Toronto-based publisher Harlequin recently announced the launch of its Diverse Voices Scholarship, as part of its ongoing efforts to acquire more books by writers from underrepresented communities.
Barack Obama’s next memoir could publish in mid-November; a release date might be announced this Thursday. Nina Stibbe wins the Comedy Women in Print Prize for Reasons to Be Cheerful. The American Book Award winners are announced. BookPage picks their most anticipated books for the fall and EarlyWord posts the September GalleyChat Roundup. Ken Liu announces that the last book in The Dandelion Dynasty trilogy will actually be two books. Next April, PBS will air a film about Ernest Hemingway by Ken Burns.
Rage by Bob Woodward leads holds this week. People’s "Book of the Week" is Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria (W.W. Norton) and One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History by Ted Cruz (Regnery: S. & S.) see strong sales bumps. There are new booklists for the fall and much award news. Also, an ode to mail-order book clubs and a look at Space Cat.
Walter Mosley will be honored with the 2020 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. The New York Public Library celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the Young Lions Fiction Awards on September 13. Three adaptations arrive for the week ahead and new TV series based on books are in the works. Monsterland and The Spanish Princess, part 2 get trailers. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has an essay entitled "Notes on Grief." Sarah Perry has one about risk. Rage by Bob Woodward continues to dominate TV news coverage.
The "What We're Reading & Watching" staffers are watching Michael Jordan and Gene Kelly dance; reading about the lack of honor among mafiosi; experiencing displacement and alienation in wartime Hungary; mingling with British couples; and discovering the humor in Balzac.
Maggie O'Farrell wins the Women's Prize for Fiction for Hamnet. Isabel Wilkerson, Elena Ferrante, James McBride, Raven Leilani, Ibram X, Kendi, and Jason Reynolds headline the nominees for the Kirkus Prize. After co-winning the Wainwright prize, Dara McAnulty is now the youngest finalist ever for the Baillie Gifford prize, the UK’s highest nonfiction award. There are sixteen new bestsellers this week. Rage by Bob Woodward is topping the news.
There is much award news, including the winners of the Wainwright prize for nature writing and the longlist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Viet Thanh Nguyen has joined the Pulitzer Prize Board. Carolyn Reidy, the late President and CEO of Simon & Schuster, will be honored with the Literarian Award. Ayad Akhtar, Homeland Elegies, is tapped as the next president of PEN America. The Frankfurt Book Fair goes virtual and now includes a free, global book festival day. Oprah is turning her book club into an Apple Podcast, to discuss Isabel Wilkerson's Caste over eight different episodes. Three forthcoming books get sales bumps.
Science titles are stronger than ever, but Walter Isaacson's The Code Breaker rides especially high with a 500,000-copy first printing.
One by One by Ruth Ware leads holds this week. The October Indie Next List is out. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab is the No. 1 pick. Two of the big fall political books arrive today, Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump by Michael Cohen and Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump by Peter Strzok. On top of those buzzy titles, Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine and Everything Beautiful in Its Time: Seasons of Love and Loss by Jenna Bush Hager are also getting focused coverage. The 2020 Dragon Awards are announced.
The Dublin Literary Award shortlist is out and The National Translation Awards longlists are announced. Mulan comes to Disney+ and Get Organized With the Home Edit debuts on Netflix. Debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé gets a seven-figure deal for two YA novels with Feiwel and Friends. Disloyal by Michael Cohen, NRA: A Tell-All Account of Corruption, Greed, and Paranoia within the Most Powerful Political Group in America by Joshua L. Powell, What Can I Do? My Path from Climate Despair to Action by Jane Fonda, and Melania and Me by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff are in the spotlight.
Thick as Thieves by Sandra Brown leads nine new books onto the bestseller lists. The NYT celebrates the 100th week Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates has remained on the bestseller list. The Washington Post reports on their survey of what readers are turning to during the pandemic. More Fall and September booklists arrive.
The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim and Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi top September book club picks. Jesmyn Ward writes an essay for Vanity Fair about the death of her husband. Elena Ferrante and The Lying Life of Adults gets the spotlight. Vulture calls Susanna Clarke, Piranesi, “one of our greatest living writers.” Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, along with Alexander Woo, are adapting The Three-Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin for Netflix. Emma Roberts has a first-look deal with Hulu to adapt books for television. Her first project is Carola Lovering’s Tell Me Lies.
In his third novel, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Héctor Tobar reimagines the adventures of real-life Joe Sanderson, linking the United States and Central America as he considers who can claim the act of storytelling.
Love was in the air the weekend of August 28–30, despite the turmoil rocking the romance industry for the better part of 2020. Following the May cancellation of the prestigious RITA Awards, now retired and replaced by the Vivian, the Romance Writers of America (RWA) forged ahead to produce a memorable annual virtual conference.
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