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Awards & Summer Previews

Nam Le’s 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem (Knopf; LJ starred review) wins the New South Wales Book of the Year Award, Sydney Morning Herald announces. Among this year’s other NSW Literary Award winners is James Bradley’s Deep Water: The World in the Ocean (HarperOne).

Winners of the League of Canadian Poets Prizes are revealed; CBC has coverage.

Dawn Macdonald’s poetry collection Northerny (Univ. of Alberta) wins the Canadian First Book Prize, CBC reports.

Clare Pollard’s The Modern Fairies (Avid Reader/S. & S.) wins the Tadeusz Bradecki Prize for a work “in which fiction and nonfiction writing combine in an original and exciting way.”

The shortlist is announced for the Leacock Medal for Canadian humor writing; CBC has the news.

The Community of Literary Magazines & Presses announces the finalists for the Firecracker Awards, for independently published books.

NYT previews 31 novels and 21 nonfiction books coming out this summer.

Vulture lists “28 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Summer.”

CrimeReads selects the most anticipated crime fiction of the summer.

LJ has a new Display Shelf on beach reads.

New Title Bestsellers

Links for the week: NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers | NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers | USA Today Bestselling Books

Fiction

A Curse Carved in Bone by Danielle L. Jensen (Del Rey) is inscribed at No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list and No. 2 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Pr.) commands No. 2 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list and No. 3 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie (Tor) grabs No. 5 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list and on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living by Josie Balka (Simon Element) gets No. 7 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list.

Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf) comes in hot at No. 8 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list.

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman (Ace) finds No. 10 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list.

Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan (Forever: Grand Central; LJ starred review) gets No. 15 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

Nonfiction

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (Penguin Pr.; LJ starred review) sails to No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list and No. 14 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes by Leah Litman (Atria/One Signal) presides over No. 4 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass; How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up by Dave Barry (S. & S.) performs at No. 9 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You To Know by Doron Spielman (Center Street) has No. 11 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list, though some retailers report receiving bulk orders.

Diet, Drugs, and Dopamine: The New Science of Achieving a Healthy Weight by David A. Kessler (Flatiron) reaches No. 12 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

Reviews

LA Times reviews The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s by Paul Elie (Farrar; LJ starred review): “Elie’s brilliant book is a bracing reminder of art’s far-reaching power in matters of the heart and soul. His expansive vision of the ’80s rings out like a clarion call for a new era of rigorous artistic engagement with the unknowable and the unseen”; and The South by Tash Aw (Farrar): “Aw allows much to remain unknown, uncertain, or unsaid in The South, and he does so beautifully, allowing readers to find the nuance within the very specific scenes.”

Washington Post reviews Who Knew by Barry Diller (S. & S.): “Diller has every right to keep certain details of his private life to himself. But when you’re writing a memoir and you state from the jump that ‘you’re too old to care’ what people think, readers will expect you to spill a little more than this”; and four new books that “prove worldbuilding is vital to sci-fi and fantasy”: Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame by Neon Yang (Tor.com; LJ starred review), The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (Tor), Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata, tr. by Ginny Tapley Takemori (Grove), and Wake the Wild Creatures by Nova Ren Suma (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers).

LitHub has “5 Book Reviews You Need To Read This Week.”

Briefly Noted

Publishers Weekly’s “Writers Talking Writers” series has Madeleine Thien, author of The Book of Records (Norton), discussing the work of her late friend Y-Dang Troeung, author of Landbridge: Life in Fragments (Duke Univ.) and Refugee Lifeworlds: The Afterlife of the Cold War in Cambodia (Temple Univ.).

Publishers Weekly speaks with Harpinder Kaur Mann, author of Liberating Yoga: From Appropriation to Healing (Broadleaf).

Kevin Sack, author of Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church (Crown), talks to Publishers Weekly.

Christopher Moore, author of Anima Rising (Morrow; LJ starred review), answers NYT’s “By the Book” questionnaire.

Graphic novelist Alison Bechdel, creator of Spent: A Comic Novel (Mariner; LJ starred review), shares her “Annotated Nightstand” with LitHub.

The Guardian interviews Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told (Little, Brown).

Kirkus gathers “12 Nonfiction Books That Read Like Novels.”

LitHub rounds up “Five Novels Involving Destructive Relationships.”

CrimeReads identifies “7 Novels Featuring Imposters Among Us.”

NYT updates its list of the best crime novels of 2025 so far.

Melania Trump is launching an audiobook of her memoir, Melania (Skyhorse), using AI narration in multiple languages, Fox News reports.

Authors on Air

Naomi Xu Elegant, author of Gingko Season (Norton), talks to Kirkus’s Fully Booked podcast.

NPR’s Fresh Air speaks with Kashmir Hill, author of Your Face Belongs To Us: A Secretive Startup’s Quest To End Privacy as We Know It (Random; LJ starred review).

PBS NewsHour interviews Barry Diller, author of Who Knew (S. & S.).

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