The shortlist is announced for the EBRD Literature Prize for European literary fiction translated to English. After an Alabama board voted to defund the Fairhope Public Library over teen books, Read Freely Alabama raised over $40,000 to keep the library open. French Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal has been sentenced to prison in Algeria, allegedly for criticizing the country. Salman Rushdie will publish a new collection of stories, The Eleventh Hour, due out in November. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with John Green, Sigrid Nunez, and Cynthia Ozick.
The shortlist is announced for the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) Literature Prize for European literary fiction translated to English; The Bookseller has coverage.
After an Alabama board voted to defund the Fairhope Public Library over teen books, Read Freely Alabama raised over $40,000 to keep the library open, Washington Post reports.
French Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal has been sentenced to prison in Algeria, allegedly for criticizing the country, The Guardian reports.
March 28
The Friend, based on the novel by Sigrid Nunez. Bleecker Street. Reviews | Trailer
The Life List, based on the novel by Lori Nelson Spielman. Netflix. Reviews | Trailer
The Penguin Lessons, based on the memoir The Penguin Lessons: What I Learned from a Remarkable Bird by Tom Michell. Lionsgate. Reviews | Trailer
A Working Man, based on the novel Levon’s Trade by Chuck Dixie. Amazon MGM. Reviews | Trailer
Washington Post reviews Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by Susan Morrison (Random; LJ starred review): “For a book with this much access, [Lorne] is far from a hagiography. Morrison, an editor at the New Yorker and one of the original editors at Spy magazine in the 1980s, tells a story that arcs over 50 years of American pop culture and New York City high life”; and When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter with James Fox (Penguin Pr.): “And then there’s the relief Carter provides in not making us face the current oligarchs. The only Zuck in the book is Mort Zuckerman, and the only Musk is Muskoka, a place in Ontario.”
NYT reviews “thrilling, lush new historical fiction”: Fagin the Thief by Allison Epstein (Doubleday), The Delicate Beast by Roger Celestin (Bellevue Literary), A Fool’s Kabbalah by Steve Stern (Melville House), and Moral Treatment by Stephanie Carpenter (Central Michigan Univ.).
LA Times reviews Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus by Elaine Pagels (Doubleday): “Some of the passages in this illuminating and essential work are tough going. Pagels is conversant with every version of the gospels—even the most obscure—and wades through them with forensic thoroughness. Like a detective, she’s always on the lookout for contradictory gospels about Jesus’ origin story. But it’s worthwhile hanging in: As the chapters unfold, the plot thickens.”
Salman Rushdie will publish a new collection of stories; The Eleventh Hour is due out from Random House on Nov. 4, 2025, The Guardian reports. Publishers Weekly also has coverage.
Bestselling YA author Ayana Gray’s first adult novel, I, Medusa, will be published by Random House on Nov. 18; People has the news.
Pulitzer Prize winner Adam Johnson’s next work will be a historical novel; The Wayfinder is due out from Farrar on Oct. 14, 2025, People reports.
DJ and music producer Mark Ronson is writing a memoir; Night People: How To Be a DJ in ’90s New York City will be published by Grand Central on Sept. 23, People reports.
Cynthia Ozick, author of In a Yellow Wood (Everyman’s Library), shares “The Books of My Life” with The Guardian.
LA Times interviews casting director Tess Sanchez, author of We’ve Decided To Go in a Different Direction: Essays (Gallery).
CrimeReads talks to Saratoga Schaefer, author of Serial Killer Support Group (Crooked Lane), and Ashley Winstead, author of This Book Will Bury Me (Sourcebooks Landmark; LJ starred review).
NYT shares “8 New Books We Recommend This Week.”
Shannon Chakraborty, author of The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Harper Voyager), recommends her favorite historical fantasy novels.
LitHub has AudioFile’s most anticipated audiobooks of April and the 13 best book covers of March.
NYT examines the cultural impact of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in time for the 100th anniversary of its publication. NYT also looks at newly discovered documents that tell a different story of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s drunken brawl in Rome than the one in his book Tender Is the Night.
Washington Post looks at Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne’s papers, which are now housed at NYPL.
Alex Higley, author of True Failure (Coffee House), talks to LitHub’s Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast.
NPR’s Wild Card interviews John Green, author of Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection (Crash Course).
A new episode of Behind the Mic podcast discusses the Earphones Awards.
NPR’s Fresh Air re-airs a 2019 interview with Sigrid Nunez, author of The Friend, whose film adaptation comes out today.
Today, Good Morning America will host Tamsen Fadal, author of How To Menopause: Take Charge of Your Health, Reclaim Your Life, and Feel Even Better Than Before (Balance).
The Jennifer Hudson Show will interview Chelsea Handler, author of I’ll Have What She's Having (Dial; LJ starred review).
Shelf Awareness rounds up the schedule for this weekend’s Book TV on C-SPAN 2 at the Savannah Book Festival.
LitHub recommends literary film and TV to stream in April.
Wonderful wonderful book- so many heroes of the war still to be uncovered- thanks to Ms. Charles for bringing these heroes to light
Loved this audio book! Love the backdrop of facts during WW II. I had no idea there was such a library in Paris. The book has spurred me to look more into the library and it's characters. I almost abandoned this book as it was slow to develop characters and I found the audiobook accents hard to follow sometimes. Hang with this book! Really liked the author's notes at the end giving more info about the library and the real librarians from WW II. Thank you for featuring these unsung heros!!!
Loved this story. Thanks Janet for a captivating, unheard of before, this book tells this wonderful story. I am reading "Moonlight in Odessa". Loving it too. Another awesome read! Keep on writing such wonderful adventures of interesting women!! Sheila
Loved this story. It was finished in a few days and I was sad it was over. I always thought what I would of done, living in occupied France. More important, what am I doing today with life events. Touched home for me because I lived in Montana and visited Paris. Disappointed though that I did not know about the American Library, now I need to go back.
Hi, I am curious to know who wrote the letters betraying the library in the book The Paris Library?
Regards
Anne Brien
Fantastic read, but who wrote the betrayal letters? Margaret Saint James?
Thank you for a wonderful book. As a teacher at the International School of Paris in the 1990's, I loved the ALP. I could do research there that I used in my history classes.
Thank you, Janet Charles, for a great book.
Hi,
Is Froid, MT the historical town of residence for Odile? If not, how did you come to choose that small town in Montana?
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