Books Briefing: Big Changes in Publishing

July 21, 2020

Publishing leadership past and present, clockwise from top left: Lisa Lucas, Chris Jackson, Dana Canedy, Sonny Mehta, Carolyn Reidy, Dawn Davis, Nan Talese, Reagan Arthur.Clockwise from top left: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for the Audio Publisher Association; Jai Lennard; Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press; Michael Lionstar/Random House, via Associated Press; Michael Lionstar; Steven Ferdman/Getty Images; Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times; Evan Agostini/Invision, via Associated Press

Hi readers,

Here’s your weekly catch-up on everything you need to know going on in the book world.

The news:

Some of the most established executives in publishing have died or retired over the past year, and they’re being replaced by people of more diverse backgrounds who are often more commercially minded than their predecessors. We look at this rare moment of transformation in the industry, which promises to influence the books put out into the world.
In his new memoir, the longtime “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek delivers clues and facts about himself. He talked to us about the book, his life and career, and his struggles with advanced pancreatic cancer.
We spoke to Larry Tye about “Demagogue,” his new biography of Joseph McCarthy. “I set out to write more of a finger-pointing screed about McCarthy and the demagogues who came before and after him,” Tye says. “But I ended up being at least as fascinated by their enablers.”
Fiction out today: “Pew,” by Catherine Lacey; “The Pull of the Stars,” by Emma Donoghue; “Hamnet,” by Maggie O’Farrell.
Nonfiction out today: “Austen Years,” by Rachel Cohen; “Baseless,” by Nicholson Baker; “The Answer Is…,” by Alex Trebek; “The Road From Raqqa,” by Jordan Ritter Conn; “The Beauty of Living,” by J. Alison Rosenblitt; “Waiting for an Echo,” by Christine Montross; “Twilight of Democracy,” by Anne Applebaum; “Chasing the Light,” by Oliver Stone; “The Unidentified,” by Colin Dickey; “The Double X Economy,” by Linda Scott.

The critics:

Parul Sehgal reviews Barbara Demick’s “Eat the Buddha,” which covers an awe-inspiring breadth of history, from the heyday of the Tibetan empire to the present day. As Sehgal writes, the book offers “a prismatic picture of history as experienced and understood by individuals in their full amplitude and idiosyncrasy.”
Jennifer Szalai writes about “Putin’s People,” by the journalist Catherine Belton, a meticulously assembled portrait of Vladimir Putin’s circle, and of the emergence of what Belton calls “K.G.B. capitalism.” Szalai calls the book a “voluminous yet elegant account of money and power in the Kremlin.”
And Sehgal also reviews “The Answer Is…,” the new memoir by the longtime “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek. She calls the book “a friendly, often funny account marked by a reluctance so deep that it confers a curious integrity upon the celebrity tell-all.”

That’s all for now. Please stay in touch and let me know what you think — whether it’s about this newsletter, our reviews, our podcast, our literary calendar, our Instagram or what you’re reading. We on the Books desk read all of it, and I’ll make every effort to write back. You can reach me at books@nytimes.com.

All my best,

Joumana Khatib

Books at The New York Times

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