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Big Books of the Week

Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa (S. & S.) leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

The Jailhouse Lawyer by James Patterson and Nancy Allen (Little, Brown)

Bewilderment by Richard Powers (Norton; LJ starred review)

The Burning by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman (Ballantine)

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune (Tor)

These books and others publishing the week of September 20th, 2021 are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

One LibraryReads selection and four Indie Next picks arrive this week:

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune (Tor)

“After dying of a heart attack, Wallace ends up in Charon’s Crossing Tea and Treats, a shop run by Hugo the ferryman, whose job is to help people come to terms with their death and cross over. Wallace learns and grows, becoming better in death than in life. For readers who enjoy character-driven, humorous, and heartrending stories and fans of A Man Called Ove, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance, and Less.”—Andrea Roberts, Westhampton Free Library, Westhampton Beach, NY

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“TJ Klune once again delivers an extraordinary, uplifting story of love, family, grief, and redemption. This story and its characters brought me so much comfort and peace. Highly, highly recommended.”—Stacey Montalto, BookTowne, Manasquan, NJ

Three additional Indie Next picks arrive this week:

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (Viking; LJ starred review)

“An incredible narrative about coming of age in the shadow of grief, Ozeki is again in fine form with this new novel, which combines zen wisdom with intricately structured prose.”—Bennard Fajardo, Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC

When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash (Morrow) 

“This addictive, character-driven crime drama has an ending that will take your breath away. Written with subtlety and grace, When Ghosts Come Home will haunt you long after you read its final page.”—Amanda Gawthorpe, Page 158 Books, Wake Forest, NC

Bewilderment by Richard Powers (Norton; LJ starred review)

“Richard Powers is peerless when conveying the intimate and universal in family relationships. Bewilderment is tender, riveting, and true. It took my breath away.”—Lesley Rains, City of Asylum Bookstore, Pittsburgh, PA

In the Media

The People "Picks" book of the week is L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón (Flatiron). Also getting attention are The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness by Suzanne O’Sullivan (Pantheon: Random House), and Inseparable by Simone de Beauvoir (Ecco). Featured “New Memoirs” include: Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke (Flatiron; LJ starred review), Forever Young: A Memoir by Hayley Mills (Grand Central), and Unrequited Infatuations by Stevie Van Zandt (Hachette).

The “Scoop” features a Q&A with Gabrielle Union, You Got Anything Stronger? (Dey Street Books). The “Picks” section highlights Clint Eastwood’s Cry Macho, based on the book by N. Richard Nash on HBO Max. Dune will be at the Toronto Film Festival. 

The cover feature profiles Anderson Cooper, Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, written with Katherine Howe (HarperCollins), about raising his son and “what he’s learned about love and loss from his famous family.” People online has more about Cooper's relationship with his mother. 

The “lifestyle” feature highlights tips from Tamron Hall and gives a peak at her debut novel, As the Wicked Watch (Morrow), due out October 26th. Plus, Antoni Porowski, Antoni: Let’s Do Dinner (Houghton Harcourt), and Bobby Flay, Beat Bobby Flay: Conquer the Kitchen with 100+ Battle-Tested Recipes (Clarkson Potter), share recipes.

Reviews

NPR reviews Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa (S. & S.): “Ultimately the book compares two men, two presidencies and two utterly different approaches to human relationships.” The LA Times also reviews: “who is this book for? It's unlikely to appeal to the casual voter, who's probably burned out on presidential drama, or to satisfy the political junkie, who knows most of the key stories already. No, this book is for the completist who won’t be satisfied until they know what Trump’s campaign staff was eating in which room of the White House when the election results started rolling in."  The Washington Post also reviews: “Through a series of appalling examples in Peril, the authors illustrate key aspects of Trump’s threat to democracy: his unwillingness to accept legitimate dissent, his indifference to law and his belief in strength as the source of power, and his intent to involve everyone in his schemes and attack them if they resisted. Slate also weighs in: "It’s a relatively wholesome bowl of schadenfreude, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you."

The NYT reviews The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (Viking; LJ starred review): “There’s powerful magic here. I’d call it Zen if I knew what I was talking about. In any case, Ozeki does not grab at the wind. She is unusually patient with her characters, even the rebarbative ones, and she is able to record the subtle peculiarities of other classes of being that more overeager writers would probably miss.” And, Generation Occupy: Reawakening American Democracy by Michael Levitin (Counterpoint): “Levitin’s enthusiasm is infectious, if at times extravagant. Like many journalists on the left, he suggests that Democratic progressives were the big winners in the two recent congressional general elections, whereas the consensus among analysts and academics is that in 2018 moderates did better than progressives in swing districts”

The Washington Post reviews Talk to Me by T.C. Boyle (Ecco): "During a year in which the horrors of the Anthropocene become more apparent by the day, it’s unfortunate to encounter a novel that riffs on our mistakes while not quite reckoning with them. That it comes from Boyle, whose work is rich with provocative and masterful warnings about crossing Mother Nature, is doubly disappointing." Wildland: The Making of America's Fury by Evan Osnos (FSG): “In Osnos’s rendering, the election of Donald Trump in 2016 emerges not as the cause of our deep fractures but rather the culmination of many years during which the nation shattered into separate — and unequal — shards, with little promise of regaining its wholeness. Jan. 6, 2020, the other bookend, provides the final proof of a nation at war with itself.” And, The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order by Rush Doshi (Oxford Univ. Pr.): “Doshi thinks that to counter China, the United States should give such notions a rest. The focus should not be on managing China’s rise or weakening Xi, but on containing (he calls it blunting) China. And on rebuilding U.S. power. In short, the United States should, in its interactions with China, become more like Beijing.” And, The Family Roe: An American Story by Joshua Prager (W. W. Norton): “Prager gives us neither heroes nor villains. He elicits our empathy toward almost everyone in his cast of characters. That’s no easy feat when our inclination is to see each person through our partisan eyes. Prager’s reportage destabilizes our righteousness, disarms our sense of outrage and offers us a breather, even as Roe v. Wade may be taking its last breaths.” Plus, The Amur River: Between Russia and China by Colin Thubron (Harper): “The Amur, says the author, is unusual among the great rivers of the world. The Nile, the Yangtse, the Ganges, the Amazon, the Indus ‘flow like lifeblood through their nation’s heart.’ The Amur, however, is different: ‘The Amur divides’.”

Briefly Noted

The 2021 Ignyte Awards Winners are announced. Locus has details.

The National Book Awards released the fiction longlist on Friday afternoon. 

Salon makes the case: "Why we still need the Women’s Prize for Fiction."

The Guardian Review section, home of its books coverage, "has closed a year after a shake-up of the Saturday edition was announced."  The Bookseller reports. 

The Millions has a Q&A with Dave Eggers, The Every (McSweeney’s), about “Amazon’s grip on the publishing industry, authorial self-censorship, public surveillance,” and more.

The Guardian has an interview with Anthony Doerr about his new book, Cloud Cuckoo Land (Scribner; LJ starred review), and what he’s reading.

People talks with Becca Stevens, Practically Divine (Harper Horizons), about the “importance of spreading love.”

Vox writes about award-winning Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury USA: Macmillan; LJ starred review), and offers discussion questions for book clubs. 

Entertainment Weekly previews this fall’s blockbuster releases by “men of many words.”

LitHub reports that Sally Rooney’s third book, Beautiful World, Where Are You (Farrar; LJ starred review), is now the most reviewed book of all time.

CrimeReads looks at representation in detective fiction and the absence of elderly sleuths. Also, CrimeReads considers the literary tradition of Detroit crime fiction. Plus, "why writers are drawn to the English countryside and its medieval history."

The Atlantic's 'Books Briefing' explores the vanishing boundaries between humans and machines. 

As part of Entertainment Weekly’s series “25 Days of Bond”, EW highlights how Ian Fleming created a movie icon.

USA Today picks five books for the week.

CrimeReads suggests 10 books out this week.

OprahDaily recommends books by Latinx authors.

Buzzfeed suggests rom-com read-alikes. 

Authors on Air

CBS Sunday Morning has an interview with Anderson Cooper, Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, written with Katherine Howe (HarperCollins), about his family's dynasty. 

Stacey Vanek Smith visits NPR’s It’s Been A Minute with Sam Sanders podcast to talk about her new book, Machiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win the Workplace (Gallery: S. & S.).

Emmy Winners are announced, with The Queen's Gambit, based on the book by Walter Tevis, picking up a win. Variety has details. Michaela Coel, Misfits: A Personal Manifesto (Henry Holt), won for limited-series writing and her speech is covered by The Atlantic.  

Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril (S. & S.), will visit Stephen Colbert Tuesday night. Anderson Cooper, Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, written with Katherine Howe (HarperCollins), will be on Watch What Happens Live tomorrow. Carmelo Anthony, Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised: A Memoir of Survival and Hope with D. Watkins (Gallery), and Antoni Porowski, Antoni: Let’s Do Dinner (Houghton Harcourt), will be on with Drew Barrymore. Plus, Amanda Gorman, Change Sings: A Children's Anthem (Viking Books for Young Readers), visits Tamron Hall. 

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