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TBR is Book Riot’s subscription service offering Tailored Book Recommendations for readers of all stripes. Been dreaming of a “Stitch Fix for books?” Now it’s here! Tell TBR about your reading preferences and what you’re looking for, and sit back while your Bibliologist handpicks recommendations just for you. TBR offers plans to receive hardcover books in the mail or recommendations by email, so there’s an option for every budget. TBR is also available as a gift to give to the readers in your life!...

Like I said, there’s plenty to love about the show. But for this list I’m going to focus on three elements or categories that stand out in order to pick the 11 books to read if you like the show Arcane. The first category is morally gray characters with complicated relationships. The second is more about aesthetics, and it covers books with the steampunk vibe. The third and final category is books that mix science and magic to create complex worldbuilding....

However, my favourite book adaptation avenue is the video game, because it allows the player to be at the heart of the narrative they love, and see familiar sights with a new, interactive perspective. For example, Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series inspired game development studio CD Projeckt to create a hugely popular series of games that bring the player into Geralt’s world to experience the ultimate fantasy – being a buff monster-slaying mutant – from the comfort of their own home....

It’s 2007, the 24th of July, at about four in the morning. I’m in a hospital with my wife, running on no sleep and a potent mixture of adrenaline and panic. We are moments away from the brief burst of activity that will result in my first son being born. I am well aware that my life is about to change. It’s pretty obvious. I am moments away, I know, from not only being a child who pretends to be an adult…but now, a child pretending to be an adult who pretends to be a competent parent as well....

Here, presented on the centennial of his birth, is a suggested reading order of Levi’s work. For further reading about the Holocaust, check out these articles from Book Riot’s Jaime Herndon and Romeo Rosales. Begin with the Holocaust Memoirs Because they tell of the most pivotal period in Levi’s life, the memoirs If This is a Man (given the generic title Survival in Auschwitz in the U.S.) and The Truce (aka The Reawakening) make for the obvious introduction to his writing....

Tessa Dare books are always delightful. They’re full of humor, warmth, and of course, lots of steam. If you’re looking for all of that, plus heroines with cool interests (like rescuing animals) and the heroes who find them exasperatingly beguiling, look no further. Here are three Tessa Dare books to get you started! The Duchess Deal This is the first book in Dare’s Girl Meets Duke series and I think it’s tons of fun....

Some of the required reading books were To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and Crónica de una muerta anunciada (Chronicle of a Death Foretold) by Gabriel García Márquez. At the time, I simply viewed those books as part of my schoolwork; something to read quickly to finish my assignment and pass the class. Looking back now, I’d guess that many of my classmates probably shared my thoughts on having to read these stories....

Lauren’s first novel, The Monsters of Templeton, published in February 2008, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection and bestseller and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers. Her second book, Delicate Edible Birds, is a collection of stories. Her second novel, Arcadia, was released in March 2012. She lives in Gainesville, Florida with her husband and two sons. BOOK RIOT: What are you reading? Lauren Groff: Right now?...

Who are the AAPI authors you think everyone should know? Whether they write fiction, nonfiction, comics, kids’ books, or any other genre, we want to hear about them. Let’s celebrate the diversity within the AAPI community with these reads! Reach out to us on Facebook and Twitter, then we’ll round up your answers and be back next week to share the whole list with your fellow Riot readers. Get ready to see your TBR multiply!...

And I Do Not Forgive You: Stories & Other Revenges by Amber Sparks I was predisposed to like this collection of short stories—Amber and I are friendly online and I had read a few of the stories already—and in fact I absolutely love it. Each story, or “revenge,” tears apart convention, plays with form, and gets under your skin in its own way. “Everyone’s A Winner In Meadow Park” is a devastating look at childhood that just happens to have a character who is a ghost....

—Abby Hargreaves —Christine Ro —Rey Rowland —Aurora Lydia Dominguez —Jamie Canavés —Rebecca Hussey —Nikki DeMarco —Sarah Rahman —Leah Rachel von Essen —Chris M. Arnone —Steph Auteri — Elizabeth Allen —Elisa Shoenberger —Susie Dumond —Ashley Holstrom —Stacey Megally —Summer Loomis —Christina M. Rau —Margaret Kingsbury —CJ Connor —Claire Handscombe —Mara Franzen —Sarah Nicolas —Megan Mabee —Annika Barranti Klein Hailey moves to Blackwood, to the dismay of her mother, to begin a journey that quickly turns almost deadly....

Now I know what you’re thinking: hey Book Riot, aren’t your Riot Roundups usually a quarterly affair? Why yes, yes they are. So why is this one a six-month roundup? Because we’re all just doing out best out here and sometimes a ball gets dropped. Enjoy this extra special list of reads for readers of all stripes, and happy reading! —Jamie Canavés —Leah Rachel von Essen —Annika Barranti Klein –Laura Sackton —Sarah S....

The farther I get from the “happily ever after” of childhood fairy tales and the desperate search for my own HEA in my 20s, the higher my left eyebrow goes at the romance genre, and so-called romantic comedies in particular. I acknowledge that there is value in escapism. I know many heterosexual women who prefer male/male or female/female romances, and it is far, far healthier to read romance novels featuring a dark and brooding hero than it is to go find one for a real-life partner....

It was the early 1990s, and the concept of an accessible book about puberty and sex marketed towards kids and tweens was radical. More than 20 years later, it’s still in print — and it’s still radical. Sex education books are one of several categories being targeted in this latest wave of book bans, especially those that include LGBTQ topics — the anniversary edition of It’s Perfectly Normal was updated to include trans youth....

Don’t even get me started about the representation of other minorities in the superhero community. The Black Electricity Trope is real, and not every Asian superhero knows Kung Fu. However, I’m talking today from the experience of women. The first White Tiger was Hector Ayala, who was pretty damn awesome in his fight against corporation crime cartels. However, he became addicted to the power of the tiger amulets and was forced to retire....

Most of the research I found about the use of a dictionary while reading concerned specific populations, like children learning to read or people acquiring a new language. Rather than think about this question in the context of education, I’m going to be considering the everyday adult reader. The beauty of being a reader outside of schooling is reading what you want, how you want. So I’ve expounded on a few questions you can ask yourself about how to approach unfamiliar words when you encounter a wordsmith with a predilection for sesquipedalian verbiage....

Let’s see what the baby decides: Dear Unborn Baby, Hello. Happy almost birthday. Perhaps you can settle an argument for us? Would you rather receive a heartfelt, handwritten card or a book as a pre–your birth gift? I know you have never been on earth before and so you may be unfamiliar with what a “card” and a “book” are. Let me break this down for you: A “card” is a piece of paper folded in half....

Is America sick of Fifty Shades of Grey? Based on the success of two touring musical parodies, the answer is “not yet.” The books may have finally relinquished their Kegel grip on the bestseller lists, but there’s enough interest in the craze to support two competing musical parodies (Spank! The Fifty Shades Parody and 50 Shades! The Musical). I thought I should check one of them out, if only to see how many of jokes they stole from my own parody, Fifty Shames of Earl Grey....

The good news is that the fantasy genre is not just dragons and elves. Now more than ever, the fantasy genre is an exciting one where we are seeing more and more worlds that are being populated by fascinating, non-Western characters and magical systems. We are encountering more books by writers who aren’t cis, straight white men, more books that are fast reads or good love stories, books that are genre-bending and folkloric, or soft and character-based....

A junk journal, sometimes also known as a glue book, is a journal made up of different kinds of paper and other recycled items. The cover might be made from cardboard or a recycled old book. They remind me a bit of a 2020s take on a commonplace book or a 3D scrapbook. Perfection is not the goal, which makes it easier to jump in with both feet and use all of those supplies that piled up during your last attempt at scrapbooking in 2008 (is that just me?...