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Awards & Book News

The shortlists for Scotland’s National Book Awards are announced.

Barnes & Noble has selected 13 finalists for the 2024 Book of the Year.

The shortlist for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year is revealed. The Bookseller has coverage.

Suzanne Nossel is stepping down as CEO of PEN America to be president and CEO of Freedom House; Washington Post has coverage, as does Publishers Weekly.

Books by Jodi Picoult, John Green and Stephen King are among the most banned in schools, according to a new PEN America report. NYT has coverage.

NYT reports on the authors who have called for a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions.

Publishers Weekly summarizes Penguin Random House’s fifth annual diversity report.

Penguin Random House expands its Christian publishing program, Publishers Weekly reports.

Page to Screen

November 1

Don Q, based on Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Archstone Entertainment. Reviews | Trailer

Emilia Pérez, based on the French novel Écoute by Boris Razon. Netflix. Reviews | Trailer

Here, based on the graphic novel by Richard McGuire. TriStar Pictures. Reviews | Trailer

Lost on a Mountain in Maine, based on the book by Donn Fendler & Joseph Egan. Blue Fox Entertainment. Reviews | Trailer

Reviews

NYT reviews Feast While You Can by Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta (Grand Central): “Although the monster as metaphor for homophobia is strong, the representation of actual homophobia and racism is rather weak: noted on a surface level, but for the most part, vaporous and indistinct…. Where the novel sings, however, is in its representations of queer life and desire”; and three graphic novels that capture “a sense of time wasted”: Sunday by Olivier Schrauwen (Fantagraphics), Acme Novelty Datebook, Vol. 3 by Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly), and Frank Miller’s Ronin Rising Manga Edition by Frank Miller (Abrams).

Washington Post reviews Brothers by Alex Van Halen (Harper): “And yet Brothers is anything but a downer—co-written with the New Yorker’s Ariel Levy, it’s a funny and breezily charming read, one of the sweetest and most introspective rock memoirs in recent memory”; Lincoln vs. Davis: The War of the Presidents by Nigel Hamilton (Little, Brown): “Hamilton, the best-selling author of numerous biographies…, is a lively writer who does not shy away from sharp judgments. For example, after many pages detailing Union Gen. George B. McClellan’s dilatory, deceitful and disastrous actions, Hamilton writes, ‘It was small wonder that President Lincoln would fire the idiot’”; and three new Dorothy Parker books: Dorothy Parker in Hollywood by Gail Crowther (Gallery), Constant Reader: The New Yorker Columns 1927–28 by Dorothy Parker (McNally Editions), and The Algonquin Round Table: 25 Years with the Legends Who Lunch by Konrad Bercovici, ed. by Mirana Comstock (Excelsior Editions).

LitHub rounds up “5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week.”

Briefly Noted

The Millions interviews Jeff VanderMeer, author of Absolution (MCD).

CrimeReads talks to Paula Hawkins, author of The Blue Hour (Mariner).

Publishers Weekly speaks to Kevin Eastman, David Avallone, and Ben Bishop, creators (with Troy Little) of the graphic novel Drawing Blood, Vol. 1: Spilled Ink (Image).

Actor George Takei’s graphic memoir, It Rhymes with Takei, created with Steven Scott, Justin Eisinger, Harmony Becker, and José Villarrubia, will be published by Top Shelf Productions in June 2025, Kirkus reports.

Glory Edim’s Well-Read Black Girl series at Liveright: Norton will kick off with the June 2025 publication of Yrsa Daley-Ward’s novel The Catch, People reports.

The Guardian publishes an essay about climate anxiety and folk horror by Andrew Michael Hurley, author of Starve Acre (Penguin Bks.).

William Boyd, author of Gabriel’s Moon (Atlantic Monthly), shares “The Books of My Life” with The Guardian.

In The Guardian, writers and readers share the books they enjoyed in October.

NYT has “6 Books We Recommend This Week.”

Reactor has compiled a list of “The Most Iconic Speculative Fiction Books of the 21st Century,” based on a survey of writers.

CrimeReads gathers the best-reviewed books of October.

LitHub gathers the 10 best books on climate justice, November’s best SFF books, seven poetry books to read in November, and the best audiobooks of November, as selected by AudioFile.

NYT has a feature on Pizza Hut’s Book It! literacy program.

Authors on Air

Actor Diego Boneta will star in the Amazon MGM Studios series The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco, based on his forthcoming debut novel, which is due out in May 2025 from Amazon Crossing; Deadline has the news.

A Game of Thrones movie, based on the novels by George R.R. Martin, is in early development at Warner Bros., Deadline reports.

There’s a new episode of The LitHub Podcast.

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