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Sharpen your blade. Harden your heart. Journey to Faerieland in the #1 New York Times bestselling Folk of the Air trilogy. What started with The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King finally ends with the jaw-dropping finale, The Queen of Nothing. To win her place in the High Court of Faerie, Jude must risk her own life and defy the Fae that despise her mortality. Caught between her ambition and her humanity, Jude will learn the meaning of true power in this explosive, dazzling series from award-winning author Holly Black....

Open Road Summer by Emery Lord Reagan has just broken up with her boyfriend and she’s ready for a fresh start and no more drama. Fortunately, her best friend is a country-music superstar, and she’s leaving for her 24-city tour, so Reagan joins her for a girls-only road trip of music and healing. But Matt Finch joins as opening act, and suddenly their girls-only summer is not so drama-free and Reagan must decide if she’s ready to put herself out there again....

Take, for instance, the carnotaurus they showed doing a mating display. He was the guy with the fancy, little blue underarms. What makes the paleontologists think those arms were for a mating display? Well, for a mini lesson on evolution, I can tell you that an organism does not evolve to have something as complicated as ball and socket joints without reason. You don’t waste vital energy on something like that unless it’s important, especially for something that would otherwise be considered vestigial at best....

New Historical Fiction in Fall 2019 Dominicana by Angie Cruz Fifteen-year-old Ana is forced to grow up too fast when her family pushes her into a marriage to a man twice her age. Although moving to New York is the dream of many of her friends and family in the Dominican Republic, it isn’t her dream. And when she arrives, she feels lost. But when political turmoil in her home country pulls her husband away, she has a chance to find her own voice....

Featuring beloved characters alongside introducing new ones, Hawkeye managed to — mostly successfully — juggle a large cast of characters with unique and overlapping storylines. Not only did we get Kate Bishop and Clint Barton, but a number of other recognizable heroes and villains I imagine we’ll be seeing more of in the future. And can I just say: it’s so good to see Clint Barton finally done right. There have been hints of that patented mixture of exasperation and exhaustion I so love throughout the franchise, but not like this....

As I’m writing this, the new Doctor Strange isn’t out yet, so I can only guess what will happen. We’ve seen from the Disney+ What If…? series that there is a darker Doctor Strange, zombies, and Captain Carter, among other things. Spider-Man: No Way Home made all three recent cinematic webcrawlers canon in the MCU. Will the X-Men or other mutants finally make their MCU debut? Will the dream cast of John Krasinski and Emily Blunt appear in a new Fantastic Four?...

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang As Jin Wang struggles to fit into a predominantly white school, another struggle takes place: that of a divine monkey with a deep desire to be a human. This beautiful book will remind you how good it is to be who you really are, and also that bananas are yummy and should be enjoyed. Cairo by G. Willow Wilson, M.K. Perker, and Travis Lanham A wannabe suicide bomber....

Although Halloween is the main event this month, very few of these comics involve ghosts, curses, or other appropriately creepy things (unless you consider the Greek gods creepy, which is fair). So if you’ve already had enough of ghouls and ghosties, there are still plenty of new titles for you to dive into this month. While a few of these comics can stand alone, many of them are continuations of long-running sagas or franchises....

Bill Clegg returns with a deeply moving, emotionally resonant second novel about the complicated bonds and breaking points of friendship, the corrosive forces of secrets, the heartbeat of longing, and the redemption found in forgiveness.

These horror novels are all written by LGBTQ authors and are perfect for when you’re craving a frightening read. To help you find what you’re looking for, I’ve split the list into adult and YA fiction. For a more in-depth discussion on queer characters in horror, check out this essay written by Rioter S.F. Whitaker. The essay discusses how straight, cisgender characters have traditionally dominated the horror genre while queer characters are often sidelined....

From the New York Times bestselling author of Sometimes I Lie, comes a new thriller from Alice Feeney. His & Hers is a twisty, smart, psychological thriller. A gripping tale of suspense, told by expertly-drawn narrators that will keep readers guessing until the very end. Samantha Downing, author of My Lovely Wife, says His & Hers “should not be missed” and Mary Kubica calls it “deliciously dark.” If you like thrillers with multiple points of view, check out these great recommendations:

The first books that turned me into a reader were about teens with mental illnesses — I’m looking at you, Beatrice Sparks — and it’s remained one of my go-to book topics when I need something to remind me why I love books. Sometimes they’re like looking inside my own brain, but more often than not, they’re offering a brand new perspective that I hadn’t known much about before opening the book....

Looking to explore even more of the world through books? Check out our list of recommendations for books set in the midwest to complete our Read Harder challenge, or the latest post in our literary tourism series to daydream about reading adventures far and wide!

This list includes the best productivity books that outline tips and lessons to effectively get stuff done and motivate yourself to work hard—even when you feel like your mental energy is at your lowest. The 9 Best Productivity Books 1. Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi Zomorodi believes in doing nothing. She used listeners to her podcast, Note to Self, as a pool of participants in an unofficial experiment about unplugging from the devices that suck up so much of our attention....

The 30 million fans of the blockbuster YA series have been asking: Where is Maximum Ride? Ten years ago a girl with wings fought to save the world. But then she disappeared. Now she’s just a fading legend, remembered only in stories. Hawk doesn’t know her real name. She doesn’t know who her family was, or where they went. But destiny is coming for her—a destiny that forces her to take flight....

We are going from San Diego, California, to Savannah, Georgia: 35 hours with no stops, across eight states and around 2,400 miles. The Southern Pacific route changes names about six times because it follows the old U.S. Route 80 and some of its modern day equivalents, but it’s all the same road, my friends. We will cross woodland, desert, the great plains, and grassland as we explore the literary goodness to be found along the way....

The opening line to Jane Austen’s most famous novel is one of the best known lines in literature, and for good reason. It’s snappy, it’s memorable, and it perfectly sets up the story that is about to unfold in Pride and Prejudice – a romance that follows the ever-popular “hatred (or at least disdain) to love” journey, whilst poking subtle, satirical fun at the society it’s set in. It’s a quote so famous that it’s used as a basis for commentary on nearly everything, with the nouns being swapped in to fit the topic....

J.K. Rowling is damn brave. The climax of the novel is one of those Things That Rarely Happen In Books because those things really upset people. But it does happen here. I know of few other authors who have stepped over the line Rowling does in this book’s ending. Most of the reviews went on and on about how everyone in the novel is hateful, and how it’s so depressing....

Some notes and caveats: This is not a comprehensive list, and an omission of an award is in no way a judgement upon it. These are the ones I am most familiar with and that came up when I polled fellow SF/F aficionados (with especial thanks to Alex Acks, writer of our Swords and Spaceships newsletter). For a much more comprehensive list, check out the Science Fiction Awards+ Database (with thanks to the readers who sent that in!...

This is hardly the first time comics have mocked a president or, more broadly, gotten political. In their earliest days, they were blatant anti-Nazi propaganda. Although they indulged in anti-communist propaganda in the 1950s, their political ardor was cooled by increased censorship. But by the mid to late ’60s, comic book creators were once again dipping their toes into more contentious territory. They didn’t do it very well, but there was definitely a more sincere (some might say preachy) tone than past attempts at dealing with serious issues....