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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.
The Rehab Demon Copperhead Built
Barbara Kingsolver, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Demon Copperhead depicted the catastrophic impacts of the opioid crisis in Appalachia, has used the profits from the book to fund an addiction recovery center in Lee County, Virginia. When Higher Ground Women’s Recovery Center opens later this spring, it will offer housing, counseling services, and other support, including education and career services, for up to 12 women at a time, for stays as long as two years. If you know anything about rehab centers, you know that is an incredibly generous care plan. Kingsolver, who conducted much of her research for Demon Copperhead in Lee County, returned soon after the book’s release—it was an immediate hit and eventually sold more than 3 million copies—and asked people directly affected by opioid addiction what she could do to help. Upon learning that recovering addicts often do not have access to housing and job prospects, she set out to create a solution that would address both. May her efforts succeed.
Fare Thee Well, Tom Robbins
The novelist Tom Robbins has died at the age of 92. Known for infusing his work with humor and whimsy, Robbins penned bestsellers—Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Skinny Legs and All, Jitterbug Perfume—in addition to essays that revealed a voracious curiosity. Robbins, who was aware that “establishment critics…write me off as a counterculture writer,” knew his work was about much more than LSD-fueled imagery and countercultural themes. As professor Catherine E. Hoyser, who once wrote a guide to Robbins’s work for her students, told NPR, “People who believed that he was a drug-taking bon-vivant that wasn’t particularly serious in his work actually don’t pay attention to the profound nature underneath that humor.” Those who read more closely will see that Robbins “was an advocate for feminism, social justice and the environment.”
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Say “I Do” to a Bookstore Wedding
If you’re looking for a last-minute Valentine’s Day gift or a way to give your sweetie a not-so-subtle hint that you’re ready to write the next chapter of your life together, try slipping a copy of Judith Rosen’s Bookstore Romance onto your coffee table. Containing profiles of 24 couples who got engaged or married in independent bookstores, the book was inspired by a noticeable uptick in social media posts about bookstore engagements. Rosen, a longtime Publishers Weekly correspondent, sought to feature both diverse couples and diverse settings. Marquee indies like City Lights, The Ripped Bodice, and Paris’s Shakespeare and Company make appearances alongside newer and less-well-known venues that showcase readers’ endless creativity when it comes to capturing their love..and their love of books.
Big-Picture Book Sales Data
On a scale of A to F, how are book sales doing? On the latest episode of the Book Riot Podcast, Jeff O’Neal speaks with Circana’s Brenna Connor about the state of book sales coming out of 2024 and looking to the year ahead. Of the industries Circana tracks, books are among the handful of consumer products that over-performed in 2024. Can we expect the trend to continue? Which segments are growing, and which are lagging? Listen wherever you find your podcasts.
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