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A hotly debated point when it comes to science fiction characteristics is what constitutes a suitable “scientific or technological advancement.” Does it have to be something actually feasible? Because let me tell you, with our current understanding of physics, neither faster-than-light travel nor anything that involves time travel fits the bill. Warp drive that functions because of special crystals is no less magical than elves casting fireballs; the main difference there is the aesthetics....

Nothing could tear Detective Michael Bennett away from his new bride—except the murder of his best friend. NYPD master homicide investigator Michael Bennett and FBI abduction specialist Emily Parker have a history. When she fails to show at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, Bennett ventures outside his jurisdiction. The investigation he undertakes is the most brilliant detective work of his career…and the most intensely personal. A portrait begins to emerge of a woman as adept at keeping secrets as forging powerful connections....

Comics historians can and will argue the exact parameters of each era until the Batcows come home, but most agree that the Golden Age of Comics began in 1938 with the debut of Superman, who’s generally considered the first comic book superhero (which is also a topic that we can split hairs over forever, but that’s a whole ‘nother article), and ended some time in the early to mid-1950s. Comic books—pulpy periodicals of sequential art—had been around since the early ‘30s, but the medium exploded with the unprecedented popularity of Superman....

“What else do we learn when looking at Shakespeare’s plague poems and plays today? First: we don’t all have the luxury to write like Shakespeare. While many of us are juggling the stress of working our day jobs from home or worrying about how to make ends meet on furlough, there is good evidence that Shakespeare spent 1593 and 1594 at Titchfield, the country home of his patron the Earl of Southampton....

Here are the rules that turned out not to be so arbitrary after all: Always stop at the end of a chapter. Always. Use specific bookmarks. I really do have a system for this. There’s a Harry Potter bookmark with a Patronus pendant only to be used when reading Harry Potter books. When I go to the library, I grab their colored cardstock ones for my library books. If I own the paperback, I have some cheap-but-cute bookmarks, brown-, red-, or black-beribboned, and I choose the one whose ribbon best matches the book cover....

Part 1: General Children’s Book Reviews In this first section of our roundup of the best children’s book review websites, I’ll discuss publications that cover all things kid lit. The Children’s Book Review As its name implies, The Children’s Book Review is all about book reviews of children’s literature. With huge coverage of all kinds of kid lit, The Children’s Book Review is simple to browse books by subject and books by age, along with buzzy “trending” books and “showcase” books....

Personally, Sarah MacLean brought me back to the romance genre I’d loved in high school and college. Through her beautiful, emotional, sexy as hell books I remembered how much I loved reading about strong women finding happily ever afters. And through her advocacy, Sarah helped me stop feeling ashamed I wasn’t reading so-called serious literature. There’s no wrong Sarah MacLean book to start with. They are all gorgeous and completely engrossing....

The True Secret Origin Of Shang-Chi Back in the 1970s, when America was really digging into an obsession with Asian martial arts, Marvel decided that they wanted to write a comic book based on the TV show Kung Fu. The problem was that Warner Communication owned both Kung Fu…and Marvel’s arch-enemy, DC Comics! Crashing villain music and reverberating cackling laughter! Anyway, they said no and Marvel was left without the martial arts hero they were looking for....

I always said it was because I like to really take my time and enjoy the books. Savor the time in the world. Could I read it faster? Maybe, if I did nothing else, or learned to skim better, but I never wanted to do that. I didn’t really want it to be over that quickly, and I didn’t want to miss a single thing. But also, the truth is that I am just not a very fast reader....

This is a story all about how our high school production of TKAM got shut right down. I first read To Kill a Mockingbird as a freshman in high school. I was in Mrs. White’s freshman honor’s class, and I remember her enthusiasm for the book and for the character of Scout rubbing off on me. I liked the book when I read it, but it took her guiding us through our reading of it before I fell in love with it....

Musicals aren’t all smiley, happy tap-dancing with a 11 o’clock number to bring the house down. There are horror musicals, tear-jerker musicals, experimental musicals, and musicals that flopped so hard that they need to go lay down for a while. What makes a musical great isn’t necessarily what makes a book great. That’s not a negative about books, or musicals. They’re different mediums. These are some of the books just wouldn’t cut it as musicals, in my opinion....

But in scrolling through Edelweiss for 2020 releases, I’ve also noticed that YA covers have also been trending toward the more realistic illustration styles as well, and they seem to connote a very different kind of book. More serious, more thoughtful, even edgy. And I am digging it! There have been a lot of really great realistic illustrated covers that have contributed to this trend released in 2017 and 2018, but when I think about these covers, I think the craze is partly rooted in the success of these two beautiful covers:...

Women’s heroes are everyone’s heroes! In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote, we read books that are by, for, and about powerful women of all ages. A pre-teen who helped discover the world’s first dinosaur bone, a young women in the early 20th century who braved the illness and death of the radium factories and fought a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights, or teens—one black, one white—who rely on each other to survive a night of violent race riots in their city—these are the stories of remarkable women of history and resourceful everyday girls....

Numerous articles written before on the subject on the different types of genres in fiction. There have also been ones about the billionaire trope, shifters, and a really decent list on sports. This one will focus more on the different types of tropes, or niches, that are prevalent in romance. This is by no means a comprehensive list; that would be an endless list! The tropes listed here are ones that are prevalent in both the historical and contemporary fields....

__________________________ Unsurprisingly, it’s hard to find a reader who loves literary fiction who hasn’t ever read Toni Morrison. Her books are accessible and synonymous with modern southern literary tradition. Like many people, I first experienced Morrison in the classroom, on a required summer reading list. As a military brat, I found that the reading lists I was assigned over the summers were representative of the community and geographic locations I happened to be planted in....

Black girls are hypersexualized and perceived as older than their white counterparts. Our schools criminalize and more frequently suspend Black girls than any other gender or race. Adults see Black girls as difficult and disrespectful, resulting in treatment that denies them childhood. Furthermore, this continues into adulthood, where the angry Black woman stereotype runs rampant. Black women receive disproportionately subpar healthcare. They are more vulnerable to abuse. Black women, especial trans women, are more frequent victims of assault and murder....

Superheroes are no different than anyone else in this regard. In fact, they may be more susceptible than most: when you’re lauded as the peak of human perfection, it’s easy to believe you can do no wrong, even when you are most definitely doing wrong. Being constantly exposed to human suffering and the worst humanity has to offer can strengthen the urge to throw decency to the wind and try to impose “peace” and “order” the hard way....

Sometimes, the thing that holds us back from reading is deciding exactly what the next book we should pick up is. It’s decision fatigue, and for readers who have massive TBRs, well, it’s no surprise when the process of making a decision is why we chose never to make one at all. But let me help! Today, I present to you a fun little quiz. “What YA book should I read next,” you ask?...

Laura Turner at Buzzfeed wrote a really stellar piece about the phenomenon that is Girl, Wash Your Face, and it’s a must-read if you’re interested in Hollis’s work. Moral of the story: Rachel Hollis has lived a privileged life, and her advice, stemming from the idea that things are bad only because you allow them to be bad, is useless to anyone who is not as privileged as she is....

Then in 2020, Disney released the much-anticipated live action version of Mulan following similar remakes of the animated classics like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. Disney hired sensitivity readers, consulted Chinese culture experts, and made sure their interpretation of the Ballad of Mulan, written over 1,500 years ago in China, would not offend but would entice millions of viewers overseas and in the states. The release was fraught with difficulties....