Author: Vanessa Diaz

Audiobooks 09/10

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 10, 2020

Sponsored by Size Zero by Abigail Mangin

Condom dresses and space helmets have debuted on fashion runways. A dead body becomes the trend when a coat made of human skin saunters down fashion’s biggest stage. The body is identified as Annabelle Leigh, the teenager who famously disappeared over a decade ago from her boyfriend’s New York City mansion. This new evidence casts suspicion back on the former boyfriend, Cecil LeClaire. Now a monk, he is forced to return to his dark and absurd childhood home to clear his name. He teams up with Ava Germaine, a renegade ex-model. And together, they investigate the depraved and lawless modeling industry behind Cecil’s family fortune.

Hola Audiophiles! How’s your week? I’m feeling a little bit like the dog in that “this is fine meme” right now! The view outside my window has been eerie and smokey for three days as fires rage in California and Oregon. The winds got so bad on Sunday that I went out for a beer and came back looking like a tumbleweed.

All joking aside, I hope all those in impacted areas are staying safe. My most heartfelt thanks go out to firefighters and to essential workers still holding it down in this pandemic. Let’s also not forget that Black people are doing the daily work of just existing on top of dealing with the rest of this mess. The work is far from over.

Okay. Let’s audio.

New Releases – Week of September 8, 2020

One by One by Ruth Ware, read by Imogen Church (mystery/thriller) – Oh friends, this might be my favorite Ruth Ware yet! It’s a lock-room thriller set at a lux ski chalet in the French Alps where the founders of Snoop, a London-based tech startup, have organized a weeklong company retreat. Everything starts off normal enough, as normal as it can be when you stick a bunch of big personalities with ridiculous titles and secret motivations together in a secluded location (seriously, the job description section at the beginning took me out!). Then some explosive company news, a ski accident, and a devastating avalanche change everything overnight. Cut off from the world without signs of help on the way, this friendly retreat quickly becomes a cutthroat game of survival and a race to find out who the killer is among them. Side note: you’ll figure out who it is and it will not matter. Those last few chapters are sooooo tight and tense!

Narrator Note: Imogen Church has read all of Ruth Ware’s English language audiobooks with the exception of some Audible original content. I can see why, they’re very well matched. I’ve listened to In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10 on audio and wow, Imogen sure knows how to build panic and suspense.

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart, read by Natalie Naudus, Feodor Chin, Emily Woo Zeller (fantasy) – The emperor has reigned for decades through the mastery of bone shard magic, a reign marked by animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. As his rule begins to wane and revolution sweeps across the empire, the emperor’s daughter Lin remains locked in the palace and is denied her right to the throne. She vows to get what’s owed to her by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic herself. When the revolution makes its way to the palace gates, Lin must weigh the price of claiming her birthright and saving her people.

Narrator Note: What a team of narrators! All have standout performances to their names, but make sure to check out this listening pathway if you’ve never experienced an Emily Woo Zeller production.

Prime Deceptions by Valerie Valdes, read by Almarie Guerra (science fiction) – The first book in this series (Chilling Effect) had me before I’d read a single page: Cuban descendants, a very sweary spaceship captain, interspecies romance, and psychic cats in space?? Add! to! cart! In Prime Deceptions, Captain Eva Inoocente finds herself on a mission to hep bring back a missing scientist, a job with a fat paycheck and noble enough cause attached. But this mission means working with her sister who she’s still not super sure she trusts, and will bring Eva back to the site of her most tragic and painful failure. More psychic cats, more Spanish swear words, more space opera.

Narrator Note: I just talked about Almarie Guerra last week and here we are again! She was fantastic in Chilling Effect and I’m sure she’ll knock it out of the park once more.

Latest Listens

Hello, this is now a newsletter of books I read because Amanda Nelson recommended them. Lucky for us both, she has really great taste! That is how I came to read The Switch by Beth O’Leary.

When Leena Cotton has a panic attack in the middle of a high profile client meeting, she’s sent on a mandatory paid holiday for two months. Leena realizes she has a lot of unprocessed grief to confront after losing her sister to cancer, so she leaves London and escapes to Yorkshire to visit her grandmother Eileen. Eileen is newly divorced from Leena’s philandering grandfather and in the mood for adventure, so Leena helps her set up a dating app profile to help her find love. When they discover the dating pool in the countryside ain’t exactly poppin’, they come up with a plan.They’ll switch places for two months: Leena will live in Eileen’s home in the country sans smart phone or laptop and assume her grandmother’s daily duties therein, and Eileen will stay at Leena’s flat in London and dive headfirst into London’s dating scene.

You might not think that an almost-octagenuarian and a twenty-something would be good candidates for a life swap, but it’s just perfect. Of course, both women find the adjustment a little rocky at first: Leena isn’t used to being disconnected or dealing with nosy neighbors, and Eileen finds the hustle and bustle of London to be cold and inhospitable. But each of them finds their way in their own space and time. Their stories are heartwarming and hilarious with a dose of sexy. When this COVID thing is finally under control (sob), someone put me in touch with their English grandma if she feels like switching lives with a 30-something Latina in the states.

This one is read by Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones and both performances were just delightful. I saw several reviews ragging on Alison Steadman’s portions for excessive mouth/smacking sounds and I admit I got very defensive on behalf of my adopted English grandma. Thinking back, I suppose there was some of that, so if it bothers you, now you know. It never bothered me once, it felt authentic. If you need a cozy and hopeful read to warm your heart, you know what to do.

From the Internets

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month! Audiofile Magazine suggests these five audiobooks for after you’re done signing up.

POPSUGAR came in hot with some truth: Those Who Don’t Count Audiobooks as Reading Can Kindly GTFO

Over at the Riot

This list of 6 of the Best Memoirs on Audio contains one I’ve been raving about all over the place this week, and that’s We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib, read by Parmida Vand. So good!

Thanks for hanging with me today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with with all things audiobook or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the In The Club newsletter and catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

In The Club

In the Club 9/09

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 9, 2020

Sponsored by The Age of Darkness Series by Katy Rose Pool with Fierce Reads.

Kingdoms have begun to fall to a doomsday cult, the magical Graced are being persecuted, and an ancient power threatens to break free. But with the world hurtling toward its prophesized end, one man’s haunting vision reveals the dangerous beginnings of a plan to stop the Age of Darkness. Six of Crows meets Graceling with a dash of ‘Winter is Coming’ in Katy Rose Pool’s Age of Darkness series, which Kirkus calls “well-crafted, surprising, and gripping.”

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. Things are looking a little spooky here in Portland and I wish I meant that in a good way. The winds and smoke blowing in from Northern CA and now fires of our own have this place looking like a house is about to drop on a witch in sparkly red shoes. *shivers*

Before I dive into today’s book club nibbles and reads, seeing caravans of gun-toting “vigilantes” descend on my city has shaken me a little bit. It’s not surprising, but still upsetting. So here’s a friendly reminder to make sure you’re registered to vote and that you’re still doing your part to effect change. Black lives still matter, always have and always will; whether you’re on the ground protesting, donating to bail funds, or spreading the word to get resources to the people who need them, keep on keepin’ on.

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

I’m hanging on to these last days of summer and taking advantage of seasonal produce. If peaches are available where you are, please treat yourself to this delicious peach and burrata salad from the ladies of Food Heaven. Founders Wendy and Jess are two Black registered dietitians who take a very honest and accessible approach to nutrition. They don’t push weight loss (amen!) and teach an intuitive approach to eating (again, not about weight loss, just getting the nutrition your body needs). These two are funny as hell and their recipes are delicious! Learn more from their website, podcast, and check them out on the gram. I know this reads like an ad, but I promise you these women have never heard of me. I’m just a girl standing in front of a hunk of burrata asking it to love me.

Recipe tip: I grilled the peaches on the stove with a tiny bit of agave because ya girl was not about to turn on the oven in this heat, and I also did a super quick pickle on the red onions with some red wine vinegar and red pepper flakes.

A Religious Experience – I’ve been pulling from the Read Harder challenge for inspiration lately because the books I’ve been reading for the show just feel so timely. We most recently covered the task on religious memoirs outside of our own tradition (or lack thereof) and I thought I’d suggest this same them for the club. These are books that have reminded me of a few truths I hope you’ll discuss and unpack:

Religious divide is hardly a new thing in this country or in the world.
Not all people who’ve been cast out by the faith they were raised in want a clean break from that community (though I understand why many would, truly). Many just want to find a safe space therein.
For a country allegedly built on the separation of church and state, religion has been very intentionally woven into the fabric of the US and it was done for a very specific purpose (see God Land).
It’s easy to think one’s faith is “better” or worse than another, but I’ve found that so many of the most beautiful and the most hateful/hurtful/prejudiced parts feel very similar from religion to religion. This sounds dire, but it can also be strangely hopeful if you look at it from a “we’re more alike than you think” perspective.

We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib – Samra Habib was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan where her Ahmadi Muslim family experienced regular threats from Islamic extremists. Her family went to Canada as refugees, where young Samra assumed the worst of her troubles were behind her. It wasn’t long before she discovered a whole new set of challenges awaited her: bullies, racism, the threat of poverty, and an arranged marriage while she was still in high school. Slowly, Samra begins to begrudge the pattern of the men in her life policing her every move while the women encouraged pious obedience. This brief but impactful memoir follows Samra as she grows to embrace her creative, feminist spirit and her queerness while also finding a safe space in the Muslim community. (TW: brief reference to childhood sexual abuse)

Educated by Tara Westover – You’ve heard me rave about this one before so I’ll keep it brief, but I can’t talk about memoirs + religion without talking about this story. Tara Westover was raised in rural Idaho by survivalist and fundamentalist Mormon parents who “homeschooled” their children (mainly put them to work in the scrap yard) and denied the validity of modern medicine. Westover decides she wants to go to school and sneakily finds a way to get into BYU, attending school for the very first time at age 17. Tara not only graduated, but went on to earn a PhD from Cambridge. That is all impressive enough on its own, but even more so when you throw in the verbal and physical abuse she endured.

God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America by Lyz Lenz – Before the 2016 election, Lyz Lenz was already in a politically divided marriage and was writing about a trend she’d observed in the closure of small churches in America’s heartland (including one she’s started in her own home). Then the election came (a moment of silence, please). Lenz watched as her country and her marriage were torn apart by issues of faith and politics and what began as a journalistic endeavor also became a deeply personal memoir. “From drugstores in Sydney, Iowa, to skeet shooting in rural Illinois, to the mega churches of Minneapolis, Lenz set out to discover the changing forces of faith and tradition in God’s country.”

Suggestion Section

Apple and Oprah have partnered up to launch a new podcast based on the Oprah book Club. The podcast title, which may surprise you, is Oprah’s Book Club.

Move over, Reese and Oprah. Malala Yousafzai, Steph Curry, and Richard Branson want in on the celebrity book club game.

Susan Orlean says we can expect exceptional writing and lots of wine in her new book club. And here’s a reminder of the time she got drunk and tweeted about it and had a delightful sense of humor about the whole thing.

Ah, remember that sweet, sweet feeling of falling into a book club for the first time?

… and then maybe finding you’re too slow a reader for book club?

Consider joining the #APSTogether book club, an online offering from A Public Space that pairs writers and readers for monthly book discussions.

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 and catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Audiobooks

Audiobooks 09/02

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 2, 2020

Sponsored by The audiobook edition of Don't Look For Me written by Wendy Walker & read by Therese Plummer.

In Wendy Walker’s thrilling audiobook, Don’t Look for Me, the greatest risk isn’t running away. It’s running out of time. One night, Molly Clarke walked away from her life. She doesn’t want to be found. Or at least, that’s the story. It happens all the time. Women disappear, desperate to leave their lives behind and start over. But is that what really happened to Molly Clarke? Listen to Therese Plummer’s narration of the Don’t Look For Me audiobook to find out.

Hola Audiophiles! Welcome back to Audiolandia. I have been looking forward to a lot of today’s new releases for some time now so let’s get straight to it! Like I said before: this fall is going to be quite the ride.

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – week of September 1st

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole, read by Susan Dalian, Jay Aaseng (mystery/thriller) – My Riot buddy Jamie Canavés has given this book an absolutely glowing review and says it’s best to go into it knowing as little as possible. So I’ll say just give you this: a young woman in Brooklyn is doing her best to keep (get?) her life and neighborhood in order. When she begins to research the neighborhood’s history, strange things start happening… Props to Alyssa Cole for killing the romance game and now hitting us with this magnificent work of suspense!

Narrator Note: Susan Dalian is the voice of Haku in the first season of Naruto, as well as Storm in Wolverine and the X-Men and Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. Jay Aeseng is a writer/actor/producer who you may know from the Twin Peaks TV series.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, read by Bahni Turpin (fiction) – This book sounds like it is going to slap me in the face and I will take that slap with a smile. Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at Stanford studying depression and addiction. After an ankle injury leaves her athlete brother hooked on Oxy and he dies of a heroin overdose, Gifty turns to science to understand the depth of her family’s loss. But she also finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and the evangelical church in which she was raised, where the promise of salvation is tempting, but elusive.

Narrator Note: I’m not even going to say anything about Bahni Turpin anymore. Just going to drop her name and the mic.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, read by Avi Roque (YA fantasy) – I love this book! Aiden Thomas is a delightful queer trans Latinx human and this is their debut paranormal queer romantic YA fantasy (it’s adjective day!). It’s about a trans boy who wants more than anything for his traditional Latinx family to accept his true gender. To prove that he’s a brujo, he performs a death day ritual with the help of his badass BFF to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free. Pero…the ghost he summons a) isn’t his cousin and b) kind of refuses to leave, and c) is also kind of dreamy? This book is full of Latinx references and non-italicized Spanish and is inspired by lots of different Dia de los Muertos rituals. Mi corazon is just fit to burst!

Narrator Note: Avi Roque is an actor whose most recent work includes the show Chicago Med. They are also queer, trans, and Latinx which I really appreciate as a choice for this book. I love the humor, the drama, and the tenderness they lend to the words from what I’ve sampled so far.

Wayward Witch by Zoraida Cordova, read by Almarie Guerra (YA fantasy) – 🎶Although we’ve come *snap* to the eeeeend ooooh the road… I am both very ready and wholly unprepared to read this last installment of the Brooklyn Brujas series by my fave Zoraida Córdova. This part mythical/part urban fantasy series has followed the three Mortiz sisters as they come into their powers and battle magic in both the real world and worlds beyond. Wayward Witch is told from Rose’s perspective and kicks off with a huge revelation on her Deathday ceremony, which leads to an adventure in the Caribbean Sea. Apparently today’s newsletter is dedicated to witchy Latinx death day stuff and I am very okay with that.

Narrator Note: Almarie Guerra did a fantastic job with Five Midnights by Ann Dávila Cardinal and is such a great choice to voice the youngest Mortiz sister! Her body of work includes Valerie Valdes’ Chilling Effect, The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera, and Wendy Heard’s The Kill Club.

Latest Listens

Heyyyyy it’s more (sorta) witchy Latinx death stuff! I wrapped up my listen of Tehlor Kay Mejia’s Paola Santiago and the River of Tears, a middle grade fantasy adventure inspired by the legend of La Llorona. Before I tell you about the book, let me tell you a little more about The Weeping (or Crying or Wailing) Woman.

I’m fairly positive that La Llorona began as a Mexican folk tale, though I’m sure she’s been an equal opportunist in terrifying children of numerous Latin American backgrounds. The legend varies a little, but the general idea is that long ago before La Llorona was La Llorona, she was a woman who married a rich man and had a couple of kids. The husband was rarely home and on the rare occasion in which he was, the guy ignore his wife and focused all his attention on the kids. Sh*t really hit the fan when Not-Yet-La Llorona caught her man with another woman, and that is when it’s said she drowned her children in a jealous rage. In some versions of the story, she also drowned herself and was then turned away from the pearly gates, banished to purgatory on Earth to spend her days in search of her lost children. It’s said she continues to lurk near bodies of water in her funereal gown waiting to attack or kidnap children. Might this story terrify a kid who lives in mother&@%^# coastal San Diego? Me. That kid was me, and the answer is yes.

Back to the book! Paola Santiago and the River of Tears is part of the Rick Riordan Presents line and the titular character is a science and space-obsessed 12-year-old. Pao and her two best friends, Emma and Dante, know they must abide by one rule: stay away from the river. It’s all they’ve heard since a schoolmate of theirs drowned in the Gila a year ago, and Pao resents her mom’s insistence that La Llorona is to blame.

In spite of all the risk and warnings, Pao organizes a meet-up to test out her new telescope in a stargazing spot by the river. But Emma never shows and remains missing the next day, and Pao begins to wonder if her mom was maybe, possibly a little bit right. She and Dante will have to brave a world of unnatural mist, monsters of lore, and relentless spirits controlled by a terrifying unknown force. Could that force be… nah, it couldn’t. Or can it? Maybe. You’ll see.

Between the use of a magical chancla and the presence of chupacabras, I again wish I could hop in the spaceship and gift this literary treat to my younger self. What fun to see the mythologies I grew up with brought to such magical and adventurous light! It takes a careful hand to take a pretty dark and terrifying story like that of La Llorona and calibrate the creepy down to a level that works for a middle grade audience. Tehlor Kay Mejia is that very hand and I’m glad this generation of kids will get to devour her work.

Narration gets five stars from Frankie Corzo for well-paced, suspenseful narration and for getting the voices of twelve year olds just right.

From the Internets

Check out Libro.fm’s Independent Bookstore Day wrap-up, including video submissions just dripping in indie bookstore love.

at AudioFile: 5 New Enemies-to-Lovers Romances on Audio – This is quickly becoming one of my favorite tropes!

Over at the Riot

7 Literary Authors Who Read Their Own Audiobooks– Ta-Nehisi Coates’s voice has stayed with me all these years, what a performance.

Traversing World of Warcraft Armed with Audiobooks

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

In The Club

In the Club 9/2

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date September 2, 2020

Sponsored by The Afflictions by Vikram Paralkar from Lanternfish Press.

The legendary Encyclopedia of Medicine is a dizzying collection of maladies: an amnesia that causes everyone you’ve ever met to forget you exist, while you remain perfectly, painfully aware of your history. A wound that grows with each dark thought or evil deed you commit but shrinks with every act of kindness. A disease that causes your body to imitate death, stopping your heart, cooling your blood. Will the fit pass before they bury you—or after?

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. This week I’m back in Portland again after spending another several weeks in Southern California. Many of you wrote in to basically say, “Vanessa, it is not that hot in Portland. Relax!” I know I’m pale, but I promise I’m not just a delicate flower who can’t take even the slightest exposure to sun: I was in San Diego and it was near 100 almost the entire time.

Inspired by that same es-muy-hot-so-me-no-cooky mentality, we’re making ceviche this week! As for our book club theme, we’re taking a look at rural stereotypes, i.e. all that we get wrong about rural America.

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips – Mexican Ceviche

Ceviche means different things in different parts of Latin America, and even within Mexico varies from region to region. This is the style I grew up eating in a border city, a version typical in Mexico’s northern states and coastal towns. Make a big o’l batch for book club up to a day ahead and enjoy! This recipe serves about 4.

1.5 lbs of uncooked shrimp (peeled, deveined, chopped into smallish chunks)
1 large roma tomato (firm is best), chopped
1 large cucumber, peeled and chopped (remove the seeds first)
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
About a handful of cilantro, finely chopped
Serrano peppers, diced (start with one, add more based on heat preference)
A pinch of crushed pequin peppers (may substitute red pepper flakes)
1 teaspoon of Maggi sauce (may substitute soy sauce)
1/4 cup of Clamato (optional)
salt, pepper, Mexican oregano to taste

Add some salt and pepper to the chopped shrimp and combine with the lime juice in a large bowl. Cover and allow the acid to “cook” the shrimp in the fridge for at least 15 minutes (I usually do an hour). Once that’s done, drain but reserve the lime juice. Combine all the remaining ingredients, season to taste, and add back some of the lime juice for that extra citrusy punch (eyeball this part, the mixture should be wet but not drowning). Serve with sliced avocado, tostadas or chips, and hot sauce of choice! Some folks like their tostadas with mayo on them, do do that if you like. I’ll just over here throwing up in my mouth.

What We Get Wrong, Really Really Wrong

This theme of books set in or about rural America is one taken straight from the 2020 Read Harder Challenge. Tirzah and I discussed this specific task in the last episode of the Read Harder challenge, and it felt important to talk about what we get wrong about rural America given, well, life in 2020 and way before that. None of these books claim that all rural stereotypes are completely off base, but they do ask us as readers to give up some of the laziness of relying solely on them. They challenge us instead to hear the important messages that the stereotyped are trying to tell us.

The Third Rainbow Girl by Emma Copley Eisenberg – True crime isn’t generally my bag these days; so much of it wreaks of a morbid obsession with the murder and mutilation of women’s bodies and I just cannot. In spite of that aversion, I was drawn to this book by Amanda Nelson’s review of it on Instagram in which she starts off by describing why she would normally NOT have picked up the book and still ended up loving it. The story at its core is of the murder of two young white women in the 80s who were hitchhiking their way to Appalachia for a yearly counterculture nature meetup, but it’s the analysis of the aftermath that sets this book apart. Emma Copley Eisenberg dives into the stereotypes about Appalachia that led to many false assumptions in the wake of the crime, without ignoring the violent misogyny often prevalent in this region or her own liberal do-gooderness.

Book Club Bonus: First, get deep into that rural stereotype thing because whew. Secondly, the author asks, and attempts to answer, a very uncomfortable question that I encourage you to think about too: how can we ever reckon with violence against women if we also insist on a voyeuristic obsession with it?

Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby – This thriller is super popular with the Book Riot crew right now! Beauregard, aka Bug, is a family man doing his best to provide for his wife and kids. But life hasn’t dealt him a particularly fortuitous hand: his garage is struggling, he’s unable to make ends meet, and now his elderly mother is facing eviction from her nursing home. In a bid for some fast cash, he steps back into a familiar role as a getaway driver, a job he left a long time ago. He goes into it with that good ol’ “just one more job!” mentality we’ve heard before, pero… three guesses as to how that turns out.

Book Club Bonus: This is one of the books Tirzah covered on Read Harder and she had amazing things to say about its portrayal of rural life. As she put it, rural tropes and stereotypes do exist here, but they’re paired alongside narratives on race, class, and family that fly in the face of the very limited view so often painted of rural America in literature and media. Discuss which of these stereotypes you brought with you to the reading and what you had to learn to let go of as you progressed.

What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte – I’ll be brief: don’t read Hillbilly Elegy, read this instead. I’ve heard this advice from so many people born and raised in this region, and the more I’ve gotten to know about the author of that other book, the more I see why. The more official synopsis: this book is “a frank assessment of America’s recent fascination with the people and problems of the region. The book analyzes trends in contemporary writing on Appalachia, presents a brief history of Appalachia with an eye toward unpacking Appalachian stereotypes, and provides examples of writing, art, and policy created by Appalachians as opposed to for Appalachians.”

Book Club Bonus: The “by” versus “for” thing really got me thinking and I hope it will do the same for you. How many times have you seen a thing done “for” a group of people and have it be just so, so bad: uninformed, lazy, even harmful in how much it gets wrong?

Suggestion Section

New month, new book club picks from Good Morning America, PBS, Jenna Bush Hager, Reese, Oprah, and Vox.

Celeb Book Club: What the Stars Are Reading Right Now – Before you get all, “I’m a Serious a Reader and don’t care what celebrities are reading,” the list isn’t all the usual suspects. Also, I kind of appreciate a dude coming out and being like, “Yeah, I’m reading Twilight. So?”

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Audiobooks

Audiobooks 08/27

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date August 27, 2020

Sponsored by Size Zero by Abigail Mangin.

Hola Audiophiles! How goes it on this fine (hahahah, “fine”) Thursday? Let’s get right to the audiobook thing before thinking too hard about anything else makes my blood pressure spike.

Let’s audio.

New Releases – week of August 25 (publisher descriptions in quotes)

Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram, read by Michael Levi Harris (contemporary YA fiction) – This is the sequel to Darius the Great is Not Okay. Darius is back home in the U.S., playing soccer, dating his very first boyfriend, and maintaining a long distance friendship with Sohrab. Then things sort of fall apart: his new internship at a tea shop doesn’t go according to plan, Sohrab sort of ghosts him, and both of Darius’ grandmothers are in town. Darius has to decide whether to accept that this is just how life goes, or if he perhaps deserves better,

Narrator Note: Michael Levi Harris is back! If you enjoyed his reading of Darius the Great Is Not Okay, you’re back in good hands for the sequel.

Useless Vanessa Note: There’s such a thing as a tea shop internship??? Why wasn’t I informed?!

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden, read by Darrell Dennis (mystery/thriller) – Virgil Wounded Horse lives on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota where he’s basically an enforcer; when the American legal system or the tribal council fail to being about justice, people come to him for help of a certain kind. “But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s own nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal.”

Narrator Note: You may recognize Darrell Dennis as one of the narrators of Tommy Orange’s There There.

Desperate Plea from Vanessa Note: Can we, maybe… call Rosebud? I need someone to enforce on 2020’s ass.

The Great Offshore Grounds by Vanessa Veselka, read by Xe Sands (fiction) – It’s been years since half sisters Cheyenne and Livy have seen each other, but Cheyenne is back in Seattle and crashing on Livy’s couch after a failed marriage. Livy restores boats for a living and is beginning to resent Cheyenne for her free-loading ways when they get in the way of plans to fish off the coast of Alaska. The light at the end of the tunnel for everyone is the promise of financial security: on the day of their estranged father’s wedding, the sisters set out to claim their inheritance. Plot twist! Their father gives them not money, but a name, a name that leads to the unearthing of a wild family secret.

Narrator Note: Xe Sands has a lot of audiobooks under her belt, and I personally cosign her performance of Sarah Gailey’s Magic for Liars. Magic school! Noir! A hardened P.I. jealous of her magical sister! TEENAGERS! She does it all so well.

Latest Listens

I am about to dive into Tehlor Kay Mejia’s River of Tears, a middle grade fantasy adventure based on the Mexican legend of La Llorona (the crying woman, aka the source of many Mexican children’s nightmares). This latest book from the Rick Riordan Presents line is everything Little Vanessita would have wanted way back when! Adult Vanessa will read it gleefully on her behalf.

In the meantime, let me dig into some backlist and recommend The Cutting Season by Attica Locke, read by Quincy Tyler Bernstine. Before I go any further, please be advised that this book takes place on a plantation in modern day and contains discussions of slavery and related violence. It’s been some time since I read it so I don’t recollect how detailed or graphic those scenes are; I can tell you that I am very sensitive to violence and sexual assault and was still able to enjoy the story.

The plot: Caren Gray is a young black single mother who manages Belle Vie, a massive antebellum plantation in Louisiana where the past and the present bleed into one another most creepily. Belle Vie has been turned into a ridiculous tourist attraction featuring full-dress re-enactments and fully restored slave quarters (why yes, now would be a good time to scream). Caren is caught up in her own issues—the challenges of raising a daughter on her own, questioning her life choices and career trajectory—when she discovers the body of a migrant worker on the plantation grounds. The search to find the killer unearths another mystery from the plantation’s past.

I was reminded just how much I love this book after talking about Bluebird, Bluebird on the latest episode of the Read Harder Podcast. Like Locke’s Highway 59 series, The Cutting Season is a riveting mystery paired with discussions of race in America as well as motherhood, the complicated legacy of the South, and human nature’s darkest proclivities. Quincy Tyler Bernstine, who was part of the ensemble cast of Jacqueline Woodson’s Red at the Bone, delivers a wonderful performance. Her voice is rich, warm, and a little bit breathy, all in perfect measure based on the intensity of the scene. Pick this one up if you’re in the mood for a thrilling read that examines this country’s ugly history of racial violence. Also, plantations: PORQUE?

From the Internets

Audible has unveiled a new subscription plan structure.

Libro.fm has released its list of Fall’s Most Anticipated Audiobooks (or as they call it, their TBLT—to be listened to, I presume?). It features titles by (deep breath) Walter Mosley, Lindy West, David Sedaris, Dolly Parton, Megan Rapinoe, Rebecca Roanhorse, Desus & Mero, Elena Ferrante and okay I’m out of breath now but there are so many more.

File this BuzzFeed piece under “relatable content:” Audiobooks Are — And I Can’t Stress This Enough — Saving My Sanity During COVID-19

Over at the Riot

I love when I find an entire audiobook series to really sink my teeth (ears?) into, don’t you? Here’s a list of juicy series to keep you busy for days.

On audiobooking while you sleep – I’m so curious to know how many people do this!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

In The Club

In the Club 08/26

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date August 26, 2020

Sponsored by Traitor by Amanda McCrina with Fierce Reads.

Amanda McCrina’s Traitor is a tightly woven thrill ride exploring political conflict, deep-seated prejudice, and the terror of living in a world where betrayal is a matter of life or death. “Alive with detail and vivid with insight, Traitor is an effortlessly immersive account of a shocking and little-known moment in the turbulent history of Poland and Ukraine—and ironically, a piercing and bittersweet story of unflinching loyalty. I think Tolya has left my heart a little damaged forever.” —Elizabeth Wein, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Code Name Verity and The Enigma Game

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. I’ve got some book club suggestions inspired by election season for you today plus some cold nibbles for these super hot (for some of us) days.

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

I know I’m a broken record but it is still SO hot, the kind of hot where cooking sounds like the last thing on earth I feel like doing. After buying a whole bunch of cold ready-made meals for a week, it finally occurred to me that I could easily prepare stuff like that at home. If you’re feeling the heat and don’t feel like turning that stove on when it’s your turn to host social distance book club, here are a few ideas.

A few things: I can’t even be bothered to cook my own chicken and have no shame in buying cooked rotisserie chickens. All simple salads are tossed in a quick dressing of red wine vinegar, avocado oil, salt, pepper, and oregano. I also like to put some of that Trader Joe’s Chili Onion Crunch on… everything, but especially the proteins.

Cubed chicken, simple salad, a scoop of hummus, sliced carrots and bell peppers, half an avocado
Hard boiled eggs, simple salad, grapes, cubed white cheddar, half an avocado
Cubed chicken, feta, cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, a scoop of hummus, tzaziki sauce
Salami, ham roll-ups, provolone or mozzarella, crackers, pesto

What are your favorite cold meals and snack foods for sharing with book club friends?

Election Season!

With election season around the corner, I thought now would be a good time to discuss some books related to what’s at stake here. From the biography of a VP to YA fiction about finding your voice in the political landscape, all of these selections should stimulate a healthy conversation related to the election, voting, and policy.

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris – In truth, Kamala was not my first choice for President nor for VP, but I am still happy to see her nominated. I’m also not dismissing valid critique of her prosecutorial record. All that being said, I find that a lot of people only tout the same three facts about Kamala when asked for their opinion of her politics, and those facts are often a regurgitation of whatever is circulating on Facebook and Twitter that day versus an informed opinion. While a biography is obviously a biased account and not the entire picture, I think it is a good start to hear her story in her own words.

Book Club Bonus: For book club, have everyone come prepared with some research and thoughts on her history, policy positions, and current platform.

Running by Natalia Sylvester – Cuban American teen Mariana Ruiz has always rooted for her politician father, from back in the day in small, local elections to his run for the Senate. Everything changes when he decides to run for President: the scrutiny is Level 1000 invasive and Mariana learns some things about her dad that she doesn’t know how to process. She struggles to find her voice while viral videos and manufactured scandals threaten to undo her. What do you do when your dad stops being your hero, and how do you speak up when there is so much at stake? These are the difficult questions weighing heavy on Mari’s spirit.

Book Club Bonus: I picked this book because it feels very timely. Young people are politically engaged today in ways I frankly never was at their age and we don’t always give them proper credit for their passion, their conviction, and their activism. I hope reading this book will spark a discussion about young people’s civic engagement.

Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh – That subtitle really gets down to the meat and potatoes of this most maddening American paradox: we are the wealthiest nation in the world, but our income inequality is egregious and inexcusable. This memoir of working-class poverty in the U.S. demonstrates the tragic and maddening ways in which class shapes our country, “challenging the myths about people thought to be less because they earn less.”

Book Club Bonus: I won’t claim to be some great economist, but I have come to learn that a fractured understanding of economic policy, not to mention the insidious “immigrants took my job” narrative, are the impetus for the way a lot of people vote. These aren’t necessarily the central themes of this book, but they go hand in hand. If we’re looking for answers and solutions to the poverty level in the U.S., we need to vote for policies aimed at the real root of its cause. Discuss!

Fascism: A Warning by Madeline Albright – Madeleine Albright knows a thing or two about fascism; she escaped the Nazis with her family as a little girl. In this book, she discusses the rise of fascism in the 20th century by breaking down how leaders like Mussollini, Hitler, and yes, the Cheeto in Charge have all followed what really does sounds like a frightening fascist formula. If you’re like me, you might go into this thinking, “I already know this!” There’s something about seeing the facts lined up the way they are here though that really makes their similarities frighteningly clear.

Book Club Bonus: Do take some time to unpack how it isn’t just the big, overtly terrible abuses of power but also the small, incremental, and strategic moves that undermine democratic ideals. I think this is an essential conversation today for… ya know, reasons.

Suggestion Section

When it comes to talking to kids about racism and social justice, I can only imagine how hard it must be to know where to start. Enter the Speak Up Book Club.

If you’re keeping up with Tor.com’s Terry Pratchett Book Club, catch part II of the Equal Rites discussion

Crimson Wine Group and Book Club Girl, a social media and event platform of the William Morrow group, have partnered to create the Wine & Words virtual book club. You guessed it: wine + books!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Audiobooks

Audiobooks 08/20

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date August 19, 2020

In the Club 08/19

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date August 19, 2020

Sponsored by Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls.

Thirty-eight year old Charlie Lewis is about to be married, but he can’t stop thinking about the past, and the events of one particular summer. He was sixteen years old then, his life not at all glamorous, thinking about the future with dread. But then, Fran Fisher bursts into his life and, despite himself, Charlie begins to hope. In order to spend time with Fran, Charlie must—gulp—join a play. Romeo and Juliet, to be exact, and hespends the summer facing his fears and becoming a different person thanks to Fran and his fellow theater troupe.

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. How’s it going, amigxs? I’m over here sweating in places I won’t name and watching my skin explode in a phenomenon I now know as maskne, but we’re entering one of the most bountiful release seasons I’ve seen in awhile, and that is pretty exciting. Let’s talk about how we can support those authors with our book club endeavors, shall we?

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

It’s… so hot here on the West Coast. My brain is a little fried, so I’m taking a week off from my usual nibbles & sips programming and encouraging everyone to drink lots and lots of water.

Book Club Gets Virtually Eventful

On Monday, I came across this Buzzfeed roundup of virtual author events going on this week. I wrote down a few I’d love to get in on, then I got to thinking about how hard it has to be for authors promoting books, especially debuts, in the middle of a pandemic. It’s tough enough to get to the point of publication and even tougher to make a big splash on a good day! Add in the cancellation of most in-person events and you have quite the challenge on your hands.

So this week, I want to encourage you and your book club to pick a book coming out sometime in 2020, buy it if that’s within your means, then track down a virtual event for that book if possible. If you can get in on a preorder, you may even score some cool book swag with your purchase! This feeds two birds with one scone: you’ll be supporting the author both with your dollars and by ensuring the author isn’t alone on that Zoom call, and the “work” of organizing a book club meeting will practically be done for you.

First: some tips for finding virtual author events

Follow the author on social media, especially Instagram where so many of these kinds of announcements are made
Check your local indie’s calendar of virtual events
Look up literary festivals since many of these have now gone online

And now for some book recs! These are just a few suggestions I’m particularly excited about, but again: there are so. many. books. coming out this fall.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas – I marked and remarked this release in bright green highlighter on my calendar when its earlier release date was pushed from early summer to fall (thanks, Rona!). It’s a debut work of paranormal YA about a trans boy who wants more than anything for his super traditional Latinx family to accept his true gender. To prove that he’s a brujo, he performs a ritual with the help of his BFF to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free. Problem: the ghost he summons kind of refuses to leave, and also he’s super dreamy. This book made mi corazon Mexicano just so, so full. (September 1)

Book Club Bonus: Aiden is very active on the socials and has started to announce all kinds of fun stuff! I’m already signed up for their virtual event through Powell’s next month where they’ll be in conversation with Adam Silvera. Yay! They will also be a part of the Latinx Kidlit Book Festival with this absolutely ridiculous lineup of authors: Lilliam Rivera, Zoraida Cordova, Mark Oshiro, Meg Medina, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Daniel Jose Older, Elizabeth Acevedo, Anna-Marie McLemore… my brain, it explodes!

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole – Many of you already know and love Alyssa Cole as a romance writer, as you should! If you don’t know about her yet, take a lil detour here first, then pick up her mystery/thriller debut. Described as a mashup of Rear Window and Get Out, this is a thriller set in a Brooklyn neighborhood in which gentrification takes on a sinister new meaning… (September 1)

Book Club Bonus: Alyssa Cole hosts a regular romance event through Loyalty Bookstore! Date Night with Alyssa Cole is currently a digital series featuring a diverse group of Romance writers and takes place every other Friday at 6PM ET.

Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera – This is a YA retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth by my beloved Lilliam Rivera, the author who won me all the way over in Dealing in Dreams when she named the girl gang Las Malcriadas. This reimagining is set in the Bronx and features Afro-Latinx characters, giving me major Pride vibes in the best possible way. (September 15)

Book Club Bonus: Catch Lilliam at the Latinx Kidlit Book Festival as mentioned above! You can also catch her next week at Lo’ Mas Lit Book Club (that name is everything!) with Elizabeth Acevedo, Natalia Sylvester, and Jenn de Leon in conversation with Angie Cruz. What I wouldn’t give to share a meal with this crew!

Suggestion Section

Reese Witherspoon announced her first ever YA book club pick. Congrats, Leah! Get that shine!

Tor.com’s Terry Pratchett Book Club discusses Equal Rights, Part i

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Audiobooks

Audiobooks 08/13

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date August 13, 2020

Sponsored by the audiobook edition of The Night Swim by Megan Goldin, read by Bailey Carr, January LaVoy and Samantha Desz.

In Megan Goldin’s new thriller, The Night Swim, a true-crime podcast host covering a controversial trial finds herself drawn deep into a small town’s dark past and a brutal crime that took place years before. The third season of Rachel Krall’s smash podcast has brought her South, to a town torn apart when a local golden boy, an Olympic swimming hopeful, is accused of raping the granddaughter of the police chief. Electrifying and propulsive, The Night Swim asks: What is the price of a reputation? Can a small town ever right the wrongs of its past? And what really happened?

Hola Audiophiles! I am pleased to report that I have finished Araminta Hall’s latest release and did not have to chuck this book at a wall, tempted as I was at the end. It’s a messy book in a great and infuriating way and I’m excited to talk about it!

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – August 13 (publisher descriptions in quotes)

By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar, read by Ralph Lister – Take Arthurian legend, throw it in the blender, add some kerosene, and light a match, and you’ll maybe arrive at the wild subversiveness of Lavie Tidhar’s latest literary creation. No one, and I do mean no one, is likable in this version: the Knights of the Round Table are all out for themselves, Merlin is a butt face who feeds off conflict, and even the Lady of the Lake is a shady arms dealer. Yeah! You read that right! Woven into lot of violence and humor is a pretty searing critique of Brexit and that’s where this book hooked me. Make sure to read the afterword: it explains how and why Tidhar twisted this venerated story to point out the hypocrisy of nationalism.

Narrator Note: Ralph Lister most recently read Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell, I’ve heard lots of good things!

Veritas A Harvard Professor, a Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife, by Ariel Sabar, read by Robert Petkoff – Dr. Karen King was a venerated scholar and professor at Harvard’s Divinity School. She was THE deal in her field, which is why she made a big ol splash when she stood up at a conference near the Vatican to be all, “Okay so I have in my possession a fragment of papyrus in which Jesus refers to Mary Magdalene as his wife. Discuss!” The discovery was huge because it proved that Mary Magdalene wasn’t “just some prostitute” but Jesus’ literal life partner, shattering the idea of celibacy as a requirement for church leadership and condemning the exclusion of women in those roles. What follows next is a blend of supreme investigative journalism that reads like a detective novel as Ariel Sabar explores how Dr. King was duped against all odds and the scandal that ensued.

Narrator Note: If you loved the audiobook for Hollow Kingdom, then Robert Petkoff is your guy!

Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, read by Inés del Castillo – An adventure with elements of magical realism based in Mexican American cosmology with a sex-positive storyline told from a young woman’s perspective? Oh I’m all over that! It’s been three years since Sia Martinez’ mom was deported thanks to a racist sheriff in her tiny Arizona town. Her mom tried to cross the Sonoran on foot to reunite with her family and went missing along the way, and it’s presumed that she died on that harrowing journey. Sia grieves her mother daily but has a special tradition every new moon wherein she drives into the desert to light candles for her. Imagine her surprise when a giant spaceship crashes in front of her during one of these special rituals, and that spaceship is carrying none other than her very alive mother. (TW sexual and racial trauma, racist language)

Narrator Note: Inés del Castillo is doing a ton of audio work right now, too. You may recognize her from A Taste of Sage by Yaffa S. Santos or Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas.

Latest Listens

Imperfect Women is a ride, yo. At the beginning of the book, we know that the uber wealthy and stunningly gorgeous Nancy has gone missing. It’s not long before she’s found dead, leaving behind a husband, a teenaged daughter and her two best friends: Mary, a wife and mother to three children, and Eleanor, who remains single and whose job at a charity routinely takes her all over the world.

Nancy’s death is very quickly determined to be the result of foul play but the identity of her killer is unclear. As the search for answers ensues and motives for killing Nancy surface left and right, Eleanor and Mary realize they may not have known their friend as well as they thought they did, nor do they really know each other or themselves.

I’ll start off by saying that this thriller is, for me at least, way more about the whydunnit than the whodunnit. I was still going back and forth about the killer until pretty much the end and though I did eventually guess it, the juiciest bits of the book are the ones that dive into the secret lives of women: how a well-polished appearance can obfuscate dark truths and unhappiness, the ways in which women are silenced and gaslit by the very people who are supposed to uplift them, how society claims to venerate motherhood and childrearing yet utterly fails to support women both in the home and in the workspace. It asks that really uncomfortable question: how well can you ever really know a person? Dive into this book and get ready to contemplate lots of moral grey area as you learn more and more unsavory bits about each of the characters’ imperfect lives.

Of course there’s the narration and I give that a thumbs up, too. Helen Keeley very deftly portrayed each character with distinction and tonal variety and just has one of those pleasant English accents my basic self loves so much.

From the Internets

POPSUGAR rounded up celebrity memoir audiobooks narrated by the authors themselves. Several titles are sort of predictable (but still fabulous): Born A Crime, Becoming, Kitchen Confidential (*takes a moment to sob*), but I hope more people will pick up personal faves like Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up and Gabourey Sidibe’s This Is Just My Face.

From The Guardian: why the rise of audiobooks is a story worth telling. (Say it with me now, Audiophiles: “Duh!”)

Libro.fm is killing it with these recent interviews: catch their convo with Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Stephen Graham Jones. Side note: these two wildly talented people have clearly conspired to prevent us from sleeping at night in 2020.

Over at the Riot

Bring on the drama! The family drama, that is.

What’s your audiobook speed? I have never ever been able to listen comfortably at anything above a 1.5 without feeling like I’m listening to Alvin and the Chipmunks (or las ardillitas if you grew up Mexican like me).

A little reinforcement of why audiobooks rock.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

In The Club

In the Club 08/12

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date August 12, 2020