Books

Last week, I put together a quiz about identifying sci-fi books based on pixelated versions of their covers. That was entertaining for me to do, and it looks like a lot of people liked taking the quiz, so I decided to do the same thing for famous fantasy books. But this time, to shake things

The titular character of Mazey Eddings’ Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake is dealing with some very rom-com-appropriate problems—namely, that her two-night stand with a hot Australian guy resulted in an unexpected pregnancy, and she’s now trying to platonically cohabitate with him. But alongside all the tropey hijinks, Lizzie also gains a better understanding of and more

Lizzie Blake knows that she’s a lot. A lot of energy and enthusiasm. A lot of creativity and vibrant warmth. But also a lot of mess and chaos. Her attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder can make things difficult, given that she lives in a world built for people whose brains don’t function like hers. After a lifetime of

Author Peter Straub died this past Sunday in Manhattan due to complications of a broken hip. Straub, born in Milwaukee on March 2, 1943, was a popular horror novelist with a somewhat unorthodox pedigree— before turning to writing about the fantastical, he had published short collections of poetry. Although he was reluctant to label his

There were too many times when my mother would catch me reading a book with a flashlight under my sheets, demanding I go to sleep already. I can’t say that romance was ever my go-to genre as I was (ironically) falling in love with reading as a kid. I loved fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction,

Poet and author Ander Monson has seen the 1987 movie Predator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger on the run from an alien in a Guatemalan jungle, 146 times. To explain why, he wrote Predator: A Memoir. Through a scene-by-scene exploration of the film, which he describes as “satire wrapped in gun pornography,” Monson reckons with his lifelong

Barbara Ehrenreich was an author, journalist, and activist who published more than 20 books, including Nickel and Dimed, which documents several months she spent working the lowest-paying jobs in the U.S.A. and trying to survive on that income. She wrote articles and book reviews for a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times,

Banned Books Week is coming, which means that waves of displays in libraries, classrooms, and bookstores are also incoming. We’re already seeing many, and while they are useful for highlighting the reality of censorship across America to those who are not as tapped into the news about it, too many banned books week displays are

Welcome to Book Riot’s September 2022 Horoscopes and Book Recommendations! September and October are two of the biggest months for big, splashy, unputdownable new books. How to choose between all of the amazing new releases? Why, look to the stars, of course! Check out your horoscope below for a glimpse at the month ahead, along

As students go back to school, a host of new laws in Florida will change the access they have to books in their classrooms and libraries. Florida is the epicenter of Moms For Liberty, who have been instrumental in book bans across the country and have developed their own home-grown system of book ratings. It

The story is performed in the Inverted Theater, which exists outside of time and can only be visited while one is dreaming. An unnamed spectator sits in the audience and is told that this story is a love story. It is summer, as it always is in the Old Country, and one fateful night, the

Last week, I got news that one of my own books was pulled for review as part of a book banning effort in Collierville schools in Tennessee. Body Talk, which is an exploration of the physical and political realities of having a body, was among 300 titles the district pulled and evaluated. The school district

Every once in a while we all need some sweet, low-stakes reads to lift our moods. There are plenty of stories and genres capable of doing that, but there’s something about slice-of-life that stands out. It probably has something to do with the fact that these stories are so quotidian that it’s easy to see

As the new school year kicks off — or is already in progress in many places — it’s worth taking a look at the states which have enacted laws that ban books. This guide is not comprehensive, but gives an overview of the legislation currently on the books that will impact how teachers and librarians

We need children’s books about death. This may sound morbid, but it’s actually a life-giving necessity. Death is such a stunning subject. Every human will eventually face some type of loss. No two people feel identical emotions when processing such a huge event. In the end, everyone feels that their grief is different and unimaginable.

On August 22nd, the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District (GCISD) voted on a lengthy set of guidelines that included prohibitions against so-called “Critical Race Theory” in schools as well as chosen pronouns and promotion of “Gender Fluidity.” It’s been dubbed the “Don’t Say Trans” policy by some opponents. BREAKING: the Grapevine-Colleyville school district board (GCISD), my