Happy New Year, Friends!
In a previous post about banned books and The Court of Thorns and Roses (first book only), I mentioned that I didn’t object to the sexuality on display—the reason the book is so often banned from high school libraries—but that I don’t like books with men (or faeries) who have episodes of no control over their behavior, and thus are not responsible for what they do. There are more general reasons that romantasy makes me roll my eyes. But—I’m a librarian, so I welcome books that I don’t enjoy because—reading is for everyone.
Knowing my taste in books, my middle son sent me a link to a short video by Liz Shipton. From there, I saw that she has a whole collection of fantasy send-ups on YouTube. They are such fun! Very clever as well. She’s always ‘pretend typing’ the story on a computer. Minimal set up and choreography (smart!), maximal laughter. Here are three favorites that show why I hate romantasy:
Women Writing Women in YA Fantasy
My holidays
I had fun seeing both family and friends. Baked, had two teas (breads, cookies, coffee cakes!) with one of my college roommates, watched movies with my husband and sons. Here’s a look at the San Diego Botanical Gardens holiday ‘Lightscape’ event, which my family and I visited.
Not really resolutions
* I’m thinking I might keep a spreadsheet list of books I read in 2025, sorted by genre, and see how much I read these days and what I read more of.
* I’m adding a 10-minute jog on the treadmill each day to increase my heart rate. Typically I walk my dogs 3 or 4 miles a day with my youngest son (though I have really fallen off this schedule during the holidays), and do Pilates twice weekly, but those are slow, not very aerobic.
* I want to write a draft of a novel that I’ve been thinking about for a long, long time (years). I have a very good idea but haven’t been able to come up with plot points. Recently, some plot events have come to mind, so I want to give it a try.
Do you make resolutions? I haven’t in years, but since my productivity has taken a nosedive, I thought I’d give it a try.
Something to look forward to
In 2025–June, if all goes well—my novel Keep Sweet will be published by Inlandia Books. I know so much about this year will be difficult, but I’m thrilled for this solid, good thing! You might have guessed, but it’s the opposite of romantasy. The protagonist is a 14-year-old girl trying to escape a polygamist/patriarchal cult.
Also new this year are a group of Be a Cactus subscribers. Some of you appear quite real (Thank you for joining us! Welcome!) and some appear to be fake. I don’t understand why anyone would bother creating fake accounts to join Substack newsletters—it’s hardly like X. My eldest son tells me it may have something to do with future advertising structures on Substack. I mentioned that, while I am very small potatoes here, I have a good engagement rate, and it will decline because subscribers who aren’t real don’t read weekly posts. He reminded me that this just means the engagement rates are also fake. And that’s true. I guess I’ll just keep writing and not think about bots.
Books I started the year with
This may surprise you since I am a cactus, but the first book I read this year was Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life, edited by Barnaby Conrad and Monte Shultz (son of Charles Shultz, the creator of the Peanuts cartoon). A friend who is cleaning out her house found it among her things and gave it to me. It includes writing advice from more than 30 authors, generally in short essays that are about as informative as anything you’d find online from people hoping to become writing influencers. Some of the writers I admire, some I don’t know anything about, and a few are authors I avoid. But none of that matters because what is great about the book is Snoopy.
Full disclosure: I loved Snoopy as a kid. I used to take the full-color comics from the Sunday newspaper and cut out images of Snoopy, then tape them to my bedroom door. Well—the door of the bedroom I shared with my two older sisters. I think they didn’t like this because one day, all of my Snoopy images had been taken down. I never asked about this; communicating wasn’t a family highlight.
I thought I’d gotten over Snoopy, but reading Snoopy’s Guide made me fall in love again! I want to have the same sanguine responses he has to repeated rejection (a fact of the writing life). He is never daunted by Lucy’s endless criticism of his work.
I read Jim Wallis’s The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy. I’m interested in what is happening with Christianity In America, so I’ve read several books about it in the past year. I don’t know that people reading Cactus are interested in the topic, but if so, I discuss The False White Gospel in detail in a post on my School Library Lady blog, here.
I also read That Librarian by Amanda Jones, but I’m not sure if it counts because I had previously listened to the audiobook. I needed the print book to read so I could write a discussion of it.
Audiobooks I started the year with
Colored Television by Danny Senna
So much well-deserved praise has been heaped on this novel by professional reviewers that there isn’t much for me to add. If you don’t know anything about it: The protagonist (Jane) is a mulatto writer who is exploring the history of multiracial people in the U.S. through her second novel—ten years in the making. Meanwhile, she is an untenured professor hoping to get tenure when she finishes the novel. She’s on sabbatical and has the good fortune of spending the year with her family (husband Lenny and two kids) house-sitting in the hills of Los Angeles for a wealthy, successful screenwriter friend. As things take an unexpected turn, Jane decides to give screenwriting a go.
Anyone who has had to deal with the academic life will connect to this. Anyone who has focused on a creative endeavor to the detriment of their pocketbook/family time/relationships will connect. Any frustrated fiction writer will connect. But the story is also very much about what it means to be a mulatto—how the individual is perceived and treated in American society. And while there’s humor there, I mostly felt indignation for Jane and her predicament.
SPOILER ALERT—AND I MEAN THIS WILL GIVE AWAY THE WHOLE BOOK.
I often include spoilers when I discuss banned books because they’ve been around a long time, and they are for teens, and if you haven’t read them, you probably aren’t going to. This is different because Colored Television is a currently popular book, and it’s for adults, and you will want to read it if you haven’t. SO SKIP TO THE NEXT BOOK IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THIS ONE YET.
Alrighty then. If you have read Colored Television, I have something I want to ask you. Near the end, Jane finds out that her novel ideas and even, in some instances, her exact words, have been stolen for a TV series that she had been brainstorming ideas for. She has no recourse because she had handwritten her notes and had no specific emails to the show runner about her work. I know the novel needed to have things turn out this way, but here’s the issue for me:
Previously, Jane had sent her novel to her agent, who had forwarded it to the editor at her publishing house. The editor read it and said it was unsalvageable. That happened before the TV series issues, so there is evidence that the ideas and the words are Jane’s. She has the emails (with the dates). She also worked with an agent for the screenwriting. Though nothing was solid, they were working on writing her a contract with the show runner who stole her work. More evidence. She has text messages from the show runner proving that she was in contact with him long before the TV show aired. More evidence. Then, when her work is stolen, all this is forgotten and she has no recourse. This bugged the hell out of me. Did it bug you, too?
The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders
I just started to listen to this essay collection. The first essay, after which the collection is named, is about the dumbing down of news. I thought of two ideas from that essay in the context of the publishing world:
1) “Tell us as much truth as you can while still making money” is not the same thing as ”Tell us the truth.”
2) The ‘national’ is closer to God than the ‘local’; the large market looks down upon the small.
Isn’t this true of fiction? If the novel is too truth-telling, it might not engage the audience of, say, a Hallmark movie—or a romantasy. It might not make enough money to support an agent—and no disrespect there, because agents need to make a living (deserve to make a living)!
I once listened to an agent describe fiction as ‘the lie that tells the truth.’ This is certainly not a new idea. That storytelling is fictional but is capable of delivering a great truth is an ancient idea. (Jesus’s parables—take the Good Samaritan as an example.) However there is also this: a fictional story (novel, movie) can be a lie that tells a greater lie. (*Checks romantasy titles.*) One that sells well. We don’t think about that often. This can be fun escapism. Or dangerous. Depends.
Handy 2025 stuff for writers
Clifford Garstang came out with his 2025 Literary Magazine Rankings
These rankings are based solely on the number of Pushcart Prizes and Pushcart Special Mentions the magazines have received over the past ten years. They are intended as a guide for determining where writers might submit their work for publication.
Part 2: Library news, book challenges and book bans
The year in review
Book Riot has links and summaries for their top book censorship stories of the year:
Catch Up on This Year’s Most Read Book Censorship Stories
From School Library Journal, one of the stories with most views was:
Of our frequent roundups of censorship news, one stood out for our readership: “13 Books Banned from All Utah Schools,” posted in August.
2024 Year in Review from American Libraries Magazine
In 2024, states including Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Vermont, and Washington passed laws that disincentivize public and school libraries from banning books based on viewpoint. These states join California and Illinois in adopting legislation that aims to deter censorship. Under these laws, books can still be challenged, but reconsideration processes must be documented and followed. ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom reported that nationwide, during the first eight months of 2024, book challenges were down from 2023 numbers from the same period—414 challenges compared with 695 challenges—but were still much higher than prior to 2020.
The New York Public Library Top Ten Checkouts for 2024 from the NYPL
* Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
* Happy Place by Emily Henry
* The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
* The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson
* Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
* Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
* Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez
* Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
* Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
* The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
These were the most-borrowed books from public libraries in 2024 from capradio (NPR). (Mentions a few titles from each of several large public libraries—no lists)
Year-end lists are fun to parse, but it's important to keep perspective, said Brian Bannon, the Meryl and James Tisch Director at the New York Public Library. He oversees the 88 neighborhood branches of the nation's largest library system.
"Even though we published our top ten, none of these books made up more than 1% of our overall circulation," he said.
General library and book censorship news
Librarian Amanda Jones Files New Defamation Lawsuits from School Library Journal
Kleinman’s posts against Jones have escalated, she says. He has tweeted about her more than 300 times in the last year and contacted her principal and school board members. He frequently tags her legislators, district, and school in his posts. He showed up at one of her recent events where she was promoting her book, That Librarian.
“In addition to me feeling unsafe and that he is escalating [his harassment], I’ve been watching him do this to other librarians for years,” Jones told SLJ the day Kleinman was served. “I’ve had enough for me, and I’ve had enough for everyone else.”
Ripple effects of children’s book bans From the Los Angeles Times (thanks to reader Joan for the reminder!)
Efforts by conservative parents have tanked sales. Culture-war-weary schools and libraries are shunning materials on LGBTQ+ issues, race.
In what some in the book publishing industry call “shadow bans” or “soft censorship,” the effects are far-reaching:
Teachers and librarians, facing threats and fearful of losing their jobs or even going to jail in states that have passed laws criminalizing certain works, are hesitating to put controversial books that include LGBTQ+ characters or discussions of racism on their shelves.
Publishers — which depend on schools and library purchases — report that sales of such books are down significantly, even when the works receive critical acclaim.
And authors have seen school visits canceled, leaving them without a crucial income stream.
“Teachers and librarians have to really weigh whether it’s worth the risk,” said Lee Wind, chief content officer for the Independent Book Publishers Assn.
Who uses public libraries the most? There’s a divide by religion, and politics. From the Washington Post.
The top library users all have one thing in common. But the Americans least likely to use libraries fall into two groups, each of which share some surprising traits. This is interesting—lots of graphs and sorting of readers.
Judge rules Arkansas law threatening librarians with jail unconstitutional
The law, which threatened imprisonment if librarians or booksellers provided ‘harmful’ content to minors, violates the First Amendment, a federal judge ruled.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks ruled that two parts of Arkansas Act 372 — which Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed in 2023 — are overly broad and vague, and violated librarians’, booksellers’ and patrons’ First Amendment rights.
The two parts of the law that were struck down would have established a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison, for librarians and booksellers who distribute “harmful” material to a minor. It also would have required local governments to create oversight boards to review challenged content, which often deal with themes of race and sexuality. The ruling, which will likely be challenged, comes as a growing number of GOP-controlled statehouses have considered similar laws that threaten librarians with prison.
Bill to charge Ohio teachers would combat ‘obscene’ classroom books, lawmaker says From NBC
An Ohio legislator says a bill to charge educators with felonies for handing out “obscene” materials is needed after substitute teachers saw books in the classroom “depicting actions that students don’t need to be seeing.”
The legislation, House Bill 556, received an Ohio House Criminal Justice Committee hearing on Dec. 3 and would establish “criminal liability for certain teachers and librarians for the offense of pandering obscenity.” The bill would charge teachers and school librarians with fifth-degree felonies — punishable by a sentence of six to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500 — for creating, reproducing, publishing, promoting or advertising “obscene material.”
Citing tax dollars spent, judge urges Florida school district to settle book ban lawsuit from the Tallahassee Democrat
A settlement "should be particularly important to (the school board) because it is spending taxpayer money to defend this suit and it could end up having to pay all or part of Plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees on top of its own attorneys’ fees if Plaintiffs prevail in this case," wrote Pensacola-based U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II in the footnote of a court order late last month.
In that case, the Escambia County School Board has spent more than $440,000 on its own attorneys' fees, according to payment information the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida obtained in a public records request. This was precipitated by a First Amendment lawsuit filed by national free speech group PEN America, book publisher Penguin Random House, book authors and parents of students who have been denied access to various school library books.
Conservative censoriousness is holding Florida back from the Tampa Bay Times fun (snarky) op-ed
The worse news: You, Florida taxpayer, are now shelling out $15.6 million to an education technology outfit in Maryland to put together a “statewide, centralized, easily accessible” system for anyone from parents to random ideologues to “examine” materials in Florida libraries and classrooms.
The state pretends this is about “transparency;” but we all know it’s about finding books to object to, demanding certain instructional documents be removed, and protesting anything they deem “inappropriate.”
It’s a tool to make it easier to ban books — and Florida already bans more books than any other state in the nation.
This absurd waste of public money may appease Moms for Liberty, neo-Puritan evangelicals, and everybody else terrified of 21st Century realities.
They fear Their Youth will discover that 1. Racism has been part of the fabric of the U.S. since its founding; 2. Slavery was not vocational training; 3. People have sex; 4. Sometimes gay sex.
What this nonsense does NOT accomplish is advancing education in Florida.
Moreover, these hysterics may deny it, but their children already know about sex.
Their children have cellphones.
