For the sixth time , the Trump-Vance administration has zeroed out the budget for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the only federal agency dedicated to public libraries and museums.

• The budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 would not only shutter the IMLS, but it would do tremendous damage to other cultural and arts institutions, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
• It’s become clear that the Trump-Vance administrative priorities do not involve taxpayer access to information, facts, and other materials meant to help educate and entertain.

The latest attack on the IMLS comes after a 10-month battle to restore the agency’s funding for this fiscal year.

• It also comes as the administration continues fighting two federal lawsuits filed last spring when the agency was gutted- State of Rhode Island v. Trump and American Library Association v. Sonderling . 

Much like last year, this attempt to shutter the IMLS will require continued efforts by taxpayers to ensure that funding is restored and the agency remains as intact as possible. Following last March’s raid on the IMLS, the tiny agency was left with less than half of its original staff, and while the IMLS has become a propaganda tool of the regime, the efforts have been unsuccessful. 

You can take action right now to once again ensure the IMLS receives its funding for the 2027 fiscal year: 

• 📆 Attend a town hall or public meeting. Many House and Senate representatives are holding local events while Congress is on break through April 14.
• 📢 Speak up at these events in support of IMLS funding and protecting public goods like libraries. 
• 📞 Reach out to them via phone and/or email in support of a fully funded IMLS for 2027. Get your voice on the record. 
• ✍️ Ask your senators to sign on to the American Library Association’s “Dear Appropriator” letters by April 17.

While you’re in the ear of your representatives, don’t forget to also tell them to vote against the nationwide book banning bill, HR 7661. 

You can learn more about the current state of the Institute of Museum and Library Services here, as well as access a full timeline of the administration’s attacks on the IMLS here. — KJ

The scientific term for this week’s veritable smorgasbord of new releases is a floppity jillion. Here are just a few of the highlights from the biggest new book day of 2026 so far.

• 🎸 Shenanigans ensue when a group of middle-aged women embark on a cruise with their favorite ’90s boy band
• 📱 Technology and connection are at the center of a story that begins when a journalist finds himself without a way to record an important interview
• 🧙 A mediocre witch discovers that her daughters’ skills far surpass her own in a sharp, surprising novel shortlisted for the International Booker Prize
• 🇬🇧 Investigating a mysterious death leads to uncovering the secrets of London’s underworld
• 🌹 A celebrated novelist delivers her first collection of short stories about life, love, coming of age, and coming into your own

Find more of the month’s best new books in every genre.

Quantum physics, generational trauma, and really good dim sum

The Subtle Art of Folding Space, the long-awaited debut novel from Hugo and Nebula Award-winning short fiction master John Chu is everything fans hoped for and stranger than they could have imagined.

Ellie’s universe is falling apart. Her mother is in a coma, her sister accuses her of being insufficiently Chinese between assassination attempts, and a shadowy cabal of engineers is trying to hijack the the machinery that keeps the physics of each universe working the way it’s supposed to. Saving her mother might mean destabilizing reality itself. No pressure.

This story is whip-smart, emotionally devastating, and funnier than it has any right to be. Perfect for fans of Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Want to sell five million copies of your book in two days? It helps if you have the kind of Beyoncé-level fame that allows for a flex like going last-name-only on your book cover. But the real secret is to publish it in a magazine that sells for less than 10% the list price of the hardcover.

That’s exactly what Hemingway did for the 1952 publication of The Old Man and the Sea.

• On the same day that the hardcover came out for $3 (about $36 today), LIFE magazine released a special standalone edition containing the story for just 20 cents (about $2.50 today).
• The five-million-copy print run of the magazine sold out within 48 hours, and the 500,000 hardcover copies weren’t far behind.

Hemingway was stoked, telling the New York Times , "I’m very excited about ’The Old Man and the Sea’, and that it is coming out in Life so that many people will read it who could not afford to buy it. That makes me much happier than to have a Nobel Prize."

• Of course, he went on to receive the Nobel two years later.
• The committee celebrated him for "his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea , and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style."

🎧 Hear our conversation about the book that secured this legendary writer’s legacy on Zero to Well-Read.

Summer N. England is the author of The Impossible Garden of Clara Thorne, out today from Forever. Below, she recommends three fantasy and romantasy books for garden lovers.

My debut novel is a cozy, sapphic romantasy that is as much about growing plants as it is growing pains of the heart. Magic, gardens, and love are some of my favorite stories, even better when they are all together. Here are three whimsical books for the plant lovers (in garden-centered order).  

The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst : Terlu Purna was turned into a statue for casting a spell that created a sentient spider plant. The End. Only—and impossibly—she awakes on an island plum full of magical greenhouses and one grumpy gardener. The magic sustaining the greenhouses is failing, and Terlu—along with a sentient rose and her gardener—must risk everything to save the blooms. 

The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields : Marigold Claude is not like other girls. She prefers meadows and bees rather than corsets and the company of high society. When her grandmother whisks her away and offers to train her as the next Honey Witch, she accepts. There is a curse, of course. No one can fall in love with a Honey Witch. Naturally, this means a tattooed skeptic woman shows up to the lush garden cottage and turns it all upside down. 

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna : Mika Moon is a witch in Britain, which sounds fun until it isn’t. She cannot mingle with other witches, she must hide her magic, and she is lonely. Posting pretend videos of being a witch online is how she copes. But when she receives a message about three young witches in need of a teacher, her secret life is upended. Set in the magical Nowhere House with plants, cozy vibes, and a hot librarian, Mika might just find where she belongs. 

Make poetry month last all year.

Subscribe to Poetry Magazine this April and receive a free limited edition notebook designed for reflection, drafted-in lines, and poems only you will write.

For more than 110 years, Poetry has been at the center of the art form. A subscription keeps you there, too.

Variety was the spice in Libro.fm’s bestselling audiobooks of March, compiled with data from more than 4,500 independent bookstores.

Fiction Highlights:

• This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum takes the #1 spot.
• R.F. Kuang holds #4 and #9 for The Complete Poppy War Trilogy and Katabasis , respectively. That’s nearly 85 hours (!) of combined listening time for folks who picked up both.
• Book club faves The Correspondent, Theo of Golden, and Kin claim #2, #3, and #7.

Nonfiction Highlights:

• John Green continues to hold down the #1 spot with Everything is Tuberculosis.
• The memoirs keeping our group chats blazing, Belle Burden’s Strangers and Lindy West’s Adult Braces, claim #2 and #4.
• Omar El Akkad’s National Book Award-winning One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This holds the #8 position.

👂Fill your queue with more bestselling audiobooks.

Rachel Khong, author of Goodbye, Vitamin and Real Americans, is back with a new short story collection, My Dear You, out today from Knopf. Below, she discusses three of the books that influenced her work.

The Girl in The Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender : I stumbled across the work of Aimee Bender for the first time about 20 years ago now, and found the trajectory of my writing changed. I count myself among the generation of writers that owe their work to her. I grew up loving fairy tales and fantastical myths; numerous English classes suggested that only realism and Serious Topics were valuable and important. But Aimee’s work suggested otherwise: that magic and pleasure and strangeness could be just as valuable, and could illuminate human emotion just as deeply.

Self-Portrait with Ghost by Meng Jin : Meng is my friend, and this book really captures what I admire about her as a writer and a person: it contains a hunger for life itself, and deep curiosity. Some of the stories are magical, others are more realist, all are really sharp, propulsive, exciting, delicious. I see the world a little differently after I read work by Meng. If you haven’t read any of her work, this collection would be a wonderful introduction to it.  

The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson : What I value in some of my favorite writers is what I’ll call “precise randomness.” Words and sentences that feel surprising, yet perfectly chosen—that startle you awake. The writing of Denis Johnson embodies this for me, particularly his stories and his poems. This posthumous story collection made me cry. I had the chance to meet Denis at his home in Idaho because my husband, Eli, had been his editor and friend. The human being behind the art was generous and hilarious; he was the opposite of entitled, grateful to be alive, given another chance.

Unlock the best of the book world with Book Riot All Access. Gain expert perspective with our exclusive deep dives, find your next favorite book via the New Release Index, and stay motivated on the Read Harder Challenge. Enhance your reading life— join All Access today!

Did you know? William Wordsworth is the only Poet Laureate of England to not write a line of new poetry while in office. He held the position for three years.

📚 Don’t miss The Millions’ big spring book preview with 140 books to watch for.

🎉 Celebrate National Poetry Month with the best-reviewed new collections.

🤔 Ponder the moral philosophy of writing with AI.

📚 Learn something with the best new nonfiction books out in April.

📫 Browse Book Riot’s full selection of newsletters for book news and recommendations tailored to your reading taste, from Latine Lit to horror reads to Literary Activism.