Book Pulse

The New York Public Library announces the Young Lions Fiction Award finalists, the Guggenheim Fellows of 2021 are announced, and the PEN America Literary Award Winners were celebrated last evening. Emma Cline, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Stephen Graham Jones, and Elizabeth McCracken get focused attention. Vanity Fair writes more about the Pence book deal and the other Trump books that are in the works. Nine new adaptations hit screens this weekend and into the week ahead. A trailer is out for The Woman in the Window.

The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman tops the bestseller lists. EarlyWord’s April GalleyChat is posted. S. & S. plans to publish Mike Pence’s autobiography. He now has a two-book deal. The April Earphones Awards are out, as are the April Loan Stars picks. Torrey Peters discusses the Women’s Prize nomination. Granta offers "The Best Of Young Spanish-Language Novelists 2." Worldcon moves to December. There is cast news for the Apple TV+ adaptation of Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent and Amazon is adapting The Peripheral by William Gibson.

Deesha Philyaw wins the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. Northern Spy by Flynn Berry is the April Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. ALA released the Top 10 Most Challenged Books this week offering a sobering snapshot of censorship in America.  Brandi Carlile's memoir Broken Horses continues to get raves while Dave Grohl will release a memoir in October. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize winning The Sympathizer will be developed as a TV series with Park Chan-wook to direct. Plus, a rare 1938 Superman comic sells for record breaking $3.25M.

The Today show's 'Read with Jenna' book club pick for April is Good Company by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney. James McBride's Deacon King Kong wins inaugural Gotham Prize. The City We Became by N.K Jemisin wins the British Science Fiction Association Award for best novel. Helen Oyeyemi gets attention with her new novel, Peaces. Rachel Kushner is back with a book of essays, and Godzilla vs. Kong is still smashing records. Fonda Lee writes about ARC's and equity. Readers are picking up Hemingway again with six of his novels in the top 20 Amazon Movers and Shakers. Plus, HBO announces "The Iron Anniversary," a month-long celebration in honor of the 10th anniversary of the premiere of A Game of Thrones. 

Life's Too Short by Abby Jimenez tops the holds lists this week. The 2021 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winners have been announced, including Deacon King Kong by James McBride. Eight LibraryReads picks arrive this week along with five Indie Next selections. People picks Red Island House by Andrea Lee as its book of the week.  Jenny Lawson gets 4 stars from USA Today. Philip Roth: The Biography gets reviewed. Haruki Murakami's First Person Singular comes out this week. Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman earn SAG awards for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Plus, Pennie's final pick before retiring, Remember by Lisa Genova, is in April's Costco Connection.

Ebony magazine publishes “From ‘Sula’ to ‘Luster’: Fiction’s New School of Black Woman Heroines.” Diana Gabaldon announces she has completed her ninth Outlander book, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone. More April book picks arrive: Oprah Daily offers poetry selections, EW names great romances from March, and Elle showcases an early look at Matrix by Lauren Groff. Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, Good Company, and Jenny Lawson, Broken (in the best possible way), get attention. 

Eternal by Lisa Scottoline leads this week’s best sellers list. The winners of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Awards are announced. April best books list begin to arrive. Beautiful Things: A Memoir by Hunter Biden gets more focused attention. Oprah interviews Richard Wright's grandson about The Man Who Lived Underground. Randall Park will adapt the graphic novel Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine.

The Booker International Longlist 2021 has been announced. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead is the top Indie Next pick for May. Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia is the GMA April Book Club pick. John Lewis’s posthumous new graphic novel, Run: Book One will come out in August, while Good Company by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney arrives next week. Plus, Ken Follett's The Evening and the Morning has been optioned for series development.

HarperCollins plans to buy Houghton Mifflin’s Trade Publishing Unit. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award Announces its 2021 Shortlist. Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia continues to get attention. Philip Roth: The Biography is out. Senator Tammy Duckworth, Every Day is a Gift, inspires. Netflix releases the Shadow and Bone trailer. Plus, Starz cancels Neil Gaiman's American Gods.