This ambivalent spirit is embodied by a slew of Christmas curmudgeons, some of whom are among the most celebrated characters in literary and television history. Which holiday sourpuss are you most like? Answer a few questions and we’ll tell you. If nothing else, this quiz should serve as a nice respite from all that incessant holiday cheer.
Murder With a Side of Wordplay Cozy = comfort. While getting the warm fuzzies reading about death may seem strange, every cozy mystery fan knows it’s how the familiar genre elements come together that makes for a cozy escape. Choosing a cozy mystery, the reader expects more than just the requisite dead body: an amateur sleuth, a small community of some sort (idyllic village, knitting circle or pastry aficionados), minimal gore and sex, and a hefty dose of light-hearted entertainment....
Today we have a cozy life together and overflowing bookshelves. While our reading interests are wildly dissimilar, it makes our shared collection more diverse. In the living room, his presidential biographies compete for space with my thrillers and thin volumes of poetry. In the office, you’ll find books on education that we’ve both turned to time and again for work, like Paulo Freire’s Pedagogies of the Oppressed. Bookish Promises Every year, I make him agree to a mutual book buying ban before our university’s library sale....
There are plenty of schools of thought on what method of journaling about books is the best. Countless versions of reading journals from an almost infinite amount of publishers exist on every online book retailer. But despite being a self-proclaimed professional introvert for my entire life whose hands have never been far away from a book, my aversion to journaling kept me away from the idea of starting a reading journal for far too long....
While I have enjoyed the depiction of the character Rue in the HBOMax television show Euphoria, and how realistic her struggle is with her own mental health issues in a real-life setting, there’s a new show on Disney+ based on some amazing comics and based on a character that struggles with his own mental health issues. This show has blown me away, and that’s the show Moon Knight with the starring role played by Guatemalan actor Oscar Isaac....
That being said, it’s not like it’s easy to turn a genuine love of the written word into a fulfilling writing habit. Many people struggle to write even though they absolutely want to. This can take the form of feeling too under-inspired or under-confident to pitch an editor of a publication you admire. Or never quite finishing the story you’ve been working on. Or abandoning your personal blog even though updating it would normally bring you pleasure....
Whether you enjoy a twisty murder mystery, a high fantasy, or a queer romance, December’s new YA releases have got you covered. Make sure you add these last-minute releases to your holiday wishlists…or plan on using up all those bookstore gift cards on these new books! Because of the end of the year slow down, this list isn’t quite as diverse as we’d normally like to see, so I definitely recommend checking out some of the best diverse YA books of 2022....
As always, this list of new summer 2022 YA books will not be comprehensive, especially as book publication dates are still periodically shifting. With continued printing challenges due to paper sourcing and COVID-19, as well as the still backlogged supply chain issues, this might be the reality for a bit. Use this list less as definitive this season and more as pretty accurate with some potential changes. Then preorder any book that strikes your fancy....
The full event can be viewed here. In her opening remarks, Scott called for people to band together like they did in post-9/11 America in order to take back libraries. “The war is also demonstrated by non-gendered bathrooms, drag queen storytime, use of hormone blockers, and boys with ear piercings and painted fingernails,” she said, mentioning that after abortion, the rise of “smut in the library” was the most disturbing thing she’s seen in eight years as a legislator....
What sorts of things do heroes fight over, you ask? Did someone forget to iron their cape? Did someone’s sidekick accidentally turn off the artificial gravity in the team’s outer space headquarters? Unfortunately, it’s usually more serious than that, as you shall see. Form Your Own Team One terrible day, Green Arrow and Green Lantern decided they wanted to be more “proactive” than those old fuddy-duddies in the Justice League....
When a murderous curse is revealed, Evangeline Fox and Jacks will have to do battle with old friends, new foes, and a magic that plays with heads and hearts. Evangeline has always trusted her heart, but this time she’s not sure she can… I start many series without continuing them. If I decide to continue past the first book of a series, though, I often prefer the second. I read the ends of series and books more quickly and easily than their beginnings....
It also heralded a whole new sub-genre of book across the pond: known as up lit, it encompasses books which showcase the better side of human nature and leave us feeling better and more hopeful about the world – a world which, pre-pandemic but post-Brexit and post-Trump, was otherwise looking pretty grim. In the U.S., too, the book has been popular: it spent 35 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List....
Machado’s book In the Dream House is my starting point, but all the books on this list take the genre in some new direction. Sometimes writers do something unusual on the page such as incorporating images, charts, translations, or footnotes. Sometimes writers combine genres, mixing memoir with poetry, essay, diary, folklore, philosophy, or nature writing. Sometimes they do playful things with time and reject traditional chronology. Each book on this list has elements that are recognizably memoir, and each one also breaks down the genre in some way....
A good book makes the best gift. Check off your holiday shopping list with the best books for friends and family. One of my favorite things about the holidays is snacking, and I am not ashamed. No other time of year celebrates baked goods and hot drinks quite as much. My other favorite thing about the holidays is having uninterrupted reading time. And we all need snacks to fuel our reading....
Black Panther meets The Expanse in Maurice Broaddus’s Sweep of Stars, the first in a new space opera trilogy. Epic in scope and intimate in voice, it follows members of the Muungano empire—a far-reaching coalition of city-states that stretches from Earth to Titan—as it faces an escalating series of threats. Freeing themselves from the endless wars and oppression of their home planet, the Muugano charted a course to a better future....
It is also so important to make sure the books you’re reading to kids with Native American characters are written by Native American authors. Too often, children’s books by non-Native and Indigenous authors depict stereotypes about Native and Indigenous cultures or suggest that Native and Indigenous culture is a thing of the past, not a living, breathing, growing present reality. If you’re looking for some resources or further reading, I highly recommend checking out Heartdrum, a HarperCollins imprint dedicated to Native American authors and curated by award-winning Native American author Cynthia Leitich Smith....
When teenager Eliza Cook walks into the field office and confesses to murdering a young boy, it seems like an open-and-shut case for FBI special agent Lucy Thorne. Beyond that, Eliza doesn’t say another word, leaving a vital question: why? To find the answer, Lucy goes to the small-town crime scene in Knox Hollow, Idaho, but she uncovers unsettling evidence that Eliza isn’t the only one in this town with secrets....
It’s always such a fascinating thing to read. These comic book heroes are ideals writ large, super-powered, and super-moral. So, what makes them change sides? While some heroes like Wolverine or Damian Wayne are already riding the line between hero and villain, others have longer journey. What would make Superman willing to use his vast powers to kill? What twisted circumstances would turn Steve Rogers from America’s Ass to America’s Badass?...
Just a quick look at the historical fiction section of any bookstore shows how fascinated we still are with the Tudor dynasty. Authors like Philippa Gregory, Ken Follet, and Hilary Mantel continue to be some of the most popular in the historical fiction genre. Beyond the book world, the Tudors continue to rule the stage with Six on Broadway and the West End, and screen, with continual film and TV depictions of the Tudors and Stuarts....
We read about the wicked witch of fairy tale, and then perhaps the teen witch who bumbles with newfound power, and then the mysterious but alluring adult witch. In my insatiable search for books about witches, I’ve become fascinated by the many shapes the witch takes in fiction, and the intersections of thought about what it means to be a witch. In reading works on a topic as ubiquitous as “the witch,” where she’s represented in a multitude of cultures, sometimes under a different moniker, often not, the commonalities one witch shares with her sisters of lore and reality across the sea never fail to surprise me....
