Month: January 2020

Categories
Today In Books

TV Series Of THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET: Today In Books

TV Series Of The House On Mango Street

Sandra Cisneros’ classic The House On Mango Street is finally–FINALLY–getting adapted. In part because of all the streaming services and the current immigration discussions in America, Cisneros was on board for an adaptation, which will be produced by Netflix’s Narcos producers: “‘I write because the world we live in is a house on fire, and the people we love are burning,’ she said. ‘Television has grown up in the last 20 years and now is the time to tell our stories.’” Yup, I’m crying.

Trailer Time!

Joan Didion’s The Last Thing He Wanted was adapted into a film–releasing at Sundance and streaming on Netflix February 21st–starring Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, and directed by Dee Rees. Watch the intense trailer here!

Author Responds To Criticism Of American Dirt

American Dirt and its publicity (They used barbed wire as centerpieces!) are getting fair criticism for being inauthentic, harmful trauma porn written for white non-Latinx readers to feel like they care about immigrants. The author responded to NPR’s questions regarding the important discussions currently happening with the equivalent of a shrug, telling me she doesn’t care about the people she claims to be writing for: “Cummins says she’s aware of her own privilege, her cultural blind spots, and the imbalances in the publishing industry. ‘And that’s not a problem that I can fix, nor is it a problem that I’m responsible for,’ she says. ‘All I can do is write the book that I believe in. And I did that.'” I don’t know, when you’re using the imbalanced publishing industry to skip to the bank knowing the damage you’re causing, you probably have some responsibility in this.

Categories
Check Your Shelf

AMERICAN DIRT is Problematic, and Reese Witherspoon Wants a Librarian

Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).

Don’t forget that Book Riot has a new literary fiction podcast called Novel Gazing! Put some lit fic in your ears!

Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

Cool Library Updates

Worth Reading

Book Adaptations in the News

Books & Authors in the News

Numbers & Trends

Award News

Pop Cultured

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

On the Riot

Catch you later, library friends!

Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Vessel by Lisa A. Nichols.

Categories
What's Up in YA

Fire Up Your Reading Life With These Hot YA Ebook Deals

Hey YA Fans!

Let’s get right to it this week: ebook deals. All are active as of Friday, January 24, and the first pile of deals are series books.

The first book in Cinda Williams Chima’s “Shattered Realms” series, Flamecaster, is $2.

Melissa de la Cruz’s Alex and Eliza, the first in her “Alex and Eliza” trilogy is $2. Bonus: the second book and third book, Love and War and All For One, are also $2 each. Three books for $6!

Nyxia, the first book in Scott Reintgen’s “Nyxia” triad is $2. Nyxia Unleashed and Nyxia Uprising are also $2 each. Again, three books for $6.

Brigid Kemmerer’s A Curse So Dark and Lonely is $4.

Ash Princess, the first book in Laura Sebastian’s fantasy series, is $2. Lady Smoke, the second in the series, is also $2.

Both Makiia Lucier’s Song of the Abyss and Isle of Blood and Stone for $3 each.

Have you read Caraval by Stephanie Garber yet? You can snag it for $3.

Grab Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige for $2.

As you prepare for the Netflix adaptation of Tiny Pretty Things, grab the ebook for $5. It’s a little pricier than I like to include in deals, but because of the timeliness, I’m making an exception.

A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis is $2.

Get your thrills with Lamar Giles’s Fake ID. $2. Want more Giles? You’ll want to pick up Endangered for $2, too.

Chelsea Sedoti’s As You Wish (what a great cover!) is $2.

Sara Zarr’s The Lucy Variations is $2. If you’ve not read Zarr, this is worth picking up, especially if you’re into music.

Itching for some historical fiction? Michaela MacColl’s Prisoners in the Palace is $1.

Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you for some cheer Monday.

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are. **Psst — you can now also preorder my upcoming August release, Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy!.

Categories
The Fright Stuff

Horrific Biographies and More

In the long-ago time before social media, my college roommate wrote all her favorite lyrics and quotes on index cards and taped them to her side of the dorm. When her sister visited, she said, “No one is EVER going to read all of that. Unless you die.” My roommate laughed, and I said back, “Or maybe if you killed someone?”

I realized much later, when I was studying nonfiction in my MFA program that it’s really hard to make someone GAF about your true story. Much nonfiction leaves readers wondering, so… what? But there’s something about crime and creeps that makes us need to know more. I personally need to know all that shit so I can avoid it, but I also, like, can’t NOT know. It’s not so much the voyeuristic secondhand adrenaline as the WAIT WHAT WHO NOW impulse that has me read biographies, especially those with the element of horror. By the way, you’re in The Fright Stuff, Book Riot’s weekly newsletter about the latest and greatest in horror. I’m Mary Kay McBrayer, and I’ll be your Virgil through this circle of hell, Horrific Biographies.

Earworm: “Bad Girls” by M.I.A.… live fast, die young, bad girls do it well.

Fresh Hells (FKA New Releases):

born to be posthumousBorn to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery

This biography of the eccentric author and illustrator is not straight-up horror: it more so shows how the author conceptualized the horrors from his pseudo-children’s books like The Gashleycrumb Tinies, The Doubtful Guest, and The Hapless Child. If you love learning about the childhood and inspirations of your horror icons, you’ll really like this book.

little by edward careyLittle: A Novel by Edward Carey

Edward Carey calls this book a “fictionalized biography,” but it reads like a novel, and I mean that in a good way. So often, biographies lose the human condition for the sake of facts, but that’s not the case at all with this book. It’s based on Marie Tussand, of the Wax Museums. You, like me, probably associate the wax museum with kitschy tourist traps, but it started out as the exact opposite: the wax museums were a way that art preserved the history of the French Revolution, and Marie, or “Little,” as they call her in the book, because of her jarring appearance, is the one who kept it going. I know you’re thinking, but where is the horror? UM, DID YOU KNOW that she cast the heads of the aristocrats beheaded by the guillotine? And that’s not even the most harrowing of it….

Magnetized: Conversations with a Serial Killer by Carlos Busqued, translated by Samuel Rutter

Though this book is not exactly a biography, it definitely paints a vivid picture of the real-life serial killer in Buenos Aires, Ricardo Melogno. The author visited Melogno in prison and interviewed him, and in this mixed-media book which includes everything from newspaper clippings to Santeria indoctrination, you’ll start to fear the “something dense” that Melogno says inhabits him. Seriously, from the jump, the actual epigraph about magnets and their currents, I was like… yo, I don’t know if I’m gonna make it through this one–y’all know that demons are in my trifecta of shit I can’t handle! (I should mention that this one is only available for pre-order in English, but if you are a Spanish speaker, GET IT NOW.)

Crypt-Keepers (FKA horrors from the backlist): 

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston

Though this biography does not have the goal of scaring its readership, everyone with a conscience will be straight shook. Zora Neale Hurston (whom you may know from Their Eyes Were Watching God or Tell My Horse) authored this book decades ago, but the tale of the last “Black Cargo” was only published in 2018. It’s based on the interviews she conducted in 1928 with Cudjoe Lewis, the last presumed living survivor of the Middle Passage.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

This novel chronicles the life of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, fictional personage who, though he has no body odor of his own, can smell literally everything. He fixates on an odor that he follows through the smelliest place on earth, the fish market of Paris, where he finds a beautiful woman. Grenouille spends the rest of his life trying to manufacture scents–even objects that have no smell, like glass–in order to recreate the scent of that woman. It’s a story of true obsession, art, and overall horror.

Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson

This book is one of Shirley Jackson’s memoirs, but I think it counts here. You probably know her work from We Have Always Lived in the Castle or The Haunting of Hill House, or even “The Lottery,” and she’s certainly well known for her slow-burn terror. This book, though, illustrates motherhood as though it is a horror movie.

 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

When I was studying creative nonfiction, they called this book “science nonfiction,” which is just a way of rebranding… call it what you will, this book is genius. It documents Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman who noticed that something was wrong and went to the doctor, where she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and a sample of her tumor was taken without her consent. If you have not yet read this book, then you are doing yourself a disservice.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

Caitlin Doughty writes of her own life in this book, from her obsession with death when she saw a child fall through an atrium in a mall as a child, herself, through her training in mortuary science. This book takes it upon itself to destigmatize death through the story of her life, and while it is definitely fascinating, it is also wildly uncanny for anyone unaccustomed to the subject matter.

Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera

Oh, my love, Frida. I’ve been obsessed with her and her surrealist art since I was in high school, fell in love with the biopic starring Salma Hayek in college, and have just been poring through this biography since then. The Julie Taymor film was based loosely on this biography, but in case you are unfamiliar with her work, Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter in the 1930s and 1940s, and she painted works inspired by her life. From the trolley accident that rendered her infertile through her miscarriages, marriages, and love affairs, this book shows the horrors that the artist endured.

News:

Preliminary nominees for the Bram Stoker Awards are listed here!

Mardi Gras designer finally credited.

Did you hear that Netflix is dropping a new show called Murder House Flip… which is exactly what it sounds like?

Memorial installed to commemorate victims of the European witch hunt.

This tweet from author and translator of Aladdin, Yasmine Seale shows “the fish glue, leather and other substances that made up Arabic and Ottoman manuscripts appealed to insect appetites.”

Want to know why the devil came to Salmon Street? Check this shit.

Visit Qumran National Park in Israel to see where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered!

Want to hear about the whistleblower of one of the most horrific experiments of all time, the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment? Read this article, which goes in depth about why medical whisteblowers are so rare.

In case you missed the drama about American Dirt, here’s Book Riot’s TLDR version.

That’s it. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour through the hell of horrific biographies. As always, please follow me or send your recommendations on Twitter or Instagram.

Your Virgil,

 

Mary Kay
TW: @mkmcbrayer
IG: @marykaymcbrayer

Categories
The Kids Are All Right

Children’s Books About Australia!

Hey Kid Lit Friends,

I’m sure a lot of you have been following the fires in Australia. After months of burning, recent rainstorms have created some relief but also a lot of damage with golf ball sized hail. Despite the rainstorms, there are over eighty blazes still going that have been aggravated with strong winds.

I know a lot of us have been supporting causes to help Australia. For those of us who want to help our kids learn more about this beautiful country, check out the books listed below and then check out the recent news to see what’s happening. I found this visual guide by the BBC helpful to look at, as well as this Q&A that responds to some frequently asked questions about the fires.

Wombat Walkabout by Carol Diggory Shields, illustrated by Sophie Blackall

Early one morning when the sun came out, Six woolly wombats went walkabout.

This whimsical counting poem follows six brave little wombats on walkabout in the Australian outback. But the wilderness is bound to bring more excitement than an innocent counting game. Soon enough, the curious wombats learn to beware the hungry dingo!

Birrarung Wilam: A Story from Aboriginal Australia by Murphy Aunty Joy Kelly Andrew, illustrated by Lisa Kennedy (8/4/20, Candlewick)

Yarra Riverkeeper Andrew Kelly and Aboriginal Elder of the Wurundjeri people Aunty Joy Murphy join to tell the Indigenous and geographical story of Melbourne’s beautiful Yarra River — from its source to its mouth and from its prehistory to the present day. The writing dazzles with poetic descriptions of the trees, plants, and wildlife that thrive in harmony along the iconic waterway. Lush and vibrant acrylic paintings from Indigenous illustrator Lisa Kennedy make the mighty Yarra come to life — coursing under a starry sky, drawing people to its sunny shores, mirroring a searing orange sunset.

Dreamtime: Aboriginal Stories by Oodgeroo Nunukul, illustrated by Bronwyn Bancroft

Australia’s most famous Aboriginal writer offers reminiscences of her childhood on Stradboke Island off the Queensland coast, communicating her pride in her heritage, and presents a collection of traditional Aboriginal folklore.

 

Edward the Emu by Sheena Knowles, illustrated by Rod Clement

Tired of his life as an emu, Edward decides to try being something else for a change. He tries swimming with the seals, he spends a day lounging with the lions, and even slithers with the snakes. But Edward soon discovers that being an emu may be the best thing after all.

 

Welcome to Country: A Traditional Aboriginal Ceremony by Murphy Aunty Joy Kelly Andrew, illustrated by Lisa Kennedy

Welcome to the lands of the Wurundjeri people. The people are part of the land, and the land is a part of them. Aboriginal communities across Australia have boundaries that are defined by mountain ranges and waterways. Traditionally, to cross these boundaries, permission is required. Each community has its own way of greeting, but the practice shares a common name: a Welcome to Country. Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin, the senior Aboriginal elder of the Wurundjeri people, channels her passion for storytelling into a remarkable and utterly unique picture book that invites readers to discover some of the history and traditions of her people. Indigenous artist Lisa Kennedy gives the Wurundjeri Welcome to Country form in beautiful paintings rich with blues and browns, as full of wonder and history as the tradition they depict.

Stories from the Billabong by James Vance Marshall, illustrated by Francis Firebrace

From the author of Walkabout come ten of Australia’s ancient aboriginal legends, authentically and elegantly retold. Here you can discover how Great Mother Snake created and peopled the world with plants and creatures, what makes Frogs croak, why Kangaroo has a pouch, and just what it is that makes Platypus so special.

The Australian Animal Atlas by Leonard Cronin and Marion Westmacott

Come on a journey into the world of Australia’s wildlife, exploring all the different habitats, from parched deserts to lush rainforests. Disocver the mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and insects that live there. Search for the animals hidden in each habitat scene. Find out about the fish that walks; the sixth sense of the platypus; the deadly venom of the desert death adder; the strange table manners of the sea star.

Outback: The Amazing Animals of Australia by Dan Kainen and Ella Morton

Using Photicular® technology that’s like a 3-D movie on the page, OUTBACK whisks you to the vast, remote world of wild Australia, where heat waves dance forever and animals, isolated by the vagaries of continental drift, are unlike those found anywhere else on Earth.
Each moving image delivers a rich, immersive visual experience—and the result is breathtaking. The kangaroo hops. A wombat waddles. The frilled lizard races on two legs across the desert floor. A peacock spider dances and shows off its vibrant colors. Experience it for yourself!

Pouch! by David Ezra Stein

Caldecott Honor winner David Ezra Stein’s delightful tale of a baby kangaroo’s first hops toward independence is perfect for board book audiences. Joey wants to go exploring, but at first he isn’t sure he’s ready to leave Mama’s safe, warm pouch. Touching on a universal childhood experience, this sweet tale celebrates trying new things.

Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French, illustrated by Bruce Whatley

Wombats are cuddly-looking, slow-moving Australian animals. Their favorite activities are eating, sleeping, and digging holes. Here, in the words of one unusually articulate wombat, is the tongue-in-cheek account of a busy week; eating, sleeping, digging holes . . . and training its new neighbors, a family of humans, to produce treats on demand.

This is Australia by Miroslav Sasek

Like the other Sasek classics, these are facsimile editions of his original books. The brilliant, vibrant illustrations have been meticulously preserved, remaining true to his vision more than forty years later and, where applicable, facts have been updated for the twenty-first century, appearing on a “This is . . . Today” page at the back of each book. The stylish, charming illustrations, coupled with Sasek’s witty, playful narrative, make these books a perfect souvenir that will delight both children and their parents, many of whom will remember them from their own childhood. In This is Australia, first published in 1970, Sasek swings down under, winging his readers into Sydney, with its famous bridge and space-age Opera House; bustling, modern Melbourne; colonial Adelaide; semitropical Brisbane; the garden city of Canberra; mineral-rich Perth; and Alice Springs, Australia’s most famous outback town.

Twig by Aura Parker

Heidi is a stick insect, tall and long like the twig of a tree. It’s her first day at a busy bug school, where she hopes to learn and make new friends. But finding friends isn’t easy when no one can find you!

 

 

A River by Marc Martin

So begins the imaginary journey of a child inspired by the view outside her bedroom window: a vast river winding through a towering city. A small boat with a single white sail floats down the river and takes her from factories to farmlands, freeways to forests, out to the stormy and teeming depths of the ocean, and finally back to the comforts—and inspirations—of home. This lush, immersive book by award-winning picture book creator Marc Martin will delight readers of all ages by taking them on a transcendent and aspirational journey through an imaginative landscape.

 

Around the web…

There’s a new video series for 8 to 12-year-olds by author Danielle David called This Writer’s Life. Check it out!

Celebrating Awards Season at the Library, via Book Riot

33 of the Top Middle Grade Books on Goodreads, via Book Riot

 

What are you reading these days? I want to know! Find me on Twitter at @KarinaYanGlaser, on Instagram at @KarinaIsReadingAndWriting, or email me at KarinaBookRiot@gmail.com.

Until next time!
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!*

Categories
Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for January 24

Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s been one heck of a week, but we got through it with the power of books, among other wonderful things. It’s Alex with some news and some slightly (okay, more than slightly) murder-y books to take you into the weekend.

Thing that made me happy cry today so I had to share: Just watch this clip of Patrick Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg on The View.

News and Views

A beautiful profile of N.K. Jemisin in The New Yorker.

Preeti Chhiber has written an adorable Star Wars picture book that’ll come out October 6. You can check out some of the super cute pictures from it here.

At Young People Read Old SFF, The White Pony by Jane Rice.

The Witcher is getting an animated film in addition to a second season. Also, if you’ve been chomping at the bit for the soundtrack, it’s coming. You can already Toss a Coin to Your Witcher right now.

Oh good. We’re getting at least one more season of Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor.

Christopher Tolkien the cartographer.

The protagonist of The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has been revealed. I am… not excited, to be honest.

Can’t wait to read the novel about this: Federal officials seized Alan Turing’s missing-since-1984 doctorate and knighthood medal when someone offered to “loan” them to the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Sarcos is making fully mobile and strong industrial exoskeletons, so we’re on track to fight aliens Ripley-style.

Known class traitor Mr. Peanut is finally getting the fate he deserves.

This will come as no surprise to anyone who’s ever owned a cat, but our little feline pals will happily nom us when we’re gone–and it has been scientifically determined which bits of us they’ll find tastiest. Bless their evil, adorable little hearts.

On Book Riot

This week’s SFF Yeah! is about historical sci-fi and fantasy.

5 YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels That Tackle Climate Change

Free Association Friday

Happy… 31st anniversary of Ted Bundy being given the chair? A little yikes, a little grim, but it’s a good prompt for looking at SFF that blends with the (mostly murder) mystery.

Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard – You might think that a priestess showing up covered in blood in the Aztec Empire, which runs on human sacrifice, would not be a big deal. But you’d be wrong, and Acatl, High Priest of the Dead, is called on to investigate this little problem. That turns into a much deeper, bigger problem than anyone could have expected, involving politics and magic. This is the start of a series of Aztec noir mysteries.

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin – In Gujaareh, priests of the dream-goddess harvest magic from sleepers that dream and use it to heal, keep the peace… and kill if necessary. But someone begins to murder the dreamers of Gujaareh, and the Gatherer Ehiru finds himself called on to not only protect a woman he was sent to kill, but unwind the dark cause of these deaths.

cover of Six Wakes by Mur LaffertySix Wakes by Mur Lafferty – It’s still murder, even if it’s a clone. Maria wakesand her six crew mates wake up in blood-streaked clone vats on a spaceship with no memories of how they died… which is bad, actually, since that means there something worse than a simple mass murder going on. Each of the seven crew members has a secret, and each of them could very well be the killer…

The Ark by Patrick S. Tomlinson – On a generation ship that’s within spitting distance of its destination, being the Chief of Police is basically a symbolic role for former sports hero Bryan Benson because there isn’t any crime. Until a crew member goes missing, and then Bryan has to solve a locked room mystery… where the room is an impossibly massive spaceship.

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters – Detective Hank Palace has decided to investigate the apparent suicide of a depressed man as a potential homicide… despite the planet-killing asteroid that’s bearing down on Earth, promising to end all life in six months.

The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes – Ideas that people love a lot become Real… but where do they go when the people who had them no longer need them? They live in the Imagination, a strange and at times Toon-Town-esque place where they all try to make a new life. One of these Ideas is Tippy the Triceratops, who is filled with Detective Stuff… and his Stuff gets a workout when someone in Imagination decides that murder is a great idea, too.

Honorable Mention: Jade City by Fonda Lee – It’s not so much a murder mystery, where a good person wants to solve the crime and stop the bad person–rather it’s that close cousin, the crime novel. This book is basically about the mafia in magical not-China–and there is a murder that happens. Plus it’s fun as heck.

See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.

Categories
Read This Book

Read This Book…

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

This week’s pick is a backlist title that made me cry like a baby–My Real Children by Jo Walton.

“It was when she thought of her children that she was most truly confused.”

This is a strange book with an unconventional structure that opens with our protagonist, Patricia Cowan, as a very old woman. She lives in a nursing home and is often very confused. She has dementia, but she doesn’t simply forget details and events—she remembers two different timelines of her adult life. She remembers becoming a dissatisfied housewife, and having a successful writing career. An unhappy marriage with a man, and a passionate partnership with a woman. Raising four children, and raising three children. Living in a peaceful society of openness and acceptance, and navigating life in a world plagued by war.

Just when the reader is nearly as confused as Patricia, Walton takes readers back to 1933, when the world still resembles the one we know today. In elegant and mesmerizing prose, Walton recounts Patricia’s childhood and early years through the war, leading us up to a telephone box in the school where Patricia works, where her beau demands that she give him an answer to his marriage proposal. It’s in this moment that Patricia’s story, and her timeline split.

I was initially drawn to this book because of its exploration of alternate worlds and histories, but while reading I found myself equally if not more fascinated by Walton’s brilliant characterization of Patricia. In one timeline she is Pat, and the other she is Trish, and even though her lives diverge wildly, she is still, at her core, the same person. She raises two different families that she loves fiercely. She finds a career, friends, and passions, albeit not in the same order. She faces horrible tragedies. Her two lives are profoundly moving and made all the more fascinating because of how they differ from our own world, first in small ways and then in very large shifts.

The temptation to compare Patricia’s two lives is strong, both in the reader and in Patricia herself. In one life, there is world peace but little (and hard-won) personal fulfillment. In another, true love with her soulmate and a satisfying career against the backdrop of violence and unrest that eventually overwhelms her happy life. The details are fascinating to read, and I found myself thinking that this is a great book for someone who is curious about speculative fiction but wary of diving into something that diverges too far from reality.

Ultimately, Walton isn’t asking the reader, or Patricia, to choose which is more real or which life is worthier. In fact, she makes it clear that it’s impossible for Patricia to make such a choice, because “whichever way she chose, it’d break her heart to lose her children. All of them were her real children.” What’s most compelling isn’t the premise, but the story of Patricia building her families and her intense love for them both. This novel is a reminder that the same person can live two very different lives, and have a far-reaching impact on her world. By the end of her life, Patricia passionately believes that “you can do whatever you want to, make yourself whatever you want to be.”

Just remember, your choices have consequences.

Happy reading, book nerds!

–Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, and Twitter.

Categories
Today In Books

THE WITCHER Continues To Dominate: Today In Books

The Witcher Continues To Dominate

Can’t get enough about the man and his horse–er, Netflix’s adaptation of The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski? Good news: Netflix is expanding the franchise with an anime film, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf. Wise move considering 76 million member households watched the first season.

And The Nominees Are

Where are my crime fans at? The 2020 Edgar Nominees have been announced in eight categories, plus TV episodes, memorials, and special awards. Get your crime read on with some excellent nominees including Borrowed Time by Tracy Clark (for PI fans); Girl Gone Missing by Marcie R. Rendon (fits #24 in the Read Harder Challenge); Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay (for YA fans); American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson (for a spy novel like none you’ve read before).

Best Title Is Best

John Paul Brammer, advice writer of ¡Hola Papi! and managing editor at The Trevor Project, has sold his memoir and it has the best title! Seriously, Hola Papi: How To Come Out To Your Boyfriend In A Walmart Parking Lot And Other Life Lessons In Love, Race, And Sexuality better not ever get shortened. Can’t wait to see the cover.

Categories
True Story

Anthony Bourdain’s Last Book Coming This Fall

Hello, happy Friday! We’ve survived another week, my nonfiction-reading friends – that is something to cheer about!

I’m also cheering about the fact that I finally finished a book! Last weekend I practically flew through The Magical Language of Others, a beautiful memoir by E.J. Koh. When Koh was 15, her father accepted a lucrative position in South Korea, leaving Koh back in California in the care of her older brother. Over their separation, Koh’s mother wrote her weekly letters in Korean – letters Koh couldn’t fully understand until she learned enough Korean to translate them as an adult. Koh accompanies her own story with those of her mother and two grandmothers, creating a memoir about family, loss, trauma, and what it takes to find the language to tell our own stories. It was difficult to read in places, but very beautiful.

For this week’s newsletter, I’ve got a smattering of nonfiction news to share with you. Let’s get into it!

Anthony Bourdain’s final book is set to be published in October (sob). Titled World Travel: An Irreverent Guide, will be “an illustrated collection of Bourdain’s reflections on his favorite places to visit and dine around the world.” The book was finished by Bourdain’s longtime assistant, Laurie Woolever, and includes writing from his friends and family, along with the writer’s thoughts on places to visit and eat around the world.

The Jewish Book Council has announced this year’s winners of the National Jewish Book Awards, which includes several different awards for nonfiction in food writing, Jewish education and identity, autobiography and memoir, biography, and more. The biggest winner is Pamela S. Nadell, winner of the Everett Family Foundation Book of the Year for America’s Jew­ish Women: A His­to­ry from Colo­nial Times to Today.

Fraudster Caroline Calloway said she’s writing two books that will come out this spring. The infamous Instagram influencer will release a memoir (sold only on her website) called Scammer sometime in spring 2020. She claims to also be working on a second book, And We Were Like, about her time at Cambridge University. So… that’s news, I guess? (If you don’t remember anything about Calloway, this piece from The Cut will get you all caught up).

Mindhunter, Netflix’s true crime series about the formation of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit in the 1970s and ‘80s, doesn’t appear to be getting a third season. According to Deadline, there’s been no movement from Netflix or David Fincher, the series’ director, to move ahead with the next season. Mindhunter is based on the book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit written by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker.

And finally, a few links over at Book Riot you definitely don’t want to miss:

And that’s a wrap on yet another week! You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @kimthedork and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading! – Kim

Categories
Unusual Suspects

How to Find Free Mystery Books Online

Hello mystery fans! I’ve got your clickity links for all the happenings on mysteries and crime and your Kindle deals!

From Book Riot And Around The Internet

My Sister the Serial Killer cover imageThe Final Folk of Thrillers and Horror

10 Captivating Books Like THE DA VINCI CODE

How to Find Free Mystery Books Online

What All Those Dead Girls Say About Us

Rincey and Katie are back with another Read or Dead and someone had a lot of feelings about Tana French’s adaptation.

(Speaking of) Starz In Talks For Second Season Of Irish Crime Drama ‘Dublin Murders’ – TCA

Top 10 books about trouble in Los Angeles

Pardners in Crime: The 10 Best Western Mysteries and Thrillers

Adaptations And News

Defending Jacob cover image‘Defending Jacob’ Producers Say Reading The Book Won’t Spoil The Thrill – TCA

Jack Reacher series author Lee Child ‘quits and lets brother step in’

Daniel Craig faces off with supervillain Rami Malek in No Time to Die, his explosive final James Bond film

Amy Ryan Shames Cops, Looks for Her Missing Daughter in Lost Girls Trailer

Harlan Coben writes books you can’t put down – his TV shows are no different

The 2020 Edgar Nominees  Announced

Kristen Lepionka is has an upcoming standalone mystery that I can’t wait to read!

Kindle Deals

The Good Son by You-jeong jeong cover imageHere’s a great slowburn psychological suspense that starts with someone covered in blood and no memory: The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeong, Chi-Young Kim (Translator) is $4.99! (Review) (TW: stalking/ suicide)

If you like Australian crime and campus set novels: All These Perfect Strangers by Aoife Clifford is $5.99! (Review) (TW rape/ past suicide mentioned/ past child and domestic abuse mentions)

If you’re a fan of thrillers, past and present, and camp settings: The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager is $1.99!

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See 2020 upcoming releases. An Unusual Suspects Pinterest board. Get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.

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