Ocean Vuong’s ‘The Emperor of Gladness’ Is New Oprah Pick | Book Pulse

Oprah selects Ocean Vuong’s novel The Emperor of Gladness for her book club. LA Times previews 30 books for summer. Audible opens AI narration to selected publishers. Original Sin by Jake Tapper & Alex Thompson gets buzz. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz. Jeanine Cummins publishes a new novel, Speak to Me of Home, five years after the American Dirt controversy. LitHub celebrates 100 years of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. PW reports on the situation at Library of Congress. Plus, a federal judge orders the IMLS to be restored.

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

News & Buzzy Books

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oprah selects Ocean Vuong’s The Emperor of Gladness (Penguin Pr.) for her book club. 

LA Times previews 30 books for summer

Audible opens AI narration to selected publishersPublishing Perspectives reports. Publishers Weekly and The Bookseller also cover the development.

Infodocket reports, “In a Major Win for Libraries, Federal Judge Orders IMLS to Be Restored.” 

Publishers Weekly writes about the rapidly changing situation at Library of Congress.

Reviews

NYT reviews Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice To Run Again by Jake Tapper & Alex Thompson (Penguin Pr.): “The result is a damning, step-by-step account of how the people closest to a stubborn, aging president enabled his quixotic resolve to run for a second term”; Hunger Like a Thirst: From Food Stamps to Fine Dining, a Restaurant Critic Finds Her Place at the Table by Besha Rodell (Celadon): “Rodell’s memoir is a singular accomplishment. And if this publication were to hire her as a dining critic in New York, there would be no complaints from this reader”; and Capitalism and Its Critics: A History; From the Industrial Revolution to AI by John Cassidy (Farrar): “Trump makes a few cameo appearances in John Cassidy’s new book, Capitalism and Its Critics, for his demonstrated ability to brag about his riches while tapping into growing discontent with the global capitalist system.”

Washington Post reviews Bear Witness: The Pursuit of Justice in a Violent Land by Ross Halperin (Liveright: Norton): “Halperin’s reporting is prodigious; Nueva Suyapa and its residents appear on the book’s pages not as some faceless mass but mothers and fathers and sons and assassins and students and extortionists and sometimes several of those things all at the same time, always just trying to get by”; and Service by John Tottenham (Semiotext(e)): "A strong entry in the canon of antisocial fiction, Service is also a sincere meditation on the self-destructive urge behind the act of writing."

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Harper; LJ starred review), the top holds title of the week. 

USA Today talks with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar about his new book, We All Want To Change the World: My Journey Through Social Justice Movements from the 1960s to Today, written with Raymond Obstfeld (Crown). 

NYT features Jeanine Cummins’s newly published novel, Speak to Me of Home (Holt), five years after the American Dirt controversy. Slate also weighs in on the new novel.

Rickey Fayne, The Devil Three Times (Little, Brown), answers 10 questions at Poets & Writers

Entertainment Weekly shares a preview and cover reveal for Rachel Hochhauser’s forthcoming novel, Lady Tremaine (St. Martin’s), due out in March 2026.

People talks with Clark Collis about his book Screaming and Conjuring: The Resurrection and Unstoppable Rise of the Modern Horror Movie (1984 Publishing).

LitHub celebrates 100 years of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway with 100 of its book covers.

The Guardian examines an unearthed ghost story by Graham Greene that was published in The Strand's 75th issue.

Media journalist Elizabeth Pochoda has died at the age of 83. NYT has an obituary. 

Authors on Air

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, We All Want To Change the World: My Journey Through Social Justice Movements from the 1960s to Today (Crown), and John B. King Jr., Teacher by Teacher: The People Who Change Our Lives (Legacy Lit), will appear on CBS Mornings tomorrow.

Matteo Lane, Your Pasta Sucks: A “Cookbook” (Chronicle; LJ starred review), will drop by The View

Danny Ricker, Wow, You Look Terrible!: How To Parent Less and Live More (Hyperion Avenue), will appear on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.
Comment Policy:
  • Be respectful, and do not attack the author, people mentioned in the article, or other commenters. Take on the idea, not the messenger.
  • Don't use obscene, profane, or vulgar language.
  • Stay on point. Comments that stray from the topic at hand may be deleted.
  • Comments may be republished in print, online, or other forms of media.
  • If you see something objectionable, please let us know. Once a comment has been flagged, a staff member will investigate.


RELATED 

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?