Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Flatiron Books.
The New York Times bestseller from Stephanie Garber follows two sisters as they take part of a legendary competition, not knowing what is real and what is magic. With adventure, romance, and suspense, you’ll have a hard time not getting caught up in this game…!
Build a literary wardrobe and be the BROC (big reader on campus) with 25% off all tees! Already out of school? We won’t tell if you don’t.
In the mood to make a statement? Snag a new 1984-inspired Down With Big Brother tees.
Hey, Novel subscribers! Ready to join us at the Insiders Forum to banter about books with your fellow Insiders and chat with Book Riot staff and contributors? You’ve got first dibs: get your Epic spot now!
We have 10 copies of A PROMISE OF FIRE by Amanda Bouchet to giveaway to 10 Riot Readers!
Here’s what it’s all about:
“Cat” is a powerful clairvoyant known as the Kingmaker. This smart-mouthed soothsayer has no interest in her powers and would much rather fly under the radar. But when an ambitious warlord captures her, she may not have a choice…
Griffin is intent on bringing peace to his newly conquered realm in the magic-deprived south. When he discovers Cat is the Kingmaker, he abducts her. But Cat will do everything in her power to avoid her dangerous destiny. Although up for the fight, Griffin would prefer for Cat to help his people willingly, and he’s ready to do whatever it takes to coax her…even if that means falling in love with her.
Go here to enter, or just click the cover image below. Good luck!
Hellooooooooooo! It’s time for another newsletter full of good stuff to read! That’s the best kind of newsletter, IMO. I have a few fantastic titles to tell you about today, and as always, you can also hear about several more great books on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about a few amazing upcoming fall books we are excited about, such as Little Fires Everywhere, What Happened, and Sing, Unburied, Sing. (PS – Because we didn’t cover August 8 new releases on this week’s episode, I’ve included a few more titles here today. Because I love you.)
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by The Clockwork Dynasty by Daniel Wilson.
Present day: When a young anthropologist specializing in ancient technology uncovers a terrible secret concealed in the workings of a three-hundred-year-old mechanical doll, she is thrown into a hidden world that lurks just under the surface of our own. With her career and her life at stake, June Stefanov will ally with a remarkable traveler who exposes her to a reality she never imagined, as they embark on an around-the-world adventure and discover breathtaking secrets of the past…
Russia, 1725: In the depths of the Kremlin, the tsar’s loyal mechanician brings to life two astonishingly humanlike mechanical beings. Peter and Elena are a brother and sister fallen out of time, possessed with uncanny power, and destined to serve great empires. Struggling to blend into pre-Victorian society, they are pulled into a legendary war that has raged for centuries.
The Clockwork Dynasty seamlessly interweaves past and present, exploring a race of beings designed to live by ironclad principles, yet constantly searching for meaning.
Eat Only When You’re Hungry by Lindsay Hunter
An unhappy middle-aged man goes on a trip to find his missing son, but along the way, as he fills his aching heart with roadside junk food, he faces up to harsh truths about his own existence. Hunter is one of today’s smartest writers and she has written a powerful, sharp look at addiction and America.
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
After a school year away at boarding school, Suzette flies home to California to help support her stepbrother, Emil, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. But things take a complicated turn when they both fall for the same girl. Little & Lion is a compassionate, honest examination of integrity and love.
The Good Daughter by Karen Slaughter
When she was a teen, Charlotte Quinn’s family were the victims of a horrific crime. Twenty-eight years later, she is witness to another tragedy that will tear her town apart, and unleash long hidden memories about her own experiences three decades before. HOLY CATS. This was my first time reading Slaughter and it was SO INTENSE. This book was fantastic – what an incredible writer! – but please be aware that its realistic depictions of violence are very graphic and can be hard to read at times.
You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, & Other Mixed Messages by Carina Chocano
A fantastic book of essays using depictions of women in popular culture to explore how these images shape women, and what it is like to raise a daughter in the shadow of all the mixed messages about what it means to be a girl. Perfect for fans of Roxane Gay and Rebecca Solnit.
Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology by Ellen Ullman
Ullman has spent almost four decades working with computers, beginning in San Francisco in the 1970s as a woman in an almost entirely male-dominated field. Her 1997 book, Close to the Machine, chronicled the rise of technology, and now twenty years later Life in Code covers her thoughts on its mainstream use in everyday life and how life with computers has changed us. It’s a fascinating book!
Bibliomysteries: Stories of Crime in the World of Books and Bookstores by Otto Penzler
Penzler has rounded up some of today’s best mystery writers, including Laura Lippman and C.J. Box, for a fun collection of original book-related mysteries. This anthology is an epic nerdpurr!
The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee
CALLING ALL BUFFY FANS. 16-year-old Genie Lo thought she had a lot on her plate trying to get into a good college. Then she discovers she’s a celestial spirit made for fighting demons. Now she and her BFF are fighting demons between filling out applications – but is Genie going to be able to save the town on her own? Two words: WHAT FUN.
To Lay To Rest Our Ghosts by Caitlin Hamilton Summie
Summie has written ten quiet but powerful stories about family bonds, loss, and what unmoors the human spirit. From rural Minnesota to flashy New York City and more, these are memorable tales that will bring reflection after they have ended.
The Talented Ribkins by Ladee Hubbard
I couldn’t pass up a novel blurbed by Toni Morrison! Johnny Ribkins is 72 and facing doom: he has one week to return the money he stole from his mobster boss or he’ll sleep with the fishes. But Ribkins comes from a long line of people with unusual powers. Once used for good, they now mostly use them for personal gain. And Ribkins is hoping these talents can help him get out of his predicament. What an original, delightfully odd book!
Rebellion by Molly Patterson
A multigenerational debut novel following four women and their various “rebellions” throughout in their lives. At the heart of the book is a mystery about Addie, an American missionary who goes missing during the Boxer Rebellion. Rebellion is a powerful story of family, fate, that explores the women’s hidden secrets and their determination to take control of their own destinies.
Darkansas by Jarret Middleton
Jordan is a flailing country musician who can never seem to get out from under the shadow of his legendary father. When a wedding brings him back to his hometown in the Ozarks, he learns a dark secret: In his family, every generation of men have been twins, and it is customary for one twin to kill their father. Jordan and his brother must fight to escape the family legacy as they are pursued by a mysterious hill dweller. This dark, original tale is perfect for fans of Donald Ray Pollock and Harry Crews. It also has my vote for best title of the year.
The Locals by Jonathan Dee
Mark Firth is a down-on-his-luck contractor who seeks a chance to repair his lost finances and support his family by buying up local properties in debt. But his investment decisions and partnerships will lead him down a path of greed and class division, and force Mark to confront the man he has become.The Locals is a timely look at wealth and inequality in a small town, as captured by the always amazing Dee.
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 Litsy under ‘Liberty’!
Stay rad,
Liberty
Netflix’s Anne Of Green Gables Adaptation Is Go For Season 2
Good news for fans of the newest Anne of Green Gables adaptation, Netflix has ordered a second season of Anne With an E, which means more stark aesthetic, troubling flashbacks, and moon-eyed Gilbert Blythe. I think some of us will watch an Anne adaptation no matter how far it strays from the original material. Some of us meaning me. Cool sidenote: Season 2 features an all-women writing team.
How Much Do You Needed A Harry Potter/Breakfast Club Mashup?
You’ll know after watching Mashable’s farcical trailer for Harry Potter in the style of The Breakfast Club. The HP gang is up to some John Hughes level high jinks with all the tropey characters represented, including Snape as Mr. Vernon. The ending will be bittersweet and feature a New Wave song that will give you grief every time it takes its turn on your Remembering Yesterday playlist.
Philip Pullman, Independent Bookstore Champion
Philip Pullman wants to reintroduce fixed book prices to protect independent bookstores. I didn’t know anything about Britain’s Net Book Agreement until this article. Said Agreement required that all books be sold at the same price, aside from occasional discounting in special circumstances. Some, including indie booksellers, bemoan its 1997 dissolution. And when indie shops complained about the heavy discounting on La Belle Sauvage, the first in Pullman’s Book of Dust series, the author himself stepped in to say he wants to reintroduce the minimum price and called indie shops “the lantern bearers of civilisation.”
Get Ready, Get Set, Get Organized
The Millions has kindly offered us ten ways to organize our bookshelves. My current organizational system involves finding the closest open shelf space for any given book in my hand. But, for the more organized (or prospective candidates), you may elect to shelve by color, by importance, or with spines facing the wall for secrecy (what?!).
Thanks to See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt for sponsoring this week’s newsletter.
Lizzie Borden took an ax
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
Or did she?
In this riveting debut novel, See What I Have Done—which is already gaining outstanding acclaim—Sarah Schmidt recasts one of the most fascinating murder cases of all time into an intimate story of a volatile household and a family devoid of love.
Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Genius: The Con by Leopoldo Gout.
Three brilliant teens from around the world must work together to stop a vicious warlord, protect their families, and save the world in this fast-paced sequel to Genius: The Game.
We have 10 ARCs each of The Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke and Glow by Megan E. Bryant to give away to 10 Riot readers!
Here’e what they are all about:
Discover two new titles from AW Teen! In The Girl with the Red Balloon, a contemporary teen, Ellie, is pulled in 1988 East Berlin by a magical balloon. Soon, she is torn between uncovering the truth about her grandfather in World War II, getting home, and stopping a plot to alter history with dark magic. In Glow, join Julie, a contemporary teen, as she uses a thrift-shop vintage painting to reveal the secrets of the Radium Girls. Dual narration through the diary of a Radium Girl presents an equally fascinating and haunting story. Both heart-pounding reads are available September 1!
Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click the cover image below:
Welcome to another Monday rundown of exciting book news! Hope your summer is going swimmingly. Be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty
Sponsored by Flatiron Books
AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
HOW FAR DOES THE APPLE REALLY FALL FROM THE TREE?
Milly’s mother is a serial killer. Though Milly loves her mother, the only way to make her stop is to turn her in to the police. Milly is given a fresh start: a new identity, a home with an affluent foster family, and a spot at an exclusive private school.
But Milly has secrets, and life at her new home becomes complicated. As her mother’s trial looms, with Milly as the star witness, Milly starts to wonder how much of her is nature, how much of her is nurture, and whether she is doomed to turn out like her mother after all.
When tensions rise and Milly feels trapped by her shiny new life, she has to decide: Will she be good? Or is she bad? She is, after all, her mother’s daughter.
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley is being made into a television series, with Stephanie Meyer signed on as executive producer.
The Hate U Give film adds Russell Hornsby and Lamar Johnson to its cast.
The film version of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation gets a 2018 release date.
Anthony Bourdain is releasing a comic called Hungry Ghosts.
AMC is turning Sarai Walker’s Dietland into a series, as well as shows based on Ted Chaing’s short story Liking What You See: A Documentary and Victor LaValle’s novella The Ballad of Black Tom.
The Legally Blonde writer is working on a Sweet Valley High movie!
Film rights to Hannah Kent’s The Good People have been acquired by the production company behind Lion.
Brad Pitt’s production company will turn Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler into a film.
The City & The City is coming to TV in 2018. (This is apparently old news, but I just heard about it, so it totes counts.)
The Netflix adaptation of Suburra to air in autumn.
Cosmopolitan has the first look at Alyssa Cole’s A Princess in Theory. (Feb. 27, 2018)
Angie Thomas interviewed Arvin Ahmadi in EW about his forthcoming book Down and Across, and they revealed the cover. (Jan. 30, 2018)
The trailer for the remake of Death Wish has dropped. Did you know the original film was based on a book by Brian Garfield?
Netflix released the trailer for its new series, Mindhunter, based on the book by John Douglas. It stars Jonathan Groff, and all I kept thinking while I watched it was, “I will kill your friends and family…“
At Book Riot, I work on the New Books! email, the All the Books! podcast about new releases, and the Book Riot Insiders New Release Index. I am very fortunate to get to read a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week!
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke (Mulholland Books, Sept. 12): This novel is fantastic! Instead of Jay Porter, her lawyer character, this one stars Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger. Mathews must solve two murders – a visiting black lawyer and a local white woman – that have occurred in the sleepy little town of Lark before tensions between the citizens explode into violence. A timely look at race, law enforcement, and justice.
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (Catapult, Oct. 3): This was just longlisted for the Man Booker prize, and for good reason: It’s an extraordinarily well-written look at community and tragedy. In a small English village, a girl goes missing, and doesn’t reappear. As the seasons pass by and the case is not resolved, McGregor details how the village both comes together and fractures. It’s a chronicle of 13 years of births, deaths, secrets and violence. It’s quite a stunner.
Jomny Sun is always a delight.
Hey Kid Lit fans!
I just returned from a two week trip to the wonderful state of Maine! My family and I had such a fantastic time eating great food, hiking in Acadia, and visiting local indie bookstores. We also got to meet so many wonderful authors and illustrators, one of them being the fabulous, award-winning author/illustrator Melissa Sweet! I’m so pleased to show you some photos of her new (gorgeous) studio (and her pets!).
Sponsored by Elizabeth Singer Hunt, author of THE SECRET AGENT JACK AND MAX STALWART series, published by Weinstein Books. A member of Hachette Book Group.
For fans of the award-winning SECRET AGENT JACK STALWART comes a new chapter book series! Jack teams up with his older brother, Max, to solve international mysteries, using their special training as secret agents.
In THE BATTLE FOR THE EMERALD BUDDHA, Jack is temporarily retired from the Global Protection Force and on family vacation. However, Jack and Max are motivated to act when a band of thieves takes the Emerald Buddha from the Grand Palace in Bangkok. On their own, up against one of the smartest and wealthiest villains they’ve ever faced, can the brothers find Thailand’s treasure in time?
Melissa Sweet is truly a master artist. She is so creative in the ways she composes each page, her signature lettering complementing her artwork and collage elements perfectly.
One of my favorite books of hers is Some Writer! The Story of E.B. White. This book could not be more perfect. The recipient of six starred reviews, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Nonfiction Honor, and a Publisher’s Weekly Best Children’s Book (among other honors), Melissa’s illustrations and her use of archival material brings E.B. White’s life to light in a brilliant way. The book is substantive in content yet accessible to all readers, with a treasure trove of original letters and photos. The book itself is like a work of art that readers will want to treasure not only for it’s information but for it’s beauty. Hear Melissa talk about the book with Travis Jonker on The Yarn Podcast. (Side note: E.B. White’s farm is up for sale!)
Another favorite of mine is Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade. Winner of the Bank Street College of Education Flora Stieglitz Straus award, this book is for all curious beings who want to know how the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons began. I loved learning about the initial idea and the mishaps and adjustments along the way, and I especially enjoyed reading about puppeteer Tony Sarg’s imagination and indomitable spirit.
Melissa’s most recently illustrated book, with poems by Carol Murray, is called Cricket in the Thicket. It is a charming book all about bugs! Not only are the poems whimsical and fun, but each page has some interesting fact about bugs that kept me and my daughters saying, “I didn’t know that!” Melissa’s collage work is right on point (for example, the inchworm illustration has adorable drawings of inchworms bordered by tape measure washi tape), and each page is a delight.
One last photo: here she is signing my copy of Some Writer! See a complete list of all her wonderful books on her website.
New Releases!
Here are some of my favorites from this month…
Picture Books
Boo Who? by Ben Clanton (Candlewick Press)
Okay, I loved this book. The new kid (a ghost) wants to fit in, but he can’t join in a lot of their games when he’s a ghost. Boo and his new friends are incredibly endearing and sweet as they navigate new situations and friendships.
This Beautiful Day by Richard Jackson, illustrated by Suzy Lee (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dloughy Books)
This lovely book begins on a grey, rainy day. But wait – why stay inside when you can enjoy it? As three kids embrace the weather, they discover that there is more to a rainy, gray day than meets the eye.
Me and You and the Red Canoe by Jean E. Pendziwol and Phil (August 8, Groundwood Books)
I can’t even describe how beautiful the illustrations in this book are. Each page is a gorgeous painting depicting a siblings’ camping trip, making you feel like you are right there inside the page.
Pattan’s Pumpkin: An Indian Flood Story by Chitra Sounder, illustrated by Frane Lessac (Candlewick Press)
This retelling of a traditional Indian flood story is a visual treat. Multi-cultural folk stories need to be more prevalent in the books we read to our kids, and I’m glad to have this one for my kids to enjoy.
Middle Grade Books
Zinnia and the Bees by Danielle Davis (Capstone Young Readers)
Isn’t this cover stunning? And did you see that the author commissioned a crocheted version of the cover as well? This is the story of Zinnia and her summer living with bees making a home in her hair at the same time she’s dealing with the disappearance of her brother. A touching, honest book about growing up and finding your way in the world.
Night of the Living Cuddle Bunnies by Jonathan Rosen (Sky Pony Press)
Okay, so maybe reading this book made me look at my own rabbit in a whole new way. This book is about twelve-year-old Devin Dexter, where strange things start happening all around him. Then the hot new Christmas toy, the Cuddle Bunny, comes to life, and those bunnies are not friendly…
Who are Venus and Serena Williams? by James Buckley Jr. and Andrew Thomson (August 8, Penguin Random House)
This series is so enlightening, and I particularly enjoyed this book about two of the most successful tennis players in the world. Coached at an early age by their parents, these sisters went on to win number one rankings in singles and doubles. Wow!
The Countdown Conspiracy by Kate Slivensky
Kids going on a Mars Mission? Check. Threatening Notes? Check. Attack on the training base? Check. This book hits all the science/mystery/suspense buttons, and I am here for it.
That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed a peek into Melissa Sweet’s studio and found some books to add to your TBR list. Right now I’m reading The Way to Bea by Kat Yeh (9/19, Little, Brown), and Secret Coders: Robots and Repeats by Gene Luen Yang and Mike Holmes (10/3, First Second). What children’s books are you reading and enjoying this week? Find me on social media and let me know! I’m on Twitter at @KarinaYanGlaser, on Instagram at @KarinaIsReadingAndWriting, or send me an email at karina@bookriot.com. Have a great week!
Until next time,
Karina
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