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Awards & News

James Patterson donates $5.3M to Howard University, PEN America, and Scholastic Book Clubs. USA Today reports. Patterson’s $2 million donation to PEN America helps to raise its reach in bolstering free expression against evolving threats in the United States, online, and around the world.

Nalo Hopkinson wins the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.

UK libraries are set to serve as warming shelters for the vulnerable as winter approaches. In addition, some are also waiving fines. The Guardian reports.

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews Dinosaurs, by Lydia Millet (Norton): “Dinosaurs is not without some emotional tension, but that tension is tempered, almost subterranean.” And Thistlefoot, by GennaRose Nethercott (Anchor; LJ starred review): “Nethercott explores more ideas than her plot can comfortably contain, but serious readers will appreciate her ambition and commitment.”

NYT reviews The Whalebone Theatre, by Joanna Quinn (Knopf): “On atmospherics, The Whalebone Theatre is absolute aces, to borrow the patois of the Americans who drop in for cultural contrast, new-moneyed and loud. Reading it is like plunging into a tub of clotted cream while (or whilst) enrobed in silk eau-de-Nil beach pajamas.” And The Family Izquierdo, by Rubén Degollado (Norton): “The novel’s mix of elements—a plot that draws on magic, language steeped in Tejano specificity, deftly rendered insight into the nature of humanity—makes for a thoroughly satisfying read.”

NPR reviews Intimacies, Received, by Taneum Bambrick (Copper Canyon Pr.): “In her second poetry collection Intimacies, Received Taneum Bambrick comes to terms with that gap in her life—understanding how she has protected herself from the burden of a traumatic past by simply daring to remember it.”

The Guardian reviews Faith, Hope and Carnage, by Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan (Farrar): “It’s ultimately enriching, a story suffused with love, teeming with ideas, a document of an artist’s journey from holding the world ‘in some form of disdain’ to a state of empathy and grace.”

LA Times reviews Best of Friends, by Kamila Shamsie (Riverhead): “At a time when soundbites and tweets have become our principal ways of communicating, Shamsie, a brilliant novelist and a subtle writer, felt a need to shout.” And The Furrows: An Elegy, by Namwali Serpell (Hogarth): “Serpell gives exactly what she tells us at the outset, a stunningly acute depiction of how the endless layers of both grief and absence, the impossibly slippery act of trying to be a person, feel.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for The Winners, by Fredrik Backman (Atria), the top holds title of the week. 

Entertainment Weekly talks with Leigh Bardugo about her new graphic novel Demon in the Wood (illus. by Dani Pendergast; Roaring Brook Pr.), a prequel to Shadow and Bone.

USA Today talks with Christopher M. Hood about his new post-pandemic apocalyptic novel, The Revivalists (Harper), due out next week.

Vanity Fair shares an excerpt from Constance Wu’s memoir Making a Scene (Scribner), due out next week. People also covers the revelation of the sexual assault and harassment she faced on ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat.

FoxNews highlights ex-Scientologist Mike Rinder’s new memoir A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology (Gallery).

USA Today reveals details from Kelly Ripa’s new memoir, Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories (Dey Street), and about her relationship with Regis Philbin.

People chats with Tom Hanks about his forthcoming debut novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, due out from Knopf in May 2023.

Shondaland talks with Vicky Bennison about her new cookbook Pasta Grannies: Comfort Cooking (Hardie Grant) and “capturing the essence of Italy’s grandmothers.” Also, Namwali Serpell discusses her novel The Furrows: An Elegy (Hogarth), grief, and the “aftereffects of death.”

Yiyun Li, author of The Book of Goose (Farrar), takes Elle’s “Shelf Life” literary survey.

Vulture asks, “Why does the half-Asian, half-white protagonist make us so anxious?”

Ainslie Hogarth, author of Motherthing (Vintage), recommends 8 novels about monsterous mothers at ElectricLit.

BookRiot shares an appreciation  for  Vivien Chien’s “Noodle Shop” mystery series.

LitHub suggests 15 new books for the week.

OprahDaily has “20 of the Best Fall Nonfiction Books of 2022.”

Tor.com suggests 5 sci-fi/fantasy books about the aftermath of apocalypse. 

Authors On Air

NPR’s Fresh Air talks with law professor Margaret A. Burnham about her new book, By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners (Norton).

Hulu picks up an 8-episode limited series based on the true-crime book Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk (Gallery), by Rebecca Godfrey. Deadline reports.

BBC’s adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror & the Light (Holt; LJ starred review) will move forward as tribute to the late author. Variety reports.

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