Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks!: March 9, 2017

This week’s Audiobooks! Newsletter is sponsored by Unbound Worlds: Cage Match.

Cage Match is back! Unbound Worlds is pitting science fiction characters against fantasy characters in a battle-to-the-death tournament, and you can win a collection of all 32 books featured in the competition. Enter now for your chance to win this library of sci-fi and fantasy titles!


Hey hey, audiobook fans!

Have you heard about the bill that would ban the works of Howard Zinn in Arkansas public schools? Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States presents U.S. history from the point of view of the oppressed: Native Americans, slaves, women, immigrants, the poor, and Civil Rights activists. It’s also been climbing the bestseller lists since January.

With all the interest in Zinn’s work, there’s no better time to check it out. But with the print at almost 800 pages and the audio at almost 35 hours (!), I offer you an alternative: the fabulous A People’s History of the United States: Highlights From the 20th Century read by Matt Damon and Howard Zinn! Zinn was an inspiration for Good Will Hunting, and the two were neighbors during Damon’s childhood in Boston — they have great chemistry on the audiobook. The best part? It clocks in at just over 8 hours.

If you’re in the mood for the full version, you can’t go wrong there, either — it’s read by Howard Zinn’s son, Jeff.

10 Audiobooks for When You Have the Sads

Do you turn to books when you’re feeling blue? So does Book Riot Contributor Katie MacBride, who writes that she’s been having “just a sort of gray, lethargic feeling of uninspired, overwhelmed blah.” She’s been craving audiobooks in particular, since they’re so great for lounging around the house, staring listlessly at all the things that you should be doing. (YUP, I feel those feels.) Read on for 10 audiobooks that Katie and her fellow Rioters recommend to help you through a funk!

8 Historical Fiction Listens For Readers of All Ages

Little House In The Big Woods kicks off Book Riot Contributor Kristy Pasquariello’s round-up of historical fiction that readers of all ages can listen to together. She’s found that holy grail, the magical mermaid-unicorn (idk, just go with it) of audiobooks that will satisfy everyone who has to be in the same car together. Read on to immerse yourself and your traveling companions in another time and place.

Try This If Audiobooks Make You Fall Asleep

Picture this: a sunny kitchen table, a pencil case packed with bright colors, and an audiobook queued up nearby. Book Riot Contributor James Wallace Harris has discovered that he loves coloring black and white illustrations from classic books while listening to audiobooks, which he incorporates into his daily practice of mindfulness. It’s his time to turn off his thinking mind, enter a meditative state, and simply listen while coloring within the lines. Bonus: he doesn’t nod off. Get the details here.

Smalls out! Thanks for another week of audiobook nerdery. If you want to stay in touch and swap audiobook recommendations before the next Audiobooks! Newsletter, you can find me on Twitter at Rach_Smalls or on Instagram at LadybitsKnits.

High five,
Rachel

Categories
Giveaways

Win a $50 Amazon Gift Card

One lucky Riot reader will receive a $50 Amazon gift card from the Warren Adler Book Deals Newsletter:

Get exclusive book deals delivered straight to your inbox on fan-favorite titles from the critically acclaimed author and eBook pioneer Warren Adler, well-known for ‘The War of the Roses’ and ‘Random Hearts’ among other high-caliber works of fiction currently in development for film and television.

Whether you’re into romance, mystery thrillers, or historical fiction, there’s a book just for you.

Go here to enter, or just click the image below. Good luck!

Categories
The Goods

BOGO 4 Ways!

The time to hesitate is through! It’s your last day to go BOGO four ways. Dig it.

Layer up! Buy a sweatshirt, get a free adult tee.

One for you, one for a friend (or two for you, we won’t tell). Buy an adult tee, get one free.

Treat the kids! Buy a kids’ tee, get one free.

And bring up bookish babies with onesies on BOGO.

 

Categories
What's Up in YA

Adaptation Casting News, Teen Idols Idolized in Mass Market Books, & More YA News

Good Monday, YA Readers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco. 

Tea is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift of necromancy makes her a bone witch, who are feared and ostracized in the kingdom. Great power, however, comes at a price, forcing Tea to leave her homeland to train under the guidance of an older, wiser bone witch. There, Tea puts all of her energy into becoming an asha, learning to control her elemental magic and those beasts who will submit by no other force. And Tea must be strong—stronger than she even believes possible. Because war is brewing in the eight kingdoms, war that will threaten the sovereignty of her homeland…and threaten the very survival of those she loves.

____________________

It seems like a good week to catch up on the latest makes and takes in the YA world with a big ‘ole link round-up.

 

  • This post is a few months old but always relevant: a look at children’s books (with plenty of YA!) featuring badass girls.

 

 

 

  • One of Book Riot’s contributors, Ardo Omer, has an excellent article on Teen Vogue about Salaam Reads, an imprint at Simon & Schuster dedicated to publishing books from and about Muslim voices for children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • There’s been some casting news as it relates to the adaptation of Brian K. Vaughn’s Runaways.

 

  • This is an old piece but one I stumbled upon when I went down a Google rabbit hole. One of my recent favorite hobbies is wandering antique and thrift stores and looking through their book selections. I happened across a book at a local shop not too long ago about Leonardo DiCaprio, from back when he was a teen idol. I ended up curious what happened to the author of that book and what else she may have written….which led to this piece from 1998 about teen idols being forever idolized in mass market paperbacks. You’re welcome!

 

Have yourselves a great week and pick up a good book or two. We’ll see you back here next Monday!

Categories
Riot Rundown

030717-SpacemanOfBohemia-Riot-Rundown

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Little, Brown and Company.

Raised in the Czech countryside, Jakub Procházka [Jacob Pro-chah-z-ka] has gone from small-time scientist to premier national astronaut. When a dangerous solo mission to Venus offers him a chance at heroism, he takes it, leaving behind his devoted wife Lenka, whose love, Jakub realizes too late, he has sacrificed.

Alone in space, Jakub finds a companion in a possibly imaginary alien spider. Over a series of philosophical conversations, the pair form an intense emotional bond. But will it be enough to see Jakub through a clash with secret Russian rivals and return him safely to Earth for a second chance with Lenka?

Categories
Giveaways

Win a Gift Basket of Books (and Bookish Goodies) By, About, and For Women

For Women’s History Month, we’ve got a basket of books and bookish goodies by, about, and for women from our partners at Sourcebooks. Entries are open to U.S. residents and will be accepted until March 31, 2017

Go here to enter the giveaway, or just click the photo of the prize below:

 

Categories
New Books

March New Books Megalist!

BEST BOOK DAY EVER: Today’s line up of new releases is an embarrassment of riches! In the last several months, I have read over thirty of the titles that are coming out today, and I loved almost all of them. IT’S AN INSANELY GOOD RELEASE DAY. There is something here for everyone! And you can hear about several of these books on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about a few amazing books we loved, such as Exit West, All Grown Up, and The Hearts of Men.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Unbound Worlds.

Cage Match is back! Unbound Worlds is pitting science fiction characters against fantasy characters in a battle-to-the-death tournament, and you can win a collection of all 32 books featured in the competition. Enter now for your chance to win this library of sci-fi and fantasy titles!

edgar and lucy

Edgar and Lucy by Victor Lodato

Camanchaca by Diego Zúñiga (Author), Megan McDowell (Translator)

Witchy Eye by D.J. Butler

The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George

The Wages of Sin by Kaite Welsh

Hekla’s Children by James Brogden

Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Lost Daughter Collective by Lindsey Drager

The Lucky Ones by Julianne Pachico

Ties by Domenico Starnone (Author), Jhumpa Lahiri (Translator)

The Whole Art of Detection: Lost Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes by Lyndsay Faye

cover of Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav KalfarSpaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar

Alone by Scott Sigler

Down City: A Daughter’s Story of Love, Memory, and Murder by Leah Carroll

The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui

Havana: A Subtropical Delirium by Mark Kurlansky

How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett

The Erstwhile: The Vorrh by B. Catling

Lotus Blue by Cat Sparks

Eveningland: Stories by Michael Knight

the bone witchThe Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

Next Year, for Sure by Zoey Leigh Peterson

Taduno’s Song by Odafe Atogun

Mister Memory by Marcus Sedgwick

The Violated by Bill Pronzini

Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked by Adam Alter

Big Mushy Happy Lump: A Sarah’s Scribbles Collection by Sarah Andersen

Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea by Bandi

The Devil’s Bible by Dana Chamblee Carpenter

The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis

the impossible fairy taleThe Impossible Fairy Tale by Han Yujoo

Turkish Delight by Jan Wolkers (Author), Sam Garrett (Translator)

The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge

South and West: From a Notebook by Joan Didion

Cut to the Bone by Alex Maan

Lenin’s Roller Coaster (A Jack McColl Novel) by David Downing

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

The Girl from Rawblood by Catriona Ward

The Third Squad by V. Sanjay Kumar

rabbit cakeRabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett

The Painted Gun by Bradley Spinelli

Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito

Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created Our Restless World by Benjamin Reiss

Fallen Glory: The Lives and Deaths of History’s Greatest Buildings by James Crawford

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan

The Underworld by Kevin Canty

WHEREAS: Poems by Layli Long Soldier

The One-Eyed Man by Ron Currie

shoot like a girlShoot Like a Girl: One Woman’s Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front by Mary Jennings Hegar

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler

You’re Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner

Hunger Makes the Wolf by Alex Wells

The Widow’s House by Carol Goodman

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

WE: A Manifesto for Women Everywhere by Gillian Anderson and Jennifer Nadel

ill willIll Will by Dan Chaon

The Hearts of Men by Nickolas Butler

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel

Celine by Peter Heller

You Are Here: An Owner’s Manual for Dangerous Minds by Jenny Lawson

The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon

What Is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi (paperback)

The Weight of This World by David Joy (paperback)

Earth (Object Lessons) by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Linda T. Elkins-Tanton

treeTree (Object Lessons) by Matthew Battles

Egg (Object Lessons) by Nicole Walker

Traffic (Object Lessons) by Paul Josephson

Book of Mutter (Semiotext(e) / Native Agents) by Kate Zambreno

 

SO MANY GOOD BOOKS. I can hear your TBR screaming from here. 🙂

That’s it for me today – time to get back to reading! If you want to learn more about books new and old (and see lots of pictures of my cats, Millay and Steinbeck), or tell me about books you’re reading, or books you think I should read (I HEART RECOMMENDATIONS!), you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!

Stay rad,

Liberty

Categories
In The Club

In The Club Mar 8

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Onward to book-glory!

Awards are not just for the Academy: While many literary awards are announced in the fall, there’s a nice crop of finalists that are worth adding to your group TBR piles. So, how about a few must-read lists certified by panels of judges?

– The 2017 Pen America Literary Awards Finalists list is chock full of goodness. Each award has a different focus, from debuts to a variety of nonfiction to translations, so there’s a lot of range in the nominations. I’m particularly excited about the Open Book Award list this year, which includes personal favorites Helen Oyeyemi and Monica Youn.
– I am hugely excited about this year’s Nebula’s Award shortlist; I’ve read all of the Novel nominees with the exception of Borderline (must get on that), and can verify that they are brilliant.
– For groups with a kids and YA book focus, the ALA Youth Media Award winners were announced in January and include some amazing books. Rep. John Lewis’s March! Nicola Yoon’s The Sun Is Also A Star! Meredith Russo’s If I Was Your Girl!
– The winners won’t be announced until April, but this year’s LA Times Book Prizes shortlist is worth looking over. James McBride, Wesley Lowery, Jacqueline Woodson, Matthew Desmond, Zadie Smith, Lydia Millet, Mary Roach — it’s a who’s who of Book Riot favorites. Like the PEN awards they’ve got finalists across the genres, so no matter what your groups’ focus might be there’s something on here for you.

For your enjoyment: Elizabeth Allen details the 14 people you’ll find in every book group. (SO ACCURATE.)

For facing down those TBR piles, now you’ve got them: B&N put together a piece on techniques for picking your next read, and you could absolutely apply these to your next book group pick.

And now for this week’s Read Harder Challenge picks! Since when it comes to books, more really is more, I’ll now be giving you round-ups of themed lists for a couple tasks, plus a shout-out to a personal favorite.

For: Read a book about sports.

cover of The Legend of Pradeep Mathew– Personal favorite: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew by Shehan Karunatilaka. This book features a crochety, alcoholic, meandering narrator; Sri Lankan history and politics; cricket; and a huge twist.
Favorite Books About Sports
6 Books About Basketball
Gymnastics Books For All Ages
Are You Ready For Some Football (Books)?
100 Must-Read Books About Running
8 Books To Read After Seeing CREED

 

For: Read a book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative.

cover for The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber– Personal favorite: The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber. A beautiful memoir about father-daughter relationships, growing up the daughter of an immigrant, and the search for place and identity. (And, of course, food.)
11 Books By Or About Immigrants and Immigration
– 8 Must-Read Immigration Stories By And About Latinos
Books About Immigrants and Refugees That Should Be Adapted For The Stage
3 Stories Exploring U.S. Immigration [VIDEO]
17 Books That Perfectly Capture The Immigrant Experience
12 Nonfiction Books About Immigration

 

More Resources: 
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page


This newsletter is sponsored by Everything Belongs to Us by Yoojin Grace Wuertz.

Seoul, 1978. At South Korea’s top university, the nation’s best and brightest compete to join the professional elite of an authoritarian regime. Success could lead to a life of rarefied privilege and wealth; failure means being left irrevocably behind. In this sweeping yet intimate debut, Yoojin Grace Wuertz details four intertwining lives that are rife with turmoil and desire, private anxieties and public betrayals, dashed hopes and broken dreams—while a nation moves toward prosperity at any cost.

 

Categories
This Week In Books

Book-Recommending Facebook Bots: This Week in Books

HarperCollins Introduces Two Book Rec Bots on Facebook

Jumping on the bandwagon of businesses incorporating Facebook Messenger into sales and customer service, HarperCollins has rolled out two artificial intelligence-powered book rec bots. The BookGenie and Epic Reads (YA-specific) bots purport to help readers find new (HarperCollins, natch) books to read based on their taste, mood, and past favorites. This feels like the future, but is it fully baked? One Rioter took it for a test spin.

Penguin Random House Lands Obamas’ Book Deal

After a heated auction reportedly involving several publishing houses, Penguin Random House has landed the deal to publish forthcoming books by both Barack and Michelle Obama. Rumor has it that the joint contract went for $65 million, though speculation about that figure–and the number of books the Obamas will write for it–abounds. From what we at Riot HQ can tell, this deal is historic for its price tag and its unique nature; when else has a publisher acquired separately-written books from two people in one go? (Know of an example? Hit reply tell us!)

Dr. Seuss’s Wacky Taxidermy

This week’s installment of Before They Were (Literary) Stars is one of the more memorable ones I’ve seen. Decades before he became Dr. Seuss, Theodor Geisel spent his childhood near the zoo where his father worked. When Geisel moved away to New York City, his father began sending him beaks, antlers, and horns from deceased zoo animals. Geisel created sculptures from papier-mâche and the assorted parts. The products are wacky and whimsical creatures that may reveal the origins of the imaginary beasts in his stories.


Thanks to Everything Belongs to Us by Yoojin Grace Wuertz for sponsoring This Week in Books.

Seoul, 1978. At South Korea’s top university, the nation’s best and brightest compete to join the professional elite of an authoritarian regime. Success could lead to a life of rarefied privilege and wealth; failure means being left irrevocably behind. In this sweeping yet intimate debut, Yoojin Grace Wuertz details four intertwining lives that are rife with turmoil and desire, private anxieties and public betrayals, dashed hopes and broken dreams—while a nation moves toward prosperity at any cost.

Categories
Riot Rundown

030517-EverythingBelongsToUs-Riot-Rundown

Seoul, 1978. At South Korea’s top university, the nation’s best and brightest compete to join the professional elite of an authoritarian regime. Success could lead to a life of rarefied privilege and wealth; failure means being left irrevocably behind. In this sweeping yet intimate debut, Yoojin Grace Wuertz details four intertwining lives that are rife with turmoil and desire, private anxieties and public betrayals, dashed hopes and broken dreams—while a nation moves toward prosperity at any cost.