Fresh Start

U.K. publishing veteran Will Atkinson plans to rescue dozens of titles left in the lurch by the now-defunct Unbound and Boundless through his new publishing company, Wilton Square Press. In this week’s magazine, we profiled author Kirsten Miller ahead of the publication of her bewitching new novel, The Women of Wild Hill. After a few years of steady growth, U.K. bookselling chain Waterstones is all set to go ahead with its planned expansion, with £125 million in new financing in its pocket. Despite spending billions on AI in the name of efficiency gains, most companies have seen little improvement to their bottom lines, reports the New York Times. Meanwhile, Cal Newport at the New Yorker wonders if the capabilities of large language models are plateauing. The White House is conducting a review of the Smithsonian Museum to ensure its exhibitions are free of any language the Trump administration deems to be “divisive or ideologically driven,” reports the Wall Street Journal. A new report from the Florida Board of Education indicates that most titles removed from school libraries last year were ultimately returned to the shelves, reports WGCU—boding somewhat well for the fate of the hundreds of books Florida educators pulled last week. Richard Osman told Wales Online that he was horrified to discover a slew of unauthorized, AI-generated “companion” titles to his novel The Thursday Murder Club on Amazon. And the Conversation argues that AI is taking students to new—and worrisome—heights in their efforts to bypass reading assignments.