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The best book covers of 2025 (This week in books)

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The Walt Disney Concert Hall

This week! Books! A day late!

The 173 Best Book Covers of 2025 – Emily Temple, Lit Hub – Always one of my favorite features of the year! The winner is an absolute stunner.

Sophie Kinsella, ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ Author, Dies at 55 – Sopan Deb, New York Times – The tremendously influential Madeleine Wickham, better known by her pen name Sophie Kinsella, passed away from brain cancer at just 55. Her Shopaholic series went on to sell tens of millions of copies and helped inspire the rise of “chick lit” in the 2000s.

Chernin Group Invests in Entangled, Valued At $400 Million, to Expand IP – Katy Hershberger, Publishers Lunch – On the heels of the runaway success of Fourth Wing and other franchises, upstart publisher Entangled has accepted funding from investment group Chernin Group that values the company at $400 million with a view on expanding its IP.

PRH Announces ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Publishing Program – Sam Spratford, Publishers Weekly – Speaking of IP, KPop Demon Hunters books are coming via Penguin Random House.

Scholastic to Sell NYC Headquarters as Part of Turnaround Efforts – Nicholas G. Miller, Wall Street Journal / OUP Sells Manhattan Offices for $40 Million – Sam Spratford, Publishers Weekly – Both Scholastic and Oxford University Press are selling their Manhattan headquarters. Scholastic will lease the space and stay put, OUP is moving.

The 15 best books of 2025 – Carolyn Kellogg, Bethanne Patrick and Mark Athitakis, Los Angeles Times – Still that time of year!

The Fawn Response for Writers – Kate McKean, Agents + Books – Some terrific advice from Kate McKean about worrying less about how others perceive you and getting in tune with your writerly needs.

It’s Not About You: Your Memoir Is Someone Else’s Story – Allison K Williams, Jane Friedman – A great post about how person on the page in a memoir is not, and can’t be, the same person as the author who’s writing it if it’s going to be any good.

The Publishing Workshops Taking a Red Pen to AI – Sam Spratford, Publishers Weekly – Whatever the outward posture, publishers are aggressively exploring how they can incorporate A.I. into their processes.

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

  1. The Widow by John Grisham
  2. Brimstone by Callie Hart
  3. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
  4. The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown
  5. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

  1. 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin
  2. How to Test Negative for Stupid by John Kennedy
  3. The Look by Michelle Obama with Meredith Koop
  4. Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre
  5. Heart Life Music by Kenny Chesney with Holly Gleason

Young adult hardcover:

  1. Better in Black by Cassandra Clare
  2. The Way Things Work: Newly Revised Edition by David Macaulay
  3. Fake Skating by Lynn Painter
  4. If Only I Had Told Her by Laura Nowlin
  5. Hour of the Pumpkin Queen by Megan Shepherd

Middle grade hardcover:

  1. The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
  2. The Complete Baking Book for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
  3. Growing Home by Beth Ferry
  4. The Court of the Dead by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro
  5. The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

And finally:

The Data on Self-Driving Cars Is Clear. We Have to Change Course. – Jonathan Slotkin, New York Times – Set aside the technology. Self-driving cars could save thousands of lives.

Have a great weekend!

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Photo: The Walt Disney Concert Hall. RIP Frank Gehry

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Vivienne says

    Hi. I just looked at the covers. I thought the idea of a book cover was to attract the reader. Most of these don’t do that for me. Some, the font was difficult to read, while others the layout of the words made it difficult to read. Others had too many words.
    I think they were judged more on artistic criteria than practicality, although, for me, many failed on that, too.