News of note for readers: May 15, 2025

Catch up quick with the bookish news of the past few days ... or take a deeper dive into each story. Your choice! 

• Oprah Winfrey has selected Ocean Vuong's new release, The Emperor of Gladness, for her book club; the novel tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a nineteen-year-old and an elderly widow suffering from dementia (CBS).

• Wicked star Cynthia Erivo will play all twenty-three roles in a one-woman production of Dracula set to open next year in London's West End (Deadline).

• Learn the identities of the guest editors and check out the covers for the Best American Series 2025; collections include short stories, essays, mystery and suspense, science and nature writing, science fiction and fantasy, and food and travel writing (Literary Hub).

• We still have over a year to wait for Greta Gerwig's film adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia, but here's what we know so far (Book Riot).

• Nahid Rachlin, whose debut novel, Foreigner, was one of the first from an Iranian to be written in English, died April 30 at age eighty-five (The New York Times).