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Peek Over Our Shoulders: What Rioters Are Reading on March 30, 2017

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Wallace Yovetich

Staff Writer

Wallace Yovetich grew up in a home where reading was preferred to TV, playing outside was actually fun, and she was thrilled when her older brothers weren’t home so she could have a turn on the Atari. Now-a-days she watches a bit more TV, and considers sitting on the porch swing (with her laptop) “playing outside”. She still thinks reading is preferable to most things, though she’d really like to find out where her mom put that old Atari (Frogger addicts die hard). She runs a series of Read-a-Longs throughout the year (as well as posting fun bookish tidbits throughout the week) on her blog, Unputdownables. After teaching for seven years, Wallace is now an aspiring writer. Blog: Unputdownables Twitter: @WallaceYovetich

In this feature at Book Riot, we give you a glimpse of what we are reading this very moment.

Here is what the Rioters are reading today (as in literally today). This is what’s on their bedside table (or the floor, work bag, desk, whatevskis). See a Rioter who is reading your favorite book? Gird your loins – this list combined with all of those archived posts will make your TBR list EXPLODE.

We’ve shown you ours, now show us yours; let us know what you’re reading (right this very moment) in the comment section below!

Steph Auteri  

You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson: This one’s been on my wish list for awhile. I’m only 15 pages in and I am SO enjoying it. (Paperback)

Immersion by Ted Conover: I learned of Conover’s work in a writing class years ago, when we read a book on immersion journalism. I fell in love with the genre, and am way excited to have a how-to written by one of the greats. This is the type of work I’d love to do. (Paperback)

 

E.H. Kern

Intimate Empires: Body, Race, and Gender in the Modern World by Tracey Rizzo and Steven Gerontakis: Only two chapters in and I have already learned so much about the origins of white toxic masculinity and the sexualization of Women of Color for the sake of Empire. It’s painful to read how deliberately these ideas were crafted by white Europeans as they sought to rule the world between 1750 and 1950. Still to come are the chapters that deal with race and cultural appropriation. Bracing myself. (Paperback)

 

Liberty Hardy

Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta (Aug. 1, Scribner): It’s been six years since we’ve had a Perrotta novel! This one is about a forty-something divorcée trying to adjust to the new world of technology, and her son’s experience as a freshman at college. (e-galley)

An Excess Male by Maggie Shen King (Sept. 12, Harper Voyager): A dystopian tale revolving around China’s One Child policy, along the lines of The Handmaid’s Tale. YES, PLEASE. (e-galley)

The Bloodprint (The Khorasan Archives) by Ausma Zehanat Khan (Oct. 3, Harper Voyager): The author of the Unquiet Dead mystery series is back with the first book in a fantasy trilogy! (e-galley)

My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris: This graphic novel is drawn as the notebook diary of a ten-year-old who is investigating a murder. It is GORGEOUS. (paperback)

 

 

 

Ilana Masad

We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas: I work for Matt’s wife who runs a writing space in NYC, where I currently live, and I’ve talked to him a bunch of times, and I thought it was really dumb that I had yet to read his book. So I’m reading it. I’m about 50 pages from the end now, and dying with love for it. Highly recommend. (Paperback)

 

Emily Wenstrom

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert: I’d heard many wonderful things about this book, and I’m typically a sucker for a good book about creative process, and/or books for and about artists and balancing the rest of their lives. My key takeaway so far? Artists believe some seriously weird, non-scientific shit about creative process … and it seems to work for them very well. Maybe I need to be more mystical in how I approach my own writing. (See also: Supergods by Grant Morrison) (paperback)

 

Jessica Woodbury

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. You can bet I started reading this almost the moment I got it. Really excited for the follow up to Everything I Never Told You. (e-galley)

It’s Not Like It’s a Secret by Misa Sugiura: So far I am really into this YA. It has around 6 plots but it feels like the real complexity of life where you never get just one thing at a time. Race, sexuality, family, friends, and much much more. (e-galley)

The Wanderers by Meg Howrey: Astronauts! Going to Mars! (audiobook)

 

Katie MacBride

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby (ARC): I am a Sam Irby superfan, so it’s not surprising that I am loving this book. As funny, smart, and endearing as her previous book, Meaty, WANMIRL offers more stories from Irby’s life as only she can tell them. If you can’t wait until May for the new book, tide yourself over with her blog, bitches gotta eat.

 

Priya Sridhar

The Hate U Give by Angie ThomasAlready an NYT bestseller about the Black Lives Matters movement, one that promises to be poignant and painful. I’m already in suspense about how Starr will encounter that nasty bit with the police.

 

Claire Handscombe

The Hollywood Daughter by Kate Alcott: after watching La La Land for, ahem, the fifth time, this time on a plane, I was thumbing through my ereader when this one caught my eye. Not quite ready to leave the emotionally brutal but enchanted world of Los Angeles, I started reading, and found it gliding along nicely. (e-Galley)

 

Jan Rosenberg

Lives Of The Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis: I was sold on the title alone. Farrar, Straus & Giroux is publishing a reprint of this title this season. I couldn’t wait, so I grabbed a used copy from The Strand. This book is the epitome of all of my favorite things: dogs, mad scientists, opera, New York City, revenge…and did I mention dogs? This book is a Dystopian/Sci-Fi/Horror hybrid. It was written in the nineties, but it takes place in 2017. A graduate student befriends the Monster Dogs: the life’s work of a grandiose surgeon with a cocaine problem. The dogs were meant to used for military purposes, but the master is long dead, and the dogs have migrated to Manhattan to party with high society. They talk, walk on two legs, have mechanical hands, and have existential problems. This is by far one of the weirdest books I’ve ever read, and I’m so grateful to have discovered it. (paperback)

 

Christina Vortia

The Takedown by Corrie Wang: I got this ARC on Netgalley, and so far I’m really enjoying it. In a not-too-distant future where technology and social media are tracking people in unprecedented ways, someone uses video editing technology to create a video showing popular NYC teen Kyle having sex with her teacher. The video goes viral, and Kyle’s life unravels. This book has a very distinct writing style – a nod to the increasing power text and emoticons have on the way people think and communicate. Diverse characters abound, and it’s glorious. It also has a powerful message of how posting sexual content of teen girls can destroy their lives. (eGalley)

Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by  Octavia E. Butler, John Jennings (Illustrations), Damian Duffy – I received an uncorrected proof while at ALA midwinter, and was unfortunate enough to only be able to unbox this gem recently. Having read this groundbreaking novel, I’m experiencing this story in a whole new way, and I’m feeling and thinking deeply about the subject matter. I’ll probably reread the final version. I’m interested to see it in color. (ARC)

 

Tasha Brandstatter

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino: I enjoyed reading Malice so much I decided to dig into Higashino’s backlist, and this book is by far the most recommended of his on Goodreads. (hardcover)

Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter: I’m on a roll with the Jackaby series. (audiobook)

 

Sarah Nicolas

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson: Super late on this one, I know. I have no excuses. (audiobook)

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby: This has been on my Overdrive wishlist for a while, but I was finally in the mood for it. This is totally different from what I was expecting, but in a really good way. (library audiobook)

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin: I was specifically looking for YA with a genderqueer or genderfluid protagonist, so I headed on over to lgbtqreads.com and picked this one from the list. (library audiobook)

The Night Mark by Tiffany Reisz: My love for Reisz’s work has been well documented, so of course I jumped at the chance of getting this one a little early from the publisher. (audiobook ARC)

 

Eric Smith

27 Hours by Tristina Wright: I’m about halfway through Wright’s debut, a novel I’ve been anxiously waiting to read, and my goodness, it does not disappoint. The book reads like a well-written video game, delivering incredible high octane action, fueled by gorgeous worldbuilding and really hard-hitting, interwoven stories. Told in shifting POV from four teenagers on a planet being overrun by monsters, it’s their relationships, with one another and their home, that make this a seriously gripping read. Will likely finish it by the time this post goes up. Keep an eye out for this book, coming out later this year. (eARC, Entangled, October 2017)

 

Tiffani Willis   

Around the Way Girl by Taraji P. Henson: My book club’s process for choosing books begins in November or December of the previous year when we decide on themes for each month of the upcoming year. The theme for March this year was female memoir. Club members get five days to nominate a book and then another five to vote on the nominations. This month’s winner was Taraji P. Henson’s memoir, Around the Way. Celebrity memoirs aren’t usually my thing but part of the point of the book club is to read new things, so here I go. (hardback from the library)

 

Megan Cavitt

Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple: This has been on my to-read list for ages due to its high critical praise, but I’m honestly finding it aggravating. You’re telling me that none of these highly educated (but self-absorbed) people know anything about mental illness? Dump your husband, Bernadette, and maybe stay in Antarctica for a while. (library hardcover)

Kim & Kim, volume 1, story and art by Eva Cabrera and Claudia Aguirre: This, on the other hand, is tons of fun. It’s kind of like Cowboy Bebop, if Cowboy Bebop were about rock ‘n roll instead of jazz and starred a pink-haired transgirl instead of Spike Spiegel. (library paperback)

 

Karina Glaser

Momotaro: Xander and the Dream Thief by Margaret Dilloway (Disney-Hyperion, 4/18/17): I loved the first book in this series (Momotaro: Xander and the Island of Lost Monsters), so I was thrilled to get an ARC of the latest adventure of this modern take of the Momotaro Peach Boy story. A fast-paced, funny, modern spin on Japanese folklore, perfect for reluctant readers and anyone who loves a great fantasy story.

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren: Botany? Science? Memoir? This is right up my wheelhouse, so I had to check it out. (Library Hardcover)

 

Ashley Bowen-Murphy

Swing Time by Zadie Smith: My book club picked this one and we’re meeting next week. So, time to finally finish it up. (e-book)

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue: This has been in my TBR pile for a long time and I’ve finally started it. (hardcover)

 

Margaret Kingsbury

Speak by Louisa Hall: I bought this a while ago on a daily deal, and then forgot about it. A positive review from a Goodreads friend rekindled my interest. It’s a very meta read so far, exploring AI and memory through court documents, letters, memoirs, and I’m sure it’s going to get even trippier. (Ebook)

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay: I’m co-reading this with a friend. We meet once a month over tea and coffee to talk about it and feminism in general, though I’m being a bad feminist friend and reading ahead! (Paperback)

 

Katie McLain

My Real Children by Jo Walton:  I’m taking part in a speculative fiction genre study for librarians, and Jo Walton was one of the authors on the list for our next meeting.  I’m only 50 pages in, but I’m really enjoying the lyrical writing style.  (Library hardcover.)

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson.  One of my coworkers recommended Jenny Lawson to me, and since I’m trying to read only female authors for Women’s History Month, this seemed like a good opportunity to try one of her books. (Digital audiobook)

 

Tracy Shapley

The Patriots by Sana Krasikov: I’ve been reading this book for such a long time, which usually means I think a book ungood, but I actually really love this one. It’s a multi-generational story of a woman who emigrated to the Soviet Union from the United States and then of her ancestors who emigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union. Plus, murder! (ebook)

Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck: I think I like this book? I have something like 20 pages left so I guess I better figure it out real quick like. Essentially, it is the fictionalized account of Zelda Fitzgerald’s life as told through the life story of her nurse. It’s interesting and well written, though it does feel a little gossipy in a way I don’t feel entirely comfortable with. (Paperback)

 

Beth O’Brien

All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg: I’m about halfway through this one and enjoying it so far. I love when ending up in a romantic relationship isn’t seen as the only desirable outcome. Single ≠ alone. (Hardcover)

Blood Promise by Richelle Mead: This is the fourth book in the Vampire Academy series. It’s been a while since I picked up one of these and thought it would do the trick. I’ve been in the mood for a little paranormal escapism and this is the ticket. (Paperback)

 

Ines Bellina  

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: I read this back in the carefree summer of my post-college youth. I decided to revisit it now so I can be prepared for a) Hulu’s TV adaptation (which looks amazing, FYI) and b) the dystopian future that may await us if don’t keep holding our elected leaders accountable. #Resist. (Paperback)

 

Jaime Herndon

A Girl Walks into a Book by Miranda Pennington: I went to school with Miranda, and it’s neat to see this in its final form (ARC).

Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir by Liz Prince: I’ve really gotten into comics lately, and I love the voice in this. (Paperback).

 

Aram Mrjoian

Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett: Finishing up reading this to put together a review for The Masters Review. It’s stellar. (Paperback).

Puerto del Sol Winter 2017: The Publication Issue: As an editor at TriQuarterly, I get access to some awesome free journal mail. The new Puerto del Sol showed up a few days ago. It’s on point! (Paperback).