Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.

Forthcoming Books News

Marlon James and Olga Tokarczuk will publish new books early next year and a short story by Toni Morrison will be published in a hardback edition. Moon Witch, Spider King (Riverhead), Recitatif: A Story (Knopf), and The Books of Jacob (Riverhead), are all due out in February 2022. 

io9 talks with Marlon James about his forthcoming 2nd book in the 'Dark Star' trilogy, Moon Witch, Spider King (Riverhead), what he’s reading, and has an exclusive cover reveal. 

LJ’s Prepub Alert previews more February releases.

Reviews

The NYT reviews The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson by Robert S Levine (Norton; LJ starred review): “Part of Levine’s argument is that Johnson, who by all accounts was drunk at Lincoln’s second inauguration, wasn’t necessarily doomed to be the disastrous president he proved to be.” And, The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky by Andrew D. Kaufman (Riverhead): “Kaufman is sympathetic to both his subjects. He does not want to judge Anna for her choices, especially because women then had so few.”

The Washington Post reviews The Master: The Brilliant Career of Roger Federer by Christopher Clarey (Twelve): “Clarey provides a window into the “low-friction” world of Federer as a wealthy athlete, but not before showing the sometimes high-friction risks of devoting your life to the pursuit of tennis glory.” Also, My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga: S. & S.; LJ starred review): “When things get going, they really go gonzo, and we’re scrabbling to hang on by our fingernails throughout the climax.” And, Matrix by Lauren Groff (Riverhead): "it seems clear that Groff is using this ancient story as a way of reflecting on how women might survive and thrive in a culture increasingly violent and irrational. The costs and sacrifices are high, but on a planet grown 'too hot to bear humanity,' who isn’t tempted to have faith in the possibilities of a small society of like-minded believers walled off from the flames?"

USA Today reviews A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins (Riverhead), giving it 3 out of 4 stars: “This story highlights how trauma can steadily unravel a family across generations if left unattended. There's no fairytale ending in A Slow Fire Burning, but it serves as a reminder that buried traumas can manifest in unexpected ways if they aren't healed.”

Briefly Noted

A new literary prize is announced for small presses in the US and Canada. LitHub reports. 

The Washington Post has a Q&A with Hilma Wolitzer and Meg Wolitzer about Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket, (Bloomsbury), and how "they bonded by making a book." 

Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi talks with The Rumpus about “trauma, memory and language” and her new book, Savage Tongues (Mariner Books).

Shondaland has an interview with Emily Spurr about A Million Things (Berkley), a “story of survival, loss, and a child’s love.”

ElectricLit talks with Suchitra Vijayan about Midnight’s Borders: A People's History of Modern India (Melville House), a “seven year, 9,000-mile journey along India’s contested land borders.”

The NYT recaps the recent diversity disputes of several literary organizations.

CBC writes about how #BookTok is helping Canadian authors and retailers gain new audiences.

Tordotcom has an excerpt of Mordew by Alex Pheby (Tor), book one of a forthcoming epic fantasy trilogy.

Stephen Graham Jones, My Heart Is a Chainsaw (Saga: S. & S.; LJ starred review), writes about “the evolution of the slasher film and its central figure—the final girl,” for CrimeReads.

Time has “The 34 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2021.”

Esquire lists "The Best Books of Fall 2021.”

LitHub has "22 Novels You Need to Read This Fall."

Autostraddle suggests “Eight Books Featuring Women Dealing with Professional Jealousy.”

The San Francisco Chronicle has “books that channel the powerful force of women’s anger.”

ElectricLit has “9 Of The Worst Jobs in Literature" and “10 Books by Malaysian Women Writers You Should be Reading.”

The NYT takes a tour of “New York’s Legendary Literary Hangouts.”

Authors on Air

Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, The Personal Librarian (Berkley; LJ starred review) talk to NPR’s Code Switch podcast about their main character and why she chose to pass as white.

Bill Clinton and James Patterson, The President’s Daughter (Little, Brown & Knopf), stop by Live with Kelly and Ryan tomorrow.

Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.