Our Blog

Photo by emy on Unsplash

Bookworms may sometimes find that they spend so much time indoors with a good book (or twelve) that pop-culture passes them by. But even those who have had to have their noses surgically removed from the inside of their favorite novels have heard of Ariana Grande. The Grammy award-winning singer has come a long way since she first appeared as an actress on Nickelodeon. She's racked up awards and is now lauded for her attitude, social media posts, charity work, and for speaking out about feminism and other issues.

While many of her songs focus on all the possible permutations of love (and the lack of love), Grande also sings about everything from work and money to her fabulous female friends. Just like a good book, her songs capture attention and tell a great story, so we’ve decided to match some of her biggest hits with these book pairs.

(Beacon Press)

So you love Octavia E. Butler. We get it. We love her too.

But now what?

You’ve read Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred (1979), and you loved the time travel plot that wove seamlessly with slave narratives of the pre-Civil War South. You’ve read Fledgling (2005) too, or maybe you enjoyed Butler’s other shorter fiction like “Bloodchild,” her novelette which won the Nebula and Hugo Awards in 1985. Perhaps the current political climate had you racing towards her dystopian novels Parable of the Sower (1993) and Parable of the Talents (1998), which presented a view of the future that includes environmental horrors, walls erected around the middle class, and a terrifying fundamentalist leader whose rally cry is “Help Us to Make America Great Again.”

If you’ve enjoyed reading Butler’s fiction, we have some other writers whose work you should add to your reading list.

Before The Great British Bake Off, I don’t know that I’d ever even heard of a macaron before, but now that I’ve had one, I can never go back. Luckily, there’s an amazing café right around the corner from the Quirk office that makes some of the best macarons in Philadelphia.

But with so many flavors out there, it can be hard to pick just one. It’s like trying to choose which book to read next! There are just too. many. good. choices.

Now, we can’t help with your macaron choices, but luckily, we can help you pick a new book. Just pick a macaron flavor below and we’ll tell you which Quirk book to read next.

It’s almost our favorite day of the entire year: Summer Solstice. The days have been getting blissfully longer, bringing us prime reading time in those post-work hours. And now it’s here! The longest day of the year! Celebrate those extra minutes of sunshine with these extra short – extra incredible – novels. Because the longest day of the year calls for your shortest read of the year.

It’s National Cheese Day (a holiday we like to celebrate all year long!) and while we’d love to spend it noshing on a delicious chunk of brie, there’s another kind of cheese that’s on our mind: cheesy, sweet young adult romance. Okay, have you read the entire To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series? Do you know how incredible your summer reading experience is about to get? We love cheesy, sweet YA romcoms. So, go ahead and grab a cheese board (mmmm, mozzarella), find a sunny spot, and dive into a different kind of cheese.

It’s summer and all we want to do is be outdoors as much as possible. But how can we bring our literary love to the great outdoors? By reading about hiking trails and assigning difficulty ratings to each book’s emotional journey — as we embark on our own trails! — of course. So put on some sunscreen, lace up your boots, and get those summer hiking plans going.