Author: Vanessa Diaz

Audiobooks 10/08

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date October 8, 2020

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman (fiction)

If you’ve been rocking with me for a minute, you know that I only just read Practical Magic last year. I was immediately obsessed and saved Hoffman’s The Rules of Magic for this year’s October witch reading, inhaled that, and am now elbow deep in this prequel to both of those reads. Here we go way way back and learn the story of the OG Owens witch Maria, and find out what the deal really is with the Owens curse.

Read by Sutton Foster (Older: A Younger Novel by Pamela Redmond, and she’s also also the star of the Younger TV adaptation!)

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab (fantasy)

This book, yo! What a feat. In 1714 France, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to avoid the arranged marriage and small-town life that await her. That bargain is seemingly the answer to her prayers: she’ll live forever and on her terms—but will henceforth be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Read by Julia Whelan (Educated by Tara Westover, Beach Read by Emily Henry, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid)

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (mystery/thriller)

In a total departure from Alam’s previous work, this chilling 2020 National Book Award finalist book follows a middle-class white family on vacation in a remote part of Long Island. Their plan to relax and escape both the city and their problems is disrupted when the owners of the rental, an older Black couple, come knocking in the middle of the night after a massive blackout has left the city in the lurch. There’s no cell phone service, no updates, and the two families are forced to navigate the crisis together. But can they trust each other?

Read by Marin Ireland (Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, Anxious People by Fredrik Backman and my latest listen, too!)

Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas (historical mystery/thriller)

Lady Sherlock is my favorite Sherlock! In this fifth book in the Lady Sherlock series, Charlotte Holmes investigates a murder case that implicates Scotland Yard inspector Robert Treadles. I inhaled this book in two days: I’ll take any excuse to read a mystery set in Victorian England, especially when the protagonist is an empowered woman living on her terms and who never, ever turns down a slice of delicious cake.

Read by Kate Reading (A Study in Scarlet Women and the rest of the book in the Lady Sherlock series, The Witching Hour by Anne Rice)

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade (romance)

Can I get an amen for fat positive romance?? This is a rom-com set in the world of TV fanfic. April Whittier is a a scientist who writes fan fiction of her favorite show and cosplays in her free time. When she goes on an unexpected date with Marcus, the show’s star and her celebrity crush, she has no idea that he secretly posts fanfiction of his own.

Read by Isabelle Ruther (Vampire Valentine by Lynsay Sands, Another by Fiona Cole)

White Tears /Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad (nonfiction, essays)

This feels like an excellent companion read for Mikki Kendall’s Hood Feminism in its examination of the ways in which modern feminism movements have excluded women of color. “Discussing subjects as varied as The Hunger Games, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the viral BBQ Becky video, and 19th-century lynchings of Mexicans in the American Southwest, Ruby Hamad undertakes a new investigation of gender and race. She shows how the division between innocent White women and racialized, sexualized women of color was created and why this division is crucial to confront.” Time to do some examination.

Read by Mozhan Marnò (The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd, The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali)

Latest Listens

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

I went from never having read Alice Hoffman to fangirling her unapologetically in the course of a year. This book was added to my TBR the very day I finished Practical Magic, but something made me wait to read it until this year and it was such perfect timing.

The Rules of Magic is sandwiched between Magic Lessons and Practical Magic with a setting at the cusp of the 60s in New York. Susanna Owens has three children and it’s clear from the very beginning that they’re very, very unique. There’s headstrong and difficult Franny; shy, beautiful, romantic Jet; and Vincent, a charismatic trouble seeker. Susanna has set down rules for her children from the get-go: “No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And, most importantly, never, ever fall in love.” But when the siblings visit their aunt Isabelle for the summer in in the small Massachusetts town where she lives, they finally begin to understand the truth of who they are and the stock them come from.

I went into the book expecting fall and witchy vibes, and I got all of that in droves. I also got an enchanting, heartbreaking, and inspiring story full of fierce and complicated women, the unshakeable bonds of sisterhood (and siblinghood in general), plus that deep, deep kind of love that follows you even when you try to deny it, and of course: magic. I am diving right into Magic Lessons right away, I just must have more of this story.

As I teased earlier, this one is read by Marin Ireland. She does a phenomenal job at voicing each of the characters. She gave me chills in the quiet moments of sadness and grief, then gave me courage when she embodied the bravery and resilience of the Owens women.

From the Internets

at Audible: baseball listens to get you pumped for the World Series (Go Dodgers!)

at Audiofile: favorite male narrators reading mysteries and more (the female edition will follow), plus audiobooks set in other worlds

Libro.fm has shared a database of crowdfunding for independent bookstores. For the billionth time, this pandemic really @%#! sucks.

Over at the Riot

6 Audiobooks to Celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Thanks for hanging with me today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with with all things audiobook or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the In The Club newsletter and catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.

Vanessa

In The Club

In the Club 10/07

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date October 6, 2020

Sponsored by The End of the Day by Bill Clegg

Bill Clegg returns with a deeply moving, emotionally resonant second novel about the complicated bonds and breaking points of friendship, the corrosive forces of secrets, the heartbeat of longing, and the redemption found in forgiveness.

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. It’s our first newsletter of October and you know what that means: it’s bruja season. Today I’d like to recommend some newer witch books for book club! All of these are 2020 releases and approach their subject with fresh takes, books that examine the terrifying origins of witch hunts, gendered magic, witchcraft as feminism, and the power of sisterhood.

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

This weekend I took a drive to a local farm for the opening weekend of their harvest festival and went hard in the paint on autumnal delights: pumpkins, apple cider, a hard loganberry cider, marionberry jam, pumpkin butter, caramel, apples, an actual caramel apple, and assorted produce. I have lots of cooking and baking plans for that haul, but first on the list: baked apples. Odds are you have most of these ingredients in your pantry, or at least a close enough substitute. Whip up a batch for book club and join me in the Fort of Fall Feelings.

Back on my Bruja-ja

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

That haunting and gorgeous cover seems to be asking me how I’ve summoned the audacity to not have read this book yet. So I picked it up this week! Immanuelle is a young biracial woman living in Bethel, a rigid, puritanical society where her very existence is blasphemy. She does her best to keep her head down, but a mishap lures her into the forbidden woods. That’s where she finds a journal that once belonged to her dead mother that proves she once consorted with witches, leading Immanuelle on a path of grim discovery into the Church’s twisted history. Rioter Alex Acks described it as the sort of horror fiction that’s “feminist and wrathful and takes blood revenge for the way society is built on the lives and bodies of women.” I’m both triggered and sold.

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (October 13)

This upcoming witchy read comes to us from the author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, one of my favorite reads of *checks what year it published because time has lost all meaning* 2019. It’s 1893 in New Salem and witchcraft is a thing of the past. But when the Eastwood sisters join a group of local suffragists, they find themselves tapping into the old ways to change the course of history. BRB, gonna go study some witchcraft.

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

I’d ask you what you’re doing with your life if you’ve never read Practical Magic or The Rules of Magic, but really: how lucky are you?! Here we are in the witchiest month of the year and you have not one but three bewitching (hehe) books to curl up with. Out just this week, Magic Lessons is the prequel to Practical Magic and takes us back to Maria Owens’ origin story and the curse that haunts the Owens women. Yes, these books are about witches, but that gift is beautifully wrapped in fierce feminism, the unshakeable bonds of sisterhood, the deepest kind of love, and a healthy dose of fall vibes.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

I keep talking about this book because it is one of the most unique witch books I’ve read in a long time, and because the hole it left in my heart has not yet been mended. Yadriel is a trans boy who wants more than anything for his super traditional Latinx family to accept his true gender. To prove that he’s a brujo, he performs the sacred coming-of-age ritual wherein brujx come into their powers; with the help of his cousin/bestie, he plans to use those powers to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free. Problem: the ghost he ends up summoning isn’t his cousin, refuses to leave, and also happens to be a Hottie McGuapo. This book is full of non-italicized Spanish and is inspired by lots of different Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) rituals. It shakes up the gendered magical powers narrative on so many levels, and that’s what I want you to discuss.

Suggestion Section

Jenna Bush-Hager has selected Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind for her October book club pick. A huge congratulations to Rumaan Alam on being a National Book Awards finalist!

You don’t need a big ol’ group to start a book club- grab a buddy and make it a party of two.

Thanks for hanging with me today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with your burning book club questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the Audiobooks newsletter and catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.

Vanessa

Audiobooks

Audiobooks – 10/01

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 30, 2020

Sponsored by the audiobook edition of Overstated by Colin Quinn, read by the author.

In Colin Quinn’s Overstated, the comedian and star of Red State Blue State and Unconstitutional, calls us out state-by-state, from Connecticut to Hawaii. He identifies the hypocrisies inherent in what we claim to believe and what we actually do. Overstated skewers us all: red, blue, and purple. The audiobook, read by the author, is ultimately infused with the same blend of optimism and practicality that sparked the US into being.

Hola Audiophiles!

Welcome to October! It’s the spookiest month, the scariest month, and not just because it’s when yours truly was born. I don’t know about you, but I’m officially starting to read and watch all of the witch things. Mwahahaha! I love this time of year.

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – Week of September 29 (publisher descriptions in quotes)

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, read by Anisha Dadia (YA fantasy) – In the first book of Novik’s brand new Scholomance series, El is a student at said Scholomance, a very unique magic school that’s always trying to kill its students in one way or another. There are no teachers, no holidays, and all friendships are strategic. El has one goal: to make it out of the school alive, a goal that’s complicated by all the monsters and cursed artifacts, plus the fact that everyone in the school thinks she’s an evil witch. They don’t even know about that pesky prophecy, the one that says she possesses a dark power that can level mountains and kill millions.

Narrator Note: I just finished this book and loved Anisha Dadia’s narration! She really leaned into the unlikable, bristly but ultimately well-meaning thing and nailed what I imagined El would sound like.

Furia by Yamile Saied Mendez, read by Sol Madariaga (contemporary YA) – Camila is living a double life in Rosario, Argentina. At home, she’s a model daughter and sister living under the weight of her family’s expectations, abuse, and double standards. On the field though? She’s La Furia, a powerhouse soccer player with mad skills. When her team makes it to a nationwide tournament, she gets the chance to really show off her talent. Her dream is to get a scholarship to play for a North American university, but a lot stands in her way. the boy she once loved is back in town and oh yeah, minor detail: her parents not only don’t know she plays fútbol, but would strictly forbid it if they did.

Narrator Note: Sol Madariaga also reads Romina Garber’s Lobizona, another buzzy 2020 YA release set partially in Argentina. Love to see it!

Sleep Donation by Karen Russell, read by Allyson Ryan (fiction) – Welp, this sure doesn’t help my insomnia-related anxiety! Karen Russell has dreamt up (ha) a world plagued by lethal insomnia. Trish Edgewater, whose sister Dora was one of the plague’s first victims, is a top recruiter for the Slumber Corps where she convinces people to donate their sleep to an insomniac in crisis (ummm, call me?). Slumber Corps is supposed to be at the forefront of the fight against this disease, but are they really? “When Trish is confronted by ‘Baby A,’ the first universal sleep donor, and the mysterious ‘Donor Y,’ whose horrific infectious nightmares are threatening to sweep through the precious sleep supply,” Trish’s faith in the organization is put to the test. The book even comes with a Nightmare Appendix!

Narrator Note: You know Allyson Ryan: her most recent work includes Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner and Long Bright River by Liz Moore.

Latest Listens

I am dead, gone, and shooketh by my latest listen. That listen is Alyssa Cole’s When No One Is Watching and lemme tell you: believe the hype.

The thing is: it’s best enjoyed if you go in knowing as little as possible. I know I teased the plot in this very newsletter last month when it released, but picture me in a black suit donning some shades and pretend I’ve just done a Men in Black on you. Poof! Your memory is gone. Now go forth, listen, and be wowed.

What I will do is discuss the narration by Susan Dalian and Jay Aaseng. I absolutely loved both of their performances! Susan Dalian is so natural; I believed the fear and paranoia in her narration so much that I wanted to reach out and be like, “Hey friend, you okay?” She gave her characters warmth, charm, and “try me again” energy as appropriate and then turned around with the biiiiiig Karen vibes when needed, too. Jay Aeseng’s voice is rull, rull nice, and thank you sweet baby cheeses because he did not once speak in “Black voice.” Their combined performances, though they never once interacted with one another (each chapter is told from one of two character’s perspectives) somehow still conveyed such chemistry. Best of all: the tension. Oooh the tension! It takes skill to make tense moments feel real in audiobook narration and they both nailed it.

Go forth, and yell “howdy doody” at folks who are doing the most (you’ll see!).

From the Internets

Over at Get Literary: What’s That Audiobook?: Watch Your Favorite Authors Play the Audiobook Guessing Game – I love Ruth Ware sharing her deductive reasoning and Tembi Locke’s many facial expressions (relatable). That reminds me: I need to read From Scratch!

What audiobook should you read next for Hispanic Heritage Month? Libro.fm has a quiz to help you decide.

Audible rounded up audiobooks featuring unlikely heroines.

Audiofile suggests some cozy romances for fall and how glad am I that my hold on You Had Me at Hola just came in?! ALSO it must be said: 1) That yellow book you may have scrolled right past is the follow-up to Book Riot faveThe Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, and 2) pretty please and por favor: look past that… questionable cover.

Over at the Riot

You need to keep learning, I need to keep learning. Let’s all keep learning with these nonfiction audiobooks to teach us some things. I recently talked about Amanda Leduc’s Disfigured, I want to hand that book out to people on the street!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.

—Vanessa, Queen of the Pumpkin Domain

In The Club

In the Club 08/30

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 30, 2020

Sponsored by our 1-year subscription to Audible giveaway. Ends tonight!

We’re teaming up with Podium Audio to give away a 1-year subscription to Audible! Simply subscribe to Podium Audio’s Sci-fic and Fantasy newsletter for a chance to win, but hurry – the contest closes tonight!

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. September is over (weren’t we all just grooving to Earth, Wind, and Fire??) and once again I insist that time has ceased to have all meaning. October is my birthday month and I love witchy season, so I’m not too mad. I just need Portland to get with the autumnal program and go back to cooler temps so I may blissfully don my chunky knits.

Enough about me, let’s talk libros. To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

The second the weather began to cool* here in Portland, all my cooking reluctance magically vanished and I was DTC (down to cook). I immediately made one of my favorite labor-of-love recipes: Persian jeweled rice. It’s bursting with so many mouthwatering flavors—sweet caramelized onions, a melange of golden raisins, dried apricots and cherries, the delicious warmth of cinnamon, cardamom, and allspice—all nestled inside a bed of fragrant basmati rice soaked in saffron with a luscious buttery crust and topped with warm almonds and pistachios. WHEW. It’s so good. Here’s the recipe I use, and a similar one without the paywall that I haven’t tried. Enjoy!

*Me: “Yay fall!”
Fall: “Oh you thought you had me? Byeeeeee!”

Books

The innanets are overflowing with lists of Latinx lit for Hispanic Heritage Month! Por ejemplo:

Zoraida Cordova shares some books by Latinx author she’s loved recently over at Apple Books
BuzzFeed: Here Are Some Incredible Book Recs From 6 Latinx Authors
Epic Reads: 17 Books with Latinx Representation You Should Read
HuffPost: 15 New Books By Latinx Authors To Add To Your Bookshelf
Parade: In Honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Here Are the 20 New Fall Books From Latinx Writers

There’s a lot of great lit on these lists, make sure to check them out! Below you’ll find a few from my own reading or TBR that I think your book clubs would have a good time discussing.

The Book of Lost Saints by Daniel José Older – This is a multigenerational Cuban-American family story about a woman named Marisol, a woman who lived during the Cuban Revolution and disappeared without a trace. “Now, shaped by atrocities long-forgotten, her tenacious spirit visits her nephew, Ramón, in modern-day New Jersey.” This prompts Ramon to go looking for answers about his family’s painful history, just as Marisol intended. The journey brings with it romance, a murderous gangster, and a discovery of the lost saints who helped his aunt survive imprisonment.

The Book of Anna by Carmen, translated by Samantha Schnee – Real talk: I have tried to read Anna Karenina several times and failed, each time as a teenager so maybe now it would be different in my 30s? What I do know is that I am very interested in this book by Mexican writer Carmen Boullosa, a novel told from the perspective of Anna K’s son in the years after her tragic fate with the Russian Revolution on the horizon.

cover image of Loteria by Cina Pelayo Loteria by Cynthia (Cina) Pelayo – It’s spooky season, so let’s do a little light horror, shall we? First, you should know that La Loteria is an iconic Mexican card game, a little like bingo but with images instead of numbers. As for this book, I read it earlier this year and it really got under my skin, but not so much with and graphic, gory, in-your-face horror. The terror here is more of the dark fairytale variety (expect monsters, ghosts, vampires, and werewolves) but the best part is the format: it’s a collection of 54 (very) short stories, one for each of the images in the Loteria deck.

Note: This appears to be out of print at the moment, so try your libraries and secondhand shops, or check Cina Pelayo’s website down the line for availability!

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina María Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses – Fasten your seatbelts, folks: we’re leaving Gentle Horrorville and headed straight for Dark and Twisty Town. Bazterrica book imagines a world where widespread animal disease has now made the consumption of human mean legal (gulp). Marcos runs a slaughterhouse for humans, though he’s trained not to think of his specimens as human and is barred from personal contact with them on pain of death. But when he’s gifted a live specimen of the finest quality, he’s drawn to her irresistibly, “tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.” This isn’t horror so much as dystopian literary fiction but dios mio! This sounds twisted and skin-crawly AF.

Suggestion Section

GMA’s October book club pick is The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, a book I recently added to my TBR! Time-travel + a magical library that sits between life and death filled with all the lives you could have led = my kind of read.

at Salon: how Emily Dickinson, Octavia Butler, Joan Didion, Jericho Brown, and other authors helped one reader survive this quarantine.

Remember last week when I mentioned Carole Bell’s post on fat representation in romance and said this would be a great topic for book club? Well booya! Carole also wrote a follow-up post with very thoughtful and detailed recommendations of fat positive romance novels.

Apparently Jane Fonda is dropping in on virtual book clubs as she promotes her new book on environmental activism, What Can I Do? All the winners of the nationwide search have been selected, but Jane and Greenpeace have provided these book club discussion questions for all to unpack and enjoy.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.

—Vanessa aka La Pumpkin Spicy

Audiobooks

Audiobooks – 09/24

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 24, 2020

Sponsored by Size Zero by Abigail Mangin.

Condom dresses and space helmets have debuted on fashion runways. A dead body becomes the trend when a coat made of human skin saunters down fashion’s biggest stage. The body is identified as Annabelle Leigh, the teenager who famously disappeared over a decade ago from her boyfriend’s New York City mansion. This new evidence casts suspicion back on the former boyfriend, Cecil LeClaire. Now a monk, he is forced to return to his dark and absurd childhood home to clear his name. He teams up with Ava Germaine, a renegade ex-model. And together, they investigate the depraved and lawless modeling industry behind Cecil’s family fortune.

Hola Audiophiles! Portland finally got that rain we were promised and it’s been glorious to breathe clean air again. Fall is my absolute favorite and I’m digging the atmospheric weather! I am relishing the soothing sounds of rain coming in through my window.

Before we dive into new releases and such, I have to take a moment to honor Breonna Taylor. The news of that terrible decision should not have surprised me, but I really did hope this time might be different. If you’re looking for ways to help, here’s a link to the Louisville Community Bail Fund.

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – Week of September 22 (publisher descriptions in quotes)

And Now She’s Gone by Rachel Howzell Hall, read by Je Nie Fleming (mystery/thriller) – “Isabel Lincoln is gone. But is she missing? It’s up to Grayson Sykes to find her. Although she is reluctant to track down a woman who may not want to be found, Gray’s search for Isabel Lincoln becomes more complicated and dangerous with every new revelation about the woman’s secrets and the truth she’s hidden from her friends and family.” I’ve waited far too long to read Rachel Howzell Hall, going to have to remedy that very soon!

Narrator Note: Didn’t I *just* say that Je Nie Fleming is a narrator I want to get to know more after reading and loving The Boyfriend Project? The universe is listening. That sample sounds so good!

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix, read by Marisa Calin (YA mystery/thriller) – I only just read my first Garth nix this year (Sabriel, it was so good!) and immediately placed this new book on my TBR when I was done. In an alternate 1983 London, Susan Arkshaw is searching for father, a man she’s never met. She thinks a local crime boss might have the answers she needs, but before she can get any info out of him, she’s turned to dust by a young left-handed bookseller named Merlin. That’s right, the booksellers of London don’t just sell books: they’re also magical beings who protect the Old World magic ways! Booksellers Merlin and Vivien happen to be looking for the person responsible for their mother’s murder, and it turns out their search overlaps with Susan’s.

Narrator Note: Marisa Calin’s audiobooks include Daughter of the Siren Queen by Tricia Levenseller, The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe, and the Shadow Chronicles series by Paula Brackston.

Miss Meteor by Anna-Marie McLemore and Tehlor Kay Mejia, read by Kyla Garcia, Almarie Guerra (YA science fiction/fantasy) – Lita Perez wants to enter the Miss Meteor beauty pageant and her ex-best friend Chicky Quintanilla wants to help her, and not just because there’s never been a winner who looks like either of them in the pageant’s history. “So to pull off the unlikeliest underdog story in pageant history, Lita and Chicky are going to have to forget the past and imagine a future where girls like them are more than enough – they are everything.”

Narrator Note: Kyla Garcia and Almarie Guerra sound like the perfect combo for this book. Kyla is no stranger to Tehlor Kay Mejia’s work as she read both of the books in the We Set the Dark on Fire series, and we love Almarie Guerra from books like Zoraida Cordova’s Labyrinth Lost.

The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi, read by Laurie Catherine Winkel and P.J. Ochlan (YA fantasy) – Yesss the band is getting back together! The follow-up to The Gilded Wolves is here to take us right back into Chokshi’s dark and glamorous imagining of 19th century Europe. Séverin and his motley crew might have successfully thwarted the Fallen House, but that win came with a terrible price. “Desperate to make amends, Séverin pursues a dangerous lead to find a long-lost artifact rumored to grant its possessor the power of God. Their hunt lures them far from Paris and into the icy heart of Russia where crystalline ice animals stalk forgotten mansions, broken goddesses carry deadly secrets, and a string of unsolved murders makes the crew question whether an ancient myth is a myth after all.” I want it, I want it now.

Narrator Note: Laurie Catherine Winkel and P.J. Ochlan are back reprise their roles! I know I poked fun at some of the accent work in The Gilded Wolves, but you know what, it’s 2020. Bring on the silly. I love the silly. I’ll take aaaall the silly.

Latest Listens

No new listens this week, mostly because all the books I’ve listened to lately don’t come out for at least another month! So instead I’ll do a backlist bump and recommend a favorite from a couple of years ago: Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood.

When Patricia Lockwood was 30 years old, a crushing amount of medical debt forced her and her husband to move back in with her parents. Living with your parents as a married couple might be interesting enough for the average person, but Lockwood’s case is unique: her dad is a Catholic priest, a role he took on after getting married and having kids thanks to a super obscure loophole. I don’t know quite how to describe this man to you: he’s quirky and loud and kind of a scene-stealer, a man whose convictions are at once comically admirable and maddening in their rigidity.

All this talk of religion might put some of you off, but I encourage you to keep going. Lockwood reflects on her complicated relationship with her family, reflections on father and early life in the church, and her decision to leave the community with thoughtful reflection and care. Then on the next page, she’s poking fun at the whole experience with some of the most hilarious writing I’ve read in years. She narrates the book herself and thank sweet baby cheeses for that: I can’t imagine anyone else reading the parts of her parents just so. I hear her take on her Southern mom’s voice in my head every time I talk about this memoir and it is gold.

Warning: there is discussion of Lockwood’s sexual assault in the book (her poem “Rape Joke” went viral in 2013 and is many people’s introduction to her writing). Her experience isn’t documented in graphic detail, but the discussion she has with her parents about the assault is heartbreaking and cracked me wide open.

From the Internets

at Audiofile: Turning to Historical Mystery Audiobooks to Help Us Keep Perspective in These Historic Times

at Audiobooks.com: 5 Fall Activities to Pair with Audiobooks (Is 2020 the year I finally learn how to knit?!?)

Over at the Riot

Six Audiobooks Written and Read by Latinx Authors

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

In The Club

In the Club 9/23

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 22, 2020

Sponsored by the Award-Winning Bestseller: Athena's Choice.

What if a viral pandemic put women in charge of the planet? Athena Vosh lives just like any other teenager from the year 2099. She watches reality shows with her friends, eats well, and occasionally wonders to herself: what would life be like if men were still alive? It has been almost 50 years since an experimental virus accidentally killed all the men on earth. However, a controversial project is currently underway to bring men back. There’s just one catch. The project has been sabotaged. “One of the Best Books of 2019” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. What. a. week. After so much heaviness, at least I was able to go outside this weekend. I’ve never been so thankful for rain as I was on Saturday morning! I treated myself to a pumpkin foods retrieval mission at Trader Joe’s and could practically hear people singing “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” as they all greeted one another almost comically and loaded their carts with all the autumnal fare. Sunshine, pumpkin stuff, and air that’s safe to breathe will do that to people.

I say all that to say that a)the pumpkin brioche bread, maple butter, and pumpkin butternut bisque are all extremely delicious and worth the purchase, and b)whatever “silly” thing is bringing you joy right now, I wish you some more of that.

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

You know I love fall. The second I pick up on even a hint of a cool breeze, your girl is busting out the hoodies and warm autumnal beverages. So today’s sip tip is the super simplest: te de canela! Cinnamon tea is a staple in many Mexican households, one I grew up with and love today both for its taste and how yummy it makes my apartment smell. Bath & Body who?? I have your fall smells right here.

The recipe: throw Ceylon cinnamon sticks in some water and boil (I use one stick per 8 oz of water). Once the water comes to a boil, turn off the heat and let it steep for 15 minutes, then strain and serve. I like to add a tiny bit of milk and honey or agave, but the milk is just a me thing.

Note: Not all cinnamon is good for you, apparently! Here’s a quick breakdown of the potential health benefits of cinnamon, but also why you shouldn’t use the Cassia variety. Go with Ceylon cinnamon (aka “true” or Mexican cinnamon).

Ladies First

Friday’s news of RBG’s passing brought heaviness, worry, terror, and sadness for all of the reasons. My thoughts go out to anyone else who sat there crying on their couch like I did. To honor RBG’s legacy, today’s club recs are biographies, histories, and memoirs by and about the women of the Supreme Court.

Before you proceed, two things. First, I haven’t read any of these myself but think it’s important to read up on these women and their contributions. Second, none of these women are perfect or above reproach. We can (and should) honor what they achieved while also reviewing their record with a critical eye.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life by Jane Sherron de Hart – This recent and extensive biography is the result of fifteen years of research and interviews documenting the central experiences that shaped Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s approach to justice, advocacy for gender equality, and jurisprudence. “At the heart of her story and abiding beliefs is her Jewish background, specifically the concept of tikkun olam, the Hebrew injunction to “repair the world,” with its profound meaning for a young girl who grew up during the Holocaust and World War II.”

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor – Current Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is the first Hispanic and third woman appointed to the US Supreme Court. This memoir is her personal recounting of a life that began in a Bronx housing project and led her to the federal bench.

Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court by Sandra Day O’Connor – Sandra Day O’Connor broke up the boys club by becoming the first woman named to the United States Supreme Court. In her own words: “I called this book Out of Order because it reflects my goal, which is to share a different side of the Supreme Court. Most people know the Court only as it exists between bangs of the gavel, when the Court comes to order to hear arguments or give opinions. But the stories of the Court and the Justices that come from the ‘out of order’ moments add to the richness of the Court as both a branch of our government and a human institution.”

Elena Kagan: A Biography by Meg Greene – This biography covers Elena Kagan’s early life, college years at Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard (no big deal) and her extensive legal career, including a job as a clerk for a federal Court of Appeals judge and for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. It documents her rise to the bench and provides an “overview of Kagan’s legal thought and writings that reveals the basic tenets of her philosophies.”

Suggestion Section

Next up in Tor.com’s Terry Pratchett Book Club: a discussion of Mort.

EW’s Quarantine Book Club picked up a book from my TBR: Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi.

Stephanie Yeboah talked to Bustle about fat phobia, fat representation, and her book Fattily Ever After, which reminded me of Carole Bell’s recent piece for Book Riot about fat representation in romance. This would make for an excellent book club topic – more representation isn’t necessarily better if the rep isn’t good.

OH LOOK it’s the white hot center of my interests: a Book Club candle with all the warm and lovely scents of fall!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Audiobooks

Audiobooks 09/17

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 16, 2020

In the Club 091620

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 16, 2020

Sponsored by Come On In by Adi Alsaid, published by Inkyard Press.

This exceptional and powerful anthology explores the joys, heartbreaks and triumphs of immigration, with stories by critically acclaimed and bestselling YA authors who are shaped by the journeys they and their families have taken from home—and to find home.

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. It’s Mexican Independence Day! That’s right: it’s the day that everyone thinks is Cinco de Mayo (insert facepalm here). To celebrate, I’ll be doing my very best grito at midnight*, cooking some delicious Mexican food, and of course sharing some works by some fantastic Mexican authors for you to read in your book clubs. Let’s kick off Hispanic Heritage Month with a bang then, shall we?

To the club!!

*probs closer to 9PM because I am an old and midnight is past my bedtime

Nibbles and Sips

Today I’m going a little left and recommending two food shows instead of the usual nibbles and sips, shows that made my mouth water, my soul long to travel, and my heart swell with pride for the stock from which I come. Both of these are on Netflix, and they are:

Show: Chef’s Table: BBQ
Episode: Rosalia Chay Chuc

Show: Street Food: Latin America
Episode: Oaxaca, Mexico (watch the whole thing though, it’s fantastic)

Both of these shows feature some truly inspiring Mexican cooks making food their way, the old way, folks who have remained steadfast in their culinary approach in a world urging them to change with the times. The entire Street Food series is fantastic, but Doña Vale is, I think, my fave. That lady oozes strong IDGAF energy and I hope to someday try those scrumptious-looking memelas!

Mexican Authors to Add to Your List

I’m coming in hot and recommending not one title, but an author, and that author is Silvia Moreno Garcia. I don’t know how to talk about her without sounding like a starry-eyed fangirl, but let’s face it: that’s precisely what I am. She’s given us vampires in Mexico City in Certain Dark Things, a folkloric jaunt through Jazz Age Mexico with the Mayan God of Death in Gods of Jade and Shadow, a coming-of-age thriller set on the coast of Baja California with Untamed Shore, and my favorite read of 2020 so far: the gothic horror masterpiece that is Mexican Gothic. This isn’t even her entire catalog! Give this woman her flowers, please.

Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land by Noé Álvarez – Noé Álvarez, the son of working class Mexican immigrants, was a first-generation college student in search of a sense of belonging. That’s when he first heard about a Native American/First Nations movement called the Peace and Dignity Journeys, a series of epic marathons through what were once Indigenous lands wherein participants seek to renew cultural connections to those lands. At 19, Álvarez dropped out of school to embark on a four month, 6,000 mile journey from Canada to Guatemala. This book is the story of that journey, a tale of pushing limits, self discovery, and pondering the heartbreaking history of this stolen land.

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo – For shame! I confess that I have not read what many consider to be theeeee great Mexican novel. One of the best pitches I’ve seen for the book is one I saw in The Guardian of all places, where the book is described as “a ghost story stuffed into another ghost story stuffed into a coffin made of dust, memory, and soil.” It’s about a man named Juan Preciado who travels to his recently deceased mother’s hometown and comes across a literal ghost town on the way.

Suggestion Section

Reese Witherspoon chose Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez as the September YA pick for her book club! It made my heart happy to see Yamile share her joy.

This Electric Literature profile on Yaa Gyasi’s latest release Transcendent Kingdom reminded me what a perfect book club pick this novel would be—just ask Barnes & Noble and The Today Show’s Jenna Bush Hager (that second link includes lots of good book cub questions). It examines issues like addiction, grief, faith, mental health, and race. I have so many thoughts on this one and I’m not even all the way through.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Audiobooks

Audiobooks 09/10

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 10, 2020

Sponsored by Size Zero by Abigail Mangin

Hola Audiophiles! How’s your week? I’m feeling a little bit like the dog in that “this is fine meme” right now! The view outside my window has been eerie and smokey for three days as fires rage in California and Oregon. The winds got so bad on Sunday that I went out for a beer and came back looking like a tumbleweed.

All joking aside, I hope all those in impacted areas are staying safe. My most heartfelt thanks go out to firefighters and to essential workers still holding it down in this pandemic. Let’s also not forget that Black people are doing the daily work of just existing on top of dealing with the rest of this mess. The work is far from over.

Okay. Let’s audio.

New Releases – Week of September 8, 2020

One by One by Ruth Ware, read by Imogen Church (mystery/thriller) – Oh friends, this might be my favorite Ruth Ware yet! It’s a lock-room thriller set at a lux ski chalet in the French Alps where the founders of Snoop, a London-based tech startup, have organized a weeklong company retreat. Everything starts off normal enough, as normal as it can be when you stick a bunch of big personalities with ridiculous titles and secret motivations together in a secluded location (seriously, the job description section at the beginning took me out!). Then some explosive company news, a ski accident, and a devastating avalanche change everything overnight. Cut off from the world without signs of help on the way, this friendly retreat quickly becomes a cutthroat game of survival and a race to find out who the killer is among them. Side note: you’ll figure out who it is and it will not matter. Those last few chapters are sooooo tight and tense!

Narrator Note: Imogen Church has read all of Ruth Ware’s English language audiobooks with the exception of some Audible original content. I can see why, they’re very well matched. I’ve listened to In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10 on audio and wow, Imogen sure knows how to build panic and suspense.

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart, read by Natalie Naudus, Feodor Chin, Emily Woo Zeller (fantasy) – The emperor has reigned for decades through the mastery of bone shard magic, a reign marked by animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. As his rule begins to wane and revolution sweeps across the empire, the emperor’s daughter Lin remains locked in the palace and is denied her right to the throne. She vows to get what’s owed to her by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic herself. When the revolution makes its way to the palace gates, Lin must weigh the price of claiming her birthright and saving her people.

Narrator Note: What a team of narrators! All have standout performances to their names, but make sure to check out this listening pathway if you’ve never experienced an Emily Woo Zeller production.

Prime Deceptions by Valerie Valdes, read by Almarie Guerra (science fiction) – The first book in this series (Chilling Effect) had me before I’d read a single page: Cuban descendants, a very sweary spaceship captain, interspecies romance, and psychic cats in space?? Add! to! cart! In Prime Deceptions, Captain Eva Inoocente finds herself on a mission to hep bring back a missing scientist, a job with a fat paycheck and noble enough cause attached. But this mission means working with her sister who she’s still not super sure she trusts, and will bring Eva back to the site of her most tragic and painful failure. More psychic cats, more Spanish swear words, more space opera.

Narrator Note: I just talked about Almarie Guerra last week and here we are again! She was fantastic in Chilling Effect and I’m sure she’ll knock it out of the park once more.

Latest Listens

Hello, this is now a newsletter of books I read because Amanda Nelson recommended them. Lucky for us both, she has really great taste! That is how I came to read The Switch by Beth O’Leary.

When Leena Cotton has a panic attack in the middle of a high profile client meeting, she’s sent on a mandatory paid holiday for two months. Leena realizes she has a lot of unprocessed grief to confront after losing her sister to cancer, so she leaves London and escapes to Yorkshire to visit her grandmother Eileen. Eileen is newly divorced from Leena’s philandering grandfather and in the mood for adventure, so Leena helps her set up a dating app profile to help her find love. When they discover the dating pool in the countryside ain’t exactly poppin’, they come up with a plan.They’ll switch places for two months: Leena will live in Eileen’s home in the country sans smart phone or laptop and assume her grandmother’s daily duties therein, and Eileen will stay at Leena’s flat in London and dive headfirst into London’s dating scene.

You might not think that an almost-octagenuarian and a twenty-something would be good candidates for a life swap, but it’s just perfect. Of course, both women find the adjustment a little rocky at first: Leena isn’t used to being disconnected or dealing with nosy neighbors, and Eileen finds the hustle and bustle of London to be cold and inhospitable. But each of them finds their way in their own space and time. Their stories are heartwarming and hilarious with a dose of sexy. When this COVID thing is finally under control (sob), someone put me in touch with their English grandma if she feels like switching lives with a 30-something Latina in the states.

This one is read by Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones and both performances were just delightful. I saw several reviews ragging on Alison Steadman’s portions for excessive mouth/smacking sounds and I admit I got very defensive on behalf of my adopted English grandma. Thinking back, I suppose there was some of that, so if it bothers you, now you know. It never bothered me once, it felt authentic. If you need a cozy and hopeful read to warm your heart, you know what to do.

From the Internets

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month! Audiofile Magazine suggests these five audiobooks for after you’re done signing up.

POPSUGAR came in hot with some truth: Those Who Don’t Count Audiobooks as Reading Can Kindly GTFO

Over at the Riot

This list of 6 of the Best Memoirs on Audio contains one I’ve been raving about all over the place this week, and that’s We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib, read by Parmida Vand. So good!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

In The Club

In the Club 9/09

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 9, 2020

Sponsored by The Age of Darkness Series by Katy Rose Pool with Fierce Reads.

Kingdoms have begun to fall to a doomsday cult, the magical Graced are being persecuted, and an ancient power threatens to break free. But with the world hurtling toward its prophesized end, one man’s haunting vision reveals the dangerous beginnings of a plan to stop the Age of Darkness. Six of Crows meets Graceling with a dash of ‘Winter is Coming’ in Katy Rose Pool’s Age of Darkness series, which Kirkus calls “well-crafted, surprising, and gripping.”

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. Things are looking a little spooky here in Portland and I wish I meant that in a good way. The winds and smoke blowing in from Northern CA and now fires of our own have this place looking like a house is about to drop on a witch in sparkly red shoes. *shivers*

Before I dive into today’s book club nibbles and reads, seeing caravans of gun-toting “vigilantes” descend on my city has shaken me a little bit. It’s not surprising, but still upsetting. So here’s a friendly reminder to make sure you’re registered to vote and that you’re still doing your part to effect change. Black lives still matter, always have and always will; whether you’re on the ground protesting, donating to bail funds, or spreading the word to get resources to the people who need them, keep on keepin’ on.

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

I’m hanging on to these last days of summer and taking advantage of seasonal produce. If peaches are available where you are, please treat yourself to this delicious peach and burrata salad from the ladies of Food Heaven. Founders Wendy and Jess are two Black registered dietitians who take a very honest and accessible approach to nutrition. They don’t push weight loss (amen!) and teach an intuitive approach to eating (again, not about weight loss, just getting the nutrition your body needs). These two are funny as hell and their recipes are delicious! Learn more from their website, podcast, and check them out on the gram. I know this reads like an ad, but I promise you these women have never heard of me. I’m just a girl standing in front of a hunk of burrata asking it to love me.

Recipe tip: I grilled the peaches on the stove with a tiny bit of agave because ya girl was not about to turn on the oven in this heat, and I also did a super quick pickle on the red onions with some red wine vinegar and red pepper flakes.

A Religious Experience – I’ve been pulling from the Read Harder challenge for inspiration lately because the books I’ve been reading for the show just feel so timely. We most recently covered the task on religious memoirs outside of our own tradition (or lack thereof) and I thought I’d suggest this same them for the club. These are books that have reminded me of a few truths I hope you’ll discuss and unpack:

Religious divide is hardly a new thing in this country or in the world.
Not all people who’ve been cast out by the faith they were raised in want a clean break from that community (though I understand why many would, truly). Many just want to find a safe space therein.
For a country allegedly built on the separation of church and state, religion has been very intentionally woven into the fabric of the US and it was done for a very specific purpose (see God Land).
It’s easy to think one’s faith is “better” or worse than another, but I’ve found that so many of the most beautiful and the most hateful/hurtful/prejudiced parts feel very similar from religion to religion. This sounds dire, but it can also be strangely hopeful if you look at it from a “we’re more alike than you think” perspective.

We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib – Samra Habib was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan where her Ahmadi Muslim family experienced regular threats from Islamic extremists. Her family went to Canada as refugees, where young Samra assumed the worst of her troubles were behind her. It wasn’t long before she discovered a whole new set of challenges awaited her: bullies, racism, the threat of poverty, and an arranged marriage while she was still in high school. Slowly, Samra begins to begrudge the pattern of the men in her life policing her every move while the women encouraged pious obedience. This brief but impactful memoir follows Samra as she grows to embrace her creative, feminist spirit and her queerness while also finding a safe space in the Muslim community. (TW: brief reference to childhood sexual abuse)

Educated by Tara Westover – You’ve heard me rave about this one before so I’ll keep it brief, but I can’t talk about memoirs + religion without talking about this story. Tara Westover was raised in rural Idaho by survivalist and fundamentalist Mormon parents who “homeschooled” their children (mainly put them to work in the scrap yard) and denied the validity of modern medicine. Westover decides she wants to go to school and sneakily finds a way to get into BYU, attending school for the very first time at age 17. Tara not only graduated, but went on to earn a PhD from Cambridge. That is all impressive enough on its own, but even more so when you throw in the verbal and physical abuse she endured.

God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America by Lyz Lenz – Before the 2016 election, Lyz Lenz was already in a politically divided marriage and was writing about a trend she’d observed in the closure of small churches in America’s heartland (including one she’s started in her own home). Then the election came (a moment of silence, please). Lenz watched as her country and her marriage were torn apart by issues of faith and politics and what began as a journalistic endeavor also became a deeply personal memoir. “From drugstores in Sydney, Iowa, to skeet shooting in rural Illinois, to the mega churches of Minneapolis, Lenz set out to discover the changing forces of faith and tradition in God’s country.”

Suggestion Section

Apple and Oprah have partnered up to launch a new podcast based on the Oprah book Club. The podcast title, which may surprise you, is Oprah’s Book Club.

Move over, Reese and Oprah. Malala Yousafzai, Steph Curry, and Richard Branson want in on the celebrity book club game.

Susan Orlean says we can expect exceptional writing and lots of wine in her new book club. And here’s a reminder of the time she got drunk and tweeted about it and had a delightful sense of humor about the whole thing.

Ah, remember that sweet, sweet feeling of falling into a book club for the first time?

… and then maybe finding you’re too slow a reader for book club?

Consider joining the #APSTogether book club, an online offering from A Public Space that pairs writers and readers for monthly book discussions.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman (fiction)

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab (fantasy)

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (mystery/thriller)

Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas (historical mystery/thriller)

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade (romance)

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad (nonfiction, essays)

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (October 13)

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

White Tears /Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad (nonfiction, essays)