S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.

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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. *

Publishers Weekly has Announced its Picks for the Best Books of 2025

Some of these titles will look familiar, because they’ve been getting a ton of buzz leading up to this point. There are likely books you haven’t read—and possibly haven’t even heard of—here as well, though. The Publishers Weekly picks skew more literary than the bestseller list does.

• Esquire Names Its Best Books of 2025
• Why Did These Authors Have Their School Visit Canceled? They Were Talking About Their Book About Book Bans.
• October’s Indie Bestsellers, BIPOC Edition

The End of Shadow Libraries?

Beginning in 2026, Google, the parent company of the Android operating system, will restrict sideloading of third-party apps that haven’t been verified by developers—and aren’t downloaded from the Google Play Store—to improve platform security. Many of us are used to Apple’s locked-down system, which prevents us from installing apps that aren’t on the App Store, but on Android, it’s been a free-for-all. How will Google’s security changes affect shadow libraries?

• The Bestselling Books of the Week, According to All the Lists
• The Best New Books of November, According to Indie Booksellers
• The Most Banned Book in America is Getting an Updated Edition—And More Queer Book News
• Diamond Comics’s Bankruptcy and What it Means for the Comics Industry
• The Most Read Books on Goodreads in October 2025

The Banning of Banned Books Week: Book Censorship News, October 31, 2025

This year’s Banned Books Week, held from October 5 to 11, was never about celebrating the damage being done to our constitutional rights; since its inception, the week-long event has been about raising awareness about the threats to our constitutional rights. But in ways that are baffling even to folks who’ve been working in this arena for decades, 2025’s Banned Books Week brought not only further lies and misinformation about what’s happening in public institutions nationwide. It also brought with it censorship of discussing the issue at all.

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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