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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.
Amazon’s 10 Books That Defined 2024
Amazon editors made the impossible selection of just 10 books that defined this year. There were three books I was 99% sure would make the list: James by Percival Everett, Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, and All Fours by Miranda July. If you’ve kept up with even a few best of and big literary awards list, you too would have made this guess because these books were on all the lists, including this one. I loved The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, which became the big book club book of the year, so I was glad to see it make the list along with my other faves, James and Martyr!. I was most surprised by the inclusion of Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I mean, I know the adaptation has received huge buzz and fandom but I hadn’t caught wind of readers picking up the 20-year-old book (which I read, and was weirded out by, and enjoyed the year it was published) because of the film.
THE GUARDIAN’S Most Anticipated Books of 2025
The looking ahead has officially begun! The Guardian released a month-by-month guide to the best books 2025 has to offer. If you’re riding that romantasy train, you’ll almost certainly be on the lookout for Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, the third book in the Empyrean series; I expect We Do Not Part by Han Kang, translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris, to do very well; and I’ll be picking up Xiaolu Guo’s newest, Call Me Ishmaelle—Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth made a big impact on 20-something-year-old me. Everyone you know will be reading The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong, Katabasis by RF Kuang, and Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith. There’s a whole lot to dive into here, so I’ll leave you to the frantic task of setting reminders to preorder, put on hold, what have you.
The Design Trend That Took Publishing By Storm
Here at the end of the year, it’s worth looking back at the book trend of all book trends in 2024. I well remember the impact pretty, deluxe editions of books had in the earlier days of bookish social media, but sprayed, stained, stenciled, whatever edges had us in a headlock this year. Moreover, the deluxe editions I typically saw decorating aspirational shelves were classics, but publisher Entangled really did change the game by splurging on fancy adornments for newly released novels in the genre that also took us by storm: romantasy. You can read about how the trend took off across publishing and ignited a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses design atmosphere, how ubiquitous these editions became on BookTok in particular, and so much more about the trend’s impact across publishing, culture, and even printing. I am so curious about the (pun intended) shelf life of this trend.
The Best Queer Books of 2024, According to All the Lists
Danika Ellis did the good work by compiling the queer books mentioned on the most Best Books of 2024 lists. Check out the graphic novels, literary fiction, romance, fantasy, and so much more that got featured on the biggest lists. Surprise, surprise, Martyr! and All Fours made the cut.
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