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Awards, News & Events

The 2022 Stoker Awards Final Ballot is announced. LJ has reviews for the five titles in the running for Superior Achievement in a Novel:

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland; LJ starred review). Read our interview with Iglesias here.

The Fervor by Alma Katsu (Putnam; LJ starred review). Read our interview with Katsu here.

Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste (Gallery)

Daphne by Josh Malerman (Del Rey: Ballantine)

Sundial by Catriona Ward (Tor Nightfire)

A sequel to Dr. Seuss’s 1957 book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! will publish September. The Guardian reports. USA Today has more news on the new book.

In response to criticism, Penguin Random House will publish “unexpurgated versions” of “The Roald Dahl Classic Collection” along with new edited editions in the UK. USA Today has the news. EW reports that there are “no plans for similarly edited versions of Dahl’s books to be published in the U.S.”

Ahead of the 70th anniversary, Deadline reports that new issues of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books will be edited for a modern audience.

Big Books of the Week

Storm Watch by C.J. Box leads library holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher (Canary Street)

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon (Bloomsbury)

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (Harper Voyager)

Enchantment by Katherine May (Riverhead)

These books and others publishing the week of Feb. 27, 2023, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Five LibraryReads and seven Indie Next picks publish this week:

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (Harper Voyager)

“The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi works on multiple levels, from fantasy and adventure to family and love. Readers who enjoyed the Daevabad series will be excited to see Chakraborty start a new trilogy—and it does not disappoint. If you like pirates, magical adventure, and strong female leads, this book is for you.”— Aashna Kinkhabwala, Dover Free Library, Dover, VT

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“I didn’t know I could love a book so much. Chakraborty gives us a pirate adventure with a charming and sarcastic female lead, the most lovable crew, and ancient magic. Sheer perfection from start to finish — this is a guaranteed five star read!”—Stephanie Skees, The Novel Neighbor, Webster Groves, MO

Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown (Graydon House)

“A dual timeline moving from 1950s New Orleans to the present, three generations of strong magical women, a spell book, and a secret generational curse make for a very entertaining spin on family drama.”—Rebecca Vnuk, LibraryReads

The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest (Berkley; LJ starred review)

“Lily Greene needs a date for her sister’s wedding but doesn’t want her family’s ‘help’ to find one. She ends up asking her hot neighbor Nick for help instead, but complications ensue when she realizes he’s N.R. Strickland—the fantasy author who ghosted her. The lead characters who see the best in each other and help each other grow make for a satisfying second-chance romance. For fans of The Love Wager.”—Midge Loery, Mark Twain Library, Redding, CT

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon (Bloomsbury)

“Fans of The Priory of the Orange Tree will be thrilled to revisit the intricately detailed world Shannon has created. In this standalone prequel, the stories of four women are spun out as the Dreadmount erupts and civilizations crumble. The large cast of characters is deftly handled, and readers will enjoy the fascinating mythology.”—Beth Mills, New Rochelle Public Library, New Rochelle, NY

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“An unstoppable feminist force of magic and might. A Day of Fallen Night will have you burning through the pages like wyvern fire, leaving you wishing there was another 500 pages to devour.”—Maris Herrington, McLean & Eakin Booksellers, Petoskey, MI

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill (Tor.com)

“An artist and her children live on a small farm. The teen daughter manages not only her mom's business but also the household and care of her little brother. It is a life she can handle until mom brings home a crane and declares him her husband. A unique fairy tale with a feminist message: don’t trust a crane to make you complete. For readers who enjoyed Juniper & Thorn.”—Kimberly McGee, Lake Travis Community Library, Austin, TX

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“A gorgeous and imaginative retelling of The Crane Wife, Barnhill’s novella lives on the cusp of reality and fantasy like the fairytale it’s based on.”—Abby Bennsky, Old Town Books, Alexandria, VA

Four additional Indie Next picks publish this week:

Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist by Jennifer Wright (Hachette)

“This well-researched and entertainingly penned account of Madame Restell draws startling parallels between the 19th century and our own, and adds an important entry to the body of work about the ‘forgotten’ women who shaped our country.”—Julie Schultz, This House of Books, Billings, MT

Time’s Undoing by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton)

“Time’s Undoing is a first-rate story of racial injustice and redemption. Based on the author’s family history, this dual timeline story chronicles a Black man’s death in 1929 and his great-granddaughter’s efforts to uncover the truth in 2019.”—Trish Brown, One More Page Books, Arlington, VA

Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May (Riverhead)

“May writes with such magic; accurately capturing the collective feeling of grief and trauma while also sharing examples of moments of gratitude and wonder. I enjoyed every word of this book.”—Margaret McCampbell, Reads & Company, Phoenixville, PA

Go as a River by Shelley Read (Spiegel & Grau)

“Fast paced and descriptive, the words never felt wasted. Set in the harsh reality of 1940s life, a teenage girl’s forbidden love stirs a small Colorado town where loss, prejudice, and rage prevail. As beautiful as it is devastating.”—Paula Frank, The Toadstool Bookshop, Nashua, NH

In The Media

People’s book of the week is Victory City by Salman Rushdie (Random House). Also getting attention are At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf by Tara Ison (Ig Publishing), and The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz (Atria: Emily Bestler Books). A “New in Nonfiction” section highlights Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May (Riverhead), We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship by Will Schwalbe (Knopf), and Marry Me a Little: A Graphic Memoir by Robert Kirby (Graphic Mundi). 

Reviews

NYT reviews The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science by Kate Zernike (Scribner): “Thanks to Zernike, we see the personal toll unconscious bias takes—not just in time lost or talent discarded, but on the greater good. Maybe the reason we’re still running for the cure is because systemic discrimination continues to run even faster”; Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice by Cristina Rivera Garza (Hogarth): “By displaying the fragmented, liminal space in which Liliana and her friends discuss Liliana’s life, Rivera Garza is bearing witness to the dearth of ways they had to speak about violence that was right in front of them”; The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan (Viking; LJ starred review): “If language—lyric, lovely and funny, steeped in County Tipperary—and women (men come and go, rarely center a chapter and are often useless, sometimes cruel) are of no interest to you, The Queen of Dirt Island is not your next read. Ryan’s book is a celebration, in an embroidered, unrestrained, joyful, aphoristic and sometimes profane style, of both”; Thomas Mann: New Selected Stories by Thomas Mann, tr. by Damion Searls (Liveright): “It was as though, by posing dutifully as a most respectable writer and a man of probity, he had earned the right to explore areas of experience that can make readers uncomfortable even today”; Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age by Reid Mitenbuler (Mariner): “Although narratively clumsy, it is a charming portrait of a man who traveled the world with an open mind, whose natural warmth never faltered in the cold”; and The Courage To Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival by Ron DeSantis (Broadside): “Take out the gauzy abstraction, the heartwarming clichés, and much of what DeSantis is describing in The Courage to Be Free is chilling—unfree and scary.”

The Washington Post reviews All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia by Simon Garfield (Morrow): “One of the salutary lessons of Simon Garfield’s lively and informative history of the encyclopedia, All the Knowledge in the World, is to watch out for the prejudices and the constraints—material and commercial—that lurk in the background wherever we see the promise of universal knowledge.”

NPR reviews The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle (S. & S.): “He’s an empathetic writer, but also one with a real gift for explaining the fraught issues—economic, scientific, political—that make the climate crisis and its effect on the population so complex. It sometimes feels too pat to call a book ‘necessary,’ but this one really is”; and I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (Viking; LJ starred review): “The only thing that’s clear from the start is that Makkai is a super storyteller with a knack for writing about very specific things that feel universal — and that this might just be her best novel yet.”

The Guardian reviews Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Farrar): “Birnam Wood is like a Franzen greatest hits album until its glorious, apocalyptic final pages enlarge and complicate our understanding of its message”; and A Spell of Good Things by Ayobami Adebayo (Knopf): “This immensely readable novel is a blistering indictment of the abuse of power (political and domestic) and the ubiquitous violence that can destroy lives overnight.”

LA Times reviews Verse, Chorus, Monster! by Graham Coxon (Faber & Faber): “Despite the occasional Blur reunion show, Coxon continues to follow his musical instincts wherever they may lead him. He has the financial means to do so, of course, but his bracing confessions in Verse, Chorus, Monster! are a reminder that even the most exhilarating carnival rides can leave you feeling a bit queasy.”

Briefly Noted

NYT has features on editor Jenny Jackson and her debut novel, Pineapple Street (Pamela Dorman), and Brazilian publisher Luiz Schwarcz, author of The Absent Moon: A Memoir of a Short Childhood and a Long Depression, tr. by Eric M. B. Becker (Penguin Pr.).

The Guardian has an interview with Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry (Doubleday), about her book, “how readers identify with her heroine, and why the book’s title changed.”

Entertainment Weekly talks with Rick Riordan about his forthcoming book, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods (Disney Hyperion), due out in September. 

LitHub shares February’s best book covers.

USA Today shares five books for the week. 

CrimeReads suggests 10 new books this week. 

T&C has “8 Book to Read If You Love 1923.”

Tor suggests “Five Books to Pair With a Good Cup of Tea.”

The Millions extols “The Exuberant Diversity of Ukrainian Literature.”

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex will participate in a live, ticketed, virtual event with Dr. Gabor Maté, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture (Avery), on March 4 at 12 p.m. EST. People has the story. Registration information can be found here.

Authors On Air

CBS Sunday Morning speaks with David B. Agus about his new book, The Book of Animal Secrets: Nature’s Lessons for a Long and Happy Life, and shares an excerpt.

Florence Welch’s musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby is coming to the American stage next year. LitHub reports. 

Warner Bros. announces new Lord of the Rings film adaptations. USA Today reports. 

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