This round of Name That Author! is sponsored by Flock by Wendy Delsol, available now in hardcover, audiobook, and ebook. After surviving her (shall we say) intense adventure in Iceland, Katla is psyched to be back for a blissfully uneventful senior year of homecoming and fashion explorations. But her hopes of dodging unfinished business are dashed by the arrival of two [...]
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When I was maybe seven or eight, my brothers and I had this one particular babysitter — I think her name was Amanda. We knew that if Amanda was watching us, it meant one thing and one thing only: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea! Could anyone be creepier than James Mason (with the exception of [...]
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In Their 15 Minutiae, writers take a break from talking about books and writing to discuss other things on their minds. LH: So. Time travel. Ever done it? SF: I’m doing it right now. For example: when I first received your question it was a little while ago. Now it’s later. In fact, now it is a little [...]
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Each week I read between 3-6 books. I don’t have time to write meaningful reviews of each, but I also don’t want to let that reading mojo go neglected. Who knows which recommendation of mine might save you a couple of dozen dollars, or encourage you to spend them? Hence this feature, “Buy, Borrow, Bypass,” [...]
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My literary pet peeve is readers who have pet peeves. That’s a statement that surely won’t make me popular, but stay with me for a second. Hopefully I can get you to see things a little differently. Here at the ‘ole Book Riot, we’ve covered literary pet peeves a few times, including earlier this week. [...]
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Mark Twain Bobblehead: Product details boast this is “Highest quality Mark Twain bobblehead ever produced.” Available on Amazon. Unusual art bookmarks: These are the most creative bookmarks I’ve seen in awhile. Available at at Etsy store myBOOKmark. Sherlock Homes Skirt: A skirt inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle’s most beloved character, via Polyvore. Beast Book: This [...]
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If I had to construct the typical magazine editor he would be a white male, who’d gone to an Ivy, and lived in either Boston, New York, or D.C. So the profile for the magazine industry — especially when you compare it to the broader field of journalism — is really thin, and unrepresentative of America, though [...]
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Is it just me, or is that the scent of newly sharpened Crayola crayons in the air? As a bookish and dorkish little girl, the beginning of the school year was a huge thrill, especially as it was the one time my impossibly frugal mother loosened the purse strings and bought new items with abandon: [...]
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Tuesday is New Book Day. We celebrate each week by highlighting titles we’re excited to see arrive in paperback. [galleryview id=18]
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This installment of Riot Recommendation is sponsored by Season of the Witch by Arni Thorarinsson. When the editors at Reykjavik-based The Afternoon News decide to expand the newspaper into northern Iceland — with their crime writer Einar as its sole reporter on location — the journalist feels as though he has stepped back in time. Compared [...]
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Everyone has literary pet peeves. For some, it’s the precocious child narrator. Some people can’t deal with it when the author breaks the fourth wall. Perhaps you get a little stabby when confronted with linked short stories. For me, the most irritating, infuriating, rage-inducing Literary Thing is the preachy book that uses the conversations of [...]
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I love to write early in the morning when the whole world is quiet except for the birds. Whether in New York City or Connecticut, I get more done between four a.m. and eight a.m. than at any other time during the day. I used to go to Venice to write because it was so [...]
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Coming in the wake of the ciritcal success of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk are a few other Iraq books due to be published this fall. The crazy thing is they all seem to be just as high quality as Ben Fountain’s excellent fictional examination of our national blind spots. Of course, they run the [...]
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But the only lasting solution is for readers to take possession of the process. The internet belongs to us all. Your honest and heartfelt reviews, good or bad, enthusiastic or disapproving, can drown out the phoney voices, and the underhanded tactics will be marginalized to the point of irrelevance. No single author, however devious, can [...]
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Labor Day weekend is something of a turning point in the long haul of the year. We’ve traversed two-thirds of the calendar, and summer’s unofficially over. (Sad face.) With so many great books coming out this fall (Zadie Smith, Michael Chabon, Margaret Atwood, Tom Wolfe, etc., etc.) let’s take a quick moment to reflect on [...]
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Our full-text RSS feed this week is sponsored by The Bloodletter’s Daughter by Linda Lafferty. Click here to subscribe to Book Riot via RSS and to be notified of new posts and stay up-to-date on all the latest.* Within the glittering Hapsburg court in Prague lurks a darkness that no one dares mention… In 1606, [...]
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If after five years, you don’t sell enough books to pay yourself–let alone an employee–and you have to get a teaching job for the benefits (as Ms. Welch did), you aren’t a bookseller, you are a hobbyist. The same logic could be applied to self-published authors, no? Or heck, how many traditionally published authors earn [...]
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Tomorrow, of course, is Labor Day, a tribute to the social and economic achievements of our nation’s workers, which Americans have celebrated for more than a century with parades, picnics, and last-minute preparations for their fantasy-football drafts. A creation of the labor movement, Labor Day often conjures sentimental images of hard-working, blue-collar, Rosie-the-Riveter types—factory, construction, [...]
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It is said that book reviewing is too nice these days, but there are still some daggers from time to time. Here are few from this week’s NYTBR, but softened by being read by baby animals. From Judith Martin’s review of The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields ____________________________ From Juliet Lapodis’ review of In [...]
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