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Review: 'Lunch Therapy' podcaster Adam Roberts' comic novel is about a 'Food Person'
If “Food Person” were a menu item, it would be something like a BLT or mac and cheese: cozy, simple and fun.
Adam Roberts, who has a food blog called “The Amateur Gourmet” and a podcast called “Lunch Therapy,” makes his fiction debut with “Food Person,” which the marketers would probably love to see referred to as “The Devil ...Read more

Christopher Tradowsky talks about his witty, sexy new novel
MINNEAPOLIS -- Before “Midnight at the Cinema Palace” was done, before it even had a publisher, novelist Christopher Tradowsky’s debut novel had won a major award.
The St. Paul, Minnesota-based writer won a $5,000 prize for emerging writers over 50 from Lambda Literary (which champions LGBTQ writers) in 2023. At the time, he had worked on...Read more

Column: The new book 'Sick and Dirty' examines the not-so-hidden queerness of classic Hollywood
You’re a kid. You catch a few seconds of something strange on TV. Those few seconds have a way, sometimes, of paying a call decades later.
It happened to author, critic and film curator Michael Koresky. His absorbing new book is “Sick and Dirty: Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness,” and just as he was writing ...Read more

How Desi Arnaz finally gets his due in 'The Man Who Invented Television'
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Like just about everyone who grew up at a time when a few networks decided what Americans watched on their television sets, author Todd S. Purdum knew all of the antics of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, the characters played by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, on the ’50s sitcom “I Love Lucy.”
“It was unavoidable in syndication...Read more

Review: Loved 'Hamilton'? Read about its most vivid character, 'Angelica' Schuyler
If you know the name Angelica Schuyler, you just might be a fan of “Hamilton,” where she stole the show by belting out “Satisfied.” And the musical just might have given you the impression Angelica was deeply in love with her brother-in-law Alexander Hamilton.
A new biography, “Angelica,” doesn’t claim to clarify that. But it does...Read more

Review: A shepherd, a 'duck woman' and some surprising lessons about life
English farmer James Rebanks is famous for his books about restoring the health of his Lake Country farm (“ Pastoral Song,” “ The Shepherd’s Life”). In his third memoir, it is his own health that needs restoring. He is at a low point — his father has died and his work feels futile. He’s frustrated and angry.
“Ours is a dark and ...Read more

How do we look at the future with hope? George Takei says the answer lies in 'Star Trek'
In the 2020 graphic memoir "They Called Us Enemy," George Takei took readers into the U.S. government’s internment of approximately 120,000 people of Japanese descent in American concentration camps during World War II. Takei, best known for his role as "Star Trek’s" Hikaru Sulu, can claim an unfortunate degree of authority on the topic. He ...Read more

5 books we can't wait to read in July
Whether there’s a plane trip, a hammock, a corner of a library or a bus ride to work in your immediate future, July has something for you to read while you are there.
Two of the books we can’t wait to devour this month come from Minnesota authors (and one of them comes with a bold endorsement from another Minnesota favorite, beloved mystery...Read more

24 terrific books for the beach, cabin or lawn chair you'll want to read this summer
A comfy chair, sunglasses, an Arnold Palmer and these 24 books — from S.A. Cosby, Rachel Joyce, “one of the best books of the year” and more — are your ticket to a great season.
Endling
By Maria Reva. Doubleday, 352 pages.
Set in Ukraine in 2022, Reva’s magnificent “Endling” follows Yeva, a rogue conservationist trying to rescue...Read more

Commentary: This 1970s bestseller just might save burned out millennials
It seems like yesterday that everyone was complaining about millennials: their alleged laziness, self-absorption and general snowflakery. Time flies, though, and now the first wave of this much-maligned generation — those born between 1981 and 1996 — has hit middle age.
If recent coverage is any indication, millennials — famous for their ...Read more

San Fran bookstore pulls 'Harry Potter' over J.K. Rowling's anti-trans views
A San Francisco bookstore has announced it will no longer carry “Harry Potter” following author J.K. Rowling saying she’ll dedicate her private wealth to developing an anti-trans organization.
The Booksmith, an independent shop that has been open in Haight-Ashbury since 1976, posted a notice informing customers of its decision to stop ...Read more
This week's bestsellers from Publishers Weekly
Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, June 21, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2025 Circana.
(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2025, PWxyz LLC.)
HARDCOVER FICTION
1. Atmosphere. ...Read more

This week's bestsellers from Publishers Weekly
Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, June 21, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2025 Circana.
(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2025, PWxyz LLC.)
HARDCOVER FICTION
1. "Atmosphere: A...Read more

Summer books 2025: Get lost in our shelves
Summer reading, if you ask me, should meander, without a plan. Pick up, put down, misplace, leave crusty with sand or warped with humidity. Fall is for rigor, winter for hunkering down, spring for peering ahead, but the right summer read is a promising dirt road in a field. Someday, when I open a bookstore and the big bucks roll in, I’ll ...Read more

Kathleen West's new novel is fun. Her mom approves
MINNEAPOLIS -- If your name is Kathleen West and you’re part of a class action suit or you’ve been mailed a coupon for new gutters or offered an exciting opportunity for a time-share in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, there’s a decent chance the Minneapolis writer who shares your name has your mail.
“I have never met a Kathleen West in ...Read more

How Orange County, California's underground punk rock and ska scenes went global
While Los Angeles bands like The Germs, The Go-Go’s, X, and Bad Religion drew the spotlight to Southern California’s punk rock scene, their iconic larger-than-life presence may have inadvertently cast a shadow on the suburbs of Orange County, whose teens were ready to prove that rebellion thrived outside of La La Land.
In “Tearing Down ...Read more

Review: Ever wonder why the Northwest produces so many serial killers?
Caroline Fraser has pulled a major switcheroo with her new book, “Murderland.”
Fraser’s last book, “Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder,” won a Pulitzer Prize for its portrait of the folksy writer and her daughter, whom Fraser demonstrated was heavily involved in her mom’s writing. But, whatever else he may ...Read more

Review: Tragedies pile up in Wally Lamb's new novel, but will readers care?
The worst possible thing has happened to Corby Ledbetter, and he has only himself to blame.
No spoilers but the tragedy is such, in Wally Lamb‘s “The River Is Waiting,” that Corby will forever be wracked by whether he can be forgiven — by himself, his wife, his small daughter or the rest of his family. The court, however, is not in a ...Read more

Review: 'Broadchurch' creator's creepy first novel is 'Death at the White Hart'
After 15 years spent investigating organized crime in Liverpool, Detective Sergeant Nicola Bridge has returned to her childhood home on England’s southwest coast. In the sleepy village of Fleetcombe, she hopes to patch up her marriage and enjoy a calmer pace of life, far from lawless gangs and brutal murders.
Her best-laid plans are quickly ...Read more

Review: That time a politician was caned and almost killed on the Senate floor
John Adams, a founder of the United States and its second president, privately expressed doubts that the republic would survive its own design flaws. Yet the Constitution, its blueprint, has proved more resilient than just five pages of parchment, despite inflamed schisms and the brutal Civil War.
A key player in that strengthening was ...Read more