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Big Books of the Week

Battle Mountain by C.J. Box (Putnam) leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister (Morrow; LJ starred review)

Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 by Lisa Unger (Park Row)

Show Don’t Tell: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random)

Back After This by Linda Holmes (Ballantine)

These books and others publishing the week of February 24, 2025, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Six LibraryReads and five Indie Next picks publish this week.

Hall of Fame picks include Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 by Lisa Unger (Park Row) and Back After This by Linda Holmes (Ballantine).

Hall of Fame pick Swordheart by T. Kingfisher (Bramble) is also an Indie Next pick:

“Swordheart chronicles the travels of Halla and Sarkis with Kingfisher’s quick wit and charm. A hard-won adventure with a blossoming relationship—equally awkward and delightful—that captures what it means to find love where you least expect it.”—Tori Finklea, Union Avenue Books, Knoxville, TN

The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker (Random)*Good for Book Clubs

“After Dr. Henry Byrd is summoned by police to see Jane O. at the psychiatric hospital, they want him to reveal her confidential information: has she really lost three days under a dissociative fugue or is she faking it to cover up a crime? This unique novel explores the idea of alternate and parallel realities, grief, friendship, and trust in this beautifully written story.”—Donna Ballard, Library Ambassador

Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce (Minotaur)

“Mina, a newly minted child psychologist, meets Sam, a journalist, who wants her to help him on a piece on Alice, a teenager who claims to be possessed by a witch. Mina agrees and they find themselves in a very unsettling small town, experiencing strange things that they can’t explain. This book is just spooky enough that you may want to read it with the lights on!”—Melissa Turner Maricopa Library & Cultural Center, AZ

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister (Morrow; LJ starred review)

“Cam can’t believe it when her husband Adam takes three hostages in an abandoned warehouse. Seven years later, Adam’s betrayal rears its ugly head again. Will Cam turn to amateur sleuthing, or put everything behind her and find closure? McAllister uses her standard smooth and emotional style to make sure all the puzzle pieces click together for a satisfying ending.”—Cari Dubiel, Twinsburg Public Library, OH

Four additional Indie Next picks publish this week:

Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis (Tiny Reparations)

“Nussaibah Younis’s witty debut novel fetches a relevant focus on today’s societal views of women and what they are capable of. Read it through and embrace the character arc—you won’t put this book down until the very last page.”—Desirae Wilkerson, Paper Boat Booksellers, Seattle, WA

The Café with No Name by Robert Seethaler, tr. by Katy Derbyshire (Europa)

“Seethaler perfectly captures the essence of community—the importance, the beauty, the pitfalls. The characters are flawed, just like any assortment of people you’d find at a café. It’s the small moments in life that matter so much.”—Susan Reckers, Rakestraw Books, Danville, CA

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Knopf)

“In my life as a bookseller, there have been only a handful of books that I feel are absolutely necessary. This is one of those books. El Akkad’s analysis and fury stand as beacons that will illuminate our path forward. I urge you to read and find a place in your heart for this book.”—Paul Yamazaki, City Lights Books, San Francisco, CA

Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley (Crown)

“This book is a love song. It’s a love letter to music, to connection, to friendship and romance and collaboration and connection and talent and pain. I wish I could have written this book. I’m jealous of people who haven’t read this book yet.”—Jamie Thomas, Women & Children First, Chicago, IL

In the Media

People’s book of the week is Dream State by Eric Puchner (Doubleday). Also getting attention are Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser (Catapult) and Show Don’t Tell: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random). “Life-Altering Fiction” includes Wicked Darlings by Jordyn Taylor (Delacorte), Tilda Is Visible by Jane Tara (Crown), and People of Means by Nancy Johnson (Morrow).

The “Picks” section spotlights Paddington in Peru, based on the children’s books by Michael Bond, and Captain America: Brave New World, based on associated titles.

People online also has the best books of February.

Reviews

NYT reviews Show Don’t Tell: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random): “Showcasing the glory of her characters’ complicated lives and allowing them to speak with voices all their own is a kind of rebellion, and it’s exhilarating.” LA Times also reviews: “Sittenfeld is a sharp observer of social mores and an astute judge of character, but she’s never cruel—she’s the opposite of a misanthrope.”

NYT also reviews The Secret Public: How Music Moved Queer Culture From the Margins to the Mainstream by Jon Savage (Liveright: Norton; LJ starred review): “His intention in The Secret Public is to show how gay musicians and audiences affected the mainstream, but too often the connections are left implied”; The Prosecutor: One Man’s Battle To Bring Nazis to Justice by Jack Fairweather (Crown): “Fairweather writes that Bauer’s story shows ‘how the Holocaust came to define our collective sense of humanity.’ Yet his book arrives as major political parties are working to stamp the memory of the Holocaust out of public consciousness”; and All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America by Michael Wolff (Crown): “The book is undeniably gripping—a veritable harvest of slime, sycophancy and sleaze that tells the story of Trump 2.0, an aggrieved pugilist waging a ‘life or death’ campaign.” Plus, there are short reviews of “6 Thrilling Novels About Serial Killers” and “Spicy, Sparkling New Romance Novels.”

Washington Post reviews Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash by Alexander Clapp (Little, Brown): “Clapp is a lively writer, and his deeply researched book deftly combines history and global economics with stories of real people and tangible details of modern life. You will never look at plastic bags the same way”; and a new edition of Shulamith Firestone’s 1998 book Airless Spaces (Semiotext(e)): “Airless Spaces is autobiographical yet somehow impersonal. The vignettes it contains—billed as fiction but drawing closely from Firestone’s experiences—are about the deadening sterility of life in the psych ward, but some of the stories do not even have a first-person narrator.”

The Guardian reviews Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser (Catapult): “The narrator imagines this book as one way of fulfilling Woolf’s prospectus for the last novel published in her lifetime, The Years, which would alternate between essays and fiction to create a ‘new form.’”

Briefly Noted

Salman Rushdie’s assailant Hadi Matar was found guilty of attempted murder. Time has coverage.

Hoopla announces it is working to remove AI-generated books from its platform, after a 404 Media investigation, Publishers Lunch reports. Infodocket also has details.

CrimeReads suggests 10 new books for the week.

NPR highlights 13 new celebrity memoirs.

In People, Kennedy Ryan discusses her forthcoming book, Can’t Get Enough (Forever), due out May 13.

People has a first look at NCAA championship coach Dawn Staley’s forthcoming book, Uncommon Favor: Basketball, North Philly, My Mother and the Life Lessons I Learned from All Three (Atria: Black Privilege), due out May 20.

Authors on Air

CBS Sunday Morning talks with Benjamin Hall about his forthcoming book Resolute: How We Humans Keep Finding Ways to Beat the Toughest Odds (Harper Influence), and how he embraces the challenges of recovery after being injured as a conflict correspondent for Fox News. CBS provides an excerpt.

Conclave, based on the novel by Robert Harris, wins the SAG Award for Best Motion Picture Cast, Variety has reports. Hollywood Reporter shares all the winners.

USA Today highlights new book-to-movie adaptations arriving this year.

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