Across a range of genres and subjects, the sounds of stories unfold in a symphonic spree. From novels centered on characters to nonfiction delving into history, there are choices to support all listeners ready to spend the fall deep in works that provide respite, joy, illumination, and escape.
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Laura Dave, Kelly Bishop, Hilary Rodham Clinton, and Rumaan Alam. People’s book of the week is The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts by Louis Bayard. All the National Book Award longlists are out now. Shōgun, based on the novel by James Clavell, wins big at the 2024 Emmys.
An extraordinary, incomparable work of world literature that requires and rewards multiple readings.
Longlists for the National Book Award for nonfiction and poetry are revealed. Daniel Mason’s North Woods, Heather Cox Richardson’s Democracy Awakening, and James Crews’s The Wonder of Small Things win New England Book Awards. The longlist for the CBC Nonfiction Prize and the shortlist for the BBC National Short Story Award are announced. A study by Pearson and Penguin Books shows how diversifying reading lists and teaching texts by writers of color impacts students. Plus, Page to Screen and an NYT Magazine profile of Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection.
Originally self-published and now receiving a special edition with additional content from a big publisher, this debut novel and Book Tok sensation is highly recommended for romantasy lovers, especially fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas and The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.
Three titles offer sensitive portraits of sisters navigating tensions wrought by childhood trauma, mental illness, and grief, and the engaging, exasperating dynamics of family drama.
Audio cookbooks, memoirs, fantasy, horror, and more. This fall’s audiobook stars offer auditory delights across all genres.
These three dynamic listens provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of the people behind the music, including the trailblazing all-women Liverpudlian band the Liverbirds, Hootie & the Blowfish lead Darius Rucker, and Serj Tankian, the lead of Armenian American heavy metal band System of Down.
From bloody folk horror to the terrors lurking behind small-town facades, audio horror fans will find nightmares aplenty.
This season’s unputdownable audiobooks include irreverent adventures, heart-pounding thrillers, and nuanced crime fiction.
Helen Czerski’s The Blue Machine and Michael Malay’s Late Light win Wainwright Prizes for nature writing. Shortlists are announced for the American Library in Paris Award and the Mo Siewcharran Prize for unpublished fantasy by writers from underrepresented backgrounds. Amicus briefs are filed ahead of key Fifth Circuit “freedom to read” hearings. Canada’s Giller literary prize drops sponsor Scotiabank from its name after protests over the bank’s investments in Israeli weapons manufacturing. Plus, new title bestsellers.
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.
Notaro’s historical crime novel The Murderess fictionalizes the notorious case of Winnie Ruth Judd, who in 1931 murdered her two best friends and placed their bodies in trunks. The grisly crime was discovered when Judd attempted to ship the trunks via train from Phoenix to Los Angeles. Notaro tells LJ about Phoenix’s “boogeyman,” her research work, and how it feels to get inside a murderess’s head.
Award–winning author Bernice L. McFadden and actor Ione Skye offer memoirs while biographies feature F1 race car driver Sir Lewis Hamilton and three free-spirited Victorians on a quest to decipher cuneiform.
Maureen Dowd shares profiles of infamous celebrities, Scaachi Koul offers another collection of autobiographical essays, and Giaae Kwon considers the impact of K-pop.
Chris Bohjalian writes a Civil War love story, Emma Donoghue offers a novel about an infamous 1895 disaster at the Paris Montparnasse train station, and Natasha Pulley reimagines the story of Dionysus.
Expect demand for the latest from bestselling and award–winning Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Colum McCann, and Torrey Peters.
This is a must-read for fans of queer romance and those interested in the behind-the-scenes world of video games. Tai’s storytelling is both fun and thought-provoking, making this debut a standout in contemporary romance fiction.
This Ghibli-esque slow-burn fantasy delivers on every promise it offers when it drops Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle inside Patricia A. McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld.
The National Book Award longlists for Translated Literature and Young People’s Literature are announced. Earlyword’s September “GalleyChat” spreadsheet arrives. Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us has sold 10 million copies. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Liane Moriarty’s buzzy book Here One Moment. Clémence Michallon’s The Quiet Tenant will be adapted for TV, and a new adaptation of Georges Simenon’s iconic “Maigret” mystery series heads to Masterpiece. Plus, fall cookbooks.
A genre perfect for fall, these books feature academic pursuits that take an unexpected and often perilous turn.
Fans of Patricia A. McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld or Marie Brennan’s Driftwood will be in awe of Berry’s (The Manual of Detection) wonderfully odd ode to language, story, and family.
Pushcart Prize winner Sanam Mahloudji debuts with a family saga, Jill Santopolo offers a much-anticipated sequel to The Light We Lost, and bestselling Emilia Hart pens a tale of sisters and the sea.
Oprah selects Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout for her book club. Publishers Weekly rounds up September book club picks. The Ditmar Awards Preliminary Ballot is announced. Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment continues to gather buzz. Memoirs from Eve and Kelly Bishop are in the news. And legendary actor James Earl Jones, the subject of a new children’s book, has died at the age of 93.
From yummy new options for easy, quick snack dinners to scrumptious choices that will help readers up their charcuterie board game, Sheehan’s book has got home cooks covered. In fact, the only challenge cooks will face once they get their oven mitts on Sheehan’s marvelously inventive, tasty treat of a cookbook will be deciding where to start.
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by TJ Klune, Elizabeth Strout, and J.A. Jance. Barbara Kingsolver wins the National Book Foundation’s lifetime achievement award. People’s book of the week is Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout. Danzy Senna’s Colored Television is GMA’s September book club pick. The October Indie Next Preview is out, featuring #1 pick The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave. Plus, Shōgun, based on the novel by James Clavell, takes home 14 Creative Arts Emmys.
This exceptional book’s stories of plagiarism showcase persistence and the insidious and enduring ways in which sexism informs and shapes the contemporary world. Murphy will motivate readers to challenge stereotypes.
Graphic novels have enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity in the last five years. Since 2019, sales of graphic novels have risen over 100 percent. While that growth has leveled off, graphic novels are now the third best-selling genre (35 million books sold) in the U.S. and Canada, behind only general fiction and romance.
Cardinal (The Storyteller’s Death) deftly blurs the boundaries between literary and relationship fiction, crafting a novel full of magical realism that unfolds with leisurely grace as it traces a plot that is deeply engaging. Swift yet reflective, intimate yet universal, this is a novel of deep rewards.
The longlist for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year is announced. Poets & Writers releases its seventh annual selection of the best new memoirs and essay collections. “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” by R.S.A. Garcia wins the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short science fiction story. Acclaimed Cree novelist Darrel J. McLeod, author of A Season in Chezgh’un, has died at age 67, and Steve Silberman, author of Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, has died at age 66. Plus, interviews with Ketanji Brown Jackson, Gillian Anderson, and Cynthia Zarin.
The Cundill History Prize and the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish crime fiction shortlists and the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction and the Giller Prize for Canadian fiction longlists are released. Danielle Treweek’s The Meaning of Singleness wins Australian Christian Book of the Year. W. Paul Coates, founder of Black Classic Press, wins National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award. An appeals court upholds the ruling that Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library program is in violation of copyright law. Little Free Library partners with ALA and PEN America on a book ban map.
Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Erdrich (The Sentence) yet again displays her storytelling skills.
The setting, characters, and structure of the novel are compelling, and, as the title suggests, there are secrets and lies aplenty. For fans of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid and The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins.
Reese Witherspoon selects The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl as her 100th book club pick. Read with Jenna’s September pick is Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors. Winners of the Anthony Awards are announced, including All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby and A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan. Sisters in Crime’s Davitt Awards winners are announced, and the Washington State Book Award finalists are announced. LitHub reports on NaNoWriMo’s AI controversy. Nightbitch, based on the book by Rachel Yoder, gets a trailer. Plus, LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Matt Haig’s buzzy book The Life Impossible.
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.
Fantasy fans and steampunk enthusiasts will enjoy Glover’s astounding, creatively envisioned Prohibition-era United States, where magical and historical events intertwine in a thrilling plot full of adventurous characters.
Penny’s follow-up to A World of Curiosities plays on readers’ fears as she launches a new story arc that is completed in this installment but presents a cliffhanger. It’s a frightening novel of duality, of good versus evil, with an allegorical tale for today’s world, as only Penny can write.
Cookbook authors are sharing a closer look at their pantries, their heritage, and their kitchens, detailing their methods and offering mesmerizing stories that foster laughter and empathy.
Paola Velez is an award-winning chef, entrepreneur, fierce community activist, and author. Her debut cookbook, Bodega Bakes, will be published in October. Growing up between the Bronx and the Dominican Republic, Velez is known for combining the flavors of her childhood and heritage and reinterpreting them through her experience as a professional chef specializing in the pastry arts.
This monthlong observance marks the achievements, histories, and cultures of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, including those from Indigenous and Afro-Latino communities. The following books celebrate the diverse contributions and experiences of Latine people and include literary fiction, short stories, memoirs, and poetry.
The moon has turned into cheese in John Scalzi's latest, while Amal El-Mohtar offers a highly anticipated solo novella about two sisters living on the edge of Faerie.
All the February 2025 Prepub Alerts in one place, plus a downloadable spreadsheet of all titles from every post.
LJ Best Book author TJ Alexander sets their newest in Regency England, Lexi LaFleur Brown debuts with a hockey romance, and Lucy Score launches a new series.
Laura Dave is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including The Last Thing He Told Me and Eight Hundred Grapes. Her novels have been translated into thirty-eight languages, and six of them, including The Night We Lost Him, have been optioned for film and television.
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by J.D. Robb, Vince Flynn & Don Bentley, Rachel Kushner, Lee Child, and Kate Atkinson. The Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature shortlist is announced. Audiofile announces the September Earphones Award winners. Seven LibraryReads and eleven Indie Next picks publish this week. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson discusses her new memoir, Lovely One. Plus, fall book previews arrive.
Indie presses have more latitude to take on titles about a vast array of boundary-pushing subjects or narrow their focus to a single niche genre. The publishers we spoke with this month exemplify the diversity in the indie ecosystem.
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