A groundbreaking new report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) is sounding the alarm about the physical state of America’s 17,000 public libraries.

• Roughly 40% of libraries in the U.S disclosed that one of their building systems is in poor condition.
• 61% have at least one building system or feature that poses a potential health or safety concern.
• 7,000 libraries have some kind of physical barrier preventing access for disabled people.

Why are so many of America’s libraries broken? They can’t afford the repairs.

• 71% of libraries noted that labor and materials exceed the budgets available for repairs
• 70% of public libraries (11,200) report a backlog of deferred maintenance and repairs.
• 3 years: the length of time libraries expect to defer these repairs
• 39% of those libraries report that their backlogs exceed $100,000

📋 Read the whole report. – KJ

There is always a remarkable economy of language in Rachel Khong’s books. She doesn’t waste any time—or any words—getting to the point, but she doesn’t sacrifice artistry, either.

Khong’s generous affection for her characters and ability to capture mundane human moments and anxieties with uncommon grace and humor make her exactly the kind of writer whose novels have made me wonder what she’d do with short stories. I can’t wait to find out.

📌 My Dear You hits shelves April 7 from Knopf. –RJS

Ready to level up your reading life? Become a Book Riot All Access member and explore our full library of members-only content, including must-reads, deep dives, and complete access to the Read Harder Challenge.

For a limited time, the first 100 new All Access annual members get a FREE copy of Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven courtesy of Flatiron Books! The Newmans are the perfect 1960s American family…or at least, they play one on TV. With ratings plummeting and each family member hiding secrets, their final episode marks one last chance to make history. Sign up for an annual All Access subscription today!

A lot of interesting things happen when you read 14 big books in 14 weeks, but you don’t have to take on the full course load to get the benefits of going back to the greats.

Here are a few things I learned making the first season of Zero to Well-Read:

• The classics hit different when you have life experience and adult perspective. If you haven’t checked in with Gatsby or The Bluest Eye since your school days, gird your existential loins.
• Books that seemed once seemed impossible become more approachable when you’ve got more reading under your belt. Midnight’s Children went 100% over my head in my twenties, but I’ve read a lot of books in the decades since, and it turns out that really helps!
• The more you read, the less you scroll. Nothing has ever made me less interested in social media than how good my brain feels after an hour with a book that demands my best attention.
• The great books are in conversation. I knew this before, but I really felt it for the first time this year. Shakespeare calls back to the Greeks. Everyone calls back to Shakespeare. Donna Tartt calls back to everyone. Salman Rushdie calls back to things I’ve never even heard of. Picking up references and following threads between writers is fun and makes you feel like you’re in on something special. – RJS

🎧 Listen as we break down everything you need to know about the books you wish you’d read.

We’ve seen plenty of “best of” lists over the last couple of months, but which ones are people actually picking up?

One theme stands out across more than 40 end-of-year lists from U.S. public libraries: books that garnered accolades in the previous year, have been picked up by celebrity book clubs, or have had adaptation news are popular. 

• For the second year in a row, Kristin Hannah’s The Women, a work of historical fiction set during the Vietnam War, has topped the list. 
• The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins stood atop the nonfiction list. 
• James by Percival Everett, one of the most decorated books of 2024, saw heavy circulation this year.
• Freida McFadden was the most popular author in public libraries, with nine unique titles among the most borrowed.
• The Wedding People by Alison Espach is perhaps one of the biggest sleeper hits of the last couple of years. 
• Atmosphere by Taylor Jekins Reid and Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry, both 2025 releases, also landed among the most circulated reads this year. 

Looking through the most popular books at libraries is always a neat peek into local interests, too. Where else does The Anxious Generation sit beside The Serviceberry and The Pacific Northwest Native Plant Primer? – KJ

👀 Check out the full list.

Give them a gift they can sip on all year long with a gift subscription from Peet’s Coffee! Each month, they’ll receive customizable selection of hand-roasted beans delivered at peak freshness. Use code GIFTSUB20 to save 20% off your purchase of a gift subscription from Peet’s Coffee.

The Housemaid hit theaters this weekend, and audiences seem to be into it. This should not come as a surprise, because Frieda McFadden knows how to write stories that people can’t put down. The rise of Colleen Hoover and the dominance of romantasy have been the two major stories of BookTok and social algorithms, but there is a chance that Frieda McFadden might outlast either. And that’s not even her real name. 

The author we know as Frieda McFadden started self-publishing over a decade ago, moonlighting from her day job as a “doctor who treats brain disorders.” The Housemaid, first published by UK digital-first house Bookotoure, blew up, and McFadden’s deep list of self-published work was ready for hungry readers. 

She branched out from her early medical thrillers to psychological thrillers of all sorts, a trajectory that reminds me a little of John Grisham, who used his knowledge of law to write global-smashes in legal thrillers and who now is a household name. It is now not unusual to see multiple McFadden titles among the best-selling books any given week, which was only possible because, like Colleen Hoover before here, McFadden had plenty of books for new fans to devour. It is not often that we mint a new author who is well-known enough to sit on the end of grocery store checkout aisles and have people pick up the book by name alone, but McFadden is there now. 

To this point she has kept her real name private to protect her patients, she now has a problem any author would kill to have—she is too famous to start using her real name now.

Everybody be cool. There are all kinds of reasons you might still be finalizing your shopping two days before Christmas, and frankly, it’s none of our business why you need a gift at this, the eleventh hour of the holiday season. Lucky for you, though, it is our business to help you out.

Here are some last-minute bookish gifts that will give you plausible deniability for having waited until, you know, right now to do the thing.

• Find an indie bookstore near them and snag a gift card
• Give the gift of audiobooks with Libro.fm credits
• For the person who values experiences over things, look for a bookish museum of experience near them. Gift them passes to The Rabbit Hole in Kansas City, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, the American Writers Museum in Chicago, or a local/regional book festival.
• Crafty folks will love a virtual bookbinding workshop.
• Book Riot’s TBR service offers personalized book recommendations (from real humans, not AI) for readers of all stripes.

Move over, algorithms—give a gift curated by a real human who loves books as much as they do. With Tailored Book Recommendations, your loved one is matched with a professional book nerd who hand-picks three titles with their specific interests in mind. And with the option to schedule when the welcome email arrives in your recipient’s inbox, you can avoid spoilers before the big day—and dodge shipping delays, too. Gift TBR today starting at just $18!

For all you Tartt fans, know that The Secret History has been our most popular episode of Zero to Well-Read so far.

🧦 Put your best foot forward with a monthly delivery of socks designed by independent artists. 100% of proceeds go to maternal healthcare.**

🏒 Meet the author behind the Heated Rivalry sensation.

✍️ Can you guess the first author to publish a book that was written on a typewriter?

🤖 What if readers like AI-generated fiction?

📺 Take a break from reading with everything coming to Netflix in January.

_{**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 Danika Ellis for copy editing.

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