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Newspeak is the language of Oceania, where 1984 takes place, and it was created by the Party to try to control not only how people communicate, but what thoughts they’re even capable of having. This is supported by the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, which argues that the way a language is structured influences how speakers think. For instance, because of the way English structures sentences (subject → verb → object), English speakers are more likely to assign outcomes to a certain actor: “The dog broke the vase” vs....

Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D., Oregon) and U.S. Representative Anna G. Eshoo (D., California) lead the latest charge, drafting a series of letters to the Big Five publishers to clarify their ebook contracts with public schools. Ebook contracts are notoriously tricky. For libraries, who can purchase print books and own them through their natural lifespan, ebooks come with restrictions on a number of fronts. They aren’t owned by the library and instead are licensed: at any time, the books may disappear or come with circulation limits, and those licenses come at astronomical prices....

Finding ways to thank our librarians for the priceless work they do isn’t always easy or straightforward. Most librarians do a lot more than just library work: they are social workers at their core, providing people all types of help. More often than not, they don’t get the payback they deserve. Libraries are still one of few places where you can find some shelter without having to spend a cent, but their value is too often overlooked....

John Lithgow steps into the role of Jud Crandall (played impeccably by Fred Gwynne in the original 1989 adaptation). His kindly, cautious narration walks us through scenes of increasing terror: children in masks playing funeral dirges on toy drums, blood soaked scalpels gleaming on white trays, mud-caked footprints leading towards the Creed homestead, fingers with filthy, broken fingernails, as if whoever they belong to had dug themselves out of their own grave, clawing their way in through an open window....

via GIPHY …is all grown up and she can fight! At least that’s my takeaway from the trailer for Stumptown, an upcoming ABC series based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth. Seems Cobie Smulders is taking a break from the world of Marvel to play an army veteran P.I. in Portland, and I don’t remember the last time I sat on the edge of my seat watching a trailer for an upcoming TV show....

I say this because it’s rare indeed when the publishing industry decides to release stories about us. When they do, it’s always about our otherness, the fact that we fit a mold that we didn’t ask for, or that we immigrated from a strange, exotic land and brought our strange, exotic ways. I grew up seeing my peers value the stories and trials of white characters but completely overlook Indian characters (and really any Asians for the matter)....

The fact that, for the most part, manga have endings is big part of the appeal. As someone who cut her comic book reading teeth on X-Men titles in the 1990s, not having to worry about huge crossover events or decades of backstory was a revelation. I could pick up volume 1 and dive in. I didn’t even have to worry about reboots changing everything I understood about the world!...

In a conversation earlier this year, Gentill told me about the opportunities for both the reader and the author. She said, “the reader is engaged in that whole process of discovering and uncovering who made the dead body. In the excitement of that, you can actually have a conversation with them about other things as well. I quite love that about my fiction because crime fiction isn’t just about the murder, it’s often about something else as well....

Note: Due to the a dearth of comics on this topic by authors of color and women, some of these lists lack diversity. Option 1: Reading the Familiar Characters If you are interested in reading about the characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the X-Men movies, you can find all of these beloved characters in the comic run Ultimate Marvel Universe. Below are the first five comics for that run....

But in December, I decided to try something new. I’m a big notebook person — there’s nothing I love more than searching for the perfect notebook. You know the one: it will let the words flow, it’ll get you organized and basically solve your life problems and also make everything great. While I have yet to see if this notebook will do all of that, so far it’s been pretty good....

As Jack Zipes asks in his fairytale analysis Why Fairy Tales Stick, why do some fairytales stick and not others? I decided to ask several writers and retellers of fairytales this question to get their opinions. Their answers are multi-faceted. The Cyclical Magic Of Fairytales “Repetition is its own kind of magic,” author Alix E. Harrow explains. Like a spell, once a fairytale catches the popular imagination, it ignites. “Trying to trace the beginning of my love of fairytales is like trying to lick my own elbow or find the end of a circle....

A few years ago, there was a tweet in response to the Skytalkers podcast about how “Star Wars has always been a guy thing.” Many people, including Mark Hamill, strongly felt otherwise. Star Wars is most certainly not just a “guy thing,” whatever that even means. I’ve always loved how as the galaxy has developed, we see more and more strong women of the galaxy, and we’re getting their stories — not just as props to the men....

What Is Worldbuilding? Worldbuilding is the process of creating a fictional world or universe, which includes such elements as world history, geography, politics, languages, customs, religious pantheons — just about anything that’s a part of our real world can be included in an author’s worldbuilding. Sometimes, you may see or hear people referring to the combined elements of worldbuilding as a story’s “lore.” To take a classic example, look at J....

Both of those interactions and justifications tie back to the idea of reading as a pastime with an inherent moral value. More than many other hobbies or leisure pursuits, reading supposedly makes you more intelligent, more empathetic, and generally a better person. This isn’t some vague notion that a few elite scholars have, this is a view that is held by governments, librarians, teachers, literary critics, booksellers, parents, and even by us here at Book Riot....

Romance, fanfic, and manga don’t seem to have a lot in common (though if you write something that is all three about one of my favourite TV shows, I will definitely read it), but they all play a similar role in my reading life. They remind me of how fun reading can be. That seems like a ridiculously obvious thing to say from a lifelong reader, but I often associated reading with progress, learning, and emotional growth....

“Moms for Libraries” will be working with Brave Books to launch the campaign. Brave Books is an organization publishing books that “empower[s] this generation’s youth with conservative values” while “glorifying the Lord in all we do.” They call themselves, “a conservative alternative to the current progressive agenda that dominates our culture.” The books are written by a host of conservative pundits and influencers and the stories center around characters defending “Freedom Island....

Can’t get enough of the celebrity life and Britney? Check out this list of 2020 celebrity books, this list of 50 must-read books about music, and revisit Britney’s relationship with books.

And then there are times when a retcon changes something so fundamental about a superhero that it permanently affects the way readers view them—and not for the better. Even comics published before the retcon are tainted by the knowledge that the hero was skulking around being a jerkweed behind the scenes. That stinks for the fans, but what if you are the suddenly amoral hero in question? Historically, you have several options, such as…...

Or it would, if I were running things. In practice, the results are pretty gloomy. Secret identity shenanigans are usually employed only to facilitate tragic romances, which lead to the following, often dubious outcomes. Have a Family (Accidentally) Before he was retconned as gay Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern, was briefly married to a woman named Alyx Florin, who died on their honeymoon. Except no, she didn’t. And her name wasn’t Alyx Florin, either....

In the past, most writers living outside their countries of origin hoping to publish work in Spanish had to establish and build collaborations with projects across borders and cultures. In theory, this practice may not seem that much different from what all writers have to do. However, virtual meetings, readings, and online submissions were not as popular before 2020. To build literary connections in Spanish-speaking countries, writers would have to travel, investing time and money....