Books

There are so many ways to mark time: by astrological seasons, by books read, by discarded tea bags, by Fridays, by miles walked, by pages written, by semesters, by songs, and on and on. At every calendar year’s end, I obsessively search for the “A Year in Reading” series via The Millions. Two Decembers ago, I read about Grace Talusan’s book-filled 2019. The essay mentions so many wonderful titles, including Good Talk by Mira Jacob and I Was Their American Dream by Malaka Gharib. Plus, something more than books stuck...

Recently, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package intended to speed up America’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The stimulus includes direct payments to Americans and allocates funds for extending unemployment benefits, supporting state and local governments and school reopenings, and expanding access to coronavirus testing and vaccines. Many elements of the plan specifically target low- and no-income households, aiming to lift millions of Americans out of poverty. Noticeably absent from this historic bill, which was passed in the Senate using the budget...

I’ve always been an indoorsy person. Holed up in my bedroom with a pile of books instead of wandering around the neighborhood with friends. Scared that the outdoors — all bugs and blaring sun and ocean waves — would swallow me up. As an adult, I am a full-on Scrooge. My husband takes our 6-year-old on hours-long walks along our local trails while I marathon back episodes of The Mindy Project. He takes her to the town pool while I loll about in our air conditioning, reading or making ukulele...

Today's Featured Deals In case you missed yesterday's most popular deals Previous Daily Deals Delicious! by Ruth Reichl for $1.99 I'll Be the One by Lyla Lee for $2.99 Afterland by Lauren Beukes for $4.99 Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake for $2.99 The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty for $2.99 This Savage Song by V.E. Schwab for $2.99 Daring to Drive by Manal al-Sharif for $1.99 Incendiary by Zoraida Córdova for $2.99 The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas for $1.99 The Last Runaway by Tracy...

Larry McMurtry, the novelist who put the American West on the literary map through his works, best known for his Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Lonesome Dove, has died at the age of 84. The death was confirmed by Amanda Lundberg, a spokeswoman for the family. No cause was specified. Spanning a career of over five decades, McMurtry wrote more than 30 novels including memoirs, short stories, and essays. He was also a prolific screenplay writer, including the acclaimed screenplay based on the Annie Proulx short story Brokeback Mountain. The film, starring...

Outside of Canada, it feels like current Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and, by extension, his government, have a reputation for being cool and progressive. Trudeau’s Liberal government often talk the talk about equity and inclusion. Sadly and frustratingly, they keep making decisions that are far from walking the walk, like a recent funding cut announced that will have dire consequences for Canadians with print disabilities and their equitable access to books and other reading materials such as magazines. These funding cuts to accessible books for Canadians with print disabilities...

This list of space horror books was originally published in our science fiction and fantasy newsletter, Swords & Spaceships. Sign up for it here to get science fiction and fantasy news, reviews, deals, and more! I’ve noticed that the Halloween-themed Free Association Fridays have all been rather weighted toward the fantasy side of things (aside: sci-fi authors, get it together. I want some ghosts in space! And space witches other than the ones I wrote!). So this time around, it’s all Sci-Fi, or at least Sci-Fantasy, for our slightly horror-tastic offerings. Salvation...

It’s not a news week in the book world without some headline about censorship. Whether it’s about a book deal getting dropped after the author was racist on Twitter or a trans kids’ book getting banned from storytime, there’s always someone claiming cancel culture, censorship, or first amendment violations. So who’s right? What counts as censorship? Reading through news posts and comments, you’d think censorship was any time someone declined to read or stock a book. The truth is, there are too many books out there for any bookstore, library,...

We were hanging around the virtual Book Riot water cooler the other day and someone mentioned they’d love to see a post featuring literary cinnamon rolls. I, as a consumer of growing quantities of manga and manhua (and a few American comics that have learned of the differences from their brethren) immediately asked, “Okay, but what kind?” Because if you, too, have fallen into the gloriously wide and deep world of the aforementioned, you know that there are, in fact, many varieties of cinnamon roll. I could write quippy little...

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley with Fierce ReadsThe groundbreaking thriller that Courtney Summers calls “gripping and unforgettable” centers on Daunis, a biracial unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal who’s never quite fit in. After Daunis witnesses a shocking murder that thrusts her into a criminal investigation, she agrees to go undercover with the FBI. But the deceptions—and deaths—keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. How far will she go to protect her community if it means tearing apart the only world she’s...

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Today's Featured Deals In case you missed yesterday's most popular deals Previous Daily Deals The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett for $2.99 Blood at the Root by Patrick Phillips for $2.99 Less by Andrew Sean Greer for $4.99 Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev for $2.99 American Gods: 10th Anniversary Ed. by Neil Gaiman for $2.99 Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton for $2.99 Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri for $2.99 Rage Becomes Her by Soraya Chemaly for $1.99 A Spy in the Struggle by Aya de...

At my core, I’m a reader, but given the choice in entertainment, I will choose TV over books. I know, I know, but there’s something about a good TV series that I love so much. One of the first shows that I got hooked on was Lost, J.J. Abrams’s  wildly popular survival science fiction drama with the notoriously questionable ending. Since Lost ended its run, I’ve re-watched it multiple time. Last summer, I paid special attention to the many books and literary references throughout the show.   The Island has a few bookworms, including Sawyer,...

Charles Dickens wrote, in his novel David Copperfield, “I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.” This line is spoken by Agnes Wickfield, with the novel’s main antagonist being the evil and misfortune against which she wills her love for her ailing father. Agnes, being David’s close friend and eventual wife, is one of the novel’s most important characters, and the longing for love and truth to prevail over all is a central theme of the novel. By...

I’ve never successfully figured out what to do with pressed flowers. I don’t tend to save the petals of flowers I buy — and I’m a big believer in treating yourself to a bouquet anytime you please — but flowers from special occasions I have saved. I’m feeling extremely inspired by these pressed flower bookmarks as a potential opportunity to keep those memories alive. Whether or not you keep old petals yourself, these pressed flower bookmarks are gorgeous. I’m not in the market for a new bookmark right now, but...

We’ve been celebrating a lot of comic book anniversaries lately, and I’ve been pretty excited for 2021, because it marks the 80th anniversary of Green Arrow. Sure, the ol’ Battling Bowman is typically a C-list DC character, or maybe B-list at best — he’s certainly not as major a hero as some of his fellow newly minted octogenarians, like Wonder Woman and Captain America. But Green Arrow and his extended franchise are my very favorite DC family, and I’ll take any excuse to blather about them. In fact, as of...

When I was a freshman in college, I was asked to perform an original poem at a fundraiser for a local museum. After performing, I was elated and baffled by the reception from those listening as I recited. I didn’t feel ready for seeking publication through literary journals (and also did not know much about publishing) and wanted my poems to reach a larger audience. Quickly I realized a solution: Instagram poetry. While I no longer post my poetry on Instagram as my relationship and purpose for writing poetry has...

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Celebrating excellence, originality, and accessibility in writing by women in English from across the world, the Women’s Prize for Fiction has announced its 2021 longlist. The longlist encompasses a wide range of genres, themes, and settings—from London to Hong Kong, Barbados to Brooklyn, among others—and features both established authors like Yaa Gyasi and Ali Smith and newcomers alike. The shortlist will be announced on April 28th and the winner will be announced on July 7th. Chair of the judges and award-winning novelist of Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo commented on the list,...

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Today's Featured Deals In case you missed yesterday's most popular deals Previous Daily Deals The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova for $4.99 The Banks by Roxane Gay, Ming Doyle, and Jordie Bellaire for $4.99 King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo for $2.99 Lady Killers by Tori Telfer for $1.99 Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova for $1.99 Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper for $2.99 New Suns edited by Nisi Shawl for $0.99 The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon for $2.99 Don't Read the Comments by Eric Smith for $2.99 Blanca...

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Today's Featured Deals In case you missed yesterday's most popular deals Previous Daily Deals Luster by Raven Leilani for $3.99 Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez for $2.99 Miracle Creek by Angie Kim for $3.99 The Book of Dreams by Nina George for $2.99 Passing by Nella Larsen for $1.99 Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh for $3.99 City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab for $1.99 Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan for $1.99 A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn for $2.99 A Winter's Promise by...

The Ripped Bodice has come out with their fifth annual State of Racial Diversity in Romance Report and, spoiler alert, the overwhelming whiteness in romance publishing that they identified in 2016 has not been solved. The Racial Diversity Report looks at the largest romance publishers and tracks the percentage of the titles published that year that are by authors of color. Some publishers provide this information themselves, while Ripped Bodice has to do the research themselves for others, which means looking up over a thousand authors and using biographies and other...