This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.
View All posts by Kelly Jensen
Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
“Slop” Voted Word of the Year by Language Lovers
Word nerds agreed: the 2025 word of the year is “Slop.” While Merriam-Webster crowned “slop” as its word of the year in December, certified language lovers involved in the American Dialect Society (ADS) voted “slop” as their pick, too. “Slop isn’t a new word. It has moved from the pig sty, to the algorithm, and now forms new compounds such as sloppunk, slopification, and friend slop,” said Dr. Kelly Elizabeth Wright, Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “This productivity has no end in sight.” Other words and phrases garnering votes among members of the ADS as among those most representative of 2025? Chopped (voted “most likely to succeed”), icy conditions (voted “political word of the year”), and reheat nachos (voted “most creative word of the year”).
New York City Schools Have Very Few School Librarians
New York City’s City Council now requires the City’s Education Department to provide data on the status of school libraries and their usage. The first report landed last month, and it’s stark. While the city’s 1,614 public schools mostly have a library on site (1,016), fewer than 15% of those schools employ either a full-time or part-time librarian. There are only 273 full-time librarians and 12 part-time librarians. This is a dire situation, and this report is among the strongest advocacy tools that New York City residents can and should use to advocate for more school librarians. “A physical space means nothing,” said Jenny Fox, a New York City public school parent and founder of Librarians = Literacy, “They’re not just checking books in and out. They’re teaching your kids about media literacy, safety online, and how to vet an article for truthfulness.”
Today In Books
Sign up to Today In Books to receive daily news and miscellany from the world of books.
Which Canonical Writers Do Readers Seek Out?
We could debate endlessly about what does or does not constitute the literary canon. One tool that has been shorthand for it has been the Norton Anthology; if you majored in English in college, you’re very familiar with these tomes. We know the Norton Anthologies collect what they believe to be the best of the best and the most representative of good literature, but who among the authors included in such anthologies are then further read by the general public?