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July 7, 2026 View Online | Join All Access | Listen

🍾 Thanks to all of you being such enthusiastic book nerds, we’re now going to be in your inbox three days a week. The first Wednesday edition comes out tomorrow, and we couldn’t be happier to get to share more literary news and recommendations with you.

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THE HEADLINE

ICYMI: The biggest recent publishing news

Photo by Jaredd Craig on Unsplash

Publishing took a little breather over the holiday weekend here in the U.S., which is a perfect opportunity for you to catch up on the latest headlines.

Writers accused of using AI to write their Commonwealth Prize-shortlisted stories were cleared after an investigation, and one went on to win the whole thing .

Barnes & Noble named the best debut novel of the year—yes, the whole year—months earlier than they typically announced the Discover Prize.

Austenites are hypted for the new adaptation of Sense & Sensibility now that the trailer is out.

Publishers Weekly dropped a great big fall book preview .

#BookTok stars picked the best books to read this summer .

Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s next book is a World War II spy novel coming in early 2027.

Netflix launched a book-to-screen hub for your adaptation viewing pleasure

Dua Lipa created a stunning library of banned books under the most beautiful bookstore in the world.

NEW RELEASES

People be peopling

Would you rather move across the country to a small town populated with colorful, kooky characters, some of whom believe the Earth is hollow, or live with your soon-to-be-ex mother-in-law while she recovers from surgery?

Those are the scenarios in Country People by Daniel Mason and Some People by Parini Shroff, two of our most-anticipated books of the season, out today.

Also hitting shelves:

🏳️‍🌈 The final installment in a beloved LGBTQ+ graphic novel series .

⚠️ Things turn dangerous when college sweethearts reunite at a professor’s funeral a shocking thriller from a bestselling author.

💞 A diehard Jane Austen fan accidentally summons Mr. Darcy in a charming and hilarious romance inspired by Pride and Prejudice .

🍃 A teen girl turns over a new leaf after being labeled as a bad kid in a touching coming-of-age story .

See more of July’s new releases .

TOGETHER WITH TRAVIS DEVERELL AND AETHON: VAULT

A magic-fueled LitRPG for fans of Dungeon Crawler Carl

Take it from Dungeon Crawler Carl author Matt Dinniman: He Who Fights With Monsters is “exciting, hilarious, irreverent, and action-packed.”

Waking up in a mysterious world of magic and monsters isn’t easy. For Jason, making the career jump from office-supplies-store middle manager to heroic interdimensional adventurer is surreal. Good is hard when your powers are evil. As a stranger in a strange land, he’ll need courage, wit, and his own magic powers. But first, he’s going to need pants.

Book 1 of this witty fantasy action adventure is now available in a deluxe hardcover edition with an exclusive bonus short story. Order yours today!

ZERO TO WELL-READ

The foundations of Western literature

Hot Greek Summer has arrived! Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey hits theaters next week, and we are here to help you with the homework.

If you’ve never read Homer’s epic poem—or if it’s been a while—you might be surprised by how accessible it is. And the themes are relatable, too.

At its heart , this is a story about a man trying to get back to his family, a boy trying to become grow up, and a woman holding the whole place together in her husband’s absence.

Most surprising , perhaps, is that all of the big set pieces you think of when you think of The Odyssey —the sirens, the Cyclops, Circe turning the men into pigs—appear in just two of the poem’s 24 books.

The rest is the stuff the Western canon is built on: big questions about identity, family, hospitality, free will vs. destiny, and what we owe our neighbors.

🎧 Hear our conversation about this foundational text on Zero to Well-Read , and dive in for the adventure.

WRITERS ON WRITING

Cats as writing supervisors

photo credit: Mindy Tucker

Alison Leiby is the author of I’m a Lot: Surviving Myself and All the People I’ve Been , out today from The Dial Press. Below, she discusses how this book was written alongside her cat, Rizz.

Most people find writing a book, especially a memoir, to be a solitary exercise done in isolation and solitude. With the exception of an editor, most writers have no help when they are writing. Not me, I’m different. I had most of my writing overseen by my cat, Rizz.

Rizz is what I like to call an “arm rest cat.” I hadn’t had him long when I started writing the book, and while he is a snuggly buddy, he only turned into a lap cat now that the book is completed.

It’s honestly a relief. It is impossible to type on your laptop when most of your lap is occupied by a 17-pound tuxedo cat (I claim in my book that I’m a lot, and he’s even more).

But when I began writing, Rizz had a very specific position he occupied, physically. Existentially, his position is really the manager of the apartment, but physically, I would sit on the couch with my computer on my lap and my feet up on my coffee table in the early days of writing.

Rizz would hop up on the couch, stare into my eyes for 10 seconds, and then flop over and lie flush with my leg, maximum physical contact without ever being on top of me. While I surfed around Word documents or labored over a sentence, my left arm could rest on his big, fuzzy belly as it rose and fell with his sleepy breathing.

After a few weeks, I had to actually go and get a workspace because the distractions of my apartment are numerous, and Rizz is only one of them.

I completed my 13 essays at a giant desk near a man eating pistachios too loudly, but always came home and kept tinkering away with my living arm rest, Rizz.

TOGETHER WITH THE CAMEO PRESS

A sweeping, morally complex love story that will stay with you.

New from the bestselling author of Beyond the Moon , The Many Seas of Guernsey is a story of forbidden love, a crisis of faith, and a choice that costs everything.

In the last golden years before Europe erupts into WWII a young English writer and a German Roman Catholic priest-in-training meet by chance on the small British island of Guernsey – and are drawn into a forbidden, all-consuming love. Then history and duty intrude, forcing them to choose between complicity and courage in a fight for truth, freedom – and each other.

Now available on Kindle Unlimited and wherever books are sold.

ESSAYS

“I Love You, Madame Librarian” by Kurt Vonnegut

image source: The LIbrary of Congress

Last week, I was looking around for a literary quotation that might be good to share on Book Riot’s socials. Something affirming, but also not uncritically jingoistic. Sounds like a job for one Kurt Vonnegut.

It’s a nice quote, isn’t it?: “ The America I love still exists at the front desk of public libraries.” Lots of other people think so too, but when I went looking for the source, I found it’s quite a bit darker than I (and presumably the others sharing it all over the internet) thought.

It comes from one of his late essays, the 2004 “I Love You, Madame Librarian.” It’s a short piece, though long on political dread:

“What can be said to our young people, now that psychopathic personalities, which is to say persons without consciences, without a sense of pity or shame, have taken all the money in the treasuries of our government and corporations and made it all their own?”

And this is coming from someone who made his bones writing about the fire-bombing of Dresden. The paragraph from which the pull quote comes is no less, dare I say, despondent:

“So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.”

If there is a bright side to this little story, it might be that Vonnegut would be heartened to see that people who care about books and libraries are still fighting, still showing up. And maybe even reading the source material for one-line quotes we find on the internet.

RETELLINGS

Why Darcy is still the #1 book boyfriend

photo credit: David Levenson

Freya Sampson is the author of Most Ardently Yours , out today from Sourcebooks Landmark. Below, she discusses why Darcy still has so much appeal for readers today.

Mr Darcy has been making readers swoon for more than 200 years, which is pretty impressive for a man who spends much of Pride and Prejudice looking grumpy in the corner of a room. On paper, he really shouldn’t work as well as he does—he’s proud, socially awkward, and his first proposal is an absolute disaster—yet generation after generation of readers list him as their number one book boyfriend. Why?

This is a question I asked myself many times while writing my latest novel, Most Ardently Yours , which sees Mr Darcy come to life in twenty-first-century London. I came to the conclusion that a large part of his appeal is that he isn’t charming in the conventional sense. He doesn’t flirt effortlessly, flash a dazzling smile, or deliver perfect lines. Instead, readers get the satisfying experience of discovering that first impressions can be wildly wrong. Beneath the aloof exterior is someone loyal, thoughtful, and capable of genuine self-reflection.

Darcy also embodies a romantic fantasy that never quite goes out of style. He’s the person whose feelings run far deeper than anyone realises. For all his awkwardness, when he loves, he loves wholeheartedly. What’s more, because of that love, he’s willing to change. When Elizabeth Bennet calls him out on his arrogance, rather than sulking, Darcy listens and does the difficult work of examining his own flaws and becoming a better person.

More than two centuries after Jane Austen wrote him, you can strip away the cravats and country estates and find a man trying, often imperfectly, to connect with other people and prove himself worthy of the woman he loves. In a world of slick dating apps and carefully curated online personas, that feels refreshingly timeless.

TOGETHER WITH DEL REY

An uplifting cozy fantasy about a geeky academic finding love and self-worth.

In Chiara Bullen’s The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengenance , a young aspiring scholar is sent to research the mysteries of an adventurer’s inn—only to uncover a centuries-old secret. What he doesn’t expect to find is true friendship and a new home among a diverse cast of not-quite-human heroes and heroines.

Perfect for Dungeons & Dragons readers and fans of fantasy pop culture with mouth-watering food, this is “a heartfelt and heartwarming story about finding your own peace . . . charming and lovely” (Sarah Beth Durst, author of The Spellsho p).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

V.E. Schwab (July 2)

Did you know? V.E. Schwab pursued a masters degree in what might be the coolest sounding degree program of all time: depictions of monsters in medieval art (University of Edinburgh). You might be interested in this interview we did with her a few years ago about creativit y.

CRITICAL LINKING

You are now free to roam about the internet

🧠 Rewire your attention and learn to read again .

🌈 Add these must-read new LGBTQ books to your July TBR.

📓 Expand your reading horizons with the best new poetry collections .

⏪ Be kind, rewind with a ’90s-inspired reading list.

🔍 Spot the clues to a literary email scam .

📚 Keep up to date with all things library by signing up for the Check Your Shelf newsletter.

END NOTES

Written by Rebecca Schinsky, Jeff O’Neal, and Danika Ellis. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.

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Got a tip, question, comment, or story idea? Drop us a line: thenewsletter@bookriot.com .

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2026 has been the year of internet horror and horror filmmakers. Veteran YouTuber Mark Fischbach , better known as Markiplier, kicked things off with his theatrical debut, Iron Lung , which shocked Hollywood after earning $51 million at the box office and going toe-to-toe with Sam Raimi 's Send Help during its first weekend. More recently, the buzz has been around two more films from the video platform's creators, Curry Barker 's Obsession at Neon and Kane Parsons ' Backrooms at A24, which each scored over $350 million. Backrooms , in particular, has sparked a search for more popular YouTube series to adapt to the big screen, like Alex Kister 's analog horror The Mandela Catalogue , the rights of which were recently acquired by a team including Steven Spielberg .

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As businesses race to operationalize AI, a growing number are creating dedicated AI leadership positions.

The appointment of HSBC’s first Chief AI Officer, for example, caused a stir when it was unveiled earlier this year.

When the financial services giant announced plans to build a bank for the future – and cited the key role that an enterprise-wide AI strategy will play – many people no doubt expected the new position to be filled by a technologist. Instead, the inaugural title was given to David Rice – a reported HSBC veteran of 20 years, who previously served as the bank’s Chief Operating Officer.

This became a hot topic of conversation, but in my opinion, for all the right reasons. Because, yes, HSBC’s decision may have come as a surprise, but I applaud it as the right one.

AI is not a tech silver bullet

C-suites are becoming increasingly energized about ever-intuitive technology and the potential to transform their organizations with capabilities such as agentic AI and advanced automation. The excitement is palpable and understandable.

But we must remember that like any technology, AI alone is not a silver bullet. After all, you can have the most sophisticated Formula One car in the world, but the vehicle alone doesn’t guarantee a podium finish. AI also doesn’t magically fix a messy business, it exposes it. So, simply investing six figures or more in cutting-edge technology will not automatically pave the way for positive strategic change.

That said, senior technology figureheads such as the CTO are often the most likely AI evangelists because they understand how AI can be utilized to achieve the transformational progress that is being sought.

They’re important advocates of the ‘art of the possible’. They can articulate the value, clarify what is and isn’t doable, help understand likely ROI, and if necessary, talk to department heads to help alleviate concerns.

They are an important voice in this entire conversation. But that doesn’t mean they have to lead it.

The role of the technologist

In large organizations, of course I believe the CTO should be ultimately responsible for the technology platform. We’re talking about something that will be used if not relied upon by potentially the entire workforce, so the build, deployment, security and governance considerations need to be safeguarded by someone experienced in managing business-critical infrastructure on this scale.

We also need to remember that although AI capabilities are changing rapidly, if you strip everything down, we’re looking at extremely smart code that should be written, tested, productionized, released, deployed, monitored and managed, with the same guardrails as other technology within the business.

At the very least, an AI leader therefore needs the CTO to be an ally, as the organization advances its digital maturity. And if such a technical specialist does not exist in-house, this level of strategic counsel must be sought from a trusted external partner.

Without this technical collaborator, the AI leader may quickly become unstuck. This is not about becoming a self-taught expert, however simple it seems nowadays to spin up a game-changing solution with vibe coding.

Alternative AI evangelists

But we need to remember some of the many other reasons that 95% of AI projects reportedly fail (MIT, 2025).

Often it is because large, complex initiatives have been kickstarted with significant budget, but a crucial stakeholder – such as operations – has only been brought in, at the final hour. When people feel excluded and their requirements unaccommodated, initiatives get blocked, projects stall and eventually things grind to a halt.

We must also realize that AI is only effective when you start applying it to particular workstreams, workloads and business processes – especially processes on a micro level. These micro-processes may seem inconsequential, when compared to the bigger picture.

However, if the AI evangelist can alleviate administrative pressure or a morale drainer that impacts a large number of people on a daily basis, the seemingly small productivity wins start to make a daily difference to colleagues who need to buy-in to AI for the longer haul.

Culturally, process orchestration is usually not something that a pure ‘techie’ understands or cares enough about. But for any AI initiative to be a success, the appointed AI leader is so dependent on unpicking, defining and if necessary refining every process and its interdependencies. An operations lynchpin – or another experienced and personable business analyst or transformation lead – is critical here.

If you want AI and the human workforce to augment one another, the AI lead also needs to understand people. For example, if you’re going to build an agent with a HR persona, which can sit inside that department to help address repetitive joiner, mover and leaver matters, it is firstly crucial to understand the role of a HR colleague. This extends far beyond the colleagues’ basic job description.

A transformative leader – whatever the role

The most successful projects need a senior stakeholder to direct departments, drive collaboration and unity, and confidently build, articulate, socialize, and enforce the AI strategy, among the people who’ll live and breathe the change. Even the most technologically gifted individual cannot do this alone.

That senior stakeholder could wear one of many hats, but whether they’re the CEO, CIO, CTO, COO, director of business transformation, or another change leader, they must have an innovation appetite, and the ability to articulate – perhaps with the help of their chosen partner(s) – what budget is required and why.

None of this is about ego. It’s about someone who can talk at level 5 to the layperson, and hold their own when talking at level 500 as the technical plans take shape. They know what they want to achieve, even if they don’t know how. They might not have a technical background, but they need to partner with someone who does.

Multi-disciplined responsibilities

In a perfect world, AI implementation is not anyone’s stand-alone problem – it is a multi-persona discipline. A talented AI engineer will always ensure you have the right configuration in response to the brief.

But the relevance and quality of the resulting solution depends on who has defined that brief in the first place, to what standard, and whether this truly reflects the strategic motivators of the business. If the AI lead can’t articulate what good looks like and how it links to the P&L, it will always be harder to get there.

To me, HSBC’s Chief AI Officer selection signals that this role is not simply about building new systems, but reframing how the business runs, for the benefit of customers and colleagues alike. And on the face of it at least, the bank appears to have covered all bases.

The Chief AI Officer is said to be working closely with the CTO, who will oversee the core technology foundations needed to support the necessary AI adoption initiatives. And I know the industry is watching with bated breath to see what unfolds.

Perhaps we need to all put job titles and skill-sets aside in favor of understanding the degree of change truly required, and the person – or people – best placed to lead the charge. I wonder how many enterprises will follow suit.

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Grab your popcorn buckets and your M&Ms, book lovers. If you’re looking for some fun new shows and movies to watch at home or in theaters, there are a lot of fun book adaptations coming out this July. From sequels to series to epic blockbuster movies perfect for a summer at the movie theater, this month has it all! Let’s take a closer look at what will be gracing our screens in July 2026.

Enola Holmes 3 (Netflix, July 1)

Netflix returns to the world of Sherlock Holmes in Enola Holmes 3. This is the film adaptation of the third book in Nancy Springer’s Enola Holmes mystery series, The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets . Millie Bobby Brown reprises her role as the title character Enola, who is preparing to marry Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge). But the wedding is derailed when Enola’s brother Sherlock (Henry Cavill) is kidnapped. Himesh Patel, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sharon Duncan-Brewster also star. The third film is directed by Philip Barantini ( Boiling Point ), who takes over the reins from the director of the first two films, Harry Bradbeer.

Silo (Apple TV+, July 3)

Apple TV+’s sci-fi series based on the Silo trilogy by Hugh Howey is back for a third season. This season will be primarily based on Shift , the second novel in the trilogy. Rebecca Ferguson returns to star as scientist Juliette Nichols. Joining this season are Ashley Zuckerman and Jessica Henwick. The first episode of the season drops on July 3, and episodes will come out weekly every Friday.

Reading Lolita in Tehran (Theatrical Release, July 10)

After having a festival run in 2024, this adaptation of the critically acclaimed memoir of the same name by Azar Nafisi finally hits theaters this July. The film is directed by Eran Riklis ( Lemon Tree and The Syrian Bride ), who also wrote the screenplay with Marjorie David. Golshifteh Farahani stars as Azar Nafisi, a university literature professor who organizes a secret reading group to discuss forbidden Western classic literature.

Lucky (Apple TV+, July 15)

This crime thriller mini-series is based on Marissa Stapley’s 2021 novel of the same name. Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Lucky Armstrong, a con artist who is on the run after a heist gone wrong. Annette Bening also stars as Priscilla, a mob leader pursuing Lucky. The series is executive-produced by Taylor-Joy and Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company. Jonathan Tropper and Cassie Pappas serve as show runners. The seven-episode series premieres on July 15 and drops weekly until August 19.

Heartstopper Forever (Netflix, July 17)

Get ready to cry, because the final chapter of Heartstopper hits Netflix on July 17. This film is the follow-up to the three-season series based on the graphic novels by Alice Oseman. Kit Connor and Joe Locke star as Nick and Charlie, a young queer couple navigating romance and growing up alongside their group of friends, played by Yasmin Finney, William Gao, Tobie Donovan, Corinna Brown, Kizzy Edgell, and Rhea Norwood. Wash Westmoreland directs.

The Odyssey (Theatrical Release, July 17)

July wraps up with a bang with not one but two big summer blockbusters. First up is Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey , starring Matt Damon as Odysseus. The star-studded cast also includes Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, Zendaya as Athena, Charlize Theron as Calypso, and more. This epic fantasy action film will also be playing in IMAX.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (Theatrical Release, July 31)

Tom Holland and Zendaya are back for another must-see blockbuster film adaptation at the very end of July. We all know and love Spider-Man, based on the Marvel superhero created by Stan Lee. In this film, Peter Parker (Holland) deals with the repercussions of erasing himself from everyone’s memories. Zendaya reprises her role as MJ, and Jacob Batalon returns as Ned. Sadie Sink is also starring in an undisclosed role. Destin Daniel Cretton ( Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ) directs.

July is full of a lot of exciting new adaptation releases, but not a lot of adaptations from authors of color, unfortunately. If you’re looking for more adaptations from diverse voices, here are some of the best movies based on books by authors of color out in 2026 .

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Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a game of many excellent parts, and some of its most excellent are lead characters Henry of Skalitz and Lord Hans Capon. That's in no small part down to the fact that both of them have great voice actors: Tom McKay for Henry and Luke Dale for Capon, who both turn in fantastic and memorable performances.

Just, not memorable enough for the games industry, I guess, because in a recent appearance on Firezide Chat , Dale said that—for as lauded as his work as Capon was—"I wish I could say that Kingdom Come 2, the work I've done and the fact it's been played by millions of people led to more work, but it didn't."

Dale had, he says, hoped that his work in KCD1 and 2 would lead to more work in more games, but no dice. "I always hedge my bets because I don't think the industry has been particularly kind to me," he said. "Warhorse have been absolute gems. They're so supportive and really believed in me the whole way through. But the industry at large has never really given a fuck."

Since first starring in KCD1, Dale has appeared in only two other videogame roles, per his IMDB : voices in Battlefield 5 and a role in the VR game TaVRn's Takedown – Naheulbeuk.

His attitude regarding the industry is what has led Dale to start streaming (he currently has 72,000 followers on Twitch ). "I thought, 'How can I turn this into something really cool for me?' That's where streaming came in. I thought, 'People seem to want me to do it, so let's do that.'

"If more acting work comes from this, great, but I'm not going to rely on that. I know people want me to stream, and I can build a community here if I choose to and work really hard. So I did, and that's worked incredibly well."

Dale isn't the only KCD actor to fire up a Twitch channel—McKay has too, and has been playing, well, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 .

"I've seen a lot of actors who've had these big opportunities to stream the game they're in as the lead character, and I'm thinking, 'Why aren't you doing that?'" said Dale. "It's not for everyone, so I get that, but give it some thought. Don't just let it pass you by, because it could be the best thing you ever did. It certainly was for me. It changed my life completely."

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