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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Trump Abruptly Fires First African American Librarian of Congress
With seemingly no warning, the first woman and the first African American to be Librarian of Congress received an email from the White House’s Presidential Personnel Office notifying Carla Hayden that she was fired. AP News reported that Hayden had recently come under fire from conservative advocacy group American Accountability Foundation for “promoting children’s books with ‘radical’ content and literary material authored by Trump opponents.” AAF took to X to celebrate the termination hours before the news was made public. Democratic leaders have condemned the move and praised Hayden’s leadership, with New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich saying Donald Trump was “taking his assault on America’s libraries to a new level.” It is exhausting to be this horrified by the callous takeouts of good people doing good work, and I cannot begin to imagine how Hayden felt receiving such a blithe and dismissive email ending her historic career at the Library of Congress, “effective immediately.”
A New Judy Blume Adaptation is Now Streaming
If you have Netflix and you’re a Judy Blume fan, you might want to check out this eight-episode series adapting Forever. “It is gratifying to know that, 50 years after its release, the love story at the core of Forever is still resonating with audiences,” Blume said of showrunner Mara Brock Akil’s adaptation starring Lovie Simone as Keisha and Michael Cooper Jr. as Justin. Published in 1975, Forever arguably became Blume’s most controversial YA novel, oft the target of censorship, because of explicit sex scenes–the book centers a teen couple’s first time. Learn more about how Brock Akil tells Blume’s classic story through a Black lens from Nadira Goffe writing for Slate.
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1919 Author and Friends Collab on Bookstore Coffee Shop
Well this is a lovely story of friendship, coffee, and books. 1919 author Eve L. Ewing, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trina Reynolds-Tyler, and award-winning media-based organizer Andrea Faye Hart–longtime friends–are teaming up to run a socially conscious bookstore and cafe in Chicago. Build Coffee opened in 2017, co-founded by Hannah Nyhart who sold the shop to the trio, and the team plans to build on the community space rather than overhaul it. One update brings especially good news to book lovers: Ewing says there are plans to expand the bookstore. Happy reading and caffeinating to Chicago’s South Side!
The Most Read Books on Goodreads This Week
Stack your TBR with some of the most read books on Goodreads this week, and the top five most read books in countries across the world.
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