Books

There are a lot of suspicions that during this era of book bans, we’ll begin to see a different output of material from publishers. They may pull back on queer books and/or books by people of color, those books which approach “sensitive” topics like sex and sexuality, and even graphic novels. Unfortunately, because of how publishing works years in advance, we won’t be able to see how this plays out for another year or two. But there is another element of the publishing ecosystem worth reaching to see if they...

The winners of the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced last night at the New School. Books published in English in 2022 were eligible to win in six categories — Nonfiction, Fiction, Biography, Autobiography, Poetry and Criticism. Additionally, the best first book won the John Leonard Prize award, and this year is the first time the best book translated into English of any genre won the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize. The first NBCC Awards were granted in 1976 with the aim to highlight excellent writing and start a conversation...

For years, hundreds of high-profile manuscripts — including early versions of books by Margaret Atwood and Sally Rooney — were stolen in a phishing scheme. The most puzzling part of the case was that nothing seemed to come from these thefts; uthe manuscripts were not leaked or sold, as far as anyone could tell. So why go to the trouble of impersonating a publisher in order to get these manuscripts? Last year, we finally found out the person behind the theft of roughly 1,000 unpublished books: Filippo Bernardini. But that...

The official trailer for the Bridgerton prequel series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story was just dropped by Netflix. It shows a young Charlotte, played by India Amarteifio, as she questions why she was chosen to wed King George, played by Corey Mylchreest. As she begins to familiarize herself with court life, she meets familiar characters like a young Lady Danbury, who is played by Arsema Thomas. Shonda Rhimes writes and executive produces the new show, which will premiere May 4th on Netflix. Find more news and stories of interest from...

Kodansha, the publisher of widely popular manga like Attack on Titan, Ghost in the Shell, Sailor Moon, Akira, and others, is set to launch a new app May 10th this year. The manga reader app will start off with 400 titles and give early access to newly released chapters for ongoing popular series. Though Kodansha hasn’t yet stated whether manga volumes will be sold through the app individually, or if readers can pay a recurring subscription, one benefit of the app that has been confirmed is official translations. It’s thought...

Taylor Jenkins Reid has dominated bestseller lists and BookTok for a few years now, and for very good reason: her books are juicy stories of Hollywood, the rich and famous, and every day women going through impossible situations. Reid has an almost supernatural ability to craft stories that make readers want to keep turning the pages, and her characters are deeply relatable, whether they’re normal women facing major life upheavals or unbelievably famous rockers. Taylor Jenkins Reid is best known for Daisy Jones and the Six, which recently was adapted...

Are you the kind of person who browses through Zillow to dream about the perfect property — and judge rich people’s weird decor choices? If so, you’re definitely not alone. Of course, the ultimate dream of book lovers is an elegant home library, with built-in bookshelves and a rolling ladder. That was the takeaway from Beauty and the Beast, right? That we all want to live in a castle with a library? Well, if you have a spare five million dollars on hand, you’re in luck. There currently a listing...

If you’ve spent any time on the internet during the past 10 years, then you know about the “This Is Fine” comic. We’ve all seen it: a two-panel strip of a dog in a bowler hat, holding a mug, and calmly saying “this is fine” as the room is swallowed up by flames. Although the dog has a name (Question Hound), he has become collectively known as the This Is Fine dog. He is a now a meme, and has come to represent a very particular state of mind –...

In case you’re new around here, you should know that we love a good cover trend at Book Riot. Pantone color of the year? Check. Best covers of the year? You betcha. Books with sexy, suggestive fruits on the cover? Uh, yeah. This time, let’s take a look at some wonderful minimalist book covers coming out in 2023.  Minimalist cover design doesn’t mean it’s simple or boring or slapped together — quite the opposite, actually. It’s the art of using empty space or solid colors or simple shapes to tell...

With the fervor over AI and how ChatGPT will inevitable change English classes — and nary a word from said author of that piece on the scores of books being removed from those classes — it seemed only right to experiment with the tool. How easily could it parrot the talking points of “parental rights” activists? Give the far-right Christian nationalists working to ban any and everything not aligned with their narrow, white, straight worldview an easy template to use and erase even more knowledge? The answer is this: ChatGPT...

The United States Postal Service unveiled the new Toni Morrison forever stamp last Tuesday at a ceremony held at Princeton University. Morrison, one of the most influential modern American writers, was a professor at Princeton for almost 20 years, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and the Nobel Prize in Literature before she passed away in 2019 at he age of 88. Through spellbinding and lyrical prose, she explored the lives of Black Americans, a group of people who were largely overlooked in literature at the time her books were...

The 2023 Lambda Finalists were just announced. The award has been championing LGBTQ+ books for more than 30 years. By highlighting the stories of queer people, the Lambda awards preserve and affirm queer culture and experiences, something that is vital in a time of attacks on queer personhood. New executive director of Lambda Literary Samiya Bashir said “our writers represent our greatest culture creators. In a moment when our voices and our stories are being weaponized against our very lives across the country, supporting our storytellers — whether their media centers...

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you know there’s been a flood of anti-trans legislation, bans of trans books, and a disturbing increase in anti-trans rhetoric recently. In response, Sim Kern, author of Depart, Depart! and Seeds for the Swarm, is hosting a Trans Rights Readathon next week!  This is a decentralized fundraiser, which means you can raise money for any trans organization or individual you’d like. You can participate by signing up at the Google Form — this way they can track how many books were read and how much money...

The Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburō Ōe passed away March 3rd of old age. His work has repeatedly been compared to William Faulkner, and Kazuo Ishiguro described him as “genuinely decent, modest, surprisingly open and honest, and very unconcerned about fame.” Kenzaburō Ōe was a Japanese novelist known for his fiction addressing social and political issues, including nuclear disarmament, war, and disability. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994 for his work crafting “an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human...