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Awards & News

British Book Awards are announced with Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (Harper), Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (Custom House), The Dark Remains: A Laidlaw Investigation by William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin (World Noir; LJ starred review), and Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Black Cat: Grove Atlantic; LJ starred review), winning top fiction honors. You Are a Champion: How to Be the Best You Can Be by Marcus Rashford and Carl Anka (Feiwel & Friends), wins best overall book of the year. Plus, Marian Keyes is the author of the year. The Bookseller has a complete list of winners.

The 2022 Xingyun Awards finalists are announced.

The 2022 Kurd Laßwitz Preis winners are announced.

Amanda Gorman writes a poem about the Texas school shooting. GMA has the story. 

Margaret Atwood uses a flamethrower on an 'unburnable' edition of The Handmaid's Tale. People reports. PBS NewsHour also covers the story, as does The Guardian.

Reviews

USA Today reviews City of Orange by David Yoon (Putnam), giving it 3.5 out of 4 stars: “Whether it’s discovering shelter, finding food or simply managing in brutal conditions, the ever-challenging backdrop of City of Orange makes the determining of reality a mystery readers will want to solve alongside the main character.”  And, Mean Baby by Selma Blair (Knopf), giving it 4 out of 4 stars: “By providing an unflinching chronology of her personal experiences – triumph, devastation, and all the messy gray areas – Blair offers the reminder that while we may be a patchwork of our social experiences, we always possess the ability to transcend the labels and reclaim the truth of who we are.”

The Washington Post reviews Bitter Orange Tree by Jokha Alharthi (Catapult): “Bitter Orange Tree is a story of mourning and alienation, and Alharthi has developed a tone that captures that sense of being suspended in the timelessness of grief.” And, Either/Or by Elif Batuman (Penguin Pr.): “Either/Or is a sequel that amplifies the meaning of its predecessor while expanding its philosophical ambit — in short, the best kind.”

NYT reviews The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Celadon): “Like Wharton, she invites the reader to reflect, even as she paints a picture of privilege. A sumptuously wrapped gift, The Latecomer is a Gilded Age novel for the 21st century.” And, The Uncollected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick by Elizabeth Hardwick (NYRB Classics): “the late author compares writing an essay to catching a fish with your hands. Her own are so strange, surprising, slippery and beautiful that we can see how this might be true.” Plus, Why Sharks Matter: A Deep Dive with the World's Most Misunderstood Predator by David Shiffman (Johns Hopkins Univ. Pr.): “The argument of Shiffman’s book is that we should do a better job of protecting sharks, and his method is to dip analysis and policy recommendations in a sugar coating of cool facts.”

LA Times reviews Avalon by Nell Zink (Knopf): "The book surprised me. Something landed. The flight might be longer, floatier and more manic than some might want from fiction, but it ended up, for me, feeling like art."

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Nightwork by Nora Roberts (St. Martin’s), the buzziest book of the week.

LJ’s Barbara Hoffert has new Prepub alerts for Mysteries, and Arts & Literature.

LA Times talks with Randy Rainbow about his new memoir, Playing With Myself (St. Martin’s), and how it was cathartic to write about his father.

Vogue has an interview with Alyssa Shelasky, editor of New York magazine’s "Sex Diaries" and author of the new memoir, This Might Be Too Personal: And Other Intimate Stories (St. Martin’s Griffin).

The Verge talks with artist and writer Alec Robbins about his webcomic and new graphic novel, Mr. Boop (Silver Sprocket).

Sloane Crosley talks to Time about “chasing nostalgia” in NYC in her forthcoming novel, Cult Classic (MCD), due out in June.

Bustle excerpts an essay by Zosia Mamet on her eating disorder, from the new book My Moment: 106 Women on Fighting for Themselves ed. by Kristin Chenoweth, Kathy Najimy, Linda Perry, Chely Wright, and Lauren Blitzer (Gallery Books).

Emma Straub, This Time Tomorrow (Riverhead), fills out Elle’s 'Shelf Life' literary survey.

NYT shares newly published titles for the week.

At CrimeReads, masters of the genre discuss: “What really distinguishes a crime novel?” Plus, the 10 most captivating apocalypse novels, May Cobb’s favorite salacious thrillers, and the most unforgettable female leads in crime fiction.

PopSugar has 92 romance novels, and 85 thriller and mystery books for summer.

Authors On Air

NPR’s All Things Considered talks with Eliot Schrefer about the research behind his new book, Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality illus. by Jules Zuckerberg (Katherine Tegen Books).

NPR’s Fresh Air remembers Roger Angell, editor, baseball writer at the New Yorker, who died on May 20.

Richard Mason’s History of a Pleasure-Seeker (Knopf; LJ starred review), is being adapted as a Hulu musical pilot. Deadline has the story along with casting news.

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