Book Pulse

Shortlists for the An Post Irish Book Awards and winners of the National Translation Awards and the World Fantasy Awards are announced. Jenna Bush Hager selects This Motherless Land by Nikki May for her November book club. Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger is B&N’s pick. Ingram’s Consortium adds seven new publishers for distribution. Nick Offerman joins the cast of Apple TV+’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles, based on the book by Rufi Thorpe. Novelist and poet Paul Bailey has died at the age of 87.

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Paula Hawkins, M.L. Wang, and Kerri Maniscalco. Publishers Weekly touts the best books of 2024. People’s book of the week is Roman Year: A Memoir by André Aciman. Winners of the Geffen Awards are announced.  Plus, Earlyword’s October “GalleyChat” spreadsheet arrives.

A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith wins the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize. The longlists for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, the shortlist for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, and the finalists for the Kitschies are announced. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Danzy Senna, Frieda McFadden, and Ada Limón.

Melissa Lucashenko’s Edenglassie wins both the ARA Historical Novel Society Australasia Prize and the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award. A Texas county library system has reversed its decision to classify a children’s Indigenous history book as fiction. Plus, interviews with Yael van der Wouden, Mosab Abu Toha, Ben Okri, and Richard McGuire and new title bestsellers.

Essie Chambers’s Swift River wins Barnes & Noble’s 2024 Discover Prize. Ross Perlin wins the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding for Language City: The Fight To Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York. Barnes & Noble releases its best books of 2024 lists. Publishers Weekly reports from the 2024 New York Comic Con. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for buzzy book In Too Deep by Lee Child & Andrew Child. WSJ profiles Teen Mom 2 star and rising book influencer Kailyn Lowry. Interviews arrive with Alex van Halen, Danielle Trussoni, Jeff VanderMeer, and Evan Friss  Plus, buzz builds for Netflix’s forthcoming adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden.

Anne de Marcken wins the Ursula LeGuin Prize for Fiction for It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over. Margaret Owen wins the Endeavour Award for Painted Devils. Winners of the Canadian Jewish Literary Awards are announced, and President Biden awards 2022 and 2023 National Humanities Medals. OverDrive has launched the new Cleveland-inspired imprint Heights Press. Interviews arrive with Bethany Joy Lenz, Jenny Slate, Nick Harkaway, and Alex van Halen. Plus, a new series adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie is in development.

In Too Deep by Lee Child & Andrew Child leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Benjamin Stevenson, Bethany Joy Lenz, Robert Dugoni, and Jeff VanderMeer. People’s book of the week is The Time Keepers by Alyson Richman. Memoirs by Alexei Navalny and Shirley Maclaine arrive.

Naomi Shihab Nye wins the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award for lifetime achievement, and Evie Shockley wins the Academy of American Poets Fellowship. The shortlist has been unveiled for the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers. Kate McKinnon will host the 75th National Book Awards. Plus an interview with Karl Ove Knausgaard and Page to Screen.

Percival Everett’s James and Adam Higginbotham’s Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space win Kirkus Prizes. A shortlist is released for the Laurel Prize for environmental and nature poetry. Plus, interviews with Randy Newman, Emily Witt, and Colin Kaepernick, a new memoir by Pope Francis, and new title bestsellers.