South Central Correctional Facility (SCCF), a private prison managed by the Tennessee-based CoreCivic, rejected a donation from Books to Prisoners. Three books were sent back to the organization by SCFF, including a children’s biography of Malcolm X titled Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary, written by Walter Dean Myers. The book had been requested by an individual inside the facility and was denied by someone in the mail room of SCCF....
Michael Kelleher, director of the Windham-Campbell Prizes, commented on this year’s award recipients, writing: “Through original and intensely moving work that challenges what we think we know about genre and style, these extraordinary writers cast a forensic eye on the issues that make us human: our identity, our history, our cultural and political experiences.” Prize recipients are nominated confidentially and judged anonymously, so until they receive the call that they’ve won the award, recipients do not know that they’ve been considered....
Two galleries of Morrisonia for you here: a retrospective of the covers of the first American editions of Morrison’s novels and a sampling of notable international and paperback editions. Here are the first American edition covers (hover over image to bring up navigation arrows): And now, a sampling of paperback and international covers.
Ain’t I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks – This groundbreaking, classic, required reading for feminists, regardless of race, yet uniquely speaking to the black woman experience – this book sits at the top of the Black Feminist Literature list. The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-Lynching Crusader by Ida B. Wells – Ms. Wells may not have called herself a feminist, but her stance against violence, her pursuit of truth, and her unwavering ability to use journalism and activism to combat racism and sexism places her amongst the great feminists of history....
Gal, a onetime rock star, is back in Boston to play a benefit when she sees a familiar face in the crowd. When that man is found dead the next day and a friend charged, Gal starts an informal investigation, and as the memories flood back she finds she must reexamine her own wild life, her perceptions of the past, and an industry that monetizes dysfunction. In her Massachusetts Book Award “must read” World Enough, Clea Simon explored the dangers of nostalgia....
What this means is that I like all manner of books. Fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, romance, historical fiction, memoir, essays, travel, sport, graphic novels — I’ll even admit to having some textbooks on my shelves, which are about subjects I have never studied. I like to think I know plenty about genres, but the concept of New Adult has only arrived to me in the last few years. I had heard the term bandied about a bit among book lovers, especially those in the United States....
In this list of 11 new and upcoming middle grade graphic novels, with narratives that really run the gamut. The range of quality books in this genre continues to impress, and it can be hard to narrow it down! However, I chose my faves after much intense pondering. There are hilarious and silly ones, fantastic, magical chronicles, and others that touch on realistic subjects like self-esteem and mental health. These are adventures, myths, and slice-of-life stories — truly, tales for any kid’s taste and mood....
Other Book Riot New Releases Resources This is only scratching the surface of the books out this week! If you want to keep up with all the latest new releases, check out: Reasons to read it: This is a memoir in letters that explores storytelling, self, and survival. Emezi is an incredibly skilled writer, and their gift for language shines just as much in this first nonfiction work. Roxane Gay recommends this one, saying, “This is a remarkable memoir and really expands possibilities for the genre....
In my years of experience arguing with people on the internet about censorship (this is not a satisfying or recommended activity), one of the most important things I’ve learned is that nearly 100% of people think other people are trying to silence their points of view. Around 4% think that “their side” is trying to do the same. Of course, the reality is that while I would argue that one side is guiltier than the other, they’re all guilty....
I am not an irreverent person. In fact, I am as far away from that description as possible (possibly to a fault). But I have to wonder, when do public figures stop belonging to themselves and start belonging to the public? Without the wacky, sometimes misguided, often irreverent, but nonetheless incredibly devoted people who adore those who have created and left something behind to be admired, those figures (now gone) would eventually fade into the blue, just like the rest of us....
The American Reading Habits survey asked 2,003 American adults about their reading habits over the last year. This study was done as a means of offering a different perspective on reading than what’s typically offered via groups like PEW. Rather than define reading as a broad spectrum of activities, WordsRated had two criteria: the book must be print or digital (aka: no audiobooks, despite the fact audiobooks are indeed reading) and the book must have been finished in whole....
Our favorite mustachioed fish out of water coach returns July 23, but until then, I have nothing to do but wait. And what does a fan do while eagerly awaiting a sequel? They speculate. Ted Lasso is a show that loves to make references, from music (and musicals) to movies and books. In fact, some of the most memorable character moments come from their interactions with literature. So I have gone through the first reason and noted every book mentioned, referenced, or shown, no matter how briefly....
There are two types of comic book screen adaptations: those that aim for literal translation and those more concerned with adapting a book’s sensibility. What I’m aiming for with this Pass/Fail experiment is letting you know how well a given flick does with whichever route the powers that be chose to go. Keep in mind I’m not rating the film. It’s 100% possible to make a great comic book movie using only the barest whispers of a parent property or to make a so-terrible-it’s-stupid-fun-to-watch, balls-to-the-wall, insanity fest by surgically removing anything vaguely reality based and splattering the rest all over Tom Hardy (I love Venom and no, I’m not taking questions)....
Of course, when I go to a coffee shop, Starbucks or otherwise, I bring a book with me. During part of November and all of December, that book is very likely to be a holiday novel – usually Christmas, but I make sure to sprinkle in a few Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s books. A lot of those books are romance novels: in fact, I read more romance during the holidays than at any other time of the year....
On April 14th, Rachel shared that she was in the hospital with the flu and a UTI, and had a severe allergic reaction to the antibiotics she was prescribed. Things went downhill from there. Reporting on his wife’s condition, Dan Evans wrote that Rachel began experiencing “constant seizures” and was put in a medically-induced coma. In late April, doctors began weaning her off the coma-inducing medication. The seizures returned “at a reduced rate” but Rachel “did not return to an alert state during this process....
Margaret Atwood If you’ve recently read Atwood’s Booker-winning The Testaments and are dying for more, you’re in luck. The Canadian author has released 17 novels, including The Handmaid’s Tale (of course) and historical fiction like Alias Grace. If her fiction isn’t enough, Atwood has also penned many collections of both short fiction and poetry, graphic novels, children’s books, and 11 nonfiction books. Octavia E. Butler Octavia E. Butler is noteworthy for a lot of reasons....
There are several bookish new year’s resolutions that come up again and again among readers. Read more books! Weed your TBR! Try new genres! Diversify your reading! All of those are great ideas, and things I personally try to do all the time. (Minus weeding my TBR. That’s one I always say I’ll do, but don’t often get around to it.) But with this quiz, I tried to shake things up a bit....
I am far from the only reader who adores these heroines. After all, there is a reason why their quotes are famous even among non-readers. These characters were revolutionary: they made their mark in our collective consciousness to such an extent that we know their names even if we haven’t read their books (although, if that’s the case, what are you waiting for?). In 1913, Mary Sinclair said, about the heroine of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, “the slamming of Helen Huntingdon’s bedroom door against her husband reverberated throughout Victorian England....
Nikki Griffin isn’t your typical private investigator. In her office above her bookstore’s shelves and stacks, she also tracks certain men. Dangerous men. She seeks justice for those who need her help in Save Me From Dangerous Men, the debut by S.A. Lelchuk. Which kickass literary investigator are you? If you’re a fan of detective fiction, you might have wondered this once or twice. From Hercule Poirot to Dayna Anderson, there are dozens of kickass investigators out there that any of us would be proud to relate to....
So many new and great books, but their availability has been limited. Libraries have been closed and their budgets slashed, books are expensive, online ebook borrowing has had weeks-long wait times. It’s not an easy time to be a reader. And, personally, I’ve been languishing within a book slump. I’ve been reading, but not reading well. At the beginning of the pandemic, sequestered in my house with no where to go, I imagined I would read a lot of books....
