Welcome to this week's Book Briefing where we round up the news for the week!
New Zealand books are recognized internationally, AI continues to cause drama for authors as well as booksellers, exciting new books are announced and so much more in yet another jam-packed week of book news.
Two te reo Māori picture books featured in ‘Remarkable Reads’ Global list
The International Board on Books for Young People and the UNESCO united to curate a global Collection fo Remarkable Books for Young Readers in Indigenous and Endangered Languages, and it’s awesome to see two Kiwi books included! Rere Atu Taku Poi!/Let My Poi Fly! and Tōkū Whānau Rerehua/My Beautiful Family are two gorgeous picture books published by Oratia press and selected for their promotion of te reo Māori as well as the values of diveristy and inclusion.
Beautiful cover revealed for Elif Shafak’s new novel
Described as Shafak’s love letter to literarture, the cover reveal for ‘In One Brief Moment All Eternity’ took our breath away and is designed by the talented Linda Huang who also designed the cover for Martyr by Kaveh Akbar. The novel is about the life of Gustave Flaubert, a legendary Frech writer, as well as the women that surrounded him (fictional and real!). A meditation on storytelling and those who tell the stories, as well as a portrait of those who are silenced. Releasing later this year, we can’t wait to get our hands on it.
Publisher backs author HM Wolfe after AI-Detection claims
Author of the best selling dark dystopian romance ‘Daggermouth’ is receiving support from readers as well as her publisher after an article in The Atlantic reported that it had been given a 60% score using an AI detection tool. With her publisher standing behind her in support, Wolfe denies using generative AI in writing the hugely popular novel and has been openly critical of AI being used by authors and artists.
Max Porter announces new novel 'Burn and Rave'
Faber Books shared an exciting glimpse at the manuscript and the cover for Max Porter’s next novel, titled ‘Burn and Rave’. Publishing next year in February, this latest novel is about Lynette - an actor, writer, director, and showrunner, who wakes up hungover on her birthday. Max Porter is the incredible author behind novels like ‘Grief is the Thing with Feathers’ and ‘Shy’, and this book also promises to again be inventive and original like all his work.
Everyone is reading about salt with ‘Salt’
A book that was published in 2002 is having it’s moment thanks to a reel by Wyatt Derman with over 780,000 likes. ‘Salt’ by Mark Kurlansky is all about the way the substance has shaped our civilization, from inspiring revolutions to securing empires. On order now with publishers, this will be back in stock soon and is well worth a read if you want to join the online community who are loving this multi-layered non-fiction masterpiece.
A four-legged listener is helping children read in Auckland
Tipsie is a beautiful therapy dog who is helping young people get more confident with reading aloud by providing a very lovely audience for them as part of Whangapāroa Library’s Read to a Dog programme. With research showing that reading to trained therapy dogs can help children relax while enjoying books, we love this who initiative!
Cottagecore Romantasy by India Holton looks like a dream
A cozy cottagecore inspired romantasy about a librarian and a mage, two rival kingdoms, and a magical book under a curse - ‘Wishspun’ by India Holton looks too good to be true. The beautiful cover reveal has us so excited for this book to land in 2027, and that’s before we get to explaining that there’s also a tiny magical dragon and a grumpy cat. India Holton is bringing a second new book to our bookshelves next year with ‘The Wreckage’, a horror romantasy, also on the way!
Draconian Censorship Laws in Arkansas mean librarians and booksellers could face criminal charges
With the go ahead to proceed, Arkansas Act 73 allows anyone to challenge which materials are appropriate and opens up librarians and booksellers to have complaints lodged against them by anyone in the state, leading to public hearings. Simply having a book on display in store or on a shelf in your library means you could face a year in prison for distributing inappropriate materials. Without clear definitions on what could be considered harmful, this could lead to a chilling fallout for the state and beyond.
Cambridge academic resigns after relentless accusations of his memoir
Jason Arday is a former Cambridge academic whose memoir ‘Great and Unfortunate Things’ is being published by Simon & Schuster despite allegations that it has been embellished and plagarized from other materials. Resigning due to the impact this public commentary has taken on him, Jason has also cancelled a series of promotional events in the lead up to the publication date at the end of this month.
Anastasia sequel being published by Disney
Lydia Gregovic, author of ‘The Weaver Bride’, shared on her instagram that Disney Books have approached her to write a YA Romantasy sequel for the movie Anastasia, and she is excited to be given the opportunity to write about “two characters I grew up with and love so much”. For all us Anastasia and Dimitri obsessed fans, this book is going to be something special, a chance to revisit their story in ‘Once Upon a Snowfall’ and see more of their world. We can’t wait.
NZ Second Hand Bookstore Cancelling Suspicious Huge Orders
Last week we shared the news about AI companies devouring second hand books (often rare ones!) to feed the AI machines, and this week RNZ reported on Wellington bookstores experiencing something strange with huge orders coming in for local non-fiction niche books. Once the bookseller from Book Haven in Wellington realised that all of these orders were connected to Project Panama she cancelled them and calls for other booksellers to be aware.
That's all for this book briefing! For more bookish news, new releases, staff picks and plenty more from all the team at Book Hero, follow us on Instagram at @bookheronz and check back here on our blog as we post regularly!
