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Awards, Banned Books, and Black History Month

The finalists for the 2022 Audio Publishers Association’s Awards (The Audies) are announced.

The 2022 Dublin Literary Award longlist is announced.

Book Riot inquires about and gives examples on “How are libraries recognizing Black History Month?”

Texas continues to withdraw books on race and sexuality from libraries and schools, according to The Root. 

Lit Hub reports on a Tennessee book burning. 

Variety shares "18 Banned and Challenged Books Everyone Should Read."

Page to Screen

February 4:

Last Looks, based on the book by Howard Michael Gould. RLJ Entertainment. No reviews | Trailer

Air Doll, based on the manga series Kuuki Ningyo by Yoshiie Gōda. Dekanalog. Reviews | Trailer

Through My Window, based on the book by Ariana Godoy. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

My Best Friend Anne Frank, based on the book Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend by Alison Leslie Gold. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

Reacher, based on the Jack Reacher by Lee Child. Prime Video. Reviews | Trailer

Sweet Magnolias, based on the book series by Sherryl Woods. Netflix. Reviews | Trailer

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews Yonder by Jabari Asim (S. & S.): "a well-timed resource. It is not depressing, just beautifully honest — offering hope and empowerment. It is the origin story that many have been deprived of and in some cases didn’t know they needed. It spotlights the voids in their realities by exposing holes and chasms where family and evocations of life experience should be. Despite the agonizing details, learning about them is critical to developing compassion and a deeper understanding of the Black American experience." Plus, Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor's Fight for Fairness by Laura Coates (S. & S.): "With brutal honesty and descriptive precision, she reveals the complex moral universe in which prosecutors live but far too many refuse to confront. Indeed, reflecting on her four years as a prosecutor, Coates bravely owns her shortcomings and admits to episodes of moral cowardice early in her stint at the U.S. attorney’s office. She also describes the many subsequent instances when she bucked the system in an effort to correct what she perceived to be an injustice." Also, Vladimir by Julia May Jonas (Avid Reader: S. & S.): “the excitement begins on the cover, designed to drop jaws: a close-up of the torso of a seated man in a deep green corduroy shirt unbuttoned to reveal his chest and abs. His louche slouch, the gold chains at his neck and wrist, the chest hair and, most of all, the hand draped casually over his crotch — there’s no mistaking the subject of this novel, which is desire.” And, a few more reviews posted today.

NYT reviews Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage by Heather Havrilesky (Ecco): "This attraction to the categorical, this yearning for the definitive broad statement, is unfortunate in a writer whose signal gift is for mordant, close-up descriptive prose." Plus, short reviews on two books about Buster Keaton: Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life by James Curtis (Knopf) and Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century by Dana Stevens (Atria; LJ starred review). Also, other short reviews on two books about the modern short attention span with: Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari (Crown) and The Loop: How Technology Is Creating a World Without Choices and How To Fight Back by Jacob Ward (Hachette).

Datebook reviews The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman (Penguin Pr.; LJ starred review): “Klosterman is far too ambitious to merely let readers wallow in nostalgia and instead looks at the ’90s by applying the accessible style of cultural criticism that has been his brand during a career that has now spanned 12 books.”

Locus Magazine reviews The King of Infinite Space by Lyndsay Faye (Putnam): “The overlay into modern day New York is masterful. The plot straddles the line between familiar and inventive. The characters themselves are compelling, roundly depicted, and interesting, even when they are jerks.”

Tor.com reviews Base Notes by Lara Elena Donnelly (Thomas & Mercer: Amazon): “Donnelly balances a serial killer protagonist, with all the foibles and frights one expects therein, against a treatise on the back-breaking systems of service labor, urban real estate, and artistic craft.” Also, Devil House by John Darnielle (MCD): “a gripping true crime novel, a darkly gleeful romp through the tropes of true crime as a genre, and an increasingly painful series of questions about what it costs to make art from someone else’s life and death.”

Book Marks picks "The Best Reviewed Books of the Week."

Briefly Noted

Emily Maloney, Cost of Living (Holt), speaks about “her writing process, female physicians, and the so-called problem of the hysterical women” with The Rumpus. 

Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, author of In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage by (Henry Holt & Co.), chats with Shondaland about “healing and a sense of community at the top of the world’s tallest mountains.” Also, Gerrick Kennedy “gives Whitney Houston her well-deserved flowers” with his book Didn’t We Almost Have It All: In Defense of Whitney Houston (Abrams).

Electric Lit chats with Tessa Miller about how the author “combines her journey of navigating Crohn’s disease with scientific reporting” in her newest book, What Doesn't Kill You (Holt). 

Laura Coates, Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor's Fight for Fairness (S. & S.), discusses her experiences as a “Black female federal prosecutor” in an interview with The Seattle Times. 

Bernardine Evaristo, author of Manifesto: On Never Giving Up (Grove), speaks with The New Yorker about how she finally became recognized for her work within British literature, from which she had long been excluded.

Chrishelle Stause, Under Construction (Gallery: S. & S.), talks about her book and "loathing drama" with USA Today. 

Entertainment Weekly features an excerpt from Rebecca Serle’s One Italian Summer (Atria) read by actress Lauren Graham. 

Amor Towles, The Lincoln Highway (Viking), writes a piece for Lit Hub about "bringing a historical setting to life."

Isaac Butler, focuses on the "deep roots of acting philosophy behind Frances McDormand's craft" from an excerpt of his The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned To Act (Bloomsbury; LJ starred review).

Tor.com has a cover reveal for Will Do Magic for Small Change by Andrea Hairston (Tordotcom: Macmillan). 

The Millions lists “Nine Haunting Postapocalyptic Novels.”

Time provides “8 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books That Deserve a Screen Adaptation.”

Book Riot gives “12 Exciting Sequels Coming in 2022” and “The Most Anticipated Historical Fiction Reads of the First Half of 2022.” 

Tor.com shares “All the New Horror and Genre-Bending Books Arriving in February!”

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

NYT has “10 New Books We Recommend This Week" and "New in Paperback" featuring My Year Abroad by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead) and Amoralman: A True Story and Other Lies by Derek Delgaudio (Knopf: Random House).

Authors on Air

Debbie Millman, author of Why Design Matters (HarperCollins), discusses how David Lee Roth of Van Halen inspired her life motto on the Otherppl podcast.

Isaac Butler, The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned To Act (Bloomsbury; LJ starred review), explains “why no one actually understands method acting” in conversation with Maris Kreizman of The Maris Review podcast.

Sarah Vaughan’s book Reputation (Atria) will be adapted for television by Made Up Stories and 3dot Productions, according to Deadline. 

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