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Awards & April Reads

National Book Foundation announces its 2023 5 Under 35 honorees.

The 2023 Carol Shields Prize shortlist is announced.

“Amazon Shutters Its Book Depository Store,” according to Gizmodo. 

Jane LaTour, an author who showcased women in labor unions, has died at 76. NYT has more on her life.

The Millions releases its April preview of “most anticipated” books.

Vanity Fair shares “13 New Books to Read in April.”

Tor.com has “All the New Horror and Genre-Bending Books Arriving in April.”

Gizmodo lists “10 Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books to Read Ahead of Their Upcoming Adaptations.”

Book Riot selects “13 New April Mysteries, Thrillers, and True Crime For Criminal Spring Reading.”

NYPL Blog has “100 Staff Picks For All Ages to Get You Excited for Reading This Spring.”

NYT recommends 10 new books.

Page to Screen

April 7:

One True Loves, based on the book by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The Avenue. Reviews | Trailer

How To Blow Up a Pipeline, based on the book by Andreas Malm. NEON. Reviews | Trailer

The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses, based on the manga series by Kōji Seo. Crunchyroll. No reviews | Trailer

Tiny Beautiful Things, based on the book by Cheryl Strayed. Hulu. Reviews | Trailer

April 8:

A Galaxy Next Door, based on the manga series by Gido Amagakure. Crunchyroll. No reviews | Trailer

The Portable Door, based on the book by Tom Holt, as part of the “J.W. Wells & Co.” series. MGM+. Reviews | Trailer

April 9:

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: To the Swordsmith Village, based on the shōnen manga series by Koyoharu Gotouge. Crunchroll. Reviews | Trailer

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, based on the mecha anime series by Yoshiyuki Tomino. Crunchyroll. No reviews | Trailer

April 13:

The Boss Baby: Back in the Crib, based on the picture book by Maria Frazee. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

Titans, based on associated titles. HBO Max. Reviews | Trailer

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine, by Ricardo Nuila (Scribner): “Never shies away from the deep inadequacies of the American health-care system. Nuila admits that though there are some solutions that seem both feasible and necessary, there are other, more complex problems that have no simple answers.”

NYT reviews Courting India: Seventeenth-Century England, Mughal India, and the Origins of Empire by Nandini Das (Pegasus): “Das does not flinch from this difficult history of the spread of European dominance. Yet she remains admirably evenhanded in her appraisal, revealing the subtle change of views and blurring of boundaries in this unpropitious moment of intercultural contact”; George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy by Sally Bedell Smith (Random): “Smith’s lively account reminds readers that at its finest hour—whatever the historic sins or abiding iniquities of the British Empire itself—the crown managed to stand for selfless leadership, resilience and compassion for its people”; and Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History by Benjamin Balint (Norton): “Balint excels at distinguishing the possible ownership of artifacts from the impossible ownership of legacies, and demonstrates with sensitivity how in the clash between so-called intellectual property rights and so-called moral rights, the only sure loser is the artist himself, especially if he is no longer around to defend (or define) himself.”

NPR reviews The House Is on Fire, by Rachel Beanland (S. & S.): “A fictionalized slice of history, but in a time when so many treat teaching history as a taboo, it is also a stark reminder of how privilege, sexism, and racism have been in this country’s DNA since its inception, and that makes it necessary reading.”

The Los Angeles Times reviews The Lost Wife, by Susanna Moore (Knopf): “Moore is a master of smallness. Her deceptively simple sentences are like geysers. The churning energy underneath is violent, animal and sexual.”

Tor.com reviews The Terraformers, by Annalee Newitz (Tor; LJ starred review): “Through the lens of the history of Sask-E’s development, Newitz explores questions of sentience, personhood, ecology, violence, infrastructure, politics, and more, as only they can: with intelligence, nuance, and above all, heart.”

Locus Magazine reviews Feed Them Silence, by Lee Mandelo (Tor.com): “Raises important questions about consciousness, research ethics, corporate sponsorship, shrink­ing habitats, and the various ways we interact with our planetary companions, but it doesn’t suggest that there are many easy answers. It sets out to be a provocative tale, and it works.”

Book Marks shares “The Best Reviewed Books of the Week.”

Briefly Noted

Shondaland has several author interviews including Dolen Perkins-Valdez on how “the history of forced sterilization of black women informed” her new book, Take My Hand (Berkley; LJ starred review); rock star Susanna Hoffs discussing “reinventing herself” as an author with her latest, This Bird Has Flown (Little, Brown); and, Nicole Chung chatting about her work A Living Remedy: A Memoir (Ecco), a “love letter to her adoptive parents”; Chung also speaks to Electric Lit about “grieving under capitalism.”

Author Cheryl Strayed reponds to the Oldster Magazine questionnaire.

Fred Van Lente chats with CrimeReads about his newest historical thriller, Never Sleep (Blackstone).

NYT highlights two new translations of work by Mário de Andrade into English: Macunaíma: The Hero With No Character, tr. by Katrina Dodson (New Directions), and The Apprentice Tourist, tr. by Flora Thomson-DeVeaux (Penguin). Also, an exploration of “the best audiobook narrator” and an opinion piece on “The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature.”

Shirley Jackson Award-winning author Nathan Ballingrud to come out with new book Crypt of the Moon Spider, according to Tor.com. 

Comics writer Gail Simone will come out with a new Red Sonja novel. Gizmodo has the scoop and an interview with the author.

CBC Books gives a first look at actor R.H. Thomson’s new memoir, By the Ghost Light: Wars, Memory, and Families (Knopf Canada). 

Autostraddle announces that Jeopardy! Champ Amy Schneider is coming out with a new memoir, In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life (Avid), to be released this October. Also, an upcoming celebrity cookbook for “good dishes to get through bad times,” Recipe for Disaster.

Slate reports on the reason James Patterson is upset with the NYT bestseller list.

Salon dives into novels that feature “radical eco-activists” and audiobook recordings of Sarah Caudwell mysteries.

NYPL Blog shares “New & Classic Nordic Noir Titles.”

Book Riot shares “The 22 Best Cyberpunk Novels Of All Time.”

Lit Hub provides two reading lists: one of “Overlooked Fairy Tales” and one for “Spiritual Disillusionment.”

CrimeReads lists “psychological thrillers full of atmosphere, dread, and poignant settings.” Also, Suzanne Young, author of “The Program” series of YA books makes “a case for more bloodthirsty women in literature.”

Electric Lit has “7 Books About the Scam of Wellness.”

Authors on Air

Ilyon Woo discusses the subjects and story behind her new book Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom (S. & S.; LJ starred review) with the Just the Right Book podcast.

Dina Nayeri, author of Who Gets Believed?: When the Truth Isn’t Enough (Catapult), talks about “how our cultural and bureaucratic norms often betray the truth” in an interview on the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast.

The Root shares a video of Levar Burton talking about banned books while promoting his new documentary The Right To Read. 

Universal will develop an adaptation of Lore by Alexandra Bracken (Disney-Hyperion: Hachette) to be produced by Amy Pascal. The Hollywood Reporter has more.

Apple TV+ unveils an adaptation of Hugh Howey’s book series Silo. Tor.com also shares the trailer and Gizmodo also covers the news.

Correction: An earlier edition of this post misspelled Hugh Howey’s name. LJ regrets the error. 

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