Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
24 Books to Read This Summer
Oh, how I love to see a seasonal reading list that thinks beyond frontlist! The Atlantic offers up a refreshing spin on the summer reading list with 24 recommendations that range from cult classics to buzzy new releases, one-sitting page-turners to doorstoppers that might take you the whole season to finish. R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis, the virtually indisputable most-anticipated book of summer, makes an appearance, as does one of my longtime faves, The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee (you might think you don’t want to read a biography of cancer, but I promise you’re wrong). It’s a list with real range that—more important—understands that most readers don’t live and die by the new release shelf, and it even introduced me to a few books I hadn’t heard of before.
ACOTAR Gets New Audiobooks for 10th Anniversary
It might feel like we’ve been talking about Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series forever, but the romantasy juggernaut has really just marked its tenth birthday. In celebration—and because they know a good opportunity when they see one—RB Media will release new audiobook editions narrated by Elizabeth Evans on May 30th. Three of the five ACOTAR titles made it to Spotify’s top ten audiobooks of 2024, and while sales have slowed in 2025—the series has fallen off of bestseller lists—this is a smart move to keep fans engaged as they await book 6.
The Politics of Dressing an American Girl
American Girl books were a staple of my childhood in the late ’80s and early ’90s, but I’ve never thought of them as more than vehicles for selling expensive dolls. This deep dive into the making of Addy, the series’ first Black character, changed all that. Jaha Nailah Avery speaks with the series author and historians who served on the advisory board (there was an advisory board! of historians!) to explore why they chose for the first Black American Girl to be enslaved and what her clothing is meant to communicate about her life. I had no idea that such care and detail went into the planning the American Girl books, and it’s wonderful to see the folks who made it happen receive some long overdue recognition.
Do You Know What the Library of Congress Does?
As we shared the news last week that the Trump administration had fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, comments from readers and social followers revealed that a concerning number of book people don’t actually know how the Library of Congress works or what Hayden’s job really was. So in today’s installment of Literary Activism, Book Riot’s Kelly Jensen offers an overview of what the Library of Congress is and what the Librarian of Congress does. If we’re going to win this fight, we’ve got to know what we’re fighting for.
