When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants—as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to hide who she is, but she also doesn’t want to lose her relationship with her family. And her life only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life. Flávia is beautiful and charismatic and Nishat falls for her instantly....
I deeply wish fantasy was a genre within YA I could read. It’s not that I dislike it; it’s that my brain simply cannot immerse in a world outside the realms of reality. Magical realism and science fiction work for me because of how they’re still tied to our world, but something about fantasy is just challenging. It’s a weak spot in my reading and writing life, but we all have those, right?...
Personally, I lie at true neutral on this matter. In my own experiences, I’ve found that spoilers neither really add nor take away from my enjoyment of stories. Even if something is spoiled, it doesn’t upset me, and I will still thoroughly enjoy the book (or movie or show or whatever it is) as long as I was already interested in it in the first place. Sometimes, spoilers will even make me more interested in something and will lead me to read or watch something I hadn’t originally planned on consuming at all....
The past two years have seen censorship at an all time high, with diverse books as the target. At the same time, many teachers are leaving the profession from a combination of low pay, overwhelming workloads, and the kinds of harassment and accusations that come along with book ban attempts. Is it any coincidence that Texas has banned the most books of any state this year and also has a teacher shortage?...
Ways to Promote Literacy Expose Your Child to Books as Objects One of the earliest understandings children can develop is that symbols and pictures have meaning. Before your baby can talk, they can grasp that letters printed on a page cause you to make certain sounds, and by reading in front of them you help them understand the purpose of written language. As adult readers, we don’t even think about certain aspects of books, like the fact that English language books are read from back to front, but by reading with and in front of your baby, you can expose them to these concepts....
This year’s entry into the Literary Arts series is speculative fiction giant Ursula K. Le Guin. Here’s everything we know about the Ursula K. Le Guin stamp: The stamp will release July 27 and can be preordered online or purchased at your local post office that day. If you’re in Portland, Oregon, or have plans to travel there, a First-Day-of-Issue celebration will be held at the Evan H. Roberts Sculpture Mall of the Portland Art Museum....
The story follows Olive Smith, a third-year PhD candidate, who kisses the first man she sees in order to make her best friend, Anh, realize that Olive is okay for Anh to go after her ex-fling. Soon after, Olive finds out that she kissed the grumpy hotshot professor, Adam Carlsen. Surprisingly, Adam follows along, and now everyone at school thinks they’re dating… and he’s not saying otherwise. With a slow-burn romance and some of my favorite tropes — like fake dating — in the mix, it’s easy to fall in love with The Love Hypothesis....
Our progress has been slow and is more evident in some sub-genres than others; because urban fantasy and many paranormal romances are set in worlds similar to our own, it’s a simpler, though never easy, task to modernize our fictional sisters. Voices like those of Nnedi Okorafor have brought us Akata Witches and Zoraida Córdova Brooklyn Brujas. But high fantasy. Oh, high fantasy. Yes. There are some high fantasy stories with well-developed female characters who have complete story arcs and independent vectors and don’t ultimately trade everything they’ve fought for and built for the heart of a knight or a rogue or a djinn or…you get the idea....
We’re only four days away from Lunar New Year, and then it’ll be the Year of the Tiger. (And the Water Tiger at that!) The tiger isn’t the most common animal seen in in SFF–that award probably goes to horses, cats, and dragons–but there are still quite a few good books to fulfill your tiger needs.
And some, apparently, get dressed in the dark. Here on Fashion Disasters, we’ll showcase those poor slobs who just can’t seem to get it right. Today: Clint Barton! Like our debut Disaster, Roy Harper, Clint is a thirsty mess of an archer and his own worst enemy. But as Tolstoy said, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, and the same goes for unhappy dressers. Let’s take a look at Clint’s very unique style....
And some, apparently, get dressed in the dark. Here on Fashion Disasters, we’ll showcase those poor slobs who just can’t seem to get it right. Today: Cassandra Sandsmark, Wonder Girl! Cassie first appeared in Wonder Woman v2 #105 (January 1996), the teenage daughter of an archaeologist who was friends with Wonder Woman. When Diana ended up in peril, Cassie “borrowed” some magical artifacts that gave her superpowers so she could fight beside her hero....
Murder comes down to sex, drugs, or money. Check out KILLER TRIGGERS — The new book from Joe Kenda, the star of Discovery’s Homicide Hunter. “In this exceptional memoir, Kenda chronicles the highlights of his twenty-one years as a Colorado Springs, Colo., homicide detective. Kenda investigated or oversaw 387 cases, and here uses them to offer insights into why killers kill … His Colorado cowboy cop humor and compassionate voice help make the dark stories he tells easier to bear....
The overly confident Fujino and the shut-in Kyomoto couldn’t be more different, but a love of drawing manga brings these two small-town girls together. A poignant story of growing up and moving forward that only Tatsuki Fujimoto, the creator of Chainsaw Man, could have crafted.
Batman is one of our oldest superheroes, debuting in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939). Over the past eight decades, he’s become arguably the world’s biggest superhero as well; along with Superman and Spider-Man, he’s a household name around the world. He certainly boasts the most solo movies to his name, and will be hitting the big screen again on March 4 in The Batman, where he’ll be played by Robert Pattinson....
Bill Clegg returns with a deeply moving, emotionally resonant second novel about the complicated bonds and breaking points of friendship, the corrosive forces of secrets, the heartbeat of longing, and the redemption found in forgiveness. The relationships romance protagonists have with other people are the icing on any literary cake. We get to see them in their natural habitat, unchanged by any romantic endearment. We also get to enjoy all the little moments, the inside jokes, and the emotional wellspring that comes with having a friend group....
We didn’t just read Achebe’s books. Things Fall Apart wasn’t required and to be honest, I have never read it. We started with Anthills of the Savannah, Arrow of God was extra credit (of course I read it), and then did a literary tour of all parts of the African continent. Since the world lost Achebe last week, I thought I might be able to help the world find African Lit....
I like my books dark. The darker, the better. The more the book makes me uncomfortable, the more I want to sink into it. Those books that stick are the ones that make me react, and that reaction comes in discomfort and in being completely unsettled. My genre of preference is realistic YA. Sure, the first thing you think of is angst, but dark, realistic YA is anything but angst....
I’ve always been intrigued by New York blue bloods (like the fictional Darlings of Alger’s novel). I grew up in a small midwestern town, so the private-boarding-school, whisk-off-to-Aspen-for-weekend-skiing, ginormous-trust-fund lives of those folks is infinitely foreign to me, and thus infinitely intriguing. So here’s a short list of some of the better New York City “snob stories” I’ve read: The Emperor’s Children, by Claire Messud — Exploring themes of entitlement, coming-of-age, love, and the aftermath of 9/11, this was one of my favorite novels of the 2000s....
It all started with Stephen King’s The Stand. (Does anyone not have reading anecdote that starts with Stephen King?) The Stand felt like an occasion, it was a book of heft and the story of good and evil seemed huge and all encompassing to my 13 year old brain. It felt like the whole world was in that book – still recognizable as a realm where people had clean jeans to wear and water to drink, but where their natures were distilled down to mythical simplicity....
