Our Most Popular Stories of the Week
Welcome to The Best of Book Riot. Here’s your weekend highlight reel of the week’s most popular stories.
4 Older Backlist Historical Fiction Books to Read
We feature a lot of frontlist books here on Book Riot. There’s nothing wrong with that—new books are great! Sometimes that means backlist titles fall by the wayside, though. But not today! Today is all about those backlist books, baby. For those of you who may not be familiar with the terms “frontlist” and “backlist,” frontlist books are books that have been published recently and are usually still actively being publicized by the publisher. Backlist titles are ones that are still available in print but have been out for longer, usually more than a year.
Here’s What the Biggest Book Clubs Are Reading in April
There is something for every reading taste this month: a poetry collection for poetry month; a debut novel written by a poet that was on all the Best of Lists of 2024; a sci-fi book-within-a-book by a Hugo and Nebula award-winning author; a dystopian that could not feel more relevant; an SAT tutor on the run after discovering a murdered couple; a great satire; a novel about a lost hiker in the wilds of Maine; a genre-bending story about sisters over centuries; a London set novel about love and ambition; and a “You’ve Got Mail-esquse romance.”
8 Unforgettable Literary Fiction Reads by Marginalized Authors
Literary fiction works tend to be the most celebrated and revered, for better or worse. They are what’s recognized for awards—including the few literary awards that come with significant cash prizes. But often, the literary fiction recommended is by the same handful of names, who also happen to be male, white, cisgender, straight, and abled. It’s worth seeking out marginalized voices not only to combat the system discrimination in the book world, but also because—in my opinion—much of the most interesting and groundbreaking literary fiction works are by marginalized authors.
Everyone Should Read This Book That Made Me Want to Tear Out My Hair
I learned so much from the book I’m recommending today. I also had to take so many deep breaths while reading it. I wish I’d had access to and taken more classes focusing on literature from the Harlem Renaissance when I was an English major in college way back when, but the one class on African American lit that I did get to take introduced me to some of the figures in this book about the “Midwife of the Harlem Renaissance”–Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston, to name a few. I never heard mention of Jessie Redmon Fauset, this historical fiction novel’s central figure.
Cozy Mysteries Starring Senior Sleuths
It’s a good time for elderly sleuths. Then again, I think elderly sleuths have always been a staple in the world of mysteries, with the obvious example of Miss Marple. What I love is how we’re seeing authors write their sleuths, including nursing home residents who band together, ghosts and outrageous grandmas, and sleuths who are forced out of retirement. We’re seeing more diversity in elderly sleuths, too, which is a boon for readers and writers alike. So, here’s a list of eight cozy mysteries featuring elderly sleuths in some way. Sometimes, they are the protagonists, and sometimes, they are helping the amateur detective.
