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Whether you’re a diehard Jeopardy fan or simply a book nerd who loves trivia, let’s put your skills to the test with this roundup of literary Jeopardy answers from 2020. You’ll get to try your hand at comics trivia, word nerdery, and so much more. For those unfamiliar with how Jeopardy works, each of the clues are an answer. Your job is to come up with the question. Here’s an example: “This is the largest independent book website in North America” is the answer....

“More than 70 years later, the global threat of the coronavirus is sending today’s readers towards novels about epidemics in droves. Publishers around the world are reporting booming sales of books including La Peste, as well as Stephen King’s The Stand and Dean Koontz’s ‘frighteningly relevant’ The Eyes of Darkness, which has become the subject of conspiracy theories online owing to its prescience. But why no nonfiction? “She told BuzzFeed News: ‘Over the past couple of years, I’ve received pictures from parents, whose children dressed up as my character, Riley, for World Book Day....

I like to think of a spreadsheet as a digital bookshelf that logs concrete reading information for you. So, instead of looking at your bookshelf to see what you have been reading, you can look at your reading log spreadsheet. I would like to sell you on the joy of using PivotTables to look at your reading habits a bit further. So, I am going to look at both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, because why not try both?...

This comes in especially handy for students who are continuing their studies from home. They can watch, listen, or even participate. The possibilities are endless. #ASonnetADay Sir Patrick Stewart may be best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard, but he was a trained Shakespearean actor long before he ever graced the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. He began his career in the late 1960s with the Royal Shakespeare Company, spending more than 25 years as a member and continuing to play Shakespearean roles on stage and on screen throughout his career....

BE YE WARNED: Mercury will be in retrograde through February 20, with the post-retrograde shadow lasting through the end of the month. That means there’s trouble ahead for all signs in the zodiac when it comes to communication, travel, and technology. As I always say, the best way to stay safe from Mercury retrograde (and COVID-19!) is staying home with a good book. Aries (March 21–April 19) Taurus (April 20–May 20) Gemini (May 21–June 20) Cancer (June 21–July 22) Leo (July 23–August 22) Virgo (August 23–September 22) Libra (September 23–October 22) Scorpio (October 23–November 21) Sagittarius (November 22–December 21) Capricorn (December 22–January 19) Aquarius (January 20–February 18) Pisces (February 19–March 20) Looking for more?...

It took me a long while to realise that. Much of my troubles about Virginia Woolf came from my first job in a public library. Every time a book got mentioned on TV, we’d see a thousand people come in the day after and ask for it. Inevitably it wasn’t available. And for a while, that unavailable book was always by Virginia Woolf. Every discussion of Britain’s Best Books featured Mrs Dalloway or The Waves; every discussion of feminism mentioned A Room Of One’s Own, and any talk of film turned to Orlando ....

…Okay, yes, you’re right, Archie is not a superhero, except sometimes in his identity as Pureheart the Powerful. But much like Captain America, who I covered earlier in this series, Archie made his debut 80 years ago this year, and I think that merits taking a look at his first appearance. Will it be exactly like an episode of Riverdale? Let’s find out! Archibald “Archie” Andrews first appeared in Pep Comics #22 (December 1941), published by the company that was then known as MLJ Magazines and is now, of course, Archie Comics....

DonorsChoose is a non-profit that allows teachers to start fundraisers for their classrooms. These can be small or ambitious, and they cover a huge range of projects, from basics of the classroom to enriching technology to flexible seating arrangements and social-emotional learning stations. In the two decades since DonorsChoose began, they have raised $1,092,956,333 for schools, funding 1,928,257 projects in 85,630 schools across the U.S.! Those are some huge numbers....

Ever since, I’ve collected little bits and bobs as page savers, including: pressed flowers, old receipts, folded up scraps of notebook paper, and – on one memorable occasion – a silver chain (we won’t talk about how that must have hurt the poor book’s spine). Nowadays, I’m mostly hitting the bookmark button to save my progress, but I still love a good bookmark, and funny bookmarks are some of the best....

At some point, every band records a self-absorbed album about how difficult being famous musicians really is. There are the long bus rides, the groupies, the drugs. Bob Seger’s riding sixteen hours on his tour bus with nothing much to do; Peter Criss can’t come home right now. It shouldn’t work, because there’s nothing less sympathetic than a celebrity complaining about their difficult life. Strangely, though, listeners can’t get enough of such songs....

I’ve done a roundup of cat notebooks in the past, and fellow Book Rioters have highlighted mugs with books and cats, as well as cat bookmarks. Find here even more great bookish cat goods — there’s something purrfect for everyone (don’t worry, folks: I’ve also got cat puns for days and some incredible literary cat names, too). No Claws About It: Books and Cats Go Together Purrfectly Cats and books will make you as happy as this pink vinyl sticker....

Now in paperback, acclaimed author Jonathan Evison’s Lawn Boy introduces us to recently fired landscaper Mike Muñoz as he tries and tries again to find the prosperity that is his American birthright. Mike battles with class and cultural discrimination, as well as his own self-confidence, as he learns to stand up for his future. “In Lawn Boy, at once a vibrant coming-of-age novel and a sharp social commentary on class, Evison offers a painfully honest portrait of one young man’s struggle to overcome the hand he’s been dealt in life and reach for his dreams....

Hailed as a “marvel of a book” and “brilliant and unflinching,” Alexis Schaitkin’s stunning debut, Saint X, is a haunting portrait of grief, obsession, and the bond between two sisters never truly given the chance to know one another. Years after her sister went missing from the tropical island paradise Saint X, Claire runs into one of her sister’s murder suspects in New York and learn that the reverberations of her family’s tragedy stretch farther than she ever could have guessed....

New Oldbury, 1821. In the wake of a scandal, the Montrose family and their three daughters—Catherine, Lydia and Emeline—flee Boston for their new country home, Willow Hall. The estate seems sleepy and idyllic. But a subtle menace creeps into the atmosphere, remnants of a dark history that call to Lydia, and to the youngest, Emeline. All three daughters will be irrevocably changed by what follows, but none more than Lydia, who must draw on a power she never knew she possessed if she wants to protect those she loves....

Newman didn’t start out writing for children. Her early career centered around poetry. She attended the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and was Allen Ginsberg’s apprentice. Okay, cool enough on its own but she also studied with poet Grace Paley, referring to the two of them as her literary parents. Newman was always open about being a lesbian in her writing and was already known for her published adult books, including Good Enough to Eat and A Letter to Harvey Milk....

The award for best novel was granted to Network Effect by Martha Wells, the fifth book in The Murderbot Diaries series. Wells and The Murderbot Diaries have won this award in previous years, and the books are a favourite here at Book Riot. The Murderbot Diaries also won this year’s award for best series, with Network Effect being the first full-length standalone novel in the series. Other highlights include The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo winning for best novella and Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker winning for best novelette....

It’d be inappropriate to draw a line from pandemic isolation to pro-censorship groups. There is a line, but it’s not necessarily a straight one. In fact, there are no straight lines anywhere when it comes to today’s censorship culture. Groups like No Left Turn, Moms For Liberty, and any other “parental rights” focused organizations popping up across the US are uniting under the idea that they as parents have not had the right to see and dictate what their children are learning in school....

Perumal Murugan’s Poonachi: Or The Story Of A Black Goat, translated by M. Kalyan Raman, is an ironic look at society. Poonachi, a kid, was gifted to an unnamed old man by a mysterious stranger. She braved lack of nourishment, the slaughter of her lover, and the sale of her kids and kept surviving despite the dire circumstances foisted on her. An authoritarian government kept count of all the livestock under its regime....

Shakespeare wrote at least 38 plays and 154 sonnets, and the official count is 884,647 words and 118,406 lines. Shakespeare’s longest play is Hamlet, which includes the first use of the word “rant.” His shortest play is The Comedy of Errors, a madcap confusion-driven play, which includes the first use of the word “gossip.” The Oxford English Dictionary has estimated that Shakespeare invented around 1,700 words. The majority of Shakespeare’s plays were not published during his lifetime — the first major collection of his work was the First Folio, published in 1623....