How entertaining is “City of Iron and Ivy”? I didn’t particularly respond to a key element of the book but I loved it, anyway.

St. Paul writer Thomas Kent West’s debut is set in the latter half of the 19th century, mostly in an alternative version of London (the queen is Viscaria, not Victoria). Elswyth Elderwood is determined to find ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- It’s no coincidence that all of the protagonists of the 13 stories in Julie Schumacher’s collection, “Patient, Female,” are women.

The St. Paul writer and University of Minnesota professor of creative writing and literature hit bestseller lists with three novels about Jason Fitger, a cranky professor of creative ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, May 2, 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. "Yesteryear: A ...Read more

Like Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s just-published “Lake Effect,” bestselling writer Tom Perrotta’s “Ghost Town” is about life in the suburbs in the 1970s.

Sweeney’s book was set near Rochester, New York, but Perrotta’s is southeast of there in New Jersey. Both books deal with young people who are adrift, and both capture a time of...Read more

During troubled times, books and stories are sometimes seen as a distraction from more important matters, says Jason Reynolds.

“I hear this. It’s like, ‘We don’t have time for books,’ says the award-winning author, rejecting the notion before offering his own thoughts on what stories and film and art provide.

“Books can be medicine...Read more

“Tiny interactions are antidepressants,” someone says in the new Maria Bamford documentary, “Paralyzed by Hope.” That sentiment kept sneaking into my head as I read Elizabeth Strout’s glorious new novel, “The Things We Never Say.”

Like all of the books by Strout, who won the Pulitzer Prize for “Olive Kitteridge,” “The Things...Read more

CHICAGO — Zayd Ayers Dohrn picked up my phone and read the email. He removed his sunglasses and leaned into the screen. I had a bunch more just like it, I told him, the general message all the same, that Zayd Ayers Dohrn is the son of domestic terrorists from Chicago, and why write a story about someone from a family like that? The emails came...Read more

The lithe and lovely Audrey Hepburn consumed one piece of chocolate every afternoon, a lifelong "bittersweet" habit she formed at the end of World War II.

After suffering severe deprivation and malnutrition endured as a child in heavily bombarded Arnhem, Netherlands, an Allied soldier gifted her bars of chocolate. You can only imagine the ...Read more

The lithe and lovely Audrey Hepburn consumed one piece of chocolate every afternoon, a lifelong "bittersweet" habit she formed at the end of World War II.

After suffering severe deprivation and malnutrition endured as a child in heavily bombarded Arnhem, Netherlands, an Allied soldier gifted her bars of chocolate. You can only imagine the ...Read more

CHICAGO — Shelby Van Pelt lives in Wheaton on an unassuming street, the sort without a gate at the entrance, or fleets of Teslas charging in the driveways, or gaggles of dads jogging in packs. Her neighbors are elderly. Her subdivision was built largely in the 1960s and has not changed much since then. The driveways are fairly short, and at ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Joe Field has a lot of thoughts about Free Comic Book Day turning 25 years old in 2026. Yet, one word sums up his feeling perhaps better than any other:

“Gratitude!” says Field, the founder and originator of Free Comic Book Day, which was first held in 2002. “So much goes into making Free Comic Book Day a success — ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, April 25, 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. "Yesteryear: ...Read more

Michael Idov is the author of the spy thrillers “The Collaborators” and this year’s “The Cormorant Hunt,” which are part of a trilogy. A Latvian-born American raised in Riga, Idov is the author of the novel “Ground Up” and the memoir “Dressed up for a Riot.” He won three National Magazine Awards for his work at New York ...Read more

How big are the books of May? So big that one of them features three name-brand authors for the price of one.

That would be the latest from award-winning Francine Prose, whose novel “Five Weeks in the Country” is about a real-life beef between two literary giants. Her book comes out the same day as “Mare,” which is about the intense ...Read more

In the summer of 2007, I went to Colombia to figure out my MFA thesis. I was working on a master’s in nonfiction writing, and after workshopping a series of essays on my childhood and undergraduate days, I got inspired to write a book about why people move.

I’d always wondered what motivated a family to pack up what few belongings they ...Read more

CHICAGO -- If memory serves, when I was starting on organized high school sports teams, my father saw me play football once, basketball twice and baseball not at all. An otherwise attentive and supportive father, he was like most fathers and mothers of his generation, not at all preoccupied with the games the children played.

Times change and ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, April 18, 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. "Hope Rises: ...Read more