If we are to believe novelists, England in the 1700s and 1800s featured two kinds of women: those who sat at home stewing about lost suitors, and con artists.

It used to be that books featured a whole bunch of the former but, in recent years, the scales have tipped in the direction of pickpockets and shysters, as evidenced by Alex Hay’s brand...Read more

Elinor Lipman is as reliable as Chex Mix or your favorite afghan.

Her comic novels, often noted as the contemporary equivalent of Jane Austen classics, always hit the spot with warm characters, sharp dialogue, amusing situations and endings where everything works out for the people you hope it will work out for. The latest, “Every Tom, Dick ...Read more

The first rape kits were given to hospitals in 1978. Chicago was the testing ground. According to a Tribune article from the time, more than two dozen Cook County hospitals received the kits, courtesy of the Chicago Hospital Council. Police had long insisted that corroborating evidence of sex crimes was near impossible, so Bernard Carey, then ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — For the first time in nearly 40 years, never-before-seen images documenting the making of “La Bamba” will be released, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at the production of one of the most notable U.S. Latino films of all time.

Los Angeles-based publisher Hat & Beard Press announced the forthcoming June publication of �...Read more

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Earlier this year, hundreds of books from the personal library of the late author and critic Gary Indiana, who died in October 2024 at his New York City apartment, arrived at a private home in Altadena.

The cross-country delivery came Tuesday, Jan. 7 – just hours ahead of the Eaton fire, which destroyed nearly 9,500 ...Read more

Among the great lyrical wonders of the world are the metaphors and similes of Neko Case. It’s as if she’s never seen anything that she didn’t imagine as something else much more interesting.

Wild animals play characters in her songs. Tornados turn sentient. Temptation is a long black train. She imagines she were the moon. Case once ...Read more

Like the color blue, Imani Perry’s “Black in Blues” is vast, multifaceted and enchanting.

Perry’s book, also like the hue, defies categorization. Her exploration of blue is presented in 35 tight, radiant chapters that read like a blend of memoir and history.

They’re more than memoir and history, though. Because the past is prologue, ...Read more

ANAHEIM, Calif. — For “The Big Empty,” the 20th book in Robert Crais‘ Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series, Crais returned to an idea he’d been circling off and on for years.

“For a long time now, I’ve had this notion I wanted to put Elvis into what is, for him, an untenable position,” Crais says. “Where he’s trapped between his ...Read more

I remember a night of inconsolable mourning when I played records way too loud, drank too much and scribbled pages into my tear-splattered journal.

This eruption of anger and sadness came more than two years after my longtime partner died at 32 of AIDS-related illness.

While I don’t recall what sparked the delayed reaction, it allows me to ...Read more

Fantasy writer Neil Gaiman and his estranged wife were sued in a set of federal cases filed in New York, Wisconsin and Massachusetts on Monday, alleging the bestselling author violently raped and sexually abused the former nanny of his child.

The suits brought by Scarlett Pavlovich come after Gaiman, 64, was recently accused in a New York ...Read more

In 2018, as the nation watched Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testify during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, author and journalist Pagan Kennedy, who grew up in similarly privileged circumstances and attended the same high school as Ford, confronted her own experience of being sexually abused.

“I know a lot of other people were very ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Jan. 25, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2025 Circana.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2025, PWxyz LLC.)

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "Onyx Storm (...Read more

Whether it’s Ants Climbing a Tree, Buddha Jumps over the Wall or a recipe whose name translates to “Ignored by Doggy Stuffed Buns,” some Chinese dishes are notable for their quirky names, as well as their savory flavors.

Luckily, Ying Chang Compestine, a Lafayette, California-based author who grew up in Wuhan, China, is here to demystify ...Read more

I was looking for self-help advice in Chris Hayes’ “The Sirens' Call,” an examination of the system widely monopolizing our time and eroding our focus: the attention economy.

In recent years, my attention has felt continually besieged by a barrage of information, mostly in the form of online articles on topics ranging from politics to ...Read more

I cried the first time I listened to the Belle and Sebastian song “Nobody’s Empire.” From the 2015 album “Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance,” it is a perfect blend of raw emotion and deeply personal storytelling, twinkling with the Scottish band’s trademark indie pop charm.

That’s the high expectation I had for frontman Stuart ...Read more

If it seems to you like tons of books are showing up on store and library shelves all of a sudden, you’re not wrong.

Last year’s presidential election disrupted publishers’ schedules. Apparently, like TV programmers loathe to debut new series in the middle of big events like the Olympics, publishers are worried new titles will get lost in...Read more

Although “I Am Nobody’s Slave” takes the form of a memoir, Minnesota native Lee Hawkins’ book becomes something bigger: an examination of where violence in Black homes originates and a plea to end corporal punishment.

Hawkins spoke last year with the Minnesota Star Tribune’s Laura Yuen about the horrific abuse he suffered, at the ...Read more

If you’re looking for inspiration to keep those New Year’s resolutions, know that memoirist Abigail Thomas has finally quit smoking.

At age 84.

“It’s caught up with me,” admitted the New York Times-bestselling author. “Somebody once told me, ‘You smoke like a truck driver,’ and that, well, that was about 70 years ago.”

...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Dark Horse Comics has taken a stance against author Neil Gaiman, who faces multiple allegations of sexual assault.

The publishing company over the weekend announced it will no longer publish the "American Gods" and "Good Omens" author's work. As part of taking "seriously the allegations against" Gaiman, Dark Horse Comics said on...Read more