Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.

Awards & News

Maya Angelou becomes the first Black woman to appear on a U.S. quarter. The Washington Post reports.

Joelle Taylor wins the TS Eliot poetry prize. The Guardian has details.

The National Endowment for the Humanities announces New Grants. NYT reports.

Neil MacGregor is named jury chair for the Booker Prize 2022. Publishing Perspectives has the story. 

Harlequin launches subscription service, Harlequin Plus.  

Reviews

USA Today reviews To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara (Doubleday), giving it 4 out of 4 stars: “To Paradise is a novel of the highest order. Yanagihara writes with elegance, evoking emotion and rendering believable characters who move the plot.” Also, A Thousand Steps by T. Jefferson Parker (Forge: Macmillan), giving it 4 out of 4 stars: “This twisty tale of teen’s desperate plan to save his sister and right his off-keel family is a compelling coming-of-age thriller that will entrance you with its ‘60s vibe and backdrop, and captivate you with its engaging storytelling and a believable cast of characters.”

NYT reviews You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays by Zora Neale Hurston (Amistad): “Reading Hurston, you always wonder what shape her dignity will take next. Her style and spark were her own.”  And, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home (Ecco; LJ starred review): “Her voice and her frankness lead the way through what can sometimes feel like a maze — but the satisfactions are thick on the ground, and we follow. And when we are finished, we hold in our hands the promised ending, the book itself.”  Also, Small World by Jonathan Evison (Dutton): “the novel is easy to love in part because it deals in generosity and hope. Part of the reading experience will hinge on how much evidence one needs to believe in humanity’s capacity for altruism.” And, Yonder by Jabari Asim (S. & S.): “Yonder shows that dreams and Black love have always been tools of survival in the quest to reach that better place just out of reach.”  And, Call Me Cassandra by Marcial Gala, trans. by Anna Kushner (FSG): “Deftly pushing the boundaries of both realism and first-person perspective, Gala makes it impossible for the reader to determine if Raúl/Cassandra is actually supernatural or if the character’s visions are a Mittyish reaction to the many humiliations and brutalities that he/she must endure”  Also, The Final Case by David Guterson (Knopf): “a tender, closely observed and often surprising novel that achieves the intimacy — and occasional randomness — of a diary.”  And, Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz (Random): “While Schulz writes with tenderness and honesty about love, her sharpest and most moving passages are about loss.” Plus, Present Tense Machine by Gunnhild Øyehaug, trans. by Kari Dickson (FSG): “the novel is an ingenious pocket universe where time moves not just forward or even backward but in sideways leaps.”  Lastly,  The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life by Mark Epstein, M.D. (Penguiin Pr.): “this wise and sympathetic book’s lingering effect is as a reminder that a deeper and more companionable way of life lurks behind our self-serious stories.”

NPR reviews Wahala (Custom House; LJ starred review): “Wahala is both great fun and extremely smart in how it captures some of the central issues in modern city living: women's evolving roles in home and work, interracial relationships and multicultural identity, the current of competition that runs through so many friendships and daily interactions and, most of all, how easily intimacy can morph into enmity.”

The Washington Post reviews Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson (Avid Reader: S. & S.): “Cook gives himself away only after reaching the end of his story. ‘Now it’s yours,’ he tells the narrator. ‘It’s out there. Do with it what you will.’ Wilson makes much the same offer to readers with this sly and energetic novel. Take him up on it.” And, Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz (Random): “What’s also striking in Lost & Found, considering the enormity of what Schulz grieves, is the grace with which she makes room to appreciate loss in all its varieties — not to diminish the differences among them but rather to respect what ties them together.” Also, Putting the Rabbit in the Hat by Brian Cox (Grand Central): “…Cox’s piquant, digressive memoir, Putting the Rabbit in the Hat, which tracks his journey from embattled working-class lad in Dundee, Scotland, to, at age 75, improbable pop-culture icon — and which forfeits none of the spiky candor that got him there.” Plus, To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara (Doubleday): "Yanagihara breathes real life into a young woman who, despite all evidence to the contrary, dares to believe that she deserves love and freedom. Her story, equally terrifying and poignant, reverberates through our current crisis with such force that it’s almost unbearable."

Briefly Noted

The Rumpus talks with Daphne Palasi Andreades about writing Brown Girls (Random; LJ starred review), “media depictions of New York City, and the best storytellers in her life.”

LA Times has a Q&A with Kathryn Schulz about her memoir, Lost & Found (Random), about love and grief, and taking on a new form of writing.

Ginger Zee talks to Shondaland about her memoir, A Little Closer to Home: How I Found the Calm After the Storm (Hyperion Avenue), and the “conversations we should be having around reproductive health.”

Marvel announces second X-Men fan election, Entertainment Weekly reports.

Antoine Wilson, Mouth to Mouth (Avid Reader: S. & S.), recommends 9 books featuring “storytellers passing on secondhand tales” at ElectricLit.

T. Jefferson Parker has an essay about writing his latest book, A Thousand Steps (Forge: Macmillan), at CrimeReads.

Autostraddle has “7 Brilliant Books About Chaotic Queers.”

Seattle Times suggests 4 new fantasy books.

Authors On Air

NPR’s Morning Edition has an interview with Lindsey Vonn about her memoir, Rise (Dey Street).

NPR’s Fresh Air talks with Kal Penn, You Can’t Be Serious (Gallery), about his career and taking chances.

NPR’s Book of the Day speaks with by Juhea Kim about her book, Beasts of a Little Land (Ecco), and “Korea's decades-long fight for independence.”

NPR’s All Things Considered has an interview with Henry Barajas, creator of the Latinx fantasy, Helm Greycastle (Image Comics).

Wes Anderson is adapting the The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl for Netflix. People has the story.

Tor previews the Crafting with Ursula podcast, in which authors talk about how their work has been influenced by Ursula K Le Guin. Becky Chambers is the first guest.

Hanya Yanagihara, To Paradise (Doubleday), will visit Late Night with Seth Meyers tonight.

Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.