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Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars wins the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Denene Millner’s One Blood wins Georgia’s top literary award, the Townsend Prize. A coalition of literary advocates are opposing Florida House Bill 1539, which would require schools to remove any book deemed harmful to minors within five days of a challenge. People explores how a Department of Education shutdown could impact book bans. Plus, Page to Screen and where to start with the works of Terry Pratchett.

Shortlists for the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Jhalak Prize, and the Donner Prize are announced. The U.S. Supreme Court seems likely to rule that parents can opt out of LGBTQIA+ stories in their children’s classrooms. The state of Iowa has appealed a U.S. District Court judge’s injunction against the 2023 law that has removed hundreds of books from school libraries. Attorneys for IMLS acting director Keith Sonderling have responded to the lawsuit filed earlier this month by the ALA. Plus, new title bestsellers and an interview with sisters and coauthors Anne and Claire Berest.

Winners of the Minnesota Book Awards are announced; Kao Kalia Yang makes history by winning three awards for three different books. Poet and University of Iowa writing program director Christopher Merrill wins the Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature. The shortlist for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize is announced. Oprah selects Matriarch by Tina Knowles for her book club. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title and Reese Witherspoon book club pick Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry. Cynthia Erivo will narrate a new audiobook edition of Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked. James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski’s forthcoming thriller, Billion-Dollar Ransom, heads to the big screen. Plus, Jeff Kinney will donate 20,000 books a month ahead of the publication of his 20th Diary of a Wimpy Kid book in October.

The British Science Fiction Association Awards winners are announced. Dorian McNamara wins the CBC Short Story Prize. Publishing Perspectives recaps Circana’s Q1 US Print Report, with romance and romantasy leading adult genres. Joan Didion’s Notes to John gets reviewed. Netflix’s Ransom Canyon, based on the novels by Jodi Thomas, gets buzz. Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Mahmoud v. Taylor today, concerning LGBTQIA+ books in Maryland's largest school district.

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by James Patterson and Candice Fox, Marie Bostwick, Nancy Thayer, and Sarah Damoff. People’s book of the week is Atavists: Stories by Lydia Millet. Brenda Peynado wins the Philip K. Dick Award for her novel Time’s Agent; a special citation was given to Adrian Tchaikovsky for his novel Alien Clay. Infodocket shares details on OCLC’s lawsuit against Baker & Taylor. Isaac Marion is adapting his forthcoming novel The Overnoise as a feature film. Remembrances pour in for Pope Francis, who has died at the age of 88.

Winners of the Publishing Triangle Awards for LGBTQIA+ books are revealed. NYPL announces the finalists for the Young Lions Fiction Award. A lawsuit filed against the Rutherford County Board of Education by the ACLU of Tennessee aims to stop book bans in the county’s school libraries. Mystery writer Peter Lovesey has died at age 88. Plus, Page to Screen and new books from Dolly Parton and Scorsese collaborator Robbie Robertson.

Nominees for the Aurora Awards, for SFF and horror works by Canadian authors, are revealed. A number of authors are named to Time’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2025. The Libertarian Futurist Society announces the finalists for the Best Novel category of the Prometheus Awards. The 2025 Writers’ Trust of Canada Rising Stars are announced. Publishers Weekly talks to IMLS staffers who are worried about the cuts to the agency. Book subscription services are moving into publishing their own titles as well. Plus new title bestsellers and forthcoming books from Priscilla Presley and Zosia Mamet.

“The Great Spring Preview” arrives from The Millions. May’s LibraryReads list is out, featuring top pick The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers, with Alex Kiester. The Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellows are announced. The Aurealis Awards shortlist and finalists for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards are announced. U.S. Army libraries are ordered to remove books with a focus on DEI. Seven Stories Press has acquired Two Dollar Radio. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for this week’s top holds title, Strangers in Time by David Baldacci. Plus, adaptations are in the works for Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan books, Will Leitch’s Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride, and Josh Malerman’s Incidents Around the House.

Stan Sakai is the creator of “Usagi Yojimbo,” a graphic novel series featuring a samurai rabbit named Miyamoto Usagi living in 17th-century Japan; the new installment, Space Usagi: White Star Rising, is due out from Dark Horse in May. LJ talks with Sakai about samurai warriors, blending genres, and his enduring career.

The Walter Scott Prize shortlist is announced. The Association of American Publishers has filed an amicus brief in Meta AI copyright case. Interviews arrive with Melinda French Gates, Marie Bostwick, and Kevin Nguyen. Tennis legend Serena Williams will executive-produce a Netflix series adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid's Carrie Soto Is Back. Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach will also be adapted for television.

Strangers in Time by David Baldacci leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by Jeneva Rose, Lyla Sage, and Melinda French Gates. Two LibraryReads and three Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is The Seven O’Clock Club by Amelia Ireland. Finalists for the PEN America Literary Awards are announced. Earlyword’s April GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now. Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Emma Grey’s Pictures of You, and Emma Rosenblum’s Bad Summer People will get adaptations. Nobel-winning Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa has died at the age of 89.

Winners are announced for the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards for works that deepen understanding of race and diversity. Finalists are selected for the Independent Book Publishers Association Awards and the Stella Prize. The Great Gatsby turns 100. Former Facebook executive Sarah Wynn-Williams, author of Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, testifies in front of Congress. Andrews McMeel launches a religious book imprint, Amen Editions. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Katie Kitamura, Eric Rickstad, and Don Winslow.

Winners of the Whiting Awards for emerging talents are announced. The Horror Writers Association has announced David Cronenberg, Dame Susan Elizabeth Hill, and Del and Sue Howison as recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award. Thomas Pynchon will publish his first novel since 2013, and Patti Smith has written a new memoir. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Edna Bonhomme, Peter Godwin, and Belinda Bauer.

Shortlists for the International Booker Prize, Dinesh Allirajah Prize, and Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards for British food writing are announced. Samantha Mills wins the Compton Crook Award for her debut novel, The Wings Upon Her Back. The Sheikh Zayed Book Awards are announced. ALA files suit over the gutting of IMLS. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner. Plus, the Library of Congress announced its 2025 selections for the National Recording Registry.

Caitlin Starling is the bestselling author of The Death of Jane Lawrence, Last To Leave the Room, and the Bram Stoker–nominated The Luminous Dead. Her upcoming novels The Starving Saints and The Graceview Patient epitomize her love of genre-hopping horror, like her other works spanning besieged castles, alien caves, and haunted hospitals. Here, Starling discusses her latest book, medieval horror, and complicated women protagonists.

On topics from grieving to meditation, these titles are most in demand by libraries and bookstores nationwide.

Garth Greenwell wins the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his novel Small Rain. Dawn Porter wins the BIO Award. The Romantic Novel of the Year Awards shortlist is announced. A new NPR/Ipsos poll finds that while American adults enjoy reading, it is not a top priority. A new adaptation of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is coming to AMC. Kerry Greenwood, author of the Miss Phryne Fisher mysteries, has died at the age of 70.

The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner leads holds as National Library Week kicks off with Right To Read Day. Also in demand are titles by Nita Prose, Jasmine Guillory and Katie Kitamura. People’s book of the week is Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. ALA reveals the top 10 most challenged books and issues the “State of America’s Libraries Report.” Finalists for the Hugo Awards and Canada’s Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing are announced.

Shortlists for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and the Charles Tyrwhitt Sports Book Awards are announced, as are winners of the Association of American Publishers PROSE Awards and the Christopher Awards. Publishers ask Congress to defend libraries as federal library grant funding ends. Picador will reissue more than 100 novels by Georges Simenon. Books are forthcoming from former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Plus, Page to Screen and Anthony Horowitz’s favorite books.

The National Book Foundation announces its 5 Under 35 honorees: Stacie Shannon Denetsosie, Megan Howell, Maggie Millner, Alexander Sammartino, and Jemimah Wei. Nicola Griffith wins the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association’s Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. The finalists are revealed for the Al & Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize for established Canadian poets. Reese Witherspoon’s April book club pick is All That Life Can Afford by Emily Everett. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Mark Hoppus, Maria Shriver, and Reginald Dwayne Betts.

The shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction is announced, including Aria Aber, Miranda July, Sanam Mahloudji, Elizabeth Strout, Yael van der Wouden, and Nussaibah Younis. Bullaun Press wins the Republic of Consciousness prize for small presses. James by Percival Everett wins this year’s Tournament of Books in a championship matchup against Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez. NaNoWriMo is shutting down. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, based on the novel by Suzanne Collins, gets a release date of November 2026. And remembrances arrive for Irish crime writer Ken Bruen, translator Tim Mohrhas, and actor Val Kilmer.

All the August 2025 Prepub Alerts in one place, plus a downloadable spreadsheet of all titles from every post.

ALA releases a statement after IMLS staff are placed on administrative leave. Rabbit Moon by Jennifer Haigh is April’s B&N book club pick. The Sirens by Emilia Hart is GMA’s pick. Niko Pfund has been named director of Yale University Press. Atria Books has acquires Matthew Aldrich’s debut novel, The Natural Order, for publication in fall 2026, in a preemptive deal. Interviews arrive with Elaine Sciolino, Colum McCann, Liz Moore, Natalie Keller Reinert, Lawrence Wright, Vicky Nguyen, and Jennifer Haigh. Plus, the best books publishing in April.

Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by Jesse Q. Sutanto, J.A. Jance, Robert Jackson Bennett, and Katee Robert. People’s book of the week is Cellar Rat: My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly by Hannah Selinger. Kirkus introduces its list of the best books of the century, and The Atlantic shares the best American poetry of the 21st century. Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman will take the helm at The Rumpus on May 1. NBA star Stephen Curry signs a three-book deal with One World. Plus, James Patterson and YouTube star MrBeast will team up to write a forthcoming thriller, after an eight-figure bidding war for the novel and film and TV rights.

The shortlist is announced for the EBRD Literature Prize for European literary fiction translated to English. After an Alabama board voted to defund the Fairhope Public Library over teen books, Read Freely Alabama raised over $40,000 to keep the library open. French Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal has been sentenced to prison in Algeria, allegedly for criticizing the country. Salman Rushdie will publish a new collection of stories, The Eleventh Hour, due out in November. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with John Green, Sigrid Nunez, and Cynthia Ozick.

The Dublin Literary Award shortlist is announced. An Iowa law that would ban books including 1984 and Ulysses has been blocked by a federal judge. Simon & Schuster’s new publisher aims to make it the A24 of books. Taylor & Francis announces it will use AI to translate books from some languages into English. Penguin Random House and the National Coalition Against Censorship have both announced fundraising initiatives to counter censorship. Plus, interviews with Bob the Drag Queen, Amanda Knox, and Chris Offutt.

Featuring herb gardens, encyclopedias, container gardening, and more, these are the 20 gardening titles that library patrons are seeking.

Fiona McFarlane wins the Story Prize for Highway Thirteen: Stories. Ann Regan wins the Kay Sexton Award, and Gustavo Bondoni wins the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award. The shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction and recipients of the Writing Freedom Fellowship are announced. April’s Read with Jenna pick is Heartwood by Amity Gaige. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Lethal Prey by John Sandford. Interviews arrive with Tess Gerritsen, Abby Jimenez, Gregory Maguire, John Green, Graydon Carter, and Brian Goldstone. Plus, NYPL opens the Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne archive today.

The winners of the Windham-Campbell Prize and longlists for the PEN America Literary Awards are announced. NYT reports how library advocates are rallying to the defense of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Jonas Brothers update fans on their previously announced forthcoming memoir. Interviews arrive with Krysten Ritter, James Whitfield Thomson, and Elie Mystal. Plus, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels will be adapted as a TV series.

Lethal Prey by John Sandford leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by Harlan Coben, John Scalzi, Ashley Winstead, Alex Aster, and Emma Pattee. People’s book of the week is Firstborn: A Memoir by Lauren Christensen. The West Passage by Jared Pechacek wins the Crawford Award. Plus, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s forthcoming book, Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution, will publish September 9.

The winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards and the shortlists for the British Science Fiction Association Awards are announced. The 2025 Canada Reads winner is A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, written with Mary Louisa Plummer. The Guardian reports how Sarah Wynn-Williams’s Facebook exposé, Careless People, came to top the NYT bestsellers list this week, despite Meta’s attempt to stifle its author. Rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot will publish a memoir in Jan. 2026. President Trump has appointed Keith E. Sonderling as the new acting director of the IMLS. Plus, Page to Screen and booklists from V.E. Schwab and David Szalay.

Sergey Radchenko’s To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power wins the Lionel Gelber Prize for books about international affairs. Harriet Baker’s Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann wins the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Trust Young Writer of the Year Award. The shortlist for the Dylan Thomas Prize is revealed. LJ announces the keynote speakers for this year’s Day of Dialog, taking place on Apr. 17: R.F. Kuang, Susan Orlean, and Cory Doctorow. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Phil Hanley, Elon Green, Colum McCann, and Torrey Peters.

The inaugural Climate Fiction Prize shortlist and the Jhalak Prize longlists are announced. The Virginia Festival of the Book kicks off tomorrow. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. Plus, interviews with Karin Slaughter, Connie Briscoe, Jason De León, and Emma Donoghue and title suggestions for Women’s History Month.

Finalists for the Publishing Triangle Awards and the shortlist for the Kurd Laßwitz Preis are announced. PEN America’s World Voices Festival and Literary Awards events will return this year after being cancelled in 2024. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer postpones his book tour. Reviews arrive for Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. April’s LibraryReads list features top pick The Sirens by Emilia Hart. Eoin Colfer’s best-selling novel Artemis Fowl will be adapted as a stage musical, while Julie Satow’s When Women Ran Fifth Avenue is making its way to TV. Norwegian novelist Dag Solstad has died at the age of 83.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins leads holds this week, with appeal across age levels. Also in demand are titles by John Green, Susan Mallery, Laurie Gilmore, James Patterson and J.D. Barker, and Tess Gerritsen. ALA releases a statement on a Trump administration executive order which calls for the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. A Place Called Yellowstone: The Epic History of the World’s First National Park by Randall K. Wilson wins the New York Historical’s Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize. Plus, Canada Reads kicks off today.

The shortlist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and the finalists for the Nebula Awards are announced. After a complaint brought by Meta, an arbiter has blocked former Facebook employee Sarah Wynn-Williams from promoting Careless People, her recently published tell-all about the company. UK bookseller Waterstones expands its Books of the Month program with YA and additional nonfiction offerings. Plus, Page to Screen, a profile of Cynthia Ozick, and interviews with Silvia Park, Kelly Link, and Athol Fugard.

Rodrigo Fresán’s Melvill wins the Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada. NYT releases its spring books preview. The nonprofit We Need Diverse Books announces its inaugural reading day, April 3. A behind-the-scenes book about the 1984 movie Spinal Tap is in the works. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Curtis Sittenfeld, Karen Russell, Carvell Wallace, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The Joyce Carol Oates Prize finalists are announced. Manya Wilkinson wins the Wingate Literary Prize for Lublin. Oprah selects The Tell by Amy Griffin for her book club. Rebecca Yarros’s bestselling “Empyrean” series will be released as graphic novels. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman. Bloomsbury’s new imprint Bloomsbury Archer will publish Samantha Shannon’s Among the Burning Flowers in September. Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns will release The American Revolution: An Intimate History on November 11, ahead of its companion six-part PBS documentary series. Stephen King’s Cujo is headed to Netflix.

S.A. Cosby’s thriller King of Ashes launches Flatiron’s new imprint Pine & Cedar in June 2025. Cosby talks with LJ about the novel, his writing process, and the authors who first made him fall in love with crime fiction. 

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards finalists, the Golden Poppy Book Award winners, and the British Book Awards Book of the Year shortlists are announced. Zando acquires Tin House. HarperCollins will publish Lucy Foley’s new Miss Marple novel in September 2026. In May, Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle will release the new book We Can Do Hard Things, based on their podcast. Martin Scorsese will adapt, direct, and produce Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead novels for the big screen. Louise Penny cancels U.S. tour dates. Plus, Terry Brooks passes the baton on his Shannara series.

All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by Chris Bohjalian, Karen Russell, Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles, and Colleen Oakley. People’s book of the week is Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall. April's Indie Next Preview features #1 pick Tilt by Emma Pattee. Plus, Hoda Kotb announces a new book, Jump and Find Joy, due out September 23.

The longlist for the Biographers International Organization’s Plutarch Award, the longlist for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction by women and nonbinary writers, the finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and the shortlist for the Lionel Gelber Prize for books about international affairs are announced. Jenni Fagan’s memoir Ootlin wins the Gordon Burn Prize. The Help author Kathryn Stockett will publish her second novel in April 2026. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Abdulrazak Gurnah, Agustina Bazterrica, Zadie Smith, and Dennis Lehane.

James Tejani’s A Machine To Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles and America and Kathleen DuVal’s Native Nations: A Millennium in North America win the Bancroft Prize for books about U.S. history. Sophie Elmhirst’s Maurice and Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story of Shipwreck, Survival and Love wins the Nero Gold prize. The Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist is announced. The publishing industry prepares for new U.S. tariffs. Plus, interviews with Laila Lalami, Lidia Yuknavitch, and Bruce Vilanch and new title bestsellers.

All the July 2025 Prepub Alerts in one place, plus a downloadable spreadsheet of all titles from every post.

The Libby Award winners are announced, including Kristin Hannah’s The Women and Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest. The Audie Award winners are announced, with Barbra Streisand’s My Name Is Barbra winning Audiobook of the Year. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hallis is Reese Witherspoon’s March book club pick. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Blood Moon by Sandra Brown. Anthony Hopkins will release his memoir We Did OK, Kid on November 4. Plus, director Jon M. Chu previews the forthcoming Crazy Rich Asians TV series, based on the books by Kevin Kwan.

Longlists for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Plutarch Award are announced, along with category winners of AAP PROSE Awards. HarperCollins will publish posthumous stories and essays by Harper Lee in a forthcoming collection, The Land of Sweet Forever, due out October 21. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall is the B&N book club pick for March, and Count My Lies by Sophie Stava is the GMA pick. Interviews feature Steve Jones, Jordan Chiles, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ione Sky, Hanif Kureishi, and Linda Holmes. A rare hand-written copy of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 is found in Oxford. And remembrances arrive for authors Joseph Wambaugh, John Casey and Laura Sessions Stepp.

Blood Moon by Sandra Brown leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by Elle Cosimano, Deanna Raybourn, Charlotte McConaghy, and Danielle Steel. Ten LibraryReads and nine Indie Next picks publish this week. People’s book of the week is The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker. Audiofile announces the March 2025 Earphones Award winners. Adaptations won several Academy Awards last night. Plus, it’s Read Across America Week.

The March Read with Jenna pick is Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel. The NYT Book Review Book Club selects Han Kang’s We Do Not Part as its March read. The shortlist for the Republic of Consciousness Prize (United States and Canada), finalists for the Minnesota Book Awards, and winners of the Florida Book Awards are announced. PEN America releases its report “Cover to Cover: An Analysis of Titles Banned in the 23–24 School Year.” Doubleday launches Outsider Editions, an imprint for paperback reissues. Plus, interviews with Andrey Kurkov and Omar El Akkad.

Sharon Lee, author of the “Liaden Universe” novels, wins the Robert A. Heinlein Award for sci-fi that inspires space exploration. Haruko Ichikawa’s Land of the Lustrous manga wins the Japan SF Grand Prize. Publishers plan for less mass market paperbacks in the wake of Readerlink ending distribution of them. Journalist Robin Givhan is writing a biography of the late designer Virgil Abloh. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Lidia Yuknavitch, Ione Skye, and Mark Greaney.

The International Booker longlist is announced, featuring all first-time nominees. The London Writers Awards winners are announced. Hachette Book Group launches its first dedicated New Adult imprint, Requited. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for this week’s top holds title, Battle Mountain by C.J. Box. Cosmetics icon Bobbi Brown announces a forthcoming memoir. Dave Eggers’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius turns 25 this month. Plus, Ron Stallworth’s The Gangs of Zion: A Black Cop’s Crusade in Mormon Country will be adapted for TV by Hulu.

The Bram Stoker Awards final ballot is released; winners will be announced on June 14. Earlyword’s February GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now. Shelby Van Pelt announces a new paperback book tour for Remarkably Bright Creatures. Interviews arrive with Daniel D’Addario, Haley Mlotek, and Ariana DeBose. Plus, Readerlink will discontinue distribution of mass market paperbacks by the end of 2025.

Battle Mountain, the 25th Joe Pickett novel by C.J. Box, leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by Gillian McAllister, Lisa Unger, Curtis Sittenfeld, and Linda Holmes. People’s book of the week is Dream State by Eric Puchner. Salman Rushdie’s assailant Hadi Matar is found guilty of attempted murder. Hoopla announces it is working to remove AI-generated books from its platform.

Catherine Belton, Caroline Criado-Perez, Helen Czerski, Afua Hirsch, Guy Shrubsole, and Chris Van Tulleken have been shortlisted for the inaugural Unwin Award for nonfiction writers in the early stages of their careers. Lee Yaron’s 10/7: 100 Human Stories is selected as the Jewish Book Council’s Winter 2025 Natan Notable Book. Winners of the Ezra Jack Keats Awards for children’s literature are announced. ALA launches a public supporter program at ILoveLibraries.org that will generate donations and keep library patrons apprised of the organization’s advocacy work and grants. Plus, a sequel to Joanne Harris’s hit 1999 novel Chocolat is on the way.

Shortlists are revealed for the Lukas Prizes for American nonfiction. The social media readers’ platform StoryGraph, which uses AI to offer readers tracking tools and recommend their next books, has reached 3.8 million users. Emily Bestler and Scott Glassgold launch 12:01 Books, an imprint of Atria for horror content that can work as both books and films. Plus, a posthumous book from historian David McCullough and new title bestsellers.

LJ talks with playwright, actor, and Audie Award– and multiple-time Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator Dominic Hoffman to learn more about the process of storytelling and how he crafted his voice and style.

Oprah selects Eric Puchner’s Dream State for her book club, and A24 announces plans to adapt the novel for TV. The LA Times Book Prize finalists are announced, and Pico Iyer will receive the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, while Emily Witt wins the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose and Amanda Gorman wins the Innovator’s Award. The winners of the Reed Environmental Writing Award are announced. Perminder Mann is named CEO of Simon & Schuster International. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Scottish crime writer Denzil Meyrick has died at the age of 59.

With the release of its 10th-anniversary edition, Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale leads holds this week. People’s book of the week is Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma. The March LibraryReads features top pick Saltwater by Katy Hays. The Southern Book Prize winners and Walter Scott Prize longlist are announced. PEN America will honor Sarah Jessica Parker and Macmillan CEO Jon Yaged at its gala in May. Actress Julianne Moore responds to her children’s book being removed from schools run by the U.S. Department of Defense. An Iowa House bill proposes to remove obscenity-law exemption for libraries and schools. Doris Kearns Goodwin’s memoir will be adapted for film. Plus, Hulu cancels its adaptation of Sarah J. Maas’s “A Court of Thorns and Roses.”

Longlists are selected for the Reading the West Awards. Finalists are revealed for the Compton Crook Award, for best debut sci-fi, fantasy, or horror novel. Isabel Allende receives the Bodley Medal for her contributions to literature. Giada Scodellaro’s Ruins, Child wins the Novel Prize. Publishing Perspectives analyzes the longlists for the UK Carnegie Medals for children’s books and finds a trend of books about masculinity. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Helen Fielding, Charlamagne Tha God, and Charlotte Wood.

Winners of the Society of Authors Translation Prize, the Albertine Translation Prize, and the Westminster Book Awards are revealed. A shortlist is announced for the Athenaeum Literary Award for books from and about Philadelphia. Authors Against Book Bans successfully prevents a book ban in a Florida school district. Plus, a reexamination of the work of Janet Malcolm, interviews with Joe Piscopo and Brigitte Giraud, and new title bestsellers.

Margaret Atwood announces she will publish a memoir, The Book of Lives, in November. The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction longlist and the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize shortlist are announced. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes. Barbara Hoffert previews a year of titles to watch for LJ. Plus, Amy Adams will star in and produce the Apple TV+ series Cape Fear, based on John D. MacDonald’s novel The Executioners.

The 10th-anniversary edition of The Nightingale by patron favorite Kristin Hannah releases next week. The attempted-murder trial of the man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie onstage in 2022 begins. AAP, IPA, and other groups release a joint statement on AI and copyright. Macmillan CEO Jon Yaged warns about the dangers of banning books. Plus, Thomas Ray’s novella Silencer will be adapted for the big screen.

We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Anne Tyler, Brynne Weaver, B.K. Borison, James Patterson and James O. Born, and Heather Fawcett. People’s book of the week is Memorial Days: A Memoir by Geraldine Brooks. The March Indie Next preview is out, featuring #1 pick Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. Grove Atlantic will launch the new Atlantic Crime imprint this fall. Novelist Tom Robbins has died at the age of 92.

Penguin issues new “First Impressions” editions of Jane Austen with refreshed covers, meant to appeal to young readers, romance fans, and “the BookTok demographic.” The Waterstones Children’s Book Prize shortlist is revealed. Poets & Writers reflects on 20 years of its annual celebration of debut poets. Spotify adds audiobooks from Crooked Lane and Podium. Plus, Page to Screen and new novels from Ian McEwan and John Irving.

The winners of the UK PEN Translates Awards are announced. Notes to John, Joan Didion’s diary from 1999, will be published by Knopf. Literary organizations release a joint statement decrying the Trump administration’s anti-trans executive order. Plus, a new horror novel from Nick Medina, interviews with Sarah Chihaya, Elinor Lipman, and Alton Brown, and new title bestsellers.

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction longlist is announced. LJ reveals the Best Media of 2024. Reese Witherspoon selects Isola by Allegra Goodman for her February book club. Jessica Soffer’s This Is a Love Story gets a four-star review from USA Today. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Deep End by Ali Hazelwood. Forthcoming memoirs from Christie Brinkley, Debbie Gibson, and Christine Brown Woolley gather buzz. PEN America releases the Banned Books List 2025, while the Big Five U.S. publishers sue Idaho over book-removal language in House Bill (HB) 710.

The Libby Book Awards finalists are announced. Mac Barnett is named U.S. National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, ed. by Ada Limón, is the 2025 Seattle Reads pick. February book club picks include This Is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer (Read with Jenna and B&N), Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine (GMA), and Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su (Amazon’s Sarah Selects). Clarkson Potter plans to reissue Martha Stewart’s 1982 book Entertaining, after it finds appeal with a new audience. Mat Youkee’s forthcoming Forty Days in the Jungle will be adapted for the big screen. Plus, authors weigh in on the pros and cons of blurbing.

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by J.D. Robb, Tessa Bailey, Jonathan Kellerman, Pam Jenoff, and Bill Gates. Jimmy Carter wins a posthumous Grammy for the audiobook Last Sundays in Plains. Finalists for the Gotham Book Prize are announced. Audiofile announces the February 2025 Earphones Award winners. This month’s Read with Jenna pick is Jessica Soffer’s This Is a Love Story. People’s book of the week is Too Soon by Betty Shamieh. Plus, February booklists arrive.

The longlist for Scotland’s Highland Book Prize and the shortlist for the Inside Literary Prize are announced. United States Artists announces its 2025 USA Writing Fellows. Rebecca Yarros’s Onyx Storm is the fastest-selling adult novel in 20 years, having sold 2.7 million copies in its first week. A new “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” book is on the way. Independent bookstores across six continents will participate in the first synchronized Global Bookstore Crawl on April 26. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Imani Perry, Bill Gates, and Neko Case.

The National Book Foundation and the Sloan Foundation announce 2025 selections for the Science + Literature program: The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong, and Meltwater: Poems by Claire Wahmanholm. Chimwemwe Undi is selected as Canada’s parliamentary poet laureate. Wole Soyinka receives the Sharjah Lifetime Achievement in Literature Award. The future of libraries and arts agencies is unclear amid a federal funding freeze (that has been halted for now). NYPL releases a study on public libraries’ connection to their patrons’ well-being. Plus, new title bestsellers.

The Oregon Book Award finalists are announced. The 2025 judges of the British Book Awards are announced, including Bonnie Garmus. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Freida McFadden’s The Crash. Mitch Albom announces a new novel publishing in October. Forthcoming memoirs by Bill Gates and Jeremy Renner gather buzz. Plus, adaptations of Elin Hilderbrand’s The Five Star Weekend and André Aciman’s Enigma Variations are in the works.

ALA announced the winners of the Youth Media Awards on Monday; Erin Entrada Kelly wins the Newbery Medal for The First State of Being, and Rebecca Lee Kunz wins the Caldecott Medal for Chooch Helped, written by Andrea L. Rogers. Interviews arrive with Bill Gates, Michael Connelly, Lola Kirke, and Mike Miley. Elle asks 21 influencers for their predictions on the the future of book publishing. Plus, Mel Robbins, author of The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About, announces a new tour.

The RUSA Book and Media Awards are announced, including the Notable Books List, Reading List, Listen List, Essential Cookbooks, Dartmouth Medal, and Outstanding References Sources List. Percival Everett’s James and Kevin Fedarko’s A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon win Andrew Carnegie Medals. Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz by József Debreczeni is awarded the Sophie Brody Medal. The Crash by Freida McFadden leads holds this week. People’s book of the week is Going Home by Tom Lamont. Plus, ALA responds to the U.S. Department of Education regarding book bans.

The finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Awards and the longlist for the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize are revealed. Mick Herron wins the Crime Writers Association Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement. Novelists are wondering if their careers will survive without BookTok. Penguin Random House parent company Bertelsmann has agreed to a strategic partnership with OpenAI. Plus, Page to Screen and new spring titles from Martha Stewart, Jeremy Renner, and the Dalai Lama.

The Edgar Award nominees and Audie Awards finalists are revealed. USA Today launches its Winter Book Challenge, a bingo card full of book categories, to help readers stretch and track their reading goals. Christian rom-coms are flourishing. Plus, new title bestsellers.

Ayelet Tsabari wins the Association of Jewish Libraries Jewish Fiction Award for her novel Songs for the Brokenhearted. Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced her forthcoming memoir, A Different Kind of Power, which arrives in June. Vanessa Bryant will publish Mamba & Mambacita Forever in August. Also buzzing are memoirs from Rick Astley, Neko Case, Keeonna Harris, and Lola Kirke. Anne Allan’s royal biography Dancing with Diana will become a feature documentary, while John Ridley is developing Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel for the big screen. And Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonist and playwright Jules Feiffer has died at the age of 95. 

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros leads holds this week. People’s book of the week is Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett. The Novel Prize shortlist is announced. Elizabeth Gilbert and Rebecca Ross announce forthcoming fall titles. Plus, this week’s new releases.

The Canada Reads 2025 longlist arrives. Poets & Writers publishes its 20th annual look at debut poets. Longlists are announced for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada, which honors books published by small presses. Sustainable Marketing: The Industry’s Role in a Sustainable Future by Paul Randle & Alexis Eyre wins the Leonard L. Berry Marketing Book Award. Harlequin is eliminating its Canary Street Press and Graydon House imprints. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Neko Case, Pagan Kennedy, and Charles Baxter.

Kirkus publishes its spring 2025 preview. Mystery Writers of America names Laura Lippman and John Sandford as its Grand Masters for 2025. Matt Bomer will narrate a new audiobook of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life. Melville House plans to publish a paperback version of the Jack Smith report shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Fantasy Magazine will be relaunched this spring. Plus new title bestsellers and interviews with Mike Mignola, Scott Turow, and Pico Iyer.

In every review, TJ’s storytelling ability reflects his exceptional talent to capture each book’s premise and get to its core.

Nat Cassidy is a playwright of off-off-Broadway speculative works and an established actor of stage and television, where he usually plays monsters and villains. He is also the author of the horror novels Mary, Nestlings, and the forthcoming When the Wolf Comes Home. He talks with LJ about the horror genre, his theater background, and indie publishing.

The Dublin Literary Award longlist is announced. Jose Ando and Yui Suzuki win Japan’s Akutagawa literary prize, and Shin Iyohara wins the Naoki prize. The Millions releases its “Great Winter 2025 Preview.” LJ recognizes four reviewers of the year. Neil Gaiman responds to misconduct allegations. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for Alice Feeney’s Beautiful Ugly. Interviews arrive with Rebecca Yarros, Aria Aber, Shane Burcaw and Hannah Burcaw, Jinger Duggar Vuolo, and Marie Kondo. Plus, People shares an excerpt from Suzanne Collins’s forthcoming “Hunger Games” novel, Sunrise on the Reaping, due out March 18.

In reviews that offer insight, invitation, and illumination, these four LJ reviewers showcase the life-affirming work of reading and writing about books.

George Lichman fights crime and reads it too.

She has a wonderful talent for situating books within larger contexts and discourses, allowing librarians to understand how different works might fit within their communities.

In reviews that showcase his enjoyment and knowledge of speculative fiction, Matthew accurately and expressively describes plot details and thoughtfully conveys the reading experience, along with offering apt comparisons and read-alikes.

The winners of the Nero Book Awards are announced. Peter Gizzi wins the T.S. Eliot Prize for his poetry collection Fierce Elegy. Kaya Press receives the Constellation Award. Earlyword’s January GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now. The Giller Prize will feature writers longlisted for the 2024 award in a new online book club. Multiple women accuse author Neil Gaiman of sexual abuse in a new Vulture story. CrimeReads shares an excerpt from Ruth Ware’s forthcoming novel, The Woman in Suite 11, due out July 8. Plus, a new £2 coin in Britain will feature George Orwell to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the author’s death.

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by Robert Crais, Grady Hendrix, Layne Fargo, and Scott Turow. People’s book of the week is I’ll Come To You by Rebecca Kauffman. The Philip K. Dick Award nominees and the Story Prize finalists are announced. Brooke Shields discusses aging and her new memoir, Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old. SLJ shares how to help those impacted by the California wildfires. Jim Murphy’s Inner Excellence hits #1 on Amazon after a viral video captured Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown reading it during Sunday’s NFC wild-card game. Plus, NYPL acquires the archive of Jhumpa Lahiri.

Thao Thai’s Banyan Moon wins the Crook’s Corner Book Prize for the best debut novel set in the American South. Winners of the Silvers-Dudley Prizes, for literary criticism, arts writing, and journalism, are announced. Crown, a division of Penguin Random House, has launched Storehouse Voices, a new imprint devoted to elevating Black voices, and Simon & Schuster has announced a new audio-first imprint, Simon Maverick, focused on self-published authors. Publishers Weekly has Barack Obama’s list of his favorite books of 2024. Plus, interviews with Chukwuebuka Ibeh, Stuart Turton, and Tracy Clark.

Winners of the Pacific Northwest Book Awards are announced. The shortlists for the Westminster Book Awards, for political books and books by UK parliamentarians, are revealed. Jenna Bush Hager, host of the Read with Jenna book club, is starting her own publishing venture with Penguin Random House. Plus interviews with Graham Norton, Jean Hanff Korelitz, and Liz Moore.

All the June 2025 Prepub Alerts in one place, plus a downloadable spreadsheet of all titles from every post.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joy-Ann Reid, Alyssa Cole, Essie Chambers, and more are nominated for NAACP Image Awards. Oprah picks Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose for her 110th book club. Other January book club picks include Kate Fagan’s The Three Lives of Cate Kay (Reese Witherspoon and Target), Emma Knight’s The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus (Read with Jenna and Barnes & Noble), and Karissa Chen’s Homeseeking (GMA and Good Housekeeping). LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams. Reba McEntire will star in and produce an adaptation of Fannie Flagg’s The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion. Plus, Eliza Kennedy’s forthcoming novel Lucky Night will be adapted for the stage.

LitHub releases the list of its most anticipated books of 2025. New year previews also arrive from Electric Lit, BookRiot, and Vogue. Barnes & Noble announces plans to open 60 new stores in 2025. Meta signals an end to its third-party fact-checking program. Diana Gabaldon shares a new Outlander excerpt. Vox examines: “Are men’s reading habits truly a national crisis?” Bestselling thriller author Andrew Pyper has died at the age of 56.

Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by James Patterson and Brian Sitts, Fiona Davis, Danielle Steel, and Alafair Burke. People’s book of the week is Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin. Audiofile announces the January Earphones Award winners. Jenna Bush Hager selects The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight for her January book club. The film and TV adaptations for Conclave, Wicked, Shōgun, I’m Still Here, and The Penguin win Golden Globes. Plus, what to read in 2025.

NYT chooses the best book covers of 2024, CrimeReads selects the year’s best espionage fiction, and CBC names the year’s best Canadian nonfiction. The Bookseller analyzes over 900 titles named in the media’s best books lists this year and finds that Percival Everett’s James features most prominently. The longlists for the Porchlight Business Book Awards are revealed. Sourcebooks launches an in-house audiobook program. Plus Page to Screen and interviews with Kristin Hannah, the Colberts, and Patrick Radden Keefe.

Joseph Earl Thomas’s God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer wins the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Poets & Writers shares its 20th annual look at debut poets. Tessa Hull’s Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir and Leela Corman’s Victory Parade top Publishers Weekly’s 2024 Graphic Novel Critics Poll. CrimeReads selects the best horror novels of 2024. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Bryce Stevenson and S.E. Hinton.

Parmy Olson’s Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race That Will Change the World is named Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year. Yan F Zhang’s short story “Fleeting Marrow” wins the 4thWrite Prize. The 2024 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant recipients are announced. Best-of-2024 lists arrive from NPR’s Maureen Corrigan, Time, Reactor, CBC, Seattle Times, BookRiot, and CrimeReads. LitHub shares the best-reviewed books of the year. Phaidon Press appoints Bob Miller as new CEO. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title What the Wife Knew by Darby Kane. Sarah J. Maas teases a new ACOTAR book, along with new audiobook recordings for spring. Plus, Clare Mulley’s The Woman Who Saved the Children will be adapted for film.

New LGBTQIA+ fiction from Joanna Lowell, Mae Marvel, Chip Pons, and Jodie Slaughter to help celebrate Pride Month, along with great beach reads from Josie Silver and Alicia Thompson.

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers makes her nonfiction debut, Sara Kehaulani Goo describes her family’s journey to keep their ancestral Hawaiian lands, and Brando Simeo Starkey writes a history of the Supreme Court’s role in sustaining white supremacy.

This month features a lesbian vampire tale from bestselling V.E. Schwab, a historical portal fantasy from LJ Best Book author H.G. Parry, and two fairy-tale retellings.

Rival thieves, court intrigue, and monsters appear amid the romance in these anticipated romantasy reads.