Emperor Charlemagne used to invite his friends into his bed chamber while he dressed in the morning; they would fill him in on gossip, and if they had any disputes, he would settle them. I assume this was exactly like when I wake up, roll over in bed, and check Twitter on my phone. These gatherings were referred to as petit levers (or levees), and later formalized as courtly etiquette....
The Bodleian Library is the library of the University of Oxford, and it’s spectacular in many ways. While not as ancient as the University itself (the Bodleian is a mere 417 years old, unlike the thousand-year-old university), it’s a venerable figure in Oxford’s academic scene. Also like the University, the Bodleian is not one building, but several different libraries all gathered under one umbrella – although buildings like the distinctive Radcliffe Camera serve as a focal point....
I recently had surgery to repair a broken ankle, and it’s been a long and grueling process. When told I wouldn’t be able to put any weight on my leg for three months after surgery, I tried to find a bright side. Months on the couch means plenty of time for reading, right? Wrong. I’ve actually fallen behind in my reading since I broke my ankle, even though I’ve had nothing but free time....
While many fear Scorpio season (get ready for an emotional rollercoaster, folks), there’s lots of great things about this time too. It’s a time for intense passion in relationships (or not relationships, you do you), transition, and a search for deeper meaning in your actions and emotions. And it’s also a great time for some dark and twisty reading, so obviously, ya girl’s got ya covered: White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi While Helen Oyeyemi isn’t a scorpio (it’s fine, we still love her), she is the queen of spectacular uncanny fiction, with prose that will cut through your heart and steal the air right from your lungs....
C) is the worst. Generally, I use my Twitter account (@arablit) to write about Arabic literature. But I’d enjoyed Martha Wells’s Murderbot series so much, in the early days of our new decade, that I felt the need to spread the guilt around. I was quickly corrected by friends and colleagues. They told me that all reading is good reading, and that I shouldn’t feel “guilty” about any of it....
The Anatomy of a Signed Book First, let’s talk about the different ways that books can be signed. You might think that a signed book is a signed book, but there are a few different methods that authors sign books. Physical Book Signed by the Author The most basic, straightforward method of signing books involve the author physically opening up the book and signing the title page (with the copyright page printed on the back)....
Her books fall into the New Adult and Young Adult categories, alongside Women’s Fiction. She has more than ten novels published, as well as five novellas. Ever since she published her first novel, Slammed, her popularity skyrocketed. She has a huge fan base all over the world, and her Goodreads Choice Awards nominations year after year corroborate that. In 2014, she won the UtopYA Con Awards with Maybe Someday, and in 2015 and 2016 she won Goodreads Choice Awards in the best romance category....
bell hooks’s Early Life As a self-identified country girl, hooks was educated in a racially segregated school despite the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found school segregation to be unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Kentucky was presented during her education as race-neutral and neither pro- nor anti-slavery, which led hooks to later describe the state as a “racial apartheid.” In the vein of community and individualism, in Belonging: A Culture of Place, hooks credits “the cultural ethos of the Kentucky backwoods, of the hillbilly country folk who were my ancestors and kin” for her self-determinism and dissident speech....
Guess who that gentleman of the bedchamber was. Go on, guess. Did you guess George Villiers? GOLD STAR FOR YOU! So here’s the story: James I, formerly known as James VI of Scotland (when Elizabeth I died, he became king of not just Scotland but also England and Ireland, and was the first James of this newly united…kingdom), met 21-year-old George Villiers in 1614 and fell absolutely, positively, head-over-heels in love with him....
Alas, it has already gone horribly, horribly awry. Oh God, What Now? Every single one of these covers revolves around food. You’ve got the Question, two Green Lanterns, Bane (who is from the fictional country of Santa Prisca), and others (but not my man Bunker) chowing down on food and…that’s it. This is DC’s great tribute to the diverse and beautiful cultures of Latin America. As unimaginative as this is, and as much as this has upset people, DC somehow found a way to dig themselves in deeper....
Many of the authors and publishers I interviewed mentioned the success of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls—which has two of the three most-funded publishing projects on Kickstarter—as a beacon of success on the platform. Curiously, no one mentioned the second-most funded Kickstarter book, Chassepot to FAMAS, a detailed history of French military rifles, which started with a $25,000 goal and ended up raising over $800,000. What makes an author or publisher decide to use Kickstarter to launch a book, rather than pursuing a more traditional model, whether it be trade or self-publishing?...
Book professionals often receive ARCs unsolicited from publishers hoping they’ll review them. It’s also a common practice for reviewers and journalists to reach out to publishers to request ARCs of books they’re hoping to read and review. But you don’t have to be a professional book person to read ARCs. Anyone can create an account on NetGalley or Edelweiss, two platforms with huge catalogues of digital ARCs. If you talk about books on social media, have a BookTok account, write a blog, or actively review on Goodreads — there’s nothing stopping you from requesting early copies....
There’s the Kindle stash. There’s the Libby queue, which is in constant churn and always seems to have another book ready for me just a few days before I’m ready for it. The Audible queue and its not-so-helpful reminders that I have another credit available. And, no, don’t tell me I can get my audiobooks from Libby because sometimes some titles aren’t available there. And, there’s my actual print books pile, towering ominously near my head as I sleep each night, the top one folded open to hold my place and maybe teetering just a little....
AppleTV released a new animated series based on Harriet the Spy at the end of 2021. This is the third time that the 11-year-old spy has been given the screen treatment. The first was back 1996 by Nickelodeon, starring Michelle Tratchenberg as the titular character. Then in 2010, Disney released a modernized movie subtitled Blog Wars, starring Jennifer Stone, better known as Harper from Wizards of Waverly Place, in the lead role....
Getting to Know You Like many readers of the genre, I read for two things: the mystery itself and the characters. Rarely do you have a good mystery without great characters. Sometimes those characters might be exemplified by a detective like a Hercule Poirot or Lord Peter Wimsey or a cast of characters without a star detective. With a locked room mystery, typically the cast stays together and is delimited by the circumstances—whether it’s the inhabitants of the house during the theft or a freak blizzard that keeps everyone contained....
I want to be as frank with you as is possible: it is increasingly hard for me to find joy or purpose in reading lately, specifically novels. I find myself asking, why read fiction at all when the world is falling apart around me? In the United States, if you pay even moderate attention to the news, your Apple News app or NPR homepage are a blackhole of atrocity. Our country is currently operating concentration camps....
The genre focuses on the popular psychology of virtually any aspect of the human experience, from romantic relationships to spirituality. The ultimate goal is to get readers to optimize their self-awareness, so they can take action and achieve satisfaction with their lives. This all sounds wonderful, but how can a publisher relay the goal of a self-help book to readers? Through the book cover of course. There’s a woman looking into the distance, a heavenly cloud with the sun peeping over it, and flowers of course....
Walker’s appearance on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, however, may have you curious about who else has carried the shield. The short answer is: really a lot of folx. I’m here to fill you in on those who had extended or notable runs, because if I tried to cover all of the Captains we’d all be here for weeks, and there’s a new episode of Sam and Bucky Bicker Like an Old Married Couple on Friday so I don’t have that kind of time....
The Macmillan eDeals newsletter includes an array of e-book bargains. Every month, the newsletter offers discounts on a diverse selection of fiction and nonfiction titles spanning every genre and subject imaginable, including bestsellers and award-winners. To be entered to win, simply fill in the form below. This sweepstakes is open to residents of the United States (excluding Puerto Rico and all other US territories). Entries will be accepted until 11:45pm, July 31....
And we have a six-month subscription for Fresh Fiction, which includes 5-7 new romance titles in every box. Go here to learn more about Fresh Fiction. To enter for your chance to win, sign up using the below form, including signing up for email updates from Read Bliss. Read Bliss is your video destination for all things romance and reading! Tune in to Read Bliss on YouTube for videos by romance fans, for romance fans―including book roundups, author interviews, trope spotlights, bookish DIY projects and more from Read Bliss’s team of romance BookTubers....
