Students were already lined up and entering the library when authors Joanna Ho and Caroline Kusin Pritchard arrived for a scheduled visit at Country Club Elementary School in San Ramon, California. 

Before they could begin, Ho and Kusin Pritchard, whose picture book The Day the Books Disappeared celebrates the freedom to read, were called to the principal’s office. Administrators were concerned and didn’t want them to discuss the contemporary landscape of book censorship that inspired their book. The principal directed the authors not to talk about book bans and not to mention queer-authored or queer-centered stories at all.

In a public statement, the authors noted that the principal said the directive came from above despite the fact that the district had approved their visit.

When Ho and Kusin Pritchard refused to change the content of their talk, the event was canceled on the spot, and students were taken back to their classrooms. And this isn’t the first time book banning has touched San Ramon. 

• In 2023, some parents complained about Gender Queer being available in the high school
• Complaints about other LGBTQ+ themed books, as well as books by and about people of color, ramped up over the next year. 
• Some of those challenges have been encouraged by at least one of the district’s school board members. 
• There is an active chapter of Moms For Liberty in the county.

🚫 Read more…

The tide of new books is slowing down as we roll toward the end of the year, but there are still a bunch of notable new releases. How to choose? We’ve developed a highly scientific vibes-based assessment.

The ideal It Book rings four bells:

🔔 Art – Is it good?

🔔 Acclaim – Will it contend for awards and best-of lists?

🔔 Sales  – Where’s the money?

🔔 Zeitgeist – What’s the buzz?

Michelle Obama and Margaret Atwood are up against multiple National Book Award-nominated titles, a funny follow-up from an author whose debut was a surprise smash hit, and the highly anticipated second book in a major romantasy series.

🎧 Listen as we play a knockout round with nine of the month’s biggest new books.

🔪 Halloween hasn’t always been a spooky season staple. In You Can’t Kill the Boogeyman, Wayne Byrne examines the enduring popularity of Michael Myers and why audiences keep returning to Haddonfield.

Learn about how a modest 1978 indie became a cornerstone of American cinema and changed the industry forever, and get exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews with directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, composers, and actors sharing rare firsthand accounts. You Can’t Kill the Boogeyman is available wherever books are sold.

One of our favorite pieces from Book Riot’s back catalog is Kelly Jensen’s story of finding a Little Free Library in the middle of nowhere:

Just over the county line, this Little Free Library sits off the main road on a dirt path that looks a lot like the kind of road you’d take to visit a rest stop while on the highway. The view from the Little Free Library itself does not offer much more. Indeed, it’s an intersection and a lot of crisscrossing power lines. 

The Little Free Library caught my attention immediately, but I did not stop. But I could not stop thinking about that Little Free Library. What was inside? What was its story? Who curated it? There was only one way to find out. I needed to make the trip again. So I did.

I looked through the Library’s offerings and was pleasantly surprised at the range and condition of the titles. There was fiction and nonfiction, a range of genre offerings, and books for not just adults, but children, too.

It looks like the Little Free Library is located in a spot where there is no public library coverage. If anything, this map was a reminder of how underserved by libraries too many folks outside the Chicago area truly can be. 

There is no Little Free Library with Charter number 7274 on the website. Even a deep dive on Google presented zero information about the Library. No associated name or organization. No history of when it was founded. Nothing.

Was this all a figment of my imagination? Is this Little Free Library only there when I am there? I thought the photos would offer some kind of tangible proof, but now I cannot stop questioning whether what I’ve seen is real or something completely made up. Something that could only exist in rural Illinois, on this particular stretch of road, with this particular arrangement of books.

For now, I’ll rest with the magic of stumbling across this Library that has become a source of wonder and of awe in my life. I hope the next time I pass by that it’s still there.

(This has been condensed from her full story, which has a bunch of great photos as well.)

Time again to check in with our friends at Circana for some book sales data. I asked this month about horror sales. Horror has been a hot genre for a while now, which might even be understating it, as horror sales have grown every year for the last five years. The result is that twice as many horror books have sold in 2025 as in 2021. Have things leveled off?

The answer is no. Horror is still on fire, and frontlist (i.e., new) titles are leading the charge. Year over year, new horror title sales are up 33%, which is four times greater than backlist sales. So, not only are people buying more horror, they are showing a preference for new titles and authors.

Three categories are leading the charge (actually four, but hold on a second):

• 👻 Supernatural and haunted settings
• 🧙🏽 Witchcraft & occult
• 🧛🏼‍♂️ Vampires & gothic romance

The fourth "category" is actually just one author, who is a (terrifying) world unto themselves: Stephen King.

Thanks to Circana for the insights.

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A new edition of one of America’s most challenged books is on the way.

Gender Queer, Maia Kobabe’s 2019 graphic memoir about growing up asexual and nonbinary, has been a target of book banning since its publication in 2019. It was the most challenged book in the U.S. for three years running and held the #2 spot last year.

A new edition due out next year expands this now-historic story with annotations from comics scholars and queer and trans cartoonists, a new cover, exclusive art, a foreword by ND Stevenson, and 40 pages of new content. Kobabe reflects:

It’s been almost seven years since I wrote the final words of this memoir; revisiting these pages today, in a radically different and less accepting political climate, sparked a lot of new thoughts for me as well. I hope readers enjoy this even richer text full of community voices.

See preview pages from the annotated edition here, and subscribe to Our Queerest Shelves for more LGBTQ+ book news. – DE

Hannah Rosenberg’s debut poetry collection Same is out now.

As a mother , a reader, and a writer, I can safely say that book clubs are the most incredible way to make and sustain friendships during a season where you feel like you can barely keep up with your laundry, let alone find time for friendship adventures. Book clubs are a manageable time commitment and provide the ability to have shared experiences, even if you haven’t found time to check out a new restaurant or plan a fun trip together. 

Here are three suggestions for your next Motherhood Book Club.

1. Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder: Nightbitch is based in magical realism and, in very short summary, is about a mom figuring out her life and identity after leaving a job she was passionate about to stay at home and raise her young son. I devoured it–it was the type of book that I could not stop myself from bringing it into every conversation for months after reading. I guarantee people will come to this book club with strong opinions, personal anecdotes, and many book pages tagged and highlighted for conversation. 
2. Everyone Is Lying to You by Jo Piazza: This book had me completely hooked. It’s a murder mystery/thriller set ata mom-influencer conference. It is fun to read and covers a range of serious themes. The book made me think about the influencer industry (especially in the momfluencer world) in a completely different way and I could not wait to talk about it with friends. 
3. The Guilt Pill by Saumya Dave: I met Saumya at a recent author event and was so excited to jump into this novel about a woman trying to do it all (be a successful entrepreneur, perfect mom, wife, etc.) who comes across the opportunity to take an experimental pill that will release her from guilt. Talk about relatable. This book will be a perfect companion to the discussion we all need to have with our favorite support group (ahem, book club!).

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