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Awards, News & Summer Reading

LitHub releases the “The Ultimate Summer 2023 Reading List,” which compiles 35 lists and ranks the most popular books.

Christopher Tradowsky Wins 2023 J. Michael Samuel Prize for Emerging Writers Over 50. Lambda Literary announces. 

Canada’s International Cundill History Prize names its 2023 jury. Publishing Perspectives has details. 

CBC shares “30 must-read books for National Indigenous History Month.”

Ebony lists “Black authors to dip into this June.”

Boston Public Library releases “We Are Pride” booklist. LJ reports. 

Parade has “29 LGBTQ+ Books for Pride Month.”

LJ highlights the best books of June. 

A Utah school district has banned the Bible from primary schools. People reports. 

Filmmaker Noah Baumbach will publish a memoir with Knopf. Deadline reports. 

Reviews

NYT reviews Pageboy: A Memoir by Elliot Page (Flatiron): “The nonlinear structure makes following a clear narrative difficult, but that’s less important than seeing, through his eyes, how Page slowly pieces together a clear sense of himself”; Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See (Scribner): “Perhaps See’s book is meant to be equal parts educational and entertaining, though rarely does it feel immersive”; My Murder by Katie Williams (Riverhead): “My Murder is one of those rare emotionally intelligent books that are also fun reads, and it even manages to perform two or three plot turns that are so masterly that they would make Ira Levin blush”; Countries of Origin by Javier Fuentes (Pantheon): “Countries of Origin does what all memorable novels do: It leaves the reader’s world a little larger, airier and more forgiving than before”; Between Two Moons by Aisha Abdel Gawad (Doubleday): “Such references to gods and queens and prophets swirl through the pages, uplifting characters whose humanity is systematically reduced and denied”; A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma by Noreen Masud (Melville House): “By the end of this sorrowful, tender, sometimes beautiful book, it becomes apparent that it is not those mythic Lahore fields that Masud has been trying to find, but rather a terrestrial analogue for her own sense of desolation”; Owlish by Dorothy Tse (Graywolf): “For such a wildly inventive read, Owlish veers disorientingly close to reality”; Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant (Knopf): “It is a gripping yarn, though the storytelling is at times slowed by Vaillant’s wanderings”; Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess (S. & S.): “Does love conquer all? Does it now? Did it ever? These are questions Cecilia Rabess asks in her nimble, discerning debut, Everything’s Fine”; The Dress Diary: Secrets from a Victorian Woman's Wardrobe by Kate Strasdin (Pegasus): “Strasdin’s detailed explication of Victorian-era dress is sure to delight the fashion history enthusiast, but The Dress Diary has much wider appeal”; and Be Mine by Richard Ford (Ecco): “Be Mine isn’t shoddy, exactly, but it’s the thinnest and least persuasive of the Bascombe novels. The seams in these books have begun to show.”

The Washington Post reviews Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence by Paco Calvo, written with Natalie Lawrence (Norton): “To his credit, Calvo—while freely admitting he was not trained as a plant scientist—cites articles by plant experts critical of his perspective”; and The Dissident by Paul Goldberg (Farrar; LJ starred review): “Goldberg reminds us that literature is intimately intertwined with human struggles in the real world. His overstuffed, occasionally self-indulgent but always stimulating novel is a feast for serious fiction readers.” NYT also reviews the latter: “The sociological description of 1970s Soviet activist life that Paul Goldberg layers onto his new novel, The Dissident, is as thick, gleaming and rich as a slab of fatback on rye.”

Briefly Noted

LA Times talks with Lisa See about how “COVID and an antique marriage bed” inspired her new book, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women (Scribner). 

The Guardian has a new interview with poet and novelist Ocean Vuong. 

Vogue explores a new book of photo essays, Strange Hours: Photography, Memory, and the Lives of Artists by Rebecca Bengal (Aperture). 

Esquire has an interview with Carolyn Pfeiffer about her new memoir, Chasing the Panther: Adventures and Misadventures of a Cinematic Life (Harper Horizon). 

Salon talks with Keith Ellison about his new book, Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence (Twelve: Grand Central). 

Actress Elizabeth Banks is starting a wine-drinking book club. Elle has the story. 

Author Amber Sparks reflects on the point of literary prizes at Slate. 

LitHub shares 29 new books for the week. 

USA Today highlights “celebrity memoirs worth the hype.”

The Atlantic recommends “Six Books That Feel Like Puzzles.”

PopSugar shares 15 Stephen King books to read after watching The Boogeyman.

Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo dies at 81. NYT has an obituary. 

Authors On Air

CBS Sunday Morning talks with David Von Drehle about his new book, The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man (S. & S.). Plus, Washington Post book critic Ron Charles offers book recommendations.

NPR’s All Things Considered talks with Robert Waldinger, coauthor of The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness with Marc Schulz (S. & S.), about how to improve a person’s happiness. Also, a conversation with British author Alan Philps, whose new book, The Red Hotel: Moscow 1941, the Metropol Hotel, and the Untold Story of Stalin’s Propaganda War (Pegasus), arrives July 4. 

Barbara Kingsolver discusses her Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Demon Copperhead (Harper; LJ starred review) on B&N’s Poured Over podcast. 

NPR talks with Amelia Possanza about her new book, Lesbian Love Story: A Memoir In Archives (Catapult). 

Henry Fraser’s inspirational memoir, The Little Big Things (Seven Dials), will be adapted into a musical. The Bookseller reports. 

Robert Thorogood will adapt his novel The Marlow Murder Club for PBS Masterpiece. Deadline reports.

What's On Netflix previews “Book Adaptations Coming Soon to Netflix in 2023 and Beyond.”

Prime Video releases a trailer for The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, based on the book by Holly Ringland. 

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