📚 No rest for the wicked

July 9, 2026View Online | Join All Access | Listen

 There’s a whole lot of literary inspiration among the Emmy nominees announced yesterday.

Game of Thrones spin-off A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and Slow Horses (based on Mick Herron’s Slough House spy thrillers) are both up for Outstanding Drama Series, and Margo’s Got Money Troubles, based on the novel by Rufi Thorpe, earned a nod for Outstanding Comedy Series.

Gary Oldman and Elle Fanning were nominated for their work leading Slow Horses and Margo, respectively, and while Hulu’s spin on The Testaments didn’t earn any series-level nominations, Chase Infiniti did get a nod for lead actress.

And we’re thrilled to see the folks behind The Librarians nominated for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. Let the campaigns begin!

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THE HEADLINE

Utah bans 36th book from all public schools

Ain’t no rest for the wicked Utah state legislature this summer, which continued its book banning spree Monday with the decision to remove Stephen King’s Different Seasons from public schools statewide.

Different Seasons, a collection of four novellas that includes the stories that inspired the films Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption, is the 36th book banned in the state.

It is the 17th title added to the list this year, making 2026 the busiest year for book bannings in the state.

The ban arrives amidst a lawsuit challenging these state-sanctioned bans filed in February.

The bans began in 2024 when Utah passed House Bill 29 (HB 29), one of the strictest bills related to books in public schools.

The bill allows parents to challenge books they deem “sensitive material” and outright bans books from all public schools in the state if those books have been deemed “objective sensitive material” or “pornographic” per state code in at least three public school districts or two public school districts and five charter schools statewide.

Despite claims this is about “local control,” schools in the state are forced to follow the decisions made in other districts. Just two school districts in the whole state account for the vast majority of bans.

 Learn more and see the full list of books banned in Utah., KJ

NON-FICTION

Notable July Nonfiction Releases

You think you know there are a lot of books, and then you try to pick out a handful of nonfiction titles coming out in July and then you feel that there are just so many books. Here are (just) a few notable nonfiction books coming out this month:

Scavenging Beauty by Angelica Glass, I am reading this one right now. Glass entered into a project to walk every road in Santa Cruz County, California, as a way of getting out of her bubble and seeing more of the world, causing her to consider and reckon with her past.

Biological War by Annie Jacobsen, Jacobsen is back to freak you out. After a breakthrough with Nuclear War, Jacobsen turns her attention not to bombs but to bugs (and chemicals and strands and other things that go squish in the night). It doesn’t go great!

Our Knives Will Save Us: Dispatches from a White Mountain Apache Chef by Nephi Craig, At 18, Craig, under court order, attended culinary school and found there a complicated respite from his own personal struggles. But even as he got more comfortable in the kitchen, his own battle with sobriety and confrontation with being the only Indigenous person in places serving largely European food precipitated a personal reckoning.

Unsayable: A Life in Writing by Michael Cunningham, The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours documents a life in writing, or as he puts it, trying to say the unsayable. I need no more inducement than that.

The Small Stuff by Ian Bogost*, As someone who rather enjoys walking to the grocery store just to get even one item, I am already sympathetic with Ian Bogost’s framing in this book: that as many things have become more convenient, they have also become less interesting. I don’t think The Small Stuff is a defense of errands, but it might not not be that in some small way.

Shallow Blue Empire: A History of Pearl-Diving in the Indian Ocean, 1850-1930 by Tamari Surnani Fernando, I never thought about the history of Europe’s obsession with pearls, the global trade that intensified it, or the thousands of people that, for decades, went out every day to dive in an effort to slake this growing thirst. Shouts to the historians, one and all.

*A message from our sponsor.

TOGETHER WITH THRIFTBOOKS

Welcome to the Kids Book Fair at ThriftBooks! Fill your shelves with stories kids will love for less. For a limited time, buy 4 or more Kids Deal Books and use promo code KIDSARECOOL at checkout to get each qualifying book for just $2.99. There’s no limit to how many times you can use this offer, so stock up on favorites, discover new adventures, and keep young readers turning pages.

LITERARY ACTIVISM

The latest on federal book ban bills

Several bills floating through Congress right now would permit widespread censorship in public schools if passed. Here’s a refresher about what two of those bills are, their current status, and what you can do to help stop them.

The national book banning bill (HR 7661), has been placed on the House Union Calendar as of July 2.

This means it is eligible to be heard in front of the whole floor, though as of writing, it has not been scheduled.

While the House is not back in session until July 13, Representatives are working in their districts right now, so it’s a prime opportunity to attend any events or office hours they may be holding near you to talk with them about the bill.

Here’s what HR 7661 is and how it would create rampant book banning.

The nationwide “don’t say trans” bill (HR 2616) has been assigned to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), after passing the House.

The committee doesn’t meet again until July 15, and as of writing, their agenda hasn’t been set.

Now is the time to reach out to your Senators about this bill, and this goes doubly if your Senator is a part of the HELP committee.

Here’s what HR 2616 is and how it would increase book banning.

“The CHARLIE Act” (HR 8705) is another bill to keep an eye on.

This House bill would withhold money from public schools that teach inclusivity, especially that related to race and gender.

It’s an amalgam of the two previously-mentioned bills and would create the opportunity for rampant book bans (not to mention whitewash and straightwash American history).

The bill has passed out of the House education committee but has not yet been moved to the Union Calendar.

While you call your Senators, don’t forget to remind them they should vote to restore funding to the Institute of Museum and Library Services for Fiscal Year 2027. The House has approved level funding for the only federal agency dedicated to libraries as of late June.

Democracy, including protecting our public schools and libraries, depends upon us., KJ

TRENDING

The most popular thriller audiobooks on Libby

We got the tea on the most popular thriller audiobooks being checked out on the Libby app, which serves more than 22,000 public libraries across the US.

Before we get into the current list, we looked at similar data last October, except it looked at ebooks, not audiobooks.

The lists are pretty much the same apart from a few switcheroos here and there.

Here’s the Top 10:

10. Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

9. The Mad Wife by Meagan Church

8. The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

7. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

6. Gone Before Goodbye by Harlan Coben

5. You Deserve to Know by Aggie Blum Thompson

4. My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney

3. Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden

2. The Divorce by Freida McFadden

Despite a 10% increase from May to June, the #1 spot isn’t held by a McFadden book.

Instead, the most popular thriller audiobook on Libby is the buzziest thriller of the year, a Good Morning America Book Club pick, and a mega bestseller.

We even have a book club podcast episode dedicated to it up on our Patreon.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, for the uninitiated, is a 2026 debut novel that skewers the entire concept of a “tradwife influencer” with a trippy twist.

I just started reading it, and the narrator is low-key (high-key) insufferable, which is perfect.

Also, side note, but did y’all peep what many of these thrillers have in common? I guess hundreds of years of having to get married to survive will eventually lead the girlies to contemplating murder. Bloop!, EE

TOGETHER WITH PENGUIN YOUNG READERS

So it’s gonna be forever…

From bestselling YA authors including Lynn Painter, Katharine McGee, and Jesse Q. Sutanto comes Thirteen Little Love Stories, an anthology of dazzling contemporary romantic stories inspired by Taylor Swift’s most iconic songs.

Whether you’re in an era of fairy lights and folktales or diss tracks and dance floors, here’s a playlist that features all the hits: The soaring high note of first love. The minor key of heartbreak. And the steady rhythm of true friendship and self-discovery.

As clever and unforgettable as the songs that inspired them, these stories are sure to play on repeat in your head and your heart.

E-READING

Summer reads at Kindle Unlimited

While we firmly believe a summer read is anything you read in the summer, thrillers and heartwarming reads feel especially suited for the season. Here are two domestic thrillers and a sweet family story to read by the beach, pool, or indoors with the AC cranked up, available now with your Kindle Unlimited subscription.

The Spin by Faith Gardner, In 1960s L.A., a suburban housewife disappears on a family vacation. She’s not well when she returns, and she’s diagnosed with hysteria, but her breakdown may not be mental at all…

The Housewife by Natalie Barelli, When she moves into her new husband’s swanky Beverly Hills mansion, a woman discovers the man of her dreams might actually be her nightmare.

Happier Here With You by Amy Gail Hansen, A recent widow takes her daughter to visit an estranged aunt on her Wisconsin farm, where the discovery of generations-old recipes connects the women to each other and their history

NONFICTION

Colorism is not a popularity contest

photo courtesy of the author

Dr. Sarah L. Webb is the founder of Colorism Healing and the author of Colorism: The Politics of Skin Tone and How We Get Free, out now from Legacy Lit. Below, she discusses the far-reaching consequences of colorism and how it is misrepresented in pop culture.

On its surface, colorism appears to be a simple issue of who we find physically attractive or not.

In pop culture news, the biggest headlines related to colorism feature a dark-skinned celebrity confessing that she had to learn to embrace her own beauty after growing up being told that she was “pretty for a dark girl.”

On the more controversial end, we see heated debates about how or if colorism plays out in reality TV shows.

Outside of this arena, it’s less common to find more informative discussions on the issue. This was especially true when I began studying and writing about colorism in 2011. Because I hadn’t heard others addressing this topic, I was initially surprised to discover that significant academic research and other thought leadership had existed on the topic for decades.

As it turns out, colorism is far more than a vain popularity contest. It is the social marginalization of individuals and groups with darker skin tones and the privileging of those with lighter skin tones. It happens both within and across many racial and ethnic groups around the world.

Earlier works like Marita Golden’s Don’t Play in the Sun (nonfiction, 2004), Alice Walker’s In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens (essays, 1983), Wallace Thurman’s The Blacker the Berry (fiction, 1929), and Zora Neal Hurston’s Color Struck (drama, 1926) were each groundbreaking works during their respective times and continue to provide valuable insight on the history and trajectory of colorism for those of us navigating its modern-day context…

 Read Dr. Sarah L. Webb’s full essay.

TOGETHER WITH BOOK RIOT ALL ACCESS

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Jamie Ford, born July 9, 1968

Did you know? Jamie Ford owns Harlan Ellison’s first typewriter, a Remington Model 1 Portable, which was the same model favored by Agatha Christie, Louis Armstrong, and others.

CRITICAL LINKING

You are now free to roam about the internet

 Chill out with Eric Carle and Mr. Rogers.

 Trade book recommendations with us!

 Queer your TBR with the Our Queerest Shelves newsletter.

 Drop your jaw at the biggest celebrity memoir bombshells of all time.

 Chart the rise and fall of comic book movies.

END NOTES

Written by Rebecca Schinsky, Kelly Jensen, Jeff O’Neal, Erica Ezeifedi, Danika Ellis, and Vanessa Diaz. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.

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