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Awards, News & Buzzy Books

The longlist for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence is announced. Infodocket has details. Shortlists will be announced on November 14. The winners will be announced during ALA’s LibLearnX at RUSA’s Books and Media Awards reception.

NPR reports on the effects book bans have had on the Scholastic book fair. Publishers Weekly also reports on the controversy and Scholastic’s response to accusations of censorship. Read Scholastic’s original statement here. Slate and USA Today also have coverage.

Revelations from Britney Spears’s forthcoming memoir, The Woman in Me (Gallery), are buzzing. People, Entertainment Weekly, Parade, GMA, and Vulture all have coverage. 

BBC names “25 of the best books of the year so far.”

NYT writes about the reinvention of Barnes & Noble. 

Reviews

Washington Post reviews Company: Stories by Shannon Sanders (Graywolf): “This book is for anyone bludgeoned by gnawing remarks from family members or friends. We all find ourselves in bad company on occasion, but the stakes are higher when those experiences happen with those we consider kin”; Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow (Crown): “Maddow’s point, in Prequel, is that it takes an awful lot of people to stop a fascist threat. And now, as we face another groundswell, Prequel is an urgent story about how many of us will have to act if any of us hope to stop this one”; and Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward (Scribner; LJ starred review): “Now, Ward has moved further back in time to focus on the United States’ original sin, the peculiar institution that managed to reify every circle of Dante’s Inferno.” Datebook also reviews: “With this first foray into the historical novel, Ward does not flinch when facing down the odious institution of American slavery.”

NYT reviews new thrillers, including The Exchange by John Grisham (Doubleday): “Since his 1989 debut, A Time To Kill, Grisham has been remarkably prolific and often wonderful. I love his books, but I wish he hadn’t written this one.”

Datebook reviews The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (Bloomsbury): “Eng’s choice to center the stories of white colonials might also seem obstinate or odd, but I happily lingered in his house. Emerging, I sought out Maugham’s stories, attuned to the damage caused by colonialism and concealment, and to the risks and rewards of spilling one’s guts to a snuffling writer.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for The Exchange by John Grisham (Doubleday), the top holds title of the week.

LJ has new prepub alerts.

Roxane Gay discusses her new book, Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People’s Business (Harper), with Shondaland. Refinery29 also has an interview with Gay. 

Essence highlights Ziwe Fumudoh’s new book of essays, Black Friend (Abrams Image). 

USA Today interviews Dolly Parton about her book, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, written with Holly George-Warren & Rebecca Seaver (Ten Speed), her new musical, and “being everybody's 'favorite aunt’.”

Gizmodo reports on the lack of news from the New York Comic Con. 

Esquire has an interview with “New York” writer Fran Lebowitz. 

AARP shares 13 takeaways from Jada Pinkett Smith’s memoir, Worthy (Dey Street).

The Star Tribune recommends Jane Austen–inspired novels. 

BookRiot shares 8 spooky books for the season, along with cozy witch titles.

Tor rounds up “Five Horror Books Set in Seemingly Idyllic Small Towns.”

ElectricLit lists “8 Queer Historical Fiction Books Set Around the World,” and “8 Short Story Collections About the Flipside of Living in a Postcard Destination.”

Buzzfeed suggests “underrated books everyone should read.”

Five Little Indians author Michelle Good will release her next novel, Eliza Sunshine, in fall 2025. CBC has the story. 

The Guardian rounds up a list of the top ten allegories. 

Authors on Air

NPR’s Morning Edition talks with Walter Isaacson, author of Elon Musk (S. & S.), and Michael Lewis, author of Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon (Norton), about how their respective heroes turned into villains. 

NPR’s All Things Considered chats with Max Brooks, author of Minecraft: The Village (Random House Worlds), about how “Minecraft is a great way to teach kids about preparedness and adaptation.”

Jada Pinkett Smith chats with NPR's Fresh Air about her memoir, Worthy (Dey Street).

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