House of the Dragon season 2 premieres June 16 on HBO. The acclaimed Game of Thrones spin-off series is coming back almost a year and a half after the season one finale. Don’t worry if the events of season one are a bit foggy after all this time: House of the Dragon has released two

Romantasy: the hybrid genre everyone is talking about. Unless you’ve been actively avoiding both social and mainstream media, the trend has crossed your path. And it’s still on the rise: at the time of writing, the hashtag “#romantasy” has over 992 million views on TikTok. Books blending fantastical elements with steamy romance aren’t new, but

The highly anticipated Nat Geo documentary “Secrets of the Octopus,” narrated by Paul Rudd, will air on April 21. The latest installment in the “Secrets of…” series, it follows “Secrets of the Whales” and “Secrets of the Elephants” as well as other acclaimed recent nature documentaries like “A Real Bug’s Life.” The companion book (also

“New Year, New You” season is nearly upon us. And while some will be setting transformative goals for themselves in 2024, many continue to shift away from making resolutions at all. To wit, 55% of Americans and 66% of Millennials find the entire concept of resolutions outdated. And with finances tight for many, resolving to

While most of us became aware of Dark Academia thanks to TikTok, where the hashtag #darkacademia has over 5 billion views, the aesthetic/subculture found its foothold on Tumblr around 2014. Some trace its origin even further back to 1992, citing Donna Tartt’s The Secret History as the genesis of Dark Academia. So what is the Dark

At long last, the Backlist Vault now includes Juvenile and YA titles! Several new title collections have been added, and many more will be coming to the site over the coming days and weeks. Some of these are kids-specific, and others contain a mix of kids and adult titles. As a reminder, all title collections in

Your sourdough starter from the early days of lockdown may be long dead, but baking cookbooks are alive and kicking! With the weather finally cool enough in most parts of the country to turn the oven on, a new season of The Great British Baking Show on Netflix, and the holidays just around the corner,

In the weeks leading up to the holidays, boxed sets can sell over four times as much as they sell in an average week throughout the rest of the year. And for good reason: boxed sets are a perfect gift and a solid value for budget-conscious shoppers. The top selling sets are almost always children’s

We’re all familiar with Christmas Creep—the phenomenon of retailers displaying holiday-themed merchandise ever earlier with each passing year. But in 2023, it could be more shopping advantage than seasonal annoyance. Half of consumers are planning to begin holiday shopping before November this year, and many expect to get started in September. Some of this is

Witchy season is right around the corner, and every fall sees a predictable increase in consumer interest in witchy books, both fiction and nonfiction. Some readers are leaning into the Practical Magic aesthetic, which has gained a new generation of fans on TikTok. Others are interested in casting spells themselves, or observing Mabon (the autumnal

Researchers have found that divorce rates reliably rise every August. There is speculation that the summer, with vacations and breaks from school, focuses more attention on family and home life, sometimes revealing marital conflict. August also allows some time for the dust to settle ahead of the busy family gatherings of the holiday season. No

In You’ve Got Mail, Meg Ryan waxed poetic about the coming of fall and the attendant romance of “a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils.” Even for folks whose school days are long behind them, the back-to-school season can provide a bit of motivation or excitement. With summer vacations over and the holiday crush not yet