On LitHub’s list of 16 Books to Read this February: Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller and Autumn by Ali Smith.
Book Riot rounds up JK Rowling’s best Twitter takedowns. And in further Harry Potter news, Bloomsbury is to publish twentieth anniversary editions of the series.
This week, the staff at the Pool are reading Jill Mansell’s Meet Me at Beachcomber Bay and Hold Back the Stars by Katie Khan.
On the Guardian Books website, Claire Armitstead takes an in-depth look at Waterstones’ recovery. James Daunt also tells the Bookseller of the plans to open more than 10 branches of the bookshop chain in the next year.
Julian Sayarer’s book Interstate: Hitchhiking Through the State of a Nation has been named Travel Book of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards. He is donating half of the £5,000 prize money to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who are crucial in the fight against fascism in the US, and encouraging others to join him with smaller donations so that the amount can be doubled.
The Guardian Books podcast has an interview with Sebastian Barry on his Costa-winning novel Days Without End.
The UK’s most borrowed library book in 2015-2016 was, unsurprisingly, The Girl on the Train.