At Book Riot, we believe books and bookish gear should be as beautiful and diverse as booklovers are. Join us in celebrating Pride Month and LGBTQ+ readers with these tees, totes, and more.
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Macmillan is giving away 25 copies of SUICIDE CLUB by Rachel Heng!
Here’s what it’s all about:
Lea Kirino is a “Lifer,” which means that a roll of the genetic dice has given her the potential to live forever—if she does everything right. After the return of her estranged father, Lea is drawn into the mysterious world of the Suicide Club, a network of powerful, rebellious individuals who reject society’s pursuit of immortality and choose to live—and die—on their own terms. Lea is forced to choose between a sanitized immortal existence and a short, bittersweet time with a man she has never really known but who is the only family she has left.
Ready for your chance to win? Go here or just click the image below. Good luck!
Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Epic Reads
When Betts meets Aiden at the candy store where she works, their connection is like a sugar rush to the heart and Betts already knows they are destined to be.
Betts has only ever kept one secret from her best friend, Jo, but suddenly there’s a long list of things Jo wouldn’t understand. Because Jo doesn’t see how good Aiden is for Betts. She finds him needy. Possessive. Controlling.
She’s wrong. With a love sweet, nothing else matters, until it turns sour.
Anica Mrose Rissi weaves a gripping, compulsively readable novel about what happens when what feels like love turns into something more dangerous.
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060518-Wormworld-The-Stack
Today’s The Stack is sponsored by CubHouse, an imprint of Lion Forge.
The Wormworld Saga Vol. 1: The Journey Begins
Written and Illustrated by Daniel Lieske
This gorgeous fantasy epic follows Jonas, a young boy from our human world, who stumbles into an alternate universe through a painting in his grandmother’s attic. When the portal closes behind him Jonas must find another way home and begins a journey through this strange and mesmerizing land. Along the way he meets Raya, who becomes his guardian in the new world. But there are many things Raya is not telling Jonas, and this world is not peaceful.
Volume one is in stores now!
This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Diode Editions.
#Cockygate Developments
In the chronicles of #cockygate, a judge has denied a motion by romance writer Faleena Hopkins requesting a preliminary injunction to prevent the publication of some books that include the word “cocky” in the title. After obtaining a trademark registration of the word “cocky,” the author began working to block the sale of romance novels that use the word in their titles. Although I’m sure many, particularly those financially affected by this trademark battle, wish the whole thing would go away, we’ll likely hear more on the lawsuit.
Linking Classics To The Incel Movement
A piece in The Guardian looked at possible intersections between literary classics and the incel movement. The article considers the glorification of male sexual frustration in classics such as Hamlet, Great Expectations, and The Great Gatsby, and the celebration of people like Elliot Rodger (the perpetrator of the Isla Vista killings that were motivated by Rodger’s hatred of women) among members of the involuntarily celibate community.
Need Another Reason To Read? SCIENCE
A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests reading may help prevent dementia. Researchers conducted the study using a sample size of 15,582 people from Hong Kong, age sixty-five and up, and discovered that readers’ risk of developing dementia was significantly lower than non-readers.
Don’t forget we’re giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Enter here!
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First Tuesday of June Megalist!
IT’S HERE. Today is the biggest new book day of 2018…so far. (There’s usually another really big one in the fall.) There are sooooo many great books out today. It’s a perfect way to head into summer reading!
You can hear about several of today’s new books on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about a few amazing books we loved, including There There, Visible Empire, Small Country, and more.
Sponsored by Visible Empire by Hannah Pittard
Visible Empire is an epic novel—based on true events—of love, grief, race, and wealth, charting a single sweltering summer in Atlanta, and a plane crash that left no one unchanged.
“Hannah Pittard is fast becoming one of the best writers of her generation. Read her now, and thank me later.”—Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
“Visible Empire is Hannah Pittard’s best book to date. Compelling, shocking, strong and brave. Who should read this? Everyone, everyone.”—Helen Ellis, author of American Housewife
(And like with each megalist, I’m putting a 
next to the books that I have read and loved. There are soooo many more on this list that I can’t wait to read!)
PS – Don’t forget we’re giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Enter here by June 21st!
Florida by Lauren Groff
Visible Empire by Hannah Pittard
Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation by Robert W. Fieseler
Little Do We Know by Tamara Ireland Stone
Invisible Ghosts by Robyn Schneider
Kudos: A Novel (Outline Trilogy) by Rachel Cusk
The President Is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson
Mariam Sharma Hits the Road by Sheba Karim
Bruce Lee: A Life by Matthew Polly
Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and His Last Muse by Andrea Di Robilant
A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising by Raymond A. Villareal
Mother American Night: My Life in Crazy Times by John Perry Barlow and Robert Greenfield
Those Wild Wyndhams: Three Sisters at the Heart of Power by Claudia Renton
Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime by Ron Stallworth
Take You Wherever You Go by Kenny Leon
We Are Gathered by Jamie Weisman
Santa Cruz Noir (Akashic Noir Series) by Susie Bright
Ghostbuster’s Daughter: Life with My Dad, Harold Ramis by Violet Ramis Stiel
Rivers by Martin Michael Driessen, Jon Reeder (Translator)
The Trans Generation: How Trans Kids (and Their Parents) are Creating a Gender Revolution by Ann Travers
Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl
Free Chocolate by Amber Royer
The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz
The Terrible: A Storyteller’s Memoir by Yrsa Daley-Ward
Smoke in the Sun by Renée Ahdieh
Here Kitty Kitty by Jardine Libaire
Unbound: Transgender Men and the Remaking of Identity by Arlene Stein
Queen for a Day by Maxine Rosaler
The Good Son: A Novel by You-Jeong Jeong
The Book of M by Peng Shepard
A Blood Thing by James Hankins
Rough Animals: A Novel by Rae DelBianco
Black Panther: Long Live the King (Marvel Premiere Graphic Novel) by Nnedi Okorafor and Andre Araujo
The Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell
The Optickal Illusion: A Novel by Rachel Halliburton
Fat Girl on a Plane by Kelly deVos
Always Forever Maybe by Anica Mrose Rissi
What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America by Michael Eric Dyson
Lagos Noir (Akashic Noir Series) by Chris Abani
Small Country: A Novel by Gaël Faye
Upstate: A Novel by James Wood
How We Roll by Natasha Friend
What Happened That Night by Sandra Block
Brother in Ice by Alicia Kopf (Author), Mara Faye Lethem (Translator)
A Mask of Shadows: A Novel (A Frey & McGray Mystery) by Oscar de Muriel
Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God: Poems by Tony Hoagland
Side by Side: A Novel of Bonnie and Clyde by Jenni L. Walsh
Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living by Karen Auvinen
Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded by Jason Heller
Save the Date by Morgan Matson
Lincoln’s Last Trial: The Murder Case that Propelled Him to the Presidency by Dan Abrams and David Fisher
Days of Awe by A.M. Homes
Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax
The Devil’s Half Mile by Paddy Hirsch
Heartseeker by Melinda Beatty
The Third Bank of the River: Power and Survival in the Twenty-First-Century Amazon by Chris Feliciano Arnold
Southernmost by Silas House
The Captives: A Novel by Debra Jo Immergut
Tiny Crimes: Very Short Tales of Mystery and Murder by Lincoln Michel (Editor), Nadxieli Nieto (Editor)
Cancerland: A Medical Memoir by MD David T. Scadden and Michael D’Antonio
Tonight I’m Someone Else: Essays by Chelsea Hodson
Sweet and Low: Stories by Nick White
Us Against You: A Novel (Beartown) by Fredrik Backman
Sex and the City and Us: How Four Single Women Changed the Way We Think, Live, and Love by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Pérez
Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt
Dear Rachel Maddow by Adrienne Kisner
Sick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour
How Hitler Was Made: Germany and the Rise of the Perfect Nazi by Cory Taylor
Bruja Born (Brooklyn Brujas) by Zoradia Cordova
The Bird and the Blade by Megan Bannen
Dreams of Falling by Karen White
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal: A Novel by Dorthe Nors
When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger
There There by Tommy Orange
The Last Lobster: Boom or Bust for Maine’s Greatest Fishery? by Christopher White
Goodbye, Sweet Girl: A Story of Domestic Violence and Survival by Kelly Sundberg
Into that Good Night: A Novel by Levis Keltner
Never Anyone But You by Rupert Thomson
Somebody I Used to Know: A Memoir by Wendy Mitchell
Social Intercourse by Greg Howard
My Girls: A Lifetime with Carrie and Debbie by Todd Fisher
Whisper of the Tide by Sarah Tolcser
Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton
Homelands: Four Friends, Two Countries, and the Fate of the Great Mexican-American Migration by Alfredo Corchado
Something in the Water: A Novel by Catherine Steadman
One Day You’ll Thank Me: Lessons From an Unexpected Fatherhood by David McGlynn
The Maw: A Novel by Taylor Zajonc
São Paulo Noir (Akashic Noir Series) by Tony Bellotto
Treeborne by Caleb Johnson
Brief Cases (Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher
Still Lives: A Novel by Maria Hummel
Half Gods by Akil Kumarasamy
Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous by Christopher Bonanos
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
The Lost Family by Jenna Blum
How Hard Can It Be by Alliosn Pearson
North American Stadiums by Grady Chambers
The Answers by Catherine Lacey (paperback)
Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy (paperback)
That’s it for me today! If you want to learn more about books new and old (and see lots of pictures of my cats, Millay and Steinbeck), or tell me about books you’re reading, or books you think I should read (I HEART RECOMMENDATIONS!), you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!
Stay rad,
Liberty
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In the Club Jun 6
Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Let’s dive in.
This newsletter is sponsored by Monica Hesse’s American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land, from Liveright Publishing.
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the New York Times, NPR, Amazon, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Bustle, NYLON, and Thrillist.
The arsons started on a cold November evening and didn’t stop for months. Night after night, the people of desolate Accomack County waited to see which abandoned building would burn down next, regarding each other at first with compassion, and later suspicion. Monica Hesse spent years investigating the story, emerging with breathtaking portraits of the arsonists and their community. American Fire captures a rural county in flames, gutted long before the fires began.
Happy Pride month! To kick things off, here’s a list of queer women of color you should definitely consider adding to your reading schedule.
Book group bonus: Here is where I pitch The Salt Roads to you all; that book knocked my socks off, and it’s got multiple timelines and POV as well as being gorgeously written and hugely compelling — it’s ideal book club material, is what I’m saying.
It’s also Ramadan, for around another week, so here are some reads by Muslim authors to consider!
Book group bonus: I just want everyone to read ALL the books on this list, honestly.
Announcing Oprah’s newest book pick! The Oprah Book Club pick is The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton, with Lara Love Hardin.
Book group bonus: Did you know that Oprah’s Book Club was on a two year hiatus, and returned in it’s 2.0 form in 2012? The continuing evolution of OBC is, to my mind, one of the most interesting book club stories out there.
Want to dive into “what if”s? Here are some alternate histories to consider for your next meeting.
Book group bonus: In addition to discussing how plausible/interesting the scenario in your chosen book might be, you could also have a rousing round of “here’s the ‘what if’ I wish someone would write!”
Highly scientific and definitive: Emily picked the 10 best mystery authors of all time.
Book group bonus: You could probably spend an entire meeting just arguing about the inclusion/exclusion of authors on this list (particularly JK Rowling)!
So meta: NPR tagged along with a book club that went to see Book Club!
Book group bonus: This just cracked me up. Listen/read with your group and tag yourself, I’m Unidentified Person #4.
Need some book club presents? Here’s a roundup; those wine glass charms are PERFECT if you’ve got a beverage-oriented group.
Award winners for your consideration: The Nebulas and the Audie Awards have both been announced!
Book group bonus: While your group might generally split between audio listeners and print readers, consider doing a print AND audio discussion of a single title. Does the audio add anything to the print experience? Is one easier to follow than the other?
And don’t forget to enter our $500 gift card giveaway to your favorite bookstore!
That’s a wrap: Happy discussing! 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 (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.
Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn
More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page
Happy June, readers! It’s not a huge news day, as most of publishing turned its attention to BookExpo last week, but I still have some great book-related news and recommendations for you! Because I love you and I like you. I hope everything in your world is marvelous and you’re reading something wonderful. Enjoy your upcoming week, and be excellent to each other. – xoxo, Liberty
Sponsored by Hangman by Jack Heath, new from Hanover Square Press.
An addictive debut thriller starring an FBI consultant with a peculiar taste for crime and punishment…
A boy vanishes on his way home from school. His frantic mother receives a ransom call: pay or else. Enter Timothy Blake, an FBI consultant with a knack for solving impossible cases but whose expertise comes at a price: every time he saves a life, he also takes one. But this kidnapper is more cunning and ruthless than any he’s faced before. And he’s been assigned a new partner within the Bureau: a woman linked to the past he’s so desperate to forget.
PS – Don’t forget we’re giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Enter here by June 21st!
Here’s this week’s trivia question: What was Maurice Sendak’s original title for Where The Wild Things Are?
Deals, Reals, and Squeals!
Ooooo! Space Opera by Catherynne Valente is going to be a music-themed film!
Charles Melton joins Yara Shahidi in The Sun Is Also a Star.
Zack Snyder says The Fountainhead is his next project. (Y tho?)
Joe Hill’s Locke & Key series will find a home at Netflix.
Comic relief is the thing with feathers: Hailee Steinfeld to star in Emily Dickinson comedy series.
Timothée Chalamet, Robert Pattinson, Joel Edgerton, Ben Mendelsohn, and Lily-Rose Depp will star in The King, based on Shakespeare’s Henry the IV and V.
Cover Reveals
Teen Vogue scooped the exclusive first look at Dealing in Dreams from Lilliam Rivera. (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, March 5, 2019)
Here’s the first look at Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty’s upcoming novel Nine Perfect Strangers. (Flatiron Books, November 6)
Megan Mullally revealed the cover of The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, the book she cowrote with her husband, Nick Offerman. (Dutton, October 2)
And here’s the first peek at the US cover of Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore. (Knopf, October 9)
And Penguin Teen just revealed the cover of Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte. (Penguin Teen, February 26, 2019)
And lucky attendees at BookExpo got the first look at Samantha Shannon’s upcoming epic novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree. (Bloomsbury Publishing, February 26, 2019)
Sneak Peeks
Here’s the first trailer for the Ursula K. Le Guin documentary.
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!
Loved, loved, loved:
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Doubleday, November 20)
Oooooo, this book packs a lot in less than 200 pages. Korede is a nurse in Nigeria. She is also the person she calls when her gorgeous younger sister Ayoola needs help cleaning up her mess. And by “mess,” I mean “bodies”. So far, three of them. Korede’s loyalty lies with her sister, so she always helps hide the evidence, but her loyalties are tested when the doctor Korede has loved from afar starts dating Ayoola. On the surface a thriller, this is actually a smart novel about beauty standards, sexism, and violence against women.
Excited to read:
Lost Soul, Be at Peace by Maggie Thrash (Candlewick, October 9)
YESSSSSSSSS! A follow-up to Honor Girl! This one is about a period of depression Thrash experienced in eleventh grade. She did a tremendous job being so honest and smart about awkward situations, scary feelings, and real life in Honor Girl, I’m sure this one will be fantastic as well! I can’t wait to read it.
What I’m reading this week.
The Witch Elm by Tana French
If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim
Treeborne by Caleb Johnson
The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter
Non-book-related recommendation.
I just started watching The Terror on AMC and WHOO is it great. I haven’t actually read the book by Dan Simmons (WHO AM I?!?) but I am hella-enjoying this show about British explorers in the Arctic in the mid-19th century who are trapped in the ice and being pursued by…something. Possibly. It’s so creepy! Plus it has my boyfriend Ciarán Hinds. I’m pretty sure he and Tobias Menzies are contractually obligated to appear in the same shows every few years.
And this is funny.
And now it’s stuck in your head too.
Trivia answer: Where the Wild Horses Are.
We have 10 copies of Tonight I’m Someone Else by Chelsea Hodson to give away to 10 Riot readers!
Here’s what it’s all about:
From graffiti gangs and Grand Theft Auto to sugar daddies, Schopenhauer, and a deadly game of Russian roulette, Chelsea Hodson probes her desires in these essays to examine where the physical and proprietary collide. She asks what our privacy, intimacy, and bodies are worth in the increasingly digital world of liking, linking, and sharing. This tender and jarring collection is relevant to anyone who’s ever searched for what the self is worth.
Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click the cover image below:
We’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Click here, or on the image below to enter:
Weird Literary Relics People Bought For A Lot of Money
Here’s some fun tidbits for your next dinner party: 9 Weird Literary Relics People Spent Serious Money On. Someone was willing to pay more than $9,000 for Charles Dickens’ toothpick. I say “ew,” but to each their own–unless they use it, that’s just nasty. Other items include an X-Ray of Hernest Hemingway’s foot, J.D. Salinger’s toilet, and Truman Capote’s ashes–Imagine wanting his ghost!
Celia Cruz’s Autobiography Is Being Adapted
Celia Cruz, the Queen of Latin Music, is getting an English language series based primarily on her autobiography Celia: My Life and the Smithsonian’s more than 500 hours of taped interviews. The Cuban born singer is one of the most influential people in Latin music history, with over 70 albums, so fingers crossed this project is as great as she was. ¡Azucar!
Music-Themed Sci-Fi Novel Adaptation
It’s the weekend on yet another loooong week let’s continue with awesome, fun, adaptation news: The science fiction novel Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente is being adapted into a music-themed film. After a great galactic war a fierce musical contest arises–and that’s all I need to want this novel (a Book Riot favorite) and this film!