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Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a gorgeously creepy tale, steeped in Japanese folklore and full of devastating twists.A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundation rests on the bones of a bride, its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. It’s perfect for a group of thrill-seeking friends reunited to celebrate a wedding. A night of celebration spirals into a nightmare as secrets are revealed and relationships are tested....

Choose Wisely Pick your reading material wisely. If your goal is pages read, maybe don’t choose the book with 800+ pages or tiny print. If you know you fly through science fiction, but you read contemporary books slower, indulge your passion for sci-fi. I know my reading speed is about 100 pages per hour, if I’m enjoying my reading. For reading challenges, I tend to choose books that range from 350–500 pages....

House Mugs by NotVeryLadyLike These adorable mugs come in four different patterns so you can rep your house while you sip your butterbeer. Plus, that large handle looks super comfy, which is important when you’re reading your way through the entire Harry Potter series. Jane Austin Mug by ObviousState This gorgeous mug will fit into any collection with its classic shape and black and white color scheme. Also, how can you beat a mug with lots of tiny mugs printed all over it?...

These are the results. Keep in mind, we have no idea whether these writers would be pros at teaching how to do what it is they do. Sometimes we can’t even articulate to ourselves how it is we accomplish the things we are best at in a way that is meaningful to others. So come play in our fantasy world and find out whose writing we thing is a thing to behold and wish we could break down to a model for our own writing success....

On Book Riot in 2015, A.J. O’Connell wrote: “Maps help me figure out where things are, and, as someone with mild dyslexia, are very helpful because I can see which way characters are traveling.” The best fantasy maps help me as a disabled reader, too. My disability affects my mobility and sense of direction. Concepts like “walking distance” or how far non-disabled characters can travel in a day are meaningless to me....

Before Twilight, there was Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the big-budget releases of Interview with a Vampire and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. One of the original horror movie villains was Nosferatu in 1922, and he just keeps coming back to terrify and delight us. Vampires keep coming back because they’re fun, and they’re a fantastic metaphor for so many different social issues. Dracula addressed the fading aristocracy, sucking society dry with their predatory needs....

What is Bookly? Users set yearly, monthly, and daily reading goals and then log their reading time and the number of pages read during each session. The app will then track their progress over the year, tell how long it will take them to finish the book, and, if a user wants, will send daily reminders at a specific time to get their reading done. It’s meant to help readers “form a lasting reading habit....

The Problem With Education Today I don’t remember ever having assigned summer reading growing up. In fact, the first time I remember even hearing about it being was roughly over a decade ago. My mother-in-law asked me to find a copy of The Outsiders for my youngest sister-in-law’s summer reading. Assigned summer reading is designed, in part, to help avoid “Summer Learning Loss.” This idea estimates that the average child loses roughly 17–34% of what they learned the prior school year....

On the cusp of 2019, I noticed a pattern while sharing my reading numbers. Year after year, novels, novellas, and short story collections clinched first: 34 books in 2018 (from a total of 52 books), 26 in 2017 (out of 40 books total), and 15 in 2016 (out of 32 books total). My end-of-year stats and stacks revealed me clinging to fiction, and literary fiction at that, and I wanted to remedy it....

But let’s go back to the beginning. If you’ve never thought much about it, you might now be wondering what is the life cycle of a library book? Where do they come from? Well, when an author and an idea love each other very much— Just kidding. But back to the question: Where do library books come from, and where do they go? The Life Cycle of a Library Book It all starts before a title is even specified by the library....

Bri’s dream is to become one of the greatest rappers of all time. With the pressure of her late father’s own underground rap career and her mother’s job loss and past addiction weighing on her, Bri writes a song that comes to life in her anger and frustration, but the result is a controversy that might swallow up everything else in her life. On the Come Up is Bri’s story through and through, and it’s all about her discovering her own strength and power in good and not-so-great times....

At BookExpo, you can meet celebrities like John Cena and Lupita Nyong’o, both of whom have written children’s books this year. It seems like that’s the thing to do these days. Or, you can meet Sean Penn, if that’s the sort of thing you’re into instead (Just a little joke, Sean Penn! You were great in Mystic River). I’m not sure exactly what Sean Penn was doing there, but he’s probably also written a children’s book....

With the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron flick you may have heard about, we’ve been getting a lot of questions regarding who these characters are. You may recall we did a brief overview of The Vision but for these two we’re going to have to dig a little deeper and get into some politics. But first, what’s up with their powers? Well, Quicksilver is plainly, a super speedster. He doesn’t get as fancy as the Flash, but moving between the ticks of a second gets things done....

Scotiabank Giller Prize The Giller is awarded to a Canadian novel or book of short stories published in English (including translations). It’s often referred to as Canada’s most prestigious literary prize. This year’s shortlist was a rematch of sorts: finalists Esi Edugyan, author of Washington Black, and Patrick deWitt, author of French Exit, were also finalists for the 2011 prize for their respective novels Half-Blood Blues and The Sisters Brothers....

Along with physical books, there are also ebooks and audiobooks included in the sale, like In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado on audio and A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair as an ebook. You can browse the BOGO sale by genre and format, from fantasy books like The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang to graphic books like Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe. Not all books are included in the sale, so look for the Buy One, Get One 50% banner online or sticker in store....

My imposter syndrome began when I started working at a used bookstore. We had a pretty solid comic book and graphic novels section, which I initially shelved. Then another bookseller was hired with more experience in comics. He drew comics, read more than I, and collected them, so I handed over the section. He talked constantly about the superhero comics he enjoyed, along with several other (all male) employees, and recommended many to me....

As a devoted fan of both Strout and Olive, I was thrilled to receive an advanced reader copy of Olive, Again from Penguin Random House at this year’s BookExpo. And oh, how I loved my reunion with Olive and all of the familiar characters who made reappearances—some expected, and some wonderfully unexpected. Once again, Strout’s ability to explore the complexity of what some might call “ordinary” lives inspired me to introduce her work to all my bookish friends....

Aquicorn Cove by Katie O’Neill From the author (and artists) of Princess Princess Ever After and The Tea Dragon Society, Aquicorn Cove is another adorable middle grade fantasy comic with queer characters. The illustrations are beautiful, captivating, and comforting. In O’Neill’s author bio, she says that she writes “gentle fantasy stories,” and I think that’s the perfect description. There is some melancholy beneath the surface of this cute story: the main character has lost her mother, and she’s still processing that grief....

The best gardening books are like, read a book in a hammock, you, while we–the garden–do our thing. I want my garden to be a haven for wildlife, birds, bees, and butterflies. I garden for biodiversity, and for The Living Landscape. The look of my garden is not formal, or Southern, minimalist, or Architectural Digest or Better Homes & Gardens. It’s “scruffy native perennials left to their own devices.” Nature herself is messy so I am merely following Her lead!...