My innocence didn’t last long. Even before I was out of my obligatory altar server years, I had lost interest in church. Tepidly Catholic, I performed the rituals with minimal engagement, mostly to please family members. Then I took an undergraduate art class where I discovered the profit-driven history of cathedrals, after which I took a women’s history elective that taught me a few things I hadn’t learned in religious ed....
A Murder Mystery…in A Fantasy World? Agatha Christie made me love murder mysteries and since reading her work, I’ve always found them intriguing. They’re like an escape room surrounding a murder, you know? How will they be able to solve everything and find the killer? But murder mysteries tend to be, obviously, in the mystery genre with a slash of crime fiction. Sometimes they have a little bit of comedy. But I wanted to expand this world so much more....
The three-book audiobook series marks Follows’ return to the works of Lucy Maud (L. M.) Montgomery whose books are read and beloved by children and adults alike. Emily of New Moon follows Emily Starr who’s orphaned at ten years old and sent to live with her relatives at New Moon Farm on Prince Edward Island. Emily, who has dreams of becoming a writer, struggles to live with her aunt, but finds a creative outlet with newfound friends....
For the first time in the prize’s history, a graphic memoir was among the winners. Filipino Egyptian American artist, journalist, and writer Malaka Gharib won the Children’s/YA category. She took the prize for I Was Their American Dream. Gharib’s graphic memoir is a coming-of-age that explores identity and culture in a household that’s Filipino, Egyptian, and American. She said, over email, that the award was particularly meaningful because “One of my deepest insecurities in life has been whether I was Arab enough....
Even though we might love royal stories, you cannot erase the horrors they have created with their monarchies. They are almost always responsible for the colonization of many other countries. They’re responsible for the destruction of cultures that were thriving before they got there. I wish we would stop romanticizing royalty. Disney painted us a pretty picture that didn’t do any wrong, but the reality is anything but that. I guess we love royal romance books because we crave a good outcome of something that has rotten roots....
His friends, Imran, Daevon & Noah are part of a loose-knit gang called DedManz, but Imran wants the gang to become bigger, more legit, more dangerous. Meanwhile, Ilyas just wants to get lost in his art, specifically creating a comic book character he can be proud of. He can’t be himself, though, with all of these external pressures surrounding him at all times. The tension boils over when Imran gets more and more aggressive, forcing Ilyas to make a decision that could put him in a lot of danger....
Banks died this weekend in upstate New York at the age of 82. Born in Massachusetts and spending most of his childhood there and in New Hampshire, Banks grew up with a father who worked as a plumber. He found inspiration in the world around him and in the lives of those who worked blue collar jobs to support themselves. Cloudsplitter is considered by many his greatest work, both in depth and scope; the book and its look at the life of one of America’s most well-known abolitionists, clocks in at 750 pages....
With Stargirl making her debut on the CW back in May, it only seems right to give some airtime to her predecessors, and those of the Justice League, the members of the Justice Society of America (JSA). A war time (WWII, specifically) hero group that included the original Flash (Jay Garrick) and the original Green Lantern (Alan Scott), the JSA formed after Hitler acquired the Spear of Destiny (powerful mystic weapon) and received a captive Flash and Green Lantern as gifts from one of his scientists....
2020 also happens to be a year in which several DC characters are celebrating the 80th anniversaries of their first appearances. Next to hit the milestone is Green Lantern, who made his first appearance in All-American Comics #16 (July, 1940). Like Robin, Green Lantern has become legacy title, though the first person to use the title wasn’t a member of the Corps. The mythos has evolved over time and now, when a Green Lantern dies, their ring finds a worthy successor and calls dibs....
B-list heroes, however, haven’t gotten quite the same bump, and I can think of a few who deserve a little love and air time. Since the trailer for S2 of The Mandalorian dropped recently, let us deep dive into the Jedi Archive and get to know… Name: Jocasta Nu Born on: Coruscant Species: Human Affiliations: Jedi Order, Jedi Council Position: Head Archivist/Librarian of the Jedi Order As was the case with most force sensitive children prior to the Imperial Era, Jocasta Nu was removed from her family at a young age and taken to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to be raised and trained....
2020 also happens to be a year in which several DC characters are celebrating the 80th anniversaries of their first appearances: we’ve already celebrated Robin (both the first Robin, Dick Grayson, and the inauguration of the designation as a legacy title) and Catwoman (the one and only). Apologies to Hawkgirl whose milestone occurred right before the world went to Apokilips and thus, passed unremarked. Next to hit the milestone is Green Lantern who made his first appearance in All-American Comics #16 (July, 1940)....
“‘Magic is genderless,’ Porter said during on an appearance on ‘Variety Live’ on Tuesday night. ‘We have all these sort of genders that we’ve put on things and it doesn’t actually matter. It’s not about sex. It’s not about sexuality. It’s not about gender. It’s about magic. It’s about being somebody’s fairy godmother, father, person, whatever you want to call it. That’s what it’s about.’ The ‘Pose’ star had already completed his work on the movie before production was shut down in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic....
It started innocently enough. I was most of the way through a Harry Potter reread (my go-to reading slump cure) when I decided to take a break between books five and six of that series to read Bird Box by Josh Malerman. (For the record, switching from reading Harry Potter to reading Bird Box is like switching from eating Skittles to eating a habanero pepper.) You might recognize Bird Box‘s title from Netflix’s recent adaptation starring Sandra Bullock, or perhaps from strangers on the internet doing something stupid....
I talked to a few Black bookstore owners about how the George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests impacted their businesses and their overall wellbeing. In the early stages of the pandemic, injustice persisted throughout the United States. One of those unfortunate and tragic events was the death of George Floyd caused by Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin. Protests began happening all around the country and throughout the summer....
Today’s edition of Daily Deals is sponsored by Steve Berry’s new blockbuster thriller, The Omega Factor. Hyperion by Dan Simmons for $1.99 Little and Lion by Brandy Colbert for $1.99 The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker for $2.99 Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam for $2.99 All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter for $1.99 The Iron King by Julie Kagawa for $2.99 Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse for $2....
Today’s edition of Daily Deals is sponsored by Avon Books. Middlegame by Seanan McGuire for $2.99 The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates for $4.99 Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World by Kelly Jensen for $1.99 The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray for $4.99 The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende for $1.99 How to Stop Time by Matt Haig for $1.99 The Cafe by the Sea by Jenny Colgan for $1....
Today’s edition of Daily Deals is sponsored by Overkill - the riveting new thriller from Sandra Brown.
Passing by Nella Larsen for $1.99 The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ozawa and Stephen Snyder for $2.99 Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh for $2.99 Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine for $1.99 Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro for $2.99 Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire for $2.99 Jackaby by William Ritter for $2.99 Little by Edward Carey for $1.99 Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris for $2....
Today’s edition of Daily Deals is sponsored by NOVL. A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer for $1.99 The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh for $2.99 A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green for $1.99 The Escape Room by Megan Godin for $1.99 The Stars and the Blackness Between Them for Junauda Petrus for $2.99 Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao for $1.99 All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M....
