Author: Jenn Northington

In The Club Aug 23

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date August 16, 2017

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Let’s dive in.

This newsletter is sponsored by Book Riot Insiders.

Join your fellow book nerds at Book Riot Insiders and get a sweet store deal, exclusive content, the magical New Releases Index, and more!

Open for debate: Is “up lit” a thing? Should we make it a thing? Somewhat related: here are 100 Books About Happiness.

Starting a book club that doesn’t suck: some tips. Rebecca breaks down book clubs into their components and considers everything from how to choose books to how to make sure your group is as accessible as possible. Thorough and helpful!

Squeeze one last round of summer reading in: The National Book Foundation asked some authors to share their own summer picks, and the range of recommendations is large and awesome.

Keeping up with the Booker: the longlist has been released! There are several Book Riot favorites on here (Exit West; Home Fire; Lincoln in the Bardo; Underground Railroad) all of which would make for excellent discussion material.

Want to try a romance but don’t know where to start? Historical romances are some of the most popular and accessible in the romance world. The other major players are contemporary — think Sleepless In Seattle — and paranormal — think vampires. Some romances blend genres, but these are where most folks start. And if historical sounds good to you, we’ve got a list of Georgian, Regency, and Victorian romances that might fit the bill!

You’re a rocker, you rock out: Have we got a reading list for you. Rachel lists seven biographies and memoirs about rock’n’roll musicians and groups that would pair nicely with a dance party, should your group need a more interactive approach!

Spotlight: Web Adaptations of Classics

In case you hadn’t noticed, YouTube is overflowing with modern adaptations of classic literature. You can easily fall down a Google rabbithole if you’re interested, but to save you some time I’ve rounded some up! And because the episodes are so short, it’s easy enough to add a few to any discussion of a classic work. Side note, if anyone out there is looking for an idea I would die for a modern adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude and/or Their Eyes Were Watching God!

– The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, adapting Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
– Carmilla, adapting Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan le Fanu
– Middlemarch: The Series, adapting Middlemarch by George Eliot
– Frankenstein, MD, adapting Frankestein by Mary Shelley
– Nothing Much To Do, adapting Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
– Emma Approved, adapting Emma by Jane Austen
– Green Gables Fables, adapting Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
– All For One, adapting The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
– In Earnest, adapting The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

And that’s a wrap: Happy discussing! If you’re interested in science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

Insiders

Behind The Scenes pt 1 August

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date August 16, 2017

It is mid-August, which means it is time for a new deal and another peak behind the scenes! Our Art Director Scott Borchert sat down with Jenn to talk about what exactly it looks like to be in the design trenches for Book Riot. But first, your exclusive Insiders deal of the month:

Get $25 off any purchase of $100 or more, using code BIGDEALINSIDE!

Jenn: I heard a rumor that your cat has appeared in more than one Book Riot campaign. Care to confirm?

Scott: The rumor is true. My cat, Danzig, has been my best friend since I found him in the bushes 14 years ago. We have been through a heck of a lot over the years, but it does not change one cold, hard truth: my cat is a freeloader. One day I sat down with him and tried to explain to him the concept of money; how all the things that he enjoys in life, furminators, refrigerated cat food, the couch he sleeps on, are not free and that I have to pay money for them. We came to an understanding that he was going to do more to pitch in and the resulting agreement was that I could use his likeness to promote goods and products for Book Riot and he could continue to do what he does best: sleep and be awesome.

promotions that include Scott's cat

Jenn: Give us an idea of what your day-to-day is like. Is there such a thing as a normal day in the design world?

Scott: No, not really. And I guess that is what I like most about what I do. There is very little redundancy from day to day as far as design is concerned at least. But most days start out something like this: I hop on the Q train at 57th/7th Avenue and head towards Downtown Brooklyn. I can usually squeeze in about a half hour of reading there. The office is a shared workspace type deal, that I share with our web developer Alex. An obscene amount of coffee is made and consumed whilst checking through Slack and catching up on any emails. Then it is on to Asana, the task management system that we use here at Book Riot to dole out tasks to one another. Let’s see what’s on the docket today…

a screenshot of Scott's to do list for the day: QA Search Results scrolling bug; Logo Concept; finalize Behind the Scenes interview; Aug-Sept Insiders store deal; $20 tees, free pouch OOP promo creative; Creative for All the Backlist; September Insiders Creative; Social images for Recommended; resize tote-pouch creative from OOP

Jenn: What’s your all-time favorite book?

Scott: Sort of inspired by this post on Book Riot, I was looking for something daunting to read on my phone during my commutes. I didn’t really know anything about Don Quixote other than 1. It’s long and 2. It’s old. I figured that this would make for a slog of a read, full of difficult, antiquated prose and that it would defeat me within a single train ride. I was wrong. I was hooked from the beginning and subsequently found myself laughing out loud during my commute. I didn’t, however, read the whole thing on my phone, so I guess it did defeat me in that regard. I think there is something to be said for the distance something has to travel between your original expectation and where it winds up to become an all-time favorite.

Jenn: What’s been the hardest design project you’ve worked on for Book Riot, and why?

Scott: Probably the New Release Index. We had never tackled something like that before and it was a pretty monumental undertaking for myself and Alex. There were so many decisions that had to be made on such a micro level to try create a seamless and intuitive user experience. You also learn with projects like this that just because you think you have come up with an elegant design solution, it is not always feasible from a programmatic standpoint. So there is give and take and constantly trying to find a middle ground that everyone is comfortable with. That was the hardest project based on size and scope, but there are other, smaller projects that can be challenging as well. Design is a funny thing and you can’t control where or when creativity or inspiration will hit you. There are projects where I know instantly what direction I want to take something, and others where I am flailing around helplessly in Photoshop for hours on end trying to make pieces fit together. I much prefer the former.

Jenn: Related, do you have an all-time favorite?

Scott: Book Riot Live – The Sequel. I thought the direction that we took achieved what I had set out to do, which was marry the excitement and energy of the event and that of NYC while staying playful and fun. It’s challenging but rewarding to take a concept and see it across so many different mediums, whether it’s a website, banner ads, t-shirts, posters, to an actual frickin’ giant custom neon sign. Who knew that you could get so much mileage out a pigeon wearing a bowler hat? Speaking of which, if anyone is interested giving a home to said neon sign, you can drop me a line here. It’s been living under my bed in my apartment since BRL and it’s looking for a new home.

Jenn: You work on everything from logo designs for podcasts, to site layout, to ad campaigns, to font choices for social images, to t-shirt and merchandise designs (and I’m probably missing some things in there). Is the design process different for each thing, or are there some things that are the same no matter what the end product is?

Scott: The process for each is pretty unique. Each has its own set of guidelines and limitations that must be adhered to. Creating a design for a t-shirt and designing a website are entirely different ends with different intended results. But there are common threads that tie all of them together. The way I try to look at it is like this: Book Riot is a company. It has a unique set of values and principles at its core that make it what it is. So long as in everything that I do, I can look at and see that it points back to those principles in some way, then I know that I am on the right track.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Aug 18

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date August 16, 2017

Happy Friday! I hope you have all crushed this past week’s enemies and driven them before you. Today we’re talking about Trish Trash and The Stone Sky, plus the 2017 Hugo winners, Octavia Butler adaptation news, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan.

Elliot is smart, just a tiny bit obnoxious (he is thirteen years old), and perhaps not the best person to cross into the Borderlands where there are elves, harpies, and — best of all as far as he’s concerned — mermaids. In Other Lands is an exhilarating a novel about surviving four years in the most unusual of schools, about friendship, falling in love, diplomacy, and finding your own place in the world — even if it means giving up your phone.

The 2017 Hugo Award winners have been announced! Congratulations to all the winners; obviously I am particularly thrilled about NK Jemisin, not only because she has now won it twice but also because TNT IS ADAPTING The Fifth Season!, excuse me while I run around screaming about my feelings!!!!!!

Also! Ava DuVernay is adapting Octavia Butler’s Dawn (Xenogenesis 1) and it is an actual dream come true. Given how excellent DuVernay’s work has been in the past and how great the trailer for A Wrinkle in Time looks, I am over the moon. Sometimes we can have nice things!

Forget passing the NEWTs at Hogwarts, can you pass a quiz about the NEWTs? I could not. No seriously, I only got two right.

Do you need more supernatural teenagers in your reading? This list of 100 inclusive YA SFF books is for you, then. Shout-out to Dreadnought by April Daniels, which you will be hearing more about next week!

Do you need more Game of Thrones chatter and analysis in your life? Vulture has a list of five podcasts that can help with that. My own vote has to go to A Storm of Spoilers, based entirely on name.

How about some ebook deals? This month there are a few that are perfect for completing your series collections, and each is less than $3!
– Lives of Tao series by Wesley Chu: Deaths of Tao (#2) and The Rebirths of Tao (#3)
– Worldbreaker Saga by Kameron Hurley: Empire Ascendant (#2)

For today’s reviews, we’ve got roller derby in space and earth magic!

Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars Volume 1 and Volume 2 by Jessica Abel

Please meet one of my favorite graphic novel series of the past year — which felt inevitable once I heard the “rollerderby on Mars” pitch. You might know Abel from her previous work (La Perdida, Out on the Wire, Life Sucks, to name just a few) but this is her first foray into outer space, and it’s worth joining her for the journey.

Trish lives on Mars with her aunt and uncle, helping out on their farm. She’s great at fixing things but her real dream is to become a hoverderby star, and when tryouts for the local team are held she thinks she’s that much closer. Too young to make the team, she takes an internship instead — much to her family’s dismay. Juggling school and work on the farm is hard enough, and then one day she discovers a wounded native Martian (largely considered mythical to the human inhabitants) and accidentally saves its life.

Abel is tackling a lot in Trish Trash. The settlers of Mars are almost all indebted to the company that funded the initial exploration and settlement, and there are serious water shortages and little hope of a solution. Poverty and labor camps are widespread. Add to that the displaced native Martians, and you’ve got a lot of layers beneath the hoverderby track. But Abel manages the balance well. Rather than have characters infodump in conversation, each novel includes backmatter that lays out the history of Mars and its complicated present situation. And Trish and her friends and family bring all the hijinks and personality you could want. I’ll be keeping an eye out for Volume 3!

The Stone Sky by NK Jemisin (Broken Earth #3)

Considering that The Obelisk Gate (Broken Earth #2) just won the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel, likely no one is surprised that I’m recommending The Stone Sky. Hot off the presses and newly released as of this past Tuesday, it’s the jaw-dropping conclusion (literally, my jaw dropped) to the Broken Earth series and it’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a third installment.

Mild spoilers for the series follow, so if you want zero plot discussion just go ahead and get yourself all three books and start reading!

The Obelisk Gate left Nassun and Essun finally aware of each other’s location and powers, but many miles apart. The stone eater factions have revealed their goals, and now the fate of the world is hanging in the balance. While The Stone Sky takes us forward to the moment of truth, it also takes us back in time and reveals more history of the Guardians, the obelisks, and the sundering of the Moon. If you’ve been wanting a deeper look at the history of this world, you will be delighted; Jemisin balances the plotline that began in The Fifth Season with a new past narrative that is just as compelling as any other thread we’ve had throughout the series — and there have been many. The conclusion had me white-knuckling my way through the final chapters, and devestated that the story has come to an end.

I’ll be rereading the whole series before long; for those of you who may have read The Obelisk Gate a while back I do recommend a reread. Jemisin does a solid job of providing context where she can without bogging down the narrative, but there were moments where I had to pause to try to remember certain previous characters and plot points. After all, it’s not as though a reread is a hardship. Jemisin’s best, most complex series to date, Broken Earth has reached the top five in my personal list of favorite series, and it will take a hell of a lot to dethrone it.

That’s it for this week! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Aug 11

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date August 9, 2017

Happy Friday, slayers and spacefarers! Today we’re talking about the Mercy Thompson series and Miles Morales, plus action heroines, kids fantasy books, space colonization, and more.

This post is sponsored by Vanguard by Ann Aguirre.

Ann Aguirre’s bestselling Razorland saga continues with Vanguard!

Adventures almost never go according to plan, and when Tegan understands what her heart truly wants, it might change her life forever. . . .

We have an amazing new shirt celebrating four bad-ass ladies of science fiction and fantasy, and you could win one! That giveaway closes this Sunday, 8/13, so get clicking.

It’s not looking good for our future on Europa: icy planets like it might skip a habitable period altogether, even if there is increased heat available from their suns. Back to the space-colonization drawing board…

Vulture has declared the 11 most influential action heroines; how do we feel about this list? I can’t quite decide — it does have Ripley from Alien and Letty from The Fast and Furious, but where is Leia the Huttslayer?

In adaptation news, China Mieville’s The City and the City is coming to TV! BBC Two has adapted it into a four-part drama. I don’t know how to feel about David Morrissey as Borlú, but I am all about Mandheep Dillon for Corwi. Also, I need to reread it immediately.

Last week on SFF Yeah we talked about middle-grade fantasy and sci-fi, and this week has provided a 100 Best Middle-Grade Fantasy Books post as the perfect follow-up.

And of course, some whimsy: Powerpuff/Avengers mash-up perfection!

In today’s reviews, we’ve got urban fantasy and a superhero novel (which, come to think of it, is not that far from urban fantasy).

The Mercy Thompson series: Moon Called, Blood Bound, and Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs

While I’m not a regular reader of urban fantasy, I am a diehard fan of a few series in particular. Kate Daniels what what! And there’s no way I can stop reading the Dresden Files now that we’re so close to the end. So it was with surprise I found I had been missing out on a great one: the Mercy Thompson books by Patricia Briggs. Thanks to the Insiders Forum, I have been shown the error of my ways.

Mercy Thompson is an auto mechanic with her own small shop, her ex-boss is some kind of gremlin, her neighbor is the Alpha of the local werewolf pack, one of her clients is a vampire, and she herself is a walker — she can turn into a coyote basically whenever she wants. Supernaturals represent! Humanity is only marginally aware of them, of course; while the Fae have gone public, werewolves and vampires are still undercover, and Mercy herself isn’t eager to share her magical nature with anyone, be it local law enforcement or other beings. She’s led a pretty low-key life since she left her adopted werewolf family, and she’s trying to keep it that way. (Good luck with that, Mercy.)

What immediately sets Mercy apart from many other UF hero/ines is her lack of grumpiness. I love me a good cranky protagonist, but it’s nice to have a change of pace from time to time. She’s pragmatic; she’s tough without being isolated or prickly; she’s got friends and, while family is complicated for her, she’s built her own found family. She’s stubborn and independent, but knows when to back off and when to rely on others for help. She’s got even got a sense of humor! If you can’t tell, I adore her.

Moon Called is, as you might guess from the title, focused on werewolves; Blood Bound deals with vampires, and Iron Kissed with the Fae. While I could have used a heads-up about the rape sequence in Iron Kissed (consider yourselves warned!), on the whole I have enjoyed the Hel out of these books. The supporting characters are multidimensional, diverse, and important to the plot development; the ethnic representation is handled respectfully in as far as I am able to judge; and Mercy is the kick-ass heroine of my heart. While her path grows increasingly dark from book to book, and her life becomes more and more complex, she retains her spirit, her sense of humor, and her immense compassion and humanity. I just picked up Book 4 from the library, and look forward to continuing on.

Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds

For the record, I have never read a Miles Morales comic and am not a Spider-Man fan in general. The odds of me watching a Spider-Man movie or read a Spidey comic are very low. (Although I will admit that Tom Holland’s turn in Civil War made that fight scene an all-time favorite.) So why did I pick up this novel? Because I’ve read Jason Reynolds before, and was curious to see what this award-winning YA writer would do with a licensed character.

The answer is, what he does best! Miles, his family, and his friends are amazing: they are complicated, messy, real characters. Basically any chapter in which two people were having a real conversation was immediately my favorite scene, whether it was Miles and his parents, barbershop banter, roommate hijinks with Ganke, awkward flirting — it’s all there on the page, and all fantastic. Miles’s doubts and fears about his own role and abilities as a superhero feel genuine, and I would have loved to see this thread developed even further! Reynolds also takes a hard look at systemic racism, the prison industrial complex, and its affect on young people of color, which is not something you see every day (any day??) in comics.

If Miles Morales has a flaw it’s that Reynolds is new to writing about superheroes, and the action sequences show it. But for me, the characters were well worth the read.

And that’s all she wrote! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Live long and prosper,
Jenn

In The Club

In the Club Aug 9

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date August 8, 2017

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Let’s dive in.

This newsletter is sponsored by Impossible Views of the World by Lucy Ives, published by Penguin Press.

Stella Krakus, a curator at Manhattan’s renowned Central Museum of Art, is having the roughest week in approximately ever. Her soon-to-be ex-husband (the perfectly awful Whit Ghiscolmbe) is stalking her, a workplace romance with “a fascinating, hyper-rational narcissist” is in free-fall, and a beloved colleague, Paul, has gone missing. Pulsing with neurotic humor and dagger-sharp prose, Impossible Views of the World is a dazzling debut novel about how to make it through your early thirties with your brain and heart intact.

Let’s talk about the canon: specifically, some books by women of color that should be added to it, plus their current-canon read-alikes. I love this list and these picks, and can imagine a ton of great discussions around them. Highly recommended reading!

Does your book group need more murder? (We’re not here to judge.) Here are 5 crime must-reads out this month that might just fit the bill, including a science-fictional murder mystery, a new female detective in Stockholm, a stand-alone from Karin Slaughter, and a debut from the show-runner of Bones.

Related: how about some murderesses? Here’s a list of 10 female killers, ranging from Medea to Misery.

Let’s flip this script. What about ladies who solve the crimes, specifically sassy teen ladies? Here’s a list of Veronica Mars read-alikes (for real, though). Tirzah has specific comparisons for you, including some Logan GIFs, which I am sure you will be as delighted by as I was.

Read like Gabourey Sidibe! The actress and newly-minted author is a book nerd, and here’s a collection of her picks from Instagram to prove it. What I love about this is that it’s primarily nonfiction and true crime.

Need help finding trans authors in your favorite genre, whatever that might be? We’ve got a post for that. Constance has assembled recommendations across kids books, nonfiction, sci-fi, mystery, travel writing, poetry — it’s very extensive, and very handy!

Does your book group need more sharks? (What book group does not, I ask you.) Live/read every week like it’s Shark Week, with this round-up of everything from encyclopedias to memoir to an alterna-Western.

How about some fiction from South Africa? Rabeea has three recommendations for you, including an homage to Mrs. Dalloway that I could not add to my TBR list fast enough.

And that’s a wrap: Happy discussing! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the new SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

Insiders

Get Epic! New Spots Open TODAY!

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date August 7, 2017

Hey, Novel subscribers! Ready to join us at the Insiders Forum to banter about books with your fellow Insiders and chat with Book Riot staff and contributors? You’ve got first dibs: get your Epic spot now!

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Aug 4

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date August 1, 2017

Greetings, Earthlings and visitors from other realms. This week we’re talking Want and Labyrinth Lost, plus adaptation news, a bunch of themed reading lists, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by The Dark Net by Benjamin Percy.

The Dark Net is real. An anonymous and often criminal arena that exists in the secret far reaches of the Web. And now an ancient darkness is gathering there as well. This force is threatening to spread virally into the real world unless it can be stopped by members of a ragtag crew. Set in present-day Portland, The Dark Net is a cracked-mirror version of the digital nightmare we already live in, a timely and wildly imaginative techno-thriller about the evil that lurks in real and virtual spaces, and the power of a united few to fight back.

Important adaptation news: The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle is in development! It also just won Best Novella in the Shirley Jackson Awards, so there is no time like the present to read it.

What can corporations learn from sci-fi? There’s a whole company dedicated to the answer, “A lot actually.” (I’ll be over here cackling about the kangaroo thing.)

Do you love Jane Austen and also love magic? Here are four fantasy novels that might be just what you’re looking for. Definitely read the comments (SHOCKING, I know) as there are lots of great additional sections there!

It turns out author Martha Wells loves a good magic/science combo as much as I do, and has written a list of eight books that do it well (and ditch most of the tropes!). Hardest of cosigns on JY Yang’s Tensorate books, GO PREORDER NOW.

Got a short attention span, a limited amount of reading time, or just really love short stories? Here are an actual hundred SF/F short story collections, including both single-author and multi-author collections.

I am generally restrained in the face of enamel pins, but these Harry Potter ones are VERY TEMPTING. (Luna’s glasses! Felix felicis!)

And now, on to our reviews: a quest in the future, and a quest that is out of this world.

Want by Cindy Pon

In the Taiwan of Want‘s future, air pollution has gotten so bad that the wealthiest members of society go outside only in suits that filter their air, connect them to the network, regulate their temperature, and any other bells and whistles they can think up. For the rest of society, life expectancy is down to 40 and disease is rampant, and blue skies are just a story from the past. There are people trying to change things, but they’re up against corporate money — and corporate violence.

When his best friend’s mother is murdered for working to get environmental legislation passed, Zhou and his friends hatch a plan to take down Jin Corp, the sole maker of suits and the force behind her death. To take them down, someone will have to go undercover. From life as a mei (or have-not), Zhou will have to learn how to walk, talk, and act like a rich boy to infiltrate high society and get the access they need to execute their plan. If only he wasn’t falling for their primary target, Daiyu, daughter of Jin Corp’s CEO…

I was prepared to love this book, having read Cindy Pon before. What I wasn’t prepared for was how much! From simple, classic premises — star-crossed lovers, a grim ecological future — Pon creates a vibrant story with depth and heart. Zhou and his friends feel more mature than their years, having grown up too quickly in trying circumstances. The rich kids Zhou befriends as he goes undercover are more than just cardboard cut-outs of privilege (although some of them are as bad as you’d expect). And Daiyu is far from just another pretty girl. By taking the tropes of near-future YA and tweaking them in her own way, Pon has delivered a book I would recommend to every and any person looking for a good story, a realistic future scenario, and a touch of hope.

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova

This is the underworld quest I didn’t know I was craving, and it’s newly out in paperback. Let the reading and rejoicing begin!

Labyrinth Lost follows the adventures of Alex, for whom magic is both everyday and hugely unwanted. Her family, who live in Brooklyn, are part of a magical community and her Deathday Celebration, when she is supposed to come fully into her magic, is approaching. But magic has brought her nothing but pain and terror, and all she wants is to get rid of it. So she decides to do her own spell — a spell to take away her magic.

Of course it backfires, and instead sends her entire family into Los Lagos, an in-between world full of supernatural creatures and terrors. Now she has to use her largely untested magic to try to defeat an enemy who has been plotting for generations. And while she finds some help along the way, nothing is what it seems.

Córdova has created a fully realized magical system and realm in this first installation of the Brooklyn Brujas series. Reminding me at various moments of The Princess Bride, The Odyssey, Alice in Wonderland, and other portal fantasies, it is ultimately all her own. If you’re ready to visit a new world and cheer on a heroine who has a lot to learn, but isn’t afraid to try, then you’re ready for Labyrinth Lost. Join me in waiting for the next installment! (Not out until April 2018, WOE IS US.)

That’s a wrap: Happy reading! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the new SFF Yeah! podcast.

Insiders

Behind The Scenes: Little Red Wagon

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date July 28, 2017

Happy end of July, folks. Congratulations go to Amy and Joan, our respective monthly Novel and Epic mailbag winners! And without further ado, here’s a look at the development of a new product courtesy of Rebecca.

I’m writing to y’all today from a lake house in the middle of Virginia, where my husband, my parents, and my sister and her family are celebrating my parents’ recent retirement. I’m working half-days, checking email and setting up sales in the Book Riot Store and taking conference calls in between rounds of floating in the lake and tubing with my nephew. (If you’ve never had the pleasure of accompanying a six-year-old on his first tubing excursion, I can’t recommend it enough. Very high on the delight factor.) It’s the kind of integration of work and “real life” that a job like this affords, and it’s one of the benefits I think people have in mind when they tell me they envy my job. I can’t complain; it is pretty great.

But the gig isn’t all fancy working vacations and glamour (LOL forever at the idea of that). In fact — as with many jobs, I’m sure — a lot of what goes on behind the scenes to make the site and all the things you think of as Book Riot involve a jillion moving parts and sometimes-annoying tasks, and doing it from home adds a whole ‘nother layer of adventure. The Pigeon pilot we’re running right now is a perfect example.

Like many Book Riot projects, this one was born on a phone call. “This might be Bad Idea Committee,” I said to Jeff, “but I’ve been having shower thoughts about a personalized book rec service, and I kiiiiiiinda think we should try it out this summer.” We kicked it around a bit and decided it wasn’t obviously Bad Idea Committee, so we made a few lists and picked out some dates, and a pilot program was born. We can get book pricing and shipping info and packaging costs pretty easily, so the big question we’re trying to answer with the test is: how much time does it take to generate the recommendations for Pigeon participants? And if we developed it into a formal program, could we charge enough for the service to justify the expense without making it too pricy? Basically, there’s a sweet spot somewhere, and we’re trying to figure out if we can build a house there.

As we say around the Riot office, this pilot is my little red wagon to pull, so I knew that volunteering to run it myself meant that I’d be turning my house into a temporary book warehouse and shipping center. After all, how much space could a hundred books and some boxes possibly take up? So we put out the call for willing Insiders, randomly selected the participants, sent out the surveys, and then divvied up the responses. Jenn and I set to work reading participants’ forms, picking out books, and writing notes to accompany them, all the while noting our every move with time tracking software.

On the fly, we decided how many times we were allowed to recommend the same title (three, based on the Get Booked rule), what to do with requests for YA (limit to one book in order to keep the value proposition of the box high), and what date to set as a cutoff for new titles to be included. We worked through the frustration of reallllllly wanting to recommend a certain book for a participant, but the book was in hardcover and they ordered paperbacks (or vice-versa), double-checked our lists, and called it done. So off I went to order three books each for 34 people. I knew on some level that a hundred-ish books is a lot of books, but I looked around the stacks in my office and shrugged it off.

And then my mailman delivered the first round.

a tower of boxes piled on Rebecca's front step

I printed out the master list of books and got to sorting, matching each person’s books into a pile labeled with their names on the floor of my office. Spoiler: thirty small stacks of books take up…a lot of space. And speaking of glamour, I share my office with my husband’s closet system. (The chair is from IKEA, I know you’re wondering.)

small stacks of books all over Rebecca's hardwood floor

When I got totally surrounded by stacks of books, my canine assistant — Millie, the 11-year-old basset hound — came to visit, sniffed a couple piles, then plopped down for a nap right between me and the door. Regular quality assurance checks are critical to success.

With the books in my office, it was time to get the boxes set up. The simple brown boxes I ordered came flat, so first I had to assemble them, and then find somewhere to put them. Enter the dining room table. I printed out the book rec letters, hand wrote note cards and address labels, and established my shipping center. And yes, I can tell you exactly how long it takes me to assemble, pack, label, and note-card the average box.

a large dining room table covered in cardboard boxes, mailing lablels, and bubble wrap

First round complete (I decided to do these in three rounds in order to give myself an opportunity to refine the process), I recruited my husband to help me load the boxes into my SUV, folded up the portable hand truck I’ve been holding onto from a previous job, and headed to the post office, where I prayed to every deity I could think of that I wouldn’t ruin someone’s day and/or get laughed out of line. And then I sent the first group (flock? colony?) of Pigeons out into the world!

Back in the office, the basset hound trampled a few of the recommendation letters for the second round, necessitating a reprint. One book showed up damaged. Two more showed up in paperback when I was expecting hardcover. And my internet went out for the entire last day before this vacation! Like the mythical work-life balance or the idea of actually relaxing on a family vacation, no new project is ever perfect, or perfectly what you expect it to be. This time around, there are questions and answers and new questions with no answers yet, and for me, there’s so much fun in the process. For you, well, there might be a few stray dog hairs in with your next delivery of reading material.

-Rebecca

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Jul 28

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date July 27, 2017

Happy Friday, friends. We made it through another week; let us give thanks and be merry! Today we’re talking about The Water Knife and the Graceling Realm series, plus awards news, GRRM, a slew of TV adaptations, and more.

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The World Fantasy Awards nominees have been announced! Borderline and Obelisk Gate continue to make the awards rounds, A Taste of Honey is up for Long Fiction (by which I believe they mean novellas), The Paper Menagerie is up for Collection, and I am just delighted.

Speaking of awards, for those of you who want to catch up with nominees here are 100 shortlisted genre titles, ranging from YA to mystery to speculative fiction. I’ve read 38 of the 100 — not too shabby. So many more to go…

One more in award news: Underground Railroad has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award!

Westeros is coming. But not The Winds of Winter, at least not for a while yet. George R.R. Martin announced that there’s likely to be a Westeros book in 2018, part of his very own GRRMarillion (LOL).

There’s lots of TV adaptation news (thanks, SDCC!):

– Are you caught up with The Magicians? If not do not click this link, major spoilers for S2! If you are, click away and enjoy the interview with Stella Maeve, Jason Ralph, and Olivia Dudley.

– Do you need more supernatural hijinks on your TV? Enter Midnight, Texas. I am hooked after the pilot; there was a nice balance of solid acting and production value (they really went for it with those corpses) with the hokiness and RED LIGHT OF DOOOOOM, etc., that I would expect from the concept.

– I managed to forget that the Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency show exists, but it is real and Season 2 is coming.

– The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut might be coming to TV, courtesy of Dan Harmon (??!?!??!!). Harmon plus Vonnegut actually sounds kind of perfect, and I will be keeping an eye this!

– And I’m sure you’ve already seen the Wrinkle in Time trailer but just in case you haven’t, or you want to watch it for the 4,000th time, here it is.

And for your Friday whimsy: Gucci put together a Star Trek-inspired campaign. Bedazzled fanny packs of the future!

The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

Set in a possibly-not-that-distant future, The Water Knife takes place in and around Phoenix, AZ as the city crumbles due to lack of (you guessed it) water. While some are lucky enough to live in “arcs” complete with AC, state of the art water recycling, and all the comforts you could want, most are stuck waiting around Red Cross water pumps, recycling their own urine, and trying to avoid the gangs patrolling the neighborhoods. You might not expect a book that hinges on water rights to be as grim, violent, and fast-paced as The Water Knife is; you would be mistaken.

Did I mention this book is grim and violent? Characters get shot, tortured, coerced into sex, betrayed, you name it, and often a combination thereof. Lucy, a journalist who can’t bring herself to leave the struggling city, is finding out what her dark side looks like. Maria, a young woman trying to find her way from one pitfall to the next, and who experiences some of the most brutal violence in the book, reveals a pragmatic streak that turns the plot in new directions more than once. Angel, a scarred man who does wetwork (sorry) of various sorts for the woman running Vegas, turns out to be one of the most surprising characters in the book. Bacigalupi has been called a grimdark writer, and the shoe fits — which is why the moments of light and hope in this book are so potent.

The Water Knife is blood-soaked, but it’s also a meditation on the power of community. I was fascinated by the tech, much of which is already out there albeit in slightly different form. Having lived in Arizona, California, and Colorado, the geography was familiar enough to make me nostalgic. And his vision of the way society has shifted feels prescient in the way that the best sci-fi does. If you’re looking for another perspective on the potentially horrible future of the United States (because when aren’t we), pick it up.

The Graceling Realm series by Kristin Cashore

Kristin Cashore has a new book coming out this fall (Jane Unlimited, September 19 2017), which reminded me that I want to remind you all of just how good this series is! On the surface, it looks like your standard “swords and powers” YA fantasy, but it digs deeper than you might think.

Graceling is our introduction to the Seven Kingdoms and to Katsa, a young woman with a Grace (or special power) for violence. Pressed into service as an enforcer by the king of the Middluns, she’s spent most of her life believing that all she can do is hurt people. But she’s started to reclaim her power, working with a secret council running underground rescue missions. Then she meets a Graced fighter who interferes with one of her missions; Po has the gall to be interesting and attractive as well as a skilled fighter, one who can match her. As we start to see the political workings of the Seven Kingdoms, we also see Katsa find her way to a life that offers more than just violence.

Fire, the second book published, is technically a prequel. I can’t describe the plot much without major spoilers for Graceling, but that’s fine because there’s so much more. Our main character Fire is literally the most beautiful woman in the world — which brings her nothing but misery and injury. In the hands of a less skilled writer this would be nothing but one cliché after another, but Cashore creates a woman who is isolated, dangerous, and striving to understand what it means to be something other than what people label her. This is the book in the series I reread the most, and it hits me in the feelings every time.

Bitterblue is the most politically agile and complex of the three, following a young queen as she attempts to bring her country back from the destruction wrought by her father. Unlike Katsa and Fire, her journey to understanding is about her world rather than just herself. What lies do we tell ourselves, and why do we tell them? Can the truth actually set us free? What do you do when reconciliation is impossible? These are huge questions, and Cashore follows them into dark and difficult places.

If you need a series that’s solid distraction with romance, action, adventure, and a big beating heart, add this to your summer stack.

Happy reading! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the new SFF Yeah! podcast.

In The Club

In The Club Jul 26

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date July 25, 2017

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Today includes a spotlight on Victor LaValle’s work, the Wrinkle in Time trailer, an assortment of theme ideas, and more!

This newsletter is sponsored by Dangerous Ground by M. William Phelps.

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Page to screen alert: if you were thinking about picking A Wrinkle In Time back up, now is a great time! The trailer for the film adaptation is here, and I thought it was stunning. It’s been at least two decades since I read the book, and I’m pretty sure there wasn’t that much face-glitter in the original, but I’m willing to put up with some Hollywood-ization in the name of an amazing adaptation. Fingers crossed, and I’ve got my copy on the top of my TBR stack!

Here’s a theme idea: the 7 deadly sins. As one Rioter argues, fiction wouldn’t be much without humanity’s worst flaws, and she’s got a pick for each sin. If your book club thrives on picking apart motives for bad behavior, this is the list for you.

There’s all kinds of historical fiction: speculative, revisionist, and more straightforward. B&N put together a list of 50 of their favorites across the spectrum and across the ages. Some of them might be familiar as popular book group choices (All the Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale), but others might surprise you. The list is primarily Western and could use some more authorial diversity, but there’s a lot of options here for the book club looking to get historical.

Has your book club ever discussed a work of poetry? There’s no time like the present; here’s a piece on poetry’s importance to one Rioter, along with six collections worth discussing.

Need more LGBTQ+ reads, particularly L and B? Here are two resources for you: 10 novels about black queer women (can I highly recommend you pick up Salt Roads?) and 7 classic lesbian and bi books that you probably missed.

We’ve still got a bit of summer left, which means there’s still time to pick up these diverse recs! Sarah specifically chose ones that would make for good book club reads, and they include memoir, YA, and fiction, so you’ve got a lovely range to work with.

For my fellow ’80s movie lovers: here are book pairings for 16 Candles, The Princess Bride, Heathers, and more.

Spotlight on: Victor LaValle

I wish I could remember who first recommended LaValle’s work to me, so I could thank them. I’ve been reading him for years, even though normally I avoid books that are this creepy; he’s just that good. His books often take place in NYC and blend the fantastical and supernatural with elements of horror. Reading him can require a bit of bravery (and maybe a lot of lights turned on), and will leave you looking at modern life with a new perspective. His books are chockfull of characters, layers of plot, and commentary on society, so there’s oodles to discuss. If you’ve never read him before, allow me to introduce him to you!

– Get a sense of his taste and influences: LaValle chose 5 books to talk about over on LitHub.
– Need more info about his work? Here’s a reading pathway from Tor.

Want to dive in with the most recent? The Changeling is an incredibly intense, memorable, and compelling read, and follows Apollo Kagwa, a book dealer trying to make ends meet. We learn just enough about his childhood to understand why being a dad is simultaneously so important and so difficult for him. He falls for a librarian named Emma, they get married and get pregnant, and everything seems to be going well enough — until the day that Emma shackles him to a chair, kills their baby, and then disappears. But that’s just the first third of the book; Apollo soon discovers that nothing is as it seems, and his quest through New York City takes him to places no parent ever wants to go. It’s bloody, it’s terrifying, and not just because of the monsters going bump in the night. Rather, not just because of the supernatural monsters; there are human monsters involved as well.

LaValle has always been good at going to the dark places in the human psyche and lacing in the fantastical. That skill is the reason I pick up each and every book he writes. In this book he’s pulling no punches, and his storytelling is top-notch. If you’re ready to dive into the deep end, pick it up ASAP.

A few reviews for The Changeling that I found insightful:
– The NY Times has a measured critique.
– NPR called it “enchanting, infuriating, horrifying, and heartbreaking.”
– USA Today gave it 4 out of 4 stars.

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page