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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.
2025 Kirkus Prize Finalists Announced
The finalists for the 2025 Kirkus Prizes have been announced. In order to be eligible for the $50,000 prize available in each category, books must receive a starred review in Kirkus, a distinction bestowed on only 10% of all titles reviewed in a given year. This year’s finalists were chosen from the 7,653 books reviewed during the eligibility period.
The finalists for the fiction prize are: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai, The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy, Isola by Allegra Goodman, A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar, The Slip by Lucas Schaefer, and Flesh by David Szalay. See the finalists in nonfiction and young people’s literature here. The Kirkus Prizes will be awarded at a ceremony in New York on October 8 and can be livestreamed via Kirkus‘s YouTube channel.
The Trailer for Hamnet Will Break Your Heart
My confidence index on Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Hamnet was already through the roof, but holy cow, this trailer. This was the reaction when I shared it at Book Riot HQ:
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Hamnet, based on Maggie O’Farrell’s award-winning 2020 novel, tells the story of Shakespeare writing Hamlet as he and his wife mourned the death of their 11-year-old son. Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley star as William and Agnes Shakespeare. Hamnet will be in theaters November 27. Get your hankies ready.
Anthropic Settles AI Book Piracy Suit
Anthropic has settled a class action lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement. Terms of the settlement aren’t yet available. The settlement comes after Anthropic notched a significant win in June, when a federal judge ruled that the AI startup’s use of legally purchased books was permitted under fair use doctrine. The judge in that case noted that using pirated books to train LLMs is a violation of copyright law, which left the door open for this follow-up litigation. Details will likely be revealed after the settlement is finalized September 3. This is an encouraging and important development.
Katabasis is the Indisputable Book of the Summer. Is it Good?
The only thing better than finally getting to read a book you’ve been waiting on all year is talking about it with smart bookish friends. Jeff, Vanessa, and I had a great time discussing R.F. Kuang’s dark academia-fantasy-satire and whether it delivers on the hype. Plenty spoiler-free discussion if you’re looking for that.
