For years now, Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan, Alison Gaylin’s Brenna Spector, and most recently Sara Gran’s Claire Dewitt have paved the path for new and astonishing detectives of all races, sexes, and sexualities—investigators who do not always simply fight crime, but also attempt to understand how justice works, when it fails, and how these issues affect all modern Americans. Claire Dewitt, a book series rumored to have two more installments until the series completion, has developed an intense following, and Gran herself has taken giant steps to show that while Philip Marlowe may fight with gunfire, Dewitt is the woman who takes a bullet, pries it from her body, and continues on with her journey to solving every mystery possible....

While I always had a special spot in my heart for Wave 2, this global pandemic has made it very clear to me just how important a regular annual cleaning of books is to my mental and physical well-being. Mental because mess and clutter has always caused me psychological angst. And physical because, well, I don’t want to be crushed by 78 copies of books about polygamy and the Holocaust....

Fall 2019 New Releases In Translation Parade: A Folktale by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Allison Markin Powell In her afterword, Hiromi Kawakami describes Parade as a “memento of a story that has ended.” The word memento is a lovely and fitting description for this small companion story to Kawakami’s bestselling novel Strange Weather in Tokyo. Set on a lazy summer afternoon, Tsukiko is telling Sensei a story of her childhood, of how one day she awoke to find two tengu—winged creatures of Japanese folklore—by her bed....

Beast Boy may seem like a bit of a left field choice, since he’s a bright green teenager and also sort of a goofy dork — not exactly the kind of character you would rely on for consistent stylishness. But I’ve been backreading a lot of Teen Titans over the past year, and I realized that my boy Gar has been quietly killing it pretty much from the jump, and I think that deserves some acknowledgement....

Your Purr-fect Cat Notebooks Channel some good luck with this black cat notebook. I will take multiples, especially with such pretty gilt edges. $21. This notebook has 20 individually designed cats. So pretty! $7. For the love of cats! $10. I actually have this on a T-shirt because nothing quite captures my interests like a good cat pun. The Mew Yorker notebook is a must. $23 and up. A big old orange tabby on a little mini notebook....

Social Reading Riffle is a social reading tool that I’ve been off and on about playing around with. Why try something new when all of my info is on Goodreads? But I decided to try it out, because why not? It’s a new year, right? When you create your Riffle account, it asks you what genres you like, what you’re reading now, and three books you like. When you’re all done, after you’ve found all your friends on Facebook and Twitter, or randomly followed people you don’t know, you can become a category expert or post questions you have about your reading....

Now at home, it is heartbreaking to realize that I will never return to campus as a student. This place, where I cultivated knowledge, met my life partner, and transformed as a person? Never again will it be open to me in the same way. As I reflected on this, I realized that the aspect of college life I’ll miss most is our college library. Looking back, I truly believe that I wouldn’t have made it through college at all without our library....

Some pertinent info first: Now onto the exhibit! In the first steps of the Frankenstein exhibit, we’re hit with the background of Mary Shelley, a wall-sized synopsis of the novel, and a digital interactive version of Mary Shelley’s annotated book. If that’s not enough, the shiny screen of the digitized book also reflects the wrought ceiling. So pretty! On display are various versions of Frankenstein in manuscript form and book form....

I still enjoy fan fiction (usually canon divergences and AUs), but I spend most of my time reading romance novels — and while the majority of the hundreds of romance novels published every week are original stories, there is still a significant number that are retellings. Retellings of fairy tales, myths and legends, classics of the canon, cult films, folklore, and anything else people can think of. There are probably thousands of romances that use a prior source material as their inspiration or even setting, and while there are some tried and true favorites, we definitely see trends in both traditional and independently published romance when it comes to authors revisiting familiar stories and making them their own....

— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) November 13, 2018 So what can we expect in the six episodes of the show’s final season? Well, don’t look to the books for any clues, as 1) the show parted from the source material long ago, and 2) Winds of Winter is still a twinkle in George R. R. Martin’s eye. In a rare interview Martin did with The Guardian, he said, “I’ve been struggling with it for a few years…The Winds of Winter is not so much a novel as a dozen novels, each with a different protagonist, each having a different cast of supporting players and antagonists and allies and lovers around them, and all of these weaving together in an extremely complex fashion....

X-Men + James Bond + (Lady) Ghostbusters = The Rook by Daniel O’Malley The Rook is a true delight. The protagonist is Myfanwy Thomas, an operative with mutant-like a secret organization that helps battle the supernatural. One day, Myfanwy wakes up without her memory, but in possession with a series of letters she wrote to herself before the memory erasure. Following “Thomas’s” instructions, Myfanwy tries to continue on with her work, as well as figure out what kind of conspiracy led to her memory loss and is threatening her organization....

Of course, I know that this wasn’t the first time an author had written about evil plants, but that story planted a seed of fascination inside of me (get it?) that’s refused to die. As far as fictional monsters go, plants may not be able to physically chase you down, but let’s be real here – it would be impossible to hide from them. They’re everywhere, and they’re so commonplace that they can sneak through our lives almost completely undetected....

Think of it: Aragorn, coming back to claim the throne of Gondor hundreds of years after his family had abandoned it, effortlessly inspiring loyalty in his men. Arthur, pulling the sword from the stone. Bees telling Mila Kunis that she’s a space queen. via GIPHY Well, maybe not so much this one. In the last several years, though, the Rightful Heir trope has gotten complicated in fantasy — the heirs aren’t noble, are incompetent when it comes to leading, or don’t want the job....

Book Riot is teaming up with Macmillan eDeals to give away a pair of AirPods Pro to one lucky winner! Simply fill out the form and subscribe to the Macmillan eDeals newsletter for a chance to win! Here’s a bit more about our sponsor: Be the first to hear about our down-priced eBooks across a variety of genres from your favorite authors, starting at $2.99! Craft sessions might seem at odds with the traditional image of a library....

To my utter delight, there are a good amount of Gideon the Ninth gifts lying around on Etsy. From pins to T-shirts and stickers — if you love Gideon you’ll probably love these. No spoilers, but there’ll be a good amount of skulls. Just like Harrow likes it. So without further ado, here are 13 amazing Gideon the Ninth gifts for your necromancer hearts! Gideon the Ninth Gifts Let the smell of sea-salt and leather take you back to Canaan House with this scented candle....

They are the world’s best hope . . . but each other’s worst nightmare. In this second installment of the bestselling Renegades trilogy, Nova, Adrian, and the rest of their crew are faced with escalating crime in Gatlon City, while covert weapons and conflicting missions have Nova and Adrian questioning not only their beliefs about justice, but also the feelings they have for each other. The line between good and evil has been blurred, but what’s clear to them both is that too much power could mean the end of their city—and the world—as they know it....

We have 10 copies of Courting Mr. Lincoln by Louis Bayard to give away to 10 Riot readers! Just complete the form below to enter. This sweepstakes is open to residents of the United States (excluding Puerto Rico and all other U.S. territories). Entries will be accepted until 11:45pm, April 30, 2019. Winner will be randomly selected. Complete rules and eligibility requirements available here. Oops! We could not locate your form....

But first, what makes a book valuable? Based on the research I did for this article, I’d say it depends on a variety of factors. Age, for one. As objects age, they start to fall apart, and people throw them out, especially if they weren’t worth much at the time (e.g. if they were mass produced or viewed as too puerile to matter). So the longer a book survives, especially if it remains in good condition, the higher the price....

What Is Wordle Developed by Josh Wardle, a software engineer, Wordle is a daily word game initially created for his partner. The two of them loved word games and kept it between them, but because of how much they enjoyed it and the response they received from family who tried it, Wardle released the game to the internet in October. Wordle is, of course, a clever play in Wardle’s name. According to the New York Times, 90 people played the once-a-day word game on November 1, 2021....

“When the COVID-19 pandemic caused bookstores across the United States to close indefinitely, many publishers decided to push back select publication dates for their titles in order to give them the best chance to succeed in the marketplace. Three publishers shared in interviews how they went about making these decisions and how they’ve approached marketing newly released titles during this time.” If you’ve noticed publishing dates changing a lot lately and you wondered why and how, here are answers....