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Awards, News, & Book Clubs

USA Today’s Best-seller Booklist returns after being on hiatus since December.

Michael Rosen wins 2023 PEN Pinter prize. The Guardian has coverage. 

Jamaican writer Kwame McPherson wins the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. 

The Museum of Pop Culture announced the 2023 Science Fiction + Fantasy Hall of Fame Inductees, including N.K. Jemisin and John Carpenter. 

Save What’s Left by Elizabeth Castellano (Anchor), is the new GMA book club pick for July.

B&N picks Adrienne Brodeur’s Little Monsters (Avid Reader Pr./ S. & S.). 

The Chicago Tribune reported on the fight against book banning at the ALA Annual Conference. 

Enduring Ventures intends to acquire the assets of Scribe Media. Publisher’s Lunch reports. 

Reviews

NPR reviews Be Mine: A Frank Bascombe Novel by Richard Ford (Ecco: HarperCollins): “If Be Mine is indeed the last Bascombe novel, it's an elegiac and wry finale to a great saga. But, "yeah-no," I hope that maybe this isn't quite the end.”  I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore (Knopf): “Moore's story invokes — and comically literalizes — the universal desire to have more time with a loved one who's died. You might be reluctant to go along on such a morbid — and very dusty — ride, but you'd be missing one of the most singular and affecting on-the-road stories in the American canon.”

NYT reviews The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church by Rachel L. Swarns (Random): “What comes through most effectively is the sorrow and the determination to survive of the enslaved people whom Swarns brings to light through her sleuthing and resonant prose.” A Terribly Serious Adventure: Philosophy and War at Oxford, 1900-1960 by Nikhil Krishnan (Random): “is lively storytelling as sly ‘redescription’: an attempt to recast the history of philosophy at Oxford in the mid-20th century by conveying not only what made it influential in its time but also what might make it vital in ours.” The Child and the River by Henri Bosco, trans. by Joyce Zonana (NYRB Classics): “What the story lacks in dramatic tension — since everything is, in a sense, foreordained and marked out by clues in the short bits of exposition — it gains in lightheartedness.”

LA Times reviews The Apartment by Ana Menéndez (Counterpoint): “Menéndez has given life to a place both indistinct and emblematic, mining private pain but spreading positive energy in a building — in a city and a country — that could use a lot more of it.”

The Washington Post reviews Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur (Avid Reader Pr./ S. & S.): “Ultimately, though, the true crisis here is interpersonal rather than sociopolitical. As the novel builds toward its conclusion, Adam’s 70th birthday celebration promises to be the scene where many of this family’s secrets are revealed.”

Briefly Noted

USA Today has partnered with St. Louis indie bookseller, The Novel Neighbor, to provide weekly title recommendations. Today’s suggestions highlight books for people just out of a toxic relationship. 

OCLC turns to AI for book suggestions.

LJ’s Barbara Hoffert has new prepub alerts.

LitHub notes June’s best book covers. 

USA Today matches book covers with Taylor Swift’s Eras costumes. 

The Washington Post (re)-introduces readers to the work of 17th-century philosopher, poet, playwright and essayist, Margaret Cavendish.

BookRiot explains the romcom, with examples.

The Guardian rounds up the top 10 summer love stories.

Ebony shares "6 Hip Hop books that chronicle the genre."

People lists Colleen Hoover’s 26 books in chronological order. 

CrimeReads explores the appeal of four popular mystery tropes. 

The Millions shares “Must-Read Poetry: Summer 2023.” 

Carolyn Mackler talks about “marriage, revenge, and Judy Blume”, along with her new novel, The Wife App (S. & S.), with Shondaland. Tara Isabella Burton, Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians (PublicAffairs), discusses influencer culture.

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Negative Money (Soft Skull), answers 10 questions at Poets&Writers. 

The Rumpus has an interview with Gina Chung, Sea Change (Vintage). Her forthcoming short story collection, Green Frog, is due out next year. 

ElectricLit has a conversation with Camila Sosa Villada, author of Bad Girls (Other).

Author Nicky Singer has died at the age of 66. Locus has more on her life. 

Authors On Air

Adrienne Brodeur discusses her novel, Little Monsters (Avid Reader Pr./ S. & S.), with NPR’s All Things Considered.

CBC celebrates 33 years of Writers & Company with Eleanor Wachtel.  

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