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Remembering Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti died on Monday at the age of 101. He'll be remembered for his San Francisco bookstore City Lights, for inspiring many other independent publishers with his press City Lights Books, and for his role in the Beat poetry movement. Notable for his own poetry, including the collection A Coney Island of the Mind, he also famously published Howl by Allen Ginsberg, for which he was arrested on obscenity charges and ultimately acquitted in a precedent-setting First Amendment case. 

A remembrance is up at City Lights, and many papers have obituaries, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the NYT, the L.A. Times, NPR, and The Washington Post.

Reviews

The L.A. Times reviews Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf: Random House; LJ starred review): "Few writers who’ve ever lived have been able to create moods of transience, loss and existential self-doubt as Ishiguro has — not art about the feelings, but the feelings themselves."

The NYT also reviews Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf: Random House; LJ starred review): "'Klara and the Sun' complements his brilliant vision, though it doesn’t reach the artistic heights of his past achievements." Also, Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee (Knopf: Random House; LJ starred review): "If you love his work, you need to read her book." Tomorrow They Won't Dare to Murder Us by Joseph Andras and translated by Simon Leser (Verso): "...[it] insists on plumbing the thorniest details of history’s scandal, suggesting — convincingly — that certain truths are best revealed in fiction." The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee (One World: Random House; LJ starred review): "There is a striking clarity to this book; there is also a depth of kindness in it that all but the most churlish readers will find moving." Flight of the Diamond Smugglers: A Tale of Pigeons, Obsession, and Greed Along Coastal South Africa by Matthew Gavin Frank (Liveright: W. W. Norton; LJ starred review): "Whether or not you enjoy this kind of prose is a matter of personal taste, but the author’s talent is not in question."

NPR also reviews Flight of the Diamond Smugglers: A Tale of Pigeons, Obsession, and Greed Along Coastal South Africa by Matthew Gavin Frank (Liveright: W. W. Norton; LJ starred review): "If 'Flight of the Diamond Smugglers' induces justified discomfort about the dirty business of diamonds, it also rewards with a panoramic view of an ancient and mysterious trade." Also, The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan (Ballantine: Random House): "...a heartwarming story of four women determined to make their own way in the world, who find unexpected friendship — and strength — in each other." 

Entertainment Weekly reviews The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove), which earns a B: "In the end, the keen insights, caustic comedy, and thrilling formal confidence remain — but clunky, convoluted plotting gets in the way."

Briefly Noted

The Audio Publishers Association announced finalists in 25 categories for the 2021 Audie Awards, including the Audiobook of the Year. Winners will be announced during the free, virtual Audie Awards Gala on March 22.

BuzzFeed picks the 10 best books of the week.

The Booklist Reader also rounds up the best out this week.

The NYT previews "16 New Books to Watch For in March."

Lifehacker recommends "11 Otherworldly Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books Written By Black Authors."

Barbara Hoffert has new Prepub Alert columns in LJ.

Book Riot lists "book festivals and conventions coming in the next several months that you can attend right from the comfort of your own home."

HarperCollins Focus' new imprint, Harper Muse, has launched with a "focus on women’s fiction, historical fiction and southern fiction categories with stories that resonate with Millennial and Generation X readers." First out this fall will be Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan, her 16th novel. 

Hillary Clinton is teaming with Louise Penny to write the political thriller State of Terror. St. Martin’s Press and Simon & Schuster, their respective publishers, will release the book in October. The NYT has details.

Cindy McCain, Sen. John McCain' widow, will publish the memoir Stronger: Courage, Hope, and Humor In My Life With John McCain (Forum: Penguin Random House). It's due out April 27. 

The audiobook version of Minecraft: The Mountain by Max Brooks (Del Rey: Random House) will feature narration by actor Sean Astin, who's been friends with Brooks (son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft) since high school. Tor.com has details.

The Hollywood Reporter has an excerpt from Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way by Caseen Gaines (Sourcebooks), which is due out May 25.

CBC Books has an excerpt from Speak, Silence by Kim Echlin (Hamish Hamilton: Random House). It's due out March 2.

Entertainment Weekly's "What's in a Page" column features Jennifer Ryan, The Kitchen Front (Ballantine: Random House).

Randa Jarrar talks with The Rumpus Book Club about Love Is an Ex-Country (Catapult: Penguin).

Elizabeth Miki Brina, Speak, Okinawa (Knopf: Random House; LJ starred review), answers Poets & Writers' "10 Questions."

Tanya Selvaratnam, Assume Nothing: A Story of Intimate Violence (Harper; LJ starred review), does a Q&A with HuffPost. People also has an interview with the author.

BOMB talks with Matthew Salesses about Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping (Catapult: Penguin).

Lambda Literary's new "May We Present…" column features Morgan Rogers, Honey Girl (Park Row: HarperCollins). Bitch Media also speaks with the author.

The NYT looks into why baseball teams are obsessed with the psychology book Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (FSG: Macmillan). 

The Whitmire War Memorial Library of South Carolina is now on Mars, in a way: A microchip on the Perseverance rover is inscribed with the library's name. WLTX-TV shares the story.

"We’re not going to change it on our first day. It’s a step," said Lisa Lucas, the new publisher of Pantheon and Schocken, in a piece at Vulture that looks at the moves being made to diversify publishing.

Authors on Air

Amblin Television will produce a series based on the books featuring Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins by Walter Mosley; Rawlins most recently appeared in this month's Blood Grove. Shadow and Act has details.

Kenya Barris is joining Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson to develop a Netflix series adaptation of Jackson's (with Robert Greene) book The 50th Law. Also, Taylor Kitsch will star with Chris Pratt in the Amazon series based on The Terminal List by Jack Carr. Deadline has more information.

Angel Manuel Soto will direct the feature Blue Beetle, based on the DC Comics character, which will be the first superhero movie starring a Latinx character. The Wrap reports.

Author Brian Selznick is writing an animated adaptation of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Also, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole Perlroth will be adapted as a drama series for FX. The Hollywood Reporter has all the news.

See a teaser for Jupiter’s Legacy, based on the comic book series by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely. The series debuts on Netflix May 7.

NPR's Morning Edition interviews Joby Warrick, Red Line: The Unraveling of Syria and America's Race to Destroy the Most Dangerous Arsenal in the World (Doubleday: Random House).

Laurence Rees, Hitler and Stalin: The Tyrants and the Second World War (PublicAffairs: Hachette), is on the Keen On podcast.

Jenny Offill discusses Weather (Knopf) on the Reading Women podcast. 

The Today Show features The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's: Macmillan; LJ starred review).

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