Author: Jenn Northington

Hello and happy Monday, Epic folx! I alternated gardening, reading, chores, and crafting this weekend, and I am learning to hand-quilt and am Pretty Excited About It. (It’s coping mechanisms all the way down, y’all.)

-Jenn

Announcements

Time to vote for the Book Riot Podcast’s next Bonus Episode! Make your feelings known.

What Are You Reading?

Howdy, Insiders!

I spent my long weekend indoors reading, so I was able to get through a number of books recently. I blew through Alice Wong’s incredible forthcoming memoir, Year of the Tiger. It’s about her life as an Asian American disability activist and the format for this one is so great: it’s a scrapbook! You’ll see interviews, essays, art, and more, and it’s so great at capturing Alice’s voice and her powerful work.

I also blew through Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado. I wanted to like it more than I did, but I see why others have fallen for this Sapphic horror/thriller novel about the Bronx and a creepypasta-type legend.

Currently, I’m reading Jumper by Melanie Crowder, a queer wildnerness adventure YA novel about smokejumpers. As I write this quick update, it’s prior to a long weekend up north (is that a thing anyone but those of us in the Midwest say?) and I plan on bringing a romance with me to read. By the time you read this update, I’ll already be back and preparing to tell you which one ended up making the trip with me.

Tell me what you’ve got on your stack right now!

— Kelly

Hello Epic Insiders, and happy July! While patriotism is a complicated thing for a lot of us right now, as a gardener I did enjoy learning that many of the different kinds of fireworks are named for flowers.

No announcements today, just book chat!

-Jenn

What Are You Reading?

Welcome to the mid-point of 2022! I hope even if this year hasn’t or isn’t going as you hoped–it sure isn’t for me–that at least you’re doing some good reading.

I am gearing up to begin my fifth class in my second master’s program this month, and so I’ll also be reading a lot about ethics in mental health counseling. In between that and the above, I’m also reading piles of board books with my kiddo. Among her favorites right now are Katrine Crow’s “Who’s Is It?” series featuring animal feet, scales, noses, and more, as well as Curious Critters: Illinois.

What’re you reading? It was a long weekend here in the US, so I used the extra day off to read. Click through to add your reading list to the comments!

— Kelly Jensen

Hello, Epic folks! It’s been a rough few days in the world — sending everyone all the good vibes for balance in rest, restoration, and action.

Announcements

Just one reminder to fill out our survey about (if and) how you use the New Release Index if you haven’t already! There’s a giveaway involved if you need more of a reason than telling us your opinions 😉 .

What Are You Reading?

Hellloooooooo everyone. I am having the weirdest time again trying to finish things. I honestly don’t know what’s up — probably related to :waves hands at everything in the world:? So we’re going to talk about the one book I’ve read, that I actually finished, that wasn’t required reading for a podcast, and then some … wait for it … TV.

And then there’s my TV diet, which is what’s getting me through right now. My beloved So You Think You Can Dance is back and I am high-key obsessed with this number featuring Alexis and Keaton (I watched it four times in a row and then several more times since). Also I am predicting right now that either Alexis or Essence wins, you heard it here first! (I’m never right about these things.) American Ninja Warrior is also back and I could not be more excited to see Najee Richardson repping for Philly. And then my partner and I have fallen into the weird world of We Are The Champions on Netflix. Competitive cheese-rolling, hair-styling, and yo-yo-ing? Put it in my eyeballs.

What are you reading (or watching)? Click through to comment!

-Jenn

Hello, Epic Insiders! One of my favorite reality shows, So You Think You Can Dance, is back and I’m trying to move into the week with this Big Luther Brown-choreo Energy. If I can channel even a teaspoon of it, it will be an upgrade.

Announcements

Two quick reminders — we’ve got some super cute printable bookmarks up on Etsy if puns and plants are a thing you need in your life, and we’d love to hear your thoughts about the New Release Index.

And now, onto my musings on everyone’s favorite topic:

What Are You Reading?

I’m recently returned from a week of vacation, which sometimes means I’ve read a ton and sometimes means I’ve read almost nothing at all.

This is one of the latter times — I finished two books while we were camping. One of them was for Read Harder, so you’ll hear about that on a future episode (teasers!). The other was singularly appropriate for a camping read, which is why I brought it with me! Earlier this year, Megan Mayhew Bergman put together a list of 14 women nature writers, and it inspired me to put Woodswoman by Anne Labastille into my next used-book-ordering cart. I am here to tell you that while it’s far from a perfect read, it was very soothing.

Labastille is clearly in love with the Adirondacks, and is frank and pretty funny when talking about both the challenges and the rewards of living in a cabin in the woods without electricity, roads, or many basic resources most of us take for granted. I personally have zero desire to replicate that lifestyle, but I love reading about it, especially from the perspective of a woman who was figuring out her own life and relationships in the context of this lifestyle.

My biggest problem with the book is that, like so many writers both in her own time and now, she completely erases Native Americans from the narrative, and even goes so far as to use the word “native” to describe white settlers who had been there for their own personal lifetimes. I both cringed and yelled at the book a few times on that score (c’mon, Anne!); something to keep in mind if you pick it up! Thankfully we have writers like Robin Wall Kimmerer and David Treuer out here educating us.

What are you reading these days? Click through to add your reading list to the comments!

-Jenn

Happy Monday! No announcements this week, so we’ll get straight to our weekly question.

What Are You Reading?

Hellooooo, Epic friends! Tis I, Jenn, and I’m excited to be in conversation with y’all about your reads! Especially because I am, tbqh, sort of a reading disaster at the moment.

I knew that Get Booked going dark for the moment would change how I approached my reading list, but I didn’t realize the extent to which that would be true. I’m still reading for other podcasts — I’m going to be joining the Read Harder team, so I will be in your earholes soon for that, and of course there’s SFF Yeah! — but Get Booked reading was always so highly specific. I thought for sure that having a break from that would mean I would be able to dive into the backlog of things that are just not useful for podcasts, but instead I find myself unable to pick and unable to stick with books when I do.

All of which is to say, brains are weird!? The only thing I’m actually managing to stick with right now is, perhaps appropriately, Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again. Rebecca read it and recommended it to Staff a while back and my library hold came in recently, so this is now my bedtime book. And it’s so compelling, and also kind of terrifying; telling me all about how multi-tasking is ruining my brain when I spend 90% of my work time multi-tasking is deeply HOW DARE. And then last night I got to the chapter on sleep, and how your brain LITRULLY washes itself (!!!!) during a certain sleep phase, and if it doesn’t get to do that wash then there’s all kinds of crud built up in there. What! Are! Bodies!

So yeah, it’s deeply horrifying but also feels very helpful in giving me some priorities about how I set myself up during my workdays, and considering what I can mute/set aside/turn off in order to give myself more focus periods and also better sleep. (No one wants brain-crud, am I right?) I’m sure I’ll have horrifying new factoids to share with you next week as well, so you have that to look forward to, sorry in advance.

Enough about me and my brain — what are y’all reading? Click through to add your reading list to the comments!

-Jenn

Hello, Epic Insiders, and thank you for being a friend! (Brought to you by Jenn’s rewatch of Golden Girls.) Let’s get right into our main agenda.

What Are You Reading?

Happy Monday, reading friends!

I’m surprised to say that I haven’t finished Book Lovers yet, even though I’ve been liking it so far. I got caught up reading other things, and watching TV, if I’m being honest. One of the other books I had picked up to read was The Witches of Moonshyne Manor, which is about a coven of Five octogenarian witches, a magical heist, and a new danger that hangs overhead. It’s been getting “Golden Girls, but witches” comparisons, which is extremely up my alley, but I’ve been told it’s not quite that. Still fun, though! A few of us at Book Riot had a book club discussion around it, and I… hadn’t finished reading it *hangs head in shame.* But I still went and it was a fun discussion.

I’ve also started Far From the Light of Heaven for an SFF Yeah podcast episode I’m recording later this week. In it, the colony ship Ragtime docks in the Lagos system after having traveled light years to bring 1,000 sleeping people to a new home. When Michelle Campion, a first mate, wakes up to find that some people on board have been murdered, she calls Rasheed Fin to find out how it happened. It’s basically a closed-room mystery set in space, so I’m here for it.

Finally, I read the latest chapter of Jujutsu Kaisen on the Shounen Jump app and it was pretty brutal. I’m still not sure how I feel about reading manga or comics one chapter at a time versus by volume. The cliffhangers have me pressed!

What have you been reading? Click through to add your list to the comments!

-Erica

Hello, Epic Insiders! It’s another Monday, which means extra coffee, and another day, which means (always) more books! And speaking of…

What Are You Reading?

So, I finished Queen of the Tiles and discussed it with Tirzah Price on this week’s Hey YA podcast. It was a fun look into Malaysian teen life and the drama of a Scrabble competition. Tirzah made a point of how the author managed to make a Scrabble competition seem intense and action-packed, and I agree! so much so, that I decided to start playing Scrabble myself. I had recently read about word game apps, and about Scrabble’s app, specifically, in a Book Riot article. It has been a bit of a humbling experience, but still a cute one.

My Libby hold for Chinua Achebe’s Collected Poems came through, so I just started that as well. I read Things Fall Apart at my father’s request years ago and really liked it. Like the novel, the poems are about everything Nigeria. From its original religion to philosophy, daily life, and interpersonal relationships. I’m digging it so far!

Then there’s the latest Jujutsu Kaisen chapter that came through on the Shounen Jump app. It was… confusing. It was explaining some character’s power that’s like playing pachinko or something and there was math. This entire arc has a different feel from the rest of the manga, so I’m interested to see how it will end.

Finally, I’ve started Book Lovers by Emily Henry, which has been really fun so far. It’s about a literary agent who is known as a shark for how cutthroat— but efficient— she is when representing her clients. It’s pretty funny and plays around with a lot of romance tropes in interesting ways. For one, the main character Nora is decidedly not a typical kind of romance heroine. She’s a platinum blonde who de-stresses with Peloton sessions and designer shoe shopping. You know those Lifetime movies where a big time city dweller comes to the small town to aid in some small business being absorbed into the larger corporation they work for, only to be charmed into finding love and a change of heart in the small town? Well, Nora is the girlfriend that was left in the city and gets dumped during the male character’s epiphany. Literally. She’s been dumped a few times for those reasons.

She goes on a retreat to a small town in the Carolinas with her pregnant younger sister to lessen the gap she’s been feeling between them, but once there, she realizes editor Charlie Lastra, her nemesis, is also there for some reason. She thinks to avoid him, but starts emailing him, and witty banter ensues.

That’s it for me! What have you been reading this week? Click through to add your reading list to the comments!

– Erica

Happy Monday, Epic Insiders! We’re trying out a new email format. That Spring energy is getting us in the mood to try out new lewks. Do you like?

Announcements

— If you listen to the Book Riot Podcast, you might have already heard that the Book Riot Podcast now has a Patreon! Content between Insiders and Patreon will not overlap, however, we’ve gotten some feedback from folks that they can only join one. If that’s the case for you, we totally understand!

— Speaking of the Book Riot Podcast, it’s time to vote on the next bonus episode! Please get your vote in by April 24th.

What Are You Reading?

Greetings and happy Monday! I’m actually coming to you from the past since I’m putting this newsletter together a little earlier than usual on a Thursday. My powers of prediction tell me my reading on Monday will look a lot like my reading today, so here goes.

Still taking my time with The Rib King by Ladee Hubbard and also finally started Alexis Hall’s Iron & Velvet. It took no time at all for the vampires and sex demons to come out in the latter, this book is not messing around! I plan on keeping those audiobooks in my ears while I go on my walks and errands this weekend–I get a special kick out of listening to filthy romance content while inspecting the avocados at Trader Joe’s or whatever. Que naughty!

As for my next print read: thanks to a damaged shipment of books sent to Book Riot’s Portland offices, I now own a (defective, but so what?) copy of Cackle by Rachel Harrison. *insert evil laugh here* Helloooo, weekend read! It’s described as a darkly funny and frightening novel about a young woman learning how to take what she wants from a witch who may be too good to be true. If it’s witchy it just has to be read, those are the rules.

Still reading Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness, still don’t know if I’ll finish before my nephew (who is not yet four years old) goes off to college. I’m savoring it though and have really gotten comfortable with making a project out of my bedtime read. Which is a good thing, because I want to try and read The 1619 Project next. I was always going to read it, but all this book banning %#@! is making me bump it up to the top of my TBR out of spite.

And because I’ve almost always got a cozy mystery on deck, I’m going to go find a copy of Under Lock & Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian this weekend. I’m a big fan of Pandian’s Accidental Alchemist series, and I’m sure I’ll love this book too! It has food, it has fancy architecture, it has secrets, and it’s an ode to the classic locked-room mysteries I love so much. Plus this comes with a Jamie Canavés cosign, so how could I not?

That’s what past, present, and future me are reading. What are you reading this week? Click through to add your reading list to the comments!

Stay bad & bookish!
Vanessa

Good morning and good Monday, Epic folks! I actually managed to sit in the sun for a couple hours this weekend without freezing any bits off and it was glorious — sending y’all some of that shiny solar energy for the week ahead. On to our updates!

– Danika is up for “What Are You Reading?” for February and she has some cover feelings.
– And Kelly continues to be your guide for (spoilery!) deep-dives into Catherine House as the Group Read rolls right along.

Also, in case you too are obsessed with a certain game, may I present some new word nerd merch?

Stay wordy,
Jenn