Hot News This Week
August 3, 2023
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The nominees for the 2023 Booker Prize were announced on Tuesday, and How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney is on the longlist! Feeney’s novel is forthcoming in the US this fall from Biblioasis, which also published her acclaimed debut, As You Were, in 2020. According to the Booker Prize judges, How to Build a Boat is “an absorbing coming-of-age story which also explores the restrictions of class and education in a small community.”
We’ll be cheering for Feeney when the shortlist is announced on September 21 and the winner crowned on November 26!
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“Bea has just turned 50 and feels invisible. Her marriage is stale, her son away at college, and her mother is in the early stages of dementia. So, during one insanely hot summer she learns a new skill—picking locks.” — Caitlin Luce Baker, Island Books (Mercer Island, WA)
“Taut, funny, and sad—a portrait of a woman coming to terms with the disappointments of being middle-aged in the anthropocene.” — Grace Harper, Mac’s Backs (Cleveland Heights, OH)
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| | We Are Light
by Gerda Blees, trans. Michele Hutchison
World Editions • August 2023 • 9781642861273
“Quite unusual and quite cool. . . . A commune death prompts a criminal investigation, but this is no ordinary crime novel.” — Beth Hemke Shapiro, Skylark Bookshop (Columbia, MO)
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| “The Smartest and Most Useful Book” on Management and Workplace Culture
Scaling People by Claire Hughes Johnson is on McKinsey’s 2023 summer reading list, recommended among titles on workplace culture. Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, says it’s “the smartest and most useful book I’ve read on management this year.” Scaling People is a Wall Street Journal bestseller and has earned a steady stream of national media coverage since its release in March, with a recent review in The Economist dubbing it “refreshingly pragmatic.”
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 Click here for more top titles publishing next Tuesday, Aug. 8.
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★ “The authors successfully encapsulate a distinct genre of speculative fiction. This riveting collection is sure to tease readers’ imaginations.” — Publishers Weekly
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★ “The Blue House will long be considered the definitive tome of Tranströmer’s work in English and should be on every poetry shelf.” — Booklist
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| | What If One Day...
by Bruce Handy, illus. Ashleigh Corrin
Enchanted Lion Books • September 2023 • 9781592703838
★ “Upbeat, sunny, and philosophically creative, these lines leave behind a sense of startled freshness that mimics the relief of having a bad dream, and waking up from it.” — Publishers Weekly
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| | Mina Belongs Here
by Sandra Niebuhr-Siebert, illus. Lars Baus
Floris Books • May 2023 • 9781782508113
★ “The use of lyrical and uplifting text combined with gorgeous artwork masterfully tells a story of a young child struggling in a new environment and eventually gaining self-confidence and friendship of others.” — School Library Journal
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★ “The dizzying breadth of theories explored here is itself an achievement, sure to lead readers down rabbit holes of further study.” — Booklist
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| | Hex Americana
by Bree D. Wolf
Iron Circus Comics • August 2023 • 9781945820762
★ “A sweet and quirky romance sure to set hearts racing.” — Kirkus Reviews
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★ “Give to fans of anime series Made in Abyss or manga artist Junji Ito, or others who enjoy worlds both beautiful and terrifying.” — Booklist
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| | Lost Bread
by Edith Bruck, trans. Gabriella Romani and David Yanoff
Paul Dry Books • July 2023 • 9781589881785
“Original and compelling. . . . Edith Bruck can capture the eternal desolation of the Holocaust in a few words.” — Boston Globe
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| New Digital Review Copies
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“Derek Owusu tells this story with extraordinary insight and emotional subtlety, almost inventing a new literary form as he takes you into this child/man's experience on an intimate, nearly cellular level. To call it moving is an understatement.” — Mary Gaitskill
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We’re also thrilled to see the 2023 World Fantasy Awards nominate our Small Beer Press friends Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link for a special award recognizing professional contributions to fantasy fiction and art. Congrats, all!
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