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

Awards, News & Best of the Year

Sarah Bernstein wins the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel Study for Obedience (Knopf Canada). CBC has coverage of her win and of the televised gala, which was interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters. The Guardian also has coverage. 

ALA unveils the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medals finalists.

Amazon reveals its picks for the best books of 2023, including unanimous #1 choice The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Riverhead; LJ starred review). USA Today also has coverage. 

Time reveals its “100 Must-Read Books of 2023.” 

Washington Post shares 50 notable works of fiction, the 10 best mystery novels, the 10 best romance novels, and the 10 best feel-good books of 2023.

Two sponsors have withdrawn ahead of tonight’s National Book Award ceremony, due to planned author statements on the Israel-Hamas war, NYT reports. Publishers Weekly has more on Zibby Media’s withdrawal. Publishers Lunch also has coverage. The National Book Foundation issued this update.

Salman Rushdie receives Lifetime Disturbing the Peace Award at a New York event. The Guardian reports. 

The Baillie Gifford Prize touts “an average 857-percent gain in unit sales after a win.”  Publishing Perspectives reports. 

The chief executive of Hachette Book Group, Michael Pietsch, will step down January 1 to become chairman in leadership shakeup, NYT reports. Publishers Weekly has details on the “major and largely unprecedented” restructuring.

German publisher Hoffmann und Campe halts selling books by reporter who allegedly accepted money from Russia. ABCNews reports.

Reviews

NYT reviews The Money Kings: The Epic Story of the Jewish Immigrants Who Transformed Wall Street and Shaped Modern America by Daniel Schulman (Knopf): “The book occasionally drags, but Schulman, a senior editor at Mother Jones, is a thorough reporter with an eye for delightful details.” Washington Post also reviews: “A reader who goes into this volume expecting just the story of Wall Street will find that Schulman has also painted a striking portrait of how Jews, and specifically these most elite Jews, set out to determine what it meant to be Jewish in America when you were rich and powerful.”

NYT also reviews Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative by Jennifer Burns (Farrar; LJ starred review): “Much of the book is given over to dissecting disputes over Friedman’s monetary concepts, yet glimpses of his personality do emerge”; The New Naturals by Gabriel Bump (Algonquin): “The New Naturals homes in on perhaps the most daunting anxiety of modern life: the sense that some load-bearing beam is about to cave, and there’s only a foggy, terrifying guess as to what comes next”; We Are Your Soldiers: How Gamal Abdel Nasser Remade the Arab World by Alex Rowell (Norton): “Rowell’s writing is at its best when he narrates the stories of lesser-known figures, allowing the cultural and political textures of these countries to shine through”; and About Ed by Robert Gluck (NYRB): “Time is both antagonist and protagonist in this novel; it brings both the terror of finality and the consolation of the indefinite.”

NPR reviews reviews Eyeliner: A Cultural History by Zahra Hankir (Penguin Bks.; LJ starred review): “Eyeliner is at its best when the author infuses the cultural history with her personal history as a British Lebanese wearer of eyeliner who has spent considerable time perfecting its application.”

Washington Post reviews Happy by Celina Baljeet Basra (Astra House): “This formal dexterity keeps the book deceptively lighthearted, offering distraction from the horrors of reality. So does his self-abasing humor.”

Briefly Noted

LJ has new prepub alerts and highlights holiday fiction, dragon stories, and women’s stories and histories.

NYT suggests books for fans of The Crown. 

Authors including Sigrid Nunez, Abraham Verghese, and Samantha Irby recommend gifts for readers at Vanity Fair.

“Lil’ Kim claims her memoir’s presales are ‘surpassing the Bible.’” Entertainment Weekly has the story. People also has coverage.

Salon reveals details from Jonathan Karl’s new book, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party (Dutton).

FoxNews talks with Mike Pence and Charlotte Pence Bond about their new book, Go Home for Dinner: Advice on How Faith Makes a Family and Family Makes a Life (S. & S.).

Vogue chats with Lauren Elkin about her new book, Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art (Farrar), motherhood, “uckyness,” and Virginia Woolf.

Lexi Freiman discusses her novel The Book of Ayn (Catapult) with Vulture.

Michael Cunningham, Day (Random), takes Elle’s “Shelf Life” literary survey.

CrimeReads explores “Kenneth Branagh and De-Poiroting Hercule Poirot.”

LitHub has “40 Books to Understand Palestine.”

Tor shares “Five Surprisingly Perfect Song and Sci-Fi Book Pairings.”

T&C puts Edith Wharton’s books in order.

Authors on Air

NPR’s Fresh Air speaks with Brian Stelter, author of Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for American Democracy (Atria: One Signal), about what’s next for FoxNews.

NPR’s All Things Considered talks with Johnny Cash historian Mark Stielper and Cash’s son, John Carter Cash, about their book, Johnny Cash: The Life In Lyrics (Voracious).

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