Tag Archives: books

Gay #Parenting #Books to be #Banned from Venice #Schools | Telegraph #diversity #kids #reading #censorship

Posted on by

Children’s books about being raised by same-sex parents, including one about a pair of “gay” penguins bringing up a chick, are to be banned in Venice’s schools, as a new mayor stamps a more conservative mark on the World Heritage city. READ MORE: Gay parenting books to be banned from Venice schools | Telegraph.

Best Children’s #Books To Celebrate #Diversity | HuffPo #kids #reading

Posted on by

Canada is known as a cultural mosaic because it’s home to many people of different ethnicities, cultures and languages. This diversity presents a great opportunity to teach our kids about other nations and their customs, as well as to celebrate our similarities and differences from them. Reading is one the best ways to learn, so we’ve rounded up 13 of the best children’s books that celebrate diversity. READ: Best Children’s Books To Celebrate Diversity | Huffington Post.

You May Also Like

Master List and Index of #Free #Programming #Books | GitHub #coding

Posted on by

Free Programming Books | GitHub

A Children’s Illustrator Is Losing Fans Because Of Her Anti-Racist #Art | BuzzFeed #books #racism #diversity

Posted on by

Illustrator Mary Engelbreit has made many fans for her work in stationery, home goods, and children’s books for over 30 years. [S]ome of those fans are not so happy with anti-racist artwork she’s posted on her Facebook as a tribute to Michael Brown, who was killed nearly a year ago. READ MORE: A Children’s Illustrator Is Losing Fans Because Of Her Anti-Racist Art | BuzzFeed

#Sex Talk in #Literature: How It’s Changed Over 200 Years | Flavorwire #books #research

Posted on by

Sex Talk in Literature: How It’s Changed Over 200 Years | Flavorwire

A British health website, DrEd.com, delved into the entire corpus of literature, both fiction and nonfiction, to explore the way certain words having to do with “venereal” matters have appeared, faded, or been associated with new companion words over the last two centuries. READ MORE: Sex Talk in Literature: How It’s Changed Over 200 Years | Flavorwire.

60 Bookish Films #Streaming on #Netflix | BookRiot #books #film

Posted on by

Here’s a new list to watch on Netflix streaming that originated as a book, short story, or comic. READ: 60 Bookish Films Streaming on Netflix | BookRiot.

How to Spot Whodunnit: Academics Crack Agatha Christie’s Code | The Guardian #AgathaChristie #books

Posted on by

Rather than watching brain-numbing reality television this summer, I am determined to watch all 13 series of Agatha Christie’s Poroit TV series starring David Suchet. Just finished Series 6 and will be picking up Series 7 & 8 from my local library today. I correctly guess the culprit only half the time. It’s been awesome. Yes, I am a bit of a mystery genre geek.   

For almost 100 years, Agatha Christie has beguiled readers with her much-loved mysteries. But now a panel of experts claims to have worked out how to answer the perennial question: whodunnit?

To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of the world’s best-selling novelist, academics have created a formula that they claim will enable the reader to identify the killer before the likes of Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple have managed the feat.

The research, commissioned by the TV channel Drama, analysed 27 of the prolific writer’s books – 83 were published during her lifetime – including classics such as Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. The experts concluded that where the novel was set, the main mode of transport used and how the victim dies were among the key clues. READ MORE: How to spot whodunnit: academics crack Agatha Christie’s code | Books | The Guardian.

[Interactive] Map of American Literature’s Most Epic #RoadTrips | Atlas Obscura #literature #maps #books

Posted on by

The Obsessively Detailed Map of American Literature's Most Epic Road Trips | Atlas Obscura

The above map is the result of a painstaking and admittedly quixotic effort to catalog the country as it has been described in the American road-tripping literature. It includes every place-name reference in 12 books about cross-country travel, from Mark Twain’s Roughing It (1872) to Cheryl Strayed’s Wild (2012), and maps the authors’ routes on top of one another. You can track an individual writer’s descriptions of the landscape as they traveled across it, or you can zoom in to see how different authors have written about the same place at different times. READ MORE: The Obsessively Detailed Map of American Literature’s Most Epic Road Trips | Atlas Obscura.

Why #Coloring Could Be The New Alternative To #Meditation | HuffPost #coloringbooks #psychology #selfhelp #books

Posted on by

Currently, six of the top 20 selling books on Amazon are adult coloring books. The unlikely pastime for those of us who have successfully graduated from kindergarten has been gaining popularity of late, as an easy means to express oneself and de-stress along the way.

The activity not only provides a low-stress, low-stakes way to unlock your creative potential, it also unlocks memories of simpler, childhood times, when the biggest cause of anxiety was how to avoid your next nap. “I recommend it as a relaxation technique,” psychologist Antoni Martínez explained to the Huffington Post. “We can use it to enter into a more creative, freer state. I recommend it in a quiet environment, even with chill music. Let the color and the lines flow.” READ MORE:  Why Coloring Could Be The New Alternative To Meditation | Huffington Post.

You May Also Like

 

Happy Ever After: 100 Swoon-Worthy #Romances | NPR #list #books #romance #HEA

Posted on by

It annoys me when the media and the close-minded do not respect or acknowledge the romance genre as quality fiction. Some of my favourite, most memorable, most thought-provoking and most heart-wrenching reads (and Kleypas re-reads) have been from this genre. Romance = HEA. Romance does not equal just sex or “purple prose.” In my opinion, reading romance contributes to developing social skills (connection, relationship-building) and emotional maturity (empathy, empowerment) – we can all benefit from improving these qualities in ourselves.

What I like about this list from NPR is that the whole series is mentioned – not just specific title(s) considered the best in a series. The list is comprehensive and unranked, sorted into the following categories: Historical, Classics, YA, Suspense, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Paranormal, LGBTQ, Erotic Romance, Inspirational, Contemporary, Category Romance. What I would have liked to see is a fan fiction romance category, as fan fiction is becoming big business with all the Austen and Twilight continuations. The suggestions would be very interesting I’m sure (i.e. the Sharon Lathan P&P series or E.L. James’ 50 Shades of Grey/Grey). The suspense category could have included another Linda Howard title. There were no titles mentioned from Elizabeth Lowell or Jayne Ann Krentz nor was Catherine Anderson’s Annie’s Song mentioned. I would vote for Johanna Lindsey’s Malory series over Warrior’s Woman (SciFi/Fantasy).

A single title only Top 100 Romance list I recommend is from LikesBooks: The Top 100 Romance Books as Voted in 2013. (Note: At the bottom of this webpage are links to historical Top 100 Romances lists from 1998, 2000, 2004, 2007 and 2010).

You May Also Like:

*************

As we get into the hottest, most languorous months of the year, it’s the perfect moment for a hot read — and just in time, our big summer book list is here. It’s the NPR Books Summer of Love, and we have 100 great romances for you, from historical to paranormal to LGBTQ to the subgenre that started it all, category romance (the slim-spined Harlequins of your childhood).

Back in June we asked you to tell us about your favorite romantic reads, and you responded in droves. (We had to shut the poll down early after more than 18,000 nominations flooded in!) Once the votes were tallied, we turned to our expert panel, reviewers Bobbi Dumas and Sarah Wendell, and authors Sherry Thomas and Michelle Monkou, to help us break down the categories and shape the final list into a love story for the ages. READ MORE: Happy Ever After: 100 Swoon-Worthy Romances | NPR.