Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.

Awards & News

The J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Award winners are announced. Ned Blackhawk’s The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History (Yale Univ.), which also won the National Book Award, wins the Mark Lynton History Prize. Dashka Slater’s Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed (Farrar) wins the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the first young adult book to achieve the honor. Washington Post has coverage.

Finalists for the 2024 ITW Thriller Awards are announced. 

Finalists for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature are announced.

The Publishing Triangle Awards finalists are announced; ALA President Emily Drabinski will receive the Torchbearer Award.

“US Publishers File Brief Opposing Internet Archive’s Appeal,” reports Publishing Perspectives. 

Sports Illustrated gets a new publisher, USA Today reports. 

The Virginia Festival of the Book kicks off tomorrow.

ALA releases book challenge data for 2023, LJ reports.

Library Journal’s Galley Guide for the 2024 Public Library Association conference is now available.

Reviews

NYT reviews No Judgment: Essays by Lauren Oyler (HarperOne): “Oyler is a sharp and confident critic, and some interpretations in the book are outstanding”; Fervor by Toby Lloyd (Avid Reader/S. & S.): “Enriching his story with detail and above all heart, Lloyd has crafted a lasting allegory of our dark historical time”; and The Black Box: Writing the Race by Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Penguin Pr..; LJ starred review): “This is a literary history of Black America, but it is also an argument that African American history is inextricable from the history of African American literature.” Plus, short reviews of graphic novels by Beth Hetland, Jordan Mechner, Sergio Aragonés, and David Small. 

Datebook reviews James by Percival Everett (Doubleday; LJ starred review): “Everett, with over 20 novels, has proved he can write just about anything, and at the end of James he gives us multiple plot twists that seem at once shocking and improbable while also feeling so darn satisfying and completely possible in an America sketched by two humorists, two centuries apart, who seem to be saying that the joke is still on us.” NPR also weighs in: “In addition to addressing language and identity, James is very convincingly and movingly a book about two runaways’ quest for freedom and the relationship between human beings that society says should not have any connection. James works shockingly well in all those dimensions.”

The Rumpus reviews The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft (Bloomsbury; LJ starred review): “The Extinction of Irena Rey is jarring, lush, and rife with subtextual intimations. In her consideration of the translator’s complex relationship with their source material, Croft exploration of the successes, risks—and, yes, betrayals—inherent in this crucial and underrecognized effort.”

Briefly Noted

Percival Everett gives an interview about his new book, James (Doubleday; LJ starred review), at ElectricLit. 

CNN analyst Natasha S. Alford talks about her new memoir, American Negra (Harper), with Salon.

Essence talks with Rahiel Tesfamariam about her new book, Imagine Freedom: Transforming Pain into Political and Spiritual Power (Amistad), and “how Black Americans can fight for social justice while avoiding burnout, anxiety, and depression.”

Zibby Owens talks about her debut novel, Blank (Little A), with Today.

NYT Style Magazine offers an “Illustrated Guide to Spring’s New Books.”

Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), discusses “the rise of ‘romantasy’ novels, explicit sex scenes, and BookTok,” at Slate. 

People previews Demi-Leigh Tebow’s forthcoming memoir, A Crown That Lasts: You Are Not Your Label (Thomas Nelson), due out August 13.

The Atlantic takes a look at Christine Blasey Ford’s “modern-day horror story,” One Way Back: A Memoir (St. Martin’s). 

Reactor reflects on the “weirdness of Ambrose Bierce.”

LitHub highlights 25 new books for the week. 

BookRiot identifies “8 of the Most Polarizing Romance Novels Ever Written” and the 9 best villains.

BuzzFeed selects “29 Of The Most Emotionally-Charged Books Ever.”

ElectricLit shares “8 Books Featuring Colombian Protagonists.”

CrimeReads suggests 8 dark science mysteries. 

Carissa Broadbent previews her forthcoming “Crowns of Nyaxia” book, The Songbird & the Heart of Stone (Bramble), due out November 19, for Elle. 

Authors on Air

Téa Obreht discusses her new book, The Morningside (Random), with B&N’s Poured Over podcast.

BookRiot’s All The Books podcast discusses new releases for the week. 

Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.