by Sophie
Hey there folks! I hope you’re enjoying the summer as much as I am, now that it’s finally here.
First off, awards. The Women’s Prize for Fiction was handed out to Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshanathan. This year also saw the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, which went to Döppelganger by Naomi Klein. The Orwell Prizes for political writing were also announced last week: the fiction prize went to Hisham Matar for My Friends, and the non-fiction prize to The Picnic: An Escape to Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain by Matthew Longo (did you come to his signing at ABC The Hague earlier this year?). Loads more awards were handed out, including the Lambda Literary Awards for LGBTQ+ books in a lot of categories; you can check them all out on our Prizewinning Books highlights list.
Elizabeth Strout fans take note: Publishers Weekly has a quick interview with her about her latest, Tell Me Everything (out in September), in which Olive Kitteridge meets Lucy Barton
- Ahhh, summer… If you’re stuck for inspiration on what to read in this season, never fear, The Guardian has you covered with 50 book picks in all categories. They also have you covered with 50 picks by various authors. Of course we have our own Summery Reads picks as well!
- R.I.P International Booker Prize winner Ismail Kadare, author of The General of the Dead Army, died on 1 July. Scottish author and poet John Burnside, who wrote IrisW’s staff pick The Dumb House, died on 29 May but somehow I missed that in the June Bookbits – d’oh! The Guardian asked several notable writers to eulogize him.
George Orwell’s classic 1984 celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, with a special edition. Read the essay on 1984 by Elif Shafak here, and be shaken by how relevant the book always has been, and still is now.
- Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) writes about the books in his life, and they are as wonderful and strange as you would imagine.
- Quick Events round-up: today Elizabeth Heider launches May the Wolf Die at ABC Amsterdam, and on 12 July NYT-perennial-bestselling David Allen presents his new book Team: Getting Things Done with Others , also at ABC Amsterdam.
Bookriot thinks these 8 Science Fiction books are impossible to adapt to the screen, but I think I must disagree on some. This Is How You Lose the Time War has a lot of action (I can’t see how Bookriot thinks there is none?) and I think it could be amazing as a movie. Ancillary Justice, one of my all-time favorite books, could be an incredible TV series, with those 3 timelines, philosophy, and that revenge-driven story. Do you agree with Bookriot?
- And finally, if you’d rather stay in during these glorious sunny days, LitHub can recommend these literary film and TV adaptations streaming in July (books are linked to in the carousel below where possible). They also have a look at the just-out My Lady Jane.
