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Shuklah has written a beautiful yet raw story about anxiety, PTSD, LGBTQ issues and racism. This is no fairy tale, Shuklah didn’t just come up with the tensions in this novel from the ether. In March of 2019 It was reported by The Independent that “Racially and religiously aggravated offences recorded by police in England and Wales reached a record high of more than 57,600 in the 12 months to September, after jumping by 7 per cent in a year....

The ideological and political tensions that divided the East/Soviet Union and West/USA for much of the 20th century are known simply as “the Cold War.” This is thanks to some guy who, in a fantastic bit of irony, used the term to argue for workers’ rights. (Conservatives have historically denounced unions as a communist plot, as Sharon Smith explains in Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States....

Abridged audiobooks can be shortened between 35% and 75%. Typically, an editor will go through the text, removing elements, references, and scenes that seem superfluous or redundant. In fiction, this is usually backstory, long descriptions, or world-building elements that don’t add to the main narrative. In nonfiction, editors often nix references and technical details. Notice is often provided if the author approves of an abridgment. “The original audiobooks recorded in the ’30s were actually abridged—excerpts from the Bible, Helen Keller, etc....

While all this was happening, four girls in Stoneybrook, Connecticut, were plotting how to take their little babysitting business, run from Claudia Kishi’s bedroom, and turn it into a global empire. The Baby-Sitters Club (BSC), founded by a rag tag team of four 7th-grade girls — Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey — would take on everything from babies to dogs, snowstorms to shipwrecks, divorce, death, and any and everything in between....

Here’s a peek at the ten most popular bookish gifts and goods on Book Riot this year. If you haven’t already picked any of these up for yourself, chances are, now you will. Who doesn’t love something customizable? When it’s a wire bookmark, even better! $8.50 and up. Speaking of great personalized pieces, check out this solid oak bookend with a vase attached! $49 and up. Hopefully, these customized book plates keep your books safe and sound in your own library....

If you’re looking for a place to start reading books in translation, Preply has created a great resource for you. They have compiled the most translated books by country, and presented the data in these beautiful maps! You can check out their original post for more information on some of the titles included. The Most Translated Books of the World Did you guess the most translated book in the world?...

But sometimes you find superheroes going down less expected career paths. Here’s a few of my favorite surprising superhero jobs: Food Industry There are few jobs more important than feeding people, so it’s probably not great that pretty much any time you see a superhero working in the food industry, it means they’re spiraling. Cyclops signed on to the crew of a fishing boat, Forrest Gump style, while he worked through his grief over Jean Grey’s death (the, uh, first time she died)....

I will say that some of the discussion panels were missing a little bit of that special in-person…something. That indefinable charge that comes from being in a room with people who are absolutely, positively thrilled to be squashed in with you, who are geeking out about the exact same thing you are, vibing on the back and forth between panelists, and hoping the moderator will steer the conversation in the direction they’ve been waiting for....

Note: Typos and errors left intact. Makes is raw and from the street, no? 0:35 This has to be the cheesiest song ever. And a painful rendering of NYC. We get it: dial-up modem sound and Manhattan wireframes. 2:16 How much moony do real estate brokers who work on the Upper West Side owe Nora Ephron? These places are amazing fantasy-land apartments. Part of me thinks Greg Kinnear’s character is only dating Kathleen Kennedy for this classic 6 apartment....

With continued undermining of the field’s professionals via right-wing volunteers developing their own review databases based on their opinion, rather than on knowledge of literacy, educational needs, and human development, it comes as little surprise to continue hearing demands that “both sides” of an event or story be made available in the library. The fact is, there are not two sides or “both sides” to every story. Suggesting so — and making materials available that purport to be such — is a fundamental disservice to the public....

People love to be cute when they answer that question. I literally cannot count the number of dudes who have patted themselves on the back while informing me that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Yes! It is! So is literally every movie Shane Black has ever written! WHAT IS YOUR POINT, MY DUDES? Well, I am here to tell you that To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before is a Christmas movie....

So you want ways to decorate with old books? Interested in decorating with books and plants? Curious about all of the possibilities for decorating with books on tables? Fellow book lovers, you’re in luck, and you don’t need to hire a designer to make your dream bookish spaces come to life. Decorating with books breathes new life into books that either aren’t in perfect condition or that you’ve read and are finished with....

“We’re ready to fight it,” said Books to Prisoners, located in Seattle, in a tweet. The new policy limits books to those accepted by the Washington State Library for incarcerated individuals which had already been approved by the Prisons Division, used books from the Monroe City Library directed specifically to the correctional facilities in Snohomoish County, and to those used books purchased by prisoners enrolled in pre-approved correspondence educational courses from the bookstore linked to the educational facility in which they’re enrolled....

Analogies and metaphors sometimes ring truer than the situation they’re describing. They’re comparisons that are a little off-base but somehow hit closer to home than the real thing. That’s how I feel about stories that slightly distort real life. Speculative fiction, magical realism, the subtly surreal. The real world, except for this one thing. You give me any of those in a pitch for a book and I don’t have to hear any more....

Queer Coding The idea of queer coding is quite simple. It’s when characters may not be explicitly stated to be queer, but there is enough subtext available for an audience to read them as queer. Instead of explicitly being queer, they are coded as being queer. Queer coding is not inherently negative or positive. Historically, coded queer characters have been used in media when authors couldn’t simply write their characters as queer because queer identities were not accepted....

First things first: what’s the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index? The ATU Index is a collection and sorting of several folktales into several groups. It’s gone through several iterations over the years. It was first created by a Finnish folklorist named Antti Aarne in 1910, building off the basic classification done by folklorists before him. Then an American folklorist by the name of Stith Thompson revised and expanded it in 1928 and again in 1961 (as well as added a motif index), with the most recent revision and expansion done by German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther in 2004....

“People always wanted to meet their favorite authors and get behind the scenes,” Alaina Lavoie, communications manager at We Need Diverse Books, said. “Social media really took that and blew it up to a much more intense level. You can connect with any author who is active on social media.” Engaging with authors on social media heightens the connection between authors and readers. It can be a great way to enhance the enjoyment of literature....

This month, a conservative group launched a program they call “Hide the Pride” that encourages people to check out all the books on Pride displays to “purify” libraries so that all the books on display match their conservative values. I’ve been keeping track of news about library Pride display challenges this year — with the understanding that for every story we see, there are many more that didn’t make the news....

Like many other 20-somethings, I read The Defining Decade in hopes it would provide a helpful outline for my future plans. It covers the exciting (and often stressful) uncertainty of our 20s. The book organizes life into three categories that are to be carefully cultivated: 1) love, 2) work, and 3) brain and body. The Defining Decade focuses on how to deliberately develop these aspects of your life in your 20s, because it sets the trajectory of your 30s, 40s, and beyond....

What follows is an addictive read; a murder mystery where everyone has motive and you can’t rule out anyone. Combine secret romances, shoddy police work, and juicy gossip with the fast-paced plot rife with surprises, and it’s no wonder the book spent 79 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. And it’s likely to make its way back to that list once its sequel, One of Us is Next, is published in January 2020....