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Spring Reading: Awards and Best Books

The BSFA Award shortlist is out.

The Women’s Prize for Fiction marks its 25th anniversary this year with a plan for a “Winner of Winners' prize” determined through a public vote. The Bookseller reports that part of the campaign includes new reading guides for all 25 past winners, with the first one out next week.

CrimeReads picks the best of International Crime Fiction for February.

LJ announces its Editor's Spring Reading picks and has an overview of the winter-spring season with a sortable spreadsheet offering an even deeper dive.

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews The Regrets by Amy Bonnaffons (Little, Brown: Hachette): “smart, spooky … in which a hip, single Brooklyn librarian falls for a sexy ghost.” Also, Open Book: A Memoir by Jessica Simpson (Dey Street Books: Harper): “she makes a point of reflecting on her mistakes but is cognizant of the pressures and expectations that others put on her. She’s most proud of what she’s achieved on her own.”

NPR reviews And I Do Not Forgive You: Stories and Other Revenges by Amber Sparks (Liveright: W. W. Norton): “Each story feels like it belongs here, but also like it stands alone so well you want to read it on repeat.”

USA Today reviews Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward J. Larson (William Morrow: Harper), giving it 3.5 stars and calling it “engaging.”

The L.A. Times reviews Prison Truth: The Story of the San Quentin News by William J. Drummond (Univ. California): “One hopes that Drummond, having helped others to tell their stories, will find it in him to tell more of his own.”

The NYT reviews The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood by Sam Wasson (Flatiron Books: Macmillan; LJ starred review): “part of a welcome and newish publishing trend: deeply researched and elaborately subtitled books about a single movie, which explore and reframe the film as an inflection point within the broader culture.” Also, Machiavelli: The Art of Teaching People What to Fear by Patrick Boucheron, translated by Willard Wood (Other Press): “This energetic little book started out as a series of talks for French public radio in 2016, and it offers a knowing guide to Machiavelli’s life and work. The tone, in Willard Wood’s translation, is playfully conspiratorial.” Reginald Dwayne Betts reviews The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison by Jason Hardy (S. & S.; LJ starred review): “a story based on glimpses, that misses far more than it sees.” The paper also has a round up focused on “Spies of World War II in 4 New Books.”

Briefly Noted

Medium has a piece on how “Asian American Writers Are Finally Breaking Out on Their Own Terms.”

The NYT showcases Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay (Penguin).

People features The Queen’s Fortune: A Novel of Desiree, Napoleon, and the Dynasty That Outlasted the Empire by Allison Pataki (Ballantine: Random House). Sales are soaring.

Entertainment Weekly highlights Shadow of the Batgirl by Sarah Kuhn, illustrated by Nicole Goux (DC Comics: Random House). On a similar note, but different woman, EW also has a piece on the “evolution of Wonder Woman’s costumes through the years.”

Shondaland spotlights $9 Therapy: Semi-Capitalist Solutions to Your Emotional Problems by Megan Reid, Nick Greene (Morrow Gift: Harper).

Entertainment Weekly excerpts Star Trek: Picard: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack (Pocket Books/Star Trek: S. & S.). Also, EW has a story on The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante (Europa Editions, June 2021). The cover is now out.

Bustle excerpts Postscript by Cecelia Ahern (Grand Central: Hachette; LJ starred review). A film adaptation is already confirmed with Hilary Swank to star.

Paste excerpts Better Days Will Come Again: The Life of Arthur Briggs, Jazz Genius of Harlem, Paris, and a Nazi Prison Camp by Travis Atria (Chicago Review Press). Also, an excerpt of Citizen Canine: Dogs in the Movies by Wendy Mitchell (Laurence King: Chronicle).

Bitch Media interviews Erin Khar, Strung Out: One Last Hit and Other Lies That Nearly Killed Me (Park Row: Harlequin).

Electric Lit interviews Jenny Offill, Weather (Knopf).

The Atlantic will publish a new story by Samantha Hunt “Go, Team” in its March issue. To mark the publication the magazine has an interview with Hunt.

The Guardian reports that Martin Amis is writing a book inspired by the death of Christopher Hitchens and other key events of his life. It is called Inside Story and will come out in September.

O: The Oprah Magazine has an essay by Greg Mania, Born to Be Public (Clash Books).

The Washington Post writes “How 12 authors turned their book dedications into grand romantic gestures.”

The NYT has an essay about novels and courtship by its Book Review senior staff editor.

BuzzFeed picks “23 YA Romance Novels That Are Better Than A Candlelit Dinner.”

President Trump’s budget for 2021 seeks to end federal library funding. Publishers Weekly has a report on the fourth time the administration has sought to shut down the IMLS.

The NYT has more on its new book group column, Group Text.

Claire Bretécher, who The Guardian describes as “one of the most celebrated French cartoonists of recent decades and the first woman to achieve significant prominence in the genre in France,” has died. The paper has an obituary.

Authors on Air

BuzzFeed has a list of 14 books to try after The Witcher.

People interviews Jenny Han. To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You starts airing today.

NPR’s Shots interviews Andrea Freeman, Skimmed: Breastfeeding, Race, and Injustice (Stanford). NPR’s Morning Edition interviews Craig Fehrman, Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote (Avid Reader Press: S. & S.). Also on Morning Edition, an interview with Vashti Harrison, Little Legends: Exceptional Men in Black History (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers: Hachette; SLJ starred review).

Collider has an interview with the creators of TV version of Locke & Key, with updates on season two.

The Today show features American Daughter: A Memoir of Intergenerational Trauma, a Mother’s Dark Secrets, and a Daughter’s Quest for Redemption by Stephanie Plymale, with contributions by Elissa Wald (River Grove Books). Sales jumped.

Yahoo.com reports that The New Yorker is the inspiration for the new Wes Anderson film, The French Dispatch (see here too). The New Yorker has its own coverage as well.

Deadline reports that another adaptation of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is in the works.

Altered Carbon, season two, gets a new trailer. It series starts up again on Feb. 27.

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