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Discovering that other mothers can relate has been just the balm I need. Just as another Rioter describes finding her mom tribe through comics, I’m discovering mine in graphic memoirs. I think the art in graphic memoirs adds a layer of meaning and emotion that words alone can’t always convey. And let’s be real, as a mother my free time is as precious as the One Ring is to Golem, so graphic novels sometimes feel like more achievable goals for me these days....

Grand Union by Zadie Smith (Hamish Hamilton) Hands down one of my most eagerly anticipated books of the year, Grand Union is Smith’s first collection of short stories. Whip smart observations and penetrating insight makes this book an incisive look at our modern world. The House Without Windows by Barbara Newhall Follett, illustrated by Jackie Morris (Hamish Hamilton) By all means, judge this book by its glorious cover. Stunning inside and out, this lost classic of nature writing features exquisite illustrations and fantastically strange writing....

For even more romantic listens, check out Romance on Audio: Ten Terrific Narrators and 8 Great Contemporary Romance Audiobooks.

I have a love/hate relationship with Mississippi. When my family first moved there, Obama was just running for the presidency against McCain. I myself was rather excited for Obama to win, but I had classmates who were blatantly against him due to the color of his skin. I even had one classmate who calmly and without irony stated, “Obama’s the antichrist.” I expressed my disbelief and decided to keep my distance from said classmate....

CHENDELL: A Natural Warrior, is the first book in the CHENDELL series. It follows the lives of Jamie Chen and Robin Dell. Two people from different worlds. But they are more alike than they realize. They each have abilities to communicate with and direct the natural world. They are perfect for each other. Maybe too perfect. They believe their lives are mapped out until fate gives them a fantastic adventure and a transformative mission....

I am what is considered a heritage speaker of Spanish and Portuguese—that is, I was exposed to those languages frequently while I was growing up, with one parent fluent in both and many other close family and friends who spoke them, but I didn’t start learning them formally until my adolescence (Spanish) or college (Portuguese). As my fellow U.S. Americans probably know, foreign language pedagogy is not the greatest here—we learn languages too late, too slowly, and too artificially....

“The Help, a problematic white savior film that uses the plight of Black domestic workers in the south to prop up white feminism, reached No. 1 on Netflix earlier this week, putting it back in the spotlight for its focus on white saviors and exploitation of Black pain. The timing occurs just as protests and uprisings are taking place across the nation after the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and other victims of police violence....

This list is comprised of mostly recent collections. You don’t need me to recommend Shirley Jackson or Stephen King to you. That’s like trying to find out about different flavors of ice cream and being pitched vanilla and chocolate — they’re good, but you already know about them. These are some of the most wonderful, unusual, and frightening collections I have read in recent years. And with collections of stories, it’s fun, because you get all kinds of different flavors of scary in one book....

I’m not going to discuss the degree to which these accounts are factual, because honestly, I have no idea. What I’d like to do is to count them and list them chronologically. It would be nice if I could say, with perfect honesty, that this post is meant to highlight an unhealthy media obsession with a deeply troubled man who can’t help but hurt himself and the people around him for any amount of attention, good or bad....

The physical stores for the giant retailer comprised only 3% of total revenue, primarily from their Whole Foods stores. Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.

Jaime Herndon: Can you tell me how Looking for Leia came to be? Annalise Ophelian: The idea came about after attending my first Star Wars Celebration, in Anaheim 2015. I’d been to various cons and was used to bracing myself in those spaces, being sort of adrift in a sea of fanboys. But I wasn’t; there were so many women there. Star Wars was my first fandom, and there was something about seeing myself in the fandom and being at this con that was 100% devoted to my fandom first love, that was really magical....

After so many charged interactions, even the best of us can get overwhelmed with the volume and degree of compassion required to serve our communities. While it’s easy to imagine therapists running into the issue of compassion fatigue, it might not be so obvious that library workers, too, deal with it regularly. What Is Compassion Fatigue? Merriam-Webster defines the term as “the physical and mental exhaustion and emotional withdrawal experienced by those who take care for sick or traumatized people over an extended period of time” (in a medical context) and “apathy or indifference toward the suffering of others as the result of overexposure to tragic news stories and images and the subsequent appeals for assistance....

What are annotations, and how do we use them? Long after this practice had diminished, The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach, an essay by William Iser, was published in 1972. Iser starts with the concept of what a literary work is. The essay posits that a literary work is not solely the text, nor is it solely the realization of the words in the readers mind, but it exists in a shared liminal space between the two....

At the start of the year, however, it looks like that’s changing. In 2020, ebook sales rose by 11%. But in 2021, sales declined by 3.7%. Ebook sales also plummeted from January to March this year, according to the Association of American Publishers. In January, it was a 10.1% fall from last year. In February, sales dropped by 6.9% as that trend continued. In March, it went down again as sales dipped by a whopping 12....

That was in May. Now that I have 19 audiobooks under my belt, I feel equipped to make a few recommendations. Consider this my guide for the uninitiated. The Thirteenth Tale Written by Diane Setterfield, Narrated by Bianca Amato and Jill Tanner I am not alone when I say that this is one of my favorite audiobooks. At a time when I was starting to lose interest in the whole thing, this book got my attention....

Jackie De Leo, Chief Merchandising Officer, said “Readers of every genre will have a book to dive into on our Best Books of 2022 list. There is an extraordinary amount of talent here, ranging from standout debut authors to Pulitzer Prize winners, all of whom have made a lasting impression on our booksellers.” While the list has a few books in common with the Barnes & Noble’s Best Books of 2022 (So Far) list that was released in the middle of this year, there are quite a few new additions....

From heroes and heroines to villains and everything in the murky in-between, here are eight great YA mystery and thriller books starring LGBTQ+ teens! Want more LGBTQ+ YA book recommendations? Check out these 15 must-read LGBTQ+ YA fantasies!

The data for the 2019 census shows that the white population decreasing about 9 more percentage points to 60.1% while the Latine or Hispanic and Asian American populations increased (source). The most noteworthy difference here is that more than half of young people, 16 and younger, identify as ethnic or biracial. It’s no wonder then that multicultural books are hitting a chord with so many readers, especially children’s and YA readers....

Okay, I love me some epic fantasy. My first taste came from Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series. Instead of waiting for my Hogwarts letter as a preteen (because Hogwarts, alas, did not yet exist), I waited for my magical horse. My companion would come galloping down the gravel driveway, leap over the fence and past the bevy of kind yet loud dogs, and rescue me from my mundane existence. I mean, obviously I had magical powers (a fantasy I’ll never quite shake)....

Jane Austen Litograph Puzzle: Calling all puzzle people! Litographs is launching a puzzle collection! This is just one of many wonderful classic designs. Reading Bean: Maximum comfort while reading is important, so check out these reading beans that help you support your book while cozied up in your reading nook! Escape from The Evil Garden Board Game: Looking for another way to pass the time during quarantine? Check out this board game inspired by Edward Gorey’s work!...