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In case you missed it, last week The New York Times released its list of the Best 100 Books of the 21st Century. So, we thought we'd compare how BookBrowse did at featuring these books over the past 25 years, and have included a helpful table for you to see the full breakdown.
Book banning has seen a sharp rise across the United States, and many of the titles targeted depict LGBTQ+ people and their experiences. Books banned during the 2023-2024 school year reached a record high, with over 4,000 instances of banning in the first half alone, more than in the whole previous year. Many of the works that are regularly challenged or banned have the potential to empower young people of marginalized identities; to cause readers to question or challenge norms around gender, sexuality, and racial inequality; and to add underrepresented aspects of experience, history, and creative expression to the larger reading culture.
Bookstores, publications, and organizations have responded to book bans by attempting to make banned and challenged material more visible and widely available. This Pride month, we bring you a list of books by queer and transgender authors that have been banned and challenged by schools or libraries in recent years. While these books are all at least somewhat geared toward young people, they hold appeal for a wide-ranging audience of adolescents and adults, regardless of gender or sexuality.
The 19th century is one of the most intriguing eras portrayed in today’s historical fiction. Close enough to feel relatable but all the more transportative for being out of reach, well-documented enough to be thoroughly researched but with sufficient unknowns to be open to interpretation, it includes significant events whose effects still linger, and complex social atmospheres that exist outside of our own experience. Below is a list that showcases a variety of excellent 19th-century historical novels published in recent years. A couple feature early Chinese American narratives. Some both adhere to and subvert conventions of the popular Western genre. Several are written from a Black American perspective, covering both slavery and Reconstruction. Other books take place outside of the United States, in settings such as Scotland, England and Norway.
We hope you enjoy these titles, which all come highly recommended from our reviewers. And if you’re on the hunt for more 1800s books, be sure to check out our full category of 300+ recommended titles set in the 19th century, which includes both fiction and nonfiction and is continually growing. BookBrowse members can access all filters and categories, while non-members have limited access.
May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage month, when we recognize the cultural presence and contributions of Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians. Below is a list of some exciting recent hardcover releases, along with recent and upcoming paperback releases, by writers of these identities.
AAPI month gives us a chance to both celebrate authors under this umbrella and to reflect on obstacles and limitations that still exist. While overall AAPI literary representation has risen over past decades, the full spectrum of that acronym (which sometimes is understood to include Middle Eastern Asian heritage, in addition to East, Southeast and South Asian ethnicities) remains less realized, both in terms of the need for more Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian inclusion as well as the need for increased nuance and diversity in AAPI literature as a whole, such as more LGBTQ+ books, more non-traditional narratives and more writing from non-East Asian AAPI authors. To that end, we aim with this list to bring you titles by people from a variety of backgrounds, as well as a range of genres, stories and subject matter. Enjoy!
What debut authors will you discover in 2024? You may be excited about the latest work from writers you already adore, but this could very well be the year you find a new slew of first-time favorites. The march of excellent debut books has already begun, and there are many soon-to-be-established literary stars worth watching, both those who have been published recently and those with releases in the coming months. Keep an eye on who’s emerging and who’s waiting in the wings with our list of some of the most promising, intriguing, provocative debut authors working today.
Every year, we announce our annual Top 20 books, chosen by participating BookBrowse subscribers. But which are the cream of the crop, the favorites among favorites? From this year's list, we bring you the Award Winners for Top Fiction, Top Nonfiction, Top Debut and Top Young Adult, determined by the highest rated books in each category.
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