Read and Recommend Better Books With This How-to
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.
How to Use Reading Appeal Factors to Find More Five-Star Books
Many readers are already using appeal factors to some extent when they choose and discuss books. For example, do you prefer books that are fast-paced or more leisurely? Are you okay with an unreliable narrator? Do you like your mystery books to be scary, suspenseful, haunting, or all of the above? Narrowing down these appeal factors and understanding how they show up in your favorite books can be a great tool to find books you enjoy, as well as a valuable skill for booksellers and librarians to use in reader’s advisory.
Genre-Defying Historical Fiction
Many historical novels blend genres and defy conventions. You might expect all historical novels to be written in past tense, but Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel is a famous example that is entirely in present tense. It might even be surprising to find ghosts in a historical novel—unless it’s written in the mode of magical realism. These six novels push the boundaries of the genre or fit into more than one category.
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New YA Book Releases This Week
While it’s quiet on the new release front, though even with a relatively short roundup of new books to highlight, you’ll find something here to get excited by. As usual, because there are a pair of new releases in series, you’ll see those at the bottom of each respective list to avoid any spoilers.
A Poetic Story of One Muslim Girl Who Must Leave Her Home
Jude’s story gives other refugee kids a chance to see themselves in a character. All the struggles of fitting in at a new school, learning a new language, or adapting to a new culture come alive on the page in such a special way. And for kids who aren’t refugees, they can see, perhaps for the first time, what it feels like to flee your country to make your home in a new one.
What is DC Comics’ Absolute Universe?
DC Comics has been using the Absolute monicker for a while now. Usually, it’s in reference to large, hardcover, deluxe editions of its comic book stories. Ever since October of last year, though, Scott Snyder has overseen a new part of the DC Comics multiverse: DC Comics’ Absolute Universe.
