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UPDATE: On March 31, a Federal District Court Judge in Texas handed down an injunction stopping the ongoing removal of books from the Llano County library system. The decision will immediately reinstate books that government officials have already removed from the system. The court found that library officials violated the First Amendment because they had targeted nationally acclaimed books based on their viewpoint and content. The Court’s order states: “The Court finds it substantially likely that the removals do not further any substantial government interest—much less any compelling one.”

There is awards news for the Booker, Dinesh Allirajah, and Bridport Prizes. Conversations with authors feature the words and thoughts of Rachel Heng, Gina Chung, Allegra Hyde, Judy Blume, and Clancy Martin. Film adaptations are forthcoming for Rebecca Serle’s One Italian Summer and Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

The American Library Association’s Government Documents Roundtable spotlights publications reflecting contemporary top-of-mind issues.

Libraries in Missouri, particularly rural libraries, felt a major blow this week when the state House granted initial approval to slash the roughly $4.5 million in state aid to public libraries from its budget.

Two community members are suing Louisiana’s Lafayette Consolidated Government, the municipal body that oversees the Lafayette Public Library (LPL), for denying the right to free speech in public board meetings. Lynette Mejía and Melanie Brevis, community members and patrons of LPL, are co-plaintiffs in the suit, which also names Board of Control President Robert Judge. According to local newspaper The Acadiana Advocate, the lawsuit alleges the violation of Mejía’s and Brevis’s First Amendment rights to free speech as well as their 14th Amendment rights, along with violations of the Louisiana Open Meetings Law. 

The 2023 Audie Awards Winners, Republic of Consciousness Prize, and Whiting Award winners are announced. The best-sellers lists this week feature Countdown by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois, The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear, Smolder by Laurell K. Hamilton, Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond, The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro, and Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. Conversations feature interviews with authors such as Meleana Estes, Abraham Riesman, Gabrielle Zevin, Rhys Bowen, and Idra Novey. There is adaptation news for Lone Women by Victor LaValle and Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain.

The 2023 Dublin Literary Award shortlist is announced, featuring Anthony Doerr, Percival Everett, Kim Thúy, and more. Salman Rushdie, Alice Oseman, Mererid Hopwood, and Serhiy Zhadan will receive Hay Festival Medals in May. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Loyalty by Lisa Scottoline. Interviews arrive with Clint Smith, Branson Sanderson, Dr. Arline T. Geronimus, and Colleen Oakley. Chris Chalk will play James Baldwin in Feud: Capote's Women on FX. Plus, Diane Marie Brown’s Black Candle Women will be adapted as a series.

In a blow to the Internet Archive’s (IA) Open Library project and potentially to the concept of controlled digital lending (CDL), Judge John Koeltl of the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York on March 24 granted a summary judgment in favor of Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House in their lawsuit against IA. The lawsuit was filed on June 1, 2020, in response to the March 24 launch of IA’s “National Emergency Library,” which temporarily offered unlimited simultaneous access to IA’s collection of 1.4 million digitized books during the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many K–12, public, and academic libraries had been suddenly closed.

Tough investigators and woolly mammoths: all in a thriller writer's day. 

Margo Jefferson wins 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize “Book of the Year” for her memoir Constructing a Nervous System. Scary Monsters by Michelle De Kretser wins for fiction, and Quiet: Poems by Victoria Adukwei Bulley wins for poetry. Kitty Kelley wins the 2023 BIO Award. The Imadjinn Awards finalists and British Book Awards shortlists are announced. Jhumpa Lahiri will publish a new story collection in October. Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Martin Scorsese and based on the book by David Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI), gets an October release date. Plus, ALA condemns ongoing threats against libraries. 

A U.S. Court rules against the Internet Archive in a closely watched copyright case. Dav Pilkey’s 11th Dog Man book, Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea, leads holds this week. Five LibraryReads and six Indie Next picks publish this week. Canada Reads returns for its 22nd season, featuring Ducks by Kate Beaton, Greenwood by Michael Christie, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Stranger Things actor Millie Bobby Brown’s forthcoming debut novel, Nineteen Steps, will arrive in September. Plus, Publishers Weekly releases its 2023 Summer Reads preview. 

Beverly Gage wins the New-York Historical Society award for G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century. Other awards announcements include the International Dylan Thomas Prize shortlist, National Book Critics Circle winners, and Sheikh Zayed Book Award. Multiple news outlets cover the book ban report recently released by ALA. There are many conversations with authors including Geetanjali Shree, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Robert Lopez, Jinwoo Chong, Victor LaValle, and Julia Samuel.

Many academic librarians believe context matters when artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT are used by students and faculty to assist with their work, according to “AI in Higher Education: The Librarians’ Perspectives,” a recent survey of 125 librarians published this month by Helper Systems. While only eight percent of respondents said that they believe it is cheating when students use AI products for research—compared with 49 percent who said it was not—42 percent said that it was “somewhat” cheating.

There is an annoucement for the Writers’ Trust of Canada new nonfiction prize: the Weston International Award. Books debuting on the best-seller lists this week are I Will Find You by Harlan Coben, Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, Saved: A War Reporter’s Mission To Make It Home by Benjamin Hall, Paris: The Memoir by Paris Hilton, and The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Running Team by Kara Goucher, written with Mary Pilon. Audio interviews feature conversations with authors such as Ari Shapiro, Darren Walker, Madelaine Lucas, Kerry Howley, Natalie Koch, and John Parker.

When Stacy Collins was named a 2021 LJ Mover & Shaker, she was the research and instruction librarian for Boston’s Simmons University Library, where she developed the highly regarded Anti-Oppression Guide. LJ reached out to her to learn more about what she’s been doing since 2021, which includes a new position at a boarding school.

Colson Whitehead, Amy Tan, Ann Patchett, Bryan Stevenson, and others receive National Humanities Medals. Linda Villarosa, Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation, and Deborah Cohen, Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War, win 2023 J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards. Questlove launches a new publishing imprint. There is adaptation news for Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo, Cesca Major’s Maybe Next Time, two titles by J. Newman, and Claire Keegan’s novel Small Things Like These. Plus, James Patterson signs an exclusive deal with Skydance Television.

Will Sharpe will direct the movie adaptation of Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H Mart. Today is World Poetry Day. Award winners and shortlists arrive from the Sheikh Zayed Book Awards, the Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Award, and the Yoto Carnegie Medals. Hachette v. Internet Archive has a key hearing. Biography of X by Catherine Lacey gets buzz. At LA Times Matthew Desmond discusses his new book Poverty, by America and “the ways we can move the needle on poverty.” 

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear leads library holds this week. The April LibraryReads list is out, featuring top pick, In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune. Four Indie Next picks publish this week, including Flux by Jinwoo Chong, Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin, American Mermaid by Julia Langbein, and Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash. People’s book of the week is The Kingdom of Prep: The Inside Story of the Rise and (Near) Fall of J.Crew by Maggie Bullock. Author profiles and interviews arrive with Catherine Lacey, Jeannette Walls, Mona Simpson, and Matthew Desmond. 

Some libraries have tested WISP Networks and CBRS to explore providing home broadband to their communities, and new satellite technology shows promise for rural libraries.

Ling Ma has won the Story Prize for Bliss Montage. Other awards announcements include the New York Public Library’s 36th annual Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism and the V S Pritchett Short Story Prize shortlist. Conversations delve into the experiences and processes of authors such as Richard Mirabella, Elizabeth McKenzie, Vibhuti Jain Jenny Jackson, Nazli Koca, Nita Prose, Gina Frangello, and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad. There is adaptation news for Leigh Bardugo’s “Six of Crows” book series. 

There are announcements for the 35th Annual Lambda Awards finalists, the Jhalak Prize longlist, and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Featured on the best-sellers lists are the debuts of Worthy Opponents by Danielle Steel, Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson, The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner, and Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell. Author interviews highlight the experiences of writers such as Sabrina Orah Mark, Richard Nuila, Sarah Thankam Mathews, Alissa Quart, Meredith Broussard, and Patti McCracken. There is adaptation news for Josie Silver’s One Day in December and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

This year’s Tournament of Books has begun, Oprah’s Book Club pick continues to buzz, and the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses announced its longlist. Author John Jakes has died at the age of 90. Leigh Bardugo inks a blockbuster deal with Macmillan, and Vulture profiles Kelly Link, whose new collection White Cat, Black Dog, publishes March 28. Oscar Isaac will play Kurt Vonnegut in a new crime series. 

Oprah makes her 100th book club pick with Ann Napolitano’s Hello Beautiful. The International Booker Prize longlist is announced. London Review Bookshop launches the Martha Mills prize. Becca Rothfeld is the new nonfiction book critic at The Washington Post. Interviews arrive with Benjamin Hall, Claire Jimenez, Margaret Atwood, Jenny Jackson, Ann Napolitano, Karen Fine, and Laurel Braitman. Booklists arrive for fans of HBO’s The Last of Us, which surpasses House of the Dragon in full-season viewers. Plus, NPR’s Short Wave celebrates National Pi Day with 𝝅 and pie. 

Connecticut's Senate Bill 2, “An Act Concerning The Mental, Physical And Emotional Wellness of Children,” would, among many other things, allow every Connecticut municipality to designate a single sanctuary library—a place where patrons are promised access to books banned or challenged elsewhere.

I Will Find You by Harlan Coben leads holds this week. Three LibraryReads and two Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Künstlers in Paradise by Cathleen Schine. The Oscars were awarded last night, including honors for the adaptations All Quiet on the Western Front, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Women Talking, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Simon Parkin wins the 2023 Wingate Literary Prize for The Island of Extraordinary Captives. The 2022 Aurealis Awards shortlist is announced. Horror Spotlight announces its picks for Best Books of 2022. The California Book Awards finalists are announced. And Nobel Prize–winning Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe has died at the age of 88.

The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction longlist, the Baillie Gifford Prize Winner of Winners Prize shortlist, and the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award finalists are each announced. Illinois proposes anti–book ban legislation. Interviews feature conversations with Dina Nayeri, Michelle Dowd, Annalee Newitz, Roxanna Asgarian, Madelaine Lucas, Julia Bartz, and Thomas Mallon. Adaptations based on The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave and Denise Mina’s “Morrow” series are in the works.

Beverly Gage, Kelly Lytle Hernández, and John Wood Sweet win the 2023 Bancroft Prize. The 58th Nebula Award Finalists are also announced. Debuting on the best-seller lists are Storm Watch by C.J. Box, A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty, The Courage To Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival by Ron DeSantis, and Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May. There are some author interviews with journalist Benjamin Hall, thriller writer Christopher Bollen, and Sally Adee. There will be an adaptation of Cin Fabré’s memoir, Wolf Hustle: A Black Woman on Wall Street.

The Vermont State College System will be combined into one larger umbrella organization as Vermont State University, effective July 1. As part of the reorganization, all books, newspapers or periodicals, and historic pamphlets in libraries throughout the new system will be provided in digital format only—a decision that has met with widespread disapproval among the system’s students, faculty, and staff.

Toni Morrison is honored on USPS’s newest Forever Stamp. NYT Magazine offers a guide to “The New Black Canon: Books, Plays and Poems That Everyone Should Know.” The Women’s Prize for Fiction announces its longlist. The 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize finalists are announced. Laurie Halse Anderson wins the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson. The March Loanstars list features I Will Find You by Harlan Coben, and April’s Indie Next List Preview features No. 1 pick, Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez. March’s EarlyWord GalleyChat spreadsheet arrives. The U.S. Book Show presented by Publisher’s Weekly opens registration in hybrid format. And Ian Falconer, author of the “Olivia” series, has died.

Our initial goals were to create a unique outreach event for our communities; give students, faculty, and staff an outlet for creativity and civic engagement; and provide student internship opportunities grounded in experiential learning. We felt that a live concert would be a great format, as music is an accessible art form and allows diverse voices to be heard.

Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson is the new GMA Book Club pick. The Aspen Words Literary Prize shortlist is announced. S. & S. halts publication of The Book of Animal Secrets by David B. Agus, due to accusations of plagiarism. The Bookseller previews a new book by E L James, due out in June. Nora Ephron’s Heartburn turns 40. Michelle Obama’s The Light We Carry book tour is now available as an Audible podcast. Margaret Atwood, Eleanor Catton, Donal Ryan, Joanna Schwartz, Rafael Frumkin, and Dan Kois discuss their new books. Hulu kills its adaptation of Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City. Thriller writer Christopher Fowler has died at the age of 69. 

Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson leads holds this week. Seven LibraryReads and ten Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton. Also getting buzz are What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jimenez and In Memoriam by Alice Winn. USA Today shares details from Paris Hilton’s forthcoming memoir, due out next week. Sarah Polley and Miriam Toews win the USC Libraries’ Scripter and Writer’s Guild awards for their adaptation of Toews’s novel Women Talking.

LJ and SLJ’s 2022 Job Satisfaction Survey shows that most librarians are glad they chose their career, but significantly fewer than in 2012.

The NYT Magazine writes about building a canon of Black literature. The International Prize for Arabic Fiction shortlist is announced. The Kate Wilhelm Solstice Awards and the German Audiobook Prize winners both arrive. Conversations with authors illuminate thoughts from Omise’eke Tinsley, Rebecca Makkai, Michael Schulman, Kazuo Ishiguro, Will Sommer, Andrea Dunlop, and Ann Beattie. There is adaptation news for Clemente: The True Legacy of an Undying Hero and Mona Awad’s Bunny.

Prince George’s County Memorial Library System, MD, last August hosted its first annual social justice summer camp. During five full days at five separate branches, groups of teens learned about the history of social justice movements along with project management skills to help effect change in their own communities.

Media Source, Inc., a literacy solution provider to K–12 schools, public and school libraries, and higher education institutions, has announced the appointment of Scott Crawford as the new President & General Manager of AKJ Education, a Baltimore, MD, based wholesaler serving libraries and schools with quality educational materials, effective immediately.

In January, Arizona State University (ASU) announced that its Labriola National American Indian Data Center received a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to enable the center to better help Tribal nations that want to establish archival collections. The project is called “Firekeepers: Building Archival Data Sovereignty through Indigenous Memory Keeping.”

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai debuts at No. 3 on the NYT best-seller list. Also new to the list are Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes, Burner by Mark Greaney, The Last Kingdom by Steve Berry, The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz, It’s OK To Be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders, written with John Nichols, and All My Knotted-Up Life by Beth Moore. Author interviews explore the thoughts and processes of Aleksandar Hemon, V.V. Ganeshananthan, Raghavan Iyer, Steven Kotler, Derek Leebaert, and Michael Schulman. There is adaptation news for Kelsi Sheren’s Brass & Unity: One Woman’s Journey Through the Hell of Afghanistan and Back.

LibLearnX made space for needed conversation.

Penguin Random House reorganizes. March booklists arrive, along with national book club picks Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown and The Daughters of Madurai by Rajasree Variyar. Audiofile announces the March Earphones Award Winners. The March Costco Connection features The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley, Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher, and Baking School: Lessons and Recipes for Every Baker by King Arthur Baking Company. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Storm Watch by C.J. Box. Joanna Gaines previews her forthcoming book, Magnolia Table, Volume 3: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering, which arrives in May. John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is being developed into a new musical. 

The 2023 NAACP Literary Image Award winners are announced, including Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez and Finding Me by Viola Davis. Shortlists for the Andre Simon Food and Drink Book Awards are announced. The Daughters of Madurai by Rajasree Variyar is the March B&N book club pick. The Atlantic writes about why we need Judy Blume. Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow and John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold celebrate anniversaries this year. Guillermo Del Toro will direct an animated adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant for Netflix. Plus, rediscovered stories by Terry Pratchett will be published this fall in the UK.

The 2022 Stoker Awards Final Ballot is announced. Storm Watch by C.J. Box leads library holds this week. Five LibraryReads and seven Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Victory City by Salman Rushdie. A sequel to Dr. Seuss’s 1957 book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! will publish Sept. 5. Rick Riordan previews his forthcoming book, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods, due out in September. More “Lord of the Rings” adaptations are headed for the big screen. 

The 2023 Audie Awards finalists are out. The Parliamentary Book Awards winners are announced. There are many interviews with authors including: Maria José Ferrada, Allegra Hyde, Steve Berry, Chad Kultgen, and Lizzy Pace. There is adaptation news for Stephen King’s It getting a prequel.

There are awards announcements for the 43rd Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalists, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction longlist, and the Jan Grigson Trust Award shortlist. Beginning their debuts on the best-seller lists are The Last Orphan by Gregg Hurwitz, Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy by James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams, The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg, and Walk the Blue Line by James Patterson, written with Matt Eversmann and Chris Mooney. Multiple on-air author interviews feature the voices of Nick Tabor, Kelly Weill, Malcolm Harris, Angie Cruz, Rebecca Makkai, and Michael Schulman.

Blackstone inks a deal to publish Michael Crichton’s first series of novels, written under the pseudonym John Lange. Farzana Doctor wins the 2023 Freedom to Read Award. The Root launches the crowdsourced It’s Lit Awards. The 2022 Zsoldos Péter Award finalists are announced. Library Reads and LJ offer read-alikes for I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai. Interviews arrive with Rebecca Makkai, Jac Jemc, Asale Angel-Ajani, Erica Berry, Farzon A Nahvi, Jean D’Amérique, Ross Gay, Louise Dennys, and Roger Cohen. Adrian McKinty’s The Island will be adapted as a TV series. Unionized HarperCollins employees return to work. Plus, PW reports on developments in the closely watched Internet Archive copyright case.

Callan Bignoli, library director at Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA, was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker in 2021 for her work advocating for the health and safety of library workers during the pandemic. Much has changed since the early days of COVID’s arrival and spread, including the development of vaccines and boosters, but the need to speak up for library workers remains. LJ recently spoke with Bignoli to learn what’s changed—and what hasn’t—since then.

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai leads library holds this week. New editions of Roald Dahl’s children’s books stir controversy. Four LibraryReads and five Indie Next picks publish this week. The Authors’ Club announces the longlist for the Best First Novel Award 2023, and the 2021 Endeavour Award finalists are announced. Martina Fačková receives the 2022 Jack Gaughan Award for Best Emerging Artist. Gillian Flynn launches her new imprint with Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy. Plus, All Quiet on the Western Front, based on the book by Erich Maria Remarque, won 7 BAFTA awards, including best picture.

The 2023 PEN America Literary Award finalists are announced. There is news coverage of the HarperCollins Union new ratified contract; Kristina Pérez’s new company, Pérez Literary & Entertainment; and the new partnership between APA and Europa. Author interviews expound on the knowledge of the likes of Kevin Jared Hosein, Reuven Blau, Graham Rayman, Mai Nardone, Sheila Liming, Tina Brown, Anthony Walton, Louise Hare, Ben Ramalingam, Chetna Maroo, and Greta Thunberg.

The 2023 Wingate Prize shortlist is announced. Debuting at the top of the best-sellers lists are Encore in Death by J.D. Robb, Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes, Victory City by Salman Rushdie, Unnatural History by Jonathan Kellerman, People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account by Mark Pomerantz, and Bad Mormon by Heather Gay. There are author interviews with Davon Loeb, Rebekah Weatherspoon, Martin Wolf, Mark Jacobson, John Cribb, and Adam Brookes. There is adaptation news for N.K. Jemisin’s “Great Cities” series. 

At the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in June 2022, much discussion in Council sessions involved the organization’s transformation—specifically, streamlining ALA’s structure and governance through the consolidation of its Constitution and Bylaws. At LibLearnX, the Special Session: ALA Bylaws Convention, convened on Friday, January 27 to consider and finalize the draft general revision of the ALA bylaws, took on the work that remained unfinished.

Oprah picks Susan Cain’s Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole as her new book-club selection. The 2023 Southern Book Prize winners are announced, along with the finalists for the 2023 Compton Crook Award. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for 3 Days To Live by James Patterson. José Olivarez and his new poetry collection, Promises of Gold, get buzz. Paramount restarts sales process for S. & S., and Tor launches Bramble, a new romantic imprint. Catapult is shuttering its online magazine and writing classes. Rachel Koller Croft’s Stone Cold Fox will get a TV series adaptation. Plus, a new report finds Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was poisoned.

In January, the American Library Association (ALA) offered its recently reimagined winter event, LibLearnX: The Library Learning Experience, in person for the first time. The inaugural LibLearnX, held in January 2022, was presented virtually to accommodate COVID restrictions and concerns. This year debuted a hybrid model: The live version, held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans from January 27–30, was attended by 1,712 library workers and supporters and 757 exhibitors, authors, illustrators, press, and ALA staff. The LLX Digital Experience hosted 190 online attendees.

As awareness increases about the need to address personal challenges both inside and out of the library, staff and practitioners—from leaders to frontline workers—are sharing their experiences, observations, and views around trauma-informed librarianship.

The 2023 Gotham Book Prize finalists are announced. England’s Young Writer of the Year Award, the Judith Wright Poetry Prize, and the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize shortlists are also announced. New booklists arrive for Valentine’s Day, along with a love letter to libraries from NYT. Plus, Daisy Alpert Florin, Patricia Field, and musician Mark O’Connor talk about their new books.

3 Days To Live by James Patterson leads holds this week. Two LibraryReads and three Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Stone Cold Fox by Rachel Koller Croft. Bloomsbury is publishing new editions of Sarah Maas’s “Throne of Glass” series this week. EW previews Ali Hazelwood’s forthcoming Love, Theoretically. The New Yorker unearths a lost interview with Clarice Lispector. Plus, Percival Everett has sold a retelling of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective, due out in March 2024. 

The Society of Authors Translation Prize winners are announced. Stephanie Meyer plans two more “Twilight” books. Interviews arrive with Davon Loeb, Joseph Kakwinokanasum, Gayle Brandeis, Rebecca Kaiser Gibson, Malcolm Harris, Ibram X. Kendi, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Jack Parlett, Carmela Ciuraru, and Courtney Maum. 

In recent months, four public libraries in Colorado's Front Range region have been forced to contend with methamphetamine residue, and the subsequent remediation, in bathrooms and public spaces. 

Walter Mosley wins the 2023 Diamond Dagger Award. Also, the 2023 Association of American Publishers Prose Awards finalists and winners are announced. Beginning their debuts at the top of the best-seller lists are Maame by Jessica George, Exiles by Jane Harper, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano, Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson, and Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara. Author interviews include the voices of Chip Livingston, Kellye Garrett, Alex Segura, and Mark Whitaker. There is adaptation news for Tom Holt’s “The Portable Door” book series.

The need for increased accessibility is an ever-growing priority, as is understanding the scope and nuance of the concept. At North Carolina State University (NC State) Libraries, Raleigh, staff from a range of functional areas are working together to address and increase accessibility in their physical spaces, collections, and offerings. In May 2021 they formed an Accessibility Committee to coordinate and implement practices and changes throughout the system.

Professors and librarians at academic institutions sometimes describe certain students—or groups of students—as “not ready for college,” or assume that they “don’t know how to study” or are “at risk of dropping out.” These negative labels are most often given to students who are first-generation, low-income, and/or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color). These views are called “Deficit Thinking”—blaming students for any failure to excel in a new, unfamiliar academic environment, rather than examining how an institution may be failing those students.

Simon Jimenez wins the Crawford Award for The Spear Cuts Through Water. The PEN Translates winners are announced, and the longlist is out for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Barbra Streisand has a new memoir, My Name Is Barbra, on the way. Author interviews abound, with Jessica George, Cherie Dimaline, Tiffany McDaniel, Marisa Crane, Matthew Salesses, Stephen Graham Jones, De’Shawn Charles Winslow, Pamela Anderson, Delia Cai, Charmaine Craig, Farah Obaidullah, and Sonali Kolhatkar.

In “Uprooting Racial Health Disparities: Genealogy as a Community Health Library Service,” Lynette Hammond Gerido, University of Michigan School of Public Health, studies the outcomes and affordances of genealogical and family health history research.

I’m not the first queer person to say that I was really into Matilda (1996) when I was a child. I loved the scenes of Matilda in awe of her public library, enchanted by the escape it offered from her home life. The library was her safe place. My research is mine.

Salman Rushdie’s new book and interview make news. Audiofile announces the February Earphones Award winners. The Canopus Award winners are announced. The Tähtivaeltaja Award shortlist is announced. Booklists abound, and interviews arrive with Barbara Brandon-Croft, James Patterson, Patricia Field, and Heinz Insu Fenkl. 

According to Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry’s website, the intent of his online form for reporting graphic sexual content in libraries, created in late November 2022, is to protect minors. But the form—which has been called a “tip line” by the news media—has fueled criticism that it promotes censorship, targets the LGBTQIA+ community, and could escalate threats against library workers.

Libraries return to the ballot box following a COVID-impacted pause.

Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes leads holds this week and is also People’s book of the week. Viola Davis achieves EGOT status after winning a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album with Finding Me. Five LibraryReads and eleven Indie Next picks publish this week. Plus, the March Indie Next list is out, featuring #1 pick I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai.  

The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, focused on nonfiction, releases its shortlist. Finalists are out for the Minnesota Book Awards. Book banning in Florida makes more news, and the backlash against Colleen Hoover gets another think piece. Plus, Page to Screen. 

Awards announcements include the Center for Black Literature Octavia E. Butler Awards and the Romantic Novel Awards shortlists. Also, the Romantic Novelists Association names A Christmas Celebration by Heidi Swain as the winner of the 2023 Popular Romantic Fiction Award. Starting at the top of the best-seller lists are Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love by Mike Pompeo and Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens by Richard Haass. There are interviews with authors Natasha Lester, Siddharth Kara, Hafizah Geter, Eleanor Shearer, and Annalee Newitz. Toni Collette stars in the new adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s The Power; meanwhile, the adaptation Kindred, based on the work of Octavia Butler, has been canceled after one season.

The Robert L. Parkinson Library & Research Center at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI, and the Archives at the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL, have extensive circus collections, from posters and programs to performers’ scrapbooks and diaries.

Library budgets continued to rebound in 2022, with the largest upticks in a decade—and a continued focus on pandemic-era community needs.

Sometimes taking the long path fits the work.

On January 31, in a virtual event produced by Wildbound Live, the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) announced 30 finalists in six categories—autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, general nonfiction, and poetry—for the best books of 2022. In addition, finalists were announced for the John Leonard Prize for Best First Book, nominated by the organization’s regular members, and winners were announced for several annual prizes.

The National Book Critics Circle Awards finalists are announced. LJ’s Barbara Hoffert is named the inaugural NBCC Service Award winner. Joy Harjo and City Lights receive lifetime achievement awards. The Rathbones Folio Prize shortlists are announced. Coverage continues for Madeline McIntosh’s resignation from PRH. February’s Read with Jenna Pick is Maame by Jessica George. GMA picks River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer, and B&N selects The Snow Hare by Paula Lichtarowicz. Plus, Penguin Random House Audio acquires Playaway. 

In May 2022, Elizabeth Szkirpan was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her advocacy work promoting technical services professionals within libraries. LJ recently reached out to Szkirpan, director of bibliographic services and federal depository coordinator for the McFarlin Library at the University of Tulsa, to learn more about why this work is important and needs more institutional support.

ALA’s Youth Media Awards are announced. Longlists for the Dublin Literary Award, International Dylan Thomas Prize, and Plutarch Award are announced. The CEO of Penguin Random House U.S. will step down. HarperCollins will cut 5% of its North American workforce. Donald Trump sues Bob Woodward and Simon & Schuster over The Trump Tapes audiobook. Janice Hallett’s The Twyford Code will be adapted as a TV series. Kindred, based on the novel by Octavia Butler, has been canceled by FX.

Rebuffing a move to ban so-called “socially divisive” material from its collection, the Pottawatomie Wabaunsee Regional Library in eastern Kansas got a new lease for its main branch last month. But its longtime director says it was alarming to see the usually routine lease renewal process used as leverage in a months-long battle over censorship.

The 2023 RUSA Book & Media Awards are announced, including the Notable Books List, Reading List, the Listen List, the Sophie Brody Medal, Essential Cookbooks, and the Outstanding References Sources list. Julie Otsuka and Ed Yong are named Andrew Carnegie Medal winners. Colleen Hoover’s Heart Bones tops holds lists. Two LibraryReads selections and two Indie Next picks publish this week. Plus, People’s book of the week is Twelve Months and a Day by Louisa Young.

Carolina De Robertis wins the  John Dos Passos Prize. The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize longlist is out. The Authors Guild is supporting an antitrust action against Google. Interviews feature Hua Hsu, Pamela Anderson, Davon Loeb, Eleanor Shearer, Rebecca Rukeyser, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Vauhini Vara, Angie Cruz, Aubrey Gordon, Margaret Heffernan, and Zachary Shore. There is adaptation news for Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us and Stephen King’s short story “Children of the Corn.”

There are awards announcements for the 2023 AJL Jewish Fiction Award, with Omer Friedlander winning for his book, The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land; also honored are Rachel Barenbaum for Atomic Anna and GennaRose Nethercott for Thistlefoot. Beginning their debuts on the best-seller lists are The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, How To Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix, Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes by Stephen A. Smith, and Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo. There are author interviews with George McCalman, Frank Vogl, Jeff Guinn, Sam Lipsyte, and Kevin Maloney.

Punk rock music has lived many lives, but its spirit has always meant the freedom to question everything, and to create or think for yourself. So how does one take the heart of this movement and archive it? That’s a question curator John Davis and Ben Jackson, manager of the University of Maryland’s Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, had to ask themselves while creating their online exhibit, Persistent Vision: The D.C. Punk Collections at the University of Maryland.

John Scalzi wins the Robert A. Heinlein Award. The Oregon Book Awards finalists are announced. The Bram Stoker Awards preliminary ballot is released. The International Prize for Arabic Fiction’s longlist is announced, featuring the highest number of women authors in the prize’s history. The Evergreen Award finalists are announced. Ian Williams is named chair of the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Kate Clayborne’s Georgie, All Along. Interviews arrive with Ilyon Woo, Kathryn Ma, Rachel M. Harper, N.K. Jemisin, Jean Kyoung Frazier, Ruby Tandoh, and Saket Soni. Plus, more coverage and analysis of this year’s Oscar nominations. 

The 2023 Oscar nominations are announced, including nods for literary adaptions All Quiet on the Western Front, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, and Women Talking. The 2022 Sarton Awards and Gilda Prize shortlists are announced. This Other Eden by Paul Harding gets reviewed. Apple TV+’s Dear Edward, based on the novel by Ann Napolitano, gets a trailer. Plus, a new online exhibit offers a close-up look at L.M. Montgomery’s original Anne of Green Gables manuscript.

To combat the digital divide, reduce barriers to service, and add even more ways to engage with the library outside our walls, Pioneer Library System took action to install solar benches in all the communities we serve.

Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn, leads holds this week. The 2023 PEN American Literary longlists are announced. Two LibraryReads and three Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey. New memoirs by Pamela Anderson, Lisa Guerrero, Anne Heche, Mike Pompeo, and Jinger Vuolo get buzz. Arnold Schwarzenegger will write a motivational book for Penguin Press. NYT explores the appeal of the Elin Hilderbrand Bucket List Weekend. Judy Blume Forever debuts at Sundance.  Stephen King’s The Boogeyman will get a theatrical release. Plus, on its 30th anniversary, NPR declares: “The Stinky Cheese Man is aging well.”

The NAACP Image Awards nominees are announced in the Outstanding Literary Works category. Nominees are also out for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. There are interviews with authors including Adriana Herrera, Liz Harmer, Jinger Dugger Vuolo, Kristin Chenoweth, Lauren Fleshman, Jessica Johns, Matthew Connelly, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Monica Heisey, and Matthew Salesses. There is adaptation news for Yomi Adegoke’s Slay In Your Lane and Henry James’s The Beast In The Jungle.

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) this month received a $750,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to fund a multi-year effort to connect the digital collections of libraries, museums, universities, and other American cultural heritage institutions with Wikipedia.

There is news about upcoming book bans in North Dakota, the launch of Parapraxis, a new magazine on the subject of psychoanalysis, and on the proceedings of the HarperCollins Union. Starting at the top of the best-seller lists are Hell Bent, by Leigh Bardugo, The House of Wolves, by James Patterson and Mike Lupica, Spare, by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot To Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill, by Brad Meltzer. There are interviews with authors such as Amina Cain, Heather Radke, and Bruce Wagner. There is adaptation news for Hunter’s Run by George R. R. Martin, Daniel Abraham, and Gardner Dozois.

Library of Congress names Cuban American writer Meg Medina as the new National Ambassador For Young People’s Literature. Ten librarians receive the 2023 I Love My Librarian Award. Mariana Enríquez, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Tiffany Tsao are named judges for the 2023 Desperate Literature Prize. The January and February Loanstars list is out, featuring top pick Spare by Prince Harry. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Canada Reads winner Michelle Good will publish a new essay collection in May. Interviews arrive with John Hendrickson, Stephen A. Smith, Matthew Salesses, Bonnie Bartlett Daniels, Kai Thomas, and Ilyon Woo. BookRiot reflects on the future of libraries. Plus, a new PBS American Experience documentary, Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space, gets buzz.

More summer chills, with titles that  blend genre tropes. 

The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child leads library holds this week. Anthony Joseph wins the T.S. Eliot Prize for his poetry collection Sonnets for Albert. The February LibraryReads list is out, featuring top pick The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz. Three LibraryReads and eight Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter by John Hendrickson. Also getting attention is Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo. Plus, Boris Johnson will write a memoir about his time as British prime minister.

As the publishing industry makes greater concerted efforts to represent the rich diversity of the world in which we live, small presses and imprints under larger houses are taking the lead.

Caroline Frost, Shadows of Pecan Hollow, wins the Crook’s Corner Book Prize. The Mystery Writers of America announces the Grand Master, Raven, and Ellery Queen Award winners for 2023. Topping the best-seller lists are The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes, Without a Trace by Danielle Steel, Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor, The Villa by Rachel Hawkins, and Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past by Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer. There are interviews with authors such as Deena Mohamed, Kelcey Ervick, Iris Yamashita, and Kashana Cauley.

Poet, memoirist, attorney, and MacArthur Fellow Reginald Dwayne Betts recently partnered with artist and filmmaker Titus Kaphar on Redaction (Norton), an innovative collection of art and poetry confronting the abuses of the criminal justice system, drawing on his experience of incarceration. Retired researcher/librarian Eldon Ray James spoke with Betts about the collaboration and where politics and poetry meet and about Betts’s Freedom Reads project, through which he plans to install Freedom Library book collections in every residential prison unit in the United States.

The 2023 Walter Awards winners & honorees are announced. Colin Channer, Reyna Grande, and Celeste Ng will receive the 2023 Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers. The Golden Globes winners include several book-related films and series. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, as it becomes the “UK’s fastest-selling nonfiction book.” Stephen Markley, Captain Sandy Yawn, V. Ganeshananthan, Jessica Johns, and Lauren Fleshman discuss their new books. Plus, John Maxim’s “Bannerman” spy novels will be adapted for television.

The Story Prize announces finalists Andrea Barrett, Ling Ma, and Morgan Talty. Book previews for 2023 abound, including The Millions’ “Most Anticipated: The Great 2023A Book Preview.” The National Endowment for the Humanities announces grants. Prince Harry’s memoir Spare officially releases today. Interviews arrive with Pico Iyer, Deepti Kapoor, Li Zi Shu, Jim Popkin, and Jonathan Escoffery. And Pulitzer-winning former U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic has died at the age of 84.

Despite its science based and mission-driven underpinnings, U.S. healthcare is subject to great racial disparities. With a $10,000 grant from the Northern New York Library Network, faculty at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY, are undertaking a new program called “Reckoning with Race and Racism in Healthcare and Medicine” to help local healthcare practitioners and students better understand the ways that racial biases determine health outcomes.

Prince Harry’s memoir Spare leads library holds lists this week and dominates book news. New books by James Patterson and Mike Lupica, Stacy Willingham, Leigh Bardugo, and Mary Kubica also get attention. Six LibraryReads picks and 15 Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is Allegra Goodman’s Sam. February’s Indie Next preview is out, featuring as #1 pick Grady Hendrix’s How To Sell a Haunted House. Remembrances pour in for novelist Russell Banks, who has died at the age of 82.

Missouri Secretary of State John R. (Jay) Ashcroft is receiving pushback from library leaders and staff, including the director of Ashcroft’s hometown library, in response to a rule proposed in October 2022 aiming to protect minors from inappropriate material.

The 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Awards are announced. More leaked details from Prince Harry’s memoir are out. Apple Books is launching a line of audiobooks narrated by AI. Romance writer Susan Meachen returns from the dead. Plus, author interviews abound and feature conversations with Nicole Morse, Amanda Oliver, Laura Zigman, Kashana Cauley, and David Sedaris.