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Awards, News & Events

Reese Witherspoon picks The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams (Ballantine; LJ starred review) for her May book club—her first pick from an Australian author.

The 2022 Omega Sci-Fi Awards finalists are announced.

The 2022 Branford Boase Award shortlist is announced.

Trump-backed J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (Harper), wins Ohio’s GOP Senate primary. Reuters reports.

Don Weisberg will leave Macmillan Publishers at end of the year; Jon Yaged is appointed CEO. LJ reports. 

Ukranian novelist Andrey Kurkov, Grey Bees, tr. by Boris Dralyuk (Deep Vellum), will give opening keynote at the U.S. Book Show. PW reports. 

LJ’s Spring Virtual Day of Dialog is set for tomorrow, May 5th. View the speaker lineup here.

SCOTUS Draft Abortion Opinion 

Legal scholar Kate Kelly, Ordinary Equality: The Fearless Women and Queer People Who Shaped the U.S. Constitution and the Equal Rights Amendment, illus. by Nicole LaRue (Gibbs Smith), writes about an “intentional domino effect” on constitutional rights after the overturn of Roe v. Wade at OprahDaily.  

LA Times writes about Audrey Diwan’s adaptation of French author Annie Ernaux’s memoir about her abortion, Happening, tr. by Tanya Leslie (Seven Stories Pr.). Caroline Godard also examines the film adaptation for LitHub.  

LJ highlights five recently reviewed titles addressing the topic of legal abortion. 

ElectricLit offers a “literary guide to reproductive rights.” 

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews Companion Piece by Ali Smith (Pantheon): “It’s a measure of her recaptured mojo, or more likely of Ali Smith’s unfailing wizardry, that by the end of this brief novel the mere word ‘hello’ had me near tears.” And, My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song by Emily Bingham (Knopf): “What makes us so afraid to learn? What makes a person, a family, a country afraid of veracity? Emily Bingham’s new book is a work toward truth and reconciliation.” And, Everybody Thought We Were Crazy: Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and 1960s Los Angeles by Mark Rozzo (Ecco): “By centering his book on the juxtaposition of opposing worlds—of Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward; of 1960s Los Angeles and 1960s Taos; of an America seemingly poised to run on flower power and an America that can’t quite manage a civil Thanksgiving meal—Rozzo makes each world, each character and each reality both shocking and believable, both ridiculous and sublime.” Also, Search by Michelle Huneven (Penguin Pr.): “For all our oversharing, we have relatively few novelists willing to write about the role of religion in contemporary life—and even fewer who address spiritual practices with humor, empathy and lived wisdom. Huneven is one of those rare spirits.”

LA Times reviews Homesickness by Colin Barrett (Grove): “He writes what he knows, but he also writes to discover what he doesn’t know, a simple but crucial distinction you can sense instinctively, no matter how many of his compatriots you’ve already read.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for Book Lovers by Emily Henry (Berkley; LJ starred review), the buzziest book of the week.

Ronnie Spector’s husband talks to FoxNews about her new memoir, Be My Baby, written with Vince Waldron (Henry Holt).

People highlights Jill: A Biography of the First Lady (Little, Brown, and Co.), and talks with its authors, Julie Pace and Darlene Superville. People also talks with Tor Kenward about his new book, Reflections of a Vintner: Stories and Seasonal Wisdom from a Lifetime in Napa Valley (Harry N. Abrams), and the time he spent with Julia Child.

The Millions has an interview with Chloe Caldwell about her book, The Red Zone: A Love Story (Soft Skull), and her “attempt to grapple with disruptive menstrual symptoms and find community through them.” 

AARP chats with Jennifer Grey about her new memoir, Out of the Corner (Ballantine).

The Rumpus talks with poet Christopher Soto about his debut collection, Diaries of a Terrorist (Copper Canyon Pr.), “violence and non-carceral solutions to violence, and the power of poetry to affect change.”

Entertainment Weekly shares details from Anna: The Biography by Amy Odell (Gallery), including her “reaction to The Devil Wears Prada book.”

OprahDaily shares an excerpt of Maggie Shipstead’s forthcoming story collection, You Have a Friend in 10A (Knopf; LJ starred review), due out May 17th.

Barbara Lane surveys the current lit-mag landscape for Datebook.

The Guardian looks at the “lit-boom” happening on the Caribbean island Trinidad.

NYT suggests newly published books for the week. 

Vulture shares “The Best Comedy Books of 2022 (So Far),” highlighting memoirs by Bob Odenkirk and Molly Shannon.

Tor has “Six Technothrillers About Digital Surveillance and Voyeurism.”

CBC has “40 Canadian books coming out in May we can't wait to read.”

LitHub lists 15 new paperbacks for May.

“Irving Rosenthal, Low-Profile Force on the Beat Scene, Dies at 91.” NYT has an obituary.

Authors On Air

Chris Bohjalian’s forthcoming historical thriller, The Lioness (Doubleday; LJ starred review), will be adapted for television. Deadline reports.

Disney+ teases new Obi-wan Kenobi trailer for Star Wars Day. May the Fourth be with you.

Will Jawando, My Seven Black Fathers: A Young Activist’s Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors Who Made Him Whole (Farrar; LJ starred review), will be on with Tamron Hall tomorrow.

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