Books

Amazon Picks Its Best Books of the Year So Far Amazon released its list of the best books of the year so far, including their #1 pick of the year, James by Percival Everett. This is confirms for me that James is the Book of the Year (so far), and I think likely to be the book of the year

Last week, Jeff O’Neal rounded up the books being named the best of the year so far by tallying up all the titles on ten of the biggest lists out at the time of writing: The New York Times, Time, Harper’s Bazaar, The BBC, The New Yorker, Vogue, Vulture, Esquire, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble.

Welcome to Today in Books, where we report on literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. A Leaked Document Gives Glimpse of Amazon’s Bookselling Might Everyone knows that Amazon sells a ton of books. Most people, especially ones reading this newsletter, might even have the sense that Amazon sells the most

10 Nebula Award Winners You Should Put on Your TBR Early June marks the latest round of Nebula Award winners. I’m writing this post before the awards, so by the time this goes live, the winners will have been announced. Congratulations to them all! As both an admiring reader and aspiring writer in the science

Libro.fm, the independently owned audiobook service that lets you choose which indie bookstores receive a portion of your audiobook sales, has released a list of top 10 bestselling audiobooks of all time to commemorate their 10th anniversary. The list is based on sales reported to Libro.fm from over 3,000 indie bookstores and includes thought-provoking nonfiction,

Wait, How Did This Woman “Accidentally” Buy a Bookstore? I got several tips about this TikTok where a woman named Jessica (I can’t find a last name at the moment) was basically handed the keys to a bookstore not too far from where I live in Portland. Apparently, she was a former employee of the

Has the DEI Backlash Come for Publishing? Dan Sinykin and Richard Jean So have some fascinating data in The Atlantic. In looking at the racial breakdown of more than 1700 novels published by major publishers in the last five years (2019 – 2023), Sinykin and So found that the percentage by nonwhite writers doubled, from

If you’re on the bookish internet, you know the appeal of an aesthetic bookstore photo. When we don’t have a book in hand, readers love scrolling through photos of beautiful bookshops and libraries that look like the ideal places to sip a fancy coffee and leisurely flip through pages. If you are on Bookstagram, you

The lead story today turned out to be so interesting that I am making it a one story day. Barnes & Noble Buys Tattered Cover In a surprise (to me at least) move, Barnes & Noble has bought Tattered Cover, a local indie chain of bookstores in the Denver, Colorado area. Tattered Cover had been

Tattered Cover bookstore first opened in 1971 in Denver, Colorado. Since then, it’s undergone a lot of change, including new owners and storefronts — by 2022, it had grown to eight locations, including storefronts with a full bar and cafe. They sell new and used books and host hundreds of author and community events 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

Who better to get your horror recommendations from than an expert in the field? Goodreads interviewed nine horror authors — Johanna van Veen, Paul Tremblay, Gretchen Felker-Martin, Ananda Lima, Monika Kim, Josh Malerman, Chuck Tingle, Stephen Graham Jones, and Gabino Iglesias — about their favorite horror authors as well as the upcoming horror releases they’re

🚫 Three Parents Sue Florida Over Book Bans, and These Are the States That Have Banned Book Bans 🏆 The Most Popular Books of the Year So Far, According to Goodreads 🏳️‍🌈 The 2024 Lambda Literary Award Winners Today In Books Newsletter Sign up to Today In Books to receive daily news and miscellany from

Here we go, the most-clicked news stories from this week of Today in Books. And here are a bunch of interesting stories that didn’t make the cut for the full Today in Books analysis but are still worth your time. The comments section is moderated according to our community guidelines. Please check them out so

🙌 The Best New Book Releases of the Week 🏆 The Most Popular Books of the Year So Far, According to Goodreads 🤖 New AI App Turns Famous Authors Into Reading Guides The Best of Book Riot Newsletter Sign up to The Best of Book Riot to receive a round-up of the day’s new content. Thank

🏆 Can you guess the most-read books on Goodreads this week? 🛀 These books will help you elevate your everyday routines into meaningful rituals. 🍿 60% of Netflix’s most popular shows are based on books and comics. The Best of Book Riot Newsletter Sign up to The Best of Book Riot to receive a round-up of

The list of Amazon’s best books of the year so far has just been released. The list was compiled by Amazon’s editors, who collectively read thousands of books a year in order to curate best-of and other kinds of lists. This year, they chose 20 books as the best overall books, and provided lists of

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

This week, a list of the most popular Netflix shows was released. The rankings of each of the English-language shows — which include 335,200,000 hours of views for spot #10, and 1,718,800,000 hours of views for #1 — were determined based on the views each show got within its first 91 days on the streaming

‘Tis the season of naming the best books of 2024 so far, despite the fact we’re not yet half way through the year. Calendar niggling aside, these sorts of lists are helpful for readers who are unsure what books to prioritize on their lists. Not to mention, of course, these lists only help build up

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

Patricia Elzie-Tuttle is a writer, podcaster, librarian, and information fanatic who appreciates potatoes in every single one of their beautiful iterations. Patricia earned a B.A. in Creative Writing and Musical Theatre from the University of Southern California and an MLIS from San Jose State University. Her weekly newsletter, Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice offers self-improvement

With about half of the year in the rear-view mirror, it’s time we did some reflection. And Goodreads, with its millions of members, is always a great place to get a pulse check on what’s popular among the people. The most popular books of the year so far were determined by looking at which new

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

On Thursday, three parents filed a federal lawsuit that opposes Florida law SB 1069, a law that essentially made banning books easier to do in the state. The parents allege that by making books easier to ban — and thereby upholding and enforcing “the state’s favored viewpoint” — the state is discriminating against parents who

Emily has a PhD in English from the University of Southern Mississippi, MS, and she has an MFA in Creative Writing from GCSU in Milledgeville, GA, home of Flannery O’Connor. She spends her free time reading, watching horror movies and musicals, cuddling cats, Instagramming pictures of cats, and blogging/podcasting about books with the ladies over

Today in Books rounds up news links from places from other than Book Riot, but we also cover news on the site, so here are the news stories we wrote about last week. Plus: a grab-bag of links that didn’t make into the regular daily sends, but still are worth a click. How Alabama Library

Here are the stories from the last week in Today in Books that you all found the most interesting, at least measured by the number of times you clicked through to read the story. In ascending order: Denis Johnson Kept a Huge Commonplace Book. And You Can Download it. Twitter is still good sometimes. I

Since I write about new LGBTQ book releases every week on Our Queerest Shelves, I keep a giant spreadsheet of upcoming queer books, adding titles as soon as I learn about them. I follow approximately a million queer book blogs, BookTubers, BookTokers, Bookstagrammers, etc — and that’s not to mention the deluge of publicity emails

Here are the posts from the last week on Book Riot that the most people read/clicked/shared. As is often the case with the first week of the month, a lot of these are about new books. Go figure. This month you can help solve all kinds of mysteries! There’s a queer YA with a crush