News of note for readers: June 12, 2025

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

• Oregon’s state House of Representatives has passed a bill that would protect access to books in school libraries; Governor Tina Kotek is expected to sign it into law (Literary Hub).

• The Education Minnesota-St. Francis union and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota have prevailed in their lawsuit against the St. Francis School District over its removal of books and use of the rightwing group Moms for Liberty's Book Looks website; the settlement returns the targeted books to shelves and decisions on content removal to teachers, librarians, and student representatives (CBS News).

• The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, an institution that has long celebrated Black literature (Langston Hughes's ashes are buried there), turns one hundred this year (The New York Times).

• Check out the cover of The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams and learn about the design process for this January 27 release (Electric Literature).

• After years of starts and stops, Andy Serkis's animated adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm has finally premiered at a film festival; distribution plans are still in the works (The Hollywood Reporter).

• Oprah Winfrey has again chosen a Wally Lamb book for her book club: the new release, The River Is Waiting (Book Riot). 

• Speaking of Winfrey, the author whom she scolded for making up parts of a memoir — James Frey — is back on the media circuit because of the release of a novel, Next to Heaven (The New York Times).