But that doesn’t mean we have or can think of everything. So I want to ask: what can we do for you? What can we write about that we don’t? In what way can we write that we don’t? What would you like to see more of? Are there issues or news-type things you’d like to see more coverage of? More lists? Fewer lists? What else is there about books and the reading life that we aren’t doing but could?...
While there is a long and storied history of how romance novels got associated with a lack of consent, it’s important to recognize what consent looks like in romance novels today. (If you want the answer for how to respond to Hillary Clinton dragging romance, read Lisa Kleypas’s response.) What Does Consent in Romance Look Like? Consent in romance specifically is two (or more) people agreeing to be physically intimate with each other at every step....
What Is Speculative Fiction? Speculative fiction is often used as an umbrella term for genre fiction or for narratives that do not fully belong in a particular science fiction or fantasy genre. I have even seen it referred to as a “super genre,” for its broadness. Under this classification, it can include literary fiction with fantastical elements as well as hardcore science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Also, there is the distinction that not all of certain genres, such as horror or science fiction, is speculative....
The sentence jumped off the page and hit me like a lightning bolt. Yes! That’s exactly what it’s like. Where was this book when I was a teenager and thought I was the only one in the world who snacked on Chinese preserved plums? Last year, I read Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee and was captivated in a way that was different from any other time I’ve read historical fiction....
There are three twentieth century white male (and dead) writers who I hold a deep desire to be friends with. J.R.R. Tolkien. C.S. Lewis. And George Orwell. And this year, as I have found myself falling in love with reading again, Orwell in particular has appeared again and again on my reading list. His memoirs (including Down and Out in Paris and London), his essays (including “Books vs Cigarettes” and “Why I Write”), his fiction; I’ve been enjoying it all....
One story was about a young boy and his imaginary monster friend outsmarting their smug uncle. As I read it, shock, then anger, swept over me. I’d read this story before, but not as part of a children’s writing competition. This winning story was lifted word-for-word from a chapter of a book I’d recently read at school. All the competition winner had done was change the names of the little boy and the imaginary monster....
In anticipation of August, I saved a stack of new-to-me poetry collections, including Hanif Abdurraqib’s The Crown Ain’t Worth Much and Justin Phillip Reed’s The Malevolent Volume. From my personal collection, I pulled Kaveh Akbar’s Calling a Wolf a Wolf and Joy Harjo’s She Had Some Horses to revisit. Through my local library, I reserved a poetry stack, including Eve L. Ewing’s 1919 and Natasha Trethewey’s Domestic Work. On delivery planes and trucks, chapbooks and collections like Vanessa Angélica Villarreal’s Beast Meridian, Yanyi’s The Year of Blue Water, and a dancing girl press bundle meander their way to me....
The speech was in response to Zachary Fox, the Maury county’s former public library director, resigning at a previous meeting. The resignation came after months of complaints about the library’s Prime Month Display and a family-friendly drag brunch he hosted at a brewery last year. During her speech, Graham described the homophobia used to ban books as “vile and disgusting.” She also used her own experiences to denounce the accusations that have been lobbied against the queer community: “I’ve never been sexually assaulted at a drag show, but I have been in church, twice....
Is the girl’s resurrection a miracle, or is there a scientific explanation? Diane Setterfield’s new novel, Once Upon a River, is an agglomeration of folktales, science, and faith– an homage to classical mythology, George Eliot, and Darwin– it’s a meditation on grief and the churlish power of a great river. This is a story about the relationship humans have with nature, and nature’s ever-constant source of nourishment and calamity. It’s a marvel....
Though I certainly haven’t become an expert by any means, I do have a somewhat better understanding of alchemy now. It was a precursor to modern sciences like chemistry and physics. It also encompassed philosophical traditions that emerged mostly independently in various parts of the ancient world, like China, India, and Egypt. While the study of alchemy came out of a desire to understand the natural world, it also eventually involved the pursuit of purifying and perfecting various materials....
Book Riot also ran a great article a few years back that set some distinctions between these two genres and I highly recommend you take a look at it as well! Anna distinguished the two within the rising action of the story — is everything building up to a singular point of no return? Not that that can’t happen in a horror novel, but often the moment is leading up to a moment where we feel disgusted and repulsed....
It’s me. I’m most people. Especially in the time of corona. That said, it’s never boring. And, unlike most everything else, you can’t really train for it. Sure, you can try to prepare for it but you know what is said about best laid plans. Every pregnancy and child is different. I have a close friend with four children and each and every one of them have their own personality....
Often, memoir belongs to the world of the narrator, but sometimes it’s the narrator’s parents’ world that comes crashing down when the writer begins looking inward. In Invisible Ink, Bill Griffith tells a tight story that moves logically from condition to condition. An uncle invites the cartoonist to examine his great-grandfather’s papers, which leads Griffith to questions about his mother, which leads him to her papers, which leads him deep into the rabbit hole of his mother’s seventeen-year-long affair with L....
Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust (July 7) This fantasy YA is also a fairytale inspired by ancient Persian/Zoroastrian mythology. The tale, which is real for teenage Soraya, is about a princess who is poisonous to the touch. Safe and hidden in her gardens, Soraya must decide if she is willing to step out of the shadows and explore how what has been deemed her curse might indeed be her power....
This makes sense, as both podcasts and audiobooks are auditory ways of consuming information and stories. But beyond the numbers, I wanted to know: how else do the two industries intersect, feeding one into the other? In what ways do they amplify each other rather than simply competing for listeners? I’ve rounded up ten ways in which podcasts, audiobooks, and oral storytelling at large are interconnected, particularly now that more and more print books have an accompanying audio version published simultaneously....
Manhwa and Manga Like The Gamer Want even more manga like The Gamer? Check our list of the best manga, and manga like Solo Leveling for more! A great magical battle bursts into our world and erupts in a Japanese classroom, killing everyone. However, instead of being truly dead, the students find themselves reincarnated into the alternate world. Our protagonist finds herself reincarnated into a spider, a lowly spider, the kind of spider you use for target practice in level one of Dragon Age....
Before the days of these bookshelves (and their enormity), I had a few sets of bookends. I’d picked them up at various thrift stores or they’d been gifted to me by people who know I like A) things and B) books. I loved displaying my unique assortment of weird bookends on side tables and bedsides, but my books were packed within the confines of tight-fitting bookshelves and, ergo, were not in need of ends....
Karmzah by Farida Bedwei Karmzah tells the story of Morowa Adjei, an archaeologist with cerebral palsy who gains amazing superpowers through her crutches. Morowa uses her powers under her alter ego Karmzah. The author also has cerebral palsy and is a disability rights advocate in Ghana. In her interview with Bloom, she said she created this comic because she hardly saw superheroes with disabilities in comics while growing up. Published by Leti Arts, this comic featuring a disabled African superheroine brings some much-needed representation in the world of superhero comics....
Twice a week, I met with a very nurturing lactation consultant, weighed my baby, eased my breasts out, and nursed with other moms who were trying to do the same thing. We laughed about leaky boobs, cried about returning to work and pumping, and shared tips on how to unclog milk ducts. Without this incredibly supportive group, I do not think I could have established breastfeeding as well as I did....
Tom is back in Middle School Bites #2: Tom Bites Back! Tom was bit by a vampire, a werewolf, and a zombie right before the first day of middle school. Pretty rough. At least his classmates seem to have accepted him! There are some cool things. Tom has night vision, and he’s super-fast and strong. Maybe life as a Vam-Wolf-Zom will be as EXCELLENT as his best friend, Zeke, predicted....
