Non-fiction Archives -

2023 Barnes & Noble Book of the Year

Leave a Comment / Award Winner, Bestselling Author, Book List, Cookbooks, Featured, Fiction, Nominated for Award, Non-fiction, Young Adult/Teen

From the Barnes & Noble site:
“We are pleased to announce the 12 finalists for our 2023 Book of the Year. The program, now in its fifth year, asks B&N booksellers across the country to nominate a title they find truly outstanding and in which they have felt the most pride in recommending to readers over the previous year. This year, the list features six novels, four nonfiction books, one middle-grade title and one picture book. The Barnes & Noble Book of the Year is voted on by booksellers and announced the week of November 13th.”
The winner is indicated in red.

The Puppets of Spelhorst by Kate DiMillo

The Wager by David Grann

The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

Zilot & Other Important Rhymes by Bob Odenkirk

Chili Crisp by James Park

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Congratulations to all the finalists and the winner!

2023 – National Book Awards

4 Comments / Featured, Fiction, Nominated for Award, Non-fiction

From the National Book Award site: “The mission of the National Book Foundation is to celebrate the best literature published in the United States, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in our culture.” A panel of judges selects a Longlist of ten titles per category for The National Book Awards, which is then narrowed to five Finalists. Each Finalist receives a prize of $1,000, a medal, and a Judge’s citation. Winners receive $10,000 and a bronze sculpture.” Click on the highlighted titles for more information about the books. The National Book Foundation announced the winners (indicated in red) of the National Book Awards at a ceremony in New York on Wednesday, November 15.

Fiction
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars (Pantheon Books)
Aaliyah Bilal, Temple Folk (Simon & Schuster)
Paul Harding, This Other Eden (Norton)
Hanna Pylväinen, The End of Drum-Time (Holt)
Justin Torres, Blackouts (FSG)

Nonfiction
Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America (Yale University Press)
Cristina Rivera Garza, Liliana’s Invincible Summer (Hogarth)
Christina Sharpe, Ordinary Notes (FSG)
Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I (Other Press)
John Vaillant, Fire Weather (Knopf)

Translated Literature
Bora Chung, Cursed Bunny, Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur (Algonquin Books)
David Diop, Beyond the Door of No Return, Translated from the French by Sam Taylor (FSG)
Stênio Gardel, The Words That Remain, Translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato (New Vessel Press)
Pilar Quintana, Abyss, Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman (World Editions)
Astrid Roemer, On a Woman’s Madness, Translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott (Two Lines Press)

The Agatha Awards for 2022 Books

Leave a Comment / Bestselling Author, Cozy, Crime, Debut Author, Featured, Mystery, Nominated for Award, Non-fiction, Short Stories/Collection

The Agatha Awards are bestowed upon crime fiction and nonfiction works centered on the mystery to be solved, rather than the violence that surrounds the deeds. This year’s awards were handed out in person in late April, 2023, and are indicated in red.

Best Contemporary Novel
“Bayou Book Thief” by Ellen Byron
“Death By Bubble Tea” by Jennifer J. Chow
“Fatal Reunion” by Annette Dashofy
“Dead Man’s Leap” by Tina de Bellegarde
“A World of Curiosities” by Louise Penny

Best Historical Novel
“The Counterfeit Wife” by Mally Becker
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Amanda Flower
“The Lindbergh Nanny” by Mariah Fredericks
“In Place of Fear” by Catriona McPherson
“Under a Veiled Moon” by Karen Odden

Best First Novel
“Cheddar Off Dead” by Korina Moss
“Death in the Aegean” by M. A. Monnin
“The Bangalore Detectives Club” by Harini Nagendra
“Devil’s Chew Toy” by Rob Osler
“The Finalist” by Joan Long
“The Gallery of Beauties” by Nina Wachsman

Best Short Story (Click on the blue titles to read the stories or find where to buy them)
“Beauty and the Beyotch” by Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Magazine, Feb. 2022)
“There Comes a Time” by Cynthia Kuhn, Malice Domestic Murder Most Diabolical
“Fly Me to the Morgue” by Lisa Q Mathews, Malice Domestic Mystery Most Diabolical
“The Minnesota Twins Meet Bigfoot” by Richie Narvaez, Land of 10,000 Thrills
“The Invisible Band” by Art Taylor, Edgar & Shamus Go Golden

Best Children’s/YA Mystery
“Daybreak on Raven Island” by Fleur Bradley
“In Myrtle Peril” by Elizabeth C. Bunce
“#shedeservedit” by Greg Herren
“Sid Johnson and the Phantom Slave Stealer” by Frances Schoonmaker
“Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade” by Nancy Springer

2023 Edgar Awards

Leave a Comment / Award Winner, Bestselling Author, Book List, Crime, Debut Author, Featured, Mystery, Nominated for Award, Non-fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Mystery Writers of America announced the nominees for the 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2022. Awards were given in person on April 27, 2023, in New York City. The winners are indicated in red.

BEST NOVEL
Devil House by John Darnielle
Like a Sister by Kellye Garrett
Gangland by Chuck Hogan
The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
The Maid by Nita Prose

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
Jackal by Erin E. Adams
Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor
Shutter by Ramona Emerson
More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Quarry’s Blood by Max Allan Collins
On a Quiet Street by Seraphina Nova Glass
Or Else by Joe Hart
Cleopatra’s Dagger by Carole Lawrence
A Familiar Stranger by A.R. Torre

BEST FACT CRIME
Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls by Kathleen Hale
Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse
Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles
American Caliph: The True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic, and the 1977 Siege of Washington, D.C. by Shahan Mufti
American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper by Daniel Stashower

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“One Mighty and Strong” – Under the Banner of Heaven, Written by Brandon Boyce (Hulu)
“Episode 1” – Magpie Murders, Written by Anthony Horowitz (Masterpiece/PBS)
“Episode 1″ – Karen Pirie, Written by Emer Kenny (BritBox)
“When Harry Met Fergus” – Harry Wild, Written by David Logan (Acorn TV)
“The Reagan Way” – Blue Bloods, Written by Siobhan Byrne O’Connor (CBS)
“Eighteen Wheels A Predator” – Law & Order: SVU, Written by Brianna Yellen & Monet Hurst-Mendoza (NBC Universal)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Amanda Flower
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
The Disinvited Guest by Carol Goodman
A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers
Never Name the Dead by D.M. Rowell

THE G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD
Secret Lives by Mark de Castrique
An Unforgiving Place by Claire Kells
Hideout by Louisa Luna
Behind the Lie by Emilya Naymark
Secrets Typed in Blood by Stephen Spotswood

THE LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD
The Shadow of Memory by Connie Berry
Buried in a Good Book by Tamara Berry
Smile Beach Murder by Alicia Bessette
Desert Getaway by Michael Craft
The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood

Nominees for Best Juvenile, Best Critical/Biographical, Best Short Story can be found on the Edgar website: Edgarawards.com

NYT Top Ten – Best Fiction and Nonfiction 2022

Leave a Comment / Book List, Featured, Fiction, General, Non-fiction

The New York Times Book Reviews announced its 10 Best Books of the Year of 2022, with five fiction and five nonfiction titles. Books published in 2022 were eligible and were narrowed to this list by the Book Editors staff.

Fiction:

“Checkout 19” by Claire-Louise Bennett

“Trust” by Hernan Diaz

“The Candy House” by Jennifer Egan

“Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver

“The Furrows” by Namwali Serpell

Nonfiction

“Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us” by Rachel Aviv

“Stay True: A Memoir” by Hua Hsu

“We Don’t Know Ourselves” by Fintan O’Toole

“Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation” by Linda Villarosa

“An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us” by Ed Yong

2022 – National Book Awards

1 Comment / Featured, Fiction, General, Nominated for Award, Non-fiction

From the National Book Award site: “The National Book Awards were established in 1950 to celebrate the best writing in America. A panel of judges selects a Longlist of ten titles per category, which is then narrowed to five Finalists, and a Winner is announced at the Awards Ceremony in the fall. Each Finalist receives a prize of $1,000, a medal, and a Judge’s citation. Winners receive $10,000 and a bronze sculpture.”

Click on the highlighted titles for more information about the books. The winners were divulged on November 16, indicated in red.

Fiction
Tess Gunty, The Rabbit Hutch
Gayl Jones, The Birdcatcher
Jamil Jan Kochai, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories
Sarah Thankam Mathews, All This Could Be Different
Alejandro Varela, The Town of Babylon

Nonfiction
Meghan O’Rourke, The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness
Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
David Quammen, Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus
Ingrid Rojas Contreras, The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir
Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice

Translated Literature
A New Name: Septology VI-VII, by Jon Fosse, trans. from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
Kibogo, by Scholastique Mukasonga, trans. from the French by Mark Polizzotti
Jawbone, by Mónica Ojeda, trans. from the Spanish by Sarah Booker
Seven Empty Houses, by Samanta Schweblin, trans. from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
Scattered All Over the Earth, by Yoko Tawada, trans. from the Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani

Young People’s Literature
Kelly Barnhill, The Ogress and the Orphans
Sonora Reyes, The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School
Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile, Victory. Stand!
Sabaa Tahir, All My Rage
Lisa Yee, Maizy Chen’s Last Chance

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners!

2022 Barnes and Noble Book of the Year Event

Leave a Comment / Award Winner, Cookbooks, Fiction, General, Historical, Non-fiction

Barnes & Noble booksellers nominated 11 titles for its 2022 Book of the Year, in this fourth annual event. These are books they felt confident the readers would enjoy. The winner, chosen from this list by the B&N editors, was announced online on November 12th, indicated in red.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff, by Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen (Illustrator)
Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
Turkey and the Wolf, by Mason Hereford
What Moves the Dead, by T. Kingfisher
Babel, by R.F. Kuang
The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O’Farrell
Apollo, Remastered, by Andy Saunders
Skandar and the Unicorn Thief, by A.F. Steadman
Ice Cold: A Hip-Hop Jewelry History, by Vikki Tobak
An Immense World, by Ed Yong
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

Congratulations to all!