Month: August 2020

Categories
What's Up in YA

This Week’s YA Book News and New YA Books

Hey YA Readers!

I hope you’re taking care of yourselves and staying well. Let’s take a look at this week’s small batch of YA book news and less-small batch of new YA book releases.

YA Book News

New Books This Week

So many books got shifted back to August, so prepare for this month to be packed with new book releases each week. A * means I’ve read and recommend the book.

*The Black Kids by Christina Hammond

Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak by Adi Alsaid (paperback)

Come November by Katrin van Dam (paperback)

Containment by Caryn Lix (paperback, series)

Court of Lions by Somaiya Daud (series)

Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers (paperback, series)

Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer De Leon

*Five Midnights by Ann Dávila Cardinal (paperback)

The Game by Linsey Miller (paperback)

The Girl The Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young (paperback)

The Good for Nothings by Danielle Banas

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig (paperback)

How We Became Wicked by Alexander Yates (paperback)

I Am Here Now by Barbara Bottner 

Igniting Darkness by Robin LaFevers (series)

Illegal by Francisco X. Stork

The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg (paperback)

lobizonaLobizona by Romina Garber (series)

The Lovely and the Lost by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (paperback)

A Map to the Sun by Sloane Leong

Maybe This Time by Kasie West (paperback)

More Than Just a Pretty Face by Syed M. Masood

The Morning Flower by Amanda Hocking (series, paperback)

Notes From a Former Virgin by Emma Chastain (series, paperback)

Quarantine: A Love Story by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc

Salvation by Caryn Lix (series)

Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin (paperback, series)

Set Fire to the Gods by Sara Raasch and Kristen Simmons

Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Kim Wells (paperback, series)

Some Kind of Animal by Maria Romasco-Moore

They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman

This Week at Book Riot

As many readers likely know, I have a book coming out on August 18 (it’s Body Talk and yes, preorders will get you some sweet swag!). I wanted to share a few rad virtual events I’m doing in conjunction with the release that I think will appeal to so many YA readers. All events are free.

  • Join myself, as well as YA luminaries Nic Stone, Julie Murphy, and Kati Gardner, writer and artist Jerlyn Thomas, and model Ady Del Valle on a panel moderated by incredible body activist Amy Pence-Brown for a discussion all about boobs with Charis Books. This will be an especially great panel for tweens and teens who have tons of questions about breasts, as we’ll be open, honest, and eager to field those inquiries. August 18, 8 pm Eastern time.
  • Rachael Lippincott, Eric Smith, Junauda Petrus-Nasah, Alicia Lutes, and I will be together on a panel Saturday, August 21 at 3 pm Central time with Blue Willow Bookshop.
  • Disability rights activist and powerhouse Alice Wong, as well as New York Times bestseller Rachael Lippincott will be in conversation with me on August 25 at 7 pm Central with Women and Children First.

There will be a couple more that I’ll share when they get closer. I promise this won’t become a regular section in the newsletter, but because I know how awesome it is to see so many authors virtually at once, I wanted to highlight these panels I’m stoked to be part of.

Thanks for hanging out, y’all, and we’ll see you with some great ebook deals on Saturday.

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram and editor of Body Talk, (Don’t) Call Me Crazy, and Here We Are.

Categories
Riot Rundown

080420-GreenLantern-RR

Categories
Canada Giveaways

080420-Legendborn-CanadaGiveaway

We’re giving away five advanced reader copies of Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn to five lucky Riot readers!

Enter here for a chance to win, or click the cover image below!

Here’s what it’s all about:

After her mother dies, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus and learns of a secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on Arthurian legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic.

Categories
The Stack

080420-AllTogetherNow-The-Stack

Categories
Giveaways

080420-WhenNoOneIsWatching-Giveaway

We’re giving away 100 audio downloads of When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole to 100 lucky Riot readers!

Enter here for a chance to win, or click the cover image below!

Here’s what it’s all about:

Rear Window meets Get Out in this gripping thriller from a critically acclaimed and New York Times Notable author Alyssa Cole, in which the gentrification of a Brooklyn neighborhood takes on a sinister new meaning…

“I was knocked over by the momentum of an intense psychological thriller that doesn’t let go until the final page. This is a terrific read.” -Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author

Performed by Susan Dalian and Jay Aaseng. Prizes fulfilled by Libro.fm.

Categories
New Books

Hooray, It’s Time for August’s Giant List of New Books!

Hey there book nerds! Happy Tuesday and welcome to August already! Normally, I think of summer as the time where there aren’t a whole heck of a lot of new books hitting shelves (spring and fall tend to be the big new release seasons) but thanks to COVID-19 we’ve seen a lot of shuffled release dates and this month is packed with amazing new books.

I’m particularly excited about the new Denise Mina thriller, The Less Dead, which is my current read. I’m also eager to dive into Six Angry Girls by Adrienne Kisner, and the graphic novel A Map to the Sun by Sloane Leong, which I already have on preorder. I also am excited about Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden and the first female translation of Beowulf!

Are you ready for this? Here we go!

12 Second of Silence: How a Team of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Spies Took Down a Nazi Superweapon by Jamie Holmes

Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio by Mario Giordano

All Together Now by Hope Larson

A Furious Sky: A Five-Hundred Year History of America’s Hurricanes by Eric Jay Dolin

Being Lolita by Alisson Wood

Court of Lions by Somaiya Daud

Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston

Creating Anna Karenina by Bob Blaisdell

Death of a Telenovela Star by Teresa Dovalpage

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Imperfect Women by Araminta Hall

Eliot Ness and the Mad Butcher by Max Alan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz

lobizonaLobizona by Romina Garber

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed

The Death of Vivek Oji by Awkaeke Emezi

The Eight Detective by Alex Pavesi

The Fixed Stars by Molly Wizenberg

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria

The Daughters of Ys by M.T. Anderson and Jo Rioux

Iron Empires by Michael Hiltzik

No Offense by Meg Cabot

Kiss My Cupcake by Helena Hunting

The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman

Twenty After Midnight by Daniel Galera

Zo by Xander Miller

The Monsters We Make by Kali White

Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy edited by Kelly Jenson

Dating Makes Perfect by Pintip Dunn

Many People Die Like You by Lina Wolff

Northernmost by Peter Geye

Six Angry Girls by Adrienne Kisner

Soul Full of Coal Dust by Chris Hamby

The London Restoration by Rachel McMillan

Stealing Mt. Rushmore by Daphne Kalmar

The Less Dead by Denise Mina

The New American by Micheline Aharonian Marcom

The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls by Ursula Hegi

The Switch by Beth O’Leary

Vicious Spirits by Kat Cho

The Search Party by Simon Lelic

Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahavan Headley

Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram

Dear Girl by Aija Mayrock

Killer Kung Pao by Vivien Chien

Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale

Sisters by Daisy Johnson

Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig

Now That I’ve Found You by Kristina Forest

Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen

The Growing Season by Sarah Frey

The Wrong Mr. Darcy by Evelyn Lozada

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Yay, you made it to the bottom! Thanks for subscribing, and happy reading!

Tirzah

Categories
The Kids Are All Right

New Children’s Book Releases for August 4, 2020

Hello Readers,

I hope you’re having the best first week of August, so far, and getting some sun and summer fun in where you can. I’m Sharifah, subbing in for this week’s edition of new releases, highlighting some of this week’s fabulous kidlit titles. Take a gander:

The Ocean Calls: A Haenyeo Mermaid Story by Tina Cho, illustrated by Jess X. Snow (5 – 8 years)

Time for a gorgeous picture book featuring a free diving grandmother and intergenerational bonds! Dayeon aspires to be a haenyeo–a free diver–just like her grandmother and so many generations of Korean women. Dayeon practices and practices, but when the time comes to give it a go, a scary memory of the sea halts her progress. With Gradma’s help, Dayeon might be able to overcome her fears and connect with the natural world.

A Journey Toward Hope by Victor Hinojosa, Coert Voorhees, and illustrated by Susan Guevara (6 – 8 years)

This book sounds like an excellent starting point for conversations about migration. A Journey Toward Hope follows four unaccompanied migrant children journeying from Central America to the United States through Mexico. The kids, coming from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, each making the journey for unique reasons, band together to get across the border safely. The book is written in collaboration with Baylor University’s Social Innovation Collaborative, and even includes additional information and resources created by Baylor University’s Global Hunger and Migration Project.

Birrarung Wilam: A Story from Aboriginal Australia by Aunty Joy Murphy, Andrew Kelly, and illustrated by Lisa Kennedy (6 – 9 years)

Just look at this beautiful picture book featuring an Aboriginal story. Aunty Joy Murphy is a Senior Wurundjeri elder of the Kulin Nation who, along with Andrew Kelly, brings us a celebration of Indigenous culture and Australia’s ecology. Birrarung Wilam tells the Indigenous and geographical story of Melbourne’s Yarra River through both poetic descriptions of the region’s flora and fauna and stunning illustrations by Lisa Kennedy. You also get a glossary of the Woiwurrung words used in the story.

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears by Tehlor Kay Mejia (8 – 12 years)

Fans of the Rick Riordan Presents series of books and the We Set the Dark on Fire author, rejoice! Here’s a new middle grade fantasy adventure based on the Mexican legend of La Llorona (a truly frightening story, in case you haven’t heard it). Twelve-year-old Paola Santiago is all about science, and is totally embarrassed by her mom’s superstitions. She knows better than to venture to the river where a schoolmate was drowned, and where, she’s been warned, La Llorona lurks. But a mysterious sighting by the Gila will test Pao’s assumptions about the legend and send her on a journey into a frightening realm to find her friend.

The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf (8 – 12 years)

Here’s a middle grade debut based on a chilling Malaysian folk tale. A dark spirit appears with the announcement that it’s Suraya’s inheritance and hers to command. Suraya and the pelesit, a gift from her grandmother, become inseparable. But when Pink’s dark side surfaces, the friends have to find a way to defeat the darkness. Sounds like this is a good one for conversations about jealousy and overcoming obstacles in friendships. I love seeing lesser-known mythologies and ghost stories in books.

All Together Now by Hope Larson (10 – 14 years)

If you loved Hope Larson’s All Summer Long, don’t miss this middle grade graphic novel and standalone sequel. This one sounds like an especially good pick for the musically inclined. Bina is in a band with her friends, and things are going splendidly until Darcy and Enzo start dating. Nobody likes being the third wheel, and things get even more complicated when Bina’s bestie starts developing a crush on her and she can’t return the feelings. Navigating friendships isn’t always easy; All Together Now might be the relatable content someone out there needs.

Categories
Check Your Shelf

Alright, Alright, Alright: Matthew McConaughey Has a Memoir

Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I’ll get to the library/book stuff in a minute, but first: we added a new feline member of our family this week! Say hello to Houdini, who is a world-class snuggle monster and an absolute doll! We still miss our Star every day, but we were ready to find another kitty who needed a home.

Okay, back to book stuff!

Collection Development Corner

Publishing News

New & Upcoming Titles

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

RA/Genre Resources

On the Riot

All Things Comics

On the Riot

Audiophilia

On the Riot

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens

Adults

On the Riot

Level Up (Library Reads)

Do you take part in Library Reads, the monthly list of best books selected by librarians only? We’ve made it easy for you to find eligible diverse titles to nominate. Kelly Jensen created a database of upcoming diverse books that anyone can edit, and Nora Rawlins of Early Word is doing the same, as well as including information about series, vendors, and publisher buzz.

Mask up and stay hydrated. See you on Friday!

—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.

Categories
Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for August 4

Happy Tuesday, space pirates! It’s Alex, and there are SO MANY books coming out today. I’ve also got news for you, a lot of it Hugo-centric. And… I’m tired. WorldCon was shockingly exhausting for something that I attended via my house, partly because it… had some problems (see the news section for more info). Going back to work feels like a great break from my vacation, at this point.

Stay safe, and I’ll see you on Friday!

Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? blacklivesmatter.card.co and The Okra Project.

New Releases

The First Sister by Linden Lewis – The women of the Sisterhood have no name and no voice; they are “comfort women” that travel the stars alongside the soldiers of Earth and Mars. When First Sister’s captain dies, leaving her with no allies, she is ordered to spy on the new captain, Saito Ren, who has deadly enemies of his own.

Court of Lions by Somaya Daud – Amani, the body double of Princess Maram, is held in isolation. The world outside is ready for revolution, and any wrong move could get Amani executed for treason. But Maram wants Amani to play her part one more time in court…

Harrow the Ninth by Tasyn Muir – Harrow has been drafted by the Emperor to fight an unwinnable war–and as if that’s not bad enough, she has to cooperate with her most detested rival while her own health is failing and her mind threatens to unravel.

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson – Welcome to the multiverse, travel at will—but with one important catch. You can’t go to any world where your counterpart is still alive. Cara is an outlier who has died in almost all possible universes, and that makes her the ideal agent–and she’s happy to just be plucked out of the wasteland. But when one of her few remaining multiverse dopplegangers mysteriously dies, she begins to realize her own place in a plot that endangers all of the worlds.

Lobizona by Romina Garber – Manuela is an undocumented immigrant in hiding in Miami. When her mother is arrested by ICE and her grandmother is attacked, Manuela follows the only clues she has of her dead father and his criminal past. Those clues lead her to folklore about brujas and lobizónes, and to the horrible conclusion that her real heritage may make her very life illegal…

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy – Franny is a wanderer and lover of the rapidly-disappearing wild. She begins a journey to Greenland to see the last flock of Arctic terns and witness their final migration. But Franny has a lot of secrets, and their unraveling might very well threaten the crew of the ship carrying her on this journey.

Poe Dameron: Free Fall by Alex Segura – After the death of his mother, teenaged Poe runs away from home to search for adventure.

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer – The story of Twilight, told now from Edward’s perspective.

News and Views

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Sir Julius Vogel Awards! (I already ordered a copy of The Dawnhounds because it sounds fun as heck.) We will be talking more about these awards and the awesome books involved on Friday, so stayed tuned.

Congratulations for the winners of this year’s Hugo and Not-a-Hugo Awards! A Memory Called Empire won Best Novel and This Is How You Lose the Time War won Best Novella.

The awards themselves were, frankly, A Mess. A really upsetting, embarrassing, terrible mess thanks to Toastmaster GRRM spending more time talking about, say, noted racist and fascist John W. Campbell, for whom an award is no longer named, than any of the nominees for this year’s Astounding Award. That said, I’d rather focus on the winners, most of whom gave excellent speeches in opposition to the remarks that made the ceremony last over three and a half hours. Speeches of note:

You can also watch an edit of the Hugo Awards that’s just the good bits, which is only an hour and 40 minutes long here.

Cora Buhlert’s thoughts on the ceremony. Also definitely worth reading are thoughts from Cheryl Morgan and Natalie Luhrs.

The CoNZealand Fringe is a bit of companion programming that got set up by fans so there’d be a few more panels with European-friendly times. You can watch the recorded panels here.

Kacen Callender on the humanization of authors

Twelfth Planet Press is running a Kickstarter for a new anthology, Rebuilding Tomorrow

Olivia Munn showing off her sword skills

On Book Riot

28 J.R.R. Tolkien quotes form his books, essays, and letters

I’ve missed a couple episodes of the SFF Yeah! Podcast, mea culpa. Let’s catch up:

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
Today In Books

Christopher Columbus’s Letters Stolen From World Libraries: Today In Books

Christopher Columbus’ Letters Stolen From World Libraries

After Christopher Columbus’s 1942 journey, he wrote a letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain asking for more money (colonizing is expensive) and describing his findings. While the original letter no longer exists, copies of the letter, printed and distributed upon his return, do. And they’ve been stolen, and replaced with forgeries, from prestigious libraries around the world.

Lady Macbeth YA Musical

Channing Tatum (Magic Mike, 21 Jump Street) is producing a YA musical film about Lady Macbeth for Amazon Studios. S.J. Inwards will write and John McPhail (Anna and the Apocalypse) will direct. While the story details are being kept secret for now “the story is said to center on a teenage girl who grapples with her own morality as she contends with the dreadful consequences of her ambition.”

Jenna Bush Hager Picks Two Books

Jenna Bush Hager’s Read With Jenna book club was so excited about what we could read during August that she chose two books, a novel and memoir essays, instead of the usual one: Here for It by R. Eric Thomas and The Comeback by Ella Berman.

History And Book Recs

Join us in celebrating the anniversary of women’s suffrage in the US!