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Awards News

The Shirley Jackson Awards Winners are announced with Stephen Graham Jones winning top prizes for both best novel, The Only Good Indians (Gallery/Saga: S. & S.; LJ starred review), and best novella, Night of the Mannequins (Tordotcom). R.A. Busby picks up the prize for short fiction for Not the Man I Married, and Kathe Koja wins best single author collection for Velocities (Meerkat). Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women edited by Lee Murray & Geneve Flynn (Omnium Gatherum), wins the prize for best edited anthology. View the awards ceremony.

The Gordon Burn Prize shortlist is announced, including books by Sam Byers, Doireann Ni Ghriofa, Hanif Abdurraquib, Jenni Fagan, and Tabitha Lasley.  

Big Books of the Week

The Noise by James Patterson and J. D. Barker (Little, Brown) leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

Complications by Danielle Steel (Delacorte)

Bloodless by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Grand Central)

The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal by Mary L. Trump (St. Martin's)

Viral by Robin Cook (Putnam)

These books and others publishing the week of August 16th, 2021 are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

There are two LibraryReads selections and one Indie Next pick publishing this week:

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey: Ballantine; LJ starred review)

“In 1970s Mexico City, secret police were used as were "the Hawks," a group of young thugs who roughed up journalists who attended university student protests to stop revolution. Moreno- Garcia masterfully weaves this story with that of a young woman pushing thirty, unlucky in love, but always an incurable romantic. Beautifully written with an imaginative plot. For readers who enjoyed Above the East China Sea and Someone Else’s Love Story.”—Donna Ballard, East Meadow Public Library, East Meadow, NY

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“From the author of Mexican Gothic comes a classic noir with a side of romance based on the Mexican government’s suppression of dissent in the ’60s and ’70s and the involvement of the CIA and KGB.”—Rebecca Dowling, Hockessin Book Shelf, Hockessin, DE

Battle Royal by Lucy Parker (Avon)

“Sylvie and Dominic met during a baking competition when her unicorn cake kicked him in the face. Now they’re both in the running to bake the royal wedding cake. A slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romance with witty banter and fantastic secondary characters. For fans of 99 Percent Mine and The Ex Talk.”—Laura Eckert, Clermont County Public Library, Milford, OH

In the Media

The People "Picks" book of the week is The People We Keep by Allison Larkin (Gallery Books). Also getting attention are The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters: A True Story of Family Fiction by Julie Klam (Riverhead), and Mrs. March by Virginia Feito (Liveright: Norton). 

A “New Thrillers" section highlights False Witness by Karin Slaughter (Morrow; LJ starred review), Where the Truth Lies by Anna Bailey (Atria), and Did I Say You Could Go by Melanie Gideon (S.& S.). Plus, the “Self-Help” pick is Everyday Vitality: Turning Stress into Strength by Samantha Boardman (Penguin Life). The People’s Picks section highlights Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the book by Liane Moriarty and Amazon’s Modern Love, based on the weekly column from The New York Times.

There is a profile of Billie Jean King, author of the memoir All In (Knopf: Random House; LJ starred review). Plus, Helene Henderson, Malibu Farm Sunrise to Sunset : Simple Recipes All Day: A Cookbook (Clarkson Potter), shares a recipe.

Reviews

NYT reviews The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You by Maurice Carlos Ruffin (One World: Random House): “Ruffin writes with the clipped motion of the best comic books, and the unsparing tenderness of a poet. Readers enamored with the relentless lyricism of his novel may be surprised to find a gentler voice guiding these stories, without judgment." And, The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade by Benjamin T. Smith (Norton): “weaves sordid tales of Mexican traffickers, frustrated antidrug crusaders on both sides of the border, and Mexican authorities who tolerated, exploited and protected the narcos.” Plus, Michael J. Fox reviews I Live a Life Like Yours by Jan Grue (FSG Originals): “This is a story of intense difficulty, which was surely difficult to write and is sometimes difficult to read. But it’s worth the investment. From behind the veil of disability, he shares valuable insight about the human condition.”

The Washington Post reviews Across the River: Life, Death, and Football in an American City by Kent Babb (HarperCollins): “Karr’s team is all Black, and Babb is a Southern White man, yet he gains the trust of the key characters and bears witness to the texture and truth of their lives.”

LA Times reviews The King of Infinite Space by Lyndsay Faye (Putnam): “is both a fleet-footed delight and a true tragedy in the classical tradition of its source. It is a tragicomedy, a hybrid of past and present, a pastiche and an original yarn, a verily fun and achingly melancholy novel.” And, American Estrangement by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh (Norton): “It’s not hard to identify the social commentary in that dialogue, but Sayrafiezadeh is too nuanced a writer for this to be his sole objective. He is interested in displacement on both the macro and the micro scale.”

The Guardian reviews The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal by Mary L. Trump (St. Martin’s): “The book is a mixture of family lore, history, policy and anger. As expected, Mary Trump’s disdain for her uncle is once again made clear.”

NPR reviews The Other Me by Sarah Zachrich Jeng (Berkley): “resists categorization, blending the impossible with the probable with the downright plausible.” And, Pilgrim Bell by Kaveh Akbar (Graywolf: LJ starred review): “Like a bell, Akbar breaks reality with sound, swinging like a pendulum between what we think we know and what we actually know.” Also, Gordo by Jaime Cortez (Grove: Black Cat): “a lovely book that masterfully evokes 1970s California, but manages, nonetheless, to feel truly universal.” Plus, reviews of 7 books that show “Sci-Fi Has Changed A Lot In The Past Decade.”

Briefly Noted

The Millions interviews Maggie Smith, Goldenrod: Poems (Atria/One Signal).

Barbra Streisand has been working on a memoir, and tells People that “Jackie Kennedy Once Offered [to] Edit Her Memoir”. 

Four writers tell People what it’s like to interview Donald Trump.

The Washington Post discusses Sci Fi and Fantasy books that could make great TV. 

NYT writes about conservative publishers releasing books on race.

USA Today picks five books for the week.

CrimeReads suggests 10 books out this week.

The Atlantic's Books Briefing selects "Books to Get Lost In This Summer."

Tor recommends “5 Tense Books That Blend Sci-Fi and Horror.”

Buzzfeed has “17 Audiobooks That Will Make Your Next Road Trip More Fun.”

“Leon Litwack, Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar of America’s racial divide, dies at 91.” The Washington Post has an obituary.

“Donald Kagan, Leading Historian of Ancient Greece, Dies at 89.” NYT has an obituary.

“Michael Thomas, Writer and Bête Noire of the Moneyed Class, Dies at 85.” NYT has an obituary.

Authors on Air

Impeachment: An American Crime Story, based on the book A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President by Jeffrey Toobin (Random House), due out on FX on September 7th, releases a first trailer. 

PBS NewsHour speaks with Hector Tobar, author of the forthcoming A Migrant’s Tale, and an essay in Harper’s, about his 9,000-mile road trip across the country to find out what it means to be Latino.

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