Books

Inspired by true events, The Half Life of Valery K takes readers to 1963 Soviet Russia, where a secret project threatens nuclear disaster. Scientist Valery Kolkhanov has spent years in a Siberian gulag focused only on his own day-to-day survival. When he is summoned for a special assignment, he assumes it will be his execution,

Fantasy romance has gone fully mainstream, some of the brightest new voices are taking surprising new directions and vampires might be back? This fall’s science fiction and fantasy offerings are practically too good to be true. Babel by R.F. KuangHarper Voyager | August 23 R.F. Kuang’s standalone historical fantasy novel might be her most ambitious

After the publication of her landmark 2018 book Dopesick, which featured six years of reporting about how the opioid crisis affected families in her adopted hometown of Roanoke, Virginia, Beth Macy vowed to herself, “I’m not writing about this again.” Her physician feared Macy might have PTSD after bearing witness to so many tragic deaths,

I really wish folks would get the whole story before they go running around spreading inaccurate information. People are just so eager to create a villian or miscarriage of justice or something to make them feel better — Larry White, Executive Director* An anonymous source reached out to me the morning of July 15, stating

“I’m not trying to ban any books. I’m trying to stop an indoctrination campaign against kids. Any person in this county that has children knows full well what I’m talking about,” said South Carolina Senator Josh Kimball in a press conference held yesterday across the street from Spartanburg County Public Library’s main branch. The senator

Alexis Hall leaps from the world of contemporary romantic comedies to the realm of Regency romance with A Lady for a Duke (15.5 hours). Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood, has been moping around his family’s country estate ever since his closest friend died at the Battle of Waterloo. What Gracewood doesn’t realize is

★ Invisible A fresh and cleverly conceived take on the beloved 1985 film The Breakfast Club, Invisible is a colorful and engaging tale written by first-time graphic novel author Christina Diaz Gonzalez and illustrated by Gabriela Epstein (Claudia and the New Girl).  Diaz writes in both English and Spanish, the languages spoken by her archetypal

Jamestown Conservatives, a right-wing group in Jamestown Township, Michigan, is responsible for helping defund their public library. After a year-long battle with the Patmos Library, which has included the departure of the Library Director Amber McLain after a harassment campaign by the group, the library did not win its primary ballot measure to renew its

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In Craigslist’s “Missed Connections” section, you can almost always find a titillating headline or two, something like “Goth Woman in Piggly Wiggly Produce Section” or “Saw You at Six Flags’ Drop of Doom, May 17.” We all have a story about the one that got away, but not everyone takes that obsession to the lengths

Today’s Featured Deals In Case You Missed Yesterday’s Most Popular Deals Previous Daily Deals Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono & Emily Balistrieri (translator) for $1.99 Sarong Party Girls by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan for $1.99 Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls for $1.99 Looking for Alaska by John Green for $2.99 The Blood of Flowers by

When you’re a spy, regime change is tricky. Even positive shifts can make for treacherous times. Two novels uncover the messy, uncertain lives of intelligence operatives in times of tectonic political change: Allison Montclair’s The Unkept Woman explores English life after World War II, at the dawn of the Cold War, while Dan Fesperman’s Winter

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Many of us feel trapped in a grind of constant change: rolling news cycles, the chatter of social media, our families split along partisan lines. We feel fearful and tired, on edge in our bodies, not quite knowing what has us perpetually depleted. For Katherine May, this low hum of fatigue and anxiety made her

Soneva Fushi, a luxury resort in the Baa Atoll in the Maldives, is looking to fill its “barefoot bookseller” position. The new bookseller’s duties will be: managing a small bookstore, writing blogposts, hosting creative writing classes for guests, and more. The placement will be held for 12 months and came as a result of a

In The Half-Life of Valery K, the titular Soviet scientist is released from a Siberian prison and transported to a town called City 40, which seems to be absolutely suffused with unhealthy levels of radiation. The most frightening thing? As Natasha Pulley reveals, towns like City 40 really did exist. In the 1960s, across the

This September, many Florida elementary students may be entering classrooms stripped of their books. Between the state’s new “Don’t Say Gay” educational gag order and its 2021 law forbidding teaching “Critical Race Theory” — which is a term that has been twisted by the right to be represent something completely divorced from the actual theory

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The Pokémon Company International announced a job opening for an archivist. The position, which is one available in many of the franchise’s games, will entail creating a an archive and museum. The archivist will work with the game data librarian to write policy and catalog Pokémon’s vast lore, among other things. Pokémon was created in 1996

Readers, prepare to meet the most memorable middle grade protagonist of 2022. Twelve-year-old Olive Miracle Martin, the instantly endearing hero of Hummingbird, is, in her own words, a “joy-kaboom.” After being homeschooled due to a medical condition called osteogenesis imperfecta (sometimes known as brittle bone disease), Olive begins attending Macklemore Middle School, where local legend

In London, Ontario, Pride is held in July. The suburb of Wortley Village held its first Pride last weekend, and it included a drag queen storytime. The event was disrupted when a truck with Canadian flags on it circled the event honking continuously, and then a man got out of the truck and allegedly began

Definitions differ, but many people eventually discover the value in approaching life’s challenges with at least a modicum of grace. Grace and its manifestations are at the heart of The Poet’s House, Jean Thompson’s charming novel about a young California woman with a learning disability who figures out her place in life with the help

Tracy Flick, Tom Perrotta’s protagonist from his darkly humorous novel Election, returns in Tracy Flick Can’t Win (6 hours), an engrossing story of retrospection, regret and self-fulfillment. Now the vice principal at a suburban New Jersey high school, Tracy is vying for the principal gig, which means navigating school politics and the sophomoric behavior of

Moving halfway around the world to a new country where everyone speaks a new language would be a challenging experience for just about anyone. But for 10-year-old Zhang Ai Shi and her parents, leaving Taiwan means a chance for a better life in the United States, a place known in China as “the beautiful country.” 

The 2022 Whiting Literary Magazine Prize winners have been announced. The prize, awarded by the Whiting foundation, has been granted since 2018 with hopes to “acknowledge, reward, and encourage organizations that are actively nurturing the writers who tell us, through their art, what is important.” The funds issued are meant to supplement the budget of

Few words related to identity convey a more precise meaning than the ones Bolu Babalola uses to describe her identity: “I’m a Nigerian child, eldest daughter.” If you’re familiar with immigrant parents, you know the drill: Education is the key to securing your future, with a reliable profession (doctor, lawyer, engineer) followed by a judicious

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A fake relationship is on the menu in Natalie Caña’s debut, A Proposal They Can’t Refuse, which follows a passionate chef and a whiskey distiller as they plot to save their business while outsmarting their grandfathers. It’s an enemies-to-lovers romance with a heaping spoonful of meddling families. Talented chef Kamilah Vega feels held back at

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