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Awards & Book News

Nominees for the Aurora Awards, for SFF and horror works by Canadian authors, are revealed.

People highlights the authors named to Time’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2025.

The Libertarian Futurist Society announces the finalists for the Best Novel category of the Prometheus Awards, honoring “thematically pro-liberty” works, Locus reports.

The 2025 Writers’ Trust of Canada Rising Stars are announced; CBC has coverage.

Publishers Weekly talks to IMLS staffers who are worried about the cuts to the agency.

The Guardian reports on the book subscription services that are moving into publishing their own titles.

New Title Bestsellers

Links for the week: NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers | NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers | USA Today Bestselling Books

Fiction

Firebird by Juliette Cross (Bramble) soars to No. 3 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list and No. 14 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

The Butcher’s Masquerade by Matt Dinniman (Ace) brings in No. 7 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list.

The Never List by Jade Presley (Entangled: Red Tower) gets No. 8 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list.

Enchantra by Kaylie Smith (Forever) bewitches at No. 8 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner (Morrow) hits at No. 10 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list.

Audition by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead) lands No. 13 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

Nonfiction

Fahrenheit-182: A Memoir by Mark Hoppus with Dan Ozzi (Dey Street) grabs No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization by Douglas Murray (Broadside) has No. 2 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list, though some retailers report receiving bulk orders.

Becoming Her: Straight Talk for Healing, Embodying, and Radiating as Your Most Powerful Self by Monica Yates (Post Hill) shines at No. 4 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

Every Purchase Matters: How Fair Trade Farmers, Companies, and Consumers Are Changing the World by Paul Rice (PublicAffairs) flourishes at No. 5 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History by Chris Whipple (Harper Influence) wins No. 7 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie (Celadon) sings at No. 8 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

Transcend: Unlocking Humanity in the Age of AI by Faisal Hoque (Post Hill) ascends to No. 12 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris (Random; LJ starred review) achieves No. 13 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

Reviews

NYT reviews America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin (Penguin Pr.): “But Trump also assumed that the name ‘America’ belonged solely to the United States. And on that point, Grandin has written a stirring new book suggesting otherwise. In America, América, he emphasizes a capacious understanding of those four syllables. He shows how over the course of five centuries, America in the north and America in the south have shaped each other through war, conquest, competition and cooperation”; Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt (Knopf): “But where [Hewitt’s 2022] memoir was piercing and profound, Open, Heaven clings insistently to the superficial. Hewitt has a fondness for lyrical description, particularly of the natural world…. These passages effectively stir up an aura of misty poignancy, but they are deployed with such frequency and at such cloying length that at times it seems like Hewitt’s goal is merely to conjure an exquisite atmosphere, rather than to understand these characters or to imbue their story with any emotional weight”;and Friends of the Museum by Heather McGowan (Washington Square): “The problem is, there’s no time for the reader to luxuriate in them. The novel’s pace matches that of its characters’ hellish workday—which is fun in theory and fatiguing in practice. Across the short, time-stamped sections, plot points pile up quickly, beat after perpetual beat.”

Washington Post reviews Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People To Find Their Lost Families by Judith Giesberg (S. & S.; LJ starred review): “Last Seen is not a romanticized history. Giesberg forces readers to sit with the trauma of separation and the callousness of White supremacy. But equally, if not more, important is her tender human reminder that the love parents and siblings and children had for their family members never waned.”

LitHub has “Five Book Reviews You Need To Read This Week.”

Briefly Noted

Novelist Nettie Jones, now 84, is finally getting her due with this week’s reissue of her 1984 novel Fish Tales (Farrar), NYT reports.

In People, Emily Henry, author of Great Big Beautiful Life (Berkley; LJ starred review), names the books, movies, and “general vibes” that have inspired her.

USA Today talks to Jeneva Rose, author of The Perfect Divorce (Blackstone), whose “The Perfect Marriage” series isn’t ending anytime soon.

Meghan Daum, author of The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays (Notting Hill Editions), answers NYT’s “By the Book” questionnaire.

Priscilla Presley announces her new memoir, Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, which will be published by Grand Central on Sept. 23, People reports.

Girls actor Zosia Mamet is publishing an essay collection, Does This Make Me Funny?, due out from Viking on Sept. 9, People reports.

Publishers Weekly explores forthcoming religion books that “weave nature and science with faith.”

Vanity Fair explains how Meta AI staffers concluded that more than seven million books have no economic value and can be freely used to train AI models.

Kirkus recommends the best indie books of April, plus other recent works from “scrappy” small presses.

CrimeReads highlights the five best debut novels of April and “7 Terrifying Tales Examining the Nature of Fear Itself.”

Reactor identifies five SFF stories featuring rats and mice.

NYT has an obituary for the late translator Tim Mohr, who died Mar. 31 at age 55.

Authors on Air

NPR’s Fresh Air interviews Shaun Walker, author of The Illegals: Russia’s Most Audacious Spies and Their Century-Long Mission To Infiltrate the West (Knopf).

Kirkus’s Fully Booked podcast talks to John Kenney, author of I See You’ve Called in Dead (Zibby).

Bestselling Kwame Alexander will host America’s Next Great Author, a new series from Libby and Kanopy that has six amateur writers competing for a book deal, People reports.

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