His short story collection, Historias Abensonhadas, is a good example. Abensonhadas doesn’t exist as a word in Portuguese: it is a mash-up (of the plural) of the word “blessed” (abençoadas) and “dreamed” (sonhadas), and you find several of these clever wordplays across his books. To me, what makes his stories so special is the way in which he manages to describe even the most violent events as if they were coated in honey....
Funnily, this preference is actually pretty at odds with my usual love of breaking up my life into little tasks and ticking things off checklists. I guess New Year’s resolutions just seem too large. If any of this resonates with you, you’re the perfect candidate for Project Reading Resolutions You’ll Actually Keep. Which is just an arbitrary list I came up with of reading resolutions that are extremely — almost laughably — achievable....
On Specific Wars Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain This is a memoir of serving as a nurse in the First World War. One of the foremost texts telling a firsthand experience of the utter horror of war and the irrevocable change it brings. Further anti-war writings can be found in One Voice: Pacifist Writings from the Second World War. Hiroshima Notes by Kenzaburo Oe An account of both the immediate and decades-long devastation afflicted on Hiroshima by the bombing....
“A holiday romance complete with a surly rancher dude hero to die for, the hottest blizzard ever, a smart, sweet, slightly nutty heroine and all the Christmas cheer you could possibly need.” – USA Today bestselling author Heidi Rice 🎶Real love! We’re looking for un-real love! That’s why we want you to share your favorite books about fake romance! Find us on Facebook and Twitter and shout those titles at us; we’ll round up your answers and be back next week to share a roundup with your fellow Riot readers....
The Gift of Adventure Whether you’re looking to go abroad for a couple of weeks or enjoy a local day trip, one gift option is a trip to a bookish destination. Book Riot’s own Literary Tourism has plenty of ideas. Check your area for historic house museums lived in by authors, rare books and special collections libraries with interesting exhibitions, or locations where favorite books were set (someone who also loves Anne of Green Gables, please take me to Prince Edward Island!...
In response, publishing company Simon & Schuster announced yesterday that they were canceling Hawley’s upcoming book The Tyranny of Big Tech, which was slated for a June release. Here’s their statement: Hawley posted his response via Twitter: https://about.simonandschuster.biz/news/josh-hawley/ So let’s break that down. He calls the cancelation of his contract Orwellian (has he…read Orwell?), claims it’s an assault on his First Amendment rights, and all but calls it censorship. It’s none of the above....
Also? Books about sex are fun! Let’s do this. Mary Roach is the queen of experiential journalism, hilarious footnotes, and fascinating facts that are just as inappropriate for quoting in polite conversation as they are irresistibe. For Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, she went into the archives of sex research to explore the studies that started it all and into modern sex research labs to find out what scientists are studying and how they get answers to questions like “Can a person think herself to orgasm?...
Well, maybe yes. But also maybe not. I started doing a PhD about public libraries in 2012, and in the past eight years, I have visited 112 libraries in six different countries (primarily USA and Australia). I have been to libraries in the heart of bustling global cities, in quiet suburbia, in small country towns. I have seen some very old libraries, and some very new ones. Along the way, I’ve noticed a few things....
Gothic literature is believed to have originated in England, with many crediting Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otrano as the first gothic novel. Romanticism was at its height then, and the growth of gothic literature from that era makes sense. It continued to grow into popularity in the 1800s, with books like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Edgar Allan Poe’s work, and Dracula among some of the biggest names. Though gothic literature was popular across England and Germany at this time, when it emerged in the U....
So after my then-5-month-old went to bed, I watched A New Hope, and the rest, as they say, is history. For those few hours, I got to be part of a different world. My exhaustion and weariness fell away, and I felt…hopeful, for the first time in a long time. At a time when I was struggling as a new parent, deeply exhausted, nervous about the upcoming election, and feeling very alone, Luke, Leia, and Han brought me into the fold....
Survival horror wears a lot of different faces. Whether you’re looking for a gruesome, supernatural foe your heroes must outmaneuver, or you just want a creepy tale of humanity vs. the natural world, there’s something you’ll enjoy in this brief list of survival horror novels. Below, you’ll find a historical horror novel, three tales of modern-day dread, and a claustrophobic sci-fi novel about a caver who isn’t alone in the dark....
Twenty-four year-old Crowe runs the now-private TikTok account @classroomyogi, and at the end of May, she posted a video showcasing the queer- and activist- themed books she has available in her classroom. Among them were Kid Activists, It Feels Good To Be Yourself, and Queer Heroes, and it was not the first nor last of her videos showcasing inclusive books. A conservative Twitter account found Crowe’s videos and compiled them in early September....
I believe one of the reasons we do that is because our reading habits can tell a lot about each of us as a person. The characters we cheer on, the settings we are pulled into, and even how we treat and enjoy our books, are often windows into our soul, into the ways we view the world around us, our motivations and moral compass. These habits and preferences can even disclose more about our personality than what we are willing to reveal straight on....
But not everything Tolkien said about race was a disaster. After The Hobbit proved successful, foreign publishers came a-knocking. Among them was Rütten & Loening, a German publisher, who wrote to Tolkien in 1938. This is not remembered as a red-letter year for Germany or Europe in general, what with the rampant anti-Semitism and white nationalism. So we shouldn’t be surprised that Rütten & Loening’s letter asked Tolkien to confirm his “pure” “Aryan” ancestry....
I could easily write a list of the 1,000 best nonfiction books, but that would be overwhelming for everybody! Hopefully, you will find some books you love here and some books you haven’t read and might want to try. Take a look at the list and find some to add to your TBR! Biography/Memoir/Essay Alexander Hamilton by Ron chernow “In the first full-length biography of Alexander Hamilton in decades, Ron Chernow tells the riveting story of a man who overcame all odds to shape, inspire, and scandalize the newborn America....
Many things can prevent us from reading each day or every other day. Some readers are too busy, but others are distracted. It can be hard to focus on a book when your phone is calling out to you. Open this app! Check this notification! Watch just one more video! No wonder it’s hard to put your phone down! The good news is that there are ways to avoid picking up your phone....
We’re starting with the best. Lara Jean Croft: — Nicole He (@nicolehe) October 27, 2018 Also, Jenny Han has a magical thread of every To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before costume she found. You must scroll through the whole thing: https://twitter.com/jennyhan/status/1056367640778805248 This makeup Wonder Woman: A post shared by Hope Campbell (@_hopeugetit) on Oct 27, 2018 at 6:11pm PDT This adorable Thing 1 and Thing 2: A post shared by Sydney McNeill (@sydney....
“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope…I have loved none but you.” ― Jane Austen, Persuasion “The way I feel about him is like a heartbeat―soft and persistent, underlying everything.”― Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda “Your soul sings to mine. My soul is yours, and it always will be, in any world.”― Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone “As much as I had wanted a love story out of a movie, I know now that movies can only hope to to capture this kind of love....
From the New York Times bestselling author of Good Grief comes a richly poignant and stirring story that asks: How soon is too soon to fall in love again? With Winston’s trademark humor and sweetness that will appeal to readers of Jennifer Weiner and Fredrik Backman but is uniquely her own, Lolly Winston delivers a heartfelt and realistic portrait of loss and grief, hope and forgiveness, and two imperfect people coming together to create a perfect love story....
Some of these might already be on your radar as overtly friendship stories, while some of these books are less obvious with their friendship themes — but still worth picking up! They cover everything from the painful process of making new friends, navigating complicated friend groups and dynamics, being lonely and discovering a new friend, friendship break ups, and friendships that evolve into something more! Let’s dive in! Want more great YA comics and graphic novel content?...
