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Buzzy Books, News & Awards

Don Winslow, City on Fire (Morrow; LJ starred review), has announced his retirement from writing in order to focus on political matters, Deadline reports. The author explained his decision on CBS. Winslow appeared at The LA Times Festival of Books, but did not discuss his retirement. Esquire interviews Winslow, and the author also chats with Salon about his “return to working-class New England — and the ending of the Trump saga.”  The final two books in the trilogy are already written and will be released in 2023 and 2024. 

The 76th Edgar Awards, hosted by Mystery Writers of America, will be held Thursday, April 28th. CrimeReads hosted a roundtable with the nominees to discuss the state of the crime novel, and how the pandemic has changed their writing. 

The 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize shortlist is announced.

The Atlantic Book Awards announce 2022 shortlists. 

The winners of the 2022-2023 Rome Prize in literature are announced. LitHub reports.

Poynter covers potential outcomes of Elon Musk's Twitter takeover.  

Publisher DK launches DK Learning, entering the education market aimed at parents and teachers. The Bookseller reports.

Reviews

NYT reviews The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life by A.J. Jacobs (Crown): “Jacobs’s love for puzzles is infectious, and it’s not hard to understand why. Puzzle people draw us in with their monomania…He shows us how you can even cherish puzzles that you don’t have the patience (or skill) to solve.” And, The Fighting Soul: On the Road with Bernie Sanders by Ari Rabin-Havt (Liverlight): “Rabin-Havt says his book’s principal goal is not to dwell on why the senator lost. Still, that question lingers over the narrative.” Also, The Apartment on Calle Uruguay by Zachary Lazar (Catapult): “Christopher, for all of his limitations, engages seriously with the possibility that the meaning we hope to find in the often competing and sometimes discordant layers of facts and images surrounding us is, in the end, unlikely and random — the same quality that renders his story at once mysterious, frustrating, tragic and, yes, sublime.” And, Seven Steeples by Sara Baume (Mariner): “Decay and neglect are the constant themes, and the descriptions are gorgeous. Line by line, Seven Steeples is one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read.” And, Search by Michelle Huneven (Penguin Pr.): “this novel has plot, character, structure and a delicious, deeply human pettiness that I think most honest readers will relate to. And speaking of delicious, Huneven’s descriptions of food are the best I’ve ever read, by far the most vivid prose in the book.” Also, Letters to Gwen John by Celia Paul (New York Review Books): “In a nod to the epistolary novel, she addresses her letters to “Dear Gwen.” It’s a risky conceit, but as the intimacy grows — if not with John, then certainly with us — their clarity on the grammars of gender is compelling, and utterly contemporary.” Plus, Chosen: A Memoir of Stolen Boyhood by Stephen Mills (Metropolitan: Holt): ““Four centuries after Jews arrived in America, they still long for a place where they can feel safe. As Mills’s brave account makes clear, none of us can allow our longing for acceptance to permit us to stifle the cries of those we’re most called on to protect.” Lastly, The Premonitions Bureau: A True Account of Death Foretold by Sam Knight (Penguin Pr.): ”Knight’s book is crisp, almost clinically so. It’s on the passionless side. The crooked timber of humanity is cut into two-by-fours.”

NPR reviews Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History by Jori Lewis (The New Press): “Slaves for Peanuts plumbs a fascinating and disturbing slice of history, shining a light on another glaring example of Western hypocrisy and oppression.”

Briefly Noted

Time interviews Tina Brown about the biggest revelations in her new book, The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor--the Truth and the Turmoil (Crown). USA Today and FoxNews also share highlights from the book.

Vox talks with Elizabeth Williamson about her book, Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth (Dutton; LJ starred review), and  how "conspiracy theories went mainstream."

USA Today highlights Daphne Oz’s new cookbook, Eat Your Heart Out: All-Fun, No-Fuss Food to Celebrate Eating Clean (William Morrow Cookbooks), and shares a recipe.

USA Today shares details from Viola Davis’s new memoir, Finding Me (HarperOne).

Time shares an excerpt from Anna: The Biography by Amy Odell (Gallery), about how Anna Wintour “wields her power.” The book is due out May 3rd, the day after the 2022 Met Gala.

The Millions shares notable new releases for the week.

Bustle has 10 must-read books for the week.

LitHub suggests 20 new books for the week.

PopSugar shares 82 thrillers and mysteries.

The Washington Post recommends new audiobooks. 

Rare proof sheets of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone are expected to sell for £20,000, The Guardian reports.

Authors On Air

NPR’s It’s Been A Minute chats with Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy about their new book, Big Feelings: How to Be Okay When Things Are Not Okay (Portfolio).

Bustle navigates the twists and turns in both Agatha Christie’s Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, and Hugh Laurie’s adaptation for BritBox. 

Vanity Fair reports on "The Netflix Nightmare."

Dave Eggers’s The Every (McSweeney’s) will be adapted for television at HBO. Deadline reports.

Karena Dawn, The Big Silence: A Daughter's Memoir of Mental Illness and Healing (Flashpoint), will be on Tamron Hall tomorrow. Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart (Knopf), will be on with Kelly Clarkson. Plus, Terry Crews, Tough: My Journey to True Power (Portfolio: PRH), will be on The Daily Show.

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