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NYT chooses the best book covers of 2024, CrimeReads selects the year’s best espionage fiction, and CBC names the year’s best Canadian nonfiction. The Bookseller analyzes over 900 titles named in the media’s best books lists this year and finds that Percival Everett’s James features most prominently. The longlists for the Porchlight Business Book Awards are revealed. Sourcebooks launches an in-house audiobook program. Plus Page to Screen and interviews with Kristin Hannah, the Colberts, and Patrick Radden Keefe.

Winter wanders in with a new resonance, ushering before it shorter days, celebrations, and moments of reflection. This issue of Audio in Depth, both in print and online, matches those moods with listens full of comfort and joy.

Audio horror, fantasy, mystery, social sciences, and more. This winter’s audiobook stars offer auditory delights across a wide range of subjects and genres.

Chilling listens for every taste, from crime fiction laced with folkloric and cosmic terrors to epic postapocalyptic gore.

Deliciously swoony stories and second-chance love, exquisitely rendered in audio. 

Exhilarating listens, from classic high fantasy to thrilling tales of intrigue in extraterrestrial settings.

Captivating mystery audios, showcasing octogenarian amateur detectives, intricate psychological thrillers, and a pulse-pounding installment in a beloved series.

Joseph Earl Thomas’s God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer wins the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Poets & Writers shares its 20th annual look at debut poets. Tessa Hull’s Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir and Leela Corman’s Victory Parade top Publishers Weekly’s 2024 Graphic Novel Critics Poll. CrimeReads selects the best horror novels of 2024. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Bryce Stevenson and S.E. Hinton.

Philanthropic foundation Carnegie Corporation of New York on December 9 announced a new $5 million pool of grant funding available for public libraries nationwide. The new initiative—Libraries as Pillars of Education and Democracy—“will help public libraries deliver critical services that promote socioeconomic mobility, civic participation, and social belonging,” according to an announcement. The $5 million will be awarded to 10 to 15 library systems in regions serving 500,000 people or more, with each system receiving up to $500,000 in funding over 24 months.

Four iconic writers of Golden Age crime fiction—Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham—help DCI Lilian Wyles, the first woman detective chief inspector in the CID, solve a case. 

Parmy Olson’s Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race That Will Change the World is named Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year. Yan F Zhang’s short story “Fleeting Marrow” wins the 4thWrite Prize. The 2024 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant recipients are announced. Best-of-2024 lists arrive from NPR’s Maureen Corrigan, Time, Reactor, CBC, Seattle Times, BookRiot, and CrimeReads. LitHub shares the best-reviewed books of the year. Phaidon Press appoints Bob Miller as new CEO. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title What the Wife Knew by Darby Kane. Sarah J. Maas teases a new ACOTAR book, along with new audiobook recordings for spring. Plus, Clare Mulley’s The Woman Who Saved the Children will be adapted for film.

Deck the shelves with novels set during Christmas and Hanukkah!

What the Wife Knew by Darby Kane is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.

O’Brien’s fiction debut is a highly intriguing vision of the near future that examines the role of memory in a functional aspect, which also underscores the utility of forgetting: “Funes the Memorious” by Jorge Luis Borges meets Total Recall by Philip K. Dick, with a wry narration that balances the grim reality.

This month features a lesbian vampire tale from bestselling V.E. Schwab, a historical portal fantasy from LJ Best Book author H.G. Parry, and two fairy-tale retellings.

Rival thieves, court intrigue, and monsters appear amid the romance in these anticipated romantasy reads.

A central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, the members of ABBA, and the outlaw Belle Starr are among the subjects of this month's key life stories.

New LGBTQIA+ fiction from Joanna Lowell, Mae Marvel, Chip Pons, and Jodie Slaughter to help celebrate Pride Month, along with great beach reads from Josie Silver and Alicia Thompson.

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers makes her nonfiction debut, Sara Kehaulani Goo describes her family’s journey to keep their ancestral Hawaiian lands, and Brando Simeo Starkey writes a history of the Supreme Court’s role in sustaining white supremacy.

Poet Nikki Giovanni, a star of the Black Arts Movement, has died at the age of 81. Ariel Lawhon wins the Nero award for The Frozen River. Best-of-2024 lists arrive from CrimeReads, LA Times, and Slate, while The Atlantic’s “Books Briefing” writes in defense of best-of-the-year lists. The Booker Prize judges are announced, including Sarah Jessica Parker and Roddy Doyle. The Goodreads account of the suspect in the United Healthcare CEO shooting is under scrutiny for a review of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski's manifesto. The Golden Globes nominations features several adaptations. Actor Jeremy Renner is finishing up a memoir about his snow-plow accident and recovery. New Jersey becomes the latest state to prohibit bans on books in school and public libraries.

What the Wife Knew by Darby Kane leads holds this week. January’s Indie Next Preview is out, featuring #1 pick Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix. Best of 2024 lists arrive from People, Time, ElectricLit, and Vox. USA Today covers librarians’ efforts to stand up for freedom to read in a number of states, while librarian and author Amanda Jones files a new defamation suit. Caleb Azumah Nelson will adapt his novel Open Water for television. Plus, “romantasy” loses out to “brat” as Collins Dictionary’s word of the year.

Award-winning Susan Choi and Joyce Carol Oates offer new novels, and Ho-Yeon Kim's international bestseller is released in the U.S. 

Winners of the Goodreads Choice Awards and shortlists for the Nero Book Awards are revealed. NYT releases its selections for the year’s best graphic novels and SFF. CrimeReads shares its picks for the best psychological thrillers of 2024. The Internet Archive has decided not to appeal its copyright case to the Supreme Court. Plus, Page to Screen and an interview with Jacqueline Woodson.

Taylor Jenkins Reid returns with a 1980s-set love story amid NASA’s Space Shuttle program, while YA author Renée Ahdieh makes her adult debut with a novel about young lawyer Jia Song and the wealthy Park family.