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Barnes and Noble has announced its winner for the 2024 Book of the Year, and it’s James by Percival Everett. The announcement page says, “We’ve bent your ear about James all year, and for good reason. […] You may think you know Huck Finn, but how well do you know Jim? Flip the script on an American classic as Huck Finn steps to the side and Jim takes center stage in a powerful, and often very funny, story of family, home and freedom.”

In response to the win, Percival Everett said, “As my teenagers would say, ‘Cool.’ This honor is unexpected and quite amazing. B&N has already done a remarkable job selling my novel and now this. To have the novel in front of so many readers is what all of us want. Thank you.”

James is Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year. I had a little fun with this announcement on Instagram, but this is the right selection. I will cannibalize what I wrote about James for Book Riot’s forthcoming Best Books of the Year post:

“James was my most anticipated book of 2024 from the moment I heard that it was coming. A Huck Finn reimagining from the literary Morpheus that is Percival Everett was reason enough to be excited, but add to that the heat around him from American Fiction and his move to Doubleday, and this thing was set up to be major. And it is a modern masterpiece. By turns hilarious, beguiling, provocative, and terrifying, James is virtuosic. It is a miracle of page-turning readerly entertainment paired with god-tier literary experimentation and thematic depth. We don’t get ones like this very often, so when we do it is cause for celebration.”

Parul Seghal Returns to The New York Times

Who is our leading literary critic? I don’t think there is much agreement (or even attention around) on this question, but I don’t think I am alone in citing Sehgal as being at the top of my “ooo she is writing about X book” list. Unfortunately for me and others that have such a list, it sounds like she might be writing less about books and more about “ideas” (I didn’t know the NYT had an “Ideas” franchise until just this moment). I presume that she will still be writing about books, but less on their own terms than in larger thinking about life, the universe, and everything. Side note: what percentage of former humanities majors would give up whatever gig they have to be an editor-at-large at the Times to write about ideas? And what percentage, when they read Seghal, realize they don’t deserve it? 1 for 1 over here, at least.

While I’m glad I was able to find some queer books, I wish there were more. I also wish there were more authors of color included; this list is disproportionately by white authors. It’s a shame, because there were excellent queer books by authors of color and Indigenous authors that came out this year, like Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha LaPointe, Thirsty by Jas Hammonds, Toward Eternity by Anton Hur, A Bánh Mì for Two by Trinity Nguyen, Model Home by Rivers Solomon, Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe (that one is out in December), and so many more.

As always, these are just the books that jumped out to me that I recognized as being queer. Let me know if you spotted any I missed!

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Here are biggest stories from last week.

Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year is….

James is Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year. I had a little fun with this announcement on Instagram, but this is the right selection. I will cannibalize what I wrote about James for Book Riot’s forthcoming Best Books of the Year post:

“James was my most anticipated book of 2024 from the moment I heard that it was coming. A Huck Finn reimagining from the literary Morpheus that is Percival Everett was reason enough to be excited, but add to that the heat around him from American Fiction and his move to Doubleday, and this thing was set up to be major. And it is a modern masterpiece. By turns hilarious, beguiling, provocative, and terrifying, James is virtuosic. It is a miracle of page-turning readerly entertainment paired with god-tier literary experimentation and thematic depth. We don’t get ones like this very often, so when we do it is cause for celebration.”

Orbital by Samantha Harvey wins the Booker Prize 2024

The 160-page Orbital by Samantha Harvey was announced last night as the winner of the 2024 Booker Prize. 

From the citation: “Harvey’s novel takes place over a single day in the life of six astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. Compact yet beautifully expansive, Orbital invites us to observe Earth’s splendour, whilst reflecting on the individual and collective value of every human life.”

Welcome to The Best of Book Riot, our daily round-up of what’s on offer across our site, newsletters, podcasts, and social channels. Not everything is for everyone, but there is something for everyone. Here is what was most popular with readers from this week.

My Favorite Horror Books of 2024

It’s only November, but I’m ready to call it. These are my favorite horror books of 2024. Yes, we do have another month and a half of reading content to get through, but these books are so good that I’ve already shoved them into many reader’s hands. These books have already ascended to all-time faves. And if you’re a horror lover and you haven’t read these four books this year, it’s time to add them to your TBR! You might have trouble sleeping at night, but you won’t regret it.

The Books Most Likely to Be on THE NEW YORK TIMES 100 Notable Books of 2024 List

On the most recent episode of The Book Riot Podcast, Rebecca and I make our picks for locks, likelies, and would-like-to-sees ahead of the release on Nov 28th of The New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of the Year list (we have this date confirmed, btw).

700+ Books Removed From Florida Schools

If you follow Kelly Jensen’s weekly Censorship News roundups, you’ll likely recognize Texas county Corpus Christi: they have been pushing for book bans in public libraries for quite a while. The newest developments are that they are considering a new “parent/guardian must be present” library card, which would block these minors from accessing self-checkouts and would require them to check out books only while their parent is present, who must show their ID. The updates to equipment would cost about $10,000. 

The Best Of 2024 Mystery Lists Have Begun

Barnes & Noble was first out of the gate with this year’s Best of Books lists, and I have a lot of questions about The Best Mystery & Thrillers of 2024 — all stemming from the list’s one giant problem. To be clear, I don’t have issues with the actual books on the list, I do have all the side eye for what is missing from this list: out of 21 books there is only one author of color. (Not sure why that page has 21 books and their announcement page has 20 but my point stands either way.)