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Buzzy Books, Awards, and News

Bono’s long-awaited memoir, Surrender, gets a November 1 release date from Knopf.  AP reports. Rolling Stone and The Guardian also have coverage.

The 2022 Locus Awards announces top ten finalists.

The 2022 Amazon Canada First Novel Award shortlist is announced. 

The Women’s Prize Trust announces Discoveries longlist. 

HarperVoyager launches publishing’s first TikTok creator house. The Bookseller reports.

BookRiot has a writeup about this year's first quarter Panorama Picks.

The Canadian Leisure and Reading Study 2021 from Booknet Canada is released.

PBS Canvas has a feature on Unite Against Book Bans, a coalition of librarians, teachers and publishers to fight book challenges across the U.S.

Reviews

NYT reviews How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going by Vaclav Smil (Viking): “He addresses the book to lay readers who may have no idea how food reaches their plates, how energy animates their refrigerators or how likely they are to be T-boned on the way to Whole Foods. Sure, most of us could offer reasonable explanations — we could satisfy the questions of a first grader. But most of us would also wither under Smilian cross-examination." Also, short reviews of four debut novels.

The Washington Post reviews 2 A.M. in Little America by Ken Kalfus (Milkweed Editions): “If anxiety is a state you want literature to engender in you, or you just like a challenging read, you’ll be happy to know that Kalfus succeeds again, this time with a quietly dystopian novel that presents an unsettling portrait of a humbled America as seen through the eyes of a migrant who is a not entirely reliable narrator.” And, Probably Ruby by Lisa Bird-Wilson (Hogarth): “a refreshing reminder of the realities of forced Indigenous adoption and family separation. Bird-Wilson’s writing is at times poetic and ever compelling. We are fortunate to have her and Ruby among us.” Plus, It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World That Made Him by Justin Tinsley (Abrams): “Regrettably, readers looking for new insights or original appraisals will be disappointed.” The LA Times also reviews: “The book excels at big-picture analysis, taking the mission in its subtitle seriously. In lesser moments, it piles up malformed sentences and typos at an alarming clip, but if you can get past those, it serves as a solid and incisive if rarely revelatory summary of a hip-hop legend’s life and art.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner (Atria), the buzziest book of the week.

Minnie Driver discusses her new book, Managing Expectations: A Memoir in Essays (HarperOne), “fame, the role that got away, and dating coworkers, ” with Bustle.

Salon talks with Amy Odell about her new book, Anna: The Biography (Gallery), about legendary Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Also, Salon discusses the Russian military with John Spencer, author of the forthcoming, Connected Soldiers: Life, Leadership, and Social Connections in Modern War (Potomac Books), due out in July.

NYT profiles sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson, The High Sierra: A Love Story (Little, Brown), as he shifts to focus on climate change.

USA Today highlights two big music releases this week: Long Train Runnin': Our Story of The Doobie Brothers by Pat Simmons and Tom Johnston, with contributions by Chris Epting (St. Martin’s), and It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World That Made Him by Justin Tinsley (Abrams).

FoxNews interviews Melissa Gilbert about her new memoir, Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade, A Life Rediscovered (Gallery), about “creating her dream life.”

Glennon Doyle approves of casting Sarah Paulson for the upcoming TV adaptation of her memoir, Untamed (The Dial Press: Random House), at People.

NYT laments the “accelerating erosion” of the magazine business as new industry memoirs are published.

Autostraddle features Sex and the Single Woman: 24 Writers Reimagine Helen Gurley Brown's Cult Classic, ed. by Eliza M. Smith and Haley Swanson (Harper Perennial), due out next week.

The AV Club’s book club shares what they’re reading right now.

NYT shares newly published titles for the week.

Bustle has "30 Books To Read This AAPI Heritage Month.”

The Atlantic offers "The Essential Sophie Gilbert Reading List.”

CrimeReads shares “six creepy novels involving childcare,"8 New England psychological thillers, and “eight thrilling books to read about mountaineering."

Authors On Air

Rick Riordan denounces criticism of Leah Jeffries's casting in upcoming Disney+ series based on his Percy Jackson books. NPR has the story. The Hollywood Reporter also has coverage. 

Melissa Gilbert discusses her new memoir Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade, A Life Rediscovered (Gallery), and finding love later in life, on Good Morning America.

The forthcoming novel based on the DeuxMoi instagram account, Anon Pls. (Morrow), due out in November, will also be adapted as a TV series for HBO Max. Vulture reports.

A new film version of Firestarter, based on the book by Stephen King, releases Friday. Tordotcom has the story.

Oprah interviews Michael A. Singer about his new book, Living Untethered: Beyond the Human Predicament (New Harbinger Publications), on OprahDaily.

Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go is being adapted into a TV series at FX. Deadline reports.

Bustle shares Taylor Swift’s reaction to the new Hulu series, Conversations with Friends, based on the book by Sally Rooney.

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