After all these years of aggregating everyone else’s picks for the best book of the year, we decided to give ourselves a vote. Like you all, we do this because we are book people; we are readers first. The first five picks represent consensus staff favorites for 2024 (which align directly with the broad sentiment), while the next four are more personal picks from each of us. James, by Percival Everett Rejection, by Tony Tulathimutte All Fours, by Miranda July The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore The Most, by Jessica Anthony On the […]
Louis Hachette Group Stock Jumps On First Listing
The new spin-off company created by Vivendi, the Louis Hachette Group, started trading in France on Monday morning. The stock was priced at €1.12 per share, giving the company an initial market capitalization of €1.11 billion–though shares jumped at the open, trading above €1.40 per share during the morning. The group comprises Vivendi’s controlling share in Lagardere, which still trades on its own, as well as Prisma Media. The value of the new spinoff seems modest, however, given that Lagardere on its own has a market cap of almost €3 billion.
Penguin Random House and United for Libraries Launch Grant Program
Penguin Random House has launched a new grant program with United for Libraries that will award small grants of $500 and $1,000 to libraries in need. The program with give away a total of $25,000, specifically supporting Friends of Library groups and organizations that raise money for local libraries. Additionally, some libraries will receive $500 in-kind grants to purchase PRH books. “Small and rural libraries are community cornerstones, but today—when the freedom to read is under attack across the country—they are more important than ever,” said Skip Dye, senior vice president of library sales and digital strategy at Penguin Random […]
Hachette UK Expands Distribution
Hachette UK has expanded its distribution facilities in Oxford, nearly doubling the space to almost 300,000 sq ft and increasing its distribution business through the UK and elsewhere. The company added a storage facility in the Milton Park community, and the expansion will allow them to add up to 50 jobs, increasing the workforce by 15 percent. According to Insider Media, “Hachette currently ships 65 million copies, more than 25 per cent of its books globally, from the Milton Park facility.” Matt Wright, CEO at Hachette UK Distribution, said, “We have an ambitious goal to deliver one in every two […]
Amazon Aspires (and Hires) to “Enhanc[e] the Book Publishing and Reading Experience Using Cutting-Edge AI Technology”
Amazon has a job listing for a position in India for a senior applied scientist, book content experience, as part of a “Publishing & Reading Science team,” looking for people “who are passionate about Reading and are willing to take Reading to the next level.” The goal is “leveraging advances in AI to improve the Reading experience for Kindle customers, and the Publishing experience for book content creators and distributors” by “making publishers lives easier through AI.” The corpus appears to be book content that was provided for a far different purpose (and might be restricted, depending upon your agreements): […]
Imprints: Sofia Coppola Launches Important Flowers
Sofia Coppola has partnered with UK publisher Mack to launch an imprint called Important Flowers with a visual focus. The first title, a book of photos taken on the set of Coppola’s first film, The Virgin Suicides, will debut in April. The second title, to be released in September, will be a visual history of the Chanel fashion house. Coppola told Vogue, “I just really love putting a layout together. Photo books have always been so important to my creative process, so I thought it could be fun to have a hand in making some more.” Elsewhere, Bonnier Books UK […]