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Awards & News

Partha Chatterjee wins the 2021 Columbia University Press Distinguished Book Award, for I Am the People: Reflections on Popular Sovereignty Today. 

The Xingyun Awards Winners for Chinese science fiction are announced. Locus has details.

Mitzi Angel becomes first woman to take the helm at Farrar, Straus and Giroux as president. The NYT covers the story.

Reviews

USA Today reviews The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel by Kati Marton (S. & S.), giving it 3.5 out of 4 stars: "This smart, readable biography chronicles Merkel’s 'remarkable odyssey,' weaving her career with the context of European politics of the day."

The NYT also reviews The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel: “is a bit like Merkel herself: calm, dispassionate, not afraid to bore us. Many readers will find it a balm. It’s instructive to spend time in Merkel’s competent and humane company.” And, The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller (Little, Brown, & Co.): “Filtered through such highfalutin and self-consciously literary language, even the moments of suffering never seem too raw, and the story, in consequence, although consistently enjoyable and often charming, does begin to feel, by the end, a little weightless.” Also, Churchill's Shadow: The Life and Afterlife of Winston Churchill by Geoffrey Wheatcroft (Norton): “takes a literary spray can to the iconic World War II leader, attempting metaphorically at least to recast the many memorials and books devoted to Sir Winston over the years.” And, Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America by John McWhorter (Portfolio): “It’s easy, however, to mock the lengths to which white liberals will go to be seen as antiracist. McWhorter is more interesting when he discusses why some African Americans have chosen to join the ranks of the Elect.” Also, The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery by Ross Douthat (Convergent Books: PRH): “Douthat sees symbols everywhere; he is telling a story not only of his own illness, but also about the stories we tell ourselves, secular and religious, to make sense of illness.” And, Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy by Martin Indyk (Knopf; LJ starred review): “Among other things, Indyk’s book is a brilliant account of how the mastery of personal diplomacy can depart from the diplomat’s true mission of peace.” And, Time for Socialism: Dispatches from a World on Fire, 2016-2021 by Thomas Piketty (Yale Univ. Pr.): “He grasps the dynamics of grotesque inequality as well as any living economist, and his conversion to the cause of radical redistribution and social ownership of wealth must be taken seriously.”  Plus, a look at two graphic novels: On Tyranny Graphic Edition: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder, illus. by Nora Krug (Ten Speed Press), and Discipline by Dash Shaw (New York Review Comics; LJ starred review). Finally, Winter Recipes from the Collective: Poems by Louise Glück (Farrar): “It is quite brief, only 15 poems, and gives an impression of exhaustion, as though language and material have been nearly depleted.”

NPR reviews State of Terror by Louise Penny and Hillary Rodham Clinton (S. & S.: St. Martin’s): “In State of Terror, an older woman draws on her expertise, a reserve of female solidarity, and the magic of a tool James Bond never scored — a pair of Spanx — and she manages to avert disaster. As thriller fantasies go, this one feels a lot more plausible to me than most.”

Briefly Noted

CBC features two of the winners of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award, announced last month: Gary Barwin, Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted: The Ballad of Motl the Cowboy (Random House Canada), and Rebecca Clifford, Survivors: Children's Lives After the Holocaust (Yale Univ. Pr.).

USA Today talks with Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen about the origins of their new book, Renegades: Born in the USA (Crown). The LA Times also has a feature on the book.

The NYT has a profile and interview with Gary Shteyngart about his new dystopian comedy, Our Country Friends (Random; LJ starred review).

The Seattle Times talks with David Sedaris, A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003–2020) (Little, Brown; LJ starred review), about finally going on book tour.

CrimeReads has an interview with Lee Child & Andrew Child, authors of the buzziest book of the week, Better Off Dead (Delacorte Press), about “borders, villains, and how a Reacher novel comes together in 2021.”

The LA Times has an interview with Kevin Boyle about how he wrote his new book, The Shattering: America in the 1960s (Norton; LJ starred review). 

Nikki Sixx, The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx (Hachette), talks to The Seattle Times about how Seattle shaped his music. 

Wired has a feature and interview with Neal Stephenson about his forthcoming novel, Termination Shock (Morrow), which takes on the existential crisis of climate change.

Entertainment Weekly talks with Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale about their collaboration on sequel comic, Batman: The Long Halloween (DC Comics), out now.

ElectricLit has an interview with Myriam J A Chancy,What Storm, What Thunder (Tin House; LJ starred review), about “why we need to dispense with reductive narratives of Haitian ‘resilience' and 'impoverishment’.”

Entertainment Weekly features forthcoming pandemic novels, Burntcoat by Sarah Hall (Custom House), and Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart (Random; LJ starred review).

Parade has “20 Fun Facts You Might Not Know About the Cute Beatle,” Paul McCartney, whose The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present (Liverlight: Norton), publishes November 2nd.

Canadian born, First lady of Iceland, Eliza Reid, has written a book about gender equality, Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland's Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World (Sourcebooks), which publishes February 8, 2022. CBC reports.

The NYT makes the case: “Why We Need ‘Goosebumps’ More Than Ever.”

ElectricLit has “Which Book Should You Read This Halloween?”

CrimeReads recommends October’s best international crime fiction.

Authors On Air

NPR’s All Things Considered has an interview with Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen about their new book, Renegades: Born in the USA (Crown).  Morning Edition also features the book.  

NPR’s Book of the Day considers The Matter of Black Lives: Writing from the New Yorker ed. by Jelani Cobb & David Remnick (Ecco; LJ starred review).

NPR’s It’s Been A Minute With Sam Sanders talks with Shea Serrano about his new book, Hip-Hop (And Other Things) (Twelve). The LA Times Podcast also talks with Serrano about “why Mexicans are perfect, why representation matters — and why, again and again, without question, he pays for fans’ utility bills and college classes.” 

Facebook warns producer against “recklessly proceeding” with newly announced TV adaptation, Doomsday Machine, based on An Ugly Truth by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang (Harper). Deadline has the story.

The Seminarian: Martin Luther King Jr. Comes of Age by Patrick Parr (Lawrence Hill Books), will be adapted as a TV series. Deadline reports.

Director Chloé Zhao, Marvel Eternals, with assoc. titles, adds Superman to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Variety has the story. 

Raven Leilani’s award winning Luster (FSG: Macmillan) will get series treatment at HBO. Deadline reports. LitHub has more.

Peacock picks up The Missing series, based on by D. A. Mishani’s 2013 novel, The Missing File (Bourbon Street Books: HarperCollins). AV Club has details.

People has "everything to know about” the hit movie adaptation of Dune, based on the book by Frank Herbert.

Drew Barrymore, Rebel Homemaker: Food, Family, Life, written with Pilar Valdes (Dutton) visits The View tomorrow. Alan Cumming, Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life (Dey St.; LJ starred review) and Rachael Ray, This Must Be the Place : Dispatches & Food from the Home Front (Ballantine), will be on Live with Kelly & Ryan. Plus, Alyssa Milano, Sorry Not Sorry: Stories I Have Lived (Dutton) will be on Drew Barrymore.

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