Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.

Awards, News & Events

Barbara Jefferis Award shortlist is announced.

Laurel Prize announces its longlist.

Bolu Babalola’s Honey and Spice (Morrow; LJ starred review), is TikTok's Book Club pick.

The Library of Congress 2022 National Book Festival returns in person this year, beginning September 3rd. C-SPAN's Book TV will have live coverage of festival events. 

NYT has news on the Stand with Salman: Defend the Freedom to Write event, with authors including Paul Auster, Gay Talese, Kiran Desai in in support Salman Rushdie.

Big Books of the Week

Fox Creek (Cork O’Connor, Bk. 19) by William Kent Krueger (Atria; LJ starred review) leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood (Berkley)

Soul Taken by Patricia Briggs (Ace: Penguin Random House)

Girl, Forgotten (Andrea Oliver, Bk. 2) by Karin Slaughter (Morrow; LJ starred review)

The Ninth Month by James Patterson with Richard DiLallo (Grand Central)

These books and others publishing the week of August 22, 2022 are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Four LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week:

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood (Berkley)

“Bee’s worked hard to get her big break leading a NASA project. However, she learns that she’ll be working with Levi, an old acquaintance who detests her. Or does he? Hazelwood’s done it again with another fantastic romance filled with the real-world struggles of being a woman in STEM. For fans of Helen Hoang and Christina Lauren.”—Brenna Timm, High Plains Library District, Greeley, CO

It is also the #1 Indie Next pick:

“Ali Hazelwood has done it again! This is NOT a novel that you can read a few pages here, a few pages there — it demands one sitting. With expert pacing, witty humor, and loveable characters, Love on the Brain is this fall’s hot romantic comedy!”—Stefanie Lynn, The Kennett Bookhouse, Kennett Square, PA

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna (Berkley; LJ starred review)

“Mika is one of the few witches secretly living in Britain when someone reaches out for help teaching three young witches. She becomes entangled in the lives of her pupils and the household, including the handsome yet grouchy librarian Jaime. A cozy romance for fans of The House in the Cerulean Sea.”—Danielle Geiger, Brentwood Public Library, Brentwood, TN

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“I chose this book because of the wonderful title. I stayed through the end because of Mika Moon, our ridiculously charming reluctant heroine. We should all have a friend like Mika. Magic, family, romance, home — this book has it all!”—Lisa Reid, Lucy's Books, Astoria, OR

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang (Harper Voyager)

“What power do words really have? Kuang explores this question in a unique standalone fantasy where a magical system drawn from translation and silverwork fuels colonialism. With beautiful writing and well- developed characters, this is a fabulous book. For readers of Katherine Addison, Zen Cho and N.K. Jemisin.”—Danielle Deaver, Montgomery County Public Libraries, Bethesda, MD

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“Finishing a book like this is equal parts pleasure and pain: pleasure in reading something so striking and beautiful juxtaposed by the pain of it ending. Few books have brought tears to my eyes; Kuang’s Babel is now numbered among them.”—Maxwell Leaning, Paragraphs Bookstore, Mount Vernon, OH

Ruby Fever: A Hidden Legacy Novel by Ilona Andrews (Avon)

“This action-packed sixth book in the Hidden Legacy series features Catalina Baylor. Together with her fiancé, Alessandro, Catalina must use her full abilities to prevent a catastrophic collapse of House Baylor—and the city of Houston. This conclusion to Catalina’s story arc satisfies questions that arose earlier in the series, while leaving the door open for future installments.”—Caroline Quintanilla, Seminole County Library, Casselberry, FL

One additional Indie Next pick publishes this week:

Fox Creek by William Kent Krueger (Atria; LJ starred review)

“Fox Creek continues the saga of Cork O’Connor who is now a licensed private investigator. Krueger’s concern for the Native people of Northern Minnesota is very evident in this tense and dramatic mystery with many unexpected twists.”—Carolyn Statler, Three Sisters Books & Gifts, Shelbyville, IN

In the Media

The People "Picks" book of the week is Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls by Kathleen Hale (Grove). Also getting attention are All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers (Bantam), and All Signs Point To Paris: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Destiny by Natasha Sizlo (Mariner). A “New in Paperback” section highlights All's Well by Mona Awad (Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books), Billy Summers by Stephen King (Gallery: S. & S.), and Sophie Go's Lonely Hearts Club by Roselle Lim (Berkley).

The “Picks” section spotlights the film Three Thousand Years of Longing, based on A.S. Byatt’s short story, ”The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye,” She-Hulk: Attorney at Law on Disney+, with assoc. titles, and Netflix’s The Sandman, based on Neil Gaiman’s comic book series. Plus, David Rose, EGGin’: David Rose Cooks on the Big Green Egg (Andrews McMeel Publishing), and Vishwesh Bhatt, I Am From Here: Stories and Recipes from a Southern Chef, share recipes.

Reviews

NYT reviews My Government Means To Kill Me by Rasheed Newson (Flatiron): “The headline appeal of My Government Means to Kill Me is self-evident: It shines a vivid light onto underappreciated aspects of our history. However, the book’s greatest charm lies in the sensitivity and subtlety of its narrative.” And, Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery by Casey Parks (Knopf): “Diary of a Misfit is at once dewy-eyed and diligent, capricious and capacious, empathetic and exacting. It’s as richly textured as a pot of gumbo.” Plus, there are short reviews of four romances.

The Guardian reviews Babysitter by Joyce Carol Oates (Knopf): “Definitely one of Oates’s finest achievements to date, Babysitter is an unforgettable portrait of an “oblivion beyond even evil”, one that ricochets around affluent, middle-class America but begins, all too distressingly often, with a priest and a boy in a darkened room.”

Briefly Noted

NYT profiles Nobel Prize Winner Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose Afterlives (Riverhead) publishes this week.

FoxNews talks with former attorney Fred Segal about his new book based on his popular twitter account, Freezing Cold Takes: NFL: Football Media’s Most Inaccurate Predictions—and the Fascinating Stories Behind Them (Running Press Adult).

The Washington Post features the “sort-of-secret life” of Ali Hazelwood, whose second novel, Love on the Brain (Berkley), arrives this week.

Maggie O’Farrell pens an essay for The Guardian about how her Covid convalescence influenced her forthcoming novel, The Marriage Portrait (Knopf).

Salon explores how today’s romances are revising interracial relationship tropes.

USA Today picks five books for the week.

CrimeReads suggests 10 books out this week, and the best international crime fiction of the month.

Authors On Air

CBS Sunday Morning talks with Senator Patrick Leahy about the dangers of partisanship and his new memoir, The Road Taken (S. & S.), and shares an excerpt.

NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday talks with Anna DeForest, A History of Present Illness (Little, Brown; LJ starred review), and drawing on “her experience as a physician to write about sickness, healing, and loss.”

NPR’s Books We Love recommends three romances: An Arrow to the Moon by Emily X.R. Pan (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart (Grove; LJ starred review), and Ramón and Julieta by Alana Quintana Albertson (Berkley).

NPR’s All Things Considered reflects on Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson (Crown), as it celebrates its 25th anniversary.

NPR’s It’s Been A Minute talks with James Beard Award winner Michael W. Twitty about his new book, Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew (Amistad).

PBS Canvas covers the new Broadway adaptation of The Kite Runner, based on the book by Khaled Hosseini.

Bustle provides background for the new GOT prequel, House of the Dragon, and NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour recaps the premiere.

Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.