This year’s investigation into the realms and labs of fantasy and science fiction reveals a genre with pure magnetic attraction, while genre blends—from romantasy to SF mystery to SFF horror—redefine what’s possible and rocket toward their day in the sun.

South Korean novelist Han Kang, best known for 2016’s Booker Prize–winning The Vegetarian, wins the Nobel Prize in literature. The shortlist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize is announced. BBC’s Between the Covers book club has revealed its books and guests for its eighth season, starting with Chris Whitaker’s All the Colors of the Dark. Winners of the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards and Scholastic UK’s inaugural Graphic Novel Prize are announced. Created by Humans, a company that helps writers license their works for use by AI, has forged a partnership with the Authors Guild. Plus new title bestsellers.

It is game, set, and match as romances capture readers’ attention and provide swoony delights. Sports romances set pulses racing, romantasy rises, and moms star in rom-coms.

The shortlist for the Nota Bene Prize, for novels “that have received organic, word-of-mouth recognition and are deserving of a wider readership,” is revealed. Annabel Sowemimo wins the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing for Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need To Decolonise Healthcare. Salman Rushdie wins the Halldór Laxness International Literary Prize. Winners of the V&A Illustration Awards and the shortlist for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year are also announced. Several academic publishers facing an antitrust suit over unpaid peer review processes. Plus, new title bestsellers and an Isabel Allende Barbie doll.

LitHub releases its ultimate fall reading list. Nadia Davids wins the Caine Short Story Prize, and the German Book Prize shortlist is announced. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Richard Osman’s latest novel, We Solve Murders. Memoirs from Connie Chung, Jaleel White, Melania Trump, Wilmer Valderrama, Katherine Moennig, and Leisha Hailey get buzz. Plus, interviews with Srikanth Reddy, Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert, Sharon McMahon, Terry Szuplat, and Francis S. Collins.

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Laura Dave, Kelly Bishop, Hilary Rodham Clinton, and Rumaan Alam. People’s book of the week is The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts by Louis Bayard. All the National Book Award longlists are out now. Shōgun, based on the novel by James Clavell, wins big at the 2024 Emmys.

Join Library Journal and insiders from Blackstone Publishing and Dreamscape Media for this awesome showcase of new audiobook titles coming your way this fall. With numerous titles across every genre, there will be something for every audiobook lover in this webcast, so tune-in for this exclusive sneak peek!

The busiest book season of the year showcases the big titles and trends readers will be following for the next several months. Escapist stories, tinged with fantasy, are highlights, and cli-fi and nature writing come to the fore as well. A surprising number of subjects appear in both novels and nonfiction—including books about grief and hope and those that evoke a feeling of coziness.

The titles LJ Book Review editors are eager to read and share.

Vampires stake a renewed claim, women’s stories and translated novels expand the genre, and psychological horror challenges tropes.