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Awards & Best of Lists

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe (Doubleday; LJ starred review) wins the Baillie Gifford Prize. The Guardian has details.

The 2021 Kirkus Best of the Year list is released.

Amazon releases its Best Books of 2021 list, including the top book of the year, The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (Viking).

Anne Wattel wins the Prix Joël-Champetier Award. Locus has details.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Flamboyan Foundation’s Arts Fund announces the Letras Boricuas Fellows. LitHub has more.

The 72nd Annual National Book Awards Ceremony will be broadcast tonight at 7p.m EST.  Here is the program, which includes Nancy Pearl's lifetime achievement award!

CBC has a feature on the winners of the 2021 Governor General's Literary Award, including Norma Dunning, who won the English-language fiction prize for Tainna: The Unseen Ones, Short Stories (Douglas & McIntyre).

Reviews

USA Today reviews Reclamation: Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant's Search for Her Family's Lasting Legacy by Gayle Jessup White (Amistad), giving it 3 out of 4 stars: “flourishes in bringing a new generation of Heminges and Jeffersons out of the shadows. But more importantly, this forceful piece of micro-history builds on the brilliant and breathtaking scholarship of Annette Gordon-Reed’s “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family” while adding a sturdy stone onto America’s shaky blueprint.”

LA Times reviews A Splendid Intelligence: The Life of Elizabeth Hardwick by Cathy Curtis (Norton): “While it’s unclear whether “A Splendid Intelligence” will draw new readers to Hardwick, it’s a necessary and welcome biography, raising larger questions about literary influence and biography’s role in literary prestige — even if it doesn’t always answer them.”

NYT reviews Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park, tr. by Anton Hur (Grove Press): “In exploring that problem through a young man’s earnest, evolving relationships with family, friends and partners, Park has proved there is no solution. Whatever it was or wasn’t, “Love in the Big City” is dazzling.” And, American Comics: A History by Jeremy Dauber (Norton; LJ starred review): “Dauber ably demonstrates that comics, as much as or more than any other art or literature, can handle the most serious of topics, including one of the most serious of all: our ability to laugh at ourselves.” Also, Look for Me and I'll Be Gone by John Edgar Wideman (Scribner): “Wideman turns forgotten historical figures into memorable characters, reanimating and giving voice to the past to make sense of the present.” Plus, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show by Jonathan Karl (Dutton): “It probably speaks to Karl’s decency as a person that he didn’t want to contemplate anything so terrible, but for all the high-minded talk in his books about the journalistic pursuit of accuracy, he gives little indication that he had the imagination to handle the truth.”

Briefly Noted

People talks with Dwyane Wade about his new photographic memoir, Dwyane (Morrow), and about his friendship with Kobe Bryant. People also has an interview with Chris Christie about his new book, Republican Rescue: Saving the Party from Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden (Threshold Editions), COVID, and his old friend Trump.

People shares details from Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of The Office by Brian Baumgartner and Ben Silverman (Custom House), about how Jim almost cheated on Pam. 

LA Times has a feature on former mayor of Stockton, CA, Michael Tubbs and his new memoir, The Deeper the Roots: A Memoir of Hope and Home (Flatiron). OprahDaily has an excerpt from the book, plus a clip from an interview with Oprah. 

Vanity Fair interviews Nikole Hannah-Jones, editor of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story with the New York Times Magazine (One World; LJ starred review), about the project, "the harms of social media, and how the anti-CRT crusade avoids our country’s truth."

Vogue has an interview with Mayukh Sen, Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America (Norton; LJ starred review), about “his perspective on food writing as a queer child of immigrants.”

Shondaland talks with H. Melt about their new book, There Are Trans People Here (Haymarket Books), and "and giving the trans community something to be excited about."

LA Times shares details from Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show by Jonathan Karl (Dutton). People highlights the relationship between Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump as recounted in Karl’s new book. 

The Washington Post argues for a wider readership for David Lindsay's SFF classic, A Voyage to Arcturus (Bison).  

Entertainment Weekly has a first-look and cover reveal of Sloane Crosley’s forthcoming novel, Cult Classic (MCD), due out in June 2022.

Nobel winner Orhan Pamuk is under investigation again for "insulting Turkishness."  LitHub has the story.

NYT suggests three newly-published books.

Tordotcom recommends 8 SFF Twists on Literary Classics.

CrimeReads shares the best debut novels of November 2021.

Buzzfeed has "32 Great Audiobooks To Listen To Right Now."

Authors On Air

NPR’s Morning Edition interviews Jonathan Karl about his new book, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show (Dutton), and Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.

NPR’s Fresh Air talks with Blair Braverman, Dogs on the Trail: A Year in the Life, written with Quince Mountain (Ecco), about her new memoir and finishing the Iditarod.

NPR’s Book of the Day features a conversation with Qian Julie Wang about her memoir, Beautiful Country (Doubleday). 

Dwyane Wade discusses his new memoir, Dwyane (Morrow) with Good Morning America, and how professional basketball made him a better parent and husband. 

Lizzy Caplan has been cast as the female lead and narrator of The FX on Hulu limited series, Fleishman Is in Trouble, based on the novel by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. Vulture has the story.

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Correction Notice: The title of Dwyane Wade's new memoir, Dwyane (Morrow), was originally misspelled in this post. We apologize for the error.