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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Thomas Pynchon’s Next Novel Coming in October
I really didn’t think we would get another one. The man is 88 years old, and Inherent Vice, his last novel, came out 16 years ago. But great day of the morning, Shadow Country is coming out in October, and it sounds like it might be in the same vein as Inherent Vice, which ranks as probably the most accessible of his novels (and made for a very good film as well). With this, a new Rushdie, a new Patricia Lockwood, and a new Dan Brown (shut up), the fall is looking verrrrrrry Jeff-friendly.
Murderbot Trailer Has the Juice
The much-anticipated TV adaptation of Martha Well’s long-running and much-loved Murderbot series now has a trailer. And judging from the parts of the audience square I live with, this has the potential to be a four-quadrant winner. For those of you unfamiliar, imagine if Data from Star Trek was a little like Deadpool and you aren’t far off. Looking forward to this.
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Publishing is White. But how White is it compared to the U.S. population?
This is a question we talk about on the Book Riot podcast from time to time. Clearly the U.S. publishing industry is not as racially diverse as the general U.S. population. But it is not quite as white relatively speaking as many might guess. But what about compared to other potential reference populations, say college grads or even English majors? Laura McGrath has counted the beans and the results are useful, if not particularly surprising. I think taking these kinds of looks is important for (at least) two reasons. First, to track change over time (and there has been change). And second to give a sense of what “success” in diversifying publishing might look like. If publishing more-or-less matched the racial and gender identification (among other identities too) of your chosen group, might we say “yes, cool, well done’? Something about this makes me suspicious, but I can’t quite put my finger on it, but neither do I have some alternate benchmark or finish line.
Katie Kitamura on her new novel, Audition.
I had the chance to talk to Katie Kitamura about her new novel, Audition. This was a great stroke of luck for me because it turns out Audition is my favorite novel of the year so far. Elite stuff from her.