Bookpulse

NYT selects the 10 Best Books of 2023. Ed Yong wins the Royal Society Science Book Prize for An Immense World. Robbie Arnott wins the Voss Literary Prize for his novel Limberlost. NPR’s Morning Edition reports on how some groups are hoping to change how selection is handled in public libraries. Interviews arrive with Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch, Nita Prose, Sam Wasson, Maru Ayase, Kenneth Womack, and more. Anon Pls. by Deuxmoi will be adapted for TV. Plus, Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2023 is “authentic.”

Paul Lynch wins the Booker Prize for Prophet Song. The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose leads holds this week. Jenna Bush Hager picks We Must Not Think of Ourselves by Lauren Grodstein (also People’s book of the week) for her book club. Two LibraryReads and five Indie Next picks publish this week. NPR releases Books We Love, NYPL publishes its Best Books of 2023, and NYT announces its 100 notable books of 2023. Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying turns 50. Plus, a new documentary, The ABCs Of Book Banning, explores the impact of book bans in Florida public schools.

John Vaillant wins the Baillie Gifford Prize for Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World. Kim Stanley Robinson wins the Hans Carl von Carlowitz Sustainability Award for The Ministry for the Future. The winners of the National Outdoor Book Awards are announced. Waterstones shares its books of the year for Scotland and Wales; Blackwell’s also announces its books of the year. The shortlist for the CBC Poetry Prize is released. Washington Post and Book Riot name their best books of 2023.

The winners of the National Book Award are announced: Justin Torres’s Blackouts, Ned Blackhawk’s The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, Craig Santos Perez’s from unincorporated territory [åmot], and Stênio Gardel’s The Words That Remain, tr. by Bruna Dantas Lobato. Halik Kochanski wins the Wolfson History Prize for Resistance: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939–1945. Kirkus lists its best fiction of 2023. Washington Post shares more picks for the best books of 2023. Plus new title best sellers.

Sarah Bernstein wins the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel Study for Obedience. ALA unveils the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medals finalists. Two sponsors have withdrawn ahead of tonight’s National Book Award ceremony, due to planned author statements over the Israel-Hamas war. Amazon selects its best books of 2023, including #1 pick The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. Time reveals its 100 must-read books of 2023. Plus, Publishers Weekly reports on Hachette’s “major and largely unprecedented” restructuring.

James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is named the 2023 Barnes & Noble Book of the Year. B&N’s Author of the Year is David Grann. The Edge by David Baldacci leads holds this week; titles by Martha Wells, Mitch Albom, Michael Cunningham, and Jonathan Karl are also in demand. Six LibraryReads and six Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan. Plus, the singer Pink announces she will distribute banned books at her Florida concerts.

Benjamin Myers wins the Goldsmiths Prize for his novel Cuddy. Mosab Abu Toha wins the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry for Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza. Tania Branigan wins the Cundill History Prize for Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution. The winners of the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards are announced. The longlist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize for issue-driven fiction is also announced. Librarians are filing workplace discrimination claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to oppose book bans and their firings.

The Pacific Northwest Book Awards shortlist is announced, along with shortlists for the Nature Writing Prize, the Foyles Books of the Year, and the DRF Writers Award. Luis Mateo Díez wins Cervantes Prize. Earlyword’s November GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros, while Time explores how Rebecca Yarros’s novels became a “romantasy Booktok phenomenon.” Plus, Shakespeare’s Folio turns 400.

Jean-Baptiste Andrea wins France’s Prix Goncourt for his novel Watching Over Her. Finalists for the Barnes & Noble Book of the Year are announced. The 2022 Endeavour Award shortlist is announced. Barbra Streisand’s memoir, My Name Is Barbra, gets reviews and buzz. Interviews arrive with Stephanie Land, Shannon Sanders, Philip Norman, and Sigrid Nunez. Entertainment Weekly shares an excerpt from Stephen King’s forthcoming story collection, You Like It Darker, due out in May. And Wall Street Journal stops publishing its best seller lists.