A.S. Byatt’s new novel The Children’s Book has won a ton of praise overseas – it may take home the Booker tonight — and now it’s finally available in the States. Meanwhile, Michael Chabon is trying his hand at memoir with his new book, Manhood for Amateurs.
This Week’s New Releases
Deep In Yakuza Territory
Photographer Christopher Jue journeyed with People Who Eat Darkness author Richard Lloyd Parry into the four-story headquarters of the Kudō-kai, a Yakuza group headquartered on the Kyushu island of Japan. “My mental note to myself,” says Jue, “was ‘once I step foot into their property, anything can happen.’”
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PW Reviews Late American Novel and More
The book I co-edited, The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books, got its Publishers Weekly review this week – a very nice writeup. Also spotted this week, a longer consideration of the book at tumblr Feriatus.
An Irish Take on the NYC Grid
New York City’s municipal grid turns 200 this year. To commemorate, author and Year in Reading alumna Belinda McKeon notes the way New Yorkers utilize it as they “don’t wander so much as dart” from place to place.
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New from Beatrix Potter
A new story from Beatrix Potter will be published this September. A publisher discovered the almost-finished story, which features a cat in boots named Miss Catherine St Quintin, at the Victoria and Albert Museum archives. For a humorous take on modern children’s books, check out our own Jacob Lambert’s series Are Picture Books Leading Our Children Astray?
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Time Traveling in Octavia Butler’s ‘Kindred’
Octavia E. Butler's Kindred remains a touchstone of speculative fiction for its innovative use of time travel to reckon with slavery in the antebellum South.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Poehler; Gibson; Faber; Farah; Binchy; Paul
Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler has a new book on shelves this week, as does William Gibson. Also out: The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber; Hiding in Plain Sight by Nuruddin Farah; a new collection of Maeve Binchy’s Irish Times columns; and a hardcover compilation of entries in the NYT’s By the book series. For more on these and other new titles, check out our Great Second-half 2014 Book Preview.
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