Books

It’s time to pause, take a step back, and review the books we’ve read and enjoyed this year so far. Other booksellers — Amazon and Barnes & Noble — have already shared what they think are the first half of the year’s best books, but the advantage of this list is that it’s the most

To paraphrase the good sis Lizzo: It’s about that time! Time to take stock of books that have come out so far this year that have left an impression. Amazon has joined Barnes & Noble as the latest bookseller to share their list of books that we should all give more attention to. The list

Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Road, No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian, and more, has died at the age of 89. He passed away from natural causes in his Sante Fe home, according to his publisher, Knopf. McCarthy won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for his bleak dystopian novel, The Road.

Illinois became the first state in the United States to pass legislation to end book bans. Signed by Governor JB Pritzker June 12, House Bill 2789 takes effect January 1, 2024. Introduced by Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who serves at the State Librarian, the bill received significant support both in the House and

If you’ve been on social media over the last week, chances are you’ve seen the Shiny Happy People documentary series trending. Whether you have seen that, ignored that, or did not know about it at all until this moment, this Amazon Prime limited docuseries is a must-view in order to understand the roots of today’s

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a list of actions it will take to better protect LGBTQ+ Americans. Among them was a plan to address the rise in books bans, which disproportionately target queer and BIPOC- centered books. An anti-book ban coordinator will be appointed by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on the

Last year, I wrote about the conservative group CatholicVote organizing what they called “Hide the Pride,” which encourages people to check out all children’s and teen LGBTQ books in the library, especially on Pride displays, in order to make sure no one else can access them. They’ve now announced the second annual “Hide the Pride”

This week, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón in conjunction with the Library of Congress announced that NASA’s Europa Clipper will be launching on its mission in October 2024 with “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa.” The poem, written by Limón, will travel 1.8 billion miles through the galaxy. It will be engraved on

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is finally coming to theaters on June 2! The computer-animated superhero film is the highly-anticipated follow-up to the 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s been way too long since we were invited into the world of Miles Morales and the many parallel universes of Spider-Men/people/pigs/etc he explores. But what will

Crossword puzzle fans and passionate readers are a Venn diagram with a lot of overlap. But even the most seasoned Saturday New York Times crossword connoisseur will bump into clues they’re unfamiliar with. So what should you study if you want to be the best of the best? Crossword Solver analyzed 6.3 million newspaper crossword

When you gaze at the quilted cover of A Flag for Juneteenth, you will want to reach out and touch it. The artwork depicts a girl wearing a fuchsia dress and kerchief standing proudly in front of a flag, the bright colors of her outfit vibrant against the flag’s soft yellows and greens. The girl’s

For My First Popsicle: An Anthology of Food and Feelings (7 hours), actor Zosia Mamet (“Girls,” “The Flight Attendant”) has gathered a who’s-who of creative folks, including fellow actors like Busy Philipps, musicians like Patti Smith, writers like David Sedaris and chefs like Kwame Onwuachi. Each contributed an essay about food or a food-related memory,

There’s wit, honesty and insight in Madly, Deeply (19.5 hours), a collection of Alan Rickman’s succinct yet keenly observant diary entries spanning 1993 to 2015. The late actor’s journals reveal a palpable lack of pretentiousness and a go-with-the-flow attitude (even after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer), as well as a compelling contrast between his two

Anti-censorship advocates and activists have shouted from the rooftops that it is essential to vote. That it is essential to show up to school and library board meetings and speak up about/write those who sit on those boards against book bans and censorship. Advocates and activists have been on the front lines in their respective

The Washington Post released their analysis of book challenges they had obtained from PEN America researcher Tasslyn Magnusson. These 1,065 challenges, which were filed during the 2021-2022 school year, extended over 153 school districts and 37 states, and totaled 2,506 pages. They also tended to target books with similar content, specifically LGBTQ+ topics. While a

What could be better than Greek mythology romance books? Mythology retellings have been in the lexicon for as long as the myths have existed. Most famous among them are the Greek myths: stories of gods and goddess interfering in mortals’ lives, acting out their every whim, their petty interactions with each other. Drama began here