Books

R. Eric Thomas reflects on the experience of returning home in his funny, forthright Congratulations, The Best Is Over!. Accompanied by his partner, David, a Presbyterian minister, Thomas leaves Philadelphia and goes back to Baltimore, Maryland, where he grew up, only to find a once-familiar landscape very much altered. In this inspired collection, he showcases

For someone who only went to one school dance, I can’t seem to stay away from them in my books. Almost all of my characters go to prom. (Or homecoming. Or, in the case of my British characters, a leavers’ ball.) In my new novel, Slow Dance, a flashback to prom sets the stage for

Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly is having a big year. Following the March publication of her eighth middle grade novel, The First State of Being, she’s releasing a new illustrated chapter book, Felix Powell, Boy Dog. Fans of Kelly’s previous chapter book series featuring Marisol Rainey will instantly recognize Marisol’s friend, Felix Powell, and both

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, author of the National Book Award finalist The Undocumented Americans, has a lot in common with the titular protagonist of her debut novel, Catalina. Like Villavicencio did, Catalina attends Harvard as an undocumented student, and her broad ambitions could easily be imagined as the precursor to Villavicencio’s success. With the recent prevalence

With Bibsy Cross and the Bad Apple, award-winning author Liz Garton Scanlon launches a new chapter book series starring a lovable protagonist “with a whole lot to say.” Eight-year-old Bibsy loves school and learning (especially about science), and she has adored all of her teachers—that is, until third grade, when her teacher is stern Mrs.

Once upon a time, we didn’t have cell phones. Emergency Quarters, written by Carlos Matias and illustrated by Gracey Zhang, takes us back to those days, while coming with a perfectly worded note for those young enough to not remember technology-free days. Emergency Quarters follows Ernesto through his first week of going to and from

Gennifer Choldenko’s The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman is a moving story about an 11-year-old abandoned by his single mom and left to care for his 3-year-old sister, Boo, inspired by Choldenko’s own childhood experiences of having undependable parents and a caring older brother who acted as a surrogate parent. Fans of the Newbery Honor

Here are the stories from the last week in Today in Books that you all found the most interesting, at least measured by the number of times you clicked through to read the story. In ascending order: Denis Johnson Kept a Huge Commonplace Book. And You Can Download it. Twitter is still good sometimes. I

Today in Books rounds up news links from places from other than Book Riot, but we also cover news on the site, so here are the news stories we wrote about last week. Plus: a grab-bag of links that didn’t make into the regular daily sends, but still are worth a click. How Alabama Library

Here are the posts from the last week on Book Riot that the most people read/clicked/shared. As is often the case with the first week of the month, a lot of these are about new books. Go figure. This month you can help solve all kinds of mysteries! There’s a queer YA with a crush

Since I write about new LGBTQ book releases every week on Our Queerest Shelves, I keep a giant spreadsheet of upcoming queer books, adding titles as soon as I learn about them. I follow approximately a million queer book blogs, BookTubers, BookTokers, Bookstagrammers, etc — and that’s not to mention the deluge of publicity emails

Here is our daily round-up of what’s going on in the world of books: Publishers Sue Google over Pirate Sites  I was just having a conversation about a recent survey about audiobook consumption that had a pretty startling statistic: 47% of respondents report getting an audiobook through a file-sharing service or YouTube. And that reminded

Happy Pride Month! This is the perfect time to stock up on LGBTQ books to read all year. We have some suggestions: The Hottest Queer Books of Summer 2024 and The Best Recent LGBTQ+ Books to Read for Pride Month. You can also subscribe to Book Riot’s Our Queerest Shelves newsletter to keep up with

Costco Plans to Stop Selling Books Year-Round I had heard from a Book Riot reader that they were seeing some weird activity around the books section at their local Costco, so this story about Costco scaling back their stocking of books isn’t a huge surprise. We definitely need as many places for people who don’t

This week, I recommended books by disabled authors in four genres — SFF, Horror, Romance, and Mysteries — for task #12 of the 2024 Read Harder Challenge. This one was tricky to research, and it reminded me how overlooked disabled authors often are in conversations about diversifying our reading. I have a couple more recommendations

It’s mid-year check-in season. This and more in today’s collection of book links. Barnes & Noble Picks the Best Books of the Year…So Far Barnes & Noble continues its recent format for best books list: grouping titles not by genre, but by….other things (books with sprayed edges, modern love, and others). Let me just highlight

Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside

Bold thief Kierse gets more than she bargained for when she breaks into a terrifying creature’s home in The Wren in the Holly Library, the first in a new series from K.A. Linde. The Wren in the Holly Library takes place in a fantasy version of New York City, and the cityscape is written with so

The Very Online Afterlife of Franz Kafka A very good piece of literary-cum-internet criticism from Amanda Hess for the New York Times. I have myself stumbled upon Kafka-core social media posting and immediately got the appeal. I think Hess’ read is largely right–the melancholy, literary romanticism is well-suited for a certain kind of internet mode.

Magdalena Herrera has a lot of responsibilities. On top of trying to finish high school, she works a part-time job and is the sole caregiver for her grandmother. Mags has a lot of secrets as well. She’s hooking up with a girl who has a boyfriend. And every night she disappears down a trapdoor in

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

Each section of neuroscientist and corporate coach Nicole Vignola’s Rewire: Break the Cycle, Alter Your Thoughts and Create Lasting Change is titled with phrases that will sound familiar to readers bent on self-improvement: “Ditch the Negative,” “Shift Your Narrative,” “Boost the Positive.” While those imperatives may not be new, the author’s explanations of how one

We’re almost halfway through 2024, if you can believe it, which means taking a good hard look at our reading goals for the year. Are you on track to complete them? Or do you need to change pace? One of the most popular reading challenges is on Goodreads, which just asks you how many books

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

Running Close to the Wind Avra Helvaçi is lucky, perhaps supernaturally so, but he refuses to believe that. Luck can’t be proven, after all. Did he test the limits of his luck by drunkenly traipsing into a highly protected vault of the Arasti government and stealing the most powerful secret of the empire without getting

Here we go, the news stories Today in Books readers clicked on most this week! And here are a bunch of interesting links that didn’t quite make the cut for the full TiB treatment this week but are still worth your time. The comments section is moderated according to our community guidelines. Please check them

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

In Malas, the legend of La Llorona (the Weeping Woman) ties together the stories of two women from different generations in a Texas border town. When the two meet in the ‘90s, their connection—including a shared love of Selena—threatens to surface buried town secrets. Malas is your first novel. Can you tell us a bit

Every month, I round up the links that you all clicked on the most from last month’s Our Queerest Shelves newsletters. I love seeing which titles caught your eye — was it because you wanted to buy it right that second, or you just wanted to learn more about it? I can’t know that for

Raised by genteel, churchgoing parents, actress Geena Davis was a shy young woman while she was growing up, but over time, she found her true self as an artist and feminist. She chronicles her personal evolution in her companionable memoir, Dying of Politeness. With wit and honesty, Davis takes stock of her time as a