Welcome to The Best of Book Riot, our daily round-up of what’s on offer across our site, newsletters, podcasts, and social channels. Not everything is for everyone, but there is something for everyone.
Toxic rivalries between women. The fascination and obsession with youth and beauty at the expense of everything else. While we’re at it, we could also throw in Coralie Fargeat’s new horror film The Substance in the mix. It’s all anyone’s talking about right now. Glam girl frenemy horror is the vibe for Halloween 2024. You heard it here.
This list is a good reminder of just how popular and widely read the romance and mystery/thriller genres are: they consistently make up the majority of the most read list, despite both genres often going underrepresented in literary coverage. Breaking news: it turns out people want to read exciting, fast-moving books — like thrillers — and heartwarming and/or sexy books — like romance.
Comic book sales—and comic book readership—get bigger every year. And yet if you look at a list of “where to start with comics” or “the best comics of all time,” you’ll probably see the same handful of comics recommended over and over again. Comic book fans are extremely resistant to change, and like every other medium, comics have their classics—the books that longtime readers insist you mustcheck off to be a real comics fan.
Today in nonfiction news, recommendations, and items of general interest, we have nonfiction picks from a big ol’ fall book preview, author and bookstore owner Ann Patchett’s nonfic recs for fall, the National Book Awards finalists for nonfiction, and a different kind of true crime.
Brennan’s deft work moving in and out of complicated character-driven story elements makes the first book in the Time of Iron series sing, asking you to enter your villain era along with her.
What’s been happening with libraries over the last couple weeks?
While there are dozens of brilliant sports-themed middle grade books to choose from, the best ones don’t just delve into the sport itself. Although that’s often an important part of it and can inspire young readers to try new activities they otherwise wouldn’t have thought of, sports books for middle grade readers also let young sports fans explore issues like body confidence, friendship, and even how to stand up to adults who are pushing them too hard. Some look at the historical inequalities in sports, like racist segregation or the underfunding of women’s sports, while others use the graphic novel medium to create an action-packed sporting tale.