I’ll speak from the heart and say yet once again that listening to audiobooks is on equal terms with reading physical books. I acknowledge that the experience is different, but through audiobooks, I personally was able to open doors to book genres that I would not read on a normal basis.

One genre I rarely read before I began listening to audiobooks was nonfiction. I incorrectly assumed that nonfiction books were dull, but audiobooks made them come to life in my mind’s eye. For one, many (not all) nonfiction books are narrated by their writers. In fact, some of the best ones feel like a fantastic podcast, in which I feel as though I have a personal relationship with the writer/narrator. Their personalities and intentions are sometimes more accurately relayed while reciting their own stories than if I imagined their voices in my head.

I think nonfiction books lend themselves well to audio because the subjects the books address, which can be anything from immigration reform to the history of the Roman Empire, are almost always discussed out loud among people. That’s not to say that reading about these topics is unusual, but my most vivid memories of learning about these subjects are from discussions rather than book. I think that audiobooks bridge this gap, to where readers can feel as though they are in conversation about important topics relevant to their lives while also reading a book.

So the next time you’re on a hot girl walk or on a long road trip, consider giving these nonfiction audiobooks a try.

Should romance novels reflect realities or indulge fantasies? Well, it’s a bit of a trick question. Romances can certainly both reflect reality and indulge fantasy. How it does those things, and for whom it does those things are the more interesting questions to investigate.

I try my best not to be self-important or high-minded about my reading habits. Romances entertain readers because we enjoy tracing the arc of a relationship and getting deep into characters’ emotions, motivations, and actions. And some of us like reading about sex. Romance isn’t necessarily the first place to turn for moral instruction. That said, pop culture is powerful and worth taking seriously for how it reflects larger culture. What romance presents as realities and fantasies reveals some truths about our collective values and desires.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever said or heard something like this: “I have so many unread books at home and it’s so stressful! My TBR pile is out of control! When am I ever going to read all the books on my shelves?”

It’s a common refrain among book lovers. Though I, too, have always owned a considerable amount of books, this sentiment is one I didn’t understand until recently. When I used to hear people talking about how badly they wanted to make a dent in their physical TBRs, or how overwhelming it was to own so many books they hadn’t yet read, I’d scratch my head, confused. I figured I’d get to the books on my shelves eventually. Wasn’t that the point of owning books? To know you could read them whenever, now or 10 years from now? For a long time, it didn’t even occur to me to look at my own bookshelves when I wanted a new read. I’d turn to my digital TBR and the library. My books were just background noise.

Most of the books I collected in my teens and twenties were books I happened upon. For over a decade, I lugged boxes and boxes of books from apartment to apartment, unpacking them and reshelving them in each new place. A lot of them were classics I’d picked up in high school at library book sales. Others were dusty old books I’d snuck from the shelves of my childhood house. They were the kinds of books I thought I should read — books that seemed smart and worldly and important. Hemingway and Philip Roth and Henry James. Very few of them were queer.

I did occasionally buy a book because it spoke to me or because I’d read it and loved it. But I also bought books because I thought I should own them. One summer I bought Dover Thrift editions of all of Shakespeare’s plays. I have enjoyed reading Shakespeare throughout my life. But I never stopped to consider whether I actually wanted to own those books. I just decided it was something a Book Person would do.

I kept haphazardly collecting books and rarely got rid of any, because I like the way bookshelves look. Meanwhile, I kept reading. By the time I turned 30, my reading life had become unrecognizable — in the best possible way. I started reading more and more and more and more queer books. I found my way to bookish communities online, and those communities led me to new books, new indie presses, new genres. I was ravenous for all of this new lit. For the first time since I was a kid, I was reading books that spoke to me and challenged me and delighted me. I was reading for me — not for some dusty, narrow-minded idea of who I thought I should be — but for me: queer, weird, curious, constantly changing me.

Netflix’s Bridgerton series is so hot that it reignited sales for Julia Quinn’s beloved series of books AND set the internet alight with some of the best Bridgerton fan fiction (more than is humanly possible to consume). Okay — so some artistic license is allowed in this statement; however, it is not as big an exaggeration as you may think. Season 2 was even more popular than the first season, sitting in the Top 10 series on Netflix across 91 countries. The Netflix series differs very much from the original books, especially with Season 2. Some might even consider the series to be fan fiction itself. Whatever it is, it is fanning the flames, and we cannot get enough of the characters.

The great news is seasons 3 and 4 already have the green light, but it is a long wait until the next season starts. We have the best Bridgerton fan fiction to help scratch your itch if the books aren’t enough for you.

Warning: there is a lot. There are eight (8) Bridgerton siblings, which gives enough material to work with. Add additional side characters, alternative love pairings, modern vs. canon period timing, and the ever-popular full-blown family saga. Better put the kettle on and make yourself a nice pot of tea. We could be here for some time yet. 

A quick note about fan fiction: fan fiction will never take away from the source material and original copyright. It is a way for fans to explore more profound concepts, new relationships, or alternate settings. Yes, there can also be a lot of smut. If you are new to the fan fiction scene, get started with A Beginner’s Guide to Reading Fan Fiction here and the Best Fan Fiction Apps and Sites here. And if all of this Bridgerton fan fiction has you thinking about your own storytelling, here are some tips on How to Start Writing Fan Fiction here. 

From Top Gun: Maverick to Turning Red and Everything Everywhere All at Once

April 29 – June 4, 2022

May 5 – June 4, 2022

Say goodbye to the days of dusty chalkboards and hello to the glories of dry erase. Dry-erase boards have become a staple in homes, schools, and offices, making dependable dry-erase markers must-haves. In the classroom, teachers hoard and treasure them. On the job, workers use them to quickly communicate ideas in meetings. Kids love to draw and write with them. While most dry-erase markers are made for whiteboards, you can also find dry-erase markers specially designed for use on glass. Perfect for brainstorming sessions in glass-walled offices, as well as writing on glass boards, windows, and mirrors, these markers lay down smooth, vivid color on glass without beading or streaking.  Browse our selection of dry-erase markers for glass, below.

A stuccoed stone head from a 1,300-year-old statue of an ancient Mayan maize god has been unearthed by archaeologists in Mexico.

The head was found among ruins in Palenque. Located close to the Usumacinta River, Palenque (or Lakamha in the Itza language) was a Mayan city state in southern Mexico that ultimately ceased in the 8th century CE. The ruins there date from roughly 226 BCE to 799 CE. The former city is known for its impressive Mayan architecture, sculpture, roof comb, and bas-relief carvings.

Archaeologists with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) found the head while they were excavating a site in Palenque. While removing debris from a corridor connecting two sections of a palace complex, the team found inside a container with the head in a small pond.

Researchers believe that the pond was meant to symbolize the entrance to the Mayan underworld. According to Mayan beliefs, the universe was divided into three parts: the sky, the earth, and the underworld. In each were venerated locations that included caves and cenotes, which would have operated as a portal to the subterranean realm, Xibalba, ruled by the Maya death gods and their aids.

Arnoldo González Cruz, a researcher with INAH Chiapas Centre, told Heritage Daily, “The discovery allows us to further understand how the ancient Maya of Palenque relived the mythical passage about the birth, death and resurrection of the maize deity.”

I wanted to recommend a different song this week, but it seemed like every news story, headline, and push notification I encountered kept nudging my consciousness into some area within my brain that contains lyrics about firearms, some mental storage locker I rarely open: “I gets down like brothers are found ducking from bullets / Gun control means using both hands in my land, where it’s all about the cautious living.” Kelvin Mercer, aka Posdnuos, rapped those lines on De La Soul’s 1996 single “Stakes Is High.” The eponymous album, Stakes Is High, was a kind of rebuke against the first glimmers of hip-hop’s big money “shiny suit” era and the hackneyed materialism and narrative clichés that came to be associated with it. Posdnuos and his partners Dave “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur and Vincent “Maseo” Mason, were tired of mafioso rap, “video vixens,” weed talk, brags about luxury gear. Dave’s verse, a list of the things that make him unwell, cleverly flips what it means to be “ill” in the hip-hop sense: 

I’m sick of bitches shaking asses 
I’m sick of talking about blunts
Sick of Versace glasses
Sick of slang
Sick of half-assed award shows
Sick of name-brand clothes 
Sick of R&B bitches over bullshit tracks 
Cocaine and crack which brings sickness to blacks 
Sick of swole-head rappers with they sickening raps 
Clappers and gats making the whole sick world collapse 
The facts are getting sick, even sicker perhaps
I stick a bush to make a bundle to escape the synapse

Although Dave’s delivery is fierce, this litany of mid-nineties rap’s most overdone iconographies has a lulling effect; as flashy as it is, the music he calls out in that list is thematically listless, of no real consequence. It’s all about the minutiae of the moment, the micro-timeline of rap stardom. There is no consideration of the future. On this song, De La Soul considers a more expansive timeline: the fate of meteors, the trajectory of bullets, but also the lifelines of children. The Stakes is High album cover is a black-and-white photo of a group of kids: the kind of gathering Kathy Fish references in her flash fiction story “Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild” (2017), which has been recirculating after the Uvalde massacre—“Humans in the wild, gathered and feeling good, previously an exhilaration, now: a target … A group of schoolchildren is a target.” The song’s music video illustrates the perplexing apathy of the grown-up world: the trio vacillate between performing the song with brio and hanging out lethargically, letting the external world dictate their energy levels. Except for a mural in the background of one scene and a couple shots of a school bus, there are no images of children in the clip; it features adult angst and malaise. 

The video is framed by the group’s appearance as guests on The Maury Povich Show. They’re there to discuss how much rap music “dictates real life,” and vice versa, ways “to keep it real.” Shots of Povich posing questions to them on a studio set are intercut with clips in which the men carry out everyday tasks: folding laundry, cutting grass, raking leaves, buffing a car, washing the dishes, falling asleep with a newspaper in hand, playing basketball with friends. American daytime talk shows, especially those that aired in the nineties, often showcased the country’s worst fears, or otherwise the most provocative topics in the national discourse. Rap was one of them, but so was white supremacy and domestic terrorism; Stakes Is High was released just fifteen months after the Oklahoma City bombing. By appearing on this faux-episode, De La Soul commented on their public perception while also situating themselves as participants in the spectacle, and as possible consumers of it.