Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.

Big Books of the Week

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Farrar) leads holds this week. NYT has an interview with Rooney and calls the novel “a mature, sophisticated weeper.” Slate, The Atlantic, and Vox consider the Rooneyverse. Plus, The Guardian asks: “Is there a better novelist at work right now?”

Other titles in demand include:

Counting Miracles by Nicholas Sparks (Random)

The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon (Thesis)

Pucking Sweet by Emily Rath (Kensington)

Playground by Richard Powers (Norton)

Bad Liar by Tami Hoag (Dutton)

These books and others publishing the week of September 23, 2024, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Banned Books Week

It’s Banned Books Week. Publishing Perspectives and Shelf Awareness have coverage.

A new report from PEN America finds that the number of books banned in public schools tripled during the 2023–24 school year.

Penguin Random House has launched an expanded Banned Wagon Tour. LJ has details.

NYT reports that state and local laws are fueling a new surge in censorship. 

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Two LibraryReads and five Indie Next picks publish this week:

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner (Ace)

“Small-town librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle doesn't find it strange that she is always on hand to solve local murders. But when a loved one is targeted, she realizes that a demon may be possessing the town. This cozy paranormal mystery is full of likable, quirky characters.”—Kristin Skinner, Flat River Community Library, MI

Playground by Richard Powers (Norton) *Good for Book Clubs

“Residents of the island of Makatea must decide on a seasteading proposal that would forever change their way of life in this epic tale of activism, ambition, relationships, and the wonders of the oceans. For readers who love National Geographic documentaries, happily look for life on every watery horizon, and enjoy a variety of well-developed characters.”—Kimberly McGee, Lake Travis Community Library, TX

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“Powers raises his poetic prose to the heavens in Playground. A thematic triad of intense but flawed relationships, a powerful environmental message, and fantastical technological advancement results in nothing less than a masterpiece.”—Kay Wosewick, Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, WI

Four additional Indie Next picks publish this week:

The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi by Wright Thompson (Penguin Pr.)

“Thompson’s research not only reveals the depth of depravity and barbarity of Emmett Till’s murderers, but illuminates the commitment to collective forgetting by the white townspeople. This book is a necessary admonition and critical to the historical record.”—Destinee Hodge, East City Bookshop, Washington, DC

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Farrar)

“Rooney’s dazzling masterpiece explores the hidden depths of our relationships to one another. Peter and Ivan grieve the recent loss of their father. Never close, they struggle to avoid estrangement while navigating their very different lives.”—Cody Morrison, Square Books, Oxford, MS

Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio (Flatiron)

“Graveyard Shift is an ode to insomniacs—to the students squirreled away in their corners writing and studying, to the faculty and staff with their own troubles, and to the truly sleepless watching the sun set and rise again. Fun and creepy.”—Maxwell Leaning, Paragraphs Bookstore, Mount Vernon, OH

The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk, tr. by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Riverhead)

“The Empusium is a sardonic tale that holds nothing back, taking institutional misogyny to task in a world on the brink of World War I. Tokarczuk brings all her brilliance and creates a poignant narrative that’s eerily reminiscent of modern day.”—Dominic Smith, Underbrush Books, Rogers, AR

In the Media

People’s book of the week is Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Farrar). Also getting attention are A Little Less Broken: How an Autism Diagnosis Finally Made Me Whole by Marian Schembari (Flatiron) and The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel (Berkley). A “New in Nonfiction” section highlights We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People by Nemonte Nenquimo & Mitch Anderson (Abrams), Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II by Elyse Graham (Ecco), and We’re Alone: Essays by Edwidge Danticat (Graywolf). 

The cover feature highlights Ina Garten’s forthcoming memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens (Crown). There is also a feature on James Middleton and his new memoir, Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life (Pegasus). Plus, guest editors Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert share recipes from their new cookbook, Does This Taste Funny?: Recipes Our Family Loves (Celadon).

Reviews

NYT reviews Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church by Hahrie Han (Knopf): “Undivided offers a refreshingly complex portrait of an institution and its members on the rocky path to change”; and A Reason To See You Again by Jami Attenberg (Ecco): “From her, I’d take 10 more chapters of unhappily ever after.”

Washington Post reviews Becoming Elizabeth Arden: The Woman Behind the Global Beauty Empire by Stacy A. Cordery (Viking): “Deprived of primary documentation that would have given her access to her subject’s inner life, Cordery has constructed a narrative that reads more like a colorful corporate history than a biography”; The Greatest of All Plagues: How Economic Inequality Shaped Political Thought from Plato to Marx by David Lay Williams (Princeton Univ.): “Williams’s book is a welcome reminder that exploring the history of philosophy can also be an inquiry into the present world”; The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World by Ben Macintyre (Crown): “It contains the faint but ineradicable trace of an event whose significance persists for both him and the world, even as its particulars have faded. Macintyre’s superb reconstruction restores it to vivid, complex life”; The Highest Calling: Conversations on the American Presidency by David M. Rubenstein (S. & S.): “In the end, the book both benefits from and is limited by Rubenstein’s unparalleled connections to history-makers, whether the chroniclers or the doers themselves”; Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac (Penguin Pr.): “Perpetually thin-skinned and often incapable of empathy, the version of Musk that sulks through the majority of Character Limit offers a telling lesson in the cost of getting everything you want”; and An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson (Ace: Berkeley): “This is an extremely marketable book, sure to inspire mood boards and playlists among its devotees. But if you’re looking for an effective, purposeful story and sensible character development, look elsewhere.”

NPR’s Fresh Air reviews Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday): “And even though this novel makes fun of the classic murder mystery—with its baroque plots and too-neat solutions—Atkinson understands its delights.”

Briefly Noted

October’s LibraryReads list is out, featuring top pick Exposure by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime). 

The Wolfson History Prize shortlist is announced, The Bookseller reports. Publishing Perspectives also has details.

CrimeReads suggests 10 new books for the week. 

Washington Post highlights five mysteries for the season. 

Vogue highlights a new book from interior designer Ben Pentreath, An English Vision: Traditional Architecture and Decoration for Today (Rizzoli). 

NYT profiles book publisher Assouline, which caters to the luxury market. 

LitHub provides a flowchart to answer the question “Which Big Fall Book Should You Read?”

Entertainment Weekly shares details from Eric Roberts’s new memoir, Runaway Train: or, The Story of My Life So Far, written with Sam Kashner (St. Martin’s). 

Josh Gad previews his forthcoming memoir, In Gad We Trust: A Tell-Some (Gallery), at USA Today. 

Authors on Air

NYT Book Review podcast looks ahead to fall’s biggest books.

Nicholas Sparks, Counting Miracles (Random), will be on GMA today.

Law Roach, How To Build a Fashion Icon: Notes on Confidence from the World’s Only Image Architect (Abrams Image), visits CBS Mornings.

Leanne Morgan, What in the World?!: A Southern Woman’s Guide to Laughing at Life's Unexpected Curveballs and Beautiful Blessings (Convergent), will appear on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.