Happy St. Patrick’s day! While our weather might only just be warming up, and the green on our clothes still outnumber the green on the trees, it is once again that day to hold your shamrock’s close and wish for a bit of luck. With the popularity of titles featuring the Faerie folk, who are a product of Ireland depending on which piece of mythology the author draws inspiration from, the influence of Irish myth on modern fantasy writing has arguably never been higher. That isn’t even taking into account the immense natural beauty and unique culture that Ireland boasts as a backdrop for a novel of any genre. Ireland is a fascinating country with a long and storied literary tradition of its own, so in honor of the holiday we’ve collected a list of YA titles that help celebrate Irish authors and stories set in Ireland. You can check out the list of books here, and we hope that you all have a happy and safe St. Patrick’s Day. As the Irish proverb goes, may luck be your friend in all that you do, and may trouble be always a stranger to you!
Black History Month is drawing to a close, and we’ve featured a number of great titles this month that showcase Black stories that you might not have heard before. For our last post this month, we thought it would be nice to highlight Black creators who are making interesting and unique stories through the mediums of comics and graphic novels. We curated a list of comics and graphic novels by Black creators that, to contrast with our previous list that specifically aimed to tell some aspects of Black history and experience, to focus on stories of all varieties told by Black creators. Sometimes it can be tempting to think that the only stories by Black voices that get told are those of pain and struggle, so we wanted to showcase some stories that break that mold a bit. 
Angst – Whether they are star-crossed or hit by some other tragedy, happily ever after may not be possible.
Enemies to Lovers – Two characters meet and start off hating each other’s guts, usually because of a misunderstanding or opposing views, but they realize their feelings for each other.
Fake Dating – Maybe it was a one time thing or an on going ruse, but eventually the charade becomes real.
Friends to Lovers – They’ve known each other for a while and even though they used to see each other as just friends, now things are heating up.
Love Triangle – Three characters are competing for each other’s love, and only two will pair off.
Meet Cute – The characters meet in a particularly memorable way.
Stuck Together – Two people get snowed in together, assigned as project partners, or stranded on a desert island. Spending time together creates the perfect opportunity for feelings to develop.
January has almost come to a close, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to start the new year off by taking your life in a new direction. The start of the year is the traditional time for making life changes, thought most of us aren’t always able to keep to these resolutions for the whole year, but you don’t have to commit to making massive life changes to shake up the coming year. Meet new people, try new music or foods, or even take up a hobby that you haven’t tried before (or even one you might have tried and fell off of for some reason!) We here at DBRL have come up with a list of some books covering a couple potential hobbies that you could look into for the new year, from hiking the great outdoors to taking up sewing, from gaining some skills in the kitchen to exploring boxing for fitness. You can find the list, both the fiction and non-fiction titles, at the link 
Monday of this week was Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, and a day set aside to reflect on the sacrifices made by generations past in the fight for freedom and equality in this country. The past few years have shown us, if nothing else, that the journey toward a society where a man can be judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin is far from over. We still live in a society whose motivating force, Capitalism, as Dr. King said, was “built upon the exploitation of black slaves, and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor, black and white, both here and abroad.” The road to true change, as Dr. King seemed to envision it, is a long road that we walk to this day. We at DBRL have collected a few books related to Dr. King and some of his contemporaries, and we encourage you to spend some time looking into this critical, and relevant, period of our nation’s history. You can find the book list 
I don’t know about you folks, but I am getting a bit tired of the mild, warm days that we’ve had this December. For all the problems it can cause, I miss when December brought us more than a day or two of snow. It could be the nostalgia of a childhood snow day, the crisp feel of cold air, the muffled silence that accompanies a good snow shower, or the way sun shines off newly fallen snow, but whatever it is I cannot deny that there’s something magical about a December snow. In the absence of real snow (for now, fingers crossed!), we’ve put together a list of books that are set among the ice and snow, hopefully enough to put you into a winter mood. Some are holiday novels, some are simply stories set in scenes swaddled in snow, but all of these titles are sure to make it just a little bit easier to pretend that it isn’t 70 degrees outside. You can find the full list of titles 
Today marks the last night of the Hanukkah celebration, and here at DBRL we thought it appropriate to celebrate the season by highlighting some novels in our collection that feature protagonists of Jewish heritage. These novels span a variety of genres, from romance to humor, fantasy to sci-fi, and all feature characters who might very well be celebrating the holiday tonight. You can find the full book list