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.
The state of Utah has been on a book banning blitz in 2026. On Friday, June 5, the state added its 35th book to the list of books that must be removed from every public school in the state: Lucky by Alice Sebold. The ban comes amidst a lawsuit challenging these state-sanctioned bans filed in February, and it comes after banning 15 other books in 2026 alone.
This right to privacy is radical. There are few places in America where there’s any expectation of privacy, let alone a commitment to it. Learning about this blew my mind in college, when I heard that my college’s library–which doubles as the town’s public library–was approached by federal agents. Those agents wanted the records of a user who was related to a potential terrorism suspect. The right to privacy meant the library wouldn’t turn those records over. In hearing this story several times, there were anecdotes peppered in about how the library would keep a card on a bulletin board that said “were we visited by federal agents today?” with a “yes” or “no” answer below.
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.
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