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This year, in collaboration with ThinkIndia Foundation for Smithsonian’s Beyond Bollywood Project, the collective has created a poetry wall. This wall is part of a larger two-month program India A La Art—A Cultural Collective. Located at the newly opened Irving Museum and Archives in Irving, Texas, the wall features 24 voices from the Matwaala collective. Matwaala founder Usha Akella is an Austin-based poet whose work is included in this exhibit alongside the poem of Sara Garg, one of her high school students....

“Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.” “I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most.” “The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn’t one.” “There’s an epigram tacked to my office bulletin board, pinched from a magazine — “Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté....

Luckily, there are tons of options for LOTR decorations and accessories that use maps of Middle-earth. If you’ll also love travel, this will be a perfect match for your aesthetic. They’re also a great option for displaying your love of the series without feeling like you’re surrounded by movie posters or advertisements. Some of these are immediately recognizable as J.R.R. Tolkien, while others are subtle enough that only fellow fans will know at a glance....

Frances Osgood is a somewhat successful poet who is being pushed to write more “gothic,” dark poems along the lines of Edgar Allan Poe, who has become something of a celebrity thanks to recent works like “The Raven,” which rendered him a hit with the local literary scene. Frances has no interest in writing this more gothic style of poetry, she has no great initial interest in Poe himself, and she’s also dealing with the difficulty of the absence of her husband (who, she tells everyone, is “away on business,” which is code for having run out on his family, it seems)....

Our hero is a mechanical Security Unit — SecUnit to humans, but Murderbot to itself — built for security and combat, but who has a very dull life. Eventually, they hack the governor module of their interface, which in turn gives them bodily autonomy and allows them to watch soap operas instead of interacting with humans. SecUnit finds itself with a vested interest in the preservation of its current human crew, knowing it would be destroyed if someone In Charge discovered that humans can no longer control the unit....

Hello mystery fans! I have something a bit different for you this week. Sometimes while waiting for an author I love’s next book, I will go in search of what they’ve announced and discover that they’re working on something completely different. Like a TV show. Getting to watch a show or film an author has written (not necessarily an adaptation of their work) feels like bonus content. Plus, for anyone struggling to read during the absolute garbage fire that is 2020, this may offer you some viewing options....

The good news is, I heard lost of news about upcoming comics and discovered some books that had been out for a while that are very much in my wheelhouse but had somehow escaped by clutches and, in turn, am bringing that information to all of you. Let’s start with graphic histories and memoirs, shall we? BEHOLD! My bank account is already feeling a little swoon after the manga order I put in last night…guess I better get the fainting couch prepped…

Whether recapping women’s groundbreaking discoveries across various industries or delivering insightful analysis on mainstream feminism, here are five new nonfiction books that will have you feeling inspired and enlightened during Women’s History Month. The Genius of Women: From Overlooked to Changing the World by Janice Kapla New York Times bestselling journalist Janice Kaplan explores how history has often overlooked the extraordinary work of women. Combining her personal experience with historical anecdotes and compelling in-depth interviews, Kaplan brings to light some insightful discoveries about the many women who have helped revolutionize various fields, from music to science....

Between book challenges, bookish podcasts, and whatnot, I very often feel the dread that comes with knowing there is so much I am missing out on. As fellow Rioter Rebecca expresses so well, most of us book lovers are living our bookish lives as if we were, indeed, immortal. And that’s okay. I know very few bookish people whose TBR isn’t influenced by the endless recommendations given for free by Bookstagrammers, BookTubers, and Book Twitter, as well as websites like Book Riot itself....

I laughed my heart out at this, because while it may sound like a bit of an overreaction, when you look at it closer, it is such a good compromise: I will do my very best to get this story in your hands, but I don’t trust those hands, so I’ll make sure we both get out of this unscathed (both the friendship and the books, of course). As a teenager, I used to dog-ear my books as a way of bookmarking....

I wasn’t alone. For a while it seemed like everyone was talking about it, anxiously waiting for Thursday to roll around with a new episode. It got so big there was even a Saturday Night Live parody. Serial was the fastest podcast ever to reach five million downloads…it did so well that it actually boosted the popularity of podcasts in general. (Ira Glass even did a video on How to Listen to a Podcast for all the newbies....

Queer Eye: Love Yourself. Love Your Life. by Antoni Porowski, Tan France, Jonathan Van Ness, Bobby Berk, and Karamo Brown You’d be a liar if you can say that you’ve never ruined a perfectly good face of makeup while watching an episode of the new Queer Eye series. These men are funny, smart, talented, and, most importantly… caring. Allow yourself to be one of their “Heroes” (I love that they call their contestants that) by treating yourself to their expertise and advice in this new book....

From A Great Gatsby retelling featuring trans and gay characters just like we’ve always known it should to a Sapphic take on Arthurian legend, these new retellings take on myths, legends, fairytales, and classic stories — both old and new. And each one has added LGBTQ characters and storylines along the way. Whether you’re looking for a new take on a favorite or something entirely new, you’ll find the perfect story waiting for you here....

In Cho’s first book in an exciting new series, Zacharias Wythe, Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers and eminently proficient magician, must travel to Fairyland and figure out why England’s magic is dying out. The society itself is falling on hard times, due in part to the leadership of an unsuitable head sorcerer, so the shrinking magical resources aren’t helping. Zacharias sets out on his journey to find a cure, where he meets a woman whose gifts will alter the course of his life and the fate of the world....

Book Riot already has an article recommending Batman reading orders for new fans. This quiz takes a broader approach, first determining which Batman best fits your tastes and then recommending comics to match. (It goes without saying that, given the age of these comics and the continuing dominance of white men in the industry, these recs are very homogeneous. Hopefully, any future iterations of this quiz will have a more diverse pool of comics to choose from....

Take this quiz to find out the perfect book series for you to read during social distancing. A range of genres, authors, and themes are represented in the eight series you could possibly get, including fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction. This mix contains newer series, under-the-radar series, and older ones that are complete. You’ll answer bookish questions that ask you what you like to read and what you’re looking for in a book during this stressful time....

Excerpt: The Kingdom of Copper By S.A. Chakraborty Nahri It was very quiet inside Emir Muntadhir al Qahtani’s apartment. Banu Nahri e-Nahid paced the room, her bare toes sinking into the sumptuous carpet. Upon a mirrored table, a bottle of wine rested beside a jade cup carved in the shape of a shedu. It had been brought in by the calm-eyed servants who’d helped Nahri out of her heavy wedding clothes; perhaps they’d noticed the Banu Nahida’s trembling and thought it would help....

However, I thought I might change that a little in the new year. This year, I decided to do a roundup of some of the bigger year-long reading challenges to see what there is to choose from in 2022. That way I can see what I might like to add to my reading year besides my usual numeric goal. For example, I recently enjoyed reading Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson....

Reading You are a Badass was more like reading stories written by a friend, who had also gone through a hard time and understood what you were going through. Sincero included so many downs as well as ups that I didn’t feel like a failure for not being at her level. She made happiness and success seem attainable. Sincero, with her tousled hair, dangly earrings, and open smile, is saying, hey I did it, you can too....

To their credit: these are novels that leave different readers with different impressions about what just happened; one of the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire winner’s signatures is that her books refuse to direct you when it comes to “correct” readings. A novel that one person will read as about travels to other worlds could as easily be read as a commentary on trauma; a novel that one person might read as a multiverse tale might also be a story about processing rape....