The Best Gut Health Books Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders This book is a great intro to how the gut works and why it matters. It takes us down the journey of eating food to expelling it out the other end, and all with a bit of humor along the way. If you’re just getting into this and can’t stomach the idea of reading a hard science or diet book, this is a great place to start....
What Are Busy Books for Toddlers? To start, what is a busy book? Also known as a quiet book, activity book, or quiet time book, it’s not just a pop-up or sensory book. There is purpose to a busy book. According to the FirstCry parenting article “Everything You Need to Know About Busy Books for Toddlers”: Busy books for toddlers can have multiple uses: they can help a child practice fine motor skills; identify shapes, colors, or letters; and encourage problem solving....
The books below reflect the absolute abundance of great genre-bending nonfiction published this year. I could have made this list twice as long, easily. It’s not an accident, I think, that most of these books come from small presses. If you’re looking for unclassifiable, experimental writing, small presses are the place to find them. Also, it’s not an accident that several of these books deal with queerness in some way....
I can’t remember a time when Star Trek wasn’t a part of my life. This year is the 50th anniversary of the series, which aired for the first time on September 8, 1966, so there are a LOT of people who can probably say they also grew up with it. I grew up watching episodes of The Original Series in syndication. I was nine when The Next Generation began, and I never missed a single episode....
Creators in the genre are always trying to get to the top of the worst villain, scariest monster, or most creative kill lists in the viewers’ eyes. I’m sure there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing the first preteen dress up in the costume of your deranged character. How an author names their terror matters. It’s no surprise, then, that horror titles tend to fall into similar patterns much the same way titles in other genres do too....
It’s fitting that Kate Elizabeth Russell’s novel My Dark Vanessa was released on March 10, the day before Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison. A Weinstein juror was almost disqualified for reading an advance copy of this novel. The book is hard to read in places because the abuse is so graphic. It’s also the antithesis of the idealized teacher/student “romances” that I criticized in 2018. Without using the exact term, it’s the clearest fictional depiction of trauma bonding I’ve ever read....
HBO’s adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s series, A Song of Ice and Fire, has taken the world by storm since it first premiered in 2011. While no one is safe from harm in this show infamous for killing off its main characters without warning, GoT has developed a pattern of humiliating, torturing, objectifying, and hyper-sexualizing their female characters more than any male character on screen. As one of the biggest shows on television, one has to wonder what message it sends to its audience when the majority of its female characters are subjected to some form of abuse for the sake of shock factor....
The gangplank came down and out came some folks(The kind who don’t laugh at hilarious jokesAbout others’ genders and races and looks).And the folks said “Okay, people, give us the books.” “No!” we all said. “Not The Cat in the Hat!Not Green Eggs and Ham! Not The Grinch! Never that!Not Horton or Lorax or Sneetches, oh no.We must tell the grads all the places they’ll go!” “Not those ones,” the woke folks said with a laugh....
What is a book photo challenge? It begins with a list of themes or ideas, typically one for each day the challenge last for (30 or 31 days in the month, 90 days in the summer, 365 days in the year, etc). Your job, as a bookstagrammer, is to post a photo of the book that fulfills that theme or idea in your mind. And if that doesn’t win you over already, here are some other pretty fantastic reasons why I love doing Bookstagram challenges!...
Oprah revitalized the idea of a book club back on September 17th, 1996. The first book chosen for this new venture was Jacquelyn Mitchard’s The Deep End of the Ocean. While many, Oprah herself included, were not sure how well received this idea would be, it has since turned into a cultural phenomenon. This one decision had such an effect on the publishing world, the ripples of which are still being felt today....
“So, the more diverse the cast, the better; the more diverse and authentic the storytelling, the better. We also see it working the other way. […] It’s a global storytelling world, and these companies better get on board because it’s already late.” What a joy to see someone acknowledge the obvious: that a story adaptation can and should include representation as broad and inclusive as its fan base. Which brings me to the Adventure at hand....
But what makes a messay a messay? How is a messay different from a memoir-in-essays, or a book-length essay that explores both the personal and the political? Well, I’m not an expert. I’m just someone who likes structurally weird nonfiction and books that don’t fall into neat boxes. But I’ve come up with a working definition. Let’s get into it. What is a Messay? Let’s start with the word itself....
A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet Deacon King Kong by James McBride Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker A Promised Land by Barack Obama Shakespeare in a Divided America by James Shapiro Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener War by Margaret MacMillan The first five titles on the list showcase the best in fiction — all which might be categorized under the broad label “literary” (though arguably, Deacon King Kong lies closely within mystery and crime fiction) — while the second five titles are all nonfiction, including a memoir, an Oprah’s Book Club selection, an insider’s story of life inside Silicon Valley, and two histories....
At first, I found the idea of bringing in an author intimidating. There were too many things that could go wrong—I was really paranoid that I’d forget something, or I may have given them the wrong date. On and on it went. However, over time, I learned that author visits are not only nothing to get too stressed about, they have a really lasting impact on the students, which is the entire point....
Good fiction can do a lot of things. It can entertain us, inspire us, comfort and delight us. But most importantly, a fiction story can simultaneously reflect and shape what we believe. I’ll let you in on a trade secret: the subconscious mind can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not, and as storytellers we’re counting on that. It’s how we make you love and hurt for characters that ultimately don’t exist....
I was lucky enough to have the option of choosing several schools to apply to, but I found the whole process overwhelming. I remember getting so much mail from colleges. I had no idea where to begin. I don’t quite remember how this next part happened. Maybe I was avoiding flipping through The Best Colleges in the Northeast 2007 yet again and was rereading The Princess Diaries instead. Maybe a postcard from Sarah Lawrence jogged my memory....
Eric M. Runesson will be taking his seat on chair number 1, traditionally held for a person of the law; however, most recently chair number 1 was occupied by poet Lotta Lotass. Jila Mossaed will occupy chair number 15, previously held by author Kerstin Ekman. Mossaed was born in Iran and immigrated to Sweden in 1986. She has published two novels and six poetry collections in Persian, as well as seven poetry collections in Swedish....
It’s not a surprise to adult me that the books are pretty dang racist at times. (Racist enough that this year, the American Library Association took Wilder’s name off an award.) I wasn’t the most racially aware suburban white kid in the ’80s, but even then I was super creeped out by the ways Native Americans were talked about in the books. Particularly notable is the scene in Little House on the Prairie where Laura throws an absolute fit because Pa won’t “get her” a baby she sees a Native American woman carrying....
For the winners in all categories, check out the Pulitzer Prize website. Fiction: The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family by Joshua Cohen History: Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America by Nicole Eustace Biography: Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert and Erin I....
Living with your parents as an adult can be very challenging. It took me returning home and then moving out to really appreciate my relationship with my mother. However, we all must know not all moms are the best. Here are some of the worst mothers in literature. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman This is one of the best books I have read in a while. Unlike what the title says, Eleanor is not completely fine....
