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The mass-market paperback is dead. Last year, <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/99293-last-call-for-mass-market-paperbacks.html">headlines decried</a> the end of the once-ubiquitous, affordable, and pocket-sized editions, which have been phased out in favor of hardcovers and standard paperbacks. But amid the fall of a beloved format and talks of an affordability crisis, many readers are choosing a far more expensive option, sometimes forking over hundreds of dollars for their favorite books. 
Mass-market paperback sales have been on the decline for years, and though millions of mass-market editions still sold in 2025, major book distributor Readerlink <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/industry-deals/article/97161-readerlink-will-stop-distributing-mass-market-paperbacks-at-the-end-of-2025.html">made the decision</a> to stop selling them amid a steep decline in sales over the last two decades and as the wholesaler market has consolidated. In their place, ebooks have become the go-to cheap format for many readers, but even as digital is on the rise, another medium has become a major contender for avid readers: premium editions. 
In 2022, science fiction and fantasy author Brandon Sanderson broke records to have the highest-earning Kickstarter. Readers backed his four-book campaign to the tune of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/31/authors-record-breaking-kickstarter-campaign-closes-at-41point7-million.html">more than $40 million</a>. Though Sanderson’s project was unique in its bundles of ebooks, audiobooks, and physical books — as well as merchandise and optional add-ons — each “premium hardcover” book <a href="https://www.dragonsteelbooks.com/collections/the-year-of-sanderson/products/secret-projects-premium-hardcover-4-book-bundle">sells today for $55</a>. Featuring duotone printing for color accents and faux-leather covers, the copies are a step up from the typical hardcover experience. 
Another tier above these editions are leather-bound books. Authors such as <a href="https://www.dragonsteelbooks.com/collections/leatherbound-books">Sanderson</a> sell gorgeous, foiled hardcovers to grace the bookshelves of loyal, aesthete readers. While these books can easily cost over $100, readers who can afford the price tag keep the demand high enough that authors continue releasing these special editions for each new novel.
Books like these offer their readers not only the latest stories from their favorite writers — and these are often big-name writers who pull in big numbers even without premium editions — but also something real with which to experience the story. Custom endpapers, show-stopping illustrations, and embossed covers make the physical form of the story into an artwork. Many editions are also signed, offering readers a hand-done touch to add to their bookshelves. 
Even public domain titles have found a home among these high-end books, often for a non-luxury price. These stories are all available for free online or for a few dollars in a cheaply-made paperback version, but publishers such as Penguin Random House also offer them in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Penguin-Clothbound-Classics/dp/0141192445/ref=sr_1_6?sr=8-6">clothbound versions</a> for around $20. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0141392460/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?psc=1&amp;sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw">Thousands</a> of Amazon purchases testify to just how much readers are willing to shell out a few extra bucks for a special copy. And on the high end, specialty booksellers such as the <a href="https://www.foliosociety.com/usa/fiction/classic">Folio Society</a> offer premium editions of public domain works with prices hovering at $100. 
Just as younger generations rediscover the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/people-are-ditching-convenience-for-something-they-can-actually-control">joys of physical media</a> like vinyl and CDs, the value of a book you can hold, own, and admire is higher in an age of the ephemeral.
Of course, paper will eventually decay, but the cloth-bound books from the early 1900s and late 1800s that sit on my own shelves are a testament to how long a carefully handled and well-crafted tome can last. Though my shelves also have mass-market paperbacks gathered from the 1990s and 2000s, their covers are tattered at the edges, spines are sporting creases, and pages are held together with packing tape. These are books that are, fundamentally, made to be replaced sooner rather than later. They are not the pages that I could hope to read to my grandchildren or expect to last for decades longer. 
But just as many adult readers are picking up high-quality editions for themselves, there is also a market to pass down this appreciation for beautiful books to the next generation. Passage Press, for example, recently announced the launch of <a href="https://chapter.house/">Chapter House Books</a>, a curriculum of curated classics for young and growing readers. While the content of these books is perhaps the biggest selling point, the books themselves are also beautiful objects. They are clothbound in linen, color-illustrated, and feature classic and new artwork. They are the sort of volumes you hope to see pass from one child to the next, reaching your grandchildren one day as a family heirloom and treasure-trove of reading memories. 
Parents are investing in these premium classic books to craft young minds delighted in and appreciative of art. In a world increasingly full of clicks and bytes rather than pages and real beauty, it’s a worthy investment.
Certainly, there are other repercussions of the fall of mass-market paperbacks (such as author royalty structures and ongoing book sales). And as sad as I am to see the beloved mass-market paperback decay to dust, especially with the memories the little volumes hold, I gladly spend the extra dollars on these luxury books. I want something beautiful on my shelves and in my home, and I hope that one day my children will pick up some of these volumes and discover the same beauty I have found — between the pages, and on the cover.
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Jordan Jantz is the assistant editor at IW Features as well as a freelance writer, editor, and website designer.

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The Luxury Book Boom Nobody Saw Coming

Books

Upstream

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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Between the lazy days of summer and our country’s upcoming 250th birthday, a well-curated booklist is essential for all families. There are always a bevy of new titles hitting the market, and while several usually emerge that will stand the test of time, I find that the classics are classics for a reason. Just as our nation has seen the inevitable sweep of time and stood strong, so have many of the selections I will be sharing with you.
They may not be the most modern or popular in 2026, but they are still recommended because they offer a beautiful tapestry of our national story. These aren’t simply books about the founding, although you’ll see an emphasis on that time period. They highlight early America and what it looked like day to day. There are, of course, thousands of books I could recommend, but this is a start. 
It’s my hope that you might encounter a piece of literature that is completely new to you and leave its final page with even more hope and admiration for America than when you read the first sentence.
Picture books &amp; read-alouds (ages 3–6)
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Landing of the Pilgrims by James Daugherty. This book is a simple first introduction to the courage it took to cross an ocean for the promise of a new home.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The First Thanksgiving by Jean Craighead George. This retelling gives life to the first feast between the Pawtuxet Indians and the Pilgrims.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall (with gorgeous drawings from my favorite illustrator, Barbara Cooney). This is a quiet portrait of the seasons and work that shaped early New England life — from weaving linens to sheering sheep. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Fourth of July Story by Alice Dalgliesh. The perfect read-aloud for the holiday itself, this book explains the Declaration in words even your youngest can understand. Head back to the Revolutionary period and see how the 13 colonies learned of their independence. (Everything by Dalgliesh is worth reading!)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A Picture Book of George Washington by David A. Adler. This is the story of the father of our country, from surveyor to first president. It cover facts and his biography from his early life through becoming our first commander and chief.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?, Can&#8217;t You Make Them Behave, King George?, Will You Sign Here, John Hancock? by Jean Fritz. Fritz has a way of making American history incredibly witty and re-readable in each of these books. No wonder she’s a Newberry Award winner.</li>
</ul>
Ages 7–9
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A Child&#8217;s First Book of American History by Earl Schenck Miers. This book is a very readable overview that ties the whole national story together in one volume — captivating illustrations, too! (This would provide a lovely spine for a whole year of study if you homeschool.)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla. Follow Amanda Freebold and her brother and sister as they brave the Atlantic to reach Jamestown and find their father after their mother’s death. It&#8217;s a tale of loyalty set in the colonial era.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern. This fun picture book answers everyday questions children have about Pilgrim life in question-and-answer format. It can also be read to little kids, who will love the intricacy of the illustrations.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Rascal by Sterling North. A boy and his raccoon in small-town Wisconsin capture the freedom and wonder of an early American boyhood. Don’t let the girls miss out on this one, though; my 11-year-old daughter loved it!</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Pocahontas by Ingri &amp; Edgar Parin d&#8217;Aulaire. This is a beautifully illustrated retelling (as all d’Aulaire books are) of the life of a historical legend. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh. A young girl in 1707 keeps her father company on the Connecticut frontier, which tests her bravery. This is short chapter book and perfect for struggling readers. It can be read in an afternoon!</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds. This is a true colonial tale of a boy who guards his family on the frontier, set in New York in 1756. Another short, engaging read!</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Ben and Me by Robert Lawson. As told by Benjamin Franklin&#8217;s mouse, this is a delightful, funny look at Franklin&#8217;s genius through the eyes of his littlest companion. If you have a creative child who loves to invent new things, this is perfect.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates. The true life of At-mun, an enslaved African who was taken at the age of 15 by slave traders and you eventually purchased his freedom and lived out his days with quiet strength and wisdom. I would also recommend older children read this; it will be an easy read, but the story is profound.</li>
</ul>
Ages 10–12
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Captain&#8217;s Dog by Roland Smith. The great westward expedition is seen through the eyes of Seaman the dog as he travels alongside Lewis and Clark. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Of Plymouth Plantation (abridged) by William Bradford. This is a real Pilgrim governor&#8217;s firsthand account, bringing children straight to the source. It was written between 1630 and 1647 and covers historical events such as encounters with the Native Americans, surviving the harsh winters, landing in places along the way, and travel woes.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Calico Bush by Rachel Field. A French girl who comes to America as an indentured servant makes a new life on the Maine frontier during Colonial America, providing a tale outlining the importance of courage through hardship.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Yankee Doodle Boy by Joseph Plumb Martin. Another true account, this book tells of the Revolution through the eyes of the boys who actually fought. It&#8217;s an incredible primary source for children.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Toliver&#8217;s Secret by Esther Wood Brady. A timid 10-year-old girl carries a secret message through enemy lines during the Revolutionary War straight into the hands of George Washington. Perfect for your plucky daughter!</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Bulletproof George Washington by David Barton. This is a retelling of Washington&#8217;s survival in multiple battles and the providence displayed throughout his life.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Story of My Life by Helen Keller. This is the triumphant memoir of an American who overcame many obstacles through perseverance. Keller wrote this candid work at the age of 22, but younger readers will benefit from hearing her own words as she chronicles her many struggles.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. This is a classic Civil War tale that follows one young soldier&#8217;s hard journey from boyhood into manhood as he finds himself having to become part of the Union Army in a war he doesn’t want to fight in.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Boys&#8217; War by Jim Murphy. This is a sobering look at the very young soldiers who served on both sides. (A note: This book discusses children who fought in the Civil War. Depending on the age of your child, it might be best if you read it with them.)</li>
</ul>
Ages 13+
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare. A boy alone on the Maine frontier forms an unlikely friendship as he waits for him father to return to the cabin where he is staying. Adventure awaits!</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. The Revolution comes alive through a Boston apprentice swept into the cause of liberty after a tragic accident causes him to lose his beloved job and change course. This is a must-read: an electric coming-of-age tale for both boys and girls! </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham. The true story of a self-taught American sailor whose grit still guides ships to this day. I would also recommend the audiobook, read by Jim Weiss.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington. A powerful American testament from a former slave as he writes about four decades of his life. This should be required high school reading.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">George Washington&#8217;s World by Genevieve Foster. Set in the years 1732-1799, this is a panoramic look at everything happening across the globe during Washington&#8217;s lifetime. (I would also recommend Foster’s other American history books!)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass. This is a firsthand memoir, written in 1845, of one man&#8217;s road from bondage to freedom and his tireless work promoting abolition. Incredibly powerful.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. This great American novel is set on the Mississippi river and follows Huck and his friend and former slave, Jim, as they travel together, Jim imparting many lessons along the way. (Also recommend from Twain: “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur&#8217;s Court.”)</li>
</ul>
For the grown-ups
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story by Wilfred McClay. This is a single-volume history that reads like an invitation rather than a textbook and provides a very fair accounting of America from the beginning. It covers the founding of the country through the Cold War, and there is also a Young Readers edition!</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A Patriot&#8217;s History of the United States by Larry Schweikart &amp; Michael Allen. This is a large and comprehensive look at our country and its triumphs and struggles. As it says in the title, it spans from Christopher Columbus to the Age of Entitlement. It’s big but a worthy read. This could also be read in chapters by teens for specific time period study.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">John Adams by David McCullough. An absolute must read for all, this is a magnificent biography of the indispensable founder. The HBO series is also an exceptional watch. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen. This is the thrilling story of the Constitutional Convention as told by the author, who used primary source documents and records to create this historical account. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Abigail Adams: A Life by Woody Holton. A vivid portrait of one of the most remarkable women of the founding generation, this is a personal favorite. With heartbreak and drama, it includes stories of life during the revolution. Much of the book was drawn from actual Adams transcripts, so it is written with exceptional accuracy and specificity.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. The famous Frenchman&#8217;s observations on what makes American self-government work were penned during a trip to the United States between 1831 and 1832. It’s easily accessible, and I would also recommend strongly for high schoolers.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Federalist Papers by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay. These are the founding arguments for the Constitution.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">George Washington&#8217;s Rules of Civility &amp; Decent Behavior by George himself. Washington&#8217;s handwritten maxims for character and conduct are as worthy today as ever – short enough to read a few a day and share with the kids.</li>
</ul>
A dad shoutout: Hands down, the finest book on the Civil War is &#8220;Battle Cry of Freedom&#8221; by James M. McPherson. Readers of every kind tell me they treasure it as a complete, comprehensive look at the Civil War. 
Happy reading, and God bless our wonderful country!
***
Rachel Reeves is a wife and homeschool mother of four daughters. She works in political commentary at Here Are The Headlines, both on Instagram and Substack.

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The Books Every Parent Should Read Before America’s 250th Birthday

America 250

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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The publishing industry may have an AI slop problem, and readers are not OK.
Book fans <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/barnes-noble-ceo-slammed-for-stance-on-selling-ai-generated-books">reacted with horror</a> when Barnes &amp; Noble CEO James Daunt said during an interview last month that as long as the “author” discloses that the book is AI-generated, it can be stocked on store shelves.
“I have actually no problem selling any book, as long as it doesn’t masquerade or pretend to be something that it isn’t, and that it has an essential quality to it, and that the customer, the reader, wants it,” Daunt said during a &#8220;Today&#8221; show interview.
“So as long as an AI-written book says it’s an AI-written book and doesn’t pretend to be something else and isn’t ripping off somebody else, as long as that’s clearly stated and the customer wants to buy it, then we will stock them,” he added.
This led to more than a few meltdowns online, with diehard readers pushing back against the relentless wave of AI in the publishing world. All hope is not lost, however, as at least one publishing veteran said Daunt is wrong about one essential fact. In his experience, customers are moving away from AI and embracing human content instead.
Keith Riegert, president of The Stable Book Group and CEO of Ulysses Press and VeloPress Books, has been watching the AI wars play out in real time. And while the Barnes &amp; Noble CEO&#8217;s recent comments about AI book selling sent shockwaves through literary circles and beyond, Riegert wasn&#8217;t surprised.
&#8220;I think that it makes sense. I think it is really disappointing, but it is the direction that everything is going,&#8221; he told The Daily Wire in an exclusive interview. &#8220;It is a very clear signal — and should be a clear signal to every industry — that this is a monumental threat to the way that people make a living and to just about every white-collar job.&#8221;
Riegert knows the industry well. His parents founded Ulysses Press in 1983, launching with “Hidden Hawaii” and going on to create one of the pioneering adventure travel imprints of its era. When the internet essentially killed off travel books in the early 2000s, the company pivoted to data-driven publishing. The Stable Book Group now encompasses four publishing companies and a distribution operation. 
During our conversation, Riegert said he thinks it&#8217;s worth paying attention to who&#8217;s pushing back on AI and what they’re saying. He said he keeps his finger on the pulse by regularly interacting with Gen Z.
When he surveys his students in NYU&#8217;s publishing master&#8217;s program on AI use, the results catch him off guard. Only about a third report using AI on a daily basis. The other two-thirds say they actively refuse to use it.
&#8220;This is a digital native generation that has grown up with iPads and cell phones and computers, and they are actively rebelling against a lot of that,&#8221; he said.
This pushback goes beyond the classroom. Riegert said he sees the same hunger for authenticity showing up in consumer behavior across the board. He mentioned the recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/people-are-ditching-convenience-for-something-they-can-actually-control">popularity of vinyl records</a> as evidence that analog objects are making a comeback.
“A book or a vinyl record is now a luxury object because it is a symbol that you have the time to not be on a screen,&#8221; he said.
One of his students recently told him that he brings a book to bars because scrolling his phone makes him feel “like an idiot,” but sitting with a novel is more likely to spark meaningful conversation, plus it makes him seem “approachable and cool.” Riegert said this is representative of how many of his students think and act in the world, which includes how they’re choosing to spend their money.
However, it&#8217;s not all retro sunshine and analog roses. The AI revolution is definitely real, and it’s affecting the publishing industry in a big way despite some very vocal critics. The publishing exec said that AI is to nonfiction what cheap knockoffs are to Amazon, but at a massive scale.
&#8220;There are plenty of books that are doing very well in nonfiction categories, especially, and now in fiction, that have fake authors with AI-generated images, and the books are targeting well-established niches — and they are selling,&#8221; Riegert said. &#8220;It does not seem like the consumer is put off by the fact that it is AI-generated, and it is going to have a very serious effect on the publishing industry and on human authors.&#8221;
The numbers bear it out. Publishers Weekly recently <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/99943-book-output-topped-4-million-in-2025.html">reported</a> that the total number of books entering the market jumped by one million titles year over year, a figure Riegert calls &#8220;mind-blowing.&#8221; Meanwhile, output from established Big Five publishers remained essentially flat. These books are mostly not coming from human beings. They’re coming from AI-generated content saturating the market.
But here&#8217;s the irony Riegert keeps coming back to: The saturation that AI is creating may be what saves human publishing. He&#8217;s already seeing it in his own marketing data. The slick, AI-generated book trailers and polished social content are no longer working as customers react more strongly to grassroots campaigns, or at least ones that feel that way.
&#8220;The marketing angles that are working for us now are taking us back to the original ways that we would market a book,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It is a shaky iPhone video of the author talking about their book. It is something that is very authentic. And if the video is too good, it is actually a detriment to the performance.&#8221;
Consumers are growing skeptical of reviews, rankings, and products that feel fake. Riegert sees it as a key driver behind the ongoing resurgence of Barnes &amp; Noble under James Daunt and the broader indie bookstore revival. A handwritten staff recommendation carries more weight than 10,000 five-star reviews on Amazon because it’s probably not the work of bots.
Self-publishing dismantled the publishing industry, removing the barriers that aspiring authors once faced while trying to be heard. Now, those gates are open way too far. Riegert believes the industry is reverting to the way it was, at least partially.
&#8220;I think that we&#8217;re starting to get to this pivot point where the role of the gatekeeper and the critic is going to come back,&#8221; he said. &#8220;At the end of the day, the most valuable thing that you have — and the thing that all of us media organizations are competing for — is your time. We&#8217;re all entertainment companies at the end of the day, and we&#8217;re fighting for your time. And if what we&#8217;re peddling is not worth your time, then it&#8217;s a big problem for us and for you.&#8221;
Now that AI is being heavily scrutinized, there’s a chance Daunt will not end up stocking the shelves of Barnes &amp; Noble with AI-generated books because the customers won’t want to buy them. We can only hope.

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Readers Are Waging War On AI Slop

Influencer Hannah Neeleman, better known by the handle Ballerina Farm, has responded to the idea that she was the inspiration behind the hit novel “Yesteryear.” 
The 35-year-old mom of nine shared her thoughts on the topic during a recently published <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/ballerina-farm-interview-yesteryear-tradwife.html">interview</a> with Vulture. “I know what’s going on,” Neeleman told the outlet. “I’ve had an online presence for enough time to know that people like to be entertained. I’ve been the butt of jokes and Reels that I’ve seen. It didn’t really surprise me.”
She went on, “I think it just comes with the eyes. There’s so much discourse, like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s such a big family, and there’s no way she can be doing this.’ So it was like all these ideas are bubbling up into this fictional, entertaining book about tradwives. I’m surprised it didn’t come sooner, honestly.”
“Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke is pitched as being about, “A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1805 — where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel.”
It was an instant hit and has already been picked up to be developed into a movie with Academy Award-winning actress Anne Hathaway attached to it. The book’s unhinged protagonist was understood to be a thinly veiled parody of Neeleman and the thousands of copycats she’s inspired.
“Before tradwives, it was the mommy-blogger phase, right?” she told Vulture. “People have always been fascinated with mothers making money being at home with their children. With online discourse, women feed off that negative energy sometimes and that’s why things blow up. I honestly stay away from it as much as I can. So when the term tradwife comes up, or I’m seeing things about ‘Yesteryear,’ I don’t lean into them.”
The influencer went on, “I don’t think women who want to work are winning. I don’t think mothers are winning. In fact, I think it’s a step backward. If someone wants to be a mother, great. If someone wants to be a mother and sell sourdough-bread kits, great. We have to support and cheer each other on even if it doesn’t look like what our home life looks like.”
Neeleman added that “it wasn’t that long ago that women’s only role was the home.” 
“That was their extent. So for women who want to be more, seeing other women glamorize that aspect of womanhood is hard,” she said, insisting that “women love to compare.” 
“I think it is something about women, like, thinking that if we tear them down, we’ll feel better about ourselves. I think it is something that women do that’s kind of their nature, unfortunately,” she added.
“There’s no one saying that a man can’t do laundry and cook and have an amazing job on Wall Street and be a father. Why can’t women do that as well?” Neeleman said. “I understand where the debate is coming from, but I think women have the capability to lean into whatever talents or interests they have. Women are talented in the kitchen, they are talented mothers and nurturers, so they can lean into that, because they have the opportunity to do other things as well.”
“Yesteryear” is pitched as satire, but it’s also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-new-book-that-treats-traditional-wives-like-the-enemy">received criticism</a> for portraying conservative women as performative liars. One Goodreads reviewer called it “a mean-spirited revenge fantasy against a strawman the author made up.”
“In my experience, satire is supposed to say something, not just be an overt open mocking. I understand why this book will be popular, especially considering modern trends in literature, but all the positive reviews make me feel like someone’s trying to prank me a little bit,” the reviewer wrote.
Even mainstream media outlets admitted “Yesteryear” wasn’t that great. Harper’s Bazaar called it a “vaguely feminist fairy tale” that only works “when you don’t think too much about it.” Vox said it “offers a sadistic influencer comeuppance fantasy.”

Hannah Neeleman

Ballerina Farm Reacts To Being The Inspiration For Viral Novel ‘Yesteryear’

influencer

Tradwives

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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From elementary school into adulthood, boys and men read less, and less well, than girls and women. Fourth- and eighth-grade boys are roughly a year (<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/girls-boys-and-reading/">10 points</a> on the NAEP reading test) <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/reading/2024/g4_8/performance-by-student-group/?grade=4">behind their female classmates</a> in reading.
Maybe the books being published and taught in schools simply aren’t appealing to men and boys. Editors who review manuscripts are naturally biased toward books that suit their own tastes, and <a href="https://issuu.com/leeandlowbooks/docs/diversity_baseline_survey_3.0">only 29%</a> of people working in publishing are men.
The same applies to the teachers who pick reading materials for the classroom. Elementary- and secondary-school faculties have long been overwhelmingly female, and the proportion of male teachers just keeps dropping; it has <a href="https://aibm.org/research/missing-misters/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://aibm.org/research/missing-misters/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0i5qAbpYZhbDH33rB_IpXe">shrunk from 30 to 23% since 1988</a>. And while <a href="https://www.amacad.org/humanities-indicators/humanities-higher-education-surveys/trends-demographics-humanities-faculty#31797" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amacad.org/humanities-indicators/humanities-higher-education-surveys/trends-demographics-humanities-faculty%2331797&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw39mtgAHOhtq35Wc2dpCdW5">English professors are 45% men</a>, they’re likely within a rounding error of 100% feminist. In fact, university departments of literature are a major source of the man-bashing narrative.
College teachers of literature seem more eager to paint the “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Boiled-Masculinities-Christopher-Breu/dp/0816644349" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Boiled-Masculinities-Christopher-Breu/dp/0816644349&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2QQ3Xn14HFPgZAaHIeq918">hardboiled masculinities</a>” of Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner as unhealthy coping mechanisms than to value those authors for their natural appeal to male readers and their subtle treatment of “gendered” issues. Consider just three examples from these great American writers.
<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/69683/pg69683-images.html#ch3" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/69683/pg69683-images.html%23ch3&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3Ph-45AfJjSa-BFQGVIT4j">“Hills Like White Elephants”</a> by the reputedly misogynist Hemingway is, among other things, an intricate and damning exposure of men’s responsibility for abortion. And in Faulkner’s &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Go-Down-Moses-William-Faulkner/dp/0679732179" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Go-Down-Moses-William-Faulkner/dp/0679732179&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0Skh-8optb_HlfbKjBawLv">Go Down Moses</a>,&#8221; the life trajectory of Isaac McCaslin is, again among other things, an extended meditation on the complicated relationship between a man’s ambition, his moral choices, and his chances of sexual satisfaction. In other words, it’s a story that would be very relatable for incels. And Faulkner’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Stories-William-Faulkner/dp/0679764038" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Stories-William-Faulkner/dp/0679764038&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw082zHqZZPZjnDraGzXMmPG">“Barn Burning,”</a> is a master class in the limitations of a life of resentment.
But instead of classics that would have any appeal to men, the works taught in our colleges have been selected according to the principles of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Feminist-Pedagogy-Higher-Education-Critical/dp/1771121149" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Feminist-Pedagogy-Higher-Education-Critical/dp/1771121149&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3od-FEK3dEScJwQT0wS9xg">feminist pedagogy in higher education</a>.” Women’s wellbeing has been the focus, while men, their interests, their needs, and their potential have been treated with aggressive neglect, or even active enmity.
Ironically, the man-bashers seem to have conjured up the very thing they were afraid of. The instances of male hostility toward women that we now, unfortunately, do see in podcasts and on social media are pretty clearly in reaction against 50 years of hating on men as selfish, oppressive, and violent; portraying them as bumbling idiots in entertainment and advertising; making them the big losers in divorce; catering to girls’ interests and lavishing disproportionate attention on them in the education system, to the detriment of boys; and “fighting the patriarchy” and “breaking the glass ceiling” with affirmative action that locked many men out of jobs and, as Helen Andrews points out, has sentenced others to work in HR-ified offices <a href="https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-great-feminization/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-great-feminization/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1kmYuIpGIAVwEMwFknZYEe">reminiscent of Montessori kindergartens</a>.
The affirmative-action regime, together with the decades-long taboo against mentioning any unflattering facts about racial and ethnic minorities, is ginning up some other ugly things in tandem with misogyny. A not insignificant number of young white males are flirting not only with hostility to women but also with racism and antisemitism.
Which is why my heart sank when I first saw <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Krugers-Korps-H-Crocker-III/dp/B0FWZXPQ17" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Krugers-Korps-H-Crocker-III/dp/B0FWZXPQ17&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2JQrw_3gBmaNFiTktmmEJq">Kruger’s Korps: A World War II Thriller</a>, the newest work of fiction by my old boss and long-time friend Harry Crocker (H. W. Crocker III to the reading public). Harry and I see eye to eye on most things, but I think he’s soft on the Confederacy. (In my humble opinion that’s a blind spot attributable to his having grown up in California, while I was born into the Jim Crow South, where it was pretty much impossible to miss the long shadow of my ancestors’ sins).
Oh boy, I thought, looking at the title and author’s name in Nazi blackletter font on the cover of Kruger’s Korps. An adventure story with Nazi heroes. That’s exactly what we don’t need, just when young men on the right are falling prey to conspiracy theories about the Jews.
But I was wronging Harry. I don’t want to spoil any part of the intricate plot of Kruger Korps. Suffice it to say, it’s clear to the reader by page seven that the Nazis of Afrika Korps are not going to be the heroes of the story. Quite the contrary. This is a quintessentially American adventure that transports the reader back to the can-do optimism of the World War II era — a time that feels like a different age of the world, though it’s actually within living memory. Here’s to hoping that lots of demoralized Nazi-curious young men who don’t remember America before we were losing an endless succession of “forever wars” get pulled in by the cover and find themselves swept up in this healthy American story.
Young white men today have plenty of excuse for resentment, but living on resentment and excuses is the road to misery. The eponymous hero of Kruger’s Korps models the opposite path: pursuing his patriotic ideals by tackling every impossible challenge with infinite resource and sagacity.
But the book doesn’t just teach; it also delights. The absurd obstacle course our hero dives and jumps his way through is a thrill a minute. The historical references are a hoot: What missionary priest do we meet in the interior of Africa? Rad trads will guess the answer. And the prose is also a lot of fun. Harry Crocker is always a clever writer, but he outdoes himself here:
<blockquote>
“So,” I said to Steiner, “that’s the cause of all this. At least Dr. Faustus traded his soul for his every ambition, but to trade your soul for what — that woman, opium?”
“People make bad choices all the time, lieutenant — trading paradise for a rotten apple, becoming a pillar of salt to satisfy curiosity, betraying the Son of Man for 30 pieces of silver. Have you not read that book?”
</blockquote>
Kruger’s Korps is exactly what we need more of — and apparently are going to get. Because Harry Crocker isn’t the only Regnery alumnus working to fill the gap left by the feminized publishing houses and the feminist professors. In fact all three of us who were senior editors at Regnery when I was there are now doing our bit for fiction that appeals to men and boys. That’s a switch from the kind of books we edited at the venerable conservative publisher, which since its foundation in 1947 has published almost exclusively conservative non-fiction. But we’re all working from the premise that “the social imaginary,” as Daily Wire host Andrew Klavan frequently points out, is shaped by the <a href="https://store.dailywire.com/collections/andrew-klavan/products/after-that-the-dark-cameron-winter-mysteries-book-5" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://store.dailywire.com/collections/andrew-klavan/products/after-that-the-dark-cameron-winter-mysteries-book-5&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3aOMxVURdSy-QFkkzzrCGr">stories we read</a> and watch.
The third senior editor from my time at Regnery, who before that was a veteran science-fiction editor, is Tony Daniel, who is now the founding publisher of the brand-new <a href="https://passage.press/collections/ark-press" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://passage.press/collections/ark-press&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw247BzOEHPICYHlns-7JMou">Ark Press</a>, an imprint of Passage Publishing devoted to putting out the kind of genre literature that appeals to male readers — but not to the <a href="https://issuu.com/leeandlowbooks/docs/diversity_baseline_survey_3.0" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://issuu.com/leeandlowbooks/docs/diversity_baseline_survey_3.0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0KP9CUPB5KbCK8V7RCCZvo">East Coast women who dominate American publishing</a>. The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-books-mainstream-publishing-wont-push-are-finding-an-audience-anyway">graphic-novel version of &#8220;American Paladin&#8221;</a> by bestselling urban fantasy author Larry Correia launched the imprint in December of last year; Ark will publish the hardcover on June 23. Other recent and upcoming titles from the new imprint include &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Red-State-Mars-Travis-Corcoran/dp/B0FXFMFVVC" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Red-State-Mars-Travis-Corcoran/dp/B0FXFMFVVC&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1Ui7UWCcAaAGTvGufATz21">Red State Mars&#8221;</a> by Travis Corcoran; &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Timerman-Yukon-Confederacy-Theodore-Judson/dp/B0FYX2F68X" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Timerman-Yukon-Confederacy-Theodore-Judson/dp/B0FYX2F68X&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2ReOi4BJ_GNP-qaAFIpUHo">The Timerman</a>,&#8221; set in a 25th century Yukon Confederacy with no electricity or computers; and the comic spy novel &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pickle-Factory-Tall-Tale-CIA/dp/B0FXFK4FKS" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Pickle-Factory-Tall-Tale-CIA/dp/B0FXFK4FKS&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0msB0oFv111wj0WvKKKVKv">The Pickle Factory: A Tall Tale of the CIA&#8221;</a> by first-time author Sam Oyken, about which I keep hearing raves from every editor who worked on it. Ark is committed to discovering and fostering new authors with <a href="https://ark.press/blogs/news/ark-prize" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ark.press/blogs/news/ark-prize&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3lNS5TpqWj1N3HvLMJ-1pY">significant prize money</a>.
And I’m doing my part, working to get out the word about the classics of the old literary canon that have been despised and neglected precisely because they appeal to men — in <a href="https://libertyclassroom.com/course-grid/introduction-to-american-literature-our-best-short-stories/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://libertyclassroom.com/course-grid/introduction-to-american-literature-our-best-short-stories/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0h5pVKM9bInn_Tzbrw3F9Y">lectures</a> featuring Stephen Crane’s <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45524/45524-h/45524-h.htm" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45524/45524-h/45524-h.htm&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw32tjcFc5Fdc0WTpIysCxiZ">“The Open Boat,”</a> Hemingway’s <a href="https://www.libraryofshortstories.com/storiespdf/big-two-hearted-river.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.libraryofshortstories.com/storiespdf/big-two-hearted-river.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1WrQ9Seu_1ul7E-IpFERbU">“Big Two-Hearted River,”</a> Faulkner’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Go-Down-Moses-William-Faulkner/dp/0679732179" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Go-Down-Moses-William-Faulkner/dp/0679732179&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0Skh-8optb_HlfbKjBawLv">“The Bear,”</a> and J. D. Salinger’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Nine-Stories-J-D-Salinger/dp/0316769568/ref=asc_df_0316769568?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=79852242640743&amp;hvnetw=s&amp;hvqmt=e&amp;hvbmt=be&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=91731&amp;hvtargid=pla-4583451720218006&amp;psc=1&amp;msclkid=83f62794aa881a9a28b64da4c6f0ece3" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Nine-Stories-J-D-Salinger/dp/0316769568/ref%3Dasc_df_0316769568?tag%3Dbngsmtphsnus-20%26linkCode%3Ddf0%26hvadid%3D79852242640743%26hvnetw%3Ds%26hvqmt%3De%26hvbmt%3Dbe%26hvdev%3Dc%26hvlocint%3D%26hvlocphy%3D91731%26hvtargid%3Dpla-4583451720218006%26psc%3D1%26msclkid%3D83f62794aa881a9a28b64da4c6f0ece3&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781714139429000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3oRtnaQz71KOxTk_4HiLaq">“For Esmé, with Love and Squalor.”</a>
This Father’s Day, your gift — whether it’s a classic or a just-published book — can be an enthusiastic vote for the revival of a cultured, healthy, and successful masculinity.
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Elizabeth Kantor is a freelance book editor and the author of &#8220;The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature.&#8221;

Relaxed mature man smoking a pipe while reading a novel in the living room.

These Books Are Challenging The War On Masculinity

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25 Books On The Founding Fathers To Read For America 250

Abraham Lincoln

Alexander Hamilton

American History

American Revolution

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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The past decade or so’s changes in publishing have hit young adult books and two conservative favorites, science fiction and fantasy, hardest. This is why right-leaning indie authors lean heavy on genre stuff. This is great, except for the fact that indie genre authors also love to write long. Do you want to stand out from the pack as a right-aligned indie novelist? Write mysteries or crime thrillers that are reasonably short. There are not a lot of such books. (If you’ve got one, drop a comment and I might review it.) For lovers of fantasy, though, let’s look at the long and the short of it.
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Travel-Star-Paul-Scott-Grill/dp/B0F7Z4VWNP">&#8220;Travel by Star&#8221; by Paul Scott Grill</a>
&#8220;Travel by Star&#8221; offers some of the best and the less appealing of the indie genre scene. A road-tripping fantasy novel grounded in the author’s Christian faith and an atypical Western setting, it’s not like the kind of stuff you’ll see major publishers putting out. The fall of a legendary city has doomed a frontier land to grinding struggle; now a young woman of angelic lineage named Nichole Littlestar has to convince reluctant horse whisperer Travel to brave dangers manmade and mystical, and guide her to the city’s site, in an effort to rekindle the lost hope of man. Along the way, they brave the dangers of a poisoned land, not least Drannach of Shrian, known as the Wathe, who will stop at nothing to purge the city of Archewood’s memory from the world of men. 
Also, there are superintelligent horses that act functionally sort of like Roy Rogers’ Trigger. If nothing else will pique your interest, that should do it.
There’s a genuine charm to &#8220;Travel by Star.&#8221; Its action and scares are balanced by an underlying gentleness. Its faith-based sensibilities are neither cloying nor overpowering, and Christians with a fondness for fictional worlds may particularly enjoy its handling of the influence of Jesus on a fantasy world and how Christ reaches the people there. The characters aren’t particularly compelling, but they are human and likable. 
The only downside is the page count. This book would have been a terrific read at 250-300 pages. It would have been fine at 350. But &#8220;Travel by Star&#8221; is six hundred and thirty-six pages. As a result, the charms get a little lost and the parts that drag have too much time to settle in. But it’s a book with real heart and with some things to say, particularly about the temptation to repay wrong with wrong, and living with choices that haunt you. And while it may not be as polished as mainstream offerings, at its best it portrays a fallen world that truly feels eerie and out of joint, and that’s harder to pull off than you’d think.
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Turquoise-Serpent-Ashes-Urn-Book-ebook/dp/B088F4KMTZ">&#8220;The Turquoise Serpent&#8221; by Alexander Palacio</a>
This one’s lean and mean, folks. If you want more, there’s a sequel (&#8220;The Flowers of the Moon&#8221;), but the original is plenty fun on its own: It’s a straightforward sword and sorcery story with enjoyably contrasting characters, a hectic pace, and action aplenty. 
Having captured the brutish exile Cayucali, a band of soldiers and the spiteful young wizard-in-training Tezca are forced by a storm to detour their march home, only to find themselves in an unholy land where the fallen nation Kalak Mool is in thrall to the deadly cult of a dark god. Do our protagonists fall into the hands of utter villainy? Indeed they do. Is the muscled hero forced to fight in an arena? Yes he is. Is the cerebral co-protagonist flattered and tempted by the enticements of an evil sorcerer? But of course. Is there a pretty girl who must be saved? Absolutely. 
You can call a lot of the beats in this story going in. But that’s half the fun: &#8220;The Turquoise Serpent&#8221; does what it says on the tin, and isn’t it nice to know what you’re getting occasionally? The real spice comes not from the plot, but from the setting, a Mesoamerican-inspired fantasy world that isn’t afraid to get weird and have different attitudes from our modern day-to-day. It’s short, zippy, and doesn’t make the mistake of being overly ambitious. A good companion for a summer afternoon in the hammock.
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Sons-Hercules-1/dp/B0CK3MMBPP">&#8220;The Mighty Sons of Hercules: Volume 1&#8221; published by Cirsova Publishing</a>
The mighty sons of Hercules once thundered through the years. 
These men of steel could never feel the curse of a coward’s fears
The mighty sons of Hercules were men as men should be
They burned with dreams and turned their dreams into history!
Er, sorry, that’s the catchy old <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex1109FzrOo">TV show theme</a>. Cirsova is hat-tipping here. In the late 1960s, some enterprising producers snagged the U.S. TV rights to a bunch of sword and sandal strongman pics. They renamed most of the heroes in dubbing, broke the movies into two hour-long episodes, slapped a title sequence on it, and dumped it into syndication. Tim Lucas’s Video WatchBlog <a href="https://videowatchdogblog.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-sons-of-hercules-thunder-through.html">notes</a> that it aired around the U.S. for 11 straight years and had a revival in the 1990s thanks to the cable channel TNT. 
What does this have to do with the anthology (and, one presumes, its sequel, &#8220;The Mighty Sons of Hercules: Volume 2&#8221;)? Absolutely nothing, except that the publisher is telling you the old sword and sandals are just what you’re in for here, in eight stories of inhumanly strong men, adventurers who help the troubled and free the oppressed. 
The best tale by far is Misha Burnett’s “Summer of the Stranger,” wherein a boy from a bandit-plagued village tries to assemble a defensive force based on the example of a traveling son of Hercules, but there’s great fun in several. Hero-vs-evil-king tale “Mighty Umaeo and the Tyrant’s Test” features the most delightful herculean strength feat of the book, wherein the hero saves a sinking ship by towing it to harbor, and “Maciste in the Land of the Snakes” and “Melkart the Unchained” both get the feel of the old sword and sandals pictures to come across very well.
Cirsova’s bringing back the rollicking, cheerful strongman hero, who tackles problems head-on with a smile and bulging biceps in the antithesis of grimdark fantasy. Villains are formidable but never seem unconquerable; the hero may be captured, but he never doubts or questions himself and always has good cheer and plenty of hope. Never for a moment do you doubt the good guy will win. And don’t we all need a little dose of that every now and then?
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David Hines has a background in forensic science and international human rights, has written for the Federalist and the American Conservative, and loves books. Possibly even yours.

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What Happens When Fantasy Escapes The Gatekeepers?

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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When I clicked open an email from the Free Library of Philadelphia earlier this week, I figured one of two things had happened. Either I’d suddenly time-traveled back seven years, or I was hallucinating. Because isn’t <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-year-the-dei-tide-turned">DEI falling out of fashion</a> lately?
There’s proof that it is. But clearly not at libraries. This was the image the Free Library chose to advertise its summer reading program:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The Free Library of Philadelphia is having a normal one. <a href="https://t.co/J0PXrABHUB">pic.twitter.com/J0PXrABHUB</a>
— Amanda Harding (@iamdeeda) <a href="https://x.com/iamdeeda/status/2062528997775351941?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
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It honestly gets funnier the longer you look at it. Every progressive group is subtly represented in a program that, ultimately, is aimed at children. 
The accompanying <a href="https://libwww.freelibrary.org/assets/pdf/programs/summerreading/activity-tracker/SUM26-activity-tracker.pdf">activity tracker</a> is full of ultra-woke suggested titles, including “Homebody” by Theo Parish, described as “a hopeful story of coming home to your nonbinary identity,” and “Into the Streets: A Young Person’s Visual History of Protest in the United States” by Marke Bieschke. 
Ubiquitous drag queen story hours nationwide, among other affronts to common decency, have already shown that public libraries were successfully hijacked by the radical Left years ago. But it’s still jarring to encounter something as benign as summer reading programs gone totally off the rails. 
The launch of these über-progressive summer reading initiatives comes at the same time Usha Vance, the second lady of the United States, is rolling out her summer reading challenge. The contrast is striking.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Calling all readers: My Summer Reading Challenge is back! Visit <a href="https://t.co/KqGhZTJjUu">https://t.co/KqGhZTJjUu</a> TODAY to download your reading log and get started. Your next summer adventure is just one page away! <a href="https://t.co/isrw3QZ9FS">pic.twitter.com/isrw3QZ9FS</a>
— Second Lady Usha Vance (@SLOTUS) <a href="https://x.com/SLOTUS/status/2061422344229286168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Predictably, this launch has been mostly ignored by mainstream media. But ABC did <a href="https://abcnews.com/US/usha-vance-unveils-2nd-annual-summer-reading-challenge/story?id=133469716">interview</a> the second lady to discuss the program.
“Last year it was an idea that we had really at the last minute as we were thinking about ways to enhance childhood literacy and get kids reading over the summer and sort of stave off some of the summer learning loss that traditionally happens every year,&#8221; Vance told the outlet. &#8220;So we did a little pilot program and it was a success beyond what we had hoped.”
“This year we&#8217;re having a big rollout all over the country,” she continued, mentioning partnerships with schools, libraries, and other institutions nationwide. (One of those is probably not the Free Library of Philadelphia, based on the type of content it&#8217;s promoting.)
Instead of recommending books about protests, gender fluidity, and whether rivers have feelings, Vance said the premise of the White House’s summer reading program is easy for parents to follow.
“Our summer reading challenge is really simple. All kids have to do is pick up 12 books, anything that they like,&#8221; the second lady told ABC. &#8220;If a kid likes reading about squirrels, as one did last year, read 12 books about squirrels. If a kid loves history, read books about history.&#8221;
&#8220;So you read those books, write them down on a log and send them to whitehouse.gov/read and we&#8217;ll receive them, send a certificate,” Vance added.
This basic and effective summer reading program doesn’t push an agenda. Instead, kids are encouraged to explore topics they care about and read books that correspond with their interests. Meanwhile, libraries nationwide are pushing progressive garbage to kids via summer reading programs. 
On the San Francisco Public Library’s list of <a href="https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/list/display/378227437/3014497577">22 recommended books</a> for grades 3 to 5, the only white character featured in the cover art is a girl learning the art of witchcraft. The Chicago Public Library <a href="https://chipublib.bibliocommons.com/v2/list/display/200049033/3014416370">suggests</a> a children&#8217;s version of Michelle Obama’s memoir, “Becoming.” 
And then there’s the Phoenix Public Library, whose <a href="https://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/browse/staff-picks/kids/summer-reading-lists/6th-to-8th-grade">list</a> of books for children in grades 6 through 8 includes “We’re in This Together” by activist Linda Sarsour, who is best known for co-organizing the Women’s March. 
“Sarsour shares the memories that shaped her into the activist she is today, and how these pivotal moments in her life led her to being an organizer in one of the largest single-day protests in US history,&#8221; the <a href="https://discover.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/search/card?recordId=6929133">description</a> reads. &#8220;From the Brooklyn bodega her father owned to the streets of Washington, DC, Linda&#8217;s story as a daughter of Palestinian immigrants is a moving portrayal of what it means to find your voice in your youth and use it for the good of others as an adult.”
Encouraging children to read in the summer is great. Subtly interspersing ultra-woke titles into their &#8220;to be read&#8221; piles is diabolical. This summer, it would be wise for parents to take a good, long look at their local library before signing up for any summer reading challenges. 
As for the Free Library of Philadelphia: 2019 called, and they want their performative activism back.

Boy in elementary school library

Parents Send Kids To Read. Libraries Have Other Plans.

Library

reading program

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
“The American Book of Fables” is unlike anything else in print — or at least, that has been published in the last 200 years. At nearly 400 pages, it’s a tome modeled after much leaner texts, one being “<a href="https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/galleries/childhood/item/4109">The New England Primer</a>,” an 18th-century textbook with lessons, prayers, and hymns. The book also reflects “<a href="https://www.neh.gov/article/columbian-orator-taught-nineteenth-century-americans-how-speak">The Columbian Orator</a>,” a 19th-century textbook for older readers that influenced both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
It’s an audacious attempt, and author Matthew Mehan isn’t shy about it. “I really am keen to make sure people understand that this is not a children&#8217;s book,” he tells The Daily Wire. “This is a family heirloom.”
The book draws on the Western and American literary traditions with nursery rhymes, fables, and primary texts from the Declaration of Independence to the Bible. These sections are divided up for “littles,” “middles,” and “bigs.” When I read excerpts to my four-year-old, he was entranced by the illustrations. Painter John Folley’s detailed, vibrant artwork is scattered throughout, with gorgeous, two-page spreads showing off buffalo, armadillos, and the fruited plains.
Mehan says he’s always been interested in poetry with a civic and humanistic dimension, art that helps people live well. “That attracted me to the fable tradition, which is a very important tradition for self-governing peoples,” he says. 
Fables, of course, offer the reader memorable stories with simple takeaways. They are usually vague and fairly universal, meaning they could take place anytime, anywhere. “The American Book of Fables” changes that. 
The boy who cried wolf could take place anywhere boys and wolves are found, but Mehan places the story “on Roanoke Island, near the Outer Banks, west of Nag’s Head and South of Kittyhawk, North Carolina.” The boy is hired by the Bodie family (a real family), and there’s a real red wolf preserve nearby.
“The fable tradition is very general and universalistic, and Americans like generalities and universal principles,” Mehan says. “But we also like science and detail, and we have a federal system where we really love our local people and places.”
He credits Homer for the inspiration to add such detail, “carefully and humanely and lovingly naming all of the places and people.” The epic poet took the effort to name dying soldiers on the battlefield. 
“I think that is a part of teaching people how to be human and love well the things that are in their care and are part of their community,” Mehan says. 
In Mehan’s version of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” which he calls “greatly adapted from Aesop,” the boy’s “cries” come from shooting off rockets, which Mehan says is an homage to more American staples: Cape Canaveral, the space race, and Kitty Hawk.
<div id="attachment_1105027" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1105027" class="size-medium wp-image-1105027" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/6912-FABLES-1-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/6912-FABLES-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/6912-FABLES-1-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/6912-FABLES-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/6912-FABLES-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/6912-FABLES-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/6912-FABLES-1-2048x2048.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Sophia Institute Press</div>
Fables make for easy, entertaining lessons because they’re full of archetypes. There’s “the irascible badger,” “the languid panda,” “the tyrannical lion,” and “the busy beaver.” Mehan’s beaver is named Nikola, and, yes, that is a Tesla reference. Mehan says he’s meant to represent a passion for technology that wonders whether something can be done and doesn’t stop to determine whether it should. Returning to the theme of self-government, Mehan suggests that such a passion, which is good in moderation, must be governed properly. 
The book is rich with allusions to great authors and classic works, as well as its own analogies. One recurring story is that of Humanatee, a “gentle, fat creature” who learns lessons as he traverses the country. One purpose is to challenge the reader to think about the meaning of human nature; if the principles and rights laid out in the Declaration are real, then “you better have a really strong and robust handle on what human nature is,” Mehan says. The Ciceronian conception that Mehan has in mind “has everything to do with self-government and liberty, and treating people right in a way that is just, and fair, and preserves the social bonds.”
This idea is important. “One of the themes of the book is to reintroduce a lot of the really wonderful moral teachings of Cicero, which were profoundly ingrained in our society until the 20th century slowly leached them out mostly by omission,” Mehan adds.
But another theme centers on what it means to be distinctly American, living amid the amber waves of grain and purple mountain majesties.
“The country isn&#8217;t just our principles, the country is human nature engaged in a particular history, a particular experience, a particular landscape,” he says. “So an engagement of humanity with all the various animals and regions of the country, was, I thought, a nice expression of the American experience.”

6912-FABLES

The Book Every American Family Should Own

The CEO of Barnes &amp; Noble just clarified where he stands on AI-written books, and commenters are accusing him of choosing profit over integrity.
Bookstore exec James Daunt <a href="https://www.today.com/popculture/books/barnes-and-noble-ceo-james-daunt-interview-ai-books-rcna345417">told</a> Jenna Bush Hager during a recent “Today” show appearance that as long as the “author” discloses that the book is AI-generated, he has no problem stocking it.
&#8220;I have actually no problem selling any book, as long as it doesn&#8217;t masquerade or pretend to be something that it isn&#8217;t, and that it has an essential quality to it, and that the customer, the reader, wants it,” Daunt said during the interview.
“So as long as an AI-written book says it&#8217;s an AI-written book and doesn&#8217;t pretend to be something else and isn&#8217;t ripping off somebody else, as long as that&#8217;s clearly stated and the customer wants to buy it, then we will stock them,” he added.
The CEO also argued that some books currently being sold probably use AI anyway.
“We have 300,000 titles across all of our stores. Do we think that some of those may be AI? The chances are that they are, but we&#8217;re not really conscious of them,” Daunt added.
Daunt also downplayed the issue, saying it’s not a big deal for now. “At the moment, it seems unlikely to us that these AI-generated books are going to get much commercial traction. So I think it&#8217;s something that one should treat with common sense and acceptance, but not allow anything to masquerade,” he told Bush Hager. 
Commenters on social media did not agree.
“I will stop shopping at Barnes and Noble and I hope everyone else does too. AI is NOT the future,” one X commenter <a href="https://x.com/maddog_mead/status/2056763337523032152">argued</a>.
“Sorry, but ethics has a place in business, and selling works generated off the THEFT of other people&#8217;s work  is UNETHICAL. For shame!” another person <a href="https://x.com/AcCargill/status/2056763335052234802">agreed</a>. 
“The point of a bookstore is discovering human thought. Real stories. Real suffering. Real imagination. Replacing authors with machines because it’s cheaper is how civilizations become hollow,” a third commenter <a href="https://x.com/iLoveJaneAdams/status/2056763156475638079">said</a>.
“The slop knows no bounds,” echoed <a href="https://x.com/OVVOLabs/status/2056762106276368858">another</a>.

Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble CEO Slammed For Stance On Selling AI-Generated Books

Artificial Intelligence

Business

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
A funny thing started happening as I trudged through Lena Dunham’s new memoir, “Famesick.” I started hating her a little less. Like so many conservatives, my thoughts on Dunham were surface-level. She was an insufferable liberal, a narcissistic celebrity, and, as she made clear in her last published work, a person with an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/woman-who-sexually-abused-her-sister-mocks-trump-amanda-prestigiacomo">appalling lack</a> of personal boundaries, even around children.
I watched “Girls” back in the day because I was the right demographic. At that point, I was still figuring out who I was, just like the main characters. The show was sharp, funny, and honest. Much like Dunham, it turns out. It&#8217;s just too bad she spent so much of her life chasing after all the wrong things. 
I never read her first memoir, “Not That Kind of Girl,” which came out in 2014 and inspired so much <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lena-dunhams-first-memoir-led-to-accusations-of-sexual-abuse-so-she-decided-to-write-another">controversy</a>. That essay collection famously included revelations that Dunham “examined” her younger sister’s genitals, and then when she got called out for it, the actress attacked her detractors for thinking it was gross. 
“The right-wing news story that I molested my little sister isn’t just LOL – it’s really f*cking upsetting and disgusting. And by the way, if you were a little kid and never looked at another little kid’s vagina, well, congrats to you,” she <a href="https://x.com/lenadunham/status/528613546108944384">posted</a> in 2014.
“Famesick” is less about the questionable decisions of minors and more about Dunham’s rise to fame and how it never made her truly happy. 
She comes across as deeply insecure (“I still thought that true love was performed with the one-sided devotion of a kicked dog”), obsessed with her reputation, clinging desperately to failing relationships (especially the toxic partnership with “Girls” co-showrunner Jenni Konner), and keen on informing readers how popular she once was and how much sex she was having. Dunham vacillates between bragging and doom spiraling while keeping the focus always on her inner turmoil.
“People on the internet were cruel to me, but nobody was crueler to me than I was to myself,” she says at one point. The whole thing reeks of wanting to be liked, and to be remembered for once being liked. 
Dunham also takes time to reflect on the fallout from her first book, writing, “I was shocked when a conservative media site analyzed the book carefully, pulling choice passages and coming to the conclusion that I had engaged in sexually inappropriate childhood behavior with my sibling.” This referred specifically to the media watchdog site Truth Revolt, where Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro served as editor in chief.
Dunham wrote that she wasn’t too worried about the backlash at first because she assumed “any logical person” would interpret the negative reaction as being “an attempt to cherrypick sections to create a narrative that spoke to the idea that I — and by extension, the majority of feminists — were not crusaders for justice but, in fact, wanton perverts.”
“I didn’t consider what I’d written to be particularly salacious,” the actress went on. “And anyway, what about the things I hadn’t included? I’d decided against describing the time, age four, I announced to a group of near-strangers that my punishment at home for misbehavior was having ‘a fork stuck up my vagina.’ (It was not.) I don’t know where I came up with that, but I’ve always been confused by anyone who doesn’t recognize that children are inherently innocent, and yet their imaginations are endless and deranged.”
“What I had been guilty of on the page, what the internet should have charged me with and given me a short sentence for, was poor phrasing — maybe a second count for TMI,” Dunham wrote, noting how her sister has since started identifying as a boy and going into some detail about their distant, complicated relationship.
“Famesick” is also full of medical drama and, eventually, a raging pill addiction. Dunham is ill for most of the book, in and out of the hospital for various conditions and surgeries, which eventually culminates in her having a full hysterectomy to counteract the painful reality of endometriosis. 
I was surprised to find out that Dunham did originally want to be a mother. She also spent thousands of dollars attempting to have biological children via IVF, only for it all to end in failure.
“I had never had a single doubt about wanting children,” she wrote, mourning the loss of what would never be. It was surprising only because she’s such a devout pro-abortion feminist who had a significant amount of success in Hollywood. The yearning for children doesn’t match the stereotype. It also made her a more sympathetic character. 
Ultimately, Dunham is selfish and flawed, earnest yet delusional, self-obsessed but trying to change. I’ve always preferred memoirs because fiction writers so often fail to capture that nuance of multi-faceted personalities. Watching someone make bad decisions over and over hits harder when it’s all based on true events.
For the first time maybe ever, I found myself agreeing with Slate for pointing out that this book was so readable in part because Dunham is truly skilled at her craft. The progressive website&#8217;s <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2026/04/lena-dunham-book-famesick-review.html">review</a> called it “an ideal celebrity memoir with the added bonus of being written by someone who can actually write.&#8221;
The Atlantic&#8217;s review <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/04/lena-dunham-famesick-memoir-book-review/686799/">praised</a> Dunham’s growth over the last decade, noting that in “Famesick,” she had “actually learned from her garrulous and unfiltered excesses — she&#8217;s got stories to tell in Famesick that blow the roof off, but she&#8217;s wielding them with precision this time around.” 
Dunham is truly lost as a person. She fondly recalls having dinner with Robert De Niro and Bruce Springsteen, mourns President Donald Trump winning the election, and campaigns for Hillary Clinton. She’s about as incorrect on every conceivable topic as a person can be. And yet, my feelings throughout the book weren’t anger. They were closer to pity. 
I began to associate Dunham’s plight with every career-focused feminist who, at around the mid-point of life, is realizing that enduring happiness won’t come from professional success or fickle fans.
Dunham isn’t pure evil, even if she’s not the victim she thinks she is. She’s infuriating and sympathetic in tandem. And ultimately, she’s just another flawed human who, through her warped ideology, made her life a lot harder than it had to be.

The 2026 Met Gala Celebrating “Costume Art” – Arrivals

Lena Dunham Chased Every Progressive Fantasy. Then Everything Fell Apart.

Lena Dunham

Millennials are rejoicing as a staple of their childhood will make a triumphant return this summer.
Pizza Hut just announced that their “Book It!” summer reading program, which encourages kids to read more books in exchange for free pizza, will be making a comeback. The restaurant announced the news on social media last week.
&#8220;SUMMER OF STORIES IS BACK!” the post caption said, adding that enrollment begins today, May 1. &#8220;Get ready to turn reading time into pizza time! This summer, keep your kids&#8217; reading, learning, and loving books… all while earning FREE pizza.&#8221;
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The free program will reward young readers who hit their milestones by providing them with digital Reading Award Certificates, which are redeemable for a free, one-topping Personal Pan Pizza from Pizza Hut. Students can earn up to one free pizza per month.
The promo is available for students in grades preschool through 6th, but commenters insist it should be extended to adults, too.
“Millennials need an adult version! Some of us are still readers because of this program!” one reaction said.
“Can us Gen X and millennials get this back for us!!! Us big kid need pizza too,” a second person echoed.
“Thank you so much for bringing this program back! I have a 1st grader who we&#8217;ve been expressing the importance of reading so having this program as an incentive is helpful,” another person said.
“We are so excited! The nostalgia that our kiddo gets to participate!” another person wrote.
The Book It! program began following a 1984 initiative from President Ronald Reagan calling for more businesses to promote education. It was created by Arthur Gunther, the president of Pizza Hut at the time, and marketing executive Bud Gates, per The New York Times. More than 70 million children have participated in the program, resulting in 1.5 billion free pizzas being given out as rewards.
The summer reading Book It! Promotion will run from June 1 until August 31. Parents can sign kids up through the BOOK IT! App.

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