Author: Vanessa Diaz

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Audiobooks

Audiobooks 08/06

Hola Audiophiles! I am fresh off a quarantine sojourn by the beach and feel so revived! The salty beach air, bonfires on the sand, and cocktails in the sunshine were just what I needed to shake off some of the pandemic blues. In other good news, this week brings lots of books I’m really excited to talk about, so let’s dive on in.

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – August 4  (publisher descriptions in quotes)

Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio by Mario Giordano, read by Matt Addis (mystery) – I’ve described the titular Auntie Poldi as Sophia Petrillo if she were Polish and way more drunk. If you don’t know, now you know: that is glowing praise indeed. This relatively cozy series follows Auntie Poldi, who’s chosen to spend her retirement in Sicily in search of sun, romance, and a steady supply of wine. She just keeps on finding crimes to go sticking her nose in though, and this latest installment brings her into contact with both the mafia and her lying cheat of an ex-husband.

Narrator Note: Matt Addis has narrated the other books in this series and is just so pleasant to listen to!

lobizonaLobizona by Romina Garber, read by Sol Madariaga (YA fantasy) – This is the first in a new series that I am 18 different kinds of excited about! It infuses folklore (werewolves!!) in an immigration story and that is how you hook me. Manuela is undocumented and running from her father’s Argentine crime-family, so she’s kept a low profile and confined herself to a small Miami apartment. When her surrogate grandmother is attacked and her mother arrested by ICE, Manu goes searching for answers about her past with a mysterious “Z” emblem as her only clue. The search takes her to a secret world straight out of Argentine folklore where brujas and werewolves exist, and down a path that reveals the terrifying truth of Manu’s heritage. It’s not just her residency, but her very existence that is illegal.

Narrator Note: Sol Madariaga is a trilingual actress originally from Argentina and that makes me SO happy. The Argentine Spanish accent is so unique and I love getting to hear it spoken authentically!

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi, read by Yetide Badaki anf Chukwudi Iwuji (fiction) – In a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother discovers her son’s Vivek’s body wrapped in colorful fabric at her doorstep. Vivek is a bit of an enigma to his family, a spirit that’s both gentle and mysterious. He suffers occasional blackouts and moments of disconnection, a condition that exacerbates as he enters adulthood. Vivek’s closest friend is Osita, “the worldly, high-spirited cousin whose teasing confidence masks a guarded private life. As their relationship deepens—and Osita struggles to understand Vivek’s escalating crisis—the mystery gives way to a heart-stopping act of violence in a moment of exhilarating freedom.” This is the latest from the author of Pet, a book much loved around these parts.

Narrator Note: This duo! Chukwudi Iwuji has read both The Fishermen and An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma, and you may recognize Yetide Badaki from Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch series.

cover image of Imperfect Women by Araminta HallImperfect Women by Araminta Hall, read by Helen Keeley (mystery/thriller) – I somehow missed that Araminta Hall had a new book coming this year! I am a huge fan of Our Kind of Cruelty, her polarizing thriller from a couple of years ago that I 100% hurled at the wall upon completion. In this latest book, rich and pretty Nancy Hennessy is murdered. She leaves behind her two best friends, a loving husband and a daughter… and a secret lover whose identity she takes to the grave. As the investigation into her death falls apart and her friends try to cope with their grief, they learn how little they knew about their friend…and each other…and themselves.

Narrator Note: This will be my first Helen Keeley performance, but I really enjoy everything I’ve heard in samples. She’s got quite a prolific catalog of titles that I believe were originally pubbed in the UK. If you like crisp English accents, you’ll probably enjoy her style.

Latest Listens

I’m in the middle of Amanda Leduc’s Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space. Its just over 8 hours, but I’m taking a little longer with it to go back and re-listen to certain sections. It’s not exactly breaking news that the fairy tales popularized by Disney and other segments of Western culture have major ableist tones, but reading this book has really magnified my privilege as an able-bodied person. So much of what I’m learning seems sort of obvious, but the truth is that my privilege has kept me from thinking critically about the message and implications of ableist messaging in these stories.

Think about it: the baddies are almost always disfigured in some way, or disability is doled out as a punishment. The princesses and princes who find love aren’t ever disabled, or if they are, it’s after their hideous disfigurement has been miraculously healed. As an adult, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about representation and how I never saw myself in the fairy tales I loved so much. This book is a reminder that disabled people have been left out of the equation even more egregiously, or worse: they’ve often been made the bad guy.

I’m not done with this one yet, but I feel pretty confident recommending it. Amanda Leduc is disabled so the book is own voices, and she appears to have taken great care to use language and context that is sensitive to both the disabled community at large and her sources’ individual preferences. The narration by Amanda Barker is so natural and conversational in tone that I forgot it wasn’t the author herself doing the narrating!

From the Internets

at The Guardian: Now You’re Talking! The Best Audiobooks, Chosen by Writers

This roundup of new romance audiobooks from Audiofile reminds me that I really need to pick up some Nalini Singh.

The latest from Listen Together, Libro.fm’s audiobook club

Over at the Riot

It’s Women in Translation Month! Here are some excellent audiobooks that fit the bill.

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

Categories
In The Club

In the Club – 8/5

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. It’s August (I know, I know, deep breaths) and that means it’s officially Women in Translation month! I have three thrilling reads for you to explore in book clubs that I promise you’ll have lots to say about.

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

I just finished the audiobook of Alexis Hall’s Boyfriend Material, a delightful fake relationship romance with a splash of enemies-to-lovers that I simply loved to pieces! The main character’s (hilarious) French rock star mom makes a special curry that sounds quite, err, “special” indeed! It put a curry craving in my head though, so I whipped up what I’m calling my Lazy Curry while listening. It’s a pressure cooker recipe and not very authentic (don’t at me!), but it’s quick and packed full of flavor.

Throw 1.5 pounds of chicken breast (or thighs if you prefer) into the Instant Pot, then dump in a can of coconut milk and the following seasonings and spices:

  • 1.5 teaspoons of salt
  • 3 teaspoons curry powder,*
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • Black pepper to taste (I use about 1/4 teaspoon)
  • Cayenne to taste

Cook on high pressure for five minutes; if desired, take the chicken out of the liquid and chop or shred, then add back to the pot and toss in some veggies of choice. I use half an onion, a red bell pepper, and a green bell pepper, all sliced into strips, then cook for one more minute to soften the veggies. Top with some chopped cilantro and boom! Quick and easy meal. Goes well with a heaping bowl of jasmine rice.

*Didya know curry powder isn’t an authentic Indian spice? Not even a little! Curry is a pre-made spice mix that includes “Indian” spices and it’s basically a thing British people made up. It is however tasty and comes in handy for stuff like this. I use this version here, more or less: adjust to your taste buds.

Get Lost in Translation

All of these books come to you from my TBR (and in one case my DNF file, but not because the book was bad). They’re all thrilling reads written—and in some cases also translated—by women. They each explore big themes like class, misogyny, homophobia, marital discord… I’m talking meaty, folks. Dive in and celebrate women in translation!

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogowa, translated from Japanese by Stephen Snyder – On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, everyday objects disappear at random. Then the disappearances escalate in severity, and the draconian Memory Police are committed to ensuring that what’s lost stays that way. When a young novelist discovers that her editor may be the Memory Police’s latest target, she offers to hide him under the floorboards of her home. As despair closes in around them, the pair cling to her writing in a desperate attempt to preserve the past. This book won or was shortlisted for so many awards last year and comes highly recommended from several Rioters.

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor, translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes – Listen, this book is not for the faint of heart—I had to put it down because it just contains all the triggers, but want to spread the word about this rising star in Mexican lit. After the death of the town witch, the investigation that follows reveals some dark truths about the unreliable inhabitants of this small Mexican village. Fernanda Melchor does not look away from the ways this community has been ravaged by drug abuse, poverty, alcoholism, homophobia, and misogyny, but rather looks them straight in the face and calls them out by name. If you can handle dark, violent content, and I know many of you can, pick up this gut-punch of a book.

The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun, translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell – I added this psychological thriller to my TBR when I saw it on this list of Korean lit in translation for fans of the movie Parasite. A man named Oghi wakes up in the hospital after a violent car accident kills his wife and leaves him both paralyzed and disfigured. His mother-in-law assumes responsibility for his care and takes him home, then basically abandons him to go dig a giant hole in the yard where her daughter’s garden used to be. Then she digs another hole, and another, and yet another, providing no explanation other than that she’s finishing what her daughter started. Totally normal! Oghi becomes obsessed with finding a way to escape and is forced to grapple with some very uncomfortable truths about his troubled marriage—and the toll it took on his wife.

Suggestion Section

Because sometimes you really, really need this: an email template to break up with your book club.

Here are the latest book club picks from Oprah, Vox, and Good Morning America.

Pair your book club read with recipes based on genre!

These books well on their way to becoming feminist classics would make excellent book club selections. I see women of color, celebrations of female friendship, romance—not your mother’s feminist reading list.

Disclaimer: this one’s behind a paywall (unless you haven’t yet maxed out on your free NYT views like I have): a look at Black book clubs then and now.

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

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks 7/30

Hola Audiophiles! It’s still hot and there’s still a pandemic and I’ve played Lana del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness” more times than is strictly healthy. Long walks through Portland’s beautiful parks + audiobooks have thankfully helped keep my mood up, so let’s talk about the week’s new releases and another great romance for your ears.

Warning: gratuitous body roll references ahead.

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – July 28  (publisher descriptions in quotes)

Deal with the Devil by Kit Rocha, read by Lidia Dornet (science fiction) – This is the first in a series called “Mercenary Librarians,” and it’s being pitched as Orphan Black meets the Avengers. Oh word?? Nina and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to help the hopeless in a crumbling near-future America. Knox and his squad of supersoldiers went AWOL to avoid killing innocent people, now he’s battle-weary and fighting to survive. It’s only a matter of time before Nina and Knox’s paths collide, and the world may burn when they do. Or they might just team up, in more ways than one. Insert body roll here.

Narrator Note: I was unsure about Lidia Dornet from the sample of this book but I don’t think it’s representative of the whole performance. I listened to samples from other works like Eva Chase’s Academy of the Forgotten and liked what I heard.

I hold a wolf by the earsI Hold a Wolf by the Ears by Laura van den Berg, read by Amy Landon (short stories) – I very rarely do a straight copy-paste of a publisher’s whole book blurb, but I do when I can’t possibly top it: “I Hold a Wolf by the Ears draws listeners into a world of wholly original, sideways ghost stories that linger in the mouth and mind like rotten, fragrant fruit. Both timeless and urgent, these eleven stories confront misogyny, violence, and the impossible economics of America with van den Berg’s trademark spiky humor and surreal eye. Moving from the peculiarities of Florida to liminal spaces of travel in Mexico City, Sicily, and Spain, I Hold a Wolf by the Ears is uncannily attuned to our current moment, and to the thoughts we reveal to no one but ourselves.”

Narrator Note: You may recognize Amy Landon from Ted Chiang’s Exhalation or Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties.

It Is Wood, It Is Stone by Gabriella Burnha, read by Gisela Chípe (fiction) – This debut novel by Brazilian author Gabriella Burnha explores class, colorism, and sexuality. Linda is feeling unmoored, lonely, and isolated after moving from the US to São Paulo for her husband’s professorship. Her maid Marta is grappling with Brazil’s complex history and racial tensions and finds Linda’s instability exasperating. When Linda leaves home one day with a beguiling artist, she binds her life to Martha’s in ways neither of them saw coming.

Narrator Note: Gisela Chipe is an actress and writer who was born in Brazil and grew up speaking Portuguese, a language I find so pleasing to the ears and hope to hear in this performance!

the silence of the white cityThe Silence of the White City by Eva Garcia Sáenz, read by Henry Levya (mystery/thriller) – This book is already a bestseller in Spain and Latin America, a fast-paced thriller set in Basque country. Unai López de Ayala is a young inspector better known as “Kraken” (I know: badass) who’s charged with investigating a series of ritualistic murders, ones that bare an eerie resemblance to a different set of grizzly murders that took place two decades ago. Police were positive that a prestigious archaeologist was responsible for the killings and have had him in jail ever since. Kraken must now determine whether that guy had an accomplice or whether he’s been wrongfully incarcerated all these years.

Narrator Note: I don’t know much about Henry Leyva but his voice is exactly what I want and expect from a book with this premise.

Latest Listens

I was staring at my Libro.fm app over the weekend trying to pick my next listen when my best audioamiga Jamie sensed a disturbance in the force. She somehow knew that I was trying to make a decision and text me to recommend Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall. Thirty seconds later, I pressed play.

The plot: Luc O’Donnell is the son of rockstar parents who split up when he was a kid. Luc’s in-and-out-of-rehab dad is bracing for a professional comeback which means Luc is in the public eye, too, and a compromising photo lands Luc in hot water at the charity where he works. Fearing that Luc’s “particular variety of queer” will cause the charity to lose donors, his boss basically orders him to find a nice, normal, fake boyfriend to clean up his image. Luc decides serious, straight-laced, squeaky-clean barrister Oliver is the perfect partner to fake date, and Oliver agrees to the arrangement for work-related image issues of his own. They appear to have tragically little in common, but the more time they spend together… ya know. Treat yourself to the visual of me doing an embarrassingly unsexy body roll.

I have apparently been really into romances with queer English people! Red, White, and Royal Blue and Take A Hint, Dani Brown have been some of my favorite reads of the year and I think Boyfriend Material will be, too. Luc is just a hopeless, charming mess, and it’s so satisfying to watch him work through his issues even when he gets it wrong. Then there’s Oliver, who seems pretty wound up but has an ooey-gooey heart of gold beneath that polished exterior. Every time he (via narrator Joe Jameson) says Luc’s full name, Lucien, with that gorgeous accent, a weird purring sound plus that body roll I mentioned earlier make an awkward appearance. Luc’s coworker Alex is theeee most posh, out-of-touch rich boy ever and should be absolutely intolerable, except he’s clearly written that way on purpose and the satire? It’s delicious. And the love story itself is my favorite kind: a lil’ enemies to lovers, a lil’ mess, a lil’ healthy communication and emotional maturity, and of course: some sexy.

Go ahead and pick this up if you need some happy English queer love, too. Joe Jameson was a ton of fun to spend time with as a narrator, even if a few of his lady character voices bordered on ridiculous. Based on the characters he was portraying, the performance makes sense.

From the Internets

Comic-Con@Home: What We Learned from the “Star Wars Audiobooks: Doctor Aphra” Panel

Travel around the world with these audiobooks. Yes, more travel-themed stuff, but who can blame anyone for wanting a little escape?

This piece on the harmful nature of Audible originals brings up a lot of valid points. As a writer friend pointed out though, we need to be careful not to come down on authors who aren’t in a position to make these big negotiations.

Over at the Riot

More Short Story Collections on Audio for Your TBR

Get some literal #OwnVoices in your ears! Check out these 30 audiobooks written and read by Black authors.

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

Categories
In The Club

In the Club 7/29

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. I am feeling better this week than I have in awhile and I know a huge part of that is how much time I’ve spent in nature. This feels like a great time to discuss some books on our place in the natural world, so let me take a break from belting out “Natural Woman” to suggest some.

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

These words from Anne-Marie Bonneau of Zero Waste Chef have stuck with me as a personal mantra: “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” They remind me that real, sustainable change is a group effort and give me the permission to not feel guilty for my ecological shortcomings.

So this week instead of a recipe, I’m suggesting a practice: challenge yourself as a book club to find one thing each of you can do to make your lifestyles more eco-friendly. Maybe you finally pick up a good reusable water bottle or a tumbler for your coffee or tea. Swap some of your Ziploc bags for reusable pouches, use micro-fiber towels and old t-shirts in place of paper towels, or keep some stainless steel straws in your bag, maybe a utensil set too. My favorite thing is to reuse glass jam jars, sauce containers, etc. The amount of joy I get from recycling the jars that once housed blackberry preserves or Trader Joe’s Chili Onion Crunch has made me acutely aware that I am 35, and reminds me that I’m very much the granddaughter of women who keep sewing supplies in Danish cookie tins and salsa in margarine containers.

We Think We Own Whatever Land We Land On

I feel bad quoting “Colors of the Wind” when Pocahontas is all kinds of problematic, but we really do act like the earth is just a dead thing we can claim. These books all dive into our relationship with this planet and its precious resources; in your book club discussions, examine how we can do better and what keeps us from doing so—it’s not as straightforward as we might like to think.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer – Scientist and professor Robin Wall Kimmerer is a member of the Citizen Potowatomi Nation, and this work of environmental science and indigenous wisdom is pretty much a classic in nature writing. She calls on us to play an active role in the protection and restoration of the natural world and in climate change initiatives, reminding us of the harmonious relationship indigenous communities shared with nature before some other humans (ehhem, rhymes with “schmolonizers”) came in and messed sh*t up for all eternity.

Eat Less Water by Florencia Ramirez – A thing I learned from Florencia Ramirez: pretty much everything most of us were taught as kids about water conservation is a lie. Reducing the length of your showers is cool, but shower time isn’t even a little bit close to being the top water consumption culprit.  Know what is? Almonds! Beef! Wine and beer! Ramirez argues—with plenty of jaw-dropping statistics to back up her assertions—that the solution to some of our most daunting environmental problems can be found in the way we eat and drink. Sounds dire, but the good news is that change is possible. This is the book that got me to understand the importance of sustainability practices in agriculture.

The Overstory by Richard Powers – Here’s a work of fiction for you in case you’re more in the mood for a novel. “The whole book is a simple question: What would it take to make you give the unquestioning sacredness that you give to humanity to other things?” It’s the story of nine seemingly unconnected individual’s stories that decries the devastating effects we’ve had on our precious natural resources, begging us with a solid tug at the heartstrings to care, to act, to be passionate about trees and the natural world at large.

Suggestion Section

I have a few quibbles with this Men’s Health piece about a real-life Bromance Book Club, but I like the conversation this encouraged overall. The vulnerability its participants were willing to share and the continuance of the book club give me hope! I hope more men feel compelled to read romance who might not have before, and who will be willing to discuss and learn from them even when that examination is uncomfortable.

Catch up on Part II of Tor.com’s Terry Pratchett Book Club.

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

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks 7/23

Hola Audiophiles! Straight up: I went on and on (and on) about my latest listen so this newsletter will run a little long. The book is so good though and I want you to read it, so let me keep this intro short and sweet!

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – July 21 (publisher descriptions in quotes)

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson, read by Neil Shah and Shayna Small (historical fiction) – This is being billed as The Night Circus meets The Underground Railroad and those are some big words! It’s an alternate history set in Manhattan at the dawn of WWII wherein a young woman from Harlem is hired as a secret assassin. Ten years later, she’s given everything up–her past, her dreams, even the love of her life. But her past isn’t quite ready to let her go, so she’s sucked back into her former life and faced with an impossible set of choices to protect the people she loves.

Narrator Note: Shayna Small has blown me away back to back with her performances of Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half and Jacqueline Woodson’s Red at the Bone, I’m obsessed with the timbre of her voice!

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson, read by Brianna Colette (fiction, horror)- Immanuelle Moore is a young woman living in Bethel, a puritanical society where her very existence as a biracial woman is blasphemy. She does her best to keep her head down and follow Holy Protocol, but a mishap lures her into the forbidden woods where four witches were once chased and killed by the first prophet. The witches’ spirits still live there and bestow Immanuelle with a revelatory gift: a journal that once belonged to her dead mother that proves she once consorted with these witches. It leads Immanuelle on a path of grim discovery into the Church’s history.

Narrator Note: Brianna Colette is known for her voiceover work on Grand Theft Auto, so this is a different lane for her. I dig samples of this book so far, her voice is very soothing.

10 Things I Hate About Pinky by Sandhya Menon, read by Vikas Adam and Soneela Nankani (YA romance) – Pinky is a social justice warrior who hasn’t met a cause she won’t champion, much to the annoyance of her conservative parents who she kiiiinda likes to annoy. Her frenemy Samir is a Harvard-bound mama’s boy who really likes lists, order, and predictability. When Pinky’s parents give her an earful for the poor dating decisions she’s made, Pinky comes up with a plan: she’ll convince Samir to be her fake boyfriend for the summer. He only agrees because she promises to hook him up with an internship. They bicker at first, but then those sparks start to fly…

Narrator Note: Soneela Nankani is close to being bumped to auto-listen status for me. I’ve liked her since her emotional performance of Internment by Samira Ahmed, and she has sooo much more work to her name.

Latest Listen

I picked up Take A Hint, Dani Brown after hearing about it on the last episode of When in Romance. Dani Brown is driven, confident, and working on her PhD when she finds herself in a sexy times slump. So she asks the goddess Oshun for this one thing: the perfect no-strings-attached partner with whom to do the horizontal polka. It would appear that Oshun has granted her wish when sexy security guard and former pro rugby player Zafir Ansari rescues Dani in a fire drill gone wrong. A video of the rescue goes viral and a hashtag is born as the internet assumes the two are a couple.

Zafir, who has a massive secret crush on Dani, gets the surprise of a lifetime when Dani agrees to engage in a fake relationship with him, parlaying the non-couple’s newfound fame into some free publicity for Zaf’s sports charity for kids. At first it’s all for show, but then they’re like, “You’re sexy and I’m sexy, let’s join our sexy and hop into this bed.” They agree they’ll only sleep together for the duration of their fakelationship: yeah sure, great idea! Could the fact that Dani is emotionally distant and Zaf wants a relationship possibly be a problem here? Sit back, friends, and watch these two try to boink away their feelings (got that one from Talia herself and was *this* close to making it the subject of the newsletter).

There is so much to love about this book, and so much of it boils down to representation. Dani is Black, bisexual, and curvy; Zaf is Muslim and listens to romance novels, and it’s fine because no one has time for toxic masculinity; Zaf very openly discusses grief and his struggles with mental health following the deaths of his dad and brother; Dani owns her sexuality and stands up in it. And of course, the sexy times are straight fire. I know I said I listened to that podcast, which means I heard Trisha and Jess say these books are sexy, but I… forgot? This is how I ended up playing this book kinda loudly in my car, listening to a bit about Dani’s throbbing clitoris just as a family in a Subaru (#ThisIsPortland) pulled up to my right. Whoops!

Aaaand lastly because I’ve been going on forever, Ione Butler does a fantastic job with this performance. She seamlessly slips between Zaf’s deep, brooding, Northern English (I think?) accent and Dani’s assured and playful tone. The sex scenes feel real and the dialogue never forced. A++ all around, I had a lot of fun with this one and hope you do too.

From the Internets

Audiofile Magazine shared this list of audiobooks with love in the spotlight, and would you look at that: my latest listen is front and center! They also have a cool interview with Frankie Corzo, who takes us behind the scenes of recording Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic.

Eyyyyy it’s another road trip audiobook list! Here’s the latest one from Fodor’s and I will say: it isn’t just more of the same. Dunno if I would listen to I’ll Be Gone in the Dark if you’re driving *alone* on that road trip, but that’s coming from me, confessed weenie.

I’m digging this list of audiobooks for escapism, because again, it’s not a roundup that looks like everyone else’s. We Ride Upon Sticks in particular gets the Book Riot staff cosign.

Over at the Riot

Check it out, Hamilfans: these audiobooks are narrated by members of the original Hamilton cast.

Did you know that July is Disability Pride month? Celebrate and learn a few things with this listening list.

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

Categories
In The Club

In the Club 07/22

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. I am fresh off of devouring Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s latest and I have so many feelings! I want more POC-authored gothic fiction, because I didn’t know just how much I needed gothic horror set in Mexico until it was presented to me in such a pretty (and terrifying) package. A dark-skinned heroine, references to Pedro Infante, visits to a curandera… take my money! So today we’re talking gothic lit written by authors of color in the hopes that we’ll see more and more of it. It’s out there, trust. Publishing, listen up.

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

It’s getting hot in here, but I can’t take off all my clothes. My “desk” (dining room table) faces a giant window and I don’t want any problems. So! I’m still whipping up big batches of refreshing drinks to keep cool. I love this white wine sangria—which to be clear, I enjoy after work…mostly. Its star ingredients are elderflower liqueur and lychee, a delicious tropical fruit native to Southeast Asia that does in fact look kinda like an eyeball when peeled. Make a batch for social distance book club!

Ingredients:

  • 1 bottle of white wine – I’ve been using Sauvignon Blanc so I can control the sweetness, but do you. (non-alcoholic alternative: ginger ale or sparkling water)
  • 1/2 cup St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur (non-alcoholic alternative: elderflower syrup)
  • 20 oz can of lychee fruit in heavy syrup – drain the fruit but reserve the syrup
  • 2 white peaches, sliced into half moons or chopped

Instructions:

Dump it all in a pitcher and serve chilled! Well, sort of. Don’t pour all of the lychee syrup in at once; go bit by bit until the flavor concentration and sweetness is to your liking.

If You’re Gothic and You Know It, Haunt Your Friends

No, that heading doesn’t 100% make sense but I’m enjoying it. So ha! Now enjoy these three works of gothic fiction by authors of color that are out here reshaping gothic lit as we know it.

mexican gothicMexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia – Sweet baby cheeses, I love this twisty, unsettling creeper of a book. Fashionable Mexico City socialite Noemi receives a cryptic letter from her newly-wed cousin Catalina begging to be rescued. Noemi heads to High Place, the creepy ol’ house set in the mountains of Hidalgo where Catalina lives to see what, if anything, she can do. Virgil, Catalina’s English husband, says it’s tuberculosis that lead his wife to write that nonsensical letter, but Noemi isn’t buying that mess. What begins as a slow, simmering uneasiness boils into full blown disturbia as Noemi discovers the secrets hidden in High Place. If you liked the movie Get Out, this has that same something-is-so-wrong-but-gawd-what-is-it vibe that builds up to some serious WTFery. (CW: references to sexual assault and I cannot stress this enough: body horror. I may never eat mushrooms again.)

Some resources to kick of your discussion: This PRH interview with Silvia Moreno-Garcia, specifically the discussion of POC in gothic lit, as well as this Twitter thread on the importance of classifying the book as gothic horror and not magical realism.

white is for witching by helen oyeyemiWhite is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi – In this supernatural coming-of-age novel set in Dover, Miranda Silver starts hearing voices and develops an eating disorder after the unexpected death of her mother,  She lives with her twin brother and widowed father in their family home turned bed-and-breakfast and this place is 1000% haunted AF. When Miranda brings a friend over to visit, the house physically manifests Dover’s hostility toward outsiders within its four walls. It sounds deliciously creepy, especially when paired with the stunning language I’ve come to expect from Helen Oyeyemi. It’s pretty clear that this books is rife with cultural commentary on race and family legacies, all of which should be excellent fodder for book club convos.

catherine houseCatherine House by Elisabeth Thomas – Catherine House is an elite university with a super selective admissions process and a reputation for producing brilliance, tucked away in the woods of rural Pennsylvania because of course it is. The price of acceptance is steep though, and I’m not talking dinero: students are required to give the House three years—summers included—during which they’ll be completely cut off from the outside world. How completely? Completely. No friends, no family, no TV or music, even your clothes have to stay behind. It all seems so shiny and prestigious, but then a rebellious undergraduate uncovers a shocking secret about a group of students in the wake of a tragedy. Turns out there’s a dark truth beneath that glossy veneer.

Suggestion Section

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is such a book club fave! If your club hasn’t read it yet, get started with these questions and discussion guide.

Tor.com’s Terry Pratchett Book Club is now on its second book.

I love this, especially with so many kids stuck at home and also worrying about the state of the nation: the Bronx Book Project is giving South Bronx Early College Academy students free books by Black and brown authors and will be hosting Zoom book clubs to discuss them. Any other programs you know of doing something similar?

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

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks 7/16

Hola Audiophiles! How goes it? I know each day brings one or more headlines that are so bad they feel impossible, so I hope you’re all taking the time to recharge and restore. Let’s talk new audiobooks and audio news, but first: a few non-book things that made me smile this week in case you need them, too.

Translation: just leave, you dirty virus.

I don’t know what made me laugh harder, the original tweet about this 11 yo who got jokes or Tracy Clayton’s replies.

Why can this puppers salsa better than I can? And has it always walked this way, or did it see the humans dancing and decide to show them how it’s done?

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – July 14 (publisher descriptions in quotes)

Running by Natalia Sylvester, read by Frankie Corzo (YA) – Cuban American teen Mariana Ruiz has always rooted for her politician father, from back in the day in small, local elections to his current position in the U.S. Senate. Everything changes when he decides to run for President: the scrutiny is next level invasive and Mariana learns some things about her father that she doesn’t know how to process. She struggles to find her voice while viral videos and manufactured scandals threaten to undo her. Mari is left to wonder: what do you do when your dad stops being your hero, and how do you speak up when there is so much at stake?

Narrator Note: Frankie Corzo is staying busy this year! In 2020 releases alone, she’s read Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, Incendiary by Zoraida Cordova, These Women by Ivy Pochoda, and the upcoming Paola Santiago and the River of Tears by Tehlor Kay Mejia (8/4/20).

utopia avenueUtopia Avenue by David Mitchell, read by Ralph Lister (historical fiction) – It’s the late 1960s in London and Utopia Avenue is band that burns bright—for a time. Their story is one “of fame’s Faustian pact and stardom’s wobbly ladder; of the families we choose and the ones we don’t; of voices in the head, and the truths and lies they whisper; of music, madness, and idealism.” I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll with the David Mitchell treatment: expect complex interconnected narratives and Easter eggs from his other books.

Narrator Note: Ralph Lister does a lot of Audible Original recordings and also read The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris, a fascinating book about the quest to transform Victorian medicine (aka “oh snap, bacteria causes… infection? And that’s… bad?”)

the only good indiansThe Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, read by Shaun Taylor-Corbett (horror) – In this supernatural revenge horror novel, four Native American men are running from a terrifying entity in the wake of a disturbing event from their youth. This was my week on All the Books with Liberty and she definitely said the words, “Michael Meyers with antlers” when describing this one. It sounds intense, gory, and scary, all while examining the stereotypes and abuse so commonly leveled against indigenous peoples.

Narrator Note: Shaun Taylor-Corbett is one of the narrators in Tommy Orange’s There There as well as Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon.

A Sweet Mess by Jayci Lee, read by Natalie Naudus (romance) – Audrey Choi is busy running her super successful bakery and has no time for dating, until a steamy one night stand with a Korean hunk has her rethinking this whole no-room-for-love thing. That is until she discovers that said hunk, Landon, is a celebrity food critic, one whose scathing review of her bakery has put the business in peril. Landon tries to make it up to Aubrey by offering her a spot on a celebrity cooking show he’s producing, and Aubrey agrees begrudgingly for the sake of her business. She is NOT going to fall for Landon though, even if they will be stuck together in a villa in California wine country. Sure, Aubrey. Sure.

Narrator Note: You may recognize Natalie Naudus from the Innkeeper Chronicles series by Ilona Andrews, or from I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn.

Related: Daniel Dae Kim has already signed on to produce and star in an adaptation of this rom-com!

Latest Listens

Last week I mentioned TJ Klune’s The Extraordinaries as my in-progress read, and I have sad news. This one hurts because there was just so much to love in this book: it’s queer, nerdy, romantic, and such an accurate slice of the awkwardness of youth. The banter is hilarious and pairs so well with touching explorations of grief, mental health, and ADHD. Michael Lesley really is so wonderful as a narrator; he breathes such life into each of the characters and I hope we get to see more of him soon.

BUT it has come to my attention (and I can confirm after listening to more of the book) that it goes on to glorify the police a whole bunch, even including what I feel is a tasteless (not to mention super poorly timed) joke about police brutality, and does not provide any sort of critique to counter it. It’s possible (not sure how likely) that some of this was fixed in final publication since I’ve been listening to an advanced copy, and a part of me still hopes it was meant to be satire? For now, I am just the most bummed.

From the Internets

gal-dem, a publication dedicated to sharing perspectives from women and non-binary people of color, has teamed up with with Audible on Listen Up!, an audiobook club celebrating new Black authors.

More road trip audiobooks for you! I’m writing all these down for those long drives to nowhere I’m taking this summer (no, I’m not kidding).

Libro.fm suggests these audiobooks for organizations.

Audiobooks that are so sexy, you’ll lose track of space and time? Let’s be the judge of that, shall we? Report back.

Over at the Riot

This list of amazing romance novels on audio is calling my name! You know I stan hard for Red, White, and Royal Blue and I have literally every single other one of those books either in my Libro.fm app or on hold with Libby.

I love a full cast audiobook, it’s like a whole Broadway production for your ears! Here’s a roundup of some newer full-cast audiobooks. Enjoy!

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

Categories
In The Club

In the Club 7/15

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. This week ya girl has education on the brain as our country contemplates the safety of sending students back to school in the middle of a pandemic (so many feelings). Betsy DeVos: may your marinara sauce never cling to your pasta! Fifty points to you if you get that reference.

While none of these books are specifically about schools + pandemics, they are all wonderful examinations of education that I think more people should read.

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

We’re sticking to summer vibes again this week, so let’s talk paletas. Paletas are Mexican popsicles, first popularized in Tocumbo, Michoacan in the 1940’s by a family business called La Michoacana. They come in water and milk-based varieties of both traditional fruit flavors (strawberry, coconut, lemon, etc) and less conventional ones like corn, avocado, cheese, and arroz con leche. Side note—I was SO confused when someone offered me a popsicle as a kid and handed me a hunk of blue ice on a stick. I wasn’t used to blue, I was used to fresh strawberry, mango, and rompope (Mexican eggnog)!

It’s hard to pick just one favorite flavor, but one I’ve been craving lately is pepino (cucumber) con chile. They’re easy to make and are such a perfect, cold, refreshing treat in the sweltering summer months. Try them out and let me know what you think!

An Education on Education 

Two of these books are more about educational theory and one is a memoir. There is so, so much to discuss in these books: how the pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps mentality ignores systemic inequality, how racism is embedded in our education system, how impactful a role early education (or the lack thereof) plays in molding young minds.

When Grit Isn’t Enough: A High School Principal Examines How Poverty and Inequality Thwart the College-for-All Promise by Linda F. Nathan – Back in 2013, a University of Pennsylvania professor named Angela Duckworth gave a TED Talk about grit as the great predictor of success. I remember having feelings about it even then, mainly the icky feeling that the emphasis on grit, though not entirely flawed by any means, leaves out an essential examination of systemic inequality. This book immediately jumped at me then when it came out in 2017; it investigates five assumptions that inform our ideas about education and how those beliefs mask the systemic inequity that makes the educational playing field far from even.

Educated by Tara Westover – Now, speaking of grit: you gotta give credit where credit is due and Tara Westover is basically grit defined. She was raised in rural Idaho by survivalist and fundamentalist Mormon parents who homeschooled their children and denied the validity of modern medicine. She decided she wanted to go to school and sneakily found a way to get into BYU, meaning she walked into an institution of higher learning for the first time at age 17. Imagine for just a second what that must have been like: getting dirty looks when you ask what the Holocaust is, or having your roommates sit you down to chide you for not washing your hands after you using the bathroom. 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. This isn’t a read specifically about the education system, but is a fascinating read about education in general and one person’s truly inspiring story.

For White Folks Who Teach In the Hood…and the Rest of Y’all Too by Christopher Emdin – While working as a bookseller, I worked a big educational conference in San Diego where Christopher Emdin was a keynote speaker. When this man walked into the building, I thought Beyoncé had arrived. I watched hundreds of teachers go full fanperson for this guy, and speaking to him for just a few moments as he signed books showed me why. In addition to having a truly effervescent personality, his book is a challenge (and guide) for white teachers to check their privilege, understand and connect with their students, and examine the flaws in a universal approach to education.

Suggestion Section

Our roundup of personalized book club gifts, because we could all use a little gift right now.

Meet the beautiful young ladies of the Reading Riders Book Club in Collin County, Texas. In addition to creating a space to share a love of reading, they’ve also partnered with local nonprofits to collect more than 200 books for children in need. Those faces gave joy today.

Virtual book clubs to join now—reach out, make a bookish connection!

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, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks – 07/09

Hola Audiophiles! Como estan? I didn’t get much audiobooking done (or any other reading, for that matter) on account of a temp job I took while sheltering in place in San Diego for the last three weeks. My boss required a constant supply of snacks and chocolate milk, demanded I play Trolls World Tour and his five favorite songs on repeat, and snapped his fingers at me to insist I join him in impromptu dance parties at all hours of the day! Good thing he’s cute, a toddler, and my nephew or I’d have quit on that tiny tyrant.

I’m back in PDX now and have a fresh batch of new audiobooks for you plus lots of Riot audiobook content for you, too.

Ready? Let’s audio.

New Releases – July 7  (publisher descriptions in quotes)

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, read by Joe Jameson (romance) – Luc O’Donnell is sort of famous by association, the son of rockstar parents who split up when he was a kid. His dad spent two decades in and out of rehab but is bracing for a comeback, which means Luc will be back in the public eye, too, When one compromising photo threatens to ruin everything, Luc decides a relationship with nice, sweet, squeaky-clean Oliver is the perfect way to clean up his own image. They have close to nada in common, so a fake relationship it is! You know where this is headed…. smoochtown, party of two. (Related: an excellent Twitter thread by Alexis Hall on writing (and reading) queer joy as a political act, a concept I think applies to joy in so many marginalized communities. Also a reminder of how much I enjoy the word “bollocks.”)

Narrator Note: Did you enjoy The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell? Joe Jameson reads that as well as the Spellslinger series by Sebastien de Castell, and lots of other titles.

The Golden Thread by Ravi Somaiya, read by the author (nonfiction, history) – “On Sept. 17, 1961, Dag Hammarskjöld boarded a Douglas DC6 propeller plane on the sweltering tarmac of the airport in Leopoldville, the capital of the Congo. Hours later, he would be found dead in an African jungle with an ace of spades playing card placed on his body.” Sounds like the plot of a thriller, right? Proof yet again that truth is stranger than fiction, and that investigative reporting can be hella interesting to read about.

Narrator Note: The sample of this audiobook convinced me about five seconds in. Somaiya’s voice has the same effect as Colin Firth’s does on me: it calms me and I want to know more.

cover image of One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London, read by Kristen Sieh (fiction) – Bea is a super stylish plus-size blogger who’s nursing a broken heart. I’m quoting this next part because it made me LOL for real: “Like the rest of America, Bea indulges in her weekly obsession: the hit reality show Main Squeeze. The fantasy dates! The kiss-off rejections! The surprising amount of guys named Chad!” Though she loves the show, she’s also sick and tired of its lack of body diversity (can I get an amen???). Right when she’s ready to give up on dating entirely, the show calls and asks her to be a contestant. She agrees to go on while making a silent promise to herself: she will under no circumstances fall in love. Try as she might to convince herself that she’s only doing this for exposure and a boost to her career, it all gets a little messy and tangled once the cameras start rolling.

Narrator Note: You may recognize Kristen Sieh from a couple of Hank Green titles or Blitzed by Alexa Martin.

The Son of Good Fortune by Lysley Tenorio, read by Reuben Uy (fiction) – Excel has lived a life of paranoia and secrecy ever since his mother, a former Filipina B-movie action star who now makes her living scamming men online, revealed that Excel is undocumented on his 10th birthday. He’s kept this secret for fear of uprooting his entire life, but now decides to join his girlfriend on a journey south to a fringe desert town outside the normal constructs of society. “After so many years of trying to be invisible, who does he want to become? And is it possible to put down roots in a country that has always considered you an outsider?” Side note: Excel works at a spy-themed pizza shop called The Pie Who Loved Me and I could not love that more.

Narrator Note: Reuben Uy also narrates Lysley Tenorio’s Monstress, a collection from a few years ago that touched on many of the same theme explored in his latest. I highly recommend it.

Latest Listens

cover image of The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune As I mentioned earlier, I’m back in Portland and getting back into a reading flow (slowly, don’t at me). I’m almost done with TJ Klune’s The Extraordinaries and unless it totally goes off the rails in this last bit, I think I’m going to love it! This is Klune’s YA debut, one I knew I had to pick up when a Goodreads user called it “soft superhero queer disaster” under a glowing review. It’s delightfully queer AF, kind of cheesy in the best way, and features ADHD representation. Full review next week, but go find some more titles read by Michael Lesley in the meantime. I’m fully prepared to get the rest of his catalog in my queue ASAP. Talk about a dynamic performer!

From the Internets

Summer is for road trips and road trips are for audiobooks! Okay so those road tips may just be a roundtrip journey in your car to get out of the house for awhile thanks to our dear, dear friend La Rona, but audiobooks don’t care that your destination isn’t a vacay locale.

Over at the Riot

Do you know the difference between an audio drama and a full cast audiobook?

In the mood for a thrilling audiobook with complicated relationships? We gotchu.

“But Vanessa, we want more audiobook mysteries!” Well alright then, here you go!

On a recent episode of For Real, our nonfiction podcast, Alice and Kim discussed podcast-ish audiobooks.

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, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Categories
In The Club

In the Club 7/8

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. As COVID-19 cases skyrocket all over the damn place, I feel like all the plans I had for my first Portland summer are slipping further and further away. So this week I’m continuing my summer kick, and by “kick” I mean “aggressive insistence on creating a summer vibe while a pandemic tries to rob me of my joy, even if it means reading in a kiddie pool by my window with a cocktail in my hand.”

Whether you’re clubbing it Zoom style or having a small, responsible in-person gathering, find some tiny umbrellas, a chic pair of shades, and join me in the kiddie pool.

To the club!!

Nibbles and Sips

Blend up a batch of refreshing drinks to accompany our summer book club chat. Have a classic marg (a spicy one if you’re like me), a tried-and-true mojito, a tropical piña colada, or maybe one of the other drinks I’ve provided below. Booze optional, of course.

Frozen Peach Bellini

Blackberry Moscato Slushy

Elderflower Gin Fizz

Coconut Rum Punch

What I (Would) Read On My Summer Noncation

Beach Read by Emily Henry – I love this premise so much! January writes romance and Augustus is a very serious writer of literary fiction. They don’t have much in common; she’s all HEA and he’s all death & tortured souls. They also happen to be living in neighboring beach houses for three months while they each battle a serious case of writer’s block. They one hazy evening, they make a lil’ literary pact to shake off their writing slumps: Augustus will spend the summer writing a happy story while January works on writing the next Great American Novel. They’re juuuust gonna write books. Nooooo one’s gonna fall in love. Nope. No one. Not a single soul.

Island Affair by Priscilla Olivares – Sara Vance is a social media influencer who’s getting her sh*t together: she’s in recovery from an eating disorder, her career is on the rise, and her boyfriend is joining her on a Key West vacay with la familia. Then ol’ dude ditches her! Instead of facing the ridicule of her perfect, judgy siblings and their perfect, judgy spouses, Sara enlists the help of a sexy Cuban firefighter/paramedic/dive captain named Luis to be her fake fiancé. They play the part and play it well, too well! Will their fake romance become a real one once it’s time for Sara to go home?

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter – This book opens in sun-drenched Italy in the 1960s where an innkeeper meets an American starlet fresh off the lavish set of Cleopatra. In Hollywood 50 years later, an elderly man walks onto a movie studio’s back lot looking for the woman he met decades earlier. This is such a perfect summer read: the story is immersive, the Italian setting seductive, and the critique of Hollywood not even a little bit subtle.

Suggestion Section

The Book Club Expanding the Latinx Literary Canon — One Conversation at a Time. Yes, mi gente!

Yo… there’s a Mean Girls summer book club.

In case your book club wants more summer romance, I’ll just leave this right here.

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, catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast, and watch me ramble about even more new books every Tuesday on our YouTube channel.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa