Know What's Happening in Books
Know What's Happening in Books
Book Riot Launches New Release Index for Mystery & Thriller Fans
Book Riot’s New Release Index is a searchable database that lists upcoming mystery and thriller titles by release date, letting readers filter by sub‑genre and add titles to a personal Watchlist. The tool is bundled with the All Access membership, which costs $6 per month and also unlocks premium articles. Users can scroll cover images and click for descriptions to stay ahead of new releases.
In this episode, host Beth Mund reviews Andy Weir's novel *Project Hail Mary* and speculates on how its three central "characters"—the brilliant but socially awkward Dr. Ryland Grace, the lovable alien Rocky, and the abstract yet pivotal force of time—will be translated to film. She highlights Grace’s genius problem‑solving contrasted with his personal disorientation, Rocky’s unique communication through music and vibration, and the narrative role of suspended, Earth, and personal time as a driving conflict. Mund praises the audiobook’s portrayal of Rocky and anticipates the challenges and creative liberties the movie will need to make, especially in conveying alien communication and the passage of time.
The claim that more people write poetry than read it is disproved by recent data. The National Endowment for the Arts reports that 9‑12% of American adults—roughly 30‑40 million people—engage with poetry, while UK sales exceed one million poetry books annually....
Had a great time chatting with Austin Wilson about novel writing, interiority, and what I’ve called “TV brain” prose. Give it a listen here: https://substack.com/home/post/p-190857559
Indie authors often overlook that a manuscript is a bundle of valuable intellectual‑property rights that can be licensed beyond the book itself. Copyright attaches automatically, but registration strengthens legal standing, while trademarks protect series titles, pen names, and distinctive characters....
Stop writing to trends. Stop writing what you think publishing wants. Stop writing to please others. And start writing what feels right and true to you. When you tune out the noise and instead honor YOUR unique voice, your readers will: 👉 Relate to your...
and for the lady, perhaps a horror book so terrifying that you have to sleep with the light on for weeks?
The author submitted the first draft of a new book after logging over 1,100 early‑morning writing hours since September 2024. A high‑end coffee maker has become the cornerstone of the author’s 3 a.m. routine, fueling productivity and enjoyment. The post critiques...
I shot this 15 yrs ago. One of my first with instagram. The people gave me the idea for how I could take a short story from 1995 and turn it into a book. What happens when old friends, people...
Fredrik Backman returns with "My Friends," a dual‑timeline novel linking a 1990s teenage summer on an abandoned pier to a present‑day artist named Louisa who inherits their secret painting. The story explores how a youthful bond reshapes a stranger’s life...
Psyched to do a book signing at SXSW today. 4:45 at the SX Bookstore at the Hilton (6th floor). Using Behavioral Science in Marketing reveals surprising, proven ways to motivate action. At an earlier SX signing, I had a brush...
Catherine Ryan Howard’s thriller 56 Days, published by Corvus in August 2021, follows strangers Ciara and Oliver as they meet in a Dublin supermarket just as COVID‑19 spreads across Ireland. The novel’s dual‑timeline structure—56 days before and after a body is discovered...
Jennifer Van De Kleut’s debut thriller, *The Better Mother*, follows 34‑year‑old Savannah Mitchell, who discovers she’s pregnant after a brief fling. When the father’s ex‑girlfriend Madison re‑enters his life, she inserts herself into the pregnancy, escalating from intrusive to dangerous....
The Art of Manliness’ "Odds & Ends" roundup spotlights four distinct stories: Bill Zehme’s posthumously completed biography of Johnny Carson offers a rare glimpse into the introverted TV legend and mid‑century entertainment culture; the Garmin Forerunner 55 is praised for...
In this episode of the Unspeakeasy Podcast, host Megan Daum talks with author and humorist Annabelle Gurwitch about her new memoir, *The End of My Life Is Killing Me*, which chronicles her experience living with stage‑four lung cancer diagnosed during...
All I want to do is help people read more books. If you DON'T read a lot books: I want my content to help you discover life-changing books and strengthen your reading habit. If you DO read a lot of books:...
Successful authors keep sprawling fantasy worlds consistent by treating memory as unreliable and building external reference systems. They create detailed story bibles that catalog characters, world rules, timelines, terminology, and unresolved threads, updating them throughout the writing process. A dedicated...
Usha R. Balakrishnan’s new volume *Silver & Gold: Visions of Arcadia* documents hundreds of Indian folk and tribal silver‑and‑gold ornaments, many drawn from the Amrapali Collection in Jaipur. The book blends art‑historical, anthropological and archival research to present a vivid picture of 19th‑20th‑century rural...
A new roundup spotlights five standout titles across science‑fiction, fantasy and horror, ranging from Neil Jordan’s memory‑laden Irish saga to Cameron Sullivan’s historic Beast of Gévaudan re‑imagining. The list also revives Naomi Mitchison’s 1952 fairy‑tale classic, showcases Christopher Buehlman’s Black...
Reena McCarty’s debut, The Tricky Business of Faerie Bargains, fuses American frontier myth with fae lore, following Poppy Hill, a century‑old returnee thrust into the modern legal world of faerie contracts at Carter Lane. The novel details a post‑World‑War legal...
The Dakota Johnson Book Club, branded as the Teatime Book Club, launched in March 2024 as a joint venture with former Netflix executive Ro Donnelly. Operating through a private Instagram channel, the club curates a monthly literary‑fiction title and supplies members...
Audible announced at the London Book Fair that it will launch its subscription service in eleven new markets—Belgium, Egypt, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates—through a partnership with local Amazon...
Early 2026 saw the release of two standout thru‑hiking memoirs: Heather Anderson’s *Farther*, chronicling her eight‑month, 8,000‑mile Calendar Year Triple Crown, and Derick “Mr. Fabulous” Lugo’s *A Fabulous Thru‑Hike*, recounting 3,100 miles on the Continental Divide Trail. Anderson’s narrative mixes...
Karan Mahajan’s latest novel, *The Complex*, opens with a sexual assault that binds the Chopra family’s multigenerational saga. The story follows Gita, an immigrant wife, as she navigates trauma, infertility, and the pull between the United States and Delhi, while...
A humorous “Author AI Scams Bingo” highlights the surge of AI‑generated spam targeting writers. The piece showcases a bingo card filled with typical scam language such as “I recently came across your book” and promises of wider audiences. It illustrates...
2 Chainz’s debut memoir, *The Voice In My Head Is God*, entered the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list at No. 10 on March 3, 2026. The book, released through Black Privilege Publishing, an Atria Books imprint, chronicles the rapper’s upbringing in College Park, Georgia, his...
Evelyn Skye is launching Atelier Skye, a six‑week live studio for serious novelists that meets on Zoom every Saturday. The cohort is capped at twelve writers, each bringing 8–10 pages of their opening manuscript for real‑time, developmental hot‑seat critique. Participants...
The Routledge Companion to Literature and Economics, edited by Matt Seybold and Michelle Chihara, assembles 38 essays that map literary representations of economic ideas from medieval texts to the 2008 financial crisis. The volume argues that modern economics has become...
The article contends that motive outweighs factual truth in crime fiction because readers need a coherent reason for violence. Without a clear motive, stories feel random and unsettling, breaking the genre’s contract to translate chaos into intention. It draws on...
Joshilyn Jackson’s lifelong imagination of an imaginary sister, Liz, fuels her latest novel, *Missing Sister*. The thriller follows Penny Albright, a rookie cop whose twin’s death from the opioid epidemic drives her into a dangerous partnership with a vengeful stranger,...
Ursula Nordstrom reshaped children’s publishing during her three‑decade tenure at Harper & Row, turning a marginal “Tot Department” into a cultural powerhouse. She championed unconventional voices such as Maurice Sendak, Margaret Wise Brown, and E.B. White, producing best‑selling classics that...
Korean author Han Kang, Nobel laureate, publishes "Light and Thread", a collection of essays, poems, and garden reflections that offers insight into her creative process and recurring themes of violence, hope, and humanity. The book includes her Nobel lecture, discussions...
Jordy Rosenberg’s second novel, Night Night Fawn, is presented as a pseudo‑autobiographical confession from 70‑year‑old Barbara Rosenberg, who reflects on her life while dying of terminal cancer. The narrative centers on her fraught relationship with her estranged transgender son, Jordana,...
Andrew Martin argues that the widespread aversion to “info dumps” misrepresents the role of exposition in fiction. He explains that the fear originates from poorly executed backstory and the over‑reliance on the “show, don’t tell” mantra, which can lead writers...
On Mahmoud Darwish Day (March 13), a new English translation of the poet’s late‑stage work “Till My End and Till Its End” was released. The poem, originally written in Arabic, is rendered by acclaimed translator Marilyn Hacker, known for her extensive...
A fresh roundup spotlights ten newly released titles spanning literary fiction, crime thrillers, genre mash‑ups and memoirs. Eva Hornung’s *The Minstrels* fuses climate‑driven apocalyptic fiction with Indigenous land‑rights themes, while Laura McCluskey returns to the Scottish Highlands with a hard‑boiled detective...
The essay argues that the narrator’s voice in George Eliot’s *Middlemarch* constitutes the richest secular source of moral beauty in English literature, rivaling religious eloquence. It outlines Eliot’s background, the novel’s moral architecture, and key characters—Dorothea, Casaubon, Ladislaw, Lydgate, Rosamond,...
University of Chicago Press’s promotions director Carrie Olivia Adams says fewer than ten full‑time book‑review critics remain in the U.S., with only nine daily newspapers still maintaining dedicated review sections—The New York Times, Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star Tribune, USA Today,...
Apropos of the Gothic moment what with talk of Mary Shelley and the Brontes in recent months, Tim Powers' The Stress of Her Regard is about Romantic poets battling ancient vampire like entities. Won the World Fantasy Award back in...
Elsevier received the 2026 #PROSEAwards recognition for six books across Biological Sciences, Biomedicine, Clinical Medicine, Nursing, and Physical Sciences. Grateful to the authors, editors, and #publishing teams who brought these titles to life. See the award winners: https://t.co/ds2dpNXIJh #Elsevier #Health...
German novelist Peter Schneider, renowned for works like “Lenz” and “The Wall Jumper,” died on March 3 at 85 from kidney cancer. His fiction traced Germany’s post‑war turmoil, from the 1960s student protests to the fall of the Berlin Wall and...
I started reading @JohnHMcWhorter’s book about the history of English. It’s so great. The first several pages are a rant about how people think that linguists are etymologists, with their little cocktail party factoids any about specific word histories.
From @BStulberg's inspiring new book "The Way of Excellence: A Guide to True Greatness and Deep Satisfaction in a Chaotic World" — a book particularly welcome during a time of growing isolation and what Brad calls "zombie burnout." You can read...
In this brief 57‑second episode of "Tea, Tales, and Tomes," host Natasha invites listeners into a cozy, book‑loving space where reading and sipping tea go hand in hand. She outlines the show's purpose: to share the joy of reading, help...
Self publishers. Should I release the Kindle version or wait until the hard cover has had its run? https://t.co/hHETfT3LfG https://t.co/NmWLQHybpi
Two thoughts from Evelyn Waugh “[Change is] the only evidence of life.” “It would be a dull world if we all thought alike.”
Wow, I didn't know he passed. I think about Hyperion on like a daily basis. There are fictional scenes from that book that are seared into my brain.
Barry Lopez on the cure for our existential loneliness and the 3 tenets of a full life https://t.co/xiziNeKuc5
George Saunders's disarmingly wonderful meditation on the courage of uncertainty, which is the courage to love the world: https://t.co/MmkRMjpy6q
The Incorruptible book tour is coming together. Where should I go? Make your case ⬇️ https://t.co/8QsQYGGMnu
Why are we not better than we are – wonderful, wonderful read on how poetry saves lives https://t.co/kV1EMCkgdY
