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Remembering Nikki Giovanni

Poet Nikki Giovanni has died at the age of 81. NYT has an obituary.

Giovanni was the author of more than three dozen books, including  A Good Cry: What We Learn from Tears and Laughter (Morrow; LJ starred review),  Chasing Utopia, Love Poems, and Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose.

The Guardian, NPR, Vulture, Washington Post, and USA Today remember Giovanni’s legacy as a poet, activist, and professor. 

Awards, News & Best of 2024 Lists

Ariel Lawhon wins the Nero Award for The Frozen River (Doubleday). Shelf Awareness has the story.

CrimeReads shares the best crime novels of 2024. 

LA Times has “the 15 best books of 2024, reissues included.”

The Booker Prize judges are announced, including Sarah Jessica Parker and Roddy Doyle, NYT repors. The Bookseller also has coverage. 

Slate’s Laura Miller picks her 10 best books of the year, and Dan Kois selects his top 10 of 2024. 

The Millions’ “Year in Reading” series continues, with recommendations from Tony Tulathimutte and Ann Powers. 

The Atlantic’s “Books Briefing” argues a defense for best of the year lists. 

The Goodreads accounts of the suspect in the fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO is under scrutiny, as he reportedly gave a four-star rating to the manifesto of Theodore Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, USA Today reports. People also has coverage. 

New Jersey is the latest state to prohibit bans on books in school and public libraries, Associated Press reports. 

Workers will return today after a tentative agreement ends the strike at New York City's The Strand bookstore.  ShelfAwareness has the news.

James Patterson has delivered his annual $500 bonuses to independent booksellers, ABC News reports.

Reviews

NYT reviews The Rest Is Memory by Lily Tuck (Liveright): “It’s a deeply impressive achievement from a wonderful writer and loses none of its power from the fact that the ground has been well covered”; Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women by Hetta Howes (Univ. of California): “Howes’s book proceeds thematically, so that—despite their unusual fame—each subject’s writing is used to illustrate an aspect of contemporaries’ ordinary lives”; and What in the World?!: A Southern Woman’s Guide to Laughing at Life’s Unexpected Curveballs and Beautiful Blessings by Leanne Morgan (Convergent): “What in the World?! has a lot going for it. It’s the twisting, up-from-nowhere story of a working-class woman who went from helping her husband sell mobile homes to sudden success relatively late in life. I devoured it in two sittings.”

Washington Post reviews Kingdom of No Tomorrow by Fabienne Josaphat (Algonquin): “The tension in Kingdom of No Tomorrow revolves around whether there can be any future for a young woman dedicated to healing and a young warrior determined to burn the racist country down.”

Briefly Noted

LitHub highlights 15 new books for the week. 

BookRiot suggests new books for the week. 

Parade has 16 new releases for the week. 

Publishers Weekly previews adult books for spring.

Ebony recommends Gordon Parks’s new photobook, Gordon Parks: Herklas Brown and Maine, 1944 (Steidl: The Gordon Parks Foundation/Bowdoin Coll.), and works by other black artists and authors to read in December. 

Autostraddle recommends 13 sapphic holiday romances. 

ElectricLit shares 13 books by Indian diaspora authors and “9 Books That Will Make You Reconsider Florida Stereotypes.”

BookRiot previews 2025 mysteries. 

LitHub selects “The 167 Best Book Covers of 2024.”

NYT looks at the reemerging popularity of the book Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How To Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson (New Harbinger Publications), 10 years after its publication. 

Actor Jeremy Renner announced his is finishing up a new book about his snow-plow accident and recovery. No release date has been announced. Deadline has the news. 

People shares an excerpt from Gypsy-Rose Blanchard’s My Time To Stand, written with Melissa Moore (BenBella), while LA Times charts the process of writing the memoir.

Authors on Air

The Golden Globes nominees were announced yesterday, including nods for several adaptations: Nickel Boys, based on the novel by Colson Whitehead; Conclave, based on the novel by Robert Harris; Wicked, Part 1, based on the novel by Gregory Maguire; Nightbitch, based on the novel by Rachel Yoder;  Shōgun, based on the novel by James Clavell; Presumed Innocent, based the book by Scott Turrow; Ripley, based on The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith; and A Gentleman in Moscow, based on the book by Amor Towles.

Lili Anolik discusses her book Didion and Babitz (Scribner) with B&N’s Poured Over podcast.

Bill Clinton, Citizen: My Life After the White House (Knopf), will appear on The View tomorrow.

Chef Nini Nguyen, Dac Biet: An Extra-Special Vietnamese Cookbook (Knopf; LJ starred review), visits Drew Barrymore tomorrow.

Heather Gay, Good Time Girl (Gallery), will be on Watch What Happens Live!

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