🚫 York County Library (SC) voted last week to remove all books about “gender ideology” from its children and youth collections. The policy, which had been months in the making, was allegedly created in response to the state’s budget proviso that bans so-called “prurient” books for those under 18 in public libraries statewide.

This isn’t the first public library to ban books on “gender” for those under 18.

• York’s policy was modeled after neighboring Greenville Public Library, which has been sued by South Carolina’s ACLU for its banning of “trans” books in its teen and children’s collections.
• In Tennessee, theRutherford County Library System voted to ban “trans” books for minors earlier this year, though it was overturned just weeks later.
• Sumner County Library, also in Tennessee, has attempted to pass a similar “trans” book ban four times, failing in each.
• Numerous Tennessee public libraries, including Rutherford, shut down over the last month, following demands from the Tennessee Secretary of State to remove books on “gender,” per the president’s Executive Orders this year.

One spot of encouraging news : advocates on the ground have been showing up time and time again. This new policy leaves plenty of questions and concerns, but whether or not people are advocating for their library in the rooms where decisions are being made is not one of them. - KJ

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Mary Oliver gave us instructions for living a life: “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

Terry Tempest Williams understood the assignment. In her latest, Williams lifts up the “Glorians,” a word that came to her in a dream in March 2020 as she wondered, “How do I meet this moment gracefully?” The answer: seek an encounter with grace. Ravens, the glow of apricots, a cup of tea, friendship; all of these are Glorians, the “holy ordinary,” doorways from the natural world that offer us connection with something sacred and profound. Williams’s work, too, is such a doorway, and it is always a pleasure to walk through.

The Glorians will be released March 3 from Grove Press. Do yourself a favor and listen to it on audio. Williams’s reading is as meditative and compelling as it gets. - RJS

🔓 Unlock the New Release Index when you join Book Riot All Access and keep tabs on more exciting new books.

In the beginning, there was print.

In The Gutenberg Parenthesis , veteran journalist Jeff Jarvis traces the rise of the Gutenberg Age and the ways it has influenced how people think, learn, and communicate for more than five centuries. Examining how print gave rise to the idea of “the mass,” from media and markets to politicsm, Jarvis offers a timely framework for understanding what changes as digital media reshapes those systems.

This sharp, illuminating history of technology, information, and power offers a bracing new lens for considering one of today’s most urgent debates.

Would you believe Ebenezer Scrooge only says “Bah! Humbug!” twice in the entire text of A Christmas Carol?

If it’s been a while since you read Dickens’s 1843 novella (or if your entire relationship to it comes via Rizzo the Rat), that’s not the only surprise waiting for you in today’s episode of Zero to Well-Read. A few fun facts to trot out as you make the rounds this season:

• The phrase “Merry Christmas” isn’t a Dickens original, but he’s responsible for its rise to popularity.
• Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in hopes of inspiring donations to support the poor, and it worked! There was a marked rise in charitable giving following the publication.
• The first print run of 5,000 copies was released on December 17, 1843 and sold out by Christmas Eve.
• The first edition was so expensive to produce-it had gilt lettering, colored endpapers, gilt edges, and illustrations by the artist John Leech—that it was barely profitable.
• Dickens basically invented the modern author tour, first giving public readings to raise money for charity, then traveling around Europe and the U.S. to promote the book.

🎧 Listen to our conversation about what made A Christmas Carol so important in its time and why it still resonates.

Audible has partnered with TikTok to launch a Best of #BookTok destination in its app and web experience to help listeners discover trending titles pulled from the more than 70 million (!) #BookTok posts on the platform.

The hub features collections curated by Audible’s editorial team to highlight genres that are popular on TikTok, from thrillers and historical fiction to romantasy, dark academia, and book-to-screen hits. Where else will you find Jane Austen hanging out alongside Taylor Jenkins Reid and Rebecca Yarros?

It’s time for the Kids’ Holiday Book Fair at Thriftbooks! Buy 4+ books for $2.99 each with Promo Code KIDSARECOOL.

I don’t pretend to have anything eloquent to say about the sudden, violent death of Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner. So instead, I will just offer this story Rob Reiner told about how he came to make The Princess Bride , which is one of the most beloved (and best executed) book adaptations of all time. This comes from a longer conversation among Reiner, Cary Elwes, and Robin Wright, on the occasion of the film’s 25th anniversary that is a terrific watch. - JO

“ My dad did a play on Broadway in 1968, it was called, Something Different, and Bill Goldman that year decided to write a book about that season of Broadway and he went to all the Broadway shows and he had a chapter about each play. It was called The Season, and one of the chapters was devoted to my dad’s play. 

He had just finished, or he was finishing , The Princess Bride, I think it was 1972 or something, and when he finished it, he gave it to my dad because he thought maybe it would make a good movie.

My dad read it. He didn’t know what to do with it. I was a huge William Goldman fan. I had read everything that he had ever written at that point, up to that point, and my dad gave me the book. And I was in my twenties, my early twenties. He says, ‘Here, you know, you like Bill Goldman, read this book.‘

I read the book and I went nuts for it. I mean you know when you read something and like the writer is like in your head? Like, this is my sensibility. And then I never thought about it. Years, years, years went by and then I’m now making movies. I then very naively said, “Well, let’s make, let’s see if we can make a movie out of that book!” Not knowing that they had tried. I mean, you had, uh, François Truffaut had been involved and Norman Jewison and Robert Redford and all these people. ‘Why didn’t it ever get made with those?’...’Because it was such an oddball.‘

They didn’t know how to market that type of material. Nobody knew what to do with it. So then when Norman [Lear] said, okay, that’s great. Norman Lear stepped up to do it.”

🎁 Delightful bookish gifts can come in small packages. We’ve found the best stocking stuffers for every type of reader.

• 📖 A magnetic bookmark for the one who’d rather die than dog-ear
• 📚 A deck of TBR cards for the one who can never decide what to read next
• 🕯️ A rainy day reading candle for the one who always creates the perfect vibe
• 📝 An annotation kit for the avid notetaker
• 💅 An open book necklace for the one who is literary from head to toe

Peruse our collection of bookish gift guides for more ideas.

Anthropologie is your one-stop shop for sophisticated home goods. Discover must-have gifts like a festive gingerbread candle, an Anthropologie-exclusive edition of Yahtzee to instantly spruce up your shelf, and a luxurious cotton throw blanket that’s as stylish as it is cozy. For a limited time, take up to 50% off these items and hundreds of others now at Anthropologie.com.

🥾 Bundle up for your walk to the bookstore with a striped beanie inspired by your favorite National Park.**

🎨 The best book covers of 2025, according to the New York Times.

🐷 An animated adaptation of Animal Farm is on the way from Andy Serkis.

🍴 Put these food books on your holiday reading list.

💗 A BookTok expert names the best romance reads of the year.

_{**This is a product recommendation from the Book Riot team. When you buy through these links, we may earn a commission.}

Written by Rebecca Schinsky, Jeff O’Neal, and Kelly Jensen. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.

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