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Awards & News

The 33rd annual Triangle Awards winners are announced.

The 2021 Firecracker Award Finalists have been announced.

Trevor Shikaze has been named the first winner of n+1’s Anthony Veasna So Prize. LitHub reports.

Simon and Schuster is launching a Books Like Us First Novel contest to create accessibility to underrepresented authors. Locus Magazine has the story.

New Title Bestsellers

Links for the week: NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers | NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers | USA Today Best-Selling Books

Fiction

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave (S. & S.) starts at No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list and No. 2 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list.

21st Birthday by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown and Company:  Hachette) celebrates No. 1 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list and No. 2 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list.

Project: Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Ballantine) soars to No. 3 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list and No. 4 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list.

The Newcomer by Mary Kay Andrews (St. Martin’s) starts at No. 10 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list.

Summer on the Bluffs by Sunny Hostin (William Morrow: Harper Collins) swims to No. 11 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list.

Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday) clocks in at No. 13 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list.

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (Knopf; LJ starred review) flies to No. 14 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list.

Nonfiction

Killing the Mob: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (St. Martin’s: Macmillan) shoots for No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list and No. 4 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list.

The Premonition by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton) debuts at No. 3 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list and No. 5 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list.

Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard (Knopf: LJ starred review) grows to No. 4 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list.

Persist by Elizabeth Warren (Metropolitan: Macmillan) starts at No. 6 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list.

The Tyranny of Big Tech by Josh Hawley (Regnery) takes hold of No. 13 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list.

On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed (Liveright; LJ starred review) opens at No. 14 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list.

The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson (Harper) reels in to No. 15 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list.

Reviews

Focus Magazine reviews Rabbit Island by Elvira Navarro (Two Lines Press: Ingram): “While the stories in Rabbit Island do make for discomfiting, sometimes queasy reading, Navarro, with unvarnished and direct prose, compels the reader to see the world anew, to recognise and even embrace the surreal nature of our existence.”

NYT reviews On Violence and Violence Against Women by Jacqueline Rose (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: Macmillan): "It’s in the movement of her prose, the way she seizes and furiously unravels ideas from her previous books, that we see the vigor and precision of her mind, the work of thinking, of forging new pathways that she holds up as rejoinder to the muteness of violence." Also, Amazon Unbound by Brad Stone (S. & S.): "Significantly, the book is also very much a biography of Bezos. And that makes it timely at a moment when our economy is dominated by giant firms headed by a small handful of men, whose personalities and whims we need to understand whether we like it or not." Plus, Meeting in Positano by Goliarda Sapienza (Other Press): "But most of all, “Meeting in Positano” is a nuanced exploration of happiness, guilt and the fickleness of human affections when subjected to the material constraints of daily life."

The Washington Post reviews Billie Eilish by Billie Eilish (Grand Central): "“Billie Eilish” offers a more vulnerable portrayal of the star. A stand-alone audiobook provides commentary by Eilish and her parents, Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell, actors who home-schooled their two precocious kids in Los Angeles."

Oprah Daily reviews Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (Knopf; LJ starred review): “What Maggie Shipstead has done with this book is deliver a series of ahas, of sweet, provocative points of contemplation that make the reader feel as alive as Marian did in that plane.”

Book Marks lists "5 Reviews You Need to Read This Week."

Briefly Noted

Entertainment Weekly has an interview with Asha Bromfield, author of Hurricane Summer (Wednesday Books: Macmillan) about what she wants her readers to take away from her book. Fox News features an interview with Terry Crews, Stronger Together (Audible) about how he worked on himself in order to save his marriage to co-author Rebecca King Crews. Vulture has a conversation with Alison Bechdel, The Secret to Superhuman Strength (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) about how exercising brought her a closer relationship with the world around her. By the Book interviews Andrew McCarthy, Brat: An ’80s Story (Grand Central) and discusses his more theatrical dreams. 

Entertainment Weekly has an excerpt from The Devil May Dance by Jake Tapper (Little, Brown and Company). Tor.com features an excerpt from The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid (Harper Voyager: HarperCollins).

CrimeReads features a piece by Heather Martin, author of The Reacher Guy: A Biography of Lee Child (Pegasus: S. & S.) regarding Child’s A Little Gold Book of Unconsidered Trifles on tying up loose ends of his writing, dedicated to his fans. Also, about Mary Roberts Rinhart’s reissued book, The Wall (American Mystery Classics: W. W. Norton). LitHub features a piece from Emily Midorikawa about her book, Out of the Shadows: Six Visionary Victorian Women in Search of a Public Voice by (Counterpoint) and the challenges of writing historical narratives.

Colin Kaepernick announces the Oct 12 release of a book he has edited and published, Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future Without Policing and Prisons (Kaepernick Publishing: Ingram). Huffington Post has more.

Carmen Maria Machado writes about the challenges around her latest book In the Dream House (Graywolf: Macmillan) and parents attempting to take her book off of school reading lists. NYT has the opinion piece.

Tor.com has a cover reveal for Until the Last of Me by Sylvain Neuvel (Tor: Macmillan) and a cover reveal for The Way Spring Arrives: A New Anthology of Chinese Science Fiction and Fantasy in Translation edited by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang (Tor: Macmillan). Lastly, a revisit of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi (Bloomsbury USA: Macmillan; LJ starred review) on how this book helps remind people how to live, according to the author.

LitHub shares a reader's pandemic Jane Austen journey and also, the inspiration for a book based on the relationship between Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger.

CrimeReads provides “9 Great Thrillers Featuring Alter Egos” and a piece by Aidan Truhen, author of Seven Demons (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard: Random House) on embracing the bad behaviors in thrillers for a more fun read.

Tor.com lists “18 of Our Favorite Books on Writing.”

Time has “Three New Books Find Drama in the Scandals and Controversies of the Publishing World.”

LitHub provides “Reimagining the Ancient World: A Reading List.”

The Washington Post shares “Forget the bestseller list: These lesser-known works deserve your attention.”

NYT provides “The Essential Elin Hilderbrand.”

PublishersLunch gives “The Complete Buzz Books Fall/Winter Titles.”

The Wall Street Journal gives “Airplane Thrillers Take Off This Summer.”

The Drift Magazine shares "The Climate Anxiety Novel."

CrimeReads lists "The Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2021: Summer Reading Edition."

Authors on Air

Thresholds podcast has an interview with Rachel Kushner, The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000–2020 (Scribner) about the balance of capturing oneself in writing and not imposing any unnecessary transformation arcs or self-mythologizing.

Chris Hemsworth celebrates the 10th anniversary of Thor with a Good Morning America interview.

Tawny Kitaen revealed that she was working on an autobiography in an appearance before her death on Behind the Velvet Rope. Fox News has the story.

Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo is getting a new treatment for Realm, a fiction and podcast outlet. Tor.com has more information.

Keen On features author Josh Linkner, Big Little Breakthroughs (Post Hill: S. & S.) about how unlocking creativity helps create a better life. Also, featuring Natasha Lennard, author of Being Numerous: Essay on Non-Fascist Life (Verso) on how to fight modern fascism and to not become imprisoned by one's own mind.

LitHub publishes a take on the ubiquity of adaptations, including Stephen King’s Lisey’s Story.

Variety reports on several upcoming comic adaptations including Marvel’s Shang-Chi and Eternals facing Chinese disapproval, concerns about Marvel Studios’ Disney Plus Shows without showrunners, Emily Blunt’s refusal to be cast in Fantastic Four films, and Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot receiving backlash for political statements.

Author Elissa Washuta, White Magic (Tin House) speaks with Reading Women podcast about how she shaped her essay collection through a few major beats.

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