Books

A single viral Fairfax school board speech in September 2021 marked the turning point when book bans went from scattered complaints to an organized political movement. Trace how coordinated groups and state legislatures turned "parental rights" into librarian criminalization laws, and how thirteen states have since pushed back with freedom-to-read bills.

— via Book Riot, Kelly Jensen

A reading list built around one obsession: folklore and horror have always fed on each other, from campfire tales to today's best-selling anthologies. Anthologies from Indigenous authors, Nalo Hopkinson's Caribbean-inspired stories and Appalachian gothic all make the cut for Halloween.

— via Book Riot, Lyndsie Manusos

Halloween hogs all the autumn book love, but a stack of graphic novels proves the season has more to offer: pumpkin patch romance, apple orchard crushes, and a witch who gets talked out of destroying humanity by soup.

— via Book Riot, Eileen Gonzalez

No cushions, no subtitles, hours-long operas in a sweltering hall, and a festival still wrestling with its founder's antisemitism and Nazi ties. A mostly Jewish group of superfans still made the pilgrimage to Bayreuth's 150th, and found swastikas for sale downtown.

— via The Paris Review, Krithika Varagur

Anna May Wong needed a citizenship form to leave her own country, couldn't legally marry the men she loved, and got locked out of buying a house in Los Angeles despite her fame. Her private letters reveal how she navigated Hollywood's ugliest casting snub with a poise that still holds lessons today.

— via Literary Hub, Shirley Jennifer Lim

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— via Book Riot, Deals

Barack Obama is trading the Presidential Daily Brief for a book club. Audible and Higher Ground just revealed who's joining the former president on his new podcast lineup.

— via Book Riot, S. Zainab Williams

Here are the 10 works of fiction on the National Book Award longlist in 2026.

— via Book Riot, Community

Today, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation, which celebrates “writers whose work demonstrates the power of the written word to foster peace,” announced the winners of the 2026 Dayton Literary…

— via Literary Hub, Literary Hub

Today, the National Book Foundation announced the longlist for the 2026 National Book Award for Fiction. These ten titles were selected from a pool of 451 books submitted for consideration…

— via Literary Hub, Literary Hub

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— via Book Riot, Deals

Skip the doom-scrolling and try a martial artist reincarnated as a farmer whose chickens learn kung fu. Five more low-stakes fantasy picks, from a witch who cooks palace meals to adventurers mistaken for kindergarten teachers.

— via Book Riot, Liberty Hardy

Anne de Bourgh, Mary Bennet and even a Korean bookshop scribe get their own love stories in this roundup of Austen-inspired historical romance. Seven picks range from direct Pride and Prejudice sequels to retellings that move the story continents away.

— via Book Riot, Rachel Brittain

Eight picture books, eight countries, one point: "African" isn't a setting. From a Cairo lullaby to a Kenyan teen's real invention that stopped lions from killing cows, these stories come from authors who've actually lived the places they write about.

— via Book Riot, Margaret Kingsbury