Book PR in Action: Winter 2026
Everything we teach at Book Publicity School stems directly from our decades of publicity experience at Press Shop PR, where we develop and execute over 30 book launch campaigns each year. Some recent highlights:
The end of 2025 and beginning of this year have been busy at Press Shop PR—so busy that we're just now announcing our clients' appearances on end-of-year book lists.
A note before we dive in: several of the books we worked on this year earned spots on the Washington Post's best-of-2025 lists, including two of the five spots on their best nonfiction list. We're thrilled about that—and we'd be remiss not to acknowledge that what Jeff Bezos has done to the Post, and to its book coverage in particular, represents a genuine loss for everyone who cares about serious literary journalism. The Washington Post book section was an institution, and seeing it gutted by a tech billionaire is both disheartening and infuriating.
But books—and the people who love them—endure! Here's a roundup from the past couple months of Press Shop PR’s media campaigns:
Best-of Lists
A Flower Traveled in My Blood (Simon & Schuster), which tells the story of the grandmothers who fought to find their stolen grandchildren during Argentina's brutal dictatorship, earned best-book honors from NPR, Kirkus, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Time's 100 Must-Read Books of the Year—plus a recommendation from the New York Public Library and Nancy Pelosi.
And joining it on the Washington Post’s best books list is Rachel Cockerell’s Melting Point (FSG), a pastiche of historical documents meticulously assembled to tell the story of the Galveston Movement, when 10,000 Jews arrived in Texas seeking a homeland. Abigail Leonard reported on the first year of new motherhood for 4 mothers in 4 countries (the US, Japan, Kenya, and Finland) to write her Four Mothers (Algonquin). It was named a best book of the year by the Sunday Times.
NPR named three of our titles on their best books of the year list: Defiant (Stranger Comics), Breakneck (Norton), and Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama (Henry Holt). Blessings and Disasters also earned a Kirkus nod.
Notable Reviews and Coverage
Elizabeth McLampy's investigation of animal festivals, Forget the Camel (Apollo), received a review in the Wall Street Journal! The piece: Animal Attraction: From metaphors for our behavior to demonstrations of our superior status, we use animals to help define ourselves.
J.R. Thornton's dark academia novel Lucien (HarperCollins) earned a starred review in Publishers Weekly, which called it "an addictive thriller" and "a wild ride readers won't soon forget." More coverage coming for this one in 2026.
Books Meeting the Moment
Some of the most meaningful placements this season came from matching our authors' expertise to urgent current events.
Harvard Professor Eram Alam, author of The Care of Foreigners (Johns Hopkins University Press), was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition discussing one of the less-examined consequences of the current administration's immigration crackdown: the exodus of foreign-born doctors that the American healthcare system cannot afford to lose.
Professor Gabrielle Oliveira's Now We Are Here (Stanford University Press) was featured in Raw Story in a piece on the devastating family separations carried out under the first Trump administration. Her work on the experiences of Latin American immigrant families is finding the readership it deserves.
University of Texas Law School Professor A. Mechele Dickerson joined The Chauncey DeVega Show to discuss The Middle Class New Deal: Restoring Upward Mobility and the American Dream (UC Press, January 2026), her argument for how today's lawmakers could do for the middle class what the post-WWII New Deal once did. Professor Dickerson has additional major media appearances scheduled for later in February.
Jonathan M. Lassiter appeared on Jonathan Van Ness' podcast Getting Better for a conversation about his book How I Know White People Are Crazy (Legacy Lit / Hachette) and the particular challenges he navigates as a therapist serving the gay community and people of color.
Okay phew, now back to pitching our Spring books!