We are deep in awards season, as evidenced by the winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Kirkus Prize tripping over each other. The prestigious awards were announced in quick succession. Let’s take them one at a time.

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature went to Anne Carson “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature,” according to a Nobel Prize Outreach 2026 press release.

Who is Anne Carson? Here’s a quick intro to the Canadian poet:

The 2026 Kirkus Prize winners are:

Read more about the Kirkus Prizes here, and congratulations to all of the winners! – SZW

The media landscape has been struggling for decades. That’s never been more noticeable to the general public than now. Numerous factors are at play, including decreased advertising, increased cost of business, and buyouts from private equity, among others.

While sustaining independent media should not fall entirely on individuals who love outlets that do good work on shoestring budgets, it’s important to talk about the ways in which individuals can and do make a difference for outlets—those like ours and others, both on and offline. 

How can you support the indie media you love?

→ Buy the subscription. It’s not always possible, and those $5 and $6 month commitments add up quickly. But if you’re able to, make the purchase. Hot tip: become a monthly subscriber, and when you see a discount for an annual membership, spring for it (psst: right now, Book Riot’s All Access annual membership is 15% off in honor of our 15th anniversary!). 

→ Click through the affiliate links: You don’t need to make a purchase. Often, the act of clicking that link is enough to help support the outlet. It’s small but meaningful–and if you do make a purchase, you’ve done even more good! 

→ Engage on social media: In an algorithm-driven environment, each interaction on social media helps. If you liked a story an outlet posted, “like” it or share it. Better yet, comment; you can be as straightforward as “great piece.” You get bonus points for sharing work with your friends and audience. 

→ Explore nonprofit outlets: There’s no shame in media being for-profit (it’s a very common business model!), but there is a whole cool world of nonprofit independent media, too. You can explore local nonprofit news near you through tools like Find Your News. 

One piece of media literacy is understanding who owns the outlets you read and what that ownership says about the stories and direction of the outlet. Some of the best reporting and criticism being done is happening in indie outlets. In an environment where the media continues to consolidate or disappear, we really are at risk of losing critical voices. 

Dive deeper into the current landscape of independent media and how you can help support the outlets you love, whether or not you have spare change. –KJ

Raise your hand if you saw the first few seconds of this trailer and thought it was a horror flick.

It took me an entire week of being chronically online to figure out that the clips all over my feeds were of a documentary, and not just any documentary. That wide-eyed face leaning in way too close for comfort in that trailer is that of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, the subject of Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s highly anticipated A24 project, You Can See Everything.

The film is an up close and (very) personal look at Holmes’ life in the month leading up to her prison sentence.

The story is seven different kinds of bananas, one you might be familiar with thanks to The Dropout, the bio-drama miniseries starring Amanda Seyfried. But if you want all of the tea, you’ve got to go back and read a Book Riot favorite in the nonviolent true crime canon: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. 

Investigative reporter John Carreyrou breaks down all the secrets, lies, scandals, fraud, and legal intimidation in Holmes’ case, going back to 2014 when the Stanford dropout was being lauded as the next Steve Jobs (maybe it was the turtleneck?).

If you’re in the mood for some true crime, deep journalism, and astonishing levels of audacity, pick this one up before You Can See Everything hits U.S. theatres on October 16. —VD

I love reading Latin American historical fiction. I get lost in the depth of the stories, the cultural references so like my own, and the similarity and yet differences between the collective history of the region: the military dictatorships that looked the same and yet not, the political and economic turmoil, the wounds from colonization and imperialism that continue to smart.

These historical novels by Latine authors resonate with centuries, if not millennia, of Latin American history, with dozens of those cultures. They span from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, serving as witnesses to endless change, and range from Guatemala to Argentina to Brazil.

Read more about these Latine historical novels. —CC

Some may say ghosts are too scary to introduce to young kids. I disagree.

And there’s no time like Halloween season to give your kids a little fright with a good BOO(k). Check out these new ghost stories for kids this October and beyond.

Night Night Ghost: A Halloween Bedtime Book by Priddy Books – Send your little one off to sleep with this adorable glow-in-the-dark board book. Full of interactive flaps, it invites little ones to engage with the story and wish a good night to a variety of spooky monsters after an evening of trick-or-treating.

Ghost in the Night by Tiffany D. Jackson – Tiffany D. Jackson is back with a new middle grade mystery starring Harmony, a twelve-year-old obsessed with ghosts who recently moved to Savannah, Georgia. The story starts on a local ghost tour, where Harmony hears about the city’s haunted history — and learns about a boy who’s recently gone missing. When she spots a strange light inside one of the houses on the tour, she stumbles into a web of secrets that might help her find the missing boy.

Ghost Boys: The Graphic Novel by Jewell Parker Rhodes, illustrated by Setor Fiadzigbey – This new graphic novel adaptation of Jewell Parker Rhodes’ award-winning 2018 middle grade book Ghost Boys is a vivid and powerful read to help kids explore very real dangers. Jerome was only twelve when a police officer mistook his toy gun for a real weapon and shot him. In the afterlife, he meets a boy named Emmett Till, who found himself in a similar situation decades prior, and helps Jerome process his own tragic ending.

Even more ghostly good books. —SD

If there is a Cozy Mystery Audiobook season, it’s fall, and thankfully, our friends over at Libby have shared the most popular cozy mystery audiobooks on their app.

It’s full of small towns, unique characters (like a flock of sheep!), and sprawling English country estates.

Get ready to fire up Libby and check these audiobooks out for some perfectly autumnal listening:

Did you know? Del Toro spent three years on making sets and over 100 puppets for what was supposed to be his first feature film. However, the sets and props were all vandalized and could not be used. His actual first feature film would eventually be live-action.

Enjoy these dark retellings of classics (gifted link)

Explore the bestselling books of the week

Get writing tips from Edgar Allan Poe

Get to know the 2026 Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize winners

Choose your next re-read

Written by Sharifah Williams, Kelly Jensen, Vanessa Diaz, Carolina Ciucci, Susie Dumond, and Jeff O’Neal. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.

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