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Giveaways

Giveaway: Win HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD

We have 10 copies of Here We Are by Kelly Jensen to give away to 10 Riot readers.

Book Riot’s own Kelly Jensen edited Here We Are, a scrapbook-style teen guide to understanding what it means to be a twenty-first-century feminist. It’s packed with contributions from a diverse range of voices, including TV, film, and pop-culture celebrities and public figures such as ballet dancer Michaela DePrince and her sister Mia and politician Wendy Davis, as well as bestselling authors like Nova Ren Suma, Malinda Lo, Brandy Colbert, Courtney Summers, and many more. Paste Magazine named Here We Are A Most Anticipated YA Book of 2017 and says “it’s too good to pass up.”

So go here to enter, or just click the cover image below:

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This Week In Books

New York Times Changes Bestseller Lists: This Week in Books

Changes to New York Times Bestseller Lists

As part of a larger plan to revamp its coverage of publishing and give more space to coverage beyond bestseller lists, the New York Times has cut several bestseller lists. Weirdly, the exact number of removed lists could not be confirmed, but we do know that the lists for graphic novels/manga, mass market paperbacks, middle grade ebooks, and young adult ebooks will be among the missing. While some publishers lament the new challenges these changes will present as they attempt to communicate a book’s success in-house and in the marketplace, what I’d like to see is an industry finally acknowledge the arbitrary and incomplete nature of these lists and just…decide they don’t really matter.

Roxane Gay Pulls Book from Simon & Schuster in Response to Milo Yiannopoulous Deal

Roxane Gay, whose TED book How to Be Heard (how’s that title for a nice coincidence?) was due to be published in March 2018, has pulled the book from Simon & Schuster in response to the now-widely known $250K book deal with white nationalist Milo Yiannopoulous. In a comment published at BuzzFeed, Gay notes how “egregious it is to give someone like Milo a platform for his blunt, inelegant hate and provocation” and reminds readers that this is not about censorship. She also notes that she recognizes not all S & S authors are in a position to make this decision. Here’s hoping that more of those who can make the sacrifice will follow Gay’s lead.

Related: see this note from Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy, promising that the book will not include hate speech.

The Bronx Set to Have a Bookstore Again

When the Barnes & Noble Co-op City location closed in late 2016, the Bronx — home to 1.4 million people and 10 colleges in just 42.7 square miles — was left without a bookstore. That’s all about to change thanks to Noëlle Santos, who is currently raising funds to open The Lit.Bar, a bookstore-wine bar, in the South Bronx neighborhood. Some Riot readers may remember hearing about Noëlle on the Book Riot Podcast or meeting her at Book Riot Live. If you’re looking for a literary cause to support, take a look at the Indiegogo campaign–she has done her homework!–and consider chipping in. Rock on, Noëlle.

Thanks to The Girl in the Garden by Melanie Wallace for sponsoring This Week in Books.

When June arrives on the coast of New England, baby in arms, an untrustworthy man by her side, Mabel—who rents them a cabin—senses trouble. A few days later, the girl and her child are abandoned. June is soon placed with Mabel’s friend, Iris, in town, and her life becomes entwined with a number of locals who have known one another for decades: a wealthy recluse with a tragic past; a forsaken daughter returning for the first time in years; a lawyer, whose longings he can never reveal; and a kindly World War II veteran who serves as the town’s sage. Surrounded by the personal histories and secrets of others, June finds the way forward for herself and her son amid revelations of the others’ pasts, including loves—and crimes—from years ago.

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The Goods 2

30% Sitewide Last Day

All good things must come to an end, and today that good thing is your chance to get 30% off sitewide in the Book Riot Store. Use code HAPPY30 at checkout.

Categories
The Stack

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Today’s The Stack is sponsored by Wires and Nerve by #1 New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer.

In her first graphic novel, bestselling author Marissa Meyer extends the world of the Lunar Chronicles with a brand-new,action-packed story about Iko, the android with a heart of (mechanized) gold.When rogue packs of wolf-hybrid soldiers threaten the tenuous peace alliance between Earth and Luna, Iko takes it upon herself to hunt down the soldiers’ leader. She is soon working with a handsome royal guard who forces her to question everything she knows about love, loyalty, and her own humanity. With appearances by Cinder, Cress, Scarlet, Winter, and the rest of the Rampion crew, this is a must-have for fans of the bestselling series.

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Riot Rundown

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We’re giving away a Nook Glowlight Plus. Go here to enter for a chance to win.

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks!: January 26, 2017

This week’s Audiobooks! Newsletter is sponsored by Mother Nile, a dazzling triumph from the bestselling author of The War of the Roses.

Mother Nile is the story of Si, the American-born son of an Irish father and Egyptian mother, who goes on a journey through the City of the Dead to solve a half-century-old mystery. When his mother makes an urgent plea on her deathbed, Si knows that he must go to Egypt to uncover the truth about his long-lost half-sister, conceived during his mother’s affair with King Farouk. This book goes on a journey into a world of sex, power, politics, drugs, and Egypt.

Hi audiobook friends! I’m having the most fun listening to Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. A team of scientists is studying a giant metal hand that was found in South Dakota. Weirder yet, the hand appears to be just one piece of an enormous alien object hidden all over Earth. The researchers are on the brink of a huge discovery, but they don’t know if their work will be used for peace or mass destruction. Cue the juicy ethical dilemmas!

This book works so beautifully on audio. It’s performed by a full cast through a series of case files and interviews, and it feels just like binge watching Westworld or Battlestar Galactica. If you listen to Sleeping Giants now, watch for the sequel this April <3

Get (Audio-) Booked

I recently got to hang out with Book Riot Editor Amanda Nelson on Get Booked, our weekly book recommendation podcast, for an episode all about audiobooks (!). Readers wrote in asking about how to get into fiction on audio, recs for long commutes, what to give family who are just getting into audiobooks, and more. If you love podcasts as much as you love audiobooks, this episode was pretty much made just for you.

Hidden Figures Narrator Robin Miles on Vulnerability and When to Go Big

Muppet arms for Hidden Figures on its three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture! If you’ve already seen the movie, next you’ll definitely want to queue up the audiobook read by Robin Miles and take a deep dive into the lives of five African-American women who were NASA mathematicians during the space race.

Book Riot contributor Erin Burba recently caught up with Robin Miles about what it’s like to perform books by Roxane Gay, Jacqueline Woodson, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, i.e. allll the rad authors. The result is one of the most moving conversations about audiobooks I’ve ever encountered. Go check that out, then listen to an excerpt of Hidden Figures here.

The Most Bananas Audiobook Cast Ever, With Carrie Brownstein, Bill Hader, Julianne Moore, Nick Offerman, and 160+ (Wut?!) Others

Book Riot already loves George Saunders with our whole hearts, and his first full-length novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, is hands down one of our most anticipated books of the year. So when we found out the audio is read by a record-breaking 166 actors, we flailed around in stunned excitement for a full minute before we were able to collect ourselves enough to start sharing our joy.

Lincoln in the Bardo takes place over a single night when President Lincoln visits the graveyard where his son’s body has been laid to rest. Catch the extended cast list and more in this run-down by Book Riot Contributor Emma Nichols.

The Handmaid’s Tale Podcast You Didn’t Know You Needed

There’s never been a better time to brush up on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, can I get an amen? We’re all SUPER EXCITED about The Handmaid’s Tale adaptation coming to Hulu in April starring Elisabeth Moss. But there’s another adaptation you can enjoy right now! Book Riot Contributor Patricia Thang has been loving a podcast adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale on Secrets, Crimes & Audiotape that started January 3 and runs for six weeks. Get the full scoop here.

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Giveaways

Thriller & Espionage Book Club Giveaway

Subscription boxes are all the rage these days, but book-of-the-month clubs have been around for decades. There is just something implicitly great about getting surprise books in the mail.

For our latest giveaway, I was looking around for a cool subscription to giveaway, and I thought this Thriller & Espionage Club from The Mysterious Bookshop looked great. So that’s what we have on offer: a three-month subscription that will provide you some curated picks from a bookstore dedicated to these genres. Not bad right?

Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click the exceedingly generic “espionage” image below:

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What's Up in YA

Book Award News, Disney Adaptations of YA Novels, & More YA Lit Goodness

Happy end-of-January, YA Lovers!

Wires and Nerve cover imageThis week’s “What’s Up in YA?” newsletter is sponsored by Wires & Nerve by Marissa Meyer.

In her first graphic novel, bestselling author Marissa Meyer extends the world of the Lunar Chronicles with a brand-new,action-packed story about Iko, the android with a heart of (mechanized) gold.When rogue packs of wolf-hybrid soldiers threaten the tenuous peace alliance between Earth and Luna, Iko takes it upon herself to hunt down the soldiers’ leader. She is soon working with a handsome royal guard who forces her to question everything she knows about love, loyalty, and her own humanity. With appearances by Cinder, Cress, Scarlet, Winter, and the rest of the Rampion crew, this is a must-have for fans of the bestselling series.

____________________

Let’s take the opportunity to get caught up on a whole lot of YA news and pieces of interest from the last few weeks. Ready? Ready!

  • Some of the biggest news in YA happened last week, when the winners of this year’s Youth Media Awards (YMAs) were announced at the American Library Association’s Midwinter meeting in Atlanta. Check out the winners here and get your to-read list ready because it’s going to grow.
  • And here are the best feminist books from 2016 for young readers, courtesy of the Amelia Bloomer Project. Keep an eye on their site for the full list of great feminist reads (it might be posted by the time this newsletter hits your inbox).
  • This year’s Edgar nominees — which go to the best mysteries — in YA span a nice range of topics. I’m a little embarrassed I’ve not read any of them….yet!
  • A round-up of Disney Channel movies that were based on YA books (“YA” loosely defined here, but interesting anyway!).
  • Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief is being made into a play. How frequently do middle grade books get made into stage productions? This one’s got some wide appeal, especially for YA readers.
  • Casting alert for the adaptation of Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda.
  • And some casting news for the adaptation of Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds.
  • Amy Poehler’s production company has scooped up rights to Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu, a YA book slated to hit shelves in the fall. I’m…so curious about this book, if for no reason than hoping that these teens who are moved by the zines of a parent have heard of a thing called Tumblr.

 

Now to take a peek at some of the YA posts that hit Book Riot in the last few weeks:

 

Keep on keepin’ on, YA friends. Pick up a good book and settle in. We’ll be back next week with a really exciting interview with a debut YA author whose book is going to knock your socks off.

Categories
Unusual Suspects

Unlikable Women, Apartheid, & More Mystery/Thrillers

A month into 2017 and I’ve already read so many good books (including amazing debuts–one I’ll be shouting about next month), that I can’t help but think this is going to be a fantastic year for books!

Today’s newsletter is sponsored by Serial Box.

Serial Box, today’s hottest publisher of serialized fiction brings everything that’s awesome about TV (easily digestible episodes, team written, new content every week) to what was already cool about books (well-crafted stories, talented authors, enjoyable anywhere). From Urban Fantasy to Science Fiction – they have something for every taste, and reading (or listening!) on the go has never been easier than with their iOS app. Readers who prefer their spy tales with a twist are invited to The Witch Who Came In From The Cold and the streets of Prague, 1970 where spies practice sorcery in their games of intrigue.

Give me ALL the “unlikable” women, please!

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh: Eileen Dunlop tells the story of how at age twenty-four, in the ’60s, she came to finally disappear from the small town where she worked in a boy’s prison and lived with her abusive, alcoholic father. This takes you 100% into the life of a desperate, miserable, intensely self-loathing woman while slowly building up to an ending of crime/suspense. If you like character driven novels and not knowing where things are leading this was a great read as Moshfegh places you so deeply into Eileen’s life that you can smell her life. (Not a mystery but you can read her An Honest Woman story at The New Yorker.)

New Megan Abbott in 2018 has me all muppet arms! Give Me Your Hand will be a psychological thriller about two scientists and the secret they share–is it too early to already love it?!

Watch now: Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden, inspired by Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith, is now available on DVD/Digital HD. Watch trailer here.

Want an ending to talk about?

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough: Single mom Louise has a bit of a bar hookup with a man she’s just met only to later discover he’s her new boss and–wait for it… married! I haven’t even gotten to the awkward part yet: Louise’s boss’ wife befriends her. Everything is just weird and chaotic after that because clearly there isn’t a single person who is behaving normally or doesn’t appear to be seriously hiding something. This is a mindfck, psychological thriller, with a sprinkling of magic realism, that will keep you asking wtf and turning the page. You might want a reading partner for this one so you can share your guesses and discuss the ending.

Great mystery audiobook!

 A Beautiful Place To Die (Detective Emmanuel Cooper #1) by Malla Nunn, Saul Reichlin (Narrator):  Englishman Detective Emmanuel Cooper is tasked with solving the mysterious murder of Captain Pretorius, a white officer, in South Africa during the 1950s. Complicating the investigation that already has too many chefs in the kitchen–and an unidentified Peeping Tom–is the recently placed apartheid system that applied racial segregation and becomes as important to the novel as the mystery. I can’t speak for accuracy but I loved Reichlin’s narration and how he changed accents and tone between the many characters. It’s a good mystery with great characters that left me wanting to read the rest of the series and made me immediately listen to Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime which was excellent and a perfect pairing.

Another great audiobook!

  Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin, Megan McDowell (Translator), Hillary Huber (Narrator): You get a mix of genres including Literary, Horror, Psychological Thriller and my favorite genre WTF/Bananas! The novel starts with a woman dying in a hospital in Argentina as a young boy questions her on the events that led up to her illness. Instead she tells him the story she heard about him from his mother: poison, a healer, souls being split between bodies!… If you’re looking for a fantastic, quick-ish, unsettling read you need this novel!

Over on Book Riot: 5 Paperback Mysteries You Need to Check Out by Swapna Krishna and A Female Sleuth Reading List in Response to Sherlock’s Season 4 by Deepali Agarwal (S4 SPOILERS).

Adaptation news: John le Carré will have another spy novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, adapted into a limited-series by AMC and the BBC.

Yes, please:

Colombian writer Santiago Gamboa will have his crime novel, Return to the Dark Valley, translated to English.

Kensington bought audio and world rights to Joseph Souza’s Bring Me Closer which sounds like a thriller I need to read.

Recently released in the UK Fiona Cummins’ debut novel Rattle will be adapted to television. “A psychopath more frightening than Hannibal Lecter” has me wanting to read it now so I’m probably going to order this online from a bookstore that ships worldwide rather than waiting for a U.S. release.

And I’ll leave you with: Mystery Writers of America announced the 2017 Edgar Nominations.

Until next time, keep investigating! And in the meantime feel free to come talk books with me on Litsy, you can find me under Jamie Canaves.

Categories
Kissing Books

Singing, Marching, and a Giveaway: Kissing Books for January 26, 2017

How’s your romance life going this January, readers? Have you read anything swoonworthy yet? I’ve started four—four—football romances in the past week and a half, and haven’t finished any of them. Maybe I need to change sports?

Today’s newsletter is sponsored by Serial Box.

Serial Box, today’s hottest publisher of serialized fiction brings everything that’s awesome about TV (easily digestible episodes, team written, new content every week) to what was already cool about books (well-crafted stories, talented authors, enjoyable anywhere). From Urban Fantasy to Science Fiction – they have something for every taste, and reading (or listening!) on the go has never been easier than with their iOS app. Readers who prefer their spy tales with a twist are invited to The Witch Who Came In From The Cold and the streets of Prague, 1970 where spies practice sorcery in their games of intrigue.

There hasn’t been a lot of huge news in romance, but there’s some interesting stuff happening in the world.

First, it’s been announced that E.L. James has been in talks to adapt Fifty Shades of Grey as a musical. This is not to be confused with 50 Shades! The Musical, which is a parody musical that legit actually exists. It’s an Off-Broadway wonder that existed for quite some time near the Great White Way. No word whether this would be a stage musical or something that would go straight to Netflix. But it’s probably going to happen.

In the meantime, here’s some fun from Rioter Patricia.

RT Book Reviews announced their annual RT Reviewers’ Choice Awards nominations, which includes a super broad number of categories and a relatively diverse group of nominees (though some categories are better than others in that regard). It’s an interesting compilation; who are you rooting for?

Also, this past weekend was pretty exciting for library people, with lots of celebrated awards and lists being announced at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting. The Reference and User Services Association, or RUSA, put out The Reading List, which is a curated list of the best genre fiction published in the previous year.  It was no surprise that Forbidden was the favorite.

The biggest news in the world is, of course, about the women marching on ALL SEVEN CONTINENTS on Saturday. Did you march? I was in Atlanta for the aforementioned library conference, and the combined local+library+football traffic led to a heck of a turnout! And my hotel was an interesting combination of librarians and some particularly football-looking gentlemen, which led me to have all kinds of meet-cute romance novel ideas.

And with the idea of women doing awesome things and making their voices heard, here are a few romances featuring some kickass women taking a stand for what is right:

Daughters of a Nation: A Black Suffragette Historical Romance Anthology collects three stories about women living during the fight for American suffrage.

Alyssa Cole, who contributed to that anthology, also contributed to The Brightest Day: A Juneteenth Historical Romance with the story Let it Shine, a wonderful Civil Rights Era story about a young black woman and a Jewish boxer who get involved with SNCC and live through sit-ins and all of the other horrors of the 1960s Civil Rights efforts.

Molly O’Keefe’s Wild Child includes a more personal stand, but finding your own voice is always the first step.

Courtney Milan’s Brothers Sinister series is all kinds of awesome, particularly The Suffragette Scandal, the fourth in the series featuring Free Marshall, the younger Marshall sister we first meet in The Heiress Effect when her first hints of suffrage support break out.

Beverly Jenkins’ Destiny’s Captive is also not the first in a series, but if you’re up to a little spoiling of the first two, you get to meet Pilar, an awesome Cuban revolutionary. One of Jenkins’ standalone novels, Midnight, is about an informant and spy in the American Revolution.

And speaking of revolutionaries: In Pema Donyo’s Revolutionary Hearts, Parineeta becomes a spy to help her revolutionary brother in 1920s India, only to encounter trouble when the man she’s spying on turns out to also be a spy, from America.

On Book Riot:

Do you love fake relationship stories? Check out these five that Kay Taylor Rea really enjoyed.

Ready to make your already-full TBR explode? Amanda Diehl just put out her quarterly upcoming Diverse Romances list, and while some are probably already on your list, there are a lot more that you’re gonna want to add. February, in particular, is pretty exciting.

Also, did you see? There’s a new Mailbag Giveaway celebrating Kissing Books featuring some of our favorites and a few we’re excited for you to read! There is some good stuff so feel free to enter the giveaway!

Here are a few new releases and books coming out before we talk again:

Seasons of Love: Whiteout, Elyse Springer

Breathless, Beverly Jenkins (January 31)

Seven Minutes in Heaven, Eloisa James (January 31)

Falling for the Highlander, Lynsay Sands (January 31)

The Lawrence Browne Affair, Cat Sebastian (January 7)

Many swoons and sizzles until next time, my dears!
–Jess