Welp, I stand by this. Nobody likes this man; nobody admires him; some (rich) (Republican) people (many of whom don't even live in Minneapolis) just know they can use him. He's gonna stew in his own mediocrity for four more years while real leaders do real leading.

If Frey gets reelected (tbd) at least the contrast between the reception to *that* and the reaction to Mamdani will be inescapable to him, even through all his protective layers of Republican donors. Jacob got 41-ish% of 1st-choice votes, which is what Cuomo got in NYC. That's loser energy.

"I could smell the onions and mustard"

Btw Marcia Argueta Mickelson's THE WRITING ROOM is out today. It's set in NYC! It's about the daughter of a Guatemalan immigrant standing up to her rich white dad and the bigoted politician he's funding! It's about telling new stories when the old ones fail us. @marciamickelson.bsky.social

"What gets you out of bed in the morning?" "Well, it depends; finding out Dick Cheney died worked for me today"

Needed this even more than usual yesterday:

For the latest Things That Happened Thursday—my occasional updates on books I've edited—here's a Kirkus review of Ashley Granillo's upcoming middle grade novel, CHOIR GRRRL: "an emotional, well-realized story about finding your voice." It's out in February! www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...

Given the whac-a-mole nature of AI features, this probably won't work forever, but so far so good! (I will personally never get tired of turning these little creepers off whenever I can.)

Things That Happened Thursday has arrived again! What Things have happened in my publishing world? First: Lupe Ruiz-Flores's historical middle grade novel THE PECAN SHELLER was praised as "captivating" by the legendary Laurie Halse Anderson in NYT: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/b...

Love living in an age when AI is supposedly able to conduct my entire emotional and creative life on my behalf but I can still type something into a search bar, be one letter off, and be presented with "no results"

WILD SONG by Candy Gourlay is out in the US! Frustrated by her hometown's limitations, Luki agrees to be part of an exhibition of Indigenous Filipinos at the 1904 World's Fair in St Louis. What could go wrong? See the starred reviews, excerpt, teaching guide, etc.: lernerbooks.com/shop/show/25...

If you've been remiss about calling your Dem senators (raises hand) now's a great time to get back in the saddle. Tell them not to betray our trans friends & neighbors for a "deal." It's not even Lucy with a football—it's Lucy with a tear gas canister, insisting we're safe to come closer.

Today marks another Things That Happened Thursday: in which I post about stuff I meant to post about earlier. First up: Shafaq Khan's middle grade debut, ZEYNA LOST AND FOUND, was selected for the American Booksellers Association's Indies Introduce program! www.bookweb.org/indies-intro...

Me, a rube: What is up with journalists being so credulous and/or disingenuous about [insert issue, pretty much any issue]? Do they not realize how ridiculous they sound? How could they possibly think this is responsible coverage? The historical record, every time: lol

What if the Rapture already happened but literally everyone got left behind Picture Peter waiting at the gates like a debut author at a book signing Heaven's version of Y2K

Sneakers is an underrated gem for all the reasons laid out here and also because James Earl Jones has to promise Dan Aykroyd a Winnebago at the end

Zeyna Lost and Found by debut author Shafaq Khan is out today! Think National Treasure (with a stolen jewel, not the Declaration of Independence) on the Hippie Trail (a pre-1980 route across the Middle East) for middle graders: an adventure wrapped in a mystery wrapped in an international heist!

We're days away from this clown discovering that autism is caused by women having credit cards in their own names

"If you compare the kids of my sycophants to random kids I stare at in airports, their reactions to my radioactive vibes are completely different" Dante had some great ideas but I would like to know if there are any new circles under construction

The weather in Minneapolis is beautiful and it feels like a sick joke and I hope this finds you well because I have to circle back on something

Long past time for Frey to get to the "find out" stage of his career

When people say they're not "naturally talented" at XYZ art and that's why AI should make it for them, I think of Darcy going "I'm not good at being polite to randos" and Lizzie going "so what man, I'm not good at playing piano because I never PRACTICE"

Time for another Things That Happened Thursday, my occasional roundup of stuff I meant to post about sooner! First up: DISPLACED by Patrick Ochieng is out in the US! Kirkus's starred review called this MG novel about hope in impossible circumstances "outstanding." lernerbooks.com/shop/show/25...

I'm gonna need to see more Babylon 5 content on here if I'm gonna be living through seasons 2-4 plot point for plot point

"Oh, I'm fine, I just saw an out-of-context quote from a children's book that struck me to my core" is actually one of my top 5 responses to "Uh are you okay"

I'd watch a Social-Network-style movie solely about how these books are getting their titles. Between Manchin's DEAD CENTER and Fetterman's UNFETTERED, someone's doing incredible work. At this rate I'm expecting YOU WIN SOME, YOU NEWSOM in 2026.

Finally a moment when I don't regret a lunch-break news check

We're watching children starve in real time while food trucks sit behind blockades and firing squads, but sure, attacking an excellent mayoral candidate over words he's never said seems like a good use of energy

Also a healthy relationship with mortality that encourages doing the most possible good with the time you have Also never becoming so meta that you risk noticing Gonzo and Rizzo as they follow you around

I believe Pedro Pascal is the one who coined the term "heinous loser behavior" but I'll be the one who runs it into the ground, and people like this (fascists and their apologists) will be the reason

Every so often it becomes crystal clear why certain people might genuinely be into having AI summarize art for them. If *this* is what your brain's producing, it's hard for even LLMs to do worse. (Resisting the urge to go full Pepe Silvia about everything wrong with this paragraph, please clap)

"The reason people of evil try to smother any point of light is because they know that in a field of darkness, light becomes something undeniable and unignorable; a point of reference and a point of distinction. Dark needs perfect darkness to be perfectly dark. So I ask myself: what light can I be?"

Correct energy

Aspiring to live by the principles of my favorite tiny antique dog

If you, like me, have been staring blankly at the wall for a little while after a dose of today's news and would like to do something purposeful, one option is to make a contribution to @weneeddiversebooks.bsky.social, which supports readers and communities around the country with work like this:

Turning off Copilot everywhere it pops up like I'm dodging the dangers of the Fire Swamp in The Princess Bride "But Westley, what about Dropbox?" "The Cloud storage site? I don't think it's on there ye—"

Despite warnings from the law enforcement not to attend today’s No Kings rally after this mornings shooting of Minnesota lawmakers with the killer on the lose, the No Kings Rally is happening at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul.

We've once again arrived at Things That Happened Thursday, my occasional roundup of professional updates. Today's update: In addition to running the Carolrhoda middle grade and YA novel lists, I now have YA trade nonfiction under my umbrella in the form of Zest Books. mc.lernerbooks.com/zest-books

Gov. Walz: “I’m just going to say it, shame on any of us who throws a trans child under the bus for thinking they’re going to get elected.” www.startribune.com/gov-tim-walz...

Also, the fact that Lincoln wasn't a stronger proponent of abolition is the biggest asterisk on his legacy, the caveat we whip out to caution people against lionizing him too much: He didn't go far enough soon enough! AND he still ended up with a civil war on his hands!

Welcome back to Things That Happened Thursday, an update on books I've edited! The Pecan Sheller, Lupe Ruiz-Flores's middle grade novel about a groundbreaking 1938 strike, is a Junior Library Guild selection! www.juniorlibraryguild.com/the-pecan-sh... @lernerbooks.bsky.social

Gonna have to watch The Young Pope and The New Pope before the third season, The Woke Pope, premiers on HBO/Max

It's almost like viewing everything as a product—knowledge, creative expression, relationships—is an incoherent and stunting worldview That's how we end up with these bozos trying to live forever despite having (cultivating) a miserable minute-to-minute experience of being alive

Jennifer Mason-Black's riveting SOMETIMES THE GIRL—a mystery wrapped in a meditation—is out today! In starred reviews, Kirkus called it "beautifully written & powerfully uplifting" and Foreword deemed it "a touching coming-of-age novel." lernerbooks.com/shop/show/25... bookshop.org/p/books/some...

Welcome to the latest edition of Things That Happened Thursday, an update on books I've edited! First up: THE COLOR OF SOUND by Emily Barth Isler is a Pedro and Daniel Intersectionality Book Awards Honor Book! readyourworld.org/awards/padib... @lernerbooks.bsky.social @esckeyes.bsky.social

The way these chuckleheads break into a cold sweat at the mere idea of public transit should be studied by anthropologists

We've been asked this a few times & now have an answer! If you're in publishing, but not author you can join Publishing Professionals Against Book Bans! The group is still in development but you can sign up here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Roughly once a month I think about how there should be a movie or a miniseries about Robert Smalls and how instead we're asked, as a nation, to pretend that Bob Dylan is interesting

Couldn't give off a more villainous vibe if she were on the set of a Bond movie. What a small, warped, miserable person. Trans women are women. Trans people ARE PEOPLE. Feel however you feel about HP *and* stop throwing money into the black hole that is JKR's soul.

Every Friday like clockwork