Roll into your weekend with this highlight reel of the bookish news Today in Books readers were most interested in this week.
The It Books of 2024
It’s easy to see the It Books of the year in hindsight, and we did just that on a recent episode of the Book Riot Podcast. What’s not easy is guessing each month’s It Book before it even hits shelves, and we do that every month, whittling down a list of 10 contenders to identify the It Book of the Month. Below are the 12 It Books episodes of 2024, complete with title lists.
The Design Trend That Took Publishing By Storm
Here at the end of the year, it’s worth looking back at the book trend of all book trends in 2024. I well remember the impact pretty, deluxe editions of books had in the earlier days of bookish social media, but sprayed, stained, stenciled, whatever edges had us in a headlock this year. Moreover, the deluxe editions I typically saw decorating aspirational shelves were classics, but publisher Entangled really did change the game by splurging on fancy adornments for newly released novels in the genre that also took us by storm: romantasy. You can read about how the trend took off across publishing and ignited a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses design atmosphere, how ubiquitous these editions became on BookTok in particular, and so much more about the trend’s impact across publishing, culture, and even printing. I am so curious about the (pun intended) shelf life of this trend.
A Legal Victory for That Librarian
Louisiana library and activist Amanda Jones, author of That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America, closed out 2024 with a big win. In 2022, Jones filed a defamation suit against two men who accused her of grooming children and promoting pornographic material after she pushed back against efforts to ban books containing LGBTQ-related themes from her town’s public library. A district court judge dismissed the case before arguments began in September 2022. Now, following a failed appeal attempts, the Louisiana Supreme Court has revived the case, noting that, “The burden will be on defendants to prove that plaintiff did in fact do the acts they have publicly accused her of.”
That’s going to be a tall order for book banning advocates, who often conflate any mention of sexuality with being pornographic and obscene and have targeted librarians around the US with harassment, abuse, and unfounded allegations. And that is precisely Jones’s point. She is seeking just $1 in damages and an apology. This case is about the fact that words mean things and actions have consequences. Jones explains:
We teach our children to report and speak out against bullying, and that is what I am doing. I am doing this on behalf of myself, and on behalf of the countless other librarians across the country who have been targeted and harassed simply for standing up for intellectual freedom and standing up for our school and public libraries.”
A win here would set an important precedent. May her efforts succeed.
10 Contemporary Romance Novels Where Consent Is Hot
Consent isn’t just non-negotiable; it’s hot. No definitely means no, but the yes is so very important, especially at this moment when women’s bodies and rights are under attack in the U.S. As Ann Mai Yee Jensen explains, “how our society understands the role of consent in love and sex is in a perilous place, and romance novels contribute important messages about these dynamics.” These 10 contemporary romance novels all contain examples of enthusiastic—and very sexy—consent.
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