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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.' 

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

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.

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.

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. 

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

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.

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. 

Two powerhouses join to write a political thriller. 

Wide-ranging chills for autumn. 

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. 

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.

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. 

All the September Prepub Alerts in a central index.

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.

Top reads ranging from Khadija Abdalla Bajaber’s The House of Rust, a Graywolf Press Africa Prize winner, to NYPL Young Lion Claire Vaye Watkins’s I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness, which is autofiction like Violaine Huisman’s multi-award-winning debut The Book of Mother. Plus more award winners.

Titles in science, political science, and medicine reflect on what we've learned from the pandemic and what happens next. 

Titles about social justice and those who seek it. 

'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.

Key titles on our world today. 

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.

Lots of cozies for October, including the start of the holiday mysteries, though Emmy Award–winning journalist Tamron Hall's debut goes the crime reporter route. 

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.

Among the books most in-demand by mystery readers are new entries in long-running series by Janet Evanovich, Louise Penny, and J. D. Robb.

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.

At his beloved grandfather’s deathbed, a teenage boy receives a yellowing manuscript which reveals his grandfather’s darkest secrets from Nazi-occupied Venice in 1943. The manuscript describes how the grandfather’s support for a murdered Jewish woman drew the attention of the underground resistance. The Garden of Angels is a gripping tale, both for its imagining of war-torn Venice and the timeless portrait of life under Fascism.

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.

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. 

Dostoyevsky and Toni Morrison, John Mellencamp and Black women in pop music, and The Heroine with 1,001 Faces.

Books on the Holocaust and early U.S. history. 

A book that will make news. 

LIterary magic from multiple award winners.

Holiday titles are already surfacing, World War II reverberates through historical fiction, and big-print-run titles predominate in sf/fantasy.  

Memoirs that address key issues.

Environmental issues and the future of artificial intelligence predominate among these titles. 

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 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.

Early fall chills for a variety of readers. 

Big-print, big names thrillers for September. 

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.

From Conquistadores to war in Afghanistan. 

Four authors purveying suspense and one offering military chills. 

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.

In coming months, cozy mysteries will make room for millennial and Gen Z sleuths; travel on pause drives reader desire for far-off settings; and readers can revisit familiar favorites in new titles and formats.

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.

Pandemic and politics, two issues that mightily shaped 2020, will feature strongly in 2021 book publishing. 

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.

In a strong year for World War II historical fiction, a novel about the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion—the only all-Black battalion of the Women’s Army Corps at the time—is of special interest. Plus, a book by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York. 

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 new book from Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, activism from Mansoor Adayfi and Rafia Zakaria, a biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and more. 

A range of books about women, friendship, family life, touring authors, and take-charge animals, with two books starring librarians.

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.

Founded in 1970, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) is a leading advocate for libraries serving the nation’s African-American community. The BCALA has given awards for traditionally-published poetry and prose for twenty years.

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.

Series start-ups and wrap-ups will keep fans busy at summer’s end.

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.

There’s something for every history buff in August’s variegated lineup.

Moving tales of family, friendship, and loss dominate August’s memoir list.

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.

The books most in-demand by parenting readers are about anxiety, social media, toxic masculinity, and multiracial identity.

Innovative turnkey service from Sourcebooks and Baker & Taylor includes access to
high-quality ebooks and programming

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.

Complementing LJ’s “Books and Authors To Know: Titles To Watch 2021,” which focuses on fiction and nonfiction, the nearly 100 key poetry titles featured here represent some of the most important and dynamic writing being done today. 

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.

From James Lee Burke to Paula Hawkins to Preston/Child, big names with big print runs for maximum thriller pleasure.

CIA and DEA agents tackle the world.

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 consequences for everyone when young women disappear.

When trouble starts close to home. 

Timely thrillers and historical suspense, with psych wards and fancy fishing retreats as settings.