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Awards & Book News

Winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards are announced, including Han Kang’s We Do Not Part, tr. by e. yaewon & Paige Aniyah Morris (Hogarth; LJ starred review), for fiction and Karen Hao’s Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI (Penguin Pr.) for nonfiction. NYT, LitHub, and People have coverage.

Luminous by Silvia Park (S&S; LJ starred review) wins the Otherwise Award for SFF that explores gender.

The NYT Book Review Book Club will discuss Kenan Orhan’s The Renovation (Farrar) in April.

A federal judge has denied defendants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit against the Department of Defense Education Activity over book removals from school libraries; Publishers Weekly has coverage.

The publisher Callaway Arts & Entertainment has filed for bankruptcy, Publishers Weekly reports.

Page to Screen

March 27

Bambi: The Reckoning, based on Bambi, a Life in the Woods by Felix Salten. Umbrella Entertainment. Reviews | Trailer

A Magnificent Life, based on the life of novelist, playwright, and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol. Sony Pictures Classics. Reviews | Trailer

13 Days, 13 Nights, based on a French-language nonfiction book by Mohamed Bida. Samuel Goldwyn Films. Reviews | Trailer

March 30

Two Prosecutors, based on a Russian-language novella by Georgy Demidov. Janus Films. Reviews | Trailer

Reviews

Vulture reviews My Lover, the Rabbi by Wayne Koestenbaum (FSG Originals): “Koestenbaum sustains his urgency over the course of 450 pages because he’s an unbeatable stylist with a track record of dilating small moments of observation into wide swaths of philosophy and psychology. A professor of French, comparative literature, and English at CUNY Graduate Center, where he’s taught for three decades, Koestenbaum, 67, writes as if he’s having a heartfelt tryst with every word he puts on paper.”

NYT reviews “dazzling, immersive new historical fiction”: Luminous Bodies by Devon Jersild (Paul Dry Bks.), Fireflies in Winter by Eleanor Shearer (Berkley; LJ starred review), Mule Boy by Andrew Krivak (Bellevue Literary), and The Scent of Oranges by Kathy George (HQ).

The Guardian reviews No New York: A Memoir of No Wave and the Women Who Shaped the Scene by Adele Bertei (Beacon): “And if the energy of a wildfire burns through the beginning of the book, it loses spark as the focus shifts. Post no wave, Bertei is no longer at the heart of the action, merely a witness to subsequent cultural moments…. Regardless, her vivid, visceral account is essential reading for anyone with even a passing interest in alternative music.”

LitHub gathers March’s best-reviewed fiction and nonfiction.

Briefly Noted

NYT talks to Rhae Lynn Barnes, author of Darkology: Blackface and the American Way of Entertainment (Liveright; LJ starred review).

LitHub tours poet Maggie Smith’s writing space.

Vulture reports from a “Harry Potter”–themed retreat for people who still love the series but are repelled by J. K. Rowling’s transphobia.

As Phantom of the Opera turns 30, People highlights three forthcoming books about the musical.

Christy Carlson Romano, the former Disney Channel star, has written a memoir, People reports; Once Upon a Trainwreck: The Rise and Fall of a Child Star is due out October 6 from Simon Element.

Charlie’s Angels star Jaclyn Smith’s memoir, I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie, will be published by Gallery on September 8, Kirkus reports.

Publishers Weekly shares panels from Joe Ollmann’s graphic novel The Woodchipper (Drawn & Quarterly; LJ starred review).

Andy Weir, author of Project Hail Mary, tells People that he’s working on a new sci-fi novel.

Kirkus highlights three new how-to books from indie publishers.

Reactor gathers five stories about surviving on Mars.

NYT offers “7 New Books We Love This Week” and book recommendations for those who enjoyed the JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy series Love Story.

Authors on Air

NPR’s Fresh Air interviews Katrina Manson, author of Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare (Norton).

Kirkus’s Fully Booked podcast talks to Andrew McCarthy, author of Who Needs Friends: An Unscientific Examination of Male Friendship Across America (Grand Central).

Liz Tomforde’s “Windy City” sports romance series is being adapted for TV by Amazon, People reports.

Belle Burden’s Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage (Dial) is headed to the big screen, with Gwyneth Paltrow set to star; People has the news.

Late night host Stephen Colbert is writing a new Lord of the Rings movie, adapting early chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring that didn’t make it into the Peter Jackson movie, LitHub reports.

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