News of note for readers: July 23, 2026

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

• San Diego Comic-Con attendees got to see the first few minutes of season three of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, based on the third book in Rick Riordan’s YA series (Variety).

• Apple TV has acquired adaptation rights for Rebecca Yarros's upcoming romance novel, Peculiar Stars, and the author will serve as an executive producer on the series (People).

• The movie The Joy of Sex, which follows the creation of the eponymous intimacy manual, will star Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, and Laura Linney (Deadline).

• Charles Gaines, author of Pumping Iron, a book and later documentary helped popularize bodybuilding, died Tuesday at age eighty-four (The Associated Press).

• Authors commenting online that the Bath Children's Literature Festival lacked diversity were asked to delete the posts and later discovered that their comments elsewhere were deleted (The Guardian).

• Here's the longlist for the 2026 First Novel Prize (Book Riot).