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Book Radar

Fangs for the Memories: VAMPIRE ACADEMY Will Now Be a TV Series and More Book Radar!

Hello, newsletter friends! I have had a pretty splendid few days. Somehow, the universe heard my request in last week’s Book Radar to read Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher and granted my wishes. I got a copy that night and dropped everything to read it and—SPOILER—it’s amazing. I will definitely be doing a bigger discussion of it in the coming weeks, because it knocked my brain’s socks off.

Moving on: I have some delightful book news for you today. I also have a look at an awesome upcoming cyber-mystery, plus cover reveals, a terrible pun, my adorable little orange monster, and trivia! Let’s get started, shall we?

Here’s Monday’s trivia question: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia takes place in what decade? (Scroll to the bottom for the answer.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

cover of while justice sleeps by stacey abrams

Doubleday will publish two more books in the Avery Keene series from Stacey Abrams, which starts with While Justice Sleeps.

We’ve got a giveaway for a chance to win an iPad Mini! Enter here.

Ellie Marney announced her next YA thriller. (Have you read None Shall Sleep yet? I loved it!)

Netflix announced a 3D animated series based on the comic book series Mech Cadet Yu by Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa.

Here’s the cover reveal of All the Horses of Iceland by Sarah Tolmie.

Here’s the trailer for Love, Victor on Hulu.

Here’s the first look at Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra’s new thriller The Rumor Game.

Amy Spalding has a book written for adults on the way!

Here’s the first look at the cover for Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour.

TorCon 2021 announced the schedule of events.

Peacock has ordered a series based on the Vampire Academy series of novels by Richelle Mead.

Lupin author Maurice Leblanc’s The Island of Thirty Coffins will be a film.

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: 

cover of the body scout by lincoln michel

The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel (Orbit, September 21)

Holy cats, I don’t even know where to start with this amazing book! It’s set in the future and there is SO much going on, and all of it is awesome.

Let’s start with the world: in this future, people talk to holograms instead of phones, all the animals to ever have existed have been brought back (and are food), Neanderthals have been cloned and walk among the population again, and people can get mechanical parts of themselves replaced when one goes bad (if they can afford it), so some people have the ability to live forever.

Enter Kobo. Once a star for a cyber baseball team, he now works as a scout for the sport since cyber athletes were banned and Big Pharma now owns all the professional sports teams. Kobo’s brother is also a big-time baseball star. J.J. Zunz plays for the Monsanto Mets, and at the beginning of The Body Scout, he dies on the field. Was it all the performance-enhancing drugs and gene manipulation he underwent, or was it murder? (Cyber parts are banned, but drugs are still very much allowed.)

Kobo is determined to get to the bottom of his brother’s death, starting with finding the identity of a young girl his brother was spotted with before his death. He also needs to figure out how to keep the loan sharks off his back, since he still owes for his robotic parts, even though he’s no longer in a profession where they’re needed. Together with the help of his awesome friend, who pulls his genetically-modified bacon out of the fire repeatedly, Kobo searches for the answers.

This is a wild, inventive sci-fi thriller with a lot of heart and a lot of humor, and it also addresses a lot of philosophical questions about cloning and body modification. Imagine if Mickey Spillane wrote Blade Runner—it’s a lot like that. I’m a big fan of wisecracking, down-on-their-luck PIs who still fight to do what’s right, and I also loved the loan shark heavies, Brenda and Wanda, half-robot twins who dog Kobo everywhere he goes. I hope we get to see more of this world!

(CW for violence, murder, body modification and body horror, gore, trauma, and chemical use and abuse. Plus a lot of inferred animal death through meat eating.)

What I’m reading this week.

cover of Playing a Dangerous Game by Patrick Ochieng

Playing a Dangerous Game by Patrick Ochieng

Catch the Sparrow: A Search for a Sister and the Truth of her Murder by Rachel Rear

The Pariah by Anthony Ryan

Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult by Faith Jones

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh 

Groan-worthy joke of the week: 

What kind of noise does a witch’s vehicle make? Brrrroooom, brrroooom.

And this is funny:

Actual LOL.

Happy things:

Here are a few things I enjoy that I thought you might like as well:

  • Ted Lasso: I know it’s a television show but I want to be BFFs with Coach Beard. His karaoke performance slays me.
  • Lungwort: We got these (horribly named) plants for the first time and placed them in several spots around our yard and they’re lovely!
  • Purrli: This website makes the relaxing sounds of a cat purring.

And here’s a cat picture!

orange cat looking over the side of a book case

Zevon is a glamourpuss. (Don’t let that innocent face fool you—he’s a zoomy midnight speed racer, chewer of cords, and surprise climber of humans.)

Trivia answer: The 1950s.

Remember that whatever you are doing or watching or reading this week, I am sending you love and hugs. Please be safe, and be mindful of others. It takes no effort to be kind. I’ll see you again on Thursday. xoxo, Liberty