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Awards & News

Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize announces its shortlist, including honorees Kaitlyn Greenidge, Raven Leilani, Mia Birdsong, and more. BPL will host a virtual celebration and reading tomorrow, October 21, at 7 p.m. ET. 

The 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medals Longlist is announced. Winners will be announced during ALA’s first annual LibLearnX on Sunday, January 23rd at 4:30 p.m. Central.

Lucy Caldwell wins the BBC National Short Story Award, for her story "All the People Were Mean and Bad."  The Guardian has details.  

The Black Mountain Institute announces that The Believer literary magazine will cease publication in Spring 2022. The LA Times has coverage.

Reviews

The NYT reviews The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon (FSG): “Solomon has a way of taking class lines that are often invisible and turning them into one of those laser museum security systems that you see in heist movies: neon, treacherous, uncrossable.” And, Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could by Adam Schiff (Random House): “Schiff writes thoughtfully in the first chapters about the appeal of populist demagogues overseas, and how it could happen here, but he is less eager to delve too deeply into why Republican lawmakers fell into a Trump trance.”  Plus, The End of Bias: A Beginning: The Science and Practice of Overcoming Unconscious Bias by Jessica Nordell (Metropolitan): "this isn’t a book that lets anyone off the hook. If anything, The End of Bias argues for a more profound sense of responsibility; Nordell describes bias as a kind of theft, one that deprives individuals and undermines entire societies."

The Washington Post reviews Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (Viking): “I was halfway through the book before I realized what Solnit had done: She’d written a biography that was actually pleasurable to read.” And, The Swank Hotel by Lucy Corin (Greywolf: Macmillan): “Telling a family story is always difficult, but telling a sibling story might be even more challenging because siblings supposedly exist on the same level of power within modern families. If a deeply troubled sister affects another sister, who gets to tell the story?” And, Unprotected by Billy Porter (Abrams; LJ starred review): "Whether he’s reliving triumphs or trauma, Porter bears his soul — just as he did all those years ago on that high school stage, bloodied and bruised. When faced with such honest audacity, one can only applaud."

The LA Times reviews Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (Viking): “at once a biographical study of this champion of freedom, an impressive work of cultural and literary criticism and a testament to Solnit's far-ranging curiosity. Known for her penchant for digressions and tangents, Solnit leaves no row unhoed as she simultaneously explores the roots of Orwell's prolific literary output and the fecund history of roses.” And, Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout (Random): “Loneliness and longing were Strout’s big themes in Lucy Barton and its followup. She returns to them here like a supplicant at her prayer book: begging to understand them even just a little bit more.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read The Judge’s List, by John Grisham (Doubleday), this week’s buzziest book.

Joyce Saricks talks about suggesting books with the NYT in the "TIP" column.

USA Today hints that there may be optimism for books amid global supply chain issues. Publishers Weekly is also tracking publication date changes, due to problems in the supply chain.

NYT has a profile and interview of Nadifa Mohamed, whose book The Fortune Men (Knopf), was recently shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

USA Today talks with Jamie Foxx about his new book, Act Like You Got Some Sense: And Other Things My Daughters Taught Me, written with Nick Chiles (Grand Central), and turning a painful childhood into good parenting.

LA Times has an interview with Catherine Prendergast about the discovery that led to her latest book,The Gilded Edge: Two Audacious Women and the Cyanide Love Triangle That Shook America (Dutton).

Vogue talks with Violaine Huisman about her debut novel,  The Book of Mother, trans. by Leslie Camhi (Scribner).

Bitch interviews Zeba Blay about her debut essay collection, Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black Women in Popular Culture (St. Martin’s Griffin), which "treats Black women as art."

Stephanie Land,  Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive (Hachette), discusses why welfare is broken with Vox. 

People reveals details from new book, Not All Diamonds and Rosé: The Inside Story of The Real Housewives from the People Who Lived It by Dave Quinn (Andy Cohen Books). People also shares from the forthcoming memoir, Putting the Rabbit in the Hat by Brian Cox (Grand Central), due out in January. Plus, “3 Things Jenny Doan Fans Need to Know” about her new quilting book, How to Stitch an American Dream: A Story of Family, Faith and the Power of Giving (Harper Horizon).

FoxNews shares highlights from Andrew Morton’s updated book, Meghan and the Unmasking of the Monarchy: A Hollywood Princess (Grand Central). 

Vulture shares an excerpt from the forthcoming Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers by James Andrew Miller (Henry Holt), due out November 23rd.

Mental health nonprofit, This Is My Brave, declines donation from forthcoming Jamie Lynn Spears book, Things I Should Have Said: Family, Fame, and Figuring it Out (Worthy Books), after receiving backlash. Entertainment Weekly reports. People also has coverage of Spears’ reaction to the news. 

Mark Seal, Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather (Gallery; LJ starred review), draws an arc between Vito Corleone and Tony Soprano at CrimeReads. CrimeReads also has “10 horror novels for crime fans”. Plus, book business-related crime novels. 

The Washington Post shares "Halloween-perfect story collections."

USA Today has “What to know from Dune the book before seeing the movie."

LitHub writes about the literary lawsuit that "could pose lasting problems for company whistleblowers."

Authors On Air

NPR’s Fresh Air has an interview with Billy Porter about his new memoir, Unprotected (Abrams; LJ starred review), and making peace with himself.

NPR’s Book of the Day talks with Stephanie Grisham about her tell-all memoir, I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House (HarperCollins).

Good Morning America has an interview with Jamie Foxx about his new book, Act Like You Got Some Sense: And Other Things My Daughters Taught Me, written with Nick Chiles (Grand Central).

Author Kate Mosse launches a new YouTube channel, featuring a monthly book club highlighting two non-fiction titles and a pair of fiction titles each month. The Bookseller has the story. 

NPR’s Morning Edition talks with Farah Stockman, American Made: What Happens to People When Work Disappears (Random; LJ starred review), about workers who were laid off after jobs went to Mexico. 

The PBS NewsHour looks at bringing Dune, based on the book by Frank Herbert, to the big screen.

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