Literature

The grandeur of Saturn is stunning to behold when viewed through a telescope. Possibly the most iconic and easily identifiable member of our solar system, this “ringed planet” has a volume equivalent to 760 Earths and such astonishingly low density that the planet could even float on water. Until two decades ago, few missions had

Today’s Featured Book Deals $2.99 The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs Get This Deal $1.99 I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillan Get This Deal $1.99 The Woman Destroyed by Simone De Beauvoir, translated by Patrick O’Brian

Andrew Bayliss Wonders Why the Chinese Leader Keeps Bringing Up the “Thucydides Trap”? At his recent meeting with the US President Donald Trump, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping asked: “Can China and the United States transcend the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’ and forge a new paradigm for major-power relations?” While it might come as a surprise

Welcome to The Best of Book Riot. Here’s your weekend highlight reel of the week’s most popular stories. The Guardian’s 100 Best Novels of All Time The Guardian has been rolling out its picks for the 100 best novels of all time, and now you can check out the full list. They polled 172 authors and experts

THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET TODAY: In 1810, Margaret Fuller is born. “I never imagined reading books and turning them into movies was a job.” It is, and if you can read a book every two days (and write a book report about it), it could be yours… | Lit Hub Film  Katherine Packert

Today’s Featured Book Deals $2.99 Girls Like Girls by Kayley Kiyoko Get This Deal $1.99 The Lost City of Z by David Grann Get This Deal $2.99 Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel Get This Deal $3.99 Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution by Amanda

THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET TODAY: In 1855, Victor Hugo dies.   What’s a book x-ray? Manil Suri offers advice for visualizing the narrative structure of your novel. | Lit Hub Craft Maybe the truth really is out there. Dr. Sarah Alam Malik considers life beyond planet Earth. | Lit Hub Science The racial

Pizza Hut’s Summer 2026 Book It program opened for enrollment on May 1st and will officially kick off June 1st. The much-beloved reading challenge rewards pre-K through 6th-grade readers with personal pan pizzas for reaching their parent-set reading goals. Kids can earn one pizza per month for June, July, and August if they meet their

Innocent Chizaram Ilo on the Ongoing Dilemma for Readers and Writers In the early hours of Sunday, May 17th 2026, I stumbled on a tweet by Nigerian literary critic and essayist, Chimezie Chike, accusing Jamir Nazir, the newly minted 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Winner (Caribbean Region), of winning the coveted prize with a story

Libraries can and should be advocating on their own behalf. Libraries are not neutral, and it is not partisan to be unabashedly pro-library. No matter which party puts forth a pro-library bill, libraries should seek to have it passed. It’s something they should educate their community about and encourage their community to act upon, too.

Namwali Serpell kicks off the tour for her new book On Morrison at the First Parish Church in Cambridge, MA, in conversation with poet Tracy K. Smith. Together, they read the opening of The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison’s debut novel, and discuss all that the passage emits and erases. They also explore how the cultural treatment of

Today’s round-up of literary headlines includes the TV adaptation of Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward series, the winners of the Barnes & Noble Children’s & YA Awards, Book Threads drama, and more. Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward Series is Getting a TV Adaptation Earlier this year, Brandon Sanderson signed a deal with Apple TV for adaptation rights to the

THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET TODAY: In 1832, Washington Irving returns to the United States after living in Europe for seventeen years.  Katherine Packert Burke considers eight different attempts at explaining the purpose of trans literature. | Lit Hub Criticism Why you shouldn’t feel guilty about the books you haven’t read. | Lit Hub

Seemingly out of nowhere, a bill drafted in January 2025–House Resolution 2616 (HR 2616)–has not only been revived, but it’s also swiftly made its way to the United States House floor and passed in a vote of 217 to 198, with 15 abstentions. Eight Democrats crossed the aisle to align with their Republican colleagues, supporting

Learn about the winner of the 2026 International Booker Prize, AI allegations against short story prize winners, a new partnership between the StoryGraph and Kobo, and more in today’s round-up of literary headlines. The 2026 International Booker Prize Winner is Taiwan Travelogue Taiwan Travelogue, written by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translated by Lin King, is this

THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET TODAY: In 1899, French actress Sarah Bernhardt premieres an adaptation of Shakespeare‘s Hamlet with herself in the title role and in a theater named after here.  Everyone’s talking about Salome right now, and Leslie Baird has some answers about why. | Lit Hub Politics How the critical approaches outlined in George

Students aren’t taking it quietly, either. Like their peers in Central York High School–a 40 minute drive south of Elizabethtown–students have been protesting the board’s censorship agenda. The protests began in the dead of winter, the weather far from amenable for being outside. But students showed up, their voices and beliefs in an education free

Today, at a ceremony at London’s Tate Modern, Natasha Brown, Chair of the 2026 International Booker Prize judging panel, announced this year’s winner: Yáng Shuāng-zǐ’s Taiwan Travelogue, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King. The International Booker Prize celebrates “the best work of long-form fiction or collection of short stories translated into English and published