Hisham Matar’s My Friends and Matthew Longo’s The Picnic: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain win Orwell Prizes. Poets & Writers publishes its 24th annual roundup of the summer’s best debut fiction. South Carolina censorship law goes into effect. Plus, Page to Screen.
Arundhati Roy wins the PEN Pinter Prize amid prosecution threat over Kashmir comments. The longlist for the McIlvanney Prize for best Scottish crime novel and the shortlist for the TLS Ackerley Prize for memoir and autobiography are announced. Authors Against Book Bans officially launches. Plus, new title bestsellers.
The Colorado Book Award winners and RSL Christopher Bland Prize shortlist are announced. Lambda Literary announces new fellows for the 2024 Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Chris Whitaker’s buzzy book All the Colors of the Dark. Adaptations are forthcoming for Emily Henry’s Happy Place and Lindy Ryan’s Bless Your Heart, plus a long-awaited Green Lantern series. The Notebook, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, turns 20 this week. Plus, ALA’s Annual Conference kicks off in San Diego tomorrow.
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Anne Applebaum is awarded the German Book Trade Peace Prize. Patrick deWitt wins the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for his novel The Librarianist. Alicia Elliott’s And Then She Fell and Brandi Bird’s The All + Flesh: Poems win Indigenous Voices Awards. Hillary Clinton will release a new book, Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty, on September 17. Plus, authors recommend books for Pride Month.
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Ashley Poston, Danielle Steel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, and Beatriz Williams. Five LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Bear by Julia Phillips. The Glass Bell Award longlist is announced. NYT profiles physician Freida McFadden’s rise as the fastest-selling thriller writer in the U.S. Plus, Washington Post celebrates audio narrators for Audiobook Appreciation Month.
Chris Whitaker’s All the Colors of the Dark is the new Read with Jenna book club pick. Jackie Wullschläger’s Monet: The Restless Vision wins the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography. Jamaluddin Aram’s Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday, Jérémie Harris’s Quantum Physics Made Me Do It, and Keziah Weir’s The Mythmakers win the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prizes. Shortlists are revealed for the Taste Canada Awards for the best in Canadian food writing. The lineup for the Library of Congress’s National Book Festival is announced.
R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface and Katherine Rundell’s Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures have won Britain’s Indie Book Awards. Isabella Hammad’s Enter Ghost wins the Royal Society of Literature Encore Award for best second novel. Winners of Britain’s Society of Authors Awards and the shortlist for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize are also announced. Plus, new title bestsellers.
LibraryReads’ top pick for July is The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst. In the fall, Macmillan will launch Saturday Books, an imprint with a new adult focus. B&N is buying Denver’s storied Tattered Cover bookstore. Amazon announces its Best Books of 2024 So Far, including Percival Everett’s James, the #1 book so far. The Taste Canada Awards shortlist is announced. Author Yulin Kuang suggests book and wine pairings for the summer. Anthony Bourdain’s graphic novel series Get Jiro! will be adapted for TV. Plus, LJ's Galley Guide for the 2024 ALA conference is now available.
The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are new titles by Riley Sager, Liv Constantine, Patricia Briggs, Catherine Newman, Jack Carr, and Claire Lombardo. Eight LibraryReads and three Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Catherine Newman’s Sandwich. Several adaptations earned Tony Awards, including The Outsiders, based on the novel by S.E. Hinton, which won Best Musical.
V.V. Ganeshananthan’s Brotherless Night wins the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World wins the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction. Kevin Jared Hosein wins the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for Hungry Ghosts. Winners of the Reading the West Book Awards, the shortlist for the Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers, and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel shortlist are announced. Plus Page to Screen.
The winners of the Lambda Literary Awards are announced. The African Speculative Fiction Society releases the shortlist for the Nommo Awards. Poets & Writers announces its picks for the best debut authors of the summer: ’Pemi Aguda, Jiaming Tang, Michael Deagler, Yasmin Zaher, and Gina María Balibrera. The Oklahoma Supreme Court blocks state effort to ban books from school libraries. The entire author events team at the Free Library of Philadelphia has been fired. A new study from The Economist says that the New York Times bestseller list is politically biased against conservative books.
Oprah selects Familiaris by David Wroblewski for her 106th book club pick. Ted Chiang wins the PEN/Bernard and Ann Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. Christina Morina wins the German Nonfiction Prize. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for buzzy book Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood. V.E. Schwab signs a two-book deal with Tor. Sylvester Stallone’s forthcoming memoir The Steps will be published by Morrow in 2025. A Crazy Rich Asians TV series, based on the books by Kevin Kwan, is in the works, and Netflix is developing a three-part series adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Seven Dials Mystery.
Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump’s nephew, will publish a memoir, All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way, on July 30. The Frank R. Paul Award Nominees are announced. Publishers Weekly rounds up book club picks for June. Earlyword’s June GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now. Ursula K. Le Guin’s home will become a writers residency. Thomas Harris’s Hannibal turns 25. Plus, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are in talks to star in a sequel to Practical Magic, based on the novel by Alice Hoffman.
Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Elin Hilderbrand, Katherine Center, Freida McFadden, and Rufi Thorpe. The James Beard Media Award winners are announced. Vajra Chandrasekera’s The Saint of Bright Doors wins the Nebula Award for Best Novel. Nine LibraryReads and nine Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is All Friends Are Necessary by Tomas Moniz. Plus, Costco announced its plan to no longer sell books year-round.
Homer Aridjis’s Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence, tr. by George McWhirter, wins the Griffin Poetry Prize. Kevin Sinfield wins the top Charles Tyrwhitt Sports Book Award for The Extra Mile. Alicia Elliott wins the Amazon Canada First Novel Award for And Then She Fell. Louise Penny wins the International Thriller Writers’ Silver Bullet Award for public service. A new “Hunger Games” book and movie are announced. Cengage, Elsevier, Macmillan Learning, and McGraw Hill have sued Google for allowing ads to run on sites that pirate textbooks.
Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead wins the Gotham Book Prize for the best book set in or about New York City. Nick Bradley and Ayanna Lloyd Banwo are among the 10 writers selected for the ILX 10 list by Britain’s National Centre for Writing. The Bloody Scotland Debut Prize shortlist has been revealed. Imbalances still remain when it comes to Black authors in the bestsellers lists, The Bookseller reports. Plus, interviews with Morgan Talty, Griffin Dunne, Jacqueline Winspear, and Judi Dench and new title bestsellers.
Reese Witherspoon kicks off an exclusive audiobook partnership with Apple Books with her June book club pick, The Unwedding by Ally Condie. Other book club picks include: Malas by Marcela Fuentes (GMA), Swift River by Essie Chambers (Read with Jenna), You Are Here by David Nicholls (B&N), and Becoming Ted by Matt Cain (Target). The New Brunswick Book Awards and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers are announced. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Eruption by Michael Crichton & James Patterson. Bill Gates will publish a memoir, Source Code, next year. Plus, summer booklists arrive.
The Horror Writers Association announces the winners of the Bram Stoker Awards, with Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory taking the top prize for Superior Achievement in a Novel. The ITW Thriller Award winners are announced, including S.A. Cosby’s All the Sinners Bleed. Time shares “15 LGBTQ+ Books to Read for Pride.” Four of Harlan Ellison’s books will be revised and reissued this year. According to the latest Audio Publishers Association Survey, U.S. audiobook revenue grew by 9%, to $2 billion, in 2023.
Eruption by Michael Crichton & James Patterson leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Annabel Monaghan, Brynne Weaver, Lisa Wingate, and Jacqueline Winspear, who bids adieu to her legendary detective Maisie Dobbs. People’s book of the week is Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy. Jenna Bush Hager picks Swift River by Essie Chambers for her June book club; B&N’s pick is You Are Here by David Nicholls. Audiofile announces the June Earphones Award winners, Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory wins the Chautauqua Prize, and the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence winners include Amanda Peters and Nita Prose. Romance Writers of America declares bankruptcy. Plus, remembrances continue for author Caleb Carr, who died last week at the age of 68.
Temple Folk by Aaliyah Bilal wins the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, which is given to an emerging Black American fiction writer. Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu, tr. by Sean Cotter, wins the Dublin Literary Award. Ali Bryan’s Coq, Patrick deWitt’s The Librarianist, and Deborah Willis’s Girlfriend on Mars are shortlisted for the Leacock Medal for Canadian humor writing. The shortlists for Britain’s Society of Authors Awards are announced. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Amy Tan, Kaliane Bradley, and Monica Youn.
Jenny Erpenbeck’s Kairos wins the International Booker Prize. The winners of the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Awards and the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire are announced. Library Reads and LJ offer read-alikes for Ruth Ware’s buzzy book of the week, One Perfect Couple. People previews Sally Rooney’s forthcoming novel, Intermezzo, due out from Farrar on September 24. Emma Törzs’s Ink Blood Sister Scribe will get a TV series adaptation. And NYT distills the essential Don Delillo.
In a surprise move, Penguin Random House dismisses two of its top editors, roiling the industry. The Aurealis Awards winners and the Highland Book Prize shortlist are announced. Atria Books will relaunch Washington Square Press as a frontlist hardcover imprint dedicated to literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Summer booklists arrive, along with interviews with Kevin Kwan, Daniel Handler, Sebastian Junger, and Michael McDonald. Plus, Washington Post critic Michael Dirda offers 10 rules for reading.
One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Stephen King, Nora Roberts, Kevin Kwan, and Steven Rowley. Yepoka Yeebo’s Anansi’s Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World wins the BIO Plutarch Award. Six LibraryReads and seven Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan. PBS Canvas takes a look at the trending popularity of Japanese animation and comic books in the U.S. Plus, NYT delves into Reese Witherspoon's literary empire ahead of her 100th book club pick.
Caleb Azumah Nelson wins the Dylan Thomas Prize for Small Worlds. Finalists have been selected for the Firecracker Awards, honoring the best independently published fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Abrams buys Taunton Books. Plus, interviews with Hari Kunzru, Coco Mellors, Curtis Sittenfeld, and Carvell Wallace.
Winners of the CrimeFest Awards are announced. Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy, Iman Mersal’s Traces of Enayat, and Ian Penman’s Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors win the James Tait Black Prizes for biography and fiction. The Finnish translation of This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone wins the Helsinki Science Fiction Society’s Tähtivaeltaja Award. Plus new title bestsellers.
Nobel laureate and beloved short story writer Alice Munro has died at the age of 92. Ian Penman wins the RSL Ondaatje Prize for Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors. The CWA Daggers shortlists are announced. Summer booklists start to arrive. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for this week’s top holds title, The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren. Plus, interviews with George Stephanopoulos, Melissa Mogollon, Michael McDonald, and Miranda July.
V. Ganeshananthan wins the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for her book Brotherless Night. The British Book Awards are announced; R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface wins Fiction Book of the Year. The Indigenous Voices Award finalists are announced. South Arts announces Inaugural Literary Arts Fellows. Authors Casey McQuiston and Danny Lore will join the list of presenters for the 2024 Lammy Awards, which will be held on June 11. Ken Follett moves to Hachette for his next release, which will publish in 2025. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel will publish Freedom: Memories 1954–2021 on November 26.
The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Harlan Coben, Miranda July, Jenn McKinlay, and Katee Robert. Four LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Shanghailanders by Juli Min. The Wales Book of the Year shortlist is announced. Madhur Jaffrey’s landmark Invitation to Indian Cooking celebrates 50 years.
Patricia Evangelista’s Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country wins NYPL’s Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. Winners of the American Book Fest’s American Legacy Book Awards and the Vermont Book Awards are announced. Finalists for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award and shortlists for the British Booksellers Association’s Indie Book Awards are released. Plus Page to Screen and interviews with Judi Dench, Serj Tankian, Christina Cooke, and Marissa Higgins.
Ben Fountain wins the Joyce Carol Oates Prize for mid-career fiction writers. The winners of the Minnesota Book Awards are announced. Shortlists for the Charles Tyrwhitt Sports Book Awards are released. The longlist for the Kraszna-Krausz Photography and Moving Image Book Awards is revealed. Plus new title bestsellers and interviews with Abir Mukherjee, Michael McDonald, and Lucas Mann.
John Vaillant wins the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World. The Minnesota Book Awards are announced. Marina Endicott wins book of the year at the 2024 Saskatchewan Book Awards. May book club picks arrive. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune, which also tops May’s Loanstars list. Earlyword’s May GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now. This month’s Costco Connection highlights Long Island by Colm Toíbín, which is also the Oprah book club pick.
The 2024 Pulitzer Prizes are announced, with Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips winning the top prize for fiction. A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall, King: A Life by Jonathan Eig, Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo, No Right to an Honest Living by Jacqueline Jones, and Liliana’s Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera Garza also win prizes. Eduardo Halfon is awarded the Berman Literature Prize for his novel Canción. Oprah picks Colm Toíbín’s Long Island for her book club, and Reese Witherspoon selects Yulin Kuang’s How To End a Love Story. Plus, Simon & Schuster acquires Dutch publisher VBK.
This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, Kaliane Bradley, Mary Kay Andrews, Colm Toibin, and Jayne Castle. Nine LibraryReads and nine Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is How To Read a Book by Monica Wood. Alexis Wright wins the Stella Prize for Praiseworthy. Plus, the Pulitzer Prizes will be announced at 3 p.m. EST today.
Winners are announced for the Independent Book Publishers Association’s Benjamin Franklin Book Awards for books from indie presses. The Asian American Literature Festival will return in September, organized by a collective of literary groups, this time without the Smithsonian. NPR’s Fresh Air looks back today on past interviews with Paul Auster. Plus, Page to Screen and reviews of Kaliane Bradley’s buzzy The Ministry of Time.
Winners of the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards are announced, including best novel Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke. The winners of the League of Canadian Poets prizes are Hannah Green’s Xanax Cowboy, Sandra Ridley’s Vixen, and Bradley Peters’s Sonnets from a Cell. The finalists for the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing, the shortlist for the Leacock Medal for Canadian humor writing, and the shortlist for the Reading the West Book Awards are revealed. A record number of writers were jailed globally in 2023, according to a report by PEN America.
The Christian Book Award winners are announced, and Beth Moore’s memoir All My Knotted-Up Life is named Christian Book of the Year. The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction shortlist is announced. The May Read with Jenna pick is Real Americans by Rachel Khong. Audiofile announces the May 2024 Earphones Award winners. Former national security advisor H. R. McMaster will publish At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House in August. Remembrances pour in for Paul Auster, the internationally acclaimed author of “The New York Trilogy,” who has died at the age of 77.
Rachel Khong’s Real Americans, the May B&N Book Club selection, garners reviews and buzz. The Ondaatje Prize releases its 2024 shortlist. The Tomorrow Prize finalists and Green Feather winner are announced. T.J. Newman’s Worst Case Scenario arrives August 13, in a new two-book deal with Little, Brown. USA Today talks with librarian Mychal Threets. Gypsy Rose Blanchard announces a forthcoming memoir, Time To Stand, due out from BenBella Books in January 2025.
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Jeneva Rose, Danielle Steel, Rachel Khong, and Catherine Mack. Three LibraryReads and eight Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung. And crime writer CJ Sansom has died at the age of 71.
The winners of the Windham-Campbell Prize are announced. Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad wins the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Sid Marty wins the inaugural Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize for his collection Oldman’s River: New and Collected Poems. The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association has announced the ballot for the 2024 Aurora Awards. The Booker Prize is urged to consider a name change over its link to slavery.
The longlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year is revealed. Oakland, CA, poet laureate Ayodele Nzinga receives a Rainin Arts Fellowship. Abrams ComicArts is launching a new adult-geared manga imprint, Kana. Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti will rerelease their BookTok-beloved self-published “Zodiac Academy” romantasy series under their new publishing company Dark Ink. Plus interviews with Robinne Lee and Salman Rushdie and new title best sellers.
PEN America announces two award winners: Javier Fuentes’s Countries of Origin for debut novel and The Blue House: Collected Works of Tomas Tranströmer, tr. by Patty Crane, for poetry in translation. The Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist is announced, featuring books by Anne Enright, V.V. Ganeshananthan, Kate Grenville, Isabella Hammad, Claire Kilroy, and Aube Rey. NYPL’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers selects its class of 2024–25 fellows. A climate fiction prize will launch at Hay Festival on June 2. The U.S. Senate passes the TikTok bill, setting up legal and First Amendment challenges. Plus, LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Funny Story by Emily Henry, the top holds title of the week.
PEN America cancels its 2024 literary awards ceremony, originally set for April 29, due to controversy over its stance on the war in Gaza. The LA Times Book Prizes are announced. Yoko Ono is honored with the MacDowell Medal. The 2024 Age Book of the Year Award shortlists are announced. Actor Josh Brolin announces a new memoir, From Under the Truck, which arrives in November. Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, and Ben Kingsley will star in the film adaptation of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club. Plus, Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom will be adapted for film.
Funny Story by Emily Henry leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Sally Hepworth, Elly Griffiths, Douglas Preston, and Nancy Thayer. People’s book of the week is Real Americans by Rachel Khong. Winners of the O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction are announced, as are the CWA Dagger longlists. Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians is headed to Broadway as a musical. And philosopher Daniel C. Dennett has died at the age of 82.
Fady Joudah, author of the collection […], wins the Jackson Poetry Prize for American poets. Winners of the Tolkien Society Awards are announced. Finalists are also announced for NYPL’s Young Lions Fiction Award and the Jhalak Awards. Nominees for the CrimeFest Awards are out. Actor Viola Davis and her husband are launching a publishing company to champion underrepresented voices. Facing criticism for its response to the war in Gaza, PEN announces plans to review the organization’s work going back a decade.
Winners are announced for the Publishing Triangle Awards for LGBTQIA+ books. Of Cattle and Men by Ana Paula Maia, tr. by Zoë Perry, wins the UK Republic of Consciousness Prize for small press books. The shortlist for the Donner Prize, recognizing the best public policy book by a Canadian, is announced. There’s more reporting on the turmoil surrounding the PEN Awards. Plus new title bestsellers and interviews with Marjane Satrapi and Emily Henry.
Rebecca Yarros will publish a stand-alone novel, Variation, in October. Kemi Ashing-Giwa wins the Compton Crook Award for The Splinter in the Sky. Oren Kessler wins the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize shortlist is announced. The May LibraryReads list arrives, featuring top pick The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci. Mick Herron’s Down Cemetery Road and Don Winslow’s City on Fire are slated for adaptations.
A new PEN America report out today, Banned In The USA: Narrating the Crisis, documents nearly 4,000 accounts of book banning in the first half of the current school year. Major publishers have joined Penguin Random House in supporting a suit challenging Iowa’s book ban. Finalists are announced for the Gotham Book Prize, the Nova Scotia Book Awards, and the Atlantic Book Awards. Washington Post reports on the growing popularity of silent book clubs. Author Robin Cook has two new film/TV projects, including an adaptation of his forthcoming book Bellevue and a procedural featuring his iconic characters Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery.
A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by James Patterson and Candice Fox, Anthony Horowitz, Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke, and Sara Paretsky. People’s book of the week is My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me by Caleb Carr. Salman Rushdie speaks about the attack that almost took his life and writing his new book, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. As Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance turns 50 this year, fans will re-create his famous motorcycle ride. Plus, NYT celebrates 100 years of Simon & Schuster.
The winners of the Oregon Book Award are announced, as are the shortlists for the Tolkien Society Awards for excellence in Tolkien scholarship and fandom. PBS News Hour reports on the librarians fighting attempts to ban books. Plus Page to Screen.
The winners of the Whiting Award for emerging authors are announced. Also announced are the shortlists for the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards for British food writing and the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Romantic Novel of the Year Awards, the longlists for the League of Canadian Poets Prizes, and the nominees for the Doug Wright Awards for best Canadian comics.
The International Booker Prize shortlist and PEN America Literary Awards longlists are announced. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump will write a series of crime novels. How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin and Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra go head-to-head for a chance to be named the new Fallon Book Club pick. Earlyword’s April GalleyChat roundup arrives. Ina Garten previews her forthcoming memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens. Renée Zellweger will return as Bridget Jones in a new adaptation, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, based on the novels by Helen Fielding.
The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction shortlist and the Plutarch Award longlist are announced. Heinz Janisch and Sydney Smith win Hans Christian Andersen Awards. NYPL announces 21 winners of its national teen writing contest on the freedom to read. Interviews arrive with Doris Kearns Goodwin, Percival Everett, Lauren Wesley Wilson, and Anne Lamott. Dolores Redondo’s “Baztan” novel series will be adapted for television. And Raymond Pun is elected to the ALA presidency for 2025–2026.
It’s National Library Week, and ALA releases a list of the top 10 most challenged books of 2023, along with the “State of America’s Libraries Report 2024.” The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo leads holds this week. Also buzzing are books by John Sandford, Megan Miranda, Yulin Kuang, and Amanda Montell. People’s book of the week is Table for Two: Fictions by Amor Towles. James Patterson, The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading, and librarian Mychal Threets discuss book bans, bookstores, and libraries with USA Today. The Ondaatje Prize releases its 2024 longlist.
The winners of the British Science Fiction Association Awards and the Sheikh Zayed Book Awards are announced. The shortlist is announced for the Stella Prize. Horror novel sales have boomed recently. BookTok-favorite romance novelist T L Swan launches a publishing venture. Plus a report from PLA.
Reese’s Book Club selects Claire Lombardo’s The Most Fun We Ever Had as its next read. Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah is the 2024 pick for the One eRead Canada book club. This year’s Independent Bookstore Day will be held on April 27. Fantasy novelist Sharon Green has died at age 79.
Claire Jiménez wins the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez. The Windham-Campbell Prizes are announced. Remembrances arrive for writer John Barth, who has died at age 93. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy will publish a two-part memoir this fall, and Joan Baez will publish her first book of poetry later this month. LitHub reports on the fallout from the collapse of Small Press Publishing. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez.
Bethany Jacobs wins the Philip K. Dick Award for These Burning Stars. The Chesley Award winners are announced, as are Audiofile’s April 2024 Earphones Award winners. April book club picks include The Husbands by Holly Gramazio (Read with Jenna), Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez (GMA), and I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger (B&N). Don Winslow discusses his new novel, City in Ruins, and why it will be his final book. TV adaptations are on the way for Alexandra Tanner’s Worry, and Liza Palmer’s Family Reservations.
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Amor Towles, Mary Kubica, Brandon Sanderson, and Sarah Adams. Seven LibraryReads and nine Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan. The Hugo, Astounding, and Lodestar Awards finalists are announced. Plus, Washington Post explores how new mysteries featuring autistic women challenge old stereotypes.
The Publishing Triangle announces the finalists for its annual awards. Sabrin Hasbun’s forthcoming memoir Wait for Her: A Family Memoir Between Italy and Palestine wins the Footnote x Counterpoints Writing Prize for writers from refugee and migrant backgrounds. Librarian and LJ reviewer Marlene Harris and LibraryReads win RUSA’s CODES Louis Shores Awards. EarlyWord publishes a round-up of the March 7 GalleyChat. Plus, Page to Screen.
The finalists for the Lambda Literary Awards and the shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction are announced. Fantasy novelist James A. Moore has died at age 58, and Kate Banks, a children’s author who wrote about grief, has died at 64.
The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winners are announced, including books by Ned Blackhawk, Teju Cole, and Monica Youn, plus a lifetime achievement award for Maxine Hong Kingston. Paul Yoon wins the Story Prize for The Hive and the Honey. Shortlists for the Dublin Literary Award, James Tait Black Prizes, Australian Book Industry Awards, and Dinesh Allirajah Prize are announced. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The Truth About the Devlins by Lisa Scottoline. Cynthia Erivo will narrate the audiobook of Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Anguish and Anarchy. Hoopla launches a new BingePass featuring TV content from UK gardening icon Monty Don.
The Dylan Thomas Prize shortlist and the SERAPH winners are announced. Jimmy Fallon announces the return of his book club, with bracket-style voting. Apple TV+’s The Last Thing He Told Me will get a second season, based on a forthcoming sequel novel by Laura Dave, due out in 2025. Cillian Murphy will star in a film adaptation of Mark A Bradley’s Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America. And sci-fi author Vernor Vinge has died at the age of 79.
The Truth About the Devlins by Lisa Scottoline leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Kristen Perrin, Jonathan Haid, Heather Gudenkauf, and Dervla McTiernan. Six LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week. Svetlana Sterlin wins the Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest Award. At NYT, Margaret Atwood explains the enduring appeal of Stephen King’s Carrie as it turns 50. And Babar heir and author Laurent de Brunhoff has died at the age of 98.
The National Book Critics Circle Award winners are announced. Daniel Finkelstein wins the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize for Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad: A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival. Chris Newens’s Moveable Feasts: Paris in Twenty Meals wins the Jane Grigson Trust Award for New Food and Drink Writers. Dreamscape’s audiobook program expands its ambit. Plus, Page to Screen.
The Horror Writers Association announces its Summer Scares reading list, including Jackal by Erin E. Adams, Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison, and This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno. Ebru Ojen’s Lojman wins the Republic of Consciousness Prize for independent-press books. Ajibola Tolase wins the Cave Canem Prize fellowship for Black poets. The shortlist for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the longlist for the Griffin Poetry Prize are announced. Primatologist and best-selling author Frans de Waal has died at 75.
The National Book Foundation announces its 2024 5 Under 35 Honorees: Antonia Angress, Maya Binyam, Zain Khalid, Tyriek White, and Jenny Tinghui Zhang. Jonathan Eig wins the New-York Historical Society’s Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize for King: A Life. Tom Crewe, The New Life, wins the Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle. Mary L. Trump will publish Who Could Ever Love You: A Family Memoir. Karin Slaughter will adapt and executive-produce The Good Daughter for a Peacock series starring Jessica Biel.
The J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Award winners are announced, with Ned Blackhawk’s The Rediscovery of America winning the Mark Lynton History Prize and Dashka Slater’s Accountable winning the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the first young adult book to achieve the honor. Finalists for the ITW Thriller Awards, the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and the Publishing Triangle Awards are announced. ALA president Emily Drabinski will receive the Torchbearer Award. Interviews arrive with Percival Everett, Natasha S. Alford, Rahiel Tesfamariam, Zibby Owens, Holly Black, and Téa Obreht. LJ’s Galley Guide for PLA 2024 is available now.
People’s book of the week, Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle, leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by James Patterson and Nancy Allen, Percival Everett, Chris Bohjalian, and Steve Cavanagh. The 2024 Future Worlds Prize shortlist is announced. The April LibraryReads list arrives, featuring top pick The Husbands by Holly Gramazio. People highlights Dua Lipa’s book club. Christine Blasey Ford discusses her new memoir, One Way Back. Plus, author Jo Nesbø will adapt his Harry Hole series for Netflix.
Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting is named the Nero Gold Prize Book of the Year. The shortlist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, the longlist for Jhalak Prize for British writers of color, and the longlist for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction are announced. PEN International is among signatories of a joint statement on freedom of expression and the freedoms to read and publish. Zando has launched a romance imprint called Slowburn. Dan Wakefield, “multifaceted writer on a spiritual journey,” has died at 91.
The winners of the Writers’ Prize are announced: Book of the Year The Home Child by Liz Berry, The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright, and Thunderclap: A Memoir of Life and Art and Sudden Death by Laura Cumming. Elizabeth McCracken wins the Wingate Literary Prize for The Hero of this Book. The finalists are announced for the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards for small-press books. Tanith Lee is the recipient of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association’s Infinity Award, a posthumous lifetime achievement award. The Atlantic launches “The Great American Novels” project. Book ban efforts continued to surge last year, reaching the highest levels ever recorded by the American Library Association.
The Inaugural Libby Award winners are announced, as are the Edgar Award finalists. The 2024 Tournament of Books opening round is underway. The 2024 LA Times Festival of Books kicks off on April 20. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Still See You Everywhere by Lisa Gardner. Tennis star Björn Borg will publish a memoir in 2025. Plus, interviews arrive with Debbie Urbanski, Zefyr Lisowski, Cameron Russell, Emmeline Clein, Mark Kurlansky, Roxane Gay, Tommy Orange, and Tamron Hall.
The literary NAACP Image Awards are announced, ahead of the televised awards show on March 16. The International Booker Prize 2024 longlist is announced. Kylie Needham wins the 2024 MUD Literary Prize. Al Pacino will release his memoir, Sonny Boy, in October. Zando launches the new romance imprint Slowburn. ALA Cancels LibLearnX 2026. Author and actor Malachy McCourt dies at 92.
Still See You Everywhere by Lisa Gardner leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are new titles by Lynn Painter, Scarlett St. Clair, Deanna Raybourn, and Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles. Kai Bird, author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, wins the 2024 BIO Award. Oppenheimer and Poor Things, both based on books, win big at the Academy Awards. People’s book of the week is Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman. The April Indie Next List is out, featuring #1 pick James by Percival Everett.
Catherine Leroux’s The Future is selected as the 2024 Canada Reads book. Kathryn Scanlan wins the Gordon Burn Prize for Kick the Latch. Shortlists are announced for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the British Book Awards 2024 Book of the Year, and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. The longlist is announced for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Akira Toriyama, creator of manga including the “Dragon Ball” series, dies at 68.
Reese’s Book Club picks Xochitl Gonzalez’s Anita de Monte Laughs Last as its next read. The winners of the Bancroft Prize for history books are announced: Elliott West’s Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion and Carolyn Woods Eisenberg’s Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger and the Wars in Southeast Asia. Julian Jackson wins the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize for France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain. Baen Books has announced the finalists for the 2024 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award.
The Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist is announced. Tom Doherty, founder of Tor Books, wins the Robert A. Heinlein Award. Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera is the new GMA book club pick. Liza Mundy’s The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA will get a series adaptation. A Gentleman in Moscow, based on the novel by Amor Towles, gets a trailer. Plus, Haruki Murakami’s first book in six years, The City and Its Uncertain Walls, will arrive in November.
The Audie Award winners are announced, with Surrender, written and narrated by Bono, winning Audiobook of the Year. The Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses announces its 2024 shortlist. RuPaul starts a new online book marketplace and book club and sends the Rainbow Book Bus to deliver banned books. A new publisher, Authors Equity, backed by former Penguin Random House U.S. CEO Madeline McIntosh and others, launches with a profit-sharing financial model. Plus, Chicago Tribune calls Percival Everett’s new book, James, “a masterpiece.”
The Hunter by Tana French leads holds this week. Also getting attention are titles by Lisa Unger, Elle Cosimano, Danielle Steel, and Holly Black. Jenna Bush Hager picks two books for her March book club: The Great Divide by Cristina Henriquez and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. The Stella Prize longlist is announced. Nine LibraryReads and 11 Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris is being adapted for film.
Shortlists are announced for the J. Anthony Lukas Prizes, which honor the best in American nonfiction writing. Lucinda Riley has been posthumously awarded publisher Pan’s Golden Pan award. Lily Tuzroyluke, author of the novel Sivulliq: Ancestor, is USA Today’s Woman of the Year honoree from Alaska. The UK is seeing new interest in book clubs from Gen Z readers. Hachette’s parent company outlines plans to cut costs in the publishing division. Plus page to screen.
The third edition of Lee & Low Books’ quadrennial “Diversity Baseline Survey” found that the publishing industry has made incremental progress in broadening its workforce. AudioFile shares the best audiobooks of February. British poet and novelist Alan Brownjohn has died at age 92. Plus new title best sellers.
The New York Public Library has announced finalists for the 37th annual Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism. The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association names F.J. Bergmann the 2024 Grand Master. The Barry Award nominations are announced. Savannah Guthrie speaks out as her new book, Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere, is targeted in online workbook scam. Anna Quindlen’s After Annie is the new B&N book club pick for March. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Three-Inch Teeth by C.J. Box. Atria launches Primero Sueño, a new bilingual imprint. Plus, Merriam-Webster gives the OK to end a sentence with a preposition.
Oprah’s next book club selection is The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing by Lara Love Hardin. Debra Magpie Earling wins the Montana Book Award for The Lost Journals of Sacajewea. CBC previews this year’s Canada Reads, which kicks off March 4. NYT calls Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars “a towering achievement.” Kara Swisher’s Burn Book: A Tech Love Story gets buzz. An uncorrected proof copy of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sells for £11,000 at auction.
C.J. Box’s latest Joe Picket book, Three-Inch Teeth, tops holds this week. Three LibraryReads and seven Indie Next picks publish this week, including People's book of the week, After Annie by Anna Quindlen. The 2023 Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer Award shortlist is out, and the 2024 Prix Bob Morane finalists are announced. Oppenheimer, based on American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Martin Sherwin and Kai Bird, continues its awards streak, winning the Darryl F. Zanuck Award.
The final ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards is announced. The winners of England’s PEN Translates Awards, for books in translation, are announced. Interviews arrive with Jared Cohen, John Keene, Sigrid Nunez, and Maurice Carlos Ruffin. Plus Page to Screen.
The finalists for the inaugural Libby Book Awards (sponsored by the library app) are announced; the winners will be voted on by library workers. The longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is announced. U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón is among Time’s 2024 Women of the Year. CBC reports that calls to ban books are on the rise in Canada.
Finalists for the 44th Los Angeles Times Book Prizes are announced; Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jane Smiley will receive the Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Achievement, and Claire Dederer will receive the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose for Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma. In September, Richard Osman will publish We Solve Murders, the first novel in a new crime series. Actress Jenny Slate’s new essay collection, Life Form, arrives in October, and Tony Award–winning actress Kelly Bishop will publish a memoir, The Third Gilmore Girl, in September. Plus, LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for End of Story by A.J. Finn.
End of Story by A.J. Finn leads holds this week. Washington Post reviews and charts the twisty circumstances preceding its publication. Also getting significant holds are titles by Mark Greaney, B.A. Paris, Steve Berry, and Charles Duhigg. Two LibraryReads and five Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison. The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction announces its longlist. Savannah Guthrie talks about her new book, Mostly What God Does, and Gisele Bündchen will publish a cookbook in March. Plus, The Atlantic will unveil a major initiative that “attempts to establish a new American literary canon,” at this year’s New Orleans Book Festival.
The winners of the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books and the Southern Book Prize are announced. Margaret Atwood wins the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Writer in the World Prize. CBC explores how social media is influencing the romance genre. Bloomsbury is reporting revenue that exceeds expectations, driven by fantasy novels. Leaked emails reveal 2023 Hugo Awards ineligibility details. Plus new title best sellers.
Shortlists for the Lionel Gelber Prize and the International Prize for Arabic Fiction are announced. Sally Kim is named president and publisher of Little, Brown. The Writing Freedom Fellowship announces inaugural fellows. Earlyword’s February GalleyChat roundup is out now. The February Loanstars list is out, featuring top pick The Women by Kristin Hannah. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Tessa Bailey’s Fangirl Down. Lucy Sante’s new memoir gets buzz and reviews. Booklists arrive for Valentine’s Day.
The Compton Crook Award finalists are named. Ellen Kushner & Delia Sherman win the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (a.k.a. the Skylark Award). Publishers Weekly reports from Winter Institute 2024. What Have We Here?: Portraits of a Life by Billy Dee Williams gathers buzz. Kelly Link discusses her new novel, The Book of Love. Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything is being adapted as an animated TV series.
Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by James Patterson and James O. Born, Susan Mallery, Kate Quinn and Janie Chang, and Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Nine LibraryReads and five Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is The Book of Love by Kelly Link, which NYT calls “profoundly beautiful.” Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians, based on the books by Rick Riordan, will return for a second season.
Susan Cooper wins the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America’s Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. EmpathyLab has unveiled its 2024 Read for Empathy book collection. Spotify is introducing more listeners to audiobooks. Purpose-Led Publishing is a new coalition of nonprofit physics-society publishers in the U.S. and the UK that will put all of its revenues back into research. Arcadia Publishing acquires Belt Publishing.
The Society of Authors Translation Prize winners and the UK’s Parliamentary Book Award winners are announced. The longlist is announced for the Plutarch Award for biographies. Novelist and Royal Society of Literature president Bernardine Evaristo defends the organization against recent criticism of its modernization efforts. Plus new title best sellers.
The PEN/Faulkner Award longlist arrives and includes novels by James McBride, Alice McDermott, and Jamel Brinkley. WNBA player Brittney Griner’s memoir, Coming Home, will be published May 7 by Knopf. Author Saul Bellow is honored with a postal stamp. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The Women by Kristin Hannah. Memoirs by filmmaker Ed Zwick and HGTV star Tarek El Moussa get buzz. B&N offers up a list of song-to-book pairings for Taylor Swift’s Midnights.
Soho Press launches a new horror imprint, Hell’s Hundred. Emma Heming Willis, wife of actor Bruce Willis, will publish a caregiving book in 2025. A new posthumous picture book from Maurice Sendak is published. Sabrina McCarthy is named president of Bloomsbury US. Interviews arrive with Roger Rapoport, Lisa Olstein, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Sheila Heti, Michele Norris, and Kaveh Akbar. USA Today features Pulitzer Prize winner Connie Schultz’s new picture book with cross-generational appeal, Lola and the Troll. And CBC Radio’s Unreserved reflects on 10 years of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass.
Kristin Hannah’s The Women leads holds this week and is also People’s book of the week. Other buzzy books include titles by Ali Hazelwood, Freida McFadden, and Jonathan Kellerman. Michelle Obama wins the Grammy for best spoken word album, for the narration of her book, The Light We Carry, and J. Ivy’s The Light Inside wins for best spoken word poetry album. Audiofile announces the February 2024 Earphones Award winners. The March Indie Next preview is out, featuring #1 pick Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. B&N’s book club selects Dolly Alderton’s Good Material for February, and GMA picks Kiley Reid’s Come and Get It.
Hachette’s parent company, Vivendi, will put the publisher on the stock market. Tieshena Davis is elected board chair of the Independent Book Publishers Association; she will be the first person of color to lead the board. In Germany, a nationwide reading competition offers evidence that parents will read more if their children ask to read together. European publishers call on EU committee to approve AI act. National Book Foundation Announces its spring events. Lawrence Langer, “Unblinking Scholar of Holocaust Literature,” dies at 94.
The shortlists are announced for the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing and the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize. The longlist for the Republic of Consciousness Prize is released. The owner of the Hugo Awards trademark has censured the administrators of the 2023 Chengdu Hugos and announced several resignations. Anne Edwards, the “Queen of Biography,” has died at 96. Horror writer Brian Lumley has died at 86. Plus new title best sellers.
Finalists for the 2024 Audie Awards are announced. Good Material by Dolly Alderton is February’s Read with Jenna pick. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas. Interviews arrive with Kiley Reid, Dolly Alderton, Emily Nagoski, Sarah Ditum, Alexander Sammartino, and Amina Akhtar. Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places will be adapted as a limited series at HBO. And remembrances pour in for Broadway legend and author Chita Rivera, who died at the age of 91.
Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting and Fern Brady’s Strong Female Character win inaugural Nero Book Awards. James McBride wins Association of Jewish Libraries Jewish Fiction Award for The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. The International Dylan Thomas Prize longlist is announced. NYT explores Spotify’s foray into the audiobook market. RBMedia acquires Berrett-Koehler’s audiobook publishing business. Pulitzer-winning Indigenous novelist N. Scott Momaday has died at the age of 89.
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