Author: Tirzah Price

Categories
The Kids Are All Right

Kidlit Deals for July 29, 2020

Hey kidlit pals! I hope you’re keeping cool and staying busy this week. I can hardly believe that July is winding down already. No matter what your school situation is looking like for August, here’s to staying healthy, safe, and well-stocked in reading material. We’ve got more great book deals for you this week, so let’s dive in!

All book deals were accurate at the time of writing, so get them before they’re gone!

The Princess in Black series by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and LeUyen Pham are some of my favorite chapter books, and many of the books in the series are on sale! Check out the latest book, The Princess in Black and the Bathtime Battle, for only $1!

And speaking of Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham, their graphic novel Best Friends is only $3!

The lovely picture book Along the Tapajós by Fernando Vilela is $1.

For a fun book set on a farm, check out Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones for $5.

Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood is $4.

The Last Musketeer by middle grade powerhouse Stuart Gibbs is $5–and it’s the first in a series!

We’ve got another great deal from award-winning writer Pam Muñoz Ryan–Becoming Naomi León is $4.

Calling all Rick Riordan fans! Shadows of Sherwood by Kekla Magoon is a fun Robin Hood retelling, and it’s $3.

Looking for a mystery? Girl’s Best Friend is the first in a series by Leslie Margolis, and all the books under under $5!

The Magic Half by Annie Barrows (author of Ivy and Bean!) is a magical, time traveling middle grade book about a girl who wishes she was a twin.

Happy reading!

Tirzah

Categories
New Books

Hooray, It’s Time for New Books!

Yay, it’s New Book Tuesday, aka the best day of the week! We’ve got a lot of great new books to look forward to. If you’re a Zadie Smith fan, make sure you pick up her new essay collection Intimations, which is about the pandemic and is out today. Another book at the top of my wishlist that’s out today is Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings.

Make sure that you hop on over to All the Books! and hear more about the new releases that Liberty and Patricia are excited about. In the meantime, stay safe and wear a mask when you venture out!

It Is Wood, It Is Stone by Gabriella Burnham

This book immediately leapt on my radar because look! At! That! Cover! So gorgeous. This novel is about Linda, an American woman who moves to Sao Paulo for a year for her husband’s job and finds herself aimless and isolated. Her life intersects with Marta, the maid she hires who is grappling with her own history and racial tensions. When Linda makes a rash decision, she and Marta find themselves tied by a unique bond.

Backlist bump: Goodnight Stranger by Miciah Bay Gault is out in paperback today, and it’s a compelling literary novel about two adult siblings who must face the mystery of their past when a stranger shows up on their island home.

His & Hers by Alice Feeney

Summer is for twisty psychological thrillers, and this new book from Feeney looks like it’ll fit the bill perfectly! It’s about a gruesome murder set in a small British town. Anna Andrews is a newsreader who doesn’t want to cover the murder for her own secretive reasons. Jack Harper is a detective who is suspicious of Anna until the tables turn on him, and he becomes a suspect.

Backlist bump: They All Fall Down by Rachel Howzell Hall is a And Then There Were None style mystery, and it’s out in mass market paperback today!

I Kissed Alice by Anna Birch

This is a fun f/f romantic novel about two sworn competitors, Rhodes and Iliana, who are students at Alabama’s Conservatory of the Arts. They’re both in the running for a significant scholarship, and the pressure is on. To let off steam, both girls participate on a popular fan fiction site under anonymous usernames. Unbeknownst to each other, they end up teaming up on a webcomic. As their online friendship flourishes, their IRL rivalry heats up–but when all is revealed, they might find that they actually be falling for each other.

More backlist bump: Today is the release day for a number of great paperbacks, including Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha, Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession by Sarah Weinman, The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen, and Until It’s Over by Nicci French!

Happy reading!

Tirzah

Categories
Book Radar

Jason Reynolds Has a New Novel for Adults and More Book Radar!

Happy Monday, book nerds! I hope your weekends were grand and full of lots of reading. I spent all Sunday afternoon parked in front of the AC because it was one of those days in Michigan. But I got loads of reading in, both in print and on audio, so no complaints from me!

I’ve got some really exciting bookish news for you this week, so let’s dive in, shall we?

Trivia time: What was the original title of Fahrenheit 451?

Deals and Squeals:

paper girlsCalling all Paper Girls fans! Amazon just greenlit a TV adaptation of the series, which is about a bunch of 1980s middle school girls with a paper route who find themselves caught up in a weird time traveling battle. The comic series is excellent, and I think this TV adaptation will appeal to Stranger Things fans while also being totally different!

Jason Reynolds has an adult novel in the works! Scribner will publish The Mouthless God and Jesus Number Two in 2022!

Magpie Murders is coming to PBS Masterpiece! Based off the novel by Anthony Horowitz, it’s set to be a six-part series, but no word on when it’ll air. Horowitz adapted it for TV.

HBO’s reboot of Perry Mason has been so successful (it was the most popular premiere in two years!) that a second season has already been ordered. The series is based off of the books by Erle Stanley Gardner.

If you love SFF, and you’re a parent, then you might be keen to know about Don’t Touch That!, a sci-fi/fantasy anthology project that just launched on Kickstarter! If successfully funded, we’ll get humorous short SFF stories about the perils of parenting from Aliette de Bodard, Mark Oshiro, Valerie Valdes, and more.

Elisabeth Moss will star in the AppleTV adaptation of The Shining Girls, which is about a woman who survives a brutal attack only to discover her attacker is a time traveling serial killer.

HBO is bringing the stage adaptation of Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates to screens! The special will include readings from Coates and documentary footage, as well as animation.

Riot Recommendations

At Book Riot, I am a cohost with Liberty on All the Books!, plus I write a handful of newsletters including the weekly Read This Book newsletter, cohost the Insiders Read Harder podcast, and write content for the site. I’m always drowning in books, so here’s what’s on my radar this week!

Book Recommendation: Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Crosby

I was really excited to hear about this new release a few weeks back, and even more eager when Jamie, who writes our Unusual Suspects newsletter, gave it two thumbs up. I inhaled the audiobook over the weekend! This is the story of Beauregard, aka Bug, who lives in the rural south and has been proudly working as a mechanic, with his own garage to his name. He’s a family man with a past, and when he finds himself short on money with bills to pay in every direction, he gets sucked into driving the getaway car for one last job–except, for people like him, it’s never just one last job. And when the heist is successful, but with unexpected fallout, Bug will have to use all his wits to come out unscathed, and protect his family. This is a suspenseful and deeply compelling novel about people pushed to their limits, and a fantastic new addition to the Southern Noir genre.

What I’m reading this week:

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang

The Less Dead by Denise Mina

Trivia Answer: The original working title was The Fireman!

I’ll leave you with a photo of my dog, Scout, who is often very concerned when she’s left out of anything, whether it’s a walk out to the mailbox or shutting the door on her so I can record a Book Riot podcast. Here she is outside the office door, feeling so left out she brought two toys up from downstairs to keep her company!

Happy reading!
Tirzah

Categories
Today In Books

Eisner Award Winners Announced!: Today in Books

Full 2020 Eisner Award Winner List From SDCC Revealed

The Eisner Awards, which honor graphic and comics writers and artists, were announced in conjunction with Dan Diego Comic Con’s online events, and the winners are excellent! Mariko Tamaki, Rosemary O’Connell-Valero, G. Willow Wilson and Raina Telgemeier were among the winners.

Coming Soon: Autumn Harvest: A Tea Dragon Society Card Game

Katie O’Neill is the author and artist of multiple delightful graphic novels for all ages, and her Tea Dragon Society keeps on inspiring the coolest sidelines! Autumn Harvest is a new card game that can be played as a standalone, or can be used to expand upon the previous Tea Dragon Society card game. The game will release later this year, and is available for preorder now.

The Raven Book Store Fights For Racial Justice Both In Lawrence And Nationally

Here’s a cool story about a bookstore doing lots of good: The Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, KS is doing more than just sell books about racial justice. They’re donating a portion of sales to bail funds and anti-racism organizations, selling a humor book to benefit their charity work, and earlier this month they added the bookstore as collateral to the bail of a local Douglas County man. If you’re not local, you can shop with them online, or follow them on Instagram!

Categories
Read This Book

Read This Book: Beach Read by Emily Henry

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

This week’s pick is the ultimate summer beach book, ironically (and I love it) titled Beach Read by Emily Henry!

January is a romance novelist, and a fairly successful one at that. But she no longer believes in love after her beloved father passed away and she found out he’d been cheating on her mom, and he left her his beach house on Lake Michigan, where he saw the other woman. This is a real problem, because January has an impending deadline but her novel isn’t coming together, and she’s out of money. So she heads to her dad’s love nest to take the summer to finish her novel and pack up the house to sell it. She gets a major shock when she arrives and discovers her next-door-neighbor is none other than Gus, her college rival and celebrated literary fiction novelist. Their re-acquaintance borders on antagonistic, but when she learns that he’s also struggling with his book, they decide to challenge each other to swap genres for the summer and see what happens.

I think for the rest of time, as soon as it is summer I will be asking people if they’ve picked up Beach Read yet–it was one of those rare books that hooked me from the first page and kept me absolutely riveted until the very end. Yes, it’s a romance novel, and I think romance novels rock, but it’s got prickly characters who’ve been deeply hurt and big discussions on love, relationships, family, and how you connect with people that should appeal to anyone, no matter what your go-to genre may be. This book is also genuinely funny–it’s set in a small, fictional Lake Michigan town and populated with hilarious characters who surprise and delight you, and January herself has a cutting sense of humor as she reckons with a version of her history that she realizes was never true. I also love the setting, but I admit that I am biased–I grew up and currently live about an hour away from Lake Michigan and yes, the beaches really are sandy, there are waves, and no, you cannot see Wisconsin from the shore, so it feels like being at the ocean but without the salt or sharks. Everything about this book felt so true and genuine to me, from the big questions about how to make relationships work to the funny details about what it’s like to be a writer. Don’t sleep on this book. You won’t be sorry you read it!

Happy reading, and if you hit the beach this summer, don’t forget your sunscreen!

Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.

Categories
Book Radar

The Bestselling Books of 2020 So Far and More Book Radar!

Happy Thursday, book nerds! I hope you’re all making it through the week with the help of some great books. I finally watched Palm Springs, which Liberty and I chatted about on Tuesday’s All the Books!, and I loved it! I already can’t wait to watch it again!

But back to books–we’ve got a lot of interesting news and fun announcements this week, plus I’m excited to tell you more about what’s on my radar. Remember to wear a mask, and be safe out there!

Trivia time: What year did the (first) Shakespeare and Company bookstore open in Paris?

Deals and Squeals

If Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam isn’t on your radar, then here’s a reason to put it on your TBR: The movie rights have just sold to Netflix, with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington attached to star. It’s about a NYC family renting a house out in the country, away from cell service, who are disturbed when the home’s owners arrive unexpectedly and claim that city is in the middle of a blackout. The book will be out this October.

Publishers Weekly has an analysis of the bestselling books of 2020 so far, and the numbers are interesting! Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens tops the adult chart and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins is a teen bestseller.

Speaking of bestsellers, Mary L. Trump’s book Too Much and Never Enough broke records for Simon & Schuster by selling 950,000 copies on its first day alone. So many books never sell that many copies in a lifetime!

A movie adaptation of The Prisoner of Paradise by Romesh Gunesekera will start filming in September, despite COVID concerns.

A lead actress has been cast for the movie adaptation of The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson! The film is still in development, but this is a cool next step.

Brittney Morris has a new YA coming next year, and the cover was revealed in EW! The Cost of Knowing is about a Black teen who can see into the future, and gets a vision of his younger brother’s death.

Chelsea Clinton is persisting with new Nevertheless, She Persisted chapter books, and this time she’s expanding the line up of amazing authors. There will be books about Helen Keller, Ruby Bridges, Claudette Colvin, and more, all authored by a different bestselling children’s author. The books will release throughout 2021.

Riot Recommendations

At Book Riot, I am a cohost with Liberty on All the Books!, plus I write a handful of newsletters including the weekly Read This Book newsletter, cohost the Insiders Read Harder podcast, and write content for the site. I’m always drowning in books, so here’s what’s on my radar this week!

Excited to read: The Survivors by Jane Harper

I squealed so hard when I got a digital review copy of Jane Harper’s newest mystery, The Survivors! It’s set in Tasmania, and it’s about Kieran Elliott, who left home after a big mistake and giant storm changed his life for good, but just as he returns home, a body is discovered on the beach, bringing it all rushing back. I’ve loved everything Jane Harper has written (but I especially loved The Lost Man), and I am so ready for another one of her immersive Australian mysteries. This one won’t hit shelves in the U.S. until February but if you think I’m waiting that long, you’re bananas.

Check out: Liberty and I talk new books on All the Books this week! Some of our titles include He Started It by Samantha Downing, The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson, and The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue.

My new book acquisitions this week:

Lobizona by Romina Garber

Mirage and Court of Lions by Somaiya Daud

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

Trivia answer: That would be 1919! It closed in 1941 due to the Nazi occupation of France, and that original location never reopened, but a second Shakespeare and Company opened in the 1950’s, and officially changed their name to Shakespeare and Company in 1964.

I’ll leave you with this photo of Lobizona (isn’t that cover GORGEOUS?) and a tiny baby aloe plant, which I grew from seed! Fun fact: I planted this guy on March 10, the last day I walked around in the world before self-quarantining. It’s so small, yet I’m so proud of its progress!

Happy reading!

Tirzah

Categories
The Kids Are All Right

Kidlit Deals for July 22, 2020

Hey kidlit pals! I hope you’re having a great summer so far and keeping busy! This week’s round up of book deals is a great selection of Newbery winners and honors throughout the years, plus more award winners and a few debut books by notable authors. Stock up now and you’re guaranteed to have loads of great reading material ahead!

These deals were active as of the writing of this newsletter. Get them while they’re hot!

Learn more about an Olympic gold medal gymnasts’ true story in I Got This by Laurie Hernandez, for only $2.

Take a trip into the past with A Visit to William Blake’s Inn by Nancy Willard, a Newbery Award winner based on Blake’s poetry for $5.

And speaking of Newbery Award winners, Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina is on sale for $5, as is Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins! And snag Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan for just $4!

Don’t forget about those Newbery Honor books! You can grab The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi for $4, and Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman is also $4.

Newbery-winning author Erin Entrada Kelly’s debut novel Blackbird Fly is only $4.50!

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan is a fantastic historical novel and it’s on sale for $4.

Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier is a fun magical tale available for $3.

A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass is $4, and it’s a Schneider Family Award winner about a girl with synesthesia.

Happy reading, and don’t forget to put on sunscreen!

Tirzah

Categories
New Books

Hooray, It’s Time for New Books!

Happy Tuesday, book nerds! It’s new release day, and I’m really excited about all of the wonderful new books hitting shelves today. At the top of my list is 10 Things I Hate About Pinky by Sandhya Menon and Act by Kayla Miller.

You can also hear about some amazing books on this week’s episode of All the Books! This week, Liberty and I talked about The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, He Started It by Samantha Downing, and The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson!

Here are three more releases I’m excited about!

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson

This is Alaya Dawn Johnson’s debut adult novel (she’s written a couple of really excellent YA books) and it’s an alternate history set in historical Manhattan. Phyllis LeBlanc is a young woman from Harlem when she’s hired to become a secret assassin, but ten years later she’s given it all up–including her love, Dev. Only, her past isn’t ready to relinquish her, and Phyllis finds herself drawn back into her old life in order to protect the people she loves.

Austen Years: A Memoir in Five Novels by Rachel Cohen

This is a memoir about the period in Rachel Cohen’s life when she read Jane Austen’s work in order to make sense of her own life. It began when her daughter was born and her beloved father died within weeks of each other, and Cohen found solace and understanding in Austen’s prose and characters. This book is both an examination of major life changes and how we make sense of them, and a close read of Austen’s work in order to understand her enduring legacy.

More Than Maybe by Erica Hahn

Luke is the son of a literal rockstar, so he knows that a life of fame is so not for him. Instead, he’s aiming lower with a low-key podcast he loves cohosting and hiding in the song lyrics he writes. Vada has a five-year plan for success, and it involves majoring in music journalism and an internship at Rolling Stone. When these two collide, they’ll find that they both need to readjust their plans in this swoony rom-com about love and music.

Backlist bump: Wicked Fox by Kat Cho, out today in paperback!

Remember to wear a mask, and happy reading!

Tirzah

Categories
Book Radar

WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI is Coming to Netflix and More Book Radar!

Happy Monday, book nerds! I hope you all had most excellent weekends. I packed my book and a little picnic and spent a good four hour chunk on Saturday in my hammock in the park, reading Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner, which is a delightful queer romance set in Hollywood! If that’s not self care, then I don’t know what is!

I’ve got a bunch of bookish excitement, news, and deals for you, but remember to practice safe social distancing and wear a mask!

Trivia time! Edith Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize–but which book snagged her the prize?

Deals and Squeals!

Calling all Brat Pack fans! Andrew McCarthy has announced a deal with Grand Central Publishing to release his memoir, Brat: An ’80’s Story, set to release in spring of 2021. This isn’t the first time McCarthy has published–he’s the author of The Longest Way Home, a memoir about his adult years, and Just Fly Away, a YA novel.

Major squeal time–Sandhya Menon announced on Instagram that her debut novel When Dimple Met Rishi has been adapted into a TV series by Netflix India! The show is set in India, not the U.S., so expect some major changes, but the show should be available on Netflix worldwide later this year. Can’t wait? Here are 7 Bollywood Movies to Watch If You Loved When Dimple Met Rishi to marathon in the meantime.

Tor has announced that there will be a sequel to Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame! The book will be called Seasonal Fears and you can expect it in spring 2022.

Speaking of new books, Colson Whitehead also revealed on Twitter that the title of his next book is Harlem Shuffle, and it will hit shelves fall 2021!

The production company Sister has acquired TV rights to Jennifer Weiner’s Mrs. Everything, her novel about two sisters whose lives and relationships change as they come of age in the 20th century.

Lucifer Season 5 now has a trailer! Watch the season on Netflix starting August 21.

Riot Recommendations

At Book Riot, I am a cohost with Liberty on All the Books!, plus I write a handful of newsletters including the weekly Read This Book newsletter, cohost the Insiders Read Harder podcast, and write content for the site. I’m always drowning in books, so here’s what’s on my radar this week!

Excited to read: The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan

Last week’s news that McTiernan has signed a deal for three new mysteries set in the U.S. made me really wish that I had a copy of her latest, which is sadly not published here in the U.S. yet (Penguin, c’mon!). I loved The Ruin and The Scholar (which are available in the U.S. in paperback), so I decided to heck with it, and I bought an international copy of The Good Turn because I can’t wait for American publishing to catch up! I also listened to two Audible exclusive shorts she wrote over the weekend (The Roommate and The Sisters), so I cannot wait. Fingers crossed that the book doesn’t get lost in international shipping!

What I’m Reading This Week:

The Pretty One by Keah Brown (gotta get those Read Harder challenge books in!)

No Judgements by Meg Cabot (the sequel to this romance is coming out next month, and I can’t wait!)

This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura (this has been sitting on my shelf for a while and it’s suddenly calling to me!)

Trivia Answer: The Age of Innocence

I’ll leave you with this must-read on Book Riot–Contemporary Native Literature: Looking Beyond the “Indian Du Jour”

Please enjoy this photo of my orange monster in a box that was meant for a bunch of books before he decided, nope, it was his box now. Cats. There is no reasoning with them.

Happy reading!
Tirzah

Categories
Today In Books

Keanu Reeves is Writing a Comic Series: Today In Books

Whoa! Check Out An Exclusive Look At Keanu Reeves’ Action-Packed First Comic Book, ‘BRZRKR’

Keanu Reeves is adding comic book writer to his long list of achievements! Reeves pitched the idea of a centuries-old half-man, half-war god doomed to walk the Earth while dealing with compulsions of violence to BOOM! Studios, and has been co-writing the 12-issue run with Matt Kindt. BRZRKR is illustrated by Alessandro Vitti, and the titular Berzerker character will bear a resemblance to Reeves. BOOM! Studios has a first-look deal with Netflix, so maybe we’ll see Reeves bring his creation to life on the screen…

Netflix Commits Largest Budget So Far For ‘The Gray Man’

Mark Greaney fans, get excited–Greaney’s novel The Gray Man is not only a go at Netflix, but the streaming service has granted it an unprecedented $200 million budget. Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans will star in the film, which is about two killers, trained by the CIA, who find themselves at odds. With stars and a budget such as this, it’s clear that Netflix is hoping to make the next big blockbuster.

Susan Orlean Steals Our Hearts With Drunken Tweetstorm

Sometimes you just need a laugh, and maybe you want some reassurance that your favorite writers are also trying to cope with the pandemic as best they can. Writer Susan Orlean entertained and charmed many with a series of tweets Friday night after she admitted to being drunk. She updated us on her neighbor’s new foal, her cat, and the lack of candy in her house. Admit it, we’ve all felt like Susan at some point during this pandemic.