As we head into fall, the slow summer season makes way for the busy season of big books, book award season, and a host of other bookish announcements. This week, we have a reading list from a very bookish president, another list of award finalists, and an article about how reading in America is on the decline. So let’s jump right in!
President Obama’s 2025 Reading List Announced
Few reading lists are treasured more than President Obama’s. So when his team shared his summer reading on social media, it made quite the splash. It included several nonfiction titles, including Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst, Who Is Government? by Michael Lewis, and The Sirens’ Call by Chris Hayes.
Finalists for the 2025 Kirkus Prize Revealed
Book Award Season is well underway. Next up, the Kirkus Prizes for fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature. The finalists are chosen from the starred reviews that have been featured throughout the year. The finalists for the nonfiction award include a range of titles, from a couple stranded at sea to a new biography of James Baldwin
King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati RoyThe winners of the prizes will be announced in New York on October 8. The event will be livestreamed on Kirkus’ YouTube channel at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.
12 Book Censorship Posts to Revisit: August 29, 2025
Book Riot’s own Kelly Jensen has spent years covering censorship in the U.S., providing timely coverage of the latest book challenges and giving her readers actionable steps on ways we can fight against book banning in our own communities. In a recent post, she gave a roundof up of her past coverage. So if you’re looking for a way to catch up on the latest news in book banning, this is the perfect place to start.
Fewer People Are Reading for Fun, Study Finds (The New York Times)
Everyone and their mother’s brother have been talking about this article that came out back in August. Using data from the American Time Use Survey, researchers found that fewer Americans are reading for fun. There are a lot of interesting highlights from the article, but I was drawn to a quote that said, “The findings showed significant demographic disparities among those who read for pleasure. For example, in 2023, the most highly educated people were more than twice as likely to read as the least educated, and high-income people were about 1.5 times as likely to read as low-income people. Those disparities widened over time.”
That’s it for this week! You can find me over on my Substack Winchester Ave, or over on Instagram @kdwinchester. As always, feel free to drop me a line at [email protected]. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.
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