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Awards & Buzzy Book News

The 2022 Goldsmiths Prize shortlist is announced.

The 2022 Books Are My Bag Readers Awards shortlists are announced.

Datebook provides “book picks in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day.”

Dolly Parton will expand her book-giving program, Lit Hub reports.

Author and historian Meredith Tax has died at 80. NYT has more on her life.

Page to Screen

October 7:

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, based on a story by Bernard Waber. Sony Pictures. No reviews | Trailer

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, based on the novel by Gabrielle Zevin. Vertical Entertainment. No reviews | Trailer

All Quiet on the Western Front, based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque. Netflix. Reviews | Trailer

Hellraiser, based on the novella The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker. Hulu. Reviews | Trailer

Catherine Called Birdy, based on the novel by Karen Cushman. Amazon Studios. Reviews  | Trailer

The Midnight Club, based on the novel by Christopher Pike. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

Werewolf by Night, based on associated titles. Disney+. Reviews | Trailer

October 8:

Pumpkin Everything, based on the novel by Beth Labonte. Hallmark. No reviews | Trailer

October 9:

Let the Right One In, based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Showtime. No reviews | Trailer

October 12:

Belascoarán, PI, based on novels by Paco Ignacio Taibo II. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

October 13:

Dead End: Paranormal Park, based on the graphic novel series DeadEndia by Hamish Steele. Netflix. Reviews | Trailer

Lit Hub has “A Guide to October’s Four New Literary Vampire Shows.”

Reviews

NYT reviews Savor: A Chef’s Hunger for More by Fatima Ali, written with Tarajia Morrell (Ballantine): “A collective work, spun from the willpower of a young, brown, Muslim, queer feminist who came to America seeking fame, freedom and influence, then knitted together by the people who loved her best, as well as her ‘hired witness.’” And A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories by Leonard Cohen (Grove): “These early experiments are the most minor of Cohen’s minor fictional oeuvre. Fleetingly brilliant, they find him circling the subjects that would occupy him all his life—sex, violence, sacredness and the ecstatic moments when all of the above become indistinguishable—but struggling to find the fullest expression of his aesthetic.” Plus, an essay on “sex work, academia, and pain that resists diagnosis” that reviews the memoirs Pretty Baby by Chris Belcher (Avid Reader Pr.: S. & S.), Hysterical by Elissa Bassist (Hachette), and I’m Not Broken by Jesse Leon (Vintage).

The Washington Post reviews Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954–1968 by Thomas E. Ricks (Farrar): “What’s to be gained by casting one of the century’s greatest nonviolent movements in martial terms, by thinking of it as yet another army fighting yet another war? According to Ricks, such a reinterpretation opens a new understanding of the civil rights movement’s remarkable success.” Also, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly): “The most gripping graphic memoir of 2022, offering an unblinking tale of personal trial set against a nation in economic flux.” And Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us by Rachel Aviv (Farrar): “It is these stories and the ones her subjects tell themselves about their mental disorders that fascinate. As for the author’s framing questions, while they are essential to ask, they remain unanswered.” Plus, Try Not To Be Strange: The Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda by Michael Hingston (Biblioasis): “A wonderfully entertaining book, an account of how its Canadian author grew fascinated with a literary jape, a kind of role-playing game or shared-world fantasy involving some of the most eccentric and some of the most famous writers of modern times.”

Datebook reviews Tell Me the Truth About Love by Erik Tarloff (Rare Bird Bks.): “With multiple plots spinning, Tarloff comments on San Francisco society and the intersection of power, money, sexuality and the arts. But he’s primarily interested in his stunted hero, whom he endows with often-irritating views.”

Vox reviews Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng (Penguin Pr.; LJ starred review): “A weaker outing than its predecessor, clumsier and less grounded in character, too ham-fisted in the political points it’s determined to make. Still, it shines in Ng’s language, and in the dark fairy tale she conjures forth.”

Slate reviews Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America by Maggie Haberman (Penguin Pr.): “Will be the definitive account of Trump’s character and how it was formed, a subject both obvious and elusive. But this also seems like a waste of her talents, this task of proving what can be seen by everyone except those determined not to have it proven to them.”

Book Marks shares “The Best Reviewed Books of the Week.”

Briefly Noted

Ryan Lee Wong talks to Shondaland about exploring “idealism and multigenerational activism” in his novel Which Side Are You On (Catapult). Also, Elizabeth McCracken discusses exploring “grief, her relationship with her mother, and more” in her novel The Hero of This Book (Ecco).

Kathleen H. Woods chats with Electric Lit about “America’s most cherished sexual fantasies” and her novel White Wedding (Univ. of Alabama) . 

Jasmine Guillory, author of Drunk on Love (Berkley; LJ starred review), discusses “why she loves love” in a conversation with Popsugar.

People talks to Geena Davis about her memoir, Dying of Politeness (HarperOne), and marriage to Jeff Goldblum. Also, Nora McInerby, author of Bad Vibes Only (and Other Things I Brought to the Table) (Atria), discusses “our culture of oppressive optimism.”

NYT explores the work of new Nobel prizewinner Annie Ernaux, author of Getting Lost, tr. from French by Alison L. Strayer (Seven Stories Pr.), from the perspective of Didier Eribon, regarding the way Ernaux writes about “her own passions,” “dissects the deeply personal,” and examines her own life.

CBC Books interviews two authors about their books: Saeed Teebi regarding his story collection Her First Palestinian (Astoria), and Chelene Knight about “Vancouver’s historic Black neighborhood Hogan’s Alley” and her novel Junie (Book*hug Pr.). 

Vanity Fair chats with Tricia Hersey, author of Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto (Little, Brown Spark), who “makes a powerful case against hustle culture.” Also, Jessica Knoll talks about adapting her novel Luckiest Girl Alive (S. & S.) and “how the production handled recreating her past trauma.”

Datebook profiles Linda Ronstadt’s new memoir Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands, written with Lawrence Downes (Heyday).

Gregg Barak, author of Criminology on Trump (Routledge), reviews five books that explain the subject of Trump and his “life of crime.” 

Jada Pinkett Smith will be coming out with a memoir, as yet untitled, regarding her “complicated marriage to Will Smith” in 2023, according to Entertainment Weekly.

The Takeout explores the depths of Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain, by Charles Leerhsen (S. & S.).

Fox News has coverage of the relationships detailed within The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown, by Katie Nicholl (Hachette).

BBC Culture’s Banned Books series revisits Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate (NYRB Classics), “the Soviet novel too dangerous to read.”

Tor.com shares an excerpt of The Hollow Kind, by Andy Davidson (MCD).

NYPL Blog gives a reading list for Annie Ernaux, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Popsugar lists “all of Colleen Hoover’s books in order” ahead of the release of her latest, It Starts with Us (Atria), which comes out October 18.

CBC lists “30 Canadian books to read now.”

Electric Lit lists “8 Novels About Humans Eating Humans.”

Lit Hub provides “A Multi-Perspective Novel Reading List.”

Book Riot has “8 Gripping Mystery/Thrillers by Asian Authors,” “11 of the Best Horror Short Story Collections,” “10 Fascinating Graphic Nonfiction Books for Curious Minds,” and “A Fantasy Sub-Genres Primer.”

CrimeReads provides “October’s Best Debut Novels.”

The Millions shares their “October Preview” of anticipated books.

USA Today lists “10 new horror books to get into the Halloween spirit.”

NYT recommends 11 new books and 6 paperbacks.

Authors on Air

Namwali Serpell talks about “depicting the uncertainty and experience of grief” in her novel The Furrows: An Elegy (Hogarth), on The Maris Review podcast.

Geena Davis, author of the memoir Dying of Politeness (HarperOne), shares what she learned from “3 of her most famous movies” with NPR’s Morning Edition.

Gabor Maté chats with CBC’s The Current about the way workaholism and unresolved trauma contribute to a decline in overall health, as detailed in his book The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture, written with Daniel Maté (Avery).

Brené Brown speaks to Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman about their book The Love Prescription: Seven Days to More Intimacy, Connection, and Joy (Penguin Life)—the second of three interviews in a series about relationships on Brown’s Unlocking Us podcast.

Jessica Knoll discusses Luckiest Girl Alive, a television adaptation of her novel of the same title, and reveals truths about her high school experience in an interview with People.

John Waters will direct an adaptation of his novel Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance (Farrar), according to Variety. Also, a first look at AMC’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Lives of the Mayfair Witches” novels.

Universal Pictures has purchased the rights to adapt Stephen King’s Fairy Tale (Scribner), to be directed by Paul Greengrass. Deadline has more.

Constance Wu, author of the memoir Making a Scene (Scribner), appears on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

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