Book Riot is teaming up with Harlequin.com to giveaway one $100 Books-A-Million gift card! Note: Only one of these books is by an author of color. As I mentioned earlier this month, we need more books about the holidays by authors of color! See you next year, friends! Happy New Year!

It’s the summer before senior year. Reid is in the thick of Scofield High’s in-crowd thanks to her best friend, Hattie. But summer is when Hattie goes to her family’s island home, so instead of sitting inside all summer, Reid and their friend, Sam, decide to live it up. But days before Hattie comes home, Reid finds out that Hattie has died by suicide. Driven by a need to understand what went wrong, Reid searches for answers....

Books by Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, and Roxane Gay have all shaped my life and the ways I see the world as an adult. Books by Phoebe Robinson, Samantha Irby, and Luvvie Ajayi have shown me how to write about painful moments with humor. I’m happy to say I consistently see those names on many must-read lists, and below are three more memoirs that are not to be missed....

A lifetime of secrets. A history untold. No. It is a simple word, uttered on a summer porch in 1936. And it will haunt Kitty Milton for the rest of her life and its consequences will ripple through the Milton family for generations. Moving through three generations and back and forth in time, The Guest Book asks how we remember and what we choose to forget, and tells the story of a family and a country that buries its past in quiet, until the present calls forth a reckoning....

There are a few novels and stories I’ve delved into recently authors have managed to infuse with that ineffable thing that makes the leap from words to words with art not only possible, but something this reader is clamoring for. I’ve even picked artists I’d love to see do the work: My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite When Korede has to help her sister, Ayoola, dispose of a third boyfriend’s corpse, she quips, “Femi makes three, you know....

The Double, a manifestation of all we want to keep hidden from ourselves, is a perfect emblem of gothic horror, a genre defined by the tension which two opposing aesthetics, ideologies, or planes of existence creates. They encapsulate what really makes our skin crawl: that we’re actually the monster in this story. Whether your Double is threatening to take total control of your mind and body, attempting to strike out on its own, or takes the form of another person who mirrors the life you always wanted, what is clear is that the only danger it poses is in its ability to shine a light on the parts of us we wish could remain covered in cobwebs....

After watching the movie, it was clear why Kendrick Lamar was selected to curate this soundtrack, and yes, it makes sense in the grand scheme of things, however, I would have loved a more continental African-sounding soundtrack. I don’t hate the Black Panther album, I just wished I loved it more. Despite a few hang-ups here and there, the Black Panther soundtrack still was able to make its own impact by changing the way scores are created for films that are based on non-American culture....

Therefore, it is my pleasure to recommend the following books of stories for your Short Story Month TBR. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter If you’re into fairytales, read this. If you’re into feminist fairytales, then definitely read this. Or, perhaps, if you crave tales of love so goddamn beautiful and grotesque that you want hide your eyes but also can’t look away, stop what you’re doing right now and read this....

4 Books That are Perfect to Read in September Circe by Madeline Miller Circe is a wonderful book to read all year round. But there’s something about this Greek mythological retelling that makes me think it’d be perfect to read in September. This novel follows the life of Circe, daughter of the Sun God, Helios, whose ability to wield magic and penchant for helping mortals leads to her banishment to a remote island for the rest of her life....

So what else can I do but recommend authors with weird, mishmashed stories that put a mirror up to society? Here are five authors like Carmen María Machado for those of you who, like me, can’t get her stunning prose out of your minds. Authors Like Carmen María Machado Myriam Gurba Myriam Gurba, like Machado, doesn’t shy away from tackling social issues in her writing (I mean, Gurba’s the one who wrote that review of Dirt)....

Seventeen-year-old Kim gets more than she bargained for when she is set up for murder. Perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying, E. Lockhart, and Gillian Flynn. My favorite genre is mystery, and YA has been churning out some really excellent books in that category lately! I love everything from moody and dark thrillers to offbeat investigations, and YA books have got me covered. Beth O’Brien gave us 50 must-read YA mysteries last year, and I’m happy to follow up with 50 more must-read YA mysteries to add to your TBR!...

But Egyptian literature has a tremendously rich and varied history: of cookbooks and crime novels, satire and sci fi, dystopias, and dramas. This list of 50 barely begins to poke at the surface. And it doesn’t even talk Egyptian literature for young people! To start off in the 14th century: 1) Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table edited and translated by Nawal Nasrallah For a long time, most of the cookbooks written in this world were put together by Arabs....

While I’m by no means an expert on the fandom, I love everything about the Harry Potter universe. Here’s a collection of all the stories that have stayed with me over the last decade of my fan fiction explorations. Some are one-shots, i.e. one chapter long; others are multi-chaptered. Some are finished; others are still works in progress. I’ve tried to ensure I have a good selection of types and pairings....

The River by Peter Heller March 5 | Knopf Wynn and Jack, friends since college, set out on a canoeing adventure down the Maskwa River in Northern Canada. A wildfire starts burning through the forest and the two men begin paddling to safety. On the way, they hear a man and woman arguing on the riverbank. They decide to warn the couple but can’t find them. Then, they spot a man paddling alone on the river....

These six contemporary novels all feature (almost) no romance. A few of them do mention romance, but none of them have romantic plots or subplots. Some of the characters in these books are in romantic relationships at one point or another, but those relationships are just briefly touched on. Romance isn’t what drives the plot. Instead, these books are about friendship, grief, family, self-discovery, and work. There are so many interesting and important things that happen to humans besides falling in love, and these books explore all of that messy, non-romantic stuff....

Yeah. Some men are writing a story about some boys solving the murder of Nancy Drew. To celebrate Nancy’s birthday. I BEG YOUR FUCKING PARDON. Now, I realize that there is basically no way on earth that Nancy is actually dead. And I do, believe it or not, understand how marketing works. But selling it this way is harmful and insulting, and there are so many better ways it could have been done....

At least in theory, r/relationships is limited in its scope of amusing awfulness by reality. Literature—fiction, at least—has no such boundaries. Authors have been writing about terrible and perplexing relationships for centuries. Bad personal hygiene, women blaming themselves for their otherwise perfect male partners’ unreasonable demands, bizarre sexual behavior, questionable friendships, you name it. So without further ado, here are some relationships in literature as they might be described by the characters in them....

I know there is a tendency for people (usually non-disabled people) to use person-first language, i.e. “person with a disability.” However, in the disability community, many (here and here, for instance) have spoken up and prefer identity-first language, i.e. “D/disabled person.” This is because disability is not something negative and should not be treated as such—it should not be seen as something to be separated from the person. I defer to the disability community, and in general, will always ask a person what kind of language they prefer or use....

Even in the wake of all the true crime enthusiasm, there’s something about David Fincher’s adaptation of the book Mindhunter by John Douglas that’s especially haunting. To me, it’s one thing to hear about serial killings—they are absolutely offending, horrendous, unthinkable acts—but it’s a different beast to think about the people who solve those crimes. It’s an even different animal to consider the people who study the criminals once they’re caught....