In a 3-2 vote, the Indian River County School Board in Vero Beach overruled its own book-review committee to remove "Ban This Book" by Alan Gratz. One member described the children's novel as "teaching rebellion of school board authority"; another called it "just a liberal Marxist propaganda piece." - Tallahassee Democrat
A recent survey about the reading habits of Canadians conducted by BookNet Canada, which collects and analyzes data about the Canadian book industry, found that a majority of book readers and audiobook listeners in Canada acquired their books for free in 2023. - Publishers Weekly
The Free Library Foundation's management insisted that none of this season's remaining events were cancelled — and then, as authors have withdrawn, has quietly cancelled them. A few have gone ahead, but not smoothly. - Publishers Weekly
What I’m trying to say is that, if one thinks about it for a moment, it becomes clear that “Latin America” does not exist as a material reality. Much like the utopia of transnational friendship envisioned by the Mexican architects of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the region exists only in the imagination. - The Millions
"The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said in a 2-1 ruling that partially upheld a lower court's injunction that the library in the small town of Llano had infringed on defendants' First Amendment rights to information by removing some of the books." - Reuters
Almost everyone mentioned that debut fiction has become harder to launch. For writers, the stakes are do or die: A debut sets the bar for each of their subsequent books, so their debut advance and sales performance can follow them for the rest of their career. - Esquire
Who else can’t read cursive? I asked the class. The answer: about two-thirds. And who can’t write it? Even more. What did they do about signatures? They had invented them by combining vestiges of whatever cursive instruction they may have had with creative squiggles and flourishes. - The Atlantic
Donoghue doesn’t know why one story “about a risk-loving boy thief and the scary/seductive witch whose island he repeatedly sneaks on to” gripper her. But she remembers “the implicit lesson I learned from my mother: give those you love what they crave.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Understanding someone 100% is probably an illusion. And madness can be seen as a stand-in term for the parts you don’t comprehend. I think those who suffer from madness know they are not completely known.” - The Guardian (UK)
Elin Hildebrand’s noves, "set among the misbehaving moneyed class on Nantucket Island juggle romance and crime and a sun-kissed beach vibe that her fans soak up like coconut oil.” But Hildebrand is saying goodbye to all that. - The New York Times
"As English fluency has increased in Europe, more readers have started buying American and British books in the original language, forgoing the translated versions that are published locally. This is especially true in Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and, increasingly, Germany.” - The New York Times
Unseen and unacknowledged labor is as central to book publishing as Republican politicians being overpaid to write books that no one except their own political action committee actually buys. - LitHub
The Hay and Edinburgh festivals ended their relationships with Baillie Gifford because participating writers threatened to withdraw unless the firm divested from fossil fuels and any company doing business in Israel. Other book festivals followed suit, and Baillie Gifford "read the room" and withdrew entirely. - The Guardian
