SEPTEMBER BOOK CLUB PICKS
Happy weekend, Book Lovers! We have a lot of news to share with you this week. We are covering everything from the much-anticipated memoir from Prince Harry (seriously, can we get that book now, please?) to Pen America’s book ban report, to the Booker Prize’s shortlist! That’s just the start, though. So, whenever you’re ready, get comfy and enjoy another exciting, informative installment of The Pulse.
STANDOUT READS BOOKTRIB’S DISCUSSING
KGB Banker by William Burton McCormick and John Christmas: “An espionage thriller spanning the world stage of finance and global geopolitics.”
One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank: “Is quite simply, essential reading as Stella Levi recounts her survival from Auschwitz.”
10 Scarily good September reads to kick off spooky season: “From serial killers to Southern gothics, these ten spooky selections will have you primed for the Halloween season in no time!”
NEWS FROM THE BOOK WORLD
PEN America will celebrate its 100-year anniversary with a New York art installation designed by conceptual artist Jenny Holzer, titled: Speech Itself. The installation will consist of quotes from more than 60 authors, including Salman Rushdie, Toni Morrison, Joy Harjo, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., and will feature a series of light projections that will shine on three buildings in Rockefeller Plaza.
In banned books news, apparently forty-two books, including eight by black authors, have been banned from at least one of the over 500 school districts in Oklahoma, according to a national index of banned books from PEN America. Some of the books include:
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass
- A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
- Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
- For Black Girls Like Me, Mariama J. Lockington
- The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
- All American Boys, Jason Reynolds
- The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
Check out their entire index, which include book ban news, reporting a book ban, and more!
For our book-to-screen junkies, we have quite a few interesting developments! Deadline reported that Samantha Morton will play a lead role in the Paramount+ series adaptation of C.J. Tudor’s The Burning Girls. They have also released some news about Ben Mezrich’s The Antisocial Network, which is apparently being directed by Craig Gillespie. Pete Davidson (Saturday Night Live), Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood), Seth Rogen (Knocked Up), and Sebastian Stan (the Captain America films) have signed on to the project. What’s more, Russell Crowe has been cast in Sleeping Dogs, a film adaptation of E.O. Chirovici’s novel The Book of Mirrors, according to Variety.
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES WORTHY OF NOTE
The shortlist for the Booker Prize was announced Tuesday afternoon! Congratulations to NoViolet Bulawayo, Claire Keegan, Alan Garner, Percival Everett, Shehan Karunatilaka and Elizabeth Strout for making it this far. The winner of the Booker Prize, which comes with a cash award of about $58,000, will be announced at a ceremony in London on Oct. 17.
MORE BOOKS THE MEDIA’S BUZZING ABOUT
There’s a special Nick Cave audiobook coming this month. The audiobook edition of Faith, Hope and Carnage, written with U.K. arts journalist Seán O’Hagan will be released by Macmillan Audio.
Arcade Publishing, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishers, Inc., announced that it has acquired World English rights to a novel, The Bird Hotel by New York Times bestselling author and journalist, Joyce Maynard.
INTERESTING EXTRAS
News from across the pond reached us concerning Prince Harry’s upcoming “truth bomb” memoir. Apparently, the Duke of Sussex has postponed the release date, according to US Weekly, allegedly due to the royal family being somewhat anxious about whatever is revealed in the memoir. Ooh, so much drama!
On Wednesday, September 21, there will be a celebration of the life of Joan Didion, who died on December 23 at the age of 87. The service will be held in New York at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue. The speakers will include Hilton Als, Jerry Brown, Anthony Kennedy, Susanna Moore, Vanessa Redgrave, David Remnick, Patti Smith, Jia Tolentino, and Calvin Trillin. It will begin at 5 pm ET and will be open to the public.
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