Here are five audiobooks under five hours that you won’t want to stop listening to. March Sisters by Kate Bolick, Jenny Zhang, Carmen Maria Machado, and Jane Smiley, read by Cassandra Campbell (4 hours, 9 minutes) Even if you don’t love Little Women, you’ll most likely be able to find something to relate to in these four essays, and if you are a Little Women fan, you’ll be utterly delighted....
Check Out Author/Book Read-Alike Guides Let’s start with something basic: finding books like the books you’ve already read and loved. Ask yourself what some of your favorite books are, or what you’ve recently enjoyed. Are they fiction or nonfiction books? What genre are they? What time period do they take place in? What are some of the themes or elements that you really enjoyed in those books? For example, if you recently loved Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, maybe you want books that are smart and satirical, or deal with race and privilege....
Descriptions graciously supplied from publisher descriptions and condensed when necessary. Best Short Books All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg (Fiction) American Housewife by Helen Ellis (Fiction) American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes (Poetry) An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten, translated by Marlane Delargy (Mystery) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (Mystery) “‘Ten . . .’ Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious “U....
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon “The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this ‘suggested arrangement’ so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not? Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways....
I’ve written before about developing a collecting strategy, something I recommend contemplating before going to such a big fair. My primary goal at this fair is finding paperback gothic romances. I have to be thorough, because these books tend to be slippery for the volunteers sorting donations into genres. In past fairs, I’ve found them in the horror/sci-fi/fantasy/true crime section, the general fiction section, the romance section, and the mystery section....
The varied demands of narrating fiction—multiple characters, compelling storytelling, diverse accents—require a certain finesse. It is not so easily managed by authors who are best known for writing alone in an office at home. I have bailed on quite a few cringeworthy attempts by marvelous writers whose skill at putting pen to paper far exceeds their capacity to relay their brilliance in speech. But every once in while I stumble upon that rare author who wows me with a terrific performance of their own work....
Noticeably absent from this historic bill, which was passed in the Senate using the budget reconciliation process in order to avoid a filibuster by Republicans, is a measure to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 from the current $7.25, which it’s been since 2009. Originally included in the bill, the minimum wage increase was ruled by the Senate Parliamentarian as falling outside the scope of budget reconciliation. While we wait to see what happens next (get ready for midterms, y’all), let’s take a look at some books about the history of American labor and the minimum wage....
Fierce and ambitious, Aina Solís as sharp as her blade and as mysterious as the blood magic she protects. After the murder of her parents, Aina takes a job as an assassin to survive and finds a new family in those like her: the unwanted and forgotten. DIAMOND CITY: built by magic, ruled by tyrants, and in desperate need of saving. It is a world full of dark forces and hidden agendas, old rivalries and lethal new enemies....
Candice Carty-Williams returns with another witty and insightful novel about the power of family—even when they seem like strangers. Dimple Pennington knows of her half siblings, but she doesn’t really know them. Five people who don’t have anything in common except for faint memories of being driven through Brixton in their dad’s gold jeep, and some complex abandonment issues. But then a dramatic event brings her half siblings Nikisha, Danny, Lizzie, and Prynce crashing back into her life....
Emily Dickinson was a keen observer of the natural world, but less well known is the fact that she was also an avid gardener. In Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life, Marta McDowell explores Dickinson’s deep passion for plants and how it inspired her writing. Tracing a year in the garden, McDowell reveals details few know about Dickinson and adds to our collective understanding of who she was as a person. By weaving together Dickinson’s poems, excerpts from letters, contemporary and historical photography, and botanical art, Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life offers an enchanting perspective on one of America’s most celebrated literary figures....
Included in the list are YA and adult books, books by familiar names as well as a few debut authors, and a breakdown by genre. Here are the results: Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.
While it would be wonderful to head on out on a quick road trip, sometimes we don’t have enough vacation days or time. With that said, we all love a quick bookish escape that will transport us somewhere different. And when you add in the fact that the book includes characters going on their own road trip, it makes the read an even more perfect escape. Also, a lot of the best road trip romances tend to be young adult, from my experience reading many of them....
One of the biggest reasons to delve deeply into books that give us historical context is that they help us make better decisions going forward. Well-intentioned efforts to promote social justice may undercut other efforts to make progress if they aren’t historically informed. A variety of authors have deeply researched the history of social injustices in the United States, helping us to see how many of the causes that we might think of as separate are actually connected....
Sometimes, my students love these stories. Other times, I’m met with vehement rage, but that usually happens because I made them think. via GIPHY These creepy short stories stretch your brain, and sometimes you stretch around a corner that you can’t quite see the shadows of. These are some of the creepy short stories that I’ve assigned (or WOULD assign) to keep my students intrigued. “The Revenge of Hannah Kemhuff” by Alice Walker You likely know Alice Walker from her amazing epistolary novel The Color Purple, but you know that part when Celie curses Mister?...
Alligator & Other Stories by Dima Alzayat (Picador) This short story collection packs in one hell of an emotional gut-punch. Heralding the arrival of a dazzling Syrian American talent, these nine stories shrewdly capture how it feels to be ‘other’: as a Syrian, as an Arab, as an immigrant, as a woman. Alzayat dissects universal concepts like gender, language, faith and relationships with remarkable incisiveness. Writers & Lovers by Lily King (Picador) This novel marks the much anticipated return of author of the award-winning Euphoria....
Gifted and cursed with the ability to see the future, Mildred Groves takes a position at the Hanford Research Center in the early 1940s. Hanford tests and manufactures a mysterious product to aid the war effort. Only the top officials know that this product is processed plutonium, to make the first atomic bombs. Inspired by the classic Greek myth, this 20th-century reimagining is based on a real WWII compound. A timely novel about patriarchy and militancy, The Cassandra uses both legend and history to examine man’s capacity for destruction, and the compassion it takes to challenge the powerful....
From Margaret Dilloway, author of Five Things About Ava Andrews, comes a poignant coming-of-age novel about a young amateur astronomer, environmental activism, and healing, that’s perfect for fans of national parks and heartfelt contemporary stories.When the open-space private preserve adjacent to Zion National Park is sold to a construction company and her park archeologist mother tells her it’s time for them to move on, twelve-year-old Tuesday Beals’s search for closure leads to unexpected discoveries....
Murder Mystery Plots Whodunit In a whodunit murder mystery the focus on the murder is on solving who did it. Sometimes the investigator(s) — amateur or professional and including, but not limited to: PIs, lawyers, detectives, a person tied to the suspect that they are determined to prove innocent — will try to figure out why the murder took place to find a suspect, or they use forensic science to get at least one suspect....
Twin sisters Sunshine and Margot are as different as chalk and cheese, but what they do have in common is a complete lack of luck when it comes to love. Emotionally stunted by a mother who dropped everything to follow boyfriend after boyfriend, the sisters have ever only had each other for support and to share a pint of post-heartache ice cream. When Margot, an etiquette specialist, is hired to work with Bianca, an icon from Hollywood’s Golden Age with romantic entanglements of her own, she and Sunshine become the daughters she never had, and their friendship teaches them how to embrace the quirks that make them unique, and how to demand the love they deserve just as they are....
