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Science fiction does not have to be all battle sequences and triangulating flight paths. The beauty of speculative fiction, which is the umbrella that sci-fi resides under, is that there is room for the fantastic, and for questioning the mundane. Sci-fi, like most fiction genres, goes through trends. While this does mean that older sci-fi can feel extremely outdated in terms of values and even technology, it does mean that there’s an abundance of different sub-genres of sci-fi to choose from now....

Reading isn’t the only way you can show your pride this year. You could donate to a relief fund or organization supporting queer authors. Maybe try starting a queer book club—virtual for now, but one day we’ll be able to have in-person book clubs again! You could also preorder some upcoming queer books—if you’re able, now is definitely the time to buy books to support your favorite authors. Not sure where to start?...

A sweeping, masterful debut about a daughter’s fateful choice, a mother motivated by her own past, and a family legacy that begins in Cuba before either of them were born. Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia is a powerful novel from an incredible new talent. I am a huge fan of speculative and magical realism, and Latinx literature has plenty of it. Latinx literature has opened my eyes to a new world of fantasy and a better insight into Cuba’s impact on its people....

I am a person who, when I choose my souvenir of choice, picks the magnet. It doesn’t necessarily need to be related to the place I’ve visited, but I love being able to actively use a thing all the time and take that walk down memory lane. The same is true for bookish magnets: I love looking at the ones I’ve collected and remembering what drew me to it or the story behind it....

Logan McRae is looking forward to a nice, simple case—something to ease him back into work after a year off on the sick. But the powers-that-be have other ideas… A high-profile anti-independence campaigner has gone missing, leaving nothing but bloodstains behind, and there’s a war brewing between the factions for and against Scottish Nationalism. It’s all playing out in the merciless glare of the media, and Logan’s superiors want results....

The 1990s were a lawless time for food. The ketchup was purple. The Doritos were 3D. The cereal was candy drenched in milk. And with all of those Nickelodeon commercials filling kids’ brains with catchy jingles for the latest neon colored sugary delight, our desire for the latest daring snack was unstoppable. Maybe your parents wouldn’t let you indulge in every sweet treat you desired. But now that you’re grown up, no one can stop you from loading up a lunchbox with all the overly processed foods you want....

Johnson also includes a thorough discussion of anxiety disorders, bisexual and demisexual identities, the effects of parental divorce on teens, and way more nerdery per capita than most books this size. Oh, and did we mention it’s also written entirely in text messages? That’s right, Technically You Started It is the latest example of an epistolary novel, a type of book you might remember from the 2019 Read Harder challenge....

Think about it: most of us spent 12 of the most formative years of our lives at school, where teachers mostly directed what we should read. Then if you went to college, that’s another four years of your reading life mostly dominated by professors. I never went to grad school, but those I know who did say that when it comes to reading for pleasure, forget about it. I always had other books that I read in between assignments, but it just felt like there was so little time, and there was always something I had to read hanging over my head....

Book Riot is teaming up with FSG’s Work in Progress Newsletter to give away a year’s subscription to TBR at the hardcover level! Our book subscription service pairs you with a professional book nerd who creates your own tailored book recommendations. You get the best books you didn’t know you were looking for, and a reading experience that’s expertly-curated with recommendations that are as diverse and exciting as books and readers are....

Dark forces drew the map. He holds the compass. Salo’s queen has finally accepted his desire to be a mystic despite taboos around men and magic. She wants him to go to Jungle City as a pilgrim. But when Salo arrives, he encounters a series of obstacles wrought by an unseen hand. But he cannot return home without completing his pilgrimage. As Salo navigates a maze of invisible authority, he encounters shocking truths....

Two new first issues hit the stand this week. One is a creator-owned sci-fi comic that subverts exploitation film tropes, and the other is a “reader-friendly” event comic. How do they go about hooking the new reader? Let’s find out! The Valiant #1 makes its debut from Valiant Entertainment, featuring some of my favorite creators: Matt Kindt and Jeff Lemire write the words and Paolo Rivera supplies the pretty pictures....

Marvel villains without superpowers tend to be human beings who draw on a combination of hard work, natural ability, emotional trauma, personal intellect, and (sometimes) the unexpected effects of a scientific accident for their nefarious activities. The humanly qualities of these mortal, ruthless characters make them more terrifying than their superpower-charged counterparts. These Marvel villains tend to be evil by choice, whether driven by jealousy, a quest for power, or unadulterated hatred....

What’s a book sculpture? It’s a piece of art created entirely from a book, or in some cases, several books. There are artists for whom book sculptures are their entire medium, while there are others, as seen below, for whom book sculptures are a medium but also a means of selling a unique creation to others for their own enjoyment. This array of book sculptures is incredible and the artistry intricate....

Who Was Pablo Neruda? Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904–September 23, 1973) is recognized as one of the great 20th century poets. Neruda’s life was dominated by poetry, politics, diplomacy and temporary exile from his native Chile. In 1971, Neruda was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. “A poet is at the same time a force for solidarity and for solitude,” Neruda stated in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Neruda wrote nearly 3,500 poems in a wide range of genres: historical epics, passionate love poems, distinctive odes (lyric poems that address a particular subject), political manifestos, surrealist poems, and a prose autobiography....

January 1st brings with it both an abundance of challenges for the new year and an abundance of resolutions. These are often connected for readers, many of whom – Rioters included – make reading resolutions. As many of us here resolve to read more diversely, in any number of ways, we thought it would be a good idea to come up with our own reading challenge for 2015 to help you stretch your reading limits....

Yeoh was born on August 6, 1962, in Ioph, Perak, Malaysia. She took ballet lessons beginning at age 4 and continued after her family moved to the UK when she was 15. A spinal injury while she was at the Royal Academy of Dance led her to switch majors to choreography, with a minor in drama. After a few years of beauty pageants, she appeared in a TV commercial with Jackie Chan, and began working in cinema, where she performed her own stunts....

The long answer: throughout its history, Book of the Month has been a book club, a subscription service, and a cultural phenomenon. It launched in 1926, the brainchild of Harry Scherman, Max Sackheim, and Robert Haas. Based in Camp Hill, Cumberland County, Book of the Month Club identified a market for a mail order book distribution service. It became an incredible success in a relatively short time: its initial 4,000 subscriber list expanded to 60,058 by 1927....

The “whiteness” of the romance genre is something that can’t be denied. While there have always been BIPOC authors, they don’t get as much publicity, reputability, or acknowledgement as their white counterparts. The harsh reality of it is that white authors and characters still dominate traditionally published romance. And this report is intended to shine a light on this imbalance. However, after the 2020 release, concerns and questions were raised as to the validity of the report and what it was really showing....

I’ve always been this way. As a kid I loved Barbies and horses, but I also loved dinosaurs and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and the early-2000s TV show Battlebots. When grade-school friends wanted to do my hair or paint my nails, I let them, nervously and passively, like a poodle standing still as the groomer shaved it into an awkward shape. It wasn’t the fact that other girls did these things but the fact that my interest and participation were assumed that made me uncomfortable and lonely....

Galagina Oowatie, who adopted the English name Elias Boudinot, was born in 1804 at Oothcalooga, Cherokee Nation. As a young man, he learned both Cherokee and English and attended the Foreign Mission School, an institution dedicated to training missionaries, in Connecticut. There, he met and married Harriet R. Gold, a Congregationalist and the daughter of prominent figures in the Cornwall, Connecticut community. Harriet and Elias’s marriage was the second prominent Cherokee-white marriage in the Cornwall community, and Harriet faced strong opposition from her parents and her church community....