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Not everyone finds their love for reading at an early age. For a lot of people who grew up in schools where common core curriculum trumped critical thinking, books weren’t necessarily introduced to students in a positive way. Highlighting important parts, understanding vocabulary, and recognizing form are all important aspects of building an academic foundation. However, that’s not all there is to reading. But when these beautiful, incredible, somewhat tedious novels are given to kids who see reading them as nothing more than a chore, these books aren’t given their proper respect....

Spooky month, Friday number two! This time around, we’re going to focus on books that has scary aliens. Because while I normally prefer my aliens friendly, sometimes we just need monsters out in the great big nothingness of space. (Or sometimes, the aliens reveal we are the monsters…)

____________________________ I think this is my fourth reading of Sula, and I have the notes to show for it. It’s one of my favorite in Morrison’s oeuvre, and there are ghosts of my former selves all over these pages, now marked in at least three different colors of ink. Sometimes I come across a passage I marked previously and am validated by the recognition that it still seems important. Many times, though, I get to a section I’ve marked only to discover that it is either just before or just after the part that seems most substantial now, as if my former self circled around the target but couldn’t quite hit it....

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey (February 4, Tor.com Publishing) I’ve been obsessed with Sarah Gailey’s writing ever since I first read their incredible American Hippo duology, and everything about this book from the premise—a dystopian future southwest with librarian spies, bandits, and queers fighting back against fascists—to the cover has me convinced it’s going to be one of my favorites of 2020. —Rachel Brittain Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust (May 12, Flatiron Books) As soon as I saw that the author of Girls Made of Snow and Glass had a new book coming out, I knew I had to get my hands on it....

Izzidien is an acclaimed author. This year, she made the shortlist for the Betty Trask Prize for her debut novel The Watermelon Boys. But while she’s writing more fiction, she is also focused on bad book reviews. I was excited when she launched the site, as I’m a fan of AICL, which launched in 2006. Mendoza and Reese’s reviews of books that depict American Indians are invaluable to the children’s literature community....

The National Book Critics Circle consists of nearly 800 members and was established in 1974 in New York with the goal to honor outstanding writing and foster “… a national conversation about reading, criticism, and literature.” The distinguished award is the only in the United States with a deciding committee made of book critics. Awards are granted in six categories to books published in English in the U.S. The categories are: Fiction, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Poetry, and Criticism....

In addition to the books I’ve chosen to list here, The Best American series publishes on November 1st, with collections including Essays, Science and Nature, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Short Stories, Mystery and Suspense, and Food Writing — are always favorites of mine. There’s also a cheeky (couldn’t help it, sorry) book entitled Butts: A Backstory, by Heather Radke (out Nov 29th) that’s both informative and entertaining. (The cover is fantastic, and sure to start lots of conversations....

It might also be the start of some new reading challenges or some new reading resolutions, or you might just want to explore something different. Lucky for you (and for everyone, really), January nonfiction is full of different options. It’s the perfect opportunity to grab a book that looks interesting, sit by the fire with a cup of coffee or hot cocoa, and layer on the blankets while you read the day away....

Make the harrowing journey home with Queen Bitterblue’s sister and spy, in the fifth novel in the bestselling Graceling Realm series. Hava sails across the sea toward Monsea with her sister, the royal entourage, and the world’s only copies of the formulas for the zilfium weapon she saved at the end of Winterkeep. And while Queen Bitterblue grapples with how to carry the responsibility of a weapon that will change the world, Hava has a few more mysteries to solve—and a decision to make about who she wants to be in the new world Bitterblue will build....

I feel the same way about nonfiction comics. Some material is just hard to get through in print. Nonfiction can be dense and intense. There’s a lot of information to take in. My brain isn’t always up for it. But reading comics requires a different muscle. It’s a different way in. With comics, I’m absorbing information in more than one way: I’m reading the text, but I’m also looking at the art....

This was odd, considering that medicine and poetry have been interlinked across history, with famed writers such as John Keats and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. being educated as doctors. For them, poetry offered an avenue to meaningfully connect with their patients and for themselves to reflect on their life-altering and intense work. As a double major in Biology and English, it amused me to no end how science students used the very humanities-based skills they scorned in their courses and eventually in their personal lives, from drawing diagrams of the heart to writing laboratory reports to writing cover letters for internships....

I’ve been thinking a lot about biographies lately. For several years now, I’ve been reading and listening to one after another, trying to understand how great historical figures (musicians, presidents, scientists, artists) are products of/influence their times. With each book I’ve wondered, “what does it mean to be so amazing that books are written about you long after you’ve died? What does it mean when a single person’s life spawns twenty competing biographies?...

The image of the green mat cover of Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle is one of those odd memories that has somehow engrained itself in the back of my brain. I remember trying and failing to read, my legs folded in the far corner of my 5th grade classroom. My grandfather bought it for me for Christmas that year. While I remember the scene of characters swimming in the moat around the castle where they lived, avoiding the swans, I did not finish it....

Reading Home today? Or maybe trying Morrison for the first time? Let us know what you think. We’ll be reading Home ourselves and dipping in here to share our thoughts and see what others are saying. Talk to you soon…

When it was first published, the book was met with generally favorable reviews. The New York Times said, “Some fantasy novels deal out the tropes of the genre like cards from a dog-eared deck. Others affirm the elemental power of these tropes, reminding us not only why we read fantasy, but also why we read at all.” Kirkus agrees that the trope-heavy story is a bit clunky, but that the storytelling is compelling enough to get the reader to the next book in the series....

Imagine a small town, covered in snow, a long-long love, or a fresh new beau. A few shy glances, some quippy banter, grumpy meet sunshine, or a love of second chances! Or maybe it will be a long-lost royal, or a work place fling; it doesn’t matter as long as the love makes your heart sing. Hang up the mistletoe and string up the lights, snuggle up with a book for those long polar nights....

Acclaimed science reporter Erika Engelhaupt investigates the gross, strange, and morbid absurdities of our bodies and our universe. From the research biologist who stung himself with every conceivable insect to the world’s most murderous mammals, this entertaining book explores oft-ignored but alluring facets of biology, anatomy, space exploration, nature, and more. Featuring interviews with leading researchers in the field and a large dose of wit, this provocative book reveals the most intriguing real-world applications of science in all their glory....

Goosebumps was adapted into a movie, starring Jack Black as a fictional version of the author, in 2015. A sequel came out in 2018. In 2021, the Fear Street series was adapted into a trilogy of movies on Netflix. Despite being 30 years old, these series clearly still have appeal for today’s kids and teens. In August, R.L. Stine is releasing a new collection of ten scary short stories for kids called Stinetinglers, which promises to appeal to fans of Goosebumps as well as Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark....

Meet Libby. The one-tap reading app from your library, powered by OverDrive. Downloading Libby to your smartphone allows you to borrow thousands of eBooks and audiobooks for free anytime and anywhere. You’ll find library books in all genres, ranging from bestsellers, classics, nonfiction, comics and much more. Libby works on Apple and Android devices and is compatible with Kindle. All you need is a library card but you can sample any book in the library collection without one....

The CCBC has also recognized that in future reports, they will be adding Arabs/Arab Americans to their findings. In their count, a single book can be counted in more than one category. For instance, if a single author identifies as Afro-Latinx, or if a book has two main characters of different backgrounds. This helps explain why percentages don’t add up to 100, and why the numbers for “by” and “about” don’t add up to the total amount of books received....