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☆ Opinion | The Fires Sweeping Across Texas Offer a Terrifying Warning
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-02 | by ( John Vaillant | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The snowstorm has passed, but the fire — one among several major blazes active in Texas — keeps burning. As of Friday, the Smokehouse Creek Fire had affected more than a million acres, making it the largest wildfire in Texas history, and one of the biggest in the history of the country. Texans know that fires aren’t uncommon in the Panhandle this time of year, and neither is snow. But huge, lethal fires like Smokehouse Creek represent something different. Two weeks before the Smokehouse Fire broke out, I flew to Seattle from Cincinnati over a landscape I know well.

Organizations: Texas Panhandle, Texans, Rockies Locations: Great, Amarillo, Texas, Oklahoma, Seattle, Cincinnati, Ohio

☆ Talking About the 10 Best Books of 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It’s that time of year: After months of reading, arguing and (sometimes) happily agreeing, the Book Review’s editors have come up with their picks for the 10 Best Books of 2023. On this week’s podcast, Gilbert Cruz reveals the chosen titles — five fiction, five nonfiction — and talks with some of the editors who participated in the process. Here are the books discussed on this week’s episode:“The Bee Sting,” by Paul Murray“Chain-Gang All-Stars,” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah“Eastbound,” by Maylis de Kerangal“The Fraud,” by Zadie Smith“North Woods,” by Daniel Mason“The Best Minds,” by Jonathan Rosen“Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs,” by Kerry Howley“Fire Weather,” by John Vaillant“Master Slave Husband Wife,” by Ilyon Woo“Some People Need Killing,” by Patricia EvangelistaWe would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

Persons: Gilbert Cruz, Sting, ”, Paul Murray “, Nana Kwame Adjei, Maylis, Zadie Smith, Daniel Mason “, Jonathan Rosen, Kerry Howley, John Vaillant “, Ilyon Woo, Patricia Evangelista Locations: Woods

LONDON (AP) — A book about a fire that ravaged a Canadian city and has been called a portent of climate chaos won Britain’s leading nonfiction book prize on Thursday. John Vaillant’s “Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World” was awarded the 50,000 pound ($62,000) Baillie Gifford Prize at a ceremony in London. Last year’s prize winner, Katherine Rundell, gave her prize money for “Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne” to a conservation charity. Historian Ruth Scurr, who was on the panel, said she did not feel “compromised” as a judge of the prize. “I have no qualms at all about being an independent judge on a book prize, and I am personally thrilled that the winner is going to draw attention to this subject,” she said.

Persons: Britain’s, John Vaillant’s, Baillie Gifford, Frederick Studemann, Vaillant, “, David, ”, Siddhartha Mukherjee’s “, Katherine Rundell, John Donne ”, Ruth Scurr Organizations: “ Locations: Canadian, London, British Columbia, Fort McMurray, U.S

☆ The National Book Awards Longlist
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | More About Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One of the best birthday gifts I’ve ever received was a stack of four or five books, all published the year I was born. I hadn’t read John le Carré’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” but now I felt a connection to it; we’d both come into being at roughly the same time. The all-you-can-read buffet of books available begs a reader, especially a slow reader like me, to develop a strategy. This week, the National Book Foundation announced the longlist for the 2023 National Book Awards, presenting a crop of books on which a hungry reader could happily feast from now through the end of the year. (“Chain-Gang All-Stars,” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and “Fire Weather,” by John Vaillant just moved to the top of my list.)

Persons: I’ve, John le Carré’s, ”, Ursula K, Le Guin, I’m, ’, Nana Kwame Adjei, John Vaillant Organizations: Book Foundation

NEW YORK (AP) — A comprehensive new biography of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, a memoir on family by the prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen and an exploration of the crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s are among 10 books on the nonfiction longlist of the National Book Awards. The National Book Foundation, which presents the awards, also released its poetry longlist Thursday, a day after announcing 10 nominees each in the categories of young people's literature and books in translation. Judges will next month reduce each list to five finalists, with the winners to be announced during a Manhattan dinner ceremony on Nov. 15. Political Cartoons View All 1160 ImagesOthers on the poetry longlist are John Lee Clark's “How to Communicate,” Oliver de la Paz's “The Diaspora Sonnets,” Annelyse Gelman's “Vexations,” José Olivarez's “Promises of Gold,” Brandon Som's “Tripas,” Charif Shanahan's “Trace Evidence” and Evie Shockley's “suddenly we.”

Persons: Martin Luther King Jr, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Jonathan Eig's “, Nguyen's, ” Donovan X, Ned Blackhawk's “, Prudence Peiffer's, Cristina Rivera Garza's “ Liliana’s, ” Christina Sharpe's, ”, Shehadeh's, ” John Vaillant's, Williams, Monica Youn, Paisley Rekdal, Craig Santos Perez, John Lee Clark's, ” Oliver de la, ” Brandon Som's “, Evie Shockley's “ Organizations: Book Foundation, Native Peoples, New York, Justice, “ Locations: Manhattan, America, ” Utah

LONDON (AP) — Books about the perilous state of our world, our food and our relationship with technology are in the running for Britain’s leading nonfiction book award, the Baillie Gifford Prize. Best-selling American author David Grann is nominated for the stirring seafaring yarn “The Wager,” while physician-writer Siddhartha Mukherjee is in the running with “The Song of the Cell.”British journalist Hannah Barnes is on the list for “Time to Think,” which charts the demise of Britain’s controversial Tavistock gender clinic for children. Founded in 1999, the prize recognizes English-language books from any country in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. It has been credited with bringing an eclectic slate of fact-based books to a wider audience. Last year’s winner was Katherine Rundell’s poet biography “Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne.”

Persons: Britain’s, Baillie Gifford, longlist, John Vaillant’s, Chris van, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, David Grann, ”, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Hannah Barnes, Tania Branigan’s, Katja Hoyer’s, Katherine Rundell’s, “, John Donne Organizations: Prosperity, “ Locations: British, Tavistock, East Germany

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