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Award & Buzzy Book News

The 2022 PEN Translates winners are announced.

Writer, editor, and journalist John Williams has joined The Washington Post as books editor.

Melissa Bank, author of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing (Penguin), has died at 61. Lit Hub has more on her life. 

Lit Hub reports on a Michigan library that has been defunded by residents due to refusing a ban on LGBTQIA+ books.

Penguin Random House releases a new diversity report on the makeup of their staff and contributors, according to Publishing Perspectives. Also, the CEO of PRH "defends publishing merger," as reported by USA Today. 

Good Morning America shares 14 books “to squeeze in before summer ends.”

CBC gives “28 Canadian books we can’t wait to read in August.”

Town & Country provides “The Best Books to Read This August.”

Page to Screen

August 5:

Bullet Train, based on the book Maria Beetle by Kōtarō Isaka. Sony Pictures. Reviews | Trailer

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, based on associated titles. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

The Sandman, based on the comic by Neil Gaiman. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

The Snoopy Show, based on associated titles. Apple TV+. Reviews | Trailer

August 8:

Team Zenko Go, based on the Dojo Daycare books by Chris Tougas. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

August 10:

I Am Groot, based on associated titles. Disney+. No reviews | Trailer

Locke & Key, based on the comic book series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez. Netflix. Reviews | Trailer

Resident Alien, based on the comic book by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse. Syfy. Reviews | Trailer

August 11:

Laal Singh Chaddha, based on associated titles. Paramount Pictures. No reviews | Trailer

Reviews

NYT reviews Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra (Penguin): "There’s a dreamy associative quality of the novella that made it feel true and beautiful and moving." Also, SHY: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green (Farrar): "intimate, sardonic, confessional, comic. The book is pure pleasure — except when it’s jaw-droppingly shocking." Plus, Mount Chicago by Adam Levin (Doubleday): "Despite its occasionally exasperating self-indulgence, “Mount Chicago” has passages of real charm and brilliance."

The Washington Post reviews A History of Delusions: The Glass King, a Substitute Husband and a Walking Corpse by Victoria Shepherd (Oneworld: S. & S.): "a humane and thoughtful account in an age overflowing with vitriol. Its sincerity is refreshing." Also, Before the Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe and What Lies Beyond by Laura Mersini-Houghton (Mariner: HarperCollins): "Students of physics and the broader sciences will be deeply fascinated by this riveting tour of the cosmos from one of the brightest minds in astrophysics." Plus, The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham; Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings, and a Hit by Ron Shelton (Knopf; LJ starred review): "What makes “Bull Durham” unique is that rather than a coming-of-age tale, it is a baseball story about aging. “The Church of Baseball” surfaces that theme and lets readers in on its centrality to the movie’s plot and production." And, The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party by Dana Milbank (Doubleday): "Milbank’s book isn’t without flaws. He overreaches at times, and here and there the writing feels rushed or breathless. (“Once you’ve unhitched yourself from the truth wagon, there’s no limit to the places you can visit.”) But these are minor complaints, alongside the book’s considerable merit."

Tor.com reviews Fault Tolerance by Valerie Valdes (Harper Voyager): “swings back and forth from light and frothy to dark and gritty with a practiced gear shift at the controls.” Also, The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings (Redhook: Hachette): “in the same way a great piece of music leads you to a place you didn’t know you needed to go, this novel arrives at its destination with empathy and verve.”

Locus Magazine reviews The Doloriad by Missouri Williams (MCD x FSG Originals): “astonishing moments of profundity, beautifully rendered observations that speak to a deeper truth about humanity’s autonomic urge to survive at all costs.”

Autostraddle reviews Fire Island: A Century in the Life of an American Paradise by (Hanover Square): “More a place-based memoir than a straightforward history of the two parts of the island that have come to be most associated with the LGBTQ community, the Pines and Cherry Grove, Fire Island provides unique insight on the history, present, and future of this almost mythical place.” Also, The Golden Season by Madeline Kay Sneed (Graydon): “a thought-provoking story with beautiful prose, a character-driven plot, and people that hurt each other despite their best, good-Christian intentions.”

Book Marks provides the "Best Reviewed Books of the Week."

Briefly Noted

Shondaland talks to Sarah Thankam Mathews about her debut book All This Could Be Different (Viking) “the coming-of-age genre, friendship, sex writing, and how her mutual aid organizing experience informs her writing.”

Elaine Castillo discusses “empathy, Jane Austen adaptations” and her book How to Read Now: Essays (Viking) with Salon. 

Katelyn Monroe Howes, author of The Awoken (Dutton), “imagines life after her own death” on The Millions. 

Edgar Gomez chats about "their internalized machismo" in their new memoir, High-Risk Homosexual: A Memoir (Soft Skull) with Andrew Sciallo for Lit Hub. 

Marian Keyes, Again, Rachel (Doubleday Canada), shares the books she loved reading while growing up with CBC. 

Author Sigrid Nunez, What Are You Going Through (Riverhead), revisits Paula Fox’s 1970 book Desperate Characters for The New York Times Style Magazine T Book Club. 

Lit Hub shares a cover reveal for Erica Berry’s Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and What We Tell Ourselves About Fear (Flatiron) to come out in February 2023.

The Rumpus shares an excerpt from Hysterical by Elissa Bassist (Hachette; LJ starred review).

USA Today explores the week's best sellers.

Book Riot provides a list of 5 books with “problematic relationships.”

Bustle has “50 Books About (& Inspired By) Greek Mythology.”

Authors on Air

Hulu will adapt Zakiya Dalila Harris’ The Other Black Girl (Atria) into a television series along with Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Crown), according to Shadow and Act. Variety also covers this story, reporting that Keanu Reeves will star in Devil in the White City.

NYT’s Critic’s Notebook explores the new adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman comic book series.

Variety provides “the Best Marilyn Monroe Books to Read Before Seeing ‘Blonde’ This Fall.”

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