Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
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.
Scholastic and Caitlin Clark Partner to Get More Books to Kids
Like many of us, Caitlin Clark has fond memories of the Scholastic Book Fair. But, as not all kids have the means to check off something to buy when it comes around, she is partnering with Scholastic to distribute 22,000 books (22 is meaningful in the Caitlin-verse apparentely) in her home state of Indiana. This article notes that Scholastic has partnered with NFL players before, but this is their first team-up with an WNBA player. Interesting.
New Patricia Lockwood Novel Coming This September
Three years after Lockwood’s debut novel, No One is Talking About This, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and just in general raced around the reading world, she is set to release her next one, Will There Ever Be Another You. Here is the description:
“This September, your beloved Booker Prize finalist returns with new work of genius about one woman’s descent into insanity, and how she emerges on the other side in these most surreal and disorienting times…
It all starts when a mysterious disease begins spreading across the planet. “It stole people from themselves,” she tells us. “You might look the same to others, but you had been replaced.” People everywhere begin purchasing apple-flavored horse deworming paste; their boogers have changed, and they don’t recognize themselves in mirrors. Our narrator is afraid of her own floorboards, and “WHAT IS LOVE? BABY DON’T HURT ME” plays over and over in her ears. She hates her friends, or more accurately, she doesn’t know who they are.
Has the illness stolen her old mind and given her a new one? Does it mean she’ll get to start over from scratch, a chance afforded to very few people? “I’m sorry not to respond to your email,” she writes, “but I live completely in the present now.”“
As a Lockwoodian starting with Priestdaddy, count me as very interested to see her tackle this bizarro-COVID world. It will be strange, funny, and not a little unnerving. Can’t wait.
