News of note for readers: July 14, 2026

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

• Three publishers and author Scott Turow have filed a copyright violation lawsuit against Google for using books to train AI models (Book Riot).

• Kelly Jensen explains her reporting process on censorship issues, in general, and how it relates to accusations about the New York Public Library's track record — and the institution's response to such claims (Book Riot).

• Here's some more context on Dinaw Mengestu's resignation as president of PEN America, which came after the organization released a report on the war in Gaza's effect on Israeli and Jewish authors (The Hollywood Reporter).

• To mark the tenth anniversary of her book It Ends With Us, author Colleen Hoover is selling personalized, signed copies of the book and donating all of the profit to shelters for domestic violence survivors (People). 

• Perhaps unsurprisingly, explicit adult romance — also referred to as "smut" or "spice" — is widely read and enjoyed, but roughly half of them described it as a "secret guilty pleasure" and said they've felt "embarrassed or judged" for reading it (People).

• Read an excerpt from Famous Men by Julie Buntin (Literary Hub).

• Brittany Allen reviews Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, a new documentary about the well-known poet (Literary Hub).

• Author Tegan Nia Swanson has won the 2026 DAG Prize for Literature (Literary Hub).