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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
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.”
The mini-review I posted on Instagram: “A slim, meditative book following crew members aboard the International Space Station over six days. This is not a novel of character or plot: do not expect fires or rescue missions or the regular drama we see in mainstream space stories. Rather, it is about being above and away from Earth—and the perspective that affords. It can be moving, though it glides from impression to impression so quickly that it can be hard to hold on to much. Sort of a hard book to recommend: space/science nuts will find those elements rather slight. Probably best if you in a contemplative state of mind.
The Amazon Editors Make Their Selections for the Best Books of 2024
It’s that season. And a surprise pick at number one from Amazon: The Boys of Riverside by Thomas Fuller. And it sounds like it was pretty unanimous. When I saw this during some catalog perusal, I thought it sounded like a nice, charming, inspiring sports story. The only things about that is—it’s a well-worn genre. I would definitely watch a movie version of this with like Josh Lucas or Michael Pena as a coach on Disney+, but it didn’t jump out to me as being out of the ordinary. This suggests that it is? James and God of the Woods are #2 and #3, which is pretty much what I would expect (and perhaps do myself). Still, a pretty good snapshot of what has been both popular and good, a sort of hybrid of the Goodreads Awards and the NYT 100 Notable.
Grammy Nominees for Best Audiobook Narration & Storytelling
It is funny that the most well-known award that has a book-related category that is not the Nobel always has such an uninteresting list. Pick 5 high-profile celebrity memoirs and you are pretty much well on your way. Here are this year’s predictable nominees: