News of note for readers: May 8, 2024

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 announced that her book club will next read Long Island by Colm Tóibín (Book Riot).

• Educators are anxious about what they're dubbing the Decline by 9 — that is, the growing trend of kids in third and fourth grade no longer reading for fun (Slate).

• Lesley Hazleton, who wrote biographies of Muhammad, Mary, and Jezebel, has died at the age of seventy-eight (The New York Times).