Amazon is the world’s largest bookstore, and we have $100 to give away to spend on books there! Or really you could spend it on anything, because it’s Amazon. But books!
This giveaway is sponsored by What’s Up in YA, our email newsletter focused on the wide world of YA. Enjoy young adult new release news, interviews, backlist recommendations, and deals!
Go here to enter, or just click the cover image below. Good luck!
Sponsored by The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson, available now from Grove Press
Serial Box Now Available For Android
It’s been a big year so far for the fiction app company that, like a TV series, breaks down a large standalone story into 10 to 15 individual installments. First, it announced it was partnering with Marvel to create new stories about Black Panther, Black Widow, Jessica Jones, and Thor. Then, it raised mucho millions in seed funding. And now the app that was only available for iOS has an app for Androids.
I Have Your Earworm For Today
Sesame Street’s iconic song Sunny Day is getting an illustrated book treatment. The song, sure to wrap you in a hug and send you down childhood memory lane, will be interpreted by different artists each with a spread in the picture-book titled Sunny Day: A Celebration of Sesame Street. Check out some of the beautiful pages here.
New Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame Trailer
Watch the new Endgame trailer here–just prepare yourself because it’s dark and emotional. Also, *waves* at my new Captain! Also, also, spiffy new spacesuits!
Hi mystery fans! If you’re a fan of heist films I recommend Logan Lucky: It has a great cast, was funny, and totally scratched my itch for a heist movie. Now on to books!
Sponsored by Putnam Books
For the past two weeks, seventeen-year-old Kate Bennet has lived against her will in an isolated cabin in a remote beach town—brought there by a mysterious man named Jim. Part captor, part benefactor, Jim calls her Evie and tells her he’s hiding her to protect her. That she did something terrible one night back home in Melbourne—something so unspeakable that he had no choice but to take her away. The trouble is, Kate can’t remember the night in question.
From Book Riot And Around The Internet
The Future of Indie Crime Fiction Belongs to Female Authors of Color
Talking about The Feather Thief with Dawn Roberts of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
For Your Consideration…Mystery Books on One Anthony Awards Ballot
Lady Spies And Other Favorite Mysteries And Thrillers
Liberty recommended some great mysteries on All The Backlist.
News And Adaptations
Steph Cha’s upcoming novel, Your House Will Pay, has a cover!
FX Grabs Don Winslow’s Cartel Novels to Develop for TV
Russell Hornsby To Headline ‘Lincoln’ NBC Pilot Based On ‘The Bone Collector’ Books
Kindle Deals
Run to this deal: My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite is $3.99!!!! (Review) (TW child and domestic abuse/ rape)
Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino, Alexander O. Smith (Translator) was one of my favorite reads of 2016 and is $1.99! (Review) (I don’t remember TW, sorry.)
Dervla McTiernan’s The Ruin is $1.99 and it’s a super good Irish crime novel. (Review) (TW child abuse/ suicide/ rape)
Watch Now
In theaters: Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase has a new adaptation and she’s investigating a haunted house. Check out the trailer here.
On TV: Prosecutor and author Marcia Clark executive produces and co-writes a new legal drama show on ABC starting March 18th titled The Fix. It stars Robin Tunney, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Breckin Meyer and you can see the trailer here.
A Bit Of My Week In Reading
So that thing where ALL your library holds come in at once happened to me and now I’m playing beat-the-clock reading edition with: Sex, Murder and a Double Latte by Kyra Davis; The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo; City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong; The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson; Code Name: Lise by Larry Loftis; Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward. Wish me luck!
Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.
Until next time, keep investigating! And in the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.
If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).
“Check Your Shelf” is sponsored by Carolrhoda Lab ®, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group.
Riley was born to be a cliché. A “Manic Pixie Dream Boy” from TropeTown, he’s always ready to play his part for Authors and their Developed protagonists… until he starts going off-script. It’s against all the rules, but if Riley doesn’t reject his training and expand his role, he may meet a fate far worse than any stereotype. As romantic as 500 Days of Summer and as meta as The Rest of Us Just Live Here, The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project will leave you questioning just who should be in charge of your story. Available now!
A couple items before we dive in:
1) If you’re a Check Your Shelf reader, we want to hear from YOU! Take this short survey and be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card! Entries will be accepted until 3/31, and is open to US and Canadian residents.
2) Kelly Jensen wants to hear your funniest and weirdest stories about why a book was returned to your library damaged! The form will only be open until Friday, March 15th, so if you have a story to share, this is your last chance to send it in! Responses will be rounded up for an April Book Riot post to celebrate libraries.
Do you take part in LibraryReads, the monthly list of best books selected by librarians only? We’ve made it easy for you to find eligible diverse titles to nominate. Kelly Jensen created a database of upcoming diverse books that anyone can edit, and Nora Rawlins of Early Word is doing the same, as well as including information about series, vendors, and publisher buzz.
Thanks for hanging out and I’ll see you again next week!
–Katie McLain, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Dig by A.S. King.
Hello nonfiction nerds! After the bonanza of new books that came out last week, I almost feel bad writing about five more titles coming out this week… but not really. This week’s selection has some historical true crime, data science, animal research and more. Let’s go!
Sponsored by What’s Up in YA Giveaway of a $100 gift card to Amazon! Enter here.
We’re giving away a $100 gift card to Amazon in support of our YA newsletter, What’s Up in YA, about all things young adult literature! Sign up to enter here.
The Trial of Lizzie Borden by Cara Robertson – This book is a new account of one of America’s most sensational murder trials. In the book, Robertson “explores the stories Lizzie Borden’s culture wanted and expected to hear and how those stories influenced the debate inside and outside of the courtroom” using newspaper accounts, transcripts, and letters written by Lizzie herself.
Further Reading: If you like the behind-the-scenes stories of how books get made, Publisher’s Weekly has a great piece on the 16 years it took Robertson to get this book published.
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez – I love books that make an argument I’ve never really thought about before. In this book, Caroline Criado Perez looks into how the data we collect and use makes men the default, treating women as atypical and, therefore, embedding bias into everything from the workplace to the doctor’s office. I just started this one and it’s so interesting.
Further Reading: Bustle published a great excerpt from the book looking specifically at how “one-size-fits-all” usually means “one-size-fits-men.”
The Lost Gutenberg by Margaret Leslie Davis – A literary history! The Gutenberg Bible, one of the first books published on a printing press, is one of the most widely-sought collectibles in literature. This book traces the history of one copy of the book, from its creation by Johannes Gutenberg to its final major collector, Estelle Doheny. This one looks really fun.
Further Reading: Book Riot has a post of 10 things you should know about the Gutenberg Bible, which seems like a good starting point before reading the book.
Mama’s Last Hug by Frans de Waal – Beginning with a viral moment between an aging chimpanzee matriarch and a biologist saying goodbye, this book argues “humans are not the only species with the capacity for love, hate, fear, shame, guilt, joy, disgust, and empathy.” I feel like this one has a high probability of making me cry, but that’s ok.
Further Watching: Frans de Waal has given a couple of TED Talks about primate social behavior.
What You Have Heard Is True by Carolyn Forché – This memoir is the story of “a woman’s radical act of empathy, and her fateful encounter with an intriguing man who changes the course of her life” during visits to El Salvador at the dawn of a civil war.
Further Reading: Forché is a well-regarded poet. You can read her 1978 poem, “The Colonel” thanks to the Poetry Foundation.
Ya’ll, there are just so many good books out there right now. You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, on email at kim@riotnewmedia.com, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading! – Kim
Check out two rad designs available on tees and more! Fight evil, read books.
Sponsored by CHENDELL: A Natural Warrior. Read it Today!
Amazon Removes Pseudoscience Books
Books unscientifically claiming that autism can be cured with potentially toxic forms of bleach and other pseudoscientific methods have been removed from Amazon. While Amazon confirmed the books are no longer available they did not comment on why, but the move occurred after an article in Wired pointed out the dangers of Amazon stocking these books.
2019 Man Booker International Prize Long List Announced
Highlighting translated fiction from around the world the 2019 Man Booker Dozen has been announced, and congrats to all the authors, translators, and publishers! Check out the thirteen works here and standby for the short list announcement on April 9th–in the meantime you can get your translated work read on!
“What If” Marvel Series In The Works
Disney+ streaming platform and Marvel are working on an adaptation of the “What If” comics which explored alternate histories from what was comic lore and established stories. “One of the confirmed episodes will be an adaptation of What If? Vol. 1 #47 titled What If Loki Had Found the Hammer of Thor?” This sounds fuuuuun!
Hello mystery fans! This week I have for you a small-town mystery where the buried secrets will rise, a real life double agent, and a dark serial killer novel!
The Huntress, new from Kate Quinn, the New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network.
One of Marie Claire’s Best Women’s Fiction of the year! One of Bookbub’s biggest books of the year! “If you enjoyed The Tattooist of Auschwitz, read The Huntress.” – The Washington Post From the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling novel, The Alice Network, comes a fascinating historical novel about a battle-haunted English journalist and a Russian female bomber pilot who join forces to track the Huntress, a Nazi war criminal gone to ground in America.
Small-Town Missing Person (TW domestic violence/ addiction/ suicide)
Fallen Mountains by Kimi Cunningham Grant: I’m a sucker for small-town mysteries where the buried secrets are gonna rise and this novel did all of that really well. It’s told in past and present while following a group of people in Fallen Mountains, Pennsylvania: Red, a widowed sheriff set to retire; Transom, Chase, and Laney, friends who grew up together; Possum, a once bullied kid now out of prison. Transom is missing and while most think this is just his usual M.O. of leaving without saying anything his girlfriend is certain something is wrong and convinces Red to investigate. This set’s off Transom’s father to hire an investigator sent to work with Red–and a thing I really liked about this novel was that instead of them fighting and trying to stop the other they actually work together in trying to figure out where Transom is. The thing is Transom was the type of person who even those who loved him knew to watch out for his possible bite. So soon you realize, if he didn’t pull a Transom and take off, lots of people had a reason to harm him. While Red is a good sheriff he has a secret that Transom’s disappearance may drag out into the light and, well, it’s a small-town filled with secrets and it seems this missing person case may be a reckoning for many…
Real Life Double Agent! (TW suicide mention)
Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal by Ben Macintyre: For fans of spy novels this is a must-read nonfiction that details the life of a conman turned double agent during WWII. I knew this was going to be a ride when just at the beginning of getting to know Eddie Chapman–prior to his double agent days–there was safe heists, blackmailing women he’d given STDs too, and a prison escape. He was a criminal and conman who managed to always slip by and ended up being sent into Britain on a mission as a German spy but ended up working for MI5 for years! The thing with Chapman was no one ever really knew who he was really working for and while MI5 believed he could be trusted to always complete any mission they gave him they knew he couldn’t be trusted with anything else. Literally nothing else. This is one of those nonfiction reads that has the pacing and feel of a thriller with moments where you do a double take and have to remind yourself this is a true story. I really recommend the audiobook if you’re a listener, and if you’re a fan of John le Carré type novels get thee this book now!
Dark-ish And Intense Serial Killer Novel (TW rape/ pedophile)
The Last Woman in the Forest by Diane Les Becquets: This was another one of those reads that rang a lot of my bells: serial killer; character with unique/interesting job; strangers pair up to solve a mystery; did he or didn’t he? Told in past and present we get to know Marian Engström who works with training dogs in remote areas where conservation studies are being performed. This is how she meets the love of her life Tate Mathias, her mentor. But after his death things start to not add up for her and she begins to question if he could have been the still unidentified serial killer. He couldn’t have been really, she would have known, right? But he did tell her the story of having found one of the serial killer’s victims and she can’t let this go, so she contacts the psychologist/forensic profiler from the case who is now retired and dying of brain cancer. I inhaled the audiobook (great multiple narrators) of this dark, atmospheric mystery that had me both fascinated with the conservation studies and the exploration of grief and being a victim. The audiobook ends with the author explaining her own story of rape and why she wrote this novel.
Recent Releases
A Dangerous Collaboration (Veronica Speedwell #4) by Deanna Raybourn (Currently reading and loving–this is one of my favorite historical mystery series!)
The Trial of Lizzie Borden by Cara Robertson (True crime)
Article 353 by Tanguy Viel,William Rodarmor (Translation) (French noir)
The Hunger by Alma Katsu (Paperback) (An eerie, suspenseful reimagining of the already horrifying historical event of the Donner-Reed Party–Full review) (TW child death/ suicide/ rape–including incestual)
Barbed Wire Heart by Tess Sharpe (Paperback) (Super good crime novel–Full review) (TW rape/ domestic abuse/ addiction/ pedophile)
The Italian Party by Christina Lynch (Paperback) (Historical fiction about newlyweds where one doesn’t know the other is a spy.)
Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh (Paperback) (Twisty thriller.) (TW: suicide/ domestic abuse)
Too Close to Breathe by Olivia Kiernan (Paperback) (Dark Dublin Procedural–Full review) (Trigger Warnings: cutting/ domestic abuse/ suicide)
The French Girl by Lexie Elliott (Paperback) (Group of friends, decade old mystery.) (TW suicide)
Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.
Until next time, keep investigating! And in the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.
If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.
Happy Tuesday, book lovers! We lost an hour of sleep this weekend, but who needs sleep? (Spoiler: Literally everyone.) There’s still plenty of time for reading, and lots of great new books coming down the pike. Today I am excited to get my hands on The True Queen by Zen Cho, the sequel to A Sorcerer to the Crown. I have a few of today’s fabulous new releases below, and you can hear about more awesome reads on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Kelly and I talked about If Cats Disappeared from the World, SHOUT, When the Irish Invaded Canada, and more great books.
Sponsored by Epic Reads.
After Zan’s best friend moves to California, she is baffled and crushed when Priya suddenly ghosts. Worse, Priya’s social media has turned into a stream of ungrammatical posts chronicling a sunny, vapid new life that doesn’t sound like her at all. It’s only when Zan meets Logan, the compelling new guy in Spanish class, that she begins to uncover clues that something could be seriously wrong. Maybe Priya isn’t just not answering Zan’s emails. Maybe she can’t.
The Dragonfly Sea by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
A beautiful coming-of-age novel about a girl, Ayaana, and her mother on the island of Pate off the coast of Kenya. As Ayaana grows up, the world she knows on the island changes, and she embarks on a journey to China to learn of her heritage. This is a unique novel of culture, love, and loss, with gorgeous descriptions and fantastic characters. How have we not heard more about this one already???
Backlist bump: Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
Hooray, it’s finally here! And it’s amazing! Fatima is a concubine in the royal court of Granada, and her closest friend is Hassan, the palace mapmaker. And Fatima knows Hassan’s secret―he can draw maps of places he’s never seen and bend the shape of reality. When Fatima befriends one of the women from the visiting newly-formed Spanish monarchy, she doesn’t realize Hassan will be seen as a sorcerer by the Christians. She will have to help Hassan escape the palace to safety if she wants her friend to stay alive. It’s a wonderful, imaginative story about love, friendship, and religion in the time of the Spanish Inquisition.
Backlist bump: Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
Prince: The Last Interview (The Last Interview Series) by Prince and Hanif Abdurraqib
Yes to this book, but also yes to all of the books in this Melville House series. It’s fun to learn things, even when you aren’t familiar with the interview subject. But back to this book: it’s the little dose of purple magic we need to see us through this winter, and it features an introduction by Hanif Abdurraqib, who is fast becoming one of the most important voices of our times.
Backlist bump: They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib
Thanks so much for visiting me here each week! Y’all are the best.
xoxo,
Liberty
Hola, Audiophiles!
Things are pretty steady here in the land of Required Reading: still balancing 10+ books at the same time, still walking around audiobooking whenever I’m not regular-booking. Things have been so busy that I forgot to share some pretty cool news about Harry Potter and one of my crushes last week! Read on, dear friend, and bear with me while I babble about my latest listen.
Let’s audio.
Sponsored by Dreamscape Media, LLC and Good Riddance, by Elinor Lipman.
When an unsavory yearbook filled with her mother’s past comments about students gets into the hands of a woman who wants to turn it into a documentary, Daphne must stop her before her family secrets are in danger. As she struggles to silence the documentarian, she also finds herself struggling with her own demons. Expertly written and beautifully narrated, Elinor Lipman’s newest audiobook is available free with your library card on hoopla digital. Experience the novel that has received rave reviews from the Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, and People.
Latest Listen
I finished The Night Tiger and… wow. Last week I mentioned starting this mythical, sumptuous and delightful read set in 1930s Malaysia about a young woman working at a dance hall on the low and a house boy whose master has given him a task to complete at his death. Their paths collide when they each embark on separate and dangerous missions involving a mysterious severed finger in a glass vial. You get a murder mystery, a ghost story, and tale of forbidden love all wrapped up in one!
What really sets this story over the top are the lush descriptions of scenery, aromas, and some of the most decadent food I’ve seen on a page (I paused the audio to Google “Malaysian food in San Diego” on at least three occasions). I also really love the theme of women’s empowerment that’s woven throughout; I clapped at the end when Ji Lin made a choice I was hoping she’d make but wasn’t sure she would.
Get up, stretch, use the restroom and grab your coffee because I’m about rave about Helen Oyeyemi’s Gingerbread. Oyeyemi is just a master at reworking a fairy tale in strange and lovely ways, and with language that has me hitting that rewind button on my Libro app to experience a sentence like this one again:
“A gingerbread addict once told Harriet that eating her gingerbread is like eating revenge…with darts of heat, salt, spice, and sulfurous syrup, as if honey was measured out, set ablaze, and trickled through the dough along with the liquefied spoon.”
British schoolgirl Perdita and her mother, Harriet, live in a gold-painted seventh-floor walk-up apartment where they make gingerbread that no one seems to really… want? One day Perdita appears to commit suicide by ingesting some poisoned gingerbread, but leaves a note behind that’s like, “BRB Mom! Not really dead, just going off to find the long-lost friend you always talk about!” That friend’s name is Gretel and the mythical place is Druhástrana, a faraway land where Harriet spent her youth that most people don’t believe exists. Perdita survives and comes back with a story, one she will only tell if Harriet first tells the truth about her mysterious past.
I’ve gone on long enough but one more thing: this one is narrated by Oyeyemi herself and her voice is silky smooth perfection.
They Came, They Saw, They Audied – The Audie Awards happened last week! The full list of winners is here. Some highlights include Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi winning Audiobook of the Year and Educated by Tara Westover winning for both Autobiography/Memoir and Best Female Narrator.
Audio Across the Pond – Here is some more talk of audiobooks’ double-digit growth for you from the London Book Fair. Check out the write-up in Publisher’s Weekly on why it’s likely to continue.
Harry Potter and the News I Forgot to Tell You – How I forgot to mention this last week, I don’t know: the Harry Potter audiobooks will be available in Spanish for the first time this year. Alohomora, that is good news! The cherry on top here is that the books will be narrated by Carlos Ponce, the Puerto Rican actor and singer that I crushed* on HARD for the better part of my youth. Those eyes!
*past tense used here because lies
LatinAudio Love – While I’m personally not an Audible user, I do support the creation of spaces for Spanish-language books. Audible has done just that with the launch of Audible Latino; I’ll clap for that.
Sounds of SciFi – Rioter Alex has done us all a huge favor here with this list of 25 Science Fiction audiobooks to get into, plus a little more if you count the entire series and not just the first installment. As Alex points out, you get 35 audiobook recs for the price of 25!
All About Accents – Last week I talked audiobook accents over at the YouTube – my thoughts on when they work, when they don’t, and when they’re doing the most.
That’s all I got today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with audiobook feedback & questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the In The Club newsletter, peep the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Friday too!
Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa