Here are the book news stories we covered on Book Riot this week:
Han Kang, the South Korean author best known for her surreal novel The Vegetarian, has just been announced as the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, making her the first author from her country to ever do so.
The Vegetarian was originally published in 2007, then it was translated to English and released in 2016, which won it that year’s International Booker Prize. It follows a married woman who bucks tradition and stops eating meat, which eventually leads to her eating nothing at all. This passive rebellion is a result of wanting to have a ‘”plant-like” existence’ — but passive though it is, it leads her down a path of abuse, estrangement, and a complete change of body and mind.
We’re getting at this fall thing from all angles. There are cozy books by BIPOC authors, dead boos in ghost romances, and a new book — The Complete Book of Origami: A Beginner’s Guide to the Most Popular Folded Paper Models by Shufunotomo — to help you learn a craft that I suspect will be great for when you’re listening to audiobooks.
October means it is officially fall and spooky season! And a new month always brings the book club’s pick announcements. I really love seeing what these book clubs have picked, especially since they are all so different from each other. They also allow readers to participate as little or as much as is best for them. All the book clubs are either virtual or have virtual components, and at least two also have in-person meetings if you like to chat IRL
The bestseller lists are not playing nice together this week: there is not one book that all of them agree is a top ten bestseller. While most of these books will be familiar titles, we have a few new titles this week: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon, and Counting Miracles by Nicholas Sparks.
Among book banners is a common claim that anyone can publish anything and get it in the library. This is patently false and undermines not only the professional skills of library workers, but everyone from the author to their agent to their editor to the review journal editors and reviewers themselves. Just like no doctor tries every medicine they prescribe for their patients, it is untenable for any library worker to read every book put on shelves–and the distinction here is kind of key, given that prescribing medication is just that, prescriptive. Library shelves are open and accessible but not required reading. Like a doctor, though, library workers who select material for purchase rely on the work of other professionals to do their job to the best of their abilities. Those are called colleagues, professional review journals, and community input.
This list is a good reminder of just how popular and widely read the romance and mystery/thriller genres are: they consistently make up the majority of the most read list, despite both genres often going underrepresented in literary coverage. Breaking news: it turns out people want to read exciting, fast-moving books — like thrillers — and heartwarming and/or sexy books — like romance.