This Month in Book News (August 2022 + past posts from previous three months)

This Month in Book News (August 2022)

Industry and general book news: This was a busy month for the book industry, mainly because of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) efforts to block the merger between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster. There’s so much to unpack about this trial, which Publishers Marketplace called “publishing’s trial of the century” (the idea of a “monopsony” and “glam budgets,” the fact that Stephen King testified on behalf on the government), but my favorite has to be this headline from Vox: "Book publishers just spent 3 weeks in court arguing they have no idea what they’re doing.” A verdict is expected in November.

The other major news of the month is that Salman Rushdie, who is best known for his controversial novel The Satanic Verses and who famously had a fatwa issued against him, was stabbed on stage in update New York. The Washington Post seemed to summarize the situation best when it said, “Rushdie is expected to recover. Freedom of expression may not.” The latest news is that media outlets including The New Yorker think It's Time for Salman Rushdie's Nobel Prize.

Controversies: Speaking of freedom of expression, educational gag orders—“stage legislative efforts to legally restrict education on topics like race, American history, gender, and LGBTQ+ identities in K-12 and higher education”—are up by 250% since last year according to a report from PEN America. Bans by parents and school boards also still seem to have no end in sight, but an Ohio librarian has come up with a unique plan to combat this issue: running for public office.

Events: As I recently learned, August is Women in Translation Month (“a global effort centered around the idea that women who write in languages other than English deserve to be widely read”) and Romance Awareness Month (kind of self-explanatory, but here’s a list of books to read in honor of RAM from Epic Reads). Also, August 9 was National Book Lovers Day, which probably made all of us feel seen.

In terms of conferences and festivals, the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) held its summer conference online August 5-7 with 1,588 registered attendees, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the largest public celebration of the written word in the world (that I hope to attend one day) took place in person and online August 13-29.

Page-to-film news: Several adaptations of literary works released this past month, including “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies” based on a short story by Kristen Roupenian (whose “Cat Person” I couldn’t put down); "Le Temps Perdu,” which follows a group of people in Argentina that gather in a cafe to read and discuss Proust’s In Search of Lost Time sentence by sentence (would love to do this); “Three Thousand Years of Longing” based on a short (or novella-length) story by A.S. Byatt; “The Sandman” based on Neil Gaiman's award-winning comic books; and House of the Dragon, the prequel to George R.R. Martin’s massively successful Game of Thrones.

International: August 15 marked 75 years since British India was divided into two independent countries: India and Pakistan, and to mark this momentous event, PEN America created “The India at 75 Project" by reaching out to authors from India and the Indian diaspora to write short texts. Also, Tanzanian-born British writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature last year, has released a new novel, Afterlives.

Milestones: Several well-known literary figures passed away in August, including the beloved author of The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing Melissa Banks, who died at 61; the British author of the bestselling novel The Horse Whisperer Nicholas Evans, at 72; David McCullough, master chronicler of American history, who died at 89; and Jean-Jacques Sempé, illustrator of Le Petit Nicholas (the books I devoured when I first started learning French), also at 89. Interesting fact: both The Horse Whisperer and the Le Petit Nicholas books are said to have sold more than 15 million copies.

Fun links: In case you’re looking to invest in some property (or just want to look at some glorious photos), the manor from the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is on the market in England for £6 million; the La Jolla, CA home of Theodor Geisel, better known as “Dr. Seuss,” is on sale for $18.9 million; and the estate of Joan Didion, including homes in CA and NY, is headed to auction. Since we’re talking about real estate, here’s a fun list of Craigslist ads for fictional homes, also courtesy of Literary Hub. See if you can guess the literary works they refer to. I think I got most of them!

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This Month in Book News (July 2022)

[Originally posted on July 31, 2022]

Awards: The longlist for the 2022 Booker Prize has been announced, and the six books by American authors include NIGHTCRAWLING by Leila Motley, who, at 20, is also the youngest person ever to be longlisted for the prestigious prize. The longlist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize has also been revealed, and Mottley, along with three authors of Indian descent, all appear on this list. In other awards news, sadly, the UK's Blue Peter Book Awards for children's books is coming to a close after over 20 years; this is the second high-profile book prize to be canceled in recent weeks, following the Costa Book Awards.

Controversies: In an op ed piece for the New York Times, former Books Editor Pamela Paul compared government book bans to book cancellations in the publishing industry, infuriating literally Twitter, especially when author Joyce Carol Oates lamented that white male writers are being shut out of the industry. Also to the dismay of Twitter, the New Yorker has fired its longtime Archives Editor; here’s The Daily Beast on the drama unfolding at one of literary world’s most storied institutions.

Industry news: More than 200 unionized HarperCollins employees went on strike following months of contract negotiations which have not yielded a fair agreement for workers, as Literary Hub reported. The Department of Justice’s bid to block Penguin Random House’s acquisition of Simon & Schuster is heading to trial, and several Big Five CEOs, literary agents, and authors are expected to testify. Separately, Dana Canedy, the first Black person to head Simon & Schuster's flagship imprint, is stepping down after two years in this role, as Publishers Weekly also explained.

Events: Several popular events and conferences resumed in-person this past month, including Comic-Con International: San Diego, the San Francisco Writers Conference, and the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference, which I just attended over the weekend. The organization Disability in Publishing, which is looking to spark change in an industry that has historically locked out disabled staffers, held a virtual town hall in time for Disability Pride Month. And July 30 was Paperback Book Day, “the day Penguin started publishing paperbacks, way back in 1935.”

Book-to-film news: The movie "Where the Crawdads Sing," based on the bestselling novel by Delia Owen, premiered on July 15. But questions linger about the author, who is wanted for questioning in a decades-old murder, and reviews have been mixed (Slate described it as “a swampy Twilight”). “Persuasion” starring Dakota Johnson released on the same day and has also received little love. (Variety said it was a “Fleabag”-style Jane Austen adaptation, and Vox called it “a complete disaster.”) Other novel-to-film adaptations that released this past month include "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris" and "The Gray Man," which seem to have been better received.

Milestones and fun links: It’s been 25 years since Arundhati Roy’s THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS was first published, and as The Mint points out, its language is still “fresh and magical.” Also celebrating its silver anniversary is the first HARRY POTTER book. For the tenth anniversary of the publication of Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn will be hosting a Gone Girl-themed cruise along the Danube, and apparently this is not the first time a famous author is hosting a literary-themed cruise. In other light and fun news, an attorney has won the Hemingway Look-Alike Contest; held annually in Key West, Florida, where Hemingway lived in the 1930s, the contest is a highlight of Key West's “Hemingway Days” celebration. If you can’t travel to Key West or go on a cruise this summer, here’s NPR’s list of books that enable you to travel the world without leaving home, ICYMI, and I can vouch for the first book on the list—it’s very atmospheric.

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This Month in Book News (June 2022)

[Originally posted June 30, 2022]

Awards: In this month’s awards news, Ruth Ozeki won the Women's Prize for Fiction, one of the UK’s most prestigious literary awards, for her fourth novel THE BOOK AND FORM OF EMPTINESS. The winners of the Lambda Literary Awards, created to garner national visibility for LGBTQ books, have been announced. And sadly, the Costa Awards, which “changed Britain’s literary landscape,” have suddenly ended after 50 years, sparking “a chorus of disappointment across the book industry,” as the Guardian put it.

Events: The American Library Association held its annual conference in-person in Washington, D.C. for the first time since 2019, and the reaction has been very positive, as Publishers Weekly reported. This past month was Pride Month, and reassuringly, LGBTQ fiction sales are booming, with the biggest gains in young adult per USA Today. Several media outlets including Vulture put together reading lists to celebrate and understand Juneteenth, which was observed as a federal holiday for the first time on June 20.

Controversies: “The world’s bestselling author" James Patterson came under fire for saying that white men face racism in the industry. A Wisconsin school board has decided against allowing high school students to read Julie Otsuka's WHEN THE EMPEROR WAS DIVINE, claiming that it’s an “imbalanced" account of the incarceration of Japanese Americans in the U.S. during World War II. And Michigan prisons have banned Spanish and Swahili dictionaries to prevent the flow of material that they say might incite violence.

International: A newly discovered novel by Céline, now published in France, is creating a stir according to The New Yorker. As The Guardian noted, TikTok has triggered a book revolution in the UK (not just in the U.S.). And as The Week reported, Geetanjali Shree’s Booker win has put Indian independent publishing in the limelight, which is exciting news.

Film, TV & Stage: Buzzfeed has compiled a list of books that have gone viral on TikTok and are now becoming films, including Adam Silvera’s THEY BOTH DIE IN THE END, which is leading the surge in LGBTQ fiction per the USA Today article noted above. Jenny Han's YA book THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY is now a Prime Video series and has also enjoyed a sales boost. “The Kite Runner,” based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini, will begin previews on Broadway starting July 6. And the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s (BAM’s) Next Wave Festival features a stage adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s A LITTLE LIFE (another novel I adored).

More news: Following the Supreme Court’s disturbing decision to reverse Roe v. Wade, Oprah Magazine, among others, compiled a reading list “for the fight ahead." Oprah also chose her next book club pick, NIGHTCRAWLING by Leila Mottley, and at 20 Mottley is the youngest author to have been chosen. The New York Times reported on how, “of the 3.2 million titles that BookScan tracked in 2021, fewer than one percent of them sold more than 5,000 copies.” In more encouraging news, the NYT Magazine took a deep dive into The Push to Diversify the Book Business.

For fun: The book ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. Interestingly, “the best seller has been made into a musical and a Hollywood movie. The book is so popular, Viorst's string of sad adjectives entered the vernacular; it's been used to describe lousy days, weeks and years far and wide, from political leaders to corporations,” according to NPR. Wishing you a happier day than Alexander experienced, and a relaxing long weekend!

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This Month in Book News (May 2022)

[Originally posted on May 31, 2022]

Awards: The winners of several major book prizes were announced this past month, including the Pulitzer Prize (in numerous categories, including fiction, nonfiction, drama, history, biography, poetry) and the International Booker Prize (to a novel translated from Hindi for the first time in the prize’s history!) In addition, the Jane Addams Peace Association has revealed its children’s book award recipients and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) announced its Nebula Award winners (but also see below).

Controversies: It doesn’t look like there is any end in sight to book bans. After a district in Virginia voted to remove titles including GENDER QUEER from its shelves, a Virginia Barnes & Noble is being sued for carrying books that are "obscene to unrestricted viewing by minors.” Author Margaret Atwood and her publisher responded by creating a fireproof, unburnable edition of THE HANDMAID’S TALE, Atwood’s book that has been challenged and banned for decades. In other controversies, authors continue to condemn a forthcoming title from Oxford University Press, and SFWA has removed an author from its conference for using a racial slur.

Events: The PEN World Voices Festival (which celebrates international literature) and the U.S. Book Show (a book industry trade show) have now concluded. But Dalloway Day, which celebrates Virginia Woolf’s legacy, is on June 15, “’a Wednesday in mid-June’, just like the novel itself,” and Bloomsday, which commemorates James Joyce’s legacy, is on June 16, the day his novel ULYSSES takes place. NYC residents can also check out the Bronx Book Festival June 9-12 and Shakespeare in the Park, which kicks off on June 17.

International news: As the New York Times reported, Through a Recession and a Pandemic, the Book Business Is Thriving in Buenos Aires, which is reassuring. The NY Times also published an in-depth piece on Andrey Kurkov, Ukraine’s most famous living writer, and how he is fighting for his country through the act of writing, which is inspiring. And the LA Times covered a book about abortion that takes place in 1960s France, Annie Ernaux’s memoir HAPPENING, which has been adapted into the “timeliest movie of the year.”

General: Esquire explores the legacy of GONE GIRL and how,“ten years after its publication, this literary sensation still casts a long shadow over the psychological thriller market.” Vanity Fair has a fun piece on “The Bromantic Power of Two Mr. Darcys,” Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen, both of whom have portrayed Jane Austen’s everlasting romantic hero Mr. Darcy. Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson has signed a 22-book deal in Australia that will draw on her personal experiences growing up, according to People Magazine. And Publishers Weekly takes a look at Archie Comics, which had one of its best years in 2021, its 80th anniversary year. Interestingly, Archie remains popular in India, and a newly developed live-action musical adaptation of the Archie series set in India is currently in production at Netflix.

Film/TV: In other book-to-film news, specifically, young adult and children’s book adaptations, the film “Catherine, Called Birdy,” based on the Newbery Honor-winning novel by Karen Cushman and directed by Lena Dunham, is set to release this fall. “Along for the Ride,” adapted from popular YA author Sarah Dessen’s book by the same name, is now streaming on Netflix. And The Atlantic dives into “'Heartstopper' and the Era of Feel-Good, Queer-Teen Romances,” based on the webcomic and graphic novel series by British author Alice Oseman.

And finally, I’d to call special attention to poet Amanda Gorman’s Hymn for the Hurting, written after the horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas last week. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/opinion/amanda-gorman-uvalde-poem.html

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This Month in Book News (August 2022 + past posts from previous three months)

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