The Year in Review

Jeff and Rebecca look back at the books & stories that defined 2024.

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Book Riot’s TBR

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The 2025 Read Harder Challenge is live

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The dust settled as publishing’s earnings rebound in H1

Barnes & Noble is back, baby, and they bought a beloved indie

The Discourse: 

• Remember the moment when some people thought Taylor Swift wrote Argylle? 
• PRH dismisses Reagan Arthur & Lisa Lucas
• NYT’s top 100 books of the century so far
• NaNoWriMo’s PR fail with AI
• only 20k serious readers of lit fic?

Coming Attractions: 

• Spielberg in talks to produce James adaptation directed by Taika Waititi
• Liz Moore signs Sony deal for Long Bright River & God of the Woods
• Meryl Streep in adaptation of The Corrections
• Florence Pugh in East of Eden for Netflix
• The Black List expands to fiction & highlights publishing’s most-wanted adaptations, 

Book banning news: 

• Idaho library to become adults-only
• High school shuts down library due to book banning law
• Big Five and Authors Guild sue over Florida law
• PRH hires a public policy role 
• Many states have banned book bans

In memoriam: 

• Daniel Kahneman
• John Gierach
• Edna O’Brien
• Francine Pascal 
• Nikki Giovanni
• Paul Auster

The #metoo trifecta of Cormac McCarthy, Alice Munro, and Neil Gaiman

The robots are coming: 

• authors sue Anthropic
• Roxane Gay & Margaret Atwood among authors helping create AI reading guides

Number go up: US audiobook sales hit $2 billion in 2023 

One to watch: ByteDance’s 8th Note Press to publish print books in 2025

This is why literacy matters: Florida dept of education recommends Pride & Prejudice as a book about American pride

Listener feedback award: the surprising origins of publishing’s seasons, Sophia’s It Books tracker

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