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News & New Books

St. Martin’s Press responds to a marketing boycott and controversy, Publishers Weekly reports. Publishers Lunch also has coverage.

Booktopia is sold to DigiDirect, Publishers Lunch reports. 

A group of authors is suing AI startup Anthropic over its popular chatbot Claude, AP reports.

LitHub highlights 27 new books for the week. 

BookRiot shares notable new releases for the week. 

CBC previews 64 Canadian books to read this fall. 

Reviews

NYT reviews Freedom Is a Feast by Alejandro Puyana (Little, Brown): “His fast-paced novel is full of foreshadowing, cliffhangers and cartoonish thugs. But Puyana entered adulthood as Chávez took power, and this book is really about politics, about showing us ‘the toxicity of the Chávez regime’ for the poor and working-class Venezuelans who put their faith in his promise”; Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Farrar): ”There is no room for Lorde’s flaws in this book; she is a goddess, an avatar, an icon. As an entry point into Lorde’s poetry, though, Gumbs’s persuasive close readings create a virtuous circle, shining a light on how the life generated the poems, which now elucidate that life”; Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life by Joshua Leifer (Dutton): “A memoir in which a 20-something writer reflects on his marginalized identity: Is there anything more American?”; and Paradise Bronx: The Life and Times of New York’s Greatest Borough by Ian Frazier (Farrar): “Paradise Bronx is a ramble in every way: physical, chronological, pedagogical.”

NPR reviews A Wilder Shore: The Romantic Odyssey of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson by Camille Peri (Viking): “Camille Peri’s lively and substantive dual biography of the Stevensons, called A Wilder Shore, whisks those obscuring draperies off Fanny and restores her to full personhood.”

The Guardian reviews The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable (S. & S.): “Her admirable research and careful accretion of detail as she describes life in Venice, inside and outside the orphanage, gradually work their magic.”

LA Times reviews Sacrificial Animals by Kailee Pedersen (St. Martin’s; LJ starred review): “Sacrificial Animals is remarkable in its keen barbarism, the author’s blending of the ordinary violence of rural life with the gravity of a Chinese myth.”

The Rumpus reviews Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia (Tin House): “For the uninitiated, her eerie masterpieces will prompt readers to open their minds to the wilder possibilities of both the desert and art.”

Briefly Noted

Time writes: “This Election Will Determine the Fate of Libraries.”

Joshua Leifer talks with Slate about his new book, Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life (Dutton). 

BookRiot shares “10 Books from El Salvador and its Diaspora.” 

Star Tribune writes about when a book club goes bad. 

Moon Unit Zappa chats with People about her new memoir, Earth to Moon (Dey Street). 

Naomi Watts announces a new book, Dare I Say It : Everything I Wish I'd Known About Menopause (Crown), due out January 2025.  People has the story.

Tahereh Mafi, author of Shatter Me, announces a spinoff series and first book Watch Me.  Today has coverage.

At Parade, Karin Slaughter, This Is Why We Lied (Morrow), and Jodi Picoult, By Any Other Name (Ballantine) share their favorite books of all time.

People shares an excerpt of the new book, Taylor Swift: The Stories Behind the Songs by Annie Zaleski (Thunder Bay). 

The Atlantic asks: "How Much of a Book Should I Read Before Giving Up?"

Esquire teases news from George R. R. Martin on when he will finish The Winds of Winter. 

At ElectricLit, authors Jamel Brinkley, Xuan Juliana Wang, and Sidik Fofana discuss the short story form and which stories they return to again and again.

CrimeReads considers the anti-detective novel. 

LitHub rejoices: The Onion is back in print.

Authors On Air

Kailee Pedersen discusses the new book, Sacrificial Animals (St. Martin’s; LJ starred review), on B&N’s Poured Over podcast.

Jennifer Egan reflects on her Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Visit From The Goon Squad, on the New York Book Review podcast. 

Millie Bobby Brown is developing her book, Nineteen Steps, written with Kathleen McGurl (Morrow), for Netflix.  Deadline reports.

Deadline rounds up everything we know about Percy Jackson And The Olympians’  season 2. 

Prime has canceled My Lady Jane, based on the book by Jodi Meadows, after one season.  Variety reports.

T&C highlights the best true crime streaming TV shows, including Hulu’s Under the Bridge, based onthe novel by Rebecca Godfrey, FX’s Under the Banner of Heaven, based on the book by Jon Krakauer, and Hulu’s Dopesick, based on the book by Beth Macy, and Peacock’s A Friend of the Family, based on Mary Ann Broberg's memoir, Stolen Innocence, and Five Days at Memorial, based on the book by Sheri Fink.

PBS Canvas remembers legendary talk show host and author, Phil Donahue, who died at the age of 88.

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