Newsletters Dev – Page 1117

Procrastibaking and the End of RT

Post author By Jessica Pryde
Post date May 23, 2018

Hey there folks! I’m back in the hot part of the desert after a refreshing few days without seeing the sun (okay, so maybe that wasn’t the best for me). RT was a blast, and I hope those of you who might be going to RWA (the Romance Writers of America National Conference) and the following Book Bonanza enjoy yourselves as much as I did!

An Activism Anthology From the Parkland Students: Today in Books

Post author By Sharifah Williams
Post date May 22, 2018

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Julian Is A Mermaid by Jessica Love, from Candlewick Press.

An Activism Anthology From The Parkland Students

The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are contributing to an anthology of personal essays, articles, and photographs around social activism. We Say #NeverAgain: Reporting from the School That Inspired the Nation will include students’ first-hand accounts of the Parkland school shooting, and will be edited by MSD journalism and broadcasting teachers Melissa Falkowski and Eric Garner.

The Man Booker International Prize Winner Is…

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from the original Polish by Jennifer Croft. The £50,000 prize celebrates works of translated fiction from around the world, and is split equally between author and translator. Flights is described as “a novel of linked fragments, from the 17th century to the present day, connected by themes of travel and human anatomy.”

Reese Witherspoon Brings Hello Sunshine To Audible

Audible is partnering with Reese Witherspoon’s female-driven media brand and book club to bring Hello Sunshine to the audiobook subscription service. In June, the partnership will launch with a spotlight on audio performances featuring strong female characters, and Audible subscribers will gain access to previous titles from Witherspoon’s book club. Original audio productions are in the works with an inaugural title to be announced later this year.

Don’t forget we’re giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Enter here!

Unusual Suspects

Mean Girls + Whodunnit + A Horror Movie Body Count!

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date May 22, 2018

Hello mystery fans! I’ve got three books this week that could not be more different from each other if that had been my goal. AND Book Riot is giving away $500 (look at those zeros!) to the bookstore of your choice! Enter here, you lucky people!

Sponsored by The 49th Mystic (Beyond the Circle Series #1) by Ted Dekker.

Some say the great mystery of how one can live in two worlds at once died with Thomas Hunter many years ago. Still others that the gateway to that greater reality was and is only the stuff of dreams.

They are wrong.

In the small town of Eden, Utah, a blind girl named Rachelle Matthews is about to find out just how wrong.

So begins a two-volume saga of high stakes and a mind-bending quest to find an ancient path that will save humanity. The clock is ticking; the end rushes forward.

Ready? Set?

Dream.

Mean Girls + Adam Silvera Breakup/Relationships + Whodunnit + A Bit of a Horror Movie Body Count! (TW: rape)

cover image: silhouette of two people in a forest holding flashlights everything washed in blue colors White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig: This felt like a mashup between a bit of a YA coming-of-age with a whodunnit mystery being solved by an amatuer sleuth. Rufus Holt is having a hard time: he still hasn’t gotten over his ex-boyfriend, his dad is a terrible person, his mom is struggling to pay the bills, and his step-sister needs his help to prove she isn’t a murderer. Trying to solve a murder is hard enough as a teen that has no training in sleuthing, but it’s even harder to do with your ex-boyfriend (who you’re clearly not over) and for your step-sister (who isn’t very nice and comes from the family that pretends you don’t exist because they’re rich and you’re not). But Rufus has to help because his sister dangles the carrot of money in front of him, which he needs to help his mom. And so did Rufus’ step-sister murder her boyfriend and now she’s playing Rufus? Or did someone else kill Fox? Either way, Rufus is gonna be kicking a hornet’s nest when he starts investigating… A good mystery with a horror-ish feeling, that has a great main character to follow as he struggles through family, relationship, and anger issues.

Dark Nonfiction About A Brazilian Hitman (TW: child rape/ torture)

cover image: a statue of a man's face with dark hair and beard and the title words crossed out over it The Name of Death by Kléster Cavalcanti, Nicholas Caistor (translator): This is for people who like dark crime reads because I’ll admit I felt sick by the end of it. This is not a book about a psychopath who wanted to kill people so he became a hitman. Instead, it’s about a teen boy living in a village in the Amazon in Brazil who doesn’t understand electricity because he’s never seen it. A teen boy who looks up to his uncle, unaware that his uncle is a terrible person. The book takes you into Julio Santana’s life, as he reported it to journalist Klester Cavalcanti, from his first kill at seventeen–for his uncle–to his time in the military fighting communists. Towards the end of the book, Santana pulls out the book where he kept the information on all of his kills and some of the stories of specific murders are revealed, including how his wife discovered what he really did to make money, to an accidental murder, and the time he was arrested. While Santana looks back with regret, wishing he’d gone a different route–and still hopes to be forgiven by God–it is impossible not to think of all the victims and how easy the choice is to not kill someone. It was sad, interesting, and awful to see the reasons people choose to hire a hitman, and the way people move the line of what is right or wrong to fit their greed and agenda. (I could have done with much less pages of male gaze losing-my-virginity story.)

Great Character Driven Crime Novel

cover image: silhouette of the profile of a woman looking over a balcony to a blurred out street at night The Lonely Witness by William Boyle: I can see why people get frustrated with characters that don’t react/respond in situations the way a reader would, but for me I think we most likely won’t react the way we think we will in extreme situations. Also, I don’t find it interesting to watch characters behave like me. I enjoy reading the exploration of “But why would you do that?!”–and that was certainly the main character Amy. Living in a Brooklyn neighborhood, Amy has reduced her life after her girlfriend left her. She’s donated her time to the church and offers communion to elderly residents at their homes. It’s on one of these visits where the trouble begins: Mrs. Epifanio thinks her caretaker’s son murdered his mom, and that’s why she hasn’t shown up and he’s been coming instead with his mom’s key and rummaging in Mrs. Epifanio’s bedroom. Amy ends up trying to help Mrs. Epifanio by following the son, and finds herself witnessing a crime and opening the door to danger. A good crime novel that explores loneliness, regret, forgiveness, and whether we can ever make ourselves small enough to avoid the world, and our past, from hurting us again.

Recent Releases

cover image: a black teen girl sitting down facing the camera with the cover and photo washed in red Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson (Great YA mystery about a girl who won’t give up looking for her best friend.)

Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura, Kalau Almony (Translator) (Japanese mystery about cults that is high on my TBR list.)

Paper Ghosts by Julia Heaberlin (TBR: just downloaded the audiobook.)

The House Swap by Rebecca Fleet (TBR: domestic suspense.)

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.

In The Club

In the Club May 23

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date May 22, 2018

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

This newsletter is sponsored by Epic Reads.

Monday Charles is missing, and only her best friend Claudia seems to notice. As days turn to weeks with no sign of Monday, Claudia knows something is wrong. Monday wouldn’t leave her to endure tests and bullies alone. Claudia needs her best—and only—friend more than ever. But Monday’s family refuses to give Claudia a straight answer.

As Claudia digs deeper into Monday’s disappearance, she discovers that no one remembers the last time they saw Monday. How can a teenage girl just vanish without anyone noticing that she’s gone?

Enter this giveaway for a $500 gift card to the bookstore of your choice, and you could buy your book group SO MANY BOOKS.

It is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month! So this list is timely, but you should read them regardless because they are So Good.
Book group bonus: For extra thematically-appropriate-reading points, pick The Astonishing Color of After for your next read; it’s both by an Asian American and deals with mental health (as May is also Mental Health Awareness month!)

Translated works galore: The shortlist for the Best Translated Books of 2018 has been announced!
Book group bonus: Pick a translated novel to read, and then read a novel about a translator — I recommend An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine.

Get on that ToMo train: Haven’t read Toni Morrison yet? Or not since high school/college? We’ve got some starting points for you.
Book group bonus: Whether or not you decide to read Beloved, you should definitely make these biscuits for your ToMo discussion meeting.

Speaking of food, one of our contributors hosts a cookbook club, and she’s got club-approved recs for you.
Book group bonus: Everyone picks a recipe from the assigned book, naturally!

For when you want an adventure: Here are 10 books about intrepid girls, and I extremely cosign Adaptation and The Epic Crush of Genie Lo.
Book group bonus: Pair one of these with a nonfiction read about women. I recommend Wonder Women by Sam Maggs, illustrated by Sophia Foster-Dimino — it’s fun, reads quickly, and you could probably manage it in the same month as one of the above YA novels!

How about another regionally themed reading list? Here are Latina authors, specifically Dominican and Dominican American, that you should know.
Book group bonus: I am particularly fond of Julia Alvarez, and have been yearning to do a discussion of her adult works (for example, In the Time of the Butterflies) alongside her children’s books (for example, Return to Sender). Does her voice change with the audience? Any major differences in structure or tone? So much to think about.

There’s a whole movie, just about book club. And it’s called …. Book Club!
Book group bonus: Group outing! Popcorn for all.

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

What's Up in YA

YA Characters Who Change The World, Fabulous Backlist Reads, and More YA Book Talk

Post author By Kelly Jensen
Post date May 22, 2018

Hey YA Fans: Let’s catch up on the last month of bookish talk and upgrade our TBRs even more.

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Anger Is A Gift by Mark Oshiro from Tor Books.

Moss Jeffries is many things—considerate student, devoted son, loyal friend and affectionate boyfriend, enthusiastic nerd.

But sometimes Moss still wishes he could be someone else—someone without panic attacks, someone whose father was still alive, someone who hadn’t become a rallying point for a community because of one horrible night.

And most of all, he wishes he didn’t feel so stuck.

When tensions hit a fever pitch and tragedy strikes again, Moss must face a difficult choice: give in to fear and hate or realize that anger can actually be a gift.

(I heartily endorse today’s sponsor title — perfect for readers who love The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon, or All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely).

Onto the book talk!

YA adjacent, but of interest to many readers: 50 awesome school libraries to follow on Instagram.
Just gulped down Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson? Try these books next.
5 YA audiobooks featuring multiple narrators.
Inhale these backlist YA books.
Itching for some YA book giveaways? These websites are worth keeping an eye on.
May’s end is close, but that doesn’t mean you can’t put these new YA releases on your library holds list.
Want some Canadian YA in your life? Here are 50 must-read titles (includes some children’s titles, too!).
Powerful and authentic depictions of depression in YA books.
50 must-read YA mysteries.
Check out this interview with Nisha Sharma, author of the recently released YA book My So-Called Bollywood Life (which is worth a read!).
YA books featuring characters who change the world.
And finally, a round-up of YA books about queer girls of color, as written by women of color.

____________________

Cheap Reads!

Snap up some YA without dropping a whole lot of pennies with these ebook deals.

If you love the show and have never read the book inspiring it, you can pick up Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl for $3.

Burn for Burn, the first book in the trilogy written by power duo and besties Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian is $5 (and it’s a big book!).

Karen Hattrup’s Frannie and Tru is $3.

Haven’t read anything by Shaun David Hutchinson OR are looking to read more of his backlist? Snag The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley for $5.

$3 can get you The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee.

Lauren DeStefano’s The Glass Spare is $2.

____________________

And finally, if you don’t already know, now you do: we’re giving away $500 to one winner in the US to your favorite bookstore. For real. Want to enter? Do so by June 21 for the chance to win your ultimate summer reading shopping spree here.

Thanks for hanging out this week & we’ll be back in your inbox in 7 days!

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram.

Riot Rundown TestRiotRundown

052218-Chrysalis-Riot-Rundown

Post author By Devin Service
Post date May 22, 2018

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Litworld Publishing House. For Riot Rundown readers, Project Chrysalis will be available for 5 days only for .99!

Project Chrysalis: a new hyper-realistic, litRPG set in the virtual world of magic, mysterious creatures, dark rituals and newborn gods.
In the future, every orphan under government care is placed in Chrysalis with an in-game family to receive all the care they need.

But something went seriously wrong for Anji.

Betrayed, Anji appears in the most hopeless place of Chrysalis – Hell. Fueled by homesickness and revenge, he will venture through Hell and face what is hidden in every corner.

Anji’s story has only just begun, though. After all, Hell isn’t the scariest place in Chrysalis.

Events

BookCon, FROM TWINKLE WITH LOVE, David Sedaris, and More Bookish Happenings!

Post author By Maria Cristina Garcia Lynch
Post date May 22, 2018

Welcome to Book Riot’s Events Newsletter, hosted by me, María Cristina. We’re looking ahead at some of the bookish ways you can spend your time in the next couple weeks, and I’m sure there’s at least one item here that can tempt you to put on pants and go out (in that order, please). Clear your calendars on the following dates, my reading friends.

N.K. Jemisin Wins Nebula for Best Novel: Today in Books

Post author By Sharifah Williams
Post date May 21, 2018

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by The Plastic Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg.

N.K. Jemisin Wins Nebula For Best Novel

The 2017 Nebula Awards were announced over the weekend. N.K. Jemisin won Best Novel for the final installment of The Broken Earth series, The Stone Sky. All Systems Red by Martha Wells won Best Novella, and “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™” by Rebecca Roanhorse won Short Story. Click here to check out the full list of winners.

The Female Anthology Series Based On NY Times Obituaries

The New York Times is working with Paramount Television to produce a series based on the The Times’ Overlooked section. Overlooked highlights the women visionaries and trailblazers who were left out of the mostly male, mostly white obituaries. Women who have been featured in Overlooked include Jane Eyre author Charlotte Brontë, and investigative reporter Ida B. Wells, who campaigned against lynching.

A New Literary Festival In New York

Deep Water Literary Festival is coming to Narrowsburg, New York. The inaugural event features a marathon reading from Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Odyssey. Readers will include Mark Ruffalo, Marlon James, and Tilda Swinton. The festival will be held this summer, June 15-17.

We’re giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Enter here!

New Books

Hooray, It’s Time for New Books!

Post author By Liberty Hardy
Post date May 21, 2018

Happy Tuesday, book fans! Once again, there are so many great books making their way out into the world today. I have a few awesome books for you below and you can hear about several more great titles on this week’s episode of the All the Books! We celebrated our third anniversary by having all the hosts (ALL THE HOSTS!) on this episode. We answered listener questions and talked about a few amazing books we loved, including Anger is a Gift, MEM, and more.

Sponsored by Hush, My Inner Sleuth by M.E. Meegs

This serpentine saga opens in the year 1947 at a New England women’s college, where the ever-playful Betty escapes a meddlesome narrator by slipping her friend Willie a mickey and assuming her identity. Undaunted, the plucky storyteller adopts Willie as her new protagonist and travels with her to L.A.

Soon after their arrival, the pulp-inflected ghost of Skip Ryker—a recently atomized Hollywood detective—hijacks the head of the literarily precocious Willie in hopes of solving his murder. What follows is a comic saga of intrusive narrators, metafictional backstabbing, and one very peculiar psyche.

PS – Don’t forget we’re giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Enter here by June 21st!

From Twinkle, with Love by Sandhya Menon

Menon’s delightfully charming new novel is told by Twinkle, an aspiring filmmaker, through a series of letters to her favorite female directors. She explains how she has the opportunity to make an entry for an upcoming film festival, which means working with her #1 crush – but how she has found herself falling instead for his twin brother. Menon has scripted (get it?) another perfect tale of unexpected adventure and love.

Backlist bump: When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella’s Stepmother by Danielle Teller

Everyone knows the story of Cinderella and her missing shoe, but hold on to your pumpkin, because this is the origin story of her wicked stepmother, Agnes. Born into a poor family and forced into servitude, Agnes endures a life of grueling work and misfortune before she finally makes her way into the home of Cinderella’s father. After the early life of hardships she suffers, it’s no wonder she turned out to be so mean. Perfect for fans of Gregory Maguire!

Backlist bump: The Woodcutter by Kate Danely

cover image: a black teen girl sitting down facing the camera with the cover and photo washed in red Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany Jackson

Claudia doesn’t see her bestie, Monday Charles, on the first day of school, yet only she seems to notice or even care that Monday is missing. As the days turn into weeks, and still no Monday, Claudia must dig deeper into Monday’s disappearance to learn the truth about her missing best friend. A thought-provoking, heart-stomper of a book about race and abuse.

Backlist bump: Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

That’s it for me today – time to get back to reading! If you want to learn more about books new and old (and see lots of pictures of my cats, Millay and Steinbeck), or tell me about books you’re reading, or books you think I should read (I HEART RECOMMENDATIONS!), you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or L itsy under ‘Liberty’!

Stay rad,

Liberty

Unusual Suspects

Sherlock Retellings, and That Time Conan Doyle Defended a Wrongly Convicted Man

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date May 21, 2018

Hi mystery fans! We’ve got a special edition of Unusual Suspects so we can gather around and blow out 159 candles for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday. Over on Book Riot, we’ve dedicated the day to Sherlock, Doyle, and mysteries (*throws confetti) with excellent posts from Sherlock Holmes Escape Rooms to Spiritualism and Fairies, and you’re gonna want to check them all out here.

black and white image of Conan Arthur Doyl, white man with mustache, with colorful balloons photoshoped in the background

sponsored by The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.

The most inventive debut of 2018, this clever, mind-bending murder mystery will leave readers guessing until the very last page.

One of Stylist Magazine’s 20 Must-Read Books of 2018.
One of Harper’s Bazaar’s 10 Must-Read Books of 2018.
One of Marie Claire, Australia’s 10 Books You Absolutely Have to Read in 2018

At a gala party thrown by her parents, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed. Again. She’s been murdered hundreds of times, and each day, Aiden Bishop is too late to save her. Doomed to repeat the same day over and over, Aiden’s only escape is to solve Evelyn Hardcastle’s murder. However nothing and no one are quite what they seem.

I didn’t actually read Doyle’s work until my 30s, when I found my mom’s copy of A Treasury of Sherlock Holmes from 1955. I did what I always do when I randomly come across a book: I stopped what I was doing and read the first page. Before I knew it, I’d read A Study in Scarlet and understood how these two characters are still beloved.

If you’ve never read Doyle’s work, you can download almost all of his novels and short stories in different formats for free here: The Complete Sherlock Holmes Canon

If you’re an audiobook fan, LibriVox (also free) has a bunch of selections here. And my personal favorite is the entire collection narrated by Stephen Fry, who also has a little introduction before each piece: Sherlock Holmes. It’s perfect if you’ve always wanted to reread the works.

My favorite reimagining out of all of the reimaginings that I’ve read goes to Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series. It’s delightful, kickass, brilliant, and equally excellent in print and in audiobook. It starts with A Study in Scarlet Women and I hope the series goes on for-EV-er.

Another series I love that nods at Sherlock Holmes is Joe Ide’s IQ series. It’s a modern PI in East Long Beach who uses his intelligence and deduction skills to take on cases. He also has a somewhat sidekick named Dodson–which sure does seem to rhyme with Watson.

And I’m looking forward to reading the upcoming Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World’s Most Famous Detective Writer by Margalit Fox (June 26, Random House). It tells the true story of when Doyle, already known for his Sherlock writing, used his own deduction skills to work on a case of a wrongly convicted man.

Well, that’s it for me today so now back to our regularly scheduled programing. Happy deducing!

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.