Books

This is the weekly feature where we look at four of the biggest bestseller lists and combine them to get a better sense of the books selling the most overall, since each list has its own data points and logic. As we close out February, there are a few additions to the list, but they’re

Pakistani American author Reem Faruqi tells the fascinating story of her late grandmother’s life in Milloo’s Mind: The Story of Maryam Faruqi, Trailblazer for Women’s Education.  Faruqi, who was born in 1920 in Poona, India, was given the nickname “Milloo” by her father. Milloo loved learning from an early age: “When she read, her thoughts

One Piece is one of the most popular anime series out now. It got its start as a serialized manga getting published in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1997 and by 1999 it was made into an anime, and has since aired over 1,000 episodes. While it’s not quite the longest-running anime, there’s something to say about

In 1999, author Kate Zernike, then a reporter for The Boston Globe, broke an enormous story: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology had admitted to a long-standing pattern of discrimination against women on its faculty. Zernike, now a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, tells the full inspiring story in The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins,

One very easy way to learn about and discover new books and authors is through the cover reveal. This was not a possible avenue of discovery before the age of book talk on the internet, and in an era where visuals are becoming more and more important — and indeed, book cover designers are taking

This exquisite etiological story, originally published in a wordless format by David Álvarez in Mexico in 2017, blends multiple Mesoamerican tales to tell a story of how the sun came to be.  “At the start of things, the elders say,” begins award-winning author David Bowles’ text, which was composed for this edition, “the universe was

Last week, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker delivered his State of the State address. It is the first time a governor in the country has directly spoken about the wave of censorship, book banning, and harassment being seen by schools and libraries. While some legislators in other arenas have addressed the topic — Jamie Raskin, a

★ The Bullet Garden After writing a trio of books about ex-Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger, author Stephen Hunter launched a second series featuring Bob Lee’s father, Earl Swagger, who is also a Marine and a Medal of Honor recipient to boot. It’s been 20 years since Hunter’s last installment in the senior Swagger series,

The Audie Awards, presented annually by the Audio Publishers Association, described itself as the “premier awards program in the United States recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment.” Each year, they recognize audiobooks in several categories, and they’ve just released their list of finalists. Here are the finalists in just a few of the Audie

Katherine May’s essay collection Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age offers similar meditative pleasures as her previous collection, Wintering—though you don’t need to have read Wintering to enjoy Enchantment. “When I want to describe how I feel right now, the word I reach for the most is discombobulated,” she writes, going on to chart

Last legislative session, a bill to create a rating system for all books in Oklahoma schools found itself in a legal mess with the Motion Picture Association. But a new bill and a new proposed book rating system has just passed committee and is one step closer to being implemented across the state. Senate Bill

Licensed therapist and author Nedra Glover Tawwab offers readers practical guidance on breaking the cycle of family dysfunction in Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships. In the introduction, Tawwab writes, “How people engage in the family is usually how they engage in the world.” This might be a relief for the lucky

You might be a sci-fi connoisseur, but can you identify science fiction books from the descriptions of people who truly hated them? See if you can guess the sci-fi book based on its 1-star reviews below! Bad reviews can be a bit of a sticking point for authors, and understandably so. No one likes to

They say that March comes in like a lion, and that’s the kind of energy we’re bringing to our latest issue. We’ve got a crime-solving nun, an antiquarian bookseller-turned-author, Women’s History Month picks for all ages and major new releases from Jenny Odell, Shannon Chakraborty and Samantha Shannon! Plus, stay tuned for future issues, where

Towards the beginning of the pandemic I watched my first K-drama (Romance Is a Bonus Book) and immediately understood the obsession. Since then I have purchased the Viki app and inhaled as many Asian TV shows and movies as time will permit, which recently brought me to Hotel del Luna (streaming on Viki and Netflix).

Dungeons & Dragons is the most popular fantasy tabletop roleplaying game in the world. It allows players to escape into new, exciting worlds with limitless possibilities. And in a world where many adults are not regularly encouraged to use their imaginations, D&D gives everyone, regardless of age, a chance to play and imagine. The game

Libraries are essential to bookworms. Aside from free access to books, they act as community centers and safe spaces for many who crave for quiet refuge for reading and other educational activities. But as much as they are a lifesaver, libraries are affected by budget cuts and librarian salary slashes, which greatly diminishes the services

Sydney, as a city, LOVES to party – especially during Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. This year, the party is even bigger as Sydney hosts WorldPride 2023. I honestly don’t know how the city is going to contain itself. Official celebrations began on 17 February, with theatre performances, storytelling sessions, art workshops, and photographic

Octavia’s Bookshelf owner Nikki High had hoped that the opening of her new bookstore focusing on books by Black, Indigenous, and people of color authors would be attended by 20-30 people. Instead, by the time the doors opened February 18th, there were hundreds of people lined up for ten blocks to get in. 300 people

The publisher Puffin has removed or changed hundreds of words in Roald Dahl’s books in new editions to “modernize” them, including Augustus Gloop being described as “enormous” instead of “fat,” Mrs Twits no longer being called “ugly,” “female” being changed to “woman,” Oompa Loompas described as “small people” instead of “small men,” and a line

The New York Times has a history of opining on the side of the oppressor. This is not my opinion, nor is it based on feelings, but is a fact. In 1922, they published their first article about Adolph Hitler, in which they fawned over his “uncanny control over audiences” and claimed that his antisemitism

If you’d told me back in the early 1990s (my, um, experimental college days) that a few decades hence bookstores would be selling cannabis cookbooks, I wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are, and hallelujah. In Sugar High: 50 Recipes for Cannabis Desserts, Chris Sayegh first delivers a primer on cannabis—quite necessarily, as uniformed

In a note included with advance copies of Gillian McDunn’s fifth novel, the middle grade author shares that When Sea Becomes Sky is her “once-in-a-lifetime-book.” It is an undeniably beautiful story made for pondering and revisiting, and a tale that readers will surely treasure. It’s been almost a year since rain fell on Pelican Island,

Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway call their deeply researched new book, The Big Myth, “the true history of a false idea.” The false idea in question is not really a single idea but rather many connected assertions, promoted throughout the 20th century, that have gelled into the “quasi-religious belief that the best way to

In Will Schwalbe’s memoir We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship, the wry writer of books-about-books (see The End of Your Life Book Club and Books for Living) turns his attention to an unexpected friendship that originated in a secret society at Yale. Unlike any secret society I’ve heard of, this one

Behaviors and beliefs are often perpetuated throughout families, when what we learned as children continues to show up in our families and relationships as adults. Sometimes these behaviors stem from childhood wounds that have led to negative repeating patterns. In The Origins of You: How Breaking Family Patterns Can Liberate the Way We Live and

Anya is about to become a Moth Keeper, a guardian tasked with protecting the Moon-Moths. According to the lore in Anya’s desert village, the moths were a gift from the Moon-Spirit, who wished to show her gratitude for the villagers’ choice to forswear daylight. Instead, they live their waking hours at night so the Moon-Spirit

Michelle Obama will be the first to admit she is as fallible as anybody else, but she does have a lot of this life stuff figured out. The thoughtful way in which she presents her myriad experiences is what makes her second book, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times (10 hours), such a

To continue in the face of doubt and despair, three women draw on their Christian faith in these immersive historical novels. Code Name Edelweiss  Stephanie Landsem’s transfixing Code Name Edelweiss is peppered with rich descriptions of Los Angeles in 1933. Amid widespread unemployment and poverty, few people in LA are fully aware of the growing

In Rebecca Makkai’s engrossing novel I Have Some Questions for You, a successful podcaster and film critic takes a job at a New Hampshire boarding school where, 23 years ago, a white female student named Thalia Keith was murdered. The school’s athletic trainer, a Black man named Omar Evans, was convicted of the crime and