I’m Kelly Jensen, Editor at Book Riot. We’re getting ready to launch a series of author spotlights to help readers get to know the people behind the books and this is a sneak peek of what that looks like.
I am a former public librarian-turned-editor who has been with Book Riot for close to 10 years. Much of my work is on young adult literature and covering censorship, and once I left libraries, I knew I wanted to continue reaching teens through writing. I’ve been able to do just that with books like Body Talk, my third anthology for teens. It digs into the physical and political realities of having a body..
In my hours not working, I’m a mom to a toddler, caretaker to four cats and a bunny, a graduate student in mental health counseling, a volunteer and associate board member for a senior pet rescue, and I teach yoga.
Earlier this year, I finished a hilarious suburban horror novel called, aptly, Suburban Hell. It’s about a group of four moms who accidentally conjure a demon from the space where one of them was planning to build a She Shed. It explored friendship, was a thoughtful critique of suburbia, and gave space for moms–too often seen as a one-dimensional thing–to be dynamic, fully formed people.
Books That Shaped Me
What I love about my books is that they fill a hole in YA for thoughtful essays packaged in an extremely accessible, inviting way. I can’t point to a lot of other books that inspired that style as inspirational, BUT I read a lot of essay collections and was inspired to offer such books for YA readers because of that. Among my top essay collections are Alice Wong’s Year of the Tiger(Alice has a phenomenal essay in Body Talk!), Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror, Alida Nugent’s You Don’t Have to Like Me (immediately after finishing this book I begged her to take part in my feminism anthology, to which she said yes), and though she does not have a book of essays, Anne Theriault’s online work has absolutely shaped me as a writer and thinker (her essay in Here We Are helped inspire my second anthology on mental health, (Don’t) Call Me Crazy).
More Good Stuff
I did a lot of cool promotions and events for Body Talk. Here are some of them I think you might enjoy:
One of the best events I’ve ever done was this launch event for Body Talk with Charis Books. It’s a discussion of boobs with a range of incredible authors, activists, and performers. You can catch that here.
The above panel was kind of my dream experience. Nic Stone, who was part of the event, was signed on to be in Body Talk; her career took off by leaps and bounds by the time her essay deadline was nearing and she had to pull out of the anthology to focus. We’d talked back and forth about doing something together, and somewhere along the way, had an unrelated conversation about breasts. From there, the event was born!
Happy Disability Pride Month! I love seeing disabled people highlighted and celebrated across the internet. While we still have a long way to go when it comes to general disability awareness, it feels like we reach more and more people every year. If you’re looking for more general info about Disability Pride, check out my post “A Book Lovers Guide to Disability Pride Month”, which details a lot of different options for how you can support and celebrate Disability Pride! And if you’re looking for audiobook recommendations, check out “7 Fiction Audiobooks for Disability Pride”.
This week, we’ve been taking the Corgis out in the evening to the neighborhood dog park. They usually have it to themselves, and Gwen and Dylan spend a lot of time annoying each other and chasing Dylan’s pink ball around. This ball is one of Dylan’s favorite things in the world. (Yes, I have several of them just in case the worst should happen). Recently, Gwen has taken to dropping the ball down an impossibly deep, dark hole the neighborhood dogs have been working on for the last few months. Dylan waddles over and tries to reach his beloved toy. Thankfully, we have eventually retrieved every lost ball, but Gwenllian seems to take far too much joy in throwing it back in again. Good thing they are both so cute.
In his debut collection, Penobscot author Morgan Talty writes about a Native community in Maine. These twelve stories feature characters encountering mysterious things like a jar filled with a curse or a friend stuck with his hair frozen in the snow. Everyone and their mother’s brother has been gushing about this book and I can’t wait to listen!
Original Sins by Matt Rowland Hill | Narrated by Daniel Hawksford
Matt Rowland Hill grew up in the UK as a pastor’s kid. As he grows older, Hill realizes he doesn’t share the same faith as his conservative parents. Unsure of where to turn next, Hill finds himself feeling stuck, addicted to whatever he can get his hands on and attending too many funerals of his friends who have overdosed.
On TikTok, there’s nothing like Mamadou Ndiaye explaining his latest fascination with yet another ferocious creature that will be more than happy to end you. Narrated by Ndiaye himself, listeners get to experience the audiobook equivalent of his videos on TikTok.
Waking from a strange dream, Elango feels the urge to create something new like nothing else he has crafted. The potter constructs a terracotta horse, but then doesn’t know what to do with it. Should he display it in a temple? Or maybe give it to the woman he loves? Whatever decision he makes, he knows that from the moment he makes the horse, Elango’s life will be forever changed.
The author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is back with her new novel, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. Sam Masur and Sadie Green start an epic partnership to create their masterpiece, Ichigo, a game that’s everything they always wanted.The novel spans thirty years, showing us the long after effects of their work. I’m always here for a novel about gaming, so I’m thrilled for this novel to finally be out in the world.
Chloé Cooper Jones is an academic working on her second PhD when she finds herself in a bar watching two men debate on whether or not she should exist. Oddly, she feels removed from the situation. How many times has she had to prove she’s worthy of existence? Far too many to count.
Jones was born with sacral agenesis, a condition that impacted her height and way of walking. Moving through the world as a visibly disabled person has meant Jones faces ableist comments from strangers on a daily basis. But this moment in the bar felt different. Was it because they were trying to be academic or did she just expect more of them? Jones starts searching for answers. She travels the world and enters the field of journalism just for a new challenge.
From its first few paragraphs, Jones’ prose captures your attention. As she performed the text, I couldn’t help but think of how fantastic her prose is, how each word has its place. Jones forced me to think about disability in a new way, questioning the way disabled people are forced to move through the world.
Ever since I finished this book, I haven’t stopped thinking about it. There’s an entire section of disabled motherhood, and Jones shares what it was like for her to surprise doctors when she wanted to have her baby. Admittedly, I found myself tearing up at different parts. Though Jones and I have different conditions, we both share many similar experiences, and I appreciated her thought-provoking takes on how those experiences impacted her life.
In 1975, three thousand children were airlifted out of Saigon to be adopted into Western homes. When one of those children announces her plans to return to Vietnam to find her birth mother, her loving adopted family is suddenly thrown back to the events surrounding her unconventional arrival in their lives. Told through three distinct voices in three compelling timelines, The Nature of Small Birds is a hopeful story that explores the meaning of family far beyond genetic code.
Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. If you will, please picture me singing those first dulcet notes of Adele’s Skyfall like a loser because this, indeed, is the end. After just shy of three years bringing you nibbles, sips, and tips for book club, this is my final edition of In the Club.
The good news is that I’m now Book Riot’s Managing Editor (wut wut!)! I’ll still be around doing all the Book Riot things, it’s just time to pass the club torch to someone new. So allow me to introduce our new Associate Editor Erica Ezeifedi! She’ll be taking over this newsletter as of next week. Give her a warm club welcome!
For my final newsletter, I’m hitting you with the club’s greatest hits: random club memories from the last three years that even I have looked back on and went, “how do you have friends?” Then I’ll drop a few club lessons before I bid you adieu.
To the club!!
Nibbles and Sips
Listen, I can’t write my final newsletter and not suggest a toast. Next time you gather for book club, grab some bubbly. Add a little juice for a brunchy mimosa (tangerine has been a recent fave for me), or maybe a little St. Germaine for that sweet, delicate floral flavor. Raise your glass to me—just kidding! Raise your glass to yourselves—to good company, good books, and for just making it through the last couple of years. As for me, I will indeed raise a glass to endings, new beginnings, and the wonderful unifying power of the written word. Salud!
A Look Back at Three Years In the Club
My Very First Newsletter
First things first — I’m not Jenn! My name is Vanessa and I will be taking over this here newsletter. I’ve been writing for Book Riot for just shy of a year and am super jazzed to be the new bouncer of this club. Get it? Because clubs have bouncers. No? I’m sorry, I’ll stop.
From my very first newsletter back in August 2018
The First of Many Cheesy Song Remixes
This feels like the right time to confess that every time I type the words “in the club,” I most definitely start rapping my very own remix of what was once a college party anthem:
You can find me in the club… of books so there’s no snubs Look buddy I got the blurbs if you’re into bookish plugs I’m into reading ARCs from the big and the indie pubs…
What’s that? I’m a loser? Right. Let’s get back to bookish things.
From my second newsletter in April 2018, after which I was shockingly not canned.
P is for Poison
… I really did ask myself, “Would it be weird if I suggested concocting poisons from A is for Arsenic as a book club activity?” I mean, it’s really just chemistry. Yay science! Since I’m really not trying to go down for a mass poisoning though, I do have an alternate suggestion.
From June 2019’s “Please Don’t Get Me Arrested” newsletter
Has Anyone Checked on Andrew Keegan?
…Ah, the film that had all the girls thinking they could drop it low to Biggie’s “Hypnotize” just because Julia Stiles tried it. Shade aside, I love this movie and instantly start singing “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” when I think of it. I invite you to join me in spending a little time with Willy Shakespeare, then with Heath Ledger. Also, when’s the last time anyone checked on Andrew Keegan? Is he okay? Does he have snacks? Is he living comfortably off that Tiger Beat money?
From April 2020, book + adaptation pairings
“Do you know who I am? I have TIGER BEAT money!” – a thing Andrew Keegan probably said
That Poor, Poor Family
…After a fire drill and a miscommunication result in a rescue gone viral, the two embark on a fakelationship with some very steamy sexy time scenes. In case you’ve forgotten, I learned this while audiobooking in my car as Dani went on about her throbbing clitoris right as I pulled up next to a family in a Subaru at a stoplight.
From November 2020’s “pick a mood and I’ll give you a book to read” newsletter. I still think about that Subaru.
That Time I Called a Character Hottie McGuapo
… 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 BFF cousin, he uses his powers to summon the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free. Pero….. the ghost he summons isn’t his cousin. His name is Julian, he refuses to leave, and he’s what I’ve affectingly dubbed a Hottie McGuapo. The book is inspired by lots of different Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) rituals and is full of Spanish much to my heart’s delight. It’s a sweet, funny and romantic read with great conversation potential.
From December 2020, Best Book Club Books of 2020
What the Club Life Taught Me
Finally, I leave you with lessons I’ve learned from writing this newsletter.
Book clubs can be big and boisterous or a one-person affair. Whether you’re gathering with a large group or reading independently at a silent book club, it all counts.
People want to be heard, or at least know that they could be. One of the most important aspects of book club is to make sure it isn’t just one or two people dominating the conversation. Everyone should feel like they can contribute, or like they could at any given time. Sometimes it takes a minute for some folks to speak up, but they should feel empowered to do so.
Life Happens. So you can’t make this month’s meeting, or maybe the whole things gets postponed. Maybe it’s still on but you didn’t finish the book. It’s all fine! Book club should be a thing that adds to your life, not one detracts from it or gives you feelings of guilt. Jump in and out as you see fit, meet irregularly, go to the meeting for discussion even if you haven’t read the book.
Book club is a great place to learn. We’re all on different paths on our journey to be our best selves, and while I certainly don’t think books alone are going to save the world, they can be a fruitful start. I’ve suggested a lot of uncomfortable topics in the last three years and I’ve received a ton of great feedback about the discussions these topics have encouraged. I hope you’ll always read for joy, but that you’ll also take the time to read to learn, grow, and challenge the status quo.
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.
Following his best-selling memoir, It’s a Long Story, Willie Nelson delivers his most intimate thoughts and stories in Willie Nelson’s Letters to America. From his opening letter “Dear America” to his “Dear Willie” epilogue, Willie digs deep into his heart and soul – and his music catalog – to lift us up and to remind us of the endless promise and continuous obligations of all Americans – to each other, ourselves, and the nation. Enter for a chance to win Willie Nelson’s Letters to America audiobook!
Hola Audiophiles! Ok, for reals this time: this is my last Audiobooks newsletter! It’s been such a blast bringing you the deets on the latest and greatest in the audio universe. I thank you for all of your kind words and support of this newsletter, for putting up with my gratuitous body rolls and rolling with my Spanglish. As I take on a new role at Book Riot, I’m sad to say adios but muy excited for what comes next.
On that note, allow me to introduce you to the new Head Audiophile in Charge: Kendra Winchester! Does that name sound familiar? Perhaps you know her as the Executive Producer of Reading Women, a wonderful podcast that features books by or about women, or from Book Riot’s weekly audiobooks feature which she does so well. She is a wealth of audiobooks knowledge and her passion for the format shows. You are in such, such good hands with Kendra. Show her the same love you all showed me, ya hear?
I have been salivating over this latest work from the author of Cinderella is Dead for months, and I somehow missed that it’s a modern take on The Secret Garden?! When Briseis’ aunt dies and leaves her a rundown mansion in rural New York, Bri and her parents leave Brooklyn behind for the summer and head to the creepy old house for some R&R. Bri hopes to use this time to hone and control her gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to full blooms with a single touch. But the sinister old house has other plans involving a very specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with super deadly botanicals that only Bri’s family can enter. So we not not only get a magical lineage, tonics and tinctures, and a mysterious queer love interest, but I’m told this book features some of the most supportive parents in contemporary YA fiction. Sold! (YA fiction)
I’ve been hearing sooo much buzz about this one! Godolia warlords are spreading their tyrannical rule over the Badlands using giant mechanized weapons called Windups. Eris is a gearbreaker who specializes in destroying Windups from the inside, but she lands in a Godolia prison when one of her missions goes awry. That’s where she meets Sona, a Windup pilot and obviously Eris’ mortal enemy, right? Plot twist!! Sona has a secret: she actually infiltrated the Windup program to destroy Godolia from within. As they join forces to take on their deadist mission yet, they grow closer as comrades, as friends, and (body roll!) maybe a lil something more. (YA science fiction)
This is a fictionalized version of the very real story about Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian. She was hired as a twenty-something to curate a rate collection of manuscripts, art, and books for Morgan’s library, a role in which she excelled. But she kept a secret to herself all the while: she was Black. She wasn’t born Belle da Costa Green but Belle Marion Greener, the daughter of the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. She claimed her dark skin came from her alleged Portuguese heritage when she was really African American. I wonder just how many more stories there are out there of Black Americans who had to pass as white to protect themselves, their families, and their legacy. The answer of course is many, and I hope we see more and more of those stories being told more widely. (historical fiction)
Liberty described this one as an over-the-top thriller and a locked room mystery on wheels, so fasten your seatbelts for a Riley Sager special! This one takes place in November 1991 when college student Charlie’s best friend has been murdered by the Campus Killer. To escape the grief and guilt, she decides to go back home to Ohio, opting to share the long drive with a stranger named Josh who she met on a campus message board. It all seems fine at first, but the further they get into the drive, the more she begins to suspect that she might have hitched a ride with a killer.
Read by Savannah Gilmore – I’m not familiar with Gilmore’s work, but samples of other titles sound super crisp, clear, and great for building the tension of a thriller.
I’m not even close to done with this one, but I have to talk about it because I’m loving it so much (thanks to Jamie for recommending this one over and over again)! This is an adult novel that is mostly told from the point-of-view of children in the slums of India, starting off as a coming-of-age narrative and moving slowly into noir territory. Nine-year-old Jai has watched a ton of police procedural shows, so he feels pretty confident in his crime-solving skills. When a classmate goes missing, he enlists the help of schoolmates Faiz and Pari to find out whether it’s a bad djinn is responsible for the disappearance, or a really bad person.
It starts off as a somewhat of a game, but things take a dark turn when more children go missing. Frustrated by the adults and police’s refusal to take the sudden onslaught of disappearances seriously, Jai, Faiz, and Pari take it upon themselves to get to the bottom of things.
The pacing of this book is excellent, and the narration a wonderful balance: I find adults narrating children to be real bad so much of the time, but Indira Varma, Himesh Patel, and Antonio Aakeel do an excellent job with age-appropriate storytelling that doesn’t border on the super-pitchy and ridiculous.
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.
Book Riot is teaming up with Open Book to giveaway a summer reading prize pack which includes $100 giftcard to Bookshop.org Here’s a little more about the Open Book newsletter: We created Open Book to amplify BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and other traditionally underrepresented voices in the publishing world. We ask writers to be open books about their lives, work, process, inspiration, and interests to help readers get to know new voices with a broad range of backgrounds, experiences, and ideas that shape our society.
Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. Two more newsletters to go together, people of the club! Today I’m going to hit you with some of my favorite book club picks of the year so far. The truth is I could have added another 10 titles from the list of books I have read this year, and another 10 from my TBR. But I’m not trying to go out with a 4,000 word newsletter, you know?
To the club!!
Nibbles and Sips, and Sometimes Tips
I came back to Portland just in time to miss the epic heatwave that smashed temperature records in the Pacific Northwest three days in a row. Bruuuuuh 116 degrees? No quiero! I’ve experienced that ish before and have absolutely no desire to do so again. Climate change!!!!
Because super hot temps are popping up all over the place, I thought today I’d share this thread all of helpful tips for staying cool when you don’t have AC. I used to do A LOT of these when I lived in inland San Diego and my brother unknowingly bought a house with no AC. I hope these will come in handy in helping you beat the heat!
I love this book so much (I know, I know: Vanessa likes a book about mythology. Shocking!). This cultural analysis dedicates one chapter to each of 11 mythological female monsters to illustrate how women have been labeled as monstrous throughout history. She examines the lore surrounding creatures like Scylla, Medusa, and the Sphinx to show how women’s anger, sexuality, and even ugliness have been used to turn us into villains. You’ll find yourself looking at these “monsters” in whole new light.
What do the words “magical steampunk Egypt,” matcha, floral cocktails, and cheese have in common? Putting any one of those on a string is easy bait to lure me. In alternative Cairo in 1912, djinn and humans exist alongside one another. Special Investigator Fatma el Sha-arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities and she’s just been tasked with investigating the killing of a brotherhood dedicated to a famed Sudanese mystic. That man, known as al-Jahiz, is said to have torn a hole in the veil between the magical and mundane worlds decades ago before disappearing, and the man claiming responsibility for the killings claims to be al-Jahiz returned. Together with her new partner and her mysterious lover, Fatma sets out to solve the case and uncover the truth about this self-professed prophet.
The collection of nine stories explores “the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good.” It does it so perfectly, painfully, and poignantly, the kind of read you need to stop and savor. My favorite stories include one about two 40-year-old lifelong friends whose relationship turned sexual years ago; when the narrator drops suggest to her friend that they could be more than occasional lovers, the friend stills dream of life as a “good Christian woman” and recoils in horrified disgust. Another favorite is one about two women who fled their hometown in the South to live freely and safely as a same-sex couple. But one of the women grapples with the concept of home, of belonging, of community, of longing for people and places that made you but may no longer serve you (this passage KILLED ME). The collection is a slim one but packs such a punch. The stories are so vulnerable and revelatory. It almost feels like an invasion of privacy to witness this beautiful if sometimes heart-breaking intimacy, these slices of life that often go unseen.
Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine is a biracial, unenrolled tribal member with dreams of studying medicine. She defers enrollment to stay local and care for her mother and grandmother, then witnesses the murder of her best friend. When the killing is followed by a strings of other suspicious deaths, the murders appear to be linked to a new lethal cocktail of meth wreaking havoc on the res. Daunis gets pulled into an undercover investigation into the source of the meth, one that brings her into close contact with a new boy in town who might be hiding something about himself. She also pursues her own secret investigation, using her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to uncover buried secrets in her community.
All of the books in the Perveen Mistry series are fun, smart historical mysteries with a feminist message, but this one also has something to say about colonial rule. In 1920s Bombay, Perveen Mistry is India’s first female lawyer. The Bombay Prince opens in November 1921 as the Prince of Wales is getting ready to come to India on a four month tour. There’s major unrest in India and a lot of tension surrounding the visit; people are getting tired of British rule and they’re pushing back against it. When a young Parsi student falls from a second story window just as the Prince Edward’s grand procession is passing by her college, the death rattles Perveen. That very young woman had come to her for a legal consultation just days before her death, asked about the legality of skipping classes on the day Edward would be visiting Bombay. Plagued with guilt and a sneaking suspicion that this death wasn’t accidental, Perveen promises to get justice for the woman. Can Perveen help a suffering family when her own is in danger, and in the middle of so much turmoil?
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.
Book Riot is teaming up with Open Book to giveaway a summer reading prize pack which includes $100 giftcard to Bookshop.org Here’s a little more about the Open Book newsletter: We created Open Book to amplify BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and other traditionally underrepresented voices in the publishing world. We ask writers to be open books about their lives, work, process, inspiration, and interests to help readers get to know new voices with a broad range of backgrounds, experiences, and ideas that shape our society.
Hola Audiophiles! So guess what: I’m a big ol’ liar. Well, not so much a liar as a person who can’t correctly read a calendar. This is my second-to-last Audiobooks newsletter, not the last like I accidentally told you it was. That’s good news though, right? Let’s get right to it!
The Joshis are outwardly an immigrant success story and the quintessential Indian American family. Bina is a pillar in her community, Deepak a successful psychiatrist. Their eldest daughter is following in the footsteps of her father’s career; their middle daughter is getting engaged to a longtime family friend; and their youngest son is a blessing—because all sons are! Then a family scandal cracks the veneer of perfection surrounding the Joshis; friendships unravel, a marriage is shaken, and rejections lead to overwhelming self doubt. In the midst of public humiliation, the Joshis learns that sometimes families fall apart only to come back stronger than before. (fiction)
Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon
Six beloved, best-selling, critically acclaimed authors come together in this beautiful celebration of Black teen love. Set during a New York City summer when a heatwave blankets the city in darkness, the collection is comprised of interlinked stories that are as hilarious as they are heartwarming, a testament to the light of love and the power of Black joy. (young adult, romance)
Read by an ALL STAR TEAM, are you ready for this!? Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Dion Graham, Imani Parks, Jordan Cobb, Shayna Small, A.J. Beckles, Bahni Turpin. What a lineup!
This is the first book in the next installment of the historical Lady Janies series. While the first three books focused on Lady Jane Grey, the Mary books now set their sights on one of my favorite historical figures, Mary Queen of Scots. In Renaissance France, Mary is Queen of Scotland and the jewel of the French court. But also: she’s sometimes a mouse. You read that right: a mouse. When the French king meets a suspicious end, Mary and her betrothed Frances are forced on the throne. Mary will need to keep her shapeshifting identity a secret, otherwise heads might just start to roll. (young adult, historical fiction)
Jessamyn Stanley is a proudly fat, Black, queer yoga teacher whose first book Every Body Yoga got me to see a place for myself in yoga. While that book focused on the how, Yoke is about the why. “This yoga of the everyday is about finding within life’s toughest moments the same flexibility, strength, grounding energy, and core awareness found in a headstand or Tadasana or cobra pose.” Jessamyn is very real, very funny, and very no-f*cks-given on social media; I have no doubt these very personal essays on self-love, body positivity, race, sexuality, cannabis, and more will follow suit. (nonfiction, spirituality)
Aubrey, a self-identified “Southern cracker”, and Daniel, the mixed-race son of Jamaican immigrants, were high school classmates and friends in a North Florida town. Years after they’ve lost contact, Daniel is living in New York when he hears of Aubrey’s death. Now comfortable in his queerness, he’s left to confront his love for Aubrey. He begins a frantic search that takes him back to the place of his upbringing, tinged by racism and poverty, to find out not only what happened to Aubrey, but to find meaning in her death. (fiction, LGBTQ)
This book, I heart it so. I haven’t read Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare, but I was obsessed with The Switch last year. This next rom-com was exactly what I needed, though a little more hard-hitting than I expected it to be. Lemme give you the deets.
Addie and Dylan spent a summer falling in love under the Provence sun. Addie was a wild child working at her friend Cherry’s glamorous villa as a caretaker for the summer. Dylan was a wealthy Oxford student vacationing at that very villa, a trip he elected to make on his own when his family bailed after a big dramatic fight. From the moment Addie and Dylan locked eyes for the first time, it was game over. Twas a wild, romantic, sexy, and sun-drenched affair.
Years later, that bliss is entirely a thing of the past when the now former couple’s lives collide most comically: on their way to their friend Cherry’s wedding (you know, the one with the villa), Addie and her sister Deb are involved in a crash. Addie looks in the rear view mirror to get a look at the car behind her, and wouldn’t ya know: it’s Dylan in the driver’s seat. With one car wrecked and time a’ticking, Addie and Deb (very) begrudgingly agree to drive Dylan and his best friend Marcus to the rural Scotland wedding. Things so super smoothly and there’s absolutely no drama or awkwardness.
Obviously, I’m kidding. It’s a hot damn mess! There’s clearly all kinds of unresolved stuff between Addie and Dylan, details of which are revealed in alternating perspectives and in flashbacks to happier (then unhappier) times. It’s got some heavy stuff (trigger warnings to follow) and there’s some good commentary on the immense value of therapy. I won’t lie, I spent a LOT of time despising the Marcus character, and I think this would make a great book club read for the discussion of “what’s the difference between loyalty and just hanging onto a toxic friendship” thing, a topic with a lot of grey area when you take into account the “hurt people hurt people” thing, and that most of us don’t want to be defined by the actions of our youth. The book is also absolutely hilarious, even a little slapstick at times in an unexpected but delightful way. The side characters here add a lovely touch and I laughed out loud more than a few times.
The narration felt spot on for Addie and Dylan specifically, from the tender moments to the sensual ones and the raw expressions of hurt and betrayal. This was much heavier than I expected, but also that much more delightful when the HEA came around. It felt earned and not thrown together just for the sake of the HEA. (romance, rom-com)
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.
They charmed a nation and changed his life. Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he recalls an unforgettable experience from 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver the first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Read West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge, an incredible novel inspired by true events.
Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed.I have some news for you, people of the club: the July 7th edition of In the Club will be my final one! It’s been almost three years since I made my club debut and it’s been a blast getting to spend time in your inbox weekly. Fret not, I’m not leaving Book Riot so I’ll still be around. More info for you soon as to your new Club host; for now, let’s enjoy the time we have together.
To the club!!
Nibbles and Sips
As the weather gets warmer, I start to look for meals that involve as little time near an oven or sweating over a hot stove as I can. The instant pot comes in clutch here, but sometimes all I want is a no-cook or low-cook salad.
Thing is, I very often find lettuce so boring! While I do love a tender butter lettuce, or even romaine in a delicious Cobb, I’m always looking for lettuce-less salads that are hearty, filling, and bursting with flavor. I add chicken to this salad my family used to make a lot when I was a kid and I’m obsessed! Bust this one out at book club meetings—plus this strawberry cucumber margarita I’m throwing in as a bonus—when you need to beat the heat.
Avocado Cucumber Salad: combine all of the ingredients below in a large bowl. The olive oil and seasoning should be to your taste. If you can, def add that bouillon powder, but go easy on it! It adds a nice salty bite, but a little goes a very long way.
1 large cucumber, 1-2 Roma tomatoes, and 1-2 avocados, all diced (I like a decent sized chunk)
Half of a red onion, thinly sliced
Juice of 1-2 lemons depending on how citrusy you like things. Me? I have no respect for my tooth enamel.
Parsley or spinach, finely chopped (I sneak spinach into my food this way for some extra nutrition)
Ouch, My Brain
I was going to call this week’s theme “What the F*ck” Books, and that still holds! I recently read the first book in this week’s roundup and it made my brain hurt a little in a wonderful way. That got me thinking about some of the other books that have made me go, “Huh.” Put your thinking caps on, friends.
Slipping by Mohamed Kheir, translated by Robin Moger
The story takes place in Cairo and nearby Egyptian towns during the Arab Spring. Struggling journalist and magazine writer Seif is grief-stricken after his girlfriend, Alya is killed during a protest. He been assigned to accompany a former exile on excursions to unfamiliar places, a man who possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of Egypt’s obscure, magical places. Together they embark on a very surreal journey to see the elusive corners of the world the Arab Spring left behind: a place where giant corpse flowers fall from the sky, another where it’s said you can walk on the water of the Nile. The further they go and the more stories Bahr tells, the more reality starts to blur for Seif as memories of past trauma begin to surface.
Book Club Bonus: The very structure of the book is a huge discussion point; Bahr’s anecdotes are woven into the story in alternating chapters, which if you don’t know right away may leave you hella confused. But keep going: you’ll see how the stories are linked as you get further in. Discuss, also, the lasting effects of trauma and how it alters our perceptions of reality.
A woman travels to Havana, Cuba to attend a Latin film festival, one her husband, a horror scholar, was supposed to attend. Then she sees him standing outside a museum in a white linen suit she’s never seen before, but that can’t be–because he’s super dead. She trails him throughout the crowded city, always seemingly a few steps behind him, as the line between delusion and reality is distorted further and further. Through flashbacks to her childhood in Florida and moments in her marriage, the truth of her role in her husband’s death and reappearance is revealed. I recommended this book a lot as a bookseller, and my shelf talker for the title just said, “What the f*ck did I just read?”
Book Club Bonus: Book Riot Editor Kelly Jensen is always telling readers that horror is not a genre, but a feeling. This is the kind of book that makes that statement make sense for me. There’s no gore or ghosts or big giant scares of the kind many might associate with horror, but there’s a sense of dread and unease that just sort of looms on the page from beginning to end. The fog of grief is almost a character all on its own. Discuss!
This alternate history novelette was recommended to me back in my bookseller days by a customer. I looked it up and saw it described as Radium Girls but with sentient elephants and I thought, “Sure, let’s do this!” In the early 1900s, a group of female factory workers in Newark, New Jersey slowly died of radiation poisoning. Around that same time, Topsy the elephant was deliberately put to death by electricity in Coney Island. Both of these things are true. In the book, elephants have inherited the earth and a mama elephant is telling her calf a lil story. How did we get here? You’ll have to read to find out.
Book Club Bonus: There’s a ton of symbolism in the use of an elephant as a narrator, an animal knows for its memory. Can we ever really forget the wrongs that have been done to us, especially if those wrongs weren’t mere slights but an attempt to eradicate? There’s also a lot of commentary here on our need to reckon with the long term effects of nuclear waste.
This brief announcement about a Martha’s Vineyard book club got me thinking: why don’t I see more walk & talk book clubs!? We so often think of book club as “gather round and sit in a circle” situation with possible food & drink, but taking book club for a stroll seems like an excellent idea!
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.
