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Oprah Daily’s Favorite Books of the Year can be found in full here. The following are the first 10 listed: Oprah Daily’s Best Books of the Year Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet French Braid by Anne Tyler Homesickness by Colin Barrett Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn Danika Ellis gives a nice breakdown between similar best-of book lists and this year’s bestsellers here....

With a staycation, there’s no stuffing four pairs of shoes into an already overstuffed suitcase. With a staycation, there’s no pesky air travel. With a staycation, there’s no landing in Santorini only to find out that your luggage has gone missing and you have to make a single pair of underwear last god knows how long (not to mention the fact that the only bathing suit available in the closest shop is a string bikini: the horror!...

Not every book has a big marketing budget, and some amazing books get released into the world with very little fanfare. The Best Books You’ve Never Heard of series shines a spotlight on books that don’t get the attention they deserve. This is where we step back from the nonstop race to read the books of the moment, and instead give some attention to books that we don’t hear a lot of people talking about....

In this roundup of the best new middle grade graphic novels, you’ll find a sampling of genres, so there’s something for everyone, whether you like fantasy, adventure, realistic stories, and more. You’ll find a verse novel adapted for a graphic novel and a pick-a-path interactive book. You’ll find a fantasy novel with avian magic and a heist adventure novel. And you’ll find so much more. Since all of these books are new or upcoming releases, they’d make for some great summer reading picks....

Find More Personal Growth Books If you want more suggestions for nonfiction books or your own personal reading journey, check out TBR: Tailored Book Recommendations. TBR offers readers personalized book recommendations, taking in account what they’ve already read and what they’re looking to read more of! Simply fill out a survey about your reading life, and we’ll match you up with an expert Biblioligist who will recommend three books each quarter....

There’s a meme that’s been floating around for a long time that if Britney Spears could survive 2007, then you can survive your day. And there’s a lot to chew on with that, if for no reason other than understanding that Spears isn’t the butt of a joke — she’s a powerful woman who showed the world her illnesses and her vulnerability and still fought her way back to her career as a musician....

It was eventually determined that she would need surgery for her shoulder. But then the pandemic hit and her treatment was delayed. A year and a half later, she still has shoulder pain and tires easily. She goes to physical therapy three times a week. Sometimes, she has flare-ups and needs cortisone shots. She’s nervous about driving very far. My father, meanwhile, has been wrestling with chronic depression and anxiety for years (we two are birds of a feather…)....

Beyond a circle of devoted, rabid fans, Lewis Nordan was relatively unknown. Critics ate him up with a spoon: “As if the worlds of William Faulkner and James Thurber had collided” (The Associated Press) and “An immense and wall-shattering display of talent” (The Nation). But, maddeningly, the Clown Prince of Southern Literature never enjoyed the wide readership he deserved. Now, sadly, he is gone from us. Lewis Nordan—“Buddy” to everyone lucky enough to call him a friend and teacher—died of complications from pneumonia last Friday, slipping away peacefully and without pain, according to postings by family members on his Facebook Wall....

Joey Tribbiani Joey’s a complicated guy. Sort of. He’s also a guy with hidden depths who’s actually pretty well read, being a fan of both The Shining by Stephen King and The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Any reading suggestion for Joey has to take all of that into consideration whilst also providing some inspiration for his next meal… Recommendation: It’s got to be Together: Our Community Cookbook, a book that will allow Joey to eat and do good at the same time....

In the past few years, though, my relationship with rereading has shifted, thanks to my new favorite thing: rereading books on audio. Rereading a book is always a different experience from reading it the first time around. But listening to a book after having read it in print is something else entirely. There’s a wonderful depth to rereading on audio. It’s still rereading, but there’s also an element of newness to it....

This chilling supernatural thriller debut is perfect for fans of Karen McManusnand Rory Power. La Cachette, Louisiana, is the worst place to be if you have something to hide. This tiny town, where seventeen-year-old Grey spends her summers, is the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World—and the place where Elora Pellerin, Grey’s best friend, disappeared six months earlier. Grey can’t believe that Elora vanished into thin air. As she digs into the night that Elora went missing, she begins to realize that everybody in town is hiding something....

Honestly, Robyn, same. Also, sorry about your grandmother. I think we can all identify with the absurdity of setting goals for 2020. If you set any for yourself this year, they probably didn’t turn out at all as you expected. And if you’re like me, you probably had a lot of goals for yourself reading-wise that didn’t pan out. Which makes sense. This situation has thrown everyone’s reading habits into a tailspin....

While book-related videos have been made since YouTube’s inception, the BookTube community began in earnest around 2010. It was originally very small: BookTubers tended to know and follow each other, and the comments sections would be full of other BookTubers’ comments. Since those humble beginnings, it’s grown dramatically. I made my own BookTube channel back in 2013, though my videos have been sporadic. At the time, there was very little LGBTQ content on BookTube, which is why I wanted to contribute....

Note that while some people consider repurposing a book to be shameful, I am not that person. Repurpose with abandon, especially as it can be an eco-friendly way to extend the life of a book. You will see that pop up in this collection. Plant Lover Gifts for Bibliophiles For whatever reason, the stock image of this book-themed planter doesn’t use it as a planter. But it is! It’s a book-themed planter, which would look great on your kitchen window sill with some fresh herbs....

Perhaps it happens more now because I live in the city of Chicago, a place that had such a massive influx of Irish immigrants in the last 200 years that the singer Christy Moore still sings about it. In reality, hair color is not a signifier of anything other than a recessive gene. Instead, the idea that redhead means Irish is more a part of American consciousness than an actual indication of ancestry....

Picture a board book. (Those are the sturdy, cardboard books given to babies.) Which titles immediately spring to mind? If you’re like me, you think of Goodnight Moon; The Very Hungry Caterpillar; Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?; and maybe some Sandra Boynton titles and Pat the Bunny. Notice a pattern? These are all “classics,” written by white authors, and at least 20ish years old, if not older....

Over this time I noticed certain patterns. Muffin Top’s cover declares “size doesn’t matter” even as its contents tell a different story. That discrepancy between marketing and content is not an isolated example. Plus-size protagonists are still relatively uncommon in romance, and many of the books that focus on fat main characters expose them to ridicule because of their size, reinforcing the idea that social sanction must necessarily be a part of the lives of fat people....

A Reese’s Book Club YA Pick. A powerful, #ownvoices contemporary YA for fans of The Poet X and I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. In Argentina, Camila lives a double life. At home, she’s a careful daughter. On the soccer field, she’s La Furia, a powerhouse of skill. And now, the boy she once loved is back in town, but Camila doesn’t have time to be distracted by him....

– THEY DIDN’T DO THE NOVEL IN FIRST PERSON! This was like, the number one thing on my wish list, the series (and film) make such gorgeous use of voice over and the book is just written in limited third? I liked the book, I did, but I think I would have liked it more had it been done in first. -I’m still pissed about this first-person thing, but I listened to this book on audiobook, and all is (almost) forgiven because Kristen Bell is the narrator and she does the voices of everyone we know and love and she is SO GOOD at the voices....

Harriet is voiced by Beanie Feldstein, who starred in Booksmart. Ole Golly, Harriet’s nanny who is coaching her in how to be a spy, is voiced by Jane Lynch. The adaptation is on Apple TV+. The first five episodes are available to stream now, and five more will air Spring 2022. Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.