Books

Just this Monday, social reading site Goodreads released a statement announcing their dedication to ensuring that the book reviews left by members of the site follow their guidelines by being relevant to the book, not harassing readers or authors, and not attempting to deflate or inflate the rating of a book unfairly. They list a

As Christina Wyman’s heartfelt and often heartbreakingly realistic Jawbreaker opens, Maximillia (Max) Plink receives distressing news from her orthodontist. Dr. Watson says Max’s braces aren’t enough to prevent possible future double jaw surgery—it’s time to start wearing headgear known as “the jawbreaker” for 16 hours a day. It’s yet another thing that makes Max, a witty

“Think about this: The Italians didn’t have the tomato until after 1492,” writes chef and food historian Lois Ellen Frank. “The Irish didn’t have the potato.” Let that sink in, then get a copy of Frank’s Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky: Modern Plant-Based Recipes Using Native American Ingredients. Written with Walter Whitewater, the book

The bestselling and National Book Award-winning book Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi is seeing its third adaptation — first as a children’s edition, then as a graphic nonfiction book, and now as a documentary. The books have received both acclaim and backlash for their portrayal of white supremacy in the United States,

Agatha Christie fans, rejoice: Sophie Hannah brings back famed detective Hercule Poirot in the riveting Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night, the latest entry in her authorized reboot of the iconic series.  Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool (Hannah’s own invention) are taking on a new case, this time brought to them by Cynthia Catchpool, Edward’s mother.

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

Two master strategists go head to head—or nose to nose—in Down the Hole, a wickedly funny picture book written by Scott Slater and illustrated by Adam Ming. As he’s done many times before, Fox positions himself at the edge of the meadow, above a hole in the ground, ready to make his move: “There were bunnies

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved reading books featuring a haunted house with a creepy resident; a feisty, determined heroine; and strange goings-on that gradually turn scary. But rarely, if ever, have I read a haunted house book that features such gorgeous prose as Alix E. Harrow’s latest novel, Starling House. Early

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

If you’re looking for a broad range of books that make up the best of the best for this year, then you’re going to love perusing Publishers Weekly’s selection of the best books of 2023. They have selected 150 titles across several categories. Take a peep at some of the categories and best titles within

It’s been a while since a book set in Detroit has featured on the site but Stephen Mack Jones is here to fix that with his new novel Deus X, which has a religious theme to it and maybe a touch of corruption as well. We’ve also got historical crime set in Los Angeles and

Ahead of the November 25th return of Doctor Who that will bring in the show’s 60th anniversary, Journo Research (courtesy of CasinoAlpha) has revealed the most popular Doctor Who episodes among fans. Doctor Who initially ran November 1963 to December 1989, and was revived in March 2005. The episodes ranked below are from the last

There’s plenty to ponder and the stakes couldn’t be higher in this explosive cyber crime thriller. Following on from The Hacker, The Exploit is the second outing for FBI Special Agent Ericka Blackwood and once again she’s pitted against her Dark Web nemesis, Dantalion. Dantalion is the modern equivalent of the megalomaniac villain we loved

Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside

It’s early December 2022 and the Fairway Players are rehearsing for their latest command performance: a one-night-only production of Jack and the Beanstalk in aid of the local church’s roof repair fund. The parts have been cast, the props procured and the set staged, and despite the group members’ propensity for drama, everything seems to

You don’t need me to tell you that everything is more expensive in 2023, but what would you say if I told you that books might not be as expensive as they should be? That’s the case Brooke Warner makes in this piece about publishing’s retail price problem. Whereas the general cost of goods in

One recent morning, before I left home to plant white oak trees in a nearby park, I turned to Margaret Renkl’s The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year. As often happens, a passage from the New York Times columnist grounded me and pulled my vision forward: “Planting a tree is a gesture of faith in

The Breakfast Club meets The Secret History in mystery author RJ Jacobs’ new dark academia thriller. This is How We End Things, like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, takes place on an American college campus. In this case, it’s the fictional Hampden College in Shepard, North Carolina. Apart from being a campus novel, it also

It’s spring break in 2009. Childhood best friends Dani and Zoe are freshmen in college, and are finally spending a week in New York City like they’ve always dreamed. Accompanying Dani is her classmate Fiona, a cigarette-smoking, tragically hip art student whose uninhibited and self-possessed attitude attracts Zoe immediately. Dani wants to do classic tourist

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

Anyone immediately transported to a riverside pier by the lyric “So open up your morning light” will love Thea Glassman’s Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson’s Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television. “Today’s teen shows are leading the charge when it comes to progressive, diverse, and creative storytelling,” Glassman writes, but they wouldn’t exist without the

Addison Rizer is a writer and reader of anything that can be described as weird, sad, or scary. She has an MA in Professional Writing and a BA in English. She writes for Book Riot and Publishers Weekly and is always looking for more ways to gush about the books she loves. Find her published

The Hidden Language of Cats Sarah Brown knows and loves felines: She has a doctorate in the social behavior of neutered domestic cats, and the dedication page of her new book simply reads, “For the cats.” Those who said “Aww!” at that information will delight in Brown’s The Hidden Language of Cats: How They Have

Poet and young adult author Raquel Vasquez Gilliland’s adult debut, Witch of Wild Things, is a story of family legacies and complicated sisterhood, told with romantic and lush magical realism.  For the entirety of Sage Flores’ life, she’s known three things. First, the old gods have no love for Flores women and have thus cursed

When Renée Watson read her first Ramona Quimby book as a child, she was startled by where Beverly Cleary’s beloved heroine lived: Klickitat Street was just around the corner from Watson’s aunt’s home in Portland, Oregon. “I was so in awe that a character in a book could live in my city and in a

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

Let’s take a break from all the Yuletide mysteries hitting the shelves. Let’s hide the cosy crime novels under some magazines. And let’s remind ourselves that few things are better than watching characters act against their better judgement and morals, only to pay the price for it, in classic noir fashion. This week we’re going

What would Hansel and Gretel be like as adults? Kell Woods’ inventive retelling explores the answer to this question, following Hans and Margareta “Greta” Rosenthal as down-on-their-luck German peasants struggling to make a living in a world still recovering from the Thirty Years’ War. Greta has never felt like she fit into Lindenfeld, a little

Tennis icon Serena Williams has just announced the two-book deal she has with Random House Publishing Group. The books will be an “open-hearted” and “intimate” memoir — that will go more in-depth than the first one she released in 2009 titled On the Line — and an inspirational one, full of advice on living. Since

While Cormac McCarthy is often hailed as the author who revived and reinvented the Western, some of his stories fit equally well within the genre we love most – crime fiction. None more so, perhaps, than No Country for Old Men, a book that sits easily alongside the great American noir novels and which has