Ash by Malinda Lo Weirdly, the first LGBTQ book I can remember reading was for a school project. We were supposed to read supplementary nonfiction and fiction books related to the subject, and Ash was the fiction book I picked—possibly because my school library didn’t have many options. I remember being really intrigued by the idea of queering a fairytale I was already very familiar with (Cinderella) and the fantasy, fairy elements....
So, now, about the books! These are all great works of imagination set near and far that mostly have fewer than 1,000 ratings on Goodreads at the time this post went up. Some are slightly speculative, some are straight-up in outer space! Why this list? Because sometimes it’s fun to find something not everyone is reading. Hidden gems make for great reading. Or maybe you want to read more science fiction, but keep seeing the same books on the list’s of recommendations....
However, sports, like most things, are rarely as pleasant or simple as they appear on the surface, and baseball is no exception. Whatever issues are played out in modern times, baseball also has to grapple with its place in America’s history. A true roundup of kid’s baseball books would be incomplete without mentioning the segregation of Black players, baseball’s place in the Japanese internment camps during World War II, and the women’s leagues that sprang up to keep things moving when men were called to fight....
Bone magic. Bone trees. Bone orchard. Sara A. Mueller’s The Bone Orchard is a fascinating whodunit set in a lush, gothic world of secrets and magic where a dying emperor charges his favorite concubine with solving his own murder, and preventing the culprit–undoubtedly is one of his three terrible sons–from taking control of an empire. | “Mueller creates an intricate and richly characterized world in her gothic fantasy debut.” —BuzzFeed My school teaches students in grades K–5, and I use building materials as part of my weekly lessons with each class....
Unlike our first two trailblazers, Extraño and Cloud, Maggie Sawyer is someone fans of queer superhero media are likely to recognize, as she had a significant role in the CW’s Supergirl. Maggie bears the distinction of being the first canonical lesbian in mainstream comics…even if it took a few years for the comics to actually use that word. Though some fans might have had their suspicions, it’s not until Superman #15 (March 1988) that Maggie’s sexuality becomes textual, though still referred to obliquely....
But most of us urban creatures are constrained in the choice of plants that we can grow, by the lack of space, by our budgets, our poor skills in keeping plants alive or simply by the climate of the place where we live. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everything we planted survived? If we could plan and plant our gardens however we wanted, if we could have strawberries growing beside mangoes, and majestic firs alongside wise banyans?...
If you got Umbridge, please examine your life choices ASAP! Otherwise, here are some other Harry Potter quizzes you might want to peek at: Which Harry Potter Character Is Your Reading Soulmate? Tell Us Your Favorite Books and We’ll Tell You Your Hogwarts House Which Weasley Sibling Are You? What Would Be Your Best Class at Hogwarts? The Hardest Harry Potter Quiz Ever
Something has gone terribly wrong at the Banks wedding. A man is dead. Four different women rush to offer confessions, each insisting that they committed the crime—alone. Ginger’s life is coming apart at the seams, and this wedding weekend is not the fabulous getaway she anticipated. Kate has enough money to buy her way out of anything. Well, almost anything. Emily can’t shake her reputation or her memories, and she’s planning to drown this whole vacation in a bottle....
“We got to chat with Taylor about the biggest decorating tips he’s gathered from rating thousands upon thousands of people’s rooms. And while much of the advice continues to be focused on items to add, one piece of decorating advice Taylor stressed to us is a mistake to avoid at home: color-coordinating your bookshelf.”This Twitter account will rate your Zoom background and they aren’t about that rainbow bookshelf life. “Perhaps the biggest problem the ceremony’s many critics have taken issue with was Martin’s particular choice to spend so much time praising John W....
Sometimes my smile hides a head full of worry and concern. Racing thoughts take over and I get in a sudden manic state, where at one moment things feel fine and perfect and at another, things and feelings swing for the worst. Being diagnosed in 2008 when I was just married and worked a stressful newsroom job at The Miami Herald as an editor and writer was in part a surprise and a relief....
Into a tree. No, really. That’s the premise of the comic: when we come of age, some of us become trees. But most of the world is made up of twigs. Learning to be a tree, then, means learning to be lonely, to connect with people who we might not otherwise choose or even like, or to destroy ourselves trying to live like twigs instead. It’s an achingly beautiful meditation on being a teenager with depression or anxiety disorder that addresses something few coming-of-age narratives do: what happens when you grow up and you’re not quite sure you like the person you’ve become?...
The two protagonists are Dallas Cash, a tenacious techie who believes in the supernatural, and Inez Carrie, the captain of the wrestling team who’s more grounded than Dallas, basing her crime solving skills in the real world. The first issue revolves around a school mascot that gets goat-napped. Who took the goat, why, how did they alter the CCTV, why is Misty the goat so adorable? Who knows! C&C are on the case, tracking down clues and interviewing informants and suspects....
Welcome to Dale Bailey’s In the Night Wood, where fairy tales are not just for kids. In this contemporary, spellbinding fantasy, the grieving biographer of a Victorian fantasist finds himself slipping inexorably into the supernatural world that consumed his subject. Bestselling author Karen Joy Fowler praises In the Night Wood claiming “Every story is a ghost story. But not every ghost story is as haunting as this one. Nor as luminously written, literate, absorbing, transporting, and all-around excellent....
Aries (March 21–April 19) Your mood is determined by the people around you this month, Aries. You tend to focus on others’ needs before your own, and much of September will be spent supporting family and friends. It’s good to care for others, but don’t let your own mental and physical wellbeing suffer for it. It may also be a good month for romance, particularly with a friend of a friend....
As I dove in, I realized that I couldn’t be alone in my quest for the perfect book tank tops. I’ve rounded up a whole pile of sleeveless book shirts for every kind of reader and everyone who, like me, is picky about the type of tank they prefer. I’ve got every kind of tank and theme within the book world imaginable here, so hopefully you, like me, found your soulmate in the form of your summer reading uniform....
Hello mystery fans! I’ve got mysteries this week that are not fantasy but have magicians and illusionists in them. Two are murder mysteries with the leads being magicians, and one is thievery during a magician’s convention. Tempest Raj was a great magician with her own Las Vegas show until an accident happened, followed by accusations, and now she’s back home living with her dad and grandparents and trying to figure out what to do next....
Rogers was at the height of his fame in the 1930s. You know who else was popular in the 1930s? Nancy Drew. (Perfect segue achieved!) The teenage sleuth debuted in 1930 in The Secret of the Old Clock and hasn’t slowed down since. But she doesn’t work alone. Nancy has numerous friends to rely on when things get too scary. The best known of Nancy’s unofficial sidekicks are Bess Marvin and George Fayne, her best pals, and Ned Nickerson, her “special friend,” as some books describe him....
Want more Spider-Man stuff? Check out Book Riot’s Introduction to Spider-Man.
These books always intrigue me, especially because I usually end up liking them a lot. Maybe it’s because I’m a bit of a goody two-shoes, but there is something about the bonkersness of these stories that intrigues and entertains me. I like fucked up books because they mess with you. The author could have gone any other way, but they had the courage — and the audacity — to just go there....
This genre let us down a little: as some of our authors point out, there’s not a whole lot of recent material to go on for parents of color, minority religious status, or LGBTQ identification. However, thanks to the amazing Book Riot team, we found a few that address the specific issues associated with being brown or queer and pregnant in the U.S. 1. A Is for Advice (The Reassuring Kind): Wisdom for Pregnancy by Ilana Stanger-Ross Written by a midwife, this playful meditation on pregnancy is short, pretty, and fun....
