Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Amazon Publishing.
Load up your Kindle with these hot summer reads, starting at only $0.99.
This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Hangman by Jack Heath, new from Hanover Square Press.
Helpful “Wet Book Rescue” Video
If, like me, you run to YouTube videos when you need to figure out how to do/make something, then you’re gonna love this Wet Book Rescue video. The Syracuse University Library’s Department of Preservation and Conservation (SULPreservation) shows you what to do if you’ve dropped your book in water–or somehow gotten it wet–with a quick video. Bonus: you can watch the video on silent or let its calming music soothe you through the process of saving your book.
Backpacks Full Of Books Given To Foster Kids
The Books For Youth Program gave backpacks full of books to foster children at an Indianapolis Public Library after a story time with Blue, the Colts’ mascot. Click through to see some happy children with books and we can all have wet faces together. No hogging the tissues, please.
In “What Is Happening?” News
I guess this new ridiculous trend of a few authors trying to trademark words in book titles is now illogically moving on to trying to trademark book cover images. Specifically book covers with “one or more human or partially human figures underneath, at least one of the figures holding a weapon; and an author’s name underneath the figures; wherein the title/series and author’s name are depicted in the same or similar coloring.” Maybe more time writing and less time filing at the US Patent and Trademark Office would be more productive to a literary career.
Have you entered our giveaway for $500 of the year’s best YA fiction and nonfiction so far?!
This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente, published by Quirk Books.
Shakespeare Would’ve Loved Parks & Rec
On Twitter, Alison Sloan summed up every Shakespeare play using one Parks and Recreation quote each. This thread is the definition of perfection. My favorite might be the one for As You Like It because that play, April Ludgate, and that quote are bae.
Toy Store Dedicates Entire Floor To Harry Potter
Hamleys, the oldest and largest toy shop in the world, said what the heck and turned an entire floor into Potterhead paradise. That’s 3,000 square feet of Diagon Alley now situated in our humble Muggle world. Check out the goodies, but maybe leave the emergency credit card at home–being a wizard is, apparently, not cheap.
Watch The First Trailer For GRRM’s Nightflyers
It’s San Diego Comic Con time, which means sneak peeks and exciting announcements from the world of comics, SFF, and more. During SDCC, the Syfy Channel hosted a panel with the cast and crew of the upcoming adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s psychological space thriller, Nightflyers. And we got the first official trailer! Watch it here.
And don’t forget–we’re giving away $500 of this year’s best YA books (so far)! Click here to enter.
Dear Kid Lit friends,
I have been thinking a lot about freedom lately. I came across this poem in the wonderful anthology, Poems to Learn by Heart, edited by Caroline Kennedy, illustrated by Jon J Muth.
This poem had me thinking about freedom and our shared responsibility for this earth. Which led me to think about books about freedom. Have you read any of these?
Sponsored by Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic.
Graphic novel star Kazu Kibuishi creates a world of terrible, man-eating demons, a mechanical rabbit, a talking fox, a giant robot—and two ordinary children on a mission.
After the tragic death of their father, Emily and Navin move with their mother to the home of her deceased great-grandfather, but the strange house proves to be dangerous. Before long, a sinister creature lures the kids’ mom through a door in the basement. Em and Navin, desperate not to lose her, follow her into an underground world inhabited by demons, robots, and talking animals.
Eventually, they enlist the help of a small mechanical rabbit named Miskit. Together with Miskit, they face the most terrifying monster of all, and Em finally has the chance to save someone she loves.
Picture Books
Freedom in Congo Square by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie is a book my kids and I take off our bookshelves and read frequently. R. Gregory Christie’s stunning artwork combined with Carole Boston Weatherford’s sparse and lyrical language tell the story of Louisiana during slavery. In his speech accepting the Coretta Scott King illustrator honor award for this book, Mr. Christie commented on the use of black on the cover, depicting the cruelty and darkness of slavery.
Freedom Over Me, Ashley Bryan’s most recent illustrated book, is based on real slave-related documents related to the Fairchilds’ Appraisement in 1828. In that document, the Fairchilds estate was auctioned off, including cows, hogs, cotton, and eleven slaves. In his book, he not only gives voice to each slave but vocalizes their dreams for a better life, for marriage, for land, and for freedom. With stunning illustrations, Mr. Bryan brings a humanity to each person, breathing life into a long ago document and letting us into their imagined lives.
Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine and illustrated by Kadir Nelson is the story of Henry Brown, a slave who as a boy was taken from his family and sold to work in a warehouse. When Henry grows older and gets married and has children of his own, his family is sold off. After this event, Henry plots his way to freedom using an improbable method: shipping himself up north.
Blue Sky, White Stars by Sarvinder Naberhaus and Kadir Nelson is one of my favorite picture books. It is about the celebration of the American flag and all it stands for. The text is spare and has multiple meanings, and the gorgeous paintings by Kadir Nelson makes it truly a work of art and a must-have in your personal library.
Middle Grade Books
This is Our Constitution: Discover America with a Gold Star Father is written by Khizr Khan, a lawyer who grew up in Pakistan with few of the fundamental rights that are enshrined in the Constitution. He immigrated to America and became a citizen, raising his family to appreciate and honor all our nation has to offer. Khizr Khan is deeply passionate about the Constitution: the guarantees and protections it provides for each and every person and the beacon of light it shines throughout the world.
Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed is set in Pakistan and is about Amal, who one day wishes to become a teacher one day. Her dreams are temporarily dashed when–as the eldest daughter–she must stay home from school to take care of her siblings. Amal is upset, but she doesn’t lose hope and finds ways to continue learning. Then the unimaginable happens–after an accidental run-in with the son of her village’s corrupt landlord, Amal must work as his family’s servant to pay off her own family’s debt.
Escape from Aleppo by N.H. Senzai begins on December 17, 2010: Nadia’s twelfth birthday and the beginning of the Arab Spring. Soon anti-government protests erupt across the Middle East and, one by one, countries are thrown into turmoil. As civil war flares in Syria and bombs fall across Nadia’s home city of Aleppo, her family decides to flee to safety. Inspired by current events, this novel sheds light on the complicated situation in Syria that has led to an international refugee crisis, and tells the story of one girl’s journey to safety.
I found Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry a very gripping book that I read in one sitting and then passed on to my two daughters to read. I found the writing very vivid and felt like I learned a lot about her as a person and her life. I cannot believe all of the journeys she made to help others travel to free states – what a strong, courageous person!
Path to the Stars (HMH, 9/4) is the autobiography of Sylvia Acevedo, former rocket scientist and who now serves as the CEO of the Girl Scouts of America. She grew up in poverty, but found opportunities to cultivate her leadership skills in the Girl Scouts, becoming the first Latinx to graduate with a master’s in engineering from Stanford University and going on to become a rocket scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This is a fascinating and inspiring biography about an extraordinary woman.
Deep Underwater by Irene Luxbacher (Groundwood Books, 8/7) is a gorgeous book about a girl exploring the depths of the ocean. The words and illustrations are beautiful.
Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts, is a new chapter book series based on the NYT bestselling book Rosie Revere. I think young readers will love this book!
I’d love to know what you are reading this week! Find me on Twitter at @KarinaYanGlaser, on Instagram at @KarinaIsReadingAndWriting, or email me at karina@bookriot.com.
Until next week!
Karina
I recently made a poetry vending machine with my daughters with recycled materials. We used instructions from Kazoo Magazine. Watch their instructional video here!
*If this e-mail was forwarded to you, follow this link to subscribe to “The Kids Are All Right” newsletter and other fabulous Book Riot newsletters for your own customized e-mail delivery. Thank you!*
We have 10 copies of Like Never and Always by Ann Aguirre to give away to 10 Riot readers!
One summer night, Liv, Morgan, Clay, and Nathan are driving home from a party. Best friends dating brothers? It doesn’t get better than that. But the joyride ends in disaster.
Liv wakes in the hospital. At first she’s confused when they call her Morgan, but she assumes it’s a case of mistaken identity. Yet when the bandages come off, it’s not her face in the mirror. It’s Morgan’s.
Forced to confront the disturbing truths that Morgan kept hidden in life, Liv must navigate a world of long-buried murder, a dangerous love affair—and a romance that feels like a betrayal.
Go here to enter for a chance to win or just click the cover image below:
Hey YA Readers: Let’s talk Frankenstein.
“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Nyxia and Nyxia Unleashed by Scott Reintgen from Penguin Random House Books.
Emmett 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. Now each recruit must earn the right to travel down to the planet of Eden—a planet that Babel has kept hidden—where they will mine a substance called Nyxia that has quietly become the most valuable material in the universe. 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.
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. A perennial classic of high school classrooms, the anniversary has meant that the book — and Shelley herself — have become topics of interest in the YA world.
Here’s a look at some of the books that have hit shelves for YA readers or will hit shelves for YA readers before the year is out that all play homage to Mary and/or her monster.
By virtue of the narrowly focused topic, it should be noted that this list is very white. There is Frankenstein in Baghdad by Iraqi writer Ahmed Saadawi, which came out in January this year for adult readers that would likely be perfect for YA readers who want a more inclusive take on the tale.
Descriptions are from Amazon.
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White
Elizabeth Lavenza hasn’t had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her “caregiver,” and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets . . . until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything–except a friend.
Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable–and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.
But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth’s survival depends on managing Victor’s dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost . . . as the world she knows is consumed by darkness.
Frankenstein by Junji Ito
Junji Ito meets Mary Shelley! The master of horror manga bends all his skill into bringing the anguished and solitary monster and the fouler beast who created him with the brilliantly detailed chiaroscuro he is known for.
Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lita Judge
Pairing free verse with over three hundred pages of black-and-white watercolor illustrations, Mary’s Monster is a unique and stunning biography of Mary Shelley, the pregnant teenage runaway who became one of the greatest authors of all time.
Legend is correct that Mary Shelley began penning Frankenstein in answer to a dare to write a ghost story. What most people don’t know, however, is that the seeds of her novel had been planted long before that night. By age nineteen, she had been disowned by her family, was living in scandal with a married man, and had lost her baby daughter just days after her birth. Mary poured her grief, pain, and passion into the powerful book still revered two hundred years later, and in Mary’s Monster, author/illustrator Lita Judge has poured her own passion into a gorgeous book that pays tribute to the life of this incredible author.
The Strange True Tale of Frankenstein’s Creator: Mary Shelley by Catherine Reef
The story of Frankenstein’s creator is a strange, romantic, and tragic one, as deeply compelling as the novel itself. Mary ran away to Lake Geneva with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley when she was just sixteen. It was there, during a cold and wet summer, that she first imagined her story about a mad scientist who brought a corpse back to life. Success soon followed for Mary, but also great tragedy and misfortune.
Catherine Reef brings this passionate woman, brilliant writer, and forgotten feminist into crisp focus, detailing a life that was remarkable both before and after the publication of her iconic masterpiece. Includes index.
And if you’d like more takes on the Frankenstein tale, some other YA titles you’ll want to know about include:
Boy Robot by Simon Curtis
Cadaver and Queen by Alisa Kwitney
A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel (series)
Dr. Frankenstein’s Daughters by Suzanne Weyn
Henry Franks by Peter Adam Saloman
Hideous Love: The Story of the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein by Stephanie Hemphill
Man Made Boy by Jon Skovron
Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin
Steampunk: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by Zdenko Basic
Teen Frankenstein: High School Horror by Chandler Baker
This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee
____________________
Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again on Thursday. In the mean time, make sure you nominate your favorite 2018 YA books so far and the ones you wish had seen more attention. I’ll round those up for next Monday’s newsletter.
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.
Emmett 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
It’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
I 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
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.
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
Karin 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 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!
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
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.
