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Best of the Year, Awards & News

NYT selects the 10 best books of 2023 and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the “painstaking” process of selecting them.

Shelf Awareness releases its best adult books of 2023.

ElectricLit showcases the best poetry collections of 2023. 

Ed Yong wins the Royal Society Science Book Prize for An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us (Random). Publishing Perspectives has details. 

Robbie Arnott wins the Voss Literary Prize for his novel Limberlost (Text). Books+Publishing has more. 

The Merriam-Webster word of the year for 2023 is “authentic.” PBS Canvas has the story.

NPR’s Morning Edition reports on how some groups are hoping to change how selection is handled in public libraries.

Reviews

Washington Post reviews Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (Atlantic Monthly): “If Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song were a horror novel, it wouldn’t feel nearly as terrifying. But his story about the modern-day ascent of fascism is so contaminated with plausibility that it’s impossible not to feel poisoned by swelling panic.”

NYT reviews Kids Run the Show by Delphine de Vigan, tr. by Alison Anderson (Europa): “The novel’s pace and sense of journalistic realism are enhanced by de Vigan’s spare, direct prose, elegantly translated by Alison Anderson, and the transcripts of police interviews and other documents interspersed throughout the narrative.”

Slate reviews My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand (Viking): “As a casual reader, you need these juicy bits, because there is a lot of more-technical material here for the true film and musical theater nerds. But as the 10th hour slid into the 11th, then the 12th, my primary feeling wasn’t boredom. It was fandom. Long live Barbra Streisand. May she write 1,000 pages more.”

Briefly Noted

Nita Prose, The Mystery Guest (Ballantine; LJ starred review), talks about overcoming the fear of writing a sequel to her best-selling novel The Maid, with Shondaland.

Paul Lynch discusses his Booker Prize–winning novel Prophet Song (Atlantic Monthly) with The Guardian. LitHub also shares an interview with Lynch. 

LA Times talks with Sam Wasson about his new book, The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story (Harper). CrimeReads has an excerpt from the book. 

Greg McDonald talks with FoxNews about his new book, Elvis and the Colonel: An Insider’s Look at the Most Legendary Partnership in Show Business, written with Marshall Terrill (St. Martin’s; LJ starred review). 

ElectricLit has an interview with Maru Ayase, author of The Forest Brims Over, tr. by Haydn Trowell (Counterpoint). 

Salon talks to Kenneth Womack, Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans (Dey Street), about why Mal Evans was so important to the Beatles.

Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, Alice Sadie Celine (S. & S.), recommends 8 books exploring love triangles at ElectricLit.

LitHub highlights 15 new books for the week. 

BookRiot shares new releases for the week. 

NYT recommends 6 paperbacks for the week. 

T&C suggests 25 holiday books. 

The Guardian rounds up the best thrillers of the month. 

Good Housekeeping previews the “12 Most-Anticipated Books Coming Out in 2024.”

NYT explores how “Cave Canem Has Nurtured Generations of Black Poets.”

Tor shares an excerpt of Gabrielle Korn’s forthcoming debut novel, Yours for the Taking (St. Martin’s), due out next week. 

The Millions considers “The Forgotten History of the Chapter.”

Authors on Air

NPR’s All Things Considered talks with Zadie Smith about her book The Fraud (Penguin Pr.; LJ starred review). 

Anon Pls. by Deuxmoi (Morrow) will be adapted for TV. Vulture has the story.

BookRiot’s All the Books! podcast previews 2024 book releases.

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