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Awards & News

The Academy of American Poets announces 22 Poets Laureate Fellows, four of whom have projects connected to libraries: Julia Bouwsma, Poet Laureate of Maine; Nandi Comer, Poet Laureate of Michigan; Andrea Gibson, Poet Laureate of Colorado; and Kerri Webster, Poet Laureate of Idaho.

GMA selects The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey) for its August book club.

CBC announces its “writers to watch” list.

Flatiron will launch a new imprint, Pine & Cedar, with S.A. Cosby’s next book, King of Ashes, due out in summer 2025, Publishers Weekly reports. 

Reviews

USA Today reviews The Pairing: Special 1st Edition by Casey McQuiston (St. Martin’s Griffin; LJ starred review), giving it four out of four stars: “The bisexuality in The Pairing is unapologetic. It’s joyful. What a delight it is to indulge in a gleefully easy, flirty summer fantasy where everyone is hot and queer and down for casual sex—an arena straight romances have gotten to play in for decades.”

NYT reviews The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey): “Salome is ‘a chimera,’ Moreno-Garcia writes. ‘Part lion, part dove.’ Her novel has that same quality. As spectators, we anticipate doom, but wish for a fairy tale’s resolution. Either way, Moreno-Garcia keeps us hooked”; The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House by Nancy Pelosi (S. & S.): “The words Pelosi and power have been inextricably linked in Washington for more than 20 years, and her book sets out to document how she did it”; I Am on the Hit List: A Journalist’s Murder and the Rise of Autocracy in India by Rollo Romig (Penguin): “Romig makes for a powerful, effective chronicler of this bleak moment in Indian politics” ; The Movement: How Women’s Liberation Transformed America 1963–1973 by Clara Bingham (Atria: One Signal): “The book’s lively speakers—more than 100 women past and present, including Flo Kennedy, Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray, Shirley Chisholm and Robin Morgan—demonstrate that the women’s liberation movement was no monolith”; The Missing Thread: A Women’s History of the Ancient World by Daisy Dunn (Viking): “Much like the novelists turning out feminist retellings, Dunn has to rely on some creativity to fill in the gaps in the record. A huge amount of the historical weave is simply missing, and more work is needed to tease it out”; and two books about horses: Hoof Beats: How Horses Shaped Human History by William T. Taylor (Univ. of California) and Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires by David Chaffetz (Norton). 

The Guardian reviews Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday): “This stands alone as a crime novel, but it is better enjoyed having read the previous books in the Brodie series. And why wouldn’t you, anyway—they are all a delight. I defy you not to snort with laughter as the novel progresses to its farcical denouement. Atkinson is just brilliant”; and The Examiner by Janice Hallett (Atria): “I can’t fault Hallett’s ingenuity and her characters are a lot of fun, but this all became a little too convoluted for me by the end.”

Briefly Noted

LitHub highlights 26 new books for the week. 

AARP shares what to read in August. 

Washington Post suggests 10 sports books to read during the Olympics, and People shares six books about Paris.

Chicago Tribune’s Biblioracle asks: Why don’t men read novels?

Pope Francis recommends that future priests read literature and poetry. The Guardian has the story.

People shares a preview and cover reveal for Brooke Shields’s forthcoming memoir, Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman (Flatiron), due out in January 2025.

People also highlights Michael Caine’s forthcoming memoir, Don't Look Back, You’ll Trip Over: My Guide to Life (Mobius), due out in March 2025.

Lena Valencia discusses her new book, Mystery Lights (Tin House), with Electric Lit. 

Bustle has an interview with Drew Afualo about her new book, Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You Deserve (AUWA). 

Elle interviews Taffy Brodesser-Akner, author of Long Island Compromise (Random; LJ starred review). 

Salon publishes part two of an interview with Timothy W. Ryback, author of Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power (Knopf). Read part one here. 

Barbara Howar, author of the 1973 memoir Laughing All The Way, has died at the age of 89. NYT has an obituary. 

Authors on Air

NPR’s Fresh Air talks with brain surgeon Theodore H. Schwartz about his new book, Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery (Dutton), due out next week. 

George Saunders reflects on his novel Lincoln in the Bardo on the NYT Book Review Podcast. 

PBS Canvas explores U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon’s “You Are Here” exhibition, which will arrive in National Parks around the United States.

A new prequel to Game of Thrones (based on the books by George R.R. Martin), A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, is in the works at HBO. T&C has details. People shares what we know so far about the adaptation. 

Deadline rounds up all the Emily Henry book to screen adaptations. 

Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Promise (Random), will visit CBS Mornings.

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