Home//Publishers Weekly/January 9, 2023/In This Issue
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023CENTRAL PARK WEST: AN EXCERPTThe judge looked up. “Ms. Carleton, I understand you wished to speak to the court privately about a sensitive matter. And without opposing counsel or a court reporter present? This is highly unusual.”“Yes, Your Honor, that’s right, it is unusual, but we’re in an unusual situation. If the court will permit me to explain?”“Very well,” Judge Whitney replied, not inviting them to sit.Nora told him about the note to Benny in court that day, which she held up in a heat-sealed clear evidence envelope. She moved to hand it to the judge but he pulled back as if it were a used tissue. Still holding the envelope, she explained that this had happened before, years ago, when another Ma. a boss—Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano—wished to cooperate. The trial judge…3 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Saluting Joyce MeskisFormer Tattered Cover owner Joyce Meskis, who died December 22 at age 80, is being remembered not only as a pioneer in bookselling circles but as a staunch supporter of the First Amendment. Meskis purchased the Denver bookstore in 1974 and ran it for more than four decades, growing it from a single 950-sq.-ft. shop into one of the nation’s largest and most recognizable independents. At its height, Tattered Cover had four locations in the Denver metro area, and three more at Denver airports in partnership with Hudson Booksellers. The store remains in operation today under the leadership of Kwame Spearman.The Denver Post wrote of Meskis’s death: “When future historians look back at the later 20th century and early 21st century, one of the most important people in [Denver’s] history…4 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Body LanguageIn Fat Talk (Holt, Apr.), journalist and Burnt Toast podcaster Virginia Sole-Smith encourages parents to name and navigate anti-fat bias. “I’m using fat in a positive way,” she says. “I’m a proponent of reclaiming fat.” Sole-Smith spoke with PW about the book’s central tensions, her own biases, and how Gen Z is changing the conversation.How did this book come to be?After my first book [2018’s The Eating Instinct], I kept getting questions from parents wanting to know how to encourage healthy eating without creating a stigma about body size. And by “healthy,” they meant “not fat.” Parents are anxious about eating disorders and the messages kids, especially their daughters, get about bodies from social media. But they’re also terrified to raise fat kids in a culture that hates fat people.…3 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Writers TO Watch SPRING 2023A Family AffairLEIGH ABRAMSON“For me, law school was a kind of a rebellion, which is unusual,” says Leigh Abramson, who grew up in Manhattan and received her JD from the University of Pennsylvania. Her father and mother are an illustrator and a children’s book author, respectively, which steered her away from the arts—at least at first. “I didn’t want to be in their world,” she explains.Abramson enjoyed the “theoretical and cerebral” side of law school but found less satisfaction as a corporate litigator. She later worked for seven years as a judicial clerk before publishing an article in the Atlantic about counselors helping lawyers transition to new careers. Abramson, who lives in New York City and Vermont, soon left the law profession to become a writer.“You’re a lawyer if you…17 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Our ReviewersDoris AllenAllen AppelBeth AtwaterDeMisty BellingerLillian BoydMitzi BrunsdaleAnn ByleDonis CaseyKenneth W. ChitwoodLynda Brill ComerfordStephan ColesonJessica DaitchSara DavisDiane DebrovnerJoe DemesChristina EngCaitlin FarleyMaya FleischmannSuzanne FoxYvonne GarrettKelsey GillespieRebecca GouldDaphne GrabMarene GustinPatricia GuySuzanne HalmiErika HardisonMichelle HartEdwin HillJustin JeffryesIyana JonesMary M. JonesTheresa KaminskiAvonna KersheyErin LewenauerPatty MacDonaldAmy MagnusElyse MartinShannon MaughanJW McCormackSheri MelnickKatie MerikallioJackie MillerLibby MorseJulie NaughtonDai NewmanNathalie op de BeeckDevin OvermanRobert PapinchakLeonard PickerGwyn PlummerMargaret QuammeDiane ReynoldsChristina RinaldiBeverly RiveroIngrid RoperAntonia SaxonLiz ScheierMartha SchulmanSuzanne ShablovskyJana SicilianoNikki SilvestriniJulian StuartErin TalbertJennifer TaylorMisty UrbanGnesis VillarKathy WeeksLauryn WeigoldMonica WhitebreadKerine WintAmelia WoodBareerah Yousuf GhaniCady ZengMichael Zimmerman…1 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023★ The Humble LoverIn White’s audacious latest (after A Previous Life), wealthy Manhattanite Aldwych West pursues the younger August Dupond, principal dancer for the New York City Ballet. The 80-year-old’s aching desire for the 20-year-old enfant terrible leads to a live-in relationship that upends each of their lives. August prefers Gatorade to champagne, brings home other lovers, and engages in hardcore BDSM with his partners. Aldwych, meanwhile, hatches a plan to win August’s affections that involves launching a new ballet company, which would allow August to fulfill his creative potential. Philanthropic investment banker Bryce gets involved with the project, and Bryce’s dominatrix wife, Ernestine, arranges for an “afternoon of pleasure and pain” with herself, August, and a sex worker. As the sexual paths of these “perfidious lovers” continue to cross, Aldwych stumbles through…1 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023★ The PartisanDr. Zhivago meets James Bond in British author Worrall’s ambitious debut. In 1941, a trio of war-orphaned teenagers escape into the forests of Lithuania, waging a guerrilla campaign against the occupying German army. Twenty years later, Greta, the lone survivor, is now an independent, capable assassin ruthlessly dispatching Nazi fugitives, while still hunting for the Russian who killed her mother and for the English double agent who betrayed her resistance network. At a chess tournament in London, Michael Fitzgerald, a Cambridge University student, falls instantly in love with Yulia Forsheva, a Russian prodigy chess master and the daughter of important Politburo officials. Their star-crossed romance is aided by Yulia’s chaperone, a Soviet spymaster disgusted by the brutality of his comrades. This romance catches the attention of both Michael’s father, the…1 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023InspirationalFields of BountyLauraine Snelling. Bethany House, $16.99 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-764-23575-7Snelling (A Time to Bloom) returns to small-town Salton, Neb., for another heartwarming installment of her Leah’s Garden series. It’s summer 1867, and 21-year-old Lilac learns some of her drawings have been accepted for publication in the prestigious New York Weekly. She’s initially thrilled that the pay will help her family financially, but her elation is short-lived once she realizes putting her name on the illustrations might tip off some family enemies from Ohio whom the family would prefer to keep at a safe distance. Meanwhile, as charming pastor Ethan Pritchard courts her, she worries it’d be “unseemly for a pastor’s wife” to pursue a drawing career. As the two grow close, Lilac works up the courage to disclose…2 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023NonfictionCrack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without DemocracyQuinn Slobodian. Metropolitan, $29.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-250-75389-2The world’s special economic zones embody a right-wing dream of free markets seceding from governments and voters, according to this penetrating treatise. Wellesley history professor Slobodian (Globalists) surveys subnational jurisdictions with exceptionally business-friendly policies like low taxes, weak regulations, lax labor laws, and openness to foreign investment. They include Hong Kong, the hyper-capitalist enclave that inspired the special economic zones that transformed China; London’s Canary Wharf real estate project, with its subsidized skyscrapers; the principality of Liechtenstein, the world’s quaintest tax haven; and the pseudo-independent South African Bantustan of Ciskei, which posed as a decentralized export center but relied on South African subsidies and the violent repression of labor activists by South African…29 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023The Truth About Lie DetectorsWhat inspired this book?My background is in experimental psychology, and so I’ve always been interested in the brain and neuroscience. I was watching the series, Making a Murderer, about Steven Avery. One of the things he did to try and clear his name was a new form of lie detection based on brain scans. A little alarm went off in my head—it didn’t make sense to me that that is a viable technology. I went down this big reporting rabbit hole, looking at new forms of lie detection. As I was doing that, I also found out how fascinating the story of the original invention of the polygraph is.Is there something uniquely American about the use of the polygraph?One reason the polygraph is so popular in the U.S. is that…2 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023ComicsMermaid Scales and the Town of SandYoko Komori, trans. from the Japanese by Annette Roman. Viz Media, $19.99 paper (408p) ISBN 978-1-974734-65-8A Japanese tween struggles to come to terms with her parents’ separation in this ethereal speculative manga by Komori. Following her parents’ split, sixth grader Tokiko Aoyama moves with her father from the Tokyo area to the small seaside town of Sunanomori. As she explores her new home, she hears rumors of the existence of merfolk, triggering vague memories of her own encounter with an elusive creature who saved her from drowning years prior, as well as painful recollections of her emotionally absent mother. At school, Toki is treated as an outsider, especially since she alone believes that the merfolk are real. Searching for answers regarding the enigmatic entities,…2 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023BookLife Talks with Homa PourasgariBookLife Reviews described The American Outsider as “the engaging story of an animal rights activist bringing her cause to Japan and finding romance,” but as we learned when we spoke with Pourasgari, the spark of the story lies with the animals at its heart.What’s the story behind this book—why and how did you write it?I am an activist writer and write about topics that are important today. There are many subjects that I feel a reader would enjoy. So before starting a project, I brainstorm about various things. Then one of those topics jumps out at me, and I cannot stop thinking about it. The plight of dolphins was something that I could no longer ignore. The American Outsider is not just about dolphins, though, but is also about how…3 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023BookLife ReviewsBookLife Reviews are paid reviews of independently published books. Each review contains the honest opinion of a professional Publishers Weekly reviewer. A lightning bolt () indicates an Editor’s Pick, a book of outstanding quality.MIDDLE GRADEThe Guardian of Whispers: The Reeds of West HillsB.E Padgett 298p, trade paper, $8.99, ISBN 979-8-986-16290-4In this charming middle-grade fantasy, Padgett weaves a thrilling tale of family, friendship, and magic. After twins Frank and Jon discover that they have magical abilities, they are sent to a special school all the way across the country—the West Hill School for the Perceptually Gifted—to learn how to control their powers. As Frank strives to wield his gifts in a class of telepathic students, Jon must learn how to control his visions of the future with seemingly the only other…27 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023FictionEnchanted MagicT.M. Cromer. Fae, $4.99 e-book (260p) ASIN B089QZFWF5Cromer’s diverting but uneven 10th Thorne Witches romance (after Moonlit Magic) opens with Mackenzie Thorne dismissing acquaintance Sebastian Drake as a playboy. This conviction only lasts a few pages, however, before Mackenzie has a psychic vision of their future steamy lovemaking and winds up smitten. She agrees to join him at his family mansion for a romantic weekend getaway—and there she has far more concerning visions of a powerful sorceress who threatens both Mackenzie and all of magic. Sebastian, being in love with Mackenzie already, vows to protect her as together they set out to stop the threat. Though the magic is fascinating and the dialogue frequently funny, the characters’ personalities all feel a bit inconsistent. Mackenzie goes from being headstrong and…5 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Lu Min Presents Dinner for SixSix protagonists. Six perspectives. Six chapters. Dinner for Six by Nanjing-based Lu Min is about two single-parent families and their four teenage children in an industrial town on the outskirts of a big city. Educated widow Su Qin and laborer, and heavy-drinking, widower Ding Bogang, who meet while working at a chemical plant, start an affair and begin arranging dinners every Saturday night to bring their children together. Then Su’s smart daughter Xiaolan falls in love with Ding’s unemployed son…“The four children are as different as they could possibly be. Of the two girls, one is ambitious and clever, the other is gormless but actually does rather well for herself,” says Nicky Harman, who worked with Helen Wang—both award-winning translators in the U.K.—on the English edition for Balestier Press. “Then…3 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023The Winning Streak EndsAfter two years of surprisingly strong sales during the pandemic, unit sales of print books fell 6.5% in 2022 compared to 2021 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Units sales totaled 788.7 million last year, down from 843.1 million in 2021. The decline was not a surprise: many in the industry had predicted that as Covid lockdowns were lifted and more entertainment and travel options opened up, interest in reading would fall. Still, print unit sales in 2022 were 11.8% above those from 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.Two pandemic-related trends contributed to the sales decline. Discovery of new books, which was made more difficult in 2020 when physical bookstores were shut down, continued to be a problem last year, as publishers struggle to find ways to bring new titles…2 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023A Publishing Group Grows on FacebookIn spring 2020, at the start of the pandemic, several publishing professionals from around the world launched a Facebook group called Publishers Without Borders. The founders included Simon de Jocas, the publisher at Montreal children’s illustrated book publisher Éditions Les 400 Coups; Emma House, a U.K. publishing consultant; and Prashant Pathak, the publisher of Wonder House Books, a children’s publishing house in Delhi, India. They, along with 150 of their friends, used the group as a forum for socializing, sharing memes, and staying in touch about developments related to the pandemic.Shortly thereafter, with publishers canceling plans to attend international events, membership jumped to 1,700. For many, PWB became an important place to stay connected to the broader global publishing community, particularly during the isolation of lockdowns.“I had numerous people reach…3 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Crime and Punishment in ConnecticutThis March, Willi am Morrow will publish Vibhuti Jain’s debut, Our Best Intentions, an emotionally charged novel about an Indian girl who becomes entangled in a criminal investigation in a wealthy Connecticut town. “The story navigates politics and judgment,” Jain says. “It explores prejudice and race, and forces this family to confront its own baggage.”When Babur “Bobby” Singh moves his family to the suburbs, he’s promised “great schools, upscale people, and gorgeous river views,” Jain writes. “‘Kitchewan is where you want to be,’ their broker had told them, nodding with approval at the upwardly mobile young family: an earnest, clean-shaven husband…, a formerly slim (but softer post-baby) wife…, and an energetic young child with skin the color of burnt sugar and wispy curls of brown-black hair.”Ten years later, the wife…5 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Hashtag BlessedIn Momfluenced (Beacon, Apr.), Sara Petersen delves into the public performance of motherhood on Instagram. Petersen, whose writing on feminism and motherhood has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Harper’s Bazaar, and elsewhere, spoke with PW about her preoccupation with moms on the internet and emerging from under their influence.How did you become interested in this subculture?I felt a disconnect between what I was consuming online versus what I was experiencing in my day-today life as a mother. So many of our cultural constructs of motherhood hinge around joy. You should be delighted by all the funny things your kids say. You should find it fun to play make-believe for hours on end. I wasn’t—and still am not—the most joyful mother. That always made me insecure,…3 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Suicide RevisitedClancy Martin has attempted suicide “five or six” times. “Those are just attempts that have landed me in the hospital and/or psychiatric hospital,” he says via Zoom from his home in Kansas City, Mo. “Attempts where I would say, okay, I was really doing everything in my power to kill myself, but I’m not counting those times when I had a gun in my mouth and wasn’t pulling the trigger. With those it’s maybe 11, something like that.”Martin, who’s a philosophy professor at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, is trying to keep others from making their own attempts. That’s the impetus behind How Not to Kill Yourself (Pantheon, Mar.). Part memoir, part philosophy text, and part guidebook, it’s written by someone with firsthand experience of his subject. The book is…5 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023★ Beyond That, the SeaLaura Spence-Ash. Celadon, $27.99 (368p) ISBN 978-1-250-85437-7A young’s woman’s family loyalties are divided as she leaves her London home for Boston during WWII in Spence-Ash’s magnetic debut. In 1940, 11-year-old Bea Thompson’s parents take advantage of a short-lived program to keep British children out of harm’s way during the war, and ship her to America. Bea stays in Boston with the wealthy Gregorys and quickly becomes part of their family, which includes sons 13-year-old William and nine-year-old Gerald. Nancy Gregory treats Bea as the daughter she never had, while her husband, Ethan, sees Bea as a welcome addition to the household, despite his austere manner. Bea learns how to swim at the Gregorys’ island house in Maine, excels academically, and, as a teen, falls for the handsome but mercurial William.…1 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Mystery/ThrillerLost in ParisBetty Webb. Poisoned Pen, $16.99 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-7282-6990-0Set in 1922, this capable series launch from Webb (the Lena Jones mysteries) introduces painter Zoe Barlow, who moved to France four years earlier after her family banished her from their Alabama estate for her scandalous behavior. Zoe’s friendships among the Paris avantgarde, among them Ernest and Hadley Hemingway, substitute for the family she’s lost. When she hears that Hadley lost a suitcase containing Ernest’s manuscript drafts in a Paris railway station, Zoe mounts a search. She learns that the valise was stolen by porter Vassily Popov, an impoverished Russian immigrant living in a tiny village outside Paris. She arrives at Popov’s hut only to find him and the young woman he says is his daughter—who may be Anastasia…10 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023SF/Fantasy/Horror★ The God of EndingsJacqueline Holland. Flatiron, $29.99 (480p) ISBN 978-1-250-85676-0Holland debuts with a reflective and poetic take on the nature of immortality. Ana, a young girl in the 1830s, watches her family and the rest of her village succumb to tuberculosis without knowing what’s happening. Before the disease can take her, too, an older gentleman claiming to be her grandfather arrives to whisk her away. At the moment of her death, he decides her life is worth saving and changes her into a vampire like himself. Ana slowly learns to survive in this new form—and watches everyone around her die in the process. A century-and-a-half later, Ana has taken the new name of Collette and travels to her grandfather’s country estate at his request, as he’s in need of…8 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Comics★ Love Everlasting (#1)Tom King and Elsa Charretier. Image, $16.99 trade paper (136p) ISBN 978-1-5343-2464-0Romance comics meet Quantum Leap in this quirky odyssey through time, space, and the heart from Eisner winner King (the Mister Miracle series) and Charretier (November). In the first foray, young secretary Joan Peterson finds passion with her boss. In the next tale, a 1960s folk singer is in love with rich girl Joan Peterson. In fact, all of the tales star an increasingly bewildered Joan Peterson, who bounces from life to life, now a frontier girl, next a Victorian-era maid, forever romanced. These sequential lives become more confusing and dangerous as memories of her past stories creep into her subconscious and lead to unexpected bloody endings. King energizes the familiar romance genre with twists and…3 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Broken HomesThis case was immediately national news, and yet none of the reporting has focused on the birth families until now. Why?There is no real good beat coverage of the child welfare system, either in local papers or in national papers. Because the foster care system is really bureaucratic and confusing to report on and everything is confidential, you have to really worm your way in to be able to get what you need to tell a story, which takes a lot of time.You make clear that what happened to these kids is surely an outlier—but how much of an outlier is it?There are so many things about this case that needed a public reckoning and public recognition because it was so egregious, but so much of what happened is extremely…2 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023★ The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and IndependenceWaldstreicher (Slavery’s Constitution), a history professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center, delivers a magisterial biography of 18th-century poet Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784). Tracing Wheatley’s trajectory from a promising student to a national celebrity, he explores her development as an artist and focuses on how Wheatley crafted “subversive” meanings and considered “piety, politics, and race” in her work. He begins in 1761 with Wheatley’s arrival by slave ship in Boston, where as a young girl she was enslaved by the Wheatley family until they granted her freedom in 1773, shortly after the publication of her first poetry collection. Waldstreicher excels at teasing out the subtle political messages within Wheatley’s poetry, contending, for instance, that “On Being Brought from Africa to America” satirizes the racism critics accuse it of…1 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Picture Books★ Soon, Your HandsJonathan Stutzman, illus. by Elizabeth Lilly. Knopf, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-593-42707-1“Tonight,” writes Stutzman (The Mouse Who Carried a House on His Back), channeling three sets of caregivers’ monologues, “I hold your hands,/ so small/they fit inside my own.// But soon,// your hands will grow./ And learn.” In loose-lined watercolor and ink art by Lilly (The Catalogue of Hugs), three families are shown living side by side in a block of palm-shaded, brightly colored row houses. In one, a family portrayed with brown skin prepares for a birthday party. Next door, a brown-skinned child who wears hearing aids and uses sign language takes a trip to the beach. And in the semidetached home on the end, a pale-skinned child spends days with an older adult—perhaps a grandparent—while a…6 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023NonfictionA Is for AffrilachiaFrank X Walker, illus. by Ronald W. Davis. Univ. of Kentucky, $19.95 (64p) ISBN 978-0-813-19637-4Walker, who coined the term Affrilachia, celebrates the concept’s past and present in this abecedarian accounting of, per back matter, “the spiritual and emotional home for everyone left out of the definition of Appalachia that requires whiteness as a prerequisite for membership.” Spanning from the titular phrase to “the Zzzzs you can catch dreaming about all of Affrilachia you’ve just seen,” loosely grouped pages feature celebrated advocates, entertainers, and poets as well as storied events and locations. H, for example, “is for the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel tragedy. The Highlander Center, Huntsville, and Harpers Ferry, where John Brown made History”; K stands “for King Hedley II, Kinfolks, Karida Brown’s scholarship, and Amythyst Kiah’s chords…3 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023BookLife Talks with Carole P. RomanRoman’s latest work for children, Grady Whill and the Templeton Codex, follows Grady Whill and his struggle to get accepted into Templeton Academy, the first-ever superhero high school.What was the inspiration for Grady and his friends?Grady is every 14-year-old that I know. He is uncertain of himself and struggles with anxiety that brings on asthma. However, he is loyal, inquisitive, and sweet. Grady Whill is a coming-of-age story. The song “Lean on Me” was constantly playing in my brain while I wrote it.My grandson was a reluctant reader, and one of the ways I got him to open a book was to read over the phone together at night. We plowed through dozens of novels. Some he enjoyed, and others bored him. He complained that he wanted more action in…1 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023BookLife Talks with Blue AndrewsChoosing Life, Andrews’s first book, is hailed by BookLife Reviews as a “riveting debut [that] lays bare his painful journey through depression, alcoholism, and attempted suicide, culminating in his inspiring path to recovery.” We spoke with Andrews about his writing, his unique way of accessing his memories, and how he hopes to help others.Did you always want to be a writer? And if so, did you think that your first book would be a memoir?I’ve always enjoyed writing. In junior high and high school, I held various writing and editing roles with the school paper. Then I got into software sales and lost connection with my passion for writing. It was only as part of my recovery that I rediscovered the joy of writing. I feel so lucky to have…1 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Children’s/YADandi McLion Has Her Say!Patrice McLaurin, illus. by Stephanie Hider. Khemrah, $19.95 (44p) ISBN 978-1-7364-8202-5Dandi McLion, a “beautiful and proud dandelion,” is tired of being mistreated and misunderstood by humans, who assume that dandelions are weeds. Guidance from her mother, to “use my voice to speak for all the dandelions in the world,” prompts Dandi to present at the next human town hall meeting. Mustering her courage, Dandi approaches a podium to address a room populated by people portrayed with varying skin tones. During her speech, she regales the crowd with dandelion facts, as when she declares that dandelions have “more Vitamin C than tomatoes and more Vitamin A than spinach.” Dialogue detailing topics such as allyship and compassion is formatted using large, underlined lettering that calls out specific phrases…2 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Hoover Is Queen of 2022 BestsellersIt is something of an understatement to say that Colleen Hoover dominated the 2022 overall bestsellers list. Hoover had the top three books of the year, and her novels sold 14.3 million print copies at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Of the 25 books on the list, eight were Hoover titles, and two, It Ends with Us and Verity, sold more than two million copies each.Last year was a very good year for adult fiction overall, as evidenced by the 8.5% annual sales increase posted by the category (see “The Winning Streak Ends,” p. 8) and by its prevalence at the top of the overall bestsellers list. Fifteen of the 25 top-selling books were adult fiction, and another five titles were either juvenile fiction or young adult fiction. The…2 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Family TiesRachel Cusk, Joan Didion, Louise Erdrich, Anne Lamott: some of the most recognizable names in contemporary Western literature have written about their experiences of parenthood. As a form, the parenting memoir remains popular and continues to evolve; PW spoke with authors and editors about how their forthcoming books fit into and expand the genre.Side effectsEnduring topics in memoir—illness, grief, disability—recur in parenting accounts, too. In Little Earthquakes (Harper, Apr.), clinical psychologist Sarah Mandel excavates her feelings around concurrent events: the birth of her second child and a stage IV breast cancer diagnosis. As a therapist, Mandel specializes in trauma work and using narrative therapy, a form of psychotherapy that helps patients externalize their issues; the book models how Mandel applied those treatments to ease her own pain.Other books detail how…6 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Bringing Up BabyRaising tiny humans is a challenge that many parents gladly accept, but navigating an infant’s first year can be overwhelming. Using a variety of approaches, including illustration, science, and humor, new titles offer advice for parents in this period of great physical and emotional change.Bite-Sized ParentingSharon Mazel. BenBella, Sept.This illustrated reference covers Parenting 101 topics—tummy time (month one), starting solids (month five), and dropping naps (month 11)—alongside less tangible markers of new parenthood, such as building confidence, dealing with unsolicited advice, and maintaining partnerships and other adult relationships. Mazel, who has 246,000 Instagram followers and who coauthored several titles in the What to Expect series, offers readers two ways to consume information: in short, infographic bursts and in “A Closer Look” sections with topical deeper dives.Break Free from Maternal AnxietyFiona…2 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023FictionBad Summer PeopleEmma Rosenblum. Flatiron, $28.99 (272p) ISBN 978-1-250-88700-9In Rosenblum’s scintillating debut, liars, cheaters, and scoundrels converge on Fire Island for the summer, where a series of shake-ups to the seasonal routine culminates in the discovery of a dead body. A prologue features eight-year-old Danny Leavitt’s discovery of the body, which Rosenblum doesn’t identify or describe until the end, but which Danny excitedly takes to be a murder victim. The reader is then treated to colorful portraits of the cliquish seasonal community members without knowing which one will die. Rosenblum starts with broad strokes before really digging in to the various players, noting how the “men measured themselves by their net worth and women by their tennis games.” Rachel Woolf, 42, is the reigning gossip queen; Danny’s mother is a…15 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Flights of FancyWhat’s your relationship to fairy tales?Like many people who love books, fairy tales were my introduction to the fantastic. They’re a genre I come back to, whether reading Angela Carter or anthologies of retold fairy tales. I think what seemed useful to me when I began to think about the kind of stories I wanted to write was that I could use fairy tales in a way that was not a direct retelling but could retain some of the extraordinary qualities of colors, food, or animals. I wrote “The Lady and the Fox,” based on the Scottish ballad of “Tam Lin,” for an exhibition, and thought I could keep finding ways to approach the collection from there.The stories often feature familiar objects and places made strange, like a cross stitch…2 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023★ One Extra CorpseSet in Roaring ’20s Hollywood, Hambly’s outstanding sequel to 2021’s Scandal in Babylon showcases the author’s wit and her compassion for the underdog. Tinseltown glamor girl Kitty Flint has rescued her widowed British sister-in-law, Emma Blackstone, from a dismal paid companionship in England. Now Kitty’s constant companion, gofer, and Pekinese-brusher, plucky Emma wavers between longing for Oxford’s dreaming spires, where she hoped to study archaeology, and her fascination with corrupt Hollywood and her cameraman lover. Then early one morning, director Ernst Zapolya, an old boyfriend of Kitty’s, phones, wanting to speak to Kitty, but Emma tells him she isn’t home. Ernst says it’s about a matter “on which lives depend. Maybe many lives.” A murder ensues. In the search for a killer, Kitty and Emma must deal with bootleggers, feuding…1 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Romance/EroticaThe True Love ExperimentChristina Lauren. Gallery, $27.99 (416p) ISBN 978-1-982173-43-2Bestsellers Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings (The Soulmate Equation) return with a smart and hilarious rom-com, writing as Lauren. Romance novelist Fizzy Chen has lost her mojo: she hasn’t felt either a creative or a sexual spark for over a year. So when she’s approached about starring in a Bachelorette-style dating show, she agrees—but puts a twist on things. The men cast to win her heart must embody different romance novel archetypes from a list Fizzy sends producers, among them “hot nerd,” “rock star,” “Navy SEAL,” and “Scottish rogue.” Connor Prince is an amicably divorced father of one and a documentary filmmaker with a television network, a job he loves. So when his boss shunts him over to produce Fizzy’s show,…9 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023★ Where I’m Coming FromBrandon-Croft, the first Black woman with a nationally syndicated American comic strip, delivers a spirited career compilation cut through with razor-sharp wit. Debuting in the Detroit Free Press in 1989, Brandon-Croft’s strip featured a cast of opinionated, wisecracking Black women (drawn with varied expressions, hair styles, skin tones, and tones of voice) relaying everyday life and unfiltered social commentary. This trademark sisterhood of talking heads chatted at the nation through 2005, including syndication in Essence and the Baltimore Sun. For example, feminist Lekesia skewers racial bias and sex scandals in the military, quipping: “I think this country needs to change its recruitment slogan to Uncle Sam wants you… to behave!” No topic escapes critique, from education to dating woes to workplace inequality and voting. The unabashed sarcasm and upbeat playfulness…1 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023★ Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of AmericaThis revelatory biography of Vince McMahon, the promoter who launched the careers of Hulk Hogan and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, argues convincingly that pro wrestling can explain contemporary America. Journalist Riesman (True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee) surveys McMahon’s life and career, touching on his abusive upbringing in North Carolina; reunion with his estranged biological father, the promoter for the Capitol Wrestling Corporation; and succession to the top of that organization, now the WWE. McMahon’s ambitious leadership of an enterprise built on its audience accepting a falsehood—that matches are not staged—cuts a chilling parallel to the political arena, Riesman notes, as antivax and election denial movements increase their influence. Longtime Donald Trump collaborator McMahon’s own political ties (his wife chairs a pro-Trump Super PAC) and checkered record…1 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Religion/SpiritualityTurning Words: Transformative Encounters with Buddhist TeachersHozan Alan Senauke. Shambhala, $18.95 trade paper (152p) ISBN 978-1-64547-131-8In this touching treasury of Buddhist wisdom, Zen priest and musician Senauke (Mental Revenge) examines the “turning words”—loosely, “words [and moments] that cause you to pivot”—of 30 spiritual teachers, guides, and friends from nearly four decades of Buddhist practice. He recounts realizing the Dalai Lama is only human after seeing him tie his shoes at a conference, and hearing Thich Nhat Hanh’s commentary on human “interdependence” in the aftermath of the 1991 Rodney King riots. But the intimate portraits of closer compatriots, such as his father, wife, and primary teacher, hit hardest and reveal how they pushed Senauke to “see the universe from a different angle.” His wife’s “northstar” phrase, “I will not abandon you,”…3 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Fiction★ Lasagna Means I Love YouKate O’Shaughnessy. Knopf, $17.99 (368p) ISBN 978-1-9848-9387-1A white 11-year-old in mourning navigates foster care and seeks connection by collecting families’ recipes and stories in this tenderly rendered, character-driven novel by O’Shaughnessy (The Lonely Heart of Maybelle Lane). When the grandmother who raised her dies, and her sole uncle says he can’t take care of her, Mo Gallagher finds herself waiting for a foster placement in New York City. Journal entries framed as letters to her grandmother seek to reforge a connection amid rapid change (“If anyone can find a way to communicate from the afterlife, it’s you”). The letters also relay Mo’s worry about sharing recent events with best friend Crystal Wang, who is Chinese American; her promising interest in cooking after she finds a…20 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023How to Choose an EditorSo you’ve finished your great American novel and you can’t wait to get it in the hands of readers. What’s next?Well, whether you plan to submit it to an agent, seek out a hybrid press, or self-publish, you need an editor. Even though you got straight As in English in school, even though your mom (who was an English teacher) checked it, you still need a professional editor. Sorry, Mom.Why? If you are attempting to publish traditionally, the answer is pretty apparent. Agents will often decide whether to take on a manuscript based on the amount of work it needs. Agents understand that while publishers love a good story, their bottom line is profit. If your manuscript needs too much work (time equals money), they may pass. If you’re submitting…4 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023The Importance of Beta ReadersIf you’re getting close to finishing a book, you might find yourself wondering what readers are really going to think of it. Although market research is important for ensuring that you’re writing books your readers will want to read, all authors can also benefit from educational feedback.Self-published authors can especially struggle with finding high-quality feedback on their writing before it gets published. One way to make sure that you are writing the kind of books your readers will like is to utilize beta readers during the latter stages of your writing process.Who are beta readers?Beta readers are generally not professional editors; they are often people who read extensively in a given genre and know what the norms are for such books. Beta readers may be able to give insight into…5 min
Publishers Weekly|January 9, 2023Finding Connection“What’s kept me and many of my favorite colleagues on what is often referred to as ‘this hellsite’ is that the connection we find there has inspired us to advocate for change.”People from many different industries have watched the rapid erosion of Twitter. While it remains up and running as of this date, millions of people have abandoned or shut down their accounts for reasons ranging from owner Elon Musk’s reinstatement of former president Donald Trump’s account to overall disenchantment with the role social media plays in our lives.But for me, Twitter has and always will be a platform that helped me find my way in book publishing, and not just because my @TheBookMaven account has more than 200,000 followers or because I created #FridayReads, which is used by book…4 min
