Month: May 2020

Page-Turning Mysteries That Aren’t Too Dark And Gloomy

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date May 7, 2020

Sponsored by our 1-year Kindle Unlimited subscription giveaway, courtesy of Macmillan’s eDeals Newsletter. Enter now!

We’re giving away a 1-year Kindle Unlimited subscription to 5 lucky winners, courtesy of Macmillan’s eDeals Newsletter.

Hello mystery fans! I was able to rustle up some book lists and news you’ll want, found a new adaptation that sounds good, and there is a handful of really good Kindle deals. Here ya go:

From Book Riot And Around The Internet

All 60 Original Sherlock Holmes Novels and Stories, Ranked

These Paranormal Cozy Mysteries Will Cast a Spell on You

On the latest All The Books! Liberty and Kelly talk Kimberly McCreight’s A Good Marriage and W.M. Akers’ Westside Saints: A Tiny Mystery.

A guide to Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries’ 10 creepiest episodes

16 page-turning mysteries that aren’t too dark and gloomy

Sick of coronavirus news? The Boston Globe is running a serialized novella (with a strong Boston accent)

I am really loving this show so far. (spoilers) The ‘Defending Jacob’ Book Ending Is Totally Different Than The Series’

Jane Harper has a new book, The Survivors, releasing in Australia this year, and in the U.S. February 2021, and here’s the Australian cover and the U.S cover! (You better believe I’m going to buy this from a world shipping bookstore this year–if you’re more patient than me you can preorder the U.S. edition.)

(This sounds awesome!) Virtual Noir at the Bar Queens – A Double-Shot of Crime Fiction

6 Clever Mystery Novels Inspired By True Crimes

Nicole Kidman to Produce Amazon Adaptation of Kimberly McCreight’s ‘A Good Marriage

Enter to Win $50 to Your Favorite Independent Bookstore!

Enter to win a 1-year subscription to Kindle Unlimited!

Watch Now

Netflix: Based on Juanjo Braulio’s El silencio del pantano, The Silence of the Marsh is a Spanish slowburn psychological thriller that revolves around “a successful crime novelist [who] blurs the line between fiction & reality, uncovering the corrupt ties between politicians and the local mafia in Valencia, Spain.” Watch the trailer.

Kindle Deals

If you want to read one of 2019’s best mysteries and read something a bit different than everything else: The Things She’s Seen by Ambelin Kwaymullina, Ezekiel Kwaymullina is $1.99! (Review)

If you’re a fan of crime podcasts and thrillers: Conviction by Denise Mina is $4.99! (Review) (TW suicide, suicidal thoughts/ eating disorder/ rape/ addiction/ animal cruelty)

For fans of nonviolent, bananapants true crime: Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World
by Tom Wright, Bradley Hope is $3.99! (Review)

For fans of family drama and mysteries who want to travel the world: Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok is $2.99! (Review) (TW suicide/ mentions past domestic abuse/ statutory rape discussed)

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.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Read This Book

Read This Book: The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn

Post author By Tirzah Price
Post date May 7, 2020

Sponsored by our Robyn Carr Prize Pack giveaway, courtesy of Harlequin.com.

We’re teaming up with Harlequin.com to give away a prize pack which includes the following Robyn Carr titles: Four Friends, The Life She Wants, The Summer That Made Us, The View from Alameda Island, and Virgin River. Enter now!

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 The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn!

Content warning: Chronic illness, nothing else that I can recall.

If you’re a Janeite who also likes speculative fiction of the mind-bending variety, this is a must-read for you! Rachel and Liam are two travelers who arrive in London in 1815 with carefully prepared aliases and the seams of their clothing sewn with a small fortune in bank notes. They’re from the future, where the Royal Institute for Special Topics in Physics has discovered time travel and engages missions to the past–not to change history, but to study it. Rachel is a doctor who travels between disaster and war zones, and Liam is a famous stage actor. Their mission is complex, but has the potential to be groundbreaking back home: Befriend Henry Austen, a banker whose business is about to go under, and gain access to his sister, Jane. From there, they intend to steal Jane Austen’s unpublished manuscript, The Watsons.

This is a high-concept premise with a lot of heart. Rachel is our protagonist and narrator, and although this book begins with their arrival in the past, she seamlessly weaves in fascinating glimpses to her troubled home timeline (environmental disaster has brutally changed the landscape, and sentimentality for the past drives big endeavors) in between interesting tidbits about how to pass as a lady of the Regency era. Finding and befriending Jane Austen is a feat equal to any of the plots of her famous novels, with tense drawing room scenes, secret notes, and intriguing alliances behind closed doors. Flynn doesn’t sugarcoat what it was like to live in the early 19th century, but the advantage of a time traveler’s perspective is that Flynn gives the reader fascinating historical context for life in 1815 without being pedantic.

But what makes this book extra special isn’t necessarily the concept of time travel to meet Jane Austen, but the question of what if? Rachel and Liam have the opportunity to influence history, to try and save Jane Austen from an early death, even if it goes against their orders. Their dilemma puts them into an ethical gray area, and has them meditating about what it means to be famous after death, what artists owe the world, and how art endures. I love the journey that this book takes readers on–the destination might be unexpected, but the trip across centuries is memorable!

Bonus: I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by one of my favorite narrators, Saskia Maarleveld! She switches seamlessly between English, American, and Irish accents within scenes, making it a really fantastic performance!

Happy reading,

Tirzah

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

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.

Riot Rundown

050720-RobynCarrEAC-Riot-Rundown

Post author By Devin Service
Post date May 7, 2020

Sponsored by our Robyn Carr Prize Pack giveaway, courtesy of Harlequin.com.

We’re teaming up with Harlequin.com to give away a prize pack which includes the following Robyn Carr titles: Four Friends, The Life She Wants, The Summer That Made Us, The View from Alameda Island, and Virgin River. Enter now!

Audiobooks

Audiobooks 05/07

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date May 6, 2020

Sponsored by The audiobook edition of Sigh, Gone written and read by Phuc Tran

For anyone who has ever felt like they don’t belong, the Sigh, Gone audiobook shares an irreverent, funny, and moving tale of displacement and assimilation. This coming-of-age memoir, written and read by Phuc Tran, explores one man’s bewildering experiences of abuse, racism, and tragedy and reveals redemption and connection in books and punk rock. In 1975, Tran and his family immigrated to America. He found solace and kinship in the wisdom of classic literature, and in punk rock, he found affirmation and echoes of his disaffection. Listen to Tran tell his story in the audiobook of Sigh, Gone.

Hola Audiophiles! Do you hear that clapping sound? That’s me giving you big props for making it through another week. Thank you for joining me for some audio love, regardless of whether you’re getting any reading done of your own. Like I keep saying, we’re all just doing our best.

This week brings with it SO many great new audiobooks, it was hard to pick just a few! Let’s get straight to it then, shall we?

Let’s audio!

New Releases – May 5 (publisher descriptions in quotes)

A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight, narrated by Sarah Zimmerman, Karissa Vacker, George Newbern (mystery/thriller) – Lizzie is working late one night at the elite law firm that pays her well but demands grueling hours. She gets a call from an inmate at Rikers, and it turns out the inmate is her old friend Zach. He needs her help, and that’s an understatement: his wife Amanda was found brutally murdered in the couple’s Park Slope brownstone and he’s the prime suspect. Lizzie decides to get involved and guess what: Zach and Amanda gots lots of shady-shade secrets and fo sho are not who they seem,

Narrator Note: Sarah Zimmerman reads N.K. Jemisin’s Dreamblood duology and Erica Ruth Neubauer’s Murder at the Mena House, a new cozy set in Egypt that I mentioned a few weeks back. Karissa Vacker reads several Debbie Macomber titles and is part of the ensemble cast for One of Us Is Next, and George Newbern’s most recent project is Val Kilmer’s memoir I’m Your Huckleberry.

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo, narrated by Elizabeth Acevedo and Melania-Luisa Marte (YA fiction) – Elizabeth Acevedo is back to bless us with another novel in verse! Camino and Yahaira are 16-year-old sisters; Camino lives in the Dominican Republic and Yahaira lives in New York City. Their paths collide when their father is killed in a plane crash that killed almost 300 people only a couple of months after 9/11 while en route from JFK to the DR. Just when they each feel like they’ve lost everything, Camino and Yahaira learn about each other.

Narrator Note: It’s Elizabeth Acevedo, baby! You already know. I’m excited to listen to Melania-Luisa Marte, the writer, poet, and performer whose poem “Afro Latina” is one you should immediately look up.

Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella, narrated by Karissa Vacker (mystery/thriller) – Cady Archer is starting her freshman year at Harvard, following in the footsteps of her brother Eric who developed paranoid schizophrenia and then died by suicide in his final year. Already overwhelmed with the pressure and demands of her academic life, she hopes to find a sign or bit of information that could have prevented her brother’s death. Armed with a notebook of his scribblings, she starts an investigation and then begins to hear the voices of three ghosts herself. Does Cady share her bother’s mental illness, or is this something else?

Narrator note: This is the second week in a row that I unknowingly pick two books in the same newsletter that are narrated by the same person! I already mentioned Karissa Vacker, but here’s even more of her work: Once and for All by Sarah Dessen, Red Clocks by Leni Zumas, and Krysten Ritter’s Bonfire.

The Imperfects by Amy Meyerson, narrated by Cassandra Campbell (fiction) – Three estranged siblings find themselves under the same roof for the first time in many years when their eccentric grandmother passes away and are shocked to find a secret inheritance among their her possessions: a BIG ol’ diamond. Funny story! It’s no ordinary giant jewel, but the Florentine Diamond: a 137 carat yellow diamond that went missing a century ago and hasn’t been seen since. As they race to determine whether they are even the rightful heirs to this thing and the sizable fortune that comes along with it, they uncover their granny’s tragic and powerful past, forever changing their connection to their heritage and to one another. (Side note: the Florentine Diamond is a real thing!)

Narrator Note: Cassandra Campbell makes a pretty regular appearance in this newsletter: a lot of you loved her narration of Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing and Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You.

network effect a murderbot novel Network Effect by Martha Wells, narrated by Kevin R. Free (science fiction) – Hey now! A standalone Murderbot book! For those who don’t know, and I’m partially reading myself here because these books have been on my TBR for years, the Murderbot books are a four-novella series about a rogue, self-aware security robot who hates emotions and humans, yet also wants to help humans. But really, it just wants to be left alone to watch its shows. “When Murderbot’s human associates (not friends, never friends!) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action. Drastic action it is, then.”

Narrator Note: Kevin R. Free narrates the Murderbot novellas and is back for this standalone read. I love his voice! I could almost believe there is a little bit of robot in him, it’s so clean and crisp.

Latest Listens

I haven’t finished my current listen because I’m deep in reading for next week’s episode of All the Books, so I’ll have to report back next week with my full review. So far though, I am loving Sabriel by Garth Nix! This is my first Garth Nix book, suggested to me by Managing Editor Sharifah when I told her I have a thing for sassy cat sidekicks (i.e. Salem from the TV version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch). It’s a work of fantasy narrated by Tim Curry, methinks I am going to like it a lot.

From the Internets

AudioFile shares five new fantasy audiobooks to escape into now.

Also from AudioFile: SYNC Audiobooks for Teens 2020 Is Here!

You can read and/or listen to Audible’s interview with Samantha Irby

The #SocksforBinc campaign raised over $28k!

Over at the Riot

4 Under 4: Fast & Fabulous Audiobooks Under 4 Hours

5 Under 5: Audiobooks Under 5 Hours for One-Day Listening

6 of the Best Audiobooks by Karen American Women Writers

5 Graphic Novels and Memoirs That Are Also Outstanding Audiobooks

Thanks for hanging with me today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with your burning book club questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the Audiobooks newsletter, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Today In Books

Bookseller Imprisoned In China Publishes Smuggled Out Poetry: Today In Books

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date May 6, 2020

Sponsored by Flatiron Books, publisher of The Paris Hours by Alex George.

Bookseller Imprisoned In China Publishes Smuggled Out Poetry

Gui Minhai, a Chinese-born Swedish citizen, is serving a 10-year sentence for selling “gossipy texts on Chinese political leaders” in a bookstore in Hong Kong. Swedish publishing house Kaunitz-Olsson distributed poems on Tuesday written by Minhai, and printed in Chinese and Swedish, that were smuggled out of the Chinese prison: “It would be embarrassing To stop writing poems Because the poetry has been caged.”

Here’s Your Happy Moment For The Day

Here’s Meghan Markle reading Duck! Rabbit! to Archie for his first birthday, filmed by Prince Harry. The adorable video was posted to the Save With Stories Instagram account, Jennifer Garner and Amy Adams collaboration with Save the Children and No Kid Hungry. And clearly Archie is one of us, trying to smuggle in a second book while being read to.

Nicole Kidman Keeps Working On All The Adaptations

Nicole Kidman has a first-look deal with Amazon through her Blossom Films banner and has signed on as executive producer to the adaptation of Kimberly McCreight’s A Good Marriage. This is not Kidman’s first time working with McCreight’s work, as her other novel Reconstructing Amelia is being adapted by Blossom Films for HBO. And if you love mysteries you can hear Liberty rave about A Good Marriage on All the Books!

Book Radar

Prince Harry and Meghan Will Spill the Royal Tea and More Book Radar!

Post author By Liberty Hardy
Post date May 6, 2020

Sponsored by our Robyn Carr Prize Pack giveaway, courtesy of Harlequin.com.

Happy Thursday, readers! How is everyone holding up? I feel a bit more optimistic about things than I did a few weeks ago, but maybe it’s just because the sun is out all the time now. The sun is not my friend, but I am getting Vitamin D by proxy, so that’s something.

I have been watching newer Agatha Christie adaptations these last few days. Loved Ordeal by Innocence, mostly because Bill Nighy is a treasure. I thought The Pale Horse was pretty but kinda disappointing. And I didn’t like The ABC Murders at all, for many reasons, which was sad because it’s my favorite Christie. (John Malkovich didn’t work for me as Poirot at all, and they changed one of the murders that, when I read it as an 8-year-old, scarred me for life. And yet I wanted to see it on the screen, lol.) Now to watch Crooked House!

Now, on to the newsletter! Like the last few weeks, I have a little bit of book news for you today, and a few links to some things that might make you smile during this time.

Remember, whatever you are doing or not doing this week, I am sending you virtual hugs. This is hard, but we are doing what is necessary, and I’m so proud of us! I hope you are safe, and please remember to be kind to yourself and others. Thanks for subscribing, and I’ll see you again on Monday! – xoxo, Liberty

Trivia question time! What punctuation mark’s name is the Greek word for together? (Scroll to the bottom for the answer.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

The Midnight Club by Christopher Pike will be a Netflix series.

Daniel Radcliffe kicks off an all-star reading of the first Harry Potter book.

Jacqueline Woodson and Albertine won the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen awards.

Here are the book-related winners of this year’s Pulitzer Prizes.

Here’s the first trailer for Becoming, Netflix’s documentary based on Michelle Obama’s memoir.

Sit and drink petty royal tea: Prince Harry and Meghan are writing a memoir together about their royal experiences.

Stephenie Meyer did indeed announce the upcoming publication of Midnight Sun, a Twilight saga novel told from Edward’s perspective that was leaked on the internet many years ago, leaving its future in doubt.

Nicole Kidman will produce an adaptation of Kimberly McCreight’s new novel A Good Marriage.

Here’s the first look at Jeff and Ann VanderMeer’s upcoming anthology The Big Book of Modern Fantasy.

Book Riot Recommends

At Book Riot, I work on the New Books! email, the All the Books! podcast about new releases, and the Book Riot Insiders New Release Index. I am very fortunate to get to read a lot of upcoming titles, and learn about a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week so you can add them to your TBR! (It will now be books I loved on Mondays and books I’m excited to read on Thursdays. YAY, BOOKS!)

Excited to read:

A Cat’s Tale: A Journey Through Feline History by Baba the Cat, as told to Dr. Paul Koudounaris (Henry Holt and Co., November 10)

Cats are my favorite things after books, unless we’re talking about my own cats, and then they win. Either way, a serious history book about cats throughout time? YES PLEASE. I hope it will be an epic nerd-purr.

What I’m reading this week.

The Orchard: A Novel by David Hopen

The Book of V by Anna Solomon

Stealing Thunder by Alina Boyden

Latitudes of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup

Boys of Alabama by Genevieve Hudson

And this is funny.

BEEBEE DEER.

Song stuck in my head:

Somebody’s Crying by Chris Isaak

Happy things:

Here are a few things I enjoy that I thought you might like as well:

Purrli: This website makes the relaxing sounds of a cat purring.
Here are livestreams of animals. I particularly enjoy the bat one.
And more cute animal pictures.
Music Catch, one of my favorite desktop games. I also still play Lemonade Stand occasionally.
Disney Emoji Blitz!

And times like these call for a bonus cat picture!

Zevon put his tail on his head.

Trivia answer: Hyphen.

You made it to the bottom! High five. Thanks for reading! – xo, L

TBR

TBR Gifting Launch

Post author By Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Post date May 6, 2020

Hello, reader friends!

We hope this finds you safe, well, and surrounded by good reading material.

Today we are thrilled to announce that TBR is open for gifting, and you get first access! Give the gift of tailored book recommendations–in hardcover or by email–as a one-time gift or year-long subscription. Go ahead and treat someone’s shelf!

And yes, you can receive TBR gifts as well! Any gifts you redeem will be applied to your account after your current subscription expires.

Kissing Books

They Found Love in the Workplace

Post author By Jessica Pryde
Post date May 6, 2020

Sponsored by new novel Stay with Me from author Becky Wade. Download for free the series prequel novella, Take a Chance on Me.

Led to her Georgia hometown by a mysterious letter, Genevieve Woodward wakes in an unfamiliar cottage with the confused owner staring down at her. The last thing Sam Turner wants is to help a woman as troubled as she is talkative, but he can’t turn her away when she needs him most. Will they be able to let go of the façades and loneliness they’ve always clung to?

It’s Thursday! It’s May! I’ve had a new chance to try reading, and I’ve been a little more successful this week! (I guess it helps that Never Have I Ever and Hollywood are both completely behind me, so fewer distractions this time around…)

Let’s talk books!

Over on Book Riot

Trisha and I talked about Can You Keep a Secret and books we can’t stop talking about.

What do your masks look like? Since we’re going to be wearing them for a while, might as well make them bookish.

And it’s never the wrong time for care packages.

I’d never thought of making a book sleeve before, but hey, why not?

Deals

The temperatures are rising (at least here in Arizona) and I don’t know about you but I am dreaming of snow. If you are, too, now would be a great time to check out Edge of Glory (the edge the edge the edge the edge… Sorry.) by Rachel Spangler, which is 2.99! Here, an Olympic snowboarder and skier meet at an elite training facility and clash in all the best ways. So while a Michael Jordan documentary is the sporting event of the year, you can go back to the winter and get into a different sport.

New Books

There are some good things out this week! I’ve started one, literally started, but there are so many to choose from, I anticipate the time to read them…someday. Let’s talk about a couple of… workplace… romances.

Defy or Defend
Gail Carriger

Gail Carriger is one of my favorite authors, and I’m excited that she’s given us another one of her Delightfully Deadly series, in which familiar characters from the Finishing School series are now grown and doing what they’ve been taught to do so well: spy. Dimity, darling Dimity, is now the best fixer in the realm, and Crispin is basically her keeper. He’s in charge of keeping her alive when she ventures into a vampire hive to Get Shit Done, and they are both very good at their jobs.

Love’s Recipe
Mila Nicks

When Rosalie returns to her hometown, broke and divorced, she gets a job at Ady’s Creole Cafe. Nicholas, who has been running the restaurant since his mother died, is aghast when—in an effort to save the failing eatery—she enters them in a food competition. But as they work together to perfect their presentations of the restaurant’s past-perfect recipes, sparks fly in all kinds of ways.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for this week:

Meet Cute Club by Jack Harbon
Variable Onset by Layla Reyne
Office Hours by Katrina Jackson (this came out last Thursday, but I neglected to mention it!)
Tiny Imperfections by Alli Frank and Asha Youmans
Shadow Flight by Christine Feehan
Close Up by Amanda Quick
Claimed by a Steele by Brenda Jackson
Secrets of a Fake Fiancee by Yahrah St. John
Upsy Daisy by Chelsie Edwards
Ruthless Pride by Naima Simone

Did I miss any you’re looking forward to?

As usual, catch me on Twitter @jessisreading or Instagram @jess_is_reading, or send me an email at wheninromance@bookriot.com if you’ve got feedback, bookrecs, or just want to say hi!

Today In Books

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Cooperated In Upcoming Tell-All: Today In Books

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date May 5, 2020

Sponsored by Gate 2-2 by Andreas Dittrich. For Sale on Kindle for $3.99.

Prince Harry & Meghan Markle Cooperated In Upcoming Tell-All

Releasing August 11th will be Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family. Now, you may be wondering why we’re telling you about yet another tell-all book about the royal family. This one is a bit different in that it’s being said Harry & Meghan cooperated with the authors Omid Scobie (Harper’s Bazaar royal editor) and Carolyn Durand (Elle magazine’s royal correspondent) in order to “finally present the truth of misreported stories.” Fastest pre-buy in the history of pre-buys.

Harry Potter Digital Escape Room

Looking for something to entertain the kids? Maybe the whole family? Or just you, a grown adult who loves HP? Try a Harry Potter digital escape room created by Sydney Krawiec, a Youth Services Librarian at Pennsylvania’s Peters Township Public Library. Did I mention you’ll be learning along the way? Because escaping relies on answering questions and solving riddles about the Dewey Decimal System (told you it was designed by a librarian) and solving math problems (I may be stuck here forever!). Go have fun!

We Have Winners!

The International Board on Books for Young People announced at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (virtually of course!) the winners of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards. The prize for writing went to Jacqueline Woodson and for illustration went to Albertine. All the congrats!

If Famous Celebrities Reading Harry Potter To You Is Your Dream:

Daniel Radcliffe will lead an all-star read-along of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

In The Club

In the Club 5/6

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date May 5, 2020

Sponsored by Flatiron Books, publisher of The Paris Hours by Alex George.

One day in the City of Light. One night in search of lost time.

Paris between the wars teems with artists, writers, and musicians, a glittering crucible of genius. But amidst the dazzling creativity of the city’s most famous citizens, four regular people are each searching for something they’ve lost. Told over the course of a single day in 1927, The Paris Hours takes four ordinary people whose stories, told together, are as extraordinary as the glorious city they inhabit.

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. This week I’m feeling the rage, yo. I’m trying to do my part and stay positive, but when I catch up on the news with only one eye open, I’m just tired. Today I’m pivoting from the comfort content I’ve given you the last few weeks and tossing in some books to help spark conversations on race and oppression. I’m acutely aware of how communities of color are disproportionately affected by all of this mess and encourage my beloved club members to think critically about that too.

But first, imma hit you with some comfort food. We all need it!

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

Friends. You know I love to cook. Pero…. the rona has stolen my joy. Not all the way, but I’ve def started looking at these pots and pans thinking, “This again?” If you too are getting sick and tired of cooking and don’t have the budget for a bunch of takeout, here’s one of my cheap go-to recipes for throwing stuff in a dish then tossing it into an oven. I make a big batch of this semi-homemade, super lazy enchilada casserole and freeze half of it for later.

Ingredients (real imprecise, sorrynotsorry)

shredded chicken
big can of enchilada sauce (red or green, up to you. I like the Pato, Herdez, or Las Palmas brands)
shredded Monterrey jack (or other melty white shredded cheese)
crappy white corn tortillas (I’m serious: don’t use the good ish on this sort of thing)
sour cream

Instructions: layer away in an oven-safe (obvi) casserole dish. Start with a little bit of sauce, then a layer of tortillas, then chicken, then sauce, then cheese. Repeat the layering until the pan is full, making sure the last layer is a whole mess of cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 min. Top each serving with some sour cream.

Book Club Full o’ Rage

Disclaimer: Like I’ve said and will continue to say throughout this pandemic, read whatever you feel comfortable reading right now, if you even want to read at all. This is the heaviest subject matter I’ve suggested for the club in a few weeks, but the situation in Michigan got me all fired up and I think reads like these will spark important conversations if you’re in the right state of mind to have them.

When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele – This is the first book that came to mind when I saw all those people with their assault rifles descending on Michigan’s Capitol building. That mess goes unchecked, but Black Lives Matter is labeled a terrorist organization? What Black Americans must feel, and what ALL of us should be feeling is just… a lot. This book says it better than I ever could, and one of its authors is a co-founder of BLM.

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo – It’s in the title: this is the book you read when you’re ready to have those tough conversations about race, privilege, and systemic oppression. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend? And also maybe: how do you tell a bunch of entitled gun-toting <insert-strong-expletive-here>s to stay home and learn how to care about other people? No one is saying it’ll be easy, but it must be done.

Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall – For way too many women, feminism is completely non-intersectional. That’s a problem. Mikki Kendall flames that particular brand of feminism, arguing that its loud, flashy focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. If your cause ignores issues like food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care for ALL women, it misses the point.

Suggestion Section

E! News rounded up a bunch of May celebrity book club picks.

This week in Entertainment Weekly’s Quarantine Book Club: how fashion books helped one reader look forward

Marvel has launched a weekly virtual book club with a roundup of celebrity guests!

Vox’s May book club pick has been staring at me from my bookshelf for yearrrrs: The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Thanks for hanging with me today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with your burning book club questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the Audiobooks newsletter, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa