Categories
In The Club

In The Club – 3/6

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read.

It’s Sunday, March 3rd as I put this thing together and I am beside myself with joy. Have you all seen this year’s Women’s Prize nominees?! Gah! It’s one of those lists that made my oohs, aahs, and ay-Dios-mios escalate in volume and excitement the further down I got!

But before you all rush to bookstores, libraries, and internet sources to read these crazy talented nominees, let’s talk books. I’ll touch more on some of the nominees next week when I’ve gathered my thoughts and am not a fangirl mess.

To the club!

Question for the Club – Last week I asked: what’s a book club pick you were really not looking forward to reading but ended up loving? I’m always so interested to understand what makes folks hesitant to read certain books and what about them changed their minds.  Here are a few of the titles you shared!

    • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas – I got several emails about this one! One reader wasn’t exactly sure why she was hesitant to read it, but was glad she did and learned more about issues facing black Americans. Most of the other readers resisted because they knew it would be an emotional read; all seemed thankful for the discussion it fostered and for the insight.
    • Fortune is a Woman by Elizabeth Adler – The reader was expecting a trashy 1980’s TV drama (which… could be awful or pretty entertaining, ya know?) but enjoyed it a lot.
    • The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood – This was a different scenario where our reader picked this read and no one else read it! She ended up reading it anyway and it became her favorite read of the year.
    • Krampus: The Yule Lord by Gerald Brom – One reader’s book club chose this in December as a hybrid Halloween/holiday read; the synopsis didn’t hook her (umm it’s kind of bananas!!), but after a slow start she really got into the weird.
    • Beartown by Fredrik Backman – While the reader didn’t mention exactly why, I think I get it: does anyone else sometimes hold out on books that are super crazy popular?! I know I do even if I’m not sure why! This reader wasn’t looking forward to Beartown but every single person in book club loved it – that is quite the feat!

It seems like the common threads in reluctance to read certain titles are distrust of hype, fear of emotionally challenging content, or plain ol’ disinterest in the plot’s description! While you all know I encourage DNFing if a book just isn’t speaking to you, I also challenge everyone to push themselves in book club like these readers have. You’ll find you learn a lot that way and maybe even find a favorite read.

And now for next week’s QFTC:

Famous People Book Club Updates – Where once there were few, now there are many: check out the most recent picks in the world of celebrity book clubs.

  • Book Club Bonus: As the piece above points out, so far celebrity book clubs are supes white. Sans color! I hope this changes in the very near future; in the meantime, perhaps focus your book club’s attention on the bookish persons of color who share their reads on social media. These include the Obamas and Shonda Rimes, so you’re in good hands.

A Very Becoming Brunch – My forever first lady Michelle Obama is making some bonus appearances during her Becoming book tour and this one made me seven kinds of jelly: she joined the ladies of a Houston-based book club for brunch!

  • Book Club Bonus: So listen: most of you probably aren’t going to get Michelle Lavaughn Robinson Obama to attend your book club meetups. I know, friend: the truth, it burns. But I do love the idea of including outside book people! Invite your local librarian, a bookseller, or even a local author to your meeting. Pick their brains for recs, get them to weigh in on your reads, and just have a generally pleasant chat with people that deal in books.

Adios, Friend Zone! – I really enjoy the friends-to-lovers trope and I am not sorry! If the cold temperatures have you craving the heat of a romance and you too enjoy seeing folks hop up out the friend zone, check out this list of books about friends falling in love.

  • Book Club Bonus: I love the idea of structuring a romance book club all around tropes. Pick a different one every month or quarter and explore all the romance therein. Steam levels up to you, of course. 
  • Related: I recently caught up on lots of podcasts and loved the online book club chat in the February 11th episode (Easing People In) of When in Romance! Trisha and Jess addressed a question I think a lot of us have or had at one point: what exactly does an online book club do?! Give it a listen.

Fantastic Voyage – Every single time I talk fantasy in my writing, I have to remind myself that I have used the lyrics to the Mariah Carey classic in this newsletter on more than one occasion. It’s not my fault that the song still slaps years and year later! Anyway, here’s are some sweet, sweet fantasy books for adults that you won’t want to miss.

  • Book Club Bonus: I recently spoke to someone at the bookstore about reading fantasy in book club and he brought up a good point: fantasy novels are so often part of a duology or series these days. Sometimes you just want a standalone! The list above features just that, so go on ahead and find your fantasy in the club.
  • Related: Your quarterly reminder that I am the little girl from Rush Hour every time I hear that song.

Thanks for hanging with me today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with your burning book club questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the Audiobooks newsletter, get it on the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Friday too.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
Kissing Books

An EXCLUSIVE KB First! Christina Lauren Cover Reveal!

Happy March! Although for some of you, I’m sorry it doesn’t feel like March, yet. Sorry? I hope you have books to keep you warm. And dry. We’ve got a fun thing for you to look at!

Sponsored by HQN Books

The California sunshine’s not quite so bright for three sisters who get dumped in the same week… Finola, a popular LA morning-show host, is blindsided on live TV by the news that her husband is sleeping with a young pop sensation. Zennie’s breakup is no big loss. So agreeing to be the surrogate for her best friend is a no-brainer. Never the prettiest sister, Ali is used to being overlooked, but when her fiancé sends his brother to call off the wedding, it’s a new low. But side by side, these sisters will start over and rebuild their lives.

News and Useful Links

Nora Roberts wrote a follow-up to her response to the whole copy paste thing, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. She’s got a lot of good points (and a lot of good resources), but it’s important to weed out the bad so the good can thrive. And there are a lot more of the good than the other kind.

Have you been waiting for Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure basically since After the Wedding came out? Well, guess what? There’s a release date, and I can’t wait!

(Oh. It’s March 26.)

If you’re looking for a new online class to take, Christina Lauren and Frolic have worked together to create an online class, which you can sign up for anytime! It’s pretty inexpensive, and I hear it’s pretty useful if you actually want to write romance.

New Twitter romance game! Jennifer Porter (and the rest of us) had so much fun with #YMBIARN that she started #NTRomNov, which has also been lots of fun.

The Love’s Sweet Arrow kickstarter closes in five days and they’ve still got quite a ways to go. We gotta help the spread of romance-dedicated bookstores all over the world!

Y’all, this is adorable. The cover, the concept. I love all of it.

Deals

Tempest by Beverly Jenkins is 1.99. Even though it’s the third book in the series, it’s as good a place as any to start if you’ve never read one of her books.

Hudson Lin has a new novella out featuring flight attendants and I am all for it. It’s called Fly With Me and is 2.99 right now.

Sean Kennedy’s Tigers and Devils is 99 cents right now. If you’re looking for a good m/m romance featuring Australia football and humor, that’s where you want to go.

Something Else New and Different

So 2019 is the Year of New Things for Kissing Books, and for the first time ever, we’re doing a cover reveal! Not only do we get to see a new cover, this is the first time I’ve been able to write EXCLUSIVE in the subject line!

Here’s the synopsis:

Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren (on-sale October 22nd ; Gallery Books)

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners and the “delectable, moving” (Entertainment Weekly) My Favorite Half-Night Stand comes a modern love story about what happens when your first love reenters your life when you least expect it…

Sam Brandis was Tate Jones’s first: Her first love. Her first everything. Including her first heartbreak.

During a whirlwind two-week vacation abroad, Sam and Tate fell for each other in only the way that first loves do: sharing all of their hopes, dreams, and deepest secrets along the way. Sam was the first, and only, person that Tate—the long-lost daughter of one of the world’s biggest film stars—ever revealed her identity to. So when it becomes clear her trust was misplaced, her world shattered for good.

Fourteen years later, Tate, now an up-and-coming actress, only thinks about her first love every once in a blue moon. When she steps onto the set of her first big break, he’s the last person she expects to see. Yet here Sam is, the same charming, confident man she knew, but even more alluring than she remembered. Forced to confront the man who betrayed her, Tate must ask herself if it’s possible to do the wrong thing for the right reason…whether “once in a lifetime” can come around twice.

With Christina Lauren’s signature “beautifully written and remarkably compelling” (Sarah J. Maas, New York Times bestselling author) prose and perfect for fans of Emily Giffin and Jennifer Weiner, Twice in a Blue Moon is an unforgettable and moving novel of young love and second chances.

 

Drum roll, please….

…

…

…

Here it is!

Cover of Twice in a blue moon by Christina Lauren

Go add it to your Goodreads, and pre-order it on Amazon! Meanwhile, I’ll be over here trying to catch up on the other four Christina Lauren books I have and haven’t gotten to yet (:The Jess Pryde Story).

Catch me as usual 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
Riot Rundown

030419-TheChef-Riot-Rundown

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by James Patterson’s latest thriller, The Chef.

Police detective by day, celebrity food truck chef by night, now Caleb Rooney has a new title: Most Wanted.
In the Carnival days leading up Mardi Gras, Detective Caleb Rooney comes under investigation for a murder he is accused of committing in the line of duty–as a Major Crimes detective for the New Orleans Police Department. Has his sideline at the Killer Chef food truck given him a taste for murder? While fighting the charges against him, Rooney makes a pair of unthinkable discoveries. His beloved city is under threat of attack. And these would-be terrorists may be local.

Categories
Today In Books

Bees Abuzz at the Redwood City Public Library: Today in Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.

Is this children’s book too hard or is Steinbeck too easy?

Mr. Greedy by Roger Hargreaves has been found to be almost as complex as Of Mice and Men when analyzed “for sentence length, average word length and word difficulty level.” Adjust your high school English syllabi accordingly.

The Selectors of the NYPL

Go behind the scenes of the New York Public Library to learn how a title makes it to their shelves.

Apiary at the Library

Tens of thousands of bees live atop the Redwood City Public Library, producing honey sold at the library’s store. Click on over to see the slideshow of these bookish bees.

Categories
What's Up in YA

🔖 Sweet YA Bookmarks To Hold Your Place

Hey YA Readers: Let’s check out some fun page-savers.

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Disney Publishing Worldwide.

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents a brilliant sci-fi romp with Cuban influence that poses this question: What would you do if you had the power to reach through time and space and retrieve anything you want, including your mother, who is no longer living (in this universe, anyway)?

Sometimes, the inevitable happens: we have to stop reading our book and use something to mark where we left off. Enter some excellent bookmarks. And more specifically, YA-themed bookmarks.

Here are a few fun ones I’ve scoped out at Etsy.

 

Save your place with a lovely quote from Kendare Blake’s Three Dark Crowns. $3.15.

 

 

Love Gail Carriger’s “Finishing School” series? You’ll love this bookmark with a quote from Etiquette and Espionage. $2.50 and up.

 

 

This “Stay Peculiar” bookmark pays homage to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. $6.

 

 

How gorgeous are these Caraval-inspired bookmarks? $4 and up.

 

 

These magnetic bookmarks feature all of the Hogwarts Houses. $2.34 and up.

 

 

Grab a Children of Blood and Bone bookmark. $3.12.

 

 

This Six of Crows bookmark is gorgeous. $5.

 

 

Carry on with your love of Simon and Baz with this Carry On bookmark. $3.12.

 

 

These Lara Jean bookmarks are so unbearable adorable. $6.

 

 

For fans of Sarah J. Maas, here’s a gorgeous page holder for you. $2.75.

 

 

I’m drooling over these watercolor bookmarks featuring Dimple and Rishi. $4 and up.

 

 

Love Victoria Schwab? You’ll dig this bookmark honoring Our Dark Duet. $7.50.

 

 

This set of Jackaby character bookmarks is great. $2 and up.

 

 

And there’s always space for a little Hocus Pocus. $3.75.

 

 

Last, but not least, a bookmark for fans of Simon. $2.50.

____________________

Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you later this week for all of the YA news worth knowing!

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Instagram and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

Categories
Today In Books

Story Land Will Have Adults Only Night: Today In Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by HQN Books.

Leave The Kiddos At Home

If you’re in New England and want a Peter Pan night of never growing up, your wish is about to come true. Saturday, June 22nd Story Land will hold a 21 and older only night from 6-9 p.m. and tickets will go on presale from March 15th-17th.

The Villains Are Coming

Serena Valentino’s Disney Villain book series will be adapted for the upcoming Disney streaming platform. Info on Book of Enchantment is still pretty scarce but Michael Seitzman is reported to be the showrunner “currently hiring writers, with a writers room slated to open in April.”

The Misty Copeland Biopic Gets A Director

Based on Misty Copeland’s memoir Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, the biopic will be directed by Nzingha Stewart. Stewart, who has directed episodes of Pretty Little Liars, Grey’s Anatomy, and How to Get Away with Murder,  said “As an African American woman, I know firsthand that when Misty Copeland leaps, we all soar. As a filmmaker, I am thrilled to bring this hopeful, triumphant, and cinematic story to the big screen.” So ready the popcorn and the tissues.

Categories
Book Radar

Julia Roberts May Play CHARLOTTE WALSH and More Book Radar!

Helloooooooo, readers! (If that is your real name.) I have been reading up a storm the past couple of weeks, and I feel so much better. (Reading: It does a body good.) I have a lot of fun stuff to share with you today that will hopefully improve your Monday. Because Mondays, amirite? I hope you’re reading something wonderful. And please be kind to yourself as well as others, and remember that life is hard – you are doing a great job! I’ll see you again on Thursday. – xoxo, Liberty

Sponsored by Dreamscape Media, The Ghost Manuscript, and hoopla digital.

The Ghost Manuscript, Kris Frieswick’s debut paranormal, historical thriller, is coming to audiobook. Experience the thrilling story of one woman who is determined to find out what secrets lay in historical, Dark Age manuscripts. Traveling the world in search of an unknown journal and clues that could completely rewrite the history of Western civilization, Cary’s Jones takes on a physical and emotional journey. Available for free with your library card on hoopla digital, this debut novel is one of the most anticipated thrillers of 2019.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What author had “Ten Rules of Writing” that included “Never open a book with weather” and “Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip”? (Scroll to the bottom for the answer.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

Netflix is making a new live-action series adaptation of The Babysitter’s Club.

Tayari Jones will be the 2019 Independent Bookstore Day ambassador.

Julia Roberts is in talks to star in Amazon’s adaptation of Charlotte Walsh Likes To Win by Jo Piazza.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez is going to be a play at Steppenwolf.

Nzingha Stewart will direct the upcoming Misty Copeland biopic based on her memoir, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina.

Sandhya Menon announced a new short story sequel to When Dimple Met Rishi.

Cover Reveals

Paste has the cover reveal for A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker. (Berkley, September 10)

Catapult rolled out a ton of new covers, and they’re all so beautiful!

And here’s the first look at Andrew Shaffer’s new Obama and Biden mystery Hope Rides Again! (Quirk Books, July 9)

Sneak peeks

Here’s the new trailer for The Public, starring Emilio Estevez and Michael Kenneth Williams.

Book Riot Recommends 

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 learn about a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week so you can add them to your TBR! (It will now be books I loved on Mondays and books I’m excited to read on Thursdays. YAY, BOOKS!)

Loved, loved, loved:

prince the last interviewPrince: The Last Interview (The Last Interview Series) by Prince and Hanif Abdurraqib (Melville House, March 12)

Okay, yes, this is an obvious choice. But I loved him so much, it was nice to have another little glimpse of him. I highly recommend all the books in this series, even if you’re unfamiliar with the subject of the interview. You never knowwho you might get turned on to or what you might learn.

What I’m reading this week.

The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project by Lenore Appelhans

If Cats Disappeared from the World: A Novel by Genki Kawamura, Eric Selland (translator)

An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten, Marlaine Delargy (translator)

Pun of the week:

Don’t spell part backwards. It’s a trap.

Here’s a kitten picture: Here’s Farrokh’s hangry face.

And this is funny.

This is my kind of humor.

Trivia answer: Elmore Leonard.

You made it to the bottom! Thanks for reading! – xo, L

Categories
Today In Books

The Baby-Sitters Are Back: Today In Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Amazon Publishing and The Fever King by Victoria Lee.

Do Your Homework And Eat Your Veggies

Ann M. Martin’s The Baby-Sitters Club will once again be adapted! This time we’re getting a ten-episode series on Netflix. “’The themes of The Baby-Sitters Club still resonate 30 years after the original book series was released and there has never been a more opportune time to tell an aspirational story about empowering young female entrepreneurs,’ said Melissa Cobb, vice president of Kids & Family at Netflix.”

Serial Box + Marvel

Serial Box, a publisher that serializes stories that read like a television series broken down into episodes but, all together, make up a season, has partnered with Marvel. So we’re going to get new original stories, not based on films or comics, for Black Panther, Black Widow, Jessica Jones, and Thor in the Serials form. Cool!

New Play Adaptation!

Erika L. Sánchez’s I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter will be a play at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago in 2020. Isaac Gomez will write the adaptation and Sandra Marquez will direct. So exciting!

Categories
Riot Rundown TestRiotRundown

030119-Huntress-Riot-Rundown

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by The Huntress, new from Kate Quinn, the New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network.

One of Marie Claire’s Best Women’s Fiction of the year!

One of Bookbub’s biggest books of the year!

“If you enjoyed The Tattooist of Auschwitz, read The Huntress.” – The Washington Post

From the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling novel, The Alice Network, comes a fascinating historical novel about a battle-haunted English journalist and a Russian female bomber pilot who join forces to track the Huntress, a Nazi war criminal gone to ground in America.

Categories
True Story

Not-Boring Business Books, Plus Nonfiction Lists Galore

Happy Friday and welcome to March, fellow nonfiction readers! I cannot even begin to tell you how glad I am to turn the page to a new month and leave February in the dust.

Just for Book Riot readers: sign up for an Audible account, and get two audiobooks free!

Over at Book Riot, I finally got to publish my contribution to Book Riot’s 2019 Read Harder Challenge, a post of my best recommendations for a business book (task 17). The post was a lot of fun to write, and includes several of my favorites including Bad Blood by John Carreyrou and The Great Beanie Baby Bubble by Zac Bissionnette.

Happily, that’s just one of the many great nonfiction posts over at Book Riot, which made me think it’s a perfect time to round up some of my favorites from the last month or so. Let’s go!

First up, a couple of excellent posts about essays:

There were also three 50 must-read lists about nonfiction:

And a bunch of posts about current events, to help make better sense of the world:

And finally, some general book lists on creativity, money, habits, and beer:

And that’s it’s for this week! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, on email at kim@riotnewmedia.com, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading! – Kim