And we have a lot of reading material to choose from in August’s children’s book releases. From cat problems to Black joy to immigrant experiences and so much more, there’s a book releasing for every kind of reader this month. August Board Book Releases August Picture Book Releases August Middle Grade Releases Looking for more new children’s books? Check out my July list of new releases, as well as my 2021 picture book preview....

The best queer books 1. Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston If you want a little taste of pure joy, then go ahead and pick up Red, White, and Royal Blue and sit back, because this book is delightfully heartwarming from start to finish. The first son of the United States falls for the prince of England in a tale of enemies to lovers at its finest. It’s not a perfect world without problems, but it is such a hopeful book, and in our current state of politics, it was a read I really needed....

Back when the book was first released, Book Riot published an excellent piece about why Hillbilly Elegy is problematic. It’s been over four years since Vance’s memoir hit the shelves, but now we have to contend with the movie of Hillbilly Elegy, directed by Ron Howard and starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams. Many of the issues from the memoir carry over to the film version of Vance’s story, presenting his harmful portrait of Appalachia to a whole new audience....

Recently, she threw out a playful comic book reference on Twitter, with a ballsy quote from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s seminal work, Watchmen: — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 11, 2019 The nerdosphere blew up, naturally. Some people took issue with her use of the quote, but me? I loved it, and I think she should do it more. Since she’s probably pretty busy these days, I took the liberty of pulling together some apropos quotes for her, with suggested uses....

Children born in Indian Hindu households grow up consuming these stories. As a child, I loved these fantastic tales — especially those from the shaktya tradition dominant in my home state — which involved the feminine power, or Aadi Shakti, quashing the egos of pompous male gods and slaying demons. But these tales are often presented in ways that reinforce racist, casteist, and sexist stereotypes. Positing these stories as the sole representation of Indian mythology erases the stories of the indigenous peoples of India, of other religions, and also versions of the same stories that differ from the widely accepted one....

Moving on from Fabio – and no offense to him – we’ve come a long way in the romance world. There’s less stigma attached to reading romance, and while there is still is a huge diversity problem in romance publishing and how we report it, romance novels are increasingly more diverse. So let’s talk contemporary romance. These are 16 of the best contemporary romance novels that have been published in the last five years....

With the past two years that we’ve had, I think people crave romance content more than ever. I would think it’s because of the happily ever after that you know you’re going to get. You might experience heartache and painful feelings throughout the manhwa, but you know that by the time you arrive at the end, romance-wise, it’s going to be a happy ending. So I have a feeling that maybe that’s why we are seeing a growth in romance manhwa....

The students at Lizzie’s high school are notoriously terrible at breakups. Forget awkward conversations—they’re dumping each other via text. Inspired by the breakups around her, sixteen-year-old Lizzie, strapped for cash and itching to go on the school’s band trip to NYC, teams up with her best friend, Willa, to create a genius business: personalized breakup baskets. The Goodbye Girls operate secretly, and business is booming. It’s not long before someone starts sending impossibly cruel baskets to seemingly random targets, undermining everything Lizzie and Willa have built....

Ultimately, falling in love is a magical experience, and who brings magic into the world? Witches, that’s who. Let’s fall in love with one today. Here’s a fun mix of witch romance books that’ll entrance you with love spells in no time. Adult Witch Romance Books Young Adult Witch Romance Books A brief caveat: YA romance can be a little frustrating for readers of adult romances used to genre standards....

What is dark romance? To get technical, dark romance books are not romances in the strictest sense of the word. Depending on who you ask, they can be anything from a standard romance novel with dark tones or themes (as with something like Eve Silver’s Dark Gothic series), to a black sheep cousin of New Adult, to a subset of Erotic Romance that indulges itself in all things frightening and taboo....

Books by Martin Luther King Jr. The following are books written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that put his Christian faith and belief in nonviolent resistance into the forefront of American consciousness. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Clayborne Carson (Editor) In The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., Carson pieces together King’s published and unpublished work with his several of his previously published autobiographies. This compilation offers a first-person account of Dr....

Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes Appropriately, let’s start with psychic space cats. The hypnotic cats are among the cargo on La Sirena Negra, a tattered ship with a matching motley crew. Captain Eva Innocente’s misfortunes and adventures are told episodically, as she and her crew run reluctant errands for The Fridge crime syndicate. These errands are dangerous but absurd, and it’s hard not to grin as Eva dodges mind-melding monks and space cannibals....

Looking for even more recommendations? Browse our Japan archives.

All of these new queer books are very exciting, but, news flash: queer people exist year round. The deluge of queer books in June sometimes feels a little bit like publishers appeasing us — like as long as they release a ton of LGBTQ+ books in June, they can ignore us the rest of the year. No, no, no, no. Around here, we read queer all year. And, happily, there are tons of amazing queer books coming out this summer and fall, even if they haven’t all gotten the buzz they deserve....

Audiobooks have come a long way since their first iteration in 1932. Back then, the American Foundation for the Blind created book recordings on vinyl records, which only held about 15 minutes of speech per side. Over the following decades, cassette tapes and then compact discs became the new media for recorded books. In recent years, audiobooks have steadily increased in popularity. According to the Audio Publishers Association’s annual sales survey, audiobook sales have increased by double-digit percentages every year for the past decade....

Fiction Books for 10th Graders Nonfiction Books for 10th Graders Science Fiction/Fantasy Books for 10th Graders Sports Books for 10th Graders Looking for more great books for high schoolers? Dig into these books for 9th graders, books for 11th graders, and books for 12th graders.

You don’t have to wait until next November. Speculative poetry appears at any time of year. If you finish with these winners, you can move onto nominees from both full-length and chapbook categories. While the winners list reflects the top three picks, even just this small piece of the nominee list reflects the range of voices of writers from all walks of life with different approaches to specpo. “1:1 Feeding on the living is good, / but feeding on the dead is better....

I am definitely not an expert in Indigenous Futurisms, and I am approaching these books as a white settler reader, but I did want to highlight some speculative fiction titles by and about Indigenous people: some of them I’ve read and loved, some are on my TBR. Most of these are from North America, but I’d love to hear about more Indigenous SFF authors from South America. Feel free to reach out on social media if I’ve missed one of your favorite Indigenous speculative fiction authors!...

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith After young Abraham Lincoln discovers his mother was killed by a vampire, he pledges to dedicate his mind and body to the study of vampires, so that he can pursue vengeance. And thus the historic figure and his ax pave a path that takes him all the way to the White House and demands the worst kind of toll on his personal life....

Why are audiobooks for kids so important? Sometimes you just need more variety in your reading and sometimes it’s just very, very hard to concentrate. I get it. Audiobooks can be a good way to explore new stories or a way to explore stories together with other loved ones. Another significant benefit is that listening is more accessible for some. Maybe the littlest people in your household are still learning their letters; maybe your loved ones are partially sighted, or you have print-processing challenges like dyslexia that make listening the best (or sometimes only) option....