Author: Jamie Canaves

NPR’s 2020 Book Concierge

For years now, NPR’s “best of” list has been done in this wonderful book concierge format that selects their favorite books (from NPR staff and trusted critics) and is formatted so you can easily select filters to find what you’re looking for. And this year there are 2,500 books including popular titles like Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and under-the-radar titles like Even As We Breathe by Annette Clapsaddle.

Waterstones’ Book Of The Year Announced

Waterstones, the British book retailer, has selected their book of the year, a historical fiction they say has the message of “hope through the darkest of times”: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. Not new to prizes, Hamnet also previously won this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Librarians & Advocacy Groups Push Amazon To Allow In-House Published E-Books For Library Purchases

Amazon doesn’t allow in-house published e-books to be purchased by libraries for patron check out, and librarians and advocacy groups are pushing them to cease the ban. Fight for the Future started a petition calling “for Congress to pursue an antitrust investigation and legislative action against Amazon for its ban on selling e-books to libraries.” Amazon claims it will be testing different pricing models with libraries.

The Gutenberg Bible and How to See it Online

If you’re curious about the the first book to be printed using moveable type, learn more about the Gutenberg Bible and how to see it here.

226 Love Letters Written By Kurt Vonnegut

While cleaning out the attic in her family’s home in 2010 Edie Vonnegut made a huge discovery: a box filled with her father, Kurt Vonnegut’s, love letters to her mother, Jane Vonnegut. And now they can be read in the new book Love, Kurt: The Vonnegut Love Letters, 1941-1945.

Dictionaries Choose Same Word Of The Year

Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster have each revealed their “word of the year,” and this should come as a shock to no one in the year 2020, they both chose the word “pandemic”. Dictionary.com: “The resilience and resourcefulness people confronted the pandemic with also manifested itself in tremendous linguistic creativity. Throughout 2020, our team has been tracking a growing body of so-called coronacoinages that have given expression—and have offered some relief from tragedy, some connection in isolation—to the lived experience of a surreal year.”

Ben Bova, Legendary Sci-Fi Author, Has Passed Away

Ben Bova, Hugo Award winning author of more than 120 science fiction and fact works, has passed away. Kathryn Brusco, his niece by marriage, posted the sad news on Twitter on November 29th that Bova passed away from “COVID-19 related pneumonia and a stroke. Needless to say, he will be missed terribly by us and the the world.”

Best Books Of 2020

Welcome, readers, to Book Riot’s guide to the best books of 2020!

Penguin Random House Purchasing Simon & Schuster

ViacomCBS Inc., which owns Simon & Schuster, said it plans to sell the third largest U S. publishing entity to the largest one, Penguin Random House. If you feel like some sticker shock: $2.175 billion in cash is the price. “Approximately one-third of all books sold in America will now come from one corporation, Bertelsmann. And because the now-combined shares of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster are so high, the deal also raises antitrust concerns and may attract attention from the U.S. Justice Department.”

The Guardian’s Best Books Of 2020

The Guardian has revealed its Best Books of 2020 list with separate lists for fiction, children’s, crime and thrillers, science fiction and fantasy, memoir and celebrity books, politics, ideas, sports, nature and science, poetry, comics and graphic novels, art, food, and stocking fillers. So many lists. So many books. Chosen by Guardian critics, you can check out all the lists here.

Grammy Nom Omits Alex Trebek’s Name From Own Memoir

The 2021 Grammy Award nominations nominated Ken Jennings for the Best Spoken Word Album for Alex Trebek’s memoir The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life. But they didn’t nominate Alex Trebek, who is also a narrator on his memoir with Jennings. “’This should 100% be Alex’s Grammy nomination. He wrote this book and reads much of the audiobook!,’ the Jeopardy! champ said on Twitter following the nominations announcement Tuesday. ‘Who do I speak to about this.’”

What Are Publishers Really Doing To Diversify?

In this moment of reckoning with the lack of diversity in publishing, what are publishers really doing to address the problem?

New Online Bookstore For LGBTQ+ Readers Across UK & Ireland

Readers of LGBTQ+ books across the UK and Ireland now have a new online bookstore to shop at: Queer Lit. The store’s managing director, Matthew Cornford, was inspired to open the shop after visiting a store in Manchester describing itself as the biggest book shop in the North. “I was shocked to be told ‘We don’t have an LGBTQ section. You’ll need to go home and search the internet for gay books then come and find it in its relevant category.’”

Smithsonian Magazine’s Best Food Books of 2020

Here’s a delicious 2020 “best of” list: Smithsonian Magazine’s Ten Best Books About Food of 2020. A few of the titles for food lovers include Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley’s Falastin: A Cookbook; How to Be a Conscious Eater: Making Food Choices That Are Good for You, Others, and the Planet by Sophie Egan; and Mely Martínez’s The Mexican Home Kitchen: Traditional Home-Style Recipes That Capture the Flavors and Memories of Mexico.

Mom Starts Indie Publishing House To Bring More South Asian Voices To Kid’s Lit

After realizing that her daughters were not going to be able to see themselves often in children’s books, let alone on the covers, Sailaja Joshi decided to start an independent publishing house. Mango and Marigold Press’ mission “is to bridge the diversity gap and the accessibility gap in children’s literature” by centering the South Asian experience in its stories.

Where’s Waldo Style Photo Book But For Cat Lovers

Marcel Heijnen, a Hong Kong-based Dutch photographer, and Stephen Case, a Hong Kong-based Australian illustrator, have come together to put out a book that fans of Where’s Waldo and cats will love: Spot the Shop Cat. “With ‘where’s the cat?’ as the unifying theme, each photo requires a long look to find the animal amid a messy and chaotic shop or market scene in old areas of Hong Kong and mainland China – the kind that might soon disappear as a result of gentrification.”

Pope’s Book Supports BLM & Science

Pope Francis has written a book during the pandemic, Let Us Dream, that expresses his feelings on many current issues, including support for racial justice, criticizing COVID-19 skeptics, “populist politicians who whip up rallies in ways reminiscent of the 1930s,” hypocritical conservative Catholics, and more. Ghost-written by Austen Ivereigh, the book is set to release on December 1st.

The Obamas + Adam Conover Adapting The Fifth Risk To Netflix Sketch Comedy

Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions is working with the creator and host of truTV’s Adam Ruins Everything, Adam Conover, to loosely adapt Michael Lewis’ The Fifth Risk into a Netflix sketch comedy series. The G Word with Adam Conover is slated to start production in 2021 and “will ask whether government is a dirty word or a trusted institution.”

Food and Travel (Through Books) During a Pandemic

Books at that magical intersection of food and travel, perfect for your pandemic wanderlust.

German Librarians’ Game of Cat & Mouse Catches Book Thief

For thirteen years, German librarians played a game of cat and mouse with a book thief who expertly sliced out maps from antique books. This very real story reads like a spy thriller.

Lorde Has A Photo Book With Proceeds Going To Climate Change Research

New Zealand singer and songwriter Lorde took a trip to Antarctica with her friend Harriet Were, and now you can purchase a photo book of Were’s photos and Lorde’s writings. The book, Going South, is up for preorder on Lorde’s website and it will start shipping in February. All proceeds will be “donated by Lorde to Antarctica New Zealand to support a postgraduate scholar to study climate change science.”

Chicago Public High School Students/Staff Get Obama Memoir for Free

In a virtual assembly, Barack Obama announced to Chicago public school students and staff that they’ll have free access to digital, audio, or print copies of his presidential memoir, A Promised Land, through the rest of the year. In the new year, there will also be “a little book club.”

How To Find Audiobooks For Sleep

Meditation and relaxation can look different for everyone. Click for some suggestions for finding the audiobooks for sleep that work for you.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Documentary Will Stream Live In December

The incredibly talented, delightful, and charitable Dolly Parton is everywhere this holiday season: she has a new Christmas album (A Holly Dolly Christmas), a Netflix musical (Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square), she helped fund a COVID vaccine, and a documentary about her Imagination Library will debut next month. Directed by Nick Geidner and narrated by Danica McKellar (Winnie Cooper!), The Library That Dolly Built will stream live worldwide for free on Facebook on December 9th with a performance by Dolly herself to follow.

The NYPL’s Best Books of 2020

It’s Best Of Lists time! The New York Public Library has put out their 2020 lists: 100 Best Books for Kids; 50 Best Books for Teens; and 100 Best Books for Adults. They also selected the top ten for each list plus poetry and children’s books en español which include All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson; The City We Became: A Novel by N.K. Jemisin; Black Heroes of the Wild West by James Otis Smith; Finna: Poems by Nate Marshall; and ¿Cómo lo ves? by Vera Galindo.

Dallas Libraries Adding More Than 2,000 WiFi Hotspots

The Dallas Public Library system amended their Sprint contract and adopted the budget for the 2021 fiscal year in order to add 2,100 mobile WiFi hotspots to their branches’ circulating collection. The communities should be able to check out the hotspots beginning December 15th, with increased availability at locations where 30% or more of the population doesn’t have home internet.

Welcome To Our 2020 Holiday Gift Guide!

Browse away with our 2020 Holiday Gift Guide, and may we all get some joy this season.