This Week In Books
Sunday, November 19, 2023
This Week In Books: The National Book Awards, Lil’ Kim takes on the Big Guy Upstairs, AI (again), The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, Iron Flame misprints and more.
Every week we scour the wild west (i.e. the internet) to collect breaking book news, ludicrous literary stories, and the low hanging fruit of popular culture. Then we throw it all in a blender, add a healthy dose of sarcasm, and present you with a ridiculous book news smoothie. Drink up, lovelies. Laughter is good for you.
Today’s photo in honor of AS Byatt, August 24, 1936 - November 16, 2023.
Rest in peace, Dame Antonia Susan Duffy: Antonia Duffy, also known as A.S. Byatt, the beloved English author of Possession, passed away peacefully at home this this week. Possession, Byatt’s Booker Prize winning novel was published in 1990 and is considered by many to be one of the best novels of the twentieth century. Born Antonia Susan Drabble (Best. British. Name. Ever.) Byatt’s life was every bit as dramatic as her fiction. We salute you from across the pond, Antonia, we are envious of your name and accomplishments, and we honor your contribution to the world of letters.
The National Book Awards gets caught in the culture war crosshairs: The National Book Awards are in the news again this week. Zibby Media got wind that several of the authors receiving awards planned to issuue statements as a protest to the ongoing war in Gaza. According to Zibby Owens, the National Book Awards staff was not able to assure her that the platform would not become discriminatory or inflammatory towards Jewish people or the state of Israel. Zibby Media then withdrew their sponsorship of the event and declined to attend. Book of the Month followed suit and also chose not to attend, but did not withdraw their sponsorship. This forced the NBA to issue a press release and nominee Aaliyah Bilal to explain the plans to speak out. It all ended Wednesday night with the actual (very tame) speech given by Bilal at the award ceremony. All the drama aside, we are happy to report that Oprah looked gorgeous and Lavar Burton–the host for the evening and everyone's favorite book boyfriend–was sexy as hell.
All is not well in Basgiath: While selling nearly 600k copies in its first week, there was a misprint issue with the hardcover release of Iron Flame and the holiday version of Fourth Wing. Entangled Publishing has acknowledged that a number of copies in both editions released last week had misprints such as missing or upside down pages. Entangled issued a statement that they are committed to rectifying the issue and that their customers' happiness is their first priority. Watch out, Entangled, hell hath no fury like a woman who has to wait for her dragons.
AI is such an attention hog: Not content with stealing copyrighted material, AI had to take the limelight with three different stories this week:
First up, we have a federal judge in California dismissing a major portion of a lawsuit brought against Meta by Sarah Silverman and various other authors. The suit claimed that Meta used the authors copyrighted work to train their generative AI language models and that what AI creates based on that input infringes on their copyright. It is this last part that the judge dismissed, although he gave them an opportunity to amend their claims. You get a do-over, guys, get it right next time.
Also in California, Stability AI’s VP of Audio, Ed Newton-Rex has just resigned, stating that he could not stand by the company’s claim of “fair use” of copyrighted material in the training of AI. He ends his statement with the following “...I can only support generative AI that doesn’t exploit creators by training models — which may replace them — on their work without permission.” Um, maybe you can talk to that judge for us?
But you really don’t have to worry about AI reproducing your work unless you write “popular” stories, says famed literary agent Andrew Wylie. This video from author Jennifer Weiner sums it up nicely:
NY Times Essay on Emily of New Moon: A lesser-known L.M. Montgomery character is finally getting her moment in the spotlight! The New York Times ran an essay on Emily of New Moon (written by the lovely Elisabeth Egan) for its 100th anniversary, this week and we couldn’t love it more. It’s fairly common knowledge that, in the Anne of Green Gables series, Montgomery wrote a happier version of her own life. But, Emily of New Moon, it seems, is the grittier version closer to the truth. And it also happens to be the book that Montgomery loved most. We’re here for all of it! More Anne. More Emily. Give us all the Montgomery. And yes, we’re still in love with Gilbert Blythe.
Pink vs the State of Florida: Pink is gearing up for her TrustFall tour and wants to get this party started with the distribution of banned books. The musician has partnered with PEN America and gave away banned books to the first 1,000 fans at her Florida concerts. Taking umbrage with Florida’s controversial stance on banning books in schools, she is choosing to protest by handing out copies of several frequently banned books to concert goers, including To Kill A Mockingbird. We here at The Book Tide believe that every concert-goer everywhere should be given a copy of this book. Also, if my husband ever leaves me it will be for Pink.
Publicists are working double time: Not only has the publishing industry irrevocably changed in the last couple of years, but so have the outlets that used to promote books. With publications reducing or entirely eliminating their book coverage, publicists are working double time to get books in the hands of the right people. In the absence of traditional media coverage, they often have to engage Tiktok, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, bloggers, celebrity endorsements, and book clubs. No one in publishing works harder than publicists. No one. If it were up to us, we’d double their pay, give them free child care, and include a spa day as a weekly perk. Go kiss a publicist. Except like, an air kiss on the cheek. Don’t be creepy. Be French!
The Grishaverse was given the kiss of death: Netflix has announced and author, Leah Bardugo, has confirmed that there will be no more Shadow and Bone or Six of Crows adaptations. The hit book series has a rabid fan base and Netflix adapted the two series in one, immensely popular show. They were set to continue the story into a third season but the writer’s and actor’s strikes and - let’s face it, this is the real reason - the execs at Netflix put an end to the Grishaverse.
In a surprise to exactly no one, Putin funds his own good press: German Publisher, Hoffmann und Campe, is canceling books about Russian President, Vladimir Putin, by a reporter who was reportedly paid over $660k in money linked to Russia. Wait, what? It’s not ok to write glowingly positive books about a dictator that were funded by his corrupt government? This seems a little unfair, guys. I mean how is a brutal overlord supposed to get some positive press without spending a little bribe money? This seems like censorship.
A Weekly Wake: This California book club has been reading the same book for the last 28 years. They meet to go over one page of James Joyce’s, Finnegan’s Wake, per month. According to the group, the famously difficult book is “gibberish” and “628 pages of things that look like typographic errors.” And this is not the only club studying Finnegan’s Wake. There are other groups in dozens of cities including New York, Venice, and Austin. (News to us). Joyce was reported to have said, “The only demand I make of my reader is that he should devote his entire life to reading my works.” Mmmkay. Sure. We’ll get right on that.
Amazon’s Best Books of the year: Amazon has released their top 20 books of the year with James McBride’s The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store snagging the top spot. McBride also won Barnes & Noble’s Best Book of the Year and the $50,000 Kirkus Prize for Fiction. Described as “a murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel,” The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store has officially moved to the tippy top of our to-be-read list. We here at The Book Tide love to see authors succeed. We also love to see a sweep of literary prizes.
A Tale of Two Dickens: Charles Dickens isn’t around to defend himself, but that didn’t stop author Helena Kelly from writing a take-down of him in The Life and Lies of Charles Dickens. According to the Guardian, Kelly looks for and leaps to the worst assumptions about the famous author. Dickens has been dead for over 150 years so it makes me wonder what he could have done to Kelly’s ancestor that turned her into such a Scrooge? Did a high school English class reading of Great Expectations send her over the edge?
Lil’ Kim is challenging the Big Guy Upstairs: Lil’ Kim is claiming that pre-sales of her upcoming memoir, The Queen Bee, are surpassing the Bible. Bold statement, Lil’. Or should we call you Kim? Any chance those boots are rubber-soled? We’ve heard there’s lightning in the area.
Bill Gates wants you to go eat worms: Or at least to buy all the farmland (and water rights) so he can eat steak while he sells you synthetic meat, all while being hailed as a climate savior. These claims come from the new book Controligarchs by Seamus Bruner. Listen, bug burgers ain’t got nothing on the solid diet of conspiracy theories fed to me by hippie parents, so this is just the sort of story to set my recovering prepper heart aflutter.
Tweet of the Week: And let’s end this week with a new addition to the TWIB: the tweet of the week. Next week, we’d love to hear from you. Screenshot and comment with your suggestions for next week’s book themed tweet (or note, or ‘gram, or thread) and if we choose it we will tag you.
Catch Up with Ariel over at I’m So Glad You Asked.
See what Marybeth is up to at I Will Tell You This.
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