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Giveaways

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We’re giving away 10 audiobook downloads of The Rules of Arrangement by Anisha Bhatia to 10 lucky Riot readers!

Enter here for a chance, or click the cover image below!

Here’s what it’s all about:

Zoya Sahni has a great education, a fulfilling job, and a loving family (for the most part). But at 26, she is hurtling toward her expiration date in Mumbai’s arranged marriage super-mart. When her auntie’s matchmaking radar hones in on the Holy Grail of suitors—just as Zoya gets a dream job offer in New York City—the girl who once accepted her path as almost option-less must now make a choice of a lifetime. Enter for a chance to win The Rules of Arrangement audiobook!

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What's Up in YA

YA for Disability Pride Month

Hey YA Readers!

Where June is known as Pride month, honoring, celebrating, and understanding the history and lives of those in the queer community, Pride continues in a different way in July. The origins of the celebration have been linked to more than one place and time — Boston held the first Disability Pride Parade in 1990, while New York City declared July Disability Pride Month in 2015, in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act — but over the last few years, awareness and celebration of Disability Pride Month has grown.

The Disability Pride movement even has its own flag, designed by Ann Magill. You can see the influence other Pride movements have had in amplifying this celebration in it:

In honor of Disability Pride Month, in addition to educating yourself about disability — both that which is visible and that which is not — it’s the perfect time to dig into YA books featuring disability. I’ve included a couple of forthcoming titles for your preordering as well.

YA Books Featuring Disability

Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong (Young Reader Edition) — October 26

Wong’s incredible anthology featuring an array of disabled writers exploring life with disability hit shelves last summer for adults. This fall, young readers will get the chance to pick up this powerful and crucial anthology.

The Disturbed Girl’s Dictionary by NoNieqa Ramos

This voice-driven novel follows Macy as she navigates her own tumultuous home life—one with an inconsistent mother, a father in prison, and a younger brother in the foster care system because of repeat CPS visits—with understanding why it is her best friend has been pulling away from her. These are teens living hard, hard lives and still managing to get up every day and go through the motions, much as it leaves an impact on them physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Macy has a psychological, potentially neurological, disorder that impacts her daily life and the relationships with her best friend and family.

A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome by Ariel Henley (November 2)

This memoir is the story of twins Ariel and Zan, who were diagnosed with Crouzon Syndrome — a condition where bones in the head fuse prematurely. Ariel talks about the numerous reconstructive surgeries they had growing up and more, the mental and emotional realities of living with facial disfigurement.

Finding Balance by Katy Gardner

Mari and Jase both attend Camp Chemo annually, where they get to be fully themselves as cancer survivors. Jase keeps this part of his life buried except for camp and his annual oncologist visit; Mari, who is an amputee, chooses to live openly about her survivorship. They’re close at camp, but when Mari transfers to Jase’s school, his cover might be blown.

Two Girls Staring At The Ceiling by Lucy Frank

There are very few characters in YA—and in fiction more broadly—who have Crohn’s Disease. Told through the voices of Chess and Shannon, this novel in verse is about two girls dealing with Crohn’s Disease, one who has been working with the illness for a long time and one who, after an unfortunate incident with a boy she was beginning to like, is newly diagnosed.

Unbroken: 13 Stories Featuring Disabled Teens edited by Marieke Nijkamp

This much needed, vital anthology featuring disabled characters by disabled authors includes stories from authors like Keplinger, Stork, and Duyvis named above, but also Heidi Heilig, Dhonielle Clayton, Kayla Whaley, and more.

I’d be remiss not to also mention Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy, the anthology I edited, which features an incredible array of disabled voices, including Deafness, chronic illness, amputation, and so much more.

Likewise, some of these titles were pulled from a larger post on excellent YA disability books. Dig into this selection, as well as even more YA books about disability.

As always, thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you on Thursday!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram.

Thank you to the audiobook edition of Flash Fire by TJ Klune, read by Michael Lesley, for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

Categories
Read This Book

Read This Book…

Welcome to Read This Book, a newsletter where I recommend one book that should absolutely be put at the top of your TBR pile. Recommended books will vary across genre and age category and include shiny new books, older books you may have missed, and some classics I suggest finally getting around to. Make space for another pile of books on your floor because here we go!

Today’s pick is a young adult graphic novel that is unlike other superhero graphic novels I’ve read. I’m rarely into the “tights and capes” heroes, but this graphic novel is phenomenal and like nothing I expected. If you are familiar with Wonder Woman lore, then you probably know who Nubia is. If you don’t, then you’re in for a wonderful surprise with this book.

Nubia: Real One by L.L. McKinney, illustrated by Robyn Smith with Bex Glendining, Brie Henderson, and Ariana Maher

Nubia is a Black seventeen-year-old with superpowers that she does her best to keep hidden and under control for obvious reasons: she is Black with superpowers! Racists already think normal Black people are dangerous, how do we think they’d treat a Black girl with super strength? Yes she has powers, but she is not invincible so she lays low with her two moms. In fact, because of a few incidents, they’ve already had to pick up and move towns multiple times in order to keep Nubia safe. They’ve finally lived in a place long enough where she’s been able to plant some roots and make some really good friends.

Nubia’s two best friends are Quisha and Jason. At the beginning of the book, Nubia, Quisha, and Jason are outside the corner store, having slushies and talking about their summer plans. Nubia’s moms are kinda strict so it’s likely she won’t be doing much of anything, though Quisha wants her at least to come to the upcoming march against police brutality. Quisha and Jason leave, and Nubia goes into the shop to get a refill. Her crush, Oscar, happens to be in the shop. While they are in there, there’s an attempted robbery and Nubia has no choice but to use her powers to stop them.

You know, her powers she is supposed to be keeping secret.

This comic is fantastic. Nubia’s story, though fantasy, is still the very real story of Black women being at the forefront of fights for justice. How much do we all, as people, need to risk in order to protect others? And how can we keep up the fight for a society that views us as less than human? Not gonna lie, I cried through most of this comic. Not because it’s bad, but because it is so incredibly good. Nubia is the hero I didn’t know I needed.

I highly recommend this comic, even if you’re not into superhero comics, you need to read this one.

That’s it for now, book-lovers!

Patricia

Find me on Book Riot, the All the Books podcast, and Twitter.

Find more books by subscribing to Book Riot Newsletters.

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Riot Rundown

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Book Radar

Javier Bardem in LYLE, LYLE, CROCODILE and More Book Radar!

Welcome to another Monday, book friends! Who read something good this weekend? *raises hand* I never, ever, ever, ever get tired of books. My order from my local indie bookstore arrived, so I had shiny books to read, and I also read some great upcoming titles that you’ll be hearing about in the future. I had also wanted to watch The Mysterious Benedict Society this weekend, because Tony Hale 5-eva, but I ran out of time. Have you seen it? I hope it’s great!

Moving on: I have a lot of exciting news for you today! I also have a look at a space horror novel coming in 2022, plus cover reveals, a terrible pun, my precious little orange monster, and trivia! Let’s get started, shall we?

Here’s Monday’s trivia question: What new novel is based on the true story of Belle da Costa Greene? (Scroll to the bottom for the answer.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

cover of Homeland Elegies: A Novel by Ayad Akhtar

Kumail Nanjiani will star in and executive produce a limited series adaptation of Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar.

Tin House announced that Hanif Abdurraqib has been named a Tin House editor-at-large.

An Ursula K. Le Guin stamp is being issued July 27.

Javier Bardem will star in the adaptation of Bernard Waber’s Lyle, Lyle Crocodile.

Here’s the first look at Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo.

The trailer for the second season of The Witcher has been released.

Peacock announced a reality dating series inspired by Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Jamie Lynn Spears is releasing a memoir in 2022.

Saoirse Ronan will star in the adaptation of Foe by Iain Reid.

Here are the 2021 CWA Dagger Award Winners.

There’s a trailer now for the Stephen King-inspired series Chapelwaite.

Here’s the cover reveal for Heaven Is a Place on Earth: Searching for an American Utopia by Adrian Shirk.

Robert Redford, George R.R. Martin adapting Tony Hillerman crime novels for AMC.

things we lost in the fire

A film adaptation is being made from the short story Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez.

There’s an adaptation of The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware in the works.

Here’s the cover reveal of Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh.

Andy Serkis is recording the Lord of the Rings audiobooks.

Here’s the cover reveal of Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott.

Take a peek at The Woods Are Always Watching by Stephanie Perkins.

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 so you can add them to your TBR! (It will now be books I loved on Mondays and books I’m excited to read on Thursdays. YAY, BOOKS!)

Loved, loved, loved: 

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes (Tor Nightfire, January 25, 2022)

One of my favorite storylines, which happens in almost every sci-fi show eventually, is the abandoned/missing/haunted spacecraft. You know, where the heroes come upon a supposedly unmanned vessel and it’s super creepy, and possible haunted and/or not actually abandoned? I love it when that happens!

Dead Silence is one such story, and it rocked my world! It’s like Event Horizon meets Avenue Five. Claire Kovalik and her beacon repair crew are getting ready to return to Earth when they pick up a strange distress signal. Upon investigation, they find the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that has been missing since its first voyage more than twenty years ago. No one knows where it went or what happened aboard the ship. And now here it is.

This is the epic salvage score of their dreams for Claire and the crew, but once they board the Aurora, it quickly becomes a nightmare. I’m not going to spoil what it is that they find. I’ll just say it’s soooooo creepy. The book is action-packed, and I liked how things shook out in the end. It has a present-day story line that went places I wasn’t expecting while detailing what Claire and her crew faced while exploring the ship. Hooray for scary space boats!

(CW for violence, murder, and gore.)

What I’m reading this week.

cover of noor by nnedi okorafor

Noor by Nnedi Okorafor 

Pay Dirt Road by Samantha Jayne Allen

Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Groan-worthy joke of the week: 

How do you row a canoe filled with puppies? With a doggy paddle.

And this is funny:

This dog is hilarious.

Happy things:

Here are a few things I enjoy that I thought you might like as well:

  • Leverage: I am about 13 years behind in starting this show, but I like it! It’s like The Librarians without magic, but also with Christian Kane.
  • Phineas and Ferb: I am finally getting around to watching this! I like Perry the Platypus the best, although I also enjoy Ferb’s Silent Bob vibes.
  • Purrli: This website makes the relaxing sounds of a cat purring.

And here’s a cat picture!

orange cat on a multicolored rug

Sometimes Farrokh can sit still and behave, but not very often.

Trivia answer: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Remember that whatever you are doing or watching or reading this week, I am sending you love and hugs. Please be safe, and be mindful of others. It takes no effort to be kind. I’ll see you again on Thursday. xoxo, Liberty

Categories
Today In Books

Melissa’s Story and Sharpie Activism: Today in Book

‘Censor’ Director Prano Bailey-Bond to Hełm Feminist Horror ‘Things We Lost in the Fire”

Good news for fans of the Mariana Enriquez’s short story collection Things We Lost in the Fire–the eponymous short story is going to be adapted for film by the same director and co-writers of the film Censor, which was a hit at Sundance. It’s a feminist horror story about women who take control of their lives and futures in the face of male violence. The book was originally published in Argentina before being translated into English and published in the U.S.

Melissa’s Story And Sharpie Activism

Alex Gino is the kidlit author whose debut, published under the title George, has gained many accolades and awards. It tells the story of Melissa, a transgender kid who is trying to find a way to come out to the world, and finds her courage through friendship and a school performance of Charlotte’s Web. Many readers have criticized the title of the work, which puts focus on Melissa’s birth name rather than the name she chooses for herself, and Gino responds with an explanation of why the title was chosen, and encouragement for readers to retitle their own copies.

Javier Bardem To Star In Sony’s Adaptation Of Classic Children’s Book ‘Lyle, Lyle Crocodile’

Do you remember the picture book Lyle, Lyle Crocodile by Bernard Waber? The 1965 picture book is getting the feature film treatment, with Sony to adapt and Javier Bardem to star in the film. Not much is known yet about the adaptation, but the original story follows a crocodile named Lyle who happily lives with a family in NYC…until one day a neighbor suggests he belongs in a zoo instead.

Categories
Giveaways

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We’re giving away a Kindle Oasis to one lucky reader! To enter, just sign up for our Daily Deals email and get the day’s best book sales right in your inbox.

This sweepstakes is open to residents of the United States (excluding Puerto Rico and all other US territories). Entries will be accepted until 11:59pm, July 31st, 2021. Winner will be randomly selected. Complete rules and eligibility requirements available here.

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Riot Rundown

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Today In Books

THE ALCHEMIST Begins Production This Fall: Today in Books

Batman: The Long Halloween Gets a New Follow-Up Comic

On Thursday, DC Comics announced that they will be publishing a special follow-up issue to Batman: The Long Halloween by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale. “Twenty-five years ago, Tim Sale and I set out to tell a mystery tale of how Gotham City went from crime to freaks,” Loeb said in a statement. “The result was Batman: The Long Halloween. We’re thrilled to be back at DC revisiting some of our favorite characters all the while revealing that you may not know the whole story.” Very few details have been announced about the upcoming 48-page special comic, but you can expect it on stands on October 12th, just in time for Halloween!

The Alchemist Begins Production This Fall

Westbrook Studios, Netter Films, and PalmStar Media have announced that filming for The Alchemist will begin this September in Morocco. Sebastian de Souza, Tom Hollander, and Shohreh Aghdashloo are set to star in the upcoming film, which is an adaptation of Paulo Coelho’s fable-like novel The Alchemist. The film’s production team includes Will Smith and Jon Mone for Westbrook Studios; Frakes and Raj Singh for PalmStar; and Gil Netter for Netter Films. You can expect to see The Alchemist released near the end of 2022.

Chatto & Windus Publishing NoViolet Bulawayo’s Second Novel

Chatto & Windus will be publishing author NoViolet Bulawayo’s second novel Glory. The novel, which is inspired by the fall of Robert Mugabe, is being described as “punchy, funny, and piercing.” This novel is the follow up to Bulawayo’s 2013 debut novel We Need New Names, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Award. The novel won a Betty Trask Award, Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, the Etisalat Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction. Glory will be published on April 7th, 2022.

Scripp’s New Spelling Bee Winner Makes History

Fourteen-year-old Zaila Avant-garde from New Orleans, Louisiana, is the winner of the Scripp’s Spelling Bee. Here’s how she’s made history with this win.

Categories
Kissing Books

We’re Half-Way There

Hello again romance readers. I’m PN Hinton, your companion for the world of romance. I hope your spirit is doing well today. If you’re new to the Kissing Books newsletter, welcome and enjoy your stay. If you’re a long-time reader, welcome back; it’s good to see you again. 

It’s the start of the work week as well as the third week in July. This means we’re halfway through the month and the summer. You would think that with being super close to the level of Mario 3 where the sun is actively trying to kill us in my area, the serotonin would be off the chain. But, it’s not true. In actuality, I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately. Not sure why to be honest so I’m just waiting for it to pass. In the meantime I’ve been searching for things that bring me joy to help boost those levels.

One is the Loki series. I’m loving everything about it, including the title character. No, I don’t want to unpack what it may mean for my overall mental well-being. Also, Let’s Play is back on WebToon. I may or may not have actually squealed out loud when the Season 3 Premiere launched. If you want to play catch up with it, you have two full seasons and over 100 episodes to do so.

Sometimes, it’s the little things that get you through the day, which get you through the week, which gets you through the month, which gets you through the year. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: self-care is important, so make sure that you’re doing something to make yourself happy during these trying times.

In Book Riot Romance

If you fell in love with Emily Henry’s Beach Read last year, Silvana has got some read-a-likes for you that may peak your interest.

Speaking of read-a-likes, if you’re big into Sarah J. Maas fan you can also check out this list of authors who give off similar vibes, courtesy of Neha.

There’s also this ode to ‘Mass Max’ by Jess for your reading consideration.

Around the Web in Romance

Christina Milian is starring in a new rom-com called Resort to Love coming soon to Netflix and it looks amazingly adorable. I agree with everything that this tweet says with regards to Christina’s recent run in rom-com movies. No disrespect to Meg Ryan, but it’s time we had a new rom-com darling and Milian has the chops to fill those proverbial shoes. And that fact that it’s a woman of color just makes it even more *chef’s kiss*. And, no matter what people may say, everyone, on some level, loves a good punny title.

Summer may be almost over but you can still check these books off your reading bucket list.

If you’re big into YA like yours truly, here is another list of highly anticipated novels is this genre coming soon to a shelf near you.

And, as we are over the midway point of there, here is a round up of some of the best romance novels so far this year.

New Releases & Deals

Some of the new books hitting our shelves this week: How Sweet It Is by Dylan Newton (which I loved), While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory, It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey, and The Calyx Charm by May Peterson, and Unbridled by D. Jackson Leigh.

As for deals, you can pick these up for $1.99 (deals are active as of the time of writing this newsletter): Next in Line for Love by Harper Bliss, All In with the Duke by Ava March, Forbidden Promises by Synthia Williams, Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare, and Just One Night by Kyra Davis.

And if you’re looking for a new device to read these on, don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a Kindle Oasis!

And on that note, here’s where we end our time together for today. Catch up with me over on Twitter under @PScribe801. See ya Thursday.