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Awards, News & National Library Week

It’s National Library Week and Right To Read Day. This year’s theme is “Drawn to the Library.” Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud will serve as Honorary Chairs. Publishers Weekly has coverage.

ALA reveals the top 10 most challenged books and issues the “State of America’s Libraries Report.” Infodocket has coverage.

The Hugo Awards finalists are announced.

Finalists for Canada’s Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing are announced.

USA Today reports on book bans at elite military academies. NYT lists the books that have been removed.

Big Books of the Week

The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner (Morrow) leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

The Maid’s Secret by Nita Prose (Ballantine)

Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory (Berkley)

Audition by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead)

These books and others publishing the week of April 7, 2025, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Four LibraryReads and three Indie Next picks publish this week.

Hall of Fame picks include The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner (Morrow) and The Maid’s Secret by Nita Prose (Ballantine).

The bonus pick is No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris (Random; LJ starred review):

“Award-winning investigative journalist Harris met a J&J sales rep on a business trip and after chatting with her, realized that though the public was (somewhat) aware of the bad press surrounding the company, what most consumers knew was only surface-level. His deep-dive into the company's many problematic choices in the pharmaceutical industry led to new federal laws and opened many eyes. Readers looking for a great book club choice need to look no further. Excellent investigation along with clear and accessible writing make this a great pick.”—Rebecca Vnuk, LibraryReads

Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes (Tor Nightfire; LJ starred review)

“Hiding out due to a political scandal, Halley decides to take a job in the most remote place she can find. That place is a large space barge holding cryogenically frozen wealthy people. The horror begins as Halley starts hearing noises and notices a presence at the foot of her bed. Thrilling and downright scary—this is a must read.”—Terri Smith, Cornelia Library, GA

Three Indie Next picks publish this week:

Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd (Atria)

“Jess Kidd is an absolute magician of storytelling. Be prepared to be caught under her spell with this atmospheric and cozy new mystery. Brew yourself a cuppa and dig in!”—Christina Heagney, Country Bookshelf, Bozeman, MT

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk (Random)

“Did you ever want to read a book about a woman who is irresistibly sexually attracted to commercial jetliners? Me neither, but I did. It was delightful. Twisted, hilarious, and beautiful. Come for the absurdity; stay for the tenderness.”—Chantel McCray, Rainy Day Books, Fairway, KS

Audition by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead)

“This novel is strange and beguiling, with an actress at the center of the novel and play that will constantly shift your perspective of what is real or not. Who is she really, and what role do other people play in our lives?”—Keith Vient, Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC

In the Media

People’s book of the week is Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic). Also getting attention are Audition by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead) and Flesh by David Szalay (Scribner). “Stories of Deception” include Rabbit Moon by Jennifer Haigh (Little, Brown; LJ starred review), Sky Daddy by Kate Folk (Random), and The Other Lata by Kirthana Ramisetti (Grand Central). People also shares the best books of April.

The “Picks” section spotlights The Friend, based on the novel by Sigrid Nunez. There is a feature on Melinda French Gates, whose book The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward (Flatiron), publishes this week. A flashback looks at Jane Fonda’s 2005 memoir My Life So Far. Plus, Easter recipes from Barbara Costello, Every Day with Babs: 101 Family-Friendly Dinners for Every Day of the Week (Clarkson Potter), and Bobbie Lloyd, The Magnolia Bakery Handbook of Icebox Desserts, Vol. 2: A Complete Guide for the Home Baker (Harvest).

Reviews

NYT reviews Audition by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead): “Audition realizes Kitamura’s longstanding interests in the form of a woman who inhabits roles for a living. It’s her most thrilling examination yet of the deceit inherent in human connection”; Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History by Chris Whipple (Harper Influence): “While the book rattles briskly through Kamala Harris’s failed attempts to overcome the handicap of having so little time to present herself as an alternative to both Trump and Biden, it has few great revelations to impart”; Thrilled to Death: Selected Stories by Lynne Tillman (Soft Skull): “In an era of truncated attention spans, her short stories, some verging on micro, seem newly with-it. Her one-liners can do more than certain entire volumes”; The Float Test by Lynn Steger Strong (Mariner): “As Strong grapples insightfully with questions of who really owns a story, we’re also asked to consider what it means to truly love another person, flaws and all—and, not only that, to turn the lens back on ourselves”; and a new edition of The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd (Scribner): “One beauty of The Living Mountain is its adaptability, the way it challenges us to find comparison, to claim Shepherd for our own, whether as a prophet of environmentalism or as a forerunner of theories of the body-subject.”

Washington Post reviews The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road by E.A. Hanks (Gallery): ““The 10 is vibrantly alive with vulnerability and courageous honesty. Hanks’s voice is fresh and true; and One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Knopf): “But if this firm rejection of trying to talk to ‘both sides’ has the effect of limiting who the book speaks to, it may also stiffen the resolve of readers who come to it craving moral clarity.”

Briefly Noted

Publishers Weekly previews this summer’s best books.

CrimeReads suggests 10 new books for the week.

NYT recommends what to read after The White Lotus.

In LA Times, Mark Hoppus talks about his new memoir, Fahrenheit-182, written with Dan Ozzi (Dey Street).

Vox explores the idea of repressed memories in The Tell: A Memoir by Amy Griffin (Dial).

Magazine writer and novelist Jesse Kornbluth has died at the age of 79. NYT has an obituary.

Historian and author Edward Countryman has died at the age of 80. NYT has an obituary.

Authors on Air

Chef José Andrés discusses his new book, Change the Recipe: Because You Can’t Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs, written with Richard Wolffe (Ecco), on CBS Sunday Morning.

Tess Sanchez, author of We’ve Decided To Go in a Different Direction: Essays (Gallery), visits The Drew Barrymore Show today.

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