News & Book Clubs

The US Justice Department sues to block Penguin Random House’s acquisition of Simon & Schuster. The NYT covers the story, saying the “rejection of the proposed $2.18 billion publishing merger reflects a changing atmosphere in Washington toward consolidation.”  There is more coverage from Library Journal,  The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post, and The WSJ.  PRH and S.&S. issued a joint statement in response to the filing.

Reese Witherspoon picks The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (Bloomsbury) for her November book club.  The title jumped to #5 on the Amazon Movers and Shakers list overnight.

Reviews

The NYT reviews The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (Harper): “Her newest is strange, enchanting and funny: a work about motherhood, doom, regret and the magic — dark, benevolent and every shade in between — of words on paper.” And, The Correspondents : Six Women Writers on the Front Lines of World War II by Judith Mackrell (Doubleday; LJ starred review): “Mackrell has done us all a great service by assembling their own fascinating stories. At first I wished she had included more of their work, but perhaps they are better served by leaving us wanting to go off and read firsthand how women see war.” Also, Feeling & Knowing : Making Minds Conscious by Antonio Damasio (Pantheon; PRH): “Damasio may not have dispelled the mystery of consciousness in this book. But he has succeeded brilliantly in narrowing the gap between body and mind.”

The Washington Post reviews The Family by Naomi Krupitsky (Putnam): “There is a steady and timeless vitality to these stories. The savagery hanging over their lives is always there but remains just offstage, close yet artfully cloaked. Once you read this novel of blood and love, promises and betrayal, you may never look at family in quite the same way again.” And, New York, My Village by Uwem Akpan (Norton): “Akpan, who good-naturedly pokes fun at Ekong’s clumsy yet endearing attempts to squeeze all things Nigerian through an American filter, employs the same artifice in constructing his novel’s narrative.” And, Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart (Random; LJ starred review): “even though Shteyngart leaves too many loose ends curiously unexplained, his darkly brilliant comedy of love and folly gives us the absurd leavening we need to keep on laughing, and living, in covid’s all too tragic wake.” And, We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza (Atria): “my prayer is that one day this country will reach the point where novels such as these will come to be wholly imaginary rather than ripped from the headlines. Until then, it is important for these kinds of books to be written and published and promoted by Black authors and White authors alike. Every voice on this topic must be heard.”

NPR reviews My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson (Henry Holt: Macmillan): “The terrible tensions Johnson dramatizes so acutely in this extraordinary novella reflect those of the American project itself: the promise, captured in Jefferson's deathless words, of justice and freedom for all, smashed against the "little mountain" of his own racism and hypocrisy.”

The LA Times reviews Carry the Dog by Stephanie Gangi (Algonquin: Workman): “Gangi finds a way in Carry the Dog to write a novel of ideas — not a favored American genre — that takes up critiques of visual culture within a very personal context: a novel about aging and coming to terms with childhood trauma.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight, by Janet Evanovich (Atria), the buzziest book of the week.

The LA Times talks with Gary Shteyngart about his new book, Our Country Friends (Random; LJ starred review), and his “Shteyngartesqe” character, Sasha Senderovsky. 

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present (Liverlight: Norton), talks with People about how his mother became muse. 

Shondaland talks with Kal Penn about his new book, You Can't Be Serious (Gallery), and his time in the Obama Administration.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a feature and interview with William Kent Krueger, who is on book tour for his latest novel, Lightning Strike (Atria; LJ starred review).

The Seattle Times has an interview with James Ivory about his new book, Solid Ivory : Memoirs ed. by Peter Cameron (Farrar), the Merchant Ivory films, and growing up in Oregon.

The Chicago Tribune considers the forthcoming book, Led Zeppelin : The Biography by Bob Spitz (Penguin Pr.), calling it “one my saddest reading experiences in recent memory.” Plus, the Biblioracle gives book recommendations. 

FoxNews shares details from Georgia GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's new book, Integrity Counts (Forefront Books; S. & S.)

The Rumpus has a sketch book review of Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever (Ecco). Plus, an excerpt from the forthcoming I Know What's Best for You ed. by Shelly Oria (McSweeney’s), featuring stories on reproductive freedom, due out in March, 2022.

Natashia Deón, The Perishing (Counterpoint), pens an essay for The LA Times about Virginia’s Beloved controversy, and “there can be no healing without pain.”

ElectricLit shares “7 Novels About, Or By, Folk Musicians”, “10 Books About Alienated Women in Their 20s”, and an essay about female rage in Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch (Doubleday; LJ starred review). 

Esquire lists “The 27 Best True Crime Books Every Person Should Read” and “The 10 Best Psychological Thriller Books.”

Lambda Literary shares "November’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature.”

Crimereads has “a celebration of sleuth-mothers”, 6 books with father-daughter relationships,

The Millions shares its November preview of most anticipated titles. 

The Washington Post offers “10 books to read in November.”

“9 authors pick their must-read fall thrillers” at Entertainment Weekly.

BookRiot busts myths about being a librarian.

Authors On Air

NPR’s Fresh Air has an interview with Gary Shteyngart, Our Country Friends (Random; LJ starred review), about how his “pandemic pod inspired a novel about friendship.”

NPR’s Morning Edition talks with Jim Colucci about his new book, All in the Family : The Show that Changed Television by Norman Lear (Universe: PRH).

NPR’s All Things Considered talks with artist Ai Weiwei about his new book, 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir trans. by Allan H. Barr (Crown; LJ starred review).

NPR’s Book of the Day features Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo (Norton; LJ starred review).

To Shake the Sleeping Self : A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret by Jedidiah Jenkins (Convergent Books) will be adapted for the big screen.  Deadline reports. 

Well-Read Black Girl will launch new podcast with Pushkin, hosted by Glory Edim in February 2022. Here is a preview clip. 

Michael Eric Dyson, Entertaining Race: Performing Blackness in America  (St. Martin’s: Macmillan) will be on The View tomorrow.