The Book News We Covered This Week

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Here are the stories we covered ourselves on Book Riot this week.

• Utah Bans 28th Book for All Public School Students
• Alice Oseman Finished the Final Page of HEARTSTOPPER—and More Book News!
• The Most Read Books on Goodreads This Week
• The Nationwide Book Ban Bill Moves to the House: How to Take Action Now

HR 7661 is not only an anti-LGBTQ+ bill, written within the framework of the right’s anti-trans priority, but it’s also a bill angling to push school choice. This would be yet another opportunity to promote and expand a federal voucher scheme that would steal money from public institutions so wealthy people could use taxpayer money for their students’ private or homeschool education. HR 7661 applies only to public institutions, opening the door for legislators to tell people that if they don’t like what’s happening in public schools, they can simply choose something else.

• Three New Releases for Freedom to Read Advocates: Book Censorship News, March 20, 2026
• Ontario Library May Require Library Cards to Enter the Building and More Library News
• Florida Leads the Country in Book Bans. It’s About To Get Worse. (Plus, More Library News)
• The Bestselling Books of the Week, According to All the Lists

There’s only one title appearing here for the first time: Just Friends by Haley Pham. If you’re on BookTok, BookTube, or Bookstagram at all, you likely would recognize her, even if you don’t know her name. This romance novel is the BookTuber’s debut.

And for All Access members, here are all the interesting links we bookmarked that didn’t make the cut for full Today in Books coverage.