Author: Jeff O'Neal

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. 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:Fahrenheit 451 Animal Farm 1984…

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2025 Obama’s now semi-annual drop of his favorite books of the year has become possibly the most anticipated list in the publishing world. I haven’t seen (or heard anecdotally) whether a mention moves a bunch of copies, but there is undoubtedly prestige in that cool-kid-at-school-gave-me-a-high-five kinda way. And do not mistake me: if I got that high-five, I…

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Nuzzi Fizzles I think I would have predicted this one though. Unless you are extremely online or work in media, you don’t know who Olivia Nuzzi is. It’s kinda that simple. It doesn’t help that the book itself is apparently really, really bad. Is there a version of this story that would actually sell a book? Like an investigative journalist really gets into it? I still think no. No one cares. Let’s all move along. Today In Books Sign up to Today In…

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. This is it. The book industry’s version of buying your gifts on Christmas Eve. These are the last year-end lists I am going to be linking too. Let’s get it all out of our system. 2026 is coming.

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Dictionaries have two reliable ways of making news. The first is announcing which words have been added. The second is announcing their “Word of the Year.” Here’s a look at what have been chosen as the words of the year so far. The Cambridge DictionaryParasocial: “Parasocial captures the 2025 zeitgeist. It’s a great example of how language changes.  What was once a specialist academic term has become mainstream. Millions of people are engaged in parasocial relationships; many more are simply intrigued by…

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. I say every year that the two NYT lists, the 100 Notable Books of the Year and the 10 Best Books of the Year, combined to form the single best snapshot of the year in books (or at least the year in books outside the realm of BookTok). This year’s top 10 is both a surprise and not a surprise. It was a…

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Jeff Hiller to Host National Book Awards with Musical Guest Corinne Bailey Rae Fresh off of his Emmy win for Somebody, Somewhere (which I loved), Jeff Hiller will host the National Book Awards on November 19th. (Hiller’s recent memoir, Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success, is an absolute riot on audio, I might add). Corinne Bailey Rae will…

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. He Coined the Word of the Decade. And Wrote a Book About It. “Enshittification” doesn’t hide what it means. And a few years ago, Cory Doctorow coined it to describe, well, the “enshittification” of the digital world. Pay to play games. Scammy apps and websites. And in his new book, he expands the idea into the material world If I may be so…

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. One story dominating my feeds today, so thought I would get into it. n+1 Job Posting Gets People Both Mad and Defensive n+1 did one of the most necessary and thankless tasks in media: post about a job opening and include the actual salary range. The number is above the median U.S. salary of $49,500, but the gig is in Brooklyn, which I can report from personal experience is considerably more expensive than the median place to live (which apparently…

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Here are the stories we covered ourselves on Book Riot this week. We have some good news in the world of books and reading today: Reading Rainbow is coming back! The original TV show was hosted by LeVar Burton and ran from 1983 to 2006. It’s hard to overstate just how beloved this educational children’s series was—and still is. Now, after 20 years, it’s finally coming back! Here are ten of the best books of October, according to indie booksellers. Many of…