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Awards & News

The National Book Foundation has rescinded Drew Barrymore’s invitation to host the 74th National Book Awards Ceremony host after her talk show resumes during strike. NYT reports. USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Deadline, and THR all have coverage.

Author Sandra Cisneros wins the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, honoring writers who help foster “understanding between and among people.”USA Today reports. 

The 2023 Ignotus Award winners are announced. Locus has details. 

Kirsty Whatley wins the 2023 Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers. The Bookseller reports. 

Nobel Peace Laureate, journalist, and author Maria Ressa acquitted of tax evasion charges. Publishing Perspectives has the story.

Earlyword’s September GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now, featuring early buzz for Alex Michaelides’s forthcoming novel, The Fury (Celadon), due out in January 2024. 

The Pulitzer Prizes officially expand eligibility to noncitizens. NYT has the story.

Michael Chabon joins other writers to sue Meta AI platform for copyright infringement. Deadline reports. Gizmodo also has coverage, as does San Francisco Chronicle. 

WSJ shares “Five Best Books to Read to Get Smart About AI.”

OverDrive will soon launch a new hub and other features. LJ reports from Digipalooza 2023. 

Reviews

Datebook reviews Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson (S. & S.): “But the most fascinating parts are early on, as Isaacson delves into Musk’s upbringing, particularly his father. Musk’s father is portrayed in the book as a conspiracy-minded, verbally abusive Jekyll-and-Hyde figure. Musk’s fear that, as his mother puts it, ‘he might become his father,’ is identified early on as a specter and possibly a driver of his success”; and Creep: Accusations and Confessions by Myriam Gurba (Avid Reader Pr.: S. & S.): “On the whole, Creep is a book that gives Gurba free rein to scream and rant and unleash her wrath against the myriad ways she’s been wronged and all the things that ail her (and us).” 

NPR reviews Daughter by Claudia Dey (Farrar): “Daughter is an odd book, interesting at times—it’s a noble attempt at telling the story of a family that is dysfunctional in both garden-variety and bizarre ways. The novel doesn’t work, but there are some flashes of Dey’s usually excellent writing.”

Tor reviews The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu (Solaris): “It’s fractured and withholding in intentional ways that make for a powerful reading experience but a little difficult to define. Liu structures their novel not in a way many readers are used to but through compiled interviews, records, correspondence, and documents. It’s both distanced and intimate.”

The Guardian reviews The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (Soho Crime; LJ starred review): “Herron’s cultivated air of default world-weariness doesn’t preclude outbreaks of icy cynicism and admirable idealism as well as a certain wry self-awareness.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for Code Red by Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills (Atria/ Emily Bestler), the top holds title of the week. 

LJ’s Barbara Hoffert has new prepub alerts. 

Mona Awad discusses how an obsession with skincare inspired her latest book, Rouge (S. & S.; Marysue Rucci Books), with Shondaland. Erin Carlson, No Crying in Baseball: The Inside Story of A League of Their Own; Big Stars, Dugout Drama, and a Home Run for Hollywood (Hachette), explains why the film still resonates. Jillian and Mariko Tamaki talk about their collaborative graphic novel Roaming (Drawn & Quarterly; LJ starred review). Plus, Elyssa Maxx Goodman discusses her new book, Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City (Hanover Square: Harlequin; LJ starred review). 

Ebony chats with Cedric the Entertainer about his debut novel, Flipping Boxcars (Amistad), and how it is a love letter to his grandpa. 

Jill Duggar reveals details from her memoir, Counting the Cost (Gallery), in an interview with FoxNews. People also shares the “10 biggest bombshells” from Duggar’s book.

Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia, authors of a new book, How Long Can the Moon Be Caged?: Voices of Indian Political Prisoners, written with Anu Anand, Sam Dastor, and Sahera Chohan (Pluto Pr.), ask “Is India still a democracy?” at Time. 

The Rumpus shares an excerpt from Ross Gay’s forthcoming The Book of (More) Delights (Algonquin), due out next week. 

Entertainment Weekly has a preview and cover reveal of Felicia Grossman's forthcoming romance, Wake Me Most Wickedly (Forever), due out in April.

Heather Lanier, Psalms of Unknowing: Poems (Monkfish), answers ten questions at Poets&Writers.

NYT previews Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham’s first novel in almost 10 years, Day (Random), due out on November 14.

Entertainment Weekly announces that Liev Schreiber will narrate Martin Baron’s new book Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post (Flatiron), after playing Baron in the 2015 movie Spotlight.

AARP highlights Oprah’s 9 essentials for a happy life from her book, Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, written with Arthur C. Brooks (Portfolio). Winfrey and Brooks also answer Elle’s “Shelf Life” literary survey.

Esquire has an interview with Naomi Klein about her new book, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World (Farrar). Also, Esquire takes a trip “Inside Richard Osman’s Mystery Empire.”

AARP shares details from Walter Isaacson’s new biography, Elon Musk (S. & S). USA Today also highlights key takeaways from the book. 

Chicago Tribune previews 75 books for fall.

LJ shares a fall cookbook preview.

CrimeReads highlights cozy mysteries featuring furry sidekicks. 

BookRiot highlights new books for the week, 10 mysteries and thrillers based on games, 10 new horror books, and 8 magical libraries in fiction.

Authors On Air

NPR’s All Things Considered talks with Graham Norton about his new novel, Forever Home (HarperVia), which publishes next week.

T&C gets caught up with the activities of Anna Sorokin since the events of Inventing Anna.

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