Categories
What's Up in YA

“There is room for us, and if there’s not, we will make room”: An Interview with Queer Latina YA Author Anna-Marie McLemore

Hello, YA fans!

wrecked-padianThis week’s newsletter is sponsored by Wrecked by Maria Padian.

On the same night college freshman Haley sustains a career-ending concussion on the soccer field, her bookish roommate Jenny arrives home shell-shocked from a wild party. The next morning, on the other side of campus, Jordan brags to his housemate, Richard, about the cute freshman he hooked up with. When Jenny formally accuses Jordan of rape, gossip spreads like wildfire through the campus. Wrecked by Maria Padian, a gut-wrenching, powerful, kaleidoscopic account of a sexual assault on campus, is a must-read.

I promised in the last newsletter that there would be an excellent interview in this week’s edition. At the time, I hadn’t yet seen the answers and now that I have, all I can say is, you’re in for a treat, YA fans!

September 15 kicked off a month-long celebration of Hispanic Heritage, and I could think of no better way to talk about this than to interview an up-and-coming rising star in YA, Anna-Marie McLemore. Anna-Marie is a queer Latina whose first book The Weight of Feathers was short listed for the William C. Morris Debut Award and whose second book, the just-released When The Moon Was Ours, is long listed for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

Before diving in, I’ll take a moment to plug an older post I wrote on my personal blog: A YA reading list to Hispanic Heritage Month. It’s a little wonky in formatting, but for those of you seeking a great book by a Hispanic author or who want more background on the celebration itself (i.e., Why is it mid-September through mid-October? Who does it celebrate?), here you go.

And now, let’s talk with Anna-Marie!

anna-marie-mclemore-book-cover-and-headshot

 

Before we dive into talking about a host of other things, give us the pitch for THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS, as well as the pitch for your latest book, WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS!

The Weight of Feathers is the love story of two teens from rival families of traveling shows, the Mexican-American Palomas, who perform as mermaids, and the Romani Corbeaus, who are descended from a long line of French tightrope walkers.

When the Moon Was Ours tells the story of Sam, a transgender boy known for painting moon lamps and hanging them in the trees throughout his small town, and Miel, a Latina girl who grows roses from her wrist. Miel and Sam have been friends since the night Miel appeared from a water tower as a child; now, years later, they find themselves up against four sisters rumored to be witches.

You openly identify as a queer Latina writer — can you talk a bit as to why stating your identity is important to you as a writer and how you translate those experiences into your own stories?

Claiming my identity has been important both for my own spirit—for taking pride in my intersecting identities and my communities—and as part of being visible for and within my communities. I’m a light-skinned, dark-haired and dark-eyed Latina, and often people see me and understand me as “other”—not white or “not quite white”—but don’t know what I am. While we never owe anyone an answer to the question “What are you?” I want to be a visible as part of the Latinx community, especially since I’m queer. And since we’re talking about declaring queer identity, I am extremely straight-passing; when I’m not out with the Transboy, I’m usually assumed to be straight. While fellow members of the LGBTQ community often flag me as their own, straight, cis people usually don’t. They sometimes get the sense that I’m a little different, but that’s often as much part of being of-color as being queer. So claiming my queerness is in part about pride, in part about visibility as a queer woman of color, and in part about letting go of some of my straight-passing privilege in a way that I hope helps show the range and diversity in our community.

Do you find yourself feeling extra pressure to “get it right?” How do you balance the need to tell a story with the pain points that come from being a minority voice in the YA world? Do you feel there are more expectations for you as a queer female writer of color than writers who don’t identify as a minority or who don’t choose to be open about their identities?

My hope is that all authors, no matter their identities, feel a responsibility to their readers and to themselves to “get it right.” But I do think that when there are fewer stories by any one kind of marginalized voice, it’s hard for authors not to feel the added pressure of what role their stories will or should play. An author and blogger who knows YA titles as thoroughly as anyone else I can think of recently told me that When the Moon Was Ours is one of the only titles she has on hand to recommend that has both a trans* main character and an interracial romance between two main characters of color. So that’s an example of how it’s a tremendous honor to me when anyone recommends my books, but I do feel the weight of that responsibility. The hope, of course, is that, no matter what kind of book, no matter what kind of main character a reader asks for, there will eventually be many titles to recommend. I think that’s one of the things we hope for as we talk about diversity and inclusion in literature. We look toward the hope of many mirrors. However long that dream of many mirrors takes, I want to do the best I can as a queer female writer of color, both in the stories I tell and in the ways I engage in the community.

Who and/or what have been some of your influences as a queer writer of color?

what-night-bringsThe first novel by a queer Latina author I can remember reading is Carla Trujillo’s What Night Brings. That book to me had the draw of being both a mirror book and a window book. A mirror in that so much about narrator Marci Cruz’s culture was familiar to me. A window in that this young woman is looking at feminine women with the sort of gaze we tend to attribute to boys and men, like what we see in The Virgin Suicides. And that was such a strange and disconcerting and wonderful moment of “Oh. Do queer women look at us”—and by us I mean feminine-presenting queer women, femmes, the community I was only just starting to understand—“like that? Do queer women look at us like men look at us?” That made queer attraction real to me in a way it wasn’t before. I had never seen the attraction of a queer Latina woman depicted on the page before.

ash-malinda-loWhen it comes to YA, Malinda Lo was the author who drew me into the idea that there was room for the stories of queer women of color. Ash transfixed me, and every novel she’s written after has given me another breathless moment of “Oh. We (meaning queer women of color) can write those stories. We can write those genres. There is room for us, and if there’s not, we will make room.” She’s an author who has done so much to make that room, to open what so many queer women of color think of as stories that can belong to us, both as readers and as writers.  

And in terms of queer authors who wrote in Spanish, Lorca has been, and continues to be, a tremendous influence. His poetry and his plays were absolutely transformative to me. They had commonalities with a culture I knew, and they had a kind of passion that was even more meaningful to me when I understood his perspective as a gay man. To read such beautiful stories and images, and to know they had come from a heart that loved in a way that his society rejected and ultimately killed, was heartbreaking, haunting, and life-changing. He is one of my most deeply held reference points for why magical realism is so important to me. You feel it in his words and his characters, that meeting of oppression and transcendence, of being broken down and still finding the beautiful.

Your two books pull threads through them that readers might identify — Romeo & Juliet comes through in THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS while the tale of La Llorona weaves its way a bit through WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS. Can you talk a bit about the power of stories and how they influence your own writing?

I grew up in a family that loves and values stories. Some of those stories, like the legend of la llorona, belong to our cultures, and they hold places in our hearts that are both harrowing and hopeful. Others, like Romeo & Juliet, have largely been claimed by white narratives, this despite the fact that so many cultures have their own stories with similar themes. My family taught me that sometimes, if we want stories of our own, we have to claim them, we have to create them, we have to make them ours.

Your books are readily identifiable as “magical realism.” This term has gained a lot of use in the YA world over the last couple of years to describe a wide swath of novels. But “magical realism” has significant cultural associations and meanings that separate it from fantasy reads. Can you talk a bit about what magical realism is, why you write it, and what YA books you see fitting into it?

Magical realism is a literary and cultural language. I hesitate to give a brief, one-sentence definition of magical realism for the same reasons I hesitate to give a short definition of what it means to be Latina. Magical realism is more than seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. In a culture of oppression, seeing the magical in the midst of the tragic, the unjust, the heartbreaking is a way of survival, for people, for communities, for cultures. We must find our magic where it lives, or we will lose it. Our spirits depend on not overlooking that which might be dismissed or ignored. When the moon speaks in Lorca’s Blood Wedding, I take a deeper breath not because this seems impossible, but because the moon’s words stay with me. That’s really I think why I write it, it’s how I express what I know, that the world is more brutal than so many people believe, and more beautiful they than imagine.

summer-of-the-mariposasOne of the most classically depicted moments of magical realism I’ve ever found in YA is in Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s Summer of the Mariposas, when the five sisters at the heart of the story speak to la llorona. La llorona is a legendary figure in Mexican-American culture; in my community, we all hear her story growing up. But these sisters speak to her, and she speaks to them, as though they’re simply relatives who haven’t seen each other in years.

I also must mention Laura Ruby’s Bone Gap and Nova Ren Suma’s Imaginary Girls, because Laura and Nova are two of the YA authors I admire most. I go back to their books often. I should mention that both Laura and Nova have called their books something other than magical realism; Laura calls Bone Gap a Midwestern fairy tale, which I love. Their books have hints of magical realism blended with elements that are uniquely their own.

Though Hispanic Heritage Month is coming to an end, reading and discussing diverse books is something that we’re all interested in. What have been some of your favorite YA and/or YA crossover reads written by those with a Hispanic and/or Latinx heritage?

queen-of-the-waterMaria Virginia Farinango and Laura Resau’s The Queen of Water is the story of a young Ecuadorian girl fighting to have a chance at an education, independence, and the life she imagines; Laura Resau, the co-author who Farinango trusted to help tell her story, has also written many books, and she’s an example I constantly cite as a white author who respectfully and authentically depicts Latinx culture. Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe has two characters I just loved spending time with; their relationship is both fun and poignant, and the way it unfolds is gradual and powerful.

One of my favorite magical realism stories, Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, sets traditional magical realism against the landscape of familial closeness and conflict. Not technically YA, but I read it as a teen, and it was one of the books that made me a reader. It shares themes of becoming your own and making your own choices with many of my favorite YA books.

The Alchemist is a classic by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, and it also has themes of making your own life that I think would resonant with readers who love YA.  Right now I’m reading The House of Impossible Loves by Cristina López Barrio, and I am loving it so far; at its core is the question of how much daughters want to be like or different from their mothers. And thanks to more diverse books reaching shelves every year, my TBR list is growing, including my TBR of specifically Latinx voices.

____________________

 

A big, big thank you to Anna-Marie for this wonderful conversation and YA readers, hopefully you found even more books to add to your towering piles! And if you haven’t already read her books, make sure they’re on your piles because both are wonderful, lush stories that exemplify all of the best parts of YA and why YA is such a rich category of books. 

Enjoy your reading and we’ll see you back in two weeks! 

 

Categories
Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships: October 7, 2016

Welcome to the first installment of our new science fiction and fantasy newsletter, Swords & Spaceships! I’ll be gathering news from in and around our favorite genres, and including reviews of some of my favorite reads. Let’s get to it.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Unbound Worlds.

Unbound Worlds

Unbound Worlds offers readers insight into books and authors across and between the science fiction and fantasy worlds, including horror, slipstream, pop science, fairy tales and folklore, magical realism, urban fantasy, and anything that’s just a little bit weird. Expect exclusive essays from new authors, interviews with favorite writers, extended book excerpts, insider looks at the science fiction and fantasy industry, and giveaways – as well as our annual Cage Match and our coverage of Comic Con and other events.

Join us here at Unbound Worlds to explore the science fiction and fantasy universe and to discover the authors writing the books that you want to read.

Unbound Worlds is owned and operated by Penguin Random House.

SpaceX Launch, credit: SpaceXSpace is the place, y’all. In real-life news:
– Tabby’s Star, or KIC 8462852, has been making headlines due to inexplicable dimming. Scientists have been monitoring the star to try to determine why it’s not behaving in a scientifical way, and the best they can come up with is that it’s not NOT aliens.
– Not only is there a potentially habitable planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, but there is probably water on Jupiter’s moon Europa.
– Elon Musk is planning to colonize Mars, and eat a lot of pizza on the way. (Seriously.)
With all this science-fact in the offing, maybe we will get actual hoverboards and generation ships sooner rather than later. What does it mean for science fiction? My hope is a flood of new space opera! Especially since the chances of me being able to afford a spot in Elon Musk’s bright and shiny future are slim to none.

Medieval England is apparently also the place. As you may have heard, Guy Ritchie is making a King Arthur film starring Charlie Hunnam as a street-fighter who, well, pulls a sword from a stone. If the trailer is any indication this will be a glorious mess, and my body is ready. The next Transformers movie will also have a King Arthur cameo — we shall never speak of this again. And apparently Fox has decided that Arthur should join modern times as a graffiti artist (?!) who teams up with his cop ex-girlfriend Gwen (!?!!) to fight the forces of darkness (!???????). But I have saved the best news for last: Lev Grossman (The Magicians series) is writing an Arthurian novel! INSERT CONFETTI TREBUCHET HERE. The Bright Sword will pick up with the fall of Camelot, and features a band of misfit knights and Merlin’s apprentice. Inquiring minds want to know: how does Mordred fit into all of this? And exactly which minor knights will make appearances? I feel like I need an Arthurian fantasy league to adequately prepare.

And now, this week’s reviews.

Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted ChiangWhile it is more properly classified as speculative rather than science fiction, we’re counting it because ALIENS. This collection has been floating around in one form or another for years. The first story, “Tower of Babylon,” won the Nebula Award in 1990. Tor first published the collection in 2002, Small Beer Press republished it in 2010, and Vintage has just re-issued it this June. When you read it, you’ll understand why: it’s incredible in its range and vision. Whether he’s writing about Industrial-era golems or ancient Babylonians or modern-day super-geniuses, Chiang has an eye for the details that make the unbelievable feel real. The title story, “Story of Your Life,” is an absolute knock-out, with one of the most satisfying twists I’ve read in a while and some of the hardest-to-conceptualize aliens since China Mieville’s Embassytown. Arrival, a feature-film adaptation of the story, will be released in November and it looks pretty amazing. Since it’s clear from the trailer that they’re taking liberties with the storyline, you’ll definitely want to read it first. (And even if you’re not going to see the movie, you want to read it anyway.)

The Mirror Empire, Kameron Hurley
Mirror Empire by Kameron HurleyIt’s been some time since I read an epic fantasy that delighted and enthralled me as much as The Mirror Empire, the first book in the Worldbreaker Saga. If you also missed it when it came out in 2014, I invite you to catch up with me! While the narrative jumps between a few characters the linchpin is Lilia, an orphan with strange and disturbing memories of the moment she lost her mother. As she comes of age, the world around her is coming undone. Savage forces are attacking many countries’ lines of defense, and the political situation is not exactly ripe for alliance. Hurley has built a dark and complicated world with multiple cultures and gender roles, and in the process has breathed fresh air into second-world fantasy. If you’re out of NK Jemisin to read, are waiting on the newest installment of A Song of Ice and Fire, or just really like swords and politics and magic and So Much Stabbing, pick this up. The second novel in the series, Empire Ascendant, is out already and the third is slated for next year.

And that’s our show! May you live long and prosper; see you in two weeks.

Categories
Audiobooks

Audiobooks!: October 6, 2016

This week’s Audiobooks! Newsletter is sponsored by Penguin Random House Audio.

prha-logo_200x_v2Life can be stressful. Book Club doesn’t have to be. Listen to your next book club pick on audio! Visit PenguinRandomHouseAudio.com/bookclub and get ideas, recipes, and recommendations to make your next book club meeting even more enjoyable.

nimona-noelle-stevenson-audioHello, my audiobook nerds! I have no chill today, I’m just gonna cut right to the chase and tell you guys about two Very Important Audiobooks. First up: Nimona by Noelle Stevenson. It’s freaking NIMONA. On audio!!! Book Riot has written literally over 100 posts about how great Nimona is — the lovable, weird, big-hearted comic about a shape-shifting sidekick and her evil villain bestie. This brand-new audio adaptation is exceptionally well done, and it makes for a super fun, super fast listen with a full-cast, sound effects, original music, basically the whole shebang. (Just listen to this excerpt and you’ll see what I mean.)

you-cant-touch-my-hair-phoebe-robinson-audioIn other Very Important Audiobook news, drop everything and run (don’t walk) to the nearest recording of You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson. Look, I love essays by funny ladies. You could even say they’re my jam. Well, all my past faves pale in comparison to this hilarious new collection of essays about feminism, race, pop-culture, and being a black woman in America. Phoebe Robinson is funny and poignant literally 100% of the time (how?!), and the audiobook is bananas phenomenal (with tons of ad libs you won’t find in the print version). Listening to this audiobook was a good life choice.

8 Amazing Audiobooks (That Probably Wouldn’t have Existed 5 Years Ago)

under-the-udala-trees-chinelo-okparanta-audioYou guys, there are so many more audiobooks in the world than there used to be. Only 7,000 audiobooks were published in 2011, compared to 35,000+ that were published last year! I love this boom for many reasons, especially because we have so many more listening choices than we used to. The aughts were all about mainstream bestsellers by white authors. Not so 2016, friends. Book Riot contributor Casey Stepaniuk has rounded up eight amazing audiobooks — magical realism! funny personal essays! epic love stories! — by black authors from the US, Canada, Jamaica, Nigeria, all performed by black narrators.

How to Be an Excessively Efficient Reader

what-if-randall-munroe-audioDo you time your audiobooks to match up with your life? Like, let’s say you drive 30 minutes to work every day — do you look for books that go down in easy half hour chunks? Book Riot contributor Trisha Brown is a self-described excessively efficient reader, and she’s nailed the art of matching audiobook length and tone to the flow of her daily life. 25 minute walk to work? The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae. 8 minute wait for a train after happy hour? What If? by Randall Munroe. 40 minutes to kill in the wee hours on a Saturday morning? Dawn by Octavia Butler. Read on for more inspiration for perfect audiobook-to-activity pairings!

5 Excellent Hard-to-Find Classics on LibriVox

behind-the-green-door-by-milded-a-wirtWe at Book Riot heart LibriVox, a magical site where you can listen to thousands of audiobooks in 36 different languages… for free! They’re all public domain titles read by volunteers, i.e. lots of fantastic titles that are out of print and can’t be found anywhere else. Book Riot contributor Zoe Dickinson has been using (and loving) LibriVox for years, and recommends 5 of her all-time favorite finds. Enjoy!

Categories
Riot Rundown

100416-Sourcebooks-TheOtherEinstein-Riot-Rundown

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict.

other-einstein-200wMileva Maric has always been a little different from other girls. Most twenty-year-olds are wives by now, not studying physics at an elite Zurich university with only male students trying to outdo her clever calculations. But Mileva is smart enough to know that, for her, math is an easier path than marriage. And then fellow student Albert Einstein takes an interest in her, and the world turns sideways. Theirs becomes a partnership of the mind and of the heart, but there might not be room for more than one genius in a marriage.

Categories
Book Riot Live

Book Riot Live: One Month and Counting

Book Riot Live 2016 is only a month away! The schedule is aliiiiiiiiive (please read that in your best Frankenstein voice), we’re getting ready to launch the Sched site, and we’d still love for you to join us.

Since you came last year, use code CLASSOF15 at registration to take $30 off your Weekend Pass or $15 off a day pass, good through October 31. See you on November 12!

Reginald Wuz Here

Categories
This Week In Books

Elena Ferrante Unmasked: This Week in Books

The Exposing of Elena Ferrante

For the past several years, Ferrante has been the darling of literary fiction. Her quartet of books known has The Neopolitan Novels have sold exceptionally well, especially for fiction in translation. And her real identity (Elena Ferrante is a pen-name) has been the subject of rumor and speculation.

But last week, The New York Review of Books published an investigation that seems to have discovered her real identity. The tone and attitude, not to mention the intrusion into her financial records, though, have much of the literary world unhappy with the NYRB. I have to say I agree. Ferrante is now a genuine literary figure, and as such is part of history. In due time, I think knowing who she was would have been an inevitable part of literary history, but how and why and when we do history matters. In this regard, the NYRB doesn’t seem like an historian, it seems like paparazzi.
New Dan Brown Novel Coming in Fall 2017

Dan Brown announced last week that his next novel, called Origin, will be published in September 2017. It will again feature Robert Langdon, this time involving a plot that will center on humankind’s “two biggest questions.” Presumably, one of those questions will be about something in the area of the origin of the universe and/or humans. You don’t, however, need to be a symbologist to figure out that it will also be about history, art, and a series of delightfully implausible clues.

 

The National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35

Each year, the National Book Foundation honors five debut novelists under the age of 35 who show exceptional promise. The cash value of the award is only $1,000, but what it provides in status is incalculable. And it is always an extremely interesting list. This year’s honorees are:

Brit Bennett, author of The Mothers
Yaa Gyasi, author of Homegoing
Greg Jackson, author of Prodigals
S. Li, author of Transoceanic Lights
Thomas Pierce, author of Hall of Small Mammals


 

This week in books is sponsored by Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig.

last-seen-leaving

Categories
The Goods

30% Off Sale Ends Tomorrow!

Our birthday week is almost over! Tomorrow is the last day to get 30% off all Book Riot original designs.

And have you heard about our new #RiotRead book club? The first selection is still a secret, but you can get it before anyone else when you pick up a Book Mail box!

br_5thbday_email

Categories
Book Riot Live

Book Riot Live Panel Preview

We’re close to a month out from Book Riot Live, which means it’s time for some panel spotlights. A few of our favorites are below — check out the full schedule for maximum excitement! You can still get your tickets for $20 off with code BOOKNERD, so go forth and register.

Storytelling: Page, Screen, and Beyond
Sponsored by Bookwitty
Walter Mosley and Mara Wilson have worked on storytelling on stages, screens, and on the page. Join them for a discussion of their experiences, the pros and cons of different mediums, and more! Moderated by our own Rebecca Joines Schinsky.

Nerd Jeopardy
Sponsored by Unbound Worlds
Join trivia-master Ryan Chapman for the return of Nerd Jeopardy! Three of our speakers face off to determine who will be crowned the champion. Mark Oshiro returns to defend his title against Mara Wilson and Sara Farizan.

Truth and Lies and Adaptations
Sponsored by Blinkist
We’ve all read a translation, or listened to an audiobook, or picked up an illustrated edition of a favorite work. How does a story go from point A to point B, and what gets added — and lost — in the process? Find out from ghost-writer/author Joni Rodgers, translator/author Ken Liu, and audiobook narrator/author Tara Clancy.

Party Like a Booknerd

Book Riot Live is sponsored by Bookwitty and Unbound Worlds

 

Categories
New Books

October New Books Megalist

Holy catsssssss! It is a scientific fact (that I just made up) that there are more amazing new releases out this week than any other day this year. HOW LUCKY WE ARE TO BE ALIVE RIGHT NOW. I’m happy to share a BIG list with you right now, and you can hear more about some of them on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about a few amazing books we loved, such as The Wangs vs. the World, Ghostland, andYou Can’t Touch My Hair.

el-pasoThis week’s newsletter is sponsored by El Paso by Winston Groom.

An episodic novel, El Paso pits the legendary Pancho Villa against a thrill-seeking railroad tycoon known as the Colonel, whose fading fortune is tied up in a colossal ranch in Chihuahua, Mexico. But when Villa kidnaps the Colonel’s grandchildren and absconds into the Sierra Madre, the aging New England patriarch and his adopted son head to El Paso, hoping to find a group of cowboys brave enough to hunt the Generalissimo down. Replete with gunfights, daring escapes, and an unforgettable bullfight, El Paso is an indelible portrait of the American southwest in the waning days of the frontier.

public libraryPublic Library and Other Stories by Ali Smith

Ashes by Laurie Halse Anderson

Last Look by Charles Burns

The Trespasser by Tana French

By Gaslight by Steven Price

Yesternight by Cat Winters

Patricide by D. Foy

Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig

Stranded by Bracken MacLeod

My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

the angel of historyThe Angel of History by Rabih Alameddine

The Best American Essays 2016 by edited Jonathan Franzen

The Ramblers by Aidan Donnelley Rowley

Angels of Music by Kim Newman

You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson

The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang

Wonder Woman: The True Amazon by Jill Thompson

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey

all that man isAll That Man Is by David Szalay

I’ll Tell You in Person by Chloe Caldwell

Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives by Tim Harford

Refugees, Terror and Other Troubles with the Neighbors: Against the Double Blackmail by Slavoj Zizek

There Now: Poems by Eamon Grennan

Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down by Anne Valente

Nicotine by Nell Zink

Private Novelist by Nell Zink

Aerie by Maria Dahvana Headley

when the seaWhen the Sea Turned to Silver by Grace Lin

Ghost Songs by Regina McBride

Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin

The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donohue

Brief Histories of Everyday Objects by Andy Warner

The Mortifications by Derek Palacio

Something in Between by Melissa de la Cruz

Breaking van Gogh: Saint-Rémy, Forgery, and the $95 Million Fake at the Met by James Grundvig

Adolfo Kaminsky: A Forger’s Life by Sarah Kaminsky

Fractured by Catherine McKenzie

we know it was youWe Know It Was You by Maggie Thrash

The Best American Comics 2016 edited by Roz Chast and Bill Kartalopoulos

The Secrets of Roscarbury Hall by Ann O’Loughlin
Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt

Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq by Sarah Glidden

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

A City Dreaming by Daniel Polansky

The French Chef in America: Julia Child’s Second Act by Alex Prud’homme

Corsets and Codpieces : A History of Outrageous Fashion, from Roman Times to the Modern Era by Karen Bowman

dog yearsDog Years (Pitt Drue Heinz Lit Prize) by Melissa Yancy

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven

Hamstersaurus Rex by Tom O’Donnell and Tim Miller

Crosstalk by Connie Willis

The Rift Uprising: The Rift Uprising Trilogy by Amy S. Foster

Blood, Bullets, and Bones : The Story of Forensic Science from Sherlock Holmes to DNA by Bridget Heos

Replica by Lauren Oliver

The Big Book of Jack the Ripper (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original) by Otto Penzler

YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me today – time to get back to reading! If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats, Millay and Steinbeck), or tell me about books you’re reading, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!

Stay rad,

Liberty

Categories
The Goods

New #RiotRead Book Club Will Feature Book Mail Picks!

This week, we’re celebrating Book Riot’s fifth birthday (!) with the special announcement that we’re bringing the #RiotRead book club back with a new form.

We’ll reveal the first selection on Friday, 10/14. And here’s a pro tip: you can discover it in our latest Book Mail box. That’s right, one of the books in the September Book Mail box is also our inaugural #RiotRead pick. Supplies are limited, and they’ve been going fast, so don’t wait!

bookmail_560

As you read, look for posts on Book Riot and across our social media, and share your own posts about the book wherever you hang out online. Use the #RiotRead tag to connect to other readers, and we’ll be there too. It’s gonna be magical. Get your box, and be among the first to know what the Riot will be reading.