Jeff and Rebecca talk about a bunch of mid-year lists: best-ofs, best-selllers, and more. Then Erica Ezeifedi talks to Rodney Freeman, former librarian and producer of the documentary Are You a Librarian, about the rich & overlooked history of Black librarianship in the US.

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Discussed in this episode:

Book Riot’s best books of 2025 so far

The top 10 bestselling books of the year so far

Bookshop’s bestsellers of the year so far

Constance Grady explores whether there actually is a crisis with kids’ reading

Sarah J. Maas has completed the first draft of the 6th ACOTAR book

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Episode 62: Chronic Heart Failure