This Week in Books

We Need Diverse Books launches Unbanned Book Network (This week in books)

January 23, 2026 by Nathan Bransford Leave a Comment

This week! Books! We Need Diverse Books launches Unbanned Book Network to fight school bans – Hillel Italie, Associated Press – The wonderful organization We Need Diverse Books has launched a program to counteract the recent wave of book bans by donating banned books, and designating Author Ambassadors for school districts facing bans. The deal […]

The chill over the publishing world (This week in books)

January 16, 2026 by Nathan Bransford 1 Comment

This week! Books! Trump’s return chills embattled LGBTQ book industry: ‘They’re stepping back’ – Surina Venkat, The Hill / What if Editors Don’t Want <Your Kind of Book> Anymore? – Kate McKean, Agents + Books – We’ve long suspected that book bans and censorship have cast a chill over the publishing world, particularly on the […]

What if readers like A.I. fiction? (This week in books)

January 9, 2026 by Nathan Bransford Leave a Comment

This week! Books! As we kick off 2026, a quick chat about blog programming. This blog now has… a lot of content. Like, a lot a lot. Over 2,500 posts and counting. I’d like to remind everyone that the “best of” content is available and organized in two master pages, which you can navigate at […]

This year in books (2025)

December 19, 2025 by Nathan Bransford

This year! Books! The word ninjas over at Merriam-Webster really nailed the word of the year for 2025: slop. Slop is on my mind so much lately. Not just for the uncannily creepy images and videos that have started filling my social media feeds, but for the way it’s affecting my perception of what’s real. […]

The best book covers of 2025 (This week in books)

December 13, 2025 by Nathan Bransford

This week! Books! A day late! The 173 Best Book Covers of 2025 – Emily Temple, Lit Hub – Always one of my favorite features of the year! The winner is an absolute stunner. Sophie Kinsella, ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ Author, Dies at 55 – Sopan Deb, New York Times – The tremendously influential Madeleine […]

OpenAI does not want you to know why it deleted its pirated books database (This week in books)

December 5, 2025 by Nathan Bransford

This week! Books! First up, in case you missed it: Really sad news arrived this week as longtime publishing industry man about town Porter Anderson passed away. I’m sure many of you will remember Porter from the comments section here, his work with Jane Friedman on The Hot Sheet, his work editing Publishing Perspectives, or […]