Books

As this year ends and the next draws ever closer, it’s a good time to stop and reflect. At Book Riot, we published thousands of articles in a year, ranging from longer, research-based posts to quick lists and bite-sized news stories. So after a year of uploading hundreds of posts a month, which ones were

Barnes & Noble has a plan to open 30 stores in 2023, making the bookseller the leader in what’s being called a big-box revival. This expansion comes after more than a decade of shrinking its number in response to competition from Amazon. There are even a couple of the new stores being opened in the

Poor Nubby. The plush toy rabbit has been “carried, buried, dropped, dragged, torn, worn, chewed on, sat on, and even used as a nose wipe. Repeatedly.” What a life! No wonder Nubby decides to head off in search of a place where he’ll be far more appreciated than he is at home.  First, Nubby tries

by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 6, 2022 Narnia on the Penobscot: a grand, and naturally strange, entertainment from the ever prolific King. What’s a person to do when sheltering from Covid? In King’s case, write something to entertain himself while reflecting on what was going on in the world outside—ravaged cities, contentious politics,

The Huntsville Public Library (HPL) has been under fire since this summer, when a book display riled up city officials. Now, following the removal of two book displays at the public library, the city decided to privatize the library. Though officials claim the move to hire Library Services & Systems (LS&S) will reduce library operational

Granbury Independent School District superintendent Jeremy Glenn was recorded telling librarians in the North Texas libraries under his purview to remove books that dealt with “transgender, LGBTQ and… sexuality.” In the leaked recording, he’s heard saying “I acknowledge that there are men that think they’re women and there are women that think they’re men. I don’t

Coretta Scott King Honor author Lesa Cline-Ransome has earned a reputation as an excellent chronicler of American history in more than 20 works of fiction and nonfiction. In For Lamb, she powerfully captures the events that lead to a fictitious lynching in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1940.  Cline-Ransome was inspired to write For Lamb after visiting

Biographical profiles of 34 Indigenous Americans, rendered as poems, are illustrated by nearly 30 enrolled tribal artists. Bruchac’s introduction dispels stubborn stereotypes about Native people, disputing that their time was “back then, not in the present—or the future.” By presenting profiles chronologically, from The Peacemaker (circa 1000 C.E.) to Wilma Mankiller (1945-2010), he elegantly unspools

It’s fairly common for SFF writers to write all SFF, all the time. It makes sense: science fiction and fantasy are, like all literary genres, modes with their own histories, tropes, archetypes, and conventions. If an author is successful working within any genre, it makes sense that they might choose to continue doing so. Plus,

Historical fiction presents a certain narrative highwire act in and of itself, and each author confronts the challenge of weaving fictional stories into real historical events differently. No matter the approach, though, the balance of verisimilitude and invention is paramount. With The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre, Natasha Lester takes on that challenge and

2022 has been a wild ride. As I reflect back on the year, it seems like 2022 has been filled with truly scary moments. But at least the horror books of this year have been good scary and not fear-for-the-future-of-humanity scary. Horror novels, as always, remain a great way to escape from the terrors of

In Have I Told You This Already? Stories I Don’t Want to Forget to Remember (4.5 hours), Lauren Graham, the beloved actor and bestselling author of Talking as Fast as I Can, offers conversational, witty essays about everything from changing trends in undergarments to the process of coming to terms with aging, from adventures in

A middle-grade novel focuses on a boy, his pet rat, and a shared love of baseball. Lucky is one lucky rat. Rescued by a woman with a 10-year-old boy named Jack, he lives a fairly stress-free life with his brother, Gus-Gus, as household pets. The rats can talk to each other, having conversations that humans

Beginning in October, here at Book Riot we’ve been watching as a slew of Best Books of the Year lists came rolling in from publications ranging from The New York Times to Buzzfeed. This was a great year for books, but it’s interesting to see just how little overlap there is between these lists. To

We like our politics to be binary. It is comforting to hear that we are on the good side and other people are on the bad. But life, obviously, is not binary, and neither are our politics. In V.V. Ganeshananthan’s second novel, readers are carried to a reckoning with this fact.  Set in 1980s Sri

New York City is the literary capital of the country, from the abundance of publishing houses based there to the vibrant writing culture. It also has some of the largest public libraries in the United States. We’ve seen a lot of discussion in the past few months of the best books of the year as

Readers have likely noticed that super-bright colors continue to dominate book cover design in 2022, but while evaluating all the covers she’s seen this year, BookPage’s Brand & Production Designer Meagan Vanderhill was looking for more than eye-catching colors. Good book jacket design is certainly about grabbing a reader’s attention, she explains, but it’s also

by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 6, 2022 Narnia on the Penobscot: a grand, and naturally strange, entertainment from the ever prolific King. What’s a person to do when sheltering from Covid? In King’s case, write something to entertain himself while reflecting on what was going on in the world outside—ravaged cities, contentious politics,

Despite all the candles, tinsel, gifts, and pie, Americans consistently rate the holidays as the most stressful time of the year. That holiday stress may be compounded by family relationships — depending on what kind of family you have. With that in mind, I’ve pulled together a list of the best and worst fictional families

I do not like to be scared. Seeking out media that is designed to be scary — books, films, TV shows, or, I don’t know, music videos? — is something I will never understand or choose to do. I also do not like gore. I can handle some violence in my books, if it serves