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Big Books of the Week

Run, Rose, Run, by Dolly Parton & James Patterson (Little, Brown), leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

Shadows Reel (Joe Pickett, Bk. 22) by C. J. Box (Putnam)

High Stakes by Danielle Steel (Delacorte)

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen (St. Martin’s)

The Lightning Rod: A Zig & Nola Novel by Brad Meltzer (Morrow)

These books and others publishing the week of Mar. 7, 2022, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Awards

The Audie Awards are announced. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, read by Ray Porter (Audible Studios), wins Audiobook of the Year. Entertainment Weekly also has coverage.

AudioFile announces the March 2022 Earphones Award winners.

The Independent Spirit Awards are announced, with Netflix’s The Lost Daughter, based on the novel by Elena Ferrante, winning best film. The Hollywood Reporter has the story.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Three LibraryReads and six Indie Next picks publish this week:

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen (St. Martin’s)

“Marissa has had a one-night affair and will do anything to save her marriage to Matthew, so they go to Avery, an unconventional therapist. Over eight sessions all three have secrets revealed. These authors are good at misdirection and giving a ‘happy’ ending…but it might not be the one readers expected.”—Kimberley McGee, Lake Travis Community Library, Austin, TX

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“This dynamic duo did not disappoint with another twisty psychological domestic thriller. I love the psychological, unconventional approach Avery has with clients. Sometimes the unconventional way can lead to dangerous results.”—Stephanie Csaszar, Books Around the Corner, Gresham, OR

The Suite Spot by Trish Doller (St. Martin’s Griffin)

“Single mom Rachel loses her job at an upscale Florida hotel and decides to make a fresh start halfway across the country with a new gig and a moody but handsome boss. The characters are mature, the setting is lovely, and there’s just enough steam to keep things interesting. For fans of Beth O’Leary, Julie Murphy, and Sarah Morgenthaler.”—Sandra Woodbury, Burlington Public Libary, Burlington, MA

My Darling Husband by Kimberly Belle (Park Row)

“Atlanta restaurateur Cam Lasky seemingly has it all, until a fire at his eatery and a terrifying home invasion threaten to destroy all he holds dear. With multiple perspectives adding to the mystery, this is another clever, fast-paced thriller from Belle. For readers of Lisa Gardner and Chevy Stevens.”—Jayme Oldham, Highland Park Public Library, Highland Park, IL

Five additional Indie Next picks publish this week: 

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler (Putnam)

“The Booth family dominated 19th-century American stages, but are known for the despicable actions of John Wilkes. Their saga, told by Karen Joy Fowler, mirrors the disintegration of their society and offers a cautionary tale for ours.”—Bill Cusumano, Square Books, Oxford, MS

Seeking Fortune Elsewhere by Sindya Bhanoo (Catapult)

“In eight remarkable stories, Sindya Bhanoo explores the lives of disconnected families. She writes of bonds that are bent, bruised, and shattered, and uses memory to illuminate. With pain, grief, and love, the memories become our own.”—Tony Peltier, Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, NC

The Lightning Rod: A Zig & Nola Novel by Brad Meltzer (Morrow)

“Zig Zigarowski and Nola Brown are quirky, stubborn, daring, and above all seem real. Brad Meltzer has done an exceptional job of building a twisting, turning non-stop thriller with two of the most unique characters in modern fiction.”—Kerry Johnson, The Family Book Shop, DeLand, FL

In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom (Random)

“Amy Bloom’s memoir of falling in love with and supporting her husband through early Alzheimer’s is a memorable story of dying. Far from depressing, Bloom’s warm, funny, and human voice takes us to Switzerland on a powerful trip.”—Diane Naughton, Bards Alley, Vienna, VA

Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk by Sasha LaPointe (Counterpoint)

“A beautiful autobiography of a sometimes-rocky journey to heal from trauma. Her female ancestral line’s spiritual practices and wisdom help her embrace her Indigenous heritage. An emotional roller coaster well worth reading.”—Ashley Baeckmann, Briars & Brambles Books, Windham, NY

In the Media

The People “Picks” book of the week is The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh (Pamela Dorman Books). Also getting attention are The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley (Morrow), and The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found by Frank Bruni (Avid Reader: S. & S.). The “New in Nonfiction” section highlights Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama by Bob Odenkirk (Random), The Social Lives of Animals by Ashley Ward (Basic), and Special Characters: My Adventures with Tech’s Titans and Misfits by Laurie Segall (Dey Street Books). The “Picks” section spotlights The Batman, based on associated titles. 

There are features on The Other Dr. Gilmer: Two Men, a Murder, and an Unlikely Fight for Justice by Benjamin Gilmer (Ballantine; LJ starred review) and Amy Bloom’s new book, In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss (Random). Plus, Cyndi Kane, Save-It-Forward Suppers: A Simple Strategy To Save Time, Money, and Sanity (Morrow Cookbooks), shares a recipe.

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo (Viking): “The actions depicted in the book are so familiar, the events so recognizable, the pain so acute, it’s easy to see how Glory began as a work of nonfiction. That the characters are animals—furred, feathered, scaled and all—is almost incidental.” NYT also reviews: “The book somehow never feels disjointed, even though it encompasses a wide spectrum of emotional terrain and experimental narrative devices.”

NYT reviews Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution’s Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction by David George Haskell (Viking): “Haskell is spot on that sensory connection can inspire people to care in ways that dry statistics never will. His contention that the songs of katydids and house sparrows could motivate ethical action is at once too fanciful to believe—and too imperative to dismiss.” And, The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World by Oliver Milman (Norton): “Milman writes, ‘addressing the insect crisis can be viewed as surprisingly straightforward.’ Doing things to help insects may not be necessary if we stop doing things that harm them.” Plus, One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General by William P. Barr (Morrow): “Throughout, Barr affects a quasi-paternal tone when discussing Trump, as if the president were a naughty but good-hearted adolescent.”

NPR reviews The Wonders by Elena Medel, trans. by Lizzie Davis & Thomas Bunstead (Algonquin): “The Wonders explores the struggles of motherhood, especially when those mothers are also facing poverty and dealing with men who take advantage.”

USA Today reviews In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom (Random), giving it four out of four stars: “Bloom has a talent for mixing the prosaic and profound, the slapstick and the serious, which makes the book, despite its depressing subject matter, a pleasure to read. Rarely has a memoir about death been so full of life.”

LA Times reviews New Animal by Ella Baxter (Two Dollar Radio: Ingram): “What unites death and sex is the way they force us to confront our bodies; in bringing them together here, Baxter has really written a novel about the limits of the visceral and the need for the mind to sit with the hardest truths, the worst emotional pains, rather than trying to escape them.” And, The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O’Rourke (Riverhead): “The book’s most significant feat is to be maddening without ever resorting to vitriol. If you didn’t already loathe the American healthcare system (a term that wrongly implies its disparate parts are connected), you will after reading The Invisible Kingdom.”

The Guardian reviews French Braid by Anne Tyler (Knopf): “French Braid may not upend a fan’s ranking of Tyler’s novels, in the way Redhead By the Side of the Road was a late entry, but it’s thoroughly enjoyable, and at this point any Tyler book is a gift.”

Briefly Noted

The Washington Post talks with Karin Slaughter about the new Netflix adaptation of her 2018 thriller, Pieces of Her (Morrow).

Dennis Duncan discusses writing his latest book, Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age (Norton; LJ starred revew), with The Millions.

Time profiles Jess Damuck, whose cookbook, Salad Freak : Recipes To Feed a Healthy Obsession (Abrams), publishes March 29.

FoxNews has a Q&A with songwriter J.T. Harding about his new book, Party Like a Rockstar: The Crazy, Coincidental, Hard-Luck, and Harmonious Life of a Songwriter (Twelve: Grand Central), and his “hard-luck climb to chart-topping success.”

The Guardian shares a conversation between Elena Ferrante, In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing, trans. by Ann Goldstein (Europa), and Pulitzer prize–winning novelist Elizabeth Strout about “identity, ambition, truth—and the ‘convulsive’ urge to write.” Also, Karen Joy Fowler discusses her new novel about the family of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, Booth (Putnam).

Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson raised $15.4 million in 24 hours on Kickstarter to fund four new books.  NYT reports. 

Historian Orlando Figes suggests “five of the best books about Russia and Ukraine,” for The Guardian.

USA Today picks five books for the week.

CrimeReads suggests 10 books out this week. 

The Washington Post has “4 great new mysteries and thrillers—and one to skip.”

Tor recommends new horror and genre-bending titles and “5 books about the lives of artificial objects.”

“Robert Hicks, best-selling author of ‘The Widow of the South,’ dies at 71.” And, “Walter R. Mears, Pulitzer-winning reporter featured in classic book on campaign journalists, dies at 87.”  The Washington Post has obituaries.

Authors on Air

CBS Sunday Morning has an interview with Dolly Parton and James Patterson about their collaborative novel, Run, Rose, Run (Little, Brown), and shares an excerpt.

NPR’s Morning Edition talks with William P. Barr about Trump, the 2020 election, and his memoir, One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General (Morrow).

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley (Morrow) will be adapted for film. Deadline reports. 

The Batman, based on associated titles, has $128.5 million box office opening. Variety has the story.

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