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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.
David Baldacci Donating $13 Million to Fund Civil Discourse Initiative
Bestselling author David Baldacci is donating $13 million to fund an initiative to promote civil discourse and educate people about “how to be informed members of a democracy.” Citing books as “body armor against bigotry,” Baldacci is partnering with his alma mater Virginia Commonwealth University and the Library of Virginia to plan, among other things, a speaker series and public debates intended to foster “civil, constructive and respectful dialogue about complex issues.” The details are still in the works, but Baldacci’s vision is clear: get people off their phones and into rooms with each other.
“I think when you bring people together physically and the anonymity goes away, that all of a sudden they’re accountable — it’s a totally different dynamic,” he said. “Just bring people back together and have good debates, civilly, peacefully, knowing that everybody deserves respect, regardless of what they think.
May his efforts succeed.
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The Booker Cometh
The 2025 Booker Prizes will be announced today in a ceremony beginning at 4:30pm Eastern (livestream it here). Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny seems to be readers’ favorite, but the oddsmakers favor Andrew Miller’s The Land in Winter. While you await the announcement, get the backstories on this year’s Fiction finalists.
Book Designers Name the Best Book Covers of 2025
In a year dominated by spredges and commercial rom-coms that all looked the same, unique book covers really stand out. Reader’s Digest asked three professional designers to pick the best book covers of the year, and there are some interesting trends among the 12 featured titles. What was it about eyeballs in 2025?!
Speculating on the Book of the Year
2025 has been kind of a weird one in books. Coming off of James running the tables last year, we haven’t really had a Big Novel this year. Neither has there been a paradigm-shifting work of nonfiction like 2024’s The Anxious Generation or a major celebrity memoir. The field is wide open. Join us as we speculate about what will be 2025’s Book of the Year.