Books

Author Ying Chang Compestine mixes a smart, clever heroine into her own take on the Rapunzel story, inspired by Chinese culture and food as well as Compestine’s own childhood. In a world of myriad fairy-tale retellings, Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu stands out as delightful, energetic and unique: a fairy tale you will
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Yesterday, it was announced that 2023’s Booker Prize winner was Irish writer Paul Lynch. His book that won, Prophet Song, is a Dublin-set dystopian novel in which a mother struggles with her country’s totalitarianism. On writing the book, Lynch said, “This was not an easy book to write. The rational part of me believed I
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After decades of being a largely underserved area of scientific study, fungi are finally having their moment. The phenomenon feels not unlike the overnight appearance of a mushroom; all it took were the right conditions for the right fruiting body. The conditions: a reading public amid COVID-19 lockdown in spring 2020, aching for connection. The
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Happy Singh Soni is not, well, happy: He is longing for more. And, given his condition at the outset of Celina Baljeet Basra’s debut novel, why wouldn’t he be? His home, a Punjabi farming village that is being steadily encroached upon by an expanding theme park, is no place for a young man with ambition—of
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Lyndsie Manusos’s fiction has appeared in PANK, SmokeLong Quarterly, and other publications. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has worked in web production and content management. When she’s not nesting among her books and rough drafts, she’s chasing the baby while the dog watches in confused amusement.
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Mara (They/Them) has accidentally on purpose made their entire life about books and stories. Mara graduated with a B.A in creative writing and theatre and is halfway through an MFA in Creative writing. In addition to writing for Book Riot, Mara also has written for The Independent Book Review, Wargamer, and The Other Half, to
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Elisa Shoenberger has been building a library since she was 13. She loves writing about all aspects of books from author interviews, antiquarian books, archives, and everything in between. She also writes regularly for Murder & Mayhem and Library Journal. She’s also written articles for Huffington Post, Boston Globe, WIRED, Slate, and many other publications.
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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
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It’s Black Friday, which means there are a lot of deals to sort through! We’ve gathered up some of the best Black Friday deals on Amazon for readers, including sales on ereaders, reading lights, bookish games, reading chairs, bookshelves, headphones for audiobook listeners, and even a KitchenAid mixer to pair with a good cookbook.
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Courtney has been reading and collecting books almost as long as she’s been alive. She holds a B.A. in Theatre and Creative Writing. Courtney has been writing with Book Riot since 2019, and is a Bibliologist with TBR: Tailored Book Recommendations. She’s currently brainstorming for her next creative project. You can follow her on Instagram.
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Gia R. is from Phoenix, Arizona. She graduated with two business degrees. While studying, her short nonfiction story was published in 2018 in Write On, Downtown, an ASU journal. Since then, she taught preschool students abroad. Now back in AZ, you’ll find her writing, reading, and adoring digital art. View All posts by Gia R.
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‘Tis the season for best books lists, and NPR’s is a huge one. It also has an interface that is a bit different from the others. To the left of NPR’s “Books We Love” main page are categories that range from “Staff Picks” to “Realistic Fiction” to the spicy “The Dark Side.” Readers can choose
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Every year, librarians from the New York Public Library system pick their favorite books of 2023, including Adult, Teen, and Children’s books. These aren’t necessarily the most popular books in this library system, but they’re the ones librarians most recommend. At a time where every publication is putting out its own best books of the
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With the publication of exquisite literary gems like Foster and Small Things Like These, Irish writer Claire Keegan’s reputation among American readers is slowly, but steadily, growing. The three elegantly-crafted stories collected in So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men will only enhance that increasing regard. In the title story, Cathal, a
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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
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As long as piracy has existed, it has been shrouded in myth, legend and rumor, which compromises the reliability of primary texts describing its major figures. Author Katherine Howe tackles this historical pitfall in her newest novel, A True Account. Hannah Masury, nicknamed “Hannah Misery” by the clientele at the waterfront inn where she works
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By day, Leah Rachel von Essen is the editor-in-chief of Chicago Booth Magazine at the University of Chicago. By night, she reviews genre-bending fiction for Booklist, and writes regularly as a senior contributor at Book Riot. Her blog While Reading and Walking has over 10,000 dedicated followers over several social media outlets, including Instagram. She
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Kendra Winchester is a Contributing Editor for Book Riot where she writes about audiobooks and disability literature. She is also the Founder of Read Appalachia, which celebrates Appalachian literature and writing. Previously, Kendra co-founded and served as Executive Director for Reading Women, a podcast that gained an international following over its six-season run. In her
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RBMedia, one of the world’s top producers of audiobooks, has released a list of the ten bestselling audiobooks of the year. Some of the titles line up with bestsellers in print, like the newest book in Rebecca Yaros’s hit romantasy series The Empyrean. Others, though, seem to have found unique success with this format. Gigi,
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