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Katie McGarry is a prolific YA author. Her series include Pushing the Limits and the Thunder Road series. Only A Breath Apart is her latest YA novel. You have a marvelous and extensive writing career, spanning twenty works. How was writing Only A Breath Apart different from penning other books such as the Pushing the Limits Series? Only a Breath Apart is a bit different in that it’s the first book where I play with the realm of the mystical....

I was 18 when I decided to read him for the first time, and I was advised to read The Gospel According To Jesus Christ, which many still consider one of his best works of fiction. I borrowed the book from my local library, and I ended up returning it to the library’s shelf unread. Well, mostly unread. The book is a reimagination of the life of Jesus Christ, and it starts with quite the scene: Mary and Joseph in bed, early in the day, having sex....

Thousands of people now have boxes of books that have served their purpose or were never wanted in the first place and are wondering what’s next. While Rioter Abby has some great ideas for what to do with those books, you may find you want them out of your house ASAP. The best and fastest way to do this is to donate them. I’m an avid reader, an author, and a library employee, so I say this from the bottom of my bibliophile heart: Some books don’t deserve to be donated....

Aries (March 21–April 19) Taurus (April 20–May 20) Gemini (May 21–June 20) Cancer (June 21–July 22) Leo (July 23–August 22) Virgo (August 23–September 22) Libra (September 23–October 22) Scorpio (October 23–November 21) Sagittarius (November 22–December 21) Capricorn (December 22–January 19) Aquarius (January 20–February 18) Pisces (February 19–March 20) Looking for more? Check out your April, May, and June horoscopes and book recommendations!

Kindle Unlimited’s Most Popular Books for Summer 2022 As you’ll see, the bulk of books among the most popular are by white authors, but nearly all are by women authors. Romance Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover So Not Meant to Be by Meghan Quinn Mystery/Thriller The Housemaid by Freida McFadden The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose Sci-Fi and Fantasy Dreadgod by Will Wight...

Chawa Magaña is a first-generation Mexican American woman who started and owns Palabras (and she’s also a plant nerd so heart-eyes). She has successfully created an inclusive, dynamic community space that’s so so so necessary in the Phoenix community. As she writes in her campaign: “From personal experience I understand how important it is for a person to be able to see themselves in the stories they read and how a narrow and limited cultural scope in reading materials also limits the individual, as well as a society as a whole....

Audiobooks for kids are also great because they often can be enjoyed by the whole family. I particularly delight in listening to mysteries with my sons because we start stringing together clues and guessing at culprits. As they get older and age out of our common interests, we can keep finding audiobooks to read together and keep debating red herrings as we listen to the plot unfold. Some of the books on the list below are the favorites of kids in my life, some I choose because I love the narrator, and some are just plain fun and need to be read more often....

In this queer contemporary YA mystery, a nonbinary autistic teen realizes they must not only solve a 30-year-old mystery but also face the demons lurking in their past in order to live a satisfying life. After one particularly cringeworthy Christmas concert, my band teacher suggested that maaaaybe band wasn’t my calling. I was disappointed, but mostly relieved. And even though I stayed friends with the band kids (and watched them somewhat wistfully as they practiced their marching in the parking lot once we got to high school), I felt reassured in knowing that it was not for me....

For so long, women have been socialized to be pleasant. To be gracious and amenable. To cater to the needs of others at the expense of our own. But now, perhaps thanks to campaigns like the #MeToo movement, we are being invited to clench our fists. To scream our throats raw. To splay ourselves open and show the world our blackened hearts. We are told that in doing so, we will make the world a better place....

Unlike other superhero groups, the Green Lantern Corps has always welcomed female-presenting members, with three of the original seven using she/her pronouns (one of whom was the first sentient planet). That’s like, almost half, which is still a better record than many current day teams. Many other Lady Lanterns have come and gone since the Corps’s inception in 1959 (3.5 billion years ago in comic time) and it seems only appropriate that in celebrating the 80th anniversary of the legacy title’s inauguration, we dedicate some air time to them....

“NetGalley delivers secure, digital galleys to professional readers. If you are a reviewer, blogger, journalist, librarian, bookseller, educator, or in the media, you can use NetGalley for FREE to read and request titles before they are published.” (Description taken from the NetGalley site.) It is an avenue in which publishers can give professional readers (yes, this means you book bloggers) digital copies of galleys. But did you know that NetGalley has expanded the ways in which you can read the galleys you are sent?...

Half of this week’s picks I read in preparation for today’s All the Books podcast, so I can personally vouch for how amazing they are! You can listen to today’s episode to hear my full thoughts on those. Other Book Riot New Releases Resources This is only scratching the surface of the books out this week! If you want to keep up with all the latest new releases, check out: Reasons to read it: From the author of Fun Home comes her first new book in almost a decade!...

Looking overall at this list, I’m stunned by the breadth and depth of what’s currently being translated from Spanish right now. There are critically acclaimed and beloved authors and translators returning with their third or fourth novel right alongside some thrilling debut novels like The Wonders by Elena Medel, translated by Lizzie Davis and Thomas Bunstead and Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda, translated by Sarah Booker. And there’s also a fascinating mixture of form and genre....

One of the central questions of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel Never Let Me Go is: What makes us human? This might seem like an abstract, philosophical issue. However, for the novel’s protagonists, it’s literally a matter of life and death. They’re students at Hailsham, an elite boarding school. They gradually realize they’re clones, destined to be killed for their organs. By having characters try to prove clones’ humanity, the novel provides a nuanced metaphor for oppressive, dehumanizing systems and how they function....

I guess that most book lovers will want to read the book first, and then watch whatever adaptation comes out. Still, I’m sure that there are also people who actually prefer to watch the movie first for several reasons, the most prominent being the fact that on-screen adaptations are quicker to absorb, potentially making it easier to understand what we are being told, since the use of video and their length tend to put aside the need for the whole worldbuilding books sometimes require....

For all that, the core Squad line-up remained fairly stable for the next couple of years. In addition to team leader Amanda “the Wall” Waller, a badass battleaxe if ever there was one, the Squad included Colonel Rick Flag, the team’s rather grim field leader; Bronze Tiger, a martial artist who could give Batman a run for his money; Nightshade, who could create portals and grew close to Flag (but not that close); Deadshot, a sharpshooter with a death wish; and Captain Boomerang, an obnoxious creep usually referred to as “Boomerbutt” by his exasperated teammates....

Even though I write the Unusual Suspects newsletter and focus a lot on crime reading, I read across genres, ages, and categories. This list reflects that and contains crime reads, nonfiction, drunk mermaids, a literary lover turned chef, coming-of-age YA with nostalgia for adults, revenge YA, and more. If you’re looking for standalone graphic novels, you can’t go wrong with any of these. Looking to add even more to your comics pile?...

What’s on your mind today?

Read more about the history of the Borden murders, plans for the house, and concerns about its history in “With the Borden Murder House in New Hands, Will Real History Get the Hatchet?“ And find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.

As I’m thinking this very thought about escapist reads, Book Riot came across the news that a library in Pennsylvania has created a Hogwarts Digital Escape Room — what a perfect distraction! Like most public libraries across the United States, the Peters Township Public Library in McMurray, Pennsylvania is closed to the public, but still making an effort to serve their constituents. Kudos to them for this very creative idea!...