Showing all posts in the books category
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo tops 2023 Dymocks Top 101 book poll
11 April 2023
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by American author Taylor Jenkins Reid, has taken out the number one spot in the 2023 Dymocks Top 101 book poll.
Another title I’ve also read, The Dictionary of Lost Words, by South Australian based writer Pip Williams, was voted into the number two slot.
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books, literature, novels, Pip Williams, Taylor Jenkins Reid
Book Depository to close for orders on 26 April 2023
8 April 2023
Online bookseller Book Depository says it will shut up shop in late April 2023. Established in the United Kingdom in 2004 by Stuart Felton, and Andrew Crawford — a former Amazon employee — the company went on to be bought by Amazon in 2011.
The news comes as a blow to book buyers across the world:
Thousands of Book Depository customers, including bestselling authors, reacted with sadness over the announcement. “Sad to hear the news. A huge loss for all of us,” New Zealand-based author and poet Lang Leav tweeted. “My heart breaks,” another Twitter user said.
Not everyone is upset by the announcement however, according to Dan Slevin of New Zealand bookshop association Booksellers NZ. He says local sellers struggled to compete with Book Depository, who didn’t levy GST — a consumption tax — on sales, as they were not based in New Zealand, and also offered free delivery on purchases.
Dan Slevin, chief executive of Booksellers NZ, said there were “metaphorical champagne corks popping in bookshops all over New Zealand”.
I detected similar sentiments in Australia being expressed on Twitter. Book buyers are unhappy, but local booksellers not so much. Possibly some delivery services in Australia may also be rejoicing, if some of the tweets I saw are anything to go by.
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Iris, the new name of the Booker Prize trophy
31 March 2023
After a public vote to select a name for the Booker Prize trophy, convenors of the British literary award have revealed Iris to be the winning choice. Interestingly though, the winner of the vote was actually the name Bernie, being a nod to Bernardine Evaristo, the first black woman to win the Booker, with her 2019 novel Girl, Woman, Other.
Evaristo however felt late Irish British novelist Iris Murdoch should instead be honoured. The name Iris came in at second place in the poll:
‘I’m surprised and flattered that the name Bernie was nominated by readers in the Booker Prizes’ trophy competition and that it received the most votes in the public poll,’ Evaristo said. ‘But as the only living author on the list, I feel it would be more fitting for the honour to go to a writer who is no longer with us,’ she added.
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Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize, Iris Murdoch, literary awards, literature
Bad Art Mother by Edwina Preston rejected by 25 publishers
30 March 2023
Melbourne based Australian musician and author Edwina Preston took her manuscript for Bad Art Mother, which was today shortlisted for the 2023 Stella Prize, to twenty-six book publishers before finding one who accepted it:
Thankfully her agent, Jenny Darling, was sending out the book. “I was a bit shielded in that sense, I don’t know if I would have sent it out 25 times off my own bat. But having that support behind me, I can’t tell you how important that was. It felt very lonely, and I felt very much like I was a bit deluded about myself and my work, but she believed in it.”
It’s kind of surprising, though maybe it isn’t, but Preston already had two books to her name, The Inheritance of Ivorie Hammer, a novel published in 2012, and Not Just a Suburban Boy, a biography of late Australian artist Howard Arkley, published by Duffy & Snellgrove, in 2002.
Unpublished authors are not the only ones who struggle to get their work into print.
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Australian literature, Edwina Preston, literary awards, novels, Stella Prize
The 2023 Stella Prize shortlist
30 March 2023
The 2023 Stella Prize shortlist was unveiled this morning on RN Breakfast, an ABC radio station. The following six titles have been selected:
- We Come With This Place by Debra Dank
- big beautiful female theory by Eloise Grills
- The Jaguar by Sarah Holland-Batt
- Hydra by Adriane Howell
- Indelible City Louisa Lim
- Bad Art Mother by Edwina Preston
The winner will be announced on Thursday 27 April 2023.
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Australian literature, literary awards, Stella Prize
BookTok, the best friend of authors and booksellers
25 March 2023
Constance Grady, writing for Vox, on the impact BookTok — the book lovers’ community within video-sharing platform TikTok — has had on book sales in recent years. In terms of the American book market at least, BookTok is almost unrivalled when it comes to selling books. That could come down to the (unrivalled) sincerity of BookTokers, when they talk about their favourite novels:
The main reason BookTok sells so many books, according to most of the BookTokers I talked to, is because it feels authentic and personal. TikTok’s native format of short, punchy videos and culture of casual chattiness combine to create an atmosphere of intense intimacy between content creators and their audience. In the book world, that kind of intimacy and emotional connection is rare. All the caps-locked blog posts in the world can’t match the visceral force of a camera on a real person’s tearstained face as they sob over their favorite books — books that could easily become your favorites, too, if you want to buy them.
Grady also explores the matter of remuneration. Some BookTokers are making a living from their channels, but many are wary about accepting payments from book publishers. Others of course do, but usually declare which of their posts are sponsored, and which are not.
I’m not sure it’s territory I’d like to venture into. As regular readers know, I frequently feature new and recently published books, that are usually Australian. But they are outlines, and seldom reviews, and are written at my own volition, and not at the request of anyone else.
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books, publishing, social media
Limberlost by Robbie Arnott on Dylan Thomas Prize shortlist 2023
23 March 2023
Tasmania based Australian author Robbie Arnott’s 2022 novel, Limberlost, has been named on the shortlist of the 2023 Dylan Thomas Prize.
Limberlost joins five other titles on this year’s shortlist:
- Seven Steeples by Sara Baume
- God’s Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu
- I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel
- Send Nudes by Saba Sams
- Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire
The prize is named in honour of Welsh poet and writer Dylan Thomas, who died in 1953, and is awarded for the best published literary work in the English language, written by an author aged thirty-nine, or under. The winner will be announced on Thursday 11 May 2023.
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Dylan Thomas, literary awards, literature, Robbie Arnott
Anne de Marcken, Jonathan Buckley, win Novel Prize 2022
22 March 2023
It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over, by American interdisciplinary artist and writer Anne de Marcken, and Tell, by British author and teacher Jonathan Buckley, have been named joint winners of the 2022 Novel Prize.
The Novel Prize is a biennial award for a book-length work of literary fiction written in English by published and unpublished writers around the world. It offers $10,000 to the winner and simultaneous publication in North America by New Directions, in the UK and Ireland by the London-based Fitzcarraldo Editions, and in Australia and New Zealand by the Sydney-based publisher Giramondo.
Both novels will be published simultaneously in 2024 by the three participating prize publishers. Australian author Jessica Au was the inaugural winner of the 2020 Novel Prize, with her book, Cold Enough for Snow.
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Anne de Marcken, Jessica Au, Jonathan Buckley, literary awards, literary fiction, literature
The 2023 Indie Book Awards winners
20 March 2023
Craig Silvey has taken out both the Indie Book of the Year award, and the Children’s book gong, in the 2023 Indie Book Awards.
- The Indie Book of the Year award: Runt by Craig Silvey
- Fiction: Horse by Geraldine Brooks
- Non-fiction: The Book Of Roads And Kingdoms by Richard Fidler
- Debut fiction: All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien (which I wrote about here)
- Illustrated non-fiction: First Nations Food Companion by Damien Coulthard and Rebecca Sullivan
- Children’s: Runt by Craig Silvey
- Young Adult: The Brink by Holden Sheppard
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Australian literature, literary awards, literature
Paper books give Gen Z much needed screen free time
19 March 2023
Generation Z, being people born between 1997 and 2015, prefer to read paper books rather than electronic ones, according to World Economic Forum data. A break from eye-straining smartphone screens, a desire to support local bricks and mortar book stores, and the smell of newly published paper books, are among reasons they cite for the preference.
Book sales in the US and the UK have boomed in the past two years, the management consultancy McKinsey found. Sales in the US hit a record of more than 843 million units in 2021, while last year had the second-highest number sales, at almost 789 million. This increasing popularity was partly because of Gen Z and its social-media trends, including the hashtag #BookTok on TikTok, McKinsey said.
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