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 that TIB readers were most interested in this week.
It was a town’s only Black-owned bookstore. It is now a refuge for those displaced by the California fires.
I was just in Pasadena over New Year’s to visit the Huntington Library and was reminded that it was Octavia Butler’s haunt. This story about Nikki High using her bookstore, Octavia’s Bookshelf, as a helping center is worth reading in full, but here is a snippet to encourage you to check it out:
“We packed up all of our books off the shelves and put them in the attic,” High explains. The books were replaced by the items people gave to victims of the fire. The donations poured in from as far away as Portland, filling the store with supplies like toothpaste, diapers, cat food and water. Volunteers from the community, including loyal customers, stepped in to help organize and distribute the items.
The Oscar Nominations Are Out—7 of 10 of the Best Picture Nominations Are Adaptations
Every year, I shout about just how much of film culture is always/ready book culture (that one was for the post-structuralists in the back). Literary culture is culture, period. Thrilled to see Nickel Boys in the best picture race officially. It is as wide-open a race as I can recall, as a semi-serious follower of such things. I am way, way behind on my movie-watching, but I plan on watching all the adapted screenplay nominees and best picture nominees before award night. On an upcoming episode The Book Riot Podcast, Rebecca and I are going to handicap the slate, if that sounds like the kind of thing you would be interested in
Books Sales Are Up After Two Years of Declines
Circana released some 2024 sales stats this morning, and the overall picture is….mixed. Topline growth of 1% in unit sales (units being books themselves, not dollars) after back to back declining years. In case you were wondering, BookTok author (as defined by Circana), posted 20% growth after growing for five consecutive years prior. Weak spots are middle grade (down 1.5 million units year over year) and young adult fiction (down 1.2 million units). This is anecdata, but I have a early teenager and many of his cohort have been pulled away from YA by Romantasy titles.
Onyx Storm is Out Today, and Target’s Release Seems Like a Washout
Got a couple of tips from listeners of the Book Riot Podcast that all has not gone well with the release of Onyx Storm (out today), particularly at Target. Social media posts aren’t necessarily definitive of course, but a quick perusal of this Thread and a couple of others like it suggest that somehow, someway Target handled the Swift’s book launch with considerably more care. Maybe that comes down to controlling the supply chain. Also, that different retailers are getting different special editions is pretty wild. The hype around the Fourth Wing saga has had merchandising at the center of its appeal from the beginning, but his feels is starting to take on Beanie Baby-like mania.
Football Player’s In-Game Reading Sends Book to Top of the Charts
Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver flipped open a paperback last weekend during his teams playoff game against the Green Bay Packers and touched off something of mini-storm, both in the world of football and in the world of books. Brown has previously been vocal when he was dissatisfied with his role on the team, and initially this unusual move was seen as some sort of sign of discontent. Turns out, Brown just finds Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy a useful, centering book and when else is that kind of reading more valuable than in high-pressure situations. In a testament to the NFL’s enormous reach (and follow on stories and social media posts), Inner Excellence hit #1 on Amazon’s best-seller list pretty quickly after the game, and it remains in the top spot as of this writing.
On the Book Riot Podcast, Jeff O’Neal and Rebecca Schinksy turn the dial back a decade to power-rank the 10 most lasting, influential, and memorable books of 2015.