Luckily, I’d downloaded a bunch of comics to catch up on a couple days earlier, and I eagerly dove into an issue of Sex Criminals that had been sitting on my phone for a couple weeks, because nothing cures the commute blues like some dirty humor. It was a relatively tame issue, compared to other scenarios that have popped up in this comic, but there was a scene early on in which breakfast foods transformed into phalluses....
Playing a TTRPG character based on your favorite book character can be a fantastic way to get into the swing of roleplaying. You don’t have to figure out who your character is, personality-wise, because you have already seen their personality modeled in the pages of your favorite book. All it takes to make a TTRPG character successful is fun: the fun you have while playing them, and the fun your group has while playing with them....
Keep up with your book club reading by listening to the audiobook. Audiobooks are the perfect complement to your busy schedule. Listen to new releases such as The Kennedy Debutante, by Kerri Maher and read by Julia Whelan and you can enjoy a whole new book club experience. For more listening suggestions, visit https://Tryaudiobooks.com/BookRiot. Audiobooks are great! I’ve read stories I wouldn’t be able to read in print form – for various reasons – because audiobooks are available to me, and I can’t recommend them enough....
Sometimes, when things don’t go according to plan, it does feel like an important failure and like we are less than as readers. I’m here to give you permission to let go of all that. Not that you need permission, I am not a major entity, but if you need someone to hold your hand in the darkest time of being a reader, someone to tell you all those things do not constitute a failure, and there are no winners or losers at reading, I can be that person....
Some might say that’s not how a challenge works, and maybe you’re right, but it’s what works for me and I’m not sorry or willing to change it. Fight me (but, like, don’t bother, ’cause I really don’t care). I’ve been doing a book challenge since 2016, and I kept upping it by a couple of books every year, just enough to know that I am very likely to reach it, usually even with enough time to go over that number....
During the September 9 LISD school board meeting, Brandi Burkman also came prepared with props. Her son has checked out Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison from a Leander High School classroom library, and they were both surprised by the content. LISD, like all school boards, has a system for requesting books in libraries are reviewed as well as a process for filing an official complaint about a title. Instead of doing either of those, Burkman gave a speech to the school board meeting, reading out sexual passages, and then contacted the police....
Jaime Herndon: You cover a variety of topics in this new book; how did you decide what to include? Leslie Jamison: These essays are just a portion of the writing I’ve done over the past seven years, and ultimately it felt important to me to put together a collection that felt purposeful rather than simply aggregated. As I started looking at the writing I was drawn to, I started to see these themes running underneath pieces that seemed quite disparate in their surface subjects: obsession, longing, haunting—all of these being ways of describing the ways we feel shaped by what we can’t possess....
Here’s a little taste of the interview: Elisa Shoenberger: What made you both decide to make it into a book The Princess Who Saved Herself? Greg Pak: We started off by making a graphic novel called Code Monkey Save World that was a big loopy adventure based on characters from a bunch of Jonathan’s different songs. We did a Kickstarter for that and it went through the roof. At a certain point, we thought, why don’t we just do a whole book?...
Want some feel-good horror, or perhaps books rated Safe For Scaredy-Cats? Perhaps you need read-alikes for your favorite horror movies, or a travel guide to the most haunted bookish places around the world. Maybe you’ve got your thinking cap on and want to contemplate the popularity of gothic horror, or the enduring appeal of Stephen King to teenagers. Perhaps haunting queer tales are more likely to float your (ghostly pirate) boat....
I recently found a diary I did keep from elementary through high school at the back of a closet, and it’s probably the most inauthentic I have ever been. I pretended to have crushes on girls, complained about which of my neighborhood friends was being a bitch that week, and how much I hated the humidity of summer. By high school, I started writing about having no friends and how head over heels in love I was with a jock in my gym class who probably didn’t even know my last name....
The 34-year-old professional gambler from Las Vegas went on record with his game-play strategy, noting that it was utilizing children’s nonfiction books from the library that helped him bone up his knowledge quickly. Holzhauer, a Naperville, Illinois, native, told the local paper that his biggest secret for studying subjects he couldn’t get into was checking the children’s section, because the pictures and fun facts made getting the basics easier. “When I first got serious about wanting to win on Jeopardy!...
“If you’re having a hard time writing your novel, there are many ways to get those creative juices flowing. You could, for instance, attend a class, go for a walk, or sleep on it. If all else fails, there’s always turning a famous author’s home into your very own private writer’s cabin.”Jane Austen + a colorful velvet couch is just so solidly in my wheelhouse. Adding to my travel bucket list!...
Jayne Ann Krentz wrote under seven different names throughout her writing career. She’s done this in part because of legal reasons, but also to help her readers differentiate between her very different books. Now she only writes under three names. Her contemporary suspense romances are written under Jayne Ann Krentz, while her very popular historical novels are written under the pseudonym Amanda Quick. And, her futuristic science fiction romance novels are written under her maiden name Jayne Castle....
“To be published by Crown Books For Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, Lord Help Me is a book about prayer, inspired by sloths. Yes, sloths. ‘In school I learned about sloths and how they’re facing extinction so I began to pray for them in my nightly prayers,’ Muñiz said in a press release. ‘I wrote this book to help raise money to save sloths while also teaching other children how we can pray and ask for help, two things that bring me a lot of comfort....
“With practically everything closed to encourage social distancing, we’ve all got a lot more time on our hands to enjoy a good book or two or twenty. However, since we’re all limiting our personal interactions — the latest recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control is no gatherings of more than 10 people — it might feel as if you’ve got no one to talk to about that book that you couldn’t put down....
“While researching clothing for Clarissa, I found a photograph, a striking snap of Woolf from June 1926, the summer after she published Mrs. Dalloway. There she is in silk and velvet, as the English summer allows—a little skeptical but wise beyond her years. I gave her coat to Clarissa.” Download and print this Clarissa Dalloway paper doll. “Co-founder Shamil Thakrar, one of the book’s three authors, said that many people “assumed that we released this digital copy for free....
El Cabañyal Once an unincorporated pueblo inhabited primarily by fishermen and sail makers, El Cabañyal is now a neighborhood with a thriving restaurant scene tucked in the midst of beautiful and eclectic architecture. El Cabañyal was the muse of Valencia’s most well-known artist, Joaquín Sorolla, as well as countless Valencian novelists and poets. Take a stroll down the streets or pop into Casa Montaña (one of the city’s oldest restaurants) for tapas....
It started with Sailor Moon. I was fourteen years old and my best friend introduced me to this awesome magic-girl anime about teenagers with elements powers and adorable sailor outfits. I loved the empowered female vibe and the over-the-top villains, but what I really loved was the romance. Not the romance between Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. Not the romance between Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion. Oh no. For me, it was all about the love/hate romance between Serena and Darien....
This year’s winner is Malorie Blackman, best known for her YA series Noughts and Crosses, which was recently adapted into a two season BBC TV show. She is the first children’s and YA author to receive the award. Judges explained that she was chosen because she has “created dynamic imaginary worlds in which her protagonists are living with and challenging issues of injustice in a way that is totally engaging, as she is above all a wonderful storyteller” as well as because Blackman’s “commitment to the fact that young adult reading, as well as exciting the imagination, can shape a lifelong ethical engagement with issues concerning social and political justice – such as racism and cultural difference – is outstanding....
I took to reading that poem, as well as a number of others, as I’ve taught, too. There’s power in the simplicity, especially in the observations of the natural world. Last year, when we lost Mary Oliver, I pulled together a collection of prints featuring her words. In honor of Earth Day, the sorrow and fears and anxieties and uncertainties we’re all feeling right now, it just seems right to revisit Oliver’s powerful words....
