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Awards & Book Bans

Beverly Gage wins the New-York Historical Society Award for G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century (Viking). NYT has more.

The 2023 International Dylan Thomas Prize shortlist is announced.

The National Book Critics Circle announces 2022 winners, including Ling Ma, Isaac Butler, Hua Hsu, Beverly Gage, Timonthy Bewes, and Andrey Kurkov. NYT profiles Kurkov, a Ukrainian author of short stories and poems. The Washington Post has a take on this news.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award board has selected (but not yet announced) a final slate of winners of the 17th edition of the awards, as reported by Publishing Perspectives. 

Lit Hub shares the American Library Association’s report on book bans in 2022. PBS News Hour, NYT, and the Seattle Times also cover this story.

NPR highlights how activists have worked around book bans and also a “defense of fan fiction.” 

NYT reports that there will be no prison time for “book thief” Filippo Bernardini, the former publishing employee who stole 1,000-plus manuscripts. NYT also launches the “first installment of an essay series on American literature and faith.”

Page to Screen

March 24:

School of Magical Animals, based on the book by Margit Auer. Blue Fox Entertainment. No reviews | Trailer

The Lost King, based on the book The Lost King: The Search for Richard III by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones. IFC Films. Reviews | Trailer

March 26:

Great Expectations, based on the book by Charles Dickens. Hulu. Reviews | Trailer

March 27:

Perfect Addiction, based on the novel by Claudia Tan. DECAL Releasing. No reviews | Trailer

Murdoch Mysteries, based on the “Detective Murdoch” books by Maureen Jennings. Acorn TV. No reviews | Trailer

March 28:

Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham, based on associated titles. Warner Bros. Animation. No reviews | Trailer

March 29:

The Big Door Prize, based on the novel by M.O. Walsh. Apple TV+. Reviews | Trailer

Riverdale, based on associated titles. CW. Reviews | Trailer

Wellmania, based on the book Wellmania: Misadventures in the Search for Wellness by Brigid Delaney. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

March 30:

From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke, based on the manga by Karuho Shiina. Netflix. No reviews | Trailer

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice by Cristina Rivera Garza (Hogarth): “Garza, a celebrated author and distinguished professor at the University of Houston, literally retraced her sister’s footsteps as a young college student to better understand her world before her death. The reader is privy to photographs and other ephemera left behind. The most minute details contain multitudes. Every word counts”; and Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science by Gary Smtih (Oxford Univ.): “The lessons of Distrust are very much needed. Smith’s recommendations for reforming how data is used—including providing more support for reproducibility and replication research, statistical literacy courses, and the prioritization of studies that provide detailed descriptions of their research plans before actually starting—are well taken.”

NYT reviews Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random): “Not a full parody of rom-com wish fulfillment, nor is it steeped in irony about the form. Instead, it lives somewhere in the middle, neither committing to the bit nor criticizing it.”

Datebook reviews by Commitment (Knopf) Mona Simpson: “There are no major plot points, no big surprises; instead, Simpson allows the reader to feel the emotional uncertainty, stasis and sadness, really, of Walter, Lina and Donnie. As good as they may have been as children, as committed and dutiful as they may be as adults, the absence of their mother has meant they will always feel incomplete.”

Lit Hub lists “The Best Reviewed Books of the Week.”

Briefly Noted

Geetanjali Shree talks to The Rumpus about her new book, Tomb of Sand, tr. by Daisy Rockwell (Penguin Pr.).

Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic (Del Rey), shares that she “writes all over Vancouver” and delves into her writing process in a piece for CBC Books. Also, Jeopardy! super-champion Mattea Roach is championing Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly) for Canada Reads 2023. 

Robert Lopez discusses “assimilation, language, sports, and American culture” in his book Dispatches from Puerto Nowhere: An American Story of Assimilation and Erasure (Two Dollar Radio) in a conversation with Electric Lit. 

Shondaland interviews Jinwoo Chong, whose new book Flux (Melville House) “weaves an intricate tale of grief, mystery, time, and tech.”

The Washington Post highlights “4 acclaimed novelists talk about writing Vietnam.”

Lauren Neustadter, president of film and television for Reese Witherspoon’s media company Hello Sunshine, shares advice she was given by Witherspoon with Bustle. 

Victor LaValle, Lone Women (One World), answers NYT’s “By the Book” questions.

NYT’s “Inside the Best-Seller List” spotlights Jennifer Hershey, the publisher and editor in chief of Ballantine Books.

The Atlantic explores Catherine Lacey’s new book, Biography of X (Farrar; LJ starred review).

Author Marjorie Liu and illustrator Sana Takeda will be coming out with a second graphic novel in their “Night Eaters” series: Her Little Reapers (Abrams ComicArts). Entertainment Weekly has a first look.

Sly Stone, the frontman of musical group Sly and the Family Stone, will come out with a new memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again), written with Ben Greenman, to be published by Questlove’s new Macmillan imprint AUWA. Datebook shares the news.

Book Riot looks into “vlog adaptations of books” and “AI-narrated audiobooks from a disabled person’s perspective.”

Wired dives into “the future of Black queer characters in comics.”

Lit Hub explains “cli-fi” literature.

Locus Magazine lists new books that were released this week.

NYPL Blog selects 12 newly released books.

AARP shares “43 of Spring’s Top Books.”

Popsugar lists “30 New Fantasy Books.”

Justine Sullivan, He Said He Would Be Late (Holt), creates a “reading list of heroines who are hot messes.”

Book Riot has many “best of” booklists this week: 24 coming-of-age novels, 8 claustrophobic horror books, 10 recent siren and mermaid books, 10 fantasy books like R.F. Kuang’s Babel (Harper Voyager), and books with lesbian characters.

CrimeReads lists “This Month’s Best Debut Novels.”

The Root’s “It’s Lit” selects “April 2023 Books by Black Authors We Can’t Wait to Read.”

NYT recommends 9 new books, “newly published visual books," and 6 paperbacks.

Authors on Air

Julia Samuel talks about “transgenerational trauma and family well-being” as detailed in her book, Every Family Has a Story: How We Inherit Love and Loss (Doubleday Canada), in an interview with Just the Right Book podcast.

Author Victor LaValle chats with the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast about the “homesteaders, history, and horror” in his new book, Lone Women (One World).

People covers news that Rosalind Wiseman, author of the book Queen Bees and Wannabees: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boys, and the New Realities of Girl World (Harmony), has said she was not sufficiently compensated for her book’s being the source material for the film Mean Girls. Also, actor Sebastian Chacon discusses how the adaptation for Daisy Jones & the Six departs from the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Billy Porter, Unprotected (Abrams; LJ starred review), will join as a guest on The View today.

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