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Awards, News & National Library Week

It’s National Library Week, and this year’s theme is “Ready, Set, Library!” Meg Medina will serve as 2024 Honorary Chair.

American Library Association releases a list of the top 10 most challenged books of 2023, along with “The State of America’s Libraries Report 2024.” Infodocket has details. NYT reports on the most targeted books.

James Patterson, The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading, written with Matt Eversmann (Little, Brown), and librarian Mychal Threets discuss book bans, bookstores, and libraries with USA Today.

The Ondaatje Prize releases its 2024 longlist. Publishing Perspectives has details. 

British author Lynne Reid Banks, noted for The L-Shaped Room and The Indian in the Cupboard books,has died at age 94. NYT has an obituary, as does The Guardian. There are remembrances in The Guardian, BBC, and The Times.

Big Books of the Week

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron; LJ starred review) leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

Toxic Prey by John Sandford (Putnam; LJ starred review)

Daughter of Mine by Megan Miranda (S. & S./Marysue Rucci; LJ starred review)

How To End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang (Avon; LJ starred review)

The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell (Atria: One Signal)

These books and others publishing the week of April 8, 2024, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Three LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week:

The Hall of Fame pick this week is Daughter of Mine by Megan Miranda (S. & S./Marysue Rucci; LJ starred review).

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes (Tor Nightfire)

“This unsettling space horror novel follows Dr. Ophelia Bray as she is assigned to a crew exploring a deserted planet with ruins from an ancient civilization. Soon it's apparent that something suspicious happened to the previous crew, and even earlier, to the ancient society. Mystery, murder, and secrets keep the reader intrigued and guessing the outcome.”—Kristin Skinner, Flat River Community Library, MI

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr (Doubleday)

“Baby Clayton is left on the steps of a puzzlemakers’ society. Pippa, the society’s founder, finds and raises him. When she passes away, Clayton, untethered, longs to solve the mystery of his abandonment. Pippa has created a special puzzle for Clayton to find out the secrets of life and discover his origins. Readers will absolutely love this fun, quirky tale.”—Claire Talbot, Greece Public Library, NY

Four Indie Next picks publish this week:

The Wives: A Memoir by Simone Gorrindo (Gallery/Scout; LJ starred review)

“With courage and raw truth, Simone Gorrindo conveys the stress, anxiety, and pain of military marriage. She illustrates the importance of the friendships that are formed among those left behind and the camaraderie of those in the Unit.”—Laura Edwards, The Little Bookshop, Midlothian, VA

The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell (Atria: One Signal)

“Exploring our current culture of overthinking and the language surrounding it, these essays are fascinating and enlightening. Peppered with anecdotes and self-evaluation, this is the book Montell was meant to write.”—Mallory Melton, BookPeople, Austin, TX

The Prospects by KT Hoffman (Dial; LJ starred review)

“A joyful, heartfelt debut! Gene loves baseball and his team, even in the minors. It’s enough to be the first openly trans player. When a face from the past joins his team, it upsets the life Gene’s made for himself. Can he restore the balance?”—Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser, Marietta, GA

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron; LJ starred review)

“Luzia and Santángel, a duo for the ages! A scullion and an immortal familiar team up to win the king’s competition in the Spanish Golden Age as the Inquisition looms. The Familiar will lead you down new paths you won’t ever forget.”—Coco Zephir, Phoenix Books, Essex Junction, VT

In the Media

People’s book of the week is Table for Two: Fictions by Amor Towles (Viking; LJ starred review). Also getting attention are The Marriage Sabbatical by Lian Dolan (Morrow), and How To End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang (Avon; LJ starred review). Under “Women’s Untold Stories” are: The Wives: A Memoir by Simone Gorrindo (Gallery/Scout; LJ starred review), Rabbit Heart: A Mother’s Murder, a Daughter’s Story by Kristine S. Ervin (Counterpoint), and All We Were Promised by Ashton Lattimore (Ballantine). 

The “Picks” section spotlights Ripley, based on The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith on Netflix, and Scoop, based on Scoops: The BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews, from Steven Seagal to Prince Andrew by Sam McAlister, also on Netflix. There is feature on Valerie Bertinelli, whose new cookbook is Indulge: Delicious and Decadent Dishes To Enjoy and Share (Harvest; LJ starred review). 

Reviews

NYT reviews The Wives: A Memoir by Simone Gorrindo (Gallery/Scout; LJ starred review): “Gorrindo’s prose is inviting and fluid, and her storytelling is intimate and vivid”; Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life by Jason Roberts (Random): “But the snark is not merely entertainment—the portrait is central to the main thesis of Roberts’s engaging and thought-provoking book, one focused on the theatrical politics and often deeply troubling science that shape our definitions of life on Earth”; Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball by Keith O’Brien (Pantheon): “The phrase ‘the Last Glory Days of Baseball’ in the subtitle feels more like marketing spin than actual content of the book; the author is too cleareyed to engage in easy nostalgia”; and Playboy by Constance Debre, tr. by Holly James (Semiotext(e)): “Playboy is ruthless in its depiction of social conventions: romance, family, career, stability. Yet there is immense relief in Debré’s refusal to be consoled by the world, a glimmer—which grows stronger in the later novels, Love Me Tender and Name—of the possibility for something else.”

Washington Post reviews The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron; LJ starred review): “Fans of Bardugo’s work will find The Familiar a thrilling addition to her canon about oppression and liberation, and anyone interested in this historical period and the themes she’s exploring will find it engrossing”; Table for Two: Fictions by Amor Towles (Viking; LJ starred review): “This collection is not just spare pieces to tide readers over until Towles’s next novel. It’s a worthwhile addition to his growing oeuvre”; and Mania by Lionel Shriver (Harper): “Mania is very funny, occasionally offensive and, yes, smart. But the famously iconoclastic Shriver’s most striking accomplishment here is more representative than she may want to acknowledge: namely, that its satire is as reflective of a reactionary fear about demography and post-1960s social movements as it is of a concern with the waning of meritocracy.”

Briefly Noted

NPR interviews Isabel Allende about the audiobook of her new short story, Lovers at the Museum: A Short Story, tr. by the author, read by Nicholas Boulton (Amazon Original Stories). 

NYT features the work of Dutch-Surinamese author Astrid Roemer, whose new book, Off-White, tr. by Lucy Scott and David McKay (Two Line), releases this week.

Anne Lamott reflects on her 20th and latest book, Somehow: Thoughts on Love (Riverhead), at People.

Clare Beams discusses her new gothic novel, The Garden (Doubleday), with People.

CrimeReads suggests 10 new books for the week.

The Millions releases its spring 2024 preview.

People shares April’s best books.

Authors on Air

CBS Sunday Morning interviews Hampton Sides, author of The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook (Doubleday).

Tabitha Brown, I Did a New Thing: 30 Days to Living Free (Morrow), will visit the Jennifer Hudson Show today.

Anita Yokota, author of Home Therapy: Interior Design for Increasing Happiness, Boosting Confidence, and Creating Calm (Clarkson Potter), visits with Drew Barrymore.

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