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Awards & Book News

Sharon Lee, author of the “Liaden Universe” novels, wins the Robert A. Heinlein Award for “outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space,” Locus reports. 

Haruko Ichikawa’s Land of the Lustrous manga wins the Japan SF Grand Prize, Locus reports.

Publishers plan for less mass market paperbacks in the wake of Readerlink ending distribution of them, Publishers Weekly reports.

New Title Bestsellers

Links for the week: NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers | NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers | USA Today Bestselling Books

Fiction

Midnight Black by Mark Greaney (Berkley) reaches No. 6 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list.

Dream State by Eric Puchner (Doubleday) attains No. 12 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list.

Nonfiction

Seven Things You Can’t Say About China by Tom Cotton (Broadside) gets No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list, though some retailers report receiving bulk orders.

The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West by Alexander C. Karp & Nicholas W. Zamiska (Crown Currency) hits No. 2 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by Susan Morrison (Random; LJ starred review) shines at No. 4 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

Here Be Dragons: Treading the Deep Waters of Motherhood, Mean Girls, and Generational Trauma by Melanie Shankle (WaterBrook) finds No. 5 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list, though some retailers report receiving bulk orders.

Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement To Destroy American Democracy by Katherine Stewart (Bloomsbury) reaches No. 11 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

Reviews

Washington Post reviews Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Knopf): “Which brings up another remarkable aspect of Adichie’s fiction—and her success: a strict unwillingness to temper the political and cultural complexity of her characters’ lives in deference to Western readers’ ignorance”; Vulture also reviews: “Adichie’s fourth novel, Dream Count, proves that she is still a gifted storyteller, yet her fame has indeed affected her work…. As a broader social novel, Dream Count falls short. At best, the book presents a Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus picture of gender relations; at worst, it is a blandly regressive take on progressive Americans, who, in these pages, are two-dimensional caricatures.”

NPR’s Fresh Air reviews Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People To Find Their Lost Families by Judith Giesberg (S. & S.; LJ starred review): “Instead of happy endings, these ads offer readers something else: they serve as portals into ‘the lived experience of slavery.’ For instance, countering the ‘Lost Cause’ myth that enslaved people were settled on Southern plantations and Texas cotton fields, the ads, which often list multiple names of white ‘owners’ as a finding aid, testify to how Black people were sold and resold.”

NYT reviews Meltdown: Greed, Scandal, and the Collapse of Credit Suisse by Duncan Mavin (Pegasus): “It’s hard to work up either sympathy or anger about Credit Suisse. Two years after the bank’s demise, it is not clear what audience there might be for books like this”; plus a joint review of The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars and the Making of the Modern World by Hal Brands (Norton), The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine by Alexander S. Vindman (PublicAffairs), and How Good It Is I Have No Fear of Dying: Lieutenant Yulia Mykytenko’s Fight for Ukraine by Lara Marlowe (Melville House).

LitHub gathers “5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week.”

Briefly Noted

Journalist Robin Givhan is writing a biography of the late designer Virgil Abloh; Make It Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh is due out from Crown on June 24, People reports.

Journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson are writing Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice To Run Again, which will be published by Penguin Pr. on May 20; Kirkus has the news.

Mark Greaney, author of Midnight Black (Berkley), answers NYT’s “By the Book” questionnaire.

NYT talks to actor Ione Skye, author of Say Everything: A Memoir (Gallery).

NYT shares panels from Life Drawing: A Love and Rockets Collection by Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics).

NYT identifies “10 Books to Beat the Winter Cold.”

Reactor gathers five new translated Chinese SFF books.

Vulture shares “5 Great Audiobooks To Listen to this Month.”

LitHub recommends “Ten Essential Novels That Showcase the Rich Literary Culture of the Middle East” and “Ten Washington, DC, Books That Aren’t About Politicians.”

USA Today suggests, “Liked this Oscar-nominated movie? Read this book.”

CrimeReads “breaks down tropes and types of female alliances and fellowships” in crime fiction and rounds up art world mysteries from contemporary and golden age writers.

Novelist and poet Frankétienne, often called the father of Haitian letters, has died at 88; NYT has an obituary.

Irish novelist and playwright Jennifer Johnston has died at 95; The Guardian has an obituary.

Authors on Air

Kirkus’s Fully Booked podcast talks to Lidia Yuknavitch, author of Reading the Waves: A Memoir (Riverhead; LJ starred review).

LitHub’s Fiction/Non/Fiction interviews Suzette Mayr, author of The Sleeping Car Porter (Coach House), and Kai Thomas, author of In the Upper Country (Viking).

NPR’s Morning Edition speaks with Cristina Rivera Garza, author of Death Takes Me, tr. by Robin Myers & Sarah Booker (Hogarth).

Shelf Awareness rounds up the schedule for this weekend’s Book TV on C-SPAN 2.

Amazon MGM is developing a series based on Iain M. Banks’s sci-fi novel Consider Phlebas, The Bookseller reports.

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