Since then, the books have been repackaged and resold in various ways. They were updated in the 2010s, with new covers, some updated content, and a new prequel, The Summer Before. The most recent repackaging of the books occurred just this year, coinciding with the release of the new Netflix series. All told, there are about 180 million BSC books in print. In this article, I explore specifically how one of those particular iterations of print BSC are made: the BSC graphic novel....

A visual book list is fun to share and gets friends and family participating, sharing their thoughts on books you have in common and asking for recommendations. It’s also a great way to wrap up the year and feel accomplished! In order to make a visual book list, you’ll need a Goodreads account and a computer. First, add the books you want on your Instagrammable list by toggling the dropdown menu under each book cover to “read” (no need to add ratings or details about when you read the book)....

How to download audiobooks Psst: Just for Book Riot readers: sign up for an Audible account, and get two audiobooks of your choice free! How do you download books to iOS or Android devices? The easiest way to download audiobooks to your smartphone is through audiobook apps. There are some great free ones out there, including apps for Librivox and Overdrive. There are also audiobook apps for a paid subscription service, such as Audiobooks....

Book Riot Insiders You would not believe how beautiful the New Releases Index is. We have a demo so you can try before you buy, but here’s the gist: Our intrepid book curators load up all the info (title, author, cover, price, page count, synopsis, etc.) on forthcoming books to this database. You can sort by genre, or change the filters to show books you’ve you’ve previously marked, have been recently added, are trending, or—my favorite—books that Liberty has extreme heart-eyes for....

HOLIDAYS ARE HAPPIER WITH AUDIOBOOKS. Make your holiday travels, errands, cooking sessions, and all the rest more enjoyable by listening to an audiobook. From bestsellers, to thrillers, to self-care, you can find the perfect listen for any moment. Give yourself the gift of audio this holiday season. Each year, I only have one reading goal: to read more books than I did the year before. Going into 2018, this didn’t seem like much of a challenge....

Here’s the cool thing about podcasts, other than the obvious cool thing of free entertainment and information: they are a great segue into reading more. So many are informational and do an excellent job citing their sources. Since podcasts are generally 30 minutes to an hour, it’s just enough information to whet my appetite about a subject. I can commit one day’s commute to learning about something outside my comfort zone....

This matters because, as librarian Starr LaTronica has said, “If you only stick to what you know, you’re creating this poverty of experience for kids and funneling them into that…You don’t feel invited to the party if you don’t see yourself reflected in the literature.” Several organizations are tackling the gap. For instance, the nonprofit We Need Diverse Books tackles the problem of underrepresentation in children’s stories. It gives awards and grants to authors and illustrators considered diverse in terms of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and ability....

I answered a lot of questions about song lyrics, personal memories passed off as universal experiences, and chose my favorite color hundreds of times. I was prescribed therapy even more often. I left blank many, many opportunities to share your thoughts or tell me a secret or what are you thinking right now? I was roasted. A lot. I’m sure it’s part confirmation bias and part dumb luck, but the amount of times I was startled by how seen I felt after some of these quizzes is astounding....

I decided the main issue was that I was regularly reading a book in a day or two, which left little time for it to imprint on my long-term memory. I have absolutely no idea if this is how brains/imprinting work, but it seemed to make sense to me. So, in an effort to live longer with a book, I started reading several books at once and cycling through them....

Moreover, just because a trope is present doesn’t mean I will automatically enjoy the book. But at least when I see a bullet point claiming a book is a slow burn, I know what I’m getting into. Because when it comes to reading romance, I share the sentiment made famous by the esteemed organizational queen Marie Kondo: And a fast burn romance can really bring the mess. The book that made me so thankful that not everyone is writing slow burns this year is A Lot Like Adiós....

It’s worth noting that “history” here is rooted in realism, and that “history” here also means anything that has some connection to a historical event. In other words, there are historical novels set in the 1990s because that’s history. All of the books included are published from 2014 and forward. I encourage you to dig into the above-linked graphic for older titles. This roundup includes both fiction and nonfiction, as we’ve seen a few incredible YA nonfiction about Black history by Black authors hit shelves and we’ll be seeing more in the very near future (finally!...

This time around I have books from Mexico, Libya, the Dominican Republic, Japan, and the U.S. The list includes a satirical novel, a book-length essay, historical fiction, and realistic novels (more or less realistic, that is). Three of the books are in the translation. So why not take a chance on a book published by an indie press and see if you discover something you love? Temporary by Hilary Leichter (Coffee House Press/Emily Books, March 3) Temporary is a workplace novel about a woman trying her best to fulfill her life’s dream: to get a permanent job....

I was very fortunate to sit down with Sophie to talk about her great new novel. Lucas Maxwell: When Brody first enters Everland, it’s very overwhelming for him. How did you decide what he would see when he first entered? What inspiration did you draw from to describe it? Sophie Cameron: I was mainly inspired by the settings in the film The Fall, art installations at Burning Man Festival, Narnia, and of course, Peter Pan’s Neverland....

Honestly, the only reason I knew that they had music in the form of tape cassettes (yes I’m old, leave me alone) was due to my sister borrowing one on an extended loan (read: stealing) from the Houston Public Library during the year we lived there. I won’t tell you what tape it was though. I’m not a snitch. Nowadays they do so much more, something I have expanded in my own love letter to libraries....

We are also quarantining all book returns for 72 hours and asking every student to sign in with their own pen or pencil, our own track and trace type of system. I want library inductions to be fun, but in the state of the world in which we now live, I also want it to be calming and distracting. I want there to be an hour where students forget about what’s going on outside....

Local independent bookstores are making it easy to send books and themed goodies to the special bookworms in your life. With many stores closed to the public, care packages are also a great way to support stores that normally rely on in-person sales. Publishers Weekly reports that booksellers have found care packages are boosting online sales. If you’re like me, you might be missing the magic of coming across the perfect book when browsing the bookstores shelves....

I’ve found that I’m often more satisfied by read-alike recommendations if I’m already expecting the two books to be different in some important ways. That’s why giving graphic novel/comic read-alike suggestions for non-graphic books works so well. Both forms of storytelling can share similar themes, settings, characters, vibes. There are comics set in space, college, small towns, big cities, and magical kingdoms, just like any other kind of book. Graphic novels come in all genres and offer all vibes: creepy, heartwarming, bizarre, unsettling, fun, serious....

“A library at Louisiana State University named after a former school president who advocated for segregation will be renamed, school administrators and black student leaders said. The decision to change the name of Middleton Library at the university in Baton Rouge was announced Wednesday evening, news outlets reported. The change is pending the approval of the LSU Board of Supervisors, which is scheduled to meet June 19.” Keep the ball rolling on all the things that need renaming....

Fellow Janeites, decide which of these romantic heroes you would marry, date, or dump and discover a more recent romance novel to add to your TBR list!

I have never bought into the idea that loved ones become stars after their death. Stars too are mortal. If it was on me I would have turned them into ether, the negative blank space where stars float around. Unlike stars, ether lasts for an eternity. In the poem ‘In Blackwater Woods’, Oliver writes, “To live in this world / you must be able / to do three things / to love what is mortal; to hold it / against your bones knowing / your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go....