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Roll into your weekend with this highlight reel of the bookish news Today in Books readers were most interested in this week.
Our Most Anticipated Books of 2025
Check out our list of the most anticipated books of 2025 and gird your reading lists! My pick is Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson, the author of Black Cake, and honestly there are so many great books publishing this year it was hard to choose. You’ll find some big names and some under the radar reads chosen by our staff and contributors–happy perusing!
The Book App AI That Rec’d Reading More White Authors
What a day to not be on the Fable team. Even if you don’t use the social media app for readers and watchers, if you scrolled bookish social these past few days the name probably rings a bell. The app went viral in the worst way when users, including book influencers and writers, shared the app’s AI-generated, Spotify-wrapped-like recaps, which included recommendations for how they could improve their reading habits. The problem? The AI criticized some Fable users for focusing on books by marginalized groups. One recommendation, which categorized influencer Tiana Trammell as a “Soulful Explorer,” read, “Don’t forget to surface for the occasional white author, okay?” YIKES. A Fable executive recorded a video response apologizing for the hurt it caused and the company promised to remove some AI features, but for some this was not enough and the account deletions commenced. The use of AI and conversations about its pros and cons are divisive and complicated, and this proved a terrible use case for its integration.
A Big List of 2025 Books By Women of Color
Electric Literature rounded up 48 books by women of color to look forward to in this fresh, new year. Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma is appearing everywhere and is on my reading list. I scrolled down for books publishing later in the year since those aren’t getting as much hype in these early months and a couple standouts for me include Hot Girls with Balls by Benedict Nguyễn, a satire about trans athletes, and Zeal by Morgan Jerkins, which is a multi-generational look at the legacy of slavery and has a banger blurb from Kiese Laymon. It’s easier to face down what’s gearing up to be a hard year knowing great books by great authors are coming to bring us some joy and remind us of our humanity.
New Mexico Becomes Fourth State to Introduce Anti-Book Ban Bill for 2025
Here’s some good news to kick off your year! New Mexico, Arkansas, Michigan, and Missouri have anti-book ban bills on the table. Take a look at what they say, who is behind them, and what you can do to support the bills if you’re a resident of any of these states.
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