As far as content goes, zines can feature poetry, art, collage, interviews, comics, and more. Your local small press can roll out zines covering topics from anarchistic gatherings in your area, to comics about police brutality, to tutorials on how to build your own garden boxes. You can even find artistic zines online today, featuring art and artists from all around the world. Zines have travelled a long way before arriving on your bookshelf or computer screen…so let’s take a little look at where they’ve been!...

The Bucks County Beacon ran this policy through a plagiarism checker and found that 48% of the text was from the Texas Education Agency’s policy, much of it taken word-for-word. Texas is the only state that has seen more book challenges than Pennsylvania this year, partly due to Matt Krause’s 16 page spreadsheet of books he wants removed from school libraries. This list has been used by conservative groups across the country to challenge books, despite its errors and questionable selection process....

When I was trying to write my piece on the 50 must-reads of Slavic literature in late 2018, I started to get frustrated. Many of the must-reads of these Slavic countries were not translated into English, or not widely available. I had a similar issue in early 2019 when I was investigating what books to read in Mexico by Mexican authors—I ended up with a great list, but in the process of researching, I hit a few roadblocks....

“Being a 20-something woman these days can be overwhelming, to say the least. You’re navigating the anxieties of postgrad life as an “adult” (whatever that means), sorting through the ups and downs of dating, trying to hold onto friendships with your girlfriends who may be in different stages of life, and hunting for your dream career. Not to mention comparing yourself to all your Facebook friends who look like they have it all figured out, even though — let’s be honest — they don’t know what they’re doing either....

What if you had the winning ticket that would change your life forever, but you couldn’t cash it in? When talented grifter Lucky Armstrong discovers that a lottery ticket she bought on a whim is worth millions, her elation is tempered by one big problem: cashing in the winning ticket means she’ll be arrested for her crimes. She’ll go to prison, with no chance to redeem her fortune. Lucky is a thrilling roller-coaster ride about a heist gone terribly wrong, with a plucky protagonist who will win your heart....

Citing a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by publishers, Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle announced this week that the IA’s National Emergency Library initiative will cease operating on June 16, two weeks earlier than its previously announced June 30 closing date. ‘We moved up our schedule because, last Monday, four commercial publishers chose to sue Internet Archive during a global pandemic,’ Kahle wrote in a blog post published this week. ‘However, this lawsuit is not just about the temporary National Emergency Library....

Related Reading: Kidlit Authors Stepping Up During. the COVD-19 Crisis and Quarantine 7 Short and Soothing Poems to Recite While You Wash Your Hands 5 Books About Pandemics That Will Help You Understand Coronavirus

But First, What Is An Expat? I admit, the lines between “expat” and “immigrant” can be murky at best. There are a lot of social and political nuances to the terminology, many of them problematic. For my purposes, I am simply defining an expat as someone who chooses to live in another country for a period of time without the intention of becoming a citizen or fully assimilating into local culture....

A few weeks ago, I listened with glee as several of my fellow Rioters talked about how much they love Emily Henry. They were talking about which books of hers are their favorites, what order to read them in, the best book to start with if you’re new to her work. There were a lot of exclamation points! Everyone loves her! No one could agree on a clear best, because everyone has their own most beloved — Beach Read, Book Lovers, People We Meet on Vacation....

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) publishes articles that examine media studies as well as fandom and fan works. While they are at it, the journal really challenges what is and is not academic writing. As an English master’s student in the academy, TWC is who I want to be when I grow up. It might not be a big surprise that TWC is run by the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), a nonprofit org run by fans, for fans....

Horror and comedy. Are there any two genres that are more incongruous? Surprisingly, horror fiction and comedy have more in common than you might think. Both genres rely heavily on surprises and the unexpected. Surprising things in a humorous context make you laugh, of course. And when you’re surprised by horror? Get ready to scream or jump our of your seat or find somewhere to hide. Both genres also bank on tension and build up that leads to a funny (or scary) pay-off....

Unfortunately, since then although Foster has been paid royalties, more authors have come forward who are in a similar situation: about a dozen authors know they have been denied royalties going back years–but likely others are affected that aren’t aware of what they’re owed. Now, Alan Dean Foster and other authors, including Neil Gaiman, Tess Gerritsen, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Chuck Wendig, have put together a #DisneyMustPay Task Force to fight to have all these authors get paid for their work....

I remember asking for books about geology, about Degas, and informing the librarian in clipped, precocious tones that I did not want a kids’ book but a “real one” about these topics. Their expressions never changed. They would simply walk me to the right section, show me where the books were that I might want, and leave me to flip through myself. They trusted me with the books, with whatever knowledge I would access....

It is not only police departments that engage in copaganda; representations of police in media contribute to the image of this organisation as ultimately good, fair, and just, with the occasional “bad apple” who goes against the organisation’s aims and rules. Early representations of the police were often unflattering; in A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes story, detectives Lestrade and Gregson are portrayed as ridiculous figures, and their incompetence is highlighted by Holmes when he is able to perfectly describe the murderer from a single glance at the crime scene....

In fact, I meant to write about how great my new local library is in the post, but I forgot. Luckily, writing about my library seemed like the perfect topic for a Thanksgiving Day post, since I’m deeply thankful to have moved to a rural town with a well-stocked and well-connected library. There is one library in the town where I live, but, like many organizations in rural areas, my library is connected to a network of other libraries that make up the Viking Library System....

—Chelsea Hensley —Michelle Regalado —Pierce Alquist —Trisha Brown —Liberty Hardy —Andy Winder —Rebecca Hussey —Adiba Jaigirdar —Ashlie Swicker —Sarah S. Davis —Emily Polson —Connie Pan —Julia Rittenberg —Kendra Winchester —Jessica Plummer —Rincey Abraham —Erin Mayer —Heather Bottoms —Jessica Pryde —Lyndsie Manusos —Patricia Thang —Rachel Rosenberg —Yaika Sabat —Patricia Elzie-Tuttle —Sophia LeFevre —Margaret Kingsbury —Ashley Holstrom —Shireen Hakim —Jaime Herndon —Rachel Brittain —Emily Rosman —Elisa Shoenberger —Jeffrey Davies —Jamie Canavés —Steph Auteri —Nicole Hill —Susie Dumond —Casey Stepaniuk —Nikki DeMarco —Leah Rachel von Essen —Kathleen Keenan —Dana Staves —Kelly Jensen —Steph Coelho —Christine Ro —Neha Patel —Anna Gooding-Call —Natalya Muncuff —Mary Kay McBrayer —S....

For the Stress Baker Gift it with: Greater Goods Kitchen Scale ($10) Kitchen scales are a fantastic way to take home baking to the next level. They’re more precise, they save you from having to pull out a bunch of measuring cups, and as Rea-Tucker shares in her cookbook, “You can get a scale for $15, but it feels fancy.” It will help your loved one follow recipes written by weight instead of volume in this cookbook and many others....

A recent post here on Book Riot about cozy mystery settings prompted me to think about romance. The range of cozy mysteries is quite delightful. For instance, I’ll never forget coming across a copy of The Gourdmother, a cozy centered on the world of decorative gourd crafts (’tis the season!). But C.J.’s article makes great points about gaps in the offerings. Romance, well, it’s always filling gaps. (Sorry not sorry....

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