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Awards & Book News

Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars (Knopf) wins the Aspen Words Literary Prize.

Denene Millner’s One Blood (Forge; an LJ Best Book) wins Georgia’s top literary award, the Townsend Prize; Georgia Public Radio has the news.

A coalition of literary advocates are opposing Florida House Bill 1539, which would require schools to remove any book deemed harmful to minors within five days of a challenge, Publishers Weekly reports.

People explores how a Department of Education shutdown could impact book bans.

Page to Screen

April 25

On Swift Horses, based on the novel by Shannon Pufahl. Sony Pictures Classics. Reviews | Trailer

April 30

The Rose of Versailles, based on the 1972 manga by Riyoko Ikeda. Netflix. Reviews | Trailer

May 1

Another Simple Favor, based on the novel A Simple Favor by Darcy Bell. Amazon MGM/Lionsgate. Reviews | Trailer

Reviews

Washington Post reviews Fear No Pharaoh: American Jews, the Civil War, and the Fight To End Slavery by Richard Kreitner (Farrar): “Things get murkier in the middle, and Kreitner does an outstanding job elucidating the social pressures and moral questions that his subjects faced.”

LA Times reviews Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson by Claire Hoffman (Farrar): “Hoffman has done a marvelous job of reading through Aimee’s voluminous, florid writings and creating a narrative that works for the modern ear.”

The Guardian reviews Paradise Logic by Sophie Kemp (S. & S.): “Kemp’s language is profane and outrageously camp, blending punk-infused chutzpah, feminist irony, meme-worthy disclosures and mic drops with sick, unsettling humour”; Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt (Knopf): “In both his poetry and prose, Hewitt seems to me to be working, with immense fidelity and skill, towards a singular vision, in which profound sincerity of feeling—and the treatment of sexual desire as something close to sacred—is matched with an almost reckless beauty of expression”; and Bad Friend: How Women Revolutionized Modern Friendship by Tiffany Watt Smith (Celadon): “With this book, Watt Smith provides us with a blueprint for how to sustain friendships that are flawed, and sometimes painful—but more meaningful because they are real.”

LitHub rounds up the best-reviewed books of the week.

Briefly Noted

In CrimeReads, Francesco Paola, author of Left on Rancho (SparkPress), talks about finding inspiration in the works of Dorothy B. Hughes.

The Guardian explains where to start with the works of Terry Pratchett.

NYT offers “7 New Books We Recommend This Week.”

Washington Post suggests 11 new paperbacks to read this month.

CrimeReads gathers the best psychological thrillers of April 2025.

Actor Richard E. Grant will narrate the audiobook of restaurateur Keith McNally’s memoir, I Regret Almost Nothing (Gallery), The Bookseller reports.

Lifestyle maven and Get Organized host Clea Shearer announces her new book, Cancer Is Complicated: And Other Unexpected Lessons I’ve Learned, due out from The Open Field on Sept. 23, People reports.

CrimeReads talks to the publishers of Stark House, the reissuer of vintage crime fiction that just celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Authors on Air

Apple TV+ greenlights a series adaptation of Philip Kerr’s “Berlin Noir” historical mystery novels, Deadline reports.

There’s a new episode of AudioFile’s Behind the Mic podcast, highlighting recent Earphones Award winners Syme’s Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence by Rachel Syme (Books on Tape), Show Don’t Tell: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld (Books on Tape), and The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry (S. & S. Audio).

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