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Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep wins the Women’s Prize for Fiction, while the nonfiction prize goes to Rachel Clarke’s The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and the Medical Miracle That Saved a Child’s Life. Winners of the Reading the West Book Awards are announced. NYT updates its list of the best romance novels of the year. NYPL celebrates the hundredth anniversary of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association will be subsumed into the Association for Library Service to Children. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with E. Jean Carroll, Peter Mendelsund, and Vikas Adam.

The longlist for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award is announced. LitHub publishes “The Ultimate Summer 2025 Reading List.” Oregon passes a law to protect access to books in school libraries. In spring 2026, Christian publisher Baker will launch Haven, an imprint it describes as “wholesome fiction without faith content.” Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Wally Lamb, V.E. Schwab, and Jess Walter.

Maurice Vellekoop’s memoir I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together wins the Doug Wright Award. Canisia Lubrin’s Code Noir wins the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for best Canadian debut short story collection. Authors Gary David Crew and Garth Nix receive the Medal of the Order of Australia. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab. Annie Leibovitz will reissue a new edition of her 1999 book Women in November. Gill Hornby’s The Elopement will be adapted for TV.

In 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared more than 3.5 million enslaved people living in Confederate states to be “forever free.” It wasn’t until Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX, on June 19, two years later, however, that the enslaved first learned of their freedom. That date became known as Juneteenth, first celebrated in 1866 and declared a federal holiday in 2021. This booklist is a Juneteenth commemoration in the form of fiction and nonfiction about its history and the long-standing implications of enslavement and the Jim Crow era. 

Kendra Coulter is a professor of management and organizational studies at Huron University College at Western University. As an anthropologist, she has become a leading voice in animal ethics and sustainability and written many academic works, including Defending Animals: Finding Hope on the Front Lines of Animal Protection. The Tortoise’s Tale marks her fiction debut. She talks with LJ about her philosophy, her inspirations, the role of music in her book, and her forthcoming projects.

LJ talks with the bestselling authors about their collaboration creating and editing the anthology The End of the World as We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand.

Historical fiction was never so timely as right now, with current themes and genre blends traversing all eras.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.

Oprah’s new book club pick is The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb. Finalists for the Ignyte Awards for SFF are announced. David Means wins the PEN/Bernard and Ann Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. Jurors for the Kirkus Prize are named. The Nation and OR Books partner to launch a new progressive imprint, Nation Books. Scribd’s Everand has acquired social reading app Fable. Award-winning thriller writer Frederick Forsyth has died at the age of 86.

V.E. Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil leads holds this week and is also People’s book of the week. Also in demand are titles by Riley Sager, S.A. Cosby, Wally Lamb, and Jess Walter. Winners of the Nebula Awards and the Biographers International Organization’s Plutarch Award are announced. The July Indie Next preview is out, featuring #1 pick The Irresistible Urge To Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley. Earlyword shares the June GalleyChat spreadsheet. Plus, former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden speaks out on her firing on CBS Sunday Morning.

Karen Leeder’s translation of Durs Grünbein’s Psyche Running wins the Griffin Poetry Prize. Valérie Bah’s Subterrane wins the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. The shortlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year is announced. New Circana BookScan research shows the growth over the last year of “dark romance.” The New Press has layoffs due to decreased sales and funding, partly attributed to book bans targeting progressive titles. After selecting James Frey’s novel Next to Heaven, Book of the Month responds to criticism about Frey’s use of generative AI. Tomorrow is Teach Truth Day of Action, a planned nationwide day to fight bans on books and on teaching certain subjects in schools. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Ocean Vuong, Susan Choi, and Jacinda Ardern.

N.S. Nuseibeh’s essay collection Namesake wins the UK’s Jhalak Prose Prize for writers of color, while Mimi Khalvati’s Collected Poems wins the Jhalak Poetry Prize. Amazon editors pick the 10 best books of 2025 so far. The Guardian writes about how the U.S. far right is trying to spread its ideology through the publishing world and reports on Russia’s “Z literature,” a nationalistic subgenre of fantasy fiction that may be encouraging teens to enlist in the war on Ukraine. AI was the hot topic at this year’s U.S. Book Fair. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Susan Choi, Lynne Olson, and Melissa Febos.

All the October 2025 Prepub Alerts in one place, plus a downloadable spreadsheet of all the titles.

Wonderful books to explore as summer sets in, across fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels.

First proclaimed Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999 and expanded by President Obama in 2011, LGBTQIA+ Pride Month commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan and celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community. The following books, ranging from romance and mystery to social sciences and memoirs, honor the experiences, legacies, and accomplishments of LGBTQIA+ people. 

A must-read for fans of Naomi Novik, Olivie Blake, and Lev Grossman’s scholastic fantasies, with explorations of purpose, grief, and relationships that open the novel to a more universal audience.

Well-written and engaging, this superb novel from Gonzalez will find plenty of fans.

Library displays highlight the collection and aid readers as they browse and find their next read, view, or listen. To help prompt display ideas and find titles to keep them stocked, LJ offers Display Shelf. Use this list to generate a quick display on the circulation desk or to fill an end-cap. The suggestions also offer RA librarians a handy list of popular titles on a range of high-interest genres and subjects. Celebrate Pride Month with a display full of new romance titles featuring LGBTQIA+ characters.

This fourth action-packed Frankie Elkin installment will excite fans and newbies alike.

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.

Bernardine Evaristo is honored with the Women’s Prize Outstanding Contribution Award for her body of work. Dora Prieto, Jess Goldman, and Phillip Dwight Morgan win RBC Bronwen Wallace Awards. Allison King’s The Phoenix Pencil Company is the new Reese Witherspoon book club pick. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Baker & Taylor adds three distribution clients. Director James Cameron will cowrite a screen adaptation of Joe Abercrombie’s The Devils. Plus, best books of the year (so far) and titles for Pride Month.

Ryan L. Cole holds degrees in history and journalism from Indiana University. He has written extensively about American history. His latest book, The Last Adieu: Lafayette’s Triumphant Return, the Echoes of Revolution, and the Gratitude of the Republic, ISBN 9781400251315, comes out in September 2025 from HarperCollins imprint Harper Horizon.

Audiofile announces the winners of the Golden Voices Audiobook Narrator awards. Dmitri Strotsev and Nadia Kandrusevich are named the 2025 Prix Voltaire laureates. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Atmosphere: A Love Story is the GMA June book club pick. Maggie Stiefvater’s The Listeners is the B&N pick. The annual Audio Publishers Association Sales Survey showed double-digit gains over 2023. Scholastic will integrate its trade publishing, book fairs, and book clubs. Interviews arrive with Melissa Febos, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Molly Jong-Fast, Yrsa Daley-Ward, Todd S. Purdum, and Jacinda Ardern.

Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Atmosphere leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by James Patterson and Bill Clinton, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Molly Jong-Fast, and Claire Lynch. People’s book of the week, A Family Matter by Claire Lynch, is also the June Read with Jenna pick. New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association announces its Book of the Year awards. Judy Blume is presented with the Women’s National Book Association Award. The Anthony Awards nominees are revealed, as are Audiofile’s June 2025 Earphones Award winners. In The Guardian, Ben Okri remembers Kenyan novelist and scholar Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who has died at the age of 87.