The book world rallies for Los Angeles (This week in books)

This week! Books!

In a week where we have a new president and rich, evil dweebs are out doing Nazi salutes, the fight to ban books continues apace. In Utah, students can no longer even bring their personal copies of banned books to school. The list of banned books includes perennial book ban favorite Ellen Hopkins, as well as Margaret Atwood’s prescient climate change dystopia Oryx and Crake. Gee, I wonder why!!

Speaking of climate change, the book world has been amazing in support of the L.A. wildfires, which (FINGERS CROSSED) will hopefully ease with some direly needed rain this weekend. Nathalie op de Beeck at Publishers Weekly rounded up some of the ways the book world has contributed, and Justin Ray at The Guardian profiles Atladena’s Nikki High, owner of Pasadena bookstore Octavia’s Bookshelf, which quickly transformed into a mutual aid center. Inspiring stuff!

In less positive news, Bertelsmann, parent company of Penguin Random House, announced a “strategic collaboration” partnership with OpenAI, which, I fear, could be used to squeeze a dwindling number of marketing employees to use ChatGPT to write crappier copy.

In the wake of sexual abuse allegations against Neil Gaiman, Jessa Crispin torches the publishing industry for long holding him up as a model author, even as there were whispers and snickers about his conduct. She also delves into Amanda Palmer’s exploitative relationship with her fanbase, which contributed to them becoming favorites among the billionaire class.

As negotiations dragged on between Amazon and Bloomsbury UK on sales terms, it looked as if Bloomsbury UK’s titles might be dropped from Amazon’s store, but they came to an 11th hour agreement.

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

1. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
2. The Big Empty by Robert Crais
3. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
4. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
5. James by Percival Everett

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. The House of My Mother by Shari Franke
2. The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
3. The JFK Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch
4. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
5. Brooke Shields is Not Allowed To Get Old by Brooke Shields with Rachel Bertsche

Young adult hardcover:

1. If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin
2. Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter
3. The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold
4. A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
5. Murtagh by Christopher Paolini

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
2. Refugee by Alan Gratz
3. The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
4. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
5. Warriors: Changing Skies #1: The Elders’ Quest by Erin Hunter

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

• A dreamy writer’s retreat in Wales

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Bluesky and Threads
• Follow my page on Facebook
• Join the Facebook Group
• Check out the Bransforums

And finally, Spike Jonze’s incredibly prescient movie Her took place in 2025, and Gina Cherelus takes a look at what it got right as real people start engaging meaningfully with A.I. I honestly can’t get enough of these profiles of everyday people who have fallen in love with A.I. chatbots. People worry way too much about a rogue A.I. taking over the world and not enough about emotional manipulation by the deeply unscrupulous people who control this technology.

Have a great weekend!

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