An Indie List of 100 Bestselling Books of 2025 (So Far)

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

Bookshop.org’s 100 Bestselling Books of the Year (So Far)

Bookshop.org’s list could not be more different from the Circana BookScan list of top 10 bestselling books of the year so far. I mean, this is a list of 100 versus 10 and if Bookshop’s list is in order of rank it doesn’t explicitly say. This is also a list pulled from a demographic that is invested in supporting independent bookstores and able to make that choice. These books reflect a population of readers who are progressive, online, and engaged in the cultural and political landscape. What can I say, I love this list. It includes the big, buzzy books you’d expect (the Empyrean series and Sunrise on the Reaping are right up there) but also my personal backlist and new release faves. I’m looking at Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad, two Robin Wall Kimmerer books (Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry)! This is a list I’d turn to if I got stuck on the decision of what to read next.

A “True” Story Exposé for Your Tuesday

There’s a new film out starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, an adaptation based on a 2018 memoir called The Salt Path. The book follows a couple in their 50s–Raynor Winn and her husband, Moth, who they discover is terminally ill–who go on a long-distance South West Coast Path walk after losing their home to a bad investment. But reporting from The Observer argues that while the story of the couple’s spiritual journey may be true (only they can know that), the memoir’s admirable main characters are largely fabrication. Through conversations with a host of people who know the couple not as Raynor Winn and Moth, but as Sally and Tim Walker, Chloe Hadjimatheou details the Walkers’ history of theft, resulting in the loss of their home, of unlikely medical diagnosis, and of disappearing acts to escape criminal prosecution. Hadjimatheou tells the story of the heartbroken woman who watched the Walkers’ rise to fame knowing they had stolen from her and husband. To me, this is yet another reminder to take every memoir and “true” story with a grain of…salt.

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A Crackdown on Women Writers of Gay Erotica

BBC News reported on the at least 30 writers, mainly young women, who have been arrested in China for writing gay erotica. The women are accused of breaking a national pornography law and face the possibility of more than a decade in jail. While leniency is afforded to sexually explicit heterosexual scenes, the law sets gay sex beside “other sexual perversions.” The article describes a crack down that has increased in scope and scale as China’s birth rate plummets, traditional family values are promoted, and local governments sink deeper into debt. It paints a terrifying picture of how censorship can have direct and deeply damaging impact on a country’s citizens.

Here’s What the Biggest Book Clubs are Reading in July 2025

Want to find out what the biggest book clubs are reading right now? Read along with the Subtle Asian Book Club, Reese’s Book Club, The Stacks Book Club, and more.