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The 2023 Ignyte Awards finalists are announced. Starting their runs at the top of best seller lists are Only the Dead by Jack Carr, Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, King: A Life by Jonathan Eig, and The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings To Amass Power and Undermine the Republic by Stephen Vladeck. There are author interviews with Gene Luen Yang, Luis Alberto Urrea, Laura Tillman, and Suzannah Lessard.

Georgi Gospodinov wins the International Booker Prize for Time Shelter. Haruki Murakami wins Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award. Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb” has been banned from a Florida K–8 school. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Identity by Nora Roberts. Knopf will publish Gabriel García Márquez’s final novel, Until August, in 2024. Plus, summer booklists arrive. 

Reframing key wellness issues. 

Chillers for chilly December. 

Biographers International Organization receives $1 million gift from famed biographer Kitty Kelley. Ryan Manucha wins the 2022 Donner Prize for Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups. Mazin Lateef Ali Wins IPA’s Prix Voltaire. The TikTok Book Awards launch in the U.K. and Ireland. Mahmud El Sayed wins 2023 Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy. Andy Serkis narrates a new unabridged audiobook of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. A new Folio Society edition of Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy arrives in time for Towel Day on Thursday. The Color Purple gets a trailer, and Japanese Breakfast posts a casting call. Plus, PW has full coverage from this week’s U.S. Book Show.

This month’s must-see documentaries include the mystery of Nazca geoglyphs, hobbies that become a life’s work, the rise of Radio Z100, and an Irish school’s techniques for stopping the cycle of violence.

This month’s top indie and foreign picks include toxic relationships, a troubling underground market, and the takedown of a powerful agrochemical manufacturer. Plus, a civil servant lets his hair down, and a freshly enlisted German soldier confronts the brutality of war.

Forthcoming DVDs and Blu-rays include a weekend getaway gone wrong, a young girl and two dads held hostage by strangers in the woods, and a horror-film actor crossing paths with a sharpshooter.

Identity by Nora Roberts is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.

Identity by Nora Roberts leads holds this week. Also popular are The Senator’s Wife by Liv Constantine and Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum, which is also People’s book of the week. One LibraryReads and three Indie Next picks publish this week. The Water Diviner by Zahran Alqasmi (Rashm) wins $50,000 2023 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. The Washington Post previews this season’s best baseball books. Plus, tributes pour in for British author Martin Amis who died at the age of 73.

There are announcements for the 2023 Mythopoeic Awards finalists and Eisner Awards nominees. Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming biography of Elon Musk will arrive September 12. Author interviews feature conversations with the likes of Nicole Cuffy, Emma Cline, Brittany Snow, R.F. Kuang, Jenny Fran Davis, Julia Quinn, and Samantha Irby. Benedict Cumberbatch will star in the adaptation of Max Porter’s Grief Is the Thing With Feathers.

PEN America and Penguin Random House sue a Florida school district over book bans. Debuting at the top of the best-seller lists are The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks, Queen Charlotte by Julia Quinn, written with Shonda Rhimes, The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up by Andy Cohen, and Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain by Andrew McCarthy. There are conversations with authors Alex Pappademas, Polly Stewart, Andrea Bartz, Matthew Dallek, Juliet and Kelly Starrett, Stephen Vladeck, and David Fleming. There is adaptation news for Ernest Hemingway’s Across the River and into the Trees.

Salman Rushdie warns that free speech is under threat in a new public speech. Journalist Masha Gessen resigns from the PEN America board. Storytel Group acquires rights to Finnish Koskinen crime series. A new survey finds that Tiktok users report reading 50% more because of Booktok. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren. Interviews arrive with Andrew McCarthy, Samantha Irby, Dina Gachman, Laura Hankin, Emmanuel Iduma, R.F. Kuang, Max Porter, Kwame Alexander, Thom Shanker, and Andy Cohen. Elliot Page unboxes his forthcoming memoir, Pageboy. Plus, Roxane Gay, Carrie Brownstein, Roberta Colindrez, and Jane Lynch will star in an adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s comic strip, Dykes To Watch Out For.

Edith Wilson and Eleanor Roosevelt (and Roosevelt’s friend Mary McLeod Bethune) take center stage in these historical novels.

The British Book Awards are announced; Menopausing by Davina McCall and Dr. Naomi Potter wins Overall Book of the Year, Bonnie Garmus is Author of the Year, and R.F. Kuang’s Babel wins Fiction Book of the Year. Salman Rushdie is also honored. WA Premier’s Book Awards shortlists are announced. The June LibraryReads list is out, featuring top pick The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon. Michael Lewis’s new book, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, about about FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried, arrives in October. Plus, the U.S. Book Show’s “Libraries Are Essential” virtual program is on May 22. 

The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.

Calling all vegetarians and veggie lovers; the inspiration you have been looking for might be found in these new cookbooks out in May.

When grumpy meets sunshine, love ensues in these four forthcoming romances, including two debuts.

Prince Harry, Michelle Obama, and Matthew Perry are just some of the names topping the charts.

Leaders in economics, science, and war. 

Reseeing the world. 

Barbra Streisand and Mary J. Blige, Willa Cather and Anthony Hecht, Elvis and the Colonel, and more. 

Buffalos and alligators, aliens and onions, science and technology. 

From Paul Auster to the latest Akashic Noir. 

The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren leads library holds this week. The Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Award winners are announced. The 2022 Nebula Awards Winners are announced, including R.F. Kuang for her novel Babel. Kuang’s new novel Yellowface arrives this week with reviews and lots of buzz. Charles E. Stanley Jr. wins the 2023 William E. Colby Military Writers’ Award for Lost Airmen. Entertainment Weekly releases its 2023 Summer Preview, including the 27 best books of the summer. People’s book of the week is The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks.

Arinze Ifeakandu wins the 2023 Dylan Thomas Prize with God’s Children Are Little Broken Things: Stories. The Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist is announced. Chris Turner wins the 2023 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing with How To Be a Climate Optimist: Blueprints for a Better World. Other awards announcements include the 2023 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize longlist and the 2023 Orwell Prizes shortlists. Urban historian Fred Siegel is remembered upon his death at 78. Interviews feature Rachel Cargle, Tembe Denton-Hurst, Sunny Hostin, Carl Sferrazza Anthony, Lisa Brideau, Christina Sharpe, Judy Blume, Kerri Arsenault, Isabella Hammad, Stephen Marche, and Felix Salmon. Plus, adaptation news for Chelene Knight’s Junie and Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo.

The Christian Book Awards winners are announced. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, The 23rd Midnight by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro, The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, Look for Me There: Grieving My Father, Finding Myself by Luke Russert, and Lessons Learned and Cherished: The Teacher Who Changed My Life by Deborah Roberts are new to the bestseller lists. Interviews arrive with Mona Gables, Edan Lepucki, Julia Argy, James C. Jackson, Mariana Alessandri, Emma Nadler, Landon Jones, and Dave Eggers.

Finalists for the 2023 Anthony Awards, 2023 Indigenous Voices Award, and the 2023 Trillium Book Awards are announced. May’s EarlyWord GalleyChat spreadsheet is available. Speculation about 4C Untitled Flatiron Nonfiction Summer 2023 heats up. The Guest by Emma Cline gets reviews and buzz. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks. Penguin Random House Acquires Callisto Media. Plus, Tomie dePaola’s Strega Nona is featured on a USPS Forever stamp. 

Tales of happy families and happy couples—or not. 

World War II, five generations of Métis women, and a ball at Versailles. 

Epic stories. 

Lives that teach us something. 

The 2023 Pulitzer Prizes are awarded with Trust by Hernan Diaz and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, sharing the top prize for fiction. His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage, Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power by Jefferson Cowie, and Stay True by Hua Hsu also win prizes. The 2023–2024 Steinbeck Fellows are announced. Coverage continues for the ongoing WGA strike. Plus, the AAP discusses AI and the book business. 

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.

These senior sleuths are still killin’ it in this display-worthy collection of crime titles.

From a nonfiction work about the gentle giants gliding through the deep and vast seas, to a speculative-fiction book imagining getting swallowed alive by one of these goliaths, LJ’s May issue offers readers of many interests a whale of a story.

A beguiling prince vanishes and Sleeping Beauty’s fairy godmother takes center stage in these mixed-up tales.

This lively mix of big names and new discoveries offers quickly engaging plots and summery settings whether readers are miles from the beach, atop a city skyscraper, at a lake house, or on the sidelines of a Little League game. Get ready to dive into the deep end. Summer will go swimmingly with these 19 selections.

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks, leads holds this week. One Indie Next pick publishes this week. People’s book of the week is Swamp Story by Dave Barry. Also getting buzz is Andrew McCarthy’s Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain. A number of awards shortlists are announced. Plus, the Pulitzer Prizes will be announced today.

Fatimah Asghar wins the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction with When We Were Sisters. News sources covers more on Writers Guild of America strike, an Illinois law on anti–book banning policy for libraries. Authors Wolfgang Schivelbusch and Peter Robinson are remembered. Conversations feature author interviews with the likes of Camille T. Dungy, Hannah Matthews, Sunny Hostin, Gretchen Rubin, Kobe Campbell, Christina Wong, Alexandra Auder, Dave Eggers, Hugh Howey, Paul Kix, Brendan Ballou, Jaime Green, and Priscilla Gilman.

The June 2023 Indie Next List Preview is out, featuring #1 pick Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2023 winners are announced. Multiple sources cover the targeting of journalists worldwide and the repercussions of Writers Guild of America’s strike. Starting their run as best sellers are Happy Place by Emily Henry, In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune, Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane, Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams, and Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding) by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd. 

From Salar Abdoh to Gabriel Bump to Alice McDermott. 

Fox News, Facebook, Twitter, and Pulitzer Prize–winninng poet Tracy K. Smith with a new language for us all. 

From Cornwell to Deaver to Patterson. 

May Book Club picks arrive: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Oprah), Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith (Reese Witherspoon), Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Read with Jenna), The Nigerwife by Vanessa Walters (GMA), and The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry (B&N). The Reading the West Book Awards announces its shortlist. The Tony Award nominees are announced. Variety reports on the WGA strike. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for The 23rd Midnight by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown). Plus, Taika Waititi is in talks to direct an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun.

Starred titles reviewed in our May 2023 print issue, spanning mystery and suspense, SF/fantasy, romance, and more.

The 2023 RSL Ondaatje shortlist is announced. Madeleine Dale wins the 2023 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize. Booklists arrive for AANHPI Heritage Month. Eleanor Wachtel, longtime host of Canada’s Writers & Company, is moving on after 33 years, and Laurie Hertzel is retiring as books editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Plus, a new novel from Gabriel García Márquez will be published in 2024. 

The 23rd Midnight by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.

This sweetly angsty novel about two people finding themselves and figuring out a way forward together will appeal to anyone who enjoys reading opposites-attract romances with found family subplots. Fans of the author’s books will absolutely not want to miss this one.

The SFF highlight from the May issue is a new novella that presents a future where artificial intelligences fight for equal rights and off-planet colonies agitate for independence, as seen through the eyes of the sarcastic, independent AI Scorn. Perfect for “Murderbot” fans.