We have a lot of bookish news to share with you with this month, so let’s get right into it:
– Awards! The Booker shortlist is here! This year’s selection is a mix of previous winners and first-time nominees, with works that delve into the human condition and the events that shape us. For nonfiction lovers, the Baillie Gifford Prize shortlist has also been announced, with six books highlighting some remarkable lives and events in history.
– Lists! Electric Literature has 7 Experimental Books That Reimagine How Trauma Is Told, BookTrib has Reading Recs for This Year’s MTV VMAs Winners, and Reactor Mag has Seven Recent Works of Horror in Translation.
– Big titles! One of the most anticipated titles of the fall season by romantasy lovers was released last week. Of course, we are talking about Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros (which is NOT the fourth book in the series). But the rush isn’t over, as there is still the sequel to Sarah J. Maas’ massive hit A Court of Thorns and Roses series on the way. We won’t be having a midnight release party, but we will be open extra early on Tuesday the 27th.
For fiction lovers, there is also Barbara Kingsolver’s Partita and Stephen Graham Jones’ Off The Reservation to look forward to.
– Happy 15th birthday to BookRiot! To celebrate, they have compiled a list of the Biggest Literary Controversies from the past 15 years. Here’s part 1, you’ll have to go back to their website next week for part 2!
– Kinda chic to read books. Kinda chic to support local bookstores and libraries. And so, the iconic Valentino brand has leaned into the literary chicness of it all by organizing a book-inspired fashion show in the gorgeous Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève in Paris. The fashion show, called Antibiblioteca, focused on “accumulation, memory and possibility”, where the guests (with many big celebrity names among them) were asked to bring a book with them to donate to local libraries. If you are curious about what books were donated like us, take a look at internet’s literary bookish darling Jack Edward’s TikTok covering the event.
– Grab your cowboy hats and saddle up your horses (metaphorically, we suppose), because the small screen productions are on a Western wave. After last week’s release of East of Eden, streaming giant Netflix has now ordered an adaptation of The Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. The book is a previous winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1986.
– You may have seen announcements for book clubs, bookish festivals, and romantasy balls as they become more widespread among the literary community, but how is this for a bookish event? In the US, where Halloween is celebrated most vehemently, the latest in the headlines is this year’s addition to Seaworld’s October attractions inspired by dark romance books. The amusement park has picked up on the wildly rising popularity of the genre in offering a scare zone called “Just One More Chapter” for visitors who are fans of “toxic obsession, masked men, and the most twisted love stories.” Chilling.
– Interviews! R.F. Kuang talks to Literary Hub about her new book Taipei Story, shame, bilingualism, and the value in making mistakes. Cultured Magazine interviews Josh Silver, the author of the recent runaway bestseller Fruit Fly, about who has the right to tell certain stories. Electric Literature has 23 questions with Min Jin Lee, whose latest book American Hagwon was just released. And NPR has an interview with Barbara Kingsolver about the above-mentioned Partita.
– The ABC staff is getting out and about in the world: our Else was interviewed on BNR Radio recently about the increase in English bookstores. Her segment starts at around minute 41. Please note this interview is in Dutch! And Sophie was quoted, among quite a few other booksellers and authors, in a Sunday Times article about the same topic, as well as the rather dire literacy results of Dutch youths (this interview is sadly behind a paywall though).
– 1000 Libraries Magazine has compiled 10 fascinating facts that you might not have known about the queen of crime fiction, Agatha Christie. There are so many entertaining and surprising tidbits in there. That woman lived an interesting life indeed.
– If there is one thing you can count on, it’s that a Haruki Murakami book will always feature a cat, a cold can of beer, and a reference to some impeccable jazz song. If you are in the mood for some smooth listening, NTS Radio has compiled a two hour mix of jazz music mentioned in Murakami novels. But be warned, if your phone begins to ring randomly on an unassuming evening after starting this playlist, you might just find yourself sucked into a dreamy reality-state including secret parallel worlds and dried-up wells.
– And finally, a picture of one of the Banned Books displays you can find in all 3 of our stores (bonus brownie points if you can guess which ABC this picture was taken at). The second annual Dutch Week van het Verboden Boek has just passed, and the annual US Banned Books Week just started. Here in the Netherlands it may not be the plague it is in the US yet, but please don’t think books are never contested in schools and libraries here.
