News of note for readers: September 29, 2026

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

• The manager of a London bookstore describes what it was like to find a rare early edition of To Kill A Mockingbird in the donation pile (NPR).

• Two sperm whales were recently recorded headbutting each other, confirming that the first mate who survived a shipwreck that inspired Herman Melville's Moby Dick was correct in arguing that a whale could have used its forehead to sink the ship he was on (People).

• Thélyson Orélien's novel It Was Either That Or Die has gone from a contender for one of France's most prestigious literary prizes to a target of AI accusations, in turn stirring up claims that the author plagiarized in earlier writings (The New York Times).

• Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s most recent financial disclosure reveals two book advances for $2 million apiece from Skyhorse Publishing, an amount that an anti-corruption nonprofit calls unusual (NPR).

• Utah has added seven more titles to the list of books banned from public schools statewide, bringing the total to forty-four (Book Riot).

• Kelly Jensen's weekly roundup of other book ban and challenge news opens with a case study on how she spotted the unreliability and bias of a particular online article (Book Riot).

• Food Network star Ina Garten has declined offers to adapt her 2024 memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, into a movie (People).

• Author Alice Hoffman revealed which authors' books she snuck off of her mother's bookshelf during her childhood, in an appearance on Jenna Bush Hager’s Open Book with Jenna podcast (People).

• Watch a conversation with Angela Flournoy — author of the just released novel The Wilderness — and fellow acclaimed writers Brit Bennett and Raven Leilani (Literary Hub).

• The Choose Your Own Adventure series is getting an imprint for adults; the inaugural lineup comes out next fall and includes a retelling of Pride and Prejudice along with original titles (Book Riot).