Here are 8 of the funniest middle grade fantasy books published in the past few years, with wit and wonder for all readers.

Looking for an escape from our current capitalist hellscape? Beatriz Serrano's Discontent is not the novel for you.

I finally decided there was probably only the one band whose name was inspired by a lesbian sex position. But when I first read the headline “Scissor Sisters to perform in Abu Dhabi,” my initial thought was that some unfortunate, two-bit girl group had unknowingly taken the same name as the queer New York glam […]

In Jerzy Kosinski’s 1971 novel Being There, a simple gardener named Chance is mistaken for a political guru and quickly wows the Washington D.C. power brokers and kingmakers. It’s a marvelous study of how authority can so often be doled out to those least suited for it. I mean, look around. My father died the […]

It's worth taking the time to think about the victims and perpetrators of past witch hunts—and taking care with how we invoke their memory.

As we round out #BannedBooksWeek, it’s time to observe a grim new tradition. PEN America has announced its annual most-banned-books-of-the-year list. This year’s crop of “objectionable” titles may surprise you. If we consider censored books by theme, critique of an

It's our month, horror lovers. Here are some of the most exciting scary books to look forward to in October.

“What was the work the poet was demanding of me? It was to inhabit the poem, to live willingly in its world.” Those sentences were written by my late teacher Helen Vendler, and arrive in the second essay of her posthumous collection Inhabit the Poem: Last Essays, just published by the Library of America. Ever […]

Today, the National Book Foundation announced the finalists in all five categories—Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature—for the 2025 National Book Awards. The winners will be announced at the 76th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner

Unlike the obsessive protagonists of The Trial and The Castle, who draw us into their labyrinthine thinking, Karl Rossmann, the naive young hero of Kafka’s Amerika or, to use Kafka’s own title, Der Verschollene (“The Missing Person”), bumbles through the

This #BannedBookWeek, we have a lot to lament. Though some book bans have been stalled or swatted down in the courts, stealthy removal campaigns continue. At home and abroad. But as Haylee May of CPR News first reported, at least the good people of Colorado will have free speech to celebrate. Thanks to the administrators […]

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. ...

The death by suicide of the late, great Hunter S. Thompson in 2005, at the age of 67, is to be reexamined by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation after a request from his widow, Anita. According to NBC: The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office recently referred the case to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation after his […]

Here are 31 book recommendations for LGBTQ History Month in October, from history books to historical fiction to picture books.

These are some of the most exciting Latine YA debut novels of 2025, from a magical Zorro remix to a tarot-inspired coming-of-age story.

Who You Gonna Be? by Danielle Shorr It’s fall of 2025 and I have officially entered my seventh year of teaching college. It’s my husband’s eighth year, which he celebrates by teaching eight classes across three schools. The time I spend on campus not teaching is spent tutoring kids in every subject I possibly can: […] The post Sometimes the Worst Job Is the One You Love Most appeared first on Electric Literature.

To be an immigrant in America is to be a foreigner forever. The perpetual otherness is twice as bad for undocumented immigrants, who find themselves in the headlines almost daily, as the news attempts to fuel people’s innermost prejudices. But the very nature of these news stories is to be fleeting and skin-deep. Even when […] The post 7 Powerful Novels About Undocumented Immigrants appeared first on Electric Literature.

From Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein to the latest Colleen Hoover movie, here are the biggest book-to-screen adaptations out in October!

The students I encounter as a university president aren’t afraid of free speech—quite the contrary.

This selection of exciting new sci-fi and fantasy reads out in October will have your TBR begging for mercy.

Today in headlines I never thought anyone would I’d write, the head of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library has resigned after a spat with Melania Trump over an original Eisenhower sword she really, really, really wanted to give to King Charles III when she and Donald visited the UK last month. According to CBS: […]

There's something for everyone in these new romance books out in October: witches, royals, podcasters, pickleball pros, and second chances.

Here are 12 of the most anticipated children's books coming out this October, including new picture books and chapter books.

Prior to 2020, the city of Hong Kong had over one hundred bookstores, including several major chains. But the national security law passed on the heels of large demonstrations and the COVID-19 pandemic got the better of most booksellers. The same phenomenon hit the city-state of Singapore, where the book trade has distinctly declined despite […]

Writer and Books Are Magic bookstore owner Emma Straub spoke with Lily King about her new book, Heart the Lover (out now with Grove), smart characters, time jumps, and the utterly exhilarating process of finishing a novel. * Emma Straub: I loved this book Heart the Lover so much. I was describing the book to […]