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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.' 

Restorative justice is broadly defined as an approach to repairing and addressing harm done within a community. It can also be understood as a practice that emphasizes the importance of every voice being heard when harm is done, in order to repair the holistic well-being of the person harmed, the person responsible for the harm, and the community impacted by the offense. These methods are used proactively and are foundational in creating systemic change within any organization.

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.

Internships and practicums are important to learning and jobseeking. During COVID, LIS programs and students have had to get creative at a distance.

On April 5, the American Library Association (ALA) released its annual State of America’s Libraries Report —this year focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic and how public, school, and academic libraries stepped up to meet patrons’ and communities’ needs. Issued during National Library Week, April 4–10, the report features snapshots of libraries throughout the United States—highlighting the ways they’ve adapted to the changes, restrictions, budget contractions, and opportunities created by the pandemic—and includes a list of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2020.

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. 

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.

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

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.

Jackie Gosselar is a Systems and Discovery Services Librarian at the University of California, Berkeley. They shared their experience as a bisexual, nonbinary librarian, and provided some insight into the value of being part of an organizational culture that makes space for all identities.

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. 

The challenge for libraries is, first, to obtain and spend federal funding, and second, to parlay that temporary help into a permanent paradigm shift. The new equipment will outlast the emergency. It is up to library leaders to document its ongoing impacts, so that when breakage and age take their inevitable toll, funders will find it unthinkable not to replace and upgrade the gear.

Public libraries are seeing success with virtual murder mysteries, which vary in format from Zoom events to text-based games to videos.

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.

On March 16, the University of California (UC) and scientific publisher Elsevier announced a transformative agreement that will enable universal open access publishing in Elsevier journals for all UC research, control costs at a sustainable level, and support the university’s transition from paying for subscriptions to paying for open publishing of its research. The four-year agreement, which went into effect on April 1, is the largest of its kind in North America to date.

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.

As early as December 2020, many were advocating for library workers to be included in early distribution categories. Even in the absence of broad recategorization, however, some library leaders have effectively lobbied to have staff across their entire systems vaccinated. Using a range of strategies, they have ensured that their state or local health department officials understand that library workers fill essential, public-facing roles, and are cared for accordingly.

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.

When Bernard “Bud” Barton was hired as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Library of Congress in September 2015 he was faced with the Government Accountability Office’s list of 31 recommendations to overhaul and modernize the library’s IT infrastructure. Five years later, those recommendations have been implemented. LJ caught up with Barton to discuss his team's work, and what’s ahead as the Library of Congress continues to modernize its IT.

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.

A former Chattanooga Public Library employee, Cameron “C-Grimey” Williams, was fired after removing weeded library books by conservative authors in early December 2020. A video of the books being burned was posted on Williams’s Instagram account, though the post has since been taken down. Williams stated that his supervisor told him that he could take the books in question, and that he was never informed of library policy to the contrary. However, a hearing on February 5 determined that Williams “violated City and Library policies by improperly removing items from the Library’s collections.”

Discover how to optimize your usage with our user-friendly infographic. Get the most out of your electronic resources by exploring various ways to make your collections more efficient.

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.

Many libraries and library organizations have issued statements recognizing and condemning the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States during the past year.

As voting for the American Library Association (ALA) 2022–23 presidential campaign continues, LJ invited candidates Stacey Aldrich, state librarian at the Hawaii State Public Library System in Honolulu; Ed Garcia, director of Cranston Public Library, RI; and Lessa Pelayo-Lozada, adult services assistant manager at Palos Verdes Library District in Rolling Hills Estates, CA, to weigh in on some key issues pertaining to ALA and librarianship; further information can be found on ALA’s Election Information page.

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.

On March 17, Ithaka S+R released results from its most recent survey of more than 600 academic library deans and directors across the United States. The report, “National Movements for Racial Justice and Academic Library Leadership,” looks at how their perspectives and strategies around diversity, equity, inclusion (EDI), and antiracism have changed over the last year, as well as their perceptions of COVID-19’s financial impacts on staff and faculty of color.

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.

With library branches closed or offering limited in-person services during much of 2020, that has often meant shifting to virtual offerings. But many people faced challenges accessing those online resources, according to “Public Libraries and the Pandemic: Digital Shifts and Disparities to Overcome,” a report published this month by New America, a Washington D.C.–based public policy think tank.

From the University of California: The University of California today (March 16) announced a pioneering open access agreement with the world’s largest scientific publisher, Elsevier, making significantly more of the University’s research available to people worldwide — immediately and at no cost.

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.

Laura Dave is the national and international bestselling author of #1 LibraryReads pick Eight Hundred Grapes, LibraryReads pick Hello Sunshine, and various other novels. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; Ladies’ Home Journal; Glamour; Redbook; Self; and The New York Observer. 

This project celebrates local authors while promoting libraries as an essential literary and civic hub. In 2020, the collaboration’s inaugural Communities Create Award went to Planting People Growing Justice Leadership Institute, led by Dr. Artika Tyner, for the novel Justice Makes A Difference.

How are librarians around the world innovating to improve user experience? How can librarians use space design to influence patron behavior? This curated collection of articles and book chapters from Taylor & Francis brings together perspectives from global librarians on important topics and challenges facing librarians today.

Providing accurate and reliable information is a cornerstone of public librarianship, but over the last year librarians have been especially challenged by the pandemic, the election, and the increased visibility of conspiracy theories. Nonetheless, public librarians remain active on the front lines of the fight against misinformation and disinformation and continue to seek out new and more effective ways of helping their patrons apply information literacy principles in their daily lives.

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.

From The Washington Post: Thirty House and Senate Democrats unveiled a new $94 billion proposal on Thursday to make broadband Internet access more accessible and affordable nationwide, aiming to remedy some of the digital inequalities that have kept millions of Americans offline during the coronavirus pandemic.

The lives and experiences of African Americans past and present in California’s Silicon Valley will be featured in a new collection at Stanford Libraries. Set to debut online later this year, “Histories of African Americans in Silicon Valley” is a project within the university’s Silicon Valley Archives. Dedicated to documenting the scientific and technological innovations that define the Bay Area’s high-tech region, the archive has existed for more than 30 years.

Among the many problems, including daunting refrigeration requirements, difficulty in traveling to centralized sites, and hesitancy driven in part by misinformation, was that most vaccine appointment registration is available only on the internet. And as few know better than librarians, a significant portion of the population lacks the devices, the connectivity, or the skills to use the web. 

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.

In a significant show of support, Congress earmarked billions of dollars in recovery funding for academic, public, and school libraries on Wednesday, March 10, as part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) received $200 million, the largest single boost in the agency’s 25-year history. The relief package also includes money for library-eligible programs such as the Emergency Education Connectivity Fund through the FCC’s E-rate program.

LJ caught up with Dr. Nicole Cooke, Augusta Baker endowed chair and associate professor at the School of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina, to ask what librarians need to know about how misinformation and disinformation work in the modern era and how they can be combated effectively.

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.

From an American Libraries Association Statement: Libraries are eligible for billions of dollars in recovery funding as part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 passed by Congress on Wednesday, March 10, 2021.

The self-help industry has exploded in recent years: According to NPD Group, U.S. sales of self-help books grew annually by 11 percent from 2013 to 2019, reaching 18.6 million volumes. Meanwhile, the number of self-help titles in existence nearly tripled during that period, from 30,897 to 85,253.

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 Califa Group—a nonprofit membership consortium of public, academic, school, research, corporate, medical, law, and special libraries across California—was recently awarded an Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant for the Libraries as Second Responders project, which will help train library staff to serve communities that have been, and continue to be, highly impacted by COVID-19. LJ caught up with Califa Assistant Director Veronda J. Pitchford to find out more about the project.

To help you establish your socially-distanced library, Taylor & Francis has created a quick checklist of ideas and actions Tips for Reopening Libraries from our webinar series.

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.

Academic librarians have the tools to help students fight misinformation both in their studies and in their daily lives.

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.

A vote by the Lafayette Public Library, LA, Board of Control to reject a grant for a discussion on voting rights, which resulted in former director Teresa Elberson abruptly opting to retire, has highlighted longstanding issues between the board and library administration, and fears for the library’s future.

The Mohegan tribe recently partnered with Cornell University Library to repatriate the papers of Fidelia Fielding, one of the last fluent speakers of the Mohegan language, as part of the tribe’s efforts to revive it as a spoken tongue. Below, tribal and library representatives share their story as a potential example to be adopted and adapted by other libraries, archives, and museums in collaboratively repatriating papers and artifacts.

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.

Kelvin Watson has moved to Las Vegas–Clark County,  Jennifer Nelson is the new New Jersey State Librarian, Denise Stephens has been named University of Oklahoma Dean of Libraries, and more library people news for March 2, 2021.

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.

Knowledge Unlatched was established in 2012. Knowledge Unlatched (KU) offers free access to scholarly content for every reader across the world. Their online platform provides libraries worldwide with a central place to support Open Access models from leading publishing houses and new OA initiatives.

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.

Much emphasis on STEM in libraries has focused on preparing patrons for careers in related fields, whether they are kids and teens or adults looking to retrain. But providing everyone with the tools necessary to grapple with the impact of STEM on their medical decisions, votes, and consumer choices, even if they never work in scientific fields, is just as crucial.

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.

From The Washington Post: The Federal Communications Commission late Thursday finalized a $3.2 billion program that will provide a monthly discount to millions of cash-starved Americans struggling to pay their Internet bills — the country’s most ambitious effort yet to close the digital divide amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Budgets, modestly up, reflect pre-COVID planning, but how they’re spent has changed drastically: Circ, hours, and staffing see major pandemic drops while tech, e-content, and safety spending rise.

Even before the pandemic emerged, libraries were investing in new technologies designed to save time and improve efficiency by supporting customer self-service, freeing up library staff to focus on more strategic work. COVID-19 has accelerated this trend and in the process, is transforming how libraries function in the 21^st century.

University of Washington iSchool researchers present an overview of the Open Data Literacy project's work to date, and share highlights from a survey of the current landscape of open data in Washington State's public libraries.

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.

On February 22, the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Library launched the inaugural Art of Science Contest, inviting UCSD researchers to submit the most beautiful image “that explains their work in a way that is both engaging and accessible to non-scientists.” The contest runs through March 21; voting will take place from March 29–April 18, with the winning images announced on May 3.

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.

Across the globe, 2020 has proved to be one of the most tumultuous years in recent memory. From COVID-19 to the US Election, gain insight into some of the many events of 2020 with OUP’s curated reading list from the What Everyone Needs to Know® series.

Despite partisan clashes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and economic headwinds, voters largely came through for public libraries in 2020.

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.

The University of Saskatchewan Library (USask), Saskatoon, recently wrapped up its inaugural Indigenous Storyteller-in-Residence program. The pilot project appointed Lindsay “Eekwol” Knight, an award-winning hip-hop artist and PhD student at the USask Department of Indigenous Studies, to a six-week library residency; Knight presented and talked about her work, held virtual “coffee shops” where campus and community residents shared their stories, and incorporated elements of those conversations into a final project, still in progress. 

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.

Should academic research be available to everyone? How should such a flow of information be regulated? Why would the accessibility of information ever be controversial?

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.

Next week, Sno-Isle Libraries, WA, will hold orientation sessions for its second cohort of aspiring IT professionals—nearly 50 residents of Snohomish and Island counties who will spend the next 25 weeks studying for CompTIA A+ certification, a common requirement for entry-level IT and computer service technician jobs.

When show organizer ReedPop announced in December 2020 that it would be retiring its family of major publishing trade shows—BookExpo, BookCon, and UnBound—Publishers Weekly (PW) saw an opportunity to organize its own event. Working quickly after ReedPop’s announcement, PW leadership conceived and created the U.S. Book Show, a virtual conference for the global bookselling and book publishing industry that will debut from May 25–27.

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.

When the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccines began to roll out in mid-December 2020, their distribution was immediately complicated by a shortage of doses and widespread uncertainty about who would be given priority. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued suggested guidelines for phased allocation. When it was not yet clear who would be next, many library workers, leaders, and associations began advocating for public facing library workers to be vaccinated as soon as feasible.

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.

Seoud Makram Matta, Dean Emeritus of the School of Library & Information Science (now the School of Information) at Pratt Institute, died November 24, 2020, at the age of 83 due to complications of COVID-19.

COVID shifts drove falling print circ and rising ebooks. But will it last? LJ's 2021 Materials Survey looks at some of the last year's trends.