Earlier this year, my sister and I started a joint TikTok account: BookRush. Mostly, it features the Rush siblings ribbing each other for their poor taste in books and sharing new reads with the larger “BookTok” community. Occasionally, we’ll put out a poll asking BookTok folks to chime in on big bookish debates. To date,…
When I filled out Brandon Sanderson’s website contact form, I did it in the most bardic way I could: by unfurling a metaphorical scroll, standing in the town square, and shouting: “DO YOU HAVE A MOMENT TO TALK ABOUT BARDS?!” And while he may not have had time to spin a tale longer than a…
Continue reading ➞ We’re In The Middle Of A Bardic Revolution
If you know, you know. That’s the best way I can prepare any prospective reader for Jack Garbarino’s The Movement: How I Got This Body By Never Going To The Gym In My Life. If you don’t know, and you encounter this book in the wild, I can imagine your 150-page journey (if you make…
Continue reading ➞ The Movement: Nathan Fielder’s Crazy Contextual Concoction
Fantasy books do not have a good track record with blood parents. As I was trying to think of moms and dads of protagonists in fantasy for this piece, I was astounded by the number of orphans with adoptive mentors. Parents are hard to come by, and often they are either dead, shunted off stage,…
It's the end of the freaking world, and we're here to let Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett guide us through the surprisingly hilarious apocalpyse. On the latest episode of The Book Rookie, Cole and Andrew discuss a work that is both the undeniable product of two brilliant minds and an opus that stands as a unique…
Why You Should Read The Culture - Part One: The Hub Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this guide to The Culture. I hope it has inspired those of you who haven’t read it yet to pick up a book and reminded those of you who have how great this…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read The Culture – Part Five: A Parting Word
Why You Should Read The Culture - Part One: The Hub Book 8) Matter - This is one of the denser books within the series, but if you’re looking for something that scratches a deep itch, Matter will definitely do the trick. It starts off in the middle of a medieval revolution on a shell…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read The Culture – Part Four: Books 8-10
Why You Should Read The Culture - Part One: The Hub Book 5) Excession - When I was doing some initial research on The Culture to get some grounding before diving into this huge piece, I came across a surprising number of people who claimed that this was the weakest Culture novel. Those people can…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read The Culture – Part Three: Books 5-7
Why You Should Read The Culture - Part One: The Hub Book 1) Consider Phlebas - Much like Malazan the Book of the Fallen's hotly debated first book, Consider Phlebas is thought to be a rough first book. Forums and Reddit posts have been dedicated to whether Consider Phlebas is a good fit for The…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read The Culture – Part Two: Books 1-3
After the stunning popularity of our “Why You Should Read Malazan” post, I sat down and thought about what other massive series could use a deep dive guide for new readers. While there are a ton of series that we love, there are only a few that are complex enough in their wonder that they…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read The Culture – Part One: The Hub
