Mott

Sovereignty, the top-ranked horse in the country, will not run in the $7-million Breeders’ Cup Classic after developing a fever this week. The winner of the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes will recover although it’s unclear if he will ever race again.

Trainer Bill Mott made the announcement Wednesday morning and informed Breeders’ Cup officials of the scratch.

“I actually started thinking, ‘We might be OK.’ But then, in a matter of hours, my optimism was taken away,” Mott said. “When he had a real mild fever and we medicated him right away, he acted normal. I actually was maybe looking at it with rose-colored glasses.”

On Wednesday morning, Sovereignty was standing upright in his stall munching on hay and showed no obvious discomfort.

“We’ve gone through the entire year with this horse without a hiccup,” Mott said.

The fever was detected on Monday and he was treated with an NSAID, similar to Tylenol. He could not be given an antibiotic at that time because he would then likely fail a drug test. On Tuesday, Mott puts his odds at running at 50-50.

“If we don’t think he’s 100%, he won’t run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” Mott said on Tuesday.

After he was initially treated, his temperature went back to normal but then it spiked again overnight.

Sovereignty was the biggest star of the 42nd Breeders’ Cup and was installed as the 6-5 favorite to win the Classic.

Mott and owner Godolphin have been very cautious with this Sovereignty. After he won the Kentucky Derby his connections elected to not run him in the Preakness because it was only two weeks after the Derby. Horse racing is a dying brand on the sports landscape and a possible Triple Crown winner could have a shot in the arm the sport desperately needs.

A decision has not been made if the colt will return to racing next year or be retired to stallion duty.

Contrary to some recent media chatter, the novel isn’t dead: A glance at this month’s choices, which include quirky robot sci-fi, an artist’s tale set in 1950s Mexico and a dysfunctional family’s reckoning with addiction, proves that imaginative storytelling has a strong heartbeat. Meanwhile, whether you’re looking for history or current events, check out an oral history of the atomic bomb, an expert’s thoughts on climate change and a thorough tribute to the writer James Baldwin. Happy reading!

FICTION

Automatic Noodle: A Novel
By Annalee Newitz
Tordotcom: 176 pages, $25
(Aug. 5)

Late 21st-century San Francisco: California has seceded from the United States, and robots serve humans like crypto money launderer Fritz Co, whose Burgers N More is a front. He absconds and leaves four robots adrift, but with aid from unhoused human “robles,” they reconfigure the joint as a ramen shop — until robophobes launch a campaign to shut them down. Robots Staybehind, Sweetie, Cayenne and Hands will capture readers’ hearts.

People Like Us: A Novel
By Jason Mott
Dutton: 288 pages, $30
(Aug. 5)

Soot, one of the protagonists of Mott’s funny and affecting new book, also appeared in 2021’s “Hell of a Book.” Like the (at first) unnamed narrator, Soot is now a middle-aged writer from North Carolina (Mott originally intended this story to be in memoir form), and both men’s paths illustrate the difficulty of reconciling being Black with being American. While the theme of gun violence plays an important role, Mott is ultimately concerned with how and where his characters find safety.

Fonseca: A Novel
By Jessica Francis Kane
Penguin Press: 272 pages, $28
(Aug. 12)

In this fictionalized version of British novelist Penelope Fitzgerald’s real-life trip to Saltillo, Mexico, in 1952, she arrives pregnant with her son Valpy in tow, hoping eccentric, elderly sisters might keep their promise to leave Valpy their silver mine. “Fonseca” (“dry well” in Latin) is how Fitzgerald always referred to Saltillo, but Kane’s remarkable excavation of this interlude, including real letters from Valpy, drips with juicy conflict and detail.

The Frequency of Living Things: A Novel
By Nick Fuller Googins
Atria: 336 pages, $29
(Aug. 12)

Three sisters make up the band name “Jojo and the Twins” — but Jojo, younger sister to identical twins Emma and Araminta (Ara), isn’t in the band. Instead, she’s the caretaker for her siblings, who made a fortune with their blockbuster hit “American Mosh,” then lost that fortune, in part due to Ara’s substance addictions. Chapters alternate between Jojo, Emma, Ara and their absentee mother Bertie, who all discover that big love has big costs.

Katabasis: A Novel
By R. F. Kuang
Harper Voyager: 560 pages, $32
(Aug. 26)

Alice Law and Peter Murdoch, Cambridge University doctoral fellows in Magick, wind up in Hell looking for their adviser in a dark academia thriller whose title is the Greek word for “downward journey.” This version of Hell closely resembles Dante’s “Inferno,” with many circles leading toward the very worst human actions. There’s a great deal of doubling back and a lot of incantatory action, both of which sci-fi/fantasy stans will appreciate.

NONFICTION

The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb
By Garrett M. Graff
Avid Reader Press: 608 pages, $35
(Aug. 5)

Many accounts of the unusual and unholy circumstances that led to the atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II center on scientific discovery, neglecting the enormous human and environmental toll involved. Not so with journalist Graff’s (“When the Sea Came Alive”) approach, in which everyone from theoreticians to site managers on to survivors of all ages share first-person stories of what they did, saw and understood.

Putting Myself Together: Writing 1974–
By Jamaica Kincaid
Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 336 pages, $30
(Aug. 5)

Since her 1985 debut novel, “Annie John,” the Antiguan-born Kincaid has been impossible to ignore, and this collection of essays and journalism shows why: Even as some critics have found her prose too personal or political, Kincaid knows she meant it to be so. Ranging from her famed “Biography of a Dress” to pieces for the New Yorker on to essays on gardening, the works speak of a person who has refused to be defined by any kind of constraints.

Greyhound: A Memoir
By Joanna Pocock
Soft Skull: 400 pages, $19
(Aug. 12)

The Great American Road Trip, that idealized trek heading west, might be different now, according to author Pocock, who first made that journey in 2006 from Detroit to Los Angeles in the wake of grief after several miscarriages. In 2023, retracing her steps via Greyhound bus like French writer Simone de Beauvoir (“America Day by Day,” 1948), she discovers fewer humans, more dirt and less safety — but the same magical “sense of no longer existing.”

Baldwin: A Love Story
By Nicholas Boggs
Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 720 pages, $36
(Aug. 19)

James Baldwin’s four great affairs (intellectual, romantic, platonic and artistic) provide a beautiful structure for this biography, which includes careful research into the writer/activist’s upbringing and political formation as well as his widespread influence. Beauford Delaney’s creative guidance, Lucien Happersberger’s intimacy, Engin Cezzar’s call to activism and French painter Yoran Cazac’s artistic collaboration — each forms a polished facet of Baldwin’s gem-like dazzle.

Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization
By Bill McKibben
W. W. Norton: 224 pages, $30
(Aug. 19)

Since McKibben’s 1989 “The End of Nature,” the world’s temperature has risen by at least 1 degree Fahrenheit. Now the author and environmental activist wants to wake everyone up to the fact that we can’t stop global warming, but we can stave off reaching the next degrees if we enact the kind of political change necessary to use new technologies (like photovoltaic devices) that, instead of draining our planet’s resources, harness those beaming down daily.

Mick Ralphs, the guitarist and co-founder of stylish ‘70s rockers Mott the Hoople and the supergroup Bad Company, has died. He was 81.

Ralphs’ death was confirmed in a statement from his representative, though no exact date or cause of death was given.

“Our Mick has passed, my heart just hit the ground,” Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers said in a statement. “He has left us with exceptional songs and memories. He was my friend, my songwriting partner, an amazing and versatile guitarist who had the greatest sense of humour. Our last conversation a few days ago we shared a laugh but it won’t be our last. There are many memories of Mick that will create laughter. Condolences to everyone who loved him especially his one true love, Susie. I will see you in heaven.”

Born in 1944 in Herefordshire, England, Ralphs co-founded the Doc Thomas Group in the mid-1960’s, which signed to Island after some lineup changes and revamped as Mott the Hoople. Ralphs’ songwriting and guitar work in that band helped move rock ‘n’ roll out of the psychedelic ‘60s and into the struts and arty pomp of ‘70s glam. The band’s raucous live shows won a devoted following — future collaborator David Bowie and Mick Jones of the Clash were early fans — but chart success eluded them.

At Bowie’s behest, the group changed management and got a career jolt when he gifted them his song “All The Young Dudes,” which made their 1972 LP of the same name a global hit. The band’s follow-up, “Mott,” was also a smash, sporting singles “All the Way From Memphis” and “Honaloochie Boogie.”

Yet Ralphs had ambitions beyond the band, and departed in 1973 to join ex-Free members Rodgers and Simon Kirke and former King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell in a new supergroup.

Bad Company became one of the first acts to sign with Zeppelin’s Swan Song label, and immediately found global success. Its 1974 self-titled debut went five times platinum, on strength of hits like “Can’t Get Enough” and a retooled take of Ralphs’ “Ready for Love,” which he’d originally recorded with Mott the Hoople. A follow-up, “Straight Shooter,” featured the classic rock staple “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” and Bad Company remained chart fixtures until breaking up in 1982.

Ralphs joined Mott the Hoople for a reunion tour in 2009, and performed in several reunited incarnations of Bad Company and his own Mick Ralphs Blues Band until suffering a stroke in 2016, which confined him to bed in his final years. His last performance with Bad Company was in 2016, at London’s O2 Arena. That group will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this year.

“He was a dear friend, a wonderful songwriter, and an exceptional guitarist,” said Bad Company drummer Kirke, in a statement. “We will miss him deeply.”

Ralphs is survived by partner Susie Chavasse, his two children and three step-children.