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Great. If you’re anything like me, you’ve also had the same nagging voice in the back of your head to stop slacking get your life in order and start 2019 with a clean slate. (How does your voice sound so much like my mother? A conversation for another time I suppose.) But this thought has also come with a resistance. Because the category of my life with the most clutter is most certainly my book collection, and book quotas aside, I have a lot of books I refuse to let go of for reasons that have nothing to do with joy....

Even though I’ve been playing soccer since 2001, I didn’t truly register that women’s soccer players were people until 5th grade, when I stumbled on a book in the library that profiled all of the 1999 Women’s World Cup soccer team, called All-American Girls. I fell in love. I did a book report on Julie Foudy. I obsessed over the favorite things and backstories of Briana Scurry, Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Michelle Akers....

While I’m not a complete nomad, I have moved internationally three times in the past five years, each time to a place I had never even seen before. Still, I routinely get that itch to explore somewhere new. Like most people I know, I don’t have the ability to drop everything and jetset to a new destination every time I get the urge to be somewhere else. I have these dumb things called “responsibilities” and “limited resources” that are always crushing my dreams....

The series, based on the Dark Horse comics by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, makes music an integral part of its storylines. Whether it’s the entire Hargreeve clan bopping to Tiffany’s rendition of “I Think We’re Alone Now” in season 1, or Klaus, Allison, and Vanya letting off steam by “Twistin’ The Night Away” to Sam Cooke’s classic in season 2, music underscores the inner and outer conflicts of this superhero family....

Sailor Moon is such a pillar to anime and the magical girl genre. We see schoolgirl Usagi Tsukino transforming into Sailor Moon, guardian of the Earth from the forces of evil who want to steal the Silver Crystal. With the help of her Sailor Soldiers, she will also find the princess. Sailor Moon renovated the magical girl genre and influenced future projects that had it as well. So it’s not a surprise that we have found this trope in YA books nowadays....

On Lighthouses by Jazmina Barrera, Translated by Christina MacSweeney This is a book about lighthouses but also about travel, isolation, time, history, and collecting. Jazmina Barrera takes readers on a tour of the lighthouses she has visited, charting their history, traditions, technologies, and future. She contemplates famous literary depictions of lighthouses and what it’s like to be a lighthouse keeper. The book describes Barrera’s travels and the nature of her obsession, and also contemplates the many things lighthouses signify and represent....

Ten Rules of the Birthday Wish by Beth Ferry, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld Sometimes you come across a book so delightful and wonderful that you simply must tell the world about it. Ten Rules of the Birthday Wish is one such book. Out of the many, many great children’s picture books I’ve read since my daughter was born (it feels like children’s books are the ONLY books I read these days....

This list is by no means complete as publishers aren’t always great about marketing their releases as LGBTQ+ interest. I’ve also done my best to confirm that a central, point of view, or in the case of ensembles casts, a significant female-identifying character is queer, but in a couple of cases I have assumed such character exists based on the author’s body of previous work. In some instances, I’ve had to rely on what other readers have said about the book....

In cases where the poem is too long to include, I’ve given an excerpt and a link to the full version. The same is true for cases where I provided a YouTube video instead of the poem’s text. Best Poems: Classics Sappho, “One Girl” I Like the sweet apple which reddens upon the topmost bough, Atop on the topmost twig,—which the pluckers forgot, somehow,— Forget it not, nay; but got it not, for none could get it till now....

One initiative that puts the spotlight on the environment and its issues is Earth Day. What is Earth Day? Dating back to 1970, it’s an annual international event dedicated to “education about environmental issues,” per History. U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson played an important role in establishing Earth Day, inspired by anti-Vietnam war protests in the 1960s. Earth Day has become a day not only of education, but a day of action, too, during which many people do volunteer work....

I, Tituba: The Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé Many people know Tituba only as a character in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. This novel, translated from French, is historical fiction based on a real person who was accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials. Condé elaborates on the few known historical facts about Tituba. In the novel, she is a biracial West Indian woman enslaved in Massachusetts. The book shows how the Puritans’ racism, sexism, and religious intolerance fueled the moral panic of the Salem witch trials....

Summer is here, and you might be wondering what types of activities can keep your kids occupied that don’t remind them of school worksheets. Here are some fun activity books for kids that I’ve noticed recently!

Further complicating the issue is that internet-enabled book buyers may end up purchasing the wrong book, often because a buzzy new release caused them not to dive into the plot summary for the actual copy they were purchasing. The seven examples below are just a sampling of matching title books, but they provide some fun trivia, and a few laughs, as to how authors have responded to this unique situation....

But in an ideal world, I could combine my obsession with reading with my love of food. I really appreciate when people post pictures of food—especially homemade food—with a little description of the recipe or the significance behind the dish. It makes the cooking experience and process much more personal. I feel the same about books: Bookstagrammers who give an opinion or background on what they’re reading and why always draw me in....

In these recent times, it’s been a comic I’ve returned to, trying to regain that same sense of childhood nostalgia and whimsy, when a cardboard box could be a transmogrifier, or a time machine, or a duplicator. Unfortunately, reading them over and over doesn’t get old, but it can get a little repetitive, no matter how much you love them. I know I’m not the only one who has turned to these types of comics, and have run into this issue as well....

From Stan Lee, the pop-culture legend behind Marvel’s Avengers, Black Panther, X-Men, Spider-Man, and Iron Man, comes a major publishing event years in the making. After a chance meeting online, two teenagers—one born with extraordinary gifts, one unwillingly transformed—join together to right wrongs in the world. As they develop their powers and deal out reckonings, they draw the attention of dangerous forces, putting the future of the planet at risk....

Elizabeth Acevedo It is immediately obvious, after listening to her read any of her books, that Elizabeth Acevedo is a slam poet. I fell head-over-heels for her narration of her debut novel in verse, The Poet X. It’s a book that comes alive when read aloud. Though a prose novel, Acevedo narrates her second book, With the Fire on High, with the same heart. Listening to Acevedo’s voice embody her complicated, relatable characters is simply magical....

Best Books to Read in Hospital First up, this is a list for when you are NOT the patient. When you are sick and a patient in the hospital, you can choose whatever damn book you want to read. You’re sick. You need help and comfort. You call me and I will personally drop off whatever book you want and five more just like it. However, when you are not the patient, there is a lot of waiting around....