Living in Words
In 1859, after John Brown’s failed attack on the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, where he hoped to spark a slave insurrection, Lydia Maria Child asked permission...
The Limits of Press Power
If President Joe Biden thinks that Rupert Murdoch is “the most dangerous man in the world,”* President Franklin Roosevelt felt much the same about “the McCormick/Patterson...
Two Kerosene Lanterns
The cat walks the narrow shelf beneath the window where many delicate things are arranged—polished ammonites, a dried starfish, three turtle netsuke, a few curls of...
‘We Know What That’s Like’
This past July the Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was imprisoned for protesting the jailing of Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad, two fellow directors who had been...
‘A God Can Do It’
On the first page of her deeply perceptive and passionately argued study of Rainer Maria Rilke, mainly as a poet but also as a personality, Lesley...
Book Riot’s Deals of the Day for October 14, 2022
Today’s Featured Deals $2.99 My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix Get This Deal $1.99 Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig Get This Deal $3.99...
7 Books Starring Characters With Rare Abilities
Since I was a child, I’ve been captivated by stories of the paranormal. Growing up in an environment rife with real-world terrors, I commiserated with the...
Fatimah Asghar Is an Elusive Scorpio Bitch to the Core
Fatimah Asghar’s debut novel, When We Were Sisters, braids lyric and and narrative vignettes into a tender, vivid, heart-aching story of three orphaned sisters and the...
What’s a Book Sanctuary?: Book Censorship News, October 14, 2022
If “book sanctuary” is a new phrase to you, it’s likely because it is a new phrase more broadly. Book sanctuaries are institutions committed to upholding...
First Appearance Flashback: Black Adam
Superheroes have been around a long time, and most of the characters and genre conventions are pretty well established. But did every character always look and...
