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Best of the Year, Book Clubs & News

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (Doubleday), is December’s GMA Book Club pick.

The January Indie Next Preview is out now, featuring #1 pick The Fury by Alex Michaelides (Celadon; LJ starred review). 

The Atlantic releases “The Atlantic 10: the books that made us think the most this year.”

Slate’s book staff Laura Miller picks her 10 best books of the year and Dan Kois selects his top 10 of 2023. 

Vogue shares “The Best—And Most Anticipated—Books of 2023 (So Far).”

LA Times names “The 13 best novels (and 2 best short story collections) of 2023.”

The New Yorker reflects on the year of reading.

The Millions releases its A Year in Reading 2023 series, starting with recommendations from Jenn Shapland, author of Thin Skin: Essays (Pantheon); Vauhini Vara, author of This Is Salvaged: Stories (Norton), and The Immortal King Rao (Norton; LJ starred review); and Emily Wilson, whose new translation of The Iliad by Homer (Norton), published earlier this year. 

LitHub staff selects the 38 best books of the year.

NPR highlights “12 books that NPR critics and staff were excited to share with you in 2023.”

In the UK, Marcus Leaver announces the new publisher Gemini Books Group. Publishing Perspectives has details. 

Reviews

NYT reviews Flores and Miss Paula by Melissa Rivero (Ecco: HarperCollins): “Melissa Rivero’s sophomore novel, Flores and Miss Paula, is a familiar, if uneven, tale of generational disapproval and resentment."; Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Atlantic Monthly; LJ starred review): “The book is ravishingly beautiful. It is also nearly free of plot. No alien race invades. No sentient planet turns people mad. The technology behaves. The astronauts are consummate professionals."

Washington Post reviews Black TV: Five Decades of Groundbreaking Television from ‘Soul Train’ to ‘Black-ish’ and Beyond by Bethonie Butler Black (Dog & Leventhal): “Washington Post pop culture writer Bethonie Butler is less interested in narrating how Black TV changed America (which it did) than in telling stories that ‘center Black people and their experiences, without tethering those experiences to the white people in their midst’.”; Rebecca, Not Becky by Christine Platt & Catherine Wigginton Greene (Amistad): "Despite their differences, the women at the center of the story aspire to be more than wives and mothers and, despite their insecurities, have a greater vision for a more inclusive community. It is a charming tale of class, race, motherhood and relationships."

Briefly Noted

People shares details from longest-running SNL cast member Kenan Thompson’s new memoir, When I Was Your Age: Life Lessons, Funny Stories & Questionable Parenting Advice from a Professional Clown (Harper).

"FOX Across America" host Jimmy Failla discusses his fothcoming book, Cancel Culture Dictionary: An A-to-Z Guide to Winning the War on Fun (Broadside), due out January 30th, on FoxNews. 

The Guardian offers up an Advent Calendar of “festive reads.”’ 

Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage discuss their new book, Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History written with Alan Sepinwall (Mariner), with Hollywood Reporter. 

LA Times recounts “The year the music gods rocked hardcovers,” including titles Lou Reed: The King of New York by Will Hermes (Farrar), Sonic Life by Thurston Moore (Doubleday), Madonna: A Rebel Life by Mary Gabriel (Little, Brown; LJ starred review), Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song by Judith Tick (Norton), Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine by Mark Davidson and Parker Fishel (Callaway Arts & Entertainment; LJ starred review), My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand (Viking), and Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir by Sly Stone (AUWA). 

Datebook highlights 19 new books for winter.

Bustle suggests 7 books to read in December. 

Authors On Air

Liz Cheney gave an interview on TODAY about her new book, Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning (Little, Brown). USA Today has 5 takeaways from the book. 

Osamah Almuslim’s debut horror novel Khawf (Fear), will be adapted as a series. Deadline reports.

PBS Canvas interviews Stephanie Land, author of Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education (One Signal: Atria).

LitHub shares “The Literary Film & TV You Need to Stream in December.”

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