The defendants are Google and Meta, but the jury did not specify which one it was referring to.

Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl said the jury should reach a verdict if it can, adding that the case will have to be retried with a new set of jurors if it cannot reach an agreement.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified last month. Getty Images

The jury has been deliberating for over a week in a trial that involves a young woman who said she became addicted to Google’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram at a young age. AFP via Getty Images

The jury has been deliberating for over a week in a trial that involves a young woman who said she became addicted to Google’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram at a young age.

The outcome of her case could influence thousands of similar cases against the tech companies brought by parents, attorneys general and school districts.

The post Jury in landmark Meta, Google addiction trial having difficulty coming to consensus appeared first on Our Story Insight.

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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

Books Are Fashionable Again/Forever

A model, a novelist, a professional ballet dancer, a chef, and Sarah Jessica Parker are among the figures in a new Vogue shoot devoted to the art of reading paper books. Chloe Schama writes that the project was “inspired by the increasing number of people who have been bidding goodbye to the pallor-inducing glow of the blue screen in favor of tangible ink and paper” and observes that more people seem to be “wanting to read what your friends are reading instead of what the algorithm serves you.”

It does feel like this is in the air right now, some combination of disillusionment with technology and a desire for more and deeper in-person connection as we continue to recover from the pandemic and return to communal life. I’m sure there are naysayers (probably on Threads) bemoaning the use of books as accessories or status symbols, but I, for one, am happy to see literary life presented as aspirational.

Don DeLillo’s Hockey Romance to Return to Print

I’m hard-pressed to think of a recent headline that has delighted me more than Alexandra Alter’s discovery that Don DeLillo wrote a hockey romance under a pseudonym in 1980. Amazons sounds like a hell of a ride, and now I get to be delighted again because Scribner is bringing it back to print this fall. Prices for used copies spiked after Alter’s article ran in January, and, after much cajoling, DeLillo, who had refused to reprint the book for decades, gave in. The reissue will be published November 17 under DeLillo’s original pen name, Cleo Birdwell. The sub-hed on Alter’s new piece about the reprint says simply, “You’re welcome.” Can’t wait.

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Do the Homework

Elijah Wood has never read Lord of the Rings. The actor told Stephen Colbert that he has recently started reading the series—which, come on, that can mean anything—and I would just like to take this opportunity to say that if you’re going to star in an adaptation, you should be required to read the source material. I know we’re down on the idea of public shaming, but can we bring it back specifically for this? If you’re going to take millions of dollars for work based on a book and not do the homework, you should at least be made to feel uncomfortable admitting that in public. Come on, man.

There Are Too Many Books

Can you guess how many new books were published in 2025? Whatever you’re thinking, you probably need to add a zero. Jeff and I dove into the latest data, discussed recent adaptation announcements, and chatted with Louise Erdrich about her new book, Python’s Kiss, on today’s Book Riot Podcast. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcatcher of choice.

The post The HEATED RIVALRY Precursor Coming Back to Print appeared first on Our Story Insight.

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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

A Nationwide Book Ban Bill Has Been Introduced in the House of Representatives

Book Riot’s Kelly Jensen reports on a truly terrible proposed bill with sweeping ramifications:

Following this week’s State of the Union Address, House Republicans worked quickly to advance legislation to ban books from public schools nationwide. House Resolution 7661 (H.R. 7661), also known as the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act” would modify the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 by prohibiting use of funds under the act “to develop, implement, facilitate, host, or promote any program or activity for, or to provide or promote literature or other materials to, children under the age of 18 that includes sexually oriented material, and for other purposes.”

Move Over, Harlan Coben

Then He Was Gone by Isabel Booth (out now) is the first book to be published out of The Black List’s fiction project. It’s an initiative would-be authors should take seriously, and I think whatever comes out of it should be of special interest to readers as well:

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When thinking about Fiction at The Black List, our goals have remained the same: provide writers with free resources, give quality feedback on evaluations, and when that evaluation scores high, tell our industry community about it; there are no guarantees.

New Barbara Kingsolver Novel Coming This Fall

Barbara Kingsolver’s next novel is Partita, and it will be published this October. From the publisher’s description:

“..we meet another rural Appalachian, Livia Bohusz, unmoored in childhood by her brother’s tragic death and parents’ stifling silence, finding her only comfort in a consuming love of music. Livia’s exceptional skill as a pianist takes her from the family farm, via a college music scholarship, into a new world of thrilling knowledge, risky passions and confounding class barriers. Both a coming-of-age story and an examination of mid-life hopes and regrets, the novel is structured as a composition as complex as the pieces Livia plays. From one of the greatest storytellers alive today, Partita is also as simple as love and longing, as touching and finely tuned as music.”

Kingsolver was herself on a music scholarship as an undergraduate at DePaul University, before switching to biology, feeling the career prospects as a musician were too dim to pursue. Nice to see her success in a notoriously easy industry to make a buck in.

No surprise to see Heated Rivalry still appearing on all five of the best-seller lists we track. But are you already on the Theo of Golden train, I ask you.

The post A New Barbara Kingsolver Novel Is Coming Out This Fall appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside of work, much of her free time is spent looking for her next great read and planning her next snack.

Find her on Twitter at @Erica_Eze_.

View All posts by Erica Ezeifedi

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

A New Heated Rivalry Book to Hold You Over Until the Second Season

The popularity of Heated Rivalry has surprised even TV executives. The HBO show is Canadian, gay, and super steamy. In its debut week alone, it gained around 30 million streaming minutes, and by the time the final episode was released the week of December 26th, streaming minutes had surpassed 324 million minutes. While the next season of the show is set to come out in a year or so, fans are now able to keep the good (and gay) times going with a new book coming out later this year titled Unrivaled. It’s the seventh book in the Game Changers series that Heated Rivalry is a part of, and takes Ilya’s and Shane’s romance to new heights. They’re out, and they’re married, but everything is not hunky dory. Question is, will the couple make it, or will their love dissolve?

The NCAA Is Donating Books to Libraries on Behalf of Their 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year Honorees

The libraries that are near and dear to the 30 top women nominated for the 35th annual 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year Award are about to get blessed. As a result of the partnership between the honorees and the NCAA, elementary, middle school, and public libraries across 22 states, Washington, DC, and a province in Canada will be receiving book donations that inspire and uplift young girls.

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The New York Times Reports on the Prettiest Home Libraries

Looking at the libraries in the NYT‘s Great Spaces section has brought out the hater in me; I can admit it. They are indeed great, but also much more. They’re cozy, cute, grand, fab, and even a little of what the kids these days are calling nasty (complimentary). I may not be able to afford the houses they’re attached to—which are located in places that range from Los Angeles to Manhattan to Melbourne—just yet, but best believe I will be saving all of them to my Pinterest boards with the quickness.

The 20 Most Popular Libby Checkouts of 2025

With 2025 just in our rearview mirror, now is the perfect time to reflect on a year of reading. Libby—the free app that allows patrons to check out ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines from over 22,000 public libraries across the United States—has shared with us a review of their year in books, and there’s a very clear pattern that emerges.

The post There’s a New Heated Rivalry Book Coming Out This Year appeared first on Our Story Insight.

All Access members, I’m giving you a snapshot of the spreadsheet as it appears right now. (My version is constantly being updated.) As always, it’s organized by release date, title and author, identity, and genre. This time, I’ve also added a Keywords column, which is a grab bag of terms I might want to search later, like “witches,” “ADHD,” or “retelling.” I hope it’s helpful!

All Access members, read on for a link to the spreadsheet.

You can make a copy of this spreadsheet to sort and filter it as makes sense for your reading taste. This is mostly books out in the first half of the year: we should hear more about fall releases in later months.

Since these are upcoming releases, I don’t have all the info. Anything with a question mark means I wasn’t able to get confirmation yet (usually about a specific identity).

The comments section is moderated according to our community guidelines. Please check them out so we can maintain a safe and supportive community of readers!

The post 450+ New Queer Books Coming Out in 2026 appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Din Tai Fung, the giant Taiwanese soup dumpling restaurant where it can take weeks to get a reservation, signed a lease for a 20,000-square-foot jumbo at The Brook, Realty Check has learned. The 52-story rental apartment tower, which just started receiving tenants, is a project of the Witkoff Group and Apollo Global Management.

Witkoff Group was founded by Steven Witkoff, President Trump’s special Mideast envoy who’s credited with a large role in nailing down the peace agreement between Israel and Hamas that was announced last week.

Din Tai Fung is set to open a location at The Brook, a 51-story rental apartment tower in downtown Brooklyn. Courtesy of The Brook

Steven’s son Alex Witkoff runs the real estate company on a day-to-day-basis.

The Brook is the newest entry – and one of the largest and most impressive – on the thriving downtown Brooklyn residential scene, where rezoning sparked the creation of tens of thousands of new apartments over the past 15 years.

Rising at the convergence of Fulton Street and DeKalb Avenue, the nearly half-billion dollar project, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle, will have 590 rental units and 30,000 square feet of tenants’ amenities.

It can take weeks to get a reservation at Din Tai Fung in Midtown. Yvonne Tnt/BFA.com/Shutterstock

Din Tai Fung at Broadway and West 51st Street has been a smash hit since it opened in 2024. Din Tai Fung

Din Tai Fung at Broadway and West 51st Street was an instant sensation when it opened in 2024 as the company’s first Big Apple location. The 450-seat venue brought life back to the long vacant space that was once Mars 2112. Din Tai Fung has branches in several states, the UK, China, other East Asian countries and more.

The Post reported in August 2024 that Din Tai Fung’s soup dumplings were not only delicious, but “pleasingly tactile … thanks to an 18-step hand-folding process that pleats the skin of each dumpling perfectly and achieves a so-called ‘golden ratio’ with the savory fillings.”

The Brook is a project of the Witkoff Group and Apollo Global Management. Witkoff Group was founded by Steven Witkoff, President Trump’s special Mideast envoy Courtesy of The Brook

The nearly half-billion dollar project, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle, will have 590 rental units and 30,000 square feet of tenants’ amenities. Courtesy of The Brook

Restaurant site The Infatuation, noting that the initial mania over the Broadway outpost subsided somewhat, posted this month, “You can easily get a decent reservation as long as you plan a few weeks in advance.”

Din Tai Fung is expected to open at The Brook in early 2027.

The post Din Tai Fung coming to The Brook tower in downtown Brooklyn appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Restaurateur Michael Della Femina’s Croft Alley – which serves “inspired comfort food” – is slated to open at 210 Sixth Ave. at the corner of Prince Street. Greek eatery Lola Taverna stood there until it shuttered in June.

Della Femina’s father Jerry Della Femina is the 89-year-old ad legend whose memoir “From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor” inspired the “Mad Men” series. Della Femina père owned an eponymous East Hampton eatery that closed in 2011 after almost two decades in business.

Beverly Hills hotspot Croft Alley (above) is coming to Soho this November. Croft Alley

At around 1,500 square feet, Croft Alley will have indoor and hopefully outdoor seating, with entrances on MacDougal Street and Sixth Avenue.

Della Femina’s partners are Adam Rubin, Andrew Shanfeld, Madison Bright and chef Phuong Tran. The new restaurant will serve all-day fare and feature the Croft Alley signature menu with tuna melts and a $30 order of soft scrambled eggs, black truffles, avocado, prosciutto and toast, along with new dishes tailored for NYC.

Della Femina tells Side Dish that he has always been drawn to the neighborhood – his grandfather grew up right by the site of the new restaurant, in a building that is home to Blue Ribbon Sushi today. 

Della Femina previously owned The Stork Club on Sullivan Street, where he launched StoreFront Productions. Its current projects include “In the Weeds,” where director/producer pal Michael Mailer – the son of the late novelist Norman Mailer – has joined the cast. It’s now filming in both LA and NYC.

Croft Alley serves “inspired comfort food.” Fried chicken wraps, above. Courtesy of Croft Alley

Croft Alley will also serve a spicy tuna bowl on the menu. Courtesy of Croft Alley

The streaming series is a behind-the-scenes look at the chaos and characters who inhabit a “barely fictional” restaurant with “eccentric staff, demanding investors, intrusive neighbors, and the mounting chaos of hospitality life.”

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Croft Alley has been in LA for 11 years – first in West Hollywood at the Standard Hotel, where it was open 24/7 until the pandemic hit, and now in Beverly Hills, which Della Femina described as “a neighborhood that was desperate for what we provide – fun, casual and unpretentious, with delicious food.”

In Beverly Hills, Croft Alley is a breakfast and lunch spot with private events at night, as well as a weekly cocktail club.

Restaurateur Michael Della Femina said he has always been drawn to the Soho neighborhood. “We’ve been looking for the right space for four years,” he said. Courtesy of Croft Alley

The New York location will be open for dinner, too.

Della Femina, who grew up in New York, said expanding to the Big Apple was a natural step, something his LA clients have been asking for. 

“We’ve been looking for the right space for four years,” the restaurateur remarked.

He called his dad a “huge inspiration” whose former East Hampton restaurant is his all-time favorite. 

Croft Alley waffle Courtesy of Croft Alley

“I can still taste some of those dishes,” said Della Femina, adding that a signature family dish may also be on the menu. 

The decor will likely include a 1940s radio that has been set up at each family restaurant, he said.

We hear… that some beloved NYC eateries are now offering brunch, New Yorkers’ favorite weekend sport, Italian style. In Midtown, Fresco by Scotto, the eatery owned by Good Day New York’s Rosanna Scotto and her family, is launching a Saturday brunch this weekend at 34 E. 52nd St. Think champagne, live music, DJ sets and dishes like cacio e pepe omelettes, tiramisu pancakes with mascarpone and cocoa, egg toast with shaved truffle and fontina on brioche, and a brunch pizza bianca topped with truffle bechamel, wild mushrooms and a sunny-side egg, as well as a Mediterranean chopped salad — all from executive chef Orlando Alvarez. “Bottle service specials” will also be available…

Fresco by Scotto, the eatery owned by Good Day New York’s Rosanna Scotto and her family, is launching a Saturday brunch this weekend at 34 E. 52nd St.

We hear… In the West Village, Dell’anima, the popular Italian restaurant that launched in 2007 and most recently relocated to a chic new 52-seat spot at 18 Cornelia St. this past summer, is launching weekend brunch — part of the eatery’s revival by longtime partners Andrew Whitney, the executive chef; Danir Rincon, the general manager; and Jacob Cohen. Dishes include uovo al purgatorio, baked eggs in a tomato base with pancetta and herbs; uovo funghi, poached eggs in a parmesan polenta with mushrooms; a smash burger with pancetta, fried egg, remoulade, carmelized onion and fontina; and French toast. They’ve also introduced new fall cocktails like “Fall Into It,” with rum, pomegranate juice, spiced demerara syrup, cranberry juice and lemon; and “Rose That Negroni,” with gin, lillet, aperol and rose.

Dell’anima in the West Village is launching weekend brunch. MATTHEW BOROWICK

We hear… that chef and restaurateur Djamel Omari’s Canto West Village – the popular Italian hotspot known on TikTok for its frozen espresso martinis with marscapone cheese and its bright red door – now has a 120-square-foot sidekick. Canto Café opened next door, at 117 West Houston St., in September. Open Wednesday through Sunday from 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m., the new café is making a name for its trendy breakfast chicken Caesar salad with an egg wrap.

Chicken Caesar salad with an egg wrap. Canto Café

Lunch options include soups and house-made pastas. Other dishes include beef-chopped cheese with ground beef, green peppers, garlic aioli, tomatoes with chipotle sauce on ciabatta bread and a caponata pasta salad with fusilli, fresh mozzarella, olives, grape tomatoes, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, zucchini and pesto sauce. Grab and go or stay at one of three window seats. For those who can’t make it to the West Village, there’s also an outpost, Canto Upper West Side, at 2014 Broadway.

The post Beverly Hills hotspot Croft Alley frequented by Hollywood stars coming to NYC appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Below is a small sampling of the list to get you started. There is a cultural biography of Black sci-fi icon Octavia E. Butler, an academic trip to hell, 18th-century sisters who may be transforming into dogs at night, and more.

People Like Us by Jason Mott

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

Positive Obsession by Susana M. Morris

Fetishized by Kaila Yu

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis

The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar

For the complete list, visit The New York Times.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.

The post The Best Books Coming Out in August, According to The New York Times appeared first on Our Story Insight.

I did a summer reading list round-up a little while ago and that seemed to go over pretty well, and as I opened my email/RSS/social media this morning, I thought a round-up of the lists coming out about just July books might be a good way to kick off the month. Here we go.

Amazon’s Best Books of July

Barnes & Noble’s Picks of the Month

July 2025 Indie Next List

12 Books of the Best Books of the Month in Every Genre [Book Riot]

Vulture’s 7 Books You Should Read This July

Goodreads’ Most Popular July Book Releases

20 Best Books to Read this July [Kirkus]

Book of the Month Club’s July Picks

20 Books Coming in July [The New York Times]

The post A List of Lists of Books Coming Out in July (which it now is impossibly) appeared first on Our Story Insight.