Books

In the 2023 Grammy Awards, Viola Davis won in the Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording category for her narration of her memoir, Finding Me. This win secured her a membership in an exclusive club of people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. Including Davis, only 18 people have EGOT status, including Rita Moreno, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, and Whoopi Goldberg. Davis previously won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in How To Get Away With Murder, an...

Social media seems harmless enough, right? Wrong! It’s a scary place, and if you don’t know how to navigate the wild world of Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, etc., well then you might just find yourself lost in the weeds. Thank goodness we have social media influencers. Their whole job is to make sense of the world of social media, create content for us to enjoy, and create a sense of organization on the otherwise chaotic Internet. Have you ever dreamed of becoming a social media influencer? Or maybe you already are...

There are only so many ways to state that book censorship is not coming to an end any time soon. That until there is significant money and action on the part of those dedicated to the First Amendment rights of all, until anyone in the government does anything meaningful, we’re all subject to the rule of right wing Christian nationalist bigots. Here’s a look at the recruitment website for “Community Patriots of Manatee County,” meant to call in members to go raid the schools and public libraries of books they...

This week across the book banning social media world, a new guidebook to inappropriate books across the state of Iowa has been circulating. This 111 page guidebook, put together by Moms For Liberty in Polk County, reiterates that their quest to remove inappropriate books from schools is not about book banning. Indeed, they use the Stephen King philosophy to suggest that just because they do not want books in schools does not mean that students cannot get them from public libraries (conveniently leaving out their quest to get those books...

On January 30, James Gunn and Peter Safran, the new architects of the DC Universe in film and television, announced the first ten projects for the brand-new DC Studios. There had been a lot of speculation leading up to this announcement, given DC’s deep catalog of characters and their consistent failure to, um, make good stuff with them. Some of the announcements are unsurprising; some are exciting; some are baffling. So I’m here to break down “Gods and Monsters,” a.k.a. “the first part of Chapter 1 of the DCU” into...

Kerry Washington will publish her first memoir on September 26, 2023 in the U.S. and the UK simultaneously. The award-winning actor, producer, director, and activist is best known for her role as Olivia Pope in Shonda Rhimes’ hit drama Scandal, as well as her starring roles in Django Unchained, The Last King of Scotland, and more. With the memoir, titled Thicker Than Water, Washington will give readers an intimate look at her life — from a trauma-filled childhood in the Bronx, to an extraordinary career of acting and activism. Find...

The Rainbow Round Table is part of the American Library Association. It started in 1970, and every year, it awards both the Stonewall Awards and the Rainbow Book List. The Rainbow Book list is in recognition of exceptional LGBTQ children’s and teen’s books of the previous year. It also provides an annotated list of notable LGBTQ kids’ and YA books of the previous year. For 2022, the full list includes 190 titles, selected from the 550 eligible books published last year. In the introduction to the list, The Rainbow Round...

The American Library Association has announced the 2023 winners of the Youth Media Awards, including the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz. These are some of the prestigious awards in children’s literature; the Newbery Medal has been awarded for over 100 years. Here are this year’s winners. Descriptions of each book are from the publisher. John Newbery Medal For the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature. Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson Debut author Amina Luqman-Dawson pens a lyrical, accessible historical middle-grade novel about two enslaved children’s escape from a plantation and the many ways they...

Dear Stephen King: Last week, you had a tweet take off. I’ve seen it everywhere, including on several giant Facebook pages, Instagram pages, even on TikTok. The tweet, about book banning, is nice and sexy, attempting to break down the problem in under 280 characters. And you know, it was successful! Hey, kids! It's your old buddy Steve King telling you that if they ban a book in your school, haul your ass to the nearest bookstore or library ASAP and find out what they don't want you to read....

In the Goodreads monthly roundups of new books to watch out for, they often highlight eye-catching titles, whether they’re poetic, surprising, or particularly punny. Today, they gathered up some of the best new titles (August 2022 to January 2023 releases) in their own post. Goodreads notes that titles long enough to be a complete sentence are in style right now. These kinds of titles have long been common in manga, and perhaps the popularity of that format has brought this convention over to North American publishing. The title that got...

Jesmyn Ward fans, rejoice! We officially have a title and release date for her next novel. Let Us Descend is slated for an October 3rd release from Scribner, a Simon & Schuster imprint. The book will tell the story of enslaved teenage girl Annis, turning an unflinching eye at the terrifying reality of a life violently robbed of physical agency. “It took years and multiple drafts to understand how Annis and enslaved people might have retained their sense of self, their sense of hope, in a time and place that...

Novelist Paul La Farge has died at the age of 52. He passed from cancer on January 18th in Poughkeepsie, New York as confirmed by his wife. La Farge was a New York native whose essays and fiction appeared in publications like The Village Voice, The New Yorker, and McSweeney’s. His debut novel, The Artist of the Missing, published in 1999 and is set in a modern-day, unnamed city where people frequently go missing. The book’s main character paints portraits of the missing, including the parents and brother who disappeared...

Little Free Library is launching the Indigenous Library Program this spring. The new program will distribute LFL book-sharing boxes to tribal lands and other Indigenous communities. Boxes will be shipped to volunteer stewards for free and will come with two sets of books — one set will feature 25 books written and/or illustrated by BIPOC authors and another 25 books will center Indigenous people. The new program has an advisory group consisting of educators, authors, and librarians, most of whom are Indigenous, all of whom have a long history serving...

So far this year, eight states have introduced legislation that makes it easier to prosecute teachers and librarians under “obscenity” and “harmful to minor” laws — these have been weaponizing in recent book banning battles, being used against librarians and educators just for having LGBTQ books or sex education books on the shelves. EveryLibrary, a PAC that lobbies for libraries, has released a policy brief to help educate about these laws as well as outline ways to fight them. It goes over state obscenity and harmful to minor laws, and...