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News & Buzzy Summer Books 

B&N lists the most anticipated books of July 2023 and highlights new paperbacks out next month. 

LitHub shares “50 of the Greatest Summer Novels of All Time.”

Shondaland shares “12 New and Emerging LGBTQ+ Writers to Read for Pride 2023.”

LJ’s galley and signing guide for the 2023 ALA conference is now available. Sign up here. 

NYT asks: Why are we so afraid of reading?

Meet USA Today’s new crossword puzzle editor.

“Authors and Students Sue Over Florida Law Driving Book Bans.” NYT reports. 

Reviews

NYT reviews Holding Pattern by Jenny Xie (Riverhead): “While some lines spin you around (‘My remorse hardened into resentment like the convoluted lines of a loose knot being yanked into clarity’ is a mouthful of a simile), much of Holding Pattern is exquisite and wise”; and Old Enough by Haley Jakobson (Dutton): “The novel is told via a first-person confidential point of view, which imbues the story with an effortless authenticity that defies reservations about the scope of Savannah’s worldview (shallow) and the privilege of the central characters (deep).” Plus, there is a paired review of two books that critique private equity firms: Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan To Pillage America by Brendan Ballou (Public Affairs), and These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner (S. & S.). 

USA Today reviews The Only One Left by Riley Sager (Dutton), giving it 3.5 out of 4 stars: “This thrilling page-turner is quite the tour. Sager has crafted a world where you can nearly see the rich tapestry it must have once been before being faded by time, dust coating it all, dreams drifting away with the heavy winds that batter Hope’s End’s halls.”

The Washington Post reviews The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue (Knopf): “O’Donoghue has found a way to tell this story in scenes both heartbreaking and funny. She may not have Binchy’s sweetness, but she illuminates these Irish lives with a light all her own.”

NPR reviews Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (New Directions): “It's this wider sense of life that Erpenbeck offers in Kairos, which, in Michael Hofmann's crystalline translation, pulses with her memories of communist Berlin.”

The Rumpus reviews Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant (Knopf): “Vaillant’s journalism is best shown through the powerful firsthand accounts of fire, and the conversational science he layers throughout the book. What is clear is that we must prepare to reimagine the worst case of any climate-related scenario if we don’t do something to curb them.”

Vox reviews I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore (Knopf): “She seems to have poured her sentences out onto the ground, where they spread and stretch and sink into the soil. This is a strange and beautiful book, and when you try to catch it in your hands, it dissolves.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for Zero Days by Ruth Ware (Gallery; LJ starred review), the top holds title of the week. 

Bustle has an interview with E.L. James, who “returns to form” with The Missus (Bloomsbury). 

Natalie Beach talks about Caroline Calloway and her new book of essays, Adult Drama (Hanover Square), with Elle. 

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy talks with Shondaland about her new memoir, Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary, written with Toshio Meronek (Verso), and weighs in on activism and Pride Month. Keziah Weir talks about the inspiration behind her new book, The Mythmakers (S. & S./Marysue Rucci). Christian Cooper discusses his lifelong hobby and new book,Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World (Random). Plus, Andrea Bartz talks about how “how her own queerness informed” the plot of The Spare Room (Ballantine). People also talks with Bartz about coming out as bisexual.

Molly Lynch discusses her debut novel, The Forbidden Territory of a Terrifying Woman (Catapult), with Vogue. 

ElectricLit talks with Helen Elaine Lee about her novel, Pomegranate (Atria), and “how stories can be a form of hope, and the different forces that complicate—or encourage—healing.”

Comedian Tom Papa discusses his tour and new book, We’re All in This Together…: So Make Some Room (St. Martin’s), with Salon. 

NPR’s Main Character of the Day profiles Jenny Xie and how her new book, Holding Pattern (Riverhead), explores the mother-daughter relationship. 

Lorrie Moore, I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home (Knopf), takes Elle’s “Shelf Life” literary questionnaire. Plus, Dan Kois talks with editor Bill Buford about Lorrie Moore, at Slate. 

BookRiot asks: “Who is Nora Roberts?”

CrimeReads looks into Millennial aging and nostalgia in thrillers.

BBC explores “25 stories that define Korea’s dramatic history.”

“4 Young Writers Revisit Their Hottest Summer Flings” at Vogue.

PopSugar shares the sexiest books of all time.

CBC shares 15 Canadian books spotlighting refugees. 

T&C shares 23 books for fans of Yellowstone. 

The Atlantic recommends 9 funny books, and explores the virtues and future of audiobooks. 

BookRiot shares 15 BDSM romance books, 10 books based on Queen’s debut album, and 11 short queer books. 

Authors On Air

Netflix premieres a trailer for its live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series, set to arrive next year. Tor has the story. GMA also shares images from the upcoming series.

Emma Myers will star in the BBC’s adaptation of Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (Delacorte). Deadline reports.

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