All the Finalists for the National Book Awards
Plus: a deal on Danielle Steele and the "it books" of the week.
This Today in Books is brought to you by: Disney Books
It’s a big day, folks! Read through for National Book Award finalists, and don’t miss the “it books” of the week to wrap things up.
The Other NBA
The finalists for the 2023 National Book Awards were announced this morning, narrowing the field down to five books in each of five categories. Winners will be announced on November 15 in a ceremony that was originally supposed to be hosted by Drew Barrymore with Oprah as a special guest. The National Book Foundation dropped Barrymore a few weeks ago after she announced she would be taping new episodes of her talk show despite the then-ongoing WGA strike. The NBF has yet to announce a new host, so it appears that Lady O may be the headliner. Not a bad deal!
Here are the finalists:
Fiction
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah,
Temple Folk by Aaliyah Bilal
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
The End of Drum-Time Hanna Pylväinen
Blackouts by Justin Torres
Nonfiction
The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk
Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice by Cristina Rivera Garza
Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe
We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir by Raja Shehadeh
Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant
Young People’s Literature
Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow
Huda F Cares? by Huda Fahmy
Big by Vashti Harrison
The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh
A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat
Translated Literature
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, translated from the Korean by Anton Hur
Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop, translated from the French by Sam Taylor
The Words That Remain by Stênio Gardel, translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato
Abyss by Pilar Quintana, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman
On a Woman’s Madness by Astrid Roemer, translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott
Poetry
How to Communicate by John Lee Clark
from unincorporated territory [åmot] by Craig Santos Perez
suddenly we by Evie Shockley
Tripas by Brandon Som
From From by Monica Youn
The Revolution Will Be Broadcast
Speaking of National Book Award finalists, Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, which was shortlisted for the 2014 award and won the Pulitzer the following year, is coming to Netflix in a limited series in November. Music to my ears, the words “limited series.” The full trailer dropped today.
What a Steele
Winter is coming. Load up your e-reader to keep things steamy with a bunch of Danielle Steele books on sale for $2.99.
Before I dive into the “it books” of the week, thanks again to Disney Books for sponsoring today’s edition.
The Spells We Cast is “a story of spell-slinging, lasso-swinging, and star-crossed love.” Sounds pretty great, right?
The “It Books” of the Week
Buckle up, pals. We’ve got a bonus on the bonus content this week because today marks the release of two of my most anticipated nonfiction books of the whole season, and I couldn’t possibly choose between them.
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