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Big Books of the Week

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager (Dutton) leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

Escape by James Patterson and David Ellis (Little, Brown)

The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark (Sourcebooks Landmark)

An Island Wedding by Jenny Colgan (Avon)

Maggie Moves On by Lucy Score (Forever; LJ starred review)

These books and others publishing the week of June 20, 2022 are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Awards & News

The Yoto Carnegie Greenaway 2022 Awards Winners are announced, with the first graphic novel on the list. Publishing Perspectives has coverage.

Malorie Blackman becomes first children's and YA author to win PEN Pinter prize. The Guardian reports.

James Robertson wins the 2022 Walter Scott Prize for his novel, News Of The Dead (Hamish Hamilton).

Kalani Pickhart wins the New York Public Library’s 2022 Young Lions Fiction Award for her book, I Will Die in a Foreign Land (Two Dollar Radio).

Zarin Nuzhat wins the 2022 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction.

The 2022 Scribe Award nominees are announced.

MWA Announces the Lilian Jackson Braun Award.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Three LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week:

Fake It Till You Bake It by Jamie Wesley (St. Martin’s Griffin)

“When fashionable, privileged Jada is cut off by her parents, her NFL-team-owning grandmother suggests that she work at a cupcake shop–one that happens to be owned by player Donovan Dell, the sexy but stuck-up guy Jada insulted previously. Neither of them counted on the sweet and spicy vibes that grow between them. A frothy, fun read perfect for fans of Ten Rules for Faking It and The Dating Plan.”—Laura Eckert, Clermont County Public Library, Milford, OH

The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark (Sourcebooks Landmark)

“Journalist Kat befriends con artist Meg in hopes of exposing her in revenge for a past wrong. As they get close, the shifting points of view reveal layers of deception between two masterful manipulators. For fans of fast-paced thrillers in the vein of Mary Kubica and Jessica Knoll.”—Sonia Reppe, Stickney-Forest View Public Library District, Stickney, IL

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“Kat Roberts has waited a decade to expose con artist Meg Williams. Now she finally has the chance...The Lies I Tell is a masterful tale. The characters are so well written, the plot smart and fast moving. This is definitely not one to miss!”—Rebecca Minnock, Murder By the Book, Houston, TX

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager (Dutton)

“An alcoholic starlet's husband dies at the family lake house. She returns and meets her new neighbors: a famous model, who almost drowned in the lake, and her rich techie husband. But do they have as great a marriage as it seems? To say anymore would be giving too much of the fun away. A must- read thriller for those who liked Getaway and The Return.”—Blair Bartley, Grand Prairie Public Library, Grand Prairie, TX

Three additional Indie Next picks publish this week:

Grown Ups by Marie Aubert, trans. by Rosie Hedger (Pushkin Pr.)

“I was hooked from the first line of Grown Ups, a wickedly fun novel about people behaving badly: ‘Other people’s children, always, everywhere.’ Sibling rivalry, midlife crises, and unease play out in this delicious train wreck of a book.”—Jhoanna Belfer, Bel Canto Books, Long Beach, CA

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid (Harper Voyager)

“A gorgeous story influenced by one of the Brothers Grimm’s darkest tales. At the center, two souls find a haven in each other while escaping evil worse than any monster under the bed. Juniper & Thorn is bewitching and utterly captivating.”—Tarah Jennings, Mitzi’s Books, Rapid City, SD

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin Pr.; LJ starred review)

“Lapvona is a truly marvelous and original creation that walks the iconic Moshfegh line of stomach-churning and profound. This book has its underbelly exposed and its eyes to the heavens.”—Ellie Eaton, Busboys and Poets, Washington, DC

In the Media

The People "Picks" book of the week is Jackie & Me by Louis Bayard (Algonquin; LJ starred review). Also getting attention are Just by Looking at Him by Ryan O’Connell (Atria), and City of Likes by Jenny Mollen (NacelleBooks: Ingram). A “Star Picks” section highlights Eleanor by David Michaelis (S. & S.), Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (Knopf; LJ starred review), and Torero by Ruven Afanador (Edition Stemmle).

The “Picks” section spotlights Spiderhead, based on the short story ‘Escape from Spiderhead’ by George Saunders on Netflix, The Summer I Turned Pretty, based on the book by Jenny Han on Amazon, and the film Jerry and Marge Go Large, based on the article by Jason Fagone.

Heather Turgeon, MFT and Julie Wright, MFT, authors of Generation Sleepless: Why Tweens and Teens Aren't Sleeping Enough and How We Can Help Them, (TarcherPerigee), explain the connection between sleep and mental health in a “Youth in Crisis” section. Plus, Angie Rito & Scott Tacinelli, Italian American (Clarkson Potter), share a recipe.

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me by Ada Calhoun (Grove; LJ starred review): “Now if, like me and countless others, you’ve loved Schjeldahl’s art criticism — its acuity, its passion — and considered him (quoting a fan) ‘the best art writer of our era … one of the best critics ever’ — brace yourself. Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me, Calhoun’s brave, blistering new memoir, may force you to — uh — revise your assumptions.” And, Horse by Geraldine Brooks (Viking; LJ starred review): “Horse is a reminder of the simple, primal power an author can summon by creating characters readers care about and telling a story about them — the same power that so terrifies the people so desperately trying to get Toni Morrison banned from their children’s reading lists.” And, Musical Revolutions: How the Sounds of the Western World Changed by Stuart Isacoff (Knopf; LJ starred review): “Perhaps the readers best served by this book are the ecumenical music lovers who enjoy music through the centuries but who may be missing the context for their listening.”

NYT reviews Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods by Lyndsie Bourgon (Little, Brown Spark): “I came away from The Overstory with a new appreciation for trees and for those who are trying to protect them. I came away from Tree Thieves recognizing that those efforts sometimes exact too high a price.” And, Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin Pr.; LJ starred review): “The novel seems neither wholly ironic, in that it sincerely wants to shock, nor fully committed to the reality of its world, at least not in a way that would allow its shocks to form a circuit with anything else.” Also, The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America by Michelle Wilde Anderson (Avid Reader Pr.: S. & S.): “Although Anderson tells stories of urban rebirth, her book does not conclude with any sense of a happy ending because she is describing human processes, not algorithms.” And, The Desperate Hours: One Hospital's Fight to Save a City on the Pandemic's Front Lines by Marie Brenner (Flatiron): “Brenner does an admirable job of showing how workers at a major health system persevered through once-in-a-century circumstances, even at great personal and professional costs.” Plus, I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys by Miranda Seymour (Norton): “Rhys had a uniquely lonely intelligence, and a talent for facing hard truths. If all you know of her is Wide Sargasso Sea, this book will encourage you to branch out. That’s nearly — almost, maybe — worth the price of admission.”

NPR reviews An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong (Random): "Yong brings into beautiful focus a host of other animal sensory worlds that co-exist with ours, and how we may protect them. He has synthesized and compellingly presented a spectacular amount of scientific information to do this, making it look easy along the way. But isn't easy at all. It's a magnificent achievement."

Briefly Noted

Bustle talks with Ottessa Moshfegh about her new book, Lapvona (Penguin Pr.; LJ starred review), “literary stardom, her ventures in the fashion industry, and the wildest thing she did during the pandemic.”

NYT Magazine has a wide ranging interview with John Grisham, whose latest book, Sparring Partners (Doubleday), is out now.

NYT features the new book, Legends of Drag: Queens of a Certain Age and its authors Harry James Hanson and Devin Antheus (Cerunnos: ABRAMS).

NYT writes about Harriet Tubman’s Maryland, and recommends new books.

BBC examines "The troubling legacy of the Lolita story, 60 years on.”

CrimeReads suggests 10 books out this week.

USA Today picks five books for the week, and 20 books for summer.

The Washington Post recommends “6 works of historical fiction highlight resilience amid war,” and highlights new books for the Queen’s Jubilee.

Entertainment Weekly suggests the best comics to read right now.

Seattle Times has books for Juneteenth.

Salon suggests “7 thrilling books by Black authors.”

BookRiot previews 15 cozy mysteries that publish in the second half of 2022. And, “7 bookish ways to celebrate Pride.”

ElectricLit shares “Our Favorite Essays by Black Writers About Race and Identity.”

Bustle has 10 must-read books for the week. Plus, Women’s Prize Winner Ruth Ozeki recommends 5 books.

Spotify has completed its acquisition of Findaway.

“Tim Sale, artist of Batman: The Long Halloween and other iconic comics, dies at 66.” NYT has an obituary.

“George Lamming, renowned Caribbean novelist, dies at 94.” The Washington Post has an obituary.

“Joel Whitburn, Tireless Researcher of Music Charts, Dies at 82.” NYT has an obituary.

Authors On Air

CBS Sunday Morning has a feature on how NYC doctors faced the early COVID outbreak, as described in Marie Brenner’s new book, The Desperate Hours: One Hospital's Fight to Save a City on the Pandemic's Front Lines (Flatiron). Vanity Fair shares an excerpt from the book.

NPR’s It’s Been A Minute talks with Kaitlyn Tiffany, Everything I Need I Get from You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It (MCD x FSG Originals), about “how fans used Tumblr to transform internet culture, how being a One Direction fan enriched her own life and why fandom is more complicated than you might think.”

NPR’s All Things Considered speaks with Mark Eden Horowitz, editor of the new book, The Letters of Oscar Hammerstein II (Oxford Univ. Pr.), about the many sides of the famous lyricist/librettist.

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas (Atria), will be adapted for film. Deadline reports. 

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