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Awards, News, & Best Books

Francesca Stavrakopoulou wins the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2022. 

The 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize longlist is announced. 

AARP shares “10 of 2022’s Best Cookbooks.”

Vulture lists the best fantasy novels of 2022. 

CrimeReads has the best critical nonfiction/biography books of 2022. 

The USA Today best-seller list is “on hiatus” after the books editor is part of sweeping layoffs. Publishers’ Lunch reports.

Bookforum announced its closure, saying that the current December/January/February issue will be the magazine’s last issue. NYT has coverage. The AP reports on both Bookforum and USA Today’s news.

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America by Leila Philip (Twelve: Grand Central): “This lyrical exploration is a portal for readers to enter into the mysteries of that world themselves.”

NYT reviews Gunk Baby by Jamie Marina Lau (Astra House): “Lau’s spare prose hovers frustratingly and exquisitely above the action as she patiently floats us past each tiny misery Leen faces in the fight for Lotus Fusion. Her gift for writing accumulative insanities creates the same dizzying effect as a good cleaning”; and The Tatami Galaxy by Tomihiko Morimi, tr. by Emily Balistrieri (HarperVia): “Morimi’s trick is to wrong-foot his reader, denying us the pleasure of branching fates, and instead using each iteration to poke at the narrator’s unreliability—the ways he shunts blame, ignores his own damage, blinds himself to Ozu’s sneaky charisma, eschews the pretty good in pursuit of the perfect.” Plus, there are short reviews of three memoirs: The Wind at My Back: Resilience, Grace, and Other Gifts from My Mentor, Raven Wilkinson by Misty Copeland, written with Susan Fales-Hill (Grand Central); Weightless: Making Space for My Resilient Body and Soul by Evette Dionne (Ecco); and A Coastline Is an Immeasurable Thing: A Memoir Across Three Continents by Mary-Alice Daniel (Ecco). 

NPR pairs reviews of A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley (Knopf), and Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco: HarperCollins; LJ starred review): “Both of these strange and freshly-imagined stories go deeper into uncharted territory for the mystery novel.”

BookMarks has “The Best Reviewed Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books of 2022.”

Briefly Noted

EW shares an excerpt from Leigh Bardugo’s highly anticipated Alex Stern sequel, Hell Bent (Flatiron; LJ starred review), due out January 10. 

ElectricLit talks with Jonathan Dee, about the “radicalization of white male anger” in his book Sugar Street (Grove; LJ starred review).

Allan Kozinn discusses his new Paul McCartney post-Beatles biography, The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969–73, written with Adrian Sinclair (Dey Street), the “first of four planned tomes,” with LA Times.

The Millions continues its Year-in-Reading series with lists from authors Terry Nguyen, Allegra Hyde, Nick Moran, Richard Brody, and more. 

BookRiot shares new books for the week. 

CBC recommends 18 Canadian science fiction and fantasy books. 

The Guardian writes about “Reese Witherspoon and the boom in celebrity book clubs.”

Readers take inspiration from librarian Nancy Pearl in a StarTribune article: “Life’s too short for boring books.”

Authors on Air

USA Today’s 5 Things to Remember podcast has 5 books to remember from 2022. 

PBS Canvas highlights the new film Devotion, based on the book Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice by Adam Makos.

CBC’s The Next Chapter talks with Monique Gray Smith about her young adult adaptation of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Milkweed). 

Kohei Horikoshi’s popular manga series My Hero Academia will be adapted as a live-action feature film. Tor.com reports. 

Nicola Dinan’s forthcoming debut LGBTQ+ novel, Bellies (Hanover Square), due out in August 2023, will be adapted as a series. THR reports. 

The Golden Globe nominations are out. GMA has details. 

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