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Awards & Looking Ahead

“PEN America and Penguin Random House sue Florida school district over book bans,” according to The Washington Post. Also, reporting on this news are NYT, Locus Magazine, and PublishersLunch. 

The Washington Post reports that school librarians could face prison time in several states for “providing sexually explicit, obscene or ‘harmful’ books to children.”

The 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist is announced. 

More on the Writers Guild strike, including a “studio-by-studio forecast of how much a deal would cost,” from The Hollywood Reporter. 

Vulture shares “14 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Summer.”

New Title Bestsellers

Links for the week: NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers | NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers | USA Today Best-Selling Books

Fiction

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks (Knopf) shines at No. 2 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

Queen Charlotte by Julia Quinn, written with Shonda Rhimes (Avon), reigns at No. 5 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

Nonfiction

The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up by Andy Cohen (Holt) debuts at No. 4 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain by Andrew McCarthy (Grand Central) hikes to No. 8 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys—and One Senator’s Fight To Save Democracy by James Risen, written with Thomas Risen (Little, Brown), rises to No. 14 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing To Put Space Within Reach by Ashlee Vance (Ecco) begins at No. 14 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

Reviews

NYT’s shortlist reviews the memoirs: The Wreck: A Daughter’s Memoir of Becoming a Mother by Cassandra Jackson (Viking), Everything All at Once by Stephanie Catudal (Harper One), and Building: A Carpenter’s Notes on Life & the Art of Good Work by Mark Ellison (Random).  

The Washington Post reviews A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan (Viking; LJ starred review): “Egan is a meticulous researcher and, perhaps especially, a skilled storyteller. His reconstruction of Stephenson’s deplorable arc—his lie-fueled rise, his vile charisma, his ultimate fall—is a master class in the tools of narrative nonfiction.”

LA Times reviews Life B: Overcoming Double Depression by Bethanne Patrick (Counterpoint): “Life B is obviously a huge part of Patrick’s healing process, which ultimately makes this memoir a compelling read—not because her illness is so unusual but because her experience of it, her fight to get back to herself and her desires, is so frustratingly common, particularly for women of middle age who have spent their lives putting others first.”

The Guardian reviews The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Grove; LJ starred review): “This is a novel—a splendid, enthralling one—about the body, about what characters inherit and what makes itself felt upon them. It is the body that contains ambiguities and mysteries.”

Tor.com reviews Dead Country by Max Gladstone (Tor): “A character-focused novel of going home again, reckoning with your past (the good, the bad, and the Craft), and deciding who you will be in the days to come, for they will be darker than you can imagine.”

Bookmarks shares “5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week.”

Briefly Noted

USA Today talks with stuntwoman Kimberly Shannon Murphy about her new memoir (and USA Today May book club pick), Glimmer: A Story of Survival, Hope, and Healing (Harper Wave). 

Standup commedian Steven Wright discusses his new novel, Harold (S. & S.), with LA Times. 

Polly Stewart, author of forthcoming thriller The Good Ones (Harper), reconsiders Ethel White’s The Lady Vanishes for CrimeReads in a discussion with fellow writer Andrea Bartz, whose book The Spare Room (Ballantine) is set to be released in mid-June.

NPR Music talks to writer Alex Pappademas and illustrator Joan LeMay about “their personal histories with Steely Dan” and about the creation of their book, Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan (Univ. of Texas).

Hernan Diaz, Trust (Riverhead), goes “by the book,” for NYT  and discovers some surprises in his book collection. 

Dan Holmes reconsiders Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut for Tor.com. 

LitHub highlights the guest editors and covers for the Best American Series 2023.

Tor.com shares the first two chapters of The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang (Tor.com). Also, a cover reveal for Twice Lived by Joma West (Tor.com)

Naomi Klein will come out with a new book Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (Farrar) this fall, focusing on “political reporting with personal reflections,” according to Fox News.

Kristen R. Ghodsee, author of Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life (S. & S.), recommends “nine utopian books to deprogram our brains” for Lit Hub. 

Tor.com lists “8 Fantasy Books About Working in the Afterlife.”

Good Housekeeping selects the “25 Best Fantasy Books of All Time.”

NYT provides “newly published” books this week.

Authors on Air

Terry Gross, host of NPR’s Fresh Air, interviews historian Matthew Dallek about “how a secretive, extremist group radicalized the American right,” as detailed in his new book, Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right (Basic; LJ starred review).

Juliet and Kelly Starrett discuss details in their book, Built To Move: The Ten Essential Habits To Help You Move Freely and Live Fully (Knopf), with the Keen On podcast. Plus, Stephen Vladeck on the subject of his book, The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings To Amass Power and Undermine the Republic (Basic). Also, David Fleming considers the question “Did Thomas Jefferson steal the words of the Declaration of Independence from Irish and Scottish migrants to North Carolina?” in an interview about his book, Who’s Your Founding Father?: One Man’s Epic Quest To Uncover the First, True Declaration of Independence (Hachette).

NPR’s Morning Edition talks with Andy Cohen about his new book, The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up (Holt). 

Ernest Hemingway’s last book, Across the River and Into the Trees, will be adapted into a film. Lit Hub has more.

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