The titles selected for The Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration were announced at the ALA Midwinter meeting in Boston this past weekend.

The Listen List picks audiobook titles based on the appeal of their narration and offers a juried list of 12 notable suggestions along with listen-alike pairings, a particular boon for RA librarians.

Below are the winners and listen-alikes. Annotations can be found on the RUSA/CODES press release.

All Involved by Ryan Gattis. Narrated by Anthony Rey Perez, Marisol Ramirez, Jim Cooper, Adam Lazarre-White, and James Chen (HarperAudio).

Listen-Alikes:

• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Narrated by Ta-Nehisi Coates. (Books on Tape/Random House Audio).

• City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg. Narrated by Rebecca Lowman, Tristan Morris, and Bronson Pinchot. (Books on Tape/Random House Audio).

• Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh. Narrated by Reg Rogers, Sudhir Venkatesh, and Stephen J. Dubner. (HarperAudio).

—

All the Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer. Narrated by Ari Fliakos and Juliana Francis Kelly (Macmillan Audio).

Listen-Alikes:

• The Dinner by Herman Koch. Narrated by Clive Mantle. (Blackstone Audio).

• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Narrated by Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne. (Books on Tape/Random House Audio).

• A Perfect Spy by John le Carré. Narrated by Michael Jayston. (Penguin Audio).

And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander. Narrated by Kate Reading (Recorded Books/Tantor Media).

Listen-Alikes:

• The Anatomist’s Wife by Anna Lee Huber. Narrated by Heather Wilds. (Recorded Books/Tantor Media).

• The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, or On the Segregation of the Queen by Laurie R. King. Narrated by Jenny Sterlin (Recorded Books).

• Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. Narrated by Rita Barrington. (Blackstone Audio).

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson. Narrated by Scott Brick (Books on Tape/Random House Audio).

Listen-Alikes:

• Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. Narrated by Simon Prebble. (Blackstone Audio).

• The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman. Narrated by John Lee. (Recorded Books/Tantor Media).

• A Night to Remember: The Classic Account of the Final Hours of the Titanic by Walter Lord. Narrated by Martin Jarvis. (Blackstone Audio).

Dracula by Bram Stoker. Narrated by David Horovitch, Jamie Parker, Joseph Kloska, Alison Pettitt, and cast (Naxos AudioBooks).

Listen-Alikes:

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Narrated by Daniel Philpott, Chris Larkin, Roger May, and Jonathan Oliver. (Naxos AudioBooks).

• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Narrated by Justine Eyre and Paul Michael. (Books on Tape/Random House Audio).

• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Narrated by Martin Jarvis. (Blackstone Audio).

H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald. Narrated by Helen MacDonald (Blackstone Audio).

Listen-Alikes:

• Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert. Narrated by Elizabeth Gilbert. (Books on Tape/Penguin Audio).

• The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery. Narrated by Sy Montgomery. (Recorded Books/HighBridge Audio).

• Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. Narrated by Bernadette Dunne. (Books on Tape/Random House Audio)

The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen. Narrated by Davina Porter (HarperAudio).

Listen-Alikes:

• A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. Narrated by Roy Dotrice. (Books on Tape/Random House Audio).

• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. Narrated by Casaundra Freeman. (Brilliance Audio.)

• A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan. Narrated by Kate Reading. (Macmillan Audio).

The Jaguar’s Children by John Vaillant. Narrated by Ozzie Rodriguez and David H. Lawrence XVII (Books on Tape/Random House Audio).

Listen-Alikes:

• Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free by Héctor Tobar. Narrated by Henry Leyva.(Recorded Books).

• The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea. Narrated by Luis Alberto Urrea. (Hachette Audio).

• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Narrated by Jonathan Davis. (Brilliance Audio).

The Knockoff by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza. Narrated by Katherine Kellgren (Books on Tape/Random House Audio).

Listen-Alikes:

• The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger. Narrated by Bernadette Dunne. (Books on Tape/Random House Audio).

• Funny Girl by Nick Hornby. Narrated by Emma Fielding. (Books on Tape/Penguin Audio).

• The Status of All Things by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke. Narrated by Amy McFadden. (Dreamscape Media).

The Strangler Vine by M.J. Carter. Narrated by Alex Wyndham (Recorded Books/HighBridge Audio).

Listen-Alikes:

• The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters. Narrated by Barbara Rosenblat. (Recorded Books).

• The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel by Anthony Horowitz. Narrated by Derek Jacobi. (Blackstone Audio/Hachette Audio).

• The Perfect Murder by H.R.F. Keating. Narrated by Frederick Davidson. (Blackstone Audio).

‘Til the Well Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-Sharma. Narrated by Ron Butler and Bahni Turpin (Recorded Books/Tantor Media).

Listen-Alikes:

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Narrated by Adjoa Andoh. (Recorded Books).

• Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique. Narrated by Cherise Boothe, Korey Jackson, Rachel Leslie, and Myra Lucretia Taylor. (Recorded Books).

• Unburnable by Marie-Elena John. Narrated by Robin Miles. (Recorded Books).

True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa by Michael Finkel. Narrated by Rich Orlow (HarperAudio).

Listen-Alikes:

• Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson. Narrated by Scott Brick. (Books on Tape/Random House Audio).

• Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation by Dean Jobb. Narrated by Peter Berkrot. (Recorded Books/HighBridge Audio).

• Out of Orange by Cleary Wolters. Narrated by Barbara Rosenblat. (Blackstone Audio/HarperAudio).

The books that rose the highest on Amazon sales rankings since yesterday’s announcement of the ALA Youth Media Awards are the Newbery and Caldecott Medalists.

Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear, Lindsay Mattick and  Sophie Blackall– the Caldecott Medalist rose to #37  from #3,766.

Last Stop on Market Street, Matt De La Peña, Christian Robinson, (Penguin/Putnam) — Not only is this the Newbery Medalist, it is also one of the three Caldecott Honor Books as well as a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book. It rose to #48 from #7,857 and is liste as “temporarily out of stock” on Amazon as well as on wholesaler sites.

Winners Blackall and De La Peña were interviewed last night on NPR’s All Things Considered:

Two other titles also received bumps:

Waiting, Kevn Henkes, (HarperCollins/Greenwillow) — A Caldecott and a Geisel Honor Book, it rose to #201 from #494.

The War that Saved My Life, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, (Penguin/Dial)  — A Newbery Honor Book, as well as a co-winner of  the Schneider Family Book Award for Middle-School. In addition, the Listening Library audio won the Odyssey Award Medal. It rose to  #367 from #5,122. The author was featured in our Penguin Young Readers program (read the live chat with the author here).

Download our spreadsheet with full biblio. information on all the awards — ALA Youth Media Awards, 2016

Read the press release with all the medalists and honor books. UPDATE:  Download our spreadsheet with full biblio. information — ALA Youth Media Awards, 2016

AND THE MEDALISTS ARE:

Coretta Scott King Illustrator  Award:  Rita Williams-Garcia for Gone Crazy in Alabama , (HarperCollins/Amistad)

Coretta Scott King Author Award: Trombone Shorty, illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Troy Andrews, (Abrams)

Michael L. Printz Award: Bone Gap, Laura Ruby, (HarperCollins Balzer + Bray)

Odyssey Award: The War That Saved My Life, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Jayne Entwistle, (Listening Library)

Pura Belpré Award, Illustration: Drum Dream Girl, Margarita Engle, Rafael López, (HMH)

Pura Belpré Award, Text: Enchanted Air, Margarita Engle, Edel Rodriguez, (S&S/Atheneum)

Arbuthnot Lecture: Jacqueline Woodson

Batcheldor Award: The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy, Beatrice Alemagna, (Beatrice Alemagna)

Sibert Award: Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras, Duncan Tonatiuh, (Abrams)

Laura Ingalls Wilder Award: Jerry Pinkney

Geisel Award: Don’t throw it to Mo!, David A. Adler, Sam Ricks, (Penguin Young Readers)

Caldecott Medal: Finding Winnie, Lindsay Mattick, Sophie Blackall, (Hachette/ Little, Brown)

Caldecott Honors:

Trombone Shorty, Troy Andrews, Bryan Collier (Abrams)

Waiting, Kevn Henkes, (HarperCollins/Greenwillow)

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, Carole Boston Weatherford, Ekua Holmes, (Candlewick)

Last Stop on Market Street, Matt De La Peña, Christian Robinson, (Penguin/Putnam)

Newbery Medal: Last Stop on Market Street, Matt De La Peña, Christian Robinson, (Penguin/Putnam)

Newbery Honors:

The War That Saved My Life, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Jayne Entwistle, (Penguin/Dial)

Roller Girl, Victoria Jamieson, (Penguin/Dial)

Last night’s National Book Awards ceremony was filled with speeches giving generous praise to other writers. It lacked the challenges to the establishment offered last year by Ursula LeGuin (including a jab at her publisher for their ebook pricing to libraries). Happily, it also lacked the painful moment of casual racism by last year’s host (but why do hosts feel compelled to make fun of the proceedings, as did Andy Horowitz this year, who opened the evening by remarking that most people would say of the Awards’ sponsor, “What the fuck is the National Book Foundation?”).

The day-after reporting stresses the surprise win in fiction as well as diversity of authors.

While most stories focus on Ta-Nehisi Coates’s expected honor in nonfiction for Between the World and Me (PRH/Spiegel & Grau), almost all highlight Adam Johnson’s less expected win for fiction with his short story collection Fortune Smiles: Stories (PRH/Random House).

Reporters such as Meredith Blake of the LA Times writes,

In a completely surprising outcome, Adam Johnson claimed the award for fiction with his short story collection, Fortune Smiles. Johnson, who beat out such favorites as Hanya Yanagihara for A Little Life and Lauren Groff for Fates and Furies, appeared as stunned as anyone by the victory. “I told my wife and my kids, ‘Don’t come across America because this is not going to happen,’” said Johnson, who teaches at Stanford.

Johnson is no stranger to awards, however, having won a Pulitzer in 2013 for  The Orphan Master’s Son.

The second major theme of the reporting is the diversity of authors. Bustle offers this take:

In a world when we still (still!) have to call out award committees for having largely white, male longlists and shortlists, it was positively thrilling to see three out of the four awards handed out to black writers. Not only that, but the winners tackled issues like mental illness, racism in modern America, and the black female experience through history.

In summing up the night of bookish celebration, many reports quoted Don DeLillo’s acceptance speech for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters medal (basically, the National Book Foundation’s lifetime achievement award), in which he proclaimed, “Here, I’m not the writer at all, I’m the grateful reader.”

Below is a sample of the reporting. For those who have more of the NBA titles in their TBR piles than not, the VOX story is a particularly good resource, providing a librarian-friendly summary of  every nominee’s story line, appeal, and highlights.

• Bustle
• The Guardian
• Huffington Post
• The Los Angeles Times
• The New York Times
• NPR
• USA Today
• VOX
• The Washington Post

And the winners are:

Young People’s Literature:
Neal Shusterman, Challenger Deep (HarperCollins/HarperTeen)

Poetry:
Robin Coste Lewis, Voyage of the Sable Venus (PRH/Knopf)

Nonfiction:
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (PRH/Spiegel & Grau)

Fiction:
Adam Johnson, Fortune Smiles: Stories (PRH/Random House)

Dress in your best and join the National Book Awards this evening, via live stream.

UPDATE: The site now says that live stream will begin at 7:40 p.m.

Yesterday, Jacqueline Woodson hosted the National Book Award Teen Press Conference (livestream, below, Woodson begins speaking at time stamp 16:35)

And at another event last night the finalists in all categories read from their books.

There’s been little speculation in the press on which books will win. We have to look to the U.K. for a look at the odds on the fiction and nonfiction categories. In a story today, The Guardian asks,”how obscure can the judges go?”

The Washington Post examines the finalists in poetry and in Young People’s Literature.

The Selected Poems of Donald Hall (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) tops the December Indie Next list, the first time a book of poetry has led the list.

Hall, former US Poet Laureate, is one of the most beloved and respected poets writing today. This collection spans over seven decades of writing.

Katharine Nevins, of MainStreet BookEnds of Warner, Warner, NH says:

“This is a gift of honesty, intimacy, and the pure genius that is Donald Hall, as he hand-picks what he considers to be the best of his poetry from more than 70 years of published works. From this former U.S. Poet Laureate comes one essential volume of his works, where ‘Ox-Cart Man’ sits alongside ‘Kicking the Leaves’ and ‘Without.’ As he is no longer writing poetry, this ‘concise gathering of my life’s work’ is the perfect introduction to Hall’s literary contributions, as well as closure for his many ardent followers.”

December is traditionally a slow time for publishing as booksellers are up to their ears managing holiday sales. Perhaps as a consequence, just over half of the Indie Next December list features November titles including Umberto Eco’s Numero Zero, Mitch Albom’s The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, Carly Simon’s memoir Boys in the Trees, and Michael Cunningham and Yuko Shimizu’s A Wild Swan: And Other Tales.

Others on the list pubbing in December are paperback originals, including A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton (Penguin; Blackstone Audio), also our most recent Penguin Debut Authors Pick.

Sandi Torkildson, of A Room of One’s Own bookstore in Madison, WI says:

“An intimate look at the devastating effect of the bombing of Nagasaki on one family, this is a story of love — parental and sexual, selfless and selfish, and, in the end, healing. Amaterasu Takahashi opens the door of her home in the U.S. to a badly scarred man claiming to be her grandson, who supposedly perished along with her daughter during the bombing nearly 40 years earlier. The man carries a cache of letters that forces Ama to confront her past and the love affair that tore her apart from her daughter.”

There is not a LibraryReads list in December. Instead librarians will celebrate the full year of reading with a “Favorite of Favorites” list to be issued on Dec. 1.

Librarian picks published in December 2015 will appear together with the January 2016 picks on the January LibraryReads list.

The November Slate book club is an intense conversation regarding Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life (RH/Doubleday; OverDrive Sample).

Laura Bennett, Andrew Kahn, Dan Kois, and Katy Waldman, all of Slate, gathered to talk about Hanya Yanagihara’s novel just a few weeks before she discovers if the book wins the National Book Award (to be announced Nov.18).

In what might be the best expression of the group’s reaction, one of the panelists said she has never had as complicated a relationship with a novel, finding it both riveting and deeply unpleasant, a book she could not stop reading even as she found herself emotionally manipulated at every turn.

Another National Book Award finalist, Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, will be the subject of the December discussion.

The finalists for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction have been announced.

The three fiction picks are:

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove Press; OverDrive Sample)

The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard (PRH/Knopf; OverDrive Sample)

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (PRH/Doubleday; Brilliance Audio; OverDrive Sample)

The three nonfiction picks are:

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (Grove Press; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample)

Hold Still by Sally Mann (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio and Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample)

The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf (PRH/Knopf; HighBridge audio; OverDrive Sample)

The titles are selected by a committee consisting of members of the Reference and User Services Association of ALA and staff from Booklist magazine. The winners will be announced during the ALA Midwinter meeting along with the Notable Book List, The Reading List, The Listen List, the Dartmouth Medal, the Sophie Brody Medal, and other RUSA book awards.

Winnowed down from longlists of ten titles in each category, The National Book Awards shortlists were announced today on NPR’s Morning Edition.

After her loss last night at the Booker Awards, Hanya Yanagihara sails through to the next round of the NBAs. Lauren Groff, whose book Fates and Furies is the current NPR Morning Edition Book Club pick, also makes the shortlist.

In what many may see as a surprise based on his earlier reception, Bill Clegg did not make the cut to the shortlist with Did You Ever Have a Family.

NPR book experts, providing color commentary on the announcements, highlighted Angela Flournoy’s The Turner House, saying it is a “lovely, lovely book” that picks up on many of the themes in the entire fiction list as it is a domestic drama dealing with financial insecurity, children and parents, and grieving.

In nonfiction there were few surprises as the big names and buzzy books made the second round. NPR commentators remarked that Ta-Nehisi Coates’s best seller, Between the World and Me is a book notable for its “tone of implacable, fatalistic dread.” They also called attention to the two memoirs, written with grace and skill by non-memoirists, photographer Sally Mann and poet Tracy K. Smith.

Poetry also saw many of the big names make the shortlist although one of the few household-name poets of recent years, Jane Hirshfield, did not. NPR’s book experts especially liked Ada Limón’s Bright Dead Things, calling it “a beautiful collection” and saying the lyrical and emotional poems lure one to read them aloud.

The Young People’s Literature list is called the “antidote to Frozen” by the NPR experts. They highlighted Nimona in particular, praising it as a “beautiful, goofy, charming graphic novel” that explores how we talk about girls and women and offers a grand mix of wistfulness and sadness that marks the best of YA literature.

The full shortlists are below. Winners will be announced on Nov. 18th.

Fiction

Information on the longlist titles here.

Karen E. Bender, Refund: Stories (Counterpoint Press, dist. by Perseus/PGW)

Angela Flournoy, The Turner House (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies (Penguin/Riverhead)

Adam Johnson, Fortune Smiles: Stories (Random House)

Hanya Yanagihara,  A Little Life (RH/Doubleday)

Nonfiction

Information on the longlist titles here.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (RH/Spiegel & Grau)

Sally Mann, Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs (Hachette/Little, Brown)

Sy Montgomery, The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness (S&S/Atria; S&S Audio)

Carla Power, If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran (Macmillan/Holt)

Tracy K. Smith, Ordinary Light: A Memoir (RH/ Knopf; Recorded Books)

[Note: we’ve made several additions to this story since we first posted it last night]

In the second year that American writers were eligible for the Booker, two made the shortlist, but ultimately did not win. The winner, however, lives in the U.S. and his books were originally published by U.S. publishing houses.

The winner is the first Jamaican writer to win the award, Marlon James for A Brief History of Seven Killings (Penguin/Riverhead; HighBridge Audio; OverDrive Sample, 2014; released in trade paperback, Sept. 8, 2015). He lives in Minneapolis and teaches at Macalester College in St. Paul.

In his remarks, James said he was shaped by reading previous Booker winners and noted that ten years ago he nearly gave up on writing, thanking Johnny Temple at independent publisher Akashic Books in Brooklyn for publishing his debut, John Crow’s Devil, (9781936070107). He also thanked his editors at the Riverhead imprint of Penguin U.S. (see him give his acceptance speech here — the second video).

A Brief History of Seven Killings, published last year in the US, appeared on many of the year’s best books lists and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

James is scheduled to appear on Monday at Minneapolis bookstore Magers & Quinn. He is also scheduled for appearances at Hennepin County Public Library at the end of the month.

In March, he was interviewed on Late Night with  Seth Meyers:

Reviews — Michiko Kakutani, New York Times; Washington Post; Wall Street Journal; NYT Sunday Book Review.

The Guardian calls the winning novel “an epic, uncompromising novel not for the faint of heart. It brims with shocking gang violence, swearing, graphic sex, drug crime but also, said the judges, a lot of laughs.”

UPDATE: The Booker Bump strikes again. By Wed. morning, Oct. 14, A Brief History of Seven Killings rose to #20 on Amazon sales rankings in paperback and #137 in hardcover.

  
Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarussian journalist and oral historian, won the Nobel Prize in Literature today for what the Swedish Academy describes as  “her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.”

The New York Times reports Alexievich is “best known for giving voice to women and men who had lived through World War II, the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan that lasted from 1979 to 1989, and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986.” She is the 14th woman to win the prize.

Breaking recent precedent, Alexievich is a nonfiction writer, not a novelist or poet. However, Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, quoted in the NYT‘, says she has created “a history of emotions — a history of the soul, if you wish.”

Of her books in English translations, two are currently available, Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War (Norton; 9780393336863; 1992) and  Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster  (hardcover, Dalkey Archive Press; trade pbk Macmillan/Picador, 2006), which won the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award.

Her website lists a few other titles translated in English, likely to soon be released in the U.S.

Proving the bookies right for the first time in years, Alexievich was the odds on favorite to win the prize, beating out Haruki Murakami, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, and John Banville who were all rumored to be in the running as well.

The most prestigious lifetime award for literature, The Nobel Prize, will be announced on Thursday at 7 a.m. EST [UPDATE: We originally miscalculated the time difference. We THINK  we have it right now. The announcement is scheduled for 11 a.m. GMT and  Eastern Time  is GMT minus 4:00].

Famously hard to forecast, it is an award that often befuddles odds makers as names circle around in the wind days before the announcement.

Last year the favorite was Japan’s Haruki Murakami with Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Belarusian author and journalist Svetlana Alexievich also in the running.

The winner? French novelist Patrick Modiano who had just 10/1 odds three days before the 2014 announcement.

Modiano had few books translated into English at the time. The Telegraph‘s news story was headlined “Patrick Modiano: the Nobel Prize-winner nobody had read.” Since, there has been a boom of translations, bigger publishing houses buying rights, and a string of articles focused on his work in such places as the L.A. Times, The New Yorker, and The Millions.

The luckless odds makers at betting firms Ladbrokes and Paddy Power seem to be fully baffled this year. The Guardian reports the bookies are simply rearranging their 2014 picks, leading with Svetlana Alexievich and offering Haruki Murakami and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o as back up.

Americans Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates and 2005 Booker winner, Irish writer John Banville are also in the mix as are Korean poet Ko Un and Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai, winner of the Man Booker International award.

It could be Murakami’s turn based on frequency alone. The Wall Street Journal says it has become “a seasonal event over the past few years for Mr. Murakami’s name to pop up as a frontrunner.”

He was a favorite in 2013 as well (the year the prize went to Alice Munro). Quite naturally Murakami finds the speculation and horse race aspects of the run up to the announcement “quite annoying,” reports the paper.

If this is finally Murakami’s year, readers will have plenty of his titles in English to choose from, so many that Matthew Carl Strecher, who has written 3 books on Murakami, was able to select “The 10 Best Haruki Murakami Books” for Publishers Weekly.

But Murakami might be annoyed for at least another year. The Guardian quotes one of the lead bookmakers, Alex Donohue of Ladbrokes, as saying, “literary speculators believe we’ll see the winner come from out of leftfield.”

It is no small prize to win. On top of the profound honor and a considerable cash award, it increases book sales.

Here’s your chance to test your book knowledge against the librarians on the committee for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. The 2016 Longlist has been released including some expected titles, big hitters, committee favorites, and a few esoteric choices.

Among the 20 fiction selections is former winner Anne Enright’s The Green Road (Norton), also on this year’s Booker longlist but not on the shortlist.

On the fiction list, titles that have already received widespread attention are Jonathan Franzen’s Purity (Macmillan/FSG), Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life (RH/Doubleday), and Anne Tyler’s A Spool of Blue Thread (RH/Knopf).

Buzzy titles such as Garth Risk Hallberg’s City on Fire (Knopf, coming Oct 13), a LibraryReads pick for October, and Bill Clegg’s Did You Ever Have a Family (S&S/Gallery/Scout), both a LibraryReads and Indie Next pick, also made the fiction cut.

Smaller publishers are recognized as well with Chantel Acevedo’s The Distant Marvels (Europa) and Joe Meno’s Marvel and a Wonder (Akashic).

In nonfiction the 20 choices largely highlight big names such as Patti Smith’s M Train (RH/Knopf coming next week), the memoir by the recently departed Oliver Sacks, On the Move (RH/Knopf), Ta-Nehisi Coates’s best selling  Between the World and Me (RH/Spiegel & Grau), Simon Winchester’s Pacific (Harper, coming Oct. 27), and Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk (Grove), which received wide acclaim earlier this year.

The forty titles will be winnowed down to a shortlist on October 19.

The Carnegie committee, a joint project between RUSA and Booklist, is chaired this year by Nancy Pearl Nancy Pearl (who also chaired the first awards committee in 2012). The medals are part of the line up of book awards presented by RUSA which also includes The Notable Book List and The Reading List. All three awards, as well as the many others that RUSA bestows, will be announced during ALA’s Midwinter meeting at RUSA’s Book and Media Awards reception on January 10.

HBO had a good night at the Emmys, particularly for its book-based series, Olive Kitteridge and Game Of Thrones.

Olive Kitteridge, based on Elizabeth Strout’s 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, took home a total of 8 Emmys, including one for best miniseries. A passion project for Frances McDormand, who bought the rights to the novel in 2010, she was rewarded by winning her first Emmys, as star and producer.

In accepting the award, McDormand gave full credit to the source, declaring twice, “It started as a book!” effectively refuting host Andy Samberg’s opening monologue, in which he inexplicably dissed books, saying, “The Emmy’s are all about celebrating the best of the year in television. So, sorry, books, not tonight,” as the words, “SUCK IT BOOKS” appeared on the screen.

McDormand signaled her interest in continuing the series, according to Deadline, telling reporters in the press room after the Awards, “It’s 13 short stories … it was infinitely exciting to read and I thought that it could be a great town to spend some time in,” adding, “We would love to do more and we would love for you all to start a social media campaign to do more.”

PBS’s Wolf Hall, based on the first two books in Hillary Mantel’s Tudors series, was nominated in several categories, but ended up with no wins