The Biggest Bookish News We Covered This Week

Here are the stories Today in Books readers were most interested in this week. Settle into your Sunday and catch up!

A Wealth of Summer Releases From the NYT

Between our own list of the best beach reads of all time (more on that below) and the New York Times lists of novels and nonfiction out this summer, it’s apparent that we all want you to have a great upcoming reading season. Highlights from the list of novels include a new Taylor Jenkins Reid because what’s a summer without a TJR novel, the highly anticipated Flashlight by Susan Choi and King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby and Katabasis by R.F. Kuang. And on the nonfiction list, we’ve got How to Lose Your Mother by Molly Jong-Fast, daughter of feminist icon Erica Jong, Blessings and Disasters by Alexis Okeowo, and The Dry Season by Melissa Febos. The good books can’t stop won’t stop and I’m pleased as punch about it. Check out the full list of novels out this summer and nonfiction out this summer.

A Megalist of New LGBTQ+ Books

Goodreads has a massive list of 135 LGBTQ+ fiction, nonfiction, and YA books just in time for Pride. These are books that published in January through early June, so you can catch up on any titles that might’ve flown under your radar this first half of the year. My standouts include The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong, Stag Dance by Torrey Peters, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (who recently came out as bisexual), When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris (which is on my fantasy league book draft), and Good Girl by Aria Aber (also on my fantasy draft), but there really is an embarrassment of riches here. Check out the full list at Goodreads.

Politics Can Now Dictate Public Library Collections in Three States

A group of library patrons in a Texas county sued when books were removed from the Llano County Public Library based on their contents, arguing that it curtailed their First Amendment rights. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals “held that library books are government speech and thus, not subject to the Free Speech clause.” And to that I say, in what world? Read more about how this ruling affects states beyond Texas, and opens the door to more rampant and taxpayer-funded censorship.

Readers Discover AI Prompt in Novel

Between that Chicago-Sun Times story and this one about an author who left an AI prompt in her romantasy novel, AI use is getting as messy as we thought it would. Readers of Lena McDonald’s Darkhollow Academy: Year 2 took to social to point out the prompt, which, Futurism reports, not only asked for a rewrite but a rewrite in fellow romantasy author J. Bree’s voice (the prompt has since been deleted). I’ve written before about the pace of publishing to meet demand, especially in the romantasy genre, and I don’t assume this is an isolated incident. Futurism‘s Victor Tangermann points to additional instances of AI-generated works and the proliferation of AI books on Amazon, and there are certainly undiscovered, more expertly disguised instances we haven’t yet identified. It’s easy to understand readers’ frustration–it’s the human touch and unique perspectives I and others are questing for, not an AI masquerade.

The Best Beach Reads of All Time

Need a beachy read for the summer? Our whole team of editorial staff and contributors got together to curate a list of 50 of the best beach reads of all time for your summer reading list. We considered not only our personal favorites, but also the beach reads canon. We also used the broadness of the category to gather a list that, we hope, has books for just about every kind of reader. So take a gander and get your summer reading list a glow up.