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Riot Rundown TestRiotRundown

110618-InTooDeep-Riot-Rundown

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by In Too Deep by Lynn H. Blackburn and Revell Books, a Division of Baker Publishing Group

How do you choose between loyalty and the truth?

When the Carrington County Sheriff’s Office dive team is called in to recover a body from a submerged car, they aren’t prepared to find an encrypted laptop–or an unsettling connection between investigator Adam Campbell and the dead accountant.
Adam turns to his friend Dr. Sabrina Fleming to recover the files from the laptop. But the deeper they dig, the deadlier the investigation becomes. When evidence implicates members of Adam’s own family, he and Sabrina will have to risk everything to solve the case.

The truth could set hundreds free–but someone is willing to do whatever it takes to silence anyone who threatens to reveal their secrets.

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In The Club

In the Club – Nov 7

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

Happy November! By the time you read this newsletter, the midterm elections will have taken place and there will hopefully be lots to celebrate! If not, I’m letting you know now that next week’s newsletter will be brought to you by tequila. *casts spells, burns palo santo, prays frantically in Spanish* 

For now, let’s have a little bookish fun and talk Nonfiction November, lady monsters, how the US’s hands are a lot o’ bit dirty and more. 

To the books!


This newsletter is sponsored by The Man She Married by Cathy Lamb.

a photo of a white daisy floating in very blue waterA woman whose memory is shattered must piece together her husband’s secrets and reevaluate her life, love, and relationships, in this gripping and thought-provoking novel.


Have you entered our All The Books Giveaway? Enter here to win a $250 Barnes & Noble gift card as the podcast closes in on its 200th episode. That’s a lot of books!

November Rain – It’s raining themes, dates and causes, yo! We’ve got National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), midterm elections, Thanksgiving, Movember… all the things! It’s also Nonfiction November and Bustle has a list of twelve rad reads that fit the bill. One of them is by a little someone named Michelle Obama… no big deal.

Monstress, Inc – Oh look! A giant pile o’ Vanessa Catnip: “From Circe to Carrie: 9 Literary Female Monsters You Don’t Want to Mess With.” Go on, get it on this. Catnip courtesy of Off the Shelf.    

  • Book Club Bonus: I’ve already told you all how much I love it when a female villain is given nuance and depth, and suggested a book club discussion of how a fleshed-out backstory might change our previous perceptions of her. This week, I challenge you all to analyze what it is about lady monsters that make them such a terrifying force. Are they truly monsters? Are we just afraid of women’s anger? Of our power? Of our anger’s power?

Trauma, A Memoir – Recovery from trauma is an intensely personal process and no two people’s experiences are the same. Take these nine memoirs about trauma: each moving and heart wrenching in distinct ways.

  • Book Club Bonus: These are all undoubtedly very difficult reads. For those comfortable taking them on, memoirs like these would make for some seriously inspirational reading. More importantly, I think they’ll provide some invaluable perspective on these difficult subjects for folks who’ve never been through them or don’t know anyone who has.

We’re Not Not to Blame – All this fear-mongering talk of caravans reminds me that a lot of people either aren’t aware of, don’t understand, or flat out don’t care about the extent of the United States’ role in destabilizing the countries these migrants come from. It feels like the right time to read this list of books on this very subject from Rioter Romeo Rosales.

  • Book Club Bonus: Even the most progressive among us could probably still use a crash course in our government’s problematic involvement in Central and South America. Consider reading one of these titles for book club, especially if one or more of your members have a blindspot when it comes to our treatment of immigrants. A little bit of education and a meaningful conversation among friends could go a long way.

Thanks for hanging with me today! You can find me on both the Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com if you want to say hola or if you have any book club questions, and sign up for the Audiobooks newsletter to get more bookish content by yours truly.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends!
Vanessa

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New Books

First Tuesday of November Megalist!

It’s time for another round of “HOLY CATS! THERE ARE SO MANY BOOKS.” It’s another fabulous first Tuesday megalist, and there are sooooo many great books on here. You can hear about several of today’s new books on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Jenn and I talked about a few amazing books we loved, including The Best Bad ThingsKingdom of the Blazing PhoenixBorn To Be Posthumous, and more.

(And like with each megalist, I’m putting a ❤️ next to the books that I have read and loved. But there are soooo many more on this list that I can’t wait to read!)


Sponsored by Waterhouse Press.

Zandy Lynch is determined not to be a virgin when she heads off to grad school, and she’s got one night in London to lose her V-card before spending the summer as a research assistant to an ancient professor in the English countryside. Oliver Graeme is not looking forward to having some American co-ed hovering around while he’s trying to work, but he needs the help. While visiting London, he winds up having the sexiest night of his life with a stranger who vanishes in the morning without a trace. When Zandy and Oliver next cross paths, to their shock, it’s as professor and research assistant. Aloof professor by day and a generous, rough lover by night, Oliver is like nothing Zandy’s ever imagined. Does she stand a chance at not falling for both versions of him?


girls of paper and fireGirls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan ❤️

The Arrival of Missives by Aliya Whiteley

The Feral Detective: A Novel by Jonathan Lethem ❤️

Why Religion?: A Personal Story by Elaine Pagels

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen ❤️

Static Ruin (The Voidwitch Saga) by Corey White

The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco ❤️

Evening in Paradise: More Stories by Lucia Berlin

Welcome Home: A Memoir with Selected Photographs and Letters by Lucia Berlin

Winter Loon by Susan Bernhard

beyonce in formationBeyoncé in Formation: Remixing Black Feminism by Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley

Past Tense: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child

No Quarter: A Novel (The Tildon Chronicles) by John Jantunen

Those Who Knew by Idra Novey

Solace Island by Meg Tilly

Breach by W.L. Goodwater

Now You See the Sky by Catharine H. Murray

Nighttown (A Junior Bender Mystery) by Timothy Hallinan

Someone Like Me by M.R. Carey

The Subjugate by Amanda Bridgeman

wolves of edenWolves of Eden by Kevin McCarthy

Blame This on the Boogie by Rina Ayuyang ❤️

How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don’t by Lane Moore

Congratulations, Who Are You Again?: A Memoir by Harrison Scott Key

The Kinship of Secrets by Eugenia Kim ❤️

Angel and Bavar by Amy Wilson

Vancouver Noir (Akashic Noir Series) by Sam Wiebe

Northwood: A Novella by Maryse Meijer ❤️

Kingdom of The Blazing Phoenix (Rise of the Empress) by Julie C. Dao

Nothing to Devour (Motherless Children Trilogy) by Glen Hirshberg

The William H. Gass Reader by William H. Gass

the woo wooThe Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family by Lindsay Wong

The Splendor Before the Dark: A Novel of the Emperor Nero by Margaret George

Monument: Poems New and Selected by Natasha Trethewey ❤️

Archenemies by Marissa Meyer

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

The New Order: Stories by Karen E. Bender

An Unexplained Death: The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere by Mikita Brottman ❤️

Hannah Green and Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence by Michael Marshall Smith

We Begin in Gladness: How Poets Progress by Craig Morgan Teicher

Half-Hazard: Poems by Kristen Tracy

the lonesome bodybuilderThe Lonesome Bodybuilder: Stories by Yukiko Motoya and Asa Yoneda

The Valley at the Centre of the World by Malachy Tallack

Speechless by Adam P. Schmitt

Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St.Vincent ❤️

Counting Sheep by Axel Lindén

The Latecomers by Helen Klein Ross

Mephisto’s Waltz: Selected Short Stories by Sergio Pitol, George Henson (translator)

In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum ❤️

Bittersweet Brooklyn: A Novel by Thelma Adams

City of Ash and Red: A Novel by Hye-young Pyun and Sora Kim-Russell ❤️

Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean

Inkling by Kenneth Oppel

Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery ❤️

A Dangerous Duet: A Novel by Karen Odden

Since When by Bill Berkson

The Story of Greece and Rome by Tony Spawforth

The Son of Black Thursday by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Megan McDowell

A Thousand Doors: An Anthology of Many Lives by J.T. Ellison

The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife, 1965-2005 by Zachary Leader

That’s it for me today! 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’!

Thanks so much for reading!

Liberty

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Today In Books

THE COLOR PURPLE Musical Film Adaptation In The Works: Today In Books

Today’s newsletter is sponsored by our $250 All the Books Barnes and Noble gift card giveaway! Click here for more info.


The Color Purple Is Getting A New Musical Adaptation

Alice Walker‘s novel is getting another film adaptation following its 2015 Broadway revival success. And it looks like the producers from the original play and revival (Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, Scott Sanders) plus Stephen Spielberg (who adapted the 1985 film version) are all joining together for this one. That’s a lot of producing star power!

The 2018 World Fantasy Award Winners Announced

While Charles de Lint and Elizabeth Wollheim were honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards, awards were also handed out for various categories including novel, short fiction, long fiction, anthology… Congrats to all the winners! And muppet arms for former Rioters Justina Ireland and Troy L. Wiggins for their FIYAH Literary Magazine award.

Haruki Murakami Creating Archive At Alma Mater

Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami is planning on creating an archive at Waseda University “that will include drafts of his best-selling novels, his translation work and his massive collection of music, a personal passion that has been a key part of his stories.” Who else is wondering how much flights to Japan are?

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The Kids Are All Right

New Children’s Book Releases for November 6, 2018!

Hi Kid Lit friends!

Happy election day! I hope you have had the chance to vote or have it in your plans today. Need to find out your polling place? Find it here. Want to know what is on your ballot? Look it up here. For a list of resources to learn more about the issues and candidates, check this out. My voting day plan is this: write and do some illustrations in the morning and then go to my polling place to vote and then head to the library to return books.

And now… new books! It’s the first Tuesday of the month, so there are lots of exciting releases today. Check these out and let me know what looks interesting to you!

*Please note that all book descriptions are from Goodreads. If I had a chance to read the book and loved it, I will mark it with a ❤.


Sponsored by Caracal, an imprint of Lion Forge.

Your favorite mummy, Milo, just can’t catch a break! No matter how much he tries to stay out of trouble, trouble finds him! Snacks go missing during a camping trip, his dad gets pulled into a dangerous martial tournament, and his best friend somehow ends up in Wizard Prison! Under any circumstances, Milo always comes through to save the day! (Usually.) Wrapped Up Vol. 2 by Dave Scheidt and illustrated by Scoot McMahon includes backstories drawn by Yehudi Mercado, Mason Dickerson, Sean Mac, Aaron Pittman, and Shan Murphy. Find it in stores now from Caracal, an imprint of Lion Forge!


Picture Book New Releases

❤ Don’t Touch My Hair by Sharee Miller

It seems that wherever Aria goes, someone wants to touch her hair. In the street, strangers reach for her fluffy curls; and even under the sea, in the jungle, and in space, she’s chased by a mermaid, monkeys, and poked by aliens…until, finally, Aria has had enough!

The Boy and the Giant by David Litchfield

There is a Secret Giant in Gableview who has hands the size of tabletops, legs as long as drainpipes, and feet as big as rowing boats. But little Billy thinks the Giant is just a tall tale that his grandad likes to tell. According to Grandad, the Giant keeps the bears away when they go camping and rescues Billy’s favorite kite when it gets tangled up in the tallest tree. Grandad swears the Giant is real, but Billy’s not buying it. Why has he never seen the giant before? Why does the Giant stay hidden? Grandad knows why: People are afraid of things that look different. When Billy suddenly finds himself face-to-face with the Giant, he runs away in fear—and hurts the Giant’s feelings. But now he’s got an opportunity to make it up to him, and, just maybe, to be friends with the nicest guy in town.

❤ The Eye That Never Sleeps: How Detective Pinkerton Saved President Lincoln by Marissa Moss, illustrated by Jeremy Holmes

From award-winning author Marissa Moss comes the first children’s book about Allan Pinkerton, one of America’s greatest detectives. Everyone knows the story of Abraham Lincoln, but few know anything about the spy who saved him! Allan Pinkerton’s life changed when he helped the Chicago Police Department track down a group of counterfeiters. From there, he became the first police detective in Chicago and established the country’s most successful detective agency. He went on to solve more than 300 murders and recover millions of dollars in stolen money. However, his greatest contribution was protecting Abraham Lincoln on the way to his 1861 inauguration. Though assassins attempted to murder Lincoln en route, Pinkerton foiled their plot and brought the president safely to the capital.

❤ Pies from Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Dee Romito, illustrated by Laura Freeman

Georgia Gilmore was a cook at the National Lunch Company in Montgomery, Alabama. When the bus boycotts broke out in Montgomery after Rosa Parks was arrested, Georgia knew just what to do. She organized a group of women who cooked and baked to fund-raise for gas and cars to help sustain the boycott. Called the Club from Nowhere, Georgia was the only person who knew who baked and bought the food, and she said the money came from “nowhere” to anyone who asked. When Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for his role in the boycott, Georgia testified on his behalf, and her home became a meeting place for civil rights leaders.

❤ No Boring Stories! by Julie Falatko, illustrated by Charles Santoso

The unpopular animals have had enough. They want to be in a picture book! Stories about mommy-loving kitties and cuddly bunnies at bedtime are boring. Wouldn’t you rather hear about yeti crabs in robo suits and fierce babirusa princesses who fight giant grape monsters?! This group of misfits has a unique story to tell, but they’ll never finish writing it if their over-eager bunny neighbor won’t GO AWAY!

❤ Juno Valentine and the Magical Shoes by Eva Chen, illustrated by Derek Desierto

Juno Valentine’s favorite shoes don’t light up. They don’t have wheels. They are, to be perfectly honest, the tiniest bit boring. But they’re still her favorite muddy-puddle-jumping, everyday-is-an-adventure shoes. One day, when they go missing, Juno discovers something amazing: a magical room filled with every kind of shoe she could possibly imagine! Juno embarks on an epic journey through time and space, stepping into the shoes of female icons from Frida Kahlo and Cleopatra to Lady Gaga and Serena Williams. Each pair of shoes Juno tries brings a brand new adventure―and a step towards understanding that her very own shoes might be the best shoes of all.

How to Eat Pizza by Jon Burgerman

How do you eat pizza? Do you pick the biggest slice? Add hot pepper flakes? Use your hands? Do you know how your pizza slice feels about that? He thinks it’s disgusting. There are so many other things you could eat — that aren’t him. Listen up. He’s got ideas.

 

Chapter Book New Releases

Ellie, Engineer: The Next Level by Jackson Pearce

After Ellie’s first elevator build goes terribly wrong, her parents decide her “punishment” is to assist an elderly neighbor, Mrs. Curran, around the house. Ellie and her friends Kit and Toby are really only supposed to help with little things, but Ellie can’t turn down the opportunity to use her engineering skills here and there where she sees a need–because that’s what engineers do! It’s no fun, though, when Mrs. Curran always gives Toby the credit for all the ingenious projects, and acts like Kit and Ellie were just helping him. . . . Can Ellie come up with another great build to elevate Mrs. Curran’s ideas about this girl engineer?

 

Middle Grade New Releases

Angel and Bavar by Amy Wilson

After the death of her parents, Angel has a lot to get used to: a new home, a new family, a new school. The last thing she’s interested in is making new friends. Until she meets Bavar, a strange boy who slips through the shadows, a boy who might understand her nightmares. But Bavar doesn’t want to let anyone in. Everyone—and everything—in his enchanted house is already urging him to step up and protect the world from a magical rift and the fearsome monsters traveling through it, a responsibility he wishes he could ignore.

Henry & Eva and the Castle on the Cliff by Andrea Portes

Prominent Environmentalist and Oceanographer Die in Boating Accident

This is the headline that changes Henry and Eva’s lives. Their parents, environmentalist William Billings and his oceanographer wife Margo, disappear mysteriously at sea. But for Henry and Eva, things are about to go from bad to worse. Their jerk-face uncle (nicknamed Claude the Clod) and his awful girlfriend (Terri the Terrible) have moved into their big house on the cliff to “take care of them,” but Eva has her doubts about their intentions. And when some spooky visitors appear with a message, they realize that their parents’ deaths might not have been as cut and dry as everyone thinks. It’s up to Henry and Eva to discover the truth—but can they do it before the Clod catches them?

Speechless by Adam P. Schmitt

As if being stuffed into last year’s dress pants at his cousin’s wake weren’t uncomfortable enough, thirteen-year-old Jimmy has just learned from his mother that he has to say a few words at the funeral the next day. Why him? What could he possibly say about his cousin, who ruined everything they did? He can’t recall one birthday party, family gathering, or school event with Patrick that didn’t result in injury or destruction. As Jimmy attempts to navigate the odd social norms of the wake, he draws on humor, heartfelt concern, and a good deal of angst while racking his brain and his memory for a decent and meaningful memory to share. But it’s not until faced with a microphone that the realization finally hits him: it’s not the words that are spoken that matter the most, but those that are truly heard.

The Prophet Calls by Melanie Sumrow

Born into a polygamous community in the foothills of New Mexico, Gentry Forrester feels lucky to live among God’s chosen, apart from the outside world and its “evils.” On her thirteenth birthday, Gentry receives a new violin from her father and, more than anything, she wants to play at the Santa Fe Music Festival with her brother, Tanner. But then the Prophet calls from prison and announces he has outlawed music in their community and now forbids women to leave. Determined to play, Gentry and Tanner sneak out. But once they return, the Prophet exercises control from prison, and it has devastating consequences for Gentry and her family.

Love Like Sky by Leslie C. Youngblood

G-baby and her younger sister, Peaches, are still getting used to their “blended-up” family. They live with Mama and Frank out in the suburbs, and they haven’t seen their real daddy much since he married Millicent. When Peaches gets sick, suddenly Mama and Daddy are arguing like they did before the divorce and even the doctors at the hospital don’t know how to help Peaches get better. It’s up to G-baby to put things right. She knows Peaches can be strong again if she can only see that their family’s love for her really is like sky.

The Devlin Quick Mysteries: Secrets from the Deep by Linda Fairstein

It’s the end of summer, and Devlin Quick is invited to join her best friend Booker’s family on vacation at their summer home in Martha’s Vineyard. Booker has a science project for school: to take a daily bucket of water from the Vineyard Sound and submit a sample to an oceanographic DNA lab. From that, they can actually tell you what species of fish have been in those waters: striped bass, blues…and sharks! But Devlin comes up with something else in her bucket from the days when pirates hid treasures along New England coastline. With access to the crime DNA lab back in NYC (courtesy of her mother), Dev is going to solve the mystery of this treasure…and figure out all of the secrets Martha’s Vineyard is hiding.

❤ The Girl with the Dragon Heart by Stephanie Burgis

Silke has always been good at spinning the truth and storytelling. So good that, just years after arriving in the kingdom as a penniless orphan, she has found her way to working for the most splendid chocolate makers in the city as a master promoter. Although Silke loves her work at the Chocolate Heart, she’s certain it’s not going to last, and what Silke wants more than anything is somewhere to call home–somewhere safe. But when your best friend is a dragon-turned-hot-tempered-girl, trouble is always right around the corner.

More Than a Princess by E.D. Baker

One day, as Aislin is venturing through the woods, she is alarmed to hear a band of humans coming through. How did they get past the guarded magical passageway that leads to her hidden kingdom? Mistaken for a human herself, Aislin is captured, and soon realizes she’s in even bigger trouble–she’s being used as a pawn to help the king of this nearby kingdom, Morrain, find a secret passageway to the warring land of Scarmander, so he can capture his enemies by surprise. Aislin must find a way to break free, while also minding the beautiful human princess and ladies-in-waiting she now shares a castle with, who are all too ready to point out her differences. Thankfully, Aislin’s inner strength goes beyond her magical qualities. And with a few loyal friends by her side, she’s ready to stand up for herself and her kingdom once and for all.

Gertie Milk and the Great Keeper Rescue by Simon van Booy

Ever since Gertie Milk arrived on Skuldark, the mysterious island home of all lost objects, she’s felt like something was missing. According to Kolt, her mentor and fellow Keeper of Lost Things, the island used to be filled with Keepers tasked with returning missing items throughout history. But now the only three left are Gertie, Kolt, and, Robot Rabbit Boy–a bumbling but lovable Series 7 Artificial Intelligence Forever Friend.

The Flash: The Secret Files of Barry Allen

As Central City’s guardian speedster, Barry Allen has experienced—and survived—a lot. Everything you need to know about The Flash, including all of his top-secret notes, is compiled in this ultimate guidebook. Sneak a peek at the classified S.T.A.R. Labs dossiers on everyone in Central City (human and metahuman), view case notes, and read, in Barry’s own words, exclusive details about his life before and after the accident.

Are You Ready to Hatch an Unusual Chicken? by Kelly Jones

Twelve-year-old Sophie Brown is finally settling into her new home and her new role as keeper of some highly unusual chickens–chickens with secret superpowers! But the arrival of two new magical chickens for her flock and some unusual eggs to be incubated and hatched (what will their superpowers be?), plus an impending inspection from the Unusual Poultry Committee (who even knew this existed?) has Sophie feeling pretty stressed out. Her older cousin, Lupe, is coming to stay with her family, which is great–but will Lupe like chickens too? And on top of it all, Sophie’s first day at her new school is rapidly approaching!

Inkling by Kenneth Oppel

The Rylance family is stuck. Dad’s got writer’s block. Ethan promised to illustrate a group project at school–even though he can’t draw. Sarah’s still pining for a puppy. And they all miss Mom. So much more than they can say. Enter Inkling. Inkling begins life in Mr. Rylance’s sketchbook. But one night the ink of his drawings runs together–and then leaps off the page! This small burst of creativity is about to change everything. It’s not until Inkling goes missing that this family has to face the larger questions of what they–and Inkling–truly need.

Nonfiction New Releases

❤ Little Dreamers: Visionary Women Around the World by Vashti Harrison

Featuring the true stories of 40 women creators, ranging from writers to inventors, artists to scientists, Little Dreamers: Visionary Women Around the World inspires as it educates. Readers will meet trailblazing women like Mary Blair, an American modernist painter who had a major influence on how color was used in early animated films, actor/inventor Hedy Lamar, environmental activist Wangari Maathai, architect Zaha Hadid, filmmaker Maya Deren, and physicist Chien-Shiung Wu. Some names are known, some are not, but all of the women had a lasting effect on the fields they worked in.

 

Backlist Book Recommendations

Picture Book Recommendation: Jim Thorpe’s Bright Path by Joseph Bruchac, illustrated by S.D. Nelson

A biography of Native American athlete Jim Thorpe, focusing on how his boyhood education set the stage for his athletic achievements which gained him international fame and Olympic gold medals.

Middle Grade Book Recommendation: Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez

After Tyler’s father is injured in a tractor accident, his family is forced to hire migrant Mexican workers to help save their Vermont farm from foreclosure. Tyler isn’t sure what to make of these workers. Are they undocumented? And what about the three daughters, particularly Mari, the oldest, who is proud of her Mexican heritage but also increasingly connected to her American life. Her family lives in constant fear of being discovered by the authorities and sent back to the poverty they left behind in Mexico. Can Tyler and Mari find a way to be friends despite their differences?

Project Book Recommendation: The Best of Making Things: A Hand Book of Creative Discovery by Ann Sayre Wiseman

This classic educational and creative text features 125 projects, carefully selected by the author to “develop natural curiosity and self-esteem,” and to demonstrate “simple and important concepts that have shaped the cultures of the world.” So when a child asks, “What can I do?” you can reply, “Make things! Paper from laundry lint! A bird feeder from clothes hangers! Chocolate pudding finger paintings! Beautiful fish & potato prints! A cardboard box loom that teaches weaving and math! A simple pattern to sew shirts, pants, or dresses!”

 

That’s it for me – I have to get back to reading! I would love to know what you are reading this week! Find me on Twitter at @KarinaYanGlaser, on Instagram at @KarinaIsReadingAndWriting, or email me at karina@bookriot.com.

Until next week!
Karina

*If this e-mail was forwarded to you, follow this link to subscribe to “The Kids Are All Right” newsletter and other fabulous Book Riot newsletters for your own customized e-mail delivery. Thank you!*

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The Goods

Free Book with Purchase

Free book. Are there any two words that make a book lover happier? Choose from four Riot favorites when you spend $20 or more.

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Riot Rundown TestRiotRundown

110518-AquicornCove-Riot-Rundown

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by AQUICORN COVE, a heartfelt story about learning to be a guardian to yourself and those you love from the Eisner-Award winning author of The Tea Dragon Society.

When Lana and her father return to their seaside hometown to help clear the debris of a hurricane, Lana remembers how much she’s missed the ocean and her aunt. As Lana explores the familiar beach, she discovers a colony of Aquicorns, small magical seahorse-like creatures living in the coral reef. With the help of her aunt, Lana rescues an injured Aquicorn and learns that the town and the coral reef are out of balance and in danger. When another storm threatens the town, Lana realizes she’ll have to stand up to those she loves in order to save the Aquicorns.

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Today In Books

Computers Are Playing Along With NaNoWriMo: Today In Books

This edition of Today In Books is sponsored by Penguin Random House Audio.


National Novel Generation Month Is A Thing

Coders are writing programs in a bid to generate the best 50,000-word novel. I’m not sure how they measure “best,” but you can follow along here to see how their projects are going. A couple are already completed!

Pennsylvania Prisoners Can Request Books Again

Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections had previously announced new restrictions on how inmates may receive books, making the process confusing and expensive. Book donation organizations and others advocating on behalf of inmates made themselves heard, and the DOC is once again allowing book donations.

Katie Paterson’s Future Library

This is an amazing project that is difficult to sum up in a few sentences. There is a a clearing one hour outside of Oslo. In that clearing, a thousand spruce trees will grow until 2114. At that time, the trees will be made into the paper on which 100 previously unpublished novels will be printed (including one donated by Margaret Atwood).

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Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Nov 6

Happy Tuesday, krakens and Klingon! Today we’ve got some award-winners, adaptations all over the place, a big slate of new releases, and Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao.


This newsletter is sponsored by Lost Arrow, Book I of The Kalelah Series by Marshall Ross.

a blue-tinged photo collage. a woman's face looks up into the sky, while right below her chin is a large blocky spaceship in flight. the background is a starry sky.Millennia ago, the starship Kalelah buried itself seven miles beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean. We have no idea of its existence. It has no idea of ours. And once that changes, everything does. For the worse. Suddenly, two human civilizations – one alien and one Earth-bound – are forced to come to grips with a future neither had ever imagined. And a war nobody wants. It’s a colonization story turned on its head and crafted with all the intrigue and layers of a nail-biting thriller. Readers say, “Like Dan Brown wrote a Crichton story.”


In book news:

Congratulations to the World Fantasy Award winners, in a tie for best novel!: Jade City by Fonda Lee and The Changeling by Victor LaValle (personal favorites). Big hearty Book Riot congrats also go to former contributors Justina Ireland and Troy Wiggins, whose lit mag FIYAH won for Special Award, Non-Professional.

io9 has an exclusive sneak peek at some illustrations and details from Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin.

In book adaptation news:

We’ve got a Discworld adaptation update! The City Watch goes to BBC America.

A queered adaptation of Frankenstein? Yes, please. A queered adaptation as the kick-off for an LGBTQIA sci-fi anthology show? HELL YES.

The Runaways TV show will be back for Season 2 in December, and if you’re anything like me you cannot wait to see how they’re going to handle the second part of the teen squad’s origin story. The trailer looks like they’re not going to have [redacted] be the [redacted], so what will they do instead? I am dying to know.

And I actually consider Watership Down a post-apocalypse (fight me), so I think it’s relevant to this newsletter that the Netflix/BBC mini-series adaptation is moving ahead with casting.

The director of It is working overtime — in addition to remaking Attack on Titan, Muschietti also has a script for H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. My love for Wells’s novel, flaws and all, goes way back, and I’m verrrrry interested to see what a modern team might make of that. Also we’re well due for a remake (I am ignoring the Guy Pearce 2002 one).

How’s about some book deals?

Galatea by Madeline Miller is $0.99.

Wintersong by S. Jae Jones is $2.99 (previously reviewed here).

Temper by Nicky Drayden is $2.99 (previously reviewed here).

Looking to get into the works of award-winner Adrian Tchaikovsky? The Tiger and the Wolf and Empire in Black and Gold are both $2.99!

And in new releases to keep an eye out for:

Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine: A Decade of Hugo & Nebula Award Winning Stories, 2005-2015

Mass Effect: Annihilation by Catherynne M. Valente

City of Ash and Red by Hye-young Pyun, Sora Kim-Russell

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Someone Like Me by MR Carey

In reviews, I bring you the final book in a duology that was everything I wanted and them some.

The Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao

a red background with black flowers all around the border. there's an ornate gold seal in the upper center of the cover featuring flowers and a phoenix. In this deeply satisfying follow-up to Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (which I reviewed here), Dao moves the story forward 15 years. Jade, daughter of Xifeng’s erstwhile-rival the Empress Lihua, has been raised simply in a monastery at the Great Forest’s edge. She knows who she is, but wants nothing more than the life she has. That all changes when Xifeng summons her back to court, ostensibly to celebrate her 18th birthday. Jade has been hearing horrible rumors about Xifeng for years, and has witnessed the poverty and desperation of the citizens of Feng Lu. When she arrives at the palace, things are even worse than she could have imagined. Then, a quest to save Feng Lu and depose Xifeng comes calling, and Jade and her newfound friends must answer.

The genius of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns was in giving us the story, from her own perspective, of an Evil Queen in the making. Now, we see Xifeng and what she has wrought from Jade’s perspective — and it’s just as effective. Jade may be an innocent, and a truly good person, but she’s also afraid and adrift. She herself wonders about Xifeng and how she came to be the Empress that Jade knows and fears (girl, the stories I could tell you!). And even as Kingdom bears witness to the terrible consequences of Xifeng’s choices, it never loses sight of the backstory. Dao also brings some old friends back to play in surprising and pivotal roles.

She also plays fast and loose with original, iconic elements of Snow White. There’s an apple, but not the way I thought there would be; and there is a little person, but he’s no one’s whistling, bumbling lackey. Western readers like myself will find the familiar bits, beautifully immersed in an East Asian setting that gives new levels and textures to the original fairytale.

Together, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns and Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix make a welcome addition to the retold fairytales canon — inventive, immersive, and engrossing from the first page to the last.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

May the odds be ever in your favor,
Jenn

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110418-ShadesofWicked-Riot-Rundown

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Shades of Wicked by Jeaniene Frost

Master vampire Ian has made many enemies over 200 years, including Dagon, a demon who now lays claim to his soul. Ian’s only chance to escape is to join forces with a Law Guardian, but he’s never been able to abide by the rules for long.

Veritas’ normal role is police, judge, and jury to reprobates like Ian, but she has her own ax to grind with Dagon. As she uses Ian as bait for the demon, Veritas realizes his devil-may-care image hides something more powerful, and Ian discovers Veritas has secrets of her own.