The Biggest Book News of the Week

I wanted to know how much of a toll the job takes on library workers when I sent out a lengthy survey last summer, from July to August 2025. The survey asked library workers of all backgrounds, experiences, and demographics to get honest about where and how library work intersected with their mental health. Respondents were asked to share their experiences in a free-form style, highlighting what they perceived as the most significant stressors in the field, where and how they’ve managed their mental health in relation to their job, and what kinds of solutions they think would be helpful. Those who took part were welcome to write as much or as little as they’d like.

The Independent Press Top 40 Bestselling Books

If you follow our weekly compilations of the bestselling books, you know that this list can get pretty homogenous and predictable, which is why we always shout out books that didn’t make the cut but that you should know about. One point of predictability that’s not immediately apparent, especially to the general reader, is that it’s the same publishers whose books make the list. The Big 5 publishers quite simply have more resources than indie and small presses to push their books to the masses. So I cheered the news that the Independent Publishers Caucus is launching the Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers, a weekly bestseller list that identifies the top titles in fiction and nonfiction from independent presses “as represented at independent bookstores across the US.” The first lists are out now, and they’re a nice change of pace (though it was chilling to see Charlie Kirk near the top of the nonfiction list and I had to take comfort in Jill Lepore’s We the People above it). One perhaps obvious insight about the Fiction list, specifically, is that you see many more awards winners and finalists than on the usual bestseller lists. You’re much more likely to find the kind of literary and experimental fiction championed by major literary awards from indie presses. For instance, topping the Fiction list is Heart the Lover by Lily King and The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine, to name a couple. Find the full lists here.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Series Announced

I loved both Niels Arden Oplev’s and David Fincher’s adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, so I can’t help but get excited about the series adaptation I first learned about through Variety. Lisbeth Salander is one of the most compelling characters I’ve encountered in psychological/crime thriller fiction, and Larsson did plan for many Millennium series books (he wrote three before his death, with more series books divided between authors David Lagercrantz and Karin Smirnoff) so there is plenty of material to work with. But for now, we only know of an eight-episode series adaptation of the first book in the series and it’s being produced by British media company Sky, so who knows how or if we’ll be able to watch the show here in the U.S. Whomp.

The 2025 National Book Critics Circle Shortlists

The NBCC announced the shortlists for the six awards categories: Autobiography, Biography, Criticism, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. The organization also selected the finalists for their Barrios Book in Translation Prize and the John Leonard Prize. One of the most striking pieces of data about the shortlisted books is that they were published by 30 different presses/imprints with everyone from big names, like Penguin, to smaller presses, like indie nonprofit publisher Zone Books, represented. Highlights include Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy and Paper Girl by Beth Macy in Autobiography; A Perfect Turmoil: Walter E. Fernald and the Struggle to Care for America’s Disabled by Alex Green and Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore by Ashley D. Farmer in Biography; One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad in Criticism; The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy and Audition by Katie Kitamura in Fiction; and King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution, a Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson and Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI by Karen Hao in Nonfiction. Find the full lists here.