Pans, glorious pans. No end-of-year roundup would be complete without them. Read more
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The Best Noir Fiction of 2025
Yes, the category is nebulous, but maybe it’s just a matter of mood and great writing. Read more
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Joanna Trollope, Bestselling Chronicler of Ordinary Life, Dies Aged 82
Trollope published more than 30 novels during a writing career that began in 1980. Her early works, written under the pseudonym Caroline Harvey, were historical romances, but from the mid-1980s onward, she turned to contemporary fiction, a shift that would define her reputation. Read more
Last Call for Mass Market Paperbacks
The decision made this winter by ReaderLink to stop distributing mass market paperback books at the end of 2025 was the latest blow to a format that has seen its popularity decline for years. According to Circana BookScan, mass market unit sales plunged from 131 million in 2004 to 21 million in 2024, a drop of about 84%, and sales this year through October were about 15 million units. But for many years, the mass market paperback was “the most popular reading format,” notes Stuart Applebaum, former Penguin Random House EVP of corporate communications. Read more
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‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ Novelist Sophie Kinsella Dies Aged 55
Madeleine Wickham, known for writing the bestselling novel Confessions of a Shopaholic under her pen name Sophie Kinsella, has died aged 55. Wickham, dubbed “the queen of romantic comedy” by novelist Jojo Moyes, wrote more than 30 books for adults, children and teenagers, which have sold more than 45m copies. Read more
Fern Michaels, Prolific Author of Romance Novels, Dies at 92
Fern Michaels, a mother of five in suburban New Jersey who responded to her husband’s request to get a job by taking up writing, only to blossom into a best-selling author of more than 200 romances and thrillers, died on Nov. 12 at her home in Summerville, S.C. Read more
‘Midnight Somewhere’ by Johnny Compton
Readers who enjoy the imaginative yet unsettling horror of John Langan and Ananda Lima should bask in the uncanny visions of Compton’s haunting tales. It is a solid collection with no weak stories. Read more
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The 10 Best Audiobooks of 2025
Including explosive tell-alls, dreamy fantasy, and what may be the best fiction narration out there. Read more
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The Curious Notoriety of ‘Performative Reading’
Performative reading has emerged as a suspicious activity not because reading books is suspect but because being beheld reading a book is understood to be yet another way for one to market himself, to portray to the world that he is indeed deeper and more expansive than his craven need for attention—demonstrated by reading a difficult book in public—suggests. Read more
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Our Favorite New Cookbooks of 2025
To round up 2025’s best cookbooks, we consulted a large group: Bon Appétit and Epicurious staffers, as well as other food writers and editors, cookbook authors, and chefs. Read more
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