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Big Books of the Week

The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner (Atria) leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney (Flatiron; LJ starred review)

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (Hogarth)

The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons by Karin Smirnoff, trans. by Sarah Death (Knopf)

Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown)

These books and others publishing the week of August 28, 2023, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Three LibraryReads and five Indie Next picks publish this week:

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (Hogarth) *good for book clubs

“During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, 20-year-old Mia is adjusting to lockdown and living back at home. When her father goes missing during a walk in a nearby park, only her younger brother, Eugene—who has special needs and does not speak—knows what happened. Readers will enjoy this delightful and thought-provoking look at family secrets.”—Portia Kapraun, Delphi Public Library, IN

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“A fantastic blend of suspense, family relationships, and medical drama makes this book a winner. Mia is an utterly engaging narrator, and the plot twists will leave readers guessing until the final pages.”—Sarah Rettger, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA

Hall of Fame pick The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner (Atria), is also an Indie Next pick:

“A scenic bike tour, tricky love triangle, emotionally honest family drama, and fascinating food for thought about body image all come together in this breezy summer read with something to say about the joys of early-middle age.”—Jesse Post, Postmark Books, Rosendale, NY

The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp by Leonie Swann, trans. by Amy Bojang (Soho Crime) is the bonus pick.

Four additional Indie Next picks publish this week:

Everything/Nothing/Someone: A Memoir by Alice Carrière (Spiegel & Grau)

“Everything/Nothing/Someone depicts the non-linear trajectory of mental health, relationships, and memory. Carrière intimately unravels the personal to convey the journey of getting better, even when it doesn’t feel like an option.”—Jesse Bartel, BookHampton, East Hampton, NY

Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter (Ecco)

“This novel blew me away. Each successive story opens up the world a bit further, digs a bit deeper, much like the space-building theme at the collection’s center. I loved these four fables and their exploration of endings and beginnings.”—Santiago Nocera, Greedy Reads, Baltimore, MD

Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto (Bloomsbury)

“Overflowing with female sexuality and Hawaiian mythology, Every Drop is a Man’s Nightmare punches out one fearless story after the next. Kakimoto gives us a raw Hawai'i, one that exists far from the colonized romanticism often promoted.”—Beth Shapiro, Skylark Bookshop, Columbia, MO

My Roommate Is a Vampire by Jenna Levine (Berkley; LJ starred review)

“Clever, charming, steamy—all a reader could want from a paranormal romantic comedy. Part Kate & Leopold; part What We Do in the Shadows; and witty, warm prose that makes it feel refreshing. It sunk its teeth into me and I was a willing victim!”—Sarah Jackson, The Book & Cover, Chattanooga, TN

In the Media

People’s book of the week is Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (Hogarth). Also getting attention are Knockout by Sarah MacLean (Avon), and The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner (Atria). A “New in Nonfiction” section highlights Kind of a Big Deal: How Anchorman Stayed Classy and Became the Most Iconic Comedy of the Twenty-First Century by Saul Austerlitz (Dutton), Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic—and What We Can Do About It by Jennifer Breheny Wallace (Portfolio), and Everything/Nothing/Someone: A Memoir by Alice Carrière (Spiegel & Grau). The “Picks” section spotlights Netflix’s You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, based on the novel by Fiona Rosenbloom.

Reviews

NYT reviews Everything/Nothing/Someone: A Memoir by Alice Carrière (Spiegel & Grau): “It is also refreshing to read a memoir of dysfunctional family and psychological disorder that is not self-pitying but raw, filled with sorrow, dark humor and sharp observation”; The Deadline: Essays by Jill Lepore (Liveright: Norton): “The book emerges as a riveting survey of America, a vital reminder that ‘history isn’t a pledge, it’s an argument’”; and The Once Upon a Time World: The Dark and Sparkling Story of the French Riviera by Jonathan Miles (Pegasus): “Jonathan Miles’s Once Upon a Time World is a delightful, dizzying romp through the world’s most glamorous muse: the French Riviera.” Plus, there is a paired review of two books about Mr. and Mrs. Orwell: Orwell: The New Life by D.J. Taylor (Pegasus), and Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder (Knopf): “Although they approach the matter from different angles, both of these writers problematize the Orwell myth and try to work out what he can and cannot do for us.”

Washington Post reviews Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller, the Man Who Created Nancy by Bill Griffith (Abrams): “Affectionate insight into the syndicated cartoonist’s life pulses through Three Rocks. The book serves, too, as an invitation to understand that artistic simplicity does not equal simple-mindedness.”

The Guardian reviews Amy Winehouse: In Her Words by Amy Winehouse (Dey Street): “It’s impossible to know how Winehouse would have felt about all this, even if the proceeds of this relentlessly touching, often funny coffee table book go to support the charities set up in her name.”

Briefly Noted

Washington Post reports that the Pulitzer Prize will consider opening books and arts prizes to noncitizens, at its October meeting.

The Polari Prize’s 2023 longlists are announced. Publishing Perspectives has details.

Xiaole Zhan wins the 2023 KYD Creative Nonfiction Essay Prize. Books+Publishing reports. 

Samantha Mills wins the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. Locus has the news. 

FoxNews talks with Joanna Falcone Sullivan, whose book Marple’s Gretchen Harrington Tragedy: Kidnapping, Murder and Innocence Lost in Suburban Philadelphia, written with Mike Mathis (The History Pr.), led to an arrest in a 48-year-old cold case. 

NYT features the taboo-breaking work of French novelist Mathieu Belezi. 

The AP shares a fall book preview. 

CrimeReads suggests 10 new books for the week. 

Tor has “Can’t-Miss Indie Press Speculative Fiction for September and October 2023.”

The Atlantic considers the ethics of book blurbs.

Legendary game show host, animal activist, and author Bob Barker has died at the age of 99. PBS Canvas remembers his legacy. 

Authors on Air

A new trailer arrives for Cat Person, based on viral New Yorker story by Kristen Roupenian, which will premiere in theaters October 6. Deadline has the story.

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