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If you haven’t has a chance to pick this beautiful, heartbreaking marvel of a book, you have around a month before we are blessed with the movie adaptation, starring Amandla Stenberg, KJ Apa, Issa Rae, and Regina Hall. The book has everything, from profound words about black activism and police brutality to cozy, quippy family banter. I have no doubt the movie will be a gorgeous inspiring tearjerker, and here are some of my favourite The Hate U Give quotes I’d love to see come to life....

So I’ve put together a list of 12 of my absolute favorite queer story collections from the past three years. Believe me when I tell you that these 12 are just the beginning. I limited myself to books published in 2020 and after, which means I didn’t include Look Who’s Morphing by Tom Cho, Sea, Swallow Me by Craig Gidney Laurance, or Love After the End edited by Joshua Whitehead....

These days, I am not as committed to the Christmas traditions, except for one: I will move Heaven, Hades, and Earth to make sure we all have one day of chilling out with a book. Sometimes it is hard to find the right book for this special time, so here are my 12 Days of the Best Christmas Quotes to start you off. Thinking of how to use these quotes in greeting cards?...

That’s not to say there aren’t options — story collections like How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? (more recs like that here) and anthologies like A Thousand Beginnings and Endings are easy enough to find, and they’re a great way to dip your toes into the literary world of short fiction. But there are also so many great short stories out there for free on the internet. Many literary magazines exist entirely — or in part — online and feature some or all of their fiction on their sites....

Did you know it’s totally possible (and easy!) to put books on hold at your library before they’re even released? It’s easy to do through the Overdrive app simply by searching the title of the book you’re interested in and suggesting it for the library. If the book is purchased, your name will be top of the holds list. And with these buzzy 2021 fall releases, you definitely want to get in line as quickly as possible....

For me, a great narrator is vital to an enjoyable audiobook experience, so I’m pleased to see some of my long-time favorites return for these books, as well as some incredible new talent and new-to-me voices. If you’re looking for a great LGBTQIA+ audiobook to listen to in the second half of 2021, here are 12 of my recommendations. The list is skewed towards the next three months because audiobooks often aren’t announced until closer to publication date, so we are sure to be blessed with even more wonderful audiobooks later in the year....

Summer reading is a fun, rewarding, and important part of summer vacation. Reading during the summer helps combat the “summer slide” or loss of reading skills that many students experience when not in the classroom. This year especially, with the school year cut short or modified, summer reading is more important than ever. To motivate your child and to make reading more exciting, I have put together a list of 2020’s best summer reading programs, challenges, and book logs....

As I was down the rabbit hole of temporary tattoos, I found a bunch of bookish temporary tattoos that I wanted to share. Some last only a couple days, but some of these can last up to two weeks. A real tattoo, especially a good real tattoo, is going to set you back at least a couple hundred dollars. The temporary tattoos I’ll share here are affordable fun without the commitment (and without the needles)....

I am still a newcomer to reading yuri and lesbian manga, so I defer to Erica Friedman’s definition of yuri vs. lesbian manga. Friedman runs a yuri site called Okazu, which started in the early 2000s. Not only has she been writing about and reviewing yuri for almost two decades, but she also regularly gives presentations about the history of yuri. If you want an overview of the term, here is a video that goes over the basics....

Here, we’ve rounded up 14 of the best titles, from old-school classics to modern stories, to get you started. Classic Suspense Books With Romantic Themes 1. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier This doesn’t qualify as romance, but Rebecca is a classic with some elements of romantic suspense—and it’s super eerie, too. The unnamed narrator falls in love with a mysterious widower and soon finds herself living at Manderly, his beautiful estate in the countryside....

If you’re looking specifically for mysteries with dark family secrets, be sure to read this round-up as well. Fiction Books About Family Secrets Nonfiction Books About Family Secrets For more book recommendations with plenty of tantalizing secrets, check out these 15 mystery recommendations that are perfect for your next book club. Solo leaves Trinidad for New York immediately to escape his overwhelming feelings. But when Solo receives a phone call from Mr....

I want to celebrate some of the queer books coming out this month that I’m most excited about, but first, a disclaimer: this is far from a comprehensive list! This is only what’s on the top of my TBR, with my own preferences — though I’ve also tried to include a range of genres and identities. This month includes one of the books I’m most excited to get my hands on: The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe!...

International readers know little about Filipino children’s books that come from the Philippines itself, a completely different set of works that have distinct identities. Luckily, as a Filipino who has worked in the local and international publishing industry, I have a list of some the best Filipino children’s books. These Filipino books for kids vary by sub-genre and language. There are books on Filipino mythology, folklore, identity, friendship, and everything in between....

Horse books are truly their own genre. Many adults turn to the well-trod canon when they meet a horse-loving kid: Black Beauty, The Black Stallion, My Friend Flicka, National Velvet, and Misty of Chincoteague. I honestly don’t know how well these books hold up to the young readers of today. But — hot take alert — it’s never a bad idea to forgo a classic in favor of giving a kid a good book written recently....

Welcome to Dale Bailey’s In the Night Wood, where fairy tales are not just for kids. In this contemporary, spellbinding fantasy, the grieving biographer of a Victorian fantasist finds himself slipping inexorably into the supernatural world that consumed his subject. Bestselling author Karen Joy Fowler praises In the Night Wood claiming “Every story is a ghost story. But not every ghost story is as haunting as this one. Nor as luminously written, literate, absorbing, transporting, and all-around excellent....

Tolkien Was Born In South Africa Arthur Reuel Tolkien was employed in a branch of a British bank in Bloemfontein in what is now the Free State Province of South Africa. On January 3, 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein to Arthur and his wife Mabel Tolkien, née Suffield. He was the older of two sons: his younger brother Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien was born in 1894....

Since I love and read so many crime books (mystery, thriller, suspense, true crime — and everything related!) I decided to take a look at the many annual mystery awards to pick out the ones that are my favorites. So now you have the subjective judgment of the judges, and me! Basically we’ll pretend they’ve been judged twice so double murdery seal of approval for must-read best award winning mystery novels!...

I’m not saying that adult sapphic lit is as plentiful as I’d like it to be. It certainly isn’t. But I have read a ton of amazing sapphic novels in the last few years. So many, in fact, that I couldn’t include all of them on this list of 20. I’m staring at my bookshelf right now, and several sapphic books are staring back at me, wondering why they didn’t make the cut: Justine by Forsyth Harmon, Fiebre Tropical by Juliana Delgado Lopera, and Amora by Natalia Borges Polesso....

As you can see, romance can be and is everywhere — that’s the beauty of it. Genre-blending books really give you a little bit of everything you love, creating a wonderful piece of content. For example, when I’m on Twitter, I constantly see people search for adult fantasy romance books. The fantasy genre is well-loved by many readers and it’s often a comfort genre for them. Adventures, magic, creatures — you find yourself relating to a world that you won’t ever see in your lifetime....

The work isn’t done, of course. Some disabilities are showcased more than others, and there are absolutely still books that offer representation that does more harm than good. As more #OwnVoices authors share their stories, though, we’re being treated to dynamic, well-rendered characters living incredible stories where they get to be the hero—and not “just because” they have a disability. Find below 20 outstanding YA books with disabled characters. Although not all of these books are #OwnVoices (in part because unless an author is forthright in sharing something personal about themselves, you can’t always verify disability), they offer a solid array of portrayals of living with a disability....