Categories
New Books

Long-Buried Secrets, Hilarious Second Chances, and More New Books!

The long weekend is over – luckily there are lots of wonderful books out today to help you cope. On this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about some great new releases, such as The Hour of Land, Before the Fall, and Modern Lovers. I have a few more great titles for you below, and as always, you can find a big list in the All the Books! show notes. Okay – let’s do this!

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Penguin Random House and Room & Board, who have partnered to offer one lucky book lover the prize of their dreams: modern furniture to create a reading nook and a library of books in their favorite genres to stock it!

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we're all damagedWe’re All Damaged by Matthew Norman

I am so excited for this book, because I am a HUGE fan of Domestic Violets, and I think Matthew Norman is one of the funniest writers out there. His new novel is the story of a man named Andy, who is flailing around in his life after his wife leaves him, he loses his job, and he relocates to NYC, where he leads a sad, drunken existence. A trip back home to visit his dying grandfather in Omaha puts a new path in front of him – but can Andy pull himself together enough to follow it? A funny and touching story about family and hopes and dreams.

Backlist bump: Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman

hot little handsHot Little Hands by Abigail Ulman

I love this collection! Nine connected stories comprise this smart, darkly funny book about contemporary young women. A Russian teen gymnast travels to America; two high schoolers go back to sleepaway camp; a young woman moves from London to San Francisco to start what she thinks will be her adult life; and more. Each story is about the impatient wish of these young women for their grown lives to start and the struggles they have dealing with that responsibility. Ulman’s writing is concise and heartbreaking.

Backlist bump: Blueprints for Building Better Girls by Elissa Schappell

juneJune by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Secrets and murder and blackmail, oh my! Young Cassie Danvers is mourning the loss of her grandmother, June, when she learns she is heir to the vast fortune of a film star. How did her grandmother cross paths with the famous actor? And why did he leave Cassie all his money? When Jack’s daughters come looking for answers, together with Cassie, they’ll slowly uncover what happened on a fateful day sixty years before. June is a perfect blend of mystery and family drama.

Backlist bump: Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me. If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats), or tell me about books you’re reading, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’! (OMG I am OBSESSED with Litsy.)

Stay rad!

Liberty

Categories
Book Riot Live

Meet Charlie Jane Anders and Valentine De Landro at Book Riot Live

That’s right: Valentine De Landro, co-creator of Bitch Planet, Charlie Jane Anders, editor-in-chief of io9.com, and poet and professor Patrick Phillips will be at Book Riot Live 2016, presented by Bookwitty! They’ll be joining speakers Ken Liu, Maria Dahvana Headley, and more to bring you two days of panels, games, discussions, and signings. Register by May 31 to get your discounted, VIP ticket.

author photo collage with Charlie Jane Anders Valentine De Landro and Patrick Phillips

Categories
The Goods

Tote + Water Bottle $25 Bundle

Head into summer in bookish style, and hit the beach with any tote + water bottle for $25! Just 2 days left to snag this deal.

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Not sure where to start? Check out our gorgeous new One Hundred Years of Solitude bag!

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Categories
This Week In Books

This Week in Books for May 23rd, 2016

Welcome to the inaugural edition of This Week in Books, our weekly wrap-up of the most interesting stories from the world of books and reading.

Special thanks to Penguin Random House for sponsoring this maiden voyage of This Week in Books. Enter here for a chance to win a modern reading nook stocked with books (or just click the image below).

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On to the news:

  1. The big story last week was Goodreads getting into the discounted ebook game. With its treasure trove of user data, Goodreads is positioned to deliver notifications about ebook deals to exactly the right audience. Goodreads users now can sign up to receive notifications about downpriced ebooks for titles they have on their shelves or they sign up for by genre or interest.BookBub is probably the company most likely to feel the pinch here. They have broken out as the go-to resource for both publishers and readers for ebook deals with millions of email subscribers across all genres. In fact, Goodreads might be the only company that has a wider email reach. Goodreads could really squeeze BookBub on pricing if they so desire: Amazon certainly won’t feel the pinch if they drastically undercut BookBub’s prices, and they have a reach, between email and active users of the site, that is the envy of the entire book world.
  2. Jeff Bezos says more Amazon bookstores are coming. I promise not to make this an Amazon and Some Other Stuff newsletter, but Bezos announcing that they aren’t done opening bookstores has to be included here. Frankly, I am puzzled by what Amazon is doing. Are they trying to assemble Barnes & Noble’s coffin? Reacting to the resilience of independent bookstores and physical books? Trying to get people to just like Amazon more? All of these?
  3. Dan Brown abridging The Da Vinci Code into a YA version.I have to admit that when I read The Da Vinci Code, I did not immediately think, “Boy they are really going to have to dial this back to get teenagers to read it.” As far as I can tell, it will be The Da Vinci Code just…shorter. To my knowledge, this is the first time a big commercial adult hit has been modified this way to be remarketed as YA. Are there really teenagers out there that are like, “YES I always wanted to read The Da Vinci Code but it was just too long,” as they lugged around Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?
  4. Lena Dunham publishes her teenage diary, donates proceeds to charity. Dunham apparently came across the diary she kept in her late teens, and, because she is Lena Dunham, decided that it needed to be public. She is donating the proceeds to Girls Write Now, a surpassingly deserving organization. Dunham is more and more plugged into the book world, and is certainly unafraid to experiment.
  5. Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love, dies at age 70.Okay, so this happened the week before last, but I am cheating because I love Geek Love and am just so sad about this. I had been waiting so long for her next novel that I had forgotten that I was waiting for it. In fact, Dunn had become one of those writers I thought of as being sort of unreal. Not dead, but just existing on a plane slightly refracted from our own and therefore largely inaccessible, like Pynchon or Ferrante. If you haven’t read Geek Love, do yourself a favor. And if you know a geeky teenager that likes to read, please make sure that they’ve heard of Dunn and Geek Love.
Categories
New Books

The End of the Passage, Historical Earthquakes, and More New Books!

Happy Tuesday! Hope you enjoyed your spring – how did it go by so fast??? I can’t believe it’s almost over. At least there were lots of great books to read. And more to come! On this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about some great new releases, such as Sweetbitter, How to Make White People Laugh, and The Queue. I have a few more great titles for you below, and as always, you can find a big list in the All the Books! show notes.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Penguin Random House and Room & Board, who have partnered to offer one lucky book lover the prize of their dreams: modern furniture to create a reading nook and a library of books in their favorite genres to stock it!

prh room and board

city of mirrors The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin

THE END OF THE END TIMES IS HERE! That’s right, it’s the final book in The Passage trilogy. I don’t usually recommend sequels, just because there are so many other books to talk about, but this is too exciting to pass up. BECAUSE IT’S FINALLY REAL. And epic. And crazy, thrilling, scary, sweet, and a bunch more adjectives I could list but I’m going to stop and let you get right to it because it’s also (of course) REALLY LONG! I am kinda sad that it’s over. Which means I should read them all again.

Backlist bump: The Passage by Justin Cronin

outrun the moonOutrun the Moon by Stacey Lee

It’s 1908, and Mercy Wong is a 15-year-old girl in San Francisco who is trying to escape the poverty of Chinatown by attending a prestigious school for girls. She is desperate to prove herself through an education, but when a historic earthquake rocks the city, destroying Mercy’s school and home, she refuses to sit by in the temporary shelter, and instead decides to prove herself by helping rebuild her city. I loved Under a Painted Sky, Lee’s last book, and she has once again mastered the perfect balance of history and storytelling with her latest.

Backlist bump: Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

tribe by sebastian jungerTribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger

Junger, author of A Perfect Storm and War, does a deep dive into the culture of belonging. What drives humans to seek out other people like them? What does it mean to belong? Using history, psychology, and anthropology, Junger explores how people have almost always sought out like-minded people and groups, and how it has been essential to our survival. Fascinating stuff.

Backlist bump: War by Sebastian Junger

YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me. If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats), or tell me about books you’re reading, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’! (OMG I am OBSESSED with Litsy.)

Stay rad!

Liberty

Categories
This Week In Books

CK: This Week in Books Test 1

Here are some of the most storied book shops to celebrate the bookworm in all of us.

Of these 12 Bookstores to Visit in a Lifetime, I’ve been to three. Work to do still.

 

This summer, my recommended reading list has a good dose of books with science and math at their core. But there’s no science or math to my selection process. The following five books are simply ones that I loved, made me think in new ways, and kept me up reading long past when I should have gone to sleep.

Bill Gates has some recommendations for your summer reading.

Goodreads has launched a personalized daily eBook discount program. Goodreads Deals will alert members to sales on books by authors they follow or to titles already on their shelves, making clearing space on your TBR a whole lost easier and more cost-effective.

There is a whole cottage industry of ebook deal services. Goodreads entering could change the landscape considerably.

Lena Dunham, star and creator of HBO’s GIRLS and co-founder of LENNY, surprised her fans — and Girls Write Now — with the flash-release of her new book, Is It Evil Not To Be Sure? at 6 a.m. today on LennyLetter.com. In the spirit of women helping women, Lena announced that all profits from Is It Evil Not To Be Sure? will go to Girls Write Now.

Dunham is quickly becoming a serious mover & shaker in the book world.

Categories
Letterhead

Let’s Hang Out Again – xo, Book Riot

Thanks for RSVP’ing to our Librarian Bash at BEA! Whether or not you made it, we’d love to hang out with you online. We’ve got:

10+ posts a day on Book Riot
8 newsletters covering everything from audiobooks to daily deals
4 podcasts covering book news, new releases, recommendations, and more
1 YouTube channel covering frontlist, backlist, our favorite authors, and more
A sister site, Panels.net, dedicated to comics
More bookish swag than you could shake a stick at
And events around the country (and the world) bringing readers together

collage of photos from the BEA Librarian Bash

This is a one-time email, sent to you via the RSVP form for the BEA Librarian Bash. 

Categories
What's Up in YA

So How Well Do YA Adaptations Do At The Box Office? That & More YA News This Week

Hello, YA lovers!

Genius by Leopoldo GoutThis week’s newsletter is sponsored by Genius by Leopoldo Gout, from Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan.

Get ready to run! Three teen geniuses from around the world compete in a game with the highest of stakes. Together, they seek to win the game and change the world, but it won’t be easy. . . “Genius is exciting, provocative, fresh, innovative, and smart, smart, smart.” —James Patterson

Let’s talk about book-to-film adaptations this week.

It seems like every week, I collect tons of links to the latest YA books that are being optioned for film. Optioned, for those who aren’t down on the language, means that interest has been expressed for making a film, but it’s not a guarantee. Until the film is on the big screen (or on DVD if it’s a straight-to-DVD deal), nothing in the film world is a guarantee. But, an option means that there’s money on the line and someone has the rights to make the film, which is in itself a pretty big thing.

This piece from The Hollywood Reporter caught my attention, particularly the first couple of lines:

With the Hunger Games franchise wrapped up, foreign buyers are ravenous for new young adult adaptations that could potentially launch a franchise. A slew of projects have invaded the market in Cannes this year, offering fantasy and supernatural tales involving witches, ghosts and dystopian-set drama.

Where it almost feels like YA adaptations in the US are slowing down in terms of the box office returns, foreign companies are looking to find more potential places to build a franchise or two to make money. And more specifically, filmmakers are looking to tap into that young female audience (which is funny, given that CBS claimed the Nancy Drew television series was “too female” for their audiences). More from the Hollywood Reporter piece:

While the success of Twilight and The Hunger Games has made the YA genre a box-office force especially at drawing in the young female audience — there have been several films sold at markets that didn’t have the same happy ending […] ‘People who lost money on the YA pictures that came after Twilight were because they went crazy on the budgets,’ says Lisa Wilson, co-founder and partner of The Solution Entertainment Group.

So, what sorts of returns are YA box office titles seeing, anyway? With the help of Box Office Mojo, I compiled a handy little spreadsheet of YA books made into films and compiled their Lifetime Gross Earnings (LGE). LGE takes the money brought in by the films from their premiere to the present, which in this case, would be May 15, 2016. The LGE does not take into account what the film’s budget was, and in this data, LGE is for domestic earnings. This isn’t a comprehensive list of all YA book-to-film adaptations, and I’ve purposefully left out Harry Potter, since the first films are middle grade skewed, Ender’s Game, which was originally an adult novel with YA crossover appeal, and other titles that many call YA but that really are not.

These are films that came out between 1980 and today and it won’t surprise me if many of these adaptations are a surprise (in other words, you may not have known these were adapted from YA books). If you need these bigger, click and they should expand:

YA adaptations 1 YA Adaptations 2

I don’t want to talk too much about what any of this means, if anything, but what I do think is worth observing are a few things:

 

  • Female-led YA adaptations seem to make a lot of money.
  • Female-written YA books seem to make adaptations that make a lot of money.
  • The first film in a franchise seems to make less money than subsequent films, which makes some sense — once a film has done well, it raises the profile and encourages more people to get into the franchise.
  • These films are so, so white.

 

Now let’s make this a little bit more interesting and see what, if anything, can be said about what sorts of earnings were made against the budget of these films. I’ve pulled the estimated budgets from Wikipedia, and in instances where a range was offered, I pulled the highest number. Not all of these films have budgets listed, but the biggies — the ones that Wilson is talking about in the THR article — do. Can’t read these? Here’s a read-only spreadsheet with the numbers. 
ya adaptations 3 ya adaptations 4

In terms of my observations above, about later films in a franchise having bigger earnings than the earlier titles, perhaps it has to do with bigger budgets and more marketing.

Likewise, perhaps those bigger and bigger budgets explain why some adaptations, like the third installment in the Divergent series or the recently-released (with little to no buzz) The Fifth Wave earned very little comparatively. Big budgets don’t always mean success.

There aren’t any real conclusions to be drawn with these numbers; rather, this is an interesting data-driven way to look at the whys and hows of the growth in YA adaptations on the big screen. Though they aren’t always a success, they do bring in the money . . . and female audiences. (Worth sharing here this piece from last year about why it is we hate on the things girls love, even though girls have money to spend and often set the trends).

It’s only fitting now to share some more adaptation news from the last couple of weeks:

  • Salla Simukka’s “Snow White” trilogy, which is an in-translation series out of Norway, is headed for the big screen. I got my hands on the first in this trilogy and couldn’t seem to get the rest from my local library, but now I want to. It has a Girl with the Dragon Tattoo vibe to it, but it’s through the female POV. Fresh thriller-y stuff for the YA world, so hopefully this will make the books more widely available.

 

  • Alexandra Monir’s The Final Six has a movie deal. Never heard of it? Well, you won’t be alone — the book isn’t finished and doesn’t even have a publishing deal yet. (If this is the point where you’re wondering when the craze will stop, you won’t be alone, either).

 

To round out this edition of “This Week in YA,” here are some non-adaptation news and links worth reading or knowing about this week. I could probably talk in depth about most of them, and maybe I will in future newsletters:

 

Thanks for tuning in to another edition of “What’s Up in YA?” Keep on being rad and keep on reading — and spoiler: I think it’ll be time to give away some books soon.

Categories
New Books

Book Expo America 2016: A Book Preview!

Hey, readers! I know it’s only Thursday, but I couldn’t wait to tell you about a few books I saw at Book Expo America 2016! Because despite a bus trip that I was sure would be the end of me, I survived to tell the tales.

If you’re not familiar with BEA, it is North America’s largest book convention. This year it was in Chicago at McCormick Place. I had never been to Chicago before – what a beautiful city! In addition to BEA, I visited the Art Institute of Chicago to see a Francis Bacon painting (I LOVE HIM), went to a party at the top of the Hancock Center, bought tons of books at Unabridged Bookstore, and ate basically every meal at an adorable place next to my hotel called Sunny Side Up.

Now, about the books. SO MANY AMAZING BOOKS! At BEA publishers pitch their upcoming titles and recent releases. Here are several of the books I picked up that I am the most excited about.

readers of broken wheel recommendThis special edition newsletter is sponsored by The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald.

Broken Wheel, Iowa has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her book-loving pen pal. When she arrives, however, she finds Amy’s funeral guests just leaving. The residents of Broken Wheel are happy to look after their bewildered visitor—not much else to do in a small town that’s almost beyond repair. They just never imagined that she’d start a bookstore. Or that books could bring them together—and change everything.

the mothersThe Mothers by Brit Bennett: This was THE buzz book at BEA, a debut about a young woman who, reeling from her mother’s suicide, has a teen romance with a former high school football star, becomes pregnant, and must deal with the resulting consequences.

Reel by Tobias Carroll: There are few people I know who champion indie press books more than Carroll, so I am delighted to see him getting his turn! And his publisher is Rare Bird Books, a new indie press I am hella-excited about. (You want to read Vow of Celibacy when it comes out.)

an episode of sparrowsAn Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden: NYRB Classics just released a new edition of this children’s classic from prolific author Godden, about the mystery surrounding dirt disappearing from the garden.

Umami by Laia Jufresa (Author), Sophie Hughes (Translator): This blurb was all I needed to pick this up: “Ms. Jufresa: Where the f*#! did you learn to tell a story so well?” — Álvaro Enrigue, award-winning author of Sudden Death

The Island by Olivia Levez: A troubled young girl on her way to an Outward Bound-style program as part of her juvenile detention sentence finds herself stranded in the Indian Ocean when the plane crashes. I hear it’s brutal, but worth it.

the lesser bohemiansThe Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride: This is McBride’s follow-up to her jaw-dropping debut, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, about a teen who travels from London to Ireland to study drama and her relationship with an older actor.

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai: I am not going to remember this verbatim, but it was pitched to me as something like a time-travel novel that resulted from a conversation between Jonathan Tropper and Kurt Vonnegut in heaven. I couldn’t grab it fast enough!

Sirens by Joshua Mohr: I am a huge fan of Mohr’s books, most recently his last novel, All This Life (which just won the Northern California Book Award in Fiction). This is his memoir, out in the beginning of 2017 from the awesome Two Dollar Radio.

the unseen worldThe Unseen World by Liz Moore: Moore’s novel Heft is uh-may-zing (SERIOUSLY, READ IT), so I was eager to get my hands on her new one! It’s about a young child prodigy who struggles to discover what her scientist father was working on before his mind failed.

Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy: Longlisted for the Man Book International prize, it’s about a seaside town in India where the citizens find their lives disrupted by the appearance of a young female documentary filmmaker.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders: Saunders has taken the structure of the novel as it is known, completely destroyed it, and rebuilt it to suit his brilliant beautiful mind. I am obsessed with this book – his first novel! – and will be talking about it a lot more in the months to come.

vampire in loveVampire in Love by Enrique Vila-Matas (Author), Margaret Jull Costa (Translator): Collected for the first time in English, these are stories by the author called “arguably Spain’s most significant contemporary literary figure.” (Joanna Kavenna, The New Yorker). (Also, A++++ cover!)

Children of the New World: Stories by Alexander Weinstein: These stories, about living in an age of devices, were written by Weinstein after his students told him they would rather interact with people online than have face-to-face conversations.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: You’ve heard me mention this a million times already, and I will mention it a million more, because this astounding novel of a slave’s desperate escape should be required reading for everyone. I can’t stop thinking about it.

Phew! I feel much better now that I’ve shared some of my incredible BEA finds. BOOKS ARE THE BEST. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have reading to do. I’ll see you all next Tuesday (or sooner on Twitter or Litsy!) Happy reading!

Liberty

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks!: May 19, 2016

Hello!

Welcome, fellow audiobook fans, to Book Riot’s newsletter about all things audiobookish! I’m associate editor Rachel Smalter Hall, and I’ve been writing about my love of audiobooks at Book Riot for a few years now — from 8 myths about audiobooks to my audiobook conversion story and everything in between.

We’re gonna keep it loose here — this is the kind of newsletter you can read while snacking on M&Ms without pants on. We’ll be talking about audiobook recommendations, new releases, industry news, and anything else you might like if you’re someone who likes audiobooks.

And the Audie Goes To:

The Girl on the TrainTheGirlOnTheTrain by Paula Hawkins won Audiobook of the Year at the Audie Awards Gala in Chicago on May 11. I’m also happy to see Jenny Lawson win an Audie for Furiously Happy in the Humor category, and Kate Mulgrew for Born With Teeth in the Narration by Author category. They’re both so great and you should check them out!

WakeUpHappyI’m NOT happy that over 90% of this year’s Audie Award honorees are white. Of 30 winning titles, just two were authored by people of color (Wake Up Happy by Michael Strahan and Veronica Chambers, who are African American, and Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan, who is half Mexican). A third title was co-authored by a person of color (Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez, who is Chilean.) These dismal percentages also hold for the narrators of the winning titles.

This is especially disappointing considering 2015 is the year that brought us Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari, Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling, The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma, and so many more. Here’s to more inclusivity from the Audie Awards next time… like, a lot more.

3 Nora Ephron Books to Put in Your Ears ASAP:

HeartburnI’m feeling Nora Ephron fever! Everyone’s been talking about Nora Ephron this spring since HBO premiered Everything is Copy, the documentary by her son. It seemed like a perfect time to dig out my copy of Heartburn that Meryl Streep performed on audio in 2013.

Heartburn is the scathing, side-splitting roman à clef that Ephron wrote after she caught her husband cheating on her when she was 7 months pregnant (!), and it’s the novel that propelled her to Hollywood. Meryl Streep stars opposite Jack Nicholson in the 1986 movie version, and her encore performance on audio three decades later is PERFECTION. It’s an effortless listen that oozes with wit, character, and venom as Ephron rewrites the narrative of one of the most traumatic things that ever happened to her. And it’s legitimately the best audiobook I’ve ever listened to.

While it’s 100% possible that Heartburn will ruin all other audiobooks for you, Book Riot contributors also highly recommend I Feel Bad About My Neck and I Remember Nothing. Both are performed by Ephron and will ease your transition back to audiobooks NOT performed by Meryl Streep.

Listen to Kate Mulgrew read Joe Hill:

TheFiremanI loved Kate Mulgrew’s recording of her memoir Born With Teeth last year, and I’m just really excited to see that she’s made the leap to narrating fiction on audio! She appeared on last year’s recording of Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez, and now performs solo on The Fireman. (Mulgrew follows in the footsteps of Patti Smith, who’s been narrating Jo Nesbø novels since the success of her excellent memoir Just Kids.) Here’s Kate Mulgrew reading an excerpt from The Fireman.

5 Great Audiobooks Read by the Authors:

BeowulfBook Riot guest contributor Zoe Dickinson likes audiobooks narrated by their own authors because she finds something appealing about getting closer to an author’s original intentions. “I love the idea of being able to listen to books exactly the way their authors imagined them. Every pause, every rise and fall of cadence, reflects the author’s own interpretation of their work.” Here are a few of her favorites to get started with.