In the weeks leading up to the holidays, boxed sets can sell over four times as much as they sell in an average week throughout the rest of the year. And for good reason: boxed sets are a perfect gift and a solid deal for budget-conscious shoppers. The top selling sets are almost always titles—Middle

Witchy season is right around the corner, and every fall sees a predictable increase in consumer interest in witchy books, both fiction and nonfiction. Some readers are leaning into the Practical Magic aesthetic, which has gained a new generation of fans on TikTok. Others are interested in casting spells themselves, or observing Mabon (the autumnal

Researchers have found that divorce rates reliably rise every August. There is speculation that the summer, with vacations and breaks from school, focuses more attention on family and home life, sometimes revealing marital conflict. August also allows some time for the dust to settle ahead of the busy family gatherings of the holiday season. No

In You’ve Got Mail, Meg Ryan waxed poetic about the coming of fall and the attendant romance of “a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils.” Even for folks whose school days are long behind them, the back-to-school season can provide a bit of motivation or excitement. With summer vacations over and the holiday crush not yet

We’ve all seen the proliferation of artistic content created by generative AI. From visual art to poetry to music, advanced technology is entering realms once thought to be solely the domain of human beings. At the same time, clips of a TED talk by Ethan Hawke on the value of human creativity have begun to

The end of winter is in sight, and, as gardeners know, it’s time for planting once the ground thaws. In recent years, younger generations have taken up gardening, and Millennials are now the largest group of gardeners in the U.S. Many came to the hobby during lockdown in 2020, but the shift has been observed

More Americans than ever are adopting a plant-based diet—at least part-time. The number of people who identify as vegan, vegetarian, or flexitarian has been steadily rising over the past several years, and nonwhite Americans are three times as likely to be vegetarian as white Americans. Most people who adopt a more plant-based diet make the

Since 1976, Black History Month has been observed every February, but its origins date back half a century before its observance was formally established. In 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), designated the second week of February—the week encompassing the birthdays of

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…that magical season when publications release their Best Books of the Year lists. And while these lists from The New York Times, B&N, Amazon, Goodreads, NPR, and so many more are populated pretty much exclusively by frontlist titles, this opportunity doesn’t end when the ball drops on December

It seems like hardly a week goes by without the introduction of a buzzy term to encapsulate our evolving relationship with working. Since 2020, we’ve been talking about essential workers, remote work, working parents, the great resignation, unionization, quiet quitting, the gig economy, and how, despite all this talk of work, supposedly no one wants

From the BuJo method to morning pages to gratitude lists, journaling continues to grow in popularity. Industrywide sales of journals increase dramatically during the Q4 gifting season and have risen year over year since 2017. The category’s growth doesn’t show signs of slowing, and folks are certainly still posting #BurnAfterWriting TikToks. Journals are also a

The rumors are true: we’re barely into September, and people are already getting a jump on their holiday shopping. With many feeling the impact of rising costs, shoppers seem to be spreading out their spending over a few months, rather than starting to shop for everyone on their list in late November. We’ve learned that