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Award & Buzzy Book News

Lindsey Drager wins the 2021 Annual Bard Fiction Prize for The Archive of Alternate Endings (Dzanc: Ingram), according to a Bard College press release.

Michelle Good wins the 2021 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award for Five Little Indians (HarperCollins). CBC reports.

The 2021 sf-Lit Award Longlist is announced.

The creation of the Ursula K. La Guin Prize for fiction is announced and will be awarded next year.

Page to Screen

October 22:

Dune, based on the book by Frank Herbert. Warner Bros. Pictures. Reviews | Trailer

October 27:

Passing, based on the book by Nella Larsen. Netflix. Reviews | Trailer

Reviews

NPR reviews Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (Viking): “The man is, of course, important to the book in that his public and private writing, his ideas, and his gardening serve as the spine that holds together its many disparate ideas. But it could be easily said too that the book is about the relationship between, on the one hand, the human causes of climate change, brutal labor conditions, and totalitarian regimes, and, on the other hand, the struggle for freedom and justice, and the simple joys and pleasures that make such pursuits worthy and sustainable. In other words, it's a deeply political collection of interlinked essays, and at its center are the tensions between beauty and labor, joy and suffering.”

NYT reviews Monster in the Middle by Tiphanie Yanique (Riverhead): "The novel itself is a mapping: of parents and their children who feel worlds apart in experience, but who are linked by lofty dreams and lowered expectations, by the journey through all the bittersweet peaks and shadowed valleys of a love affair with this country. What follows will be a cartographical examination of marriage, sorrow and madness as carefully plotted as the map the novel begins with."

The Washington Post reviews Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World by Wil Haygood (Knopf): "For anyone who isn’t steeped in film history, Haygood provides a valuable service by recalling the few movies made by White producers and directors in the pre-civil rights era that dealt seriously with race issues." And, One Friday in April: A Story of Suicide and Suvival by Donald Antrim (W. W. Norton & Co.): "“One Friday in April” is a heart-rending and edifying portrait of the pain of mental illness." Also,  White Space, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality by Sheryll Cashin (Beacon): "Sheryll Cashin demonstrates how durable and pervasive anti-Black rhetoric has been in American thought from the days of Thomas Jefferson to the era of Donald Trump. The ill-begotten notion of Black inferiority, she argues, led to segregation: White and Black space, an idea made iconic by the urban ghetto, an island of inopportunity defined largely by race." Plus, a couple more reviews posted today.

Locus Magazine reviews Fan Fiction: A Mem-Noir: Inspired by True Events by Brent Spiner and Jeanne Darst (St. Martin’s): “Acclaimed actor Brent Spiner’s debut novel Fan Fiction is, as the cover boasts, not a memoir but a Mem-Noir: an avant-garde mystery loosely based on actual events that [may or may not have] happened to Spiner during the course of filming Star Trek: The Next Gen­eration, where he played android Commander Data, and received some incredibly disturbing fan letters.”

NYT releases many reviews from the book review archives.

Book Marks shares "The Best Reviewed Books of the Week."

Briefly Noted

Kalani Pickhart, I Will Die in a Foreign Land (Two Dollar Radio), speaks to Aram Mrjoian at the Chicago Review of Books about the structural complexity of her book.

Billy Porter, Unprotected (Abrams; LJ starred review), discusses his experience with body dysmorphia in an interview with Good Morning America.

Wendy J. Fox, author of What If We Were Somewhere Else (Santa Fe Writer’s Project), chats with The Rumpus about “how she approached writing a book of linked stories, learning not to focus on creative output, and more.”

CBC interviews Ken Haigh, On Foot to Canterbury (University of Alberta Press), who “walked the Canterbury Trail in honour of his late father.” Also, Omar El Akkad, What Strange Paradise (Knopf), states that “we can’t afford not to be hopeful” in an interview.

Jon Levy, shares an essay adapted from his book You're Invited: The Art and Science of Cultivating Influence (Harper Business) on how “personal connection is the key to success” with Oprah Daily.

The Root Presents: It’s Lit! talks to Yvonne Orji about her book Bamboozled by Jesus: How God Tricked Me Into the Life of My Dreams (Worthy: Hachette) and how she “leans into her faith.”

Electric Lit explores the Palmares by Gayl Jones (Beacon) as “an example of what grows when Black women choose silence.”

Tor.com gives a first look at The Impossible Us by Sarah Lotz (Ace: Penguin Random House).

CrimeReads shares “October’s Best Psychological Thrillers” and “8 Noir Novels Featuring Saps and Suckers.”

Tor.com lists “5 SFF Homes From Hell” and “Five Experimental SFF Works by Writers From London.”

Parade provides “25 Books We’ve Loved Reading This Fall.”

Lit Hub has "5 Audiobooks to Catch Up on the 2021 Pulitzer Winners and Finalists."

Authors on Air

Phoebe Robinson, Please Don't Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes (Tiny Reparations: Random House; LJ starred review), chats on The Maris Review podcast about “her new imprint and anti-racism reading lists.”

Sebastian Junger, author of Freedom (S. & S.), speaks about "freedom vs. community" in a conversation with Andrew Keen on the Keen On podcast. Also, Josh Cohen, How to Live. What to Do: In Search of Ourselves in Life and Literature (Pantheon: Penguin Random House), on "letting the literary be a guide to life."

The Book Dreams podcast features David Shariatmadari, Don't Believe a Word: The Surprsing Truth About Language (W. W. Norton) talk aboout "what etymology can teach us about culture (and happiness)."

USA Today gives viewers of the adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune a cheat sheet from the book to watch the movie.

Dave Grohl, The Storyteller (Dey St.; LJ starred review), will appear on the Kelly Clarkson show tonight.

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