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Awards & News

Buying and stocking policies at Amazon and B&N unnerve authors and publishers, Shelf-Awareness reports. Publishers Weekly outlines B&N CEO James Daunt's response to the criticism.  

The Readings New Australian Fiction Prize shortlist is announced.

The 2022 Ditmar Awards Preliminary Ballot is announced.

The Beijing International Book Fair is postponed until November. Publishing Perspectives has details. 

A Florida school district makes news as it declines dictionary donations due to new book law. NPR reports.

According to the latest NPD Book Scan, the U.S. book market is extremely stable. "New releases in biography drove nice weekly gains in adult non-fiction, and juvenile categories saw a modest lift."

Reviews

NYT reviews Babysitter by Joyce Carol Oates (Knopf): “If it was her intention to leave us with more questions than answers, the effect is an acute sense of unease. Babysitter is a ghost story without the ghosts, but with tension thick enough to inspire several heart attacks. Read with care.” And, Last Times by Victor Serge, trans. by Ralph Manheim (NYRB): “To read Last Times is to watch an accelerating catastrophe. Watch is the operative word. Serge’s novel suggests a treatment for a social disaster movie.” Also, The Stolen Year: How COVID Changed Children's Lives, and Where We Go Now by Anya Kamenetz (PublicAffairs: Hachette): “Kamenetz details the harm of school closures in story after story, statistic after statistic, without looking head-on at the fierce battles that in part enabled them.” And, Perish by LaToya Watkins (Tiny Reparations): “These complicated, resilient characters are victims and heroes at the same time. Terrified and brave. Purposeful and rudderless. Vulnerable and stoic. These contradictions are one of the novel’s greatest strengths.” Plus, Dispatches from the Gilded Age: A Few More Thoughts on Interesting People, Far-Flung Places, and the Joys of Southern Comforts by Julia Reed, ed. by Everett Bexley (St. Martin’s): “this book seems intended as a toast to Reed, a beloved bon vivant and contributor to many publications, most recently Garden & Gun, where her reputation as the Nora Ephron of the South was cemented with a column, blog posts and podcasts delivered in her Scotch-soaked voice.” Lastly, there are short reviews of four mysteries including Fox Creek by William Kent Krueger (Atria; LJ starred review), which calls it “a good entry point for those new to the series.”

LA Times reviews Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham (Little, Brown): “Hannaham hasn’t merely given the classics an update; he has given readers an unforgettable glimpse into the injustices the carceral system heaps on women like Carlotta — and deftly made space in literature for a distinctive voice that deserves a place in the modern literary pantheon.”

WSJ reviews Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie by Gary Weiss (Hachette): “Gary Weiss demonstrates that the lunacy was not confined to the airwaves. The Crazy Eddie empire was, from the start, built on lies and deception, with the fraud becoming so brazen that the company finally collapsed on itself.”

Datebook reviews Tomorrow in Shanghai: Stories by May-lee Chai (Blair: Consortium Book Sales): “Over eight new stories, Chai keeps a steady hand on the scrabbled emotional terrain of expats and immigrants, city and country, and, briefly, a tired, spent Earth and a wealthy ‘New Shanghai’ colony on Mars.”

Slate reviews Breaking History: A White House Memoir by Jared Kushner (Broadside): "Breaking History features the many confident pronouncements of someone who can never quite convince you that he actually possesses any true confidence."

Briefly Noted

Time has an interview with Taylor Jenkins Reid about her new book, Carrie Soto Is Back (Ballantine; LJ starred review), and the price of ambition. 

The Rumpus speaks with No'u Revilla about her debut collection, Ask the Brindled: Poems (Milkweed Editions).

Autostraddle talks with Lydia Conklin about their latest book, Rainbow Rainbow (Catapult), and “being Queer in the 90’s.”

Vogue shares an excerpt from Edward Enninful's forthcoming memoir, A Visible Man (Penguin Pr.), which publishes September 6. 

AARP previews Rolling Stone publisher Jann S. Wenner’s forthcoming memoir, Like a Rolling Stone (Little, Brown), due out September 13.

Entertainment Weekly shares an excerpt from Lightlark by Alex Aster (Amulet: Abrams), who gained a publishing deal after creating a viral TikTok about the book’s plot.

OprahDaily shares new flash fiction from Tania James, author of The Tusk That Did the Damage (Vintage). 

The Millions highlights notable new releases for the week.

Bustle shares 10 must-read new books for the week. 

The Guardian highlights “seven big-hitter books for autumn."

The Root suggests “Books by Black Authors We Can't Wait to Read This September.”

The Washington Post recommends 5 cozy mysteries for the end of summer. 

Parade shares 16 books about mental health, empathy and insight.

The Atlantic has 8 books about obsession. 

ElectricLit has 7 books featuring many voices of color.

BookRiot suggest the best slasher books, 8 trans and nonbinary witch books, and new releases for the week.

“Michael Malone, wide-ranging novelist and TV writer, dies at 79.” The Washington Post has an obituary.

Authors On Air

NPR’s Morning Edition talks with Azar Nafisi, author of Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times (Dey St.), about censorship and supporting Salman Rushdie.

The Game Awards (December 8) announces a new “Best Adaptation” category, recognizing “creative work that authentically adapts video game intellectual property to other popular media."

The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand (Little, Brown) is being adapted as a TV series. Deadline reports. 

Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui (Vintage), will be adapted for a live-action series at Amazon Prime. Tordotcom reports.

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