Posts

Instant Pot Cookbooks How to Instant Pot: Mastering All the Functions of the One Pot That Will Change the Way You Cook by Daniel Shumski You probably want to start with this one first because I feel like a lot of people end up abandoning their Instant Pot after a month or two because they don’t really understand it. Just the other day when I told a friend she should use less water than the standard crockpot recipe if she was using the standard Instant Pot lid, she had no idea!...

That’s the wonderful thing about essays—they can be about anything, using any kind of style and tone, for any purpose! That’s one of the reasons essays are one of my favorite genres. So check out this list of 2018 essay collections and tell me if you think I missed anything. Can We All Be Feminists?: New Writing from Brit Bennett, Nicole Dennis-Benn, and 15 Others on Intersectionality, Identity, and the Way Forward for Feminism Edited by June Eric-Udorie The subtitle says it all!...

Funny Kids’ Books: Picture Books Funny Kids’ Books: Chapter Books and Middle Grade Looking for more funny kids’ books? Check out all things humorous kid lit: “6 Funny Books for Kids for Hilarious Storytimes” “11 Laugh Out Loud Funny Picture Books Perfect for Reading Aloud” “16 Funny Short Stories and Books to Brighten Your Mood” (Adult and Kid Lit Recommendations)

Of course, today, after decades in the book industry, I am sure I would recognize a lot more of them. But still, there are always hidden gems in every genre, and more authors and books than any one person could possibly know. It’s sad to think of how many incredible books slip under the radar every new release day. These are great titles, with less than 1000 ratings on Goodreads, some with less than a couple hundred....

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X. R. Pan Although the theme of this book is grief, the ending is redemptive – after losing her mother to suicide, Leigh Chen Sanders finds herself through family history, art, and love. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman This book made me feel like I’d been hugged when I finished it. It’s the perfect tonic for these times – the story of a young, introverted bookworm whose life is turned upside down when she discovers a whole family she never knew she had....

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. She is a famous painter and her husband, Gabriel, is an in-demand fashion photographer. One evening, Gabriel returns home late from work, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face and never speaks another word. Alicia’s refusal to talk turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, and she is hidden away at the Grove, a secure psychiatric unit. Enter Theo Faber, a psychotherapist obsessed with unravelling Alicia’s mystery....

That’s simply not enough. It’s never enough. What a terrifying number. It’s made me look at DNF-ing books in a totally different light. If the book isn’t good, it does not to deserve to be one of the 7.8k I have left. If it’s over 500 pages, it had better be good, because it will probably take up the reading space of two books. That number has also made me reflect on the books I’ve read so far....

The Best Children’s Books About Health and Safety Eat More Colors by Breon Williams You can’t beat a book that rhymes about balanced eating! Eat More Colors encourages children to embrace plant-based eating. Eat More Colors has interesting facts on every page to help kids learn about asparagus, grapes, and other healthy foods. Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert Author Lois Ehlert has written a ton of incredible children’s books highlighting healthy eating, gardening, and enjoying nature....

When they returned home, Dillon confessed this to his mom, Susan Helbig. The next time they were at the library, they couldn’t find it, and Susan asked the librarians to please not throw it out if they found the notebook. Far from recycling it, library employees had discovered and enjoyed the story, one reading it to his 6-year-old, who declared it the funniest book ever. The librarian asked the Helbigs if they would agree to formally adding the book to their library collection, including a barcode....

The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding True story: When I listened to this book on audio a couple of years ago, I walked around with the biggest grin on my face because that’s how much I loved it. It’s about Abby, who is fat, fashion-forward, and excited to land an internship at her favorite size inclusive boutique. She’s not so excited about having the share that internship with Jordi Perez, a photographer....

Family businesses are often an entire family affair, and teens aren’t exempt from the work, drama, and even financial worries that come with owning and operating a small business. I think that these stories are so rich because they often feature teens figuring out their place within or outside a family unit, and the family business. Here are three novels featuring family businesses that I’ve recently read or acquired!...

Don’t get me wrong. I love my kids. I think they’re great. I enjoy spending time with them. They are also messy, dirty, loud, and did I mention loud? I cannot fathom what it must be like to be a single parent right now, especially if your bubble is small or, as it is in some cases for whatever reason, non-existent. Single dads, it’s your week to shine. We’ll do moms next week....

Recently, I’ve come across several recently published graphic memoirs that remind me of what the medium can do. Here is the list of four graphic memoirs that cover political topics including Japanese internment, struggle for democracy, new parenthood, and finding yourself. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did! While some topics are move overtly political than others, they all have important political messages. Banned Book Club by Ryan Estrada, Kim Hyun Sook, and Ko Hyung-Ju (delayed until May 19 due to the pandemic) In 1983, Kim Hyun Sook has convinced her parents that she should attend college, away from her parent’s restaurant in South Korea....

I first ventured into audiobooks when I moved to a city where walking or standing on a crowded bus were my main methods of transportation. With audiobooks, I could read while I was commuting, even if I was using both hands to hang on for dear life. I could read while I shopped for groceries. I could read while I was cooking. I could even read while I was running (I mean, I definitely didn’t do that, but the point is IF I had gone running, I COULD have read while doing it)....

But wait! What makes a short poem short? For my purposes here, there are super short poems (fewer than 10 lines) and short-ish poems (10–15 lines). And because poetry exists beyond the page nowadays, taking on visual or spoken word or both, I have a few examples of those for you to enjoy as well. Obviously, this is not a complete list of all the great poems—let alone all the great short poems—but it’s a fine place for us to start....

I gotta be honest. I am shocked by how much I love Marvel’s new show. In Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier they take the Marvel formula of pitting superheroes against supervillains, and complicate it with a story about a black soldier dealing with the reality of race in America. I’m surprised it works. I did not love WandaVision as much as literally the entire internet. I found the show to be lacking in the emotional depth I thought that the narrative deserved....

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal The only novel on this list, Stradal’s writing is evocative enough to make this story feel more like a memoir, and to give the reader a taste of the lutefisk, braised pork shoulder, and chili-laced chocolate that makes this book both a delight and an inspiration. Tracing the story of a culinarily gifted family, the book takes us through the early years and young adulthood of Eva, whose mother left when she was a baby to have her raised alone by her food-obsessed father, Lars....

at Bustle: 14 Sports Novels To Fill The Olympics-Sized Hole In Your Heart at BuzzFeed: 27 Immersive Audiobooks That’ll Take Your Mind Off Things For A While at Crime Reads: 5 Great Crime Novels Bringing Multicultural Heroes and Representation to Mystery at Electric Lit: 7 Surreal Books That Suddenly Seem Relatable at Epic Reads: 84 Standalone Novels to Read When You’re Not Feeling a Series at Fodor’s: 9 Books to Help You Time Travel Out of This World for a Bit at Get Literary: Tune Out the Noise with These 6 Must-Listen Audiobooks at Gizmodo: 8 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Erotica Books to Help Get Your Social Distancing Freak On at Lit Hub: The 50 Best Contemporary Novels Over 500 Pages at Parade: Pass the Tissues!...

To be honest, I’ve been avoiding Twitter lately because every time I open it, I see the newest anti-trans, gender-policing attack legislation getting pushed through in various states. It’s making me really tired, y’all. So how about a little list of some upcoming books (and one previously released that I missed somehow) by trans and nonbinary authors? Preorders are love, and these books look pretty awesome! As a bonus, there’s two more books fit for this list that’ll be coming out on Tuesday — you’ll see them then....

It’s true that the horror genre doesn’t always have a good track record when it comes to mothers. There’s an abundance of dead or monstrous mothers in horror that can definitely be blamed on the fact that the genre’s literary roots are sunk deep into the fertile, dead-and/or-absent-mothers soil of fairytales and gothic romanticism. But for every absent or terrible mother figure in the horror genre, there’s a badass mom going to (often bloody) extremes to protect her family, or to exact revenge on those who hurt them....