Hello, book lovers! Spring has sprung, and with it, a lot of great new releases … and also a fresh and surprising bookselling tactic. Who would have guessed that a handful of lighthearted internet videos had the power to launch authors into the limelight? Perhaps our ever-shrinking attention spans won’t be the death of the written word after all. But without further ado, enjoy this exciting mix of stories from the book world.
Academy Award-Winner Matthew McConaughey on Life’s Red, Yellow and Greenlights: Actor, author and philanthropist McConaughey was featured in the March episode of BookTube, a YouTube Original series. Answering questions from four YouTube creators, McConaughey discusses spotting opportunities, the consequences of being raw, and his #1 NYT bestselling book Greenlights, a not-so-traditional memoir. — BookTrib
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novelist and Oscar-Winning Screenwriter Larry McMurtry Dies at 84: A prolific author, McMurtry “was beloved for riveting and yet unsentimental depictions of the American West in books like Lonesome Dove, as well as for tales of family drama including Terms of Endearment.” He authored more than 30 novels throughout his career in addition to several works of nonfiction, screenplays and television scripts. — NPR
Crying TikTok Creators Are Moving Books to the Bestseller List: Authors and publishers alike have been delighted but confused by a recent spike in book sales. It’s all thanks to TikTok creators willing to cry on camera about their favorite books and share a full spectrum of emotion with strangers online. That’s right, “an industry that depends on people getting lost in the printed word is getting dividends from a digital app built for fleeting attention spans.” As a result, books that were released almost a decade ago have crept their way back towards the top of the bestseller list. — The New York Times
Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet Among the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award Winners: Every year the NBCC honors “the best books of the previous publishing year” across six categories: autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Hamnet won in the fiction category, and Raven Leilani’s debut novel Luster received the John Leonard Prize, a special “first book” award. “This culmination of a year of reading was a joyous and deeply moving occasion,” said the NBCC’s president of the board of the event. — Publishers Weekly
Dean Koontz’s Latest Proves His Imagination Knows Few Boundaries: At 75, Koontz is busier than ever, and with a thriller like The Other Emily, it’s not hard to imagine why: “it’s a love story wrapped inside a thriller, with elements of cutting-edge science fiction and enough suspense to keep readers turning the pages well into the night.” It also delivers perhaps Koontz’s creepiest character to date. — BookTrib
When COVID Canceled Book Festivals, Meg Cabot Wrote a Novel to Take Her There Instead: The pandemic canceled nearly all our plans last year. Book festivals were no exception. Luckily, “authors can still attend in their imaginations, and bring readers along in the pages of their books.” And that’s precisely what Cabot set out to do in her upcoming novel No Words. “It was super-fun to write this book because I got to relive all of the events that I wasn’t actually getting to attend,” said Cabot. — EW
Beloved Children’s Author Sandra Boynton Collaborates With World-Renowned Cellist Yo-Yo Ma: The pair “came together to create a short, animated video to accompany Jungle Night,” Boynton’s new book “that takes little ones on a journey through a sleeping jungle.” Drawing inspiration from Boynton’s signature illustrations and imaginative animal noises, “Ma used his cello to bring to life the sounds of snoozing jungle creatures.” They discussed the collaboration more with one of TIME for Kids’ kid reporters. — TIME
Harlan Coben, Lisa Scottoline and C. J. Box Among These 7 Gripping Thrillers: Jon Land’s March thriller picks deliver ambitious, complex and satisfying reads in which the pages don’t just flip, they fly. With adventures that sweep readers away to a wedding on the Italian coast, a dangerous mission in the Middle East, and backward in time to WWII, these reads offer a selection of suspenseful tales too good to resist. — BookTrib
20 Exciting April Releases to Keep Your Spring Break Booked: Rain or shine, you’ve got plenty to read this spring! With novels spanning multiple genres, short story collections from favorite writers like Haruki Murakami, the latest works from Pulitzer Prize winners Louis Menand and Jhumpa Lahiri, and revealing biographies, this expansive list will keep you entertained and informed while you enjoy the warming weather. — Oprah Daily
Bachelorette Fling Haunts Newlyweds’ Idyllic Honeymoon in Peter Swanson’s Latest: The NYT bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders delivers “his seventh consistently excellent suspense novel” with the gothic thriller Every Vow You Break. When a bride’s one-night stand becomes obsessed, he follows her and her new husband on their honeymoon, which just so happens to be “on a tech-free island off the coast of Maine.” Their vacation may have them off the grid, but they’re certainly not out of reach. — BookTrib
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