News of note for readers: August 8, 2025

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

• Read an excerpt from Arundhati Roy's upcoming memoir; Mother Mary Comes to Me releases September 2 (Vogue).

• Kelly Jensen analyzes the actions taken in Texas and Florida that both prove book challenges are not truly about local control ... and that also spell trouble for other states with similar-minded legislatures (Book Riot).

• Sallie Bingham, who wrote multiple novels, short-story collections, poetry collections, and plays ... and the explosive family memoir Passion and Prejudice, died Wednesday at age eighty-eight (The New York Times).