The Biggest Bookish News of the Week
The publishing industry definitely did not get the message that the dog days of summer are here. It was a busy week! Here are the most-clicked stories from this week’s Today in Books coverage.
NYT Names the 100 Best Books of the Century (So Far)
The New York Times polled more than 500 “literary luminaries”—including Roxane Gay, Jenna Bush Hager, Min Jin Lee, and three of us here at Book Riot—in a quest to identify the best books of the 21st century so far. Each voter was asked to submit a slate of 10 books, and let me tell you, that is an impossible task. My off-the-dome longlist had more than 30 contenders. On Monday, the Times revealed #100-80, with another block of twenty titles announced each day this week. Four of my picks made the list, and another two of my authors were featured but for different titles than the ones I nominated. Not too shabby! See the full lists from folks like Stephen King, Rebecca Roanhorse, and Marlon James, and let us know: did your faves make the list?
Alice Munro’s Daughter Discloses Family Secret of Sexual Abuse
Andrea Robin Skinner, whose mother was Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro, has published a letter in the Toronto Star revealing that her stepfather, Gerald Frmelin, sexually abused her and that Munro knew about the abuse and chose to stay with him. Skinner states that the abuse began in 1976 when she was nine years old. After struggling with post-traumatic symptoms, including bulimia, migraines, and insomnia, for many years, she told her mother about the abuse when she was 25. In letters to the Munro family, Fremlin admitted to the abuse and blamed Skinner, calling her a “homewrecker.” In 2004, Skinner reported the abuse and shared Fremlin’s letters with the Ontario police. He pleaded guilty to indecent assault in 2005. Munro stayed with him until his death in 2013.
Skinner writes that “Many influential people came to know something of my story yet continued to support, and add to, a narrative they knew was false,” noting that “my mother’s fame meant the silence continued.” Now that Munro has died (she passed away in May at the age of 92), Skinner hopes her revelation will force the public to reckon with her mother’s legacy, an especially complicated and important challenge since Munro was considered to be a master of exploring the pain and minutiae of women’s lives. Vox‘s Constance Grady offers an in-depth reading of the revelations in context of Munro’s work, and associates of Munro say they knew of the abuse.
Readers Swoon for Romance Bookstores
Romance is on the rise, and the ceiling is high, folks. Just two years ago, there were only two independent bookstores dedicated to romance in the entire United States: The Ripped Bodice in L.A. (which now has a Brooklyn outpost as well) and Love’s Sweet Arrow in Chicago. Now, there are more than 20. That’s a remarkable 10x growth in two years, but it’s still less than 1% of the 2500+ stores represented by the American Booksellers Association. In 2020, romance accounted for 18 million print book sales; by the end of 2023, that had more than doubled to 39 million copies. That means that more than 5% of all print books sold last year were romances. Not too shabby for a genre that “independent booksellers largely ignored” until very (very) recently.
🔗 The Best of the Rest
And here’s a round-up of interesting links that are worth your time but didn’t get the full write-up treatment. This is a bonus feature for All Access members. Upgrade to get in on the fun!
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