Censorship comes to Congress (This week in books)

This week! Books!

Lots and lots and lots of links saved up. Limited captions, but enjoy the bounty.

Also, a quick housekeeping matter. I’m having an issue with my discussion forums, which will likely be sunsetting soon. More to come on that.

Why We Must Fight to Stop HR 7661 Before It Destroys the Lives of American Children – Maris Kreizman, Lit Hub / A Nationwide Book Ban Bill Has Been Introduced in the House of Representatives – Kelly Jensen, Book Riot – A five alarm fire of a bill has been introduced to the House of Representatives that would ban books for those under 18 that include “sexually oriented material,” which in the land of right-wing euphemisms is code for anything remotely LBGTQ+, and in this case would include lewd and lascivious dancing. Stop these ghouls before it’s too late.

Ann Godoff, a Top Editor and Publisher of Best Sellers, Dies at 76 – Sam Roberts, New York Times / The Ruthless Benevolence of a Great Editor – Franklin Foer, The Atlantic – Ann Godoff, who edited a veritable who’s who of writers and founded Penguin Press, passed away.

Writers House Founder Al Zuckerman Dies at 94 – Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly – Influential literary agent Al Zuckerman, who founded Writers House, passed away this week at 94.

What Not Reading Does to Your Writing – Lincoln Michel, Counter Craft / The View from Inside: On Adding Interiority to Your Fiction – Lincoln Michel, Counter Craft – What author Lincoln Michel dubs “TV writing” has become a pervasive issue among the unpublished, where novels are just dialogue and stage direction without the interiority that typically makes novels great. He knocks these writing advice posts out of the park.

Authors Guild Launches Expanded “Human Authored” Certification Program – Authors Guild – No offense to the Authors Guild, which does some important work, but a “certification” program that a book is “human authored” based on the honor system is totally meaningless.

Hungry for Affirmation, Vulnerable to Scams: As a Writer, I Know the Feeling – Dan Barry, New York Times – Publishing-adjacent scams are more pervasive than ever. Be careful out there.

The Washington Post’s Leaders Missed the Point – John Williams, The Atlantic – I find it mildly fascinating that The Atlantic chose to publish this critique of the Washington Post’s leadership without just importing Book World over to The Atlantic whole cloth.

Reports Detail How Literary Agent Brockman Connected Epstein With Scholars – Katy Hershberger, Publishers Lunch – More details have emerged about the “enduring link” between Jeffrey Epstein and literary agent John Brockman.

“Conjuring and Reality”: An Interview with Jeanne Thornton – Ryan Spencer, Public Books – An incredible interview about the writing process. Make time for this.

Literary agents urge writers to avoid AI as they see ‘change in nature of submissions’ – Lauren Brown, The Bookseller

Do You Need a Writer’s Room? – Jonathan Rothman, The New Yorker

The Unlikely Success of a Strange Alabama Bookstore – Casey Cep, The New Yorker

Facing a mental health crisis, an NJ school pulled a beloved novel from English class – Anastasia Tsioulcas, NPR – An interesting case of censorship from another vector, in this case a mental health panic.

your query letter isn’t the problem – Leigh Stein, Attention Economy

How I Became a 10-Year Overnight Success Story – Evie Woods, Writers Digest

Reading as an Agent – Donald Maass, Writer Unboxed

Literary Agents and the Book-to-Screen Pipeline: Q&A with Jillian Davis – Jane Friedman

Books and screens. Your inability to focus isn’t a failing. It’s a design problem, and the answer isn’t getting rid of our screen time. – Carlo Iacono, Aeon

I Hired a Book Publicity Firm for £1,800. Here’s What Went Wrong. – Kirsten Bell, Jane Friedman

Lawsuit Accuses Writer of Using Classmate’s Story in Best-Selling Memoir – Katherine Rosman and Elisabeth Egan, New York Times – More controversy around Amy Griffin’s memoir.

The twenty most important people in the history of book publishing – Kenneth Whyte, SHuSH

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. The Crossroads by C.J. Box
2. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
3. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
4. And Now, Back to You by B.K. Borison
5. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. Stripped Down by Bunnie XO
2. A World Appears by Michael Pollan
3. We the Women by Norah O’Donnell with Kate Andersen Brower
4. Young Man in a Hurry by Gavin Newsom
5. Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre

Young adult hardcover:

1. The Sun and Starmaker by Rachel Griffin
2. Fake Skating by Lynn Painter
3. If Only I Had Told Her by Laura Nowlin
4. A Stage Set for Villains by Shannon J. Spann
5. Wings of Starlight by Allison Saft

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2. Refugee by Alan Gratz
3. The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
4. The Court of the Dead by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro
5. Growing Home by Beth Ferry

This week on the blog

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

• A.I. editorial feedback is getting better. But should you use it?

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Bluesky
• Check out the Bransforums – on hiatus!

And finally:

Are We Living in the Age of Epstein? – Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker – A lot has been written in the past few years about Jeffrey Epstein, but Joshua Rothman ties it all together in a damning and chilling way.

Have a great weekend!

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