Leah Rachel von Essen is a writer and editor who gets most of her reading done while walking. She works full-time as a magazine assistant editor, while also reviewing for Booklist, writing for Book Riot and other publications, writing her blog, and working on writing and querying her novels. She uses her spare time to watch women's soccer, travel, and sometimes even sleep. Originally from New Jersey, she came to the South Side of Chicago to study magical realism, surrealism, fairy tales, religious studies, and the forms of the novel at the University of Chicago. She, her cat Ms. Nellie Bly, and her two large bookshelves live reading-and-walking distance from Lake Michigan. Leah writes about the books she's reading at While Reading and Walking. Twitter: @reading_while
Explore the myriad powerful stories through visual storytelling and these graphic memoirs and true stories by women, including The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui.
These eight brilliant novels of historical fiction featuring intergenerational family sagas tell sweeping and epic tales, including Disoriental by Négar Djavadi, translated by Tina A. Kover.
Donating for the holidays or for the CARES Act tax deduction? These literacy charities are doing great work locally and on larger scales.
The 2020 World Fantasy Award winners have been announced!
These authors cover intersectional issues, present solutions, and share their experiences of sexism in healthcare, research, and the ER in books like Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology by Deirdre Cooper Owens.
If you thought the landscape of classic SFF was exclusively male, peep these science fiction and fantasy stories by women, including Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements edited by Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown.
Real readers weigh in on how the stress and new routines of the pandemic have changed how much we’re reading—and what we’re choosing to read.
When you want to get into the spirit of autumn, but aren’t too keen on scary horror novels, check out these excellent gothic books, like Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
A look at how the USPS selects which stamps to make and how they do it, plus a deep dive into literary stamps through the years.
One reader reflects on the queer YA novels that she wishes she could send back to her young, anxious self, including When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey.
These 10 lyrical memoirs will stay with you long after you finish reading them, like How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones.
J.R.R. Tolkien is one of the most revered fantasy authors, and these are some of the best Tolkien quotes from LOTR, essays, and his other books.
Take a literary trip to España through the pages of these must-read books set in Spain, like The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
A reader recounts an in-class rebellion to fight for space to discuss queerness in Woolf's ORLANDO, and how that rebellion encouraged her as a reader.
Here's a small guide to help you ease into this formidable author's fiction, and to show you where to start with Virginia Woolf books.