“Every book is a dream. … Sometimes dreams come true, and sometimes they don’t.”
This may sound like an agent consoling an author who just stumbled upon her novel in a Dollar Tree bin, but it’s actually the words of Daniel Petrocelli, a lawyer for Penguin Random House, part of his opening statement in the a process that can change the publishing business.
Already the world’s largest book publisher, PRH has announced plans to buy one of its main competitors, Simon & Schuster, in November 2020. The Department of Justice asked to stop the merger, arguing that a Simon/Penguin hybrid would then command about 49% of the bestsellers market, which it argued would reduce the total number of books being published (wrong for readers) and cool those famous book bidding wars that sometimes lead to big paydays (bad for authors). Penguin Random House says those auctions are a rare occurrence and most books make no profit. (So the bit about dreams not coming true.)
Stephen King was vocal in his opposition to the proposal, testifying as a witness for the DOJ that the merger would be a nightmare for independent publishers, who already represent only a tenth of the market. Nobody knows business like King. The prolific, best-selling horror author has done it all, working with the biggest publishers as well as upstart indies and lit mags. He even gave self-publishing 20 years ago. So when he says that the union will be a bloodbath, believe him.
And now, here are five new dreams waiting to come true…
The Last White Man, Mohsin Hamid
The Last White Man, Mohsin Hamid
In Mohsin Hamid’s new novel, his first since 2018’s remarkable Exit West, a white man named Anders wakes up with brown skin, and for a while we experience the world through his eyes. He is confused and isolated, worried about how he will be treated by his boss, his girlfriend, and strangers in the supermarket. But we soon learn Anders is not the only person in this situation, and our fast-paced fable escapes the existential gravity of The Metamorphosis and enters the moral playground of The Twilight Zone. This may interest you : 15 Canadian books we can’t wait to read in July. Somehow both bluntly and pointedly, The Last White Man doesn’t answer all the questions it raises (how could it?), but explores its premise with power and empathy. (Riverhead, $26, out now)
➡️ Buy it now at bookshop.org | Borrow it from the Free Library
The Women Could Fly, Megan Giddings
The Women Could Fly, Megan Giddings
In Megan Giddings’ well-rounded supernatural dystopia, there is nothing scarier than a woman in total control (as the song says), because you never know when one of them will turn out to be a witch. So teenage girls are told to monitor their own behavior for “signs of magical expression,” and unmarried women are forced to register for government surveillance at age 30. Josephine, who is Black, bisexual, single , and 28, knows that time is running out, but she is forced to put everything on the back burner to begin one final search as dictated in her missing mother’s will. For a book about witches, The Women Could Fly feels pretty gritty and grounded, and has a lot to say about the regular old dystopia we’re stuck in. (Amistad, $26.99, August 9)
➡️ Buy it now at bookshop. To see also : Is Season 2 of The Terminal List happening on Prime Video?.org | Borrow it from the Free Library
Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions, Sabine Hossenfelder
Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions, Sabine Hossenfelder
Perhaps more than any other branch of science, quantum physics has a gobbledygook problem. Its concepts are often quite abstract, its texts so impenetrable, and its terminology easily hijacked by salesmen of crystals and snake oil. In her popular YouTube videos, and now in this engrossing and witty new book, physicist Sabine Hossenfelder aims to give the quantum world a fighting chance by keeping it simple and making it personal. Read also : 80 books every man should read. Chapters include “Has physics ruled out free will?”, “Does the past still exist?”, “Why is no one ever younger?”, etc. (Viking, $28, August 9)
➡️ Buy it now at bookshop.org
Start the World Over, Kung Li Sun
Begin the World Over, Kung Li Sun
James Hemings — famously influential chef and brother of Sally Hemings — escapes slave master Thomas Jefferson and joins a group of righteous revolutionaries in this “counterfactual” historical adventure novel. Each member of his diverse crew exists outside the mainstream of the nascent United States (whether they are queer, non-white, fugitive, or some combination); and quickly learn to depend on each other as they challenge the power structure and try to change the course of history. Begin the World Over impresses with fast-paced storytelling and vivid descriptions of sensual meals and forbidden desires. (AK Press, $17, Aug. 23)
➡️ Buy it now at bookshop.org
My Government Means to Kill Me, Rasheed Newson
My Government Means to Kill Me, Rasheed Newson
In this witty and powerful fictional memoir, young Trey Singleton III eschews his moneyed and Midwestern upbringing to explore his coming of age and his Blackness in New York City. – the eighties. What he finds is freedom, kinship, sex, poverty, the AIDS crisis, and a community worth fighting for. My Government Means to Kill Me is so rich in detail, so plausibly woven into the fabric of the story, that the footnotes sometimes become a character in themselves, which in a comical way cast doubt on what you have just read. So, when Trey says he met legendary civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in a Harlem bathhouse, or was groped by conservative bigwig William F. Buckley at a snooty Manhattan cocktail party, the editor who didn’t don’t appear to be asking you to take it with a grain of salt. This book has graced lots of best book lists of the year. (Flatiron, $27.99, August 23)
➡️ Buy it now at bookshop.org | Borrow it from the Free Library
In this gripping, inspiring and darkly funny memoir, Emi Nietfeld recounts a life that took her from homelessness and foster care to Harvard and Google, and still left her unsatisfied with the American dream. (Penguin Press, $27, out now)
➡️ Buy it now at bookshop.org | Borrow it from the Free Library
All the untold lies: the true story of satanic panic in an Italian community, Pablo Trincia
All the Lies They Did Not Tell: The True Story of Satanic Panic in an Italian Community, Pablo Trincia
Investigative journalist Pablo Trincia unravels Italy’s infamous case, Devils of the Bassa Modenese, from the late 90s. Is it a story of murder, child abuse, and the occult? Bad science? Mass hysteria? All of the above? True crime fans take note. (Amazon Crossing, $24.95, out now)
➡️ Buy it now at bookshop.org
Sadie Jones, author of the 2012 bestseller The Uninvited Guests, tells a story of two best friends growing up together on a community farm in the English countryside that is not as idyllic as it seems. (Harper, $25.99, Aug. 16)
Buy it now at bookshop.org | Borrow it from the Free Library
The author of the critically acclaimed Chamber returns with a sublime survival story about three men in 7th century Ireland who are searching for a tiny island in the Atlantic on which to build their monastery. (Little, Brown, $28, August 23)
➡️ Buy it now at bookshop.org | Borrow it from the Free Library
Diary of a Misfit, Casey Parks
Subtitled “memoir and a mystery,” Diary of a Misfit chronicles the author’s own journey as a Southern oddball while delving into the life of a Louisiana country singer in a small town from another era. assigned female at birth but lived as male. . (Knopf, $29, August 30)
➡️ Buy it now at bookshop.org | Borrow it from the Free Library
