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Safiya Sinclair’s How To Say Babylon: A Memoir is the latest Read with Jenna book club pick. Shortlists are announced for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the Cundill History Prize. Plus, interviews with Mary Beard, Jill Duggar, and Melissa Lozada-Oliva.

New York Public Library's new "Books for All" campaign launches during Banned Books Week 2023 and seeks to engage teens and young adults.

Zain Khalid wins the Bard Fiction Prize for his debut novel, Brother Alive. Target picks The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray as the 2023 Book of the Year. Shortlists are announced for the Polari First Book Prize and the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize. Finalists are announced for the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize. A California state law will fine schools for implementing book bans. Plus new title best sellers.

KKR's potential acquisition of Simon & Schuster will undergo scrutiny from the Department of Justice before proceeding and could raise questions about how Simon & Schuster will do business with OverDrive in the future.

Students learn invaluable skills they can apply in a variety of settings and applications. Across the nation, there has been renewed debate over the value of humanities degree programs as campus leaders look to overcome steep budget challenges.

The FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power. Jorie Graham wins the Laurel Prize. Naomi Wood wins the 2023 BBC National Short Story Award. Finalists are named for the 2023 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Hollywood Reporter goes behind the scenes during the final negotiations that ended the WGA strike. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith. Plus, CrimeReads celebrates 50 years of Spenser, Robert B. Parker’s iconic character

The Atlantic sifts through the dataset behind Books3, used to train generative AI without permission. Infodocket reports on AI book bans, ahead of Banned Books Week. The 2023 Elgin Awards winners are announced. Zadie Smith will headline the Vancouver Writers Fest, which takes place Oct. 16–22. Interviews arrive with C Pam Zhang, Zadie Smith, Kerry Washington, and more. Plus, Martha Stewart announces she is working on her 100th cookbook.

The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Ken Follett, Mary Kay Andrews, James Patterson and Mike Lupica, and V.E. Schwab. Four LibraryReads and three Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Wellness by Nathan Hill. Memoirs in the news include Kerry Washington’s Thicker than Water and Cassidy Hutchinson’s Enough. Plus, Hollywood studios and WGA reach a tentative deal to end the 146-day strike.

The ongoing debate over the freedom to read moved to the chambers of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which held a hearing September 12 entitled “Book Bans: How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature.”

Eileen Rhodes was named one of Library Journal’s 2021 Movers & Shakers for her work bringing Open Educational Resources to Capital Community College in Connecticut, enabling students who struggled with the cost of textbooks to continue pursuing their degree. We recently reached out to Rhodes and learned she’s currently the interim library director for Connecticut State Community College, a role that’s shifted her priorities and sent her in new directions.

Shortlists for the Booker Prize and the Financial Times/Schroders Business Book of the Year are announced. Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology, and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias by John Lorinc has won the inaugural Pattis Family Foundation Global Cities Book Award. A new PEN America report finds a 33% jump in school book bans. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Aparna Nancherla, Jo Nesbø, Michael Wolff, and more.

A new Simon & Schuster program highlights the merits of books that have been subject to censorship and will provide resources for fighting book bans. The Academy of American Poets announces the winners of its annual poetry prizes. LeVar Burton will serve as the honorary chair of this year’s Banned Books Week. Amazon will require publishers on Kindle to disclose when any of their content is generated by artificial intelligence.

New American Library Association (ALA) President Emily Drabinski has her eye on ALA’s projects and goals, as well as the association’s ongoing work standing up for its organizational values. LJ caught up with her in between stops on her tour of U.S. libraries to hear more about what she has planned.

ALA’s data on 2023 book challenges shows a surge this year. Shortlists for the German Book Prize and BBC Young Writers’ Award are announced. The Mellon Foundation appoints historian and scholar Kelly Lytle Hernández as its 2023 Fellow in Residence. Prominent novelists, including John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen, Jodi Picoult and Elin Hilderbrand, sue OpenAI. The September LoanStars list is out, featuring top pick The Armor of Light by Ken Follett. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Richard Osman’s The Last Devil To Die. The Hunger Games, based on the book by Suzanne Collins, returns to select theaters in October.  Plus, a verdict is delivered on the “Bad Art Friend” case.

The American Library Association (ALA) has released its preliminary data on the attempted censorship and restriction of access to books and other materials in public, academic, and K–12 libraries during the first eight months of 2023. Between January 1 and August 31, ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom documented 695 challenges to library materials to 1,915 unique titles.

Oprah picks Wellness by Nathan Hill for her book club. Wayne Johnston wins the 2023 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for his memoir, Jennie’s Boy: A Misfit Childhood on an Island of Eccentrics. The 2023 British Fantasy Awards winners are announced. Nihar Malaviya is officially named CEO of Penguin Random House. Russell Brand’s publisher has paused all new projects, including a self-help book that was slated to publish this December. NYT explores “How TikTok Is Reshaping the American Cookbook.”  Plus, Kate DiCamillo reflects on the 20th anniversary of her award-winning children’s book The Tale of Despereaux, at Washington Post.

Library telehealth programs launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are beginning to evolve and adapt to changing times.

The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman leads holds this week. The National Book Awards announces its longlist for fiction. The 2023 winners of the McIlvanney Prize and the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize are announced. Rolling Stone cofounder Jann S. Wenner was removed from the Rock Hall of Fame board after an inflammatory interview with NYT while promoting his new book. People’s book of the week is Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll. Anderson Cooper discusses his new book, Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune, with CBS Sunday Morning. And American Fiction, based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett, wins the Toronto Film Festival’s top prize.

The National Book Awards announces its longlists for nonfiction and poetry. The Flow: Rivers, Waters and Wildness by Amy-Jane Beer and The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole win the Wainwright Prize for nature writing. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Leila Aboulela, John Manuel Arias, Kate Atkinson, and more.

The National Book Awards longlist for translated literature is announced; the longlists for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry will be announced later today and tomorrow. Finalists are announced for the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQIA+ emerging writers and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Plus new title best sellers and interviews with David Diop, Franklin Foer, Zakiya Dalila Harris, London Hughes, Daphne Kalotay, Angie Kim, Marisa Meltzer, Maggie O’Farrell, and Sarah Ogilvie.

The National Book Foundation rescinds Drew Barrymore’s invitation to host the 74th National Book Awards Ceremony host after her talk show resumes during the WGA strike. Sandra Cisneros wins the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. Kirsty Whatley wins the 2023 Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers. Earlyword’s September GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now, featuring early buzz for Alex Michaelides’s forthcoming novel, The Fury. The Pulitzer Prizes officially expand eligibility to noncitizens. Michael Chabon joins other writers to sue Meta AI platform for copyright infringement. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Code Red by Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills.

The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing, “Book Bans: Examining How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature” was held on Tuesday, September 12, 2023.  A keyword searchable version of the video recording is available via the C-SPAN Video Library.

OverDrive will soon debut several new features including OverDrive Hub, a portal designed to enable staff in a variety of roles to work with their library’s digital branch, the company announced during the “Forward Together: The Future of Your Digital Branch with the OverDrive Hub and Libby” panel at OverDrive’s biennial Digipalooza conference in August.

The 2023 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding announces a shortlist. The 2023 Whiting Literary Magazine Prizes are announced. PW rounds up September’s book club picks. Books by Lauren Groff, Walter Isaacson, Oprah Winfrey, and Arthur C. Brooks continue to buzz. Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing sequel, Iron Flame, will arrive November 7.  Water for Elephants musical, based on the novel by Sara Gruen, will open on Broadway this spring. Plus, a new Agatha Christie memorial statue is unveiled on a bench in Wallingford.

Code Red by Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills leads holds this week. Titles by James Patterson, Jill Duggar, Lauren Groff, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Mick Herron also get attention. Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk arrives with buzz. The National Book Foundation will honor Rita Dove with a medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and LitHub announces the shortlist for 2023 American Library in Paris Book Award. People’s book of the week is Chenneville by Paulette Jiles. Oprah Winfrey and Arthur C. Brooks discuss their new book, Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. Plus, Stephen King’s novel Christine and its film adaptation turn 40.

The Ned Kelly Award winners, celebrating the best in Australian crime writing, have been named. The winners of the Davitt Awards, recognizing the best crime and mystery books by Australian women, are announced. The same effort that promotes book bans is spurring some libraries to leave the ALA over its defense of books. Edith Grossman, eminent translator of Spanish literature by Cervantes and Gabriel García Márquez, dies at 87. Journalist and author Peter C. Newman, who chronicled Canada’s power brokers, has died at 94.

Reese Witherspoon chooses Nina Simon’s Mother-Daughter Murder Night as her latest book club pick. The winners of this year’s Anthony Awards, for outstanding mystery books, are announced. Winners are also out for the 2023 Dragon Awards, for SFF novels. The longlist has been announced for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize, honoring the best Canadian novel, graphic novel, or short story collection. SFF novelist Rich Larson wins the 2023 Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction.

The Baillie Gifford Prize longlist is announced. The 2023 National Translation Awards longlist arrives, along with the 2023 Washington State Book Award nominees. Jenna Bush Hager picks Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood for her September book club. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Stephen King’s Holly. Author Carl Hiaasen pays tribute to Jimmy Buffet. Plus, WSJ reports that the FTC will file an antitrust suit against Amazon later this month.

Cody Library, WY, and Marathon Public Library, TX received honorable mentions for LJ and Ingram's Best Small Library in America 2023 award. 

Libraries are many things to their communities—and sometimes, they’re everything. The Page Public Library, on the northern Arizona border, is considered not just a library but the essential core of the community, and has been named LJ and Ingram's Best Small Library in America 2023.

At a time when collaboration is endangered by conflict and critical thinking is often jettisoned in favor of the latest “hot take,” I can’t help but feel like library professionals are the leaders we need to secure a brighter future.

Holly by Stephen King leads holds this week. The shortlist for the 2023 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award is announced. Audiofile announces the September 2023 Earphones Award winners. People releases its fall must-read preview. September’s Costco Connection is out, featuring an interview with Swedish author Karin Smirnoff, who continues Lisbeth Salander’s story in The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons. ShelfAwareness reports on strike news from Powell’s Books. Plus, Ernest Hemingway’s letter detailing a plane crash that he survived has sold for $237,055 at auction.

Judge Alan D. Albright indicates he will issue a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of HB 900, the state's controversial book rating law.

The finalists for the 2023 Kirkus Prizes are announced. The finalists for the 2022 Sidewise Award for alternate history are announced. NYT reports on YA novelist John Green’s involvement in ensuring access to books in Indiana libraries. 

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim is the new GMA Book Club pick for September. The 2023 Dream Foundry Contest winners are announced. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner. Esquire has a feature profile of author Chuck Palahniuk. LitHub pairs “10 Books for Taylor Swift’s 10 Eras.” Ibram X. Kendi celebrates a cancer-free milestone. Plus, Crime 101, based on a novella by Don Winslow, sparks a bidding war between Netflix and Amazon.

Fall booklists and previews arrive. The Readings New Australian Fiction Prize 2023 shortlist is announced. Ingram adds print-on-demand capability to its Chambersburg, PA, location. Interviews feature Zadie Smith, Bryan Washington, Safiya Sinclair, David Kennerley, Myriam Gurba, and Harold Rogers. The release date of Dune: Part Two has been moved to 2024, due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Plus, A Haunting in Venice, based on Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party, arrives in select theaters early.

All eyes are on Texas as HB 900, the state’s controversial new book rating law, is slated to take effect September 1, 2023. Signed by Governor Greg Abbott on June 12, the legislation aims to prevent the sale of books deemed “sexually explicit” or “sexually relevant” to school districts by requiring book publishers and vendors to rate individual titles based on content.

The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner leads holds this week. Three LibraryReads and five Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Happiness Falls by Angie Kim. Washington Post reports that the Pulitzer Prizes will consider opening books and arts prizes to noncitizens. The Polari Prize’s 2023 longlists are announced. A new trailer arrives for Cat Person, based on viral New Yorker story by Kristen Roupenian, which premieres in theaters October 6. And Bob Barker, legendary game show host, animal activist, and author, has died at the age of 99.

Alice Winn wins 2023 Waterstones debut fiction prize for In Memoriam. The UK’s Ackerley Prize for Autobiography names its 2023 shortlist. SFF and horror novelist (and music composer and conductor) S.P. Somtow is honored by the Thai National Committee for Culture. 

Often, medieval book bindings—as many as one in five from the 15th and 16th centuries—are reinforced with fragments of pages from older printed volumes that bookbinders considered obsolete. Without the option of dismantling precious books to reveal the fragments, specialists turn to x-ray technology to reveal words that have been hidden from view for hundreds of years. A team at the University of Iowa recently used familiar medical technology—a computerized tomography (CT) scanner—to do just that.

A new PEN America report documents a surge in “educational intimidation” bills. Salon speaks with former NFLer Michael Oher about The Blind Side controversy and his new book, When Your Back’s Against the Wall: Fame, Football, and Lessons Learned Through a Lifetime of Adversity. Equipping Space Cadets: Primary Science Fiction for Young Children by Emily Midkiff wins the 2023 Science Fiction Research Association book award; the SFRA’s other awards are announced as well.

Book banning groups are becoming more organized, but libraries are evolving new tactics to oppose censorship efforts, panelists said during the “#UniteAgainstBookBans: Advocate for your community’s right to read” panel with Emily Drabinski, Sara Gold, and Lisa Varga, with moderator Brian Potash, at OverDrive’s biennial Digipalooza conference in Cleveland August 9–11.

The 2023 American Book Award winners are announced, including Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, Edgar Gomez, Jamil Jan Kochai, Bojan Louis, Leila Mottley, and more; Maxine Hong Kingston will receive a lifetime achievement prize, and the late bell hooks will be awarded the Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Award for Criticism. The 2023 PEN Translates winners are announced. Fall book previews start to arrive, along with author interviews. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for After That Night by Karin Slaughter.

The longlist for the 2023 German Book Prize is announced. The 2023 Prix Rosny Aîné winners are announced. The Atlantic reports on the authors and books that are powering generative AI. Washington Post features the work of Yiddish writer Chava Rosenfarb. Interviews arrive with Lauren Beukes, Karin Slaughter, Amber Caron, Josh Cook, Prachi Gupta, and Kate Zernike. Valorie Lee Schaefer reflects on the 25th anniversary of her book The Care and Keeping of You, at Elle. Plus, the 12th season of American Horror Story, based on the novel Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine, gets a new trailer.

While many library collections and archives start with a gift of materials from a donor, sometimes a collection originates with a forward-thinking librarian and curator. Thanks to Hal W. Hall, special formats librarian at Texas A&M University (TAMU) Library from 1970 to 2010, TAMU is now home to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Collection at Cushing Library.

After That Night by Karin Slaughter leads holds this week. Bolu Babalola wins the 2023 TikTok Book of the Year award for Honey and Spice. Alice Oseman and Holly Parker also garner awards. People’s book of the week is A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power. September’s LibraryReads list is out, featuring top pick The September House by Carissa Orlando. Amy Winehouse: In Her Words publishes next week. Plus, Disney+’s Percy Jackson And The Olympians gets a trailer.

Author Michael Lewis, whose book inspired The Blind Side film, speaks out on the root cause of the family’s rift. Meanwhile, NYT examines Michael Oher’s version of the story, via his two memoirs. Plus book reviews, book news, and Page to Screen, which includes an animated version of a 16th-century Chinese novel, a spin-off of Frankenstein, and a true-crime thriller about an Irish Republican Army unit undercover in London.

Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman wins the 2023 Arthur C. Clarke Award. The longlist is released for the Laurel Prize, honoring the best collection of environmental or nature poetry. Authors call on Justice Dept. and FTC to investigate Amazon’s alleged monopoly in the bookselling industry. NYT profiles Skyhorse Publishing. Washington Post runs an obituary for the late scholar Nechama Tec, a Holocaust survivor who authored Defiance.

Penguin Random House launches a new banned-books resource. An Iowa school district uses AI to remove titles from library collections. Booklists highlight Women in Translation Month. None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell tops the August LoanStars list. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Lion & Lamb by James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski. Interviews arrive with Alice Hoffman, Pidgeon Pagonis, Kai Cheng Tho, Jenn Shapland, Karan Feder, Drew Gilpin Faust, Laura Meckler, and more. LA Times and Datebook take a critical look at The Blind Side.

Music labels sue the Internet Archive over copyright infringement. Former NFL tackle Michael Oher, whose story was the inspiration for Michael Lewis’s book The Blind Side and its film adaptation, sues to end conservatorship. Katy Turner wins the Romance Novelists Association’s Joan Hessayon Award. The 2023 Splatterpunk Awards winners are announced. NYT highlights the popularity of Brooklyn Public Library’s limited-edition cards featuring Jay-Z.

Lion & Lamb by James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski leads holds this week. Other buzzy books include titles by Alice Hoffman, James Rollins, T. Kingfisher, and Paul Murray. Five LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week; People’s book of the week is The English Experience by Julie Schumacher. Tess Gunty discusses her National Book Award–winning novel, The Rabbit Hutch, with CBS Sunday Morning. Award-winning poet Keith Waldrop has died at age 90.

The Wainwright Prize for nature and conservation writing has released its 2023 shortlist, and the Laurel Prize for best ecopoetry announces its 2023 longlist. Plus book reviews, book news, and Page to Screen, which includes a film about Stephen King, one spinning off of Dracula, and Red, White & Royal Blue, based on the novel by Casey McQuiston.

The longlist is announced for the Petrona Award for best Scandinavian crime novel. Finalists are announced for the Dragon Awards. Author Dmitry Glukovsky has been sentenced to prison in Russia for speaking out on Ukraine. Amazon removes books allegedly generated by AI that author Jane Friedman says were falsely attributed to her. The author of The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized the World sues filmmakers for copying his book for the 2023 Apple+ Tetris biopic. Alice K. Ladas, author of landmark book on female sexuality, dies at 102. Guitarist-songwriter-singer-memoirist Robbie Robertson, leader of ’60s and ’70s rock group the Band, has died at age 80.

Hallie Rich is named editor in chief of Library Journal. The 2023 Ned Kelly Awards announces its shortlist. CBC Books announces its Writers to Watch list. Earlyword’s August GalleyChatters rave about Jean Kwok’s forthcoming novel, The Leftover Woman, due out in October. LA Times explains what Simon & Schuster’s sale means for “authors, the industry—and you.” LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell. Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver leads a literary tour through Appalachia for NYT. Plus, Apple TV+ releases a new trailer for The Changeling, based on the best-selling book by Victor LaValle.

The most recent Ithaka S+R U.S. Library Survey shows that 67 percent of academic library directors indicate strategies that specifically address ensuring the accessibility of the library’s physical and digital collections are a high priority in their DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility) efforts. How can we continue to foster support for—and innovation in—equitable access to library services and resources?

Simon and Schuster is sold for $1.62 billion to the private equity firm KKR, which also owns Overdrive. Masha Gessen wins Germany’s Hannah Arendt Prize. The 2023 Cundill History Prize longlist is announced. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex acquire rights to Carley Fortune’s Meet Me at the Lake. Brooke Shields announces a new book, to be published by Flatiron. Slate interviews James McBride about The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. Librarians suggest strategies for adults just getting into books for the first time, at Vox.

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell leads holds this week. People’s book of the week is The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, which garners rave reviews as a “great American novel.” Paramount is close to an announcement on Simon & Schuster deal. The September 2023 Indie Next List Preview is out, featuring Lauren Groff’s The Vaster Wilds. The 2023 Ned Kelly Awards shortlists are announced. Lin-Manuel Miranda will adapt Sol Yurick’s cult novel The Warriors into a stage musical. Bloomsbury USA president Adrienne Vaughan died in a boating accident on Friday.

Design Institute Durham, held at the Durham County Library, NC, highlighted the need for ongoing communication among designers, architects, and libraries during all phases of a project.

At LJ’s 2023 Design Institute in Durham, NC, held at the Durham County Library on June 1, four libraries in Michigan, Alabama, and North Carolina enlisted architects and attendees to brainstorm on upcoming library design challenges.

The longlist for the Diverse Book Awards, the longlist for the Toronto Book Awards, and the winners of the 2023 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award are announced. Otto Penzler announces a new true-crime imprint, Crime Ink. Seiichi Morimura, who exposed Japanese wartime atrocities in a widely read book in Japan, has died at age 90. Composer Carl Davis, best known for his scores for literary adaptations like the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice, has died at age 86. Cookbook writer Marlena Spieler has died at the age of 74.

House Bill 1315, signed by the governor, regulates “pornographic media exposure” to K–12-aged children and “digital and online resources” provided by vendors to those children. The bill requires a vendor or provider of digital or online resources or databases to have safety policies and technology protection measures that prohibit and prevent a person from sending, receiving, viewing, or downloading content that officials consider “obscene.”

Finalists have been named for the Leacock Medal for humor writing and the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for books about thoroughbred horse racing. “A.I.’s Inroads in Publishing Touch Off Fear, and Creativity,” reports NYT. Bidding for Simon & Schuster draws to a close. A new novel by Emily Henry is coming in the spring. Faith-based groups and individuals are heading to libraries this Saturday to take part in a nationwide book reading event. There are obituaries for Lois Libien, Alan Roland, and Martin Walser.

Most libraries don’t own their own ebooks. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to LJ readers, yet it’s a statement that continues to confound elected officials and administrators who get an astounding amount of say in how much money public and academic libraries are allotted. This is one of the reasons I, along with my coauthors Sarah Lamdan, Michael Weinberg, and Jason Schultz at the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy at New York University Law, published our recent report, The Anti-Ownership Ebook Economy: How Publishers and Platforms Have Reshaped the Way We Read in the Digital Age. 

Reese Witherspoon picks Tom Lake by Ann Patchett for her August book club. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for the novel, which is the top holds title of the week. Audiofile announces the August 2023 Earphones Award Winners. Fantasy Magazine will shutter after its October 2023 issue. The late Paul Reubens leaves behind an unfinished memoir. Billy Dee Williams’s forthcoming memoir, What Have We Here?, will publish in February. Interviews arrive with Tahir Hamut Izgil, Jamel Brinkley, Jake Tapper, Danielle Valentine, Richard E. Grant, and Ann Patchett. Imagine Entertainment acquires film rights to Daniel Kraus’s new novel, Whalefall. Barbara Hoffert will retire from Library Journal in September, after an esteemed career.

UPDATE: On Saturday, July 29, U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks temporarily blocked two sections of Act 372, citing concerns that they were too vague and could potentially violate the First and 14th amendments. The preliminary injunction prevented the two contested sections from taking effect on August 1, as scheduled; the court will continue to investigate their constitutionality. Brooks’s 49-page order opened with a quote from Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451: “There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.” 

When a series of unanticipated hardships hit Breathitt County, KY, its library came forward to serve residents in large and small ways. For its critical community work now and looking ahead, Breathitt County Public Library is the recipient of LJ and Gale's inaugural Libraries Defying the Odds award. Charleston County Public Library, SC, is awarded honorable mention for its ongoing work to address food insecurity.

The Booker Prize longlist is announced, featuring new voices, including four debut authors. August book club picks arrive including Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake, Judy Blume’s The Summer Sisters, Elizabeth Acevedo’s Family Lore, and more. The Washington Post explores the exploding popularity of online book clubs and shares how to find the right one. August’s Costco Connection is out, with an author spotlight on Ann Patchett. Plus, plenty of summer booklists help to beat the heat.

The overarching concern at ALA Annual in Chicago this summer was the proliferation of censorship attempts and book challenges at libraries of all kinds, in all states.

Library Journal announced that Barbara Hoffert, Editor of Prepub Alert, will retire effective September 14. In a career spanning more than 37 years, Hoffert has been a key voice within the LJ book review and in book criticism, herself shining a light on over a thousand titles each year through her prepublication recommendations and reviews.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett leads holds this week. Other titles in demand include books by Sandra Brown, Kathy Reichs, Gillian McAllister, and Elizabeth Acevedo. Three LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Time’s Mouth by Edan Lepucki. A federal judge temporarily blocks an Arkansas state law banning librarians from giving minors materials deemed “harmful” to them.

The shortlists for the Alice Awards for illustrated books and the seventh annual Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award have been announced. There are remembrances of the late singer Sinead O’Connor and her memoir, Rememberings: Scenes from My Complicated Life.

The Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize longlist is announced. The Digital Public Library of America’s app, The Banned Book Club, allows access to books banned by location. Singer Sinead O’Connor, author of the memoir Rememberings: Scenes from My Complicated Life, has died at age 56. Vulture’s new beach-read book club will start with Emma Cline’s The Guest. 

From the Princeton University Library “Special Collections” Blog Post by Stephen Ferguson and Emma Sarconi: The majority of the books in the collection are gifts–inscribed from authors and academics to Oppenheimer (or as Christopher Fry writes, “Oppy”) and Kitty. Some, however, are clearly the Oppenheimer’s personal copies. Henry James’ The Ambassadors, James Joyce and Francis Ferguson’s New Directions, and Abraham Lincoln’s Collected Works all offer a peek into an open and vast mind.

From a Post on The Conversation by Nicole Cooke. Associate Professor of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina: The drive to challenge, ban or censor books has not only changed the lives of librarians across the nation. It’s also changing the way librarians are now educated to enter the profession. As a library school educator, I hear the anecdotes, questions and concerns from library workers who are on the front lines of the current fight and are not sure how to react or respond.

In the Southern California community of Huntington Beach, days before sharp budget cuts to the Huntington Beach Public Library (HBPL) were proposed—and then walked back—battle lines were drawn over a proposal to screen public library materials for what some deem sexually explicit or age-inappropriate content, and possibly limit access to those materials. The challenge, however, did not originate with an anonymous patron or member of a right-wing group, but with the city’s Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark.

The Academy of American Poets announces its 2023 Poet Laureate Fellows. Caryl Lewis wins Wales Book of the Year award for Drift. The British Fantasy Awards shortlists and World Fantasy Awards finalists are announced. Drew Barrymore will host the National Book Awards on November 15, with special guest Oprah Winfrey. Booksellers sue Texas over “Sexual Rating” law. Adaptations of Evelyn Waugh’s and Langston Hughes’s works are on the way. Season 2 of Netflix’s Heartstopper, based on the graphic novels by Alice Oseman, has a new trailer. 

Shankari Chandran wins the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award for Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens. Eisner Comic Industry Awards are announced. George R.R. Martin updates fans on Winds of Winter, amid HBO deal suspension. Lee Rowland is named executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. Trevor Noah previews his forthcoming graphic novel, Into the Uncut Grass, due in October. 

This summer has seen several announcements from library vendors, including many during the recent American Library Association conference in Chicago. Here’s some of the recent news.

Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena leads holds this week. Four LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Somebody’s Fool by Richard Russo. A new translation of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov arrives. The 2023 Polari Prize longlists are announced. Tina Shaw wins the 2023 Michael Gifkins Prize. The Washington Post looks into the Smithsonian’s abrupt cancellation of the Asian American literary festival. Plus, EW recaps news from San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

Former president Barack Obama shares the books he’s reading this summer. The Roald Dahl Museum calls the author’s racism “undeniable and indelible.” Ta-Nehisi Coates attends a South Carolina school board meeting to support a teacher banned from using his book Between the World and Me in class. Javier Zamora, author of the memoir Solito, tells LA Times, “It’s time for the Pulitzer Prize for literature to accept noncitizens.” Toya Wolfe’s Last Summer on State Street wins the 2023 Pattis Award, The Botanist by M.W. Craven wins the 2023 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and the Australian National Biography Award shortlist is announced.

The inaugural TikTok Book Awards shortlist, the winners of the LeBlanc Award for Brazilian literature, and the second annual Trigon Award winners are announced. Novelist Elizabeth Crook wins the 2023 Texas Writer Award. The Guardian asks, “Does it really matter who wrote it?” about the rise of ghostwritten celebrity fiction. Snoop Dogg will team up with rapper E-40 for a forthcoming cookbook. James Reston Jr., a historian and novelist who had a hand in Richard Nixon’s apology, has died at age 82. Stephen M. Silverman, reporter and historian of popular culture, has died at age 71. 

When the Strong National Museum of Play opened its doors in 1982 in downtown Rochester, NY, it was built around the collections of Margaret Woodbury Strong (1897–1969), who had spent a lifetime collecting household objects—particularly those related to play, such as dolls and dollhouses. The museum’s initial mission was “to document everyday life in the northeastern United States between 1840 and 1940, which was essentially the impact of industrialization on the rising middle class.” In 2003, the museum refocused on play, play-centered objects, childhood, and education.

Terrors abound in the library. Martian robots, Cerberus, and a Kraken are only a few of the miseries that have to be conquered. A team of collaborators must work strategically together to not only squelch those baddies, but contain them in their proper space—the book they came in. Sounds plausible, but this is not a worst-case book challenge scenario. Rather, it’s a short description of the new offering from Dissent Campaigns & Games called Library Labyrinth.

The 2023 New England Book Awards finalists are announced. News and analysis arrives on the buyouts and layoffs at Penguin Random House. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The Collector by Daniel Silva. Ben McKenzie discusses his new book, Easy Money. Kristin Hannah previews her forthcoming book, The Women, due out next February. There is a first-look at Hulu’s adaptation of Zakiya Dalila Harris’s The Other Black Girl. Plus, Academy of American Poets president Ricardo Alberto Maldonado discusses  his goals to expand the reach of poetry to Americans.

Barack Obama pens thank you letter to America’s librarians. The August LibraryReads list is out, featuring top pick Happiness Falls by Angie Kim. The 2023 Imadjinn Awards winners and the 2023 Sunday Times Literary Awards longlist are announced. Top editors at Penguin Random House take buyouts, with layoffs underway. Colson Whitehead’s Crook Manifesto and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Silver Nitrate get reviewed. Interviews arrive with Andrew Leland, J. Randy Taraborrelli, Dina Gachman, Sara Flannery Murphy, Emily Monosson, and Ann Beattie.

Former President of the United States Barack Obama published an open letter on Monday, extending his support to America’s librarians in an era of rising book challenges and growing personal attacks against those who resist them.

The Collector by Daniel Silva leads holds this week. The Shirley Jackson Awards are announced, with Best Novel going to The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias and Where I End by Sophie White, in a tie. The New American Voices Award longlist is announced. Thousands of authors, including Nora Roberts and Margaret Atwood, sign an open letter to AI companies. People’s book of the week is Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead.

On June 26, the eve of Emily Drabinski’s ALA presidency, campaign workers, school librarians, activists, colleagues, friends, and family members gathered in her suite in the Chicago Hilton Hotel on Michigan Avenue. Against the backdrop of boats slowly moving across Lake Michigan, she addressed supporters. “Tonight we’re celebrating library wins,” she said. “In our communities, against censorship, and for the common good.”

Minnie Bruce Pratt, celebrated poet of lesbian life, dies at 76. Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson will publish a book. Kirkus rounds up the 45 Emmy nominations received by book adaptations. Plus Page to Screen and book reviews.

Waterstones has announced the shortlist for its 2023 Debut Fiction Prize. Britain’s Royal Society of Literature aims to broaden representation as it announces 62 new fellows. July’s EarlyWord GalleyChat spreadsheet is available now. The NYPL blog rounds up its reading lists inspired by Emmy-nominated shows, as well as the books that inspired Emmy-nominated shows. And Publishers Weekly reports that Christian publishers are adding more faith-based sci-fi/fantasy titles.

Emma Molls, currently the director of open research and publishing for the University of Minnesota Libraries, was named a 2021 Library Journal Mover & Shaker for their work with open research. LJ followed up with Molls to learn what they’ve been up to since then.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been a hot topic ever since it debuted to the public seven months ago. So much so that the American Library Association’s (ALA) Core division decided to forgo its traditional wide-ranging approach to its Top Tech Trends panel and focus exclusively on the potential benefits and problems of generative artificial intelligence (AI) during the “Core Top Technology Trends: Libraries Take on ChatGPT” session at the ALA Annual Conference, held June 22–27 in Chicago.

The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize announces its 2023 shortlist. The 2023 Eugie Award finalists are announced. Britney Spears announces her new memoir, The Woman in Me, which will publish October 24. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Hello Stranger by Katherine Center. Emmy Awards nominations are announced today. Wonka, which premieres December 15, releases a new trailer. Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has died at the age of 94.

Reference librarians in small academic libraries do a little of everything, from seeing synergies to creating workarounds for staff, collection, facilities, and budget gaps.

Authors, including Sarah Silverman, sue Meta and OpenAI for copyright infringement. The Booker Prize winners announcement will move to the end of November. The Caine Prize announces its 2023 shortlist. Publishers Lunch will host a virtual Buzz Books Romance Editors Panel tomorrow. Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS is an instant best seller. Time catches up with Colleen Hoover at Book Bonanza, and interviews arrive with Sarah Rose Etter, Maggie Smith, and Elizabeth Winder. A new animated film inspired by Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” series is in the works. Plus, Rolling Stones drummer and bibliophile Charlie Watts’s rare-book collection will be up for auction at Christie’s.

On Thursday, June 22, the evening before the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Chicago officially began, Unite Against Book Bans hosted Rally for the Right to Read: Uniting for Libraries and Intellectual Freedom and an intellectual freedom award ceremony, attended by about 600 conferencegoers.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center leads holds this week. The CWA Dagger Award Winners are announced and the 2023 Hugo Award finalists are announced. Audiofile announces the July 2023 Earphones Award Winners. The Millions releases its “Most Anticipated: The Great 2023B Book Preview.”  People’s book of the week is Fireworks Every Night by Beth Raymer. July’s Costco Connection features the new paperback edition of Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait and book club pick The Block Party by Jamie Day. August’s Indie Next List preview features #1 pick, Shark Heart by Emily Habeck. 

As always, authors were everywhere at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, held June 22–27 in Chicago. The conference was bookended by Opening General Session speaker Judy Blume, a perennially best-selling novelist currently experiencing a new wave of interest, and the Closing Session speakers, YA best-selling poet Amanda Gorman and Caldecott and Coretta Scott King–honored illustrator Christian Robinson. 

Keeping library staff and patrons safe in challenging times requires leadership, listening, and considering what safety and security mean in different communities.

At LJ, we watch the places where the law touches libraries. In recent years those areas of overlap have become unmistakable, as elected officials across the country propose—and pass—bills that would cut funding, prosecute staff, and remove collection oversight by libraries. We’re also looking for good news, though, and some emerging safeguards are promising.