Leah Rachel von Essen reviews genre-bending fiction for Booklist, and writes regularly as a senior contributor at Book Riot. Her blog While Reading and Walking has over 10,000 dedicated followers over several social media outlets, including Instagram. She writes passionately about books in translation, chronic illness and bias in healthcare, queer books, twisty SFF, and magical realism and folklore. She was one of a select few bookstagrammers named to NewCity’s Chicago Lit50 in 2022. She is an avid traveler, a passionate fan of women’s basketball and soccer, and a lifelong learner. Twitter: @reading_while
I recommend 10 books on the way the healthcare system treats fatness, race, queerness, disability, and so much more.
You won't have taken a quiz like this before — take my unusual quiz if you've asked yourself "what book should I read next?"
Read these nine feminist sci-fi dystopian novels that deal with issues of bodily autonomy, reproductive justice, incarceration, and more.
Learn more about the Los Angeles librarian who took on Dewey, fought against book bans, and tried to make the library a place for everyone.
I've gathered 11 excellent books in translation from East Africa — featuring reads by Scholastique Mukasonga, Ananda Devi, and more.
Educate yourself on trans, nonbinary, and drag performers' lives as gender outlaws with these 10 excellent queer nonfiction reads.
Summer is on the horizon! Take our quiz and we'll give you a queer sci-fi or fantasy book to dig into this summer.
Barnes and Noble is putting on the costume of a local indie bookstore, but their inner mechanics are still all big-box chain corporation.
How to navigate new rules, inning breaks, bag checks and more as you head to a Major League Baseball game ready to read.
Frog and Toad are having a moment—but who was their creator? I write about the genesis of the series and the life of Arnold Lobel.