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Awards, Book Clubs & News

Reese Witherspoon picks Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Harper) for her August book club. (It is also the B&N pick.) LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for the book, which is the top holds title of the week. Plus, Patchett talks with NPR’s All Things Considered about family secrets.

Audiofile announces the August 2023 Earphones Award Winners. 

Fantasy Magazine will shutter after its October 2023 issue, Locus writes.

Paul Reubens was reportedly writing a memoir about his life and career before he died. LA Times reports.

Talks are set to resume between studios and the WGA on Friday. Deadline has the news. The Hollywood Reporter shares the latest strike news.

Hyperion Avenue launches new Marvel Crime Series for adults, PW reports.

Abrams will distribute Enchanted Lion Books and Familius, starting with spring 2024 titles, PW says. 

New editions of Jane Austen’s books feature wallpaper designs from her home. T&C has details.

Barbara Hoffert, Editor of Prepub Alert, will retire from Library Journal in September. Infodocket has more on her esteemed career. 

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews Mobility by Lydia Kiesling (Crooked Media Reads: Zando): “Kiesling leaves readers with a troubling awareness of the role we play in our ecological future, and a bleak sense that the new normal is like the old one: simultaneously overwhelming and underwhelming”; and Brothers and Sisters: The Allman Brothers Band and the Inside Story of the Album That Defined the ’70s by Alan Paul (St. Martin’s): “This book is primarily a thoughtful tribute to a group that loved playing together so much that they overcame the deaths of two leaders to become one of the great rock bands of all time.” Plus there is a paired review of The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths by Brad Fox (Astra House) and The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey (Doubleday).

Datebook reviews Tomb Sweeping: Stories by Alexandra Chang (Ecco): “Compelling and compulsively readable, Tomb Sweeping reveals that Chang is a writer who’s only just beginning to show readers her impressive range.”

NYT reviews The Visionaries: Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, Weil, and the Power of Philosophy in Dark Times by Wolfram Eilenberger, tr. by Shaun Whiteside (Penguin Pr.): “Eilenberger is an energetic guide to these philosophers’ ideas, though it’s clear that he holds Weil’s writings in special esteem.”

The Guardian reviews Witness: Stories by Jamel Brinkley (Farrar): “Witness is an extraordinary gathering of stories that confirms Brinkley’s place among the most moving, compelling and virtuosic practitioners of the short form.”

Briefly Noted

LJ’s Barbara Hoffert has new prepub alerts.

Time talks with Tahir Hamut Izgil, author of Waiting To Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China's Genocide, tr. by Joshua L. Freeman (Penguin Pr.), about “the repression in Xinjiang today, and the circumstances that led to his family’s escape.”

LA Times chats with Jamel Brinkley about his new story collection, Witness (Farrar), teaching, and design.

Esquire interviews author and CNN anchor Jake Tapper about his writing process and how he stays so prolific.

Danielle Valentine discusses turning a personal crisis into inspiration for her new horror novel, Delicate Condition (Sourcebooks Landmark), at People.

People also talks with Richard E. Grant about his memoir, A Pocketful of Happiness (S. & S.).

Nguyen Phan Que Mai leads a literary tour through Hanoi, for NYT. 

USA Today’s Dear Bookseller recommends Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (Morrow) for a reader with a short attention span.

At People, Billy Dee Williams previews his forthcoming memoir, What Have We Here? Portraits of a Life (Knopf), which publishes February 13, 2024.

NYT considers AI’s encroachment into publishing.

T&C shares 13 new books for August. 

PopSugar has 76 new thrilling mysteries and 112 new books that publish this year. 

The Guardian highlights 10 books about chosen families. 

Bustle suggests “10 Slutty Books To Read Before Summer Ends.”

Tor recommends “Five Classic SF Stories About Letting AI Do All the Work.”

Writer Roberto Rodriguez has died at the age of 69. LA Times has an obituary. 

Authors on Air 

Richard E. Grant discusses his memoir, A Pocketful of Happiness (S. & S.), and finding daily joy after the death of his wife, with NPR’s Fresh Air. 

Tahir Hamut Izgil talks about his book, Waiting To Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide, tr. by Joshua L. Freeman (Penguin Pr.), with NPR’s All Things Considered. 

Imagine Entertainment has acquired rights to Daniel Kraus’s new novel, Whalefall (MTV Bks.; LJ starred review), for a film adaptation, despite the SAG-AFTRA and the WGA strikes. No development will occur until new contracts are in place. Deadline reports.

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