News in December 2022

News in December 2022

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A rave review in the Minneapolis Star Tribune celebrates LIFE IS EVERYWHERE by Lucy Ives as “one of the year's most impressive books in any genre,” adding: “Ives’ new novel is unconventional and resourceful, sorrowful and perceptive, a challenging, rewarding book full of irreverent humor, rich imagery and engrossing digressions…[T]he sort of book that eludes all but the most talented of novelists.” Meanwhile The New Yorker commends the book’s “twisting and treacherous update on the adultery plot…like an encyclopedia whose every entry is at its heart an intimate betrayal.” Graywolf Press published the book on October 4, 2022.

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SWEET, SOFT, PLENTY RHYTHM by Laura Warrell has been critically acclaimed since its release, and was recently featured on 2022 best-of lists from Kirkus (“A captivating modern romance evoking love, loss, recovery, and redemption”), Debutiful ( “Warrell uses a multitude of voices to give the women oft overlooked in these types of stories to give them unforgettable voices. PLENTY RHYTHM is also a novel whose writing should be studied. The language sings in every sentence”), and Oprah Daily (“This sensual and sensuous debut is a kaleidoscopic character study, a polyphonic riff on the modern-day Casanova from the perspectives of the myriad women in his wake…Both visceral and finely observed, the novel captures social nuance and emotional wreckage with precision and compassion”). The book was also recommended as one of “5 Books to Read Next” by BLACK BUCK author Mateo Askaripour, who noted that the novel “has much to say about what happens as our dreams age along with us, and what it means to play the same tune over and over again, or choose to switch it up; to give into the sweet improvisation of life, and discover something new and beautiful, not only for ourselves, but also those we love and who love us.” Lastly, in an interview with Alice O’Keeffe for The Bookseller (who praises SWEET, SOFT, PLENTY RHYTHM as “sensual” and “gorgeously written”), Warrell spoke about the literary qualities of jazz music, the unfortunate beginnings of Circus Palmer’s story in her own previous unfulfilling relationship, and the realization of her lifelong dream to publish a book. Pantheon published the novel on September 27, 2022.

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PLANES by Peter C. Baker has been named one of “The 10 Best Books of 2022” by the Chicago Tribune, which declares it “[a] criminally underrated novel about the ways our choices resonate far beyond ourselves, without our knowledge, in directions we never anticipate.” Knopf published PLANES on May 31, 2022.

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Kim Kelly’s FIGHT LIKE HELL continues to make waves, named a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker and BuzzFeed News (“an electrifying, inspiring history of how countless American industries have exploited employees of marginalized backgrounds, and how these workers protected one another and fought back”). The book was also featured on Bookshop.org’s “History Holiday Gift Guide 2022.” One Signal published FIGHT LIKE HELL on April 26, 2022.

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The Washington Post selected Chelsea Manning’s README.txt as one of the best nonfiction books of the year. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux published the memoir on October 18, 2022.

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The Los Angeles Times named VERY COLD PEOPLE by Sarah Manguso one of the best books of 2022: "This unflinching first novel by poet and critic Manguso is a coming-of-age story set in a New England as icy as the title suggests. Her rendering of violence, abuse and secrecy within families and communities is clear-eyed and almost uncomfortably lyrical — the beauty of her writing makes the tragedies she describes feel all the more wrenching." Hogarth published VERY COLD PEOPLE on February 8, 2022.

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Esquire named THE UNWRITTEN BOOK by Samantha Hunt one of the Best Memoirs of 2022: "Eerie, profound, and daring, this is a book only the inimitable Hunt could write.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux published the book on April 5, 2022.

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Idra Novey’s forthcoming novel TAKE WHAT YOU NEED received a starred review from Kirkus. The reviewer writes: "[An] inspiring novel, spare yet packed with plot and ideas…Transforming the odd and the homely into something beautiful is both the subject and the accomplishment of this book." Viking will publish the novel on March 14, 2023.

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In an interview for Vogue UK, Phoebe Bridgers gave a shout-out to THE SEAPLACE ON FINAL APPROACH by Rebecca Rukeyser when asked what book one should read over the holidays. Doubleday published the book on June 7, 2022.

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Danielle Steel’s latest novel, THE WHITTIERS, debuted on The New York Times Bestsellers list for the week of December 11, 2022, appearing at #7 on Hardcover Fiction and #8 on Combined Print and E-Book Fiction. Delacorte Press published the book on November 22, 2022.

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Rachel Aviv’s STRANGERS TO OURSELVES was selected as one of The New York Times’ “10 Best Books of 2022.” They praise it as a “rich and nuanced book,” adding: “[Aviv’s] personal history made her especially attuned to how stories can clarify as well as distort what a person is going through. This isn’t an anti-psychiatry book — Aviv is too aware of the specifics of any situation to succumb to anything so sweeping. What she does is hold space for empathy and uncertainty, exploring a multiplicity of stories instead of jumping at the impulse to explain them away.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux published the book on September 13, 2022.

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Namwali Serpell’s THE FURROWS was selected as one of The New York Times’ “10 Best Books of 2022.” They praise: “This richly layered book explores the nature of grief, how it can stretch or compress time, reshape memories and make us dream up alternate realities.” Hogarth published the novel on September 27, 2022.