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Awards & Book News

Kirkus publishes its spring 2025 preview of most-anticipated books.

Mystery Writers of America names Laura Lippman and John Sandford as its Grand Masters for 2025, Kirkus reports.

New Title Bestsellers

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

Fiction

Four Ruined Realms by Mai Corland (Red Tower) reigns over No. 4 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

Never Say Never by Danielle Steel (Delacorte) takes No. 5 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

Holmes Is Missing by James Patterson & Brian Sitts (Little, Brown) finds No. 7 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight (Pamela Dorman: Viking) swims to No. 12 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams (Delacorte) grabs No. 12 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis (Dutton) steals No. 13 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list.

Nonfiction

The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke (Gallery) gets No. 1 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list and No. 7 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

Don’t Say Um: How To Communicate Effectively To Live a Better Life by Michael Chad Hoeppner (Hachette Go) reaches No. 9 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

There’s Treasure Inside by Jon Collins-Black (Treasure Bks.) holds No. 14 on the USA Today Bestselling Books list.

Reviews

NYT Reviews Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life by Agnes Callard (Norton): “Callard…is aware that ‘more intellectualism!’ isn’t exactly an easy sell, which is undoubtedly why she waits until Page 129 to describe her chosen approach as ‘hard-line intellectualist.’ But she is so earnestly excited by her subject that even a skeptical reader is bound to feel a swell of enthusiasm as she makes her full-throated case for a life of the mind.”

LA Times reviews We Do Not Part by Han Kang, tr. by e. yaewon & Paige Aniyah Morris (Hogarth; LJ starred review): “I found no answers in this deeply mysterious and often eerie novel. To read We Do Not Part is to inhabit an unknowing. Whether Han’s characters live or die or exist in a liminal space remains a puzzle.”

The Guardian reviews The Science of Racism: Everything You Need To Know but Probably Don’t—Yet by Keon West (Abrams): “This facts-over-feelings approach is persuasive. The Science of Racism is that rare book on a difficult topic that has the potential to bridge the divide between opposing ideologically entrenched standpoints.”

Vulture reviews Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly (Atria/One Signal; LJ starred review): “Pelly, a veteran music journalist, was early in treating Spotify with sober skepticism. Here she draws from over a hundred interviews with a mix of former Spotify employees and actors from different corners of the music ecosystem to produce a work that illustrates, through the lens of the company’s ascent, what the streaming world it helped usher in has done to the broad ecology of musical creation writ large but also to the culture of music consumption.”

LitHub has “five book reviews you need to read this week.”

Briefly Noted

Publishers Weekly interviews Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, who returns to comics with Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales from Lands Unknown, due out Jan. 22 from a new Dark Horse Comics imprint, Curious Objects.

Washington Post talks to Scott Turow, author of Presumed Guilty (Grand Central).

Adam Haslett, author of Mothers and Sons (Little, Brown), answers NYT’s “By the Book” questionnaire.

NPR offers 12 book club recommendations.

CrimeReads explores “the subversive appeal of the female stalker novel” and gathers “tech thrillers rooted in the ever-mounting tensions between technology and human nature.”

Matt Bomer will narrate a new audiobook of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, due out from Books on Tape on Feb. 4; Kirkus has the news.

Melville House plans to publish a paperback version of the Jack Smith report shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, Publishers Weekly reports.

Libgen and Sci-Hub, which host millions of pirated books, were called out in the U.S. Trade Representative’s annual Notorious Markets List, Publishers Weekly reports.

Publishers Weekly shares “five comics business storylines to watch in 2025.”

Novelists Richard Osman and Kate Mosse criticize the UK government over its plan to give AI companies the freedom to mine artistic works for data, The Guardian reports.

Publishers Weekly reports how Neil Gaiman’s publishers have responded to the sexual misconduct claims against him.

Sean Markey has announced the relaunch of Fantasy Magazine, with the first issue scheduled to publish June 1, 2025, Locus reports.

Autism therapist, novelist, and clown Howard Buten has died at 74; NYT has an obituary.

Authors on Air

Pico Iyer, author of Aflame: Learning from Silence (Riverhead), is interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air.

Youngmi Mayer, author of I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying: A Memoir (Little, Brown), talks to NPR’s Code Switch.

Kirkus’s Fully Booked podcast previews spring’s hottest books with Cynthia Weiner, author of A Gorgeous Excitement (Crown).

UK writers and actors are objecting to the news that BBC Radio 3 will curtail its production of audio dramas this spring, Publishing Perspectives reports.

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