Literature

You might think you know what to expect from a book titled Voyage of the Damned. Author Frances White, I’m sure, will be pleased to upend your expectations. Murder, mystery and magic await, but there’s also a generous helping of humor, and an unforgettable narrator, too. Title be damned, this utter joy of a read

Book news itself wasn’t something we did much when Book Riot first started, but it has become and important part of what we do: from the Book Riot Podcast to Today in Books to Literary Activism and so on. Some stories come and go, but there are some stories that are part of fundamental questions

In You Will Never Be Me, Jesse Q. Sutanto not only gives readers a voyeuristic glimpse into the lives of mom-fluencers, she pulls off a twist sure to surprise even veteran thriller readers. Meredith Lee and Aspen Palmer were once friends, but the cutthroat world of influencing has driven them to frenemy status. When they

Margaret Kingsbury grew up in a house so crammed with books she couldn’t open a closet door without a book stack tumbling, and she’s brought that same decorative energy to her adult life. Margaret has an MA in English with a concentration in writing and has worked as a bookseller and adjunct English professor. She’s

The idea for You Will Never Be Me came in two parts: The first was that I knew I wanted to write this big twist ever since I watched a certain sci-fi show on HBO years ago. Seeing a similar twist implemented so beautifully in that show completely blew my mind and I knew I

Born into a family of readers, P.N. gained a love reading as a sort of herd mentality. This love of reading has remained a life long passion, resulting in an English Degree from The University of Houston in Houston, Texas. She normally reads three to four books at any given time, in the futile Sisyphean

With emotionally charged scenes and endearing, authentic characters, these novels weave inspiring stories of growth, faith and love. As they bring new life to forgotten and abandoned structures, two women find healing from their pasts and hope for their futures. ★ Lowcountry Lost Author of 20 novels, including acclaimed bestseller Under the Magnolias, T.I. Lowe

As of July, Our Queerest Shelves is three years old! Writing this newsletter is truly the highlight of my professional life. Being paid to write about queer books is a dream come true. One of my favorite parts is tracking the new queer books coming out and seeing how that number has climbed in recent

BookTok is a phenomena that has moved an unfathomable amount of books. Despite its reputation as being solely the realm of Sarah J. Maas and Colleen Hoover, you can find book videos in every conceivable genre and format on TikTok — if you know where to look. Some of us, though, can’t be trusted with

Today’s bi-weekly mystery goodness includes new releases, backlist titles about revenge, and news. Plus, I’ve got a new mystery adaptation for you to watch if you like funny crime novels and TV shows. Bad Monkey is now streaming on Apple TV+, based on Carl Hiaasen’s same-titled novel. You can watch the trailer here. Bookish Goods

Mushroom Gastronomy: The Art of Cooking With Mushrooms is part cookbook, part encyclopedia. But because of its laser-focused attention to a single ingredient—the protean mushroom—it never feels overwhelming in its scope. In fact, I put down Mushroom Gastronomy with a determination to learn even more about the ever-fascinating fungus, which historically has somehow seemed delicate

Looking for the best of the best when it comes to comics? Then you’ll want to read your way into this year’s 2024 Harvey Award nominees. Over 50 titles are on this year’s short lists. The Harvey Awards were founded in 1998 and named after writer and artist Harvey Kurtzman. Titles are judged by a

Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside

Ash has always felt like an outsider. They have few friends at school, their interests in fantasy novels and environmentalism aren’t shared by their peers, and when they came out as nonbinary and changed their name, their parents didn’t quite get it: “When they don’t think I can hear them, they say the old name

Margaret Kingsbury grew up in a house so crammed with books she couldn’t open a closet door without a book stack tumbling, and she’s brought that same decorative energy to her adult life. Margaret has an MA in English with a concentration in writing and has worked as a bookseller and adjunct English professor. She’s

Powerful in its nuanced details, Mina’s Matchbox is an immersive and poignant coming-of-age story. After the death of her father, 12-year-old Tomoko is sent to live with her aunt’s family in the coastal Japanese town of Ashiya, while her mother stays in Tokyo. Mina’s Matchbox chronicles Tomoko’s transformative year with her extended family, from 1972

Comes with its streak of red flashing across the lawn, squirrel bound and bouncing . . . Plunge headlong into the natural world with U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón in And, Too, the Fox. This vivid poem encourages readers to consider the everyday experiences of a fox, piecing together a living in his own wild

The back-to-back deaths of two childhood friends push Isadora Chang to leave her hometown for a life in the city—until her own abusive father dies, and she is brought back into the restrictive, judgmental community of Slater. Haunted by memories of her lost friends, Zach and Wren, Isadora is desperate to escape Slater again, but

Margaret Kingsbury grew up in a house so crammed with books she couldn’t open a closet door without a book stack tumbling, and she’s brought that same decorative energy to her adult life. Margaret has an MA in English with a concentration in writing and has worked as a bookseller and adjunct English professor. She’s

★ Death on the Tiber In 2013, Lindsey Davis, the author of the Marcus Didius Falco mysteries set in ancient Rome, embarked on a new series featuring Falco’s daughter, Flavia Albia, who learned the sleuthing craft at her father’s knee. In the 11 years since, Davis released the same number of well-crafted puzzlers, but her