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Awards & Book News

James Tejani’s A Machine To Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles and America (Norton) and Kathleen DuVal’s Native Nations: A Millennium in North America (Random; LJ starred review) win the Bancroft Prize for books about U.S. history, NYT reports.

Sophie Elmhirst’s Maurice and Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story of Shipwreck, Survival and Love (Vintage) wins the Nero Gold prize, The Guardian reports.

The Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist is announced; The Guardian has coverage.

Publishers Weekly reports on how the publishing industry is preparing for new U.S. tariffs.

New Title Bestsellers

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

Fiction

Battle Mountain by C.J. Box (Putnam) conquers No. 2 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list.

Swordheart by T. Kingfisher (Bramble) slashes its way to No. 4 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list and No. 8 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister (Morrow; LJ starred review) clinches No. 13 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers list.

Nonfiction

I’ll Have What She’s Having by Chelsea Handler (Dial; LJ starred review) grabs No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list and No. 14 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Knopf) holds No. 7 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America by Michael Wolff (Crown) captures No. 10 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine by Alexander S. Vindman (PublicAffairs) gets No. 11 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare by Edward Fishman (Portfolio) wins No. 14 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

Reviews

NYT reviews Seven Social Movements That Changed America by Linda Gordon (Liveright: Norton): “The variety of her examples means that her working definition of a social movement is necessarily imprecise: ‘large-scale, participatory activism, beyond electoral politics, aimed at social and political change.’ This big-tent approach makes it harder for Gordon to tease out common threads, but she does select a few.”

The Guardian reviews Alive: Our Bodies and the Richness and Brevity of Existence by Gabriel Weston (David R. Godine): “The chapters—Heart, Bone, Genitals, Lungs and so on—offer plenty of detailed anatomical information. The reader will learn the name and function of our different layers of skin, what happens inside our kidneys, and how breasts turn blood into milk, but this information is enriched by Weston’s personal and philosophical reflections, accounts of pioneering surgeries, and digressions on medical ethics and the arts.”

LA Times reviews The Californians by Brian Castleberry (Mariner): “Castleberry has pursued the tricky task of creating an orderly novel whose theme is chaos. There are places where he’s not quite up to the task, where the various lines that stretch through and across the family trees can feel like tripwires for the reader.”

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

Briefly Noted

NYT discusses the “shocking act of literary vandalism” at the center of Michael Visontay’s Noble Fragments: The Gripping Story of the Antiquarian Bookseller Who Broke Up a Gutenberg Bible (Scribe US).

NYT shares an excerpt from We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine by Alissa Wilkinson (Liveright: Norton).

LA Times talks to comedian Bruce Vilanch, author of It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time (Chicago Review).

Bloom Books has pulled the forthcoming romance novel Sparrow and Vine by Sophie Lark after criticism from early readers, NYT reports.

NYT looks at five books that attempt to preserve vanishing music scenes.

“Answer 4 questions. Leave with a book that will get you to spring,” NYT promises.

USA Today recommends “15 hot releases to read right now.”

Reactor gathers “all the new science fiction books arriving in March 2025.”

CrimeReads rounds up “7 Essential Domestic Psychological Thrillers.”

New religion books for Lent and Easter “promise contemplation and celebration,” while “new books by Christian artists tie creativity to faith,” Publishers Weekly reports.

Reagan Arthur’s new imprint at Grand Central, called Cardinal, announces its inaugural list of 10 titles, Publishers Weekly reports.

Poet and translator Pierre Joris has died at age 78; NYT has an obituary.

Authors on Air

NPR’s All Things Considered talks to photographer Mary Ellen Matthews, whose SNL photos were published this week in The Art of the SNL Portrait (Abrams).

Kirkus’s Fully Booked podcast highlights the most anticipated titles of March, including an interview with Laila Lalami, author of The Dream Hotel (Pantheon).

LitHub and Black Mountain Institute’s podcast Thresholds talks to Lidia Yuknavitch, author of Reading the Waves: A Memoir (Riverhead; LJ starred review).

Amazon options Kristy Woodson Harvey’s novel A Happier Life for a film adaptation, People reports.

Kirkus rounds up “20 Hot Books Destined for the Screen.”

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