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Awards & Book News

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 (St. Martin’s) 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, Publishers Weekly reports.

Publishers Weekly has coverage of the Iowa state legislation that proposes to remove obscenity-law exemption for libraries and schools.

Page to Screen

February 21

The Monkey, based on the short story from Skeleton Crew by Stephen King. Neon. Reviews | Trailer

The Unbreakable Boy, based on the book The Unbreakable Boy: A Father’s Fear, a Son’s Courage, and a Story of Unconditional Love by Scott Michael LeRette with Susy Flory. Lionsgate. Reviews | Trailer

Reviews

Washington Post reviews The Garden by Nick Newman (Putnam; LJ starred review): “In its best moments, The Garden is so effectively suffused with this intended dread that one wants to stop reading but can’t. Yet dread is a single thudding chord; played too long, it becomes dull”; and The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy by Jeffrey Toobin (S. & S.): “Although it surveys well-covered territory, Toobin’s thought-provoking and strenuously argued account proves instructive and timely in the wake of the fusillade of troubling pardons issued by Trump and Joe Biden, including those of family members, political allies and, most recently by Trump, about 1,600 Capitol rioters.”

LA Times reviews Show Don’t Tell: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random; LJ starred review): “A radiant contentment pervades these stories. They are retrospective but don’t rue the passage of time. This is a writer who’s comfortable in her skin. Sittenfeld is a sharp observer of social mores and an astute judge of character, but she’s never cruel—she’s the opposite of a misanthrope.”

LitHub gathers the best-reviewed books of the week.

Publishers Weekly gathers reviews of February books by Black authors and about Black lives.

Briefly Noted

Joanne Harris returns with a prequel to her hit 1999 novel Chocolat, which became an Oscar-nominated movie. Vianne will be published by Pegasus on Sept. 2, People reports.

EW shares the cover for Alysha Rameera’s Sri Lankan mythology–inspired romantasy debut, Her Soul for a Crown, due out from Sourcebooks Casablanca on Aug. 12.

LitHub interviews Eli Zuzovsky, author of Mazeltov (Holt).

Ben Okri, author of Madame Sosostris & the Festival for the Broken-Hearted (Apollo), shares “The Books of My Life” with The Guardian.

CrimeReads interviews Kat Dunn, author of the debut horror novel Hungerstone (Zando).

Publishers Weekly’s “Writers Talking Writers” series has Charlotte Wood discussing William Maxwell and Laila Lalami on Franz Kafka.

NYT offers “7 New Books We Recommend This Week.”

Reactor offers “Five SFF Stories Driven by Plot-Facilitating Ignorance” and 10 works of must-read short speculative fiction that came out last month.

NYT offers a centenary tribute to illustrator Edward Gorey.

In NYMag, Emily Gould does a deep dive into celebrity book clubs from the publishing industry angle.

The Guardian explains where to start with Jane Austen.

Authors on Air

NPR’s Fresh Air interviews Rich Benjamin, author of Talk to Me: Lessons from a Family Forged by History (Pantheon).

There’s a new episode of The LitHub Podcast, discussing The Lord of the Rings, how the publishing world can respond to the second Trump presidency, and the return of the Thresholds literary interview series.

Tomorrow, GMA will host Ethan Kross, author of Shift: Managing Your Emotions—So They Don’t Manage You (Crown).

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