Author: Vanessa Diaz

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In The Club

In the Club – 11/13

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. I’m back in Portland and have covered myself in the many fleece things I purchased to prepare for the cold. I know temps in the 50s are cake for many, but for a San Diegan? Might as well be in Siberia.

Truth? I love it though, it’s perfect reading weather. And on that note: to the club!

This week the internet is one big Best Of list: best books of the year, best books of the decade. With this in mind, I thought I would go back into time and resurrect some older popular book club books and challenge you all to a re-read. Let’s take it back!

Nibbles and Sips: Meat and Cheese

Pair classic reads with a classic book club staple: a simple cheese and charcuterie set up. My “simple,” I admit, is another person’s “elaborate and overstuffed.” Here’s how I build a bomb.com meat and cheese plate.

  • Meats and cheeses: I always serve three meats and at least three cheeses. Suggestions: hard salami or chorizo, regular sliced salami, prosciutto, jamon serrano, and sharp cheddar, manchego, triple-cream brie, goat cheese, smoked gouda. Cheese is life.
  • Carbs: I use good crackers, but also toast some crostini. A tip I got from a friend: rub the baguette slices with garlic first and sprinkle them with that umami seasoning blend from Trader Joe’s.
  • Add-ins: This is where the plate goes from just good to 100% that b*tch. Add honey, grain mustard, fig jam, roasted garlic, dark chocolate, pickled veggies, apple slices, grapes or other fruit, and olives. My latest fave: the Sweet & Spicy Jalapeños and Chili Crunch from Trader Joe’s. No, this is not sponsored by Trader Joe’s.

Build your platter! Place the ramekins on a large wooden cutting board or other platter, then fill them with olives or spreads, honey, etc. Arrange the cheeses, meats, and other tasty things around them, adding some sprigs of rosemary or basil for some color. Here’s a photo for inspiration!

Book Club Throwbacks: The end of the decade has inspired me to do a re-read of a book I read several years ago; I’d like to see how I feel about it with the passage of time and in today’s social climate. Do this with book club and see how your interpretations have changed.

A note about this endeavor: I am not telling you to un-like your favorite books. I do think it’s important to think about them critically as each of us grows in our social awareness. I have loved some pretty problematic books in the past (looking at you, Junot Diaz); I won’t ever try to lessen what those books did for me at that time, but am able to unpack today what they got wrong back then. That’s progress.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett – The Help is still a beloved read for a lot of people, but even Viola Davis has come forward to say she has misgivings about her role in the book’s film adaptation. I’ve never read the book, but from the film can deduce that 2019 me is more woke and more wise than I was in 2010; I might take issue with the white savior complex and sanitization of the black experience depicted in this book.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – I was all about this book and all of its WTFery when it took the world by storm, and don’t feel guilty for doing so. When I think back on it though, I wonder if I’d read its portrayal of a women as less feminist and more misogynist, playing into the stereotype of a “crazy” and hysterical woman out to trap a man. Discuss.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes – I am one of those people who read, sobbed over, and really loved this book when I read it several years ago, and recommended both it and its sequels to other people for a long time. Looking at it with fresh eyes, I’m pretty sure I’d feel differently about its portrayal of disability. I think I’d still enjoy the story, but a discussion of what it gets wrong is certainly in order.

Suggestion Section

It’s almost time! Yours truly is hosting the next installment of Persist, our feminist book club run entirely on Instagram.

Oprah’s latest book club selection is Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout.

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, get it on the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Friday too.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

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Audiobooks

Audiobooks – 11/7

Hola Audiophiles! It’s my cousin’s wedding week and things are un poquito hectic right now! What is sleep?! Before I descend into a cloud of hairspray, bobby pins, and chiffon, let me tell you about some of the audiobooks I’m most jazzed about this week.

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – November 7 (publisher’s descriptions in quotes)

The fall book deluge continues! There are too many new releases to cover here, so here are a few buzzy titles out this week that probs don’t need an introduction:

Now here are some others that may or may not be on your radar, but should be.

on swift horsesOn Swift Horses by Shannon Pufahl, narrated by Cassandra Campbell and MacLeod Andrews – This suburban western has a special place in my heart; it’s based in part in San Diego and Tijuana, my hometown and the border town where I still spend a lot of my time. “A lonely newlywed and her wayward brother-in-law follow divergent and dangerous paths through the postwar American West.” Real talk: I didn’t think this sounded very interesting when I first read the blurb, and that was short-sighted of me. It’s a beautiful read!

The Book of Lost Saints by Daniel Jose Older, narrated by Sofia Quintero – EEK I’ve never read Daniel Jose Older but I’ve been meaning to for such a long time! This “evocative multigenerational Cuban-American family story of revolution, loss, and family bonds” rings so many of my bells, y’all! The ghost of a woman who went missing during the Cuban Revolution comes back to haunt her nephew in present-day Jersey in the hopes that she can guide him to unearth their panful family history.

  • Narrator Note: I don’t know much about Sofia Quintero, or whether this narrator is the same Sofia Quintero who’s a writer, activist, educator, comedienne, and speaker. What I do know is that they got someone with the perfect accent to read a book about Cubanos (Quintero may not or may not be Cuban, of course, but it works). Authenticity!

the deep rivers solomonThe Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes, narrated by Daveed Diggs – This novella was inspired by the song “The Deep” by David Digg’s rap group clipping. In it, “water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future.” Yep, gonna need that in my life.

  • Narrator note. Daveed! Diggs!

The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness by Susannah Cahalan, narrated by Christie Moreau, Susannah Cahalan – This history of our handling of mental illness starts with a dive into a decades-long mystery that dates back to 1970: a Stanford psychologist and seven other “sane, normal, well-adjusted members of society” went undercover into asylums around the country to investigate the quality and legitimacy of the psychiatric care given therein. “Forced to remain inside until they’d ‘proven’ themselves sane, all eight emerged with alarming diagnoses and even more troubling stories of their treatment.” WHAT?!

  • Narrator Note: When I hear Christie Moreau’s voice, I keep thinking of the word “fresh.” It’s clear, upbeat… ya know, fresh!
  • Related: If you haven’t read Brain on Fire, that is worth a read, too. You’ll understand why this subject matter is of particular interest to Susan Cahalan.

Latest Listens

I’ve been all over the place with my audio habits this week and haven’t finished any of the four books I have going, so I’m going to tell you about a title I read earlier this year. If you’re in the mood for a literary murder mystery, let me sell you on Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tocarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, narrated by Beata Pozniak.

Our main character and narrator is Janina, a reclusive woman in a remote Polish village who minds the homes of bougie, well-to-do Polish residents when she’s not translating poetry or studying astrology. When a neighbor’s suspicious death is followed by several equally suspicious deaths, Janina is convinced that the killings are the handiwork of animals enacting vigilante justice on the vile men who hunted them. The book asks not so much who dunnit but why; it’s a real study in empathy, ageism, and man’s impact on the natural world.

I sampled it on audio this month and I’m now rereading it as a result. Hearing this story told in an authentic Polish accent is a treat on its own, but the best part is how Beata Pozniak takes such great pains to match her pitch and pace to the story. Her voice is a low and breathy whisper when a body is found and an angry, indignant yell when Janina is dismissed by the locals time and again. My only reservation here is that the narration is so slow, for me at least! I’ve sped up my listening speed to 1.5 and that seems to be the perfect fit.

From the Internets

Sometimes the audiobook experience is even better than the print/digital version! Here are some examples from Esquire.

Vulture rounds up the best Stephen King audiobooks

Over at the Riot

A roundup of the best Android apps for DRM-free audiobooks

My Read Harder buddy Tirzah put together this awesome piece on audiobooks narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. I love when you find a narrator you can depend on time and again!

A reminder that audiobooks make great gifts.

That’s all I got today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with audiobook feedback & questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the In The Club newsletter, peep the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
In The Club

In the Club – 11/6

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. This week is all kinds of hectic because my cousin/BFF is getting married! I’ve got dress fittings, speech writing, and errands to run in addition to work and, I dunno, sleep? It’s going to be one for the books!

With all of that in mind, this week we’re talking marriage. To the club!!

Nibbles & Sips: For Better, For Worse, In Good Times and in Bad

I went back and forth with myself as to what libations and foodstuffs might pair well with this week’s book recs. I decided to go with a sweet and sour menu as a parallel to the ups and downs—the sweet and the sour, one might say—of the relationships explored.

Try these Japanese-style sweet and sour meatballs: sesame oil, ginger, soy sauce, and mirin combine to make a perfect, punchy bite. Pair with a simple rice dish- some fluffy jasmine rice would be lovely here.

For drinks, DIY some sweet and sour mix to make any number of delicious cocktails, like this apricot sour. For a non-alcoholic option, I love a flavored lemonade. Try this ginger version that’s both sweet and delightfully tart.

Marriage: It’s Complicated

These titles explore the darker, more complicated parts of marriage, questioning the limits of loyalty when people are thrown into extraordinary circumstances. Discuss the whole idea of till-death-do-us-part and what you’re supposed to do when your world is rocked in ways you never saw coming. Also, talk about the idea of the “perfect” couple. Is there such a thing? Talk about secrets in a marriage: is total honesty the key to a happy marriage, or is some level of secrecy not only good but essential for that union?

an american marriageAn American Marriage by Tayari Jones – Celestial and Roy are newlyweds in the American South whose lives are torn apart when Roy is convicted and imprisoned for a rape he didn’t commit. This gut-wrenching exploration of love, loyalty, race, and Black masculinity does that thing that I love and kind of hate: one minute you’re completely in one character’s corner, then POW! You get another perspective and everything you think you know and feel is flipped on its head. I know this phrase is thrown around a lot, but this gave me all the feels: your heart can’t help but break as you watch the slow demise of a love that was once so promising.

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff – The first half of the book focuses primarily on Lotto, half of the glamorous “it” couple that is Lotto and Mathilde. You think you know exactly what everything is and how their relationship works, then the second half of the book yanks the wool off your eyes and yells, “SYKE!” You may read that description and assume that the reveals of the perspective switch will be obvious, but they’re not. Lauren Groff goes to some deep, dark, and surprising places, asking readers to examine the motivations behind the secrets we keep. I honestly didn’t love the book until I got to that flip, then finally understood its brilliance and why the book made such a splash. Lauren Groff’s beautiful way with words doesn’t hurt either.

Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller – Gil Coleman is jarred when thinks he sees his wife Ingrid from a bookshop window; she disappeared decades prior and is believed by most to have drowned. Gil’s daughter Flora has always believed that Ingrid is still alive, so she comes home to care for her father and hopefully prove she’s right. The story is told both in present day and in flashbacks to the early days of Ingrid and Gil’s relationship, the flashbacks coming in the form of letters Ingrid wrote to Gil that reveal the truth about their marriage. She never gave the letters to her husband though; she hid each of them in the pages of his many books. Were they happy? Why did she leave? Was she killed? Has she been alive all this time?

Suggestion Section

Epic Reads suggests this batch of YA book club books and it’s a great list! I cosign almost every one of these books (I haven’t read the others yet) from authors like Angie Thomas, Samira Ahmed, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Natasha Diaz.

Austin-based subscription kids’ book club Literati has secured $12 (deep breath) million dollars in funding. TWELVE. MILL-EE-ON. Whew!

This roundup of November celeb book club picks includes Reese because duh, but also Andrew Luck, Kirsten Dunst, Jenn Bush Hager, and Sarah Jessica Parker.

I love this new endeavor from Riverhead Books; Sip & Stitch is “a new spin on the classic ‘book club’” that pairs active discussion with active hands.

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, get it on the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Friday too.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks – 10/31

Happy Halloween, Audiophiles! I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to October, my favorite month of the year! I’ll tell you one thing: if the universe thinks I’m going to stop reading witchy things now, it has another thing coming.

This week I’ve got some new releases, deets on my latest witchy listen, and of course audiobook news from around the web. If you’re the costume type and dress up today, send me pics of you, your pets, your tiny humans. I’ll take all the joy!

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – October 29 (publisher’s descriptions in quotes)

This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay, narrated by the author – I wasn’t familiar with the term “junior doctor” and thought this was going to be a Doogie Howser memoir situation. I now realize that junior doctors are more or less the British equivalent of medical residents, and that this book has already won all kinds of awards across the pond. It’s described as painful funny and feels perfect for my Grey’s Anatomy obsessed self.

Find Me by André Aciman, narrated by Michael Stuhlbarg – In this follow-up to Call Me By Your Name, Aciman revisits the characters of his 2007 bestseller decades after it left off. “In Find Me, Aciman shows us Elio’s father, Samuel, on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, who has become a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train with a beautiful young woman upends Sami’s plans and changes his life forever.”

  • Narrator note: Michael Stuhlbarg has narrated a lot of work for James Patterson. If you do a lot of Jimmy’s stuff on audio, you’ll recognize his building-suspense style

The In-Betweens: The Spiritualists, Mediums, and Legends of Camp Etna by Mira Ptacin, narrated by Chloe Cannon – Liberty totally sold me on this one in her latest New Books newsletter: “There have been a lot of books recently where weird things happen in the Maine woods – and with good reason. Weird things DO go on in the Maine woods. In Ptacin’s latest book she investigates Camp Etna, a community in the Maine woods started in 1848 by two sisters who claimed they could speak to the dead.” Yes, give it to me.

  • Narrator note: I enjoyed Chloe Cannon’s narration of Megan Abbott’s Give Me Your Hand, mostly; pacing was good, but there was something about her tone that sometimes sounded like a little like Siri. I’ve since sampled more of her work and really enjoy it even though I still get a little Siri at certain registers. Someone listen and tell me if it’s just me!

The Beautiful Ones by Prince, narrated by Esperanza Spalding, Adepero Oduye, Dan Piepenbring – I don’t think there’s anything to say here but, “It’s Prince.” He was in the process of writing this when he died and I wish so bad that he’d recorded some of the audio before he passed.

  • Narrator Note: Adepero Oduye did the uh-mazing audiobook of My Sister, the Serial Killer, Esperanza Spalding is a ridiculously talented singer and jazz bassist, and Dan Piepenbring is a writer for The New Yorker. That’ll work!

Latest Listens (TW for violence against women)

The Witches of New York by Ami McKay Remember when I said I was reading The Witches of New York by Ami McKay? Wow. Just… wow, and I *just* found out there’s a sequel called Half Spent Was the Night: A Witches’ Yuletide.

The book takes place in Gilded Age New New York and opens with a line from an advertisement in the paper that reads: “Respectable Lady Seeks Dependable Shop Girl. Those averse to magic need not apply.” Young Beatrice Dunn isn’t just not averse, she’s quite interested to learn whether magic exists. When she shows up to Tea & Sympathy, a tea shop in the city run by witches Adelaide Thom and Eleanor St. Clair, she’s unaware that she possesses “the gift” (she can see and speak with the deceased) herself.

Beatrice gets the job and shadows Eleanor as she gets more familiar with her powers, observing as Adelaide and Eleanor assist the many women who seek out their services: help with illness, getting pregnant, not getting pregnant, matters of the heart. Enter some seriously angry men, including one very deranged priest, each hell-bent on rooting witchcraft out root & stem and watching these women perish at all costs.

I love the three protagonists so hard. They’re smart, witty, talented, strong, and unwilling to take anybody’s sh*t even in the face of danger. Julia Whelan gets the pacing of the plot just right in her narration and does accents that don’t feel forced, and the dialogue feels so natural that I almost forgot it was just one person doing all the work.

If you’re in the mood for a magical listen, some witchy feminism, and a plot that will suck you in, I recommend.

Listens on Deck

Because I don’t want Managing Editor Sharifah to stop being my friend, I’m finally going to remedy a giant hole in my reading life and read some Terry Pratchett (stop gasping, I hear you! I know!). Small Gods is where I’ll start as soon as I can get the audiobook from Libby. In the meantime, I’m thinking it’s time for a spooky listen that isn’t necessarily about witches. Hmm… possibilities…

From the Internets

Esquire has a list of audiobooks for readers on the move.

I know today is Halloween, but here are some audiobooks for kiddos who like their spooky listens all year round.

Over at the Riot

Do you Libby? Because I Libby (a lot). Here are some handy hacks for doing the audiobook thang on the Libby app.

That’s all I got today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with audiobook feedback & questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the In The Club newsletter, peep the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

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Events

It’s Haunted Riot at Book Riot!

Happy Halloween, booktergeists! There’s a mist in the air, a chill up our spines, and we’re pretty sure that call is coming from inside the house. Grab those flashlights and join us for a creepy, spooky round of bookish fun. Today is Haunted Riot at Book Riot!

We have a full day of haunted content lined up for you, so sit back, try to relax, and prepare for scares. Take this quiz to find your next great horror read, nab some spooky swag, and read up on why we need horror in kid lit. Get your creep on with these horror poetry collections and find books to pair with your American Horror Story obsession.

Check out all of our content that’s fit to haunt by heading over to bookriot.com!

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In The Club

In the Club – 10/30

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

Thank you to all of you again who continue to reach out with condolences over my grandfather. We buried him last week and he’s at peace now. It gets easier every day.

As for this week’s theme, I’m suddenly very aware of how little time is left in this year (and decade, good grief). Thanksgiving is but a few weeks away, which got me thinking a lot about the ways we’ve constructed narratives that paint American history in such a glossy and positive light. I want to dedicate some time in book club to reckon with the truth, be it ugly, pretty, or all of the above.

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

Hmm… what snacks go with ugly truths and conspiracy?! I suppose good ol’ comfort food, because we’re gonna need it!

Personally, I look for any excuse to enjoy fall foods. Try this butternut squash soup for a starter and this pork shoulder with basil sauce for the main course. If you don’t feel like basil sauce, I think chimichurri would be so perfect here too. If you’re down for some seafood instead, this scallop dish with a brown butter and lemon pan sauce comes together pretty quickly and it’s SO good. I always add extra lemon zest

For dessert, try these delectable baked apples that I can legit eat three of if left unsupervised. I might top these with a little cream cheese whipped with some brown sugar and a splash of vanilla extract because I do what I want.

For sips, go with some good ol’ American beer, or try this Fall From the Tree cocktail I’ve been meaning to try (bourbon, apple juice, cinnamon, and a few other fun things).

Umm…That’s Not How I Heard It

The version of history most of us got in school is not even close to the whole story (Columbus Day, I’m lookin’ at you, bruh). The truth is, of course, much less happy-pilgrims-and-natives-sharing-maize and a lot more this-land-was-your-land-but-now-its-ours-move-or-die-also-here’s-some-small-pox. So let’s read up, get informed, and then unpack the darker parts of our country’s legacy. Discuss which of the facts you encounter were the most shocking, and get into how the ground we laid when the country was founded directly correlate to the issues that divide us today.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Mrurders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

I used to handsell this all the time at the bookstore and my line every time was, “How the hell did we never learn about this?” The people of the Osage Nation were the richest people per capita in the world in the 1920s when oil was discovered on their land (land that, by the way, they were pushed onto in the first place). That’s when the Osage started dying one by one, and not by natural causes. Many of those who tried to investigate these suspicious deaths ended up dead too, so the newly-formed FBI eventually got involved under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover. What really happened to the Osage people is a downright scandalous conspiracy that I cannot believe I knew nothing about until two years ago.

These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore

I call this my “I need a Christmas gift for my history-loving father-in-law” recommendation, but it’s a great read for anyone who wants a broader and more accurate view of the United States’ past. It’s a meaty tome that goes back to 1492 and attempts to provide a more accurate and sobering account of our nation’s history. It’s nowhere near as pretty and altruistic as our textbooks have made it out to be; in fact, the truths told here are often uncomfortable and ones it’s about time they were reckoned with.

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States  by Daniel Immerwahr

I own but have not yet taken on what is by numerous accounts a “fascinating, meticulously researched, & highly readable ‘revisionist history’ of the US shown through the lens of the territories and colonies that have been at the outlying edges of the American empire” (ripped that from the staff picks section of the indie I worked at, courtesy of owner Seth Marko). This book shows in very black and white terms that the objective has always been domination, expansion, capitalistic supremacy. Again, a lot of this narrative ain’t pretty, but of vital importance for any informed American.

Suggestion Section

We have some book club questions for Becoming for ya.

Today suggest these discussion points for Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House

From the Good Morning America Book Club: the recipe for Ana’s Pastelito Love Bites from Dominicana

This book club has been meeting for over 6 decades!

This feels a little Late to the Party of NBC, but here’s their list of celeb book clubs you might enjoy. They even went and threw in some up-and-comers: Oprah and Reece something?

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, get it on the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Friday too.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks – 10/24

Hola Audiophiles!

I hope this week is treating all of you well and that great listens fill your ears. This week I lost myself in a pretty delightful book and have already started on another one, both of which I ramble about below. Thank you for all of your kinds words regarding the passing of my grandfather – your words and the ones read aloud to me have helped make each day a little brighter.

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – to be continued!

I’m skipping this week’s new release section and resuming next week so that I’m telling you about the week’s releases in the week of their release and not a week ahead of time. Cool? Cool.

Latest Listens

Practical Magic by Alice HoffmanPractical Magic whaaaat?!? Why did I wait so long to read this!? If you too have managed to avoid this book for decades: Sally and Gillian Owens are beautiful, precocious sisters who’ve been raised by their two aunts since their parents’ tragic deaths. The aunts are witches with powers that both terrify and fascinate the girls, powers they soon develop themselves. Though close, they drift apart when Gillian decides she wants to be as far away from home as possible for a chance at some kind of normalcy. She returns eventually when she finds herself in a pickle, one that changes the sisters’ lives and buys them a not-so-friendly ghostly companion.

I love the generational magic, the heartbreaking romance, the complicated relationship between careful rule-following Sally and flighty, self-absorbed Gillian. If you love magical books that explore familial ties in all of their complicated and sometimes inconvenient glory, this is a bewitching (heh) treat.

As for Christina Moore’s narration, she has a really great storyteller voice, both neutral and spirited where it needed to be. Her Gillian voice was the only one that sometimes felt forcibly baritone, but I think I may have been comparing it to Nicole Kidman’s breathy and higher pitch (she plays Gillian in the movie adaptation).

P.S. It bears repeating that this is SO different from the movie, which I watched seconds after completing the audiobook. Not an unforgivable departure plot-wise, but it is much darker in language and tone. Lots of f-bombs and a trigger warning for an attempted sexual assault (a chase scene involving a minor with some vulgar language) and domestic abuse.

Listens on Deck

The Witches of New York by Ami McKay Guess what? It’s witches. More witches, many witches, all of the witches!!! Though I may work in some vampires and ghosts at some point too.  Don’t want them feeling left out.

I’ve now moved on to The Witches of New York by Ami McKay which is SO EXTREMELY MY SH*T. It’s about a trio of witches who run a tea shop in late 1800s New York called Tea & Sympathy. There’s a talking raven and lots of tea and a crusade to eradicate witches that harkens back to the original witch trials. If my bells were real and not metaphorical, you’d hear a cacophony of ringing from miles away.

From the Internets

Uber is allowing riders to listen to short stories on Audible in the UK.

Need a spine-tingling mystery for your ear holes? AudioFile to the rescue.

Someone went and wrote a piece breaking down the hilarious accents in Ronan Farrow’s Catch and Kill. Actual LOL! Again, Farrow’s work here is brave and invaluable, but those accents are so extra.

Over at the Riot

I joined Liberty on All the Books this week to talk this week’s new releases where I talk about revisiting God Save the Queens by Kathy Iandoli and other great new releases.

Wondering how to score audiobook ARCs? Here’s the skinny for all your blogging needs.

That’s all I got today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with audiobook feedback & questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the In The Club newsletter, peep the Read Harder podcast, and watch me and my hair on the Book Riot YouTube channel every Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
In The Club

In the Club – 10/23

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

Thank you for all of the kind messages regarding my grandfather’s passing, It was a tough week but every day it gets a teeny bit easier. This week I finally got my vampire theme together, so let’s get straight to the blood suckers, shall we?

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips – A Bloody Good Time

Why yes, I am suggesting a blood-themed menu. I add extra berries to this Blackberry Sage Margarita to make it extra thick and blood-like. Leave out the booze if you prefer, of course.

This Witches Blood cocktail is a mix of vodka and whiskey with cherry soda and schnapps for sweetness, and to give it that lovely plasma hue. I like tart cherry juice in place of soda in this as well.

For some snackage, these Blood Spatter Cookies are delightful. I love the delicate almond flavor, but leave out the extract if it’s not your bag.

Another idea is go full garlicpalooza because duh! we want to ward off the vampires and also I just reeeeally love garlic. There are so many recipes you could go with but you must try mozzarella garlic bread from Nigella Lawson’s At My Table. Use good chewy bread and fresh mozzarella. The crushed red peppers mixed in with the gooey cheesiness are so good!

Books That Suck (hehe)

Yeah sure. monsters who suck blood are, like scary. Know what’s scarier? The dark and twisted sh*t that regular ol’ humans are capable of; it’s terrifying! For each of these books, dig into the whole idea of what makes a monster, and how so much of our fear is rooted in the pondering of the dark sides of humanity, or simply in our “othering” of people or concepts we don’t understand.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova – I knew the legend of Dracula was based on a real person, but I didn’t realize just how gross and barbaric ol’ Vlad the Impaler really was until this book sent me down that internet rabbit hole. It’s a super fun blend of history and folklore about a young girl who finds a cache of letters that sends her on a wild ride through her family’s dark past. Also, Vlad is involved and he might… still…kinda… be alive? This kept me up reading late into the night, and gave me major wanderlust for Hungary, Romania, and Turkey.

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Vampires in Mexico? Take all of my money! Domingo is a garbage-collecting street kid and Atl a descendent of Aztec vampires, one with a penchant for blood herself who happens to be on the run. The two probs shouldn’t be friends because things don’t usually end well when hen one friend wants to suck the blood from the other, ya know? Of course, they grow attached and soon find it’s them against the world—a world of cops, vamps, and rivaling narco-vampire gangs—in the dark streets of Mexico City.

Fledgling by Octavia Butler – Confession: I’ve never read Octavia Butler! Shame! Shame! In this last of her novels, recommended to me many times over, a young, amnesiac girl discovers she’s a modified 53-year-old vampire. I hate when that happens! She sets out to learn more about the life that was stolen from her and realizes someone wants her and everyone she loves to perish.

Suggestion Section

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, get it on the Read Harder podcast, and watch me and my hair on the Book Riot YouTube channel every Friday too.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks – 10/17

Hola Audiophiles, welcome to Thursday! I’ve got some more new releases for you this week, some DNFs and witchiness, audiobooks about food and more. Let’s get right to it before I burn the cobbler I happen to have in the oven. Yay for fall and baking, amirite?

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – October 22 (publisher’s descriptions in quotes)

Initiated: The Memoir of a Witch by Amanda Yates Garcia, narrated by the author – Memoir + witch = often an automatic Add to Cart in Vanessa math, but I’m even more interested now that I know Amanda Yates Garcia is A Thing (she was raised in the tradition of witchcraft and is sort of a witch to the stars). Her story is a “memoir about finding meaning, beauty, and power through a life in witchcraft.”

  • Narrator Note: Full disclosure: a quick Googling of Ms. Yates Garcia yielded more YouTube entries of her being interviewed on Fox News than I am entirely comfortable with, even if she was on there to call Trump wicked and hex him.

The House of Brides by Jane Cockram, narrated by Jaye Rosenberg – This debut is a psychological thriller about a woman who flees her hot mess life, hoping to find respite at her family’s estate in England BUT SECRETS. Just what I’m in the mood for: suspense and some English stuff.

  • Narrator Note: The only other credit I found for Jane Rosenberg was Amelia Westlake Was Never Here by Erin Gough, but I liked the sample well enough. She is apparently an Aussie actress though, so she’s not new to the performance space.

I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi, narrated by Priya Ayyar – Three teens are trying to figure out their lives when they learn the world may end in less than a week. “With only a week to face their truths and right their wrongs, Jesse, Cate, and Adeem’s paths collide as their worlds are pulled apart.”

Supernova Era by Cixin Liu, translated by Joel Martinsen, narrated by Feodor Chin – The latest from sci-fi legend Cixin Liu (I’ve been meaning to read The Three Body Problem for years!) is pitched as Lord of the Flies on a global scale. “Eight light years away, a star has died, creating a supernova event that showers Earth in deadly levels of radiation. Within a year, everyone over the age of 13 will die. And so the countdown begins.” Oh ok, sure.Nnot panicking at all.

  • Narrator Note: If you’ve been keeping up with Cixin Liu’s other work, you’ll recognize Feodor Chin’s crisp, commanding voice. Chin has also narrated work for peeps like Michio Kaku and Kim Stanley Robinson.

Latest Listens

Welp, I went into the week 0 for 2 in the audiobook department. I paused on Stacy Schiff’s The Witches and moved on to God Save the Queens. Eh. I hadn’t realized the latter was written by a white woman, albeit one with a long history writing about hip hop and gender in urban outlets. I might have kept going with it, but got some sad news of a family member passing away this week. There’s nothing like tragedy to remind you that life it too short to force my reading. On to the next one.

Listens on Deck

Practical Magic by Alice HoffmanIn the interest of finding joy, I chose another witchy listen from the deep, dark corners of my TBR. I’m finally listening to Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic! I never saw the film, but I thought I remembered the previews being very light, happy, and rom-com-adjacent. The book is darker, sexier, and more vulgar than I was ready for. I’m SO into it so far!

What are your favorite spooky season listens??

From the Internets

Apparently Ronan Farrow, who gets all my praise for his relentless and prolific journalistic efforts, does some pretty goofy voices in his self-narrated Catch and Kill. Don’t know how to feel about that! (For any Pod Save America listeners, all I can hear in my head is Lovett’s bad Russian guy accent, who so happens to be Farrow’s fiancé).

This roundup of books to listen to while cooking tells you both what to read and what to cook. I’d like to throw in a Save Me the Plums + chocolate jewel cake entry here, and request that you kindly send that cake on over to Portland.

AudioFile suggests some mysterious audiobooks for kids. Having just finished the second installment in Victoria’s Schwab’s Cassidy Blake middle grade series, I can also recommend City of Ghosts and Tunnel of Bones for kiddos who like a little scariness.

Over at the Riot

The fact that a serial killer narrating several well-known audiobooks is just the tip of the iceberg is… well, it’s a thing!

That’s all I got today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with audiobook feedback & questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the In The Club newsletter, peep the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Friday too (taking this week off)!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
In The Club

In the Club – 10/16

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

Well, friends. I have stared at this monitor on and off for hours, trying and failing to come up with witticisms to pair with vampire books. I debated disclosing the following, but decided after all to share that my dear grandfather, mi abuelo, passed away this Sunday evening. My heart is heavy.

In my grief, I’ve shockingly turned to books on the subject and decided to share those with you instead. If you too have suffered a loss, whether fresh or less recent, I invite you to join my little We Who Grieve book club and give these books a read.

Nibbles and Sips

At some point this week, if I can find one, I’ll be having a toasted sesame hoagie roll with butter and sugar. I’ll pair it with a cup of Folgers instant coffee prepared with more milk and sugar than actual coffee, and a piece of Mexican pan dulce for dinner because what even are carbs? If I were back in San Diego, I’d head south of the border for deep fried quesadillas and tacos al vapor, then I’d wash them down with an ice cold bottle of Mexican Coke. These are the foods that remind me of my sweet abuelo; that, any anything from McDonald’s.

In case it isn’t evident, there are no fancy refreshment rules in our We Who Grieve book club. Choose comfort, choose solace, choose food and drink that are a hug for your heart.

Reading Through Grief – You’ll notice I haven’t included Book Club Bonus notes this week. It’s not laziness, I promise. I only mean to encourage you to process these books however you personally need to.

H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald – You may have heard of this title if you’ve ever searched for books on loss, it’s a bit of a favorite in the way of grief memoirs. After the death of her father, Helen MacDonald decided to adopt and raise a hawk and document the experience. It’s a lushly descriptive meditation on the connection between animals and man, and a grief memoir filled with some of the most beautiful sentences I’ve read in some time.

Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl – I know this word gets tossed around a lot, but this book is just stunning. It’s a slim little thing, a collection of brief essays weaving the breathtaking beauty of the natural world with the exquisite pain of grief. It focuses on Renkl’s relationship with her parents and the bittersweet transition of becoming their caregiver. In short: it messed. me. up, and it did so absolutely beautifully.

the house of broken angelsThe House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea – This book is one I’ve been thinking about over and over sine Sunday evening. Septuagenarian Miguel Angel de la Cruz has plans to throw himself one last birthday extravaganza in what he believes to be the final days of his life. When his mother dies days before the giant fiesta, Big Angel turns the weekend into a double-header in celebration of both their lives. Told in two timelines set in Mexico and south San Diego (in the very neighborhood my Abuelo and Abuela lived in my entire life), this book is both a hilarious and heartbreaking reflection on mortality, family, and the immigrant experience.

Suggestion Section

In a spot of brighter news, have you heard? Yours truly is hosting the next installment of Persist our feminist book club run entirely on Instagram.

If you and your book club still haven’t read Where the Crawdads Sing (I haven’t either), here are some book club questions to chew on when (if) you do.

Loved this piece from the Boston Globe on Black booklovers remixing the book club. I especially dig that District 7 Book Club in Roxbury takes place at District 7 Tavern, the site of one of the first black-owned taverns in Boston.

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, get it on the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Friday too (taking this week off).

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page