Sponsored by our 'Books by authors you should get to know' Book Bundle Giveaway!
Book Riot is teaming up with BookClubbish to give away one book bundle containing 5 books by authors you should add to your TBR list: The Woman Before Wallis by Bryn Turnbull, Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West, The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi, The Bright Lands by John Fram, and A Good Family by A.H. Kim.
Happy Friday, shipmates! We did it. We survived another week. Assuming that you haven’t completely transcended the mortal construct that is time at this point. It’s Alex, with a list of books that came out very silly, and some news items to share, many of which involve pre-orders being available so Past You can send Future You a nice present.
I hope you can keep on keeping on, and stay safe out there.
Happy thing for today: The new season of GBBO starts on Netflix TONIGHT. I am going to bake cake ALL WEEKEND.
Also, the Gundam is WALKING
Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? Louisville Community Bail Fund
News and Views
Cassandra Khaw has written her first full-length novel! You can already pre-order The All-Consuming World.
We’ve also got a cover reveal and excerpt for P. Djèlí Clark’s A Master of Djinn, which sure sounds like it’s in the same delightful universe as The Haunting of Tram Car 015.
Darcia Little Badger talks beautifully about her father, her grief for him, and the influence he had on her as a writer.
Rhianna Pratchett: “Dad would be smiling to see my name on a book”
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki announced the launch of The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction.
You can now pre-order Silk & Steel: A Queer Speculative Fiction Anthology
The last words of every fallen Lord of the Rings villain and hero
Judith Butler ethered both a completely unprepared interviewer and She Who Must Not Be Named with the grace of an ice dancer and the supreme cutting edge and power of a diamond-bladed pathology saw.
I know I’m wandering a little far from books here, but everything I’ve read about the African Fantasy MMO The Wagadu Chronicles is just really cool
The Evolution of Costumes in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Get your avocados to Mars
On Book Riot
9+ Tolkien-inspired recipes to enjoy on Hobbit day
5 great speculative fiction anthologies of 2020
This month, you can enter to win $50 to spend at your favorite indie bookstore and a free 1-year audible subscription.
Free Association Friday: Happy Birthday, Mark Hamill!
On this day in 1951, Mark Hamill entered the world. Presumably he was not yet wielding a lightsaber, as that could have gotten very awkward. So how about some books that touch on his incredibly varied career?
Please note: Since I was looking for very specific books, this list didn’t come out with quite the diverse authorship I normally want. But hopefully it’s still fun and silly, at least.
The Joker: A Visual History of the Clown Prince of Crime by Daniel Wallace – This is the hill I will die on: Mark Hamill is the best Joker there has ever been (though I will also accept Cesar Romero). And Mark Hamill himself wrote the introduction to this book!
The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu – Luke is obviously Mark Hamill’s most iconic character, and this book explores the stories that the characters within the Star Wars universe tell about him–which may be true or not.
Or if you want a book that’s very Luke-centric from Legends, I definitely recommend Children of the Jedi by Barbara Hambly.
Zorro by Isabel Allende – Mark Hamill totally voiced Zorro in an animated version of the tale, 1997-1998. This book is not about those cartoons, but it sounds like a cool book about Zorro nonetheless.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy by Michael Teitelbaum – I had absolutely no idea that Mark Hamill was the voice of Fire Lord Ozai until I started really diving into his work history. So if you didn’t know either, now you know. There’s some cool backstory stuff about the Fire Nation (and Ozai) to be found in this here book.
How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell – You see, when DreamWorks made movies from these books, they also made a TV series. Mark Hamill was the voice of Alvin the Treacherous in those, which honestly sounds like a lot of fun.
Wing Commander: Heart of the Tiger by – William R. Forstchen and Andrew Keith – The first time I actually saw Mark Hamill outside of his role as Luke Skywalker was when I played Wing Commander III… which I never finished because our PC at the time couldn’t handle it. But it was cutting edge, it had video of him and everything. He plays Colonel Christopher “Maverick” Blair, the main character.
The Art of Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki – Yup, Mark Hamill did a voice in the English dub of Laputa: Castle in the Sky (he was Muska.) It’s also still one of my favorite Miyazaki films, which doesn’t actually have anything to do with Mark Hamill, though I’m sure his presence didn’t hurt.
I also learned that there is a cartoon called Biker Mice From Mars (based on comics) and he voiced the character Pierre Fluffbottom, so if I have to know that, so do you.
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.