Book fans, on shops and time
A few last reader comments about books in the context of the COVID-19 shutdowns. With libraries still closed, two more nods to used-book shops were apt: In Newport News, the 2nd & Charles, at Jefferson and Denbigh. A retired librarian, Sandra Engelhardt — who remarked, “Yes I miss my library very much” — gave the shop her thumbs up. “It has lots of books for less than $5,” she wrote. There's a buy-one, get-one day, lots of kids' books, and music. In Norfolk, Marsha Queman called Book Exchange, at Wards Corner, “an undiscovered treasure.” In Virginia Beach, Linda Russell hopes she'll now have time to read more books, not just “the newspaper and magazines.” She wrote, “My reading skills could be much improved and maybe this will help.”
Clinton and Patterson, again: After co-writing the bestselling adult novel of 2018, Bill Clinton and James Patterson have teamed up for another political thriller. “The President's Daughter" will be released in June 2021. (AP)
The pandemic’s effect on publishers in March: Sales fell 8.4%. So says the data from the 1,361 publishers who report in to the Association of American Publishers' StatShot program, said Publishers Weekly.
In D.C., Kramerbooks & Afterwords — a Dupont Circle fixture and book mecca — is looking to leave Dupont Circle. Landlord issues and more, said Washington Business Journal. (Shelf Awareness)
Bookseller Waterstones plans to quarantine books for 72 hours if shoppers have handled them, once it reopens. Also in England, London's Globe theater — the rebuilt home stage for Shakespeare plays — faces closure because of losses from the pandemic. (The Guardian, CNN via PW)
The pandemic put the kibosh on Romance Writers of America’s normal conference. July's event will be virtual. Most of the usual major publishers had already pulled out, after upheaval in RWA's leadership and ranks. (Publishers Lunch)
Awards: To Daniel Mason, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, $50,000, to midcareer authors; to Benjamin Balint, the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, for “Kafka's Last Trial: The Case of a Literary Legacy.” To Mark Vroegop, the Christian Book Awards' top Book of the Year award, for “Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament.” (From publisher Crossway: “Lament is how we bring our sorrow to God — but it is a neglected dimension of the Christian life for many Christians today.”)
New and recent
From Suzanne Collins, the Hunger Games prequel, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” The scene: On the morning of the reaping that starts the 10th Hunger Games, Coriolanus Snow is grim. He must mentor the lowest: the female tribute from District 12. (Scholastic, 528 pp.)
From Amity Gaige, “Sea Wife.” A Nashville bookseller wrote in IndieBound: “Wherever you go, your anxieties go with you — even (or especially) if you go live on a boat to sail the world with your spouse and small children. Nothing will ever be the same for Juliet, Michael, and their family after their harrowing year at sea, and no reader will be the same after reading this taut, brilliant novel. I can't stop thinking about it.” (Knopf, 288 pp.)
From Lydia Millet, “A Children’s Bible.” The novel follows 12 children “left to fend for themselves as an all-consuming storm descends upon the lakeside estate they're trapped in. It's a subtle, eerie apocalypse story and creation myth,” says Cosme Del Rosario-Bell at Bookshop.org. (Norton, 240 pp.)
Also: Paulette Jiles’ “Simon the Fiddler,” another Texas frontier tale, of a fiddler who strives to be the best — and then meets a woman. … Curtis Sittenfeld’s “Rodham,” imagining the life of a Hillary Rodham who didn't marry Bill Clinton. … Lauren Myracle’s “This Boy,” a YA novel about a high schooler working through adolescent issues, and addiction.
—Erica J. Smith, erica.smith@pilotonline.com