It’s been the Book Riot motto for years, and now you can take it wherever you go! Rock the new Read Harder tote bag, and get 25% off when you pair it with any adult t-shirt.
In the mood for something cozier? Wrap yourself in words with our new lightweight scarves. We’ve got banned books, Poe-ka dots, and more.
This week’s Audiobooks! Newsletter is sponsored by The Call by Peadar O’Guilin.
You wake up alone in a horrible land. A horn sounds. The Call has begun, and you have three minutes and four seconds to save your life from the Sidhe, the most beautiful and terrible fairies you’ve ever seen. 14-year old Nessa knows she’ll be Called soon, and no one thinks she has any chance to survive. But she’s going to prove them wrong. Peadar O’Guilin’s The Call is a heart-stopping, blood-pounding, can’t-put-down-until-you’ve-read-the-last-word fantasy thriller you won’t be able to forget. Could you survive the Call? (Narrator Amy Shiels will appear in next year’s Twin Peaks revival!)
The Most Exciting Audiobook of the Year?
Have you guys read Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey yet? It’s been making headlines for selling almost half a million copies — pretty badass for a book of poems that was originally self published. Rupi Kaur moves people with her words, and excitement about Milk and Honey has spread through word-of-mouth, booksellers, and social media. And if you haven’t read it yet, you’re kind of in luck that you waited, because the audiobook just came out!
Andrews McMeel Publishing has only published a few collections of poetry, so we’re really lucky that they stumbled onto Milk and Honey. After a little experimenting, they noticed that spoken-word poets were really popular on college campuses. As they put it in a piece by Publishers Weekly, “We saw that there was this generation of young women, mostly in that early-20s age group, who were responding to this form of expression.”
Milk and Honey is a mix of prose and poetry that explores survival, violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity, taking a journey through life’s most bitter moments to find sweetness. It’s divided into four chapters that each deal with a different kind of pain and heartache, and you can check out an excerpt of the audio here, performed by Rupi Kaur (yes!).
How Audiobooks Can Help With ADHD
I love Kate Scott’s recent piece for Book Riot about what she calls her “Tigger brain.” Even though she wants to read pretty much everything ever written (yep, same here), her neurobiology doesn’t always cooperate (again, same!). I like to think that while my wandering attention doesn’t always make it easy to be a reader, at least I wind up listening to some COMPLETELY CAPTIVATING books — sometimes they’re the only ones that can hold my attention! For Kate, listening to audiobooks is her version of meditation, and it’s her #1 reading tip for people with ADD / ADHD.
My Latest Audiobook Obsession
Remember 2 seconds ago when I was talking about audiobooks that are COMPLETELY CAPTIVATING? This is fully true of Crazy Rich Asians, a gossipy novel about Singapore’s most rich and famous. Rachel and Nick, both young academics in New York, take a romantic trip to Singapore where Nick will be the best man in his friend’s wedding. Oh, and P.S.: Nick will also introduce Rachel to his family, no pressure. What’s more, Rachel has no idea that her humble, mild-mannered boyfriend is actually from one of Singapore’s richest families and is the most eligible bachelor in the country. Shenanigans, schemes, and gossip ensue.
I don’t know why I didn’t read this book instantly. Maybe I worried that it would be formulaic with half-hearted chuckles? Think again, self: it’s more like Edith Wharton meets Gossip Girl set in Singapore with a dash of Emily Gilmore. It’s completely funny and original, and it has what I’ve come to think of as a strong narrative voice — a quality that I love about audiobooks like Where’d You Go, Bernadette, City of Thieves, and anything by Nora Ephron. It’s almost like these stories were meant to be read out loud.
As narrator, Lynn Chen hits it out of the park with breezy humor, backstabbing relatives, and effortless accents from New York, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Australia, England, and more. I loved everything about this audiobook and am psyched that the saga continues with two more books. <3
This is test 3! It should publish at 2:15pm eastern, for a newsletter at 2:30pm.
This is the second test newsletter! I’m setting it to publish at 1pm Eastern, with sailthru sending at 1:30pm.
This is the first test email. I’m setting it to publish at 11:30am Eastern, and will schedule Sailthru to send at noon.
Wheeee!
Big Books in Busy Fall Publishing Season
It’s the biggest time of year in books. Most of the book-buying happens in the fall, and there are always major titles coming out in anticipation of holiday buying. Many media outlets are rounding up their picks, so I’ve gathered a few of them here for your perusal. A round-up of round-ups, if you will.
The Wall Street Journal’s Books Every Geek Should Read This Fall
Amazon’s Big Fall Books Preview
The Huffington Post’s 20 Books You Need on Your Shelf This Fall
BuzzFeed’s What Book Should You Read This Fall? Quiz
Entertainment Weekly’s 55 Books to Read This Fall
You might also be interested in the Fall Books episode of our own All the Books! podcast.
What Will Obama Write?
President Obama is already of course a best-selling writer, but it seems that his most interesting days as an author will likely come after he leaves the White House. Apparently, President Obama still has one book left on his existing contract with Crown (an imprint of Penguin Random House), though that contract was from before he was elected, and it seems unlikely that those terms will be met (either ripped up, re-negotiated, or otherwise altered to reflect his enormous sales potential). But the most intriguing detail here is that President Obama has always wanted to write a novel. Books by former presidents are nothing new, but a literary novel by one is news indeed. Here’s keeping our fingers crossed.
Alabama Willing to Put People in Jail for Library Fines
Under funding pressure, the Athens-Limestone Public Library in Athens, Alabama will begin enforcing an ordinance in which patrons who “fail or refuse to return” library materials are subject to up to $100 in fines and/or up to 30-days in jail.
The library reports that it has over $200,000 in overdue library materials outstanding and that it would much rather receive the overdue materials than enforce the ordinance. The ALPL’s move runs counter to many recent amnesty efforts from some public libraries to combat the same problem.
Thanks to Still a Work in Progress by Jo Knowles for sponsoring This Week in Books.
In a return to middle-grade fiction, master of perspectives Jo Knowles depicts a younger sibling struggling to maintain his everyday life when his older sister is in crisis.
Noah is just trying to make it through seventh grade. The girls are confusing, the homework is boring, and even his friends are starting to bug him. Not to mention that his older sister, Emma, has been acting pretty strange, even though Noah thought she’d been doing better ever since the Thing They Don’t Talk About. The only place he really feels at peace is in art class, with a block of clay in his hands. As it becomes clear through Emma’s ever-stricter food rules and regulations that she’s not really doing better at all, the normal seventh-grade year Noah was hoping for begins to seem pretty unattainable. In an affecting and realistic novel with bright spots of humor, Jo Knowles captures the complexities of navigating middle school while feeling helpless in the face of a family crisis.
It may technically be September, but it’s still sunny and 80 degrees out here, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s still summer reading weather. And there are so many amazing books being released today that are perfect for outdoor reading! It’s an embarrassment of book riches (plus the new Ransom Riggs just came out!!!) And on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about some more great new releases out today, such as The Story of a Brief Marriage, Mischling, and Hidden Figures.
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Angel Catbird Volume 1 by Margaret Atwood, Johnnie Christmas, and Tamara Bonvillain.
Margaret Atwood’s first original graphic novel!
Internationally best-selling and respected novelist Margaret Atwood and acclaimed artist Johnnie Christmas collaborate for one of the most highly anticipated comic book and literary events of 2016!
A young genetic engineer is accidentally mutated by his own experiment when his DNA is merged with that of a cat and an owl. What follows is a humorous, action-driven, pulp-inspired superhero adventure—with a lot of cat puns.
Features bonus content by David Mack, Matt Kindt, Tyler Crook, and more!
Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart
Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer
Perfume River by Robert Olen Butler
Nicolas by Pascal Girard
Mischling by Affinty Konar
One Half from the East by Nadia Hashimi
The Graces by Laure Eve
The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood by Belle Boggs
Leave Me by Gayle Forman
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
To Be or Not to Be: That is the Adventure by Ryan North
Closed Casket: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery by Sophie Hannah and Agatha Christie
The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters by Laura Thompson
Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen
Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard
Fire in My Eyes: An American Warrior’s Journey from Being Blinded on the Battlefield to Gold Medal Victory by Brad Snyder and Tom Sileo
Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland by Dave Barry
Substitute: Going to School With a Thousand Kids by Nicholson Baker
Against Everything: Essays by Mark Greif
Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy
Part Wild: A Writer’s Guide to Harnessing the Creative Power of Resistance by Deb Norton
Into the Sun by Deni Ellis Béchard
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life by John le Carré
A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age by Daniel J. Levitin
The Fortunes by Peter Ho Davies
Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
His Final Battle: The Last Months of Franklin Roosevelt by Joseph Lelyveld
The Revolutionaries Try Again by Mauro Javier Cardenas
Everfair by Nisi Shawl
Revolution’s End: The Patty Hearst Kidnapping, Mind Control, and the Secret History of Donald DeFreeze and the SLA by Brad Schreiber
Feminist Fight Club: An Office Survival Manual for a Sexist Workplace by Jessica Bennett
She Made Me Laugh: My Friend Nora Ephron by Richard Cohen
The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam
Dear Mr. M by Herman Koch (Author), Sam Garrett (Translator)
Death’s End by Cixin Liu
Blackacre: Poems by Monica Youn
Cloudbound by Fran Wilde
The Perfect Girl by Gilly Macmillan
Swimming in the Sink: An Episode of the Heart by Lynne Cox
Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy (paperback)
A House of My Own: Stories from My Life by Sandra Cisneros (paperback)
Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick (paperback)
Loving Day by Mat Johnson (paperback)
Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder
The Strange Case of Rachel K by Rachel Kushner (paperback)
YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me. If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats), 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
Welcome to September, YA fans!
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter.
In the third volume of the highly addictive New York Times bestselling Jackaby series, Jenny Cavanaugh, the ghostly lady of 926 Augur Lane, has enlisted the services of her fellow residents to solve a decade-old murder—her own. Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, R. F. Jackaby, dive into the cold case, starting with a search for Jenny’s fiancé, who went missing the night she died. EW.com calls the series “fast-paced and full of intrigue.” It’s “Sherlock Holmes crossed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” says the Chicago Tribune.
As you’re reading this, your newsletter writer is deep in the desert, soaking in the last few weeks of summer….and uninterrupted reading time. That means this week’s newsletter is dedicated to catching up on the links of interest. Dig in!
And because we’ve had a lot of YA writing over on Book Riot recently, let’s catch up with it:
May your books be fantastic and your end-of-summer delightful. We’ll be back with another installment of “What’s Up in YA?” in two weeks!
We invited our speakers to tell us a little bit more about themselves in a brief interview, and the answers have started coming in. We can now report that of responding speakers, the majority are very open in their peanut butter preferences, but split down the middle on writing style. Who is the peanut butter hater? Find out here. Don’t have your tickets yet? Get them for $20 off!
Atticus told Scout to delete the adjectives and she’d have the facts, so we’ll skip the “awesome” and “rad” this time around and give you just the facts too. Our new limited-edition tees inspired by To Kill a Mockingbird are here, and they are truly limited-run. Get one before they’re gone.
And don’t forget! The next Book Mail boxes will ship out in September. See the contents of previous boxes and join the waiting lists now.
