJ starred review). There is a Q&A with Jerry Seinfeld about his new book, The Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Book (S. & S.), based on his streaming series.

The “Picks” section spotlights Bones and All, based on the novel by Camille DeAngelis, and there is a feature on the new movie She Said, based on the book by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. Plus, Duff Goldman, Super Good Cookies for Kids (HarperCollins), and Deb Perelman, Smitten Kitchen Keepers (Knopf; LJ starred review), share holiday cookie recipes. 

Reviews

NYT reviews Winterland by Rae Meadows (Henry Holt & Co.): “This is a familiar narrative for elite athletes and for the novels that explore their world. Winterland is no exception, moving us through all the well-worn tropes (the perilous injury, the punishing coach). But these tropes still have the power to feel both eternal and grand, as they do here.” And, The Intimate City: Walking New York by Michael Kimmelman (Penguin Pr.): “The Intimate City is a joyful miscellany of people seeing things in the urban landscape, the streets alive with remembrances and ideas even when those streets are relatively empty of people.” Also, A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney (Spiegel & Grau): “this radiant memoir deserves the highest admiration. Knowing he was attempting the impossible, Rob Delaney set out to do it anyway.”

The Washington Post reviews Butts: A Backstory by Heather Radke (Avid Reader Pr./S. & S.; LJ starred review): "What appears initially as a folly with a look-at-this cover and title becomes, thanks to Radke’s intelligence and curiosity, something much meatier, entertaining and wise." 

Datebook reviews A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley (Knopf): “By the end, the mystery is solved, a limp motive is revealed and we’ve gotten to spend 224 pages with two very likable characters, a beautiful, moody setting, and some compelling California history. The plot is almost beside the point.”

Slate compares the approaches to criticism in The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan (S. & S.; LJ starred review) and Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino (Harper; LJ starred review), arguing that one does it better. Plus, The Millions reviews Dylan’s book: “Reading our greatest songwriter tell us how these recordings feel to him, paying tribute to the music that moves him, can’t help but inspire us to listen with wide-open ears to these 66 songs—and all the songs we love.”

Briefly Noted

Bren Simmers wins 2022 CBC Poetry Prize. 

The Sheikh Zayed Award Translation category longlist is announced. Publishing Perspectives has details. 

"Owners of Bob Dylan’s Machine-Signed Art Prints Will Get Refunds,"  Variety reports.  Dylan took responsibility for the "error in judgment," on a Facebook post. 

NYT offers an interactive article which "immerses readers in significant locations and moments from the life" of Octavia Butler. 

End of the year lists arrive including NPR’s Books We Love and NYT’s 100 Notable Books of 2022. 

The Guardian interviews author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ahead of BBC's airing of her "hard-hitting" Reith Lecture on intellectual freedom.  

Author Kim Hye-jin and translator Jamie Chang discuss the “complicated family dynamics” in Concerning My Daughter (Restless Books), with ElectricLit. 

Sunset Boulevard actress Nancy Olson Livingston talks about her new memoir, A Front Row Seat: An Intimate Look at Broadway, Hollywood, and the Age of Glamour (University Press of Kentucky), with FoxNews Digital. Plus, Lisa Boucher, Pray. Trust. Ride: Lessons on Surrender from a Cowgirl and a King (She Writes Press), gives advice for limiting holiday stress. 

The Rumpus talks with Sara Moore Wagner about her award-winning poetry collection, Swan Wife (Cider Mill Pr.).

Hernan Diaz, Trust (Riverhead), discusses “erasing subjectivity” in his new story, “The Generation,” with The Atlantic. 

Time shares an excerpt from the new book, Butts: A Backstory by Heather Radke (Avid Reader Pr./S. & S.; LJ starred review), which challenges the idea of a “normal” body.

The Chicago Tribune offers book club tips for people who didn’t like the book.

USA Today compiles “15 great reads to honor Native American History Month,” from Goodreads, and picks five books for the week.

CrimeReads suggests 10 books out this week.

NPR shares “6 favorite coffee table and gift books of 2022.”

BookRiot recommends 25 craft books and 10 Emily Henry read-alikes. 

Authors on Air

NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday talks with Rae Meadows about her new novel, Winterland (Henry Holt & Co.), which explores “the story of Soviet gymnasts and the system that made and often broke them.”

In honor of the new Starz Dangerous Liaisons adaptation, T&C provides “A Guide To Every Single Dangerous Liaisons Adaptation You Can Watch Right Now.

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