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Sure, Hamilton continues to awe audiences everywhere, but it’s hardly the norm or standard. Straight white men continue to dominate the narratives, which isn’t exactly the most enticing sight for newcomers. The homogeneity definitely discouraged me when I first flirted with the idea of studying theatre. To help you out, here nine plays for theatre beginners not by straight white men. Hopefully they’ll encourage you to add some more drama to your to-read list!...

What is Western Gothic? Wikipedia defines “gothic western AKA western gothic AKA prairie gothic” as “a subculture that blends gothic and western lifestyles that are notably visible in fashion, music, film and literature.” While that is a helpful start, what exactly does that mean? Western gothic is, at its core, the story of The Mysterious Man/Person In Black. It expands rapidly from there, taking a typical cowboy story to a deeper, more antihero place....

I somehow became an avid reader at a very early age. Although most kids around me couldn’t have cared less, I was enthralled with the lives of my characters and the stories they had to tell. Since then, nothing has changed. In fact, my admiration for novels and short stories has grown. Reading has become such an influential part of my life. Regardless to the occasional distance I put between my bookshelf and myself, I always find my way back, falling in love with all my novels yet again....

Like most people I know, when I need ideas on how to fix some problem—major or minor—I start with some research (by which I mean random searching and general poking around online). Eventually, I read the advice that sounds plausible from the sources that appear trustworthy. While reading, I stumble across a lot of self-help books and literature meant to address various problems. While I certainly can’t and don’t want to read every type of self-help available (and there are a LOT), this has made me want to look at a little history of self-help....

Throughout the town, members of the group posted signage highlighting the library’s LGBTQ+ materials. The library, which has been receiving challenges about everything from specific queer books like Gender Queer to Pride month book displays to books that have nothing to do with LGBTQ+ people, has been painted as an institution with groomers and that books in the collection are part of indoctrination efforts. “They are trying to groom our children to believe that it’s OK to have these sinful desires,” Amanda Ensing said of library officials, according to Bridge Michigan....

The Quintessential Detective Duo The dynamic of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes and Watson works well. Holmes is the daring, brilliant detective and Watson proves a great foil. Holmes runs around, donning disguises, inserting himself into communities and societies for knowledge and mystery. Watson, on the other hand, isn’t not a genius; he’s intelligent but he’s often wrong in his analyses, and doesn’t quite have the flair for the dramatic as Holmes does....

With that in mind, we want to take a look at Obama book recommendations through the years. Many thanks to the Obama Master Reading List compiled by the DC Public Library for providing guidance on the books Obama recommended during his years in office. Author’s note: recommendations from 2012 and 2013 are undisclosed and unavailable despite thorough searching. Obama Book Recommendations 2008 Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (Jeffrey D....

Katherine Mansfield’s “Miss Brill” captures urban loneliness by portraying how far-removed our realities are from those we see around us. Every Sunday, Miss Brill went to the local public gardens to people-watch. She wore a fur coat, that she had taken out of storage, and touched it repeatedly — calling it her “dear little thing” — to rub “the life back into it.” The coat was a metaphor for her existence....

An adaptation of Shaftesbury’s award-winning, groundbreaking queer vampire web series of the same name, Carmilla mixes the camp of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the snark of Veronica Mars, and the mysterious atmosphere of Welcome to Nightvale. There is a scene in Interview with the Vampire where Claudia (played by Kirsten Dunst) is receiving piano lessons. She is disciplined by her tutor and, ultimately, eats him (as I am sure many a child in piano lessons would like to do)....

One student in particular, one of the library’s amazing student assistants, devoured the series when it was brought into the library. That’s why, when we had a chance to conduct a telephone interview with Taran Matharu from Los Angeles, I asked her if she’d like to speak with him. The answer was a hearty “yes” of course, Taran was more than cool with it as well. So we conducted an phone interview from the library!...

It is fair to say however, that recent times have seen an increased representation of more diverse literary landscapes. Compared to even ten or 15 years ago, we are seeing a less superficial intention to invite a variety of cultures and experiences into the publishing world. One of the propellers is the publication of anthologies. Recent years have seen the emergence of collections curated with the intention of becoming vehicles of representation....

I’d purchased a number of Anthony Bourdain books for family over the years, but never had paged through them myself. And now, looking back, I’m glad for it because my first experience reading Bourdain’s words came not on the page, but through audio. There is something so special about hearing a writer perform their own audiobook, and this goes doubly so for someone like Bourdain, whose literal voice helped shape his career....

Bestselling authors Natalie D. Richards and Darcy Coates bring us stories that chill us to the bone and keep us up all night reading—haunting reads perfect for Halloween! A hitched ride home in a snowstorm turns sinister when one of the passengers is plotting for the ride to end in disaster in New York Times bestseller Five Total Strangers. From USA Today bestselling gothic horror author Darcy Coates comes The Haunting of Leigh Harker, a chilling story of a quiet house on a forgotten suburban lane that hides a deadly secret…...

Soon, they began receiving comments joking about wanting to own one of the copies they sat on. Zhao began to notice this trend: ♬ NICKI FAN X MONSTER BY ALTEGOMUSIC – ALTÉGO Partly out of morbid curiosity, partly for a good cause, Zhao decided to auction off one of these copies for charity, choosing the National Cervical Cancer Coalition (or a cause of the winner’s choice). The copy will be signed and personalized for the winner....

A Cure for Madness by Jodi McIsaac (Thomas & Mercer) This book may as well have been stapled to my fingers, I could not put it down. Its spiky heroine who reluctantly travels home for a funeral, her troubled brother, a plague of full on crazy sweeping her a small town. Underneath the medical thrills there’s a real tenderness that worms its way under your ribs and into your heart....

Reading in bed at night is good, except that my husband goes to bed at 9 p.m. like a boring (AKA reasonable) person while I stay up into the wee hours of the next day. I’ve got myself set up with a great book light and my ereader of choice so I can read either analog or digital books, so that’s not the problem. The problem is that my husband is a downright cuddle bug and his sleeping self thinks he needs to grab me up just as I’m starting to settle down and get into a book....

If you have family or friends who love to read or frequently go “book clubbing” then these gifts are just the ticket! A book club journal, a visual guide to creating cheese boards, a gorgeous puzzle featuring the artwork of Yoshi Yoshitani’s Tarot of the Divine . . . along with a celebration of 125 years of The New York Times Book Review, a Jane Austen-inspired game and puzzle, a hip hop queens oracle deck of cards, and a book and postcards to inspire everyone on your list!...

The NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR of Rock Paper Scissors returns with a locked-room mystery when a family reunion leads to murder in a delightfully twisty and atmospheric thriller. Reading Is Sexy Cross Stitch Kit ($34): Reading is so, so sexy, and so are crafty people who can pull off this project! Open Up to Me Undies ($20): If even your undies are bookish, I think that makes you a next-level power reader....

Today’s edition of Daily Deals is sponsored by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman for $2.99 A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik for $2.99 A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson for $4.50 Animal by Lisa Taddeo for $6.99 My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson for $2.99 A Beautiful Poison by Lydia Kang for $0.99 ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King for $4.50 A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson for $2....