Books

Adding Dungeons & Dragons miniatures to your roleplaying game really brings the campaign to life! Dungeons & Dragons (or really, any RPG) is already the perfect medium for active storytelling. You are more than an audience; you are an active participant, shaping the story around you, crafting a WORLD around you. A great Dungeon Master

“I could see why so many stories were set in lighthouses,” thinks Julia, the titular narrator of Julia and the Shark, upon reaching her family’s unusual new home for the summer. “It’s a good place for adventures even before you go inside.” In this illustrated middle grade novel, award-winning British writer Kiran Millwood Hargrave (The

In the winter, I love to sit in front of the fireplace show on Netflix and cuddle up with a good audiobook. I sip warm tea while listening to something like Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May, narrated by Rebecca Lee. Lee’s soothing voice with May’s comforting words

Most American history buffs have seen the terrifying photograph of the Ku Klux Klan’s parade on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1925, with the U.S. Capitol visible in the background. Sadly, that’s just a minor glimpse of the klan’s sway during what we prefer to remember as the Jazz Age. But in fact, there are more white

Grace Linn is a 100-year-old widow of a WWII veteran, a grandmother, and a craftivist. On Tuesday, she spoke at a Martin County, Florida school board meeting to protest the removal of 80+ books from the school library. Her statement has gotten a lot of media coverage, and she was later interviewed on MSNBC, Fox

Eb didn’t mean to mess up Flow’s brand-new shoes, and Flow would never hit a girl, but in Kelly J. Baptist’s Eb & Flow, an accident leads to angry words, then a fistfight and then a 10-day suspension from school for seventh graders Ebony (Eb) and De’Kari (Flow). As they stare down two weeks at

The 2023 Audie Award winners were announced Tuesday by the Audio Publishers Association. The award ceremony, in its 28th year, honors audiobooks in 26 categories, including Audiobook of the Year, Autobiography, Memoir, Best Female Narrator, Best Male Narrator, and more. 2023 Audie Award Winners AUDIOBOOK OF THE YEAR Finding Me, written and narrated by Viola

Sixteen-year-old Winifred Blight lives in a small house near the gates of one of the oldest cemeteries in Toronto with her father, who runs the crematory. For as long as Winifred can remember, her father has been in mourning for her mother, who died giving birth to her. Winifred, too, has been shaped by this

If you thought we hit “full names in book titles” in YA prior to this seasonal roundup, you’d be wrong. This trend continues to grow, and in the world of spring 2023 YA books, it’s one that will showcase how YA is becoming more thoughtful and intentional when it comes to creating more diverse, inclusive

Although Leta McCollough Seletzky wasn’t born until eight years after the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., she has always been haunted by the photo of that tragic night—one of the most recognizable images of the 20th century. And no wonder, since in it, her then 23-year-old father, Marrell “Mac” McCullough, can be

Goodreads has released its list of the most sought after new releases for the month. The editorial team assembled the list by looking at Goodreads’ members early reviews and how often books were added to the “want to read” shelves on the site. The list shows how eclectic Goodreads members’ taste is, and includes books

The epigraph at the beginning of Nicole Chung’s vivid memoir A Living Remedy includes a line from Marie Howe’s poem “For Three Days”: “ . . . because even grief provides a living remedy.” As Chung immerses readers in her experience of grief, her powerful words compel us to follow her on a beautiful but

We live in a pretty unjust world, and, to quote a famous teen girl and poet of our time, “it’s brutal out here.” Teen girls have it especially rough — between how society sexualizes them and the way they’re often taken advantage of, it’s little wonder books that depict instances of vigilante justice and teen

Little Cap is a shy, anxious mushroom who feels safest when surrounded by the comforts of home and the companionship of his best friend, Gustav, a lovable slug. But one day, Little Cap discovers that the gate of his white picket fence is open and Gustav is nowhere to be found, so he musters his

Emily Henry is a household name for her bestselling romance novels Beach Read, People We Meet on Vacation, and Book Lovers, with her newest novel, Happy Place, coming out in April. Fans will rejoice to hear that one of her novels is getting the feature film treatment: the movie rights for Book Lovers have been

Charlotte Finch was branded as a dirty cop, her reputation on the force was completely demolished, and her former comrades left her bloodied in an alley. Now she’s out for revenge, but she never expected it to come in the form of man she only knows as her enemy: crime lord Aiden O’Malley.

When the news broke that director Rian Johnson had teamed up with Natasha Lyonne to make a new murder mystery series Poker Face, it was fulfilling a need that I didn’t even know I had. And thankfully, they delivered. For those of you who haven’t watched the series, the premise is that Charlie Cale has

It’s been six years since Victor LaValle published his acclaimed modern fairy tale, The Changeling. Now the author returns with another fantastical story that could only take place in America. Set in 1914 Montana, Lone Women follows Black homesteader Adelaide Henry, who, after the mysterious death of her parents, flees her home in California with

In the summer of 2016, the speculative magazine Fireside Fiction published #BlackSpecFic: A Fireside Fiction Company Special Report. The findings were deeply troubling: Out of more than 2,000 stories published in 2015 in mainstream paying markets, only 38 were by Black authors. To put it bluntly, that’s less than two percent. The dearth of BIPOC

Aniana del Mar knows how to keep a secret. At her papi’s insistence, Ani keeps her swim meets and the medals she wins hidden from her mami, who fears the water after a hurricane destroyed her home and killed her brother. So when Ani’s body starts to ache, her joints swelling and her limbs radiating

When it comes to science fiction, there is a fine line for the suspension of belief. To truly sit within the science fiction genre, you have to have some element of realism with your science. Otherwise, it is simply fantasy (which is okay and I have no problem with this, but at least be honest

I don’t believe I’ve ever met a pasta I didn’t like. There are, however, many pasta shapes I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting—yet. In An A–Z of Pasta, Rome-based author Rachel Roddy introduces readers to 50 of them, some of which, like brichetti, are not often found beyond specific Italian regions. (As if I

Food cozies are one of the most popular sub-genres of cozy mysteries including themes based on everything from ice cream to grilled cheese to cupcakes, and even a cannabis bakery! Food brings people together. Imaginary food, even more so. Plus, there are often recipes that you can really try.  But how much do the cozies that

Eggs are the ubiquitous breakfast food, served up every day in kitchens and restaurants around the world. They are also a cornerstone for many savory dishes and added to baked goods to provide richness and leavening. But have you ever considered the egg’s importance beyond its vast utility as a food source? In Egg: A

The steampunk genre has been my jam since I first laid eyes on the epic airships of the Final Fantasy IX Playstation game as a kid. I loved nothing more than watching my brothers play it. Sometimes I would play too, but it was less effort to sit back and watch the game unfold in

In previous bestselling, award-winning books such as The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Wonderstruck and The Marvels, author-illustrator Brian Selznick has centered his richly imagined, deeply cinematic stories on children growing up alone and navigating worlds both dangerous and wonderful. Selznick explores similar themes in Big Tree, but this novel’s children aren’t human; they’re the seeds

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

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

The latest book by journalist Alex Mar (Witches of America) is a valuable contribution to the true crime genre. Taking its title from a verse in the Gospel of Matthew, Seventy Times Seven: A True Story of Murder and Mercy begins with a heinous murder but then follows the difficult, inspiring path of forgiveness and

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