Book News

Bryan Washington wins the 2020 Young Lions Fiction Award for Lot: Stories. The National Book Awards longlists are announced for nonfiction and poetry. The longlist is also announced for the CBC Nonfiction Prize. Lit Hub releases its Fall Preview list. Fantasy author Terry Goodkind has died.

Barack Obama’s memoir will publish on Nov. 17 and will be titled A Promised Land. The National Book Foundation announces the longlists for the Translated Literature category and the Young People’s Literature category. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman and Disloyal by Michael Cohen top the bestseller lists. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke remains buzzy.

The Booker Prize shortlist is announced. It is a diverse and notably new gathering of authors. The Justice Department has opened a criminal inquiry into John Bolton and has subpoenaed his publisher and literary agent. The National Book Festival takes place online and on TV this year. The controversy over J.K. Rowling continues to grow. The October LibraryReads list arrives. A new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion is on the way and Black Widow gets moved due to the pandemic.

Big print runs, big auctions, and TV rights are signs that these novels will be buzzing.

Toronto-based publisher Harlequin recently announced the launch of its Diverse Voices Scholarship, as part of its ongoing efforts to acquire more books by writers from underrepresented communities.

Barack Obama’s next memoir could publish in mid-November; a release date might be announced this Thursday. Nina Stibbe wins the Comedy Women in Print Prize for Reasons to Be Cheerful. The American Book Award winners are announced. BookPage picks their most anticipated books for the fall and EarlyWord posts the September GalleyChat Roundup. Ken Liu announces that the last book in The Dandelion Dynasty trilogy will actually be two books. Next April, PBS will air a film about Ernest Hemingway by Ken Burns.

Rage by Bob Woodward leads holds this week. People’s "Book of the Week" is Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria (W.W. Norton) and One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History by Ted Cruz (Regnery: S. & S.) see strong sales bumps. There are new booklists for the fall and much award news. Also, an ode to mail-order book clubs and a look at Space Cat.

Walter Mosley will be honored with the 2020 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. The New York Public Library celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the Young Lions Fiction Awards on September 13. Three adaptations arrive for the week ahead and new TV series based on books are in the works. Monsterland and The Spanish Princess, part 2 get trailers. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has an essay entitled "Notes on Grief." Sarah Perry has one about risk. Rage by Bob Woodward continues to dominate TV news coverage.

The "What We're Reading & Watching" staffers are watching Michael Jordan and Gene Kelly dance; reading about the lack of honor among mafiosi; experiencing displacement and alienation in wartime Hungary; mingling with British couples; and discovering the humor in Balzac.