Books

In the high school library that I manage, I run a manga club that is very popular with the students. In the past eight years I’ve seen it grow and evolve with the students. Manga is by far the most popular kind of book we have in the library, especially with those who claim they don’t like to read “regular” books. From a librarian’s perspective, this is a win-win because reading is reading, if they’re reading manga all the better. You don’t need to lead them on to “real” books...

If you’re looking for an anti-censorship group to get involved with, you’re in luck. There are dozens across the country, with more popping up all of the time. While there is certainly a need for a national push against censorship — we need politicians at the federal level to do something — work at the ground level in one’s own community is essential. Find below a roundup of anti-censorship groups who shared their information via this survey in early January. This information has been dropped into a Google Sheet, which...

The 2023 Women’s Prize longlist has been announced! After the 1991 Booker Prize shortlist was announced, then called the Man Booker Prize, and no women authors appeared on it, a group of journalists met and wanted more. Together, they founded the Women’s Committee and began the quest for starting a literary prize of their own, exclusively for women authors. Now in their 28th year, the committee chooses what they deem the best contemporary works by women writers yearly to honor with the prize, announcing a longlist of 16 books, and...

The 2023 PEN/Faulkner finalists were announced Tuesday. The award has been granted for over 40 years to American authors, and is judged by writers who see a peer’s work as being the “first among equals.” The author who wins first place will win $15,000, and each finalist $5,000. This year’s judges were R.O. Kwon, Tiphanie Yanique, and Christopher Bollen, who narrowed down a selection of 512 novels and short story collections to 10, and finally the current five. The three authors had this to say about their selections: “Monstrosity, resilience, terror, pleasure,...

Illustrator, children’s author, and theatrical set designer Ian Falconer died Tuesday in Connecticut. The author is best known for his children’s book series Olivia, which is about a clever young pig. The award-winning series, with its stylish color scheme, debuted in 2000 and went on to include seven more books that altogether sold more than 10 million copies. Falconer was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, studied art history at New York University and painting at Parsons School of Design and the Otis Art Institute. He later designed theater sets and costumes...

Economist Joel Waldfogel looked at how women and men have influenced the publishing industry for the last 70 years and found that since 2020 at least, women have been publishing more books than men. Data Waldfogel analyzed from “Goodreads, Bookstat, Amazon, and the National Library of Congress” revealed that the percentage of books published by women increased from 20% in the ’70s to more than 50% by 2020. This is the first time this has happened in the U.S. With this increase in books published by women comes another increase:...

It’s only 239 more days until Halloween — who’s ready??? Okay, maybe it’s a little early to start celebrating the biggest night of scares, but you can treat your brain to a happily horrifying time with books every day of the year! That’s why we present a monthly round-up of amazing upcoming horror books, including this list of 11 Harrowing New Horror Books to Read in March 2023! And what a list it is today! There are debut novels and books from seasoned authors we love, like Victor LaValle. (A...

One very easy way to learn about and discover new books and authors is through the cover reveal. This was not a possible avenue of discovery before the age of book talk on the internet, and in an era where visuals are becoming more and more important — and indeed, book cover designers are taking the reality of the online world into account when determining how to create a book’s image — covers can do a lot of service for readers. In this new weekly feature, we’ll round up some...

We’re all tired. The coordinated attacks on everything from Drag Queen story hours to Pride displays to individual books in libraries is going into its second year. While many have been waking up to this — which happens when it’s not just in those red communities, but in your own as well — we’re hitting the point of quitting. In this week’s recap of the American Booksellers Association’s Winter Institute, the response to book bans was a resounding…we don’t have solutions. What do you mean you don’t have solutions? In...

The 2023 PEN American Literary Award Winners have been announced! This year’s awards conferred $350,000 to writers and translators in eleven different categories that include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essay, science writing, literature in translation, and more. The winners were announced live at the PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on March 2, at The Town Hall in New York City, hosted by actor, author, and former Obama White House aide Kal Penn. This year’s lifetime achievement awards were given to comedian and author Tina Fey, writer Vinod Kumar Shukl, considered...

At a heated school board meeting this week in Volusia County, Florida, two books under fire were retained. Both Ellen Hopkins’s Glass and Erika L. Sanchez’s I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter will stay on shelves. This is a sign of the process working, as books like these (and nearly every other book being challenged) do not meet the three-pronged Miller Test criteria for being labeled “obscene.” But what happened during this meeting should raise the alarm in other ways. The discussion turned to “investing” in BookLooks. BookLooks, as...

Barnes & Noble (B&N), who has been working to rebrand themselves as more of an independent bookstore over the last couple of years under new leadership, is making changes to its membership programs. The former program, which cost $25 a year, gave members 40% off hardcover bestsellers, 10% off all in-store purchases, free shipping online, and a few bonus perks through the year. Now the last remaining major bookstore brick and mortar chain is creating two new tiers of programs. The first, B&N Premium Membership, will cost $40. B&N Premium...

Green Hill School in Chehalis, Washington is, as described on its website, a “medium/maximum security fenced facility that provides older males sentenced to Juvenile Rehabilitation treatment with education and vocational training.” Graduate students in University of Washington’s Information School are holding a book drive to upgrade the books available in the Green Hill School library. Grad students are asking for help upgrading books available at the library of a prison for men under 26 years old in Chehalis, WA. The goal is 200 new books from a wishlist compiled by residents....

65 years after How the Grinch Stole Christmas was published, and 31 years after Theodor Geisel aka Dr. Seuss’s death, it’s getting a sequel: How the Grinch Lost Christmas. It’s set a year after the original book, and the Grinch is determined to prove he now knows the true meaning of Christmas. When he doesn’t win the Christmas Crown, he almost turns his back on the holiday — before Cindy Lou Who reminds him it’s not about winning. The sequel is written by Alastair Heim and illustrated by Aristides Ruiz....