Today in Books

We Finally Have a Book of the Summer. And I Am Happy to Say It’s Good.

Jeff O'Neal Jul 25, 2024

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Jeff O'Neal

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Jeff O'Neal is the executive editor of Book Riot and Panels. He also co-hosts The Book Riot Podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @thejeffoneal.

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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.

The God of the Woods is the Book of the Summer

Yesterday, Erica wrote about the cluster of high-profile book clubs have picked Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods as one of their summer selections, and after reading it last week, I can see why. It is zippy, creepy, smart, with a real sense of place. A compelling cast of characters and enough red herrings to keep even the most experienced plot queens round out what is a total summer read package. And Hollywood has been paying attention, as The God of the Woods (and one her previous novels have been picked up for adaptation. Get on board and welcome to the woods. Hope you brought comfy shoes…and an alibi.

Your Old Books Can Kill You. I Mean, They Probably Won’t, But Some of Them Could

Ah, those crazy Victorians. They would just use whatever to make books (and anything else). Want to make a beautiful green cover? Yea, that’s arsenic. How about some alluring red lettering? Congratulations, that’s mercury. Surely, this using blue for illustrations is harmless? Try again, that’s lead. Surely there is a CSI: Des Moines episode about someone who was killed using an innocuous seeming history of whatever from 1754. If not, this article is going to make some staff writer’s day.

Florida School District Bans Book Titled “Ban This Book,” Transcends Realm of Satire Into Realm of Just Straight Dystopian Nonsense

I doubt Alan Gratz could have imagined that his novel Ban This Book, published in 2017, would be so on-the-nose-you-can-make-it-up relevant when he wrote it. And frankly, I am surprised it took this long for some FL kook to wake up and think “hey wait a minute what’s the point of banning all these books if we have books that are say book banning is bad and wrong?” I know you will be surprised that is Moms for Liberty carrying the torch of Orwellian though-police under the guise of “protecting children” once again.