Lifestyle
Tiny Love Stories: ‘This Unusual Wooing Worked’
My Only Advice
Recently, my 28-year-old daughter called me seeking counsel on the state of her love life: How do I know if the person I’m dating is “the one” for me? Should I settle for what I have now even though something feels off? Or should I keep searching for someone who “checks all the boxes”? With three marriages and three divorces behind me, I can only tell her this: My sorrowful and misguided love life led me to a relationship with her father, which resulted in her conception. And that I do not regret for one second. — Yvonne Herbst
Strangers in a Movie Theater
Winter was on its last legs when we saw “Creed III” alone, together. Waiting for the lights to dim in a crowded St. Louis movie theater, he said hello first. I said hi back and took him in: kind eyes, smooth skin, clean beard, warm smile. Whew! Side by side, we enjoyed the film, eventually exchanging numbers during closing credits. “You’ll never believe how we got here,” Jerome told me later. Turns out he’d swapped spots with a married couple whose original tickets had them seated separately. Years later, we honor our fateful “Creedversary” with another movie (this time sitting together intentionally). — Lyndsey Ellis
Capturing Mom’s Luscious Locks
Long before selfies and cellphones, my mother was always the lady behind the camera. A clunky Minolta dangled from her neck. Finding photographs of her for school projects was nearly impossible; she took so many pictures, but was rarely pictured. Landscapes didn’t interest her; friends and family were her favorite subjects. Determined to capture her countenance now, I scroll through silly Snapchat filters during her chemo sessions. Her favorite filters are exotic manes which replace locks she’s lost. “Look at all my hair,” she giggles, the filters blurring the background infusion bags. These candid snaps are our Grand Canyon moments. — Lisa Wiley
An Unusual Promise
I met a beautiful blue-eyed man on a Habitat for Humanity build in Hawaii. He was a carpenter; I was an amateur with too much enthusiasm for the nail gun. One day we sat outside and took in the lush landscape: mountains behind a field with a horse and a donkey. “What do you think,” he said, “You and me, a house, a couple of kids? I’ll buy you an ass.” This unusual wooing worked. That night we kissed for the first time. Many years later, not long before we married, he finally bought me the promised (stuffed animal) ass. — Jill Goldberg
The American Library Association’s list of the most frequently challenged books of 2025 includes Sold by Patricia McCormick, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir.
American Library Association
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American Library Association
The American Library Association has released its annual list of the most commonly challenged books at libraries across the United States.
According to the ALA, the 11 most frequently targeted books include several tied titles. They are:
1. Sold by Patricia McCormick
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
4. Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
5. (tie) Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
5. (tie) Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
7. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
8. (tie) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
8. (tie) Identical by Ellen Hopkins
8. (tie) Looking for Alaska by John Green
8. (tie) Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Many of these individual titles also appear on a 2024-25 report issued last October by PEN America, a separate group dedicated to free expression, which looked at book challenges and bans specifically within public schools.
The ALA says that it documented 4,235 unique titles being challenged in 2025 – the second-highest year on record for library challenges. (The highest ever was in 2023, with 4,240 challenges documented – only five more than in this most recent year.)
According to the ALA, 40% of the materials challenged in 2025 were representations of LGBTQ+ people and those of people of color.
In all, the ALA documented 713 attempts across the United States in 2025 to censor library materials and services; 487 of those challenges targeted books.
According to the ALA, 92% of all book challenges to libraries came from “pressure groups,” government officials and local decision makers. While 20.8% came from pressure groups such as Moms for Liberty (as the ALA cited in an email to NPR), 70.9% of challenges originated with government officials and other “decision makers,” such as local board officials or administrators.
In a more detailed breakdown, the ALA notes that 31% of challenges came from elected government officials and and 40% from board members or administrators. In its full report, the ALA states that only 2.7% of such challenges originated with parents, and 1.4% with individual library users.
Fifty-one percent of challenges were attempted at public libraries, and 37% involved school libraries. The remaining challenges of 2025 targeted school curriculums and higher education.
The ALA defines a book “ban” as the removal of materials, including books, from a library. A “challenge,” in this organization’s definition, is an attempt to have a library resource removed, or access to it restricted.
The ALA is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to American libraries and librarians.
Promo image with Phil Pritchard, Alzo Slade, and Peter Sagal
Bruce Bennett, Arnold Turner, NPR/Getty Images, NPR
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Bruce Bennett, Arnold Turner, NPR/Getty Images, NPR
This week, Phil Pritchard, NHL’s Keeper of the Stanley Cup, joins us to about taking the cup jet-skiing and panelists Alonzo Bodden, Adam Burke, and Dulcé Sloan beef with the Pope and get misdiagnosed.
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