ANAHEIM, Calif. — Years ago, I taught English as a Second Language at a pair of schools in Southern California that drew learners from around the world. The students were an absolute joy, enthusiastic about being in America and eager to learn all about our ways (and, especially if they were young men, maybe pick up a cool curse word or two ...Read more

Pop culture is having a Mitfordmania era.

The Mitford family, midcentury British swells who achieved various levels of notoriety, have been the subject of several recent hits. Released late last year, Mimi Pond’s graphic novel, “Do Admit,” was about both the eccentric family and Pond’s obsession with them. There’s also “The Six,” ...Read more

Although he’s found success as a producer, director and writer (more on that in a sec), Tim Blake Nelson might be best known as an actor who steals scenes with his ability to convey depth and complexity in even the – let’s just say it – weirdest secondary characters.

Think dunderheaded Delmar in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” cruel ...Read more

The saga of “A Court of Thorns and Roses” will continue.

Author Sarah J. Maas announced on Alex Cooper’s“Call Her Daddy” podcast Wednesday that two new books will be released in the hugely popular romantasy series, ending a five-year drought since the fifth installment, “A Court of Silver Flames.” The sixth book will be published ...Read more

Many readers will recall the 2021 day when a Duluth, Minnesota, team came to the rescue of 26 anglers stranded on an ice floe that broke off in Lake Superior. Alex Messenger also remembers it as the day he found the subject for his first novel.

“The Ice on the Lake,” out March 10, is about Hugh, an elderly loner whose solo ice fishing trip ...Read more

The saga of “A Court of Thorns and Roses” will continue.

Author Sarah J. Maas announced on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast Wednesday that two new books will be released in the hugely popular romantasy series, ending a five-year drought since the fifth installment, “A Court of Silver Flames.” The sixth book will be published...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Feb. 28, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2026 Circana.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2026, PWxyz LLC.)

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "The ...Read more

When author Maud Hart Lovelace wrote her beloved Betsy-Tacy stories in the 1940s, storytelling was her only agenda. She renamed her family and childhood friends, sending them on adventures in Deep Valley, a fictionalized version of the place and time she grew up: Mankato, Minnesota, in 1901.

But the imaginative escapades of Betsy, her steadfast...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Billy Ray is terrified.

Or at least that's what the award-winning screenwriter says in response to the innocuous-to-the-point-of-pitiful interview-opener: "How are you doing?"

Strangely, he is not referring to the state of our country (though he has been scathingly critical of both the Trump administration and the Democratic ...Read more

In the midst of a brutally cold winter, an unwelcome armed force invades a peaceful community, bringing panic, turmoil and brutal violence. And despite overwhelming odds and unconscionable cruelty, the locals surprise the world with their resilience and refusal to bow to injustice.

The above description might sound like current events, but it�...Read more

Harriette Simpson Arnow, the Kentucky writer who chronicled the Appalachian diaspora in novels like “The Dollmaker,” grew up in Pulaski County, and used its wooded hills and lush riversheds in vivid contrast to the industrialized north.

In 1939, she and her husband, Harold, bought 139 acres on the Cumberland River near Burnside, with hopes ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Christina Applegate is where she spent many listless, painful nights over the last year working on her memoir: in bed. She passes most of her days inside a bedroom of her Laurel Canyon home. And it's already not a great day when we connect over video conference in late February — no day is free from the exhaustion and symptoms ...Read more

Lauren Groff’s new collection, “Brawler,” should come with a warning because anyone who picks up the book and idly starts reading the first story will be unable to stop without finishing it.

“The Wind” is 18 nonstop pages of drama, tension and deft character sketching, beginning with this sentence: “Pretend, the mother had said when...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Feb. 21, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2026 Circana.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2026, PWxyz LLC.)

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "The ...Read more

NEW YORK — Liza Minnelli takes an intimate, unfiltered look at her whirlwind love life in her upcoming memoir, “Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!”

The book chronicles her roller-coaster romances with men from Desi Arnaz Jr. to Martin Scorsese, in addition to her “traumatizing” marriage to David Gest.

In 1972, Minnelli got engaged to ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- There’s a little bit of everything coming to libraries and bookstores in March.

Dirt-spilling superstar memoirs? Showbiz survivor Liza Minnelli has you covered. Bound-to-be-bestselling thrillers? Tana French is on it, with the return of a beloved character last seen in 2024 in “The Hunter.” Books with Minnesota connections?...Read more

Francesca Wade is the author of “Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife,” her acclaimed biography of the iconic 20th-century author, art collector, and personality (which was also one of our picks for the best books of 2025).

Wade is also the author of “Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between the Wars,” and her work has appeared ...Read more