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Awards & Looking Ahead

The 2023 Christian Book Awards winners are announced. 

Oprah and Havard professor Arthur Brooks announce a new book about “the science of happiness,” Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier (Portfolio) to come out on September 12, 2023, as reported by Oprah Daily. 

Lit Hub shares a revelation from Jonathan Eig’s biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., King: A Life (Farrar; LJ starred review), that King’s “harshest criticism of Malcolm X was made up.”

Publishers Lunch’s Buzz Books for 2023 Fall/Winter is now available for download.

Westercon 75 has been canceled, according to Locus Magazine.

New Title Bestsellers

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

Fiction

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (Entangled: Red Tower) takes flights at No. 2 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

The 23rd Midnight by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown) begins at No. 3 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Grove; LJ starred review) floats to No. 4 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

The Wedding Planner by Danielle Steel (Delacorte) rings in No. 6 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry (Atria) emerges at No. 8 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin (Ballantine; LJ starred review) arrives at No. 12 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

Summer on Sag Harbor by Sunny Hostin (Morrow) shines on No. 14 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

Nonfiction

Look for Me There: Grieving My Father, Finding Myself by Luke Russert (Harper Horizon) appears at No. 4 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

Lessons Learned and Cherished: The Teacher Who Changed My Life by Deborah Roberts (Andscape) debuts at No. 6 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel (Norton) begins at No. 8 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Greatest Baseball Team Ever by Jack Curry (Twelve) arrives at No. 11 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

Tell Me Everything by Minka Kelly (Henry Holt & Co.) starts at No. 12 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything by Michio Kaku (Doubleday) scores No. 15 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews King: A Life by Jonathan Eig (Farrar; LJ starred review): “The most compelling account of King’s life in a generation, Eig’s won’t and shouldn’t be the last — for America will never definitively be over the battles that King so nobly, if sometimes imperfectly, fought.”

NYT reviews Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar (Penguin Pr.): “Grabar, who writes for Slate, does this now and again: elegantly stating a simple truth that undergirds the complex knot of social questions at the center of his book;” The Guest by Emma Cline (Random): “every sentence as sharp as a scalpel, a woman toeing the line between welcome and unwelcome guest becomes a fully destabilizing force. And not just for her hosts, but for the novel itself.”; A Line in the Sand by Kevin Powers (Little, Brown): “A Line in the Sand builds to a wrenching and inevitable ending. Powers takes his time with it, ensuring that the reader is fully alongside the characters as they confront adversarial forces.”

NPR reviews The East Indian by Brinda Charry (Scribner): “Through this fictional first East Indian immigrant story, Brinda Charry has also beautifully pioneered a much-needed path forward into rich, new literary territory.”

Tor.com reviews The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland (Flatiron): “occupies a strange space, and it certainly makes me wonder what shapes and space Holland will write her way into next.”

Locus Magazine reviews A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher (Tor Nightfire; LJ starred review): “It’s a nice enough story to pass the time with. Sometimes, that’s all you want.”

The Guardian reviews The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (Bloomsbury): “It’s a book about memory, loss and cultural dissonance; a high-flown tragedy that sideslips through the decades and passes the narrative baton between Lesley and Maugham.”

Book Marks picks the five reviews to read this week. 

Briefly Noted

Mona Gables discusses her new book Searching for Savanna: The Murder of One Native American Woman and the Violence Against the Many (Atria) and “what it's like to tell stories of murdered Indigenous women” in an interview with The Los Angeles Times. Also, Edan Lepucki on her new book, Time's Mouth (Counterpoint), that includes “cults, cannabis and a little time travel.”

Check your holds. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone (Gallery/Saga Press: S. & S.; LJ starred review) gets a boost from a fan, and skyrockets on the charts. Slate reports. 

The Millions chats with Julia Argy, author of The One (Putnam), about “the allure of reality dating shows, the complexities of desire, and our culture of surveillance.”

NYT’s “Inside the Best-Seller List” features Anne Hillerman, The Way of the Bear (Harper), who steps into her father’s shoes her own way.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain Gang All Stars (Pantheon), shares his reading recommendations for NYT’s By the Book. 

CrimeReads’ My First Thriller explores the work of writer Tosca Lee who “carved out her own corner with thrillers that add a touch of mystery to Biblical stories.”

C.E. McGill, author of Our Hideous Progeny (Harper; LJ starred review), delves into “Paleoart and the birth of a sci-fi novel” with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. 

The Folio Society is releasing an edition of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, on the 40th anniversary of its publication. Gizmodo has a first look.

Jo Baker, The Midnight News (Knopf), recommends a reading list for those interested in “reading beyond London’s WWII ‘Blitz Spirit’.”

Tor.com shares a list of “Five Authors Who Wrote Sequels to Someone Else’s Work.”

Entertainment Weekly provides “the 27 best new books to take on your 2023 summer vacation.”

The Los Angeles Times gives “11 books to get excited about this summer.”

Book Riot offers several lists: dark academia, books being made into movies, best F/F historical romance, and books for Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Authors on Air

NPR’s Fresh Air host Dave Davies talks to James C. Jackson, author of Clearing the Fog: From Surviving to Thriving with Long Covid - A Practical Guide (Little, Brown), about his “practical guide for long COVID patients and their families, giving advice on how to find help, and information on treatments and strategies for dealing with symptoms.”

The Keen On podcast features several author interviews including with: Mariana Alessandri, Night Vision: Seeing Ourselves through Dark Mood (Princeton) on “how the natural human condition is to live in darkness, anger, and pain;” Emma Nadler of The Unlikely Village of Eden (Central Recovery) on the inseparability of good and bad luck; and, Landon Jones speaks about the subject of his book, Celebrity Nation: How America Evolved into a Culture of Fans and Followers (Beacon). 

Dave Eggers, The Eyes and the Impossible (McSweeney’s), chats with Brad Listi about a need for the absolute freedom for artists.

Ramona Emerson talks about her book, Shutter (Soho Crime), on B&N’s Poured Over podcast. 

NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour discusses “Books We Love: Tales From Around The World.”

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