Books

Cat Sebastian’s latest queer historical romance is a love letter to resilience and the power of bravery. Set in 1960 New York City, the same midcentury journalism milieu of Sebastian’s 2023 novel, We Could Be So Good, You Should Be So Lucky tells the story of shortstop Eddie O’Leary and journalist Mark Bailey, both of

As of this moment, my daughter is on the longest reading bender of her young life. She picked up the Percy Jackson series about a week ago, burned through that, and now is on to the Heroes of Olympus part of the saga (is it a saga? I don’t know. She talks to me about

Welcome to Today in Books, where we report on literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. TikTok Turns Self-Published Journal Into Million-Copy Hit Here is the TikTok feedback loop in action. (If you haven’t already read Kyle Chayka’s Filterworld, you’re gonna want to after this story.) In 2021, after coming across

Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside

Believe it or not, summer is almost here — at least, if you’re in the northern hemisphere. That means celebrating the only way readers know how: by building an ambitious summer reading TBR. But what exactly is a “summer read”? That’s a topic hotly (get it?) debated on the bookish internet. See also: beach reads,

The difficult task of establishing a government for the United States required the development of a stable national economy that could deal effectively with a huge debt and other critical concerns. William Hogeland chronicles the twists and turns of the early years of the new republic in his drama-filled and insightful The Hamilton Scheme: An

Here’s what’s on tap today at Book Riot: 10 Exciting Books to Read this Summer  In these recommendations for summer 2024, we have fantasy, nonfiction, magical realism, romance, and everything in between—from a new blockbuster King Arthur adaptation to a poetic book by one of our generation’s best writers on the city he grew up

Some of the most valuable friendships I’ve ever had are with those a few decades older than me. I appreciate listening to their insights on challenges that I might be facing for the first time but that they have encountered before and can see from a more long-term perspective. Hopefully, I also give them a

Here are the most popular posts from the last week here at Book Riot: What was a queer person to do in the ignorant and uneducated years of decades past when queer literature was declared obscene? In the 1950s and 1960s, an era when male homosexuality was illegal, it was exceedingly rare to find media

This originally appeared in our Today in Books daily newsletter, where each day we round up the most interesting stories, news, essays, and other goings on in the world of books and reading. Sign up here if you want to get it. ____________________________________________ The Bookseller Who Brought Hardcovers to America’s Most Famous Bookstore Linking to

On Wednesday, about 1,000 publishing industry professionals—agents, editors, publicists, and marketers chief among them—gathered at NYU’s Kimmel Center for Student Life for the 2024 Publishers Weekly U.S. Book Show. Now in its fourth year, the U.S. Book Show sprang up during the pandemic after Reed International kiboshed Book Expo America (BEA) for good. Whereas BEA primarily served

Before creating her popular podcast Unf*ck Your Brain, Kara Loewentheil was already ambitious and accomplished: Her accolades include a degree from Harvard Law School, a clerkship for a federal judge and a job as a litigator for the Center for Reproductive Rights. “I had it all,” she writes, but “the problem was that my brain

Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside

The Safekeep, Yael van der Wouden’s debut novel, is set in 1961 rural Holland. At 30, Isabel is living in the house where she was raised after the death of her father forced the family’s move from the city and into a furnished house their uncle Karel found for them. Isabel lives a circumscribed and

Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside

For over a decade, health care journalist Shefali Luthra has been reporting on reproductive rights for Kaiser Health News and The 19th. In Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America, she details the public and private chaos that commenced when the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in its 2022 decision, Dobbs v.

This originally appeared in our Today in Books daily newsletter, where each day we round up the most interesting stories, news, essays, and other goings on in the world of books and reading. Sign up here if you want to get it. Inside Reese Witherspoon’s Literary Empire This profile in The New York Times by

A child heads outdoors, walking through a verdant and hilly rural landscape, as the sun rises and a shadow appears as the “last hint of night.” Thus begins an evocative exploration of shadows, both literal and metaphorical, in There Was a Shadow, written by Bruce Handy and illustrated by Lisk Feng.  Handy examines the omnipresent,

Today is the first day of the six-day Amazon Book Sale. It includes deals on tablets and ereaders, Amazon Editors’ print book picks, most shelved Goodreads books, books by Asian Pacific American Heritage Month authors, books by Black authors, ebooks in Spanish, and much more. You can browse them on the Amazon Book Sale page,

Break out your TBR and brace yourself for an onslaught of exciting mysteries and thrillers out this year! Goodreads has put together a list of the most-anticipated mystery and thriller new releases. These are the titles that have been added to users’ Want to Read shelves the most often. Some big names immediately jump out–fans

Sony Pictures dropped the first full-length trailer for the adaptation of It Ends With Us yesterday, and I have thoughts! Coming to theaters June 16, the films stars Blake Lively as main character Lily Bloom (whose unironic dream is to own a flower shop, I cannot), Justin Baldoni, and, inexplicably, Jenny Slate, playing it straighter than I knew she

A new trailer has dropped for It Ends with Us, adapted from the novel It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. The book became a hit on BookTok, dominating the bestseller lists for many months. Of course, that spike in popularity also drew some backlash. The movie adaptation stars Blake Lively as Lily Bloom, Justin

Adventure, anyone? While Ikumi Nakamura is best known as a Japanese video game artist and developer with an interest in horror and mystery, she has another fascinating side. As Project UrbEx: Adventures in Ghost Towns, Wastelands and Other Forgotten Worlds reveals, she’s also a fearless, adventurous photographer who has long traveled the world to explore

Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside

If you are the sort of person who can’t bear to part with sentimental objects—“That belonged to Mamaw!”—this book is for you. Packed inside The Heirloomist: 100 Heirlooms and the Stories They Tell are photographs and stories of 100 items belonging to everyday as well as famous people, including Gloria Steinem, Rosanne Cash and Gabby

Canadian writer Alice Munro died on May 13th in her home in Ontario. She was 92 years old. She is considered one of the masters of the short story, well-respected in the literary world. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013, with the Academy saying she could “accommodate the entire epic complexity of

Theo remembers feeling uncomfortable with how the world saw them from a very young age. Frustrations built up, from boys assuming that they couldn’t play chess to being forced to cut their own hair because hairdressers always insisted on more feminine looks. But experiences in art school, at comic-cons and playing tabletop roleplaying games, plus

Merry MerMay! MerMay is most known as an art challenge, where participants make a mermaid-themed piece of art every day based on prompts. Here are the 2024 daily MerMay prompts, including #Kaiju #Feline #CoastalGrandma and so many more. While I love to see mermaid artwork in my feed, I’ll admit that visual art is not

After sharing a year with Mouse in Mouse’s Wood, young readers can now enjoy a day on the river with Mouse on the River: A Journey Through Nature, a quiet picture book full of charm. As the titular hero spends the day rowing down a river that eventually meets the sea, the most dramatic event