News/booknews

The 2021 Porchlight Business Book Awards Longlist is announced. Interviews share insights from Charlie Jane Anders of Even Greater Mistakes, Kim Perell of Jump: Dare to Do What Scares You in Business and Life, Peter Wohlleben of The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate-Discoveries from A Secret World, Gene Kwak of Go Home, Ricky!, Elissa Washuta of White Magic, Michael Tubbs of The Deeper the Roots: A Memoir of Hope and Home, Kerry Rea of The Wedding Ringer, Dwyane Wade of Dwyane, Anne Applebaum of Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism, and Rosemary Mosco of A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching: Getting to Know the World’s Most Misunderstood Bird. Adaptation news for Caitlin Rother’s Death on Ocean Boulevard: Inside the Coronado Mansion Case.

The 2021 National Books Awards winners are announced, including Jason Mott for Hell of a Book and Tiya Miles for All That She Carried. Stephen Graham Jones wins the 2021 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award (MTAVL) for The Only Good Indians. The Nyabola Prize shortlist is out. The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly, Never by Ken Follett, The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, Will by Will Smith, and The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow top the best sellers lists. Illuminating conversations include Randon Billings Noble of A Harp in the Stars: An Anthology of Lyric Essays, Jonathan Lee of The Great Mistake, Farah Ali of People Want to Live, Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson of You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, Nikole Hannah-Jones of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story. Adaptation news for Douglas E. Richards’ Mind’s Eye book series and graphic novels published by TKO Studios.

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe wins the Baillie Gifford Prize. Anne Wattel wins the Prix Joël-Champetier Award and The Letras Boricuas Fellows are announced. The 72nd Annual National Book Awards Ceremony will be broadcast tonight, which includes Nancy Pearl's lifetime achievement award. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles tops Amazon's Best Books of 2021 list. The 2021 Kirkus Best of the Year list is released. Interviews arrive with Nikole Hannah-Jones, Dwyane Wade, Mayukh Sen, Brian Baumgartner, Michael Tubbs, and Jonathan Karl. Plus, Sloane Crosley's forthcoming Cult Classic is due out in June.

Rachel Kapelke-Dale's debut novel, The Ballerinas, gathers buzz as the #1 pick for both LibraryReads and Loan Stars. Matt Haig wins the W H Smith’s Author of the Year 2021 award. Emily Stewart wins the Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest Award. ALA welcomes the removal of “Aliens” and “Illegal aliens” as subject headings. Sweden's Storytel buys audiobooks.com and Spotify acquires audiobook distributor Findaway. Time writes about librarians dealing with increased book banning efforts. Star-studded recordings of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series are on the way.

Mercy by David Baldacci leads holds this week. Four LibraryReads and eight Indie Next titles publish this week. The December Issue of Entertainment Weekly is out with features on Outlander, Emily Ratajkowski, and a pop-culture gift guide. People's book of the week is Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story ed. by Nikole Hannah-Jones & the New York Times Magazine gets reviewed. The New York Times & NYPL releases its 2021 Best Illustrated Children’s Books list. National Book Award finalist Hanif Abdurraqib is featured. Plus, remembrances arrive for beloved NPR books editor Petra Mayer who died suddenly on Saturday. 

Isabel Waidner wins the 2021 Goldsmiths Prize for Sterling Karat Gold. The 2021 National Outdoor Book Awards are announced. Announcements also arrive for the 2021 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation shortlist, the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize longlist, and the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Awards finalists. Interviews arrive with Nancy Pearl, winner of the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community, and Abdulrazak Gurnah, 2021 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Adaptation news is out for 25 books by romance writer Brenda Johnson and Jodi Picoult’s Wish You Were Here.

Viking will publish His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa in May 2022. B&N releases their Best Books of 2021. Richard Osman wins the Books Are My Bag Readers award for The Thursday Murder Club. The 2021 Whiting Creative Nonfiction grants are announced along with the sf-Lit Award 2021 shortlist. Bestselling author Anna Todd launches a new imprint. Emily Ratajkowski and Will Smith get major coverage for their memoirs. Plus, new books arrive next week from the 1619 Project.

Omar El Akkad wins the $100K Scotiabank Giller Prize for What Strange Paradise. The Brooklyn Public Library Announces its 2021 Literary Prize winners, including New Yorkers: A City and Its People in Our Time by Craig Taylor and The Wild Fox of Yemen: Poems by Threa Almontaser. The 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medals shortlist is announced. John Agard becomes the first poet to win the BookTrust lifetime achievement award. The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) announces its 2022 Book Awards shortlist. The Sentence by Louise Erdrich continues to get buzz along with Emily Ratajkowski and her new memoir, My Body. Vulcan's Hammer by Philip K. Dick will be adapted as a feature film. Plus, Scottie Pippen talks about his new memoir, Unguarded. 

The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly leads holds this week. The 2021 World Fantasy Awards are announced, including Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson for best novel. The 2021 Scotiabank Giller $100,000 Prize winner will be revealed this evening. Ryann Stevenson wins the 2021 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. The 2022 Southern Book Prize finalists are announced. Mercedes Lackey is named the 38th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master. The 2021 BFS Short Story Competition winners are announced. Four LibraryReads and four Indie Next selections publish this week.People's book of the week is The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present by Paul McCartney. The Sentence by Louise Erdrich gets coverage and reviews. More on the PRH/S.&S. merger. Plus, interviews with Paul McCartney, John McWhorter, Louise Erdrich, Nick Offerman, and more.