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Buzzy Book News

The June 2023 Indie Next List Preview is out, featuring #1 pick Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (Morrow). 

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2023 winners are announced.

Cathy Vallance wins 2023 Rosie Award.

“Top UN prize for press freedom honors imprisoned Iranian female journalists,” announces PBS New Hours. Also, a warning from the UN chief on how the “targeting of journalists and truth is threatening freedom.”

NPR looks at the latest in book banning.

Bob Woodward and S&S move to dismiss the lawsuit over the 'Trump Tapes' audiobook. Publishers Weekly has the story. 

A few sources cover the news about the Writers Guild of America strike including: The Hollywood Reporter on how “AI could covertly cross the picket line,” the problems executives are having with the lack of writers and the “deluge of eleventh-hour scripts,” and the Disabled Writers Strike Survey. Also, Deadline reports on “how the UK is responding” and Whoopi Goldberg shares her thoughts on The View. 

NPR shares more news on the unpublished novel by Gabriel García Márquez.

Avid Reader Press launches a credits campaign to acknowledge people behind books. Publishers Lunch reports. 

New Title Bestsellers

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

Fiction

Happy Place by Emily Henry (Berkley; LJ starred review) lands on No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune (Tor; LJ starred review) ropes No. 4 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane (Harper; LJ starred review) graces No. 5 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

The Way of the Bear by Anne Hillerman (Harper) takes No. 9 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

You Shouldn't Have Come Here by Jeneva Rose (Blackstone) arrives at No. 14 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

Night Angel Nemesis by Brent Weeks (Orbit) flies to No. 15 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best-Sellers list.

Nonfiction

Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams (Crown) rocks to No. 5 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding) by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd (Grand Central) eats up No. 9 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur (Ten Speed) lights up No. 11 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith (Holt) debuts at No. 13 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Sellers list.

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Grove; LJ starred review): “reads like a lavish smorgasbord of genealogy, medicine and love affairs, tracing a family’s evolution from 1900 through the 1970s, in pointillist detail.”; Tell Me Everything by Minka Kelly (Henry Holt & Co.): “Much of her poignant new memoir…is an intricate portrait of her addiction-afflicted single mother, Maureen, who raised her while drifting through a haze of stripping gigs, volatile relationships and tenuous living situations.”

NYT reviews Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism by Jeffrey Toobin (S. & S.): “where those other books contain a chapter on Oklahoma City, the entirety of Toobin’s book is given over to McVeigh and the ensuing trials.” Also, there reviews of 4 books on design.

The Los Angeles Times reviews The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel (Norton): “Mapping women along a loose timeline, Hessel covers huge swaths of history in lively, lucid prose, positioning these artists within (or against) dominant genres. She documents not just what they created but also the obstacles they surmounted in doing so.”

Tor.com reviews The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter (Gallery: Saga): “wound down with a somewhat predictable but satisfying coda, and while there’s nothing particularly novel about the meat of its story (and there doesn’t have to be), Porter’s clean, evocative writing left me both sated and hungry for more.”

Locus Magazine reviews Village in the Sky by Jack McDevitt (Gallery: Saga Press): “What had been a problem-solving exercise with a side order of creepy First Contact raises even more questions and challenges that open up even more unex­pected discoveries.What might (to some readers) be stranger than those discoveries are the quotidian details of life 9000 years hence.”

Briefly Noted

Shadow and Act talks to Haneefah Wood, actor and author of upcoming memoir, about “working alongside legends and dispelling myths about eating disorders.”

Hannah Matthews, You or Someone You Love: Reflections from an Abortion Doula (Atria), shares what she is reading for Lit Hub’s The Annotated Nightstand.

NYT profiles musician Bebe Buell, who has written a memoir about her life titled Rebel Soul: Musings, Music, & Magic.

NYT’s “Inside the Best-Seller List” features Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful (Atria: One Signal; LJ starred review), and how she draws inspiration from her Ohio neighborhood.

The Washington Post recommends 3 audiobooks.

Tor.com provides an excerpt of The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence (Ace: Berkley). 

Entertainment Weekly recommends “7 royal reads to keep Prince Charles’ coronation party going.”

CrimeReads explores “Cozy Mysteries and Setting That Inspire an Emotional Connection.”

NYT suggests titles for getting out of a rut: Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most by Adam Alter (S. & S.), Addicted to Drama: Healing Dependency on Crisis and Chaos in Yourself and Others by Dr. Scott Lyons (Hachette Go), and Am I Lying to Myself?: How To Overcome Denial and See the Truth by Jane Greer (Rowman & Littlefield; LJ starred review).  

Good Morning America shares their book club picks over the last year.

NYT provides a book list of new books to consider.

Authors on Air

John Blake provides his personal story to “help us understand the problem of race in America” as detailed in his book More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew (Convergent) and in an interview on the Keen On podcast. Also, Shannon McKenna Schmidt on the heroism of the subject of her book, The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back (Sourcebooks). 

Terry Gross talks to Alexandra Auder, author of Don't Call Me Home (Viking), about her “bohemian childhood” as the daughter of a muse of Andy Warhol on NPR’s Fresh Air.

Katy Hessel discusses her book, The Story of Art Without Men (Norton), with PBS Canvas.

Tor.com announces a third season end to Sweet Tooth, the Netflix adaptation of Jeff Lemire’s graphic novels.
 

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