"Books remain one of the discretionary spending bright spots," said Brenna Connor, U.S. books industry analyst at Circana, during a talk last week at Winter Institute 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pa. "People are cutting back overall, but many of them are not cutting back on books."

Connor took the stage last Thursday to share market trends, retail insights, and growth strategies for the U.S. trade book market. She began with an overall look at retail, which saw consumers "pulling back" from discretionary purchases while increasing spending on crucial items. 

That trend surfaced in 2024 and persisted in 2025, with higher prices in essential areas "putting a squeeze" on consumers. At the same time, prices have continued to rise and long-term unemployment has continued to tick up, and consumer mood on the economy has "really soured."

Circana's Brenna Connor

However, the data about books tell a different story. On a weekly basis across 2025, books outperformed general merchandise most of the time, and while the last holiday season was "lackluster" for general retail, "books held steady." Though overall growth in units and dollars were modest, Connor noted, it should be seen as a "real win" given what's happening in retail overall.

Looking at 20 years of data on the U.S. market, Connor pointed out that the industry has shown "remarkable stability." Despite whatever is happening in the broader economy, consumers "continually come back to books."

2021 marked the highest year of print book sales in Circana's data set, Connor said, and in the years since the pandemic, the industry has settled into a "higher baseline," with sales volume higher than it was pre-pandemic. That higher volume has held steady over the last few years, and Connor expects to see that continue.

Breaking down the 2025 data by category, Connor said the "biggest story" was the return to growth for the children's market. It has been in decline since 2022, and 2025 marked the first time "we've seen it grow," she noted. While the growth is encouraging, it does come with a caveat: it was driven by "doing formats," such as coloring books, activity books, and stickers books, many of them licensed, rather than by traditional reading.

Although activity books do "offer valuable benefits for children," Connor explained, such as hands-on learning and reductions in screen time, this trend could potentially signal a "shift away from traditional reading." That in turn would have "concerning, long-term implications" for literacy and reading development among children, and it is worth asking how to "bring kids back to narrative reading" and how to support parents in "carving out time to prioritize reading at home."

Looking at children's sales trends by age range, both infant readers and young readers saw growth, while middle-grade readers continued to decline. That decline has been going on for a few years, Connor said, and she highlighted the fact that today's middle-grader readers would have started kindergarten during the pandemic. And though middle-grade readers "remain a challenge," Connor said she is less concerned about teens, many of whom might be "reading up" into adult categories.

One future bright spot, she added, is data showing an increase in parents saying they want to limit screen time for children. There is also a "broad opportunity" for stores to position children's books themselves as experiences, as consumers prioritize family experiences when making purchases.

For adult books, there is "continued strength" in adult fiction, with a lot of it coming from genre, while adult nonfiction remains the "most challenged segment of the market," despite some "pockets of growth." 

In adult fiction, growth drivers include manga and graphic novels, romance, classics, and science fiction. Romantasy, which had been a "key driver," has softened a bit in the second half of 2025, and Connor suggested romantasy readers may be branching out into other genres, particularly science fiction. She also marked a trend of "dark themes" fueling fiction reading, with dark romance, dystopian fiction, murder mysteries, and horror seeing growth. 

By contrast, the growth in nonfiction categories is being driven by "lighter themes." There have been gains in mindfulness and journaling, cozy crafting, comfort cooking, self-improvement, and especially religion and spirituality. In fact, Bibles and religion constituted the "standout growth area of 2025," with Bible sales hitting a 21-year high.

The increase in Bible and religion sales, Connor said, is interesting given Pew survey data showing that Christian affiliation in the U.S. is flattening. One explanation may be that those who already identify as Christian are "leaning into it more."

Connor also wondered whether categories like travel and cooking, which have seen declines because of free resources available online, may see a bit of resurgence as AI content continues to surge. There is potential for consumers to return to books as "trusted, credible sources."

Looking ahead, Connor identified some potential tailwinds, including many Americans expecting higher tax refunds this year. While consumers generally will prioritize savings or paying down debt, some of it could "trickle into retail." For headwinds, the macro economic factors Connor identified will persist, with consumer wallets likely to get tighter. 

For independent booksellers in particular, there is cause for optimism, as the indie channel grew 6% in unit sales in 2025. Among consumers there is "greater interest in and higher intent to" shop at local independents, and a "decline in intent" to shop at big-box stores and other large retailers.

"What you all offer as independent booksellers cannot be replicated by an algorithm or a warehouse," Connor said. "It's curation, it's community, and it's an experience that makes people feel something. This is your competitive advantage, and the data is proving it out." --Alex Mutter

Bookmiser, the new and used bookstore in Marietta, Ga., that suffered extensive smoke and soot damage in October from a fire at the business next door, reopened last weekend after a five-month hiatus, during which shopping had been limited to online or pop-up sales.

"Customers rolling in Saturday for a reopening event at the Bookmiser independent bookstore saw a whole new space," East Cobb News reported. "There was new flooring, rearranged bookshelves, and more open space for events... Nearly half of the store's book inventory had been damaged or destroyed, and the interior structure sustained heavy soot and smoke damage." Co-owner Annell Gerson and "her staff, along with volunteers, packed up the remaining books for storage, remediation efforts gutted what remained."

"They took out everything. Down to the cinder blocks," said Gerson, who has operated the bookstore with her husband since 2010. She added that the look and feel of the store is new and inviting, but the process took longer than she wanted it to.

Gerson and her staff, along with volunteers, packed up books in November for the temporary closure. East Cobb News noted that she had updated customers on a regular basis, and urged them to shop at Bookshop.org and Libro.fm. 

"We got some benefit from that, and we saw a lot of people supporting us," she said. Pop-ups at a nearby storage facility also helped, as did local book club events. Bookmiser now offers less nonfiction than it did previously. "We're not going to have as many books as we did before," she said, noting that "a finely curated inventory is our goal."

During the reopening, Gerson was greeted warmly by customers with hugs, and she later remarked that there were "so many people, so many friends" who came by, East Cobb News wrote. "They just wanted to connect, to feed their love of books."

Steph Opitz has been named the director of Ingram's Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, succeeding Julie Schaper, who is retiring at the end of May.

Steph Opitz

Opitz was most recently director of bookstore partnerships at Bookshop.org. She earlier was founding director of Wordplay at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, Minn., and has held roles with major literary festivals, including the Texas Book Festival, the Brooklyn Book Festival, and the PEN World Voices Festival. She currently serves on committees for the National Book Foundation and the Authors Guild. Her book reviews and author interviews have appeared in Marie Claire, Kirkus, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Lit Hub.

Meredith Greenhouse, v-p & general manager of Ingram Publisher Services, said, "Consortium has long been a home for publishers who take creative risks and expand the cultural conversation. We are thrilled to welcome Steph, whose experience, vision, and passion for the literary world will help us continue to elevate these extraordinary presses and connect their books with readers everywhere."

Opitz said, "I'm honored to join Consortium and support the publishers who make this community so vibrant. These publishers are essential to the industry, and I'm happy to help expand their reach through IPS's powerful distribution network."

Schaper has been president of Consortium since 2001. Earlier she worked for HarperCollins, Putnam, and the now-closed Pages & Pages, Louisville, Ky. She has been a board member for the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, Rain Taxi Review of Books, and Friends of the Hennepin County Library, and is the co-editor with Steven Horwitz of Twin Cities Noir (Akashic Books) and Amplified (Melville House).

Marc DeBevoise has been named president and appointed to the board of directors of OverDrive. DeBevoise has held digital leadership positions at Brightcove, Paramount, and CBS Interactive and is an adjunct professor of digital strategy at New York University. He also serves on the board of the Door, a New York City nonprofit youth development organization.

Marc DeBevoise

OverDrive said that DeBevoise's "experience at the intersection of media, technology, and learning positions him to help OverDrive expand how students, teachers, and library patrons discover and engage with stories, knowledge, and ideas in every format." OverDrive has a large digital catalog of e-books, audiobooks, magazines, video, and other content, and mainly markets to libraries and schools.

OverDrive founder and CEO Steve Potash said, "Every day, librarians and educators turn effort into impact. Marc shares that spirit, and his leadership will help us make Libby, Sora, and Kanopy even more user friendly, more inclusive, and more joyful to use. He's spent his career helping people connect with the stories and ideas that move them, and he's joining us to help libraries and schools do what they do best, change lives through reading, viewing, and learning."

DeBevoise said, "Libraries and schools are where curiosity becomes understanding. I am excited to support this community and to help OverDrive expand access to the full spectrum of stories and ideas available through the books, audiobooks, films, and documentaries that entertain and enlighten every reader and deepen learning for every student." 

Coleman Barks, a poet who was known internationally for introducing the poetry of Rumi to a modern audience, died February 23. He was 88. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Barks's own poetry has been celebrated as well, winning the Southern Literary Review's Guy Owen Prize and the New England Review/Bread Loaf Quarterly prize for narrative poetry. 

He published 11 books of his poetry and 22 of Rumi's, and was selected for the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. Bark's own poetry books include Hummingbird Sleep (2013), Winter Sky: New and Selected Poems (2008), Gourd Seed (1993), and The Juice (1971).

Barks grew up in Chattanooga, Tenn., where his father, Herbert Bernard Barks, was headmaster of the Baylor School. His sister, author Elizabeth "Betsy" Barks Cox, said that because she and her brothers were raised in a school, they were always talking to English and Latin teachers "who wanted to know what we were reading. We were around books a lot." 

Cox added that a big influence on them was the campus where they grew up: "It was a magical place, and it opened us to the soul. It opened Coleman. He knew about the sacred but never had anything to do with church. Just that sacred place Rumi talks about."

Barks attended UNC-Chapel Hill and earned his master's at Berkeley before returning to Chapel Hill for his doctorate. In 1967, he joined the English department faculty at the University of Georgia, where he taught literature and creative writing for more than 30 years.

Early in his teaching career, Barks published three books of poetry. Retired UGA English professor Hugh Ruppersburg, who selected some of his poetry for the collection Georgia Voices, described Barks' poetry "as relaxed and casual, but meditative, usually focused on nature or his family. There was a playfulness and curiosity in Coleman that came across in his personality and his poetry."

Barks was introduced to Rumi's work--an academic translation by A.J. Arberry of the original Persian--by his friend, poet Robert Bly, who told Barks the poems needed to be "released from their cages." Together, they reinterpreted the English translations into free verse, and published Night & Sleep in 1981.

Rumi's poetry resonated with Barks, "so much so that he began reading translation after translation and then became a student of Sri Lankan Sufi mystic Bawa Muhaiyaddeen," the Journal-Constitution wrote. "Further reinterpretation of Rumi's poems meant the publication of dozens of books. People who had never before bought a book of poetry found meaning in the spiritual verses of Rumi." 

His Rumi translations include The Illuminated Rumi (1997) and The Essential Rumi (1995), often in collaboration with Persian scholar John Moyne. Barks's translation work was the focus of an episode of Bill Moyers's PBS series The Language of Life.

Bryan Barks, who had a close relationship with her grandfather, said, "Rumi was a constant, but I loved his own poetry so much. His own poetry means the most to me because I can feel him distinctly in his own work. It speaks to his spirit. He was playful."

"Over the weekend, we had our first engagement with a hidden photographer. Congratulations to the happy couple and thank you for letting us be part of your story," Cupboard Maker Books, Enola, Pa., posted on Facebook. 

"Good thing we look cute in the snow!" Broadside Bookshop in Northampton, Mass., posted on Instagram. "Tell us in the comments, what books are keeping you company as we all await the arrival of spring??"

Yesterday was National Read Across America Day, and Island Books, Mercer Island, Wash., celebrated with a chalkboard message and more: "Today, and well everyday, we are encouraging you to Drop Everything and READ for at least 20 mins. We have coffee, donuts and a comfy pink couch & chairs if you wanna stop in. We're here all day."

At Macmillan:

Kristin Long recently joined the company as associate, sales.

Ric Pychewicz recently joined the company as inventory analyst, supply chain.

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Kate Trine has been promoted to events manager at the Random House Publishing Group.

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Laura Rivas is joining Egypt Street PR & Literary as senior campaign manager. She was previously senior publicist at Candlewick Press.

Tomorrow:
Drew Barrymore Show: Cazzie David, author of Delusions: Of Grandeur, of Romance, of Progress (St. Martin's Press, $29, 9781250357632).

HBO Max today has acquired Song of the Samurai, a Japanese action drama based on the popular manga series Chiruran: Shinsengumi Requiem. It is set to premiere internationally on May 9. Created by Shinya Umemura (Record of Ragnarok manga series), Chiruran: Shinsengumi Requiem includes 36 volumes, with more than three million copies in circulation. 

The latest Japanese title to launch exclusively on HBO Max through Warner Bros. Discovery's partnership with U-Next, the series is the first major collaboration between Japan's commercial broadcaster Tokyo Broadcasting System, the local video streaming platform U-Next, and studio house THE SEVEN (Alice in Borderland, Yu Yu Hakusho). 

The series features an ensemble cast that includes Yuki Yamada, Ayano Go, and Kento Nakajima. It is written by Masaaki Sakai, directed by Kazutaka Watanabe, and produced by Akira Morii, Mamoru Inoue, and Kazuya Shimomura. 
 
"In mid-19th century Japan, the Shinsengumi were among the so-called last samurai warriors who upheld the way of the sword during a time of profound change," Yuki Yamada said. "To me, the samurai spirit is the wish to protect someone; a universal feeling that is shared across borders. I hope audiences can enjoy the action, while also feeling the emotion carried within each blade." 

Winners of the 2026 Audie Awards, sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association, were announced at a gala in New York City. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, narrated by Jefferson White (Scholastic Audio) was named Audiobook of the Year. In addition, the inaugural APA Hall of Fame inductees were honored: narrators George Guidall, Hillary Huber, January LaVoy, Robin Miles, and Simon Vance. To see the Audie winners in the 26 categories, click here.

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The Association of American Publishers has announced the Excellence winners of its annual PROSE Awards--recognizing "outstanding scholarly publications"--as well as the R.R. Hawkins Award, the overall prize.

The winner of the Hawkins Award--and winner of the Excellence in the Humanities Award--is Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Trades by David Eltis (Cambridge University Press).

The other three Excellence winners are:
Biological & Life Sciences: Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery by Mallary Tenore Tarpley (Simon and Schuster)
Social Sciences: The Worst Trickster Story Ever Told: Native America, the Supreme Court, and the U.S. Constitution by Keith Richotte, Jr. (Stanford University Press)
Physical Sciences & Mathematics: Decoherence and Quantum Darwinism: From Quantum Foundations to Classical Reality by Wojciech Hubert Zurek (Cambridge University Press)

photo: Katie Ward

Juliet Izon is a journalist and author who has written for publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Food & Wine, and Architectural Digest. She lives with her husband, daughter, and two Ragdoll cats, splitting her time between New York City and the Hudson Valley. The Encore (Union Square & Co., March 3, 2026), her debut novel, centers on the relationship between pianist and singer Anna Buckley and composer wunderkind Will Pendleton in a journey of love, sacrifice, and destiny.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

If you loved Daisy Jones & the Six, this story set in the music world, with plenty of family secrets and long-lost loves, is for you.

On your nightstand now:

I'm just about to finish T Kira Madden's Whidbey, the author's first novel. Talk about lush prose! This is a book you'll want to read with a pen in your hand: there are so many uniquely beautiful turns of phrases. And zooming out from just the line-level brilliance, this cast of characters is so carefully rendered. None are faultless, all are surprisingly sympathetic, and I'll be thinking about their complex web of connections for a long time.

While I never read more than one novel at a time, I do read across genres simultaneously. For article research right now, I'm reading Daniel J. Levitin's I Heard There Was a Secret Chord, which is a fascinating deep-dive into music's therapeutic powers, as written by someone who is both a neuroscientist and a musician. (And fun fact, this book and mine have the same cover designer, Patrick Sullivan, although I didn't know this until after I'd started reading!)

Favorite book when you were a child:

I could give you a smart-kid answer like C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, but the truth is that the book I read most obsessively as a child was a paperback called Good-bye, Best Friend by Cherie Bennett. It was about a girl with cystic fibrosis who lives at a hospice; I carried it around so much the cover disintegrated. If you ask any of my close friends, they'll tell you this absolutely tracks for my personality, but I'm not quite sure what that says about me on a larger scale....

Your top five authors:

I'm gonna try not to overthink this: Sally Rooney, Ian McEwan, Donna Tartt, Ann Patchett, and Maggie O'Farrell. I think if I were left with only their works on a desert island, I'd be happy.

Book you've faked reading:

The Bible during Sunday school. Eventually, I did read a generous portion of it during various Western Civ classes in college. While it'll never be a favorite read, it did have an impact on so many books that came after it that I think at least a passing familiarity with it can inform reading of many other texts.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Like many of us, I cannot stop talking about Lily King's Heart the Lover. How does she say so much with so little?! How do I know these characters so intimately from just the first few chapters? It's one of the few books I want to read again to dissect purely from a craft perspective.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. There was something about the interplay of those Hokusai waves with the retro, rainbow computer font that instantly intrigued me. And, of course, that's a novel that certainly lives up to its epic cover. Easily one of my favorite books I've read in the last decade.

Book you hid from your parents:

I am very lucky that I never needed to do this! I'm the daughter of two English majors and they welcomed any book into our home, from highbrow to lowbrow.

Book that changed your life:

I thought about this question for a long time. Is it a favorite book? A genre I read for the first time? But I think the answer is a lot simpler than that: it's the first book I ever read, of course. There's nothing that changes your life more fundamentally, as a reader. For me, that book was my mom's tattered copy of Fun with Dick and Jane, which she patiently read alongside me.

Favorite line from a book:

I've never been the sort of person who remembers favorite lines from books, unfortunately. I've spent the past few hours combing my memory for favorite scenes to see if I can remember anything verbatim, but that's just not how my brain works, alas. But I will say my favorite opening line of any book is that famed sentence from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." It sounds so dry at first read. But then as you begin the book, Austen's wit sparkles almost immediately, and you realize she's poking fun at the whole establishment. It makes me chuckle every time.

Five books you'll never part with:

This seriously depends on the day, right? But if I HAD to pick right now:

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Normal People by Sally Rooney
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

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

There is definitely more than one way to interpret this question, depending on what part of reading delights you the most. Is it the craft of writing? So, encountering exquisitely rendered sentences for the first time? Or is it plot, when a book's narrative is so absorbing you lose track of the world around you for hours. For me, it's the latter, and it's hard to think of a world that felt as (literally) magical to sink into than that of Harry Potter. Of course today, it's tricky to recommend anything connected to J.K. Rowling, but even so many years later, I don't think I've ever been as entranced in a first read as I was during Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Animal lovers of all stripes will almost certainly find a new creature to adore in the intriguing primer for chapter book readers Weird, Wild, and Rare: Extraordinary Animals of the United States by debut author Elizabeth Eakes and artist Bindy James (illustrator of Curiosity Club). The American pygmy shrew "must eat every fifteen to thirty minutes" or it could die, and the squirrel chimney cave shrimp is found in only one sinkhole near Gainesville, Fla. The United States is "a country with many different environments" where "some of the weirdest, wildest, and rarest animals on Earth" reside. Eakes and James deliver a clever, approachable primer covering just a handful of these incredible animals.

Eakes features species of bugs (like greater wax moths, which have "the best hearing of any insect"), birds (the blue-footed booby, whose "blue feet become brighter when they have recently eaten"), and mammals (like raccoons who eat "ANYTHING"). Rather than break the animals down by size or region, Eakes groups creatures around loose themes, such as residing in extreme habitats or using an unusual method of self-protection. The reasoning for these themes isn't always clear--one grouping is "endangered animals," though different endangered species appear throughout the book--but the fascinating facts about each animal make up for the hodgepodge sorting.

James's charming artwork highlights the "weird" and "wild" features of each animal in semi-realistic spreads that depict their habitats and, occasionally, their young. A particular highlight is James's depiction of the opossum "playing dead," which expertly captures the way opossums flop their limbs to look convincingly deceased. Symbols indicate when an animal is "Near Threatened," "Vulnerable," "Endangered," or "Critically Endangered," and back matter includes a guide on observing animals, a glossary, and tips on how children can get involved in the fight to protect endangered species. For young readers who love nature and trivia, Weird, Wild, and Rare delivers an assortment of absorbing and fascinating animal facts. --Nicole Brinkley, bookseller and writer

Shelf Talker: This charming, fascinating primer for chapter book readers offers an assortment of fun facts about the strangest creatures that call the United States home.