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I was a small-town boy from a low-income background; reading materials weren’t really accessible to me at the time. I swear that I was the sole member of the family who read. My parents, my siblings, and even my relatives haven’t touched a single book in their lives, well, aside from the Bible. It was only when I went to college at 16 when I got introduced to reading. I remember that I noticed a college friend reading a paperback and got fascinated by what it was....

My thumb hovers over “Reading Challenge” in my Goodreads menu. I have to know. This battle between my mind (don’t do it) and heart (c’mon, do it) happens every time I open my Goodreads app. My heart wins every time. My reaction is always instant and visceral. If I’m on track or ahead, it’s a mental yessss. If I’m behind, I start to panic: What’s the shortest book on my “Want to read” list?...

I love indie comics for several reasons. A lot of indie comics I come across are written by writers or artists that have worked on my favorite mainstream comics as well. Indie comics tend to push the envelope in creativity and storytelling because they aren’t being stifled by corporate executives like mainstream publishers. I love that mainstream properties can exist in a world where indie comics such as Raising Dion, Saga and Lonely Receiver can thrive just as much and have their own fandoms....

Beautiful covers are the result of a long, collaborative process between art directors and designers. Oftentimes a single designer will create multiple versions before the final one is chosen. Other times, multiple designers are hired to submit covers for the same book, and the art director picks their favorite. This design process results in countless unused designs, which are known as killed book covers. While hunting down the best book cover designers to follow on Instagram, I discovered a treasure trove of these killed book covers....

Today is Kurt Vonnegut Day, and I would not be surprised if some of you out there are wondering why we would set aside a day to honor him. I am all in favor of the celebration, but I find that I am having trouble putting together the words to explain why I admire his writing so much. I just do. Instead, I have searched the internet for examples of the man in action....

Kurt Vonnegut is one of the rare writers that cuts across a wide swath of types of fans: he appels to everyone from hipsters to sci-fi geeks to the Hollywood elite types to crotchety old men to normal dudes and ladies who enjoy good, funny, quirky fiction. It should be no surprise, then, that Vonnegut references permeate pop culture. Here are ten of Kurt Vonnegut’s best appearances in pop culture: 10....

The top 10 audiobooks of 2020 explore a wide range of themes, voices, and perspectives and include about every genre imaginable. Readers were eager to enjoy memoir, anti-racism books, literary fiction, and excellent genre books. Take a look at the list and, if you haven’t, add them to your TBR. Links go to Libro.fm, which you can sign up for and choose a bookstore to support, a monthly membership, or ala carte purchases....

The perseverance of Eloise, 6-year-old troublemaker extraordinaire, lies in her consistent ability to overturn expected behavior and find fun anywhere. She rarely plays by the rules and prefers to take a chaotic approach to her daily tasks. The immediate popularity of Eloise caused the Plaza to set up a room where you could pick up a phone and hear, “Hello, it’s me, Eloise” (voiced by Kay Thompson). Kay Thompson was an actress who resided in the Persian Room at the Plaza in the early 1950s....

Some narrators find a particular niche and stick to it, which is just fine. But Julia Whelan audiobooks come in all genres—I don’t think there’s a genre out there she hasn’t narrated. She does memoir, nonfiction, literary fiction, romance, thrillers, mysteries, science fiction, and fantasy. She also records books across all ages—adult, YA, and children’s. She’s one of my favorite YA narrators; she’s especially good at capturing the particular cadence of teen voices....

The first season of the mystery-comedy series premiered on Hulu in August 2021, and it became the most-watched comedy premiere in Hulu history. So it’s unsurprising that the show returned for a second season this year in July, less than a year after the first season dropped. The second season proved to be just as fun as the first, with plenty of twists, turns, and laughs to keep fans hooked....

Picture it: you’re in the middle of practically nowhere—a place so desolate that it could double as the setting for a science fiction film set on an alien planet. There are no(t many) humans, there is no Starbucks, there is no local pub. It’s you, a few emperor penguins, and a stack of paperbacks. Penguins aren’t much for conversation, so the surprises in those books? They’re all that you have....

Taking to social media, Campbell is dedicating herself to visiting public libraries and filming their Pride displays. This, in addition to highlighting books like Gender Queer in those libraries, is riling up her supporters. She has been receiving attention for her rhetoric parroted from the talking points of groups like Moms For Liberty, who claim comprehensive sexual education is part of an initiative to teach young children how to perform sexual acts as a means of “grooming” them....

Now that I am older, I know she must have chosen her book gifts with much care and I try to choose as wisely as she did. And as soon as I started reading children’s books again as an adult, I was full of opinions. Here are some that guide me in searching for books for tiny or not so tiny humans. The Importance of the Illustrator First, memorable children’s books have a beautiful synergy between the words and illustrations....

If you’ve ever questioned the logic of basing an entire identity around what you have between your legs, it’s time to embark on a daring escape outside of the binary box… Open your eyes to what it means to be a boy or a girl – and above and beyond! Within these pages, you get to choose which path to forge. Explore over one hundred different scenarios that embrace nearly every definition across the world, over history, and in the ever-widening realms of our imagination!...

I tell myself that all bookish people do this. I’m sure most of us do, to an extent. But then there are the little fictions, slightly outlandish wishes, around books that we wish we could make come true. We do all do this, too, right? Maybe that’s just another fantasy of mine. Here are my three best bookish wishes, ranked in order of how embarrassing I find them now. Bookstore Meet-Cute Famous Writer, Appearing on Late-Night TV Not long after I realized I was a terrible singer, but shortly before I stopped trying to write an eleven-year-old’s version of Sheryl Crow’s debut Tuesday Night Music Club (I mean, knew SO MUCH about bars then, didn’t you?...

Pashmina tells the story of Priyanka (“Pri”) Das, a first generation Indian American teen, and her mother. Pri’s mother, who has raised her daughter on her own, keeps quiet about her past and won’t speak about Pri’s father or the life she lived back in India. The titular pashmina, a magical shawl that Pri finds in a suitcase, transports her to a version of her mother’s homeland that comes complete with talking animals, beautiful architecture, the goddess Shakti, and family secrets....

So here they are, horror fans! In no particular order, these are 18 of the best chilling new horror novels to keep you scared for the rest of 2021 and beyond. Cuddle up with a black cat, some candy corn, and one of these books, and make it Halloween in your heart all year long. Want to look back at the best new horror novels from 2020? We’ve got them for you....

This effort by my parents has made me a bit lonesome for home and its varying comforts and surprises, especially as I haven’t been able to go home properly for a few months now. The books they found, from Goosebumps to fairytale collections, have reminded me of the books I read when I was younger, and my favourite of those were the interactive puzzle adventures, many of them published by Usborne, a UK publisher which focuses on children’s books....

But, this year, with regards to this as to so many things, I’m having to adjust — and if we want our favourite small businesses to survive, we all have to. If you’re buying books, or just wanting to support bookshops so that they make it through this year, please think about starting now. Here’s why. Shorter Queues When you’re shopping for gifts, it’s often helpful to be able to browse and to ask staff for recommendations....

In grad school, I fell in love with Virginia Woolf’s essay “On Being Ill” where she confronts non-disabled people’s aversion to engaging with ill people. Woolf states that “Illness is a part of every human being’s experience. It enhances our perceptions and reduces self-consciousness. It is the great confessional; things are said, truths are blurted out which health conceals.” But little is known about Woolf’s condition, so my connection to Woolf felt at arm’s length at times, generalized and somewhat vague....