Month: June 2023

Illinois became the first state in the United States to pass legislation to end book bans. Signed by Governor JB Pritzker June 12, House Bill 2789 takes effect January 1, 2024. Introduced by Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who serves at the State Librarian, the bill received significant support both in the House and
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Queer bars are the site of some of my most treasured memories. They’re also one of my favorite settings for books. Whether it’s a true story about a real bar or a fictional tale about a favorite haunt, I can’t stay away from books with queer bar settings. On this list, you’ll find fiction and
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I have been a fan of The Little Mermaid since my early childhood days of demanding rewatches of our well-loved VHS cassette tape of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. The story has always snagged my interest. I love Ariel’s character, a mermaid who struggles with navigating her family relationships while staying true to herself. Ariel’s fiery
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Black-owned Chicago-based alternative comics publisher Iron Circus Comics is having quite the year. In the past 12 months, the publishing house earned two Eisner awards for an anthology, had at least two books banned in the Great Banning Epidemic, and the pilot of their first animated feature reached 8.9 million views since it debuted in
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The launch of ChatGPT in the fourth quarter of 2022 shook up many industries, including publishing. In fact, plenty of doomsaying articles floated the idea that the software might replace many jobs; the list inevitably includes creative jobs such as writing, editing, and translating, and it feels a lot like a ticking bomb. Do we
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Today is a good day. The apparent apocalypse seems to have retreated from the East Coast, and there are new books. I live. And the new releases I have for you today are a pretty good mix — there’s an engaging murder mystery set in ’70s Texas with a queer protagonist, a unique tale of
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Pageboy, Elliot Page’s long-awaited memoir, gives a fragmented but close-up perspective of Page’s life and experiences growing up as someone who has always known that he was a boy even when everything in society told him otherwise. We follow him from childhood through close to the present day and he is unflinching in the detail
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Who else but hosts Wendy Stuart and Tym Moss could “spill the tea” on their weekly show “If These Walls Could Talk” live from Pangea Restaurant on the Lower Eastside of NYC, with their unique style of honest, and emotional interviews, sharing the fascinating backstory of celebrities, entertainers, recording artists, writers and artists and bringing their
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Grimes is showing off her new look … a tattoo in red ink covering her whole leg!!! The singer and mother to two of Elon Musk‘s kids revealed her latest tattoo Thursday on social media … and it looks like she spent a lot of time in the tattoo parlor. Grimes got the out-of-this-world design
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Anthony Rendon will not face charges over his altercation with an Athletics fan … cops tell TMZ Sports they’ve closed their investigation into the Angels star after they say a victim never came forward. The Oakland Police Department initially launched their probe into Rendon on March 31 — one day after the L.A. third baseman
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In Waypoints: My Scottish Journey (8 hours), Scottish actor Sam Heughan, best known for playing Jamie Fraser in the TV series “Outlander,” describes the experience of hiking the West Highland Way, from his journey’s impulsive beginning to its funniest and most painful moments, all the way to its successful end. With disarming asides and humorous
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