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Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Flatiron Books
Following two sisters in their pursuit of passion and independence, this is a genre-bending novel that is part coming-of-age, part historical fiction, with elements of mystery and paranormal. When one of the sisters goes missing, the other must put aside her books to find her–and start living.
This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Flatiron Books, publisher of Oliver Loving by Stefan Merrill Block.
The 2018 Hugo Awards Finalists
From Best Novel to Best Fan Artist, the finalists in each category of the Hugo Awards were announced over the weekend. Those selected for the science fiction and fantasy prize include Ann Leckie for Provenance (Best Novel), N.K. Jemisin for The Stone Sky (Best Novel), Martha Wells for All Systems Red (Best Novella), and Nnedi Okorafor for Binti: Home (Best Novella). If Jemisin, who became the first black person to win the Hugo for Best Novel, wins this year, it will be her third in a row. The winners will be announced at Worldcon in August 2018.
Describe Yourself Like A Male Author Would
In a Twitter thread that went viral, Gwen C. Katz, author of Young Adult novel Among the Red Stars, responded to a male author’s claim that he can write authentic female protagonists. The male author proclaimed his skills as an argument against the need for the #OwnVoices movement. Katz published excerpts from the author’s work illustrating his “expertise” in representing women on the page. The thread turned into a call for women to write themselves as a male author would when podcaster Whit Reynolds proposed the Twitter game. The responses are pure gold.
A Shakespearean Kerfuffle
A Shakespearean scholar is at odds with his peers, claiming his reputation was damaged by people associated with the New Oxford Shakespeare. Professor Sir Brian Vickers said a string of hostile reviews has become a roadblock to the publication of his complete edition of works by Thomas Kyd, and that he has been labeled “controversial.” Vickers used anti-plagiarism software to conclude that Thomas Kyd was the author of three anonymous plays. Of his claims, an editor of the New Oxford Shakespeare said, “I doubt that his conspiracy theories will convince anyone who isn’t already paranoid.”
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First Tuesday of April Megalist!
Holy cats, how is it April already??? I am happy that April is here, because there are sooooooo many amazing books out this month – starting with today! It’s an embarrassment of riches.
Sponsored by Epic Reads
Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In this new America, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Negro and Native Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn kill the dead. Jane is trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do and although it’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane, it’s not a life she wants.
But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane learns the restless dead are the least of her problems.
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! Amanda and I talked about a few amazing books we loved, including Dread Nation, Meaty, The Oracle Year, and more.
(And like with each megalist, I’m putting a 
next to the books that I have read and loved. There are soooo many more on this list that I can’t wait to read!)
Look Alive Out There: Essays by Sloane Crosley
The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
Lexington and Concord: The Battle Heard Round the World by George C. Daughan
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
Earthcore by Scott Sigler
The Summer of Jordi Perez (And the Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding
Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings
The Beginning of Everything: The Year I Lost My Mind and Found Myself by Andrea J. Buchanan
Voices from the Rust Belt edited by Anne Trubek
Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing by Ursula K. Le Guin and David Naimo
The Overstory by Richard Powers
The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery by Barbara K. Lipska
Waiting for Tomorrow: A Novel by Nathacha Appanah
Paris by the Book: A Novel by Liam Callanan
Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution by Todd S. Purdum
The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic by Benjamin Carter Hett
We Own the Sky by Luke Allnutt
Meaty: Essays by Samantha Irby
Losers Bracket by Chris Crutcher
As She Fades by Abbi Glines
To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice by Michael K. Honey
Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith
In Conclusion, Don’t Worry About It by Lauren Graham
The Oracle Year: A Novel by Charles Soule
The Wolf (Under the Northern Sky) by Leo Carew
All the Beautiful Lies by Peter Swanson
American By Day by Derek B. Miller
Bluff by Michael Kardos
Grey Sister (Book of the Ancestor) by Mark Lawrence
Unwifeable: A Memoir by Mandy Stadtmiller
Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson
The Invisible Valley: A Novel by Su Wei, Austin Woerner (Translator)
Varina by Charles Frazier
Sodom Road Exit by Amber Dawn
Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead–My Life Story by Cecile Richards
Munmun by Jesse Andrews
America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo
Betwixt-and-Between: Essays on the Writing Life by Jenny Boully
The Barrow Will Send What It May by Margaret Killjoy
A Necessary Evil: A Novel by Abir Mukherjee
Wonderblood by Julia Whicker
Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
Miss Julia Raises the Roof by Ann B. Ross
First Person by Richard Flanagan
See What Can Be Done: Essays, Criticism, and Commentary by Lorrie Moore
Gone to Drift by Diana McCaulay
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison
Evening Primrose by Kopano Matlwa
A Long Way from Home by Cathy Glass
The Very Worst Missionary: A Memoir or Whatever by Jamie Wright
Queens of Fennbirn by Kendare Blake
Folded Notes from High School by Matthew Boren
Denmark Vesey’s Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy by Ethan J. Kytle and Blain Roberts
How to Be Safe by Tom McAllister
Hunting El Chapo: The Inside Story of the American Lawman Who Captured the World’s Most-Wanted Drug Lord by Andrew Hogan and Douglas Century
The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
The Perfume Burned His Eyes by Michael Imperioli
Too Close to Breathe: A Novel by Olivia Kiernan
The Very Marrow of Our Bones: A Novel by Christine Higdon
Animals Eat Each Other by Elle Nash
True Stories from an Unreliable Eyewitness: A Feminist Coming of Age by Christine Lahti
Eye Level: Poems by Jenny Xie
Stream System: The Collected Short Fiction of Gerald Murnane by Gerald Murnane
School for Psychics: Book One by K.C. Archer
Border Districts: A Fiction by Gerald Murnane
The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind by Barbara K. Lipska
Killing King: Racial Terrorists, James Earl Ray, and the Plot to Assassinate Martin Luther King by Stuart Wexler and Larry Hancock
The Runaways: A Novel by Sonya Terjanian
Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution by Menno Schilthuizen
The Window by Amelia Brunskill
Chemistry by Weike Wang (paperback)
What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky: Stories by Lesley Nneka Arimah (paperback)
Marlena by Julie Buntin (paperback)
The Adventures of John Carson in Several Quarters of the World: A Novel of Robert Louis Stevenson by Brian Doyle (paperback)
The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy (paperback)
That’s it for me today! 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 Litsy under ‘Liberty’!
Stay rad,
Liberty
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Library Week
Every week should be Library Week, so we’re kicking off the celebration early. Check out (hah!) our Library Collection, featuring some awesome new items, and get a free library card slap bracelet with any purchase of $50 or more.
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Win a Copy of DISARMED by Izzy Ezagui!
We have 10 copies of Disarmed by Izzy Ezagui to give away to 10 Riot readers!
Here’s what it’s all about:
Combining refreshing candor with self-deprecating wit, this inspiring memoir encourages readers to reach their aspirations despite seemingly impossible odds. Disarmed is the moving story of a young American who volunteered to fight in the Israel Defense Forces, lost his arm in combat, and then returned to the battlefield as the world’s only one-armed Special Forces sharpshooter.
Izzy Ezagui wrote Disarmed with fellow millennials in mind—not necessarily those with military ambitions, but everyone facing life’s battles. His message is universal: if a self-described “nerd” like him can accomplish what he did; anyone can become a hero in their own life.
Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click the cover image below:
Today in Books is sponsored today by 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.
Download an App That Opens Kindle Instead of Facebook
We don’t do April Fool’s stunts here at Book Riot, but I did double check to make sure this little hack was legit. And it is. Basically, it tells your phone to open your most recently opened Kindle book when you try to open Facebook. I am not entirely sure how you actually open Facebook if you’ve installed this, so you are on your own there.
Big 5 Publishers Report Mostly Flat Sales in 2017
Three of the five largest publishers in North America reported flat 2017 sales last week. HMH and Simon & Schuster were notable for reporting stronger growth, though they are the two smallest of the Big 5. The big trend was declining ebooks sales largely set off by strong growth in downloadable audio content.
Comics Sales Down for First Time in Six Years
Comics Beat takes a deep dive into the BookScan sales data for comics in 2017. The finding? That while the total number of copies sold was up, the actual dollar revenue was down just over three percent. This is the first time that dollar amount has decreased since 2012, though the growth rate over that time has been so robust that some cooling is probably to be expected.
Today’s Riot Rundown is 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
We have 10 copies of The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton to give away to 10 Riot readers!
Here’s what it’s all about:
Three Queens. One crown. All out war.
The king’s erratic decisions have drained Innis Lear of its magic, leaving behind a trail of barren crops and despondent subjects. Enemy nations circle the isle, sensing its growing vulnerability.
The king’s three daughters know the realm’s only chance is to crown a new sovereign. But their father won’t choose an heir until the longest night of the year, when prophecies align.
Refusing to leave their future in the hands of blind faith, the daughters of Innis Lear prepare for war—but regardless of who wins the crown, the shores of Innis will weep the blood of a house divided.
Go here to enter for your chance to win, or just click the cover image below:
This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Flatiron Books, publisher of Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao.
Anita Shreve Dies At 71
The author of The Pilot’s Wife and The Weight of Water died of cancer on Thursday. Shreve had announced her illness and cancelled public appearances almost a year ago. “She was such a good friend and she was so generous about other people’s writing,” said friend and novelist Elinor Lipman. “It’s really hard for me to imagine a world without Anita.”
Bringing A Book Fest To The Bronx
Remezcla wrote a piece on Saraciea Fennell who’s working to bring a book festival to the bookstore desert that is the Bronx. Fennell, who grew up in the Bronx and attended Title I public schools, wants to bring the festival she didn’t have as a kid to her neighborhood. She’s currently crowdfunding the project, and Elizabeth Acevedo and Daniel José Older have signed on to serve as the keynote speakers. Click here for the feature and here for the Kickstarter.
VIDA Calls For #SaferLIT
Non-profit feminist organization VIDA asked journals and presses to pledge for #saferLIT. The pledge includes not harassing or abusing anyone, nor being a bystander; publishing work free from bigotry, sexual exploitation, and abuse; and making your office, publication, and events as safe as possible. The organization promised to announce more #saferLIT initiatives as the year progresses.