Categories
In The Club

💗 Meet Cutes in the Club 💗

Valentine’s Day will be here in a couple weeks, and if your book club likes to do seasonal reads, it means y’all are probably ready to get into some romance.

After you catch up on a little book-banning news (Kansas legislators are trying to ban book bans!) and the latest book world tea 🍵 (what is going on with the Hugos??), I’ve got fake dating at weddings, fated romance, a love spanning centuries, and more.

But first, a little snacky snack.

Nibbles and Sips

beignets on a red plate

Nutella-Stuffed Beignets by Sara @ TheFrayedApron

Y’all. I stumbled upon some “chocolate hazelnut” (Nutella, basically) beignets at Whole Foods, and they had me trembling for a whole week. The cheat code was spraying them with a little cooking spray and putting them in the air fryer for five minutes. Oowee.

So here I am trying to find another, more cost-effective way to get my Nutella-filled beignets. Thank you for accompanying me on this journey. You’ll need:

Donut stuff: yeast, sugar, flour, egg, salt, half-and-half, coconut oil

Nutella (obvs)

Powdered sugar and cinnamon (if you want)

Full list and instructions on The Frayed Apron.


cover of Say You'll Be Mine by Naina Kumar

Say You’ll Be Mine by Naina Kumar

When theater teacher and hopeful playwright Meghna Raman’s writing partner and secret crush Seth becomes engaged, he asks her to be his best man. And she agrees! In an effort to move on (while still planning some of Seth’s wedding activities), she agrees to be set up by her parents and meets the grumpy engineer Karthik Murthy. He agrees to stage a fake engagement with Meghna to keep both their parents at bay but doesn’t bargain for the vibrancy that Meghna brings into his life.

cover of Red String Theory by Lauren Kung Jessen

Red String Theory by Lauren Kung Jessen

Fate and love collide in this rom-com based on the Chinese legend that says that everyone is tied to their true love by a red string. Artist Rooney Gao believes this legend so strongly that she’s even incorporated red string into her artwork. But once she starts experiencing artist’s block, she starts questioning everything. A perfect date with a new guy in her life, Jack Liu, reinvigorates her, and she thinks she’s found her one true love. Thing is, Jack isn’t a believer, and she’s not even sure they’ll see each other after their magical date.

cover of The Emperor and the Endless Palace 
 by Justinian Huang

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang (March 26)

In 4 BCE, a courtier is made to seduce a young emperor, which sets off a love story that echoes through centuries. Years later, in 1740, an innkeeper helps a mysterious visitor, and finally, in modern-day L.A., a college student is coaxed out of the closet by an enigmatic artist. Across these lives is a love that is reborn, relived, and timeless.

cover of Funny Story by Emily Henry

Funny Story by Emily Henry (April 23)

Emily Henry’s joints are always popular, and I understand why. She takes common romance tropes and puts her own little spin on them. On top of that, her characters’ often undergo some meaningful growth. With Funny Story, we’ve been gifted an opposites-attract, fake-dating story that starts off a bit messy. Daphne’s fiancé Peter leaves her for Petra, and Petra leaves her fiancé Miles for Peter. Then, these two Messy Melindas invite both their exes to their wedding. So, naturally, Daphne and Miles decide to fake date and attend the wedding. But practical children’s librarian Daphne may find more than she bargained for in the chaotic Miles.

Extra mention: A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams (Feb. 6) (I didn’t want to leave this one out in a discussion about new romance books, but also didn’t want to do another feature since I mentioned it recently. As a quick reminder, it’s: Harlem Renaissance + Romance + a Lil Razzle Dazzle!)

Suggestion Section

Book Club:

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

More To Read

Read the Books These 2024 Oscar Nominees are Based On

Bestselling Books of the Week

This Year’s Winners of the ALA Youth Media Awards


I hope this newsletter found you well, and as always, thanks for hanging out! If you have any comments or just want to connect, send an email to erica@riotnewmedia.com or holla at me on Twitter @erica_eze_. You can also catch me talking more mess in our In Reading Color Substack as well as chattin’ with my co-host Tirzah Price on the Hey YA podcast.

Until next time,

Erica

Categories
Bookish Goods

Bookish Good of the Week: January 21, 2024

TBR Scratch Off Card

TBR Scratch Off Card  by HeyHelloBookish

If you routinely have trouble thinking of what to read next, these scratch off cards are a rather novel (ha!) way to figure it out. The seller has a short video on how to set them up (you just write the names of books on the card, them cover them up with a scratch-off sticker). $4

Categories
In The Club

Biographies and Memoirs to Read in 2024

When I interviewed for my current position at Book Riot, I remember being asked about my reading habits (naturally). I’ve always been a big fantasy/literary fiction/graphic novel girl, but am terrible with reading nonfiction.

Welp, I am still kind of bad, but I think I’ve gotten a *little* bit better. Just a smidge. Since I’ve noticed some great memoirs and biographies coming out in the new year, I thought to highlight some for your book clubs since it’s the genre of nonfiction I’m probably least likely to pick up *hides face in shame*.

First, I’ve got a li’l snack for ya.

Nibbles and Sips

soufflé pancakes

Japanese soufflé pancakes by Kristen/Mochi Mommy

I don’t know what time of day you hold your book club meeting, but if you ever want to have them during prime brunch hours (or in the evening; I’m a breakfast-as-dinner girl myself), these fluffy soufflé pancakes would be perfect.

You’ll need: eggs, sugar, cake flour, baking powder, salt, milk, vanilla extract, and butter. You’ll mix all ingredients with a hand mixer at different intervals, which the full recipe and instruction list on Kristen’s website tells you about.

For some video guidance, check out her clip on Instagram. Top with cream or Nutella!


cover of The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul

RuPaul had already made a name for himself as a premier drag queen and entertainer before the first episode of Drag Race. But since the show started, he’s become even more iconic, even ushering in a new era of Drag. Here, he offers a more intimate side of himself, detailing his life growing up as a queer Black kid in California, his time as a punk in Atlanta and New York, and how he found self-acceptance.

cover of Carson McCullers: A Life by Mary V. Dearborn

Carson McCullers: A Life by Mary V. Dearborn

McCullers is one of my favorite Southern writers, and just writers ever. I remember being amazed at how well she could write from the perspective of those who had experiences so outside of her own at such a young age (23, if we’re thinking of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter). This is the first biography of the genius author in the last couple of decades, and it details her life — from the time she thought she’d be a concert pianist to her inherent queerness — referencing materials unavailable until the last decade or so.

cover of Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

Though this is a collection of essays rather than a straight memoir (the author does have a memoir as well: Red Paint), it still gets into LaPointe’s experiences as a queer Indigenous woman. With a very punk spirit (and the help of her family archives and her great-grandmother’s anthropological work), LaPointe picks apart narratives surrounding Indigenous people, analyzes cultural displacement, and critiques environmental destruction.

cover of Private Equity by Carrie Sun

Private Equity by Carrie Sun

Carrie Sun has always worked hard. She excelled in school, graduated early from MIT, and entered the corporate world, all in the name of the American Dream her parents wished for her when they immigrated to the U.S. from China. But once she hits 29, she starts feeling like something’s missing. So, she drops out of a master’s program and quits her job. When she gets the opportunity to work for one of the most respected hedge funds in the world, she jumps at it. Soon, luxury and privilege like she’s never known are opened up to her, but it also starts to swallow her whole.

Suggestion Section

Book Club:

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

More To Read

This is what your favourite book genre says about you

Does Literary Fiction Also Work on BookTok?

7 Types of Booktoks That Skyrocketed My Reading By 1000%

8 of the Best Historical Fiction of 2023


I hope this newsletter found you well, and as always, thanks for hanging out! If you have any comments or just want to connect, send an email to erica@riotnewmedia.com or holla at me on Twitter @erica_eze_. You can also catch me talking more mess in our In Reading Color Substack as well as chattin’ with my co-host Tirzah Price on the Hey YA podcast.

Until next time,

Erica

Categories
Bookish Goods

Bookish Good of the Week: January 14, 2024

2024 Year of Reading Wall Calendar

2024 Year of Reading Wall Calendar by LemonPeelPrints

January is already well underway, but there’s still the rest of 2024! This calendar features bookish images for each month that fit within seasonal themes. $30

(Though it’s on sale for $23 at the time of writing this!)

Categories
In The Club

Some of My Most Anticipated Books for 2024

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed.

I’ll still hype about all the new releases and possibilities for the upcoming months, so I’ve compiled a list of books that I’m most excited about for book club reading.

The books below are ones I think will be great conversation starters and include everything from a Harlem Renaissance love story to a novel about grief, AIDS, and the internet.

But first, a little something sweet…

Nibbles and Sips

Pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting

Pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting by thelivelykitchen1

Listen, I believe in year-round pumpkin activities, and these look amazing.

For the batter, you’ll need the usual baking supplies, in addition to dark brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla bean paste, pumpkin purée, and pumpkin pie spice. For the frosting, you’ll need cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, milk, and the spices from the batter. After baking at 350 for about 20 minutes, you can let them cool and frost those bad boys.

For a full list of ingredients and instructions, you can look at this Instagram video.


cover of Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase

Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase (Jan. 23)

There is a lot going on here. In the best way. In a future Botswana, technology and folklore collide. Nelah’s consciousness currently resides in a body that is microchipped and controlled by her husband. Still, Nelah is able to rebel and have an affair, which leads to an accidental death that she tries to cover up. A murder cover-up goes about as well as you’d expect, and soon, Nelah is being haunted by the ghost of her victim — one that wants vengeance paid in blood.

cover of Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson (Jan. 23)

Food is so heavily tied to language and culture, and I always love reading about how the three are intertwined in Black American history because so much of our history isn’t widely taught. I think any other lover of history and food will appreciate how Wilkinson does that here, as she writes out the history and fortitude of Black Appalachians through recipes passed down from the women in her family. Part memoir, part cookbook, I think this is a perfect book club read.

cover of A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams (Feb. 6)

Here’s another book that has a lot going on. I also suspect it’ll be one of the major releases of the year. It follows Ricki, the outsider of her socialite family, who decides to move from Atlanta to Harlem to open a flower shop. It’s tough going for a while, but then she meets the enigmatic Ezra, and magic seems to unfurl around them. There’s a secondary timeline that takes place during the Harlem Renaissance that gives some context to Ezra and the huge secret he’s harboring.

cover of The Observable Universe: An Investigation by Heather McCalden

The Observable Universe: An Investigation by Heather McCalden (March 19)

In this genre-blending memoir, McCalden explores what grieving the loss of her parents to AIDS was like during the ’90s. Turns out, there are some parallels between the development of the internet and the development of AIDS, and here, McCalden scours through scientific papers, shows, and various internet histories to detail the double meaning of “going viral.” This is both a meditation on grief and a look at how we connect to each other in this new age.

cover of The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (April 9)

Reading Bardugo at the top of the year is becoming somewhat of a tradition for me. Last year, Ninth House and Hellbent were a couple of the first books I read in January, and they had me gasping. As a longtime lover of fantasy, I really appreciate Bardugo’s brand of adult fantasy — there’s something about it that feels very real and relatable, even as there are literal demons coming out of the depths of hell.

Here, Bardugo takes that relatability to the Golden Age of Spain. In the 16th century, Luzia is a lowly kitchen servant who can perform light magic. When her mistress realizes her talent, she tries to exploit her to the benefit of bored nobility. But this leads to Luzia gaining the attention of Antonio Pérez, who is trying to get back in good with the king after a disgrace. As Luzia gets deeper into the world of miracle workers, seers, and alchemists, she becomes more known and therefore, more in danger if the fact of her Jewish heritage were to get out. But there is a familiar, Guillén Santangel, who could help secure her future…even if their secrets may be worse than hers.

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

Suggestion Section

Book Club:

More To Read

West Seattle’s silent book club

7 Cozy Fantasy Books to Start 2024 Off On a Gentle Note

9 of the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of January 2024

9 New Nonfiction Releases to Read in January


I hope this newsletter found you well, and as always, thanks for hanging out! If you have any comments or just want to connect, send an email to erica@riotnewmedia.com or holla at me on Twitter @erica_eze_. You can also catch me talking more mess in our In Reading Color Substack as well as chattin’ with my co-host Tirzah Price on the Hey YA podcast.

Until next time,

Erica

Categories
Bookish Goods

Bookish Good of the Week: January 7, 2024

Sigh Adds to TBR kindle sticker

Sigh…*adds to TBR* kindle sticker by MadamsdesignsCo

We have all been here (and are possibly here right now). $3.50

Categories
In The Club

A New Year and 6 Books on New Ways of Being

And just like that, we are in 2024! The year we just left was a mess (for so many reasons), but I feel like I still learned a lot and made some meaningful progress towards goals I have set for myself. In this first week of the new year, I am hopeful to continue this progress, which now means stepping outside of my comfort zone more. I have the impression that is kind of the vibe surrounding some areas of the self-help book industry.

Whereas previous new years brought in a deluge of new ways to diet, save money, and exercise (which are all fine goals to have if you want, don’t get me wrong), these new self-help books offer different perspectives on how to look at life, relate to others, and care for ourselves.

The books I have below all embody this spirit of expanding perspectives by looking at everything from the pervasiveness of ableism to reevaluating what productivity means to us to even how curiosity can be healing.

Before we get to them, I reflect a bit on a (delicious) Black American tradition.

Nibbles and Sips

Old-Fashioned Coconut Cake

Old-Fashioned Coconut Cake by Cheryl Day

Over the holidays, I was speaking to a friend of mine about different Black American dishes. When we got to desserts, one of my favorites that I remember eating growing up was coconut cake. Though he’s Black as well, he’s also from California and so hadn’t had the dessert often. This made me wonder if it was a thing particular to the South or just my family. What I found out was super interesting.

Firstly, it’s believed that coconuts came to the Americas with enslaved Africans who knew how to grow and harvest them. Secondly, the coconut cake recipe that I start to crave around the holidays came from a fun event Black folk had that satirized white Southern aristocracy in antebellum times. Enslaved people would hold little competitions called “cakewalks,” and whoever won got a fabulous coconut cake (these gatherings are where we get phrases like “that was a cakewalk,” etc.).

Since this is recent, here’s a little context on the significance of the New Year’s countdown if you’d like to read more on Black American holidays and celebrations.

As for Cheryl Day’s recipe, you’ll need the usual things for a cake, like baking powder, baking soda, flour, salt, butter, sugar, and vanilla, as well as cream of coconut, coconut milk, cardamom, and more. For a full list of ingredients and directions, visit this recipe page.


cover of On Thriving: Harnessing Joy Through Life's Great Labors by Brandi Sellerz-Jackson

On Thriving: Harnessing Joy Through Life’s Great Labors by Brandi Sellerz-Jackson

Sellerz-Jackson uses her vast experience as a trusted doula as well as her personal life to guide others through various labors in this new book. She looks at potentially rut-inducing moments that we all experience at some point in our lives and shows how we can be present by asking ourselves things like, “What do we need to flourish and thrive under current conditions?”

cover of Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World by Scott Shigeoka

Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World by Scott Shigeoka

Shigeoka both explains how being deeply curious can better connect us to others and shows how to engage in the practice of Deep Curiosity. Using research and personal anecdotes, he outlines ways to heal, connect, and understand by being more curious.

cover of The Creative Act: A Way of Being

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

Though I love listening to music — my Spotify Wrapped said I spent over 30,000 minutes in 2023 listening to music…which felt like a mild drag, but I digress — I am not very knowledgeable on the major players behind the scenes, except for Rick Rubin. He’s produced records for everyone from Sir Mix-A-Lot to Weezer to Macy Gray, and here, he shows how the creative process can be and is part of all our lives. His illustrious career spent coaxing the best work out of musical artists of varying genres has shown him not only where creativity comes from but also how it connects one to the world.

cover of Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life by Alice Wong; illustration of a red tiger on a yellow background

Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life by Alice Wong

Wong mentions how the title of the book and its release came as a result of “deliberate manifestation” and “big cat energy.” In it, Wong, the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, shares a collection of everything from essays to graphics and art commissioned by disabled Asian American artists to show what her life has been like as a disability advocate. With humor and insight, she explores pop culture, her Asian American identity, and the various consequences of ableism.

cover of Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock

Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell

Odell gets into the thing that runs our lives once we become adults: time. And, surprise, surprise, she finds that the clock was built for profit, not necessarily to help people (capitalism strikes again, in other words). Our very concept of time is worth exploring because, even when we are meant to be caring for ourselves, we are pressed by time. I suspect that the concept of time factors into cultural differences a lot, so this is an interesting read on many levels.

cover of Feel-Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You by Ali Abdaal

Feel Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You by Ali Abdaal

Here, Ali Abdaal, who has gained a huge following on YouTube as a productivity expert, helps to reshape how we look at productivity and how to achieve it. He argues that we can be the most productive by finding joy in work and outlines ways to do it.

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

Suggestion Section

Book Club:

More To Read


Thanks for starting the new year with me! I look forward to continuing to share more great book club books and recipes to keep your book clubs poppin’.

Until next time,

Erica

Categories
Bookish Goods

Bookish Good of the Week: December 31, 2023

Reading Journal

Reading Journal by LNLShoppes

Time to reset reading goals, which also means new reading journals! The Etsy item description for this one mentions its popularity on BookTok, as well as its many features, like TBR pages, book review pages with ratings and space for written reviews, illustrated empty book spines that you can color in, and more. $20

(Though it is on sale for $17 at the time of this writing!)

Categories
In The Club

The Best Book Club Books of January

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed.

This is written a little more ahead than usual because of holiday things, so you may have already seen this, but Obama released his favorite books of 2023. He has some books in common with a few best-of-the-year lists, as well as a few ones I haven’t heard of as much. Check it out when you get a chance.

As for today’s roundup, there’s a queer coming-of-age story, a lurking djinn, the story of a trailblazing Black Hollywood star, and social commentary à la Kiley Reid.

But before that, we’re getting a little tipsy!

Nibbles and Sips

red cocktail in champagne flute

New Year’s Eve Champagne Punch by Rebecca

This New Year’s Eve champagne punch sounds (and looks!) magical. It’s also pretty easy to assemble. You’ll need triple sec, blackberry brandy, pineapple juice, Chambord, lemon lime soda, pink or Brut champagne, and garnish. You’ll want to mix some of the ingredients the day before and let them sit overnight. Then, you serve with triple sec and soda the day of.

For a full list of ingredients and instructions, visit Sugar and Soul.


cover of How We Named the Stars by Andrés N. Ordorica

How We Named the Stars by Andrés N. Ordorica

Daniel de La Luna starts his tenure as a scholarship student at a prestigious East Coast college with the weight of the world on his shoulders — his family’s hopes and expectations are heavy, as are the shoes of his late uncle, whose name he shares. But his roommate Sam changes everything. In Sam, he finds a comforting friendship, but then something more. Their relationship isn’t able to fully take off just yet, though, because of Sam’s hesitation as well as a tragedy that changes Daniel’s worldview. When he returns to his ancestral home in México, he’ll finally have a chance to reconcile all that’s changed and what’s to come.

cover of The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan

Apart from being a great book out in January, this is one I’m looking forward to for the entire year. It’s giving Rebecca meets the movie Three Thousand Years of Longing (starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton, if you’re unfamiliar). It centers around Sana, who, along with her father, is one of the latest inhabitants of the once grand Akbar Manzil, an estate off the coast of South Africa. Usually, the estate is a place where people go to forget themselves, even going so far as to ignore the estate’s uncanny qualities — like bones in the garden and mysterious moving figures — but Sana becomes obsessed with the contents of a forgotten room. The room’s pictures, diary, and other artifacts tell Sana of Akbar Manzil’s original owner’s second wife, who died a hundred years ago. She compulsively dives deeper into the woman’s life, but little does she know of the djinn that watches her from the shadows.

cover of The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel by ReShonda Tate Billingsley

The Queen of Sugar Hill by ReShonda Tate

Here is a fictional portrait of a trailblazer who I don’t see much written about. Hattie McDaniel was a prolific actress and the first Black person to win an Oscar for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone With the Wind. Which is where some of her heartache started. The role was controversial and barred her from both white and Black gatherings because white people only saw her as The Help, while Black people thought her Oscar-winning role was demeaning. Even so, she still fought for a place for Black actors in Hollywood, and leaned on friends like Clark Gable and Dorothy Dandridge when she had to. This tells McDaniel’s story, covering everything from the Oscars to the war to her marriages.

cover of Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

From the author of Such a Fun Age comes a skewering of academia and privilege. At the University of Arkansas in 2017, Millie Cousins is working as a senior resident assistant when visiting professor Agatha Paul offers her an odd but easy chance to earn some money. Agatha wants Millie to let her listen in on conversations had by a group of privileged women who are living in a dorm meant for scholarship recipients. What follows is an often humorous narrative filled with the aptest of social observations.

Suggestion Section

It’s happening, readers — we’re bringing paperbacks! Whether you (or a reader you know and love) hate carrying around bulky hardcovers, you’re on a budget, you want a wider range of recommendations or all of the above, you can now get a paperback subscription from TBR, curated just for you by one of our Bibliologists. We’ve got three different levels for gifting (to yourself or others) to suit every budget. Get all the details at mytbr.co.

Book Club:

More To Read

What Are The Mental Health Benefits — and Drawbacks — of Reading Goals and Challenges?

Book Riot’s 2024 Read Harder Challenge

The Most Popular Books in US Public Libraries 2023

The Best Books We Read in 2023 (That Weren’t Published in 2023)


I hope this newsletter found you well, and as always, thanks for hanging out! If you have any comments or just want to connect, send an email to erica@riotnewmedia.com or holla at me on Twitter @erica_eze_. You can also catch me talking more mess in our In Reading Color Substack as well as chattin’ with my co-host Tirzah Price on the Hey YA podcast.

Until next time,

Erica

Categories
Bookish Goods

Bookish Good of the Week: December 24, 2023

Cozy Winter Book sleeve print

Cozy Winter Book sleeve by BookishBling

This book sleeve print is just about as cozy as you can get and perfect for some winter reading. $22 (but on sale for $15 at the time of writing this)