Author: Vanessa Diaz

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Audiobooks

Audiobooks – 6/25

Hola Audiophiles! Thank you for joining me for another week in the decade known as 2020. Whether you’re blasting through your TBLs at record speed or saving listens up for later, I’m honored you’re taking time out of your day to read my nerdy descriptions and muppet-arms reviews. I loooove my latest listen and am jazzed for all these new books!

Before I dive in, favor? We’re running a reader survey and would love it if you’d take a few minutes to fill it out. As a thank you, you’ll be entered for the chance to win an ereader!

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – June 23  (publisher descriptions in quotes)

the order of the pure moonThe Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho, read by Nancy Wu (fantasy novella) – I love this description so much: “A bandit walks into a coffeehouse, and it all goes downhill from there.” It gets even better: Displaced nun Guet Imm (badass nuns?? hell yes!) joins an eclectic group of thieves in order to protect a sacred object, and finds she has no idea how complicated a situation she’s gotten herself into. This is a found-story inspired by wuxia—a genre of Chinese fiction chronicling the adventures of Ancient Chinese martial artists—by the author of Sorcerer to the Crown.

Narrator Note: Nancy Wu’s work includes performances of Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, Warcross by Marie Lu, and Severance by Ling Ma.

Thank You for Voting: The Maddening, Enlightening, Inspiring Truth About Voting in America by Erin Geiger Smith, read by Lisa Cordileone (nonfiction) – This kind of book feels so important right now; it’s a history of voting, of the fight for the voting rights of the disenfranchised, and an examination (and explanation) of everything from how the voting system works to voter suppression, trends, and current movements to increase both awareness and access. This books is also available in a version for young readers and I could not love that fact more.

Narrator Note: Lisa Cordileone reads both the adult and young readers editions of this book.

Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory (romance), read by Janina Edwards – Olivia Monroe just moved LA to start her own law firm and has no time for dating. Then she meets a sexy man at a hotel bar and they get their flirt on, and she discovers way too late in the game that this dude Max is a famous junior senator. Olivia has zero interest in dating a politician (relatable), but he wins her over with her charm (and cake!) and they begin dating in secret. When they finally go public, it goes precisely as you might expect it to go if… oh I dunno, a beautiful Black woman with her own career and money dated a white royalty figure and the public lost its ever loving mind. Olivia knows what she has with Max is special, but is special enough to deal with the endless scrutiny?

Narrator Note: Janina Edwards reads the books in Jasmine Guillory’s much beloved Wedding Date series (The Wedding Date, The Proposal, etc). If you loved those performances, you’re in good hands!

Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture by Emma Dabiri (nonfiction), read by the author – In this collection of essays blending the personal and the political, Emma Dabiri explores the ins and outs of Black hair culture, including the ways Black hair has been appropriated throughout history, the continued stigmatization of Black hair today, and the cultural movements celebrating black hair. She uses Black hair as a lens to examine racism, pop culture, body politics, and history.

Narrator Note: Emma Dabiri, please write more books so you can narrate them, or just pick up a narrator hustle on the side! Her voice is so pleasant to listen to, I needs more pronto.

Latest Listens

Still working on Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi because a)that book needs to be consumed slowly, and b)Spotify made it available to stream but didn’t add (that I know of??) a way to bookmark where you left off. I keep having to figure out where to jump back in!

the vanishing halfIn the meantime, I tore through Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half. It’s a multi-generational story told from multiple perspectives set in both Louisiana and California from the 60s to the 90s. The Vignes twin sisters were inseparable at birth but went on to lead entirely different lives after running away from their remote hometown of Mallard, LA. One sister eventually goes on to live with her Black daughter in that same town after vowing she’d never return, and the other is passing as a white woman whose white husband has no idea she’s Black. They haven’t spoken in years, but their storylines intersect when their daughters’ paths cross in California.

That summary barely scratches the surface of what Brit Bennett accomplishes in this absolutely stellar follow up to The Mothers. Her characters are so complex and the conversations they engender so nuanced, diving deep into the toxicity of white supremacy and the lengths to which a person is driven in the pursuit of survival and self preservation. There are no easy answers here; every element of this narrative requires thoughtful consideration of the factors that make each moment possible, even inevitable. It’s a call to think critically about race, a condemnation of the “niceness” that upholds white supremacy, and a whole emotional gut punch. If you’ve read it or don’t mind spoilers, check out the latest bonus episode of the Book Riot podcast where I got to rave about this book with Sharifah and Rebecca.

TW: racist language, colorism, and a few flashback references to the murder of the twins’ fathers by white supremacists. Nothing is discussed in detail but YMMV. If it helps, I went into this book thinking I wasn’t going to be able to handle it, but Brit Bennet has a way of writing about painful subject matter with care and a kind of restraint that I find both powerful and readable as an extremely sensitive person.

From the Internets

Libro.fm’s Juneteenth initiative raised just over $67,000 for 42 Black-owned bookstores! Click here for a recap and an action plan for the future. Also check out Libro’s interview with author George M. Johnson.

Anyone else craving romance right now as much as I am? Audiofile recommends these new romance audiobooks to boost your spirits. I just checked out The Bromance Book Club from Libby!

Speaking of romance, check out this Audible playlist of Black voices in romance.

June is Audiobook Month (I won’t blame you if you kinda forgot like I did because… you know, THINGS), and Audiobooks.com has a ton of resources to celebrate: staff picks, upcoming film adaptations, and a few active giveaways (sorry for not altering you all sooner!)

Over at the Riot

Enter to win an 12-book audiobook bundle!

These memoirs are both written and narrated by queer women. You al know how I feel about In the Dream House!

These five audiobooks are by or about Black women who speak up and fight back.

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 In the Club newsletter, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
In The Club

In The Club 6/24

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. This week’s club agenda is inspired by a fact that’s always been true but feels especially important to remember as publishers and editorial sites appear newly interested in hiring Black writers: writers from marginalized communities can—and do!—write all of the things. They can write “issue” books and columns, yes. They can also write heart-pounding mysteries, swoon worthy romance, wildly inventive SFF, and more. So today, I have a few genre titles to share with you by authors from one or more marginalized communities and invite you to consider how this same idea of inclusion can and should be applied to all spaces.

Before we dive in, we have favor to ask! We’re running a reader survey and would love it if you’d take a few minutes to fill it out. As a thank you, you’ll be entered for the chance to win an ereader!

Okay, now to the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

I’m bringing back this section in case anyone out there would like a little comfort food recipe. I recently made the decision to shelter in place with family so I’m currently back in San Diego and was reminded of the simple goodness of my sister-in-law’s tacos dorados de papa (hard shell potato tacos).

Ingredients:

  • Potatoes, peeled and sliced into thin rounds or slices (one to two small potatoes per person)
  • Lettuce, chopped
  • Cotija cheese, grated (This is a salty, hard, Mexican cheese that’s a little like feta. Another cheese could work, but the saltiness really makes a difference!)
  • Salsa of choice- I recommend a simple blended salsa versus a chunky one for this recipe
  • Corn tortillas (a thin variety works best here)
  • Oil for frying (avocado, canola, etc)
  • Salt

Peel the potatoes then slice into strips or rounds; they should be on the thinner side, no more than 1/4 inch thick. Fry up the potatoes until they’re just golden brown, then drain/pat dry their excess oil and toss with a little salt. Now begin to assemble your tacos: fold a warmed corn tortilla in half and stuff with some potato slices—the amount is up to you, but I don’t overstuff. Fry the tacos up, just enough for the tortillas to get nice and crispy. This happens quickly, so keep an eye on them! For the perfect taco, add lettuce, some salsa, and a heap of the salty cotija cheese to each shell.

Tip: thread a toothpick through the tortilla to keep it folded while frying. You could also go more traditional and choose to boil and mash the potatoes and use that as the filling instead, and could also roll the tortillas instead of folding them before frying.

Enjoy!

Genre: Awesome

A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell – Oh look, it’s a whole bunch of Black girl magic in one convenient volume. Huzzah! This stellar list of contributors includes Elizabeth Acevedo, Dhonielle Clayton, L.L. McKinney, Ibi Zoboi, and Justina Ireland. Do yourself a favor and check out these gorgeous stories that center Black women and gender nonconforming individuals through tales of fantasy, science fiction, and magic.

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey – Private detective Ivy Gamble is only just getting by when her luck appears to change: the headmaster at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages hires her to solve a grizzly murder, a job that pays mucho dinero and will finally give her a shot at a homicide case. Buuuut the magically gifted Tabitha teaches at the school, the sister she’s always been a little jealous of and hasn’t spoken to in years. Ivy will have to weed her way through secrets, lies, “chosen one” prophecies, and (eek!) teenagers to determine who split another teacher in half with forbidden magic.

The Cutting Season by Attica Locke coverThe Cutting Season by Attica Locke – This thriller is one hell of a page-turner and also tackles big topics like race and generational trauma. It weaves together two mysteries from two different timelines: a murder on a historic plantation in Louisiana’s Sugar Cane country in present day and another involving a missing slave more than a hundred years earlier. It’s so suspenseful and brilliantly plotted!

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang – Stella has Autism Spectrum Disorder and has always felt more comfortable with math and numbers than people. Applying the age old mantra that practice make perfect, she decides there’s only one way to get over her discomfort with kissing and sexy times, and that’s to hire a male escort. Michael can’t afford to turn her down and agrees to help Stella with her (literal) to-do list. Then their “no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic.”

Suggestion Section

Oprah’s next book club pick is James McBride’s Deacon King Kong.

Vox’s book club has assembled a pretty sweet panel for its next live discussion of The Princess Bride.

Pardon the paywall, but this piece from The Washington Post is a must-read. It will make a lot of non-Black people feel uncomfortable, and may even seem ironic to include in a newsletter about book clubs that urges you to read anti-racist lit. The message is an important one though: reading the books, discussing them, and patting yourself on the back for doing so is not nearly, not even a little bit enough.

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, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks – 6/18

Hola Audiophiles! Welcome to another Thursday and a brand spanking new edition of the Audiobooks newsletter. I’ve got a few new releases for you as usual, some antiracism playlists, and a cool bit of news involving audiobooks and Juneteenth.

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – June 16  (publisher descriptions in quotes)

I Was Told It Would Get Easier by Abbi Waxman, read by Lisa Flanagan, Bailey Carr (fiction) – Jessica and Emily Bernstein are a mother-daughter duo on a college tour. For Emily, this is a taste of freedom, even if she’s not entirely sure she wants to go to college. Jessica sees it as a chance to bond with Emily. They used to be so close, but they’ve drifted apart; Jessica isn’t sure if her daughter even likes her anymore, or if she even likes herself. Together with a dozen strangers on a bus, Jessica and Emily will travel the East Coast, meet up with family and old friends, and discover surprises and secrets that will change their relationship forever.

Narrator Note: I’ve heard such great things about Lisa Flanagan’s performance of Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik and A. J. Hackwith’s The Library of the Unwritten! Bailey Carr has read titles like When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore and Laura van den Berg’s The Third Hotel.

Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West, read by Kim Staunton, Imani Parks, Ron Butler, Adam Lazarre-White, Lloyd Roberson II, Terra Strong Lyons (fiction) – When Ruby King’s mother is found dead in her home, the police dismiss it as just another violent act in a Black neighborhood. Ruby is devastated but also terrified, because her mother’s death means the loss of her protector, and she will now have to live alone with her abusive father. Ruby’s best friend Layla wants to help, but her father, the pastor of their church, demands that Layla stay away from Ruby. “In a relentless quest to save Ruby, Layla uncovers the murky loyalties and dangerous secrets that have bound their families together for generations.”

Narrator Note:  I love an ensemble cast and that is a good one! Some notable performances from each of the narrators include: Kim Staunton reading several Rebel: Women Who Dare and lots of other Beverly Jenkins titles; Imani Parks reads Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton; Ron Butler reads Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin while Adam Lazarre-White reads Go Tell It On the Mountain. Lloyd Roberson II and Terra Strong Lyons are new (as far as I can tell) to the audiobook game!

Vera Kelly is Not a Mystery by Rosalie Knecht, read by Elisabeth Rodgers (mystery/thriller) – This is the next book in the Vera Kelly series! Ex-CIA agent Vera is newly jobless and girlfriendless. Heartbroken and broke AF, she reluctantly takes a job as a private detective. Her first case brings up dark memories and “attracts dangerous characters from across the Cold War landscape. Before it’s over, she’ll chase a lost child through foster care and follow a trail of Dominican exiles to the Caribbean.” Forever on the run, Vera will have to confront her desire for home, connection, and a little romance.

Narrator Note: Elisabeth Rodgers reads a lot of Dean Koontz and Iris Johansen titles and also read the first book in the Vera Kelly Series (Who is Vera Kelly?). Her style really captures Vera’s smart, bone-dry wit.

Latest Listens

I am taking my sweet time with Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi right now, not sure when I will be done because I keep rewinding it to hear parts of it again, and I may even switch over to print to make notes whenever I can get my hands on it. It’s an 18 hour listen that I’m barely an hour into, but it’s already so powerful and just so powerful in its detail and scope. Reminder that Stamped from the Beginning is currently available to stream on Spotify; FYI some people have pointed out that the free version of Spotify does not let you listen to it in order. Boo!

Anyway, I’ll report back when I’m further into it. What audiobooks have you been loving? Reply to this email and let me know!

From the Internets

Tomorrow on Juneteenth (Friday, June 19th), Libro.fm will deliver 100% of audiobook sales to Black-owned bookstore partners. In addition to their collection of antiracism playlists, they’ve also added New Fiction by Black Women and Pride Picks by Black Authors

at BuzzFeed: 21 Audiobooks We’re Excited to Listen To This Summer

at AudioFile: 5 Young Adult Audiobooks That Center Black Lives

at Audible: Listens for Raising an Antiracist

Over at the Riot

12 Recent Queer Audiobooks That Will Fill Your Ears With Pride

5 Audiobooks Narrated by a Full Cast

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, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
In The Club

In the Club 6/17

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. This week I’ve seen a lot of folks on Twitter honoring this week’s celebration of Juneteenth by flooding the timeline with Black joy. I love this so much and want to talk this week about amplifying Black voices while also making time for that joy. 

To the club!!

I’m still skipping Nibbles and Sips for now and instead bringing attention to more ways to make an impact. Here are a few organizations doing great work to protect and uplift the LGBTQ community (and all Black-led according to Marie Claire); consider throwing a few dollars their way if you can and/or spreading the word.

The Okra Project sends Black trans chefs to the homes of Black trans people experiencing food insecurity and provides cooking lessons and other resources.

The Marsha P. Johnson Institue was founded in honor of activist and drag queen Marsha P. Johnson. It focuses on the protection and defense of the human rights of Black transgender people and provide fellowships for transgender artists.

The LGBTQ+ Freedom Fund helps post bond for LGBTQ+ people in jail or immigrant detention. They’re also work to raise awareness about LGBTQ over-incarceration in the US.

Joy to the World

You may have seen this image going around (more info here). I love this initiative to amplify Black voices! Two things:

A. Antiracism lit is essential, but don’t forget to supplement that reading with all the rest of the work that Black authors write (i.e. general fiction, kidlit, romance, etc)

B. You can and should support Black authors any ol’ time and not just this week.

That being said, I thought I’d hit you all with three reads full of Black joy.

you can't touch my hairYou Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson – Phoebe Robinson is a standup comedian, writer, and actress who you may know from the comedy podcast-turned-HBO-show Two Dope Queens. She is absolutely hilarious and a person you should follow on Instagram for some of the most delightfully ridiculous captions your eyes ever did see! While this collection of essays and observational humor definitely examines issues like racism and misogyny, it’s also full of Bono thirst (yes, that Bono) and gratuitous hashtags. This is one of the few books I can remember making me laugh out loud to the point of tears in the last few years.

Cover of The Boyfriend Project by Farrah RochonThe Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon – Black romance is an obvious choice for readers searching for Black joy; you get some love, maybe some sexy times, and a happily ever! When Samiah’s live Tweets of a terrible date go viral, two other women show up to the date and reveal that this garbage dude was three-timing them all. The three women dump the guy and form an almost immediate sisterhood, making a pact to take a break from dating to focus on themselves. As luck would have it though, there’s a new hottie in the office and Samiah can’t help but look his way. I picked this recent release because on top of being a really fun romance, it also gives us an amazing portrayal of female friendship while also diving into the struggles of being a Black woman in STEM.

Pride by Ibi Zoboi – Remixes of classics are a thing I enjoy very mucho and this reimagining of Pride and Prejudice set in Bushwick with a cast of Black characters is one of my favorites. It gets into some deep stuff, of course–cultural identity, class, gentrification–but it’s just so lovely to see a young Afro-Latina centered in this kind of story. The joy is multiplied exponentially in the audiobook, which is narrated by the so-beautiful-and-talented-it’s-like-how-dare-she Elizabeth Acevedo. She breathes such life into main character Zuri, her four wild sisters, and really the entire cast.

Suggestion Section

Introducing Tor.com’s Terry Pratchett Book Club!

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas is BuzzFeed’s July book club pick.

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, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks 6/11

Hola Audiophiles!

Hey friend, yes you. It’s almost Friday and you made it. I know we’re all feeling a lot of ups and downs right now between working on anti-racism and getting our hearts broken by once-beloved fantasy authors. I see you, I honor you, and I invite you to take a moment today to breathe, stretch, hydrate, perhaps meditate or take a nap. Thank you for spending some of your precious time with me today – let’s do this audiobook thing.

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – June 9th  (publisher descriptions in quotes)

The Secret Women Sheila Williams by Sheila Williams, read by Zakiya Young (fiction) – Elise isn’t feeing very namaste: she recently lost her mother, her marriage has fallen apart, and this 90 minute yoga class just isn’t where its at today. After an epic faceplant in downward facing dog, she gets to chatting with two other women who aren’t feeling it today either. They strike up a conversation and end up going for dinner after class. Over tacos, margaritas, laughs, and then tearful confessions, a friendship between these three members of the Daughters of Dead Mothers Club is formed.

Narrator Note: Zakiya Young is an experienced theater actress and relatively new to the audiobook thing. Her narration is unsurprisingly wonderful!

Rebel Chef: In Search of What Matters by Dominique Crenn, read by Hope Newhouse (biography/memoir) – Dominique Crenn is the owner and executive chef at renowned San Francisco restaurant Atelier Crenn. This memoir begins with chronicle of her childhood in Brittany, France, starting with her adoption at 18 months and her early indoctrination into the world of food. We then follow Crenn on her journey to becoming a chef, breaking down barriers and developing her own unique philosophy of food before finally opening up her own restaurant and becoming the first woman in America to earn a two Michelin star rating. Fun fact: she’s also currently the only one with a three star rating.

Bonus: Watch her episode of Chef’s Table on Netflix for a fun dive into her restaurant’s artistic concept. There are absolutely some who will find this kind of cuisine pretentious (and little snobby towards “simple” food, I’ll give you that). But Crenn’s passion and creativity are undeniable and so fun to watch.

Narrator note: I confess I wish Dominque Crenn had narrated this herself because I love her French accent so much, but Hope Newhouse does a great job. She reads a ton of Laura Bradbury’s work if you’re familiar with those.

Cover of The Boyfriend Project by Farrah RochonThe Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon, read by Je Nie Fleming (romance, fiction) – Samiah is a software engineer who’s on a hot garbage date and live-tweeting its awfulness for the world to see. Those tweets go viral and then one women but TWO women are all, “Ummmm, why is my man on a date with another woman?” They show up at the restaurant, confront his three-timing ass, and then the three wronged women ride off together into the friendship sunset. Over a round of Moscow mules, they make a pact to take a break from dating and focus on themselves. As luck would have it though, the new hottie at the office puts a twinkle in Samiah’s eye. Should she stick to the plan or take a chance on love? And is this new guy keeping secrets of his own? I have been leaning hard into romance for joy in these times and enjoyed this one on so many levels: strong female friendships, an office romance, the struggles of Black women in the workplace and specifically in STEM. So good!

Narrator Note: Je Nie Fleming is an actor, singer, and writer who brings those acting skills to her narration. She has this rich, lower-pitched tone that I find absolutely scrumptious.

Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho, read by Catherine Ho (fiction) – This is pitched as Crazy Rich Asians meets Bridget Jones’ Diary, to which I say thank you. Andrea Tang is 33 and living the dream; she’s a successful lawyer, has fun-loving friends, her social life is poppin’ and she has a posh condo in Singapore. All she has to do now is make partner at her firm, though her family thinks she’s incomplete because she’s unmarried and childless. Then a chance encounter with a charming and wealthy entrepreneur offers her a glimpse of an easy life in the lap of luxury that would also satisfy her family. But…. she can’t stop thinking about her office rival, the last man her family would approve of.

Narrator Note: You may recognize Catherine Ho from books like How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang or Ship of Smoke and Steel by Django Wexler.

pizza girlPizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier, read by Jeena Yi (fiction) – Our main character is 18 years old, pregnant, and working as a pizza delivery girl in suburban LA. She’s grieving the death of her father and in denial about her unhappiness, avoiding the attempts at support from her loving mother and boyfriend. Then she meets Jenny, a stay-at-home mom new to the neighborhood who depends on weekly pickled-covered pizza deliveries in order to feed her young son. “As one woman looks toward motherhood and the other toward middle age, the relationship between the two begins to blur in strange, complicated, and ultimately heartbreaking ways.”

Narrator Note: Jeena Yi is one of the narrators in the cast for Frances Cha’s If I Had Your Face which has been on my list!

Latest Listens – HA!

My focus is all over the map right now, but that’s okay. What I’ve prepared instead is a list of audiobooks to celebrate both queer and Black voices (including several Black queer voices). Again, went with a list sans descriptions in the interest of getting lots of selections on the page. Look em up, read em up.

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson, read by Alaska Jackson

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, read by Avi Roque (out September 2020)

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock, read by the author

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi, read by the author

The Clancys of Queens by Tara Clancy, read by the author

Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore, read by Vikas Adam, Mia Barron and Almarie Guerra

A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney, read by Jacob York, Jeanette Illidge, and Matthew Barnes

Homie by Danez Smith, read by the author

You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson, read by the author

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, read by the author

Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn, read by Sharon Gordon

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, read by Ramon de Ocampo

Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson, read by Keylor Leigh

Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi, read by the author

Small Doses by Amanda Seales, read by the author

All My Mother’s Lovers by Ilana Massad, Rebecca Lowman

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, read by Shvorne Marks

Wade in the Water by Tracy K. Smith, read by the author

Everything Under by Daisy Johnson, read by Esther Wane

From the Internets

Audiofile suggests these seven historical fiction audiobooks for kids and teens

I’m really excited for Libro.fm’s Summer Listening Challenge! Play Audiobook Bingo for a chance to win Libro.fm swag and a year’s worth of audiobooks!

Also up on the Libro.fm blog now: interviews with Brit Bennett and Nicole Dennis-Benn and a list of audiobook recs from Black bookstagrammers.

Audible has a roundup of playlists up now: classic lit by Black authors, Black voices in romance, International Black authors, and a top 10 list of Black audiobook narrators

I missed that it’s Audiobook Month because…. well, look around. Thanks to Kobo for reminding me.

Nerd Daily invites you to #ReadWithPride with these audiobook recommendations

Over at the Riot

6 of the Best Audiobooks by Black Authors

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, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
In The Club

In the Club – 6/10

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. How’s everyone doing this week? Are we all staying fed, hydrated? Remember that you can’t fight the good fight without taking care of your bodies. So here’s your Book Club Mom reminding you to take a moment to breathe, especially if you’re out on the front lines.

Today I’m honoring Pride with a list of book club picks by queer authors, with several titles by Black queer authors to start because Black lives matter and we’re all about the intersectionality here. Ready? To the club!!

Skipping Nibbles & Sips again this week to encourage all my club peeps to consider giving as a group (if it’s within your means) to an organization doing important work in support of Black and queer causes. If you’re not sure which one to give to, may I suggest this big ol’ list of bail and legal defense funds, policy reform organizations, queer advocacy groups, mental health resources, and more. Start there and remember that it’s okay not to be able to help them all at once.

Celebrating Pride

Do the work here to ask tough questions in your discussions about bias, internalized racism and homophobia as brought up in the pages of these reads. It’s time (been time?) to get uncomfortable with it; admit to your shortcomings and times you’ve gotten it wrong, and share what you’ve learned to do better.

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson – Liz has always felt too Black, poor, and awkward for her small, rich Midwestern town. But she has a plan to get the heck out of dodge: she’ll attend an uber-elite college, play in their world-famous orchestra, and become a doctor. Boom! When her financial aid package falls through and her plans come crashing down, Liz remembers her school offers a scholarship for the prom king and queen. If she can just endure the trolling and cattiness of the competition, she might still have a shot. But Mack is also in the running for queen, the new girl that Liz is increasingly drawn to…

Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock – This memoir won so many awards and I’m a little ashamed to admit I still haven’t read it. Mock relays her experience growing up multiracial, poor, and trans in America. She shares her struggles and journey towards self-actualization and calls for greater acceptance of one another and of ourselves.

Homie by Danez Smith – This interview at Them contains my favorite description of this book, calling it a book “hellbent on envisioning a world where queer Black joy exists not as a release but as a constant reality, while still recognizing the current state of affairs.” Read that sentence back a few times, I implore you. This powerful, hilarious, heart-wrenching love letter to Black queer friendship is also superb as an audiobook, which Smith narrates themself.

HereComesTheSun_Cover_200wHere Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn – As a girl, Margot was taught to trade her sexuality for survival and now works at an opulent Montego Bay resort to shield her younger sister from the same fate. When plans for a new hotel threaten their village, Margot sees an opportunity for financial independence and to finally make known her attraction to women. As the sisters face the impending destruction of their community, they each fight “to balance the burdens she shoulders with the freedom she craves.”

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi – In their debut novel, Nigerian writer Akwaeke Emezi tells the story of Ada, a young girl who develops multiple selves as a result of being born “with one foot on the other side.” The selves begin to grow both in power and agency after she moves to America for college, then a traumatic assault precipitates the forming of two very distinct alternate selves. Ada’s life takes a dangerous turn as those selves assume more and more control, but she emerges from the darkness as she begins to understand the beautiful complexity of her identity.

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson – My go-to pitch for this book is always some version of, “How can such a small book pack such a punch??” Two families from different social classes are brought together by an unexpected pregnancy in a story that flashes back and forth between 2001 and 1985. I highly recommend this as an audiobook, which is narrated by an ensemble cast of Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Peter Francis James, Shayna Small, Bahni Turpin, and Jacqueline Woodson herself. It’s only four hours long and it had me sobbing in my car.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas – This work of paranormal YA is full of magic, mystery, and Day of the Dead folklore with a trans teenage boy protagonist and I cannot wait for more people to read it! My Mexican American heart was just so moved by the witchy story, the romance, the use of Spanish, the homage to so many beautiful Latinx traditions. Also, Aiden is a trans author who lives here in Portland and I may or may not be stalking his Instagram. One more thing: this one isn’t out yet, don’t be mad at me! Its pub date was moved to September, so you have plenty of time to get those preorder and holds in.

All My Mother’s Lovers by Ilana Masad – A queer 20-something returns to her hometown when her homophobic mother passes away. When she finds five letters to five men in her mother’s will (none of whom is her father), she goes on a mission to deliver each one in person and discovers how little she knew of her mother’s life.

Mostly Dead Things by Kristin Arnett – All I’m going to say is this: queerness, grief, and lewd taxidermy. Look this one up, you won’t regret it.

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston – I finally read this book after it made the Book Riot rounds and hoped it wasn’t overhyped. ‘TWAS NOT! I laughed, I sobbed, I loved every page of this friends to lovers romance between the Mexican American son of the first woman President of the United States and an English prince. Sexy and smart with some amazing banter.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado – I couldn’t not include this genre-bending memoir by the inimitable Carmen Maria Machado. This is one you need to sit with both for it’s gorgeous, haunting prose and the often heavy subject matter; it examines cultural representations of psychological abuse and stereotypes about the “safety” of lesbian relationships as she relays the details of her relationship with a volatile partner.

Suggestion Section

I know a lot of us have Zoom burnout, but Vox shares why for some it’s the perfect, honest, and vulnerable way to keep book club going strong.

Speaking of Vox: The Princess Bride is their next book club pick.

Have you heard of the Byzans app? I’ll admit I had not until this Rioter shared how it helped her find connection in quarantine. This is probably the lowest barrier to entry I can think of to finding a book club.

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, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks – 6/4

Hola Audiophiles,

I don’t have it in me to be funny in any way today. This moment in time feels so heavy, so exhausting. Every statement I can think of to describe what I can only imagine the Black community is feeling feels trite and inadequate. So I will just say that Black lives matter and flood your ears with new releases by Black authors and antiracism reads that examine the history and effects of racism and white supremacy.

Let’s audio.

New Releases – June 2nd  (publisher descriptions in quotes)

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown, read by Jordan Cobb, A. J. Beckles (fantasy) – When Malik and his sisters flee their war-torn home to start a new life in Ziran, a vengeful spirit abducts his youngest sister as payment to enter the prosperous desert city. Malik agrees to kill Crown Princess Karina in exchange for Nadia’s freedom. Princess Karina is busy using ancient magic to resurrect her assassinated mother and needs the beating heart of a king to complete the ritual. She plans to offer her hand in marriage to the victor of a giant competition that Malik, of course, has entered to get close to her. So he wants to kill her, she wants to kill him. Problem! They’re each super attracted to the person they’re trying to kill.

Narrator Note: Jordan Cobb read with Bahni Turpin for Justina Ireland’s Deathless Divide, and this is A.J. Beckles’ audiobook debut!

The Dragons, the Giant, the Women by Wayétu Moore, read by Tovah Ott (memoir) – Wayétu Moore was five years old when war broke out in Liberia, forcing her and her family to flee their home on foot and hide for weeks before arriving at the village of Lai. From there, the family was smuggled into to Sierra Leone by a rebel soldier before embarking on another harrowing journey to the United States. Wayétu Moore shares this experience along with her years adjusting to life in Texas as a black woman and an immigrant, and her eventual return to Liberia.

Narrator Note: Tovah Ott is another newish narrator who I want to read me sleep stories. Check the sample to see what I’m talking about; I hope we get lots more work from her in the future!

the vanishing halfThe Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, read by Shayna Small (fiction) – In this multi-generational story that takes up from the Deep South to California from the 50s to the 90s, we meet identical twin sisters who are inseparable at birth but go on to lead entirely different lives. One sister eventually goes on to live with her Black daughter in that same town she tried to escape, and the other is passing as white and married to a white man who has no idea that she is Black.They’re separated by many miles and many lies, but their fates intertwine again when their daughters’ own storylines intersect.

Narrator Note: Shayna Small is part of the phenomenal ensemble casts for books like Jacqueline Woodson’s Red at the Bone and N.K. Jemisin’s How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson, read by Alaska Jackson (YA contemporary fiction) – Liz has always felt too black, too poor, too awkward for her small, rich Midwestern town. But she has a plan that will get her the heck out of Campbell, Indiana: she’ll attend an uber-elite college, play in their world-famous orchestra, and become a doctor. Bye, haters! When the financial aid she was counting on falls through and her plans come crashing down, Liz remembers her school’s scholarship for prom king and queen. If she can just endure the trolling and cattiness of the competition, she might still have a shot. But Mack is also in the running for queen, the new girl that Liz is increasingly drawn to. “Will falling for the competition keep Liz from her dreams…or make them come true?”

Narrator Note: I believe this is Alaska Jackson’s first audiobook performance as well! Love all the new narrator energy.

Latest Listens Need to Listens

Today I’m switching up the program to putting the focus on audiobooks to read in your antiracist education and in support of Black authors (though there are a few titles by non-Black authors too). Going with a straight list format in the interest of getting more titles on the page. Lots of these are titles you’re seeing everywhere, others less so. These are listens for listening, if you feel me. Listening it the very least we can do.

Nonfiction:

How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi (the latter of which is available for free on Spotify right now).

cover image of Hood Feminism by Mikki KendallHood Feminism by Mikki Kendall

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo & Michael Eric Dyson

How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones

Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Motherhood So White by Nefertiti Austin

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Men We Reaped and The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Blood at the Root by Patrick Phillips

When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

The Compton Cowboys by Walter Thompson-Hernandez

The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nahisi Coates

Fiction:

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

such a fun ageSuch A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The Nickel Boys by by Colson Whitehead

riot babyRiot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi

The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

 

Poetry:

don't call us deadHomie and Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith

The Tradition Jericho Brown by Jericho Brown

Wade in the Water by Tracy K. Smith

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

 

From the Internets

Check out Libro.fm’s How to Be an Antiracist reading list

Over at the Riot

15 Compelling Historical Fictional Audiobooks

6 of the Best Audiobooks by Women for Caribbean Heritage Month

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, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
In The Club

In the Club 6/3

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed.

Black lives matter.
Black lives matter.
Black lives matter.
Black lives matter.
Black lives matter.
Black lives matter.
Black lives matter.
Black lives matter.
Black lives matter.
Black lives matter.

To the club.

No nibbles & sips today. Stay healthy and try to carve out time to take care of your bodies and minds.

Antiracist Lit 

Today’s newsletter is completely dedicated to antiracist literature. I want all book clubs to take the time to read at least one book on the subject, and I do mean all book clubs. I don’t care if you consider yourselves progressive, liberal, if you have Black Lives Matter signs on your lawns. We all have something (read: lots) more to learn, teach, or both.

I’m highlighting the three books that I have on my immediate TBR pile. Start here, but please don’t stop.

how to be an antiracistHow to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi – This is the title you’re probably seeing recommended a ton right now, along with a call to not only not be racist, but to be anti-racist. That is precisely what it boils down to; passivity won’t cut it, activism is essential. Educate yourself on what antiracism looks like and what meaningful action can achieve. Side note: Ibram X. Kendi authored that wonderful Antiracist Reading List in the New York Times that I’ll link in Suggestion Section.

cover image of Hood Feminism by Mikki KendallHood Feminism by Mikki Kendall – I’ve talked about this one a few times and I am the most not sorry. I’ve been thinking a lot about it in the context of the Women’s March; Black women show up for literally everybody; do we show u for them? Feminism must be intersectional. Period. The sort of prettily photographed stuff you so often see in your Instagram feed leaves Black women behind, concerning itself not with basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. If your approach to feminism ain’t inclusive, it’s trash.

Me and White Supremacy cover imageMe and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad – The idea behind this book began as an online call for accountability. In 2018, Layla Saad hosted a free month-long Instagram campaign wherein she asked folks to share the ways in which they, knowingly or not, had upheld white supremacy. She expected resistance and reluctance and was blown away instead by a worldwide outpouring of self-examination and admission. That then turned into a workbook which eventually lead to the book, a manual for understanding white privilege and participation in white supremacy so that we might stop stop our harmful actions against BIPOC and help others do the same. This right here: essential.

Suggestion Section: Reading Lists + Black-Owned Bookshops

Lists – Many of these lists contain overlapping titles—and good, because they’re important ones. I hope you will take the time to read and discuss thoughtfully, uncomfortably, urgently.

Support Black-Owned Bookstores – I’m giving you locations so you know where they are, but support now through online ordering. You may find some popular titles are backordered (a sign of hope?); if you run into this issue, consider purchasing other titles, or support an Indie with an audiobook purchase or membership from Libro.fm.

The Lit. Bar in The Bronx, NY – Noelle and her team even made it easy for you with a Dear White People reading list.

Loyalty Bookstores in Petworth, DC and downtown Silver Springs, MD – While you’re there, check out their events page; upcoming events include Date Night with Alyssa Cole and discussions for the Agatha Christie + Sherry, Too Lit to Quit, and Antiracist book clubs.

Mahogany Books in Washington, DC – The book bundles under Featured Products on the main page are chef’s kiss!

Marcus Books in Oakland, CA is the oldest independent black bookstore in the country! They were forced into temporary closure due to COVID-19 (and by that I mean closed altogether, even for online ordering), so I’ve linked to their GoFundMe page. I’m seeing tons of donations pouring in with BLM hashtags! Donating as soon as I wrap up this newsletter.

Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis, MN – Come for the pizza-eating, wine-drinking sloth on their main page, stay for their call to action.

Semicolon Bookstore in Chicago, IL – Consider supporting their now ongoing #CleartheShelves campaign to provide free books to Chicago kids!

Uncle Bobbie’s in Philadelphia, PA – There are lots of antiracist reads to choose from on their online order page.

For more Black-owned shops, please see this Twitter thread from Third Place Books.

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, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks – 05/28

Hola Audiophiles! I have a confession: I’ve discovered TikTok. I’m on it but not on it, which is my way of saying that I don’t create content (because I’d look like this but less attractive if I did) but I *do* magically make hours of my life disappear scrolling through the app. Honestly, it’s a pretty good place to go for laughs and entertainment, so here’s one that made me LOL in case you could use a laugh too. Again, I ask: 2020, who hurt you??

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – May 26 (publisher descriptions in quotes)

All My Mother’s Lovers by Ilana Masad, read by Rebecca Lowman (fiction) – After her mother dies in a tragic car crash, Maggie is surprised to learn she left five letters addressed to five different men—men Maggie has never heard of—in her will. Desperately to run from her grief and understand her mother better, a woman who made no effort to hide her feelings about Maggie’s sexuality, Maggie decides to hand-deliver each letter to its intended recipient. What she learns shatters the illusion of her parent’s perfect marriage and reveals how little she knew about her mother’s life.

Narrator Note: If you enjoyed Jodi Picoult’s Leaving Time, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, and Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places, you’re familiar with Rebecca Lowman!

Black Flamingo by Dean Atta, narrated by the author (YA fiction) – Michael is a teen growing up in London who’s Greek-Cypriot and Jamaican, but he’s never felt like he was quite Greek or Black enough. When he eventually comes out, he learns that the coming out process is only one part of finding who he is and where he fits in. That’s when he discovers the Drag Society and when the Black Flamingo is born.

Narrator Note: You already know I tend to love books narrated by their authors, especially when those books are works in verse. Dean Atta is an awesome UK-based spoken word poet, so this is bound to be good.

The Jewel Thief by Jeannie Mobley, read by Mary Sarah (YA historical fiction) – Did someone say “historical fiction based on the story of the Hope diamond?!” Get. in. my. cart! The book opens in 17th century Paris where we meet Juliette, the only daughter of the King’s crown jeweler. Her father has just been tasked with creating a massive diamond for the crown that will shine like the sun. The job is beginning to prove impossible and her father slides into depression, so Juliette takes over and tries to save the day. Key word: tries. When her efforts land her in a cold, dark cell in the Bastille, she’ll have to find a way to convince the king that her intentions were pure if she wants to live.

Narrator Note: I’m unfamiliar with Mary Sarah’s work, but I enjoyed the sort of dramatic breathiness in the sample of this audiobook. She reads a lot of romance by authors like Elisa Braden and Audible original recordings of classics.

Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev, read by Soneela Nankani (contemporary romance) – The first book in this series of rom-com Austen remixes, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year and I’m super excited for this next one! Chef Ashna Raje is determined to save her failing restaurant and prove to her overbearing mother that becoming a chef wasn’t the worst idea ever. When she gets an offer to be on a show called Cooking with the Stars, Ashna jumps at the shot to hopefully put her restaurant on the map. Pero…. plot twist! The super sexy soccer player she’s paired with is the former love of her life who ghosted her at the worst possible time, and he ain’t happy about working with her either. Is this partnership a recipe for disaster, or one for—wait for it—persuasion?

Narrator Note: Soneela is magic and I’m so glad she’s back to narrate the next book in this series! I first became a fan after reading Internment by Samira Ahmed and loved her even more in Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors. Her body of work is pretty impressive these days and includes S.A. Chakraborty’s Daevabad Trilogy, Roshani Chokshi’s Aru Shah books, and The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey.

Latest Listens

TW: discussions of suicide throughout, attempted sexual assault, off-page violence

As promised, I wrapped up my listen of Francesca Serritella’s Ghosts of Harvard, read by Karissa Vacker. Quick premise recap: Cady is (maybe not?) processing her brother Eric’s recent death by suicide when she begins her freshman year at Harvard. Eric too attended Harvard and was diagnosed with schizophrenia in his final year; now Cady is hearing voices too, voices that appear to be from ghosts of Harvard past. Does she share her brother’s mental illness, or are the voices really ghosts who need her help?

I’ve seen some people give this book a negative review because it wasn’t quite the mystery they thought it was going to be. While I don’t know that I would quite call it a mystery or thriller in the “traditional” sense, it is definitely both psychological and suspenseful; there are a couple of different storylines and I kept thinking I’d figured them all out. I was wrong! It’s also a compelling reflection on the devastating effects—especially of the mental health variety– of unprocessed grief.

Lastly, Karissa Vacker’s narration is SO great. She pulls off so many characters of different ages, personalities, and accents seamlessly (and you know how critical I can be here). Her pacing and tone really helped build suspense while also convincingly portraying grief, anxiety, rage, and stress. This was an almost 17 hour listen that I blasted through in just a few days; I was actually excited to go for walks and jogs just to figure out what was happening.

From the Internets

100 absorbing young adult audiobooks recommended by Modern Mrs. Darcy. My condolences to your TBL.

AudioFile suggests five romances with unexpected revelations and these mystery & suspense audiobooks for kids and teens.

Over at the Riot

Rounding out our series on short audiobooks: here are nine under nine and ten under ten. I’ve bookmarked every single one of these (go here if you’d like to do the same).

Because we could all use some of these: a roundup of fun, happy listens

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, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
In The Club

In the Club – 05/27

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. Well sh*t, friends. A couple of you got me in my feelings this week with your sweet emails! Thank you for reaching out, truly. It was such a nice warm hug to my bookish heart to know that my little ramblings on books, club business, and tasty things are a source of comfort and entertainment for you (and not just me nerding out by myself in cyber space). You’re simply the best and I appreciate you. Sending virtual hugs to you and everyone else reading this newsletter.

Whew! Enough feels. To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

So this Portland weather cannot make up its mind, a thing I was warned it was prone to do but keep forgetting nonetheless. It will *allegedly* be over 80 degrees and sunny mid week and I plan on packing up a little picnic to go sit in a park. I’ll be making my favorite quick chicken salad and thought I’d share it with you today- I love using this recipe for sandwiches in an afternoon tea and at book club gatherings in general.

Ingredients: shredded chicken, greek yogurt*, fresh chopped rosemary, golden raisins, salt and pepper

Instructions: Mix that ish up and enjoy! This is one of those recipes you just sort of need to eyeball and season to taste. Enjoy on its own or on bread!

*I use Greek yogurt because mayonnaise is my personal hell, but you do you, boo. When someone first made this chicken salad for me, she used one part Greek yogurt for every one part mayo. Vaya con dios.

Talkin’ Bout Mental Health

May is Mental Health Awareness month and I totally slacked on recommending this as a book club topic! May or not, anytime is a good time to better understand (and work on!) mental health.

The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang – This is one of my five-star reads of 2019 and I wish more people would pick it up. It’s a very personal account of Wang’s diagnoses—schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and late-stage Lyme disease—told through a collection of essays, one that asks readers to understand that schizophrenia in particular is not a single, unifying diagnosis. I know I’ve probably read several candid portrayals of mental and chronic illness, but this one stands apart. Maybe it’s the clarity of the writing, the honesty, the care with which Wang addresses both her fellow members of the “collected schizophrenias” and those of us who just want to understand it better. So moving, so educational.

Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan – Hello, ol’ reliable! I used to tell people that I wanted this book shoved into the hands of my physicians if I ever displayed symptoms of an undiagnosable mental illness. Susan Cahalan was 24 years old and life was swell: she was in a promising new relationship, had just begun an exciting career in journalism, and was overall living the New York dream. Almost overnight and with no clear explanation as to why, she found herself tied down to a hospital bed in a psychiatric ward. She was labeled violent, psychotic, a threat to both herself and others, but her diagnosis was unclear. The eventual what, why, and how of her final diagnosis are at once a riveting page-turner and a maddening (maddening, I say!!) peak into the pitfalls of the US healthcare system.

Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella – This work of fiction is a very recent release that I highly recommend on audio! Cady is (maybe not?) processing her brother Eric’s recent death by suicide when she begins her freshman year at Harvard. Eric himself attended Harvard and was diagnosed with schizophrenia in his final year, and now Cady is hearing voices too. Does she share her brother’s mental illness, or are the voices she hears ghosts from Harvard’s unsavory past? I’ve seen some people give it a negative review because it wasn’t quite the mystery or ghost story they thought it was going to be. While I don’t know that I would quite call it a thriller in the “traditional” sense, it is definitely both psychological and suspenseful. It’s also a compelling reflection on the devastating effects—especially of the mental health variety– of unprocessed grief. (TW: discussions of suicide throughout, attempted sexual assault, off-page violence)

Suggestion Section

Some more tips for organizing a virtual book club and getting your friends in on the fun

The LA Times Book Club will discuss a book I’ve had my eye on for weeks: The Compton Cowboys by Walter Thompson-Hernandez! Did you know about this community of Black cowboys in Compton, one that still exists today? I lived in LA for almost a decade and half my extended family still lives there, yet I still knew nothing about this fascinating piece of LA history.

Catch up on week three of Vox’s discussion of The Secret History

A book club in the Colorado Springs area turned to mask-making to help fill a community need. I love this idea and encourage all my craft club people to try it!

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, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa