However, it might be too easy to put down a book that’s not my style in the beginning but turns out to be my style by the end. I almost gave up on Golden Child, but my friends kept telling me to keep going. Give It 100 Pages I usually give myself about 100 pages to read a book and if I make it to 100 pages I reassess myself and ask if it worked at all....
If you’re anything like me, then the ending of Avengers: Endgame crushed you, but you’re ready for more. Think carefully as you navigate the questions in the quiz below to find what power lies within you. Need to know more about yourself beyond this infinity stone quiz? Find out which Avenger you are or which comic book character you are.
That’s not because “Aladdin” was written by Disney. The story wasn’t part of the anonymous 1001 Nights manuscripts, either, which circulated in Arab libraries starting in the 14th or 15th century. Aladdin was added to 1001 Nights collections later, by French translator Antoine Galland. So where did Galland get the story? Galland writes in his memoirs that a Syrian traveler named Hanna Diyab arrived in Paris in the spring of 1709....
Who was Mary Shelley? Mary’s Youth Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was named for her mother Mary Wollstonecraft who died ten days after Mary was born. William Godwin never recovered from the loss and even after he remarried in 1801 kept a portrait of his first wife in the Godwin home. His second wife was named Mary-Jane Clairmont. She brought her two children born out of wedlock, Jane and Charles, into the marriage....
Another thing that’s historically inaccurate? Those dolls that purport to represent girls in America’s past. You know the ones I’m talking about, not just because you had one or three or all ninetyzillion when you were growing up, but because those dolls have more possessions than your richest friend. Between their “accessories” (read: cardigans and scrapbooks, never tacky souvenirs and dress-up clothes), their birthday “sets,” and their athletic equipment, these dolls teach less about history and more about merchandising....
The spread of COVID-19 was so severe and sudden that countries and local governments have done what they can to limit large gatherings. Flights have been grounded, entire countries have been quarantined, gatherings of more than 50 people have been recommended for cancellation by the CDC, gyms have been shut down, schools have been closed, etc. For the most part, governments and municipalities have been doing what they can to combat the spread of this pestilence....
Jhumpa Lahiri’s Whereabouts is peppered with long stretches of silence. The middle-aged narrator lives a quiet life. The moments she spends with herself are much more preferable to her than the physical presence of her friends. The silences here are not marked by loneliness. They are rejuvenating and aid the narrator in living her own truth. She runs into old lovers once in a while during grocery runs and she visits her mother sometimes who brings her no comfort....
WorldCat is, in their own words, “the world’s largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information.” More specifically, for our purposes, WorldCat is a massive catalog that taps into the catalogs of participating libraries to include materials such as books, DVDs, CDs, articles, visual content, and more. The site is often used by library staff to manage ILL requests, but it can be useful for patrons searching for themselves....
Not only did The Proposal give me—a Black woman who never sees herself reflected in the redhead buxom heroines of traditional romance—a protagonist that I could get behind, it did so with an honesty and humor that I did not anticipate. Both leads in this modern romance, Nik Paterson and Carlos Ibarra, are people of color, and they talk about their race and cultures in a way that jives with my own lived experience and never once seemed heavy-handed....
Book Riot is teaming up with BookClubbish to giveaway a copy of NEVER SAW ME COMING by Vera Kurian and a $100 gift card to Bookshop.org to one lucky winner. Simply fill out the form and subscribe to the BookClubbish newsletter for a chance to win! Want more 3 on a YA Theme? We’ve got you covered.
Note: I know Heartstopper, based on the Heartstopper series by Alice Oseman, is also a great new TV show release on Netflix, and I’m excited to watch it! I didn’t include it on this list because I’m focusing on summer-set romances, but I’d love to see more queer YA romances adapted to the screen! Particularly if they’re sapphic or trans! Some great summer romances that would be great on screen that immediately come to mind are One True Loves by Elise Bryant, which is about a Black teen who heads out on a Mediterranean cruise the summer before college, hoping for some clarity about her future....
Since I’ve already covered examples of superheroes getting thrown into the past, I figured it was only fair to also tweak the noses of the poor saps who went in the opposite direction and caught an illicit sneak preview of coming events. Often, the way a superhero interacts with their descendants (or their older selves) is indicative of their integrity as heroes and decency as human beings…in which case, a lot of these heroes aren’t as upstanding as we all thought!...
Because podcasts cover many different subjects, the books inspired by them do too. Some are fiction. Some novelize content from the podcast that served as its source material. Others elaborate on the podcast’s original concept. But no matter the subject and approach, you’re bound to find something to pique your interest. Novels Based on Podcasts Books Based on True Crime Podcasts Books Based on Podcasts about Everything Else Hope there was something on this list that caught your interest....
The Code steadily lost power from the late ’60s on, and by the 21st century, it was little more than decoration. In 2011, the last major publishers to bother getting the seal on their books, DC and Archie, broke with the CCA, rendering it functionally dead. In honor of the ten year anniversary of this sad little fizzle that marked the end of an era, I rounded up ten interesting facts about the Comics Code Authority that you can impress your friends with at cocktail parties where the conversation revolves largely around comics history....
Sympathy is an electrifying debut novel of obsessive love, family secrets, and the dangers of living our lives online Alice Hare has become fixated on Mizuko Himura, a Japanese writer whom Alice believes is her “Internet twin.” What seems to Mizuko like a chance encounter with Alice is anything but—after all, in the age of connectivity, nothing is coincidence. Their subsequent relationship is doomed from the outset, exposing a tangle of lies and sexual encounters as three families collide across the globe, and the most ancient of questions—where do we come from?...
Now, as the tension between the two countries has resulted in a Russian invasion of Ukraine, many readers are looking for fiction from Ukraine as a way to engage with its cultural identity and its people. This is not a replacement for staying informed on the conflict. But it can help forge connections and support the literature of Ukraine. Fiction can be a tool of empathy, understanding, and learning — plus, many of us learn best through reading, and we want to engage however we can....
I was recently diagnosed with ADHD. I had been bullet journaling for years before this, but getting an official diagnosis rocketed my bullet journaling habit way up. I was too precious about it before. Thinking I didn’t doodle enough or that I had bought such a fancy notebook that I couldn’t “waste” pages. Since my diagnosis, and since reading The Bullet Journal Method, I’ve killed my darlings, as Faulkner says....
While we celebrate, I have some exciting news to announce. I have joined middle grade author Karina Glaser as part of Book Riot’s The Kids Are All Right newsletter team! Every Tuesday and Sunday, we’ll bring you reviews of new releases, children’s book recommendations on a theme, a bookish good, and more. I’m the Tuesday send, and I’m so excited to be part of the team! Make sure to sign up so you can follow along!...
As a lover of books and gay stuff, I’ve been thrilled to watch the slow and steady increase in queer literature over the years. Traditional publishing hasn’t always opened their arms to queer narratives, and when they did, it was often only for the most privileged or mainstream voices. But as we see more and more shades of the queer book rainbow, I’ve started to notice an interesting trend. The biggest queer titles of the year seem to all come out in June....
So what makes a great travel comic? Is it the illustration, with all of the little details that make it look like you can really see the location? Is it the story building around you and drawing you into another land or culture? Maybe it is the character who, like you, is looking to escape to somewhere else, looking for something else? Each of these factors can bring out the best in any travel comic book....
