Put These 2025 Literary Events On Your Calendar
Welcome to The Best of Book Riot, our daily round-up of what’s on offer across our site, newsletters, podcasts, and social channels. Not everything is for everyone, but there is something for everyone.
The Most Anticipated Literary Events of (the Rest of) 2025
For some, the major literary events of the year come as a pleasant or interesting surprise–something to enjoy in the moment, rather than to anticipate. For others, there’s big appeal in bookmarking these occasions in advance to plan, predict, and build around. I and the rest of the editorial team are in the business of thinking ahead about what the year has in store for book lovers, publishers, industry experts, and the like, which is why we all got together toward the end of 2024 to plot out everything from birthdays of literary greats, to anniversaries of books that have made a deep cultural impact, to literary awards and events coming up this year. We’ve been marking these events as they happen on the site for what’s shaping up to be a very busy year in books, but there are still so many big, exciting literary events of 2025 to anticipate.
2025 State of America’s Libraries Report
The ALA has published its 2025 State of America’s Libraries Report, where they note that “The American Library Association documented 821 attempts to censor materials and services at libraries, schools, and universities in 2024.” They also note that it’s typically not parents or students. It’s pressure groups and government entities that are pushing for books to be banned. With its infographics and easily digestible information, this is a report you won’t want to miss.
Get a Blast From the Recent Past with 2000s “Historical” Fiction
To be clear, these aren’t books that were written about the 2000s during the 2000s; these are books written about the 2000s within the last five years or so, books that have the benefit of hindsight—an important element of historical fiction in my opinion. There are plenty of great books published in the 2000s for you to read, but those are books that were written in the 2000s, not historical fiction books about the 2000s. See what I mean?
The 7 Best New YA Books Out This Week
There are so many excellent young adult books out in April, and this week is no exception. Most of the major genres are represented, so we’ve got something for every kind of reader, whether you’re looking for romance, horror, contemporary, historical, mystery, or fantasy.
First up is a sapphic YA romance about a mystery in a Black-owned movie theater, which sounds like a perfect summer read. Then there’s a contemporary novel about addiction, a horror/thriller story of spirit possession, a historical fantasy with faeries and sword-making, a bisexual fake dating romcom, a mystery in Chinatown, and a chilling thriller about friendship and betrayal.
Comics That Will Buff Up Your Spanish
Learning a new language is hard, but finding fun ways to expose yourself to new words and practice reading and listening comprehension can help keep you engaged for long enough to retain what you learn. Personally, I like using Clozemaster and listening to Disney songs in other languages. Fun fact: Phil Collins recorded the songs for Tarzan and Brother Bear in English, Spanish, Italian, French, AND German.
And comics are good too, of course!
The comics listed below all incorporate Spanish to a greater or lesser extent. I’ve listed them in order, starting with comics that feature very little Spanish and ending with titles that may be of use to more advanced language learners. Buena suerte, friends!
