Ling Ling Huang’s new novel, IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, is receiving lots of praise ahead of its highly anticipated release. BookPage has given it a starred review, calling it “a frightening, enlightening powerhouse of a book.” In a review for Shelf Awareness, editor Elizabeth DeNoma writes: “IMMACULATE CONCEPTION is a dazzlingly ambitious feat of storytelling…Huang's style is as captivating and distinctive as the story itself, with incisive prose that is alternately evocative, funny, and caustic…a simmering rumination on covetousness, resilience, and atonement…[It] is a virtuosic work beaming the spectrum of human emotions through a prism of indifferent technology.” The book also received a nod on Shelf Awareness’ “Reading with…” feature with Kevin Nguyen, who calls it a “ twistily structured send-up of the art world.” Goodreads recommends the book to viewers of SEVERANCE on its “What to Read Based on Your Pop Culture Obsessions” round up. Elle and Reader’s Digest featured the book on their must-read lists for 2025. Lastly, the novel is a May Book Club Pick for both Aardvark Book Club and The Good Housekeeping Book Club. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION will be published by Dutton on May 13, 2025.

Kailee Pedersen’s SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS has been honored by the Otherwise Award as one of five works on its 2024 Long List. The Otherwise Award (formerly known as the Tiptree Award), founded in 1991, is a juried award for speculative fiction works that explore gender. The novel and other honored works will be celebrated at the WisCon 2025 convention gala on May 25. SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS was published by St. Martin’s Press on August 20, 2024.

Joan Didion’s posthumous book NOTES TO JOHN debuted on The New York Times Bestsellers list for the week of May 11, 2025, appearing at #6 on the Hardcover Nonfiction list and #4 on the Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction list. Knopf published the book on April 22, 2025.

The paperback edition of SOCIOPATH by Patric Gagne debuted at #9 on the Paperback Nonfiction New York Times Bestsellers list for the week of April 27, 2025. Simon and Schuster published the hardcover edition on April 2, 2024, and the paperback on April 8, 2025.

HABITATIONS author Sheila Sundar joined co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan on the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast to discuss “the targeting of international university students, especially those involved in pro-Palestine speech or protests, by the Trump administration…[and] international students’ contributions to American intellectual life and how the current assault on diversity damages academia.” Sundar also read an excerpt from HABITATIONS. Simon & Schuster published the hardcover edition of HABITATIONS on April 2, 2024, and the paperback on April 8, 2025.

In an exclusive piece with People magazine, Padma Lakshmi shared details about her new cookbook, PADMA’S ALL AMERICAN: “Dishes featured in the upcoming release include Indian coconut rice, Peruvian tamales with chicken, Afghani dumplings with leeks and scallions, Oaxacan mushroom tacos and a strawberry, cardamom and cream cake…[and] Lakshmi’s 15-year-old daughter, Krishna, made her own contribution. ‘Krishna has her own recipe in there, and you can also see in the photos how she’s grown just in the years it took me to put this book together,’ the author says. ‘This book is a scrapbook of our lives in food over the last six-seven years.’” The book was also featured on Eater: “Arriving at a time when immigrant communities around the U.S. find themselves increasingly under scrutiny and threat, Padma’s All American describes itself as ‘a joyful book — a reflection of who we truly are as a nation, from one of our most essential culinarians.’” Knopf will publish PADMA’S ALL AMERICAN on November 4, 2025.

Maggie Millner has won the “5 Under 35” honor from the National Book Foundation for her debut work COUPLETS: A LOVE STORY. The book was selected by C Pam Zhang. Praising COUPLETS, she writes: “These words cut to the hot quick of longing; these pages bleed beauty. Tender, prickly, funny, self-effacing, cerebral, erotic, and luminous, this is a book that never settles, forever restless, an ode to that deepest and most abiding form of love — that for one’s many infinite selves.” COUPLETS was published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux on February 6, 2024.

Ahead of publication, Ling Ling Huang’s IMMACULATE CONCEPTION is receiving high praise. Booklist has given it a starred review, where Cari Dubiel writes: “Huang’s sophomore outing is just as brilliant and unsettling as NATURAL BEAUTY…[She] is a master of mixing the speculative with the contemporary, harnessing near-future possibilities to show us just how far humanity will go to achieve the impossible while ignoring very real consequences.” The novel was featured on best new books of spring round ups by Bustle and Harper’s Bazaar. The Portland Tribune also covered the upcoming release in a digital article. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION will be published by Dutton on May 13, 2025.

James Comey’s third book in his Nora Carleton series, FDR DRIVE, received a starred review in Publishers Weekly with the following praise: “Comey’s ripped-from-the-headlines plot…never loses steam. This proves that Comey the crime novelist is here to stay.” The novel will be published by Mysterious Press on May 20, 2025.