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Book Bans, AI, & Women in Translation Month

Penguin Random House launches a new banned-books resource. Publishing Perspectives has details. 

ABCNews reports on Vermont’s lieutenant governor’s reading tour featuring banned books.

An Iowa school district is using AI to identify 19 books to remove from school libraries. Mason City Globe Gazette reports. The story is also covered in Rolling Stone, The Verge, Gizmodo, and LitHub.

The Washington Post asks: “Will AI ruin audiobooks?”

The Associated Press talks to authors about the fear and fascination behind the rise of AI.

The August LoanStars list is out, featuring top pick None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell (Atria).

The Rumpus suggests titles for Women in Translation Month.

BookRiot shares 8 new books by women in translation.

LA Times and Datebook revisit Michael Lewis’s The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, after recent revelations from Michael Oher, as reported in NYT, claiming he was “conned with adoption promise.”

Reviews

NYT reviews three new romance titles: Play To Win by Jodie Slaughter (St. Martin’s Griffin; LJ starred review), Marry Me by Midnight by Felicia Grossman (Forever: Grand Central), and Us, Et Cetera by Kit Vincent (Sky House). There are paired reviews of two books that “bring attention to old discoveries with the potential to cure stubborn ailments and reveal the secrets of biology”: The Good Virus: The Amazing Story and Forgotten Promise of the Phage by Tom Ireland (Norton) and The Master Builder: How the New Science of the Cell Is Rewriting the Story of Life by Alfonso Martinez Arias (Basic).

NPR reviews Evergreen by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime; LJ starred review): “Crime stories can sketch a portrait of society in many ways. Hirahara’s approach is what we might call domestic. Not dwelling on bloodshed or perversity, she anchors her crime story in the realities of Aki and her family’s daily life.”

LA Times reviews Thin Skin: Essays by Jenn Shapland (Pantheon): “‘Thin Skin’ and ‘The Meaning of Life’ have the most energy of the collection, but the work as a whole finds Shapland determined to reckon with the biggest challenges that face us as a society: environmental toxicity, racism, fascist control.”

Tor reviews More Perfect by Temi Oh (Gallery/Saga; LJ starred review): “Where it’s heavy-handed and occasionally over-expository with its dystopian concepts, it compensates via gentle, careful scenes that evoke the most dramatic themes in Thomas’ work: life, death, and above all, the fragile cycles that we find ourselves repeating all over again.”

The Millions reviews Why Mariah Carey Matters by Andrew Chan (Univ. of Texas Pr.): “Chan’s slim volume covers not only Carey’s artistry, but also the sociological aspects of her celebrity, and—more nebulously—why and how she became a towering gay icon.”

Autostraddle reviews Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner (St. Martin’s Griffin): “If you’re a fan of women’s soccer, you’re going to see not only your favorite sport play out in the pages of a queer romance novel, but also your own self reflected back at you. And that’s cool as heck.”

The Guardian reviews The Fraud by Zadie Smith (Penguin Pr.; LJ starred review): “The Fraud is a curious combination of gloriously light, deft writing and strenuous construction. There’s a risk of readerly bafflement as bright shards of narrative are shaken into unpredictable combinations across time and place. But the novel’s hybridity becomes part of its fascination.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for Lion & Lamb by James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski (Little, Brown), the top holds title of the week. 

Pidgeon Pagonis discusses their new memoir, Nobody Needs To Know (TOPPLE Books & Little A), intersex joy, and challenges they faced writing the book. 

FoxNews talks with Johnny Lang, author of the new book, My Army Days with Elvis: Friendship, Football, & Follies (Xulon Pr.) about being stationed in Germany with Elvis.

Alice Hoffman discusses her latest novel, The Invisible Hour (Atria), with Shondaland. Kai Cheng Thom talks about her new book, Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls (Dial Press Trade Paperback), which features “lyrical poems about finding a path toward loving humanity again.” Plus, Jenn Shapland, Thin Skin: Essays (Pantheon), looks at “climate grief, the inner workings of ’90s suburbia, and more.” Shapland also has a conversation with ElectricLit.

NYT has a feature on former Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust and her new memoir, Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury (Farrar). 

People talks with fashion historian Karan Feder about her forthcoming book, Barbie Takes the Catwalk: A Style Icon’s History in Fashion (Weldon Owen), due out October 3.

Parade writes about the customer demand for the script of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. 

The Minneapolis Star Tribune explores novelists’ ongoing fascination with the COVID-19 pandemic.

NYT suggests 8 newly published books. 

CrimeReads features 11 “influencer noir” titles. 

BookRiot shares “Goodreads users’ most anticipated books of fall.”

ElectricLit has 10 books about mad scientists. 

CrimeReads has an excerpt and cover reveal of Tarryn Fisher’s forthcoming thriller, Good Half Gone, due out from Graydon House in February 2024.

Authors On Air

NPR’s Fresh Air talks with Washington Post reporter Laura Meckler about her new book, Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity (Holt), and the “link between academic tracking and school segregation.”

NPR’s Short Wave highlights Eugenia Cheng’s new book, Is Math Real?: How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics’ Deepest Truths (Basic).

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