Add the tuba to the list of book subjects you probably thought you didn’t care about but that is suddenly compelling as heck.

We’ve had entire books about salt, the digestive system and the color mauve and every one of them was oddly riveting. So, too, is “The Perfect Tuba.” Author Sam Quinones, who was bummed out by the bleak reporting...Read more

Banned Books Week just ended, but the fight it highlights continues every other week of the year. This year’s theme was Censorship is So 1984: Read for Your Rights, invoking George Orwell’s famous novel to warn against the dangers of banning books.

It was a powerful rallying cry. But now that the week has ended, we need to face two ...Read more

Right now, I find reading horror cathartic. No matter how bad things get, at least my house isn’t haunted, an ancient entity hasn’t possessed my husband (as far as I know) and the penguins I’ve seen recently at the Minnesota Zoo didn’t peck out my eyes.

In his introduction to Ira Levin’s horror classic “Rosemary’s Baby,” Chuck ...Read more

It’s been four decades since John Grisham was a small-town Mississippi lawyer, but that experience continues to provide material for his bestselling novels.

That was true of his first, “A Time to Kill,” published in 1989, and it’s true of his latest, “The Widow,” which he’ll discuss at the Minnesota Star Tribune and MPR News’ ...Read more

NEW YORK — With her latest book, “The Look,” Michelle Obama is kicking off a live tour for a new podcast series in Brooklyn.

The former first lady, producer and bestselling author will be joined by actress Tracee Ellis Ross at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Nov. 5, the same day a special, six-part podcast series, “IMO: The Look,” ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Oct. 11, 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. "The Intruder"...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan is dipping his hands into the world of literature and is revisiting the small screen.

On Monday, Variety reported that the Shyamalan will direct "Magic 8 Ball," a live-action series based on the popular Mattel fortune-telling toy.

“Been working on this for a couple years … Who’s in?,” ...Read more

CHICAGO — “When I daydream,” Nick Offerman says, “it’s of having quiet moments with a cup of tea, sitting out by the birdfeeder and coming to know my neighborhood birds by name as they come to eat out of my hand.”

The fantasy, however, has yet to become a reality. “I’m moving too fast to do that right now.”

Offerman's newest ...Read more

Of the title character in “Lost Evangeline,” it is said she “lived a great life of the imagination.” You could say the same about Evangeline’s creator, Kate DiCamillo.

The beloved, Minneapolis-based writer has created more than three dozen books, including two that won the coveted Newbery Award, “The Tale of Despereaux” and “...Read more

Fiction is full of characters falling in and out of love. Less common, at least outside the realm of slushy romantic comedies, are novels in which lovers go their separate ways, voluntarily or otherwise, and later reunite to revive what they lost.

H.S. Cross’ new novel, “Amanda,” is about two individuals, Marion and Jamie, who seem ...Read more

How would you like to spend time with some dangerous women?

This summer, I came across two recently reprinted series of literary crime fiction originally published around the millennium. My appreciation for the mysterious ways of Sara Gran’s Claire DeWitt novels is documented, but these cult favorites – by authors who would become even ...Read more

We hold these fears to be self-evident:

Go outside alone to see what’s making that noise, that weird skittering, metallic scratching, and you won’t be returning to your couch. Answer your phone at 3:30 in the morning and someone died or someone’s calling from beyond the grave. The folks in the small town you’re passing through are not ...Read more

Does this amuse you? “She gave an unnatural little laugh — one she had taken to using with her stepchildren as a signal that humour had been committed, and any consequent mirth would not be discouraged. In the silence that followed, Fanny laughed long and alone."

I get a bang out of that pressed-and-starched description, from Gill Hornby’...Read more

Books about older amateur sleuths are all over the bestseller lists (Richard Osman’s “ Thursday Murder Club” series, Jesse Q. Sutanto’s Vera Wong mysteries, among others).

It isn’t much of a leap, then, to see the appeal of setting a horror novel in a retirement community, or upping the stakes and making it into a slasher story, which...Read more

Keira Knightley is one of several A-listers starring in the audiobook adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s bestselling Harry Potter fantasy novels. But the Oscar-nominated actress claims she was unaware of the backlash facing the controversial author.

While promoting her upcoming Netflix film “The Woman in Cabin 10,” a reporter asked Knightley ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Oct. 4, 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. "Iron Flame (...Read more

In the arresting opening scene of Sarah Moss’ new novel, “Ripeness,” we meet Edith, 73, smushed beneath the substantial body of her once-a-week lover, a potter named Gunther.

Lines from Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” flit through her mind — “Every woman adores a Fascist” — leading to the reflection that Gunther is hardly a ...Read more