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

News & Fall Booklists

India issues criminal charges to Booker Prize–winning novelist Arundhati Roy over a 2010 speech. NYT reports. The Guardian also has coverage. 

Kevin Lambert, Francine Cunningham, and Sarah Ens win 2023 ReLit Awards. CBC reports.

Earlyword’s October GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now. 

Entertainment Weekly previews fall’s top celebrity memoirs. 

Vogue shares “25 Cookbooks That Everyone Should Own.”

BookRiot highlights indie publishers with “extensive BIPOC and queer catalogs.”

Publishing Perspectives reports on AI talk at the Frankfurt Book Festival. 

Wiley CEO Brian Napack steps down, as interim CEO is named.

Reviews

NYT reviews The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok (Morrow): “We root for Jasmine and Rebecca as they face impossible choices and emerge stronger for all the battles they’ve fought, always resisting becoming ‘leftover’ women.” There is also a review of two books by Helen Garner: The Children’s Bach (Pantheon) and This House of Grief: The Story of a Murder Trial (Pantheon).

NPR reviews Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri (Knopf; LJ starred review): “Her return to short stories—a form which she wielded so impressively in her 2000 Pulitzer Prize–winning collection of stories, Interpreter of Maladies—is also a return to fiction that powerfully conveys her characters’ valiant efforts to navigate geographic and cultural relocations and find their place in the world.”

The Washington Post reviews Lies and Sorcery by Elsa Morante, tr. by Jenny McPhee (NYRB Classics): “That Lies and Sorcery revels in its Gothic mise-en-scène, that its plot makes use of antiquated fictional gambits and flirts with an operatic fabulism, seems to have obscured the fact that the novel is, at its core, deeply interested in class and the injustices wrought by rigid social forms”; Down the Drain by Julia Fox (S. & S.): “Although it may not be a grand literary achievement, she projects an admirable confidence. She knows how she wants to be seen and how to get there”; and The Upside-Down World: Meetings with the Dutch Masters by Benjamin Moser (Liveright): “The Upside-Down World is much more than an elegant guide to Dutch painters.” NYT also reviews: “Adapted from essays published over the past two decades in various publications, the book reads more like a collection than a single, fluid account.”

Datebook reviews Family Meal by Bryan Washington (Riverhead; LJ starred review): “Ultimately, the power of Family Meal is that it shows us how to hold space for each other, through life’s highest highs and lowest lows.”

The Guardian reviews A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories by Terry Pratchett (Harper): “It’s a new Pratchett! Clear the bestseller decks: this book is heading for the top.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for Blood Lines by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille (Scribner), the top holds title of the week.

LJ has new prepub alerts.

Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key delve into The History of Sketch Comedy: A Journey Through the Art and Craft of Humor (Chronicle), at Shondaland.

Eater talks with Bryan Washington, Family Meal (Riverhead; LJ starred review), about food as language.

Vogue has an interview with Fancy Feast about her new book, Naked: On Sex, Work, and Other Burlesques (Algonquin; LJ starred review), and finding joy in one’s body. 

T&C has a feature on Madonna: A Rebel Life by Mary Gabriel (Little, Brown; LJ starred review). The Atlantic and USA Today also cover the book.

LA Times talks with Daniel Clowes about how he created his latest book, Monica (Fantagraphics; LJ starred review). LJ also has an interview with Clowes. 

LitHub shares an interview with Nobel Laureate Jon Fosse about the best writing advice he’s ever received.

Vanity Fair’s cover issue features Barbra Streisand ahead of the release of her new memoir, My Name Is Barbra (Viking).

Bustle shares details from Julia Fox’s new memoir, Down the Drain (S. & S.) Elle also covers Fox’s memoir, as does USA Today, 

Elle talks with Molly Baz about her new cookbook, More Is More: Get Loose in the Kitchen (Clarkson Potter), her first jobs, and her rise to fame. 

BBC explains how modern readers get The Iliad wrong.

Entertainment Weekly has an excerpt from Gregory Maguire’s final Wicked book, The Witch of Maracoor (Morrow).

NYT has a feature on Justin Torres and his new book, Blackouts (Farrar). Torres also talks with Shondaland about how the book honors queer history. 

Elle shares an excerpt from Sophie Grégoire Trudeau’s forthcoming book, Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other (Random House Canda), due out in April 2024. 

T&C lists 25 vampire books. 

BookRiot highlights African American romance.

NYT recommends seven new comics for horror fans. 

Eater suggests three new cookbooks about corn.

Authors on Air

NPR’s Morning Edition talks with Mustafa Suleyman, author of the book, The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century’s Greatest Dilemma, written with Michael Bhaskar (Crown), about how state actors use AI. 

Justin Torres discusses his new book, Blackouts (Farrar), with NPR’s All Things Considered. 

Shadow+Act shares a new trailer for The Color Purple.

Reba McEntire, Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off Your Boots (Harper Celebrate), and Werner Herzog, Every Man for Himself and God Against All: A Memoir, tr. by Michael Hofmann (Penguin Pr.), will visit Seth Meyers tonight.

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