Starred Reviews Releasing This Week

December 1, 2025 through December 7, 2025
All the books to receive starred reviews in PW that are hitting bookstore shelves this week.
FICTION

House of Day

Olga Tokarczuk, trans. from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Riverhead, $28 (336p) ISBN 978-0-593-71638-0

Complete Review »

Pushcart Prize L: Best of the Small Presses

Edited by Bill Henderson. Pushcart, $38 (624p) ISBN 979-8-98546-978-3

Complete Review »

The Aquatics

Osvalde Lewat, trans. from the French by Maren Baudet-Lackner. Coffee House, $18 trade paper (248p) ISBN 978-1-56689-745-7

Complete Review »

Galapagos

Fátima Vélez, trans. from the Spanish by Hannah Kauders. Astra House, $22 (208p) ISBN 978-1-6626-0226-9

Complete Review »

MYSTERY/THRILLER

Silent Bones

Val McDermid. Atlantic Crime, $28 (448p) ISBN 978-0-8021-6439-1

Complete Review »

The Night Watcher

Tariq Ashkanani. Thomas & Mercer, $16.99 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-6625-2801-9

Complete Review »

The Gallagher Place

Julie Doar. Zibby, $17.99 trade paper (336p) ISBN 979-8-9923770-0-2

Complete Review »

ROMANCE/EROTICA

Rules of the Heart

Janice Hadlow. Holt, $29.99 (480p) ISBN 978-1-250-12946-8

Complete Review »

NONFICTION

Daring to Be Free: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World

Sudhir Hazareesingh. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $32 (432p) ISBN 978-0-374-61107-1

Complete Review »

Frostlines: A Journey Through Entangled Lives and Landscapes in a Warming Arctic

Neil Shea. Ecco, $28 (240p) ISBN 978-0-06-313857-5

Complete Review »

Smartphone Nation: Building Digital Boundaries When Offline Isn’t an Option

Kaitlyn Regehr. Dial, $28 (240p) ISBN 979-8-217-15459-3

Complete Review »

The Six Loves of James I

Gareth Russell. Atria, $32 (496p) ISBN 978-1-6680-4968-6

Complete Review »

Return of the King: The Rebirth of Muhammad Ali and the Rise of Atlanta

Thomas Aiello. Univ. of Nebraska, $36.95 (344p) ISBN 978-1-4962-4418-5

Complete Review »

Evergreen: The Trees That Shaped America

Trent Preszler. Algonquin, $29 (224p) ISBN 978-1-64375-670-7

Complete Review »

Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage

Christine Kuehn. Celadon, $29.99 (272p) ISBN 978-1-250-34446-5

Complete Review »

Progress: How One Idea Built Civilization and Now Threatens to Destroy It

Samuel Miller McDonald. St. Martin’s, $34 (432p) ISBN 978-1-250-27831-9

Complete Review »

CHILDREN'S

Meet the Smushkins (The Smushkins #1)

Claudia Rueda. Candlewick, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5362-3658-3

Complete Review »

The Vanishing Sea: The Tale of How the Aral Sea Became the Aral Desert

Dinara Mirtalipova. Chronicle, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-79722-459-6

Complete Review »

COMICS

Making Nonfiction Comics: A Guide for Graphic Narrative

Shay Mirk and Eleri Harris. Abrams ComicArts, $29.99 (272p) ISBN 978-1-4197-6927-6

Complete Review »

POETRY

Bakandamiya

Saddiq Dzukogi. Univ. of Nebraska, $18.95 trade paper (112p) ISBN 978-1-4962-4427-7

Complete Review »

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