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Publication Date: June 18th, 2013 Genre: Fantasy Publisher: William Morrow Publisher’s Synopsis: Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn’t thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she’d claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back....

Novel Gazing is your destination for all things literary fiction, bringing you news from the world of fiction, and recommendations for under the radar reads, works in translation, buzzy books, and more. Stay in the know, expand your TBR and your view of literary fiction, and, of course, have some laughs with hosts Mary Kay McBrayer and Louise Johnson. Novel Gazing is a biweekly show available wherever you get your podcasts–go listen to episode one now!...

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker I don’t know where to begin with Karen Thompson Walker’s debut novel The Age of Miracles. First, it was fantastic — sweet and sad and super-fascinating. It takes place in California of the near-future, where the Earth’s rotation gets wonky and minutes are pouring into each day. They call it the slowing, and people lose their ever-loving minds. While the governments and scientists and grown-ups try to figure out what to do, eleven-going-on-twelve-year-old Julia just wants to sit next to hottie-skateboarder Seth on the bus and figure out why her BFF decided that forever was too long to be best friends....

Honestly, it’s the same thing we noticed last year. And the year before that. But somehow, it was even more blaringly obvious. Maybe because we have been talking about it so much. For literal years. Maybe because the gutpunch of “nothing has changed” that came through the Ripped Bodice Report on Racial Diversity in Romance is still so fresh. Maybe because some of us live in such a beautiful, colorful bubble of amazingness, we never thought there were people who weren’t in it....

We are in “Best Of” season and everyone is putting their two shiny pennies into what they felt was the best romance of the year. Which got my brain to pondering: what were some of the romances that I really enjoyed this year that I felt went just under the radar? While they were announced and acknowledged, they didn’t get as much publicity as some others. My hope is that this will draw more eyes to them so that they can be picked up and enjoyed....

Sarah J. Maas’s #1 New York Times bestselling Crescent City series begins with House of Earth and Blood, introducing half-Fae and half-human Bryce Quinlan as she seeks revenge in a modern fantasy world of magic, danger, and searing romance. With unforgettable characters, sizzling romance, and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom—and the power of love. Small disclaimer, the books featured here are romantic fantasy, not fantasy romance and there’s a small but significant difference....

Manto mainly wrote in Urdu and his fiction is powerful, gut-wrenching, extremely thought-provoking, and defies the status quo. He is best known for his stories on the Partition of India and how it brought out the worst side of humanity. His work is in ways autobiographical and does portray his divided self. Manto was tried for obscenity multiple times but that didn’t deter him from speaking up about the cold, hard reality that was foisted on the populace and calling out those in power....

But sometimes, a bookmark won’t be enough to keep track of favorite lines in your book or holding multiple pages at once for reference. There’s also always the chance a bookmark might cause unintentional harm to a book and you want to ensure that particular title remains pristine. Enter: book darts and page markers. Book darts and page markers allow you to hold multiple pages and point to numerous lines within a book....

When Ropa Moyo discovered an occult underground library, she expected great things. Instead of getting paid to work magic, however, she’s had to accept a crummy unpaid internship. And her with bills to pay and a pet fox to feed. Then her friend Priya offers her a job on the side. Priya works at Our Lady of Mysterious Maladies, a very specialized hospital, where a new illness is resisting magical and medical remedies alike....

Maybe it’s just me, but wintertime is the perfect season for indulging in some impressively lengthy SFF. There’s something luxurious about the sprawling narratives full of magic, wonder, and adventure. Perhaps it has something to do with the long, dark nights and the relief they bring from obligatory social or physical activities. Or possibly it’s the cold, clear skies full of crystalline stars offering suggestions of other worlds. Who knows?...

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, imagine if all the stories about entering a doorway into another world–Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia–were true. And then imagine the teenager who enters that door and lives the perfect magical experience of their dreams being thrust back into our reality. How strange that teenager will seem to their family. How lonely and lost they would be. Enter Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, a boarding school that serves as a home for those waiting and hoping for their doors to open once more....

This post rounds up 12 more great new September 2022 YA releases you won’t want to miss, which includes a mix of fun new YA debuts, sophomore novels, and new books from your faves in all genres, including plenty of queer novels, a good mix of witchy reads, plus a fun graphic novel debut! Bonus: There’s a nice mix of creepy settings, atmospheric reads, and straight up horror books that you’ll want to procure ahead of spooky season if you love seasonal reading for all of October!...

I think it is the characters that bring us back to Shakespeare over and over again, more than the plots. These characters have so much humanity within them. Very few of them are all good or all bad. And so when we read a Shakespeare script or watch a play performed we are able to see ourselves within these characters. Which Shakespeare character are you most like? By answering the 10 questions in this Shakespeare character quiz, you will get the answer....

The thing about romance as a genre is that, just like there are as many ways of recognizing compatibility and love to chose a partner(s) as there are people, there is almost certainly a sub-genre out there that can catch your notice. Do you lean historical or more contemporary? Do you like your romance with a little (or a lottle) more flesh-on-flesh? Prefer more fantastical settings or perhaps a vampire or two?...

Regardless, I know Goodreads. Main characters are not allowed to cheat, especially not on an innocent party. Especially if the story isn’t about them repenting and being endlessly punished for it. Any time a protagonist acts in an unethical way, you will be able to find negative reviews of the book — but find me one person who’s never acted unethically or made mistakes in their life. (Also, act too saintly and you’ll get negative reviews for being unrealistic!...

If you’re Marvel, you revolutionize comics with a slew of new super-creations who define the genre to this day. If you’re DC, well, you’re not that brave, quite frankly. The Silver Age is a time to retreat into ridiculous yet innocuous stories until two things happen: the forces threatening the comic book industry go into retreat, and the people reading comics grow up and develop an appreciation for more grounded stories....

1. Alafair Burke As the daughter of famed crime novelist James Lee Burke, Alafair Burke has plenty of inspiration for her collection of legal thrillers. Similar to Grisham, Burke relies on her law background and real-world cases to provide authenticity to her books. If you’re looking to read fiction based on a real courtroom experience like A Time to Kill, Burke’s first novel Judgement Calls is loosely based on the case of Keith Hunter Jesperson, a serial killer known as the Happy Face Killer....

I contend that You’ve Got Mail is the most quotable movie of all time. At the very least, it’s the film most often quoted by ME. And I don’t think I’m alone in this, especially among readers. We love Nora Ephron and her whole ode to “the little bookstore.” You’ve Got Mail came out in 1998 and it’s still as good as ever. It’s erudite, and witty, and so very quotable....

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies Inside a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou Bad Blood is so fun to read with a friend. This shocking expose about Theranos, the med-tech billion-dollar startup that committed fraud, is packed with unbelievable, jaw-dropping moments. Carreyrou’s book helped bring more attention to Theranos, which has already been the feature of an HBO documentary, with Bad Blood being adapted for a film starring Jennifer Lawrence....