Deep End by Ali Hazelwood leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by J.D. Robb, Tessa Bailey, Jonathan Kellerman, Pam Jenoff, and Bill Gates. Jimmy Carter wins a posthumous Grammy for the audiobook Last Sundays in Plains. Finalists for the Gotham Book Prize are announced. Audiofile announces the February 2025 Earphones Award winners. This month’s Read with Jenna pick is Jessica Soffer’s This Is a Love Story. People’s book of the week is Too Soon by Betty Shamieh. Plus, February booklists arrive.
Deep End by Ali Hazelwood (Berkley) leads holds this week.
Other titles in demand include:
Bonded in Death by J.D. Robb (St. Martin’s)
Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey (Avon)
Open Season by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine)
Last Twilight in Paris by Pam Jenoff (Park Row)
Source Code: My Beginnings by Bill Gates (Knopf)
These books and others publishing the week of February 3, 2025, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.
Seven LibraryReads and 10 Indie Next picks publish this week.
Hall of Fame pick The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune (Tor; LJ starred review) is also an Indie Next pick:
“As a man facing the loss of his job and his family, he returns to a secluded cabin in the woods to find he is not alone. The characters, in true Klune form, were vibrant and the world is vivid. It is so easy to recommend this book.”—Brady Parkin, The King’s English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, UT
Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey (Avon) is also a Hall of Fame pick.
The notable nonfiction pick is Fearless and Free: A Memoir by Josephine Baker (Tiny Reparations).
Bonus pick A Forty Year Kiss by Nickolas Butler (Sourcebooks Landmark) is also an Indie Next pick:
“Can a love be rekindled after 40 years? Charlie has been living with regrets since the ending of his first marriage to Vivian. He arranges a meeting to find out if she’s still the one. A Forty Year Kiss is a tale of love, hope, and change.”—Mary McBride, Monstera’s Books, Overland Park, KS
A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall (Flatiron)
“When Theo arrives at her new fiancé’s family retreat, she realizes she has been there before. As the secrets this family has been holding onto for years start to come out, this drama goes in a dark, suspenseful direction. Just when you think you know where this is headed, it becomes full of twists and turns. Yes please!”—Paige N., LibraryReads Ambassador
Isola by Allegra Goodman (Dial)
“This novel is based on the true story of Marguerite de la Rocque, an aristocratic French girl who was marooned with her lover on an island off of Canada in the 1500s. When her parents pass away, she’s entrusted to a guardian who seeks adventure and uses her fortune to finance his travels. Readers will enjoy her adventures as she makes a new life.”—Claire Talbot, Greece Public Library, Rochester, NY
It is also an Indie Next pick:
“For those who loved Frozen River and The Mercies, this is a riveting historical fiction read—from court to a cave, from France to the St. Lawrence Seaway, from love to grief. Marguerite makes her way as a survivor, a tutor, a storyteller, a lover.”—Sara Rottunda, Valley Bookseller, Stillwater, MN
Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito (Liveright: Norton; LJ starred review)
“Dark and diabolical, this is a tale of a governess pushed to the limit. Arriving at an estate to care for two spoiled brats, she must deal with a barrage of verbal and physical abuse, until Christmas arrives and she can take it no more. This gruesome gothic tale full of dark wit and horror is reminiscent of Sweeney Todd.”—Kimberly McGee, Lake Travis Community Library, Austin,TX
It is also the #1 Indie Next pick:
“Grotesque, wildly funny, and utterly weird, this novel will have you hooked as the new governess enters the dysfunctional halls of Ensor’s House. What’s her secret? Does she know? Feito takes the Gothic and tames it like a misbehaving charge.”—Joshua Lambie, Underground Books, Carrollton, GA
Six additional Indie Next picks publish this week:
Last Twilight in Paris by Pam Jenoff (Park Row)
“Last Twilight in Paris is another incredible historical fiction novel by Pam Jenoff, detailing Lévitan, a department store in the middle of Paris during WWII that was used as a Nazi labor camp. Captivating, moving, and fast-paced!”—Kathy Morrison, Newtown Bookshop, Newtown, PA
Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith (Bloomsbury)
“Using a marriage of convenience as the framework for this layered portrait of queer love, Wolfgang-Smith’s historical fiction feels timeless yet speaks perfectly to the present. Mutual Interest feels new and unexpected in the best way.”—David Vogel, Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI
The Lamb by Lucy Rose (Harper)
“A coming-of-age story meets the cabin-in-the-woods cannibalism trope. The senses are engaged for a moody, atmospheric ride spattered in blood and rot as Margot makes sense in a world of neglectful trauma and relative isolation.”—Danielle Smith, Auntie’s Bookstore, Spokane, WA
Memorial Days: A Memoir by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)
“Memorial Days is a beautifully written story of grief over the loss of a spouse. I appreciate how honest Brooks is with her grief, addressing her regrets as well as her intense love for her partner. This book will stay with me for some time.”—Daniel Jordan, Pearl’s Books, Fayetteville, AR
Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey (Random)
“Black Woods, Blue Sky is dark, wild, gorgeous. Birdie and her daughter move to the isolated Alaskan wilderness with the reclusive Arthur in search of a better life. Blending fairytale with harsh reality, this is an achingly beautiful hymn to all of nature’s cruelty and allure.”—Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books, Oxford, MS
This Is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer (Dutton)
“This beautiful novel opens as Abe tenderly comforts his dying wife, Jane, reconstructing the life they shared. It includes the intimate stories of the people closest to them and beyond to Central Park, the backdrop for a fascinating array of human behavior.”—Sheila Daley, Barrett Bookstore, Darien, CT
People’s book of the week is Too Soon by Betty Shamieh (Avid Reader). Also getting attention are Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson (Ballantine) and The Family Inside by Katie Garner (MIRA). Novels featuring “Complicated Relationships” include Penitence by Kristin Koval (Celadon), Tartufo by Kira Jane Buxton (Grand Central), and Sinkhole, and Other Inexplicable Voids: Stories by Leyna Krow (Penguin Bks.). The cover story features 50 years of Saturday Night Live. Longtime SNL photographer Mary Ellen Matthews will release The Art of the SNL Portrait (Abrams) on March 4.
NYT reviews Memorial Days: A Memoir by Geraldine Brooks (Viking): “Brooks is careful to calibrate her grief against larger-scale disasters—earthquakes, plague, wildfires, war. ‘Widows, widows everywhere,’ as she writes. And of course Memorial Days bows down to the mother of mourn-moirs, Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking.” LA Times also reviews: “Her memoir is certainly a testament to her own unique loss, but it’s moreover a lifeline to others who will find themselves in this familiar, shattered landscape o
f grief.”
NYT also reviews A Matter of Complexion: The Life and Fictions of Charles W. Chesnutt by Tess Chakkalakal (St. Martin’s): “Chakkalakal’s thoughtfully written biography is a timely reminder of the influence of artists like Charles W. Chesnutt today, when perhaps only literature has the power to sustain us”; The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life by Sophia Rosenfeld (Princeton Univ.; LJ starred review): “In The Age of Choice, the historian Sophia Rosenfeld offers a rich, compelling account of how the experience of choosing ceased to be the object of suspicion and condemnation and became instead the hallmark, at least in liberal, democratic societies, of any life worth living”; and Three Days in June by Anne Tyler (Knopf): “While I was reading Three Days in June, the pages did not turn themselves, but it is good enough that I did not resent my fingers for doing the job.”
Washington Post reviews Penitence by Kristin Koval (Celadon): “Gripping and propulsive, Kristin Koval’s Penitence is an exploration of the struggles and impossible choices of two families linked by tragedy, guilt, blame and love”; Gliff by Ali Smith (Pantheon): “Kindness and beauty flicker amid the bleakness, but there’s a note of grief, too, as Smith bears witness to the death of commonweal. Gliff is a dirge for our civilization, yet a sequel—Glyph, already in the works—may change the tune”; and Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life by Agnes Callard (Norton): “Open Socrates is lively and clever. It brings the persona of Socrates to life, painting a vivid picture of a gripping character with friendships, values and passions.”
Jimmy Carter wins a posthumous Grammy for the audiobook Last Sundays in Plains (S. & S. Audio). People, Entertainment Weekly and AP have coverage.
Finalists for the Gotham Book Prize are announced.
Audiofile announces the February 2025 Earphones Award winners.
Jenna Bush Hager selects This Is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer (Dutton) for her February book club.
Kirkus has six essential new reads for Black History Month.
Amazon editors select the best books of February.
CrimeReads suggests 10 new books for the week.
LA Times shares 10 books to read in February.
Washington Post previews 10 books for the month.
Time highlights 11 new books that publish this month.
USA Today recommends 15 books from January.
People has an interview with Martin Luther King III about his new book, What Is My Legacy?: Realizing a New Dream of Connection, Love and Fulfillment (Flashpoint).
People also highlights the new book Fearless and Free: A Memoir by Josephine Baker (Tiny Reparations) and new Valentine’s Day reads.
NYT profiles author Jennifer Finney Boylan and her new memoir, Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us (Celadon).
Translator and wife of Elie Wiesel, Marion Wiesel has died at the age of 94. NYT has an obituary.
CBS Sunday Mornings talks with Bill Gates about his new memoir, Source Code: My Beginnings (Knopf), and shares an excerpt.
NPR’s It’s Been A Minute talks with Elaine Castillo, author of How To Read Now (Viking), about why “reading books is on the decline, the battle for our attention, and what people can do to get their reading grooves back.”
Brian Kelly, author of How To Win at Travel (Avid Reader), will visit Live with Kelly and Mark today.
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