Excellent news for Oklahoma’s students: apnews.com/article/okla...

All I want to know this morning is which Cava does White House border czar Tom Homan go to?

Judge Steven Merryday's dismissal of Trump’s lawsuit against the NYT may be my favorite literary review of the year: deadline.com/wp-content/u...

The Kidneystone Kops.... "This reversed a vote on Thursday to allow coverage, apparently because some members had misunderstood the way it was worded." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/h...

Here’s what’s in Kamala Harris’s upcoming campaign memoir, “107 Days”: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Brilliant and brave: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...

Unsurprisingly, Dan Brown's "The Secret of Secrets" debuts at No. 1. www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

Rightwing provocateurs using their faux concern about “violent rhetoric” to encourage more violence is some truly Shakespearean villainy.

Citing DEI concerns, the Trump administration has halted funding for programs that support students with combined hearing and vision loss in eight states. Their funding had previously been approved through Sept. 2028. “How low can you go?” one advocate asked. “How can you do this to children?”

The nightmare will be played in stereo: "Why pay a celebrity podcast host millions when you can create your own using AI?" www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...

"The Secret of Secrets": Like so many things that are insanely popular — Crocs, Nutella, MrBeast — Dan Brown’s thrillers look easy to imitate but aren’t. He lures us in with a layer of intellectuality as deep as the honey glaze on an Easter ham. www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

The WSJ’s close textual analysis of Trump’s crude birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein is remarkable: www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

My gawd. Alpha Schools sound downright dystopian. "Think Tony Robbins for kids," says founder MacKenzie Price. "Our kids are crushing their academics." Listen to her pre-satirized pitch: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/p...

* New U.S. tariffs threaten to strangle some used booksellers. * The new audio version of "Pride & Prejudice" is fantastic. That and more in this week's Book Club newsletter: s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?tra...

The Washington Post book reviewer Ron Charles offers upcoming highlights from the new season's fiction and non-fiction releases. cbsn.ws/4mMJ3r6

One of their best and most important episodes: Repudiates Republicans’ crazy, deadly efforts to promote confusion about covid mitigation efforts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...

Jesus. Regiments from Illinois fought in Texas in 1865. Regiments from Texas do not belong anywhere in Illinois.

Here are some of the big books we're looking forward to this month: www.cbsnews.com/video/the-bo...

Sometimes, the satire writes itself: This 34-year-old built a home with a $4 million budget. “I truly hope my story encourages others,” she says. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/r...

The Borg Queen was wrong: Resistance is not futile. A surprise legal settlement this week marks a significant win for authors in their battle against artificial intelligence. s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?tra...

Important wins that aren't (yet) victories in the AI world of copyright theft of our books to train AI from @roncharles.bsky.social #AItraining #copyright #authors #writers and big thanks to @authorsguild.org (Join Today!) s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?tra...

"Liza Hudock’s debut collection, Reveille, reflects on ordinary life with such humility that her artfulness sneaks up on you like a coyote at twilight."—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

Someday: Simon One — just a single blockbuster each decade.

"The presidential id is now unchained." -- @wsj.com www.wsj.com/opinion/john...

"One might assume this didn’t need to be said. But comments made by President Donald Trump suggest otherwise." -- @michellesingletary.bsky.social wapo.st/3JxZAQN

Good grief…. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

This poor reporter: "He gave an extended riff on his aspirations to improve the grass in Washington, saying that when he is done it will look like the greens at Augusta National Golf Course, where the Masters are played, and touched on his loathing of windmills." www.wsj.com/us-news/trum...

Good lord.... What if activists stole this church's pews as an act of civil disobedience against tax-deductible hate? This level of moral reasoning is so depressing. kentuckylantern.com/2025/08/18/t...

A quick run-through of some pieces in today's print edition of Book World. On the cover, a dive into Joan Didion's archives and unpublished material for her book about the Manson case that never came to be: www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

“John F Kennedy Jr’s George was exuberant and earnest, a mash-up of Vanity Fair and The New Republic, with lashings of Spy (everything, then, had lashings of Spy).” Alas, no. Many tried; none succeeded. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/s...

A silver lining: "Even if the most extreme claims of Democrats that democracy is dying turned out to be right, investors have long been able to make good returns from stocks in autocracies, so long as the autocrat doesn’t fall foul of more-powerful countries." www.wsj.com/finance/stoc...

The death of book reviews is not greatly exaggerated, but it’s greatly protracted. This time, the bell tolls for book reviews from the Associated Press. Readers of papers across the country won’t see reviews syndicated from the AP after Aug. 31. (More below) s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?tra...

Hamnet, the only son of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, was buried on this day in 1596. He was 11. From that slim note of tragedy, Maggie O'Farrell spun her best novel.

“As traditional sources of news crumble, there is Coker and hundreds of others like her who are keeping journalism alive.” www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/...

Who’s benefiting from Trump’s budget-busting tax give-away? Surprise! www.wsj.com/finance/inve...

CNN points out that June turned out to be the weakest month of jobs growth since December 2020 -- the last full month of Trump's first term

Has anybody ever explained by theater websites are so gawd-awful? -- the password you can never remember, the coupon code that's always rejected, the timer that expires before you've finished, the checkout screen that won't show you what you're buying. Is it a secret plot to kill theaters faster?

A few weeks ago, David Brooks ran out of things to write about in the New York Times and so decided to pour more water over some old tea bag about the death of literary fiction.... www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

Some of the books I'm enjoying this summer -- you might, too! www.cbsnews.com/video/the-bo...

Meanwhile, an update on one of Trump’s other lawsuits against a journalist: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

“I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer” combines the “charm of the writer’s antique diction, their pained earnestness and Norton’s illuminating commentary,” @roncharles.bsky.social writes in @washingpost.com’s Book Club newsletter:

"Culpability," Oprah's latest pick, is very entertaining -- and thought-provoking. www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

“The cruelty of these cuts is matched only by their stupidity.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/o...

“‘…paraphrasing a statement attributed to Orwell: “If people cannot read well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do the thinking for them.”’ Great essay by @roncharles.bsky.social @washingtonpost.com

Since it's highly doubtful (understatement) that I'll get to a performance of "Giant" (about Roald Dahl's antisemitism) before it closes in August, I'm especially grateful for @roncharles.bsky.social's dispatch from London in today's newsletter. s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?tra...

“Was the need for reading and writing perhaps only a temporary blip in human history?” Maybe. But consider what widespread literacy has done for us over the past 150 years. @roncharles.bsky.social looks at the big picture in this week’s Book Club: s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?tra...

The theatre executive who decided it would be a good idea to sell crinkly bags of snacks to audience members should be forced to watch “Krapp’s Last Tape” over and over for all eternity.

Not a funny topic by a long shot, but @roncharles.bsky.social manages to be characteristically mordant in discussing “one woman’s fight against a sexual predator who moonlights as president of the United States”:

Trump’s penis jokes comprise a very tiny genre of cringe.

“The cost to the Treasury of the proposal is estimated at $212 billion.” But don’t worry — we can pay for the GOP’s Aristocracy Protection Act by closing a few hundred more hospitals for rural folks (who should just hurry up and die anyway, right?) www.wsj.com/personal-fin...