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Roll into your weekend with this highlight reel of the bookish news Today in Books readers were most interested in this week.
Onyx Storm Soars to the Top of the Charts
The numbers are in and they’re wild. Beyond the anecdotal evidence of people camping out in freezing temperatures and flooding Targets pointing to the success of the third book in Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean series, Circana Bookscan reported that Onyx Storm sold 1,288,300 hardcovers in its first week. The deluxe edition sold 1,109,783 print copies alone–sprayed edges truly reign supreme. Circana, which provides sales tracking and data for publishing, said, “These sales results also make ONYX STORM the fastest-selling adult title in the history of Bookscan, since we started tracking books in 2004.” We thought the Hoover fandom was next level but, for now, Yarros wears the crown, and while I’m not part of said fandom I will always favor one that cosplays. The Empyrean series is elite among the undeniably popular romantasy genre, which saw a stunning 30 million print sales last year. Those numbers tell no lies–the genre remains the It Girl in publishing.
2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal Winners
The American Library Association announced the winners of this year’s Carnegie Medals for fiction and nonfiction, and if you guessed that Percival Everett came out on top for the bojillionth time in the fiction category–ding ding ding!–you guessed right. Everett’s achievements with James, a rewriting of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from the perspective of Twain’s fictional Jim, an enslaved man who journeys down the Mississippi with Huck, are well deserved. James was my favorite read of 2024 and struck me as an instant classic I’d love to see on the shelves of every school library and in curriculums the way Twain’s work has been and likely still is. I have not forgotten about the Medal for nonfiction, which was awarded to Kevin Fedarko for A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon. I hadn’t heard a whole lot about this book about Fedarko’s long and adventuresome relationship with the Grand Canyon. Admittedly, the only nonfiction 2024 release I read was By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle (a must-read if you haven’t gotten to it yet), but I’m hoping to check out more nonfic this year. James beat out fellow finalists Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang and Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, while A Walk in the Park beat out Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham and Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum.
Department of Education Dismisses “So-Called” Book Bans Under Trump Administration
The U.S. Department of Education is rescinding all guidance against book removals, has dismissed current and pending book ban complaints, and got rid of the book ban coordinator position for the investigation of unlawful book removals. In a statement, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said, “The department adheres to the deeply rooted American principle that local control over public education best allows parents and teachers alike to assess the educational needs of their children and communities. Parents and school boards have broad discretion to fulfill that important responsibility.”
No mention of how pressure campaigns to remove books by and about queer, BIPOC, and other underrepresented people run by private, partisan groups like Moms for Liberty undermine the ability of local educators, librarians, and parents to give kids the education and access to information they need. And let’s not forget about state legislated censorship. Publishers Weekly reported on the swift condemnation and criticism of the DOE’s decision from PEN America, Authors Against Book Bans, and other organizations. If you’re unclear on why book bans are harmful and how they affect us all, I urge you to read this article, if you’re fired up about censorship here are 56 small tasks to be proactive against it this year, and you can continue to stay up to date on censorship news and steps to take action by signing up for our Literary Activism newsletter written by Kelly Jensen.
Bookshop.org Now Offers eBooks
Bookshop.org has made it easy for readers to purchase physical books from the independent book sellers of their choosing, and now they’ve expanded their offerings to include eBooks. You can also read the eBooks you purchase directly on Bookshop’s web browser or through their new app. It’s a smart move that’s sure to make existing customers happy for an eBook purchasing option through a familiar and trusted source, and one that could bring in new, eBook-focused readers who are enthusiastic about supporting indie shops–not to mention Bookshop and indie book sellers having the chance to profit from the format. I can tell you that as an audiobook dominant reader, I was thrilled when Libro.fm launched. It sounds like there are plans, or at least hopes, to expand features offered to customers, including a subscription service, and Bookshop might be entering the fray with other digital companies attempting to compete with Goodreads.
The Winners of This Year’s Big Children’s Book Awards
Be still my beating heart. Since delivering my twins into the world just over a year ago, my love of children’s books has been jumpstarted, so I had to keep my purchasing finger at bay when I read through the sizable list of this year’s winners of the Youth Media Awards. You might be more familiar with the names of the medals for the various categories: Caldecott, (the ever misspelled) Newbery, maybe even the Printz. I won’t steal the thunder from this post celebrating the winners and honors, but I’m definitely picking up Chooch Helped illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz, written by Andrea L. Rogers.
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