Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Today Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun became 2015’s Printz Award winner. Nelson’s gorgeous sophomore novel is about twins Jude and Noah, once as close as could be. She’s a fearless surfer girl, he’s a passionate artist who sees in Technicolor—and is falling helplessly in love with the boy next door. But their mother’s sudden death, and the events […]

First lines are powerful. It’s the author’s best chance to hook the reader. A great first line will pull you in, introduce you to the narrator, and set the tone for the entire book. Depending on what you’re reading, a great first line can be funny or meaningful or sad or somehow all of the above. […]

Two years ago, I first accepted that I had to come out. That might sound odd to many people—obviously being gay is tethered to telling people you’re gay. There isn’t much of a question there. But at the time, the two couldn’t have felt further apart. I spent so much of my life trying to […]

In the dark days of yesteryear, we had to physically wander into bookstores and pick up books at random to find one that suited us, like animals. And we had to do it uphill, in the snow. Nowadays you can simply click your way over to a list that will recommend books perfectly suited to your taste. […]