News of note for readers: October 27, 2026

Catch up quick with the bookish news of the past few days ... or take a deeper dive into each story. Your choice! 

• Publishers Weekly has picked its 150 best books of the year, to go along with a top ten list (Book Riot). 

• Barnes & Noble has narrowed its favorite reads down to a list of sixteen finalists that mixes novels, nonfiction, and works for young readers (Book Riot).

• Jim Knipfel, author of the memoir Slackjaw and the novel The Buzzing, died October 7 at age sixty-one (The New York Times). 

• Ryu Murakami, cult Japanese author and filmmaker who is probably best known among English-speaking audiences for the novel and horror movie Audition, died October 17 at age seventy-four (The Guardian).

• Japanese literature lovers also lost manga artist Tetsuya Chiba, famous for his series Ashita no Joe (also known as Fighting for Tomorrow), who died October 22 at age eighty-seven (The Associated Press). 

• Authors Chris Haughton and Nicola Davies, who are the children's laureates for Ireland and Wales, will donate royalties from their works to fellow author Sally Rooney; Rooney can no longer sell her books in the United Kingdom because of her support for a group that the country has deemed a terrorist group (The Guardian).

• A collaborative effort looking at prison censorship specifically in this book-ban era opens last week's roundup of book ban and challenge news (Book Riot).

• Stephanie Land, author of Maid and Class, has a new autobiographical essay collection coming out; The Privilege to Feel was inspired by the prompts on various bureaucratic forms she's encountered and comes out March 16 (People).

• Check out the cover for Hanif Abdurraqib's upcoming book, I’m Always Looking Up and You’re Jumping; the poetry collection comes out April 13 (People). 

• Take a look back at The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, to mark the novel's 100th anniversary (NPR).