Author: Devin Service

We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter, or just click the image below.

Season 1 of our new podcast series Annotated is complete! Each episode is about 20 minutes long and is great for fans of podcasts like This American Life. Go here to check it out, or just click the image below:

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by David Kranes, abracadabra, University of Nevada Press.

Abracadabra begins with Mark Goodson, a seemingly well-adjusted married man, disappearing during a magic act. It falls to a former professional football player, Elko Wells, to uncover the far darker story of Mark’s marriage and family and weave together a story at once compelling and true. Magicians and misdirection, gambling, down-on-one’s-luck, the crazed sense of possibility and impossibility, mistaken identity, impersonators and body doubles, people acting bizarrely with all sorts of chaos, and overlaps thrown in for good measure. The twists this plot takes are all but impossible to anticipate. Reading Abracadabra is deliciously magical.

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Ever the Brave by Erin Summerill.

The stakes are higher than ever in the sequel to the romantic fantasy adventure Ever the Hunted, as Britta struggles to protect her kingdom and her heart. After saving King Aodren with her newfound Channeler powers, Britta only wants to live a peaceful life in her childhood home. Unfortunately, saving the King has created a tether between them she cannot sever, no matter how much she’d like to, and now he’s insisting on making her a noble lady. If Britta cannot find a way to harness her new magical ability, her life—as well as her country—may be lost.

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo.

Inspired by myth, fairy tale, and folklore, #1 New York Times-bestselling author Leigh Bardugo has crafted a deliciously atmospheric collection of short stories filled with betrayals, revenge, sacrifice, and love. Perfect for new readers and dedicated fans, the lavishly illustrated tales in The Language of Thorns will transport you to lands both familiar and strange—to a fully realized world of dangerous magic that millions have visited through the novels of the Grishaverse.

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Penguin Random House Audio.

Listening to an audiobook can bring family and friends together this holiday season. Listen to Turtles All the Way Down by John Green on your next family road trip and discuss the important themes of the story. Or, listen to Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak with your friends at book club to prepare for the holiday season. Connect, listen, and discuss with audiobooks from Penguin Random House Audio.

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Imperfect Justice by Cara Putman.

To the world it seems obvious: Kaylene Adams killed her daughter and then was shot by police. Attorney Emilie Wesley believes Kaylene would never hurt anyone and was looking for a way out of an abusive relationship.

Reid Billings thought he knew his sister. He discovers a letter from Kaylene begging him to fight for custody of her daughters if anything should happen to her and tells him to get help from Emilie Wesley.

Thrown together in a race to save Kaylene’s surviving daughter, Emilie and Reid must find the truth—and maybe a future together in the process.