In the striking latest from Lisa Harding, two lifelong friends are torn apart by a mercurial philosophy student at their university. It’s a bracing tale. @HarperViaBooks

Wilfred Lupano's stylish yet forceful graphic narrative offers a harrowing glimpse into the trials and tribulations a school of trailblazing Black students faced in antebellum America. Readers will be inspired by this ultimately hopeful take on a shameful history. @NBMPUB

★ Suzanne Cope spins a thrilling saga of four young women of the Italian resistance. It makes for a captivating look at how antifascist resistance operated and evolved during WWII. @DuttonBooks

“As I hit my midfifties, I grew increasingly curious about the disconnect between how this age feels and how it is portrayed in our culture and society,” writes Brooke Shields in this candid memoir-in-essays about aging in the public eye. @Flatironbooks

Anthropologist Jordan Thomas debuts with an essential meditation on fire’s role on a warming planet. Narrative nonfiction doesn’t get better than this. @penguinusa

★ In solo picture book debut MISTACO, Eliza Kinkz “offers a story that blends deep empathy, raucous candor, and a useful ritual for dealing with shame”

Eisner winner Jeff Lemire returns with this wrenching graphic novel of loneliness and redemption in small-town Canada. The result is a tightly woven monster tale shot through with melancholy. @imagecomics

L.A. indie publisher Unnamed Press has started a poetry line devoted to “collaborative cross-media projects,” and its first releases include books by musician Emma Ruth Rundle and translator Alana Marie Levinson-Labrosse.

Lunar Distribution signs Massive Publishing following the bankruptcy of Diamond Comics Distribution, Skybound will distribute Scott Dunbier's Act 4 Publishing, and more.

Approximately 850 aspiring and published authors and illustrators of books for children gathered in Manhattan last weekend for the annual winter conference of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

There are a few occupational hazards to being an editor in children’s publishing. One is how often people feel compelled to tell you their book idea—sometimes in unexpected (and unwelcome) circumstances.

As middle grade and YA author Kelly Yang branches out into picture books, she keeps her focus on crafting nuanced Asian American representation.

As a follow-up to its newly minted Free Speech Award, the Children’s Book Council is launching the Graphic Novel Advocate Award, shining a light on defenders of a category that has seen a rise in book bans.

★ Luke Arnold continues to set the standard for urban fantasy in this stellar fourth mystery featuring PI Fetch Phillips. With a twisty plot, appealing lead, and Chandleresque atmospherics, this keeps the series going strong. @orbitbooks

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Brandeis University Press will publish 'Bookstore Romance: Love Speaks Volumes' by longtime PW bookselling editor Judith Rosen, which profiles 24 couples who proposed, or held their weddings, at independent bookstores.

Storytel Group has acquired a 70% stake in Bokfabriken, one of Sweden's largest general publishing houses.

Knopf will publish 'What We Can Know,' a new Ian McEwan novel, on September 16.

A successful holiday season, which included a 30% increase in sales of Kindle devices, led to a record 2024 at Amazon.

See highlights of the children's and YA titles due out next season in our exclusive roundup.

★ Robert Jackson Bennett’s wonderfully clever and compulsively readable latest offers another winning blend of fantasy and classic detection, featuring off-beat sleuths who call to mind Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. @DelReyBooks