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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Here are the biggest headlines from last week.
Barnes & Noble’s Most Anticipated Books in Fiction and More
Over the holiday week, the major book retailer released its annual lists of the most anticipated books of 2026 in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Fantasy and YA (not sure why they’re mashed together), and Kids’ Books. There’s much to dig into, but I’ll share my personal highlights. In Fiction, we have Vigil by literary darling George Saunders; Kin by celebrated, award-winning author Tayari Jones; talk-of-the-town Half His Age, Jennette McCurdy’s debut novel; Python’s Kiss: Stories, a collection from Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Louise Erdrich. In Fantasy and YA, I’m looking forward to Queen of Faces, a debut novel from biracial, trans writer Petra Lord, as well as Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar, hot off of her buzzy 2025 release, The River Has Roots. Find all of the available lists here.
The Best-Selling Backlist Books of 2025
We will eventually get a list of the best-selling books of 2025, but those tend to focus on new titles. But the vast majority of book-buying is for books that came out before 2025. And an editor with a BookScan account gave us the top 10 best-selling backlist books from the last year:
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- Fahrenheit 451
- Animal Farm
- 1984
- Handmaid’s Tale
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- The Alchemist
- Red Rising
- The Song of Achilles
- Brave New World
- Of Mice and Men
Red Rising and The Song of Achilles are the newcomers and might surprise some people.
The Most Anticipated Books, According to USA TODAY
It’s becoming evident which books are anticipated by multiple outlets. Take, for example, Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy, which now feels as familiar to me as any book I’ve actually read and is among USA TODAY’s recent list of most anticipated books. Kin by Tayari Jones is another big repeat, and of course it is because Tayari Jones, y’all. I hadn’t come across Queen of Faces by Petra Lord, a dark academia by a trans author. If I read any dark academia next year, it’ll be that one. One of my most anticipated picks for next year also made the list, but I’ll let you guess which one it is since our own list of 2026 reads we’re excited about is still impending (keep an eye out!). Find out what else USA TODAY selected here.
The Millions’ The Year in Reading
Terrific browse-reading that is really just internet but feels like proper reading, where you can discover some new books that you say you want to read but will just end up in memory purgatory. What else is this week for?
Here is an excerpt from it of Erin Somers (The Ten Year Affair) on Howard’s End. Her description of reading a classic very much lines up with my re-engagement this year on Zero to Well-Read:
I have been doing this long enough that I should know that whatever my notions are about a classic are likely wrong. But no, I never learn. Every time I’m like, what is this turgid artifact? From what dusty tomb was it unearthed?
Howards End looks so, so dusty. It’s like they tried to make it look as dusty as possible. They should refresh the design. They must. But then when you crack it, it is funny and alive, a class novel inspired by the lives of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell concerning the fate of a country house.
Fascinating 2025 Reading Data
YouGov America Senior Data Journalist David H. Montgomery shared findings about American reading habits in 2025 learned from the research data and analytics tech group’s annual survey. For starters, 67% of those surveyed responded that they read four or fewer books in 2025, with 40% representing those who read zero books. I find the median numbers to be the most revealing as averages can be misleading. For instance, the survey found that Democrats read more books on average than Republicans, but that average is driven by heavy readers. When you look at the median, you find that typical members of both parties come out at two books read last year. In fact, the median American read two books last year. If you’re a data nerd or simply interested in the reading habits of Americans, I highly recommend the full exploration.
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