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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.

'The Red Book' by James Patterson and David Ellis tops this week's holds list. Two LibraryReads selections arrive this week along with three Indie Next selections. Festival Days by Jo Ann Beard is People's 'Pick of the Week.'  Tributes pour in for Beverly Cleary and Larry McMurtry. George R.R. Martin signs a massive deal with HBO. Scholastic pulls book by Dav Pilkey for 'passive racism'. Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge gets attention. Plus, Sarah Maas, A Court of Silver Flames, will adapt her series for Hulu.

The National Book Critics Circle Awards are announced. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell wins for fiction. Island on Fire: The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire by Tom Zoellner wins for nonfiction. The Dublin Literary Award 2021 Shortlist is announced as is the shortlist for The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize. O: The Oprah Magazine has a report on the censorship history Richard Wright’s The Man Who Lived Underground, Native Son, and Black Boy. A new edition of Lord of the Rings will include art by J.R.R. Tolkien. New booklists arrive and there is a great deal of casting news for forthcoming adaptions.

Carmen Maria Machado wins the Rathbones Folio Prize for In the Dream House: A Memoir. In more award news, the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards Career Achievement Winners are announced, the shortlist is out for the 2021 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and the Producers Guild of America honors the book-based Nomadland with its top prize. Another adaptation, The Queen's Gambit, also wins. Speaking of winning, Win by Harlan Coben starts at No. 1 on both the NYT Best Sellers list and the USA Today Best-Selling Books list. Liane Moriarty’s forthcoming Apples Never Fall has already sold adaptation rights.

Jessica Goudeau, After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America, and William G. Thomas III,  A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War named winners of the 2021 J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards. NAACP announces winners in the literary category, including Barack Obama, A Promised Land and Walter Mosley, The Awkward Black Man. Paris Review gets an new editor. Variety’s executive editor to pen nonfiction book on reality TV show The Apprentice. NYT interviews Sharon Stone, The Beauty of Living Twice. Plus, Nicole Chung, All You Can Ever Know, writes an essay for Time.

The Audie Award winners are announced and Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, read by Chiwetel Ejiofor, takes the top prize. More authors speak about anti Asian-American bias. News is out about Susan Orlean’s On Animals. LitHub and Kimpton Hotels partner on a book club for travelers. CBC has read-alikes for Hench. Eater has a guide to 17 cookbooks for Spring.

The Bounty by Janet Evanovich & Steve Hamilton leads holds this week. Three LibraryReads selections arrive this week along with four Indie Next choices. The April issue of Entertainment Weekly is out. Margaret Atwood, John Grisham, Celeste Ng and others are collaborating on a pandemic novel to be titled Fourteen Days: An Unauthorized Gathering. Variety has the full list of Writers Guild Award Winners, including Netflix’s win in Adapted Longform for The Queen’s Gambit, based on the novel by Walter Tevis.

Library groups, authors, bookstores, and more have been speaking out against a recent rise in anti-Asian hate crimes and the recent murders in Atlanta, including pieces in the L.A. Times by Steph Cha, Your House Will Pay, and Sanjena Sathian, Gold Diggers, and interviews with Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings. Forthcoming book news includes Please Don't Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson, Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands by Linda Ronstadt, and Child of Light by Terry Brooks. Joe Pickett, a 10-episode series based on the C.J. Box novels, is in the works. Plus, some adaptations out this week are City of Lies, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and The Runaway Bunny.

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson starts at No. 1 on both the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list and the USA Today Best-Selling Books list. Other new nonfiction titles debuting on bestsellers lists include Everything Will Be Okay by Dana Perino and How to Do the Work by Dr. Nicole LePera. Forthcoming book news includes the first English translation of Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts: Character Files, a memoir from renowned sports agent Rich Paul, and a book of essays from comedian and actress Iliza Shlesinger. The shortlist for the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism is up. City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit by Elmore Leonard will be adapted as a series for FX by the creators of Justified, and Warner Bros. and DC Films will adapt the comic Hourman as a feature film. Plus, the American Booksellers Association calls for the break up of Amazon.

Oprah's latest Book Club focuses on the four Gilead novels by Marilynne Robinson: Gilead, Home, Lila, and Jack. The April book club pick from BuzzFeed is Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia. Nicole Krauss has won the 2021 Sami Rohr Inspiration Award for Fiction. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch will narrate the audiobook version of Double Blind by Edward St. Aubyn. The forthcoming In the Heights: Finding Home will look at Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway debut. Plus, the NYT speaks with a woman who recently returned a book to the Queens Public Library in New York—it was 63 years overdue.

The April Library Reads list is up, and the top pick is The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan. The Year of Peril: America in 1942 by Tracy Campbell wins the New-York Historical Society’s Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize, and the finalists for the Nebula Awards and the Lambda Literary Awards are out. In forthcoming book news, actor Idris Elba is working on several children's books, and Hip-Hop (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano is due out Oct. 5. Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic by Glenn Frankel gets a 4-star review from USA Today. Plus, see a trailer for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Win by Harlan Coben leads library holds this week. Other titles in demand include Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs, The Dating Plan by Sara Desai, and Not Dark Yet by Peter Robinson. The People "Picks" book of the week is We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker. In awards news, Blowout by Rachel Maddow won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album, and the USC Libraries Scripter Awards, which honor the authors and directors of adaptations, go to Nomadland and The Queen’s Gambit. The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin has been optioned for series development. Plus, information about $135 million in relief funding that the NEH will distribute to libraries, archives, academic institutions, and more. 

Zack Snyder's Justice League, the four-hour director's cut of the 2017 film based on the DC Comics superhero team, premiers on HBO Max next week. In other news, a feature based on Writers & Lovers by Lily King, a series based on City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab, and a limited series of Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner are all in the works. Books getting positive reviews include Her Here by Amanda Dennis, You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by Elizabeth Becke, and The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee. Plus, a look at legislation in progress in Maryland regarding ebooks and public libraries.

Life After Death by Sister Souljah debuts at No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list and No. 2 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list. Other new titles on fiction bestseller lists this week include Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, Later by Stephen King, and Dark Sky by C.J. Box. Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff and Beyond Order by Jordan B. Peterson are new to the nonfiction bestseller lists. Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America by Alec MacGillis, a new release about Amazon, gets positive reviews from the L.A. Times and the NYT, while The Washington Post digs into Amazon's ebook policies and how they're impacting libraries. In awards news, the 2021 Shortlist Finalists for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize are announced, with Danielle Evans, Jenny Offill, Darin Strauss, and Lysley Tenorio up for the $50,000 prize; and the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction is also out. Adaptation news includes series in the works for Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison and The Burning Girls by CJ Tudor.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw wins the 2020 Story Prize, which awards a $20,000 prize to collections of short fiction. Author Norton Juster, best known for The Phantom Tollbooth and The Dot and the Line, has died at age 91. The Off-Broadway opening for Blindness, an immersive audio adaptation of the book by José Saramago, is set for April 2. Adaptations in the works include an animated series based on the graphic novel series Slam! co-creted by Pamela Ribon and Veronica Fish, and a series based on The Wives by Tarryn Fisher. Plus, the Loanstars April list is up, and EarlyWord's GalleyChat for March is out.

The works of Octavia E. Butler have have seen a resurgence in popularity, most recently with news that a pilot for an adaptation of her 1979 novel Kindred is set for FX. In other adaptation news, The Queen's Gambit will see a stage musical adaptation, and Daniel Friedman’s Buck Schatz trilogy has been optioned for a limited series. In forthcoming book news, Alyssa Cole is teaming with illustrator ONeill Jones on the graphic novel Reject Squad, which is due out in 2024. Plus, ALA outlines information about the $5 billion Build America's Libraries Act.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn leads library holds this week. Other titles in demand include Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert, Fast Ice by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown, The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson, and Transient Desires by Donna Leon. The People "Picks" book of the week is Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. The prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters has added 33 new members, honoring several writers including Ta-Nehisi Coates, Joy Harjo, and Sigrid Nunez. The Unpassing by Chia-Chia Lin wins the 2020 L.D. and LaVerne Harrell Clark Fiction Prize. Plus, after more than 35 years since Steven Spielberg acquired the rights to adapt The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub, it's finally in the works as a series.

Tennis trailblazer Billie Jean King will publish All In: An Autobiography in August. Other forthcoming book news includes the first print volume of the romance webcomic Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe, and a a graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman's short story Chivalry. Torrey Peters will write and produce the series adaptation Detransition, Baby, and other adaptions in the works include The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey, The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa, and Gun Love by Jennifer Clemen. Adaptations out this week include My Salinger Year, based on the book by Joanna Rakoff, and Chaos Walking, based on The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Plus, a new Black studies book series is being established at Columbia University Press.

The NYT Audio Fiction top bestseller for March is The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. New releases hitting the fiction bestseller lists this week include The Kaiser's Web by Steve Berry, Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke, and Kingdom of Shadow and Light by Karen Marie Moning. In forthcoming book news, Joe Exotic is working on Tiger King: The Official Tell-All Memoir, and Joy Williams will publish her first novel since 2000 with Harrow. Keanu Reeves has a new comic book series, BRZRKR, with the first issue out this week. Plus, Rebekah Taussig will co-write and executive produce the series adaptation of her memoir Sitting Pretty and Gore Verbinski will direct a feature adaptation of Sandkings by George R.R. Martin.

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel is getting a lot of buzz—it's Reese Witherspoon's Book Club selection for March, gets a good review in The Washington Post, and she's profiled in Esquire and appears on the Reading Women podcast. For its book club, Good Morning America picks Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. In awards news, the five finalists for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction have been announced, finalists for the 41st annual L.A. Times Book Prizes are out, and more. Action Bronson has a new book, F*ck It, I’ll Start Tomorrow: A True Story, coming in April. Sister Souljah shares why she waited 22 years to write Life After Death as a follow-up to The Coldest Winter Ever. Plus, Disney's 20th Television picked up the rights to We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker, which debuted this week.

What's Mine and Yours by Naima Coster is getting a lot of buzz this week—it's the March Read With Jenna pick, the NYT has a favorable review, and Coster is interviewed by several media outlets. The Barnes & Noble Book Club selection is Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan, and its YA Book Club pick is Wings of Ebony by J. Elle. The PBS NewsHour/NYT book club selects Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder. Lots of lists are up highlighting the best books of March. There's forthcoming book news on You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi and You Can't Be Serious by Kal Penn. Plus, the documentary Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters, about the comic book artist known for creating Hellboy, is in the works.

Dark Sky by C.J. Box leads library holds this week. Other titles in demand include Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Affair by Danielle Steel, and Later by Stephen King. New books out this week include the top LibraryReads pick of the month, The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner, and the top Indie Next choice, We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker. The longlist for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction is out. The March pick for the Vox book club is The Power by Naomi Alderman. In adaptation news, Nomadland, based on the book by Jessica Bruder, won the Golden Globe for best picture drama, and Ta-Nehisi Coates is writing a Superman feature.

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, The Dead Are Arising by Les Payne and Tamara Payne, and After the Last Border by Jessica Goudeau are among the books on the 2021 shortlists for the Lukas Prizes from the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Adaptations coming out this week include Cherry, based on the book by Nico Walker, Moxie, based on the book by Jennifer Mathieu, and The Mauritanian, based on Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Salahi. BuzzFeed Book Club's March pick is Surviving the White Gaze by Rebecca Carroll. Plus, the official trailer for The Underground Railroad, based on the book by Colson Whitehead, is out, as is a premier date: May 14.

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas debuts at No. 1 on both the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list the USA Today Best-Selling Books list. In nonfiction, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates starts at No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list and No. 3 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list. Former Beatle Paul McCartney will publish The Lyrics, a memoir of sorts with more than 900 pages across two volumes and a list price of $100, this fall. The longlist for the 2021 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is out. Adaptations in the works include The Silence by Don DeLillo, The Killer by Alexis Nolent, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sánchez, and more.

Poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti died on Monday at the age of 101. He'll be remembered for his San Francisco bookstore City Lights, for inspiring many other independent publishers with his press City Lights Books, and for his role in the Beat poetry movement. Hillary Clinton is teaming with Louise Penny to write the political thriller State of Terror. The Audio Publishers Association announced finalists for the 2021 Audie Awards, including the Audiobook of the Year. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro and Flight of the Diamond Smugglers by Matthew Gavin Frank are getting a lot of buzz in reviews this week. Plus, a series adaptation based on the series of books featuring Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins by Walter Mosley is in the works, author Brian Selznick is writing an animated adaptation of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a teaser is out for Jupiter’s Legacy, and more adaptation news.

The Horror Writers Association announced the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards finalists, which include The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, True Story by Kate Reed Petty, and many more. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Dark Fantastic by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, and DIE by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans are among the winners of the British Fantasy Society's 2020 British Fantasy Awards. The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen is getting a lot of buzz in reviews this week. Plus, adaptation news about the Eternity Springs series by Emily March, The Real All Americans by Sally Jenkins, Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll, and more.

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke leads holds this week, while other titles in high demand include The Kaiser's Web by Steve Berry, Love at First by Kate Clayborn, Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh, and Kingdom of Shadow and Light by Karen Marie Moning. LibraryReads selections out this week include Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers and The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan. People's "Picks" book of the week is Send for Me by Lauren Fox. Adaptations in the works include updates of The Running Man by Stephen King and The 39 Steps by John Buchan.

The Poetry Society of America named N. Scott Momaday its 2021 recipient of the Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry. The shortlist of nominees for the 2020 BSFA Awards from the British Science Fiction Association includes The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, Club Ded by Nikhil Singh, and more. Brit Bennett, Amanda Gorman, and Ijeoma Oluo are among the emerging leaders on the Time 100 Next list. New adaptations in the works include We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal, The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton, and Big Vape by Jamie Ducharme. Adaptations out this week include Nomadland, Mafia Inc., Superman & Lois, and more.

The finalists for the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize are Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa, Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam, The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans, and If I Had Two Wings by Randall Kenan. New fiction bestsellers include Faithless in Death by J. D. Robb and The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles, and new nonfiction bestsellers include Walk in My Combat Boots by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann and Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad. To honor what would have been Toni Morrison’s 90th birthday, the NYT offers suggestions on where to start with her books. Plus, Mindy Kaling's production company is working on a TV adaptation of Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian.

Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey, The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels, and I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes and illustrated by Gordon C. James, are the 2021 Southern Book Prize winners. Finalists for the Baltimore Science Fiction Society's 2021 Compton Crook Award are out. What to recommend to patrons waiting to borrow A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas, the top hold of the week. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Andrew Sean Greer and screenwriter David Gilbert will adapt The Man Who Ate Too Much by John Birdsall, the recent biography on James Beard. Plus, the Authors Guild sent a letter to the new administration calling for, among other things, the creation of a new Federal Writers Project.

The March Library Reads list is up, and the top pick is The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. Nazima Abdillahi shares why she founded Muslim Voices in Publishing. Henry Louis Gates Jr. has a new four-hour series premiering tonight on PBS that's based on his book The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song. Plus, Reese Witherspoon is expanding her book club with a four-episode cooking show called Eat the Book. It will feature Reese's Book Club pick authors, including Tembi Locke and Delia Owens, and premiers Feb. 18 on YouTube.

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas leads holds this week. Other titles in demand include Missing and Endangered by J. A. Jance, A Fatal Lie by Charles Todd, and Relentless by Mark Greaney. Two books highlighted by both LibraryReads and Indie Next come out this week: The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey and First Comes Like by Alisha Rai. In adaptation news, there's a new trailer for Zack Snyder's Justice League, and New Pictures is adapting The Haunting of Alma Fielding by Kate Summerscale as a TV series.

A series adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Overstory by Richard Powers is in the works at Netflix, with Hugh Jackman and Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss serving as executive producers. There's a lot of other adaptation news as well, including a look at why there are so many book to screen adaptations currently underway. This week sees the release of a few completed adaptations, including To All the Boys: Always and Forever, French Exit, and The Luminaries. Audiobook producer RBmedia has acquired the audiobook publishing business and catalog of the Spanish company Booka. Plus, remembering sci-fi writer and editor James E. Gunn, who died late last year.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah debuts at No. 1 on the NYT fiction bestsellers list and the USA Today list, while Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain tops the NYT nonfiction list and is at No. 8 on the USA Today list. The finalists for the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards are out, with winners to be announced April 8. The Story Prize Spotlight Award, honoring an exceptional short story collection, goes to Inheritors by Asako Serizawa. There is adaptation news about the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna, and more. Plus, lots of buzz about Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins.

The 2021 University of North Texas Rilke Prize, which honors emerging poets, goes to Kiki Petrosino for White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia. The Loan Stars list for March arrives, and The Lost Village by Camilla Sten is the top pick. Ample adaptation news includes the trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's Old, based on the graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters, plus new details on filming for the next season of Outlander. Books receiving a lot of buzz include No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood and Unfinished: A Memoir by Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

The 2021 Dublin Literary Award longlist is up, and features 49 books nominated by librarians from around the world. Among those honored are The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, and On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. ALA's 2021 Reading List is out, highlighting the best books from eight fiction genres for adult readers. The class-action lawsuit against Amazon over ebook pricing now includes the Big Five publishers as defendants, added as "co-conspirators" after an amended complaint was filed. Plus, lots of adaptations are in the works, including plans for Falling by T.J. Newman, Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason, and The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han.

Faithless in Death by J.D. Robb tops hold lists this week. The March Indie Next list is up, and the No. 1 pick is We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker. The February Barnes and Noble book club pick is Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan. Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen, My Year Abroad by Chang-rae Lee, and Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad are getting a lot of buzz. Plus, Samantha Irby is one of the writers working on the upcoming Sex and the City reboot.

Deacon King Kong by James McBride wins ALA's 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs wins the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. The RUSA/CODES Book and Media Awards are also announced. Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's son, will publish the memoir Beautiful Things on April 6. Grey's Anatomy fans will want to bookmark How to Save A Life, the forthcoming book from Lynette Rice that's based on 80 interviews with those involved in the show. Time has a special project, "The Renaissance Is Black," which features an introduction by Ibram X. Kendi, several books as part of "The 25 Defining Works of the Black Renaissance," and more. Salma Hayek’s production company is developing A Boob’s Life by Leslie Lehr as a series. Plus, a video game that lets you use authors like Saeed Jones, Jia Tolentino, and Tony Tulathimmute as fighters.

Penguin Random House will publish a young readers edition of Becoming by Michelle Obama on March 2. The Russian by James Patterson and James O. Born and Just as I Am by Cicely Tyson lead the NYT Best Sellers and the USA Today Best-Selling Books lists. The 2021 United States Artists Fellows were announced, and among those honored are 8 writers, including Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Danez Smith, and Ocean Vuong. A new podcast about library workers, librarypunk, has launched. Former Baltimore Ravens player Jason Brown discusses Centered: Trading Your Plans for a Life That Matters on The Today Show.

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse is Reese Witherspoon's February book club pick. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones is the GMA February book club pick. The longlist for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is out, as are nominees for the 52nd NAACP Image Awards, which includes a large literary category. Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO, but will stay involved as executive chairman, of Amazon. NetGalley, along with its parent company Firebrand, have been sold to the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Media Do. George R.R. Martin says he wrote a whole lot of The Winds of Winter last year, but adds, "I will make no predictions on when I will finish." Plus, Ken Burns has a documentary about Ernest Hemingway in the works.

Jenna Bush Hager selects two books for her February "Read with Jenna" book club: Send for Me by Lauren Fox and The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. In other book club news, New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard has launched his own club, and Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu is this month's PBS NewsHour/NYT pick. The February Earphones Award winners are up at AudioFile. The New York Public Library has launched the Woodson Project, featuring book lists, events, and more, to honor Black History Month. Plus, the forthcoming novel The Maidens by Alex Michaelides, which is due out June 15, has been optioned for a TV series.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah leads holds this week. Other titles in high demand include The Survivors by Jane Harper, Serpentine by Jonathan Kellerman, Girl A by Abigail Dean, and more. PopSugar picks The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson for its February book club, and Luster by Raven Leilani is Vox's February book club selection. The Authors Guild, the National Writers Union, and others sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking it to block the sale of Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House. Following news of her death, Cicely Tyson's memoir Just as I Am hit No. 1 on Amazon, and also sold out of copies available there.

Actress Cicely Tyson, whose memoir Just as I Am was released this week, died yesterday at age 96. With massive demand following her reading at Joe Biden's inauguration, poet Amanda Gorman's three unreleased books will see a print run of one million copies each. Entertainment Weekly has an excerpt from Billy Summers by Stephen King, which is due out Aug. 3. Lala Kent of The Vanderpump Rules has a memoir, Give Them Lala, coming May 4. Adaptations out this week include Finding You, based on There You'll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones and Firefly Lane, based on the book by Kristin Hannah. Plus, the graphic novel The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag will be adapted as an animated musical for Netflix.

Actor Seth Rogen's first book, Yearbook, is due out May 11, and his mother provided a statement for the press release. Moneyball and The Big Short author Michael Lewis has a forthcoming pandemic novel, The Premonition, while The End of October author Lawrence Wright has a nonfiction pandemic book coming called The Plague Year. More forthcoming book news includes work from Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty, The View co-host Sunny Hostin, and others. Poet Amanda Gorman will read at the Super Bowl. Plus, news on upcoming adaptations of Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee, All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai, and more.

The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey wins the 2020 Costa Book of the Year award. The forthcoming book The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon has been optioned for a series by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton's new production company. Other adaptations in the works include Outlawed by Anna North, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and more. Plus, the Library of Congress receives a $15 million grant to improve diversity programs.

Nominees for the 2021 Edgar Allan Poe Awards are out, and include When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole, These Women by Ivy Pochoda, Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch, and many more. See the winners of the Alex Awards, the Printz Award, and all the other 2021 ALA youth media award honorees. Forthcoming book news includes an essay collection edited by Tarana Burke, an instructional tome on talking dogs, and the Dragonlance trilogy. Plus, HBO Max is looking to develop a live-action Harry Potter series.

Finalists for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Awards are out and include Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, Memorial by Bryan Washington, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, and more. The Russian by James Patterson and James O. Born leads holds this week. The People "Picks" book of the week is American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption by Gabrielle Glaser. Plus, reviews and more buzz for Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion.

HBO is working on a series adaptation of Tales of Dunk and Egg by George R. R. Martin, a prequel to Game of Thrones. The 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize longlist is out and includes Just Us by Claudia Rankine, The Actual by Inua Ellams, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, among others. The White Tiger, Penguin Bloom, and Resident Alien are some of the adaptations premiering this week. In more adaptation news, Bridgerton, based on the series by Julia Quinn, is getting a second season.

22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman made headlines—and book sales—following her reading at Joe Biden's inauguration. New releases on the NYT and USA Today bestsellers lists include The Scorpion's Tail by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders, and more. Nominees for the 2021 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize and the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award are out. Plus, buzz for The Doctors Blackwell by Janice P. Nimura, Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor, and others.

The February LibraryReads list is announced, and the top choice is The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. The Gotham Book Prize announces the finalists for its first $50,000 award, which honors New York City-based books. After becoming friends with fellow stutterer Joe Biden, 13-year-old Brayden Harrington now has a book deal, with the picture book Brayden Speaks Up due out in Aug. See the trailer for The Luminaries, based on the book by Eleanor Catton, which premiers Feb. 14. Books set for TV and film adaptations include The Whistler by John Grisham, Libra by Don DeLillo, The Walled City by Ryan Graudin, and more.

22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman will read at Joe Biden's inauguration. Meanwhile, more than 250 authors, editors, agents and others signed an open letter opposing any book deals for Donald Trump and members of his administration. Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner leads holds this week. A class-action lawsuit accuses Amazon of colluding with the "Big Five" publishers to inflate ebook prices. CNN anchor Don Lemon announced his forthcoming book, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism. Plus, Netflix is developing three anti-racism projects that will be executive produced by Ibram X. Kendi and based on his books Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You, and Antiracist Baby.

Noah Baumbach will direct Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig in a feature adaptation of White Noise by Don DeLillo. In other adaptation news, there are first-look deals on The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw and Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor. HarperCollins nabbed a three-book deal with Jeffrey Archer. First up this fall is the next book in his William Warwick series, Over My Dead Body. One Book, One Philadelphia at The Free Library of Philadelphia selects the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of poems The Tradition by Jericho Brown. YALSA picks "2021 Great Graphic Novels for Teens."

PEN International honors activist and author Tsitsi Dangarembga, This Mournable Body, with its 2021 Award for Freedom of Expression. This week's new best sellers include Star Wars: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule, Neighbors by Danielle Steel, The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins, and Keep Sharp by Sanjay Gupta. Connecticut is looking into whether Amazon engaged in anti-competitive behavior in its ebook distribution agreements. Plus, see the trailer for To All the Boys: Always and Forever, the film adaptation of Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han.

Sally Rooney's next book, Beautiful World, Where Are You, will be published Sept. 7. In other forthcoming book news, Billie Eilish announced a photobook and Margaret Josephs, one of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, has written a memoir. Learn even more about buzzy books during several virtual events at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The 2020/21 finalists for The Story Prize are Likes by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans, and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw. Powell's Books closed early following protests surrounding a controversial upcoming book. Plus, Ben Affleck is set to direct the Disney adaptation of Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger.

The February Indie Next list is out, and The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles is the top pick. The American Library Association announces the winners of the I Love My Librarian Awards. A Promised Land by Barack Obama led book sales in 2020. The Millions, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, BuzzFeed, and others preview the best forthcoming books of the year. David E. Kelley is working on the TV adaptation of Michael Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer series for Netflix.

Following the demise of BookExpo, new book fairs from Publishers Weekly and Edelweiss are launching later this year to fill the void. The Scorpion's Tail by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child leads holds this week. The People "Picks" book of the week is Walking with Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne. Senator Amy Klobuchar's new book, Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power From the Gilded Age to the Digital Age, will be out in April. Plus, in adaptation news, BCDF Pictures purchases the rights to adapt The Girl at Midnight series by Melissa Grey for TV, and there's a trailer for Cherry, based on the book by Nico Walker.

Simon & Schuster will no longer publish Senator Josh Hawley's forthcoming book, The Tyranny of Big Tech, which was due out June 22. U.S. print book sales were up 8.2 percent in 2020, according to the NPD Group, with A Promised Land by Barack Obama leading the sales numbers. New adaptations out this week include All Creatures Great and Small and the new season of American Gods. The English translation of Ask Iwata: Words of Wisdom from Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's Legendary CEO will be released on April 13. Merriam-Webster reports the top words searched for on its site on Wednesday included sedition, coup d'état, and fascism, and the NYT speaks with historians about the evolution of some terms.

Vulture previews 46 top reads for 2021, including The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins, My Year Abroad by Chang-rae Lee, and The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Wiley has acquired open access publisher Hindawi for $298 million. Danez Smith reviews The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. for the NYT. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters is getting buzz, with a review in the L.A. Times and interviews in Vulture and Kirkus. Plus, Shelf Awareness has a look at how the chaos in Washington, D.C. impacted bookstores there.

January book club picks are out: The Read With Jenna selection is Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour, the GMA book club title is The Push by Ashley Audrain, and for Reese Witherspoon's book club, it's Outlawed by Anna North. Lit Hub, Electric Lit, Book Marks, Entertainment Weekly, and others preview some of the most anticipated books of 2021. Read memorials for author Eric Jerome Dickey, who has died at age 59. His final book, The Son of Mr. Suleman, is due out April 20. Plus, Vulture has an in-depth feature on the pre- and post-publication controversies of American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.

Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson is the January Barnes & Noble book club pick. Recommendations for upcoming new releases come from The Millions, CrimeReads, Entertainment Weekly, Shondaland, Essence, and others. Buzzy reviews for The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr., Nick by Michael Farris Smith, Exercised by Daniel Lieberman, and more. Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud and other winners of the 2020 Costa Book Award winners are announced. Plus, Tiffany Haddish will star in an upcoming adaptation of Landscape with Invisible Hand by M.T. Anderson.

Neighbors by Danielle Steel tops library holds lists this week, and other popular titles include All the Colors of Night by Jayne Ann Krentz, The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins, and Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age by Sanjay Gupta. Future First Lady Dr. Jill Biden will address the ALA  Midwinter virtual meeting on Jan. 25. See previews for books coming out this year from Autostraddle, Kirkus, Electric Lit, and more.

Barnes & Noble lists forthcoming books already getting a lot of buzz, which include The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins, The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr., and Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia. Adaptations out this week include Elizabeth Is Missing, based on the book by Emma Healey, and The Watch, based on the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. The Audacious Book Club from Roxane Gay launches in January, and will be accessible via a newsletter. Plus, following the success of the biopic Mank, the biography Competing with Idiots by Nick Davis about brothers Herman and Joseph Mankiewicz is coming next year.

Will the popularity of the new Shonda Rhimes's Bridgerton series eliminate some of the obstacles that have kept more mass-market romance books from being adapted into TV shows and movies? Lit Hub highlights some of the best but lesser-hyped books of 2020, while AARP and Bustle preview books that will be released in the months ahead. Nurturing Healing Love by Scarlett Lewis, a memoir about the loss of her son in the Sandy Hook massacre, is set to be adapted as a TV movie.

Hush-Hush by Stuart Woods tops library holds lists this week. More best-of 2020 books lists are out from The Atlantic, HuffPost, and Vogue. Time offers a look at what happens when copyright on The Great Gatsby expires Jan. 1. The Night Agent by Matthew Quirk will be adapted by the creator of The Shield, and a limited series of Sex and the City may be in the works. Plus, remembering author Barry Lopez, who died at age 75.

The longlists for the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards are out. Finalists will be announced in Feb. A film adaptation of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong is in the works. Adaptations being released this week include The Midnight Sky, News of the World, Wonder Woman 1984, and Bridgerton. Plus, The New Republic looks into ebook licensing at school libraries.

Roxane Gay is launching The Audacious Book Club in 2021. The first read for January is Black Futures edited by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham. More best-of 2020 book lists are out from CrimeReads, BuzzFeed, the CBC, and others. Read excerpts of Serpentine by Jonathan Kellerman and Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe by Dr. Bonnie Henry and Lynn Henry. Plus, adaptation news about The School For Good And Evil series by Soman Chainani.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett leads 2020 checkouts at the New York Public Library. Toaster Oven Perfection by America's Test Kitchen tops library holds lists this week. The January issue of Entertainment Weekly is out, featuring reviews of The Push by Ashley Audrain and Girl A by Abigail Dean. Above the Ether by Eric Barnes wins the best novel category for the 2020 Darrell Awards. Sarah Polley will direct and Frances McDormand will produce and star in the film adaptation of Women Talking by Miriam Toews.

Barack Obama's 17 favorite books of the year include Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, Deacon King Kong by James McBride, and Jack by Marilynne Robinson. BOMB looks at new titles released by small and independent presses during 2020, plus other best-of lists from the L.A. Times, CrimeReads, Book Riot, and more. The audiobook version of A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders has a star-studded narration. Jennifer Lopez is producing and starring in a feature adaptation of The Cipher by Isabella Maldonado for Netflix.

Paul Farmer, Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History, wins the $1 million 2020 Berggruen Prize. Sen. Elizabeth Warren's new book, Persist, will be out April 20, 2021. More lists of the best books of the year arrive from Town & Country, CrimeReads, Entertainment Weekly, and more. Read excerpts of Godspeed by Nickolas Butler and This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron. Plus, adaptation news about His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy, and more.

Jay-Z's Roc Nation is partnering with Random House on the new imprint Roc Lit 101, and the first releases will be memoirs by former Yankee CC Sabathia and music journalist Danyel Smith. The January Library Reads list is out, with The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins as the number one pick. More lists of the best books of 2020 arrive from the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, The A.V. Club, Slate, Vox, and more. MLA gives its 2020 First Book award to The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States by Derrick R. Spires. Plus, news on adaptations of Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo, Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution by P. W. Singer and August Cole, and more.

Lit Hub looked at 41 best-of lists that recommended 952 books to calculate "The Ultimate Best Books of 2020 List," and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett takes the top spot. More best-of lists are in from Vulture, CrimeReads, and BookPage. There's forthcoming book news from DC about a Batman anthology series, and from Henry Holt on Gabriel Debenedetti's book about the relationship between Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Also, see new trailers for Nomadland and Bridgerton.

John le Carré, author of Cold War thrillers such as The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, died of pneumonia on Saturday at the age of 89. NYPD Red 6 by James Patterson and Marshall Karp leads holds this week. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett tops LibraryReads' Voter Favorites 2020 list, and more of the year's best-of lists are out from USA Today, BuzzFeed, Autostraddle, and others. The NYT examines fiction published between 1950 and 2018 to investigate just how white the book industry is. Plus, adaptation news about The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes by Elissa R. Sloan and Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours That Ended the Cold War by Ken Adelman.

The Stand, based on the book by Stephen King, will be available next week on CBS All Access. Disney+ plans to release about 10 Marvel series and 10 Star Wars series in the next few years. More best-of 2020 book lists arrive from the L.A. Times, The Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed, and CrimeReads. Current Deputy Director of the National Book Foundation Jordan Smith will serve as its Interim Executive Director. Anthony Veasna So, whose debut short story collection Afterparties is due out Aug. 2021, has died at age 28.

Kid Cudi is producing and will star in the adaptation of Real Life by Brandon Taylor. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker tops People's best books of the year list, and The Undocumented Americans: A Homecoming by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio tops Vulture's list of 10 best books of the year. Cat Kid Comic Club: From the Creator of Dog Man by Dav Pilkey is the only new bestseller this week. "Muslim" by Zahia Rahmani, translated by Matt Reeck, wins the 2020 Albertine Prize. Vanity Fair hosts a conversation between Jesmyn Ward and Barack Obama. Kellyanne Conway has received a multi-million dollar deal for an upcoming memoir. Melville House's Dennis Johnson calls for the Department of Justice to stop the consolidation of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.

Bill Gates shares the books that inspired him this year, including Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein and The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. More 2020 best-of lists are out from Audible, Wired, and the New York Public Library. See the PEN America annual gala, which took place virtually this year and honored Patti Smith and Barack Obama, among others. There's news of several adaptations in the works, including Ring Shout by P. Djéli Clark, The Poppy War series by Rebecca F. Kuang, Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, and Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing by Anita Moorjani.

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel tops Entertainment Weekly's list of the 10 best books of the year. More 2020 best-of lists are out from Vanity Fair, Goodreads, Smithsonian magazine, and more. The 2020 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant winners are announced. Bob Woodward is working on another book about the Trump presidency. Plus, the filmmaker behind The Queen's Gambit has several adaptations in the works, including Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov.

The Last Days of John Lennon by James Patterson with Casey Sherman leads holds this week. The January Indie Next list is up, and the top pick is The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. Luster by Raven Leilani wins the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Roald Dahl's family issues an apology for anti-Semitic comments he made. Plus, DC Comics says Ava DuVernay will adapt its Naomi series for TV.

Barnes & Noble booksellers pick World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, illustrated by Fumi Nakamura, as the book of the year. Half Gods by Akil Kumarasamy wins the the Bard Fiction Prize, and Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Camilla Townsend wins the Cundill History Prize. Reality TV star Shep Rose of Southern Charm is writing a memoir called Average Expectations: Lessons in Lowering the Bar. Adaptations out this week include Nomadland and The Hardy Boys. Plus, a TV series based on Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart is in the works.

Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline is No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list and the NYT Audio Fiction list, and starts at No. 2 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list. Forthcoming book news is out about A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins and Life After Death by Sister Souljah. Adaptations are in the works for Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey and The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat by Edward Kelsey Moore.

ReedPop announces it is "retiring" BookExpo, BookCon, and UnBound. The Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell'Antonia is the December book club pick from Reese Witherspoon, and This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens is the GMA December Book Club pick. Nalo Hopkinson is the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's 37th Damon Knight Grand Master. Forthcoming book news arrives about The Reckoning by Mary Trump and Matrix by Lauren Groff. Plus, more best-of 2020 lists from editors of The New York Times and The New Yorker.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is the December Read with Jenna pick, honoring the 50th anniversary of its publication. AudioFile’s December Earphone Award winners are up. More lists of the year's best books are out. Journalist John Heilemann is writing a book on Joe Biden's campaigns, and screen rights have already been acquired by Showtime. The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish will be adapted as well. Ben Bova, the prolific sci-fi author and editor, has passed away.

A Sky Beyond the Storm by Sabaa Tahir leads library holds lists this week. The top LibraryReads pick of the month, How to Fail at Flirting by Denise Williams, comes out this week. Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson and A Promised Land by Barack Obama top the bestseller lists. Catch up on analysis of the sale of Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House. Plus, interest in chess books and chess sets has spiked following the recent premier of The Queen's Gambit.

New York Public Library selects their favorite books of the year. Nominations for 2021 Grammy Awards include audiobooks narrated by Rachel Maddow, Ronan Farrow, and Meryl Streep. The Costa Book Awards shortlist is out. A Promised Land by Barack Obama breaks sales records for presidential memoirs. The new series The Flight Attendant and an updated Black Beauty debut this week. Plus, adaptations of Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander and Forty Acres by Dwayne Alexander Smith are in the works.

The New York Times lists its top 10 books of the year. Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code by Ruha Benjamin wins the Brooklyn Public Library 2020 Nonfiction Prize and On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong wins the 2020 Fiction & Poetry Prize. Charlaine Harris and Jeffery Deaver are the 2021 Mystery Writers of America Grand Masters, and Malice Domestic receives the 2020 Raven Award. In forthcoming book news, 2021 will see Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice by Yusef Salaam and Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life by Jordan Peterson. Also, there's a video game treasure hunt for Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline.

Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline leads holds this week. Time lists the 10 best nonfiction books of 2020, with Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson in the top spot, while Lit Hub shares the best short story collections of the year. In Vanity Fair, Jesmyn Ward interviews Barack Obama to discuss A Promised Land. Historian and travel writer Jan Morris has died at age 94.

Shuggie Bain, the debut book by Douglas Stuart, wins the 2020 Booker Prize. Everywhere You Don't Belong by Gabriel Bump wins the 2020 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. Amazon selects A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom by Brittany K Barnett as the best book of the year, and The New York Times, Time, The Washington Post, and O: The Oprah Magazine have their 2020 best-of lists, as well. Never-before-seen work from J.R.R. Tolkien is coming next year in The Nature of Middle-earth. Plus, Between the World and Me, Hillbilly Elegy, and more new adaptation releases.

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu and The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne are among the winners of the 2020 National Book Awards. The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly tops both the NYT and USA Today Bestsellers lists. The Washington Post unveils multiple best-of 2020 lists. The 2020 Writers’ Trust awards winners are out. Joy Harjo will serve a rare third term as U.S. poet laureate. Wonder Woman 1984 will be released in theaters and HBO Max on Christmas Day.

Publishers, authors, and agents ponder the impact a Donald Trump book deal might have. Quentin Tarantino is writing the novelization of his own film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which will initially be published as a mass market paperback. Rebecca Carroll is adapting her upcoming memoir, Surviving the White Gaze, as a series. Read an excerpt from Later by Stephen King. Plus, starting in 2022 Yale University Press is publishing a series of brief biographies called Black Lives.

The December Library Reads list is out, and the number one pick is How to Fail at Flirting by Denise Williams. Barack Obama's memoir, A Promised Land, is out today, and continues to generate substantial buzz. The shortlist for ALA's 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence is out. The CW is at work on the series Wonder Girl, which will feature a Latina lead. Also, Penguin Random House and News Corp, which owns HarperCollins, are leading the bids to purchase Simon & Schuster.

A Promised Land by Barack Obama leads holds this week, and audio excerpts read by Obama are available. Kirkus picks the best fiction of 2020. Forthcoming book news arrives about The Other Emily by Dean Koontz, Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen, and Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe. The 2020 Christy Award winners are named.

Read excerpts and reviews of A Promised Land by Barack Obama, including an in-depth review by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The former president will also participate in the 2020 Booker Prize ceremony. Barnes & Noble lists its Book of the Year Finalists. Buzzy adaptations releasing this week include The Life Ahead, Alex Rider, and The Personal History of David Copperfield. Buzzy adaptations in the works include modern-day reimaginings of Jane Austen novels and The Island of Dr. Moreau, plus a feature adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's As She Climbed Across the Table that will be directed by Michel Gondry.

Time picks 100 must-read books for the year. Fortune and Glory by Janet Evanovich tops this week's bestsellers lists. The 2020 Dayton Literary Peace Prize honors The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman and Know My Name by Chanel Miller. The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison wins the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize. Forthcoming book news arrives from NYT reporter Maggie Haberman and Sen. Tammy Duckworth. Barack Obama has TV appearances lined up ahead of next week's release of his memoir, A Promised Land.