One of the trends we’ll see in book censorship over 2025 is the increased use of unprofessional, politically-driven book review websites like BookLooks to make decisions in professional library and educational settings. Just days after writing that—including an example from Warren County Public Libraries in New Jersey which happened at the time of writing—another library made headlines nationwide for their decision to begin using BookLooks to make library decisions. This time, it was Anoka County, Minnesota, public schools. Many online shared anger and frustration by this decision, while others talked about how glad they were to be in a safe state with anti-book ban laws. The latter, of course, being an attitude that we’ll see continue to increase in 2025, too, and it’s an uninformed one at that. Minnesota is among the states that have an anti-book ban law in effect.

BookLooks is the most well-known website for unprofessional, biased book reviews. That’s because it is a tool created by a former Moms For Liberty member and continues to be the tool they put their weight, energy, and time behind. I broke that story back in November 2022. Much like anything related to Moms For Liberty, though, BookLooks is not the be-all, end-all when it comes to these kinds of biased “review” websites. It is simply the most well-known because it has had the most ink put behind it; Moms For Liberty, likewise, takes up far more column space when it comes to book censorship than any of the hundreds of other large and small groups nationwide doing the same kind of work. Those groups, some of which are far more dangerous and destructive than Moms, just aren’t as easy or safe to meme online (certainly misogyny plays a nice sized role in this, too—no matter how appalling Moms For Liberty is, they get more play because it is easy even for “nice people on the left” to degrade women and women-adjacent projects).

Getting up to speed on the review sources being used and given legitimacy outside of BookLooks matters because in order to effect actual change, we have to be aware of the various ways these tools are being used and implemented. Certainly, get to know BookLooks. But if your knowledge ends there, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Even since the last time I did such a roundup of these biased online book ratings systems in November 2022, more have popped up and become favored by the myriad groups working to ban books in their local community schools and public libraries.

It might not feel good to give these sites any views by clicking the links. But it is vital to see how they’re operating in order to understand why they’re not worthy of being used in professional settings. Compare review sources that are long-running, professional resources by and for library and education professionals such as Kirkus, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly, and you’ll see why and how any institutional leadership should be embarrassed and ashamed to even consider their use. Even Common Sense Media, which is also inappropriate for use in making determinations about library and educational acquisitions, does a better job of providing information about books and materials in context than any of these slapdash sites do.

We’ll begin with a couple of the longer running sites, including BookLooks, and then dive into several other review sites gaining traction. Even if you have just tuned into book censorship, you’ll see that the titles that pop up on these sites are those which are quickest to then begin seeing challenges in public schools and libraries. Most of those complaints are simply copy-pasted from any of these resources. Book banners can’t even be bothered not to plagiarize their grievances—a reminder why libraries and schools need to update and strengthen their collection policies in such a way to toss out complaints that do just this. If college students are getting failing grades because of terrible AI detectors falsely identifying their work as AI, then your local right-wing instigator shouldn’t be able to steal the time and money of taxpayers for challenges that they just downloaded from some site on the internet and slapped their own name on.

With Donald Trump less than two weeks away from taking office and promising an agenda of mass deportations, Democrats are poised to hand Republicans major new powers over immigration policy. Why? Still shell-shocked from the November results, they apparently fear their reelection prospects if they don’t.

The Laken Riley Act—named for the 22-year-old Georgia woman who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan migrant who was in the country illegally—passed the House with support from 48 Democrats earlier this week. Senators voted overwhelmingly in favor of advancing the bill on Thursday before potentially considering amendments and voting on the bill itself. The legislation would both mandate the detention of certain undocumented immigrants and make it easier for Republican attorneys general to sue the federal government over immigration matters—legal challenges that could then lead to sweeping decisions by right-wing judges.

Republicans do not have the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster in Senate on their own. But they may attract enough Democratic support to pass the bill. Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) have already signaled they will support the bill. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) told The Hill that she was “inclined” to support the bill as well.

The willingness of Democrats, particularly those in swing districts and states, to support the bill is a sign of how vulnerable many in the party now understand themselves to be on immigration. Instead of fighting Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, as they did during his first term, Democrats are increasingly willing to cave to it in the hopes of insulating themselves from future Republican attacks.  

On Spotify wrapped day, my social media feeds filled with users sharing their top listens of the year. They can share all sorts of stats about top artists, songs, and genres. But Spotify isn’t just for music anymore. You can also listen to podcasts and even audiobooks.

A little over a year ago, Spotify launched their audiobooks feature for Premium. Subscribers can listen to 15 hours of audio a month from a selection of over 150,000 audiobook titles. I have to admit, I love being able to pop over to my Spotify app and listen to just a few hours at a time without having to worry about purchases or credits. The interface is easy to use and find what title I’m looking for on any given day.

This year, they launched their new Audiobooks Wrapped editorial hub, a place where users can see the top audiobooks listened to in 2024. There, listeners can find the top audiobooks of the year and lists of editorial picks. While the majority of the titles are fiction, let’s have a look at their top 10 nonfiction audiobooks of the year:

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy, Performed by the AuthorThe 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, Performed by Richard PoeSapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, Performed by Derek PerkinsDown the Drain by Julia Fox, Performed by the AuthorElon Musk by Walter Isaacson, Performed by Jeremy Bobb and the AuthorKitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, Performed by the AuthorFriends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry, Performed by the AuthorThe Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson, Performed by Roger WayneThe Woman in Me by Britney Spears, Performed by Michelle WilliamsThe Mountain is You by Brianna Wiest, Performed by Stacey Glemboski

Right out of the gate, we can see that the majority of these titles are incredibly popular backlist books that people keep picking up in print, so it makes sense that would extend to audio as well. But the list isn’t very diverse across the board, to put it mildly. In regards to the type of books represented, it’s a lot of self-help and celebrity memoir. I would have loved to have seen more science and history represented on the list.

If you scroll through their lists curated by their editorial team, you can find more diverse titles, especially in the fiction categories. In nonfiction, there’s more diversity in authors represented, but we still have a lot of celebrity memoirs and self-help. I appreciated Spotify’s efforts to broaden their list of bestsellers with additional titles, but, in the future, I would love to see more nonfiction categories curated by their editorial team. That kind of work helps broaden listenership to diverse books.

Well, so far, the most read books on Goodreads in 2025 look very similar to the most read books in 2024! Before you scroll down, try to guess which three authors have titles in the top five. If you’ve been following this series, you can definitely get them all.

Because these are familiar titles, I’ve also included the most read books in three countries across the world. This time, we’re looking at the reading habits of Goodreads users in Brazil, Indonesia, and Norway. There is some overlap with the global list, but there are also titles uniquely popular in each country, including one that isn’t available in English: the Portuguese book Ainda estou aqui by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, which is one the most popular titles in Brazil at the moment.

As usual, the global list of the most popular books on Goodreads doesn’t include many authors of color. Approximately 98% of the authors with books on the top 50 list are white. (Relatedly, I recommend reading about The Unbearable Whiteness of the Goodreads Choice Awards.) I’ve included a couple of excellent books by BIPOC authors that came out this week at the end of this list, but if you’d like recommendations in your inbox every week, sign up for Book Riot’s In Reading Color newsletter!