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Ask any NBA fan about the mid-range jumper and you will either get a nostalgic longing for the days of Alex English or a roll of the eyes. To see the end of the mid-range jumper coming, one could have taken one passing glance at the up-and-coming brand of basketball in the NBA’s Developmental League of 2014. The magnificent and gone-too-soon Grantland did a couple of (most likely overlooked) pieces about a D-League team called the Rio Grande Valley Vipers....

A research paper published in Journal of Happiness Studies titled “Do Self Help Books Help?” might give us some insight into this. The article acknowledges that there’s a lot of skepticism around this genre. It also outlines scenarios in which self-help books can actually work! Here are a few of the times. When the Book is Problem-Focused Self-help literature can be divided into two broad categories: problem-focused and growth-oriented. Problem-focused books offer advice on how to overcome specific issues....

The study explores the r/books forum on Reddit, which has close to 18 million members. What books and authors are mentioned the most? What topics get the community fired up? Although Reddit isn’t representative of any single group, that’s a part of the appeal for exploring it as representative of the average reader. There are certainly book industry folks in the subreddit, but the bulk of the community is the end user of books, as opposed to someone within the process itself....

Various studies back up this age-old advice, too. This 2014 literature review found links between short-term alleviation of depression symptoms in people 16-25 and time spent outdoors; this 2010 study found an improvement in self-esteem and mood when engaging in “green exercise,” meaning exercise done in nature; and this 2017 study found improved mental health in neighborhoods with more vegetation cover. And, even if you’re not in it for the benefits, it’s just nice sometimes to take a stroll among the trees....

Either way, this novel found me during a fairly bad reading slump. One morning, sitting in a coffee shop, desperate to distract myself from my inability to make it through 1984 (sorry, George; it was me, not you), I fished out the only other book in my purse: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I was enthralled immediately. I knew, as soon as I got to this passage, that this novel was going to become a favorite: I was right....

In addition to some of the world’s most famous ancient epic poems, this list of epic poetry audiobooks includes some modern twists and contemporary takes on epic poetry. While classics like The Odyssey and The Mahabharata are still delighting listeners thousands of years after their compositions, ancient epics aren’t the only kind. Who says an epic has to be a 1,000+ line poem about a hero’s quest? Well, somebody with a degree in classics or linguistics or religious texts might say so, but I don’t have any of those degrees....

Black is known for her books filled with fae, fantasy, and pure adventures. If you have yet to pick up some of her novels, these reading pathways will help introduce you to her magical stories and will have you excited to pick up one of her novels, which have marked their spot in the literary world and inspired other fantastical tales, as soon as possible. From dramatic romances to thrill rides, below are three books that should help you get to know and understand Holly Black’s tales....

The Women’s Atlas, now in its fifth edition, is a useful snapshot of women’s lives around the world. Authored by feminist geographer Joni Seager, it uses simple infographics and maps to make the statistics more visually interesting. One example is a timeline showing the years that certain women’s sports finally made it into the Olympics (boxing not until 2016, ugh). Another is a map depicting where abortion is illegal, and what the level of restriction is....

As I read in childhood, there were also certain books I returned to, again and again. If You Give A Pig A Pancake by Laura Numeroff. Who Put the Pepper in the Pot? by Joanna Cole. Sam’s Sandwich by David Pelham. Then I moved from vivid picture books to the feasts of the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. What did each of these books have in common? Food in all its glory....

Savage Bastards is a story of brotherhood, revenge, and betrayal. Set in 1873, follow half brothers, Sam and Elliot, as they fight across a series of satellite towns in the Sonoran Desert in order to save Elliot’s mother from their sadistic, sociopath of a father, Darragh MacDougal and the rest of his crazy bastard children. Words by David Galiano, art by Carlos Angeli, lettering by Miguel Angel Zapata.

Greek mythology meets cute talking animals in this first adventure for Zeus the Mighty. Welcome to the Mount Olympus Pet Center in Athens (Georgia), where Zeus the Mighty (a hamster) leads his critter companions (all named after Greek gods and goddesses) on a dangerous quest across the kingdom. Will they triumph? Find out in this fun and funny new book, inspired by Greek mythology! Watch the video, take a personality quiz, listen to the Nat Geo Kids Greeking Out podcast, and discover more at ZeusTheMighty....

Have you heard? OverDrive’s Audiobook Month Sale is on now. Don’t miss out on 25-50% savings on audiobooks all through the month of June. Popular genres include new releases, diverse reads, Book Club picks, romance, mystery and more. With thousands of titles on sale, there’s something for all your patrons to enjoy. Start shopping. I think I speak for a lot of us when I say that this last year has been, B-A-N-A-N-A-S....

For me, a true enemies-to-lovers romance has to be intense with very high stakes. They have to want to end the other one! Think The Cruel Prince, The Wrath and the Dawn, and We Hunt the Flame. Most of the time that doesn’t happen in contemporary romances; instead I see it often in fantasy books. In contemporary books, you can encounter more of a rivalry relationship or a dislike-to-love dynamic between the main characters....

These are the stories I crave. Having more context for books I love, like my problematic fave Little House on the Prairie, enriches my understanding of the series as an adult without detracting from my childhood memories. Then there are books I find loathsome, like Go Ask Alice. Reading about what horrors that book contributed to, like the so-called War on Drugs, stokes my righteous flames of anger. It’s very exciting to share this niche collection of books with you....

In researching this list, I found a distinct lack of authors of color in the “cookbook but make it astrological” space. It is not surprising: there also seems to be a general lack of melanated skin in the astrology space, and for that matter, in the “themed cookbook” space as well. However, the zodiac encompasses everyone, and so should this list. So for the second half, I’ve chosen a cookbook by an author of color for each of the elements embedded in the zodiac: earth, air, fire, and water....

It’s not a surprise by now that Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir has been under fire across the country, nor is it a surprise many of these challenges, both in public schools and in public libraries come through coordinated efforts. Indeed, in this case, the person who filed the complaint laid out the typical talking points — the book is pornographic and pornography isn’t legal in Texas — but they made it clear that their decision to file a complaint came because of seeing people talk about the book being a problem on social media....

The line’s big selling point was its diversity: each character came from a different background and had distinct interests, goals, and family situations. But this was the late ’90s. How diverse could these “way cool” teens really be? Let’s take a look. The Gang I’ll introduce you real quick. Character bios below! Barbie Roberts, an amateur actress whose very neglectful parents let her move to New York City alone and stay with a couple she’s never met before while her little sisters stay in California with…somebody....

My genre kryptonite isn’t a single element so much as a kind of literary alloy: basically, if a book fuses two or more genres together, I’m already halfway toward cracking the cover. That’s right: I am a sucker for genre mash-ups. For example, I’m not much taken with straight westerns, in which cowpokes cross the lonely prairies on horseback. But if the cowpokes are aliens and/or their steeds are robotic—suddenly my antennae are standing at attention....

It’s all Jon Krakauer’s fault. I blame him entirely for my addiction to non-fiction outdoor adventure books. Like many great book discoveries, I first saw Into Thin Air at a used bookstore. Its threatening and mysterious cover – featuring Mt. Everest shrouded in ominous-looking clouds – whispered to me, “Pick me up. Come on. Open the first page. See what happens.” I had heard of the book and knew it was well-reviewed, so decided to give it a try....

Now, if you’re unfamiliar with this trope, let me tell you a little bit about it. The grumpy/sunshine trope is mainly a grumpy character falling for a sunshine character. Grumpy characters are usually stoic, icy, or even prefer order instead of chaos. Sunshine characters tend to talk a lot more, they like everyone, and they are overly nice. This is, of course, only the superficial stuff, because each character has their own story and maybe they are who they are because of their past and their circumstances....