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The Life-Changing Reading Habit Sarah Dessen Discovered As a Teen
Posted by Hayley Igarashi on June 06, 2017
For many young readers, every Sarah Dessen book holds a promise: There is a girl just like you in these pages—come discover life through her eyes. Now the bestselling author of The Truth About Forever and Just Listen is putting her spin on a wedding-set rom-com in Once and for All, her thirteenth novel. Goodreads asked Dessen to share her thoughts on the importance of stories and escapism.
Lately the world has seemed a bit too much, hasn't it? I'm not sure about you, but as a result, I wasn't sleeping well. I ate too many Cheetos. I indulged in more online shopping than was advisable. (Oh, look! A box came from UPS! What is it? No, seriously. What is it? I don't even remember what I ordered.)
In truth my 13th book is about to be published, and I always get a little mental in the weeks leading up to a release. What usually helps? Naps. Meditation. Yoga. Extra therapy sessions. Long workouts to really loud, angry music. I tried all these but still felt like every day I was struggling against a sadness and anxiety I couldn't shake.
Then I remembered high school—and put a book in my purse.
In the early days of my senior year, my first serious boyfriend broke up with me. I was devastated, and I spent many of the following weeks keeping to myself and, you know, sobbing. I had to see him every day at school, multiple times, and it was kind of killing me, so I began to carry around Stephen King's It, a book I'd been wanting to start forever. Whenever I found a spare moment or felt the tears coming, I opened it up and started to read.
It helped—during the tail end of lunch hour, whenever I just wanted the day to hurry up, in our shared English class (when he sat so close by). Just the weight of it against my chest as I walked through the halls was a comfort. Yes, it was a book about a sadistic clown terrorizing a small town in Maine. But right then it was better than high school.
In the following years I came back to books again and again to save me. In college, when I was having bad panic attacks, reading was the one activity that engaged my spinning brain enough to calm it down. After college, during the stretches when I wasn't writing myself, books gave me something to focus on other than my fear that I'd never come up with another good idea. And in those desperately hard days of my daughter's infancy, magazine articles and essays reminded me of the wider world outside my window in the middle of another long night.
But when life got busy, my reading life suffered. I always have an audiobook going as well as at least one novel on my bedside table, but often I was too exhausted to get through more than a page. To be honest, though, when I did have spare moments, I was on Twitter or my phone, reading frantically about politics and everything else.
I didn't realize how much I'd been doing this until I put that book in my purse back in late April. Suddenly I was reading while I waited for my daughter to finish tae kwon do. And then in the few minutes after doing dishes and before putting her to bed. Here and there, minutes added up to hours. Before I knew it, I'd finished the book. Even more surprising, I felt better. Not perfect but better. I put another novel I'd been wanting to read into my bag. Then another. Now I'm up to my fourth, and I swear to you, just the act of pulling the book out while in line at the post office or bank feels like taking a deep breath.
Sure, the world is still crazy. My work anxiety is like a Mack truck, and sometimes a book can't do that much to stop it. But still, it's something. That little bit of story, grabbed in pieces, pulls me away from here and now to somewhere else. I am in Derry, Maine, the snowy streets of Chicago, or the kitchen of a YA heroine as she works on the perfect cookie recipe. And for those moments, as long as they last, I am so happy to be there.
Sarah Dessen's Once and for All hit bookshelves on June 6. Add it to your Want to Read shelf here.
Do you, like Dessen, bring a book wherever you go? Tell us how you read in the comments!
Posted by Hayley Igarashi on June 06, 2017
For many young readers, every Sarah Dessen book holds a promise: There is a girl just like you in these pages—come discover life through her eyes. Now the bestselling author of The Truth About Forever and Just Listen is putting her spin on a wedding-set rom-com in Once and for All, her thirteenth novel. Goodreads asked Dessen to share her thoughts on the importance of stories and escapism.
Lately the world has seemed a bit too much, hasn't it? I'm not sure about you, but as a result, I wasn't sleeping well. I ate too many Cheetos. I indulged in more online shopping than was advisable. (Oh, look! A box came from UPS! What is it? No, seriously. What is it? I don't even remember what I ordered.)
In truth my 13th book is about to be published, and I always get a little mental in the weeks leading up to a release. What usually helps? Naps. Meditation. Yoga. Extra therapy sessions. Long workouts to really loud, angry music. I tried all these but still felt like every day I was struggling against a sadness and anxiety I couldn't shake.
Then I remembered high school—and put a book in my purse.
In the early days of my senior year, my first serious boyfriend broke up with me. I was devastated, and I spent many of the following weeks keeping to myself and, you know, sobbing. I had to see him every day at school, multiple times, and it was kind of killing me, so I began to carry around Stephen King's It, a book I'd been wanting to start forever. Whenever I found a spare moment or felt the tears coming, I opened it up and started to read.
It helped—during the tail end of lunch hour, whenever I just wanted the day to hurry up, in our shared English class (when he sat so close by). Just the weight of it against my chest as I walked through the halls was a comfort. Yes, it was a book about a sadistic clown terrorizing a small town in Maine. But right then it was better than high school.
In the following years I came back to books again and again to save me. In college, when I was having bad panic attacks, reading was the one activity that engaged my spinning brain enough to calm it down. After college, during the stretches when I wasn't writing myself, books gave me something to focus on other than my fear that I'd never come up with another good idea. And in those desperately hard days of my daughter's infancy, magazine articles and essays reminded me of the wider world outside my window in the middle of another long night.
But when life got busy, my reading life suffered. I always have an audiobook going as well as at least one novel on my bedside table, but often I was too exhausted to get through more than a page. To be honest, though, when I did have spare moments, I was on Twitter or my phone, reading frantically about politics and everything else.
I didn't realize how much I'd been doing this until I put that book in my purse back in late April. Suddenly I was reading while I waited for my daughter to finish tae kwon do. And then in the few minutes after doing dishes and before putting her to bed. Here and there, minutes added up to hours. Before I knew it, I'd finished the book. Even more surprising, I felt better. Not perfect but better. I put another novel I'd been wanting to read into my bag. Then another. Now I'm up to my fourth, and I swear to you, just the act of pulling the book out while in line at the post office or bank feels like taking a deep breath.
Sure, the world is still crazy. My work anxiety is like a Mack truck, and sometimes a book can't do that much to stop it. But still, it's something. That little bit of story, grabbed in pieces, pulls me away from here and now to somewhere else. I am in Derry, Maine, the snowy streets of Chicago, or the kitchen of a YA heroine as she works on the perfect cookie recipe. And for those moments, as long as they last, I am so happy to be there.
Sarah Dessen's Once and for All hit bookshelves on June 6. Add it to your Want to Read shelf here.
Do you, like Dessen, bring a book wherever you go? Tell us how you read in the comments!
June's Hottest New Mysteries & Thrillers
Posted by Cybil on June 05, 2017
Looking for a heart-thumping thriller or a marvelous mystery? We've got your back. Here are this month's eight hottest new mysteries and thrillers according to Goodreads' readers. For this list, we looked at the data including both early reader reviews and the most added new releases in the genre to Want to Read lists.
From The Silent Corner, a new series by Dean Koontz featuring a FBI heroine, to Fiona Barton's London journalist investigating the death of an infant in The Child, you're sure to find some suspenseful reading.
Intrigued? Add your favorite suggestions to your Want to Read list. And tell us what mysteries and thrillers you'd recommend this month.
Posted by Cybil on June 05, 2017
Looking for a heart-thumping thriller or a marvelous mystery? We've got your back. Here are this month's eight hottest new mysteries and thrillers according to Goodreads' readers. For this list, we looked at the data including both early reader reviews and the most added new releases in the genre to Want to Read lists.
From The Silent Corner, a new series by Dean Koontz featuring a FBI heroine, to Fiona Barton's London journalist investigating the death of an infant in The Child, you're sure to find some suspenseful reading.
Intrigued? Add your favorite suggestions to your Want to Read list. And tell us what mysteries and thrillers you'd recommend this month.
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June's Poetry Contest Winner: The Hoarder
Posted by Cybil on June 01, 2017
Every month, Goodreads and the ¡POETRY! group host a poetry contest. It's a great way to discover and support the work of emerging poets. Join the ¡POETRY! group where you can vote to select the winning poem each month from among the finalists. Aspiring poets can also submit a poem for consideration.
Congratulations to Susan J. Raineri, who is our June winner with this poem:The Hoarder
Posted by Cybil on June 01, 2017
Every month, Goodreads and the ¡POETRY! group host a poetry contest. It's a great way to discover and support the work of emerging poets. Join the ¡POETRY! group where you can vote to select the winning poem each month from among the finalists. Aspiring poets can also submit a poem for consideration.
Congratulations to Susan J. Raineri, who is our June winner with this poem:
The Hoarder
by Susan J. Raineri
People let her down,
time after time.
In the empty bed,
where people left spaces,
things piled up.
Her life became choked
and crowded with stuff
that stayed put.
Rooms filled to their brims
up to the ceiling.
Until, she could barely
walk amongst it all;
more things, more and
more things.
At least, she could
count on these things.
They sat there
and collected dust,
but, they never left her.
She could choose
what to keep
and what to throw out.
Mostly, she kept.
We are all hoarders
of something;
holding on to memories,
collecting love and hate,
saving up envy
for other people's lives,
Read More Poetry
Check out more recent blogs:
23 Hottest Books of Summer
32 Audiobooks for your Summer Vacation
Bustle & PopSugar Editors Pick Beach Reads
People let her down,
time after time.
In the empty bed,
where people left spaces,
things piled up.
Her life became choked
and crowded with stuff
that stayed put.
Rooms filled to their brims
up to the ceiling.
Until, she could barely
walk amongst it all;
more things, more and
more things.
At least, she could
count on these things.
They sat there
and collected dust,
but, they never left her.
She could choose
what to keep
and what to throw out.
Mostly, she kept.
We are all hoarders
of something;
holding on to memories,
collecting love and hate,
saving up envy
for other people's lives,
Read More Poetry
Check out more recent blogs:
23 Hottest Books of Summer
32 Audiobooks for your Summer Vacation
Bustle & PopSugar Editors Pick Beach Reads
Great Summer Reading Picks from Authors
Posted by Cybil on May 31, 2017
Summer Reading is sponsored by Audible.
To kick off the season of summer reading, we asked thousands of Goodreads Authors (across every genre) to answer the same simple question: What books are on your summer reading list?
Here are some of our favorite responses from writers that include a popular mystery writer, a librarian with an upcoming debut, and writer of a vampire young adult series:
For classics, I've got Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio and William Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust on my list. And I always like a few graphic novels as well: Sunburning by Keiler Roberts and Boundless by Jillian Tamaki look good (Tamaki's This One Summer was great).
If I hadn't already read it, I would cruise in the car and listen to the audio version of Bruce Springsteen's memoir, Born to Run. But I've already read it (it was excellent) so now I'll drive around with Prove It All Night on repeat all summer," wrote Annie Spence, a librarian and author of the upcoming Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks.
Finally, I like to read at least one classic over the summer. This time it's a little obscure. Many readers know George Gissing for his novel about Victorian journalists and writers called New Grub Street. Lesser known is The Odd Women, about—yes—odd women who don't marry when Victorian society expects them to. This feeds in a little to what I'm researching and writing for next book. That's all I'll say on that for the moment!," wrote Tracy Chevalier, the author of The Girl with the Pearl Earring and the At the Edge of the Orchard.
Be sure to check out more of our summer reading coverage here.
Check out more recent blogs:
23 Hottest Books of Summer
32 Audiobooks for your Summer Vacation
Bustle & PopSugar Editors Pick Beach Reads
Posted by Cybil on May 31, 2017
To kick off the season of summer reading, we asked thousands of Goodreads Authors (across every genre) to answer the same simple question: What books are on your summer reading list?
Here are some of our favorite responses from writers that include a popular mystery writer, a librarian with an upcoming debut, and writer of a vampire young adult series:
B.A. Paris
"I get asked to read a lot of pyschological thrillers at the moment so there will definitely be some of those on my reading list. But I'm also looking forward to reading The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien, The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman and Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak," wrote B. A. Paris, mystery author of Behind Closed Doors and the June release The Breakdown.Annie Spence
"In the summer, I want books I can sweat with. To me, that means sexy stuff and classic literature, give your brain and your libido a workout. This year, I want to try the new Claire Dederer memoir, Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning (smart and sexy: double points) and the novel Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman.For classics, I've got Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio and William Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust on my list. And I always like a few graphic novels as well: Sunburning by Keiler Roberts and Boundless by Jillian Tamaki look good (Tamaki's This One Summer was great).
If I hadn't already read it, I would cruise in the car and listen to the audio version of Bruce Springsteen's memoir, Born to Run. But I've already read it (it was excellent) so now I'll drive around with Prove It All Night on repeat all summer," wrote Annie Spence, a librarian and author of the upcoming Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks.
Tracy Chevalier
"I have just been sent a proof copy (ARC) of a big fat book called The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas, about a young writer, that is meant to be fabulous. Also, I just read a great review of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman that says it is wonderful and FUNNY. How often do you hear that these days about novels? So I've just ordered it and plan to drop everything to read it. Also on my summer stack is The Siege by Helen Dunmore, about the siege of Leningrad during WWII. I've always meant to read it and have heard only good things.Finally, I like to read at least one classic over the summer. This time it's a little obscure. Many readers know George Gissing for his novel about Victorian journalists and writers called New Grub Street. Lesser known is The Odd Women, about—yes—odd women who don't marry when Victorian society expects them to. This feeds in a little to what I'm researching and writing for next book. That's all I'll say on that for the moment!," wrote Tracy Chevalier, the author of The Girl with the Pearl Earring and the At the Edge of the Orchard.
P.C. Cast
"Finishing Three Dark Crowns, and reading Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh, and catching up on my Immortals After Dark by Kresley Cole," wrote P.C. Cast, the author of House of Night series.Ian Doescher
"My family and I are road tripping to Colorado and New Mexico this summer, so I'm planning to read a few novels that take place in those states: Death Comes for the Archbishop (Willa Cather), Angle of Repose (Wallace Stegner), Bless Me, Ultima (Rudolfo Anaya), and Plainsong (Kent Haruf). I plan to read the complete poems of Phyllis Wheatley, I'm working my way through Isaac Asimov's Foundation books, and I'm about to start Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Finally, I'm consuming as much Brian Doyle as possible—he's an amazing Oregon author who is currently struggling with a brain tumor (oh, the euphemisms we use). In any case, it promises to be a wonderful, rich summer of reading," wrote Ian Doescher, author of the William Shakespeare's Star Wars series.Be sure to check out more of our summer reading coverage here.
Check out more recent blogs:
23 Hottest Books of Summer
32 Audiobooks for your Summer Vacation
Bustle & PopSugar Editors Pick Beach Reads
Great Audiobook Memoirs, Read by the Authors
Posted by Cybil on June 01, 2017
This post is brought to you by Audible.
Thought-provoking personal histories transport you into another life, make you feel less alone, and linger in your thoughts for years. Quite simply, there's nothing like a compelling memoir. Now many memoirists are narrating their own works for the audio version of their books, adding new depths and layers to their work. We've rounded up some of readers' favorite audiobook autobiographies, all read by the writers themselves. From David Sedaris reading his early journals to Mary Karr's battle for sobriety, listening in on some fascinating lives.
Have a great audiobook memoir recommendation? Share it with us in the comments! Want even more audiobook inspiration? Check out Goodreads' audiobooks page, brought to you by Audible.
Do you have a favorite audiobook memoir? Recommend it to your fellow readers in the comments! Then check out Goodreads' new audiobooks page, brought to you by Audible.
Check out more recent blogs:
23 Biggest Books of Summer
32 Audiobooks for your Summer Vacation
June's Poetry Contest Winner
Posted by Cybil on June 01, 2017
Thought-provoking personal histories transport you into another life, make you feel less alone, and linger in your thoughts for years. Quite simply, there's nothing like a compelling memoir. Now many memoirists are narrating their own works for the audio version of their books, adding new depths and layers to their work. We've rounded up some of readers' favorite audiobook autobiographies, all read by the writers themselves. From David Sedaris reading his early journals to Mary Karr's battle for sobriety, listening in on some fascinating lives.
Have a great audiobook memoir recommendation? Share it with us in the comments! Want even more audiobook inspiration? Check out Goodreads' audiobooks page, brought to you by Audible.
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Do you have a favorite audiobook memoir? Recommend it to your fellow readers in the comments! Then check out Goodreads' new audiobooks page, brought to you by Audible.
Check out more recent blogs:
23 Biggest Books of Summer
32 Audiobooks for your Summer Vacation
June's Poetry Contest Winner
authors@goodreads: John Scalzi and Cory Doctorow Talk Fictional Disasters
Posted by Cybil on May 22, 2017
We were thrilled to have not just one but two great science fiction authors grace our hallways in San Francisco for a recent authors@goodreads event: John Scalzi and Cory Doctorow came to talk about their new books—Scalzi’s The Collapsing Empire and Doctorow's Walkaway—and answer a few questions from both readers and employees.
Goodreads: Tell us about your new books.
John Scalzi: The basic concept of The Collapsing Empire is that there is this empire…and it collapses. I know right? Spoiler alert! It kind of gives it away right there in the title. [laughter]
Cory Doctorow: Walkaway is an optimistic disaster novel. Disasters are things you get whether you’re an optimistic or pessimist. Doesn’t matter how Pollyanna your outlook is or how well ordered your society is, it’s going to be subject to exogenous shots. You’re going to have belligerent asshole neighbors, or earthquakes, or tsunamis, or mutating microbes, or meteor strikes. What really matters is not whether you have disasters but what happens after them. Does the disaster become a catastrophe? Do people take it as a signal to unleash their bestial nature? Or is it the moment where people rise to the occasion, to see how they can help?
GR: Goodreads member Ale asks, "Has the current political climate (both in U.S. and globally), influenced or inspired any writing?"
Scalzi: This is actually an example of author being completely clueless to the rest of the world while following up on a weird interest of his own.
I was thinking about the age of sail and empire from the 15th to 18th century and how it would have been drastically different if, for example, the jet stream and the major Atlantic Ocean currents had just gone away and what that would mean for Portugal and Spain and the UK.
In the course of the writing there do seem to be a lot of parallels to what’s going on in the world today. People will come up to me at an event and be like, “I just read your book. It’s clearly about oil.” And you’re just like, “OK!” Because after a certain point once the book is out, it’s not just a book you brought up in your own head, it’s a book that exists in a space between your brain and the brain of the reader. What the reader reads into it is not invalid even if it’s not something you were directly on point to.
For me it was just what happens when you have this natural feature of the world or universe that everyone relies on: It could be a river, it could be the forest, and everyone just assumes it going to be there. But then the forest goes away because the climate changes or the river changes its riverbed because it does—the Mississippi does it all the time. What happens then and what happens to those people who think that feature is always going to be there? It wasn’t about modern times, but of course I live in the world and the modern world is going to get into it no matter what.
Doctorow: We assume books are about things and that authors know what those things are, and both of those statements are contestable.
Ray Bradbury went to his grave swearing Fahrenheit 451 was not a novel about censorship, but that it was about the evils of television. And if someone that much smarter than me can be that sure about something that is so manifestly wrong… [laughter]
But that said, I drew my inspiration from a lot of places. The most proximate cause was reading a San Francisco writer, Rebecca Solnit. Her book, A Paradise Built in Hell, is about how kind people are in disasters, how noble and wonderful people are in disasters, and how completely certain the people who hold the reigns of power are that in times of disaster the poor are coming to eat them, and what they do preemptively to stop that from happening and how that gets in the way.
Also, Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century. It's a wonderful book. I think it’s unfortunate that he took 700 pages to say what he could have said in 100 pages because it intimidated a lot of people. Just read the first 100 pages you’re good! His seminal work on wealth and equality was very, very influential on me.
And then there’s a writer named Bruce Sterling, a science fiction writer and now media critic. He created this movement in the late 90s called the Viridian Greens, the answer to the Austere Greens or the Green Left. Bruce said what you need is a luxurious green, a leisure green, a green that is about the celebration of the material culture. The superiority of material culture that is designed to be beautiful and wonderfully made and to bring you pleasure, but is also designed to gracefully decompose back into the material stream when it’s done.
Check out more recent blogs:
12 Surprising Books to Give to New Grads
Readers Recommend Their Favorite Nonfiction
Goodreads Hack: Scan a Book Cover!
Posted by Cybil on May 22, 2017
We were thrilled to have not just one but two great science fiction authors grace our hallways in San Francisco for a recent authors@goodreads event: John Scalzi and Cory Doctorow came to talk about their new books—Scalzi’s The Collapsing Empire and Doctorow's Walkaway—and answer a few questions from both readers and employees.
Goodreads: Tell us about your new books.
John Scalzi: The basic concept of The Collapsing Empire is that there is this empire…and it collapses. I know right? Spoiler alert! It kind of gives it away right there in the title. [laughter]
Cory Doctorow: Walkaway is an optimistic disaster novel. Disasters are things you get whether you’re an optimistic or pessimist. Doesn’t matter how Pollyanna your outlook is or how well ordered your society is, it’s going to be subject to exogenous shots. You’re going to have belligerent asshole neighbors, or earthquakes, or tsunamis, or mutating microbes, or meteor strikes. What really matters is not whether you have disasters but what happens after them. Does the disaster become a catastrophe? Do people take it as a signal to unleash their bestial nature? Or is it the moment where people rise to the occasion, to see how they can help?
GR: Goodreads member Ale asks, "Has the current political climate (both in U.S. and globally), influenced or inspired any writing?"
Scalzi: This is actually an example of author being completely clueless to the rest of the world while following up on a weird interest of his own.
I was thinking about the age of sail and empire from the 15th to 18th century and how it would have been drastically different if, for example, the jet stream and the major Atlantic Ocean currents had just gone away and what that would mean for Portugal and Spain and the UK.
In the course of the writing there do seem to be a lot of parallels to what’s going on in the world today. People will come up to me at an event and be like, “I just read your book. It’s clearly about oil.” And you’re just like, “OK!” Because after a certain point once the book is out, it’s not just a book you brought up in your own head, it’s a book that exists in a space between your brain and the brain of the reader. What the reader reads into it is not invalid even if it’s not something you were directly on point to.
For me it was just what happens when you have this natural feature of the world or universe that everyone relies on: It could be a river, it could be the forest, and everyone just assumes it going to be there. But then the forest goes away because the climate changes or the river changes its riverbed because it does—the Mississippi does it all the time. What happens then and what happens to those people who think that feature is always going to be there? It wasn’t about modern times, but of course I live in the world and the modern world is going to get into it no matter what.
Doctorow: We assume books are about things and that authors know what those things are, and both of those statements are contestable.
Ray Bradbury went to his grave swearing Fahrenheit 451 was not a novel about censorship, but that it was about the evils of television. And if someone that much smarter than me can be that sure about something that is so manifestly wrong… [laughter]
But that said, I drew my inspiration from a lot of places. The most proximate cause was reading a San Francisco writer, Rebecca Solnit. Her book, A Paradise Built in Hell, is about how kind people are in disasters, how noble and wonderful people are in disasters, and how completely certain the people who hold the reigns of power are that in times of disaster the poor are coming to eat them, and what they do preemptively to stop that from happening and how that gets in the way.
Also, Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century. It's a wonderful book. I think it’s unfortunate that he took 700 pages to say what he could have said in 100 pages because it intimidated a lot of people. Just read the first 100 pages you’re good! His seminal work on wealth and equality was very, very influential on me.
And then there’s a writer named Bruce Sterling, a science fiction writer and now media critic. He created this movement in the late 90s called the Viridian Greens, the answer to the Austere Greens or the Green Left. Bruce said what you need is a luxurious green, a leisure green, a green that is about the celebration of the material culture. The superiority of material culture that is designed to be beautiful and wonderfully made and to bring you pleasure, but is also designed to gracefully decompose back into the material stream when it’s done.
Read the full interview with Scalzi and Doctorow here.
Check out more recent blogs:
12 Surprising Books to Give to New Grads
Readers Recommend Their Favorite Nonfiction
Goodreads Hack: Scan a Book Cover!
23 Hottest Books of Summer
Posted by Hayley Igarashi on May 22, 2017
Summer Reading is sponsored by Audible.
Nothing can ruin a vacation like a lack of books. Wherever you'll be this summer—on the beach, on the road, or cozy at home—we've got your reading recommendations covered.
We crunched the numbers to find the new and upcoming books your fellow Goodreads members love. Paula Hawkins' Into the Water is making waves in mystery, and sequels from Sarah J. Maas and Cassandra Clare have cast their spell on YA readers, but aside from the titles you already know about, we wanted to bring you the big books that combine popularity with high marks. That's why every book on our list has a 4.0+ rating! Which ones pique your interest?
Fiction
Beartown
by Fredrik Backman
In a small town nestled deep in the forest, a community in crisis looks to junior ice hockey for hope and redemption. [Read our interview with Backman here.]
Release date: May 2
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
by Gail Honeyman
Meet Eleanor, a quirky loner who slowly learns she's capable of friendship (and maybe even love) after saving an elderly man's life.
Release date: May 9
Rich People Problems
by Kevin Kwan
A massive fortune's up for grabs and scandal looms in this hilarious new installment in the Crazy Rich Asians series. [Read Kwan's book recommendations here.]
Release date: May 23
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
by Arundhati Roy
In this sweeping saga from the author of The God of Small Things, broken men and women find their lives mended by love. [Read our interview with Roy here.]
Release date: May 2
Young Adult
Always and Forever, Lara Jean
by Jenny Han
Glued to her writing desk, Lara Jean wars with her head and her heart as she chooses a college and contemplates leaving the boy she loves behind. [Read our interview with Han here.]
Release date: May 2
Flame in the Mist
by Renee Ahdieh
The daughter of a prominent samurai disguises herself as a peasant boy and infiltrates the ranks of a bandit gang in this thrilling series starter.
Release date: May 16
One of Us is Lying
by Karen M. McManus
In this deadly twist on The Breakfast Club, five strangers walk into detention at Bayview High…and only four walk out alive.
Release date: May 30
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
by Mackenzi Lee
Two friends embark on their Grand Tour of 18th-century Europe, stumbling upon a magical artifact and an unexpected romance along the way.
Release date: June 27
Nonfiction
Killers of the Flower Moon
by David Grann
The author of The Lost City of Z uncovers the secrets and scandals surrounding the investigation of the Osage Murders in the early 1920s. [Read our interview with Grann here.]
Release date: April 18
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Untangle the mysteries of the universe—in the same time it takes your morning coffee to brew—in this engaging and illuminating read. [Read our interview with Tyson here.]
Release date: May 2
The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir
by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
Blending personal history with true-crime terror, this one-of-a-kind memoir begins with a disturbing and "uncannily familiar" murder case. [Read Marzano-Lesnevich's author-to-author interview with Celeste Ng here.]
Release date: May 16
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
by Roxane Gay
The author of Bad Feminist explores the tension between desire and denial, comfort and care, in this candid, illuminating, and inspiring memoir. [Read our interview with Gay here.]
Release date: June 13
Mystery/Thriller
If We Were Villains
by M.L. Rio
When real violence invades a theater school, seven young Shakespearean actors must choose the real-life roles that will define them.
Release date: April 11
The Silent Corner
by Dean Koontz
The bestselling suspense novelist kicks off a new series centered on Jane Hawk, recent widow and the most-wanted fugitive in America. [Read our interview with Koontz here.]
Release date: June 20
Final Girls
by Riley Sager
The sole survivors of three separate horror movie-scale massacres keep to themselves—until Lisa, the first "Final Girl," winds up dead in her bathtub.
Release date: July 11
The Breakdown
by B.A. Paris
After a woman she abandoned is murdered, guilt and paranoia haunt Cass in this tense page-turner from the author of Behind Closed Doors. [Read Paris' book recommendations here.]
Release date: July 18
Historical Fiction
Beneath a Scarlet Sky
by Mark T. Sullivan
Based on a true story, this is the harrowing tale of Pino Lella, who spied for the Allies while serving as the personal driver of General Hans Leyers, the Third Reich's commander in Italy.
Release date: May 1
Saints for All Occasions
by J. Courtney Sullivan
Two sisters leave their small village in Ireland, never expecting the ways the following decades in America will break and bind their relationship.
Release date: May 9
Romance
Come Sundown
by Nora Roberts
When a dead body is found outside Bo's family ranch, the police suspect the one man Bo thought she could trust…and love.
Release date: May 30
Silver Silence
by Nalini Singh
Passion and betrayal collide in this seductive tale of a ruthless ice queen and the changeling who vows to protect her.
Release date: June 13
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Red Sister
by Mark Lawrence
Born for killing, eight-year-old Nona Grey comes to terms with her destiny at the Convent of Sweet Mercy, a school for would-be assassins.
Release date: April 4
Borne
by Jeff VanderMeer
In a city littered by discarded experiments and at the whim of a giant bear, a plant-like being named Borne discovers his complex destiny.
Release date: April 25
The Boy on the Bridge
by M.R. Carey
Desperate for any sign of hope, a small expedition of scientists searches the post-apocalyptic wasteland in this prequel to The Girl with All the Gifts.
Release date: May 2
Tell us what books you'll be checking out in the comments! And discover more of our summer reading coverage here.
Posted by Hayley Igarashi on May 22, 2017
Nothing can ruin a vacation like a lack of books. Wherever you'll be this summer—on the beach, on the road, or cozy at home—we've got your reading recommendations covered.
We crunched the numbers to find the new and upcoming books your fellow Goodreads members love. Paula Hawkins' Into the Water is making waves in mystery, and sequels from Sarah J. Maas and Cassandra Clare have cast their spell on YA readers, but aside from the titles you already know about, we wanted to bring you the big books that combine popularity with high marks. That's why every book on our list has a 4.0+ rating! Which ones pique your interest?
Fiction
by Fredrik Backman
In a small town nestled deep in the forest, a community in crisis looks to junior ice hockey for hope and redemption. [Read our interview with Backman here.]
Release date: May 2
by Gail Honeyman
Meet Eleanor, a quirky loner who slowly learns she's capable of friendship (and maybe even love) after saving an elderly man's life.
Release date: May 9
by Kevin Kwan
A massive fortune's up for grabs and scandal looms in this hilarious new installment in the Crazy Rich Asians series. [Read Kwan's book recommendations here.]
Release date: May 23
by Arundhati Roy
In this sweeping saga from the author of The God of Small Things, broken men and women find their lives mended by love. [Read our interview with Roy here.]
Release date: May 2
Young Adult
by Jenny Han
Glued to her writing desk, Lara Jean wars with her head and her heart as she chooses a college and contemplates leaving the boy she loves behind. [Read our interview with Han here.]
Release date: May 2
by Renee Ahdieh
The daughter of a prominent samurai disguises herself as a peasant boy and infiltrates the ranks of a bandit gang in this thrilling series starter.
Release date: May 16
by Karen M. McManus
In this deadly twist on The Breakfast Club, five strangers walk into detention at Bayview High…and only four walk out alive.
Release date: May 30
by Mackenzi Lee
Two friends embark on their Grand Tour of 18th-century Europe, stumbling upon a magical artifact and an unexpected romance along the way.
Release date: June 27
Nonfiction
by David Grann
The author of The Lost City of Z uncovers the secrets and scandals surrounding the investigation of the Osage Murders in the early 1920s. [Read our interview with Grann here.]
Release date: April 18
by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Untangle the mysteries of the universe—in the same time it takes your morning coffee to brew—in this engaging and illuminating read. [Read our interview with Tyson here.]
Release date: May 2
by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
Blending personal history with true-crime terror, this one-of-a-kind memoir begins with a disturbing and "uncannily familiar" murder case. [Read Marzano-Lesnevich's author-to-author interview with Celeste Ng here.]
Release date: May 16
by Roxane Gay
The author of Bad Feminist explores the tension between desire and denial, comfort and care, in this candid, illuminating, and inspiring memoir. [Read our interview with Gay here.]
Release date: June 13
Mystery/Thriller
by M.L. Rio
When real violence invades a theater school, seven young Shakespearean actors must choose the real-life roles that will define them.
Release date: April 11
by Dean Koontz
The bestselling suspense novelist kicks off a new series centered on Jane Hawk, recent widow and the most-wanted fugitive in America. [Read our interview with Koontz here.]
Release date: June 20
by Riley Sager
The sole survivors of three separate horror movie-scale massacres keep to themselves—until Lisa, the first "Final Girl," winds up dead in her bathtub.
Release date: July 11
by B.A. Paris
After a woman she abandoned is murdered, guilt and paranoia haunt Cass in this tense page-turner from the author of Behind Closed Doors. [Read Paris' book recommendations here.]
Release date: July 18
Historical Fiction
by Mark T. Sullivan
Based on a true story, this is the harrowing tale of Pino Lella, who spied for the Allies while serving as the personal driver of General Hans Leyers, the Third Reich's commander in Italy.
Release date: May 1
by J. Courtney Sullivan
Two sisters leave their small village in Ireland, never expecting the ways the following decades in America will break and bind their relationship.
Release date: May 9
Romance
by Nora Roberts
When a dead body is found outside Bo's family ranch, the police suspect the one man Bo thought she could trust…and love.
Release date: May 30
by Nalini Singh
Passion and betrayal collide in this seductive tale of a ruthless ice queen and the changeling who vows to protect her.
Release date: June 13
Science Fiction and Fantasy
by Mark Lawrence
Born for killing, eight-year-old Nona Grey comes to terms with her destiny at the Convent of Sweet Mercy, a school for would-be assassins.
Release date: April 4
by Jeff VanderMeer
In a city littered by discarded experiments and at the whim of a giant bear, a plant-like being named Borne discovers his complex destiny.
Release date: April 25
by M.R. Carey
Desperate for any sign of hope, a small expedition of scientists searches the post-apocalyptic wasteland in this prequel to The Girl with All the Gifts.
Release date: May 2
Tell us what books you'll be checking out in the comments! And discover more of our summer reading coverage here.
Take the Poll: Your Summer Reading Challenge
Posted by Cybil on May 22, 2017
Summer Reading is sponsored by Audible.
As the sun stays out longer and the weather warms up, the season for summer reading is almost here! As you plan out your summer Want to Read list, get inspired by recommendations from fiction and nonfiction authors, book groups, editors, and more!
So whether your summer travels take you on the road, to the beach, or places like Narnia or Middle-earth, be sure to tell us how many books you’ll be enjoying this summer in the poll and then share what book you're most looking forward to reading in the comments.
How many books are you planning to read this summer?
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Voting starts on:
May 18, 2017 12:00AM PDT
Be sure to check out more of our summer reading coverage here.
Posted by Cybil on May 22, 2017
As the sun stays out longer and the weather warms up, the season for summer reading is almost here! As you plan out your summer Want to Read list, get inspired by recommendations from fiction and nonfiction authors, book groups, editors, and more!
So whether your summer travels take you on the road, to the beach, or places like Narnia or Middle-earth, be sure to tell us how many books you’ll be enjoying this summer in the poll and then share what book you're most looking forward to reading in the comments.
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Be sure to check out more of our summer reading coverage here.
32 Audiobooks for your Summer Vacation
Posted by Cybil on May 22, 2017
Summer Reading is sponsored by Audible.
Whether you're navigating your way through a road trip or getting some sun by the pool, the perfect book paired with a great narrator can make your summer downtime even better. With that in mind, we pulled together 32 audiobooks to download before your next vacation (even your next staycation).
Have a great audiobook suggestion that's perfect for summer? Share it with us in the comments!
Be sure to check out more of our summer reading coverage here.
Posted by Cybil on May 22, 2017
Whether you're navigating your way through a road trip or getting some sun by the pool, the perfect book paired with a great narrator can make your summer downtime even better. With that in mind, we pulled together 32 audiobooks to download before your next vacation (even your next staycation).
Have a great audiobook suggestion that's perfect for summer? Share it with us in the comments!
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Be sure to check out more of our summer reading coverage here.