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Awards & News

Real Americans by Rachel Khong (Knopf) is the May B&N Book Club selection. NYT profiles Khong and her new book. Time also interviews Khong. 

The Ondaatje Prize releases its 2024 shortlist. Publishing Perspectives has details. 

NYT shares “The Book Review’s Best Books Since 2000.”

In conjunction with the Edgar Awards Ceremony, which will air tomorrow evening at 8:30 p.m. EST, CrimeReads hosted a roundtable with nominees to discuss the writing life and the state of the crime novel. 

The Tomorrow Prize finalists and Green Feather Winner are announced. Locus has details. 

The Seiun Awards nominees are announced.

Bestselling author T.J. Newman leaves Simon & Schuster for a multimillion-dollar two-book deal with Little Brown, Deadline reports. Worst Case Scenario arrives August 13. Publishers Weekly also reports. 

Reviews

NYT reviews Real Americans by Rachel Khong (Knopf): “Indeed how lucky we readers are to be acquainted with these Americans, imagined and alive.” LA Times also reviews: “The question at the heart of this irresistible puzzle of a novel is whether ‘real’ Americans can ever stop striving long enough to claim this fortune. Or will we follow the emperor’s example and die forever contemplating our options.” NPR says: “An element of fantasy suffuses all three stories: May and her descendants possess the power to ‘keep time still.’ At first, this power feels less like a volitional exertion than the onset of a panic attack. To go into more detail about what exactly is going on would spoil part of the fun of reading the final section.” Christian Science Monitor also weighs in: “Real Americans is Khong’s sophomore novel—following her heartwarming 2017 debut, Goodbye, Vitamin—but it reads as if she skipped right to postdoc-level work.”

NYT also reviews The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson (Crown): “The greatest echo of the present day in The Demon of Unrest may be Larson’s newcomer ego, a swaggering disregard for the difference between the shopworn and the truly complex that leads straight into the pitfalls of nostalgia and hubris.”

LA Times reviews The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader/S. & S.): “Bradley’s written an edgy, playful and provocative book that’s likely to be the most thought-provoking romance novel of the summer. Check your history: That’s no small feat”; and Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire, ed. by Alice Wong (Vintage): “There is often a lot of pressure placed on books of this kind that amplify marginalized voices or tackle taboo topics, but remember: Sometimes a book does the world a service not because it is encyclopedic or full of answers but simply because it raises questions and starts conversations.”

Briefly Noted

LitHub highlights 23 new books for the week. 

ElectricLit shares 15 indie press books to read this spring.

Alta previews 15 new books for May.

Reactor shares “Five Vintage Works of SF From Women Writers.”

USA Today has a profile and interview with librarian Mychal Threets about how he “became a social media sensation spreading a message of love and literacy.”

People shares an excerpt from the new book Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire, (Vintage) and has an interview with editor Alice Wong. 

Ingrid Seward talks with Fox News Digital about her new book, My Mother and I (S. & S.), and how Queen Camilla went from villain to beloved daughter-in-law.

People has a preview and cover reveal for Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s forthcoming memoir, Time To Stand, due out from BenBella Books in January 2025. Rolling Stone also has the announcement.

Entertainment Weekly has a preview and cover reveal for Alan Moore’s forthcoming graphic novel The Great When: A Long London Novel (Bloomsbury), due out October 1. 

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem responds to criticism about details from her forthcoming book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward (Center Street), which publishes next week. People has the story.

Authors on Air

Actor, author and producer Gabrielle Union talked about her inspirations behind the new film adaptation of Robinne Lee’s The Idea of You (St. Martin’s Griffin) with People.

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