The national political scene dominates the headlines. Minneapolis Star Tribune books editor and NBCC board member Laurie Hertzel writes a column for the Minneapolis Star Tribune on 12 books to read in light of the inauguration of Donald Trump. In another column, Hertzel also also considers internet troll Milo Yiannopoulos’s book deal, suggesting that if we kill the buzz maybe we can also kill the sales. And she reviews Birds Art Life by Kyo Maclear for the Star Tribune.
Grace Lichtenstein reviews The Year of Voting Dangerously by Maureen Dowd for NYCity Woman's inauguration day issue.
And in other election news, for her LitHub column. VP Jane Ciabattari notes the results of the NBCC Board election, as well as establishment of the Emerging Critics Initiative, and recognizes books making news this week, including Molly Haskell's Spielberg biography, Emily Fridlund's first novel, and Roxane Gay's Dangerous Women.
Past Balakian winner and NBCC Board Member Steven G. Kellman reviews Paul Auster's 4321 for the San Francisco Chronicle.
For the latest installment of her Second Acts series, Lisa Russ Spaar pairs second books by Robert Pinsky and NBCC Board Member Tess Taylor, in the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Michael Magras reviews Mrs. Sherlock Holmes by Brad Ricca for the Minneapolis Star Tribune ) and also Human Acts by Han Kang for BookPage.
For Asympote, Lori Feathers writes about some of her favorite reads as a fiction judge for the Best Translated Book Award, and for Asymptote's ” What’s New in Translation” series, reviews The Old King in His Exile by Arno Geiger. For Full-Stop, Feathers reviews Lucio Cardoso’s Chronicle of the Murdered House.
Joe Peschel reviews Samanta Schweblin's Fever Dream in the Houston Chronicle.
Karl Wolff reviews Last Look by Charles Burns and also Gerhard Richter: Panorama: A Retrospective: Expanded Edition by Mark Godfrey for the New York Journal of Books.
Editor-in-chief Adam Morgan interviews Chris Bohjalian about The Sleepwalker over at the Chicago Review of Books.
Lanie Tankard reviews Cabo de Gata by Eugen Ruge for The Woven Tale Press.
Mike Lindgren writes that Empty Mirror “just published my review of Sonosyntactics by Canadian sound poet Paul Dutton.”
For Tablet, Jake Marmer writes about Beat poet David Meltzer who recently died and interviews Cuban poet Jose Kozer.
Matthew Jakubowski reviews Year of the Rat by Marc Anthony Richardson for Cleaver magazine.
Julia M. Klein reviews Mark Slouka's Nobody's Son for the Forward and also reviews Anne Sebba's Les Parisiennes, also for the Forward.
Gerald Bartell reviews Books for Living by Will Schwalbe for the San Francisco Chronicle
Rayyan Al-Shawaf reviews Love for Sale: Pop Music in America by David Hajdu for the Los Angeles Review of Books, reviews The Futures by Anna Pitoniak, for the Toronto Star. and reviews Letters to a Young Muslim by Omar Saif Ghobash for Newsday.
Marion Winik reviews Kevin Wilson’s Perfect Little World for Newsday.
David Cooper’s review of Recitation by Bae Suah appears in New York Journal of Books.
Paul Wilner writes about Jim Marshall: Jazz Festival book of photography, in the Monterey County Weekly.