Shop for the book lovers on your holiday list and have a little extra left over to treat yourself when you rock the 30% sitewide discount. That’s 30% off rad bookish t-shirts, tote bags, coffee mugs, and more. It’s how Book Riot does Black Friday.
Looking to give some actual books? The Best Books of 2016 box* is flying off the shelves. It’s packed with 4 great reads + 3 awesome bookish gift items.
*Specialty boxes are not included in the 30% sitewide sale.
We’re all here because we love books, but one of the great secrets about being a reader is how great all the book-adjacent stuff is too. There are t-shirts and tote bags and coffee mugs galore, and you can find a whole bunch of them in one great place at the Book Riot Store.
To promote the Book Riot Store during this most wonderful time of the year, we’re giving away a $100 gift card to one lucky Riot reader.
Entries will be open until November 29th, 2016 at 11:59pm Eastern. One entry per email address, and the giveaway is open worldwide. One winner will be randomly selected and then emailed their gift card (so be sure to enter with an email address you actually check).
Ready? Now go here to enter, or just click the image below. Good luck!
We’ve got a sweet little Instagram account. Books, recommendations, and a whole bunch of reader-nerd stuff.
Come check it out:
We all know that bookish mail is the best mail, and for YA fans, nothing tops our YA Book Mail boxes. The second dispatch went out last month with books and items on a ~strange and peculiar~ theme, and we’re ready for the reveal.
Want one? We saved some extras for the holidays! Get one for yourself and your favorite YA fans now.
Looking for more of a mix? Our Best Books of 2016 box is packed with an eclectic array of 4 great reads and 3 gift items. It’s flying off the digital shelves.
It’s the most wonderful time of the…week? We’ve got another batch of ten books from our book mail to give to one lucky reader, including the paperback of Riot favorite The Sorcerer to the Crown, the graphic novel adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, and more!
The giveaway is open internationally, and entries will be accepted through November 27th. So go here to enter, or just click the image of the giveaway stack below. Good luck!
Holy cats, it’s Tuesday again already! Just enough time to grab a new book to hide behind at Thanksgiving dinner. The book at the top of my shopping list is The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher, in which she supposedly dishes up all the gossip about the set of the first Star Wars film. YES, PLEASE. And on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about a lot of books, including Scythe, Eating Words, and the two new Queen Victoria books.
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Letters of Note: Volume 2 compiled by Shaun Usher.
From the editor of the New York Times bestseller and instant classic Letters of Note, comes this companion volume of more than 125 captivating letters. Each turn of the page brings delight and discovery in a collection of correspondence that spans centuries and place, written by the famous, the not-so-famous, and the downright infamous. Entries are accompanied by a transcript of the letter, a short contextual introduction, and a spirited illustration—in most cases, a facsimile of the letter itself. As surprising as it is entertaining, Letters of Note: Volume 2 is a book of endless enjoyment and lasting value.
The Good Negress by A.J. Verdelle
Algonquin Books has brought this stunner–originally released in 1995– back in paperback. Set in the 1960s, it’s the story of a teenage black girl named Denise, who is sent from her grandmother’s rural Virginia home to live with her estranged mother in Detroit, where she is expected to do chores and help care for her mother’s new baby. But when a teacher opens Denise’s eyes to the possibilites of the world outside her new home, she is torn between responsibility and independence. This finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award is a beautiful, necessary addition to any library.
Backlist bump: Caucasia by Danzy Senna
Moonglow by Michael Chabon
The powerful driving force of Chabon’s new novel is the deathbed confessions of the narrator’s grandfather. Revealing the pains and surprises caused by secrets, lies, and war, Moonglow is a rich examination of a family history built on hidden truths, an emotional love story, and a fantastic work of autobiographical family history-turned-novel. (The novel is based on Chabon’s own grandfather’s stories.)
Backlist bump: Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon
Island People: The Caribbean and the World by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro
A comprehensive and intriguing look at the nations of the Caribbean, their shifting identities through the centuries, and their music, politics, religions, cutltures, and people. Jelly-Schapiro delves deep into the sometimes ugly history of such beautiful places, as well as thoroughly examining what role the Caribban has played in shaping the present world. But you don ‘t have to take my word for it – it’s also highly recommended by Marlon James! I’ll read anything he tells me to read.
Backlist bump: The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost
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
Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by COMIC BENTO, the original graphic novel subscription box service.
Comic Bento is the original Graphic Novel subscription box!! Every month a box filled with $60-$80 worth of Graphic Novels ships right to your door! With a different theme each month, you’re sure to discover classic favorites, hidden gems and new and exciting worlds among the curated selections! If you’re a longtime comics reader or new to the world of ink and excitement, Comic Bento is for you!
Head to www.comicbento.com and subscribe! Use code RIOT15 and get 15% off your subscription!
2016 National Book Award Winners
Black lives and stories took center stage at this year’s National Book Awards, hosted last week by Larry Wilmore. The highest honors for fiction (The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead), nonfiction (Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi), and young people’s literature (March: Book Three by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell) all address America’s racist history and its ongoing impact. These books would have been important and worthy in any year, but they feel especially necessary in these post-election days. What a timely reminder of the power of literature.
Let us all follow the advice Whitehead gave in his acceptance speech: “Be kind to everybody, make art, and fight the power.”
Teen Vogue Introduces ‘Lit Review’ Book Club
Look, I know it says “teen” in the title, but this is one publication we should all be paying attention to. Teen Vogue is under new leadership, and its content and social media presence have been on fire for the last several months. They’re doing the work to encourage young people to be worldly and socially conscious, and the new Lit Review book club is one more fantastic piece. The inaugural selection is Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. With a tone-setter like that, this is bound to be a project to follow.
Fox Commits to Passage Pilot
Justin Cronin’s Passage trilogy fizzled to an end with the May release of The City of Mirrors, but the story will find new life on the screen. Fox has committed to produce a pilot to be written by Liz Heldens (of Friday Night Lights) and directed by Matt Reeves (co-creator of Felicity). Perhaps most interesting among the details is the note that Fox 2000 won rights to the first book all the way back in 2007–when it was only half-finished!–in a bidding war for $1.75 million. Hold onto your hats. If this one gets picked up, none of us will be getting much sleep.
Thanks to Letters of Note: Volume 2 compiled by Shaun Usher for sponsoring This Week in Books.
From the editor of the New York Times bestseller and instant classic Letters of Note, comes this companion volume of more than 125 captivating letters. Each turn of the page brings delight and discovery in a collection of correspondence that spans centuries and place, written by the famous, the not-so-famous, and the downright infamous. Entries are accompanied by a transcript of the letter, a short contextual introduction, and a spirited illustration—in most cases, a facsimile of the letter itself. As surprising as it is entertaining, Letters of Note: Volume 2 is a book of endless enjoyment and lasting value.
This weekend giveaway is sponsored by COMIC BENTO, the original graphic novel subscription box service!
Five lucky Riot readers will receive a surprise Comic Bento box from a previous month.
Comic Bento is the original Graphic Novel subscription box! Every month a box filled with $60-$80 worth of Graphic Novels ships right to your door! With a different theme each month, you’re sure to discover classic favorites, hidden gems and new and exciting worlds among the curated selections! If you’re a longtime comics reader or new to the world of ink and excitement, Comic Bento is for you! Head to www.comicbento.com and subscribe! Use code RIOT15 and get 15% off your subscription!
Entries are limited to the United States and will be accepted until 11:59pm, Friday, November 25th. Winner will be randomly selected. Go here to enter the giveaway, or just click the image below. Good luck!.
Shopping for book lovers can be tough, so we’re here to make it easy! Our book boxes include rad reads and hand-selected gift items for the perfect all-in-one.
For the eclectic reader in your life, there’s the Best Books of 2016 box, which contains four (!) great books and three awesome gifts. These are super-limited and going fast. Don’t wait.
For the escapist, there’s the Magic & Myth Book Mail box. We held some extras for the holidays, so take a peek below and snag one while you can. These include exclusive original content from authors Zen Cho and Adrienne Celt!
And for those who like things a little ~off~, there’s the Strange & Peculiar YA box.
Click here for more details on past Book Mail boxes and to join the wait list–the next surprise ships out in December.