What makes an adaptation great? What makes it bad? How did this book and this movie come to be? What really happened in the book and how is the movie or TV show different? Along the way, we will leave the gun, take the cannoli, get a bigger boat, shake a not stir, be a cool girl and a clever girl, and so much more. Our kickoff episode about Dune is coming next week, and we hope you will join us....
We continue to make tweaks and improvements to the reading log, and this year is no different! If you’re an impatient person, click here to access the 2022 reading log. Remember that in order to get your own copy of it, you’ll need to be logged into your Google account. Then, go to the upper lefthand corner of the page, click File > Make a copy. A pop-up will appear asking where to your own drive you want to save it....
Hi mystery fans! Here’s three great reads: a historical mystery, start to a fictional serial killer trilogy, and unsolved murder with an interesting hook. Until next time, keep investigating! Now she’s not only devastated by the loss, taking painkillers for her injury — which she is unaware she is addicted to — but her mother and grandmother want to move on from the ugly situation and marry Tillie off. To her murdered sister’s fiancé — and this is why I don’t romanticize these times!...
The Twilight Renaissance is an internet revival of Stephanie Meyer’s paranormal romance saga. People are once again making fan art, sharing memes, and discussing the series’ impact after a dip in popularity during the mid-2010s. But why now, and who’s driving it? What Started the Twilight Renaissance? It’s easy to pinpoint a beginning to when Stephenie Meyer announced Midnight Sun‘s release in May 2020. Told from Edward’s perspective, this Twilight companion was the perfect kindling to get old fans interested in the series again....
Zero Expertise, Zero Fact Checking There’s been a lot of conversations about social media granting large platforms for people with zero expertise, pseudo science, misinformation to get their message out and the harm it’s doing. Publishing also offers the potential for a large platform, and when it comes to nonfiction, “authors, not publishers, are responsible for the accuracy of nonfiction books.” Let’s say I believed laying naked in my backyard every morning to get sun on my bits where the sun is not supposed to shine offered me the full level of vitamins my body needs for proper health for a full 24 hours....
Aries (March 21–April 19) You love a brand new year and fresh new planner to track out your goals and achievements. You’re ready to start the year with a bang. January will be full of opportunities and potential for you to hit the ground running. But your focus on career and personal goals may cause tension at home. Make sure your loved ones don’t feel left out as you make big strides....
“’Queens, Kings & everything in between!’ a Facebook event page reads. ‘It’s time we stand together at the Missouri State Capitol! Even if you don’t do drag, but support drag queen storytime – come support and rally with us!’ ‘We will be heading to Jefferson City, MO in full drag to show senators & legislators that we aren’t the monsters here. That all we are doing is providing a space for learning and getting kids excited about reading....
A ten-episode digital series, Alexander described WordPlay as “a masterclass for kids to learn about writing” aimed at children in Grades 3–7. The episodes go live in early September and will be accessible through Age of Learning’s educational game Adventure Academy. The game—available to families on computers, tablets, and smartphones— expands children’s proficiency in language arts, math, science, and other topics. Once WordPlay becomes available, Adventure Academy has learning activities in-game to accompany each episode....
and on a soft beddelicateyou would let loose your longing and neither any[ ]nor anyholy place norwas there from which we were absent no grove[ ]no dance ]no sound [ One of the few (almost) complete poems we have still resonates today: He seems to me equal to the gods that man whoever he is who opposite you sits and listens close to your sweet speaking and lovely laughing—oh it puts the heart in my chest on wings for when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking is left in me no: tongue breaks and thin fire is racing under skin and in eyes no sight and drumming fills ears and cold sweat holds me and shaking grips me all, greener than grass I am and dead—or almost I seem to me....
Honestly, we just want to live. The shift in LGBT urban fantasy came when writers started to let that living part happen. But I’ve been seeing more of isn’t simply the survival of LGBT characters in urban fantasy but characters who are allowed to be queer and a bunch of other things. While sexuality and gender identity might be a plot point and are certainly central to who the character is, it no longer has to be the crux of the whole damn story....
She’s likely best known for her incredible performance of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, which won her an Audie award in 2018. While I can attest to the the brilliance of her narration in that book, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. She’s brilliant no matter what, whether she’s narrating YA romance (The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus, The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon), a classic of the Harlem Renaissance (Cane by Jean Toomer), or literary fiction (Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn)....
Lisbon Tinto nos Nervos I stumbled into this adorable bookstore and gallery one day on the way home to my apartment in the Santos neighborhood and it is my favorite. Tinto celebrates all things literary and visual: the beautifully appointed store is full of art and architecture books, children’s picture books, and graphic novels; the shelves are overflowing with design and attended by a friendly staff. Tinto also offers drawing workshops for children and adults and a patio all the way in the back with mint green tables on which they serve your favorites and mine: cake and coffee....
But finally, fans of Lois Lane have a story to sink their teeth into. It’s not a comic … it’s Lois Lane: Fallout, the new young adult novel by Gwenda Bond and published by Switch Press. Sixteen year old army brat Lois Lane is used to getting into trouble. Until now, her family has moved around enough that the trouble doesn’t stick for too long. But with her family planning to stay in Metropolis for good, Lois realizes that she’s going to have to start this new school off on the right note....
Among the judges for this year’s awards are Ben Fountain, Brandon Hobson, Pam Houston, Dana Johnson, and Michelle Malonzo for Fiction; Carol Anderson, Melissa Febos, Thor Hanson, Janet Webster Jones, and Oscar Villalon for Nonfiction; Kwame Dawes, Juan Felipe Herrera, Keetje Kuipers, January Gill O’Neil, and Mai Der Vang for Poetry; Nick Buzanski, Veronica Esposito, Ann Goldstein, Rohan Kamicheril, and Russell Scott Valentino for Translated Literature; and Becky Albertalli, Joseph Bruchac, Meghan Dietsche Goel, Jewell Parker Rhodes, and Lilliam Rivera for Young People’s Literature....
Last year I dipped my toe into the world of comics for the first time ever, and I discovered just how awesome a graphic memoir could be. Now I’m totally sold on them. I find that there is an immediacy, a heightened emotion inherent in graphic storytelling that makes memoirs especially moving. So if nonfiction is your thing, here are five marvelous nonfiction graphic memoirs that I highly recommend to get you started....
Before we get into the list, I wanted to share how I chose the books we’ll talk about today. For me, magical mystery books (or fantasy mysteries) have two elements: they focus on a mystery or an investigation — and they have something magical, be that a setting, a creature, a character, or actual magic. But this is where it gets interesting: because that magical something is often paranormal, some of these stories include ghosts and even witchcraft....
Our last review of reader statistics was done in 2019. It’s time we took the pulse of readership in the U.S. and see how it compares to the rest of the world, especially in light of the pandemic. Paying attention to how often and what we’re reading can be a surprisingly illuminating venture. It shows how we’re coping, how we’re trying to enrich our lives, and what is collectively capturing our attention....
Maryse Condé receives the award for an authorship that “describes the ravages of colonialism and the postcolonial chaos in a language which is both precise and overwhelming,” the New Academy writes in their press release. With the award comes a prize sum of 1 million Swedish kronor or $112,000. Maryse Condé was born in 1937 in Pointe-à-Pitre on the French-governed Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. Condé has a doctorate from the University of Sorbonne but didn’t publish her first work of fiction until after she turned 40....
Even though I was born in the ’90s, I’d heard plenty of people talk about Jonestown before I read the book. Something about a charismatic leader, a huge cult, and poisoned Kool-Aid. But in her book, Julia Scheeres focuses not on the sensationalism of the act—widely called the largest act of “mass suicide” or, at best, “murder-suicide” in modern history—but on the people that Jim Jones groomed for years before forcing them to drink poisoned Flavor-Aid....
The statistics about mental health and adolescents are sobering. Roughly one out of every five teens under the age of 18 struggle with mental illness. Depression accounts for one of the leading illnesses and disabilities in this same age group, and the third leading cause of death in this same demographic is suicide. But as much as knowing this—and living it, either via one’s memory of youth or by witnessing and working with today’s adolescents—can be scary, there is hope....
