INBOX: Washington Post Ukraine Correspondent Lizzie Johnson announces that she has been laid off in the middle of a below-freezing war zone without power, heat, or running water.

A healthy book ecosystem relies on professional book reviewers, not just authors reviewing their peers, although this is good and interesting too. We need both. But the professional reviewer is a keystone species in the ecosystem. We can't lose them.

After 20 years, I've been laid off at The Washington Post. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Here's who the Washington Post just laid off.

Since my rage is still burning hot, I will just add that, in my experience, people who call meetings for 8:30am are certifiable assholes.

Besides the splendid @roncharles.bsky.social and @johnwilliams.bsky.social and Becca Rothfeld, I'm thinking about former editors Nina King and Marie Arana and Jabari Asim and Michael Dirda. Book World has long had a unique and often surprising voice. What a terrible loss.

Great letter and explanation of how the path to an authoritarian government is already in progress. We’re watching it happen and nobody’s stopping it.

For so long Amazon has had a monopoly on selling self-published books. Good to see that @bookshop.org is ready to compete in the space! www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

“This is a tragic day for American journalism, the city of Washington and the country as a whole,”

Definitely worth noting since it wasn't announced in that way.

You’d think a guy who owns a company that is the largest seller of books would support the newspaper’s (that he owns) book section.

1) Bezos current net worth = $261 billion. 2) “Journalism plays a critical role in a free society, and The Washington Post -- as the hometown paper of the capital city of the United States -- is especially important,” Bezos said in 2013, “follow the story, no matter the cost.”

Absolutely devastating, personally, professionally. Bereft.

Just a note to say how grateful we are for all the work of the Washington Post foreign staff bringing ground truth about the world to a hometown that desperately needs it. -30-

Ok fine let‘s gather together the existing remnants of professional book reviewing and figure out how to support what still survives/expand options.

Readers: if you’re not subscribing to @maris.bsky.social Maris Kreizman’s Maris Review newsletter, what even are you doing? This newsletter is essential for anyone who appreciates smart literary criticism and books. Get in there! www.themarisreview.com/the-maris-re...

For NPR's Here & Now, Indira Lakshmanan speaks with New York Times Opinion columnist M. Gessen about co-founding a tech project called Kronika, a PEN America and Bard College initiative, that aims to help journalists around the world safeguard history: www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2...

Given that any historical Helen would be 4’ nothing and darker than me, one is forced to conclude that Charlie is offended by Lupita because his notion of ‘Western Civilization’ is largely based on sword and sandal movies he saw as a kid in the fifties

Join us Thursday for a rally to #SaveThePost!! The rally will run from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday at 1301 K St. NW!! Bring friends! Bring gloves! Bring a love of journalism!

I'm participating in the Publishing for Minnesota auction. Proceeds from the auction will support organizations providing legal aid, emergency assistance, food, and community resources to those in urgent need. www.32auctions.com/organization...

We are honored to announce the 2026 #ALA_Carnegie winners: 🥇#Nonfiction: Yiyun Li, THINGS IN NATURE MERLY GROW 🥇#Fiction: Megha Majumdar, A GUARDIAN AND A THIEF Congratulations to our winners and publishers, @macmillanlib.bsky.social and @prhlibrary.bsky.social🎉 Read more: https://bit.ly/46gpBfU

Please help spread the word about our open position for a history editor in the @uncpress.bsky.social acquisitions department! This person will be overseeing exciting, key lists for the publishing program.

Weird that hiring away a few checked-out Tory alcoholics from British dailies and emphasizing op eds about Why Your Boss Deserves A Tax Cut didn't deliver better results but what can you do? What, at the end of the day, can you do?

Reminder: All it would take to end the murder of American citizens by an untrained government goon squad is 16 Republicans in Congress voting with Dems to defund ICE (or 23 to impeach and remove Trump — 3 in House & 20 in Senate). That’s it. 23 Americans can vote for the public and end all of this.

Tomorrow's front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 25, 2026

Gobsmacked. Read the Texts Between Trump and Norway’s Prime Minister About Greenland www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/u...

The beloved reptile, a hero to the underdog who died last month, was celebrated Sunday for the millions of lives he touched at the California Academy of Sciences.

Important to be clear-eyed about what this FBI search means. The Trump administration is going after a journalist for doing journalism. "A clear and appalling sign that this administration will set no limits on its acts of aggression against an independent press."

I wrote book reviews for a while for the WSJ well over a decade ago, and Bari Weis was my editor. One of her special tricks was to try to insert a sharp rightward slant into my essays *after* it had been copy edited, as a way of slipping her viewpoint in at the last minute.

As much as the Warriors are beloved, as much as the Giants matter, what the Niners mean to San Francisco and the Bay Area at large can’t be overstated. Incredible playoff win, and given all the setbacks this season, it somehow feels much more significant than that. So much heart in that squad.

🎉🎉🎉 Kirkus acquires AudioFile & Meg Kuehn returns🎉🎉🎉 www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

🎉 Meg is back at Kirkus and acquired @audiofilemagazine.bsky.social Thank for sharing the news @shelf-awareness.com 🎉 www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

Pro tip: if you want to collaborate with an independent bookstore, don’t use AI in your communications. You instantly lose all credibility.

From Nadja Spiegelman: Everything (and Everyone) Brigitte Bardot Scorned www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/o...

🚨JOB ALERT🚨 Enjoy writing clever headlines and assigning one-of-a-kind stories? Have an eye for detail and a knack for turning rough copy into sparkling prose? We're looking for another editor to join our small but elite team covering New York City news and culture.

BANG BANG!

Please no on the air quotes, @nytimes. It is what it is. (Gift link) ‘60 Minutes’ Pulled a Segment. A Correspondent Calls It ‘Political.’ www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...

"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future." - @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit. Incredible words. Listen to all of it!

Very cool to that a lot of people read Pleasantries!!

I put Emmelie Prophete's superb novel "Cece" on my LAT books-of-the-year list. Charmed to see it helped put her on Page One of Haiti's biggest newspaper.

🎉 @somers.bsky.social Pleasantries @grantamag.bsky.social top read! (It’s very, very good…read it!) granta.com/top-reads-20...

It's not lost on me that all major publications are axing their culture sections and ending their arts coverage, when moments like this one make it blindingly clear that art and storytelling are the only things that still have a hope of uniting us and clarifying what shared values we still have.

This is a real headline on the New York Times website. Support independent media.

I love him with my entire heart. 🐐https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025/12/barry-bonds-mlb-hall-of-fame-steroids/685208/

A distressing chart. As our government sues media companies, and threatens to take away their broadcast licenses for airing critical programs, the US has now dropped to 57th in the world in press freedom. Maybe next year we can catch Romania and Sierra Leone. gijn.org/stories/glob...

We now learn that Fifa had a very specific "ask" in exchange for its "Peace Award" to Trump, with loads of gold trinkets, and that was dismissal of a criminal corruption case against senior Fifa officials. And Trump granted it. Another corrupt bargain, barely noticed (and ignored by US media).

For @gqmagazine.bsky.social, I spent the summer talking to stay at home dads about what their lives are like. Huge thanks to everyone who spoke to me and to the magazine for handling the piece with such care.