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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.
Judge Orders Halt to IMLS Dismantling
We’ve got to take our Ws when we get them, folks. Ruling in favor of 21 state attorneys general, Rhode Island district court judge John J. McConnell Jr. has ordered a halt to the presidential executive order dismantling the IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Sciences) and two other federal agencies. The order requires the defendants to stop all efforts to eradicate the IMLS, requires them to restore employees and contractors who were involuntarily terminated or placed on leave, and resume processing and payment of already-awarded funding. That’s good news for many reasons, including for the tribal communities at risk of losing their libraries due to grants canceled under the executive order. Make no mistake, though, a great deal of irreparable damage has already been done. The chaos and cruelty are the point.
Call the Swifties, There’s a New BookTok Conspiracy
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a debut novel is going viral on BookTok, and a lack of information about the author has prompted speculation and conspiracy theories from readers. Here’s the deal: the cover of Silver Elite by Dani Francis doesn’t have an author photo. Neither does Francis’s Instagram page. The absence of details has driven some BookTok creators to speculate that Dani Francis is actually a pen name for an established author. Or maybe the book written by AI! Why would the publisher bother with foil edges and special editions if it weren’t secretly written by someone who is already famous? As in most conspiracy-tinged controversies, the truth is almost guaranteed to be way less exciting than the theories. (Did we really learn nothing from the Argylle shenanigans?) When the most interesting thing about a book is the author’s anonymity, it’s time for publishing and readers alike to take a good long look in the mirror.
How Taylor Jenkins Reid Hit Escape Velocity
If the pre-pub press for Taylor Jenkins Reid’s new novel Atmosphere, due out June 3, is any indication, we’re in for a ride. In a wide-ranging profile at TIME, Jenkins Reid discusses the surreality of becoming a seeming overnight success on her fifth book, the tension between celebrating commercial success and craving critical acclaim, the economics of publishing, and (this one’s for me) the jukebox Chicks musical she’s working on with a longtime friend. “Writing a book that’s easy to read, Reid contends, is extremely difficult. She has to think about the reader’s experience on every page. “I’m chasing a feeling,” she says. “Maybe it doesn’t matter if I’m fancy. Maybe I’m just fun.””
It’s refreshing to see an author express grounded understanding of where their work sits in the larger ecosystem of books and reading without denigrating other writers, genres, or styles. More like this, please.
A Fantasy Novel for Everyone Who Feels Betrayed by J.K. Rowling
I can’t imagine anyone more qualified than Danika Ellis to make this declaration, so I’ll let her do it herself:
Now that I’ve finished it, I can say this was a five star read that absolutely holds its own regardless of being a response to the Harry Potter series and JK Rowling’s transphobia—but it succeeds on that level, too. Where that series is about children, this book is about adults discovering their magic. Instead of Hogwarts, the setting is New York City. And, of course, this stars trans main characters.
If you want to read a fantasy novel about a coven of trans witches taking on an evil AI, this one is for you.
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