Categories
Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Apr 13

Happy Friday, sirens and Cylons! Today I’ve got two novellas for you, Waiting on a Bright Moon and A Dead Djinn in Cairo, plus queer classics, disability in science fiction, a new Tolkien book, and more.


This newsletter is sponsored by Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy.


Need some queer classics? I’m looking forward to this post series on QUILTBAG+ Speculative Fiction, and the first book to be discussed — Jewelle Gomez’s Gilda Stories — has long been on my radar. Time to bump it up!

Remember Beren and Lúthien? We’re getting another “new” Tolkien book in August, this one called The Fall of Gondolin. As far as I can tell from the details released it will be a similar format — various drafts of an unfinished work, annotated/edited by Christopher Tolkien. Excited? Meh? I can’t quite decide yet.

The Kitchies Winners have been announced! You can find the full winner list here. Shout out to Book Riot contributor Alex Acks, who won for ze’s debut novel Hunger Makes the Wolf!

I am here for all your Octavia Butler pieces, and this one is great because it delves into her life and work in ways that are interesting both for longtime fans and those new to her work. Bonus for Janelle Monae mentions!

Speaking of contributor Alex AND of Octavia Butler! Here’s the latest pairings of SF/F books and beers, and it has some of my favorites of each included.

Alas, poor Yorick: An adaptation of Y: The Last Man has been in the works for. ev. er, but it looks like it’s finally moving forward; FX has ordered a pilot episode!

Speaking of adaptations! If you’re in the UK, the mini-series of China Mieville’s City and the City should already be on the air. And if you are in the UK and have watched it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The SF/F version of Dear Abby: Daniel Mallory Ortberg did an advice column for Tor.com and it is GOLD.

Let’s talk about disability in SF/F, specifically in the Vorkosigan Saga. There’s a lot of great food for thought here, and I’m specifically thankful for the way Grace discusses the range of representation within one series.

Today in reviews, we’ve got a space story with magic and a supernatural story with clockwork. Both happen to be from Tor.com, who are killing it in the short fiction game.

Waiting on a Bright Moon by JY Yang

Read it online.

Waiting on a Bright Moon by JY YangYou might recall me gushing about Yang’s Tensorate novellas and I’ve been on a short story/novella kick lately, so it was with great pleasure I stumbled across “Waiting on a Bright Moon.”

Set on an outlying colony of a far-flung interstellar empire, the story follows Xin, a human ansible. Using her magical talents and syncing via music, Xin opens transport portals with the rest of her cluster, each located on a different world. When a dead body comes through, it ruins her day; when it appears that the body is connected to an underground rebellion, it could ruin her life. As Xin contemplates her past and present, she’s also becoming closer to an intimidating starmage named Suqing.

Yang is exploring colonization, queerness, and magic, and doing it in 40-odd digital pages, and this is one of those stories that feels much bigger on the inside. I would happily read a series of books set in this world, but I also found it satisfying as a stand-alone. It’s a beautiful, tiny gem of a story, and I continue to follow Yang’s career with interest.

A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djeli Clark

Read it online.

A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djeli ClarkIn the course of doing research for a djinn/jinn/genie stories round up (that I will link to as soon as it’s up online), I stumbled across this novella and fell in love. An alt-history story set in Cairo in 1912, it’s both a supernatural story, a romance, and a police procedural.

Special Investigator Fatma gets called in on an odd case: a djinn has committed suicide under very strange circumstances. Unfamiliar glyphs are carved on the site, and there’s no blood at all. The only witness is a prostitute who doesn’t want to talk to law enforcement. As Fatma starts to peel back the layers surrounding the incident, she finds herself working with an enigmatic woman named Siti who seems as likely to be a foe as a friend. On top of it all, she’s navigating gender politics alongside local political alliances.

Creatures abound, and the humans aren’t all that trustworthy either. Then there’s the clockwork technology laced through-out, which mixes and melds with the magic in interesting new ways. Clark’s vision of a Cairo teeming with magic and mayhem is compelling, and this is one of those stories that leaves me craving a sequel — I definitely need more of Fatma’s adventures.

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.

May the odds be ever in your favor,
Jenn

Categories
Giveaways

Win a new Kindle Fire, in Celebration of National Library Week!

 

This week is the American Library Association’s National Library Week, and we’re partying hard in celebration. As part of our Muppet-arming for libraries this week, we’re giving away a 16GB Kindle Fire HD 8! Most public libraries offer digital ebook and audiobook downloads via an app of their choice (we’re partial to Libby), and most of them allow you to send the loaned item to your Kindle. So enter, win the Kindle, check out library books with it! Don’t even have to leave your house.

Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click the image below. Good luck!

Categories
Riot Rundown TestRiotRundown

041218_BookihsFirst_Riot_Rundown

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by BookishFirst.

Be You. Be Bookish. Be BookishFirst.
Be the first to discover new books before they are published! Read excerpts, share your thoughts, earn points, and win FREE books. Get 500 points just for joining! Sign up at BookishFirst.com.
Categories
Today In Books

Scholastic Unveils New HARRY POTTER Covers: Today in Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by School for Psychics by K.C. Archer.


Scholastic Unveils 20th Anniversary Harry Potter Covers

Scholastic has unveiled new covers for the seven titles in the Harry Potter series. For now, it seems the covers are only available to the U.S. market. You can find them on June 26, ahead of the September 1 publication anniversary.

King of Sweden Steps In On Nobel Prize in Literature Deadlock

Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf has announced a plan to make it easier for the members of the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize in Literature, to resign. Three of the Academy’s members recently vacated their seats in protest against the decision not to expel the poet Katarina Frostenson. Frostenson’s husband has been accused of sexual harassment, among other things. As the successor of the Academy’s founder, the king has claimed authority over its statutes.

Free Digital Archive Of Vintage Children’s Books

As it turns out, the University of Florida Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature has a digital archive of 6,000 children’s books from the 19th and early 20th century. The collection is free to read online. Titles include Aesop’s Fables, The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, and the Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

 

And don’t forget to enter to win 15 of the year’s best mysteries so far!

Categories
Audiobooks

The Radical King: MLK on Audio

Hello again, audiophiles!

an american marriageWhat are you listening to this week? I just started listening to An American Marriage which is very different than I expected (and yet I don’t really know what I expected?) and very good.

The book alternates between two POVs (husband and wife) and the two narrators of the audiobook (Sean Crisden, Eisa Davis) are excellent.


Sponsored by The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy

Performed by Cristin Milioti

They call themselves the May Mothers. Twice a week, with strollers in tow, they get together in Prospect Park, seeking refuge from the isolation of new motherhood; sharing the fears, joys, and anxieties of their new child-centered lives.

Unfolding over the course of thirteen fraught days and culminating in an exquisite and unexpected twist, The Perfect Mother is the perfect audiobook for our times—a nuanced and addictive story that exposes the truth of modern mothers’ lives as it explores the power of an ideal that is based on a lie.

Giveaway downloads courtesy of Libro.fm


I love hearing what y’all have in your ears, and Elizabeth from North Carolina wrote to say that she’s on the hold list at her library for some of Dion Graham’s audiobooks (heart eyes emoji). In the meantime, she says, “I just finished listening to Uncommon Type. Hanks is a surprisingly good writer and a wonderful narrator. He managed to get typewriters into almost every story. It’s worth a listen.”

Elizabeth has now moved on to A Wrinkle in Time and is pleased to report that L’Engle recorded her own introduction for it. (I also love it when authors make some kind of appearance on the audiobook.)

Get in touch anytime at katie@riotnewmedia.com or on twitter where I’m msmacb.

Do you love mysteries? A good whodunit? Of course you do! And now you can enter to win 15 best mysteries of the year (so far, anyway). Enter here!

Now, let’s dig into some audiobooks news:

One thing I’m particularly excited about is Audible’s release of The Radical King: a collection of 23 of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s essays and speeches read by Gabourey Sidibe, Mike Colter, Michael K. Williams, Wanda Sykes, and Danny Glover. Released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his assassination, The Radical King is, “the first time the MLK Estate has ever allowed a dramatic interpretation of King’s words — even Ava DuVernay’s Selma had to improvise his speeches — and features words of King’s that were never recorded for posterity.”

Entertainment Weekly interviewed Gabourey Sidibe, Michael K. Williams, and L Mike Colter about the experience. The whole interview is a great read, but I particularly appreciate this part from Gabby Sidibe:

“I was just thinking about the first time I learned about Martin Luther King. I was in kindergarten and it was Black History Month when we went to the auditorium to hear some speeches by him and learn about him. At the age of 5 years old, I just accepted this was a great man. I certainly had benefited from all of the work that he’d done, and in a lot of ways, everyone has. But it’s almost like he’s omnipotent. He’s great, and we know he’s great, but we don’t really need to dive any deeper than just that. It wasn’t until I actually read the chapter that I was given that I actually really read his words — that weren’t just quotes from, like, the “I Have a Dream” speech,” which we’ve all heard at some point. To read something that was different than that, while still showing his value and his greatness and his mind and his genius and really his heart, it made me want to read more about him.”

Read the entire interview here: Gabourey Sidibe, Mike Colter, Michael K. Williams on bringing Martin Luther King Jr.’s words to life

Someone returned an audiobook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to a Kansas library 42 years overdue. That’s not what I found most interesting about the story, though. (I saw some pretty overdue books come back in my public library days). The most interesting part is the format of the audiobook: IT WAS ON VINYL. That’s right, 6 vinyl records made by the library of congress for the blind. It’s possible everyone reading this is thinking “yes, and? Have we gotten to the interesting part yet?” But I just think it’s so cool. Read the full article here.

A horse named Audible won the Florida Derby and is now going on to compete in the Kentucky Derby. With Audible’s Win In The Florida Derby, Audible.com Has A Kentucky Derby Horse.

April is National Poetry Month, which–-if you know or follow any poets on social media, you are undoubtedly aware of. In honor of said month, “award-winning scholar and author, Dhrubajyoti (Dru) Bhattacharya, announces the forthcoming release of a mixed-media multicultural epic poem, “Light of the North Star”. The work straddles the Eastern and Western canons by telling a tale of two empires from ancient Greece and India after the Trojan War and a flood that submerged the city of Dwaraka.”

The narrators of the audiobook may be familiar to sci-fi enthusiasts: It’s narrated by Dominic Keating (known for his role as Lieutenant Malcom Reed on “Star Trek”) and Jean Gilpin (who has worked on adventure films, including “X-Men: Days of Future Past”, “The Chronicles of Riddick”, and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”). Read more: Award-Winning Scholar Chases Homer With New Epic.

I’ve mentioned MacMillian’s new podcast But That’s Another Storyin this newsletter before but haven’t (yet!) gotten around to listening to it. I need to though, because they really do have a killer lineup of guests, including Pachinko author and National Book Award finalist Min Jin Lee, National Public Radio host Sam Sanders, writer and illustrator Mari Andrew, and Josh Gondelman, comedian and writer on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

I’m mentioning the podcast again because they’re doing something great that I wish more podcasts would do: posting the transcripts of the podcast. The pod has partnered with LitHub to feature the transcripts. One of the things I love most about audiobooks is the level of accessibility the provide for folks who have vision impairments or other challenges with written material. For people on the other end, who have auditory impairments, podcasts are often often challenging. So I think it’s extremely awesome that But That’s Another Story is doing this.

Host of the podcast, Will Schwalbe, says that accessibility was a motivating factor in the transcript decision. He says, “Sharing written transcripts from these conversations is important as it will provide greater access—particularly for those who are hearing impaired.”

Quick aside on the wonders of books and tech: both my grandmothers are in their 90s and love reading. One grandmother listens to audiobooks exclusively because print is tough on her eyes. The other only reads on her eReader because she can make the type as big as she wants. Neither woman is much interested in technology outside of their reading habits, but both are happily reading thanks to the wonders of technology. It is so awesome.

That’s it for me!

Until next week,

~Katie

Categories
Kissing Books

Princesses, Priests, and Bakers All Deserve HEAs

News

We have had some interesting developments since last week.

First, NPR was doing so well, and then they did this. Courtney Milan was regretful about having expanded her recommendations to non-black POC, but really, how could she have known the reporter would pick the one person who wasn’t black. Alisha was unaware the reporter would be framing it around anything besides the general diversity problem, or she would have stepped aside. NPR eventually apologized for their misstep, but leaving out black voices when you’re talking specifically to issues relating to black authors was a big editorial mistake.


Sponsored by the New York Times bestselling author of The Secret of Flirting, Sabrina Jeffries.

The moment spymaster Baron Fulkham meets the stunning Princess Aurore of Chanay, he’s positive her royal persona is a ruse and that she’s actually Monique Servais, the mysterious actress he met three years before in Dieppe. But as he pursues his suspicions, he uncovers a plot of attempted assassination and betrayal that could very well destroy his career, expose his own secrets…and ruin the woman he’s rapidly coming to love.


And then All About Romance posted a 100-book-long list of top romances of all time…that had no books by black authors on it. The discourse around their revision of the list and the poll that produced it also led to a good conversation around the term POC and when to use it.

In happyland, Alyssa Cole wrote this magical essay for Bustle about princess stories. (Also, if you missed her list of princess books to check out, here tis!)

Also, I saw the hashtag #RomanceWakandia on twitter and I need every black romance from the US and other nations ever to somehow to be linked to it. Don’t ask me how, but it’s gonna happen. 

Deals

Savannah J. Frierson’s Go With Your Heart is 99 cents.

The Viking Queen’s Men by Holley Trent is FREE right now, and the rest of the series is all 3.99 or less!

Jamie Wesley’s This is True Love is 99 cents.

Hometown Hero: Boys of Brockview by Sasha Devlin is also 99 cents.

Over on Book Riot

It’s National Library Week! Not only are we giving away a Kindle Fire, but there’s plenty of library related content. And check out this list of librarian romances from last year! (ALSO. I finally found one: a librarian by an AOC. The second book in the Sea Port series, the first of which I peddle below, features a librarian. What are your favorites?)

In a hurry? How about some erotic short stories?

Lacey had a guy friend visit The Ripped Bodice in her stead (because she lives very far away). He didn’t explode upon entry. 

Erotic audiobooks, you say?

Trisha and I talk about some stuff on When in Romance.

And don’t forget to enter to win 15 of the year’s best mysteries so far!

Recs

This has been quite the week of reading for me. The two books I finished are both four-alarm-fire hot and the one I started is probably not going to be any tamer.

Priest
Sierra Simone

This book is one of those that was once destined to hang out on my Want to Read shelf forever, until it repeatedly came up on the Insiders forum. When it was finally a reduced price, I decided to get it, and then we decided to read it for one of our chats. So it was time to try it out.

And y’all. This book. It’s not for everyone. I’ll just…tell you what she says in the author note:

There is sex, more sex, and definitely some blasphemy.

You’ve been warned.

Yeah. So if lots of sex and some seriously uncomfortable locations for sex (it’s right there in the blurb: “I broke my vow of celibacy on the altar of my own church.”) are your thing, give this one a try. Here, we have Tyler Bell, Catholic priest in a small Missouri town, and Poppy, a potential convert who has never been to confession. The two have immediate chemistry, leading to a few issues for Tyler. He loves his work, but he is also unwilling to let go of the vowbreaking sex (and potential love?) he has with Poppy. My biggest problem is actually that Poppy is a less developed character than Tyler, in part because he’s the narrator of the story. But if you’re interested in a bizarre intersection of theology and sex, this book is definitely for you.

CW: discussion of suicide, childhood and sexual abuse. And, you know, sex in sacred places.

From Scratch
Katrina Jackson

I came across this book on Twitter on Saturday afternoon and found myself immediately downloading it. I didn’t get to it then and there, but when I found the time, I was ready. The first few pages are a bit jarring, but the author picks up her stride pretty quickly. In this novella, Mary moves to the tiny town of Sea Port to start afresh after an unsatisfying life as a college professor. In her endeavor to win the town’s support for her bakery, she runs into Santos and Knox, old Marine buddies and BFFs who have since moved to Sea Port to become the fire chief and a member of the small police force. The three have an immediate chemistry, and Mary—surprising herself—isn’t shy about her desire to become involved with both of them.

Short, hot, and approaches morality from a very different perspective than Priest.

CW: discussion of child abuse, drug abuse, and homophobic violence.

(Also, From Scratch is one of those books that doesn’t currently have a romance ranking but has an erotica one. Figure your shit out, Amazon.)

I just started Unmasked by the Marquess, which comes out next Tuesday. A genderfluid heroine trying to get her childhood friend married and a stodgy Marquess butt heads in Cat Sebastian’s first M/F romance. And of course, since it’s Cat, she went ahead and made it hella queer. I can’t wait to get back to it! (Which I’m gonna go do now, byeee.)

New and Upcoming Releases

The Art of Love by Suzette D. Harrison

Pretending He’s Mine by Mia Sosa

One Unforgettable Kiss by AC Arthur

Beauty and the Biker by Jamila Jasper

My Lady’s Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel  by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris

As usual, catch me on Twitter @jessisreading or Instagram @jess_is_reading, or send me an email at jessica@riotnewmedia.com if you’ve got feedback or just want to say hi!

Categories
Giveaways

Win a Copy of EBB & FLOW by Heather Smith!

 

We have 10 copies of Ebb & Flow by Heather Smith to give away to 10 Riot readers!

Here’s what it’s all about:

Ebb & Flow is the captivating story of eleven-year-old Jett’s summer back home on the coast after “a rotten bad year” in a new town. When his father goes to jail, Jett and his mother move away, and Jett quickly learns that fresh starts aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. He returns to spend the summer with his unconventional Grandma Jo, bringing along a secret about the betrayal of a friend. Will a summer spent with Grandma Jo help Jett forgive himself? This emotionally charged story, told in free verse, will mesmerize readers.

Go here to enter for your chance to win, or just click the cover image below:

Categories
Today In Books

A “New” Tolkien Book Will Be Published: Today in Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Avery / TarcherPerigee, publisher of 50 WAYS TO GET A JOB by Dev Aujla.


A “New” Tolkien Book Will Be Published

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Fall of Gondolin while convalescing in the hospital after the Battle of the Somme. His son, Christopher, edited the work, which Tolkien described as “the first real story of Middle-earth.” The story features a reluctant hero, a dark lord, and a big battle narrative. Sounds about right.

The 2018 BTBA Longlist

The Best Translated Book Awards announced the 2018 longlists for fiction and poetry. The longlists feature authors from twenty-five different countries, writing in eighteen languages, and published by twenty-six different presses. They include Remains of Life by Wu Wu He, translated by Michael Berry; The Iliac Crest by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Sarah Booker; and, Things That Happen by Bhaskar Chakrabarti, translated by Arunava Sinha.

Cassandra Clare’s New Ebook De-Listed By Amazon

Son of the Dawn, an e-book by Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan, was de-listed by Amazon after the company misidentified it as a fraudulent listing. The book was launched as part of Clare’s small-publishing initiative. According to Clare, the explanation she received from Amazon was that they didn’t believe she would self-publish, and assumed the listing was an attempt to impersonate her. The book was taken down on April 6, and relisted the following day.

And don’t forget to enter to win 15 of the year’s best mysteries so far!

Categories
Unusual Suspects

When You Deliver the Dumplings That Kill a Man…

Hello mystery fans! Book Riot is giving away 15 of this year’s mystery/thriller releases to one super lucky person, so pet a Luckdragon and enter here.


Sponsored by MURDER AT HALF MOON GATE by Andrea Penrose published by Kensington Publishing Corp.

A wealthy lord who happens to be a brilliant scientist…an enigmatic young widow who secretly pens satirical cartoons…a violent killing disguised as a robbery…Nothing is as it seems in Regency London, especially when the Earl of Wrexford and Charlotte Sloane join forces to solve a shocking murder.


For Cozy Mystery Fans

cover image: chinese takeout container with noodels spillling out and a sauce packet with a skull and bones on itDeath by Dumpling (A Noodle Shop Mystery #1) by Vivien Chien: Lana Lee is suddenly back home–working at her parents’ Chinese restaurant–after a work meltdown and huge breakup. Life does not always take the path you want it to, which is an understatement when you find yourself delivering the dumplings that kill a man. And by “man,” I mean the owner of the strip mall Lee’s parent’s restaurant is in. This naturally puts her and the chef on the detective’s radar. What’s a woman to do but throw herself into not-well-thought-out scenarios, dangerous positions, and hardcore snooping to find out what exactly really happened. The ending certainly left me wanting to continue reading a series starring Lee.

For fans of Big Little Lies (TW: domestic violence/ suicide discussion)

cover image: patio chairs around a bonfire with purple blue sky and the edges of the cover appear to be burnedNot That I Could Tell by Jessica Strawser: Take a group of friendly neighbors in a small Ohio town, disappear one, and watch the secrets rise to the surface. After a ladies’ night around a fire pit, where neighbors drank too much and may have divulged too much about themselves, one goes missing. Kristin, mother of twins, has disappeared along with her children, and when questions quickly turn towards her husband, those who knew Kristin realize maybe they didn’t know everything. You have her best friend, also a mother, and a new-to-town single woman who’s really just trying to run away from her life. While the women aren’t actively trying to solve the disappearance, the novel follows the effect it has on them–especially when one starts to date Kristin’s husband–and does solve the mystery of what happened to her, giving me the Big Little Lies vibes. Also BLL vibes: the relationship between the women and the secrets. (I enjoyed Erin Bennett’s narration on the audiobook.)

Great Historical Fiction (TW: pedophilia)

cover image: young white woman dressed in read coat and skirt on a street with horse drawn carriagesA Death of No Importance by Mariah Fredericks: In 1910 New York, Jane Prescott, raised by a religious uncle with a home for rescued women, is a ladies’ maid for the rich. Prescott’s voice grabbed me immediately and kept me invested throughout, even before the mystery is presented: the fiancé of Prescott’s mistress is murdered. Prescott begins to investigate mostly out of concern for the possibility that she may know two people who may be suspected in the murder: her mistress, and a childhood friend who is now an anarchist. The mystery plays out amongst the upper-class while the city deals with anarchists and awful working conditions for the lower-class. A great read for fans of historical fiction.

Recent Releases:

I Know a Secret (A Rizzoli & Isles #12) by Tess Gerritsen (Paperback) (review) (Little Q&A with Tess Gerritsen)

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (Paperback) (review on All The Books podcast)

Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka (Paperback) (For fans of mystery, lit fic, YA, and multiple pov) (TW: It’s been too long for my brain to remember but I want to say stalking was definitely one.)

cover image: black and white image of 1950s car driving down street with graphics of police line tapeDangerous Ends (Pete Fernandez Mystery #3) by Alex Segura (Paperback) (Detective series set in Miami–I especially liked the “past” chapters that were historical fiction relating to the Cuban Revolution.)

Macbeth by Jo Nesbø (Currently listening to audiobook: A Shakespeare retelling set in a Scottish town in the 1970s.)

The Sixth Day (A Brit in the FBI #5) by Catherine Coulter, J.T. Ellison (on my TBR)

You All Grow Up and Leave Me: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession by Piper Weiss (currently reading: fantastic coming-of-age memoir + true crime) (TW: suicide/ child predator)

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
In The Club

In The Club Apr 11

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 Flatiron Books.

A family in crisis, a town torn apart, and the boy who holds the secret has been cocooned in a coma for ten years.

A moving meditation on the transformative power of grief and love, a slyly affectionate look at the idiosyncrasies of family, and an emotionally-charged page-turner, Stefan Merrill Block’s Oliver Loving is an extraordinarily original novel that ventures into the unknowable and returns with the most fundamental truths.


Giveaway alert! You could win 15 of the year’s most exciting mysteries so far, and what a list it is. Enter right here; it’s open through May 9, so your book group has plenty of time for everyone to enter!

Where’s my confetti canon? There’s a new Tana French standalone novel coming in October!
Book group bonus: Read all of French’s other books before October. (I’m only half-kidding; there are six Dublin Murder Squad books, so you could theoretically do it!)

What’s the BuzzFeed book club reading? PageTurners put together this list of books about the immigrant experience.
Book group bonus: Discuss whether or not you’d ever want to (or currently do) participate in an online book club! If yes, what would the ideal set-up be? If not, why not?
Additional bonus: Generate your own list of favorite immigrant experience books inside your group, then compare and contrast!

Need some inspiration? Here’s a list of books about overcoming obstacles.
Book group bonus: Have everyone booktalk the most heartening, uplifting, or inspiring book they own at the next meeting. I guarantee warm fuzzies.

Get them on your radar: The Guardian has 50 newer writers worth checking out. Big cosigns on Ocean Vuong, Joe Ide, Jane Harper, and Maggie Nelson from the Book Riot crew.
Book group bonus: How often does your group read newer/debut authors, and how often established ones? Any particular reasons why or why not? It’s worth a discussion!

Need more short story options? Liberty has you covered with 100 must-read collections.
Book group bonus: This may seem silly/minimalist, but for book groups that are very strapped for time, you can even just pick one short story in a collection to read and discuss.

Needs more art: I love this list of books about art that aren’t “art books”.
Book group bonus: Pair with a trip to your nearest museum! And if you can’t get to a museum, pick a keyword and SFMOMA will text you images of related works.

Murder they wrote: Need a fast-paced page-turner for your next discussion? Here are eight murder mysteries that will keep you reading and keep you talking.
Book group bonus: I have always wanted to play the Clue board-game with a group of die-hard mystery fans. This is your chance!

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