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Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Jul 20

Happy Friday, krakens and Kryptonians! Today I’m reviewing An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim and Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas, talking about forthcoming books from Becky Chambers and NK Jemisin, musing about Robin Hood, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by Penguin Random House.

a compound image of the covers of both Nyxia and Nyxia UnleashedEmmett Atwater isn’t just leaving Detroit; he’s leaving Earth. Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family. Forever. Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whom have troubled pasts and are a long way from home. But Babel’s ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won’t forever compromise what it means to be human.

Becky Chambers is writing a new series, and it’s going to be solarpunk! I am very here for this — her books are already what we’ve been calling “cozy” (a.k.a. feel good or optimistic) sci-fi, and I can’t wait to see what kinds of sustainable tech she comes up with.

Speaking of optimism! Here are books that will restore your faith in humanity, one spaceship or feral hippo at a time.

Y’all, I can’t help but enjoy this trailer for the newest, heistiest Robin Hood remake. It appears to be what you’d get if you mashed up Ocean’s Eleven, Robin Hood, and V for Vendetta.

Sometimes the universe wants us to have nice things, and I’m counting Noelle Stevenson’s take on She-Ra as one of them.

Also to be filed under “gifts from the universe” is NK Jemisin’s forthcoming, first ever short story collection! It’s called How Long ’til Black Future Month? and it will be out November 27, 2018.

Here’s a sci-fi poem: thanks to the excellent Pome Tinyletter I’ve become a poetry convert, and Quarto by Adrienne Rich delighted my SFF sensibilities when it showed up in my inbox.

Need some good, cheap summer reads? Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb are both on sale (for $3.99 and $1.99, respectively), and Amanda once jokingly described them as being about “a Superfund site plus dragons,” which is spot on. And Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber, which is a dark, brutal, and incredibly rich futuristic retelling of Caribbean folktales (trigger warnings: rape and child abuse), is on sale for $2.99!

Need a new Harry Potter quiz? This one will tell you what your wand would be! (I got laurel with a troll whisker core, which I definitely did not realize was an option.)

Reminder! We’re giving away $500 worth of the best YA books of 2018 so far, and you can enter to win right here.

Today in reviews, we’ve got a past-future time-travel novel and a sweetly supernatural graphic novel.

An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim

Trigger warning: sexual assualt

a sunset over water including an oil rig, with the horizon line tilted 45 degreesIt’s hard to believe this is a debut novel, for any number of reasons. The pacing; the execution of the ambitious concept; the character development; the balance of absurdity and realism — Lim handles all these elements so deftly, and with such insight.

Imagine a world in which a plague struck America in the 1980s. Time travel had just been discovered, but you can’t go back in time to stop the epidemic — just forward, in 12 year leaps. Let’s say the corporation that controls time travel offered you, with your useful skills, an opportunity to go forward in exchange for medical treatment for your loved one. Would you go?

For Polly, the answer is yes. She’s still young and 12 years is nothing (or so she tells herself), and her relationship with Frank is worth it. They make a plan to meet up in Texas in the future, and she signs the contract. She arrives in the ’90s to find that she’s actually 17 years in the future due to a “reroute,” she’s indentured, and the world is nothing like the one she left behind. Not only is the geography different, but Texas is now part of a separate country from the United States, the “rules” of society have warped, and no one seems to want to explain anything to her.

Polly navigates the pitfalls of race, class, and gender in this slightly absurd, all-too-real future in a quest to find Frank and her remaining family. Lim asks the biggest questions about love — what is it, really? Can it last in prolonged absence? — and finds no easy answers. The journey is well worth your time; this book belongs on your shelf next to On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee, Pym by Mat Johnson, and Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich.

Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas

an illustration of a young man wearing glasses turning to look back at the viewer, with many creepy eyes just barely visible in the dark backgroundI was visiting friends last weekend and I can’t remember the conversation that led to one of them shoving Volume One of this comic into my hands, but I’m so glad for whatever it was. This is a delightful, supernatural-hijinks-filled small-town story, and it is still ongoing!

Oscar Wilde (yes, that’s really his name) is a floundering young writer who decides to rent a house on Craigslist in Podunk (yes, that’s really what the town is called), Oklahoma. What seems like a quiet backwater is actually a haven for ghosts, shapeshifters, and the magically inclined — and Oscar will find out in the most dramatic ways possible. Volume One follows him from one revelation to the next, with both hilarity and danger along the way.

This comic has so much heart, and so much humor! Each character’s name is a wink and a nudge, Oscar is just the right mix of smart guy and naive noob, and the colors and style are engaging and a pleasure to look at. (I am still laughing about Clifford the big red …. dog?) Volume One ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I was delighted to see that the comic is fully online — I’ll be catching up ASAP, and keeping an eye out for future collections.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Long days and pleasant nights,
Jenn

Categories
Today In Books

Exploring How Reading Affects Eating Disorders: Today in Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Flatiron Books, publishers of The Family Tabor by Cherise Wolas.

Exploring How Reading Affects Eating Disorders

A researcher partnered with the UK eating disorder charity, Beat, to design an online questionnaire that asked respondents about the links they perceive between their reading habits and their mental health, with a focus on eating disorders. They found that 69% of those with personal experience of an eating disorder reported seeking out both fiction and nonfiction to help with their eating disorder, and that 36% had found the fiction or nonfiction they tried helpful. Click here to read the full report.

Students Paint Over Kipling Mural

Students at the University of Manchester painted over a mural of Rudyard Kipling’s “If,” replacing it with Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise.” Sara Khan, the student union’s liberation and access officer, said students had not been consulted about the commissioned mural decorating the union’s building. “Kipling stands for the opposite of liberation, empowerment and human rights – the things that we, as an SU, stand for,” Khan stated. Kipling’s works have been criticized for being racist; George Orwell called the author a “jingo imperialist.”

Props To Lauren Groff

People have been talking about Fates and Furies author Lauren Groff’s excellent response to an interview question asked by a reporter from The Harvard Gazette. The lowdown: the reporter asked Groff, “You are a mother of two. In 10 years you have produced three novels and two short-story collections. Can you talk about your process and how you manage work and family?” Groff responded, “I understand that this is a question of vital importance to many people, particularly to other mothers who are artists trying to get their work done, and know that I feel for everyone in the struggle. But until I see a male writer asked this question, I’m going to respectfully decline to answer it.​” Yes. All the yes.

 

And don’t forget–we’re giving away $500 of this year’s best YA books (so far)! Click here to enter.

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Unusual Suspects

CLUE But With Muppets And Tim Curry

Hi mystery fans! Twitter has been playing “You can replace the cast of any movie with The Muppets, but you keep one of the human actors. What movie and which human do you keep?” And “Clue, keep Tim Curry” is my favorite response.

We’re giving away $500 of the year’s best YA! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

From Book Riot and Around the Internet

So You Want To Get Into Political Thriller Books?

Hope Never Dies: 5 key ingredients for turning Obama and Biden into literary sleuths

For ‘Killing Eve’ Star Sandra Oh, An Emmy Nomination That Will Go Down In History

(TW self-harm) Sharp Objects Author Gillian Flynn Explains the Show’s Hidden Words: Plus the inspiration behind the show’s eerie Woman in White.

Megan Abbott and Tom Perrotta’s epic, fascinating conversation about moving from novels to TV

Giveaway: Enter to win one of ten copies of I’m Not Missing, a great YA coming-of-age with a running mystery throughout. (You have until midnight to enter!)

Adaptations and News

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter coverKarin Slaughter’s upcoming Pieces of Her will be adapted into a TV series with Charlotte Stoudt attached to write and Lesli Linka Glatter directing.

Ausma Zehanat Khan’s Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak series (Which I LOVE!) will have a 5th book in the series and the cover was revealed. I can’t wait!

BOOM! Studios has a graphic novel release in November that sounds great: “With ‘Smooth Criminals,’ we want to tell a female friendship story wrapped in a jewel heist,” said Smith and Lustgarten.

Nikhil Bhalla filed a petition in India against Netflix to have scenes removed from the adaptation of Sacred Games citing “offensive scenes” and remarks about former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

True Crime

Lit Life: Three True-Crime Stories That Are Stranger Than Fiction

9 New True Crime Books That Should Definitely Be Movies

(Genealogy helps again) How DNA Led to Arrest in Cold-Case Killing of Indiana 8-Year-Old After it ‘Haunted the Community for 30 Years’: Prosecutor

Kindle Deals

Street People by Michael Nava coverStreet People by Michael Nava is $2.99 and my purchase today!

Murder at Cape Three Points (The Inspector Darko Dawson Mysteries Book 3) by Kwei Quarteyis $1.99! (Really like this detective series set in Ghana)

 

 

And my galleys have run amock!

pile of books on purple lounge chair

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.

Until next time, keep investigating! And in the meantime come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canaves.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Categories
The Goods

Little Golden Books

Get your bookish nostalgia fix with our new Little Golden Books collection, featuring The Poky Little Puppy, The Shy Little Kitten, and more childhood favorites.

Categories
True Story

BAD BLOOD and Other Stories of Silicon Valley

As I’m writing this newsletter, I’ve just finished reading Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, an account of “the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of Theranos,” a biotech startup led by a woman who was hailed as the next Steve Jobs. But then a Wall Street Journal reporter got a tip that the technology the company was using on patients and preparing to sell to major healthcare companies didn’t actually work, an investigation that revealed the company was built on lies.

We’re giving away $500 of the year’s best YA! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

I’m not sure how this one completely missed my radar when it came out in May, but I ended up grabbing it at the recommendation of a friend and because of the chatter amongst the Book Riot editorial staff. And everyone was right – this book might be the most banapants work of nonfiction this year (that’s not about politics). The details about what went on inside Theranos, including the oddness of the CEO and the corruption among her supporters, seem almost too insane to be real. But it’s well researched and the reporting was rigorously managed, so I’m confident it’s accurate. So, so good!

Reading the book brought to mind a few other books on Silicon Valley that have been on my radar (or I’ve read) — Reset by Ellen Pao, The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, and Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton, just to name a few. It’s an area ripe for great stories.

With that gushing out of the way, on to this week’s newsletter!

New Books!

This week’s new books are three titles that have me curious but, for a variety of reasons, a little bit skeptical. My skepticism might be your genre kryptonite through, we’ll see!

The Widower’s Notebook by Jonathan Santlofer – This book is a memoir about a man learning to live without his wife, who died unexpectedly and tragically after a routine operation. It’s been compared to Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking or Joyce Carol Oates’ A Widow’s Story, except getting at this particular type of tragedy and grief from the perspective of a widower rather than a widow. One review I read suggested that his arguments about grief and gender rely on some old-fashioned cultural norms, but I’m curious anyway.

The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump by Michiko Kakutani – In this book, the former New York Times critic wonders “how truth became an endangered species in contemporary America” (as we all are…). She looks to the cultural forces like social media, television and politics, as well as trends from both political parties, to look at how we got where we are. This book feels like it’s slotting right into a trend – books on truth in a world that’s abandoned facts – but I’m generally here for it.

Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley by Adam Fisher – After finishing Bad Blood, my interest in books about Silicon Valley culture is pretty high. Adam Fisher grew up in Silicon Valley, but didn’t realize how unusual it was until he was an adult. Valley of Genius is an oral history of Silicon Valley that relies in more than 200 interviews with people who lead the technological revolution, and shares “the most told, retold, and talked-about stories in the Valley.” A skim of the contributors looks very full of dudes, which I suppose makes sense for a book on Silicon Valley, but still gives me a little pause.

Book Lists!

And finally, I’ll wrap this one up with a few recent book lists that look pretty excellent:

Don’t forget! We’re hosting an awesome giveaway of $500 of the year’s best young adult fiction and nonfiction so far, picked out by our resident YA expert Kelly Jensen. Hop over to this link before July 31 to enter: https://goo.gl/iZpwWZ

With that, have an awesome weekend! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading!

Categories
The Stack

071918-TheConArtist-The-Stack

Today’s The Stack is sponsored by The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente, published by Quirk Books.

Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con expecting just another con—and maybe a chance to reunite with his ex-wife—but when his rival murdered, he becomes the prime suspect. To clear his name, Mike will have to navigate every corner of the con, from intrusive fans and obsessive collectors to the world’s slowest chase scene down the aisles of Hall H. In the process, he unravels a dark secret behind one of the industry’s most legendary creators. With ten illustrations and an unconventional setting, The Con Artist is perfect for comic fans and mystery lovers alike.

Categories
Today In Books

We’re Getting a Shuri-Centric Comic Book Series: Today in Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Litworld Publishing House. Gestation is available for free today! Download your copy by clicking the image below.

Sing It, Sister

Ann Brashare’s The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants got turned into a movie that embodied the spirit of female friendship so thoroughly that the four principal actors are still BFFs. And now the rights to the film have been acquired for development as a stage musical.

Fall for Shuri Series

Everyone’s favorite Wakandan (yeah, we said it) is going to get her own ongoing comics series. It’ll be dropping in October, and has got maybe the most perfect writer in Afrofuturist extraordinaire Nnedi Okorafor whose Binti has been a recent favorite around the Riot.

A Political Memoir Prompts 2020 Speculation

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by California Senator Kamala Harris is forthcoming from Penguin Press. The publication date of January 2019 has many wondering if the political memoir is a prelude to a presidential campaign.

Don’t forget–we’re giving away $500 of this year’s best YA books (so far)! Click here to enter.

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Audiobooks

Rioters Writing about Audiobooks

Heya Audiophiles,

Happy Thursday! I’m on the road this week, so howdy from toasty Colorado! It’s been a busy couple of months of traveling for me, which means I haven’t had as much time to keep up with the audiobooks posts on everyone’s favorite site, Book Riot. So I thought we could take a look at some of the Book Riot Audiobook posts that I, and perhaps you as well, may have missed over the past few months.

We’re giving away $500 of the year’s best YA! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

As you may know, there are few things that bug me more than when people claim that listening to audiobooks is somehow “less than” reading the print book. Not only is it ablest, it’s just not accurate. Rioter Dana breaks it down in this Audiobooks vs. Reading post, but I wanted to highlight one particularly interesting note here:

“There’s a fair amount of research on the subject of comprehension in audiobooks vs reading. The most helpful and positive of these that I came across was that of Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke, of the University of Texas, Austin and Austin NPR’s Two Guys on Your Head. On reading: ‘When you read something, you are looking at symbols on a page, and your brain is busy filling in all the blanks. Like the sounds of the voices, the scene, the inflection, the deeper meaning, the plot, etc.’ On audiobooks: ‘Because you can’t go back and reread something, you’re much more likely to do a better job of trying to extract the gist of what someone meant when you’re hearing them than when you’re reading.’”

Danika Ellis has discovered that few sounds get her to sleep more than the sound of whispering. This prompted her to ask our fellow Rioters if there were any audiobooks that were particularly soothing and voila; 13 Soothing Audiobooks to Fall Asleep To was born!

Do yourself a favor and read this beautiful piece from Rioter Gretchen about the closest thing she has to a “spiritual practice.” Check out the lovely excerpt below and then read the whole thing here: The Salve of Beach Glass and Audiobooks.

“The voices of the book along with the rhythm of my glass hunt drown out my ordinarily noisy brain. With my mind quiet, I can watch the terns with their black streaked heads dive for food, I can watch the storm clouds build over Lake Michigan with angry unnameable grace. Sometimes, for a moment, or an hour—beauty.”

The Infamous Kelly Jensen has 3 Award-Winning YA Audiobooks for your Summer Enjoyment here.

Love audiobooks but not being tied to a single book for 23 hours? Never fear, shorter audiobook lover! Rioter Laura Sackton has 50 Must Read Audiobooks under 10 hours for you to choose from. The list includes some of my personal faves, like Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and Where’d You Go Bernadette?

One of my favorite things about audiobooks is that you can learn stuff while doing other, boring but necessary things like folding laundry or commuting to work. Rioter Sarah has 12 Audiobooks to Listen to On Your Commute to Make You Sound Smart. One of Nichols’ suggestions? So You Want To Talk About Race by the brilliant Ijeoma Olou. Nichols says, “ contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the ‘N’ word.” Bonus: this book is narrated by one of my favorite fiction narrators, Bahni Turpin.

Because Pride Month should never really be over, Laura Sackton has 15 Audiobook Memoirs Written and Read by LGBTQ authors.

And if you want to listen to a good mystery on audiobook while road tripping, like I did when I listened to The Passenger on my way to Tahoe and arrived in the woods by myself, certain I was about to be murdered? Great! Rioter Emily has the Best Mystery Audiobooks for Road Trips for all your nailbiting (but keep at least one hand on the wheel!) needs.

Love Fantasy? Alex Acks has 35 of The Best Fantasy Audiobooks (and Series)! What does that mean? Alex explains, “This list runs the gamut from epic to contemporary fantasy, from the dark to the light, because fantasy as a subgenre is a wonderfully open sandbox for authors to play in. Look for gods and monsters, heroes and villains, and a lot of ordinary people who have had greatness and plot complications thrust upon them.”

If your smarty-pants needs weren’t met by those books to listen to on your commute, Sophia Lefevre has 20 History Audiobooks You’ll Want To Listen To. Sophia says, “Reading a traditional history book (a work of nonfiction, not a textbook) felt flat and dry. Deciding to make one last effort, I tried history audiobooks. This turned out to be the “Just Right” solution for me.” Check out which she thinks are the best of the best here.

That’s all for me this week! As always, feel free to get in touch with me on twitter where I’m msmacb or my email at katie@riotnewmedia.com.

Until next week,

~Katie

 

Categories
In The Club

In the Club Jul 18

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Let’s dive in.

Today’s newsletter is sponsored by Book Riot Insiders.

Com on in! Bag your bookish perks. Start your free trial.Wishlist upcoming releases you’re dying to read. Get exclusive podcasts and newsletters. Enter to win swag. Do it all when you join Insiders. And you can get a free 14-day trial to the Novel level when you subscribe now!

Need more go-to book club questions? Here are some options!

I’ve come to love celebrity memoirs, possibly because so many interesting celebrities are writing them. If you’ve also been bitten by the bug — or just want a good starting point, here are some coming out this fall to have on your radar.
Book group bonus: Pair with a viewing of interviews or a performance by the celeb in question! How well does their page-presence match with their screen presence?

What is the difference between hardboiled and noir? Megan Abbott has some opinions!
Book group bonus: There are a lot of fascinating bits in this interview; no matter which book of Abbott’s you might pick to read, it’s a great addition.

Controversy strikes! The woman who helped create the Richard and Judy Book Club has called them out on their new relationship with WH Smith.
Book group bonus: There are layers and layers of paid promotion in publishing. How much does it matter to the readers in your group whether a recommendation is “supported” by dollars from the publisher?

Read like Francine Prose: She picked five classics as personal favorites, ones you may or not be surprised by.
Book group bonus: Her newest book, What to Read and Why, is a book club discussion starter and potential guide in and of itself.

More poetry! Ever since I signed up for the Pome Tinyletter, I’ve found it a much more accessible medium. Here are some Native American poets to add to your group’s TBR the next time you’re ready to tackle some poetry.
Book group bonus: Here’s where I pitch you Bojan Luis, whose work I adore.

Looking for #ownvoices reads? We’ve got a list of transgender fiction by transgender authors!
Book group bonus: Here’s an exercise for your meeting. Go over the last however-many group-selected reads. How many of them are about a specific community and written by someone from that community? For example, Celeste Ng is Asian-American and writes about an Asian-American family in Everything I Never Told You; Friend (With Benefits) Zone by Laura Brown has deaf/hard of hearing protagonists and is by a HoH author. Use your results as an opportunity to think about who and what you might read next!

Related: This piece by Jordy Rosenberg is a thoughtful and interesting discussion of what it means for a work of fiction to be trans lit.

Listen while you work (or do the dishes, or whatever): Here’s a round-up of great sci-fi and fantasy audiobooks for your listening and discussing pleasure!
Book group bonus: This would be a fun opportunity to compare an author-read audiobook (e.g. Half-Resurrection Blues) with a narrator-read audio (e.g. The Goblin Emperor).

And that’s a wrap: Happy discussing! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

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

Categories
Today In Books

1% of UK Kidlit Books Have Minority Ethnic Main Character: Today in Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Dynamite Entertainment.

Survey Exposes Dearth Of BAME Characters In Kidlit

Last year, England’s Department of Education identified 32.1% schoolchildren of minority ethnic origins in the country–also in 2017, 1% of the children’s books published had a BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) main character. The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education conducted the research project, which also found that 10% of these books contained “social justice” issues, such as war and conflict. The report “warns publishers that if children do not see their realities reflected in the world around them or only see problematic representations mirrored back at them, the impact can be tremendously damaging.”

Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles Gets Hulu Series

Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles is officially in development over at Hulu. The adaptation of the popular book series, which begins with Interview with the Vampire, was optioned last year. Anne Rice’s son Christopher Rice will serve as executive producer alongside the author herself. :waits impatiently for casting news:

Lin-Manuel Miranda Writes Gmorning, Gnite!

Lin-Manuel Miranda, he of Hamilton fame, is turning his positive Gmorning and Gnite tweets into a book, illustrated by Jonny Sun (everyone’s a aliebn when u a aliebn too). The book, aptly titled Gmorning, Gnight! Little Pep Talks for Me & You, came at the request of fans. Check out the article for sample Gmorning, Gnite tweets and the cover reveal.

 

And don’t forget–we’re giving away $500 of this year’s best YA books (so far)! Click here to enter.