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Big Books of the Week

Strangers in Time by David Baldacci (Grand Central) leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

The Perfect Divorce by Jeneva Rose (Blackstone)

Wild and Wrangled by Lyla Sage (Dial Pr. Paperbacks)

The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward by Melinda French Gates (Flatiron)

These books and others publishing the week of April 14, 2025, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Remembering Mario Vargas Llosa

Nobel-winning Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa has died at the age of 89.

NYT has an obituary and an appraisal.

USA Today, WSJ, BBC, Washington Post, and The Guardian have remembrances.

Deadline looks at screen adaptations of his work.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Two LibraryReads and three Indie Next picks publish this week.

Hall of Fame pick Wild and Wrangled by Lyla Sage (Dial Pr. Paperbacks) is also an Indie Next pick:

“I have been so eager for Dusty and Cam’s story, and this delivered the perfect ending to the series. Dusty is the definition of the perfect man written by a woman, and witnessing their relationship finally come to fruition was worth the wait.”—Amy Dickinson, Book Ends Winchester, Winchester, MA

Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage (Hyperion Avenue)

“The Golden Girls plus cozy mystery equals match made in heaven! This novel is nostalgic fun for fans of the TV show and might even draw some new fans in with the atmospheric ’80s Miami vibes. The story is over-the-top silly at turns, but it’s all part of the fun. Readers will be left hoping the series continues with more mysteries for the ladies to solve.”—Elizabeth Motyka, Wheaton Public Library, IL

Two additional Indie Next picks publish this week:

Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto (Bloomsbury)

“Overflowing with female sexuality and Hawaiian mythology, Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare punches out one fearless story after the next. Kakimoto gives us a raw Hawai‘i, one that exists far from the colonized romanticism often promoted.”—Beth Shapiro, Skylark Bookshop, Columbia, MO

Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt (Knopf)

“Seán Hewitt washes away time’s silt to reveal cavernous torrents of desire long-withheld—now, blissfully, given voice. Open, Heaven captures the contradictions thrown into relief by first love, making this debut agonizing and euphoric and equally unforgettable.”—Mathuson Anthony, Book Club, New York, NY

In the Media

People’s book of the week is The Seven O'Clock Club by Amelia Ireland (Berkley). Also getting attention are Wild and Wrangled by Lyla Sage (Dial Pr. Paperbacks) and The Influencers by Anna-Marie McLemore (Dial). “Delicious Food Books” include The Family Recipe by Carolyn Huynh (Artia), Accidentally on Purpose by Kristen Kish (Little, Brown), and Change the Recipe: Because You Can’t Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs by José Andrés (Ecco). Plus, there is a feature on “zillennial Martha Stewart” Meredith Hayden, whose new book, The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes for Everyday Luxury and Elevated Entertaining (Ten Speed), arrives May 6.

People online highlights the best books of the month.

Reviews

NYT reviews Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity by Diarmaid MacCulloch (Viking; LJ starred review): “Lower Than the Angels addresses a global Christianity increasingly rived by fierce disagreements over sex and gender. MacCulloch’s hope is that a dose of careful history might lower the temperature of those fights”; The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe (Europa): “Coe’s light touch is overexerted, the conceptual intricacy undermined by a slight laziness when it comes to descriptions and observations, jokes and conceits. But the novel is part of a larger project, and the deficiencies of a single book can do nothing to obscure the validity of his ambition”; The Fact Checker by Austin Kelley (Atlantic Monthly): “It’s a sprightly hyperlocal caper that is also, intentionally or not, a Notes and Comment on the fragile state of urban intellectual masculinity”; and Perspective(s) by Laurent Binet tr. by Sam Taylor (Farrar): “What’s moving, in the end, is the novel’s sheer enthusiasm for the act of making art, which seems to be the only thing spoken about with unironic passion.”

Washington Post reviews Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara (Pantheon; LJ starred review): “Like AI itself, Searches is imperfect. It raises ethical questions that remain unanswered even as the author endeavors to explore the paradoxes of her own engagement with AI”; and Close to Home: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door by Thor Hanson (Basic): “As Hanson takes readers on a tour of the flora and fauna of his Pacific Northwest home—detailing birds, frogs, bees, flies, lichen and much more—he also highlights ways that anyone can become a backyard naturalist by joining up with participatory science projects.”

Briefly Noted

Finalists for the PEN America Literary Awards are announced. People has the story.

The IPA Prix Voltaire shortlist is announced, Publishing Perspectives reports.

Earlyword’s April GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now.

Publishers Weekly rounds up April’s book club picks.

NBC reports on how gen Zers and millennials are putting new spins on traditional book clubs.

LA Times names the 30 best nonfiction books of the last 30 years.

CBC shares 29 Canadian books for April.

CrimeReads suggests 10 new books for the week.

WSJ highlights 14 books for the week.

People talks with Jeneva Rose about her new novel, The Perfect Divorce (Blackstone).

Christopher McKittrick talks with Fox News Digital about his boo, Vera Miles: The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away (Univ. Pr. of Kentucky).

The Rumpus chats with Denne Michele Norris, author of When the Harvest Comes (Random).

ElectricLit talks to Katie Kitamura about performance, motherhood and her novel Audition (Riverhead).

Art critic and artist Max Kozloff has died at 91. NYT has an obituary.

Authors on Air

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Hanover Square) is in development at Fox. Deadline has the story.

Emma Grey’s Pictures of You (Zibby) will get a screen adaptation, Deadline reports.

Emma Rosenblum’s Bad Summer People (Flatiron) is headed for television, Deadline reports.

Melinda French Gates, The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward (Flatiron), is on GMA today.

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