Sorting the Trash What I find so interesting about Flowers in the Attic is its position as both a subversive and non-canonical book. Another word for “non-canonical” would be trash. Trash books are expected to be forgotten; they supposedly evince no literary merit under scrutiny. They’re the kind of books that teachers and parents roll their eyes at teens for reading. Eye-rolling is actually one of the best case scenarios regarding authorities’ reaction to trash....

In the summer of 2009, I fell in love with the English language and American politics at the same time. I have Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing to thank for that. As a child and pre-teen, I read voraciously and wrote prolifically, but when we moved to England and my mother tongue, French, began to rust, so did my love of language. Sorkin convinced me that English could be elegant....

Superhero stories are as universal as creation myths. Pick any culture—ancient, modern, Asian, Western, or other—and somewhere in their mythology you will find a crew who would be right at home at Professor Xavier’s School for the Gifted. You won’t have to look far, either. The human aesthetic yearns for stories about people who are like us, only better. Medieval monks debated the question of who would win a fight between the Metatron and the Archangel Michael in terms that are strikingly similar to modern stories....

If 1,000 books seems too ambitious, think about it like this: if you read just one book to your baby every day, by the time he or she turns one, you’ll have read 365 books. If you maintain that streak, your child will have completed the program by the time that third birthday rolls around. Since most children start kindergarten at the age of five, you’ll have accomplished something great together—two years ahead of schedule....

What are Goodreads giveaways? Goodreads giveaways are exactly what they sound like! They’re book giveaways hosted on Goodreads, usually sponsored by the book’s publisher or author. To find giveaways, go to the browse tab on the top banner and click on giveaways: That takes you to the glorious giveaways listings page, which you can scroll for hours. Open giveaways are also posted on a book’s page, below the publisher’s information....

As far as I’m concerned, two tastes that go great together are SFF and romance, which are two genres I love. Since it’s that time of the year, let’s highlight some romantic SFF — defined here as books that are primarily SFF but have a very strong romance plot line in them. Next week, expect SFF Romance, which are books written to romance genre specifications but take place in an SFF setting....

They also released a list of the top 60 books that were read towards this year’s goal — that is, the books marked as “Read” by users who were participating in the 2022 Goodreads Challenge. They include buzzy new releases as well as backlist that’s been getting a lot of attention recently (hello, Colleen Hoover). Here the top ten: A few things jump out in this top ten. One, of course, is Colleen Hoover’s dominance of the list, which is not a surprise, considering her books have also been at the top of the bestseller lists all year....

What are some of your reading superpowers? Perhaps they align with some of what fellow Rioters have listed among theirs. Maybe they’re entirely different. Whatever the case, drop your reading superpowers in the comments and collectively, we can become our own superhero team. The following reading superpowers are anonymous because, well, some of them are better left unsigned. Reading Superpowers I can always figure out the twist in a YA psychological thriller by page 10....

If the top five publishers were to publish numbers on how many crime novels they published last year with stats on author race and marginalization, I would be willing to bet it all — ALL — on the percentage of authors of color and marginalized voices being a single drop in the ocean that is crime publishing. I can’t, obviously, offer those statistics. But I can share things I regularly encounter that make it obvious to me that the mystery genre is still leaving out marginalized voices....

Regret has often been weaponized to push women into the institution of motherhood, regardless of their preferences. The cultural assumption that motherhood is synonymous with unadulterated joy excludes the possibility of how a lot of women might even be averse to it. In Sheila Heti’s Motherhood, her protagonist takes on the role of an interrogator and poses the question of whether a child is a curse disguised as a blessing....

In this theory, first developed by cardiologists in the 1950s, Type A personalities are characterized as competitive, ambitious, aggressive, impatient, highly organized, obsessed with information, and acutely aware of time management. As for Type B? They’re the opposite: much more laid back in nature, less “frantic,” “neurotic,” are in fact more inclined to enjoy achievements, can work easily and steadily, and find it easier to disregard or work past physical and mental stress....

To establish an official Little Free Library — meaning your library will be recorded by the organization and put on their map, plus you’ll be given a metal nameplate for your library — you first have to apply for a charter sign. At this time, charter signs cost $40 per library and also give stewards access to a Facebook group and book giveaways to help with the maintenance of their libraries....

“It’s obvious why this meditative poem has resonated so deeply with people: It inserts the idea of individual agency back into something out of our control, and imagines that the time after this will not only exist—it’ll be better than before. Instead, the major mystery has become the identity of its mysterious author, a woman whose online presence boils down to a blog, a Facebook page, and lots of people asking: Who is Kitty O’Meara?...

I figure there are more soon-to-be coolest aunts out there who are experiencing this struggle, so I’ve compiled a list of [untested and un-researched] tips for baby’s-first-favorite book buying. My final tip [mostly aimed at myself]: don’t feel down if your books aren’t your niece/nephew’s first favorite. Remind yourself it’s not a competition. Plus, you’ve got years to coax them down the path of readerly love; you could still be their toddler, grade school, middle grade, or young adult favorite....

In anticipation, I’d spent all my time worrying about packing and moving all of our books; though I’d never sold a house before, I had moved, and I anticipated many backaches and the inevitable suggestions from my husband, growing in strength and frequency, that perhaps I give some of these books away to someone who will actually read them. Okay, Marie Kondo, like that would actually work! Anyway! I thought I knew all about moving and books, but then the real estate agent came to our house to give us a few tips on staging....

A few months ago, I started coordinating the virtual book club, The Unusual Historical Romance Book Club, founded by author Jackie Barbosa. Since then, I have learned a few things. Namely: although formats and themes may vary, historical fiction book clubs are surprisingly straight-forward. All you need are a to-do list, a few extra lists, and some time. With that said, let’s get started, shall we? Stay Up to Date with New Releases In order to choose books, you need to know what’s being published....

Whether you’re a librarian looking for something to implement at your library or a book lover who always has friends asking what they should read next, I hope you find this guide helpful. How I Got Started Fortunately, I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. My library was already offering this to patrons well before the pandemic began and Book Riot had the TBR: Tailored Book Recommendations service. I considered whether the world really needed another virtual book recommendation service, and decided to go ahead with it....

Reader, I lied. I set out to go five days without reading. In the end, I didn’t read for four and a half days. But it sure felt like a week. Setup & Introduction Presumably, you, like me, enjoy books. So you might be asking yourself the same question I asked myself on the first day of my no-reading experiment: why would anyone subject themself to a self-inflicted week of no reading?...

I can’t get enough books about parenthood, though. I’ve never met a queer parenthood memoir I didn’t want to read. I’m constantly searching for them. It’s not just that I find them fascinating and informative and beautiful and moving. There’s something about queer parenthood books that makes me feel seen. Sometimes they feel like they’re written just for me, even though, objectively, this is not the case — they are about experiences that I will never have, that I do not want to have....

The first book in the Fox & Chick series, The Party and Other Stories, was recently awarded a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor at the American Library Association Youth Media Awards. The second book in the series, The Quiet Boat Ride and Other Stories, will be published March 5, 2019. We sat down with Sergio Ruzzier and asked him a few questions. Jen Sherman: You began your career as an illustrator at the age of 20, in 1986....