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Awards & Buzzy Book News

The 2023 Audie Awards Winners are announced with Viola Davis’s Finding Me (HarperOne) receiving the Audiobook of the Year.

The inaugural Republic of Consciousness Prize is awarded to Arinze Ifeakandu for God’s Children Are Little Broken Things: Stories (A Public Space). 

The 2023 Whiting Award winners are announced.

“Publishers Worry A.I. Chatbots Will Cut Readership,” says an article from the NYT. 

The Millions delves into “how AI proves the intrinsic value of writing” in a new essay by Paul Jakunas.

English novelist D.M. Thomas and YA author Julie Anne Peters have died. NYT has more on their lives and work. 

New Title Bestsellers

Links for the week: NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers | NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers | USA Today Best-Selling Books

Fiction

Countdown by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois (Little, Brown) starts at No. 3 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper; LJ starred review) gallops to No. 7 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

Smolder by Laurell K. Hamilton (Berkley) shines on No. 10 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

Nonfiction

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond (Crown) debuts at No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro (HarperOne; LJ starred review) tunes into No. 8 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross (Random) starts at No. 11 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews The Sergeant: The Incredible Life of Nicholas Said: Son of an African General, Slave of the Ottomans, Free Man Under the Tsars, Hero of the Union Army by Dean Calbreath (Pegasus): "well annotated and indexed and includes contemporaneous photos and illustrations. In addition to being a breathtaking travelogue, The Sergeant is evidence that accidents of history have tremendous consequences for individuals. More important, it is a wonderful illustration of the curiosity and ingenuity of the human spirit, and proof of the inadequacy of assumptions and stereotypes”; Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson by Rebecca Boggs Roberts (Viking): “This intriguing tale of how a first lady, with minimal formal education and no government experience, effectively took the reins from the partially paralyzed chief executive and guided his White House, from October 1919 to March 1921, is as riveting as it is improbable”; A Brief History of Living Forever by Jaroslav Kalfar (Little, Brown): “The dichotomy between Kalfar’s Czech roots and his American experience is a valuable hallmark of his fiction, but the editorializing here occasionally feels too pat.”

NYT reviews Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope, by Sarah Bakewell (Penguin): “Her new book is filled with her characteristic wit and clarity; she manages to wrangle seven centuries of humanist thought into a brisk narrative, resisting the traps of windy abstraction and glib oversimplification.” Also three short reviews for “sophomore books that are anything but sophomoric,” including I Could Live Here Forever by Hanna Halperin (Viking), Old Flame by Molly Prentiss (Gallery/Scout), and A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness by Jai Chakrabarti (Knopf). And three short reviews of new historical fiction: Sell Us the Rope by Stephen May (Bloomsbury), The Flames by Sophie Haydock (Overlook; LJ starred review), and Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade’s Journey by John Sayles (Melville House).

Locus Magazine reviews Tsalmoth, by Steven Brust (Tor: Macmillan): “Brust’s writing is even more assured here than it was when he too was a younger man. Tsalmoth is full of the same magic of Jhereg but with more depth and earned swagger.”

Book Marks shares “5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week.”

Briefly Noted

Meleana Estes, Lei Aloha: Celebrating the Vibrant Flowers and Lei of Hawai‘i (Ten Speed), discusses “the art of making the islands’ traditional garlands” in an interview with NYT. 

The Los Angeles Times has two author interviews including Abraham Riesman, Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America (Atria), about how “how WWE’s Vince McMahon reinvented his persona, his business and American politics” and Gabrielle Zevin on “her video game-inspired, juggernaut bestseller” Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Knopf; LJ starred review). The Washington Post explores controversy on Zevin’s new book causing a “debate about credit in fiction” when a game designer claims she was not cited.

Rhys Bowen talks to CrimeReads about “historical fiction and memorable heroines” as she writes them in her soon-to-be-released book, All That Is Hidden (Minotaur), from the Molly Murphy Mystery series.

Kelly Link, White Cat, Black Dog: Stories (Random), speaks to making “fairy tales even weirder than you remember” in an interview with Electric Lit. 

Singer-songwriter Joan Baez explains how she finds “refuge in drawing” in her book Am I Pretty When I Fly?: An Album of Upside Down Drawings (David R. Godine) in a conversation with the Washington Post. 

Sarah Bakewell, author of Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope (Penguin Pr.), answers questions posed by NYT’s “By the Book.”

NYT’s “Inside the Best-Seller List” features Harlan Coben, I Will Find You (Grand Central), and his “top tip for book touring.”

Tor.com announces a book tour for Nana Kwame Adjei Brenyah for his book, Chain-Gang All-Stars (Pantheon). 

A sequel to John Grisham’s 1991 book The Firm will be released in October by Doubleday, titled The Exchange: After the Firm. Deadline reports.

Entertainment Weekly announces a new comic from Jonathan Hickman, of House of X (Marvel) fame, that “will redefine Marvel gods.”

Clint Smith, Above Ground (Little, Brown; LJ starred review), shares what is he “reading now and next” for Lit Hub’s “The Annotated Nightstand.” Also, author Tara Conklin, Community Board (Mariner), recommends “books that explore what happens after things go wrong.”

Tor.com lists “Five Books About Magical Teachers and Mentors.”

The Guardian shares the top 10 stories about wolves.

Authors on Air

Barbara Brandon-Croft, author of Where I’m Coming From (Drawn and Quarterly), talks about “building a life out of odd jobs, the double-edged sword of being ‘the first,’ and how being a cartoonist was never on her mind until it happened” in the Thresholds podcast.

Idra Novey chats about Appalachia and how it inspired her to write her new book, Take What You Need (Viking), on The Maris Review podcast.

Will Sommer expounds upon “reading the authors of conspiracy theories” as detailed in his book, Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America (Harper), on the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast.

Nicole Chung “tells a personal story of family, class, anger, and grief in an unequal America” in her book A Living Remedy (Ecco) and on the Keen On podcast.

Clancy Martin, discusses “healing addiction and suicidal ideation” with the Otherppl podcast as detailed in his book, How Not To Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind (Pantheon).

Newly released Lone Women by Victor LaValle (One World) has been “optioned for TV adaptation, LaValle to pen script,” according to Tor.com.

Oprah Book Club pick Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain (Crown) will be adapted for stage by Bated Breath Theatre Company. Variety has the news.

“Mike Flanagan Pitches Pic on Clayface to Warner Bros DC.” Deadline has more.

Viola Davis, Finding Me (HarperOne; LJ starred review), will appear on the Jimmy Kimmel show tonight.

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