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Awards & News

Andrea Elliott wins the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism for Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City (Random; LJ starred review).

The winners for the 2021 British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards have been announced, with Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit: Hachette) winning best novel. Worlds Apart: Worldbuilding in Fantasy and Science Fiction ed. by Francesca T. Barbini (Luna) wins for nonfiction. Locus has the full list of winners.

The 2022 Ignyte Awards finalists are announced.

The 2022 Sir Julius Vogel Awards finalists are announced.

The 2022 Australian Book Design Awards (ABDA) shortlists are announced.

Lambda Literary announces the host and presenters for the 2022 Lammys, which will be held June 11.

Publishers Weekly turns 150, with special coverage including “The Powerful, Complex Partnership Between Publishers and Libraries.”

Reviews

NYT reviews The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe (Harper Voyager; LJ starred review): “Science fiction has historically — and often unfairly — been mocked for investing more brainpower into explaining elaborate systems than fleshing out the people who live within them, but The Memory Librarian fumbles both pursuits.”  And, Let's Not Do That Again by Grant Ginder (Henry Holt & Co.): “I’m not sure this novel is art with a capital A anymore than a Joan Didion musical could be, but it’s a charmingly subversive treat.” Also, Rouge Street : Three Novellas by Shuang Xuetao, trans. by Jeremy Tiang (Metropolitan): “From start to finish, his scope is close to the ground, his language sparingly emotive and unobtrusive. He never flinches. As a result, we don’t look away either.” Plus, a review of two books by by Tove Ditlevsen: The Trouble with Happiness: And Other Stories, trans. by Michael Favala Goldman (Farrar), and The Faces , trans. by Tiina Nunnally (Picador): “The world depicted in her fiction is grim, but her limpid, deadpan voice insists nonetheless that art, beauty and even a working-class girl’s dream of one day possessing a silky umbrella “like a butterfly’s radiant wings” are things that must be fought for.”  Also, Stepping Back from the Ledge: A Daughter's Search for Truth and Renewal by Laura Trujillo (Random): “With suicide, Trujillo writes, ‘only one person ‘gets’ an ending; the rest of us are left with a story abandoned midsentence.’ Fearlessly, Trujillo attempts to complete the sentence. For many who have been touched by suicide, her hard-earned story will be a helpful companion.” And, Ambitious Like a Mother: Why Prioritizing Your Career Is Good for Your Kids by Lara Bazelon (Little, Brown, Spark): “Bazelon, a litigator and law professor, does as good a job as any of her predecessors at laying out her case: that most women not only need to work, they want to; that the rewards are not only economic but also psychological; that it is time for society to help working mothers rather than building obstacles and ladling on the guilt.” And, The Right : The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism by Matthew Continetti (Basic): “Post-Trump, can conservatism reassemble and reinvent itself as it did once before, 70 years ago? We’ll see. On the strength of this authoritative and entertaining book, I hope Continetti will be around to write the next volume.” Lastly, Mutinous Women: How French Convicts Became Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast by Joan DeJean (Basic): “Manon Lescaut’s ghost hangs over DeJean’s hugely ambitious, sometimes unwieldy book, an attempt to counter the myth of the femme fatale with the evidence of lives of substance and toil.”

LA Times reviews City on Fire by Don Winslow (Morrow; LJ starred review): “By the end of this well crafted, troubling epic, enough people are left standing to offer hope of a future for these deeply flawed families. That, plus a hint that Danny Ryan is heading to a “warmer shore,” should lure readers to the next installment of what’s shaping up as Winslow’s next juggernaut of a modern-day epic.”

The Washington Post reviews Theatres of Melancholy: The Neo-Romantics in Paris and Beyond by Patrick Mauriès (Thames & Hudson): "an alternative history of modern art that makes the case for the importance of a loosely aligned group of painters termed the Neo-Romantics."

The Guardian reviews Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday): “Garmus understands the importance of a satisfying resolution; if her revenge comedy relies a little too heavily on coincidence, that’s all part of the larger-than-life, Technicolor world she has created.”

Briefly Noted

FoxNews shares highlights from Jennifer Grey’s forthcoming memoir, Out of the Corner (Ballantine), which publishes May 3.

NYT has a feature on Nyle DiMarco and his new book, Deaf Utopia: A Memoir—and a Love Letter to a Way of Life, written with Robert Siebert (Morrow; LJ starred review). USA Today also has an interview with DiMarco. 

Ebony talks with Janelle Monáe about her new book, The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer (Harper Voyager; LJ starred review), and how ”we can curate a more inclusive future through our memories.” 

Harry Potter actress Bonnie Wright discusses her career pivot and new book, Go Gently: Actionable Steps to Nurture Yourself and the Planet (Harvest), with The Washington Post. 

ElectricLit talks with Omer Friedlander about his new short story collection, The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land (Random).

USA Today has an excerpt from Stepping Back from the Ledge: A Daughter's Search for Truth and Renewal by Laura Trujillo (Random).

Deadline shares an excerpt from Binge Times: Inside Hollywood's Furious Billion-Dollar Battle to Take Down Netflix by Dade Hayes and Dawn Chmielewski (Morrow).

OprahDaily has a cover reveal for Ling Ma’s highly anticipated short story collection, Bliss Montage (Farrar), due out September 13th.

Tor has “Where to Begin Reading the Work of Nicola Griffith,” whose new book Spear (Tordotcom), is out this week.

LitHub lists 22 books for the week.

The Millions shares notable new releases for the week.

The Guardian has the best thrillers of the month.

BookRiot has reading suggestions for fans of The Lost City.

ElectricLit has “7 Books Centered on People of Color and Technology,” and “7 Novels About Black Women Returning Home in Search of Meaning and Connection.”

Authors On Air

NPR’s Morning Edition talks with Louisa Lim about her new book, Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong (Riverhead; LJ starred review), and the “U.K.'s hand over of Hong Kong to China.”

NPR’s It’s Been A Minute talks with Danyel Smith about her new memoir, Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop (Roc Lit 101; LJ starred review).

PBS NewsHour has an interview with Young People’s Poet Laureate Naomi Shihab Nye about shaping the new poetry anthology, Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic ed. with David Hassler and Tyler Meier (Kent State Univ. Pr.).

People notes the franchise low box office opening for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

Jason Momoa is in final talks to headline the new Minecraft movie, with assoc. titles. The Hollywood Reporter has the story.

Amy Schumer, Arrival Stories: Women Share Their Experiences of Becoming Mothers, ed.with Christy Turlington Burns (Dial Press), will be on Ellen tomorrow.

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