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

Awards & Book News

One for Sorrow, Two for Joy by Marie-Claire Amuah (OneWorld) wins the adult division of the Diverse Book Awards, which celebrate “outstanding inclusive books by authors and publishers based in the U.K. and Ireland.”  The Bookseller and Shelf Awareness have coverage.

Winners are announced for Bookshop.org UK’s inaugural Indie Champions Awards.

Poets&Writers issues its “5 Over 50” list of the best debut poetry authors over the age of 50.

The shortlist is announced for the Ledbury Hellens Poetry Prize for Second Collections, The Bookseller reports.

The shortlist is also out for the Waterstones Book of the Year Award.

LitHub publishes an open letter to the 92nd Street Y in New York City about its decision to cancel a book event for Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of A Man of Two Faces (Grove), after he criticized Israel.

Page to Screen

November 3

The Marsh King’s Daughter, based on the novel by Karen Dionne. Lionsgate. Reviews | Trailer

Nyad, based on the autobiography Find a Way: The Inspiring Story of One Woman’s Pursuit of a Lifelong Dream by Diana Nyad. Netflix. Reviews | Trailer

Priscilla, based on the memoir Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N’ Roll by Priscilla Presley and Sandra Harmon. A24. Reviews | Trailer

Rumble Through the Dark, based on the novel The Fighter by Michael Farris Smith. Lionsgate. Reviews | Trailer

Reviews

Washington Post reviews The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA by Liza Mundy (Crown): “For some readers, the earlier history may be more compelling, if only because the hurdles to be surmounted were so high, and the tenacity of those who cleared them feels that much more inspiring”; and To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul by Tracy K. Smith (Knopf): “So luscious that it often reads less like a collection of essays than like a work of prose poetry.” NYT also reviews the latter: “Reads like both a travelogue of the journey toward that soul—largely an interior journey—and, with its descriptions of Smith’s spiritual practices, a rite to conjure that soul.”

NYT reviews Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir by Sly Stone (AUWA): “He’s actually at his least cagey talking about the drugs. He presents his experiences matter-of-factly, whether blowing off court dates, blowing up his bathroom in a freebasing accident, or forgetting his false teeth in a McDonald’s”; and the audiobook of The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop by Clover Hope (Audible Originals): “In between archival sound bites from the music itself and excerpts from old articles providing historical context, Hope speaks directly to the reader, often breaking the fourth wall with footnotes explaining why she made certain editorial choices.”

NPR reviews The Reformatory by Tananarive Due (Gallery/Saga; LJ starred review): “Yes, there is a lot of abuse here and the N-word is constantly used a weapon to insult and belittle Black folks, but ultimately the narrative deals with love and perseverance, and that makes it even more memorable.”

Briefly Noted

Ahmad Almallah, author of the poetry collection Border Wisdom (Winter Editions), takes LitHub’s “Annotated Nightstand” survey.

Washington Post talks to Nathan Thrall, author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy (Metropolitan: Holt; LJ starred review), about cancellations on his book tour in the wake of the Israel-Gaza war.

Curtis Chin, author of Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant: A Memoir (Little, Brown), speaks to Washington Post.

NYT talks to Jim Cullen, author of Bridge and Tunnel Boys: Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and the Metropolitan Sound of the American Century (Rutgers Univ.).

Dolly Alderton, author of Dear Dolly: Collected Wisdom (Harper Perennial), answers The Guardian’s “The Books of My Life” questionnaire.

LitHub interviews John Manuel Arias, author of Where There Was Fire (Flatiron), on decolonial storytelling and the multi-generational family novel.

Washington Post publishes an excerpt from the memoir Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison by Ahmed Naji, tr. by Katharine Halls (McSweeney’s Publishing).

NYT shares images from Abbeville’s luxe reissue of John James Audubon’s magnum opus Birds of America.

LitHub shares “Everything You Need to Know About Groundbreaking Queer Feminist Science Fiction Writer Joanna Russ.”

NYT lists “9 New Books We Recommend This Week” and “6 New Paperbacks to Read This Week.”

The Guardian rounds up the best descriptions of indecision in literature.

LitHub has a reading list of modern African books based on mythology.

Authors on Air

John Grisham, author of The Exchange (Doubleday), is interviewed on LitHub’s The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan podcast; John Sargent, author of Turning Pages: The Adventures and Misadventures of a Publisher (Arcade), is interviewed on Just the Right Book; and Jesse David Fox, author of Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture—and the Magic That Makes It Work (Farrar), is interviewed on The Maris Review.

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