Total net book sales in December in the U.S. rose 9.4%, to $1.035 billion, compared to December 2024, representing sales of 1,324 publishers and distributed clients as reported to the Association of American Publishers. For the full year, net book sales rose 1.1%, to $14.637 billion. The December gains follow gains in September, October, and November, which were the first gains in book sales since March.

In December, trade book sales were up 14.2%, to $830.4 million, while for the year, trade book sales were down 0.5%, to $9.768 billion. The biggest categories with sales jumps in December included adult, children's/YA, university press, and religious hardcovers and paperbacks. Lagging categories included e-books, digital audio, and the gradually disappearing mass market format.

Adult book net revenue in December rose 9.4%, with fiction increasing 2.9% and nonfiction up 16.8%. Children's/YA net revenue jumped 27.6%, with fiction up 24.9% and nonfiction up 38.4%.

In terms of format, in December trade hardcover sales rose 13.5%, to $307.6 million, paperbacks rose 27.5%, to $296.3 million, mass market dropped 61.6%, to $3.9 million, and special bindings rose 2.6%, to $21.8 million. E-book revenues fell 2.8%, to $78.7 million, digital audio dropped 0.8%, to $92 million, and physical audio rose 0.1%, to $500,000.

Sales by category for December 2025:

Booksellers and librarians, please join us next Thursday, February 19, for an educational webinar on selling books about difficult topics. Sponsored by Magination Press and The Difference Engine, the webinar will kick off with a conversation between veteran booksellers Shane Mullen of Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Mo., and Valerie Koehler of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Tex., who will discuss how to connect customers with books on topics such as bullying, eating disorders, and the like. Their conversation will be followed by a lively presentation of key titles from the two publishers.

Our presentation will kick off at 4 p.m. Eastern; the registration link is here. If you are unable to attend, all registrants will be sent a recording of the session.

Bound to Bindings, a romance-focused mobile bookstore in Charleston, S.C., will open a bricks-and-mortar location next month, the Post and Courier reported.

The bricks-and-mortar store, which will be renamed the Bindings Collective, will be located at 2048 Sam Rittenberg Blvd. While the store will continue to focus on romance titles, there will be options for all ages, including a dedicated children's room that will include coloring books and games.

Owner Alexis Wentland told the Post and Courier, "As a mom, I just really wanted to have a place where parents can shop, and not have to be constantly watching their children. You can just be like, 'okay, just play here while Mommy or Daddy looks around.' " 

Initially, Wentland had never planned to open a bricks-and-mortar, preferring the flexibility of the mobile store. However, the South Carolina weather proved to be too much, and Wentland had to cancel or reschedule more than half of her appearances between July and October due to heat. She intends to continue making pop-up appearances even after she opens the bricks-and-mortar store.

Wentland is aiming to open in early March, and has a book bedazzling event with a local author scheduled for March 13.

Barnes & Noble has permanently closed its location at 235 Union St. in Waterbury, Conn., the Daily Campus reported. Its last day in business was Sunday, January 18.

Located in the Brass Mill Commons shopping center, the store had been in business for 28 years. Prior to the closing it held a large clearance sale, and on the 18th there was a special storytime reading. The store wrote in a social media post that it was closing because its lease was expiring.

Per the Daily Campus, there are now 15 B&N locations in Connecticut.

Suzannah Lessard, an author and writer for the New Yorker "who examined the ways in which people are marked by place--and the ways in which they, in turn, mark the landscape--and whose best-selling memoir, The Architect of Desire: Beauty and Danger in the Stanford White Family [1996], explored the dark history of Mr. White, the Gilded Age architect who was her great-grandfather," died January 29, the New York Times reported. She was 81.

Her other books include The View from a Small Mountain: Reading the American Landscape (2017) and The Absent Hand: Reimagining Our American Landscape (2019).

Lessard grew up in a compound that her family called "the Place"--largely created by White--in St. James, on the North Shore of Long Island. "The centerpiece of the compound was Box Hill, a gabled confection designed by Mr. White, who was famous for the Beaux-Arts palaces that he and his firm, McKim, Mead & White, created for America's newly minted merchant-royals in the late 19th century--and for the scandal of his death," the Times wrote. In 1906, he was fatally shot by Harry K. Thaw, whose 21-year-old wife had been sexually assaulted when she was 16 by White.

Her great-grandfather's story, along with those of Lessard's "eccentric and erratic family," were part of the environment she lived in, the Times noted, adding that her memoir "was decades in the making. It was the book she could not write and yet felt compelled to write, and the writer's block she suffered often compromised her other work."

"Underneath the entrancing Stanford White surface is predation," she wrote. "Behind the aesthetic sophistication of a Stanford White interior is the blindly voracious, irresponsible force, both personal and that of a whole class, a whole nation out of control."

Lessard joined the New Yorker in the mid-1970s. "She was a true eccentric, in the best way," her friend Daphne Merkin, the author and essayist, said. "She thought originally and made connections that weren't immediately apparent. She roamed in her mind, always looking for a bigger context."

Reading Rainbow host and social media sensation Mychal Threets (center) kicked off his tour for his debut picture book, I'm So Happy You're Here: A Celebration of Library Joy (Random House Books for Young Readers), at the Brooklyn Public Library, sponsored by Brooklyn's Books Are Magic. Threets was joined by Lorraine Nam (r.), who illustrated the book, and the conversation was moderated by award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson (l.).

Posted by Magic City Books, Tulsa, Okla.: "It was a rare evening where the aisles were completely empty of their usual tables full of books and our booksellers couldn't help themselves.... good luck in the gold medal match!"

"There is something profoundly interesting about a person leaning into a shelf of books," Baldwin & Co. Coffee & Bookstore, New Orleans, La., posted on Facebook. "It represents the bridge between the known and the unknown. Every spine on the shelf is a different version of the world, and for a brief moment, you are deciding which reality to step into next."

At Random House Children's Books: 

Kelly McGauley has been promoted to executive director, marketing and strategic development.

Elizabeth Ward has been promoted to senior director, audience engagement strategy.

Katie Burton has been promoted to associate manager, young adult social media strategy.

Bessa Zenebework has been promoted to assistant director, advertising strategy.

Nadia Vertlib has been promoted to senior product manager, audience engagement.

The Winged Game by Sophie Kim (Del Rey).

Tomorrow:
Late Show with Stephen Colbert repeat: Senator Bernie Sanders, author of Fight Oligarchy (Crown, $14.99, 9798217089161).

Warner Bros is reuniting Stephen King and Mike Flanagan (Gerald's Game, Doctor Sleep, Life of Chuck, the upcoming TV series Carrie) on a new adaptation of The Mist, based on King's 1980 novella. Deadline reported that Flanagan will direct and write the screenplay. He will also produce through Red Room alongside Tyler Thompson and Spyglass's Gary Barber and Chris Stone. Alexandra Magistro is also executive producing for Red Room.

The novella was included in King's story collection Skeleton Crew. It was previously adapted as a 2007 film and a 2017 TV series. Deadline noted that in The Mist, "a small town in Maine is consumed by a thick mysterious fog from which creatures emerge to attack the townsfolk. A group of survivors hole up in a local grocery store. As often happens with King's fiction, anarchy and societal reordering brings out the best in some, and the absolute worst in others, sparking mob mentality and empowering unhinged extremists who become as dangerous as the horrors outside."

Winners of the 2026 Golden Kite Awards and honor books, presented to children's book authors and artists by their peers and sponsored by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, have been named. Each category winner receives $2,500, while honor recipients are awarded $500. This year's winning titles are:

Golden Kite winners
Picture book text: We Go Slow by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, illustrated by Aaron Becker (Atheneum)
Picture book illustration: When Alexander Graced the Table, illustrated by Frank Morrison, written by Alexander Smalls & Denene Millner (Denene Millner Books)
Nonfiction for younger readers: Some of Us: A Story of Citizenship and the United States by Rajani LaRocca, illustrated by Huy Voun Lee (Christy Ottaviano Books)
Nonfiction for older readers: White Lies: How the South Lost the Civil War, Then Rewrote the History by Ann Bausum (Roaring Brook Press)
Middle grade fiction: Once for Yes by Allie Millington (Feiwel and Friends)
Illustrated book for older readers: Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout (First Second)
YA fiction: Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout (First Second)
Sid Fleischman award for humor: Never Take Your Rhino on a Plane by K.E. Lewis, illustrated by Isabel Roxas (Clarion) 

Honor books
Picture book text: Fireworks written by Matthew Burgess and illustrated by Catia Chien (Clarion Books)
Picture book illustration: Fireworks, illustrated by Catia Chien, written by Matthew Burgess (Clarion Books)
Nonfiction for younger readers: One Girl's Voice: How Lucy Stone Helped Change the Law of the Land by Vivian Kirkfield, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon (Calkins Creek)
Nonfiction for older readers: World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out by Nicholas Day, illustrated by Yas Imamura (Random House Studio)
Middle grade fiction: Gabby Torres Gets a Billion Followers by Angela Dominguez (Roaring Brook Press)
Illustrated book for older readers: Lu and Ren's Guide to Geozoology by Angela Hsieh (Quill Tree Books)
YA fiction: Island Creatures by Margarita Engle (Atheneum)
Sid Fleischman award for humor: Big Changes for Plum! by Matt Phelan (Greenwillow Books)

photo: James Emmerman

Emily Nemens is the author of two novels: The Cactus League (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), which was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and named one of NPR's and Lit Hub's favorite books of 2020, and Clutch (Tin House/Zando, February 3, 2026), which centers on five close friends who converge on Palm Springs for a reunion. Her stories have appeared in BOMB, Story, n+1, and elsewhere; her illustrations have appeared in the New Yorker and in collaboration with Harvey Pekar. Nemens spent more than a decade editing literary quarterlies, including leading the Paris Review and serving as co-editor and prose editor of the Southern Review. She teaches in the MFA program at Bennington College and lives in central New Jersey with her husband and dog.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Clutch follows a group of longtime friends as they're facing big challenges in midlife. What will ride-or-die pals do when the rubber hits the road?

On your nightstand now:

I'm reading new books by interlocutors on my upcoming book tour. This includes Joshua Wheeler's The High Heaven and Andrew Martin's Down Time. The wildcard on the stack is Caoilinn Hughes's The Alternatives. My first book was about a baseball team; Clutch is about a girl gang. It turns out I love an ensemble novel, and I'm always seeking out exemplars of the form.

Favorite book when you were a child:

I grew up in Seattle, and my second-grade teacher was friends with the children's book author Walt Morey. As I recall it (and my best friend confirms), he showed up in class one day to talk about Gentle Ben and Scrub Dog of Alaska. Now, were his my favorite books of childhood? Perhaps not, but here was an elderly man (he was over 80 at the time) who had lived a whole dang life writing books about the Pacific Northwest, about animals and nature and how we might live together. It was the first time I'd met a Real Live Author, and it was thrilling.

Your top five authors:

This list feels forever in formation, but right now I'd say Deborah Eisenberg for her elliptical, spiky, and spellbinding storytelling. At the other end of things, I love Rachel Kushner's big, plotty projects, how there are so many moving parts even as they stay exactingly cerebral. I am grateful for George Saunders's tightrope walk of social critique and bigheartedness; I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I, too, try to contain some sharp-elbowed commentary and plenty of warm embraces in my prose. Sigrid Nunez writes about loneliness and friendship so beautifully that I find myself often returning to her books... and she's good at describing the souls of dogs, too.

Book you've faked reading:

I have been pressing The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg into my students' hands for several semesters, but I'll confess that I've not made it all the way through that 980-page tome! I feel strangely precious about meting them out--I want to savor them, to continue being surprised by her. Now that the cat's out of the bag, maybe finishing the collection will be my New Year's resolution.

Book you're an evangelist for:

I'm friends with a lot of visual artists--some of whom have an active reading practice, and some of whom want one but don't know where to start--and I have been pressing Emma Copley Eisenberg's Housemates on them. The novel is doing a lot--romance and a road trip, critique of urban elites and rural communities both--but what I love most about it is how the photography is rendered on the page. One of the characters works with an oversize, complicated camera, but it never feels complicated--the way Emma writes about making pictures, it's like we're under the hood with Bernie, framing up the world.

Book you've bought for the cover:

It's not quite the cover, but I am forever in awe of the production design and the downright inventiveness of McSweeney's Quarterly. I mean, come on: McSweeney's 80, the current issue, comes in the form of a Trapper Keeper!

Book you hid from your parents:

My parents never policed my reading, but I remember hiding books (and myself) from my sister, who had more kinetic energy and physical aptitude in her pinkie finger than I had in my whole body. She was forever asking me to go outside and play, when I wanted to stay inside and read. I had the most delicious pillow fort in the rear of my closet, and when I was behind rows of shirts and dresses, I was sure I was invisible to the universe.

Book that changed your life:

Vivian Gornick's The Situation and the Story. If there was ever an "ah ha!" moment in my writing life, encountering this slim volume was it. Gornick does such a good job of describing the difference between the superficial plot and foundational change of a story--it sounds basic, but believe me, you can really write yourself into a corner trying to decide if a character is going to change the world or change herself over the course of a piece. Since then, I feel like I've never been stuck in that frustrating corner again.

Favorite line from a book:

This is another answer that shifts with the season, but lately I've been thinking a lot about Nikolai Gogol (I have an essay forthcoming about running and chronic pain and how encounters with the medical establishment made me feel like Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov without his nose). You might recall, "The Nose" ends with this zinger: "Whatever anyone says, such things happen in this world; rarely, but they do."

Five books you'll never part with:

Brad Watson was a brilliant writer who died too young, with too slim an output, but I'll keep his Miss Jane with me. I love Ballpark by Paul Goldberger: the architectural history of baseball stadiums lands at the exact center of a particular-to-me Venn diagram. Now that I've spent so much time thinking about Mary McCarthy (The Group was a touchstone while writing Clutch), I will keep that novel--and the three volumes of her memoirs (Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, How I Grew, and Intellectual Memoirs) close. Songlines in Michaeltree by Michael S. Harper is another I'll carry with me always--Harper was an early mentor of mine, and while we first bonded over jazz, what he ultimately taught me was how to write in conversation with the artists I admired. Until I met him, I didn't realize you could do that (and without that knowledge, I'd never have written Clutch). On a practical level, a girl's gotta eat, and I'd be lost without Alice Waters and The Art of Simple Food.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

I remember being entirely enraptured by the strangeness of Iris Murdoch's The Sea, the Sea, so much so that almost immediately I wanted to go back and read it again... but I hesitated: Would I fall under its spell once more, and so thoroughly? I got distracted by a thousand other books, so the question remains unanswered.

Miran Park's Everything Is Music, translated from the Korean by Paige Aniyah Morris, is a lyrical picture book that is both meditative and playful as it invites young readers to tune in to the world around them. Park's loose-lined illustrations convey motion and atmosphere with an immediacy that feels almost improvised. On the opening spread, a child pedals away from home as "sounds stretch awake," an evocative description that sets the tone for a story rooted in curiosity and sensory awareness.

The child rides through landscapes, a puppy tucked into the bike basket, collecting the city's sonic textures. "The sounds whizz by": the whirr of bicycle wheels, distant laughter, birds overhead, the rumble of an approaching storm, even the "pitter-patter percussion" of rain and footsteps on the street become part of the child's attentive exploration. Park's pacing encourages readers to linger, to pause, and to notice as continually shifting perspectives prompt readers to look again and discover musical motifs hidden in plain sight. A cello, a guitar, and a harp materialize where one might expect ordinary urban or natural forms. Birds perched on telephone wires resemble notes on a staff; streetlights reflected in a puddle transform into half notes; and the slats of a town gate align like the bars of a xylophone.

These visual discoveries reward careful observation and offer a gentle lesson in finding beauty within everyday environments. Twice, Park even pauses to talk to readers directly: "Can you hear the storm coming"? and, at the book's close, "Can we play another tune tomorrow?" Park's palette is deliberate, the expanses of white punctuated only by the striking red of the child's dress and the yellow of the disguised musical imagery. The restraint heightens the impact of each musical surprise. One of the book's most memorable moments requires readers to flip the book on its side to interpret the vertically oriented spread: the child rides between tall trees, the negative space between them colored in yellow and outlining a trumpet, a quiet flourish that crowns the excursion. A closing key reveals the musical instruments seen throughout the book.

Everything Is Music, a book meant for slowing down, encourages young listeners to attune themselves to sound, shape, and wonder. Park's combination of expressive linework and visual metaphor form a harmonious exploration of perception and play. --Julie Danielson

Shelf Talker: A reflective and imaginative invitation to listen more closely, Everything Is Music offers a picture book experience that resonates long after the final page.

The following were the most popular book club books during January based on votes from book club readers in more than 94,000 book clubs registered at Bookmovement.com:

1. The Correspondent: A Novel by Virginia Evans (Crown)
2. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (Doubleday)
3. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi (Atria)
4. Wild Dark Shore: A Novel by Charlotte McConaghy (Flatiron)
5. Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine)
6. The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick (Harper Muse)
7. Buckeye: A Novel by Patrick Ryan (Random House)
8. How to Read a Book: A Novel by Monica Wood (Mariner Books)
9. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (Simon & Schuster)
10. The Names: A Novel by Florence Knapp (Pamela Dorman Books) 

Rising Stars:
Heart the Lover by Lily King (Grove Press)
I, Medusa: A Novel by Anya Gray (Random House)