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Big Books of the Week

Cross Down by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois (Little, Brown) leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey (Avon)

Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan (Putnam)

The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel (Gallery)

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See (Scribner)

Pageboy: A Memoir by Elliot Page (Flatiron)

These books and others publishing the week of June 5, 2023, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Awards & News

The 2022 Aurealis Awards winners are announced.

The 2023 Text Prize shortlist is announced.

The 37th Annual Asimov’s Readers’ Award Winners are announced. Locus has details. 

AudioFile announces the June 2023 Earphones Award Winners.

A poem written by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón will travel to Jupiter’s moon Europa, as part of NASA’s Message in a Bottle campaign. The Washington Post reports. 

Publishers Weekly writes about how AI could change the publishing industry. 

WME has acquired the literary firm Ross Yoon Agency. Deadline has details. 

Seven Seas Launches a new Audiobooks imprint SIREN. 

Salman Rushdie says he will write a book about being stabbed on stage. The Guardian reports. 

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Seven LibraryReads and ten Indie Next picks publish this week:

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron; LJ starred review)

“As a Black sheriff in rural Virginia, Titus Crown is caught in political turmoil while a pedophile mass murderer runs amok. A brilliant perfectionist and former FBI agent, Titus ran for office to change things for the better, but can anything honestly change?”—Jill Minor, Washington County Public Library

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“This is an early favorite for the best crime fiction novel of the year. From the perspective of a town’s first Black sheriff and his descent into the mind of a serial killer, it’s riveting and explores issues of race, policing, and religion.”—Jason Hafer, Reads & Company, Phoenixville, PA

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See (Scribner)

“Inspired by a true story, this novel set in 15th-century China follows Yunxian (Lady Tan) from her childhood to marriage and motherhood. She learns the art of medicine from her grandmother alongside Meiling, a midwife-in-training who becomes a close friend. After entering an arranged marriage, Yunxian is forbidden to apply her skills and knowledge to help other women. See’s description of this remarkable woman and her remedies will fascinate readers.”—Madeleine Felder, San Francisco Public Library

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“Another incredible historical fiction by Lisa See! I was jetted back to 15th-century China, where I knew little of foot binding and a woman’s role in medicine. See dives deep into a perfect mix of historical facts and mesmerizing story.”—Penny Weiland, Birchbark Books & Native Arts, Minneapolis, MN

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian (Avon; LJ starred review)

“It’s 1950s NYC. Andy, a bumbling, scatter-brained son of an editor, meets Brooklyn-born, rough-and-tumble Nick while they work as reporters. As the two become friends, Nick hides his feelings for Andy and follows a dangerous police corruption story. Readers who love Alexis Hall and Roan Parrish will love this novel’s dual-POV, gentle pining, historical accuracy, and delightful ending.”—Claire Sandoval-Peck, Timberland Regional Library

Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey (Avon)

“Natalie Vos, daughter of wine country royalty, is miserable in her hometown. A quickie marriage to August, annoying purveyor of awful wines, might help them both, since she must marry to receive her trust fund, and his winery is in desperate straits. These characters are likable and well-realized and their issues and baggage make their marriage-of-convenience ring true.”—Kaitlin Booth, Cuyahoga County Public Library

Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall (Del Rey)

“Maelys Mitchelmore thinks she is cursed, and every time something embarrassing, tragic, or downright terrifying happens, Lady Georgianna Landrake is right there. Rumor has it that Lady Georgianna is a wicked enchantress—is she behind the curse, or can she save Maelys from the spirits that plague her? A rollicking queer Regency romance featuring charming characters and a clever premise; ideal for fans of historical rom-coms.”—Nanette Donohue, Champaign Public Library

The Whispers by Ashley Audrain (Pamela Dorman)

“After a picnic where everyone hears the host losing her temper towards her son, that same boy is admitted to the hospital with a life-threatening injury. Told from multiple perspectives, revealing a bit more with every chapter, this story centers around deception, envy, and despair, leaving readers rushing towards the climactic conclusion.”—KC Davis, Fairfield Woods Branch Library

Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan (Putnam)

“Sam and Wyatt have met up every summer since they were young and fall deeply in love. Even at their young age they know this love is forever. This starts out as a basic romance novel, but when something terrible happens to our two lovers, the writing changes, becoming more compelling and more nuanced.”—Judy G Sebastian, Eastham Public Library

Eight additional Indie Next picks publish this week:

The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring (Europa)

“This beautiful picture of life and love in rural Maine kept me engaged from the first page to the last. The sense of place was as strong as the characters’ connections. A book you don’t want to finish because you don’t want to say goodbye.”—Terri Schurz, Mockingbird Bookshop, Bath, ME

Killingly by Katharine Beutner (Soho Crime)

“From the very first page, there’s this amazing creepy vibe that envelops the reader. Katharine Beutner has written a stunning historical mystery, based on a true missing person case. Killingly hits all the high notes!”—Jayne Rowsam, Mystery to Me, Madison, WI

Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom (Atria)

“In the late 1800s, Goes First was one of the most determined Crow women of her time. Her marriage to a white fur trader forces Crow Mary to balance between two worlds and cultures while trying to protect both her family and her people.”—Shannon Alden, Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI

My Murder by Katie Williams (Riverhead)

“In My Murder, you are made to feel the deep struggles of ordinary life which are then abruptly amplified by the quest for a killer. A mesmerizing, completely original story with futuristic elements that don’t feel far off.”—Sierra Hollabaugh, The Bookery Cincy, Cincinnati, OH

The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller (Tin House; LJ starred review)

“Claire Fuller never fails to deliver—The Memory of Animals is dark and hopeful all at once, with a hint of her trademark subversive humor added for good measure.”—Pam Cady, University Book Store, Seattle, WA

Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess (S. & S.)

“It’s hard to step away from this wonderful debut. Part romance, part office politics, Everything’s Fine addresses race, class, money, ethics, and identity for two twentysomethings, Josh and Jess, out navigating the world as adults.”—Terry Gilman, Creating Conversations, Redondo Beach, CA

Maeve Fly by CJ Leede (Tor Nightfire)

“Such a wonderful, bizarre read. Maeve loves hard, asserts her place in the world, and takes on the spirit of Old Hollywood to wow at Halloween parties. It’s a funky, gory, sexy thrill; I was disturbed, shattered, and totally in love.”—Pax Romana, Books Are Magic, Brooklyn, NY

George: A Magpie Memoir by Frieda Hughes (Avid Reader/S. & S.)

“Frieda Hughes, poet, painter and home repair fanatic, moves to a broken-down home in Wales with a garden of despair. What more could a creative soul want? George, an endless source of fascination, as it turns out. What a wonderful tale!”—Becky Milner, Vintage Books, Vancouver, WA

In The Media

People’s book of the week is Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea (Little, Brown). Also getting attention are Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess (S. & S.) and Such Kindness by Andre Dubus III (Norton). A “New in Nonfiction” section highlights Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalism by Brooke Kroeger (Knopf), The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America by Monica Potts (Random), and Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Recipes, Letters, and Remembrances by Kwame Alexander (Little, Brown). Plus, Susan Spungen, Veg Forward: Super-Delicious Recipes That Put Produce at the Center of Your Plate (Harper Celebrate), shares a recipe. 
The June Costco Connection is also out now, featuring Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See (Scribner) and The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand (Little, Brown; LJ starred review).

Reviews

NYT reviews The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende, tr. by Francis Riddle (Ballantine; LJ starred review): “The Wind Knows My Name contains little of the magic that defined Allende’s earlier novels. Instead, she turns her focus to the brutal details of government-sponsored violence and asks her reader to look closely at the devastation”; Messalina: Empress, Adulteress, Libertine: The Story of the Most Notorious Woman of the Roman World by Honor Cargill-Martin (Pegasus): “Messalina is lively and sardonic, if marred by a few clichés (Messalina had to ‘think outside the box’ and risked being seen as a ‘loose cannon’) and anachronisms (‘trust fund baby,’ ‘police brutality’)”; The Whispers by Ashley Audrain (Pamela Dorman): “There is a voyeuristic pleasure in watching the collisions of couples when their infidelities come to light, as well as their nasty secrets and petty jealousies”; August Blue by Deborah Levy (Farrar): “Along the way, the book offers glimpses of Levy’s talent as a stylist. She can sketch a scene with a few precise brushstrokes and conjure emotion out of white space on the page”; My Hijacking: A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering by Martha Hodes (Harper): “Capturing no sense of imminent danger, and no genuine recollection of emotion, Hodes’s story remains at a frustrating remove”; Chaos Kings: How Wall Street Traders Make Billions in the New Age of Crisis by Scott Patterson (Scribner): “Even those unfamiliar with, or uninterested in, the oscillations of the stock market may find themselves gripped by Patterson’s account, which returns to pivot points like the 1987 Black Monday, the 2008 financial crisis, and the 2010 flash crash, and ambitiously, though not always as successfully, tries to connect these events in a single thread to the present day”; Lucky Dogs by Helen Schulman (Knopf): “That Harvey Weinstein hired a private international spy agency called Black Cube to help squash stories about his sex crimes always seemed stranger than fiction. Well, now it is fiction”; Such Kindness by Andre Dubus III (Norton): “At its core, this book is a hero’s journey, but not one where the hero ends up somewhere wildly different from where he starts. This is a story of acceptance. Hard-won, beautiful, life-changing acceptance”; and Battle of Ink and Ice: A Sensational Story of News Barons, North Pole Explorers, and the Making of Modern Media by Darrell Hartman (Viking): “Diligently researched and crafted in prose that rarely turns purple, Battle of Ink and Ice reads more like a literary history than a suspenseful page-turner.” WSJ also reviews the latter: “Can be a challenge for the reader, who may well get snowbound in a blizzard of mounting detail. Still, like reaching the pole itself, the journey is rewarding as Mr. Hartman adroitly re-animates a colorful and courageous era in American history.”

The Washington Post reviews Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How To Build Immunity by Sander van der Linden (Norton): “Though Foolproof touches on some of the details, the full narrative remains mostly offstage. That is unfortunate, because we need this kind of knowledge to understand why misinformation is so rampant and harmful in our society.”

WSJ reviews The Light at the End of the World by Siddhartha Deb (Soho; LJ starred review): “Full of intriguing puzzles and opacities, but what brings it to life is less its inventiveness than its galvanizing anger, its outraged awareness of exploitation and cruelty”; and An Honorable Exit by Éric Vuillard, tr. by Mark Polizzotti (Other Pr.): “A sense of pure, distilled fury animates the French writer Éric Vuillard’s An Honorable Exit.”

Briefly Noted

Elliot Page, Pageboy: A Memoir (Flatiron), discusses survival at LA Times. Time shares an excerpt from Page’s memoir, which publishes this week. 

The Washington Post talks with Krista Burton, Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest To Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars In America (S. & S.), about her “ideal reader, how writing the book changed her, and how straight people should behave in a lesbian bar.”

The Millions shares an excerpt from Tania James’s forthcoming novel, Loot (Knopf), due out next week.

USA Today has 5 books for the week. 

CrimeReads shares 10 new books this week. 

WSJ suggests 16 new books. 

LitHub highlights 7 new poetry collections and 8 sci-fi and fantasy books.

BookPage has a 2023 summer reading guide, plus recommendations for Audiobook Month. 

Tor recommends 5 stand-alone speculative fiction books. 

Authors On Air

Darrin Bell discusses his new graphic novel, The Talk (Holt), with NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday.

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