Mega Bestselling Thriller Writer Freida McFadden’s Identity Revealed

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Here are the biggest headlines from last week.

The Millions Has Released Their Spring 2026 Book Preview

The Millions released their Great Spring 2026 Book review—one of their biannual Great Book Previews—just this past Friday. Right off the bat, it gets into some of our most anticipated. There’s One Leg on Earth by ‘Pemi Aguda, London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe, Last Night in Brooklyn by Xochitl Gonzalez, and My Dear You by Rachel Khong, to name a few.

A List of Black Book Festivals Throughout the Country

Sisters from AARP has published a list of Black Book Festivals happening throughout the country this year, and all I have to say is nobody told me nothing! I’m kidding, but only a little. It’s nice to be able to look at everything in one place. The dates start as early as April 25 and run until the fall, with locations in the South, the West, the Midwest, and the Northeast.

The Best Historical Fiction Books of the Century So Far

The best historical fiction books of the century so far take us from ancient Greece to the Joseon dynasty in Korea to the Six-Day War in Palestine to 1980s NASA astronaut training. Historical fiction continues to be biased towards recent events, but we are getting to see more of history around the world than we did just a few decades ago.

Mega Bestselling Thriller Writer Freida McFadden’s Identity Revealed

This is kind of fun. I love a good mystery surrounding an author’s true identity (remember the whole thing surrounding Argylle? It was a cute little time), and McFadden is the latest author to have their true self shrouded in mystery. I’ve yet to read any of her books, which have been all up and down recent bestseller lists, but I have to say her Secret Author Identity game is immaculate. Apparently, Sara Cohen (her real name) is a doctor who specializes in brain disorders. To maintain privacy, she’s used not just the McFadden pseudonym, but a wig and glasses. It’s so extra, I love it. A++ disguise.

The Inaugural James Patterson & Bookshop.org Prize

I’m always excited to see what Bookshop.org does next, and I have to say that their latest announcement is pretty dope. They’ve partnered with James Patterson to honor full-length debut books published in the U.S. within the last year with the ‍James Patterson & Bookshop.org Prize. The award stays true to Bookshop.org’s ethos by relying on booksellers for all nominations and selections. The first winner of the award—The Correspondent by Virginia Evans—is an epistolary novel that really made the rounds last year. The runner-up for the prize is Milo Todd’s trans WWII novel, The Lilac People.