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Awards & News

The Cundill History Prize finalists are announced.

The Cercador Prize finalists are announced. 

NYT reports on Scholastic’s decision to separate titles that deal with race and gender in elementary book fairs.

Reviews

NYT reviews The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination by Stuart A. Reid (Knopf): “Reid argues convincingly that by ordering the assassination of Lumumba, the Eisenhower administration crossed a moral line that set a new low in the Cold War”; The Future Future by Adam Thirlwell (Farrar): “To read a Thirlwell novel is to be forced to stroke one’s chin”; Tremor by Teju Cole (Random; LJ starred review): “Tremor is the most sundry and vagrant of Cole’s works to date, with abrupt changes in form, perspective and theme.” LA Times also reviews: “Tremor is a commentary on—or perhaps an answer to—the criticism that autofiction often focuses on upper-class white people.” Also I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country by Elena Kostyuchenko, tr. by Bela Shayevich & Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse (Penguin Pr.): “There is already a surfeit of books about Putin’s war and how it has affected Russia’s place in global politics, but few have tried to examine the life of ordinary people in the world’s biggest country (by physical size) the way this one does.” The Guardian also weighs in: “Kostyuchenko’s fearless coverage of the war in Ukraine speaks for itself. The price has been high: she has lost Russia, home and her health. She argues that to love one’s country – truly, deeply – is to view it critically, through a harsh and unblinking gaze.” There is also a paired review of two debut story collections: House Gone Quiet by Kelsey Norris (Scribner) and The World Wasn’t Ready for You by Justin C. Key (Harper). 

Washington Post reviews Monica by Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics; LJ starred review): “Monica is a work of tremendous artistic maturity, one that finds Clowes progressing steadily forward even as he bends back, as one must, to his many origins”; and Worthy by Jada Pinkett Smith (Dey Street): “Jada claims she wrote Worthy to redeem herself from public assumptions, but at times it feels more like a guide for finding a spiritual practice.”

NPR reviews Blackouts by Justin Torres (Farrar): “Blackouts is the kind of artfully duplicitous novel which makes a reader grateful for Wikipedia.”

Briefly Noted

John Stamos discusses his new memoir, If You Would Have Told Me (Holt), with NYT. 

Sam Reece chats bout “crafting joy” and her new book, Shitty Craft Club: A Club for Gluing Beads to Trash, Talking About Our Feelings, and Making Silly Things (Chronicle), with LA Times.

LA Times talks with comedian Aida Rodriguez about her new memoir, Legitimate Kid (HarperOne), and the “shame of ‘illegitimacy.’”

Ziwe Fumudoh discusses her new book of essays, Black Friend (Abrams Image), with LA Times. 

 Joy Hargo examines Bob Dylan’s “holographic poemsong” “Tangled Up in Blue” and Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine by Mark Davidson and Parker Fishel (Callaway Arts & Entertainment; LJ starred review), in for Vanity Fair.

The Millions explores “How the Federal Writers’ Project Shaped a Generation of Authors.”

Mandy Mchugh, It Takes Monsters (Scarlet), writes “what Taylor Swift teaches us about genre fiction,” at CrimeReads.

People shares details from Hitchcock’s Blondes: The Unforgettable Women Behind the Legendary Director’s Dark Obsession by Laurence Leamer (Putnam), including a romance between Kim Novak and Sammy Davis Jr. doomed by racism. Also, Omar Epps talks about his new novel, Nubia: The Reckoning, written with Clarence A. Haynes (Delacorte). Plus, an interview with Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry.

Michelle Williams will narrate the new Britney Spears audiobook memoir, The Woman in Me. Publishers Lunch reports. 

Colm Tóibín remembers Louise Glück for The Guardian.

LitHub shares 24 new books for the week. 

CrimeReads highlgihts the best psychological thrillers for October.

Author Xochitl Gonzalez shares her book recommendations for October at GMA. 

T&C has the 25 best books about witches. 

Authors On Air

Lawrence Wright chats about his latest book, Mr. Texas (Knopf), with NPR’s Fresh Air.

Emily Wilson talks with PBS NewsHour about her new translation of The Iliad by Homer (Norton) and how modern language “reinforces its relevance.”

Rachel Maddow discusses her new book, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism (Crown), on CBS Sunday Morning. Also, David Brooks, How To Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen (Random), talks about his mission “to counter our nation’s spiritual crisis.”

American Fiction, based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett, has a new trailer. 

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