Books Briefing: Independent Bookstores at Risk

October 20, 2020

Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn is using its storefront to urge customers to shop at independent bookstores.Amr Alfiky/The New York Times

Hi readers,

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

The news:

Though book sales have been strong this year, local bookstores are struggling: more than one independent bookstore has closed each week since the pandemic started. As they enter a crucial holiday season, many stores are facing a challenging mix of higher expenses, lower sales and enormous uncertainty.
For decades, Matthew McConaughey vowed to become an author. His new book, “Greenlights,” offers a shotgun seat to all the l-i-v-i-n that he has accumulated, from his upbringing in a tumultuous Texas family to his ascent as the star of “Lone Star,” “True Detective” and “Dallas Buyers Club.”
Bryan Washington won widespread acclaim for his debut story collection, “Lot,” which earned him a spot on the National Book Foundation’s 5 under 35 list and was one of former President Obama’s favorite books of 2019. We talked to Washington ahead of the publication of his first novel, “Memorial,” about two Houstonians in a relationship that may or not be working, which comes out next week from Riverhead.
Fiction out today: “The Silence,” by Don DeLillo.
Nonfiction out today: “The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X,” by Les Payne and Tamara Payne; “Greenlights,” by Matthew McConaughey; “A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order,” by Judith Flanders; “Max Jacob: A Life in Arts and Letters,” by Rosanna Warren; “Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin,” by Megan Rosenbloom; “Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread,” by Michiko Kakutani.

The critics:

Dwight Garner writes about a “wise and ebullient” new biography of Richard Avedon, Philip Gefter’s “What Becomes a Legend Most,” which persuasively argues that the photographer was one of the 20th century’s most consequential artists.
Parul Seghal reviews “Inside Story,” a “novelized autobiography” in which Martin Amis writes about the deaths of three writers beloved to him: Philip Larkin, Saul Bellow and Christopher Hitchens. The book is “an orgy of inconsistencies and inexplicable technical choices,” Seghal writes, but in his writing about Hitchens, Amis “accesses a depth of feeling and a plainness of language entirely new to his work.”
And Jennifer Szalai reviews “Culture Warlords,” Talia Lavin’s book about her experience infiltrating the online communities of incels and white supremacists. As Szalai writes: “One of the marvels of this furious book is how insolent and funny Lavin is; she refuses to soft-pedal the monstrous views she encounters, and she clearly takes pleasure in cutting them down to size.”

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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