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The new trailer for Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad gets a great deal of coverage for a May 14 release. The Jhalak Prize for Book of the Year by a Writer of Color and Sheikh Zayed Book Award shortlists are announced. Also, the 2021 Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize shortlist is announced. Oprah Winfrey’s upcoming book tour and April 27 release of new book What Happened to You makes news. Terry Crews discusses the new audiobook Stronger Together, co-written with his wife with lessons from his life and marriage. Phoebe Robinson, author of Please Don't Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes, speaks about the lack of diversity in publishing. A television series based on Greyboy: Finding Blackness In A White World is being developed. Concerns are being raised about a police officer’s book regarding the killing of Breonna Taylor. Lastly, there is an interview with Lawrence P. Jackson, author of a biography on Chester B. Himes on the importance of Black crime writers.

The 2021 RWA Vivan Finalists are announced by the Romance Writers of America. Also, the 2021 Whiting Award Winners are announced. Good Company by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney and Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile top the best sellers lists. News breaks about the “Bridgerton effect” on the romance genre and an adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Prince Philip’s Century by Robert Jobson gets an early release. The Root shares newly released books that could help readers heal from trauma. There is a cover reveal of Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson. Lauren Hough talks about Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing and Morgan Jerkins talks about Caul Baby.

The 2021 Hugo Award Finalists are announced including Best Novel. Rep. John Lewis’ Carry On: Reflections for a New Generation will be released on July 13, almost a year after his death while Richard Wright's The Man Who Lived Underground, will finally come out in its original form on April 20th.  J.K. Rowling will release a new children’s book, The Christmas Pig in October. Natalie Portman will headline HBO's adaptation of Elena Ferrante's The Days of Abandonment and The Triumph of Nancy Reagan by Karen Tumulty continues to get attention. Plus, Bridgerton is renewed for two more seasons.  

Best sellers in chemistry, April 2020 to date, as identified by GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO.

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting for Ocean Prey by John Sandford.

Jason Reynolds is set as the inaugural Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week. Fourth Estate and William Collins will introduce a modern classics list featuring titles from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Anthony Doerr, and more. Ottessa Moshfegh’s next novel, Lapvona, will be published by Penguin next summer. Oscar-winning director Ron Howard and actor Clint Howard announce The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family, to be released in October. AC/DC singer Brian Johnson’s memoir The Lives of Brian drops this fall. Frank Marshall and director Barry Sonnenfeld will partner to adapt Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley into a 2D animated feature.  Joe Cornish will direct the adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic Starlight and Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation will hit theaters on June 18th. Plus, a review of World Travel: An Irreverent Guide, in which the NYT asks "How Do You Write an Anthony Bourdain Book Without Anthony Bourdain?"
 

This month’s historical fiction limns the 20th century, with a focus on the World Wars.

From retired judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell, to Congo-born, Rwanda-raised refugee Dogon Mondiant, to Pulitzer Prize winner Farah Stockman, personal perspectives on social justice issues worldwide.

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges discusses the creation and staging of a play written by his students at East Jersey State Prison. Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods expand on their Pulitzer Prize finalist podcast, Ear Hustle, launched at San Quentin State Prison. Two books in the surge of publications addressing the serious crisis of incarceration. 

A long list of fan favorites will compete for readers’ attention as the holly is hung, with key reissues from Robyn Carr and Nora Roberts included in the mix.

The biographies and memoirs most in demand by readers are from Barack Obama, Bob Woodward, Michael Cohen, Matthew McConaughey, and Jerry Seinfeld.

Ocean Prey by John Sandford tops holds this week. Four LibraryReads selections arrive along with one IndieNext pick. The Orwell Prize Longlists are revealed. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Nomadland continue to garner film awards.  John Boehner's memoir On the House: A Washington Memoir gets attention and Paula McLain's When the Stars Go Dark is People's 'Pick of the Week.' 

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.

William C. Kashatus writes an essential work on the Underground Railroad. Dorothy Wickenden fills a gap in the telling of women's and abolitionist history.

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.

Best sellers in literary criticism, April 2020 to date, as identified by GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO.

A diary turns up that hints at a romance young Jacqueline Bouvier had as an exchange student in Paris in 1949. It’s been a secret for seventy years. Lucie Montgomery discovers this clandestine affair between someone she loves and the most famous, fiercely private women in American history.

Where in our origin story and with what force did our foundation crack so deep that, without even realizing it and with just one breeze, we crumbled down on top of ourselves, unable to get back on our feet? We can’t shake ourselves and stand up again, and even if we could, we are not what we used to be before the collapse. – from I’ll Be Strong For You

For LJ’s annual graphic novel and manga preview, our special investigation into the trends and current state of the format, we asked publishers what trends and concepts they’re seeing in the genre. The findings? The industry is expanding in new and exciting ways, from beloved webcomics finally being featured in print, to changes in ebook sales and new influences from other forms of media.

We talked to Mariko Tamaki about Surely Books, her new line of graphic novels with Abrams ComicArts. The fall 2021 Surely Books titles are previewed in LJ’s April 2021 graphic novels preview. 

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting for Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez.

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. 

Two powerhouses join to write a political thriller. 

Wide-ranging chills for autumn. 

An award-winning journalist, a U.S. Poet Laureate, actors with stories, and a man redeemed. 

From the American Revolution and Africa and the African diaspora, to the Middle Ages and the Middle East, to history itself, new views on what happened. 

On March 29, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp announced that it will acquire the Books & Media segment of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), which will be operated by one of its subsidiaries, HarperCollins Publishers. For a cash purchase price of $349 million, HarperCollins, one of the “big five” U.S. publishing companies, has significantly added to its backlist by acquiring the consumer publishing business. HMH has stated that it will transition to focus exclusively on K–12 education and digital sales.

Essential titles reviewed in our April 2021 print issue, spanning mystery & suspense, sf/fantasy, romance, graphic novels, horror, fiction, social sciences, and more.

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.