The winners of the UK PEN Translates Awards are announced. Notes to John, Joan Didion’s diary from 1999, will be published by Knopf. Literary organizations release a joint statement decrying the Trump administration’s anti-trans executive order. Plus, a new horror novel from Nick Medina, interviews with Sarah Chihaya, Elinor Lipman, and Alton Brown, and new title bestsellers.

Preprints, or initial versions of scientific reports that researchers share before the formal peer review and publication process have been completed, have started to become more popular within academic circles—and now the Gates Foundation has changed its Open Access policy to require grant-funded research papers to appear as preprints before publication.

The American Library Association (ALA) has filed an amicus brief on the U.S. Supreme Court case, Federal Communications Commission, et al., Petitioners v. Consumers’ Research, et al., which stands to decide the fate of federal programs supporting broadband access for half of the nation’s public libraries. The brief affirms both the constitutionality and the value of the Universal Service Fund and the programs it administers—particularly the E-Rate program, which helps power broadband-enabled services and access in U.S. public libraries and schools.

Although considerably smaller than ALA’s Midwinter and LibLearnX conferences of the past, there was a palpable sense of community and nostalgia around the last midwinter gathering.

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction longlist is announced. LJ reveals the Best Media of 2024. Reese Witherspoon selects Isola by Allegra Goodman for her February book club. Jessica Soffer’s This Is a Love Story gets a four-star review from USA Today. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Deep End by Ali Hazelwood. Forthcoming memoirs from Christie Brinkley, Debbie Gibson, and Christine Brown Woolley gather buzz. PEN America releases the Banned Books List 2025, while the Big Five U.S. publishers sue Idaho over book-removal language in House Bill (HB) 710.

The Libby Book Awards finalists are announced. Mac Barnett is named U.S. National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, ed. by Ada Limón, is the 2025 Seattle Reads pick. February book club picks include This Is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer (Read with Jenna and B&N), Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine (GMA), and Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su (Amazon’s Sarah Selects). Clarkson Potter plans to reissue Martha Stewart’s 1982 book Entertaining, after it finds appeal with a new audience. Mat Youkee’s forthcoming Forty Days in the Jungle will be adapted for the big screen. Plus, authors weigh in on the pros and cons of blurbing.

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood leads holds this week. Also getting buzz are titles by J.D. Robb, Tessa Bailey, Jonathan Kellerman, Pam Jenoff, and Bill Gates. Jimmy Carter wins a posthumous Grammy for the audiobook Last Sundays in Plains. Finalists for the Gotham Book Prize are announced. Audiofile announces the February 2025 Earphones Award winners. This month’s Read with Jenna pick is Jessica Soffer’s This Is a Love Story. People’s book of the week is Too Soon by Betty Shamieh. Plus, February booklists arrive.

Garland County Library, AR; North Bergen Free Public Library, NJ; and Queens Public Library, NY, demonstrate the resourceful programming, robust partnerships, and care for their communities that has earned them Honorable Mention for the 2020 Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize.

You may have wondered why so many publishers are announcing pilot projects on open access (OA) publishing. The theme of Open Access Week (October 21-27), Community over Commercialization, hints at the reason: publishers want to engage with the community’s request for new models but can’t afford to make a loss on OA (and shouldn’t be expected to).