Sponsored by Farrar Straus and Giroux/MCD Books
From the author of Annihilation, a brilliant speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the possible end of all things.
Sponsored by Farrar Straus and Giroux/MCD Books
From the author of Annihilation, a brilliant speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the possible end of all things.
Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research will be holding its 2nd Annual National Antiracist Book Festival on Saturday, April 24. This virtual book festival “is the first and only book festival that brings together, showcases, and celebrates the nation’s leading antiracist writers and helps to prepare the writers of tomorrow.” Events will take place all day, including topically-organized panels featuring writers such as Pulitzer Prize finalist Tommy Orange (There There), New York Times bestselling author Kiley Reid (Such a Fun Age), co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter Alicia Garza (The Purpose of Power), and many more. There will also be writers workshops facilitated by leading book editors and literary agents. For a full list of events and registration details, check out the event page.
The Stephen King Rules Dollar Baby Film Festival will be streaming 25 short films adapted from the works of prolific author Stephen King. The virtual event is entirely free and will run from April 23rd to the 25th. The films include adaptations of King’s short stories, such as “Popsy,” “The Woman in the Room,” and “The Last Rung on the Ladder.” Additionally, the festival will include exclusive interviews and discussions with the filmmakers. You can find the full schedule on the Barker Street Cinema website.
Dear Netflix: Please adapt these romance novels by and about queer Black people. We need them right now. Please and thank you.
We’re giving away $100 to spend at the children’s bookstore Books of Wonder! All you have to do is sign-up for our Kid Lit Giveaways newsletter, and get notified whenever we’re giving away free kids’ and middle grade books! Click here or the image below to enter now!
Sponsored by Workman Publishing.
Funny, thoughtful, inspiring, and deeply personal essays about yoga, wellness, and life from author of Every Body Yoga, Jessamyn Stanley. Stanley explores her relationship to yoga, including why we practice, rather than how; wrestles with issues like cultural appropriation, materialism, and racism; and explores the ways we can all use yoga as a tool for self-love. Click through to download an egalley, now!
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. For those of you following along with the saga of my injured finger from Tuesday’s newsletter, I’m happy to report that it’s healing quite nicely and I no longer need to wear a bandage 24/7. The cut itself looks quite small, and there’s a part of me that wants to insist that no, really, I swear it was bleeding all over the place, I’m not just being a big baby for nothing!
Anyway, let’s library.
ALA asks the Biden administration to include specific funding for libraries in the American Jobs Plan.
Tennessee state legislators have introduced a bill that would ban any books that “promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender issues or lifestyles” from Tennesse schools. The bill passed out of committee last week, so if you live in Tennessee, now is a good time to contact your state representatives.
Georgia school librarians are alarmed by proposed legislation that seeks to remove them from decisions about which books students can (or can’t) read at school.
The most frequently banned books of 2020 include a lot more titles focused on racial inequality.
Public programming with virtual murder mysteries.
“Whispering libraries” are coming to Brooklyn this summer.
7 library changes that this librarian hopes will stick around after the pandemic.
Banned books in Florida prisons.
You don’t have to be cool to promote your library to teens!
Tessa Thompson launches a production company and is set to executive produce adaptations of Who Fears Death and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.
Bridgerton star Regé-Jean Page will not return for season two.
A To All the Boys spinoff series is in the works.
Ken Follett’s The Evening and the Morning is being developed as a TV series.
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen is also being developed as a TV series.
Sarah Michelle Gellar is starring in the upcoming Amazon series, Hot Pink, which is based on the book What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold.
Amanda Seyfriend has replaced Kate McKinnon to play Elizabeth Holmes in the Hulu series The Dropout.
Casting update for Station Eleven, The Good Nurse, and Matilda.
Vanity Fair has a piece about “The failure of American Gods and the trouble with Neil Gaiman,” in response to the news that American Gods has been canceled.
A Cincinnati firefighter wrote a children’s book to inspire and empower young girls.
The many faces of Ramona Quimby.
A rare 1938 Superman comic book has sold for a record $3.5 million at auction.
The winners of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Awards have been announced.
Deesha Philyaw wins the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.
James McBride wins the inaugural Gotham Book Prize.
The British Science Fiction Association Award winners have been announced.
The winners of the Windham-Campbell Prize have been announced.
Here are the shortlists for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and the 2020 Aurealis Awards.
NPR wants your mini poems to celebrate National Poetry Month!
Visiting the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.
An English professor’s perspective on hating poetry.
Beginner mistakes to avoid during a 24-hour readathon.
A guide to Lord of the Rings special edition sets.
All right. Everyone’s fingers still attached? Good. Let’s keep it that way. Have a safe weekend, everyone!
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.
Sponsored by Macmillan Audio
Buckle up your seatbelt for the Victories Greater Than Death audiobook, a thrilling YA sci-fi adventure from internationally bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders, read by Adventure Time narrator, Hynden Walch. Tina isn’t just an average teenager and beloved daughter—she’s the hidden clone of a famed alien hero, left on Earth disguised as a human to give the universe another chance to defeat a terrible evil. But not everything goes as planned when she realizes that everyone in the galaxy is expecting her to actually be the brilliant tactician. If she’s going to save this universe, first she must save herself.
Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with some pre-orders you should totally check out and some sci-fi newsy links. Colorado’s moving into one of my most favorite parts of the year–cold at night, warm enough for a bike ride during the day, and we’re getting rain! Trust me, that last item is very exciting. I’ll be able to put my plants outside soon, and make the cats happy because they can have one of their windowsills back. Hope that spring is bringing some equally lovely days your way. Stay safe out there, and I will see you on Tuesday!
Let’s make 2021 better than 2020. A good place to start? The Okra Project and blacklivesmatter.carrd.co
The 2020 BSFA Award Winners have been announced
Science Fiction Representations of Cyborgs in Kim Ch’o-yŏp’s“My Space Heroine”
WorldCon 2021 has changed hotels and moved its dates to December 15-19
Nerds of a Feather did some Nebula and Hugo Award predictions
Philip K. Dick’s complete short stories are getting a Folio Society edition
Samuel R. Delaney received a lifetime achievement award from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards
The return of the return of MST3K!
WandaVision creator explains why it was never really Agatha all along
30-year-old Soviet TV adaptation of The Lord of the Rings surfaces on YouTube
A Scientist Taught AI to Generate Pickup Lines. The Results are Chaotic.
A great thread about horror in space, spurred by a very silly take
Is science fiction holding back climate action?
Game of Thrones’ 10th Anniversary Celebrations Hope You’ve Forgotten the Final Season
…no, we’re way past April 1. And… peeps are getting their own movie?
This week’s SFF Yeah! podcast is the SFF mixtape
What kind of SFF hero are you?
This month you can enter to win your own library cart, a year of free books, $100 to spend on comics, and a $100 Books of Wonder gift card.
To be honest, I’ve been avoiding Twitter lately because every time I open it, I see the newest anti-trans, gender-policing attack legislation getting pushed through in various states. It’s making me really tired, y’all. So how about a little list of some upcoming books (and one previously released that I missed somehow) by trans and nonbinary authors? Pre-orders are love, and these books look pretty awesome! As a bonus, there’s two more books fit for this list that’ll be coming out on Tuesday–you’ll see them then.
Wyatt is a witch from the realm of Asalin, where he was betrothed to a fae prince, Emyr, who was also his best friend. But after losing control of his magic, Wyatt flees to the human world to find himself and escape his past… until Emyr hunts him down, still intent on seeing their engagement through so he doesn’t lose his throne.
A pregnant woman escapes from a religious compound to give birth to her twins in the woods. But cults don’t let go easily, and she’s forced to fight against that community and the outside world to defend her family–a battle that begins an uncanny metamorphosis of her body that can only be understood by facing the past.
A short story collection that ranges from fairy tales to Catholic cyberpunk, all with a healthy dose of body horror and queer fabulism.
Sequel to The Scapegracers. As the loss of her magical soul drives her to desperate measures, Sideways Pike still has to keep her coven together, deal with her evil ex, and maybe throw some hexes at toxic men while she’s at it.
Sequel to The Good Luck Girls. Now that the Good Luck Girls are free, most have crossed the border to pursue new lives, while Aster tries to help more girls escape. But when she finds out about a new welcome house opening, she decides that helping individuals isn’t enough. She hatches an ambitious and dangerous plan to free all dustbloods, and calls upon her friends to make it a reality.
See you, space pirates. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.
Sponsored by Oxford University Press.
Successful word-coinages — those that stay popular for a good long time — tend to conceal their beginnings. We take them at face value and rarely wonder when and where they were first minted. Engaging, illuminating, and authoritative, Ralph Keyes’s The Hidden History of Coined Words explores the etymological underworld of terms and expressions, uncovering plenty of hidden gems. This witty book will appeal not just to word mavens, but also to history buffs, trivia contesters, and anyone who loves the immersive power of language.
I try to highlight some weird or obscure nonfiction on here when I can, but what if we just went all in on popular nonfiction? That seems fun, right? So I looked at the top 100 selling books and did some cherry picking because I can. Enjoy!
Of course of COURSE this is on here. Obama’s 700+ page memoir is the first in a two-volume set. This volume goes from Obama’s early years through the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, so before he was elected for his second term. According to Wikipedia, Obama took the longest of any president writing a memoir since it started being a regular “thing” with Calvin Coolidge. But it’s a massive book, so we get it, Obama. We get it.
Doyle’s previous books include Love Warrior and Carry On, Warrior. Her most recent memoir “is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live.” She discusses her divorce, her marriage to Abby Wambach, and their blended family. The book is divided into three sections: Caged, Keys, and Freedom. It’s all about empowerment for women and finding courage. My wife loves this book.
This was on so many antiracism lists last year, so it’s not a huge surprise it was one of the top sellers! Kendi talks about antiracism as “a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism” and “points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other.” He relates how racism creates false hierarchies in society and makes everything actively worse. So we should stop that.
Pulitzer Prize–winning Wilkerson’s new book was a big, big release of last year. Despite America’s proclamation of being based in the notion that all people are created equal, all people are not treated equally. Wilkerson posits that there is a hidden caste system, which can be defined through eight pillars, including divine will and bloodlines. You know. The things people have used for millennia to say why they’re inherently better than other people. This came out last August, which both feels forever ago and “what, only eight months ago?”
This one surprised me, so I looked into it! For those of you in the know, forgive me, but I was shocked to see this has been a NYT bestseller for a full decade, so it made the top nonfiction list for 2020. All the reviews are very either “this book immediately changed my life” or “this book is garbage nonsense!” So sounds like something to arrive at your own opinion about!
For more nonfiction new releases, check out the For Real podcast which I co-host with the excellent Kim here at Book Riot. If you have any questions/comments/book suggestions, you can find me on social media @itsalicetime. Until next time, enjoy those facts, fellow nerds.
Sponsored by Scout Press.
A chilling new novel about a woman who returns to her old family home after her sister mysteriously drowns in its swimming pool…but she’s not the pool’s only victim.
Hello mystery fans! It’s time for news, roundups, some of my reading, and lots of Kindle deals.
7 Great Mysteries and Thrillers on Audio
8 of the Best Ecological Thrillers for Your TBR
Liberty and Danika chat about new releases including Rioter Tirzah Price’s first in the Jane Austen Murder Mysteries, Pride and Premeditation, on the latest All the Books!
‘The Lincoln Lawyer’: Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine Joins Netflix Legal Drama Series
Kellye Garrett talked about the manuscript she’s working on and yes.please.now.
The 60 Hottest New (and Upcoming) Mysteries & Thrillers
The Top 13 Crime Drama Shows on Netflix
The True Story of This Is a Robbery’s $600m Art Heist, and What Happened Next
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse Trailer Delivers Violent Spy Thrills
Justin Theroux Tries to Ditch the U.S. Government in New Trailer for ‘The Mosquito Coast’ (based on the same titled 1981 novel by Justin Theroux’s uncle, Paul Theroux)
‘Northern Spy’ Is Reese’s Book Club Pick
Hello, gorgeous cover for upcoming thriller starring a Black lawyer: All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris
Giveaway: a year’s subscription to TBR at the hardcover level!
Giveaway: Win a $100 to Spend on Comics!
Giveaway: Enter to Win Your Own Library Cart: April, 2021
Holy revenge, Batman! This is a delicious page-turner with so many layers of revenge, you won’t soon forget. I absolutely loved watching how this unfolded starting with a jerk teacher at a prep school who thinks it’s his job to punish others into being better… I’m super excited about this one so mark your calendars for July 20th.
I just got the audiobook for Femi Kayode’s Lightseekers, which gives the investigator role to a psychologist in Nigeria looking into a crime that involved the killing of three students by a mob.
And I am suuuuuper excited for this upcoming cozy mystery: Mango, Mambo, and Murder (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery #1) by Raquel V. Reyes. The sleuth is the star of a Cuban-American cooking show, so I’m drooling already.
If your checklist has dark, fictional serial killer, and page-turner, pick up this thriller from Hillier for $2.99! (Review) (TW: rape scenes/ domestic violence/ pedophilia off page)
Looking for history and true crime? For $1.99 you got it!
If you want to travel to the 1950s and wonder what is under London, here’s a fun secret organization murder-mystery for $2.99! (Review) (TW past suicide mentioned kind of as reveal, brief detail)
If you can read brutal true crime memoirs, this was the first true crime memoir I read that I found to be an excellent read and it’s currently $2.99. (Review) (All the trigger warnings)
Why yes the retired NBA player is an author of a Sherlock series, and you can check it out for $2.99!
If you’re looking for a recent in history historical and a character-driven spy story, here you go for $2.99! (TW child abuse/ suicide)
Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2021 releases. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!
Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.
If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own, you can sign up here.
Sponsored by Amazon Publishing
Two decades ago Marissa Mo escaped a basement prison. At twenty-seven, Marissa’s moved beyond the trauma and is working under a new name as a freelance photographer. But when she accepts a job covering a string of macabre murders in Portland, all the evidence reminds her of her own abduction. And then there is the note that freezes Marissa’s blood: “See you soon, Missy.” To determine the killer’s next move, Marissa must retrieve her long-forgotten memories. But she won’t be facing her fears alone. Someone is waiting for her in the dark. Read Lies We Bury at www.amazon.com/LiesWeBury.
Sponsored by Udon Entertainment
The victim of a miscarriage of justice, the Count of Monte Cristo is fired by a desire for retribution and empowered by a stroke of providence. In his campaign of vengeance, he becomes an anonymous agent of fate. The sensational narrative of intrigue, betrayal, escape, and triumphant revenge moves at a cracking pace. Alexandre Dumas’ novel presents a powerful conflict between good and evil embodied in an epic saga of rich diversity that is complicated by the hero’s ultimate discomfort with the hubristic implication of his own actions.
Sponsored by Dreamscape Publishing
When a shy online reviewer is forced to add video to her blog, she receives unexpected help from an aspiring actor who helps her finally find her voice. Start listening to the Yes & I Love You audiobook!
Hola Audiophiles! Remember how last week I promised to be done with my latest listen by now? Well, the universe laughed at me and my silly little plans. Since the last newsletter came out, I took my dad to the hospital three times in four days, and then he had emergency surgery on Monday. I’m not sure what day it is anymore and def didn’t finish this book. but I’m going to tell you about it anyway because I love it so far and feel confident enough to recommend it.
Ready? Let’s audio.
publisher descriptions in quotes
It’s finally here!!!! My former Read Harder co-host and wonderful friend, Book Riot’s own Tirzah Price, has a book out in the world! This is the first in a series of YA murder mystery Austen retellings (weeee!) In Pride and Premeditation, 17-year-old Lizzie Bennet is an aspiring lawyer. When a scandalous murder rocks London society, Lizzy is convinced authorities have imprisoned the wrong person and sets out to solve the murder on her own. But as the case and her feelings for the heir to the prestigious Pemberley Associates firm (Mr. Darcy, you may have heard of him) become more complicated, Lizzie realizes her dream job could very well get her killed. (YA mystery)
Oh and ehhem, the book is also Barnes & Noble’s April YA Book Club Pick. Just a casual flex for the people!
I was so excited when I found out Morag Sims was reading Tirzah’s book (The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite, The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley). Such a perfect choice!
Harlem,1998: after a series of pregnancies that’ve ended in heartbreak, Laila turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family, for help. She makes a deal to obtain a piece of caul from them, a precious layer of skin that’s said to be the source of their healing power; but the deal falls through and another pregnancy ends in tragedy. Meanwhile another baby is about to be born to her cousin Amara and then given to the Melancons to raise as their own. The matriarchs of that family predict that this child, Hallow, will restore the family’s prosperity, but Hallow grows up to question her identity and the way she was raised. As the Melancons thirst to maintain their status grows, Hallow’s mother Amara is determined to avenge her longstanding grudge against the family. Mother and daughter will cross paths, forcing Hallow to decide where she really belongs. (fiction)
Read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt (The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans, Legendborn by Tracy Deonn)
Helen Oyeyemi is an $@*# gem. Her books just take me out of my body! This latest is the story of Otto and Xavier Shin whose aunt has gifted them a magical train ride as a not-honeymoon honeymoon. The couple realizes that they appear to be alone on this former tea-smuggling train and soon realize that it’s not your average locomotive. When Otto discovers a secretive woman who issues a cryptic message, “further clues and questions pile up. As the trip upends everything they thought they knew, Otto and Xavier begin to see connections to their own pasts, connections that now bind them together.” (literary fiction)
Read by Ben Allen, Intae Kim, Jade Wheeler, Deana Taheri, Rosa Escoda, and Deepti Gupta. The only person I’m familiar with personally from that cast is Deep Gupta but I am already sold based on a preview!
If you don’t already know about Jenny Lawson and are looking for super candid, often hilarious, sometimes cringey (but charmingly so) musings on mental health peppered with personal anecdotes sharing some very honest struggles, look her up. This latest from Lawson “humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it. From the business ideas that she wants to pitch to Shark Tank to the reason why Jenny can never go back to the post office, Broken leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way.” (nonfiction, essays, autobiography/memoir)
Read by the author in her signature brand of wacky run-on sentences and relatable quirk. Love her so much.
This is a stunning beautiful desert fantasy set in the Americas. The main character is sixteen year old Xochitl, the cuentista in her village of Empalme. The people in her village give her their stories, then Xochitl returns those stories to the earth, to Solís, at the conclusion of the ritual. The confessor walks away free from the guilt and burden of their story, and Xochitl gives it story back to Solís and promptly forgets it. She’s been told, as have all cuentistas, that this ritual is a necessity for the protection off her village.
Hers is a lonely existence and often a heavy one; she longs to be free and to share her heart with a kindred spirit. Then a horrible tragedy in the village forces Xochitl to consider whether what she’s been told about her role is a lie. It’s on a journey across the desert to get answers that Xochitl is joined by Emilia, the cold and beautiful daughter of the murderous conqueror responsible for the tragedy that sent Xochitl on this quest in the first place. They agree to complete the rest of the journey as companions and soon find themselves drawn to one another. Their hearts could be the match Xochitl longs for… if they can survive the terrors that wait for them in the desert each night when the sun goes down.
We often get asked for recommendations for books where the setting is a character and this is precisely that kind of book. The desert is a living, breathing entity, one that both gives with unexpected benevolence and takes with horrible cruelty. This book is an homage to both the beauty and the terror as well as the people that inhabit these spaces. It’s a gorgeous F/F love story, an action-packed ride full of tons of Espańol, and a thought-provoking examination of the weight of taking on other people’s stories.
As for narration, Frankie Corzo (Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Everyone Knows You Go Home by Natalia Sylvester, Incendiary by Zoraida Córdova) really hasn’t let me down. Her tone pairs perfectly with the story, emotional and vulnerable yet full of quiet power just like Xochitl herself. She handles the pacing wonderfully and gives distinct personalities to each character deftly. I so enjoy spending time with her warm and lovely performances.
at Audible: The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is the Fictional Oral History You Have to Hear
at Audiofile: 5 Audio Novels for Spring
at The Washington Post: The top audiobooks of the last year, according to our readers
at Libro.fm: 10 Must-Read Books on Urban History, Monopoly, Inequality, and Tech
Libro.fm is also gearing up for Independent Bookstore Day! Spend at least $15 USD at your indie either online or in-person between April 24th and 26th then submit your receipt to get a free audiobook! See the list of awesome selections here.
7 Great Mysteries and Thrillers on Audio
Thanks for hanging with me today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with with all things audiobook or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the In The Club newsletter and catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast.
Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa