We’re pouring one out for intrepid and prolific journalist Simon Winchester, who passed away earlier this week at the age of 82. His book about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary is a wild ride and way more fun than it has any business being.
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THE HEADLINESo much to celebrate this Native American Heritage MonthTwo Native American women made history this week. During the 2026 midterms, enrolled member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe Deb Haaland was elected as the first Native American woman governor in the U.S., and citizen of the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe Peggy Flanagan was elected as our first Native American woman senator.
Firsts like these are worth sitting with and celebrating. If you’re here, you’re probably itching to do both with a book. Books by or about Native Americans will be easier to discover during Native American Heritage Month, but you can start here:
- 92 New Books to Celebrate Native American Heritage Month (Goodreads)
- Native American Books: “essential reading for anyone interested in the Native American experience” (First Nations Development Institute)
- Native American Children’s Literature (First Nations Development Institute)
A couple of excellent books I heartily recommend include:
- By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle: nonfiction, journalistic work about Native justice in the U.S., written by a citizen of the Cherokee Nation
- Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice: hopeful post-apocalyptic fiction about an Indigenous community surviving and community building long after a world-ending blackout, written by an Anishinaabe author
There truly is so much to celebrate this month. – SZW
CENSORSHIPYes, Banned Books Week has been banned, tooBooks aren’t the only thing being banned in U.S. schools and libraries. Banned Books Week has been targeted, too—often through quieter means, with library staff learning they cannot create displays, offer programming, or develop other awareness opportunities during the annual week-long campaign.
Library workers from nearly a dozen states shared where, why, and how Banned Books Week has disappeared from their institutions during this era of skyrocketing book censorship.
→ A flood of new state laws have led Texas libraries of all types to cut back on Banned Books Week displays and discussions.
- “Our committee chair stated that we needed to remove ALA references from our promotional materials, and we need to avoid referencing triggering subjects when it comes to our activities,” wrote one academic librarian.
→ Library administration feels the need to comply in advance, lest anyone in the community decide to target the institution for discussing banned books.
- “My branch manager has frequently voiced her concern over not aggravating the community. She’s particularly worried about displaying LGBTQ books, books on sexuality, or books about politics,” said a Missouri public librarian.
→ Banned Books Week isn’t safe in the 13 states that have Freedom to Read Laws, either.
- “There is to be no recognition of it whatsoever, and staff are forbidden to do anything that would support a controversial book,” said one public librarian from Maryland, a state that has one of the most robust and enforceable anti-book ban bills in the nation.
Book censorship was never the end game. It was a starting point. Banned Books Week erasure follows the same lines as the erasure of Pride from libraries nationwide.
- While the targeting of books and targeting of cultural and awareness campaigns is best known for coming from outside the institution–we have documentation for that, even if it’s limited–the reality is that quiet/soft/internal censorship is rampant, and we’ll never know the true extent.
Read more about the silencing of Banned Books Week and consider where and how you can take action to support and champion your local public schools and libraries. – KJ
COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVELSCrime and mystery graphic novelsA great mystery graphic novel gives us everything we love about mystery and crime fiction—a compelling plot, deftly laid clues, a clever who/whydunit—with art that deepens the story and helps us engage with it more fully. Here are three crime and mystery graphic novels with top-notch art to match excellent stories.
- Gilt Frame by Matt Kindt and Margie Kraft Kindt – An unlikely crime-solving duo—a man in his 20s and his well-off aunt—stumble upon a murder during their Parisian vacation, the first in a globe-trotting murder mystery series
- Momo by John Cusack and Ignacio Noé* – A sci-fi, mystery, and dark humor mashup from acclaimed actor John Cusack and celebrated artist Ignacio Noé, where two fugitives go on a cosmic road trip, and a mission involving the Jackie Gleason
- Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell – In this superhero sci-fi/ murder mystery blend, the newest member of the Green Lantern Corps arrives at her post on an alien planet just as a murder rocks its peaceful society—but that peace has been maintained by stripping its citizens of their ability to feel.
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THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHTNew middle grade books by award-winning authorsDon’t miss the best children’s books of 2026! Margaret Kingsbury has rounded up ten of the best new middle grade books by award-winning authors. Here are a few highlights.
The Moon Without Stars by Chanel Miller: A shy seventh grader is thrust into the spotlight when her zines catch the popular clique’s attention.
Shook by Julian Randall: When basketball player Malik injures his leg, endangering his chances of making the varsity team, he starts having panic attacks.
Brittle Magic by Kate O’Shaughnessy: Shiloh is the only one in her family without magic. She thinks learning more about the death of the older brother she never met will unlock it for her.
The Hungry Forest by Kaela Rivera: Two brothers hear the voice of their late father calling from the forest. When they race after it, they find themselves surrounded by cursed monsters.
The Second Life of Snap by Erin Entrada Kelly: In a dystopian world, a group of tweens hack a robot and accidentally give it a personality.
Find more new middle grade books by award-winning authors on Book Riot.
OUR READING LIVESWhen the going gets GothicI was a horror weenie for a long time. I saw The Ring in 2002 and it messed me up so bad, I saw my own reflection in the mirror and thought I was Samara. That was a wrap for me and the scaries for two+ decades.
Then in the early 2020s when life felt especially heavy, I dipped a toe in the Gothic horror lit waters and developed quite the affinity for it. I joked that the IRL terrors were so real that the fake scares felt cathartic, and the Gothic framing spoke to the looming sense of dread I felt even on the good days. Turns out there’s a reason for that.
The New York Times just published a piece asking why every book is Gothic now, addressing the sudden boom in the use of the Gothic label in fiction.
- Previously applied mostly to horror and dark romance, we’re seeing it used to describe everything from space operas to lit fic
According to a researcher at the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies, we see a surge in the Gothic’s popularity during periods of social anxiety and political turmoil, when readers turn to the Gothic as a safe space to process real-world fears and anxieties.
- We saw that pattern emerge during the Vietnam era and the last years of the 20th century.
- The dread in Gothic fiction is as palpable as the one we feel in real life, but there’s a release in the validation of that terror, and relief in the resolution at the end.
It would be great to live in a less anxiety-inducing world. But in the absence of that reality, I’ll feel justified when I reach for that Gothic. —VD
LITERARY FICTIONNovember’s buzziest lit ficMan, this month’s buzziest literary fiction is coming out swinging. We have a story collection from modern master Annie Proulx, people contending with grief and generational curses, and women on a sinking island off the coast of Bangladesh finding their voice. I dare you to read a few of these and keep your eyes dry.
The buzziest new literary fiction out this month:
- Stations by Louise Kennedy: A 1980s Ireland-set journey of the roller coaster of a friendship between RĂłisĂn and the trouble-making Red.
- Uprising by Tahmima Anam: Get ready to cry. Many of the women in Uprising are sex workers whose children witness them enduring the harshest kind of treatment on a sinking Bangladeshi island. But then Kusum arrives from the city, and with her comes hope.
- Remember the Bees by Zineb Mekouar: A young Moroccan boy tends to an ancient apiary, even as everything changes around him.
- Annie Proulx Stories by Annie Proulx: Characters contend with loneliness, obsession, and love in a collection of three new stories and a couple of Proulx’s most popular ones.
- Sweet Pea by Kit de Waal: St. Kitts-born Paulette (aka Sweet Pea) is 29 when tragedy visits and she’s left grieving. But then she meets a boy the same age as her son and slowly starts to come back to life.
- The Man Who Read Books by Rachid Benzine, translated by Sam Taylor: In Palestine, an elderly man tells a young French photographer why he keeps his bookshop open, even during all the bombings. —EE
Did you know? There is a bench in the middle of Broadway at 93rd Street in New York City that has a plaque on it that says “Colson Whitehead’s Office.”
CRITICAL LINKINGYou are now free to roam about the internetHere are the bestselling books from independent presses.
These books are so twisty, you should read them twice.
High prices = higher library usage.
Liam Neeson just found out who’s playing Aslan in the new Narnia film.
Funko has introduced Bitty POP! Books for ACOTAR’s spring court and night court.
END NOTESWritten by Rebecca Schinsky, S. Zainab Williams, Vanessa Diaz, Danika Ellis, Kelly Jensen, and Erica Ezeifedi. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.
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