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Awards & News

The shortlist for the International Booker Prize is announced. NYT, The Guardian, and NPR have coverage. 

The 2024 PEN America Literary Awards longlists are announced. 

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump will write a series of crime novels for Bantam Books. Variety has the story. 

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin (Dutton), and Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra (Pamela Dorman Books), go head-to-head in the final round of the bracket-style relaunch of Fallon Book Club. The winner will be announced on The Tonight Show tonight.

BookRiot asks: "Should AI Companies Buy Publishers for Access to Their Data? " after an in-depth NYT article reported that Meta considered purchasing Simon & Schuster to bolster its AI. The Guardian also has coverage.  

Earlyword’s April Galleychat spreadsheet is out now.

Publishers Weekly rounds up April's book club picks.

Reviews

The Garden by Clare Beams (Doubleday): “Tucked inside this story’s gothic envelope is a tale inspired by a horrific chapter in the history of obstetric medicine,” ; The Invention of Prehistory : Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins by Stefanos Geroulanos (Liveright): “What both fascinates and troubles him is our seemingly irrepressible urge to look to the lives of early humans — to that mysterious time before recorded history — to tell us who, essentially, we are.”

Washington Post reviews Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings (Hogarth): “In the novel’s present tense, nothing particularly momentous happens, but that’s essential to its terrifying theme: Everything left to happen must come from disinterring the past. And once that digging begins, it unleashes an accelerating series of horrors. In a sense, Jennings has created a South African version of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child.”

LA Times reviews Mania by Lionel Shriver (Harper): “An unsubtle broadside against progressive scruples, Mania is an amusing book but not an entirely enjoyable one. If you think that Ben Shapiro frequently makes terrific points on his podcast and that Kamala Harris, when she is president, will make us all announce our personal pronouns, this Bud’s for you.” NYT also reviews: “As parody goes, this is ham-fisted stuff. Ironically, Mania lacks the discernment required to make it work. Satire demands precision, and Shriver applies an ax to a job calling for a scalpel.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library journal offer read-alikes for The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron; LJ starred review), the top holds title of the week.

LJ has new prepub alerts.

The Bay Area Book Festival announces its 2024 lineup. Datebook reports. 

Esquire names “The Best Horror Books of 2024 (So Far).”

Forbes lists “The 30 Greatest Book Series Of All Time.”

Sheila Carter-Jones, Every Hard Sweetness (BOA Editions Ltd), answers ten questions at Poets & Writers.

Ina Garten previews her forthcoming memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens : A Memoir (Crown), due out October 1st, at People.

People shares an excerpt from Kathleen Hanna's forthcoming memoir, Rebel Girl : My Life as a Feminist Punk (Ecco), due out May 14th.

Grace Blakeley talks with Vogue about her new book, Vulture Capitalism : Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom (Atria).

Authors on Air

Amanda Montell discusses her book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality (Atria: One Signal), with NPR’s Fresh Air.

Renée Zellweger will return as Bridget Jones in a new adaptation, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, based on the novels by Helen Fielding, due out in 2025. People has the story. 

The Lord of the Rings Musical will premiere in the US at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater this summer.Reactor has details.

Fawzia Mirza is set to direct an adaptation of The Wedding Season by Su Dharmapala. Deadline reports.

Clare Leslie Hall‘s forthcoming Broken Country, due out from S. & S. in March 2025, will be adapted for film with Hello Sunshine to produce. Deadline reports.

Rae Wynn-Grant, Wild Life: Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World (Zando), will be on CBS Mornings tomorrow. 

Ali Rosen, 15 Minute Meals: Truly Quick Recipes that Don’t Taste like Shortcuts (Mango), and Alice Randall, My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future (Atria/Black Privilege Publishing) will be on GMA tomorrow.

Sara Jane Ho, Mind Your Manners: How to Be Your Best Self in Any Situation (Hachette Go), will visit with Drew Barrymore tomorrow. 

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