Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing

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A master of short stories passes away (This week in books)

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This week! Books!

First up, in honor of their 10th Anniversary, the wonderful organization We Need Diverse Books is having an auction with tons of great items, services, and meet and greets up for bid, including a query critique and thirty minute chat with yours truly. Bid bid bid!

Alice Munro, one of the great masters of short stories and the 2013 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, passed away this week at 92. Deborah Treisman, the fiction editor at the New Yorker, who worked with Munro on many of her stories, reflects on what Munro captured and her unique vantage point. If you haven’t read Munro or want to brush up, Ben Dolnick collected some of Munro’s essential works.

Going from novelist to pop star? Yes indeed, if you’re Ali Sethi.

When Jamaica Kincaid had an idea for a new children’s book, she cold-emailed artist Kara Walker to see if she wanted to collaborate. The result is an exciting book out this month, An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children. Stephen Bell has a fascinating interview with Kincaid and Walker about the project.

And in not-super-great news for the book biz, print sales have been sliding a bit in 2024.

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

  1. The 24th Hour by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
  2. The Women by Kristin Hannah
  3. Funny Story by Emily Henry
  4. This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune
  5. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

  1. The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
  2. You Never Know by Tom Selleck with Ellis Henican
  3. The End of Everything by Victor Davis Hanson
  4. Bits and Pieces by Whoopi Goldberg
  5. The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

Young adult hardcover:

  1. Powerless by Lauren Roberts
  2. Powerful by Lauren Roberts
  3. Sweet Nightmare by Tracy Wolff
  4. The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
  5. Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams

Middle grade hardcover:

  1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
  2. The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
  3. Refugee by Alan Gratz
  4. Heroes by Alan Gratz
  5. Odder by Katherine Applegate

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

Don’t forget that you can nominate your first page and query for a free critique on the blog:

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

And finally, by golly I’m not so sure that everything is on the level at the British Museum.

Have a great weekend!

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Photo: The Huntington, San Marino, CA. Follow me on Instagram!

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Comments

  1. Kathy Prokhovnik says

    ‘Master’ is a word that means a male overlord. There is no female equivalent. ‘Mistress’ has been devalued. Alice Munro was not a male overlord. You appear to care about words but this was one sloppy mistake.