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Awards, Book Clubs & News

Oprah selects Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout (Random) as her new book club pick. 

Publishers Weekly rounds up September book club picks.

People compiles 2024 book club picks from Reese Witherspoon, Kaia Gerber, Dua Lipa, and Jenna Bush Hager. 

The final season of Good Omens, based on the books by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, has halted production amid assault allegations against Gaiman, Variety reports.

The Ditmar Awards Preliminary Ballot is announced. Locus has the news. 

The Verge reports that Amazon is allowing a small number of Audible narrators to clone their voices with AI.

Remembering James Earl Jones

Legendary actor James Earl Jones has died at the age of 93. NYT has an obituary. People, Deadline, Washington Post, and USA Today honor his legacy. NYT shares his life in pictures.
An author, Jones also lent his iconic voice as the narrator for several audiobooks, including an edition of the Bible.

Plus, Rolling Stone highlights Ode to Grapefruit: How James Earl Jones Found His Voice by Kari Lavelle, illus. by Bryan Collier (Knopf Books for Young Readers), a new picture book charting Jones’s ascent to the big screen.

Reviews

NYT reviews Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty (Crown): “As easily as it goes down, though, Here One Moment too often misses the tug and wallop of a good, taut thriller. In a way, the book itself feels like a generous sketch, less a fully realized novel than a work in progress still searching for its final form.” Washington Post also reviews: “Most novels wrap up predictably or peter out or go off the rails. But not Moriarty’s. Her conclusions aren’t obvious, and they don’t necessarily give readers what they want, but they do induce a sense of sanguinity—an exhale of relief that the world makes sense.”

NYT also reviews Still Life by Katherine Packert Burke (Norton): “Burke’s obsession with the formation of art and penchant for seeing her characters’ lives through the lens of another’s work conveys an intense appreciation of craft and a deeply inquisitive mind that flourishes in the midst of creation”; Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild (New Pr.): “The most effective of her myriad tools is simply listening to those whose life stories don’t often get heard in the national conversation”; Two-Step Devil by Jamie Quatro (Grove): “Theologically avant-garde and emotionally supple, Two-Step Devil is a Southern Gothic novel for fans of Denis Johnson, Frank Stanford and Wendell Berry, infused with the genre’s requisite imagery of ‘thick blankets of kudzu’ vines and smells of ‘blood, grease and sweat’”; and Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari (Random): “Even in its second half, not all of Nexus feels original. If you pay attention to the news, you will recognize some of the stories Harari tells. But, at its best, his book summarizes the current state of affairs with a memorable clarity.” The Guardian also reviews the latter: “Harari’s basic point is that information revolutions can give rise to periods of human flourishing but always come at a cost.”

Washington Post reviews two new vampire novels: So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison (Berkley; LJ starred review) and We Love the Nightlife by Rachel Koller Croft (Berkley). 

NPR reviews We’re Alone: Essays by Edwidge Danticat (Graywolf): “We’re Alone accomplishes a lot, but perhaps the most important thing it does is that it manages to feel like an invitation from the opening pages”; and Colored Television by Danzy Senna (Riverhead): “Senna's ungentle satire masterfully explores and explodes the psyche, not just the group chat, of a woman trying to level up on family, work and race in a post-post-racial America.”

Briefly Noted

LitHub highlights 28 new books for the week and “17 Novels You Need to Read This Fall.”

NYT has a profile and interview with Liane Moriarty about her new book, Here One Moment (Crown), success, and the challenge of publicity. 

USA Today suggests titles for fans of Sarah Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses. 

Emily St. John Mandel reflects on her novel Station Eleven 10 years on, at Slate.

Entertainment Weekly shares details from Eve’s new memoir, Who's That Girl? (Hanover Square). 

People shares an excerpt from Kelly Bishop’s forthcoming memoir, The Third Gilmore Girl (Gallery). 

Vogue highlights the new book, Palace Costume: Inside Hollywood’s Best Kept Fashion Secret by Mimi Haddon (Chronicle Chroma).

Queen Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles celebrated their son’s new cookbook, Cooking and the Crown: Royal Recipes from Queen Victoria to King Charles III by Tom Parker Bowles (Ten Speed), due out October 22. Vanity Fair has the story.

The Atlantic’s “Books Briefing” explores how some writers are able to communicate the feeling of pain.

ElectricLit shares “8 Novels That Belong to More Than One Character.”

Reactor highlights new fantasy titles for September. 

BookRiot highlights new queer books for fall, books on media literacy, and 21st-century historical fiction. 

Authors on Air

PBS Canvas talks with Jamil Zaki about his latest book, Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness (Grand Central; LJ starred review). 

Emily Henry chats with Elin Hilderbrand about “Hollywood adaptations, what makes each Emily Henry book different, and reading your own book reviews online” on the Books, Beach, & Beyond podcast. 

Venus Williams shares keys to success from her new book, Strive: 8 Steps To Find Your Awesome (Amistad), on GMA.

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