Today’s The Stack is sponsored by Dynamite Entertainment
Break out your bell-bottoms, feather your hair, and jump back to an era of peanut-farmer presidents, gargantuan gas-guzzlers and foxy female detectives… for a globe-trotting adventure!
Hola, friends! Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. This week I’ve managed to sneak in my future rap alias, a peek at my baby nephew, and a personal anecdote about faith in between all the book club talk! We’ve been clubbing together for awhile now and I feel like we’ve grown close, ya know? You share with me, so now I’ve shared with you.
Testing out another new format change too — let me know what you think.
To the club!
This newsletter is sponsored by The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson, available now from Grove Press.
A fantastical journey set at the height of the Spanish Inquisition from the award-winning author of Alif the Unseen and writer of the Ms. Marvel series, G. Willow Wilson’s The Bird King is a jubilant story of love versus power, religion versus faith, and freedom versus safety. The novel follows Fatima, the only remaining Circassian concubine to the sultan, and her dearest friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker, on their quest to find the mysterious, possibly mythic island of the Bird King, whose shifting boundaries will hopefully keep them safe.
Question for the Club: Last week I asked what you all think is the ideal size for a book club and the most common answer by a landslide! was seven members. Some gave a range of 6-10 and a couple of folks suggested 5-6; either way, no super crazy outliers.
I like the thinking here: seven-ish members is enough to ensure good conversation and to get a variety of outlooks and opinions in the mix. It’s a good number for restaurant outings, manageable if potentially lively. Thank you for the feedback!
The next question is: …drumroll please…
Little Miss Persist-a-lot … might just be my rap name if I ever start dropping bars. More importantly: Persist is back! Book Riot’s feminist book club run entirely on Instagram returned last week (sorry, I’m a slacker and forgot to mention it). “Meetings” will come to order once a week on Instagram Live through April 8th and this quarter’s club is led by María Cristina!
All is Not Lost – If you didn’t catch last week’s episode of The Book Riot Podcast (Episode 303: Durable Dirigibles), you might have missed out on this piece of genuine feel-good news. A couple of high school boys at a Jesuit boys on the Upper East Side started a feminist book club back in 2017, naming it “HeForShe” after Emma Watson’s feminism campaign. The club meets to this day and has about a dozen regular members. There is hope, friends.
When in Doubt, Creep Them Out! – News flash! Not all women want to be mothers. This list of reads is for you if you fall into that camp. These all sound like titles that need to be on my TBR. For real though: I cackled when I saw the last title on this list. When in doubt, creep them out!
Church Group Feminism – In Rioter Heather’s 35 years as a Christian, she’s been a part of countless and assorted book groups. She’s also rarely read books by a women in those groups and thinks it’s time that changed, offering a list of titles to get that ball rolling.
Suggestion Section – I’m starting to play around with the format of this here newsletter as you may have noticed of late. In Suggestion Section, I’ll be dropping links to celeb book clubs, online book club announcements, lists for book groups, etc not otherwise talked discussed in the meat of the newsletter. You with me? Let’s give it a try.
Thanks for hanging with me today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with your burning book club questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the Audiobooks newsletter, get it on the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Friday too.
Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa
Sponsored by Delusions of Clarity, a novel of intrigue and perception by Vern Bryk.
The Emilia Report Highlights Gender Bias
The producers of a play about Emilia Bassano, England’s first published female poet who was forgotten by history, commissioned a study to compare ten female and male writers publishing in the same market. It found the biases: From men receiving more coverage to women having their age almost always listed. You can read the details here along with their recommendations for challenging publishing’s biases.
Will Florida Ban 100 Books?
Florida Citizens Alliance is coming for the books it finds offensive, which include what they define as pornographic and “Religious ‘indoctrination’ boosting Islam over others in the social studies books. ‘Unbalanced propaganda’ promoting climate change in science texts.” The bills they’re proposing in order to ban books in public schools and make it easier to do so in the state–along with Gov. Ron DeSantis and many lawmakers listening–have gotten organizer to try and fight back.
Bookish Children’s Hospital
Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus has volunteers through Reach Out and Read reading to kids in the waiting rooms and giving them a book to take home. “The hospital’s program has doled out 1.5 million books since 1998, with children ages 2 months to 5 years taking a book home after every wellness checkup.”
Hello and happy Tuesday, makers and Martians! Today we’ve got Murderbot and Game of Thrones news, an expanded section on this week’s new releases, further musings about Dune, and more.
This newsletter is sponsored by Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles by Thomas Lennon, from Amulet Books.
Discover a world of law-breaking leprechauns and sly faeries in this new must-read fantasy series perfect for fans of The Land of Stories and Artemis Fowl! From writer and actor Thomas Lennon (Reno 911!, Night at the Museum), Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles follows fourteen-year-old Ronan Boyle, the lowliest recruit to the Garda Special Unit of Tir Na Nog, a secret organization that handles the misdeeds of numerous magical creatures. Despite his small size and numerous allergies, Ronan is determined to prove himself—even if it means confronting fiery leprechauns, sinister harpies and a whole world of monsters.
Newsy news news:
ALERT ALERT ALERT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL: We are getting a full Murderbot novel! It will be called Network Effect and will come out in May 2020, so you’ve got plenty of time to reread all the novellas while you’re counting down the days.
If you’re a Game of Thrones show completist, you’ll be delighted to hear that there will be four tomes of behind-the-scenes material released, including one each on storyboards and costumes.
Related, here are the dates and run-times of the final episodes of Game of Thrones.
The sequel to Sangu Mandanna’s A Spark of White Fire, House of Rage and Sorrow, has a cover reveal! And it is gor. geous. I love that it captures both the fantastical and the sci-fi elements of the series.
Another cover reveal, PLUS an excerpt; this one is for Tochi Onyebuchi’s War Girls (October 15, 2019), a sci-fi tale set in Nigeria in 2172, and you have my attention.
Was someone cutting onions while you watched the Avengers: Endgame trailer? If you haven’t watched it yet, feelings warning.
Leah attended the Good Omens adaptation panel at SXSW and is here to spill all the secrets.
Speaking of panels, here’s a write-up and video of Noelle Stephenson at ECCC talking She-Ra, developing new and old characters, LGBT inclusion, and more.
New release I’m jazzed about (and why):
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
This latest novel from Hurley is solidly sci-fi, and follows a soldier who has been sent to the front lines of a war against Mars. The soldiers get there and back by being broken down into light, and not everyone comes back the same. I can’t wait to dig into this one; despite my peaceful nature, war stories are my jam, especially ones that exam PTSD and propaganda. I also noticed that the main character, Dietz, is not assigned a gender in the publisher copy, and Hurley regularly tackles LGBTQ+ issues in her work, so I am Very Interested.
The Deepest Blue: Tales of Renthia by Sarah Beth Durst
As you might have noticed in past reviews, I enjoyed all the Queens of Renthia books quite a bit. This book is not a direct sequel, just set in a different part of the same world. If you thought the body count was high in those, it seems like we should be prepared for even more — in the islands of Belene, rather than receiving training, those who have the potential to control the spirits are sent to an Island of Testing with no resources and very little hope of survival.
Some SUPER (ahem) ebook deals for your TBR:
Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Maas, $1.99
Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo, $1.99
Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu, $1.99
And now, some musings on Dune by Frank Herbert!
I confess it: I have not actually finished re-reading this book yet, and the last time I read it I was in my teens (so, about 20 years ago). But I am about 2/3 through, in preparation for a book club episode of SFF Yeah!, and I am having MANY THOUGHTS so you get to hear some of them.
First and foremost is that I definitely did not know what eugenics was the last (or first) time that I read Dune. And, as Emily Asher-Perrin notes in this great piece on why it’s worth talking about white savior narratives in regard to Dune, Paul Atreides is in fact the product of a successful eugenics experiment. The full horror of this is striking me on this read, and yikes! This is the kind of plot that makes me ask: If this is what the survival of the human race requires, is it actually worth it?
And secondly, the manipulation of religion as a political tool feels both timelier and more terrifying, given the current political climate. The use of “jihad” also feels, well, yikes. But, as Asher-Perrin’s piece also notes, Herbert isn’t exactly presenting this as a good thing. Paul refers repeatedly to his “terrible purpose,” and Jessica is shown to be very aware of the soulless manipulations of the Bene Gesserit, even as she goes along with them.
Thirdly, the ecological bent of this book is perhaps my favorite part. The sophisticated tech the Fremen have developed and the planetary scale of their goals and cooperation is just freaking glorious, and it hurts my soul how much this is overshadowed and twisted by the political bent of the novel. I am desperately jonesing for a solarpunk rewrite/fanfic of Dune, in which the Fremen do not get used as a lynchpin for a power grab and instead get to develop their culture and their planet in their own way and time — not struggle-free, because nothing in life is struggle-free, but without all the Atreides/Harkonnen machinations and eugenics and slaughter.
And then there are the broader Arab/Islamic representation issues, which this piece does a great job digging into. Of course, the only reason any of us are spending this much time thinking about Dune is because of the forthcoming movie; here’s the latest casting news, in case you were wondering. I have feelings about that as well, but am saving them for the podcast.
In the meantime, I’m trying to decide if this reread means I’ll finally read any of the sequels. Thoughts on whether or not that’s worth the time are welcome, and I’d love to mention those on the podcast, so send ’em to sffyeah@bookriot.com if you’ve got ’em.
And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.
Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn
We have 10 copies of Internment by Samira Ahmed to give away to 10 Riot readers!
Here’s what it’s all about;
Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens. With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp’s Director and his guards. Heart-racing and emotional, Internment challenges readers to fight complicit silence that exists in our society today.
Click here for a chance to win, or click on the cover image below!
Happy Monday, readers! The sun stays out later, the air is warmer, and spring is only a few days away. THANK GOODNESS. This felt like the longest winter ever! I am so ready to read with the windows open. I hope you all had a fabulous weekend, and you managed to read something wonderful. Have a great week, and remember to be excellent to each other! I’ll see you again on Thursday. – xoxo, Liberty
Sponsored by Dynamite Entertainment.
Nancy Drew is seventeen and good at everything, but life hits a snag when a mysterious message drags her back to the hometown she left behind. There she’ll have to find out which of her friends are still her friends, which are enemies, and who exactly is trying to kill her…and (hopefully) stop them before they succeed.
Here’s this week’s trivia question: What is the only Shakespeare play with ‘love’ in its title? (Scroll to the bottom for the answer.)
Deals, Reals, and Squeals!
Kenyan Filmmaker Wanuri Kaihu will direct Millie Bobby Brown in the adaptation of The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin.
Dietland author Sari Walker has a new novel coming with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Ecco snagged David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s upcoming thriller.
HBO announced the run times for the final six episodes of Game of Thrones.
The first book deal about the college admissions scandal has been announced.
Funko is getting into the children’s book business.
Patrick Brice will direct the film adaptation of There’s Someone Inside Your House for Netflix.
Freddie Prinze Jr. will play Nancy Drew’s estranged dad in the CW pilot.
Apple has formally given a series order for Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko. The company will unveil the details about its streaming service on March 25.
Cover Reveals
Here’s the first look at War Girls, Tochi Onyebuchi’s Black Panther-Inspired sci-fi adventure. (Razorbill, October 15)
Rainbow Rowell shared the cover of Wayward Son with EW. (Wednesday Books, September 24)
Sneak peeks
Here’s a new trailer for Avengers: Endgame.
Book Riot Recommends
At Book Riot, I work on the New Books! email, the All the Books! podcast about new releases, and the Book Riot Insiders New Release Index. I am very fortunate to get to read a lot of upcoming titles, and learn about a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week so you can add them to your TBR! (It will now be books I loved on Mondays and books I’m excited to read on Thursdays. YAY, BOOKS!)
Loved, loved, loved:
The Need by Helen Phillips (Simon & Schuster, July 9)
OHMYGOODNESS. This was an intense read, from the very first page! Molly works uncovering fossils by day, and caring for her two young children at night, while her musician husband on tour. One night, she hears a noise and realizes an intruder is in her home. What should she do? How does she get the kids to safety? She decides to confront the intruder, and it only gets weirder and creepier from there, in a brilliant way that only Helen Phillips could imagine. This was everything I wanted it to be.
What I’m reading this week.
Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat by Johnny Marciano and Emily Chenoweth
Guestbook: Ghost Stories by Leanne Shapton
Aru Shah and the Song of Death (Pandava Series) by Roshani Chokshi
Pun of the week: R.I.P boiled water. You will be mist.
Here’s a kitten picture: Farrokh and Zevon are getting so big!
And this is funny.
“So why do you write for kids?”
Trivia answer: Love’s Labour’s Lost.
You made it to the bottom! Thanks for reading! – xo, L
I hope you’re all recovered from whatever level or type of festivities you might have enjoyed over the holiday weekend, even if it was getting too much rest and reading too many books (the dream, right? :lolsob:)
Sponsored by Cold Day in the Sun by Sara Biren.
Holland Delviss is a good hockey player—she’s also the only girl on the boys’ varsity team. When her team is selected to play in a televised, statewide event, Holland’s status as the girl turns her into the feature story. Not everyone is thrilled with Holland’s new fame, but her bossy team co-captain, Wes, unexpectedly becomes her fiercest supporter. With cameras set to roll, Wes continues to surprise her, and Holland is dangerously close to breaking her number one rule: No dating teammates, ever.
News and Useful Links
Adriana Herrera shared her favorite librarian romances. Some familiar titles there, but never hurts to remember the ones we love.
So this is romance-adjacent, but how cool is it that Bea Koch (co-owner of The Ripped Bodice) is writing a (non-romance) book? (The subject is real women from the Regency, though, so it’s definitely of interest to romance readers and writers.)
Anybody in the DC area? (I’m sorry, I cannot bring myself to call it The DMV because…yeah no.) If you live there or plan to be around on Thursday, April 11, check out this amazing-looking panel at East City Bookshop!
(Also, are you going to Avon KissCon? Please let me live vicariously through you.)
Sometimes we forget that the people on covers are actual people. And unlike the guy Penni talked about last week, we actually know who this one is. But after over 600 covers, he’s hanging up the…what would he hang up? A too-tight tee shirt?
Love’s Sweet Arrow didn’t make their Kickstarter goal, sadly, but they do have a Patreon now!
Also romance-adjacent, but did you hear that Victoria Helen Stone (AKA Victoria Dahl) sold the rights to Jane Doe?
Deals
I’ve heard a lot of chatter about Lee Welch’s Salt Magic, Skin Magic on twitter. It sounds like a great place to start if you’re looking to get into historical fantasy romance. It’s a world where industrial magic exists, so that’s cool, right? It’s 2.99, and appears to stand alone (unless it’s the first in a series that hasn’t yet been announced.
If you’ve been looking to start a new contemporary series instead, Catherine Bybee’s Fool Me Once is 1.99. The others in the series are pretty inexpensive as well, so check out the first one and see where it takes you.
And bonus: If you didn’t check out Perv by Dakota Gray last time I talked about it, it’s free right now in celebration of the release of the third book in the series, Adonis Line.
Recs
It’s been a rough week, and I honestly wasn’t sure what to recommend this time. I did get some feedback with some more hockey romances, and I’ll toss those in at the bottom. I thought about maybe doing activist romances, like Rogue Acts, or romances with Muslim characters, like Wrong to Need You or I Can’t Think Straight (if you are looking for a place to start there, here’s a good list from last year). But really, what we all need is some low-angst romance. Some of these will be things I’ve recommended on KB before, and others are go-to happy places for me.
Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon
This is the first book I go to when someone asks for a low-angst romance to read. Sure, there are issues—a single divorced mother, a nanny with a childhood that wasn’t the best, and an asshole from afar. But it’s so fluffy. It’s so fluffy, even the back-matter says it’s fluffy.
The Craft of Love by EE Ottoman
One of the protagonists in this historical novella is trans, but the only angst that causes is within himself. And even then, it’s not about his being trans, but whether the woman he is developing quite a crush on is okay with that. Spoiler alert: that’s not a problem for her.
Cinnamon Blade by Shira Glassman
Sure, there’s conflict in this book; there has to be, because one protagonist is a superhero. But even then, there’s less fingerbiting about her survival and that of her team (and her love interest) than whether she and said love interest will finally get their acts together.
Bound to be a Groom by Megan Mulry
Honestly, this is so low-angst it’s practically low-plot. But there’s still enough of one to keep a reader happy and invested in the story…though the sexytimes are probably still the main reason this book exists (:laugh-cry emoji:). This whole series is just delightful, and is definitely a nice departure from the average Regency romance.
Love By the Books by Té Russ
This one is a touch more angsty, just because of the personalities involved, but the story itself is just so delightful, and all of the supporting characters and every single outing that happens. There is some facepalming, of course, because there can’t be a book without something, but this is just. *chef kiss*
What are your go-to fluff recommendations?
Before I go, here are some other recommended hockey romances! (Thanks Krystal S and Katie!)
Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy
Game Misconduct by Bianca Sommerland
Pucked by Helena Hunting
Body Check by Deirdre Martin
(Also, check out LA Witt’s Rebound, which is available to preorder.)
As usual, catch me on Twitter @jessisreading or Instagram @jess_is_reading, or send me an email at jessica@riotnewmedia.com if you’ve got feedback, book recs, or just want to say hi!
Sponsored by our What’s Up in YA Giveaway of a $100 gift card to Amazon! Enter here.
Let Me Just Learn Another Language Right Quick
The more I learn about Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the more I like: he’s apparently a Hufflepuff AND the guy went and learned Norwegian so he could read more books by an author he liked. You know…. as one does!
J.K. Rowling-related News That Won’t Incite an Eye Roll
Arthur A. Levine, the guy who brought the Harry Potter series to U.S., is leaving Scholastic after 23 years to start an independent publishing company. His mission is to “make books reflecting the greatest diversity and the highest standards of artistic excellence.” Sound good to us!
It’s Been A Long Time Since She’s All That
Breaking news: I am old. More news: Freddie Prinze Jr. will play Nancy’s Drew’s papa in The CW’s series based on the books. The show will follow 18-year-old Nancy during the summer after high school graduation, when she thinks she’s headed for college but then BOOM! Murder! No word yet as to whether Freddie will lead a flash mob dance number to Fatboy Slim’s greatest hits.
We have 10 copies of An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen to give away to Book Riot readers!
Here’s what it’s all about:
Looking to earn some easy cash, Jessica Farris agrees to be a test subject in a psychological study about ethics and morality. But as the study moves from the exam room to the real world, the line between what is real and what is one of Dr. Shields’s experiments blurs.
Dr. Shields seems to know what Jess is thinking… and what she’s hiding.
Jessica’s behavior will not only be monitored, but manipulated.
Caught in a web of attraction, deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly.
From the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, An Anonymous Girl will keep you riveted through the last shocking twist.
Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click the cover image below. Good luck!
Sponsored by our What’s Up in YA Giveaway of a $100 gift card to Amazon! Enter here.
J.K. Rowling Again Adds The Context Off The Page
In Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’s upcoming Blu-ray Rowling and director David Yates discuss Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald’s relationship. There seems to be discussion and implication once again of things not being shown on screen which can be problematic when dealing with a characters sexuality.
The Thing About Jellyfish
Ali Benjamin’s The Thing About Jellyfish is being adapted and the team involved already makes it sound like a winner: Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine is producing; Millie Bobby Brown is starring; Wanuri Kaihu will be directing. Happy to buy tickets now!
In Gimme Now Book News
Sarai Walker, the author of Dietland which was adapted into an AMC series, announced her second book: The Cherry Robbers. It sounds awesome and mysterious and can’t publish fast enough.