Posted on May 28, 2026 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Catch up quick with the bookish news of the past few days ... or take a deeper dive into each story. Your choice!
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Of the 3,743 unique book titles banned during the 2024-2025 school year, 29 percent are nonfiction, a record 44 percent feature characters or people of color, and only 10 percent include "on the page" consensual sexual experiences (PEN America).
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Pope Leo XIV's recent speech calling for a recommitment to humanism during the rise of artificial intelligence quoted the wizard Gandalf from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Return of the King (Literary Hub).
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Speaking of AI — Helen Phillips's Hum, featuring a protagonist who, at a loss for what to upon losing her job to AI, tries an experimental injection, has won the Climate Fiction Prize (The Guardian).
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Read the short story "The Perpetual Post" by Isabel J. Kim (Reactor).
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If you're interested in beach-read book lists, The New York Times has one for this year's releases, while Book Riot has an all-time best one.
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In other summery news, June is Audiobook Appreciation Month (American Library Association).
Categories: Today in Books