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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Do you remember your first dystopian book? My sixth grade teacher read The Giver aloud to my class over the course of a week or two, and I’ve spent the last thirty years trying to recover. I must not be alone because Lois Lowry’s genre gateway drug is among Entertainment Weekly‘s 25 best dystopian books of all time. It’s a solid list with a wide variety of nightmare hellscapes and timelines to choose from and a welcome reminder that while the current political situation has sent dystopian stories back to the bestsellers list, writers have been imagining the worst versions of society for centuries.
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Bookshop.org Sales Are Soaring
Hold onto your butts. Bookshop.org has reported a 65% year-over-year increase in sales in the first half of 2025. This would be an eye-popping number any time, but it’s especially remarkable since industry-wide sales are down so far this year. CEO Andy Hunter attributes $1 million of the additional revenue—just 5% of overall sales—to Bookshop.org’s better-late-than-never ebook platform, which launched in January and another $1.5 million to its recent Anti-Prime Sale. What’s driving the rest of the growth? My best guess is that anti-Amazon sentiment and consumer boycotts have hit a tipping point with the kind of left-leaning, middle- and upper-middle-class readers who are willing and able to pay a premium to avoid supporting companies whose policies conflict with their personal and political values. And it doesn’t hurt that inflation and tariffs seem to have lessened Amazon’s ability to offer deeper discounts and faster shipping than other book retailers.
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The Percival Everett Glow-Up Continues
Sterling K. Brown, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Winston Duke are in talks to star in a limited-series adaptation of Percival Everett’s 2022 novel The Trees, to be written by Marcus Gardley (The Chi, Foundation, The Color Purple). The Trees is a crime thriller set in Money, Mississippi that addresses racism, police violence, and the history of lynching. The project has reportedly sparked a bidding war, which is great news for all of us who can’t wait to see another Everett adaptation in the hands of real pros. The 2023 film American Fiction, which won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, was based on his 2011 novel Erasure. The Trees would be Brown’s second appearance in a work inspired by Everett; he was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in American Fiction.
The Day’s Best Ebook Deals
We round up the best ebook deals of the day every day, and today’s are extra tasty. The Round House by Louise Erdrich for $2.99. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders for $1.99 (perfect timing to catch up before his new novel, Vigil, a companion to Bardo, comes out in January). Demon Copperhead for $2.99. Gulp by Mary Roach for $1.99. Rust in the Root by Justina Ireland for $1.99. It’s too hot to function. Stock up your ereader and have yourself a nice afternoon.
