BOOK RIOT

Critical Linking: June 20th, 2013

Jeff — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 10:00:38 +0000

Those people, Mr. Brodhead pointed out, include both President Obama (political science major) and Mitt Romney (English), as well as most of the 54 members of the commission, which includes distinguished jurists, business leaders, artists, scholars, university presidents and politicians, many of whom offer stirring testimonials on the value of their own liberal arts [...]

Name Those Authors!: The Answers from June 13, 2013

Cassandra Neace — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:30:13 +0000

Welcome to Name That Author!, a literary trivia game. We start by giving you a requirement, and you name authors who fit that requirement. When there’s a prize at stake, randomly selected participants who submit correct answers win. This round of Name Those Authors! is sponsored by Dance of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin. Araby Worth’s city [...]

Fresh Ink: June 19, 2013

Cassandra Neace — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:30:40 +0000

We’re bringing Fresh Ink to you one day later this week because we declared yesterday a Riot Reading Day in honor of Neil Gaiman and his newest novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Now, take a look at some of the other notable new releases that are worthy of a place on your [...]

Riot Recommendation: Sci-Fi Stories in Space

Rebecca Joines Schinsky — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:30:33 +0000

This round of the Riot Recommendation is sponsored by The Human Division by John Scalzi. Following the events of The Last Colony, John Scalzi tells the story of the fight to maintain the unity of the human race. The people of Earth now know that the human Colonial Union has kept them ignorant of the dangerous universe [...]

Cover Face-Off: STEVE JOBS by Walter Isaacson

Jeff — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:30:40 +0000

It’s rare you get to see how much just one change makes in a cover design, but with the new paperback edition of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson being released this fall, you have that chance (granted the change is to the most prominent element of the cover). Take the poll at the bottom [...]

Cool Bookish Places: Gladstone’s Library

Jeff — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:30:03 +0000

In 1889, British Prime Minister William Gladstone got out a wheelbarrow and began moving his personal collection of 32,000 books from Hawarden Castle in Wales to their new home about a quarter of a mile away. The new building, now known as Gladstone’s Library, was intended to make his collection available to the public, to [...]

The 25 Most-Hated Books (By Book Riot Readers)

Rebecca Joines Schinsky — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:45:21 +0000

It’s a reality of the reading life that sometimes you’re going to read a book and hate it. Here at the Riot, we like to focus on the awesome books, the books we can’t stop talking about and sharing with other people who love to read, but we’re also really nosy curious. So last week we asked you [...]

Giveaway: Win a Set of 3 Murder Mysteries!

Rebecca Joines Schinsky — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:30:29 +0000

This post is sponsored by a trio of murder mystery-ish reads. The Diabolist by Layton Green—In this gripping thriller, the bizarre murder of a Satanic priest in San Francisco draws Dominic Grey and Viktor Radek, private investigators of cults, into a vortex of black magic, ancient heresies, and the dark corners of their own pasts. [...]

I Am Conflicted About Elizabeth Gilbert

Amanda Nelson — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:00:03 +0000

I was walking the floor at Book Expo America (BEA) all by my lonesome, in between appointments and maybe staring into space a little bit, when I passed Elizabeth Gilbert signing her new novel The Signature of All Things at her publisher’s booth. The line was long and I hesitated, then moved on, only to frantically [...]

Character Math #3: Atticus Finch + Albus Dumbledore

Jeff — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:15:56 +0000

What literary character do you get from the following equation: Click here for the answer. ____________________________ Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise. To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, [...]

Critical Linking: June 19th, 2013

Jeff — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:00:44 +0000

An interactive map of all the public libraries in the United States. Whoa. ____________________________ A new form of DRM developed in Germany alters words, punctuation and other text elements so that every consumer receives a unique version of an eBook. By examining these “text watermarks”, copies that end up on the Internet can be traced [...]

Welcome to Neil Gaiman Day!

Rebecca Joines Schinsky — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:00:41 +0000

Few things create a bigger buzz across the bookternet than the release of a new Neil Gaiman book. Here at the Riot, Gaiman is one of our favorite writers, so we’ve decided that today, in honor of the release of his new novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane, it’s all Neil Gaiman all the time. [...]

Book Fetish: Neil Gaiman Edition

Rachel — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:58:43 +0000

This post is part of our Neil Gaiman Reading Day: a celebration of one of our favorite authors on the occasion of the publication of his new novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Check out the full line-up here. Gaiman Hirsute Tee: Celebrate that one middle-of-the-forehead Gaiman curl, and mock anyone who doesn’t get the first-name [...]

Hidden Histories, Urban Fantasies, and Gaiman’s Influence

Derek Attig — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:56:46 +0000

This post is part of our Neil Gaiman Reading Day: a celebration of one of our favorite authors on the occasion of the publication of his new novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Check out the full line-up here. Many of Neil Gaiman’s books offer hidden histories of ordinary places—roadside attractions, cemeteries, Tube stations, and so [...]

Are You Neil Gaiman? : A Flowchart

dr b — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:54:20 +0000

This post is part of our Neil Gaiman Reading Day: a celebration of one of our favorite authors on the occasion of the publication of his new novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Check out the full line-up here. Sometimes I find myself wondering if I might, in fact, be Neil Gaiman. Handily, there’s now a [...]

Reading AMERICAN GODS on Repeat

Peter Damien — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:53:01 +0000

This post is part of our Neil Gaiman Reading Day: a celebration of one of our favorite authors on the occasion of the publication of his new novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Check out the full line-up here. It’s 2007, the 24th of July, at about four in the morning. I’m in a hospital with [...]

You Versus a Blank Sheet of Paper: Neil Gaiman on Books and Writing

Liberty Hardy — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:52:37 +0000

This post is part of our Neil Gaiman Reading Day: a celebration of one of our favorite authors on the occasion of the publication of his new novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Check out the full line-up here. “I learned to write by writing. I tended to do anything as long as it felt like [...]

START HERE: Neil Gaiman

Jeff — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:50:00 +0000

This post is part of our Neil Gaiman Reading Day: a celebration of one of our favorite authors on the occasion of the publication of his new novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Check out the full line-up here. Erin Morgenstern (author of The Night Circus) wrote the following as a chapter for our book, Start [...]

A Guide to Neil Gaiman for Kids!

Preeti Chhibber — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:48:34 +0000

This post is part of our Neil Gaiman Reading Day: a celebration of one of our favorite authors on the occasion of the publication of his new novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Check out the full line-up here. I didn’t discover Neil Gaiman until I was 18, a little past the young reader’s age. We [...]

Curious, Creepy, and Cute: A Tour of Neil Gaiman’s International Book Covers

Tasha Brandstatter — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:46:57 +0000

This post is part of our Neil Gaiman Reading Day: a celebration of one of our favorite authors on the occasion of the publication of his new novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Check out the full line-up here. Neil Gaiman’s books are popular all over the world. You can find them China, Japan, France, even [...]