Categories
New Books

A Hidden Ark, a Joan of Arc, and More New Books!

Holy cats! I don’t know about where you live, but the weather has finally turned warm and lovely here in Maine – it’s perfect for reading! And there are so many good books out today, it would be a shame not to take advantage of it. YAY, NATURE! YAY, BOOKS! I have a few great books to tell you about today, and you can hear about more wonderful books on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about a few awesome books we loved, including Locking Up Our Own, How to be Married, and Imagine Wanting Only This. And exciting news: One of my very favorites from last year, One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood, is out in paperback today!

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Post Grad by Caroline Kitchener.

What really happens in the first year out of college? When Caroline Kitchener graduated from Princeton, she began shadowing four of her female classmates, interviewing them as they started to navigate the murky waters of post-collegiate life. Weaving together her own experience as a writer with the experiences of these other women—a documentarian, a singer, a programmer, and an aspiring doctor—Kitchener delves deeply into the personal and professional opportunities offered to female college graduates, and how the world perceives them.

the golden legendThe Golden Legend by Nadeem Aslam

A gorgeous, sad novel about love and secrets set in Pakistan. A widow, who is being pressured to forgive her husband’s killer, must also fear that her secrets will be shared with the town, when someone starts broadcasting people’s secrets from the minaret of the local mosque. When the speaker reveals a forbidden romance, chaos erupts in the community. This is a fantastic book about religious intolerance and the resilience of the human spirit.

Backlist bump: The Blind Man’s Garden by Nadeem Aslam

the book of joanThe Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch

A speculative fiction reimagining of the life of Joan of Arc, set in the near future. Earth is a toxic nuclear wasteland, so its inhabitants have had to leave the planet. Still in the midst of war and chaos, one woman will rise to lead a rebellion to overthrow the oppressors and seal the destiny of mankind. This is a wonderful, wildly imaginative book about gender, love, and war.

Backlist bump: Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch) by Ann Leckie

entropy in bloom Entropy in Bloom: Stories by Jeremy Robert Johnson

If you’re like me, and you love scary/gross stories, this is the perfect book for you, now available for the first time in hardcover and featuring a never-before published novella! Johnson infuses his stories with equal amounts of compelling and disturbing, to make up a fun batch of horror that will have you eewing and aahing. Sit back and enjoy the ride as people take things that aren’t theirs, pierce things they shouldn’t, and a whole lot more!

Backlist bump: Skullcrack City by Jeremy Robert Johnson

araratArarat by Christopher Golden

When an earthquake reveals a hidden cave, two daring adventurers think they have found the rumored location of  Noah’s Ark and their shot at fame and notoriety. But the team of explorers that go in search of the Ark are not prepared for the horrifying horned creature that awaits them inside of the mountain. And as a blizzard cuts off their escape, they must use their wits to stay alive. Monsters + religious history + adventure = FUN.

Backlist bump: Snowblind by Christopher Golden

the lightsThe Lights by Brian McGreevy

Another wonderful title from Rare Bird Books! The creator of Hemlock Grove returns with an intense look at people behaving badly. When Lena sets off for school in Austin, she thinks she has a new life on the gifted path of higher learning ahead of her. But she quickly learns that you can’t leave your problems behind, and The Lights reveals itself as a study of how people in close quarters behave much like animals, and how romance and love can lead to destruction. A wild read!

Backlist bump: Hemlock Grove by Brian McGreevy

YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me today – time to get back to reading! As always, it has been a delight to share recommendations with you. And if you want to hear more about books, old and new, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!

Be excellent to each other.

Liberty

Categories
Insiders

Behind the Scenes: The Managing Editor’s Background Noise

Helllloooooo Insiders!

I’m writing this, our first Behind-the-Scenes newsletter, from my mother’s sofa. My twin boys are on Spring Break and I couldn’t handle them, pets, and working, all by myself. I’m a single mom and it can be a lot to juggle. When I get to feelin’ like it’s all a little much, I retreat to my mom’s house in rural Virginia and let her make me food and let my kids run around outside in some fields while I sit inside and talk about Toni Morrison on the internet. It’s not the worst.

Mom food. Ain’t no bacon like bacon you didn’t have to make yourself, amirite?

I did a lot of noodling about what to talk about in this first newsletter. Was initially leaning toward my Book Riot origin story, but I’ve already done a video about that for our YouTube channel and didn’t want to retread that ground, so I thought maybe just introducing you to my brood would be a good first step.

So awkward. Much side-eye. Wow.

My twins are Rhett and Atticus. Yes, those are their real names and not cutesy fake names I use for them on the internet. I didn’t even think of that option until it was too late, so whatever. The hound is Othello — so named by the SPCA because he had o’s spray-painted on his sides (a common hunter’s method for keeping track of their dogs, which obviously didn’t work with this guy). He is very un-smart and lazy and I imagine the hunter who owned him isn’t sad at having lost him, as the only thing this guy hunts is naps.

There’s also a pitbull called Lola (Tagalog for “grandmother,” so named because this dog loves kids and would pinch cheeks if she had opposable thumbs). Add in some pimento cheese, probably some whisky, and a bit of yelling about Minecraft that I 100% do not understand, and you’ve got what’s happening behind the scenes of any given work day for the Managing Editor of Book Riot.

Oh, there’s also books. Probably one of the biggest misconceptions about working where I do is that I get paid to read all day — I get paid $0 to read. I spend 10ish hours a day scheduling social media, scheduling content, wrangling 150+ contributors, managing a few staff members, recording podcasts, writing newsletters, moderating comments, writing posts, etc. So how do I find time to read? Here’s my secret: I start my work day at 6am. That’s it. It allows me to stop at 3:30 to pick up my kids from school, then read for an hour or so while they play. I make dinner, hang with them, put them to bed, read for another hour. Work for another hour. I know that’s not what people want to hear, that to fit in reading I have to start working before most people are awake, but that’s the truth.

That’s it for our first edition of Behind the Scenes! I’m @imamandanelson on Twitter if you have questions/concerns/comments, and of course I’m around on the Insiders Forum. Talk to y’all later!

–Amanda

Save 30% off one purchase in the Book Riot store with code INSIDERS30!

image of a Book Riot waterbottle in red, the I Read Dead People t-shirt, and the Bring Your Own Book tote bag

Categories
Book Radar

Welcome to Book Radar!

Hello all, Swapna here! Welcome to the first issue of Book Radar, Book Riot’s newsletter focusing on all things pre-publication. Wondering what awesome book deals or book-to-movie news has just been announced? Want to know what upcoming books you should be excited about? Then you’re in the right place.

If you need even more Book Riot in your life than just this newsletter, we’ve launched a new subscription program called Insiders. You can have access to exclusive content such as behind-the-scenes newsletters, a dedicated Read Harder podcast, and much more, depending on your subscription level. Check out the Insiders site for more details, price points (it starts at just $3/month!) and to sign up!

All the Book News You Can Use

Is Margaret Atwood writing a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale?

Knopf is publishing the fifth book in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, called The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye.

Laila Lalami has announced two forthcoming books. The Other Americans, from Pantheon Books, is about the death of a Moroccan immigrant in a California town. It will be followed by The Colonial Citizens, a nonfiction book about America’s relationship with its Muslim denizens.

Celebrity book deal alert! Grand Central will be publishing The CW’s Crazy Ex Girlfriend star Rachel Bloom’s memoir.

6 Questions for Sandhya Menon

If you haven’t heard of Sandhya Menon’s upcoming novel When Dimple Met Rishi (Simon Pulse, May 30), you’re missing out on one of the most buzzed-about releases of the year (and definitely one of 2017’s best covers). We sat down with Menon and asked her a few questions for our inaugural newsletter.

Tell us just one thing you want readers to know about your book.

WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI is for anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider. See, we do get happy endings!

What’s your Hogwarts house?

When I took the test I got Gryffindor. But knowing myself, I’d say I’m more like a Gryffilpuff.

Has a book ever changed your life? If so, which book?

I have to say Sophie Kinsella’s books. It was when I read her Shopaholic series and then watched an interview with her that I began to consider I could write lighthearted, funny romance, let alone a novel-length work.

What’s the story you wish someone else would write, so you could read it?

A really good psychological thriller set in a boarding school and featuring ethnic minority protagonists. I’m a sucker for boarding schools and ethnic diversity!

What genre have you never written in, but want to?

I think I’d make a good horror writer! I grew up on Stephen King and Shirley Jackson, so it’d be fun to see if I could pull it off.

What do you want the first line of your obituary to be?

Nevertheless, she persisted.

Book Riot Recommends

I’ve read quite a few books that release this summer, and I’ve already been stunned and heartbroken, thrilled and devastated by the books we’re lucky enough to have coming out. Here are just two that I highly recommend.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Taylor Jenkins Reid (Atria Books, June 13)

Reid has been getting better and better with every novel, and her latest might just be her best yet. Monique is working at a magazine, a low woman on the totem pole, when she receives startling news: Reclusive Hollywood legend Evelyn Hugo is willing to do a print feature for the magazine, but only if Monique is the reporter on the story. Monique is baffled, but more than willing to sit down with Evelyn. But it turns out that the starlet has something entirely different in mind, and Monique struggles to figure out exactly what Evelyn wants from her. Reading this book, it’s difficult to believe that the Cuban American bombshell actress is fictional; Reid excels at creating complicated imperfect characters, and none is so stunning as Evelyn Hugo herself.

Chemistry – Weike Wang (Knopf, May 23)

The narrator of Chemistry may be unnamed, but that doesn’t make her life any less complicated. She’s been on autopilot her entire life, pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry at Boston University, but she isn’t sure that’s what she wants anymore. The narrator chafes under the demands and expectation of her Chinese parents, and for the first time, she’s ready to ask, “What do I want?” The stream-of-consciousness narrative style isn’t for everybody, but it allows the reader to get to know the main character on intimate terms and celebrate as she makes choices for herself, rather than everyone around her.

This newsletter is sponsored by Salt Houses by Hala Alyan.

“In her debut novel, Alyan tells the story of a Palestinian family that is uprooted by the Six-Day War of 1967 and Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. This heartbreaking and important story examines displacement, belonging, and family in a lyrical style.”  —The Millions, “Most Anticipated: The Great 2017 Book Preview”

“Reading Salt Houses is like having your coffee grounds read: cosmic, foreboding and titillating all at once.” —Aline Ohanesian, author of Orhan’s Inheritance

“Salt Houses illuminates the heartache and permanent unsettledness experienced by refugees all over the world.” —Bustle, “15 New Authors You’re Going To Be Obsessed With This Year”

Categories
This Week In Books

Bill Cosby’s Books Among Most Challenged in Libraries: This Week in Books

2016’s Most Banned Books

The American Library Association releases a top ten list every year of the previous year’s most challenged and banned books. Over half the list from 2016 consists of books challenged for having LBGTQ characters (that bigots feel comfortable calling for books to be banned is unsurprising, but still frustrating), but one stand-out from the year is the Little Bill series of children’s books written by Bill Cosby. The reasons cited for the challenges are the criminal allegations of rape and sexual assault against the author. Yet another chapter in the age-old debate of whether or not books written by objectively awful people deserve space in the public conversation.

Unseen Sylvia Plath Letters Reveal Domestic Abuse

Previously unseen letters from Sylvia Plath to her therapist written a week before her suicide reveal her husband, the poet Ted Hughes, beat her two days before her miscarriage and was also verbally abusive. Their marriage was already known to be tempestuous (and Hughes was a known adulterer), and readers’ fascination with their relationship has continued well past the death of both writers. These new facts will likely fuel that fire for years to come.

The Good News Corner!

And now for the happy news! Margot Lee Shetterly, author of the hugely successful Hidden Figures, has a new book deal for two books that tell the stories of “extraordinary ordinary African-Americans whose contributions to American history have, for one reason or another, been untold, unseen, or overlooked.” The first will focus on the prominent African-American families of Baltimore, along with racist community policies those families faced and continue to face in the city.

Angela Maria Spring, a former manager of Politics and Prose bookstore in D.C., is opening a new bookstore staffed by people of color and focusing on diverse stories. The publishing industry, including bookstores, is notoriously white, which creates a cycle of white stories being published and hand-sold. A direct initiative to combat that, which Spring says is part of her resistance in the current political climate, is welcome and needed.

Thanks to The Widow of Wall Street by Randy Susan Meyers for sponsoring this week’s newsletter.

A provocative new novel by bestselling author Randy Susan Meyers about the seemingly blind love of a wife for her husband as he conquers Wall Street, and her extraordinary, perhaps foolish, loyalty during his precipitous fall.

When Phoebe learns her husband’s triumph and vast reach rests on an elaborate Ponzi scheme her world unravels. Her children refuse to see her if she remains at their father’s side, but abandoning him feels cruel and impossible.

From penthouse to prison, Randy Susan Meyers’s latest novel exposes a woman struggling to survive and then redefine her life as her world crumbles.

Categories
Giveaways

Amazon KISSING BOOKS giveaway

 

We’re skipping a mailbag giveaway this week (where we pick 10 books from our incoming book mail to give to one reader) because we want to focus on romance readers and, well, you’ve all probably already read the things I have to give you! Instead, we’re simply giving away a $100 gift card to Amazon so you can pick the latest Courtney Milan, next book in that steamy erotica series you’re reading, or…basically whatever you want!

Go here to enter, or just click the image below. Good luck!

 

Categories
Riot Rundown

041617-TheTakedown-Riot-Rundown

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Freeform Books.

Who would you rely on if your tech turned against you? Kyla Cheng—president of her community club, a debate team champ, dating the yummy Mackenzie Rodriguez and the most popular student at her Brooklyn high school—gets taken down a peg when a fake video goes viral.

Categories
Giveaways

DEFY THE STARS giveaway by Claudia Gray

We have 10 copies of Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray to 10 lucky Book Riot readers!

Here’s what it’s all about:

She’s a soldier.

He’s a machine.

Enemies in an interstellar war, they are forced to work together as they embark on a daring journey through the stars. Their efforts would end the fighting for good, but they’re not without sacrifice. The stakes are even higher than either of them first realized, and the more time they spend together, the more they’re forced to question everything they’d been taught was true.

 

Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click the cover image below. Good luck!

 

Categories
The Goods

When In Doubt last chance

You’ve been sorted. You know your patronus (it’s a bookworm, right?). Now you need the uniform. There’s just ONE DAY LEFT to pre-order your limited-edition When In Doubt tee and cross your heart with Hermione’s best advice. Rep your house and rock out.

Sale ends tomorrow (4/16).

Categories
Giveaways

Win a Copy of A SMALL-TOWN BRIDE by Hope Ramsay

It’s fun to fall for modern love: the stories of secret office attractions, the online romances that get physical, and every seductively relatable happily ever after in between.

We have 10 copies of A Small-Town Bride by Hope Ramsay to give away!

Here’s what it’s about:

Cut off from the family fortune for defying her family, Amy shows up for her first day of work at her new job only to meet her next challenge: fighting her attraction to her new boss. Sparks fly between Amy and Dusty, but is happy ever after in their future?

Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click the cover image below. Good luck!

Categories
True Story

Eat Cake, Drink Wine and Celebrate the Pulitzer Prizes

Hello again, nonfiction lovers. It’s been an exciting week – the Pulitzers were announced, Margot Lee Shetterly has another book deal, and I’ve been reading about the science of expensive wine. Let’s get down to it!

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Post Grad By Caroline Kitchener.

What really happens in the first year out of college? When Caroline Kitchener graduated from Princeton, she began shadowing four of her female classmates, interviewing them as they started to navigate the murky waters of post-collegiate life. Weaving together her own experience as a writer with the experiences of these other women—a documentarian, a singer, a programmer, and an aspiring doctor—Kitchener delves deeply into the personal and professional opportunities offered to female college graduates, and how the world perceives them.

New Books on My Radar

April is such an exciting month for new books, I had a hard time narrowing down this week’s new releases down to just three. If you are anxious for more, check out Liberty’s April New Books Megalist from her New Books newsletter.

Sunshine State: Essays by Sarah Gerard (April 11 from Harper Perennial) – I feel like I have been seeing this book everywhere forever, and I’ll admit, all the buzz has made me curious. This collection looks at the state of Florida as a “microcosm of the most pressing economic and environmental perils haunting our society.” With comparisons to The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison and Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, how could you not give it a try?

Bonus Read: Christine Sang interviewed Sarah Gerard for Brooklyn Rail. The interview includes some interesting tidbits on the production and organization of the book.

Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism by Fumio Sasaki (April 11 from W.W. Norton) – I am one of those people who read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and immediately tried to Kondo my entire life. I’m also one of those people that has fallen off the wagon and now lives in a perpetual state of clutter… so of course I’m going to keep obsessing over books on minimalism. In Goodbye, Things, average dude Fumio Sasaki shares his personal experience with minimalism and the joy it’s brought him.

Bonus Read: The Guardian writes about Japan’s ‘hardcore’ minimalists, including Fumio Sasaki.

Cake: A Slice of History by Alysa Levene (April 11 from Pegasus Books) – A micro-history of cake, from fruit cake to pound cake to angel food cake and more? I don’t need to hear more, I am in.

Bonus Read: Alysa Levene wrote about “the gender dynamics of pastries – and what it means for feminists in the kitchen” for the New Republic.

The Politics of Science

A recent study conducted by scientists at Yale, Cornell and the University of Chicago found that left-leaning and right-leaning readers are drawn to different topics in scientific literature. According to a summary of the study in the Huffington Post:

Liberals tended to prefer topics within the “life” and physical sciences, such as physics and astronomy. Conservatives, meanwhile, preferred commercial science subjects including medicine, criminology and geophysics. Certain topics like psychology and climate science attracted both liberal and conservative readers.

What’s the moral of the story? I’m not really sure, other than that your book purchasing history is being used in creative ways, and combating political polarization may mean reading outside your comfort zone across a wide range of subjects.

Book Riot Insiders

Looking for even more Book Riot goodness? We’ve got a new subscription program called Insiders, launched just this week. If you sign up (for as little as $3/month) you’ll be able to track new releases, listen to a dedicated Read Harder podcast, get a look behind-the-scenes at Book Riot, and more. Visit the Insiders site for more information and to sign up.

Pulitzer Winners Announced

The 2017 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced this week. Three of the “Letters, Drama and Music” awards are regularly given to nonfiction:

If you follow the prize link, you can also check out the other finalists and see winners from the past. I’ve always found the Pulitzer finalists (especially in general nonfiction) to be pretty good reads. And if you’re looking for something shorter, the winners and finalists in journalism are reliably excellent.

Two More Books from Margot Lee Shetterly

If you are among the people who loved Hidden Figures, here’s some good news – author Margot Lee Shetterly will be writing two more books “examining the idea of the American Dream and its legacy.” The first book will tell the stories of two influential African American households in midcentury Baltimore.

On My Nightstand

Spring has sprung, which I hope means more time for reading out on my back deck. This week I’ve got a couple of books in progress. Thanks to my Book of the Month subscription, I have an early copy of One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, a collection of essays by Saachi Koul, which has made me laugh out loud at least once already. I’m also almost finished with Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker, a Mary Roach-esque look at the world of sommeliers, wine snobs, and olfactory scientists. It’s been a delight.

As always, suggestions, recommendations, and feedback are always welcome. You can find me as @kimthedork on both Twitter and Instagram, or connect via email at kim@riotnewmedia.com. Happy reading!