Chartered by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864, Gallaudet University, in Washington, DC, holds the distinction of being the only bilingual university for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and other Deaf Disabled students in the world. Consequently, it has the world’s largest archives of materials related to deaf and hard-of-hearing communities, with a mission to preserve “the institutional memory of the University and historic material from the global Deaf community,” according to the Gallaudet website.

The Edgar Award nominees and Audie Awards finalists are revealed. USA Today launches its Winter Book Challenge, a bingo card full of book categories, to help readers stretch and track their reading goals. Christian rom-coms are flourishing. Plus, new title bestsellers.

Ayelet Tsabari wins the Association of Jewish Libraries Jewish Fiction Award for her novel Songs for the Brokenhearted. Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced her forthcoming memoir, A Different Kind of Power, which arrives in June. Vanessa Bryant will publish Mamba & Mambacita Forever in August. Also buzzing are memoirs from Rick Astley, Neko Case, Keeonna Harris, and Lola Kirke. Anne Allan’s royal biography Dancing with Diana will become a feature documentary, while John Ridley is developing Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel for the big screen. And Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonist and playwright Jules Feiffer has died at the age of 95. 

“Don’t trust the sanitized versions of history…We’ve got to get to the roots,” writes rapper Chuck D in the foreword to The Transatlantic Slave Trade, a new title from SelectBooks highlighted in this feature. That viewpoint is the guiding compass behind new Black history books on publishers’ lists for spring 2025.  

We have now passed the point of no return: We have not acted fast enough to slow the increasing frequency and severity of the impacts of the climate emergency in our lifetime. Even if we were to do everything “right,” climate scientists predict we have at least 30 more years of increasingly dire impacts from climate change. We now find ourselves facing this reality with an incoming administration that has already declared plans to roll back environmental protections that would have helped us do things “right” for future generations. So, what now?

“Self-help had a bad rap in the past,” says Olivia Peitsch, marketing manager at Baker Publishing Group. “But a new generation is coming into the reading space, and self-help is becoming more widely accepted. It isn’t considered gimmicky anymore; it’s bravery.” 

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros leads holds this week. People’s book of the week is Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett. The Novel Prize shortlist is announced. Elizabeth Gilbert and Rebecca Ross announce forthcoming fall titles. Plus, this week’s new releases.

Welcome to our first AI Watch column! The three of us talk monthly in the Libraries Lead Podcast (available at librarieslead.libraryjournal.com), and now we share content from that segment of the podcast in digital and print form through Library Journal.

The Canada Reads 2025 longlist arrives. Poets & Writers publishes its 20th annual look at debut poets. Longlists are announced for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada, which honors books published by small presses. Sustainable Marketing: The Industry’s Role in a Sustainable Future by Paul Randle & Alexis Eyre wins the Leonard L. Berry Marketing Book Award. Harlequin is eliminating its Canary Street Press and Graydon House imprints. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Neko Case, Pagan Kennedy, and Charles Baxter.