Peek Over Our Shoulders: What Rioters Are Reading On August 8, 2016

Ashley Bowen-Murphy 

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott: I’ve been waiting for Abbott’s new book for what feels like forever. I’m a huge fan of her take on teen girls, bodies, and ambition. Her interview with Kelly Jensen was amazing and got me even more excited to read her new one. (hardback)

The Resurrectionist by Matthew Guinn: I’ve been on the hunt for some good old fashioned Southern Gothic and have high hopes that this book will do the trick. Guinn’s book features a disgraced doctor now working in PR for South Carolina medical college when the bones of slaves are discovered on campus. This book ticks all my boxes. (hardback)

Race to Incarcerate: A Graphic Retelling by Sabrina Jones and Marc Mauer: I read The New Jim Crow a few years ago and really liked it, but it’s a hard book to ask someone with limited time or interest to read. I’ve been looking for a quick, easy book to introduce the topic of mass incarceration that I can recommend to folks just coming to the topic. So far, this graphic take on the topic seems like a great book to use to get people interested in (or just thinking about) the topic. Plus, Michelle Alexander, who wrote The New Jim Crow, wrote the foreword. If that’s not an endorsement, I don’t know what is. (paperback)

Tasha Brandstatter 

Showmance by LH Cosway: Cosway is one of my favorite self-pubbed authors, and several of my blogging buddies have enjoyed this one. (ebook)

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen: Honestly I just randomly checked this out of the library. No logical reason. (audiobook)

Oishinbo a la Carte, vol. 1, by Tetsu Kariya: When I finished The Drops of God, this manga was recommended on Goodreads as something similar I might enjoy. (paperback, library copy)

Liberty Hardy 

Who Will Catch Us As We Fall by Iman Verjee (Oneworld Publications, Aug. 9): This novel is teaching me about a part of history I knew nothing about: the Indian population in Africa, and Idi Amin’s ethnic cleansing of Uguanda. Horrifying history, but a wonderful novel so far. (galley)

Slipping: Stories, Essays, and Other Writing by Lauren Beukes (Tachyon Publications, Nov. 29): Something new from the author of Broken Monsters? YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. (galley)

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco (Sourcebooks Fire, March 7, 2017): I loved her Girl in the Well series – so spooky – so I’m excited for this one. (e-galley)

The Last of August by by Brittany Cavallaro (Katherine Tegen Books, Feb. 14, 2017): The second book in the Charlotte Holmes series! I highly recommend A Study in Charlotte if you haven’t read it yet. (e-galley)

Jessica Pryde 

Drawn Together by Z. A. Maxfield: I’ve been meaning to read this one for ages. (ebook)

Unprocessed by Megan Kimble: It’s a food memoir by a local author, had to check it out (and fulfil a Read Harder Challenge while I was at it!) (paperback)

Teen Titans: Earth One by Jeff Lemire et al: Randomly came across this one on Goodreads, requested it from the library since I have never read a Teen Titans comic before. (Trade Hardcover)

Casey Stepaniuk 

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman: I’d heard great things about this YA fantasy and its unique take on dragons for a while so I decided to buy it with a bookstore gift certificate I had. Plus, it’s a local (to me) Vancouver author. (Paperback)

Sea, Swallow Me, and Other Stories by Craig Laurance Gidney: This was recommended to me on Twitter by a lovely person who always gives great audiobook recommendations and I can’t remember her name! So far, great narrator and great magical, strange stories. (Audiobook)

Jessica Yang 

Mirror in the Sky by Aditi Khorana: Science fiction and space has been on my mind lately, so this seemed perfect. YA lit can always use more aliens. (Hardcover)

Sarah Nicolas 

Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger: I totally adore this series and am sad to see it end. The audiobook narrator is delightful. I’m not usually a “Team” kinda gal, but I’m 100% Team Soap on this one. (library digital audiobook)

Rebellion by J.A. Souders: JA is a local author and one of my personal friends, so I attended the book launch party last month and got a signed hardcover. (Hardcover)

The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork: I was browsing Overdrive and this cover caught my eye, then the book blurb followed through. I’ve never read anything by Stork, but am excited to start this one. (library digital audiobook)

Rebecca Hussey 

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh: I’m reading through the Man Booker long list as part of the group called the (Wo)Man Booker Shadow Panel. We will choose our own short list and winner and see how our choices compare to the “official” ones. First up for me is Eileen. (library hardcover)

Hot Milk by Deborah Levy: Another book from the Man Booker long list. (Hardcover)

Karina Glaser 

When Friendship Followed Me Home by Paul Griffin: This book was recommended by a friend. I fell in love with it one page in. (Library Hardcover)

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan: I loved Ryan’s Echo and have to go back and read everything she’s ever written. (Paperback)

Derek Attig 

The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman: This is the second of the three Invisible Library books, and the first one was a ton of fun. So here I am, enjoying this one, too. (ebook)

Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up at Night by Morgan Parker: Rereading this because Parker is an amazing, powerful poet, and I’m so glad she’s here, writing in this world. (paperback)

E.H. Kern 

Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole: The second part of Myke Cole’s Shadow Ops series. I really enjoyed part one (Shadow Ops: Control Point) and so far I’m really enjoying part two as well. (Paperback)

Peter Damien 

Ghosty Men by Franz Lidz: A book nominally about the famous hoarders the Collyer brothers. It meanders and he has trouble deciding if he’s discussing the Collyers, or his own family, but it’s okay so far. (Hardcover)

Nightmares: A New Decade of Modern Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow: I am such an Ellen Datlow fanboy, and I didn’t know this was gonna show up, so I nearly screamed. A collection of horror stories, old and new, and as stupendous as all her anthologies. (ARC, paperback)

Roofworld by Christopher Fowler: if you read Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere and thought “I’d basically like to read that again,” then this is the book for you. It’s quite good, honestly. It also reminds me of China Mieville. (mass market paperback)

Swapna Krishna 

Ink and Bone by Lisa Unger: I have loved Lisa Unver for a very long time, and this latest novel in her Hollows series (interconnected novels, but no need to read them in order, as they stand alone) is no exception. Her rich characterization balances so well with the frenetic plot pacing. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this ends up. (hardcover)

Almost Home by Githa Hariharan: I’ve been reading this book of essays slowly, and really savoring each one. I love the premise—Hariharan has traveled widely and lived all over the world, but each of these essays connects to what the meaning of “home” is. (paperback ARC)

Steph Auteri  

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott: I read The Fever last year and, in my own fever of instant obsession, I then went back and read her entire backlist. When Abbott’s latest came out, I bought it that very day. (Ebook)

We Were Feminists Once by Andi Zeisler: I used to be a regular reader of Bitch, and feminist nonfiction is sort of my wheelhouse. I don’t usually buy hardcover, but there was so much buzz around this one I couldn’t help myself. (Hardcover)

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue: I snagged myself a galley after being intrigued by what I’d read about it online. (Paperback ARC)

Kate Scott 

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner: My choice from this month’s Book of the Month Club selections. It’s a fun, fast-paced mystery. (Hardcover)

The Witches by Stacy Schiff: I’ve had this review copy sitting on my shelf for months. I’ve been wanting to read more about the Salem Witch Trials. (Hardcover)

The Girls by Emma Cline: All of the book bloggers I know keep raving about this one, so I thought I’d give it a listen! (Audiobook)

Tracy Shapley 

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi: Exactly as fantastic, complex, entertaining, and devastating as everyone’s been saying. (Paperback ARC)

Susie Rodarme 

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett: I needed something light this week, so I decided to return to the Discworld. The familiar characters and sometimes non-stop hilarity gave me a huge boost (because, y’all, I had cramps from hell). (ebook)

St. Marks Is Dead:The Many Lives of America’s Hippest Street by Ada Calhoun: I first heard about St. Marks from the work of Jim Carroll, who talked about poetry readings by Ferlinghetti at the bookshop that used to be there (RIP, St. Mark’s Bookshop). It has popped up again and again in culture and I wanted to know its story. (Library hardcover)

Lucas Maxwell 

The Wise Man’s Fear (Kingkiller Chronicle #2)  by Patrick Rothfuss (Paperback): This is an epic tome of a sequel to one of the best fantasy debuts in the last decade in my opinion. It’s funny, terrifying, exhilarating and somehow 100% believable even though it’s chock full of magical elements. Go check out the first book, The Name of the Wind if you love storytelling in any format.

Dumplin by Julie Murphy (Hardcover): As a teen librarian I voraciously consume the books I see the students reading and passing around. This is one of them, and I can see why they love it. Featuring a rare kind of heroine, Dumplin’ conveys an important positive body image that is missing in a lot of YA fiction.

Kay Taylor Rea 

Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books, Aug. 16): I’m a huge fan of MRK’s Glamourist Histories series so I was thrilled to get my hands on her latest novel. It’s an alternate history WWI novel about the Spirit Corps, mediums who aid the Allies by relaying information from deceased soldiers to military intelligence. The worldbuilding is incredible and it has an amazing cast of characters. (e-galley)

Aftermath: Life Debt by Chuck Wendig: The sequel to Wendig’s bestselling tie-in novel Star Wars: Aftermath is the second in a trilogy spanning the period between the end of Return of the Jedi and the start of The Force Awakens. I love how Wendig uses the present tense to convey immediacy and rotating points of view to convey the grand scale of the conflict. (hardcover)

Jamie Canaves

No One Knows by J. T. Ellison: Aubrey’s husband is now officially declared dead even though no one has ever found him or known what happened. From the first chapter I’ve been in must-know-now mode and I especially need to know if my guesses are correct! (ebook)

The Devourers by Indra Das: Always here for an interesting, or new, take on monsters- in this case werewolves. Or better said half-werewolves/shape-shifters. The narrators are perfect for the telling of this lush and violent tale. (audiobook)

How to Party with an Infant by Kaui Hart Hemmings: Couldn’t say no to the title and so far I’m finding the ridiculousness very amusing. (egalley)

Rani Patel in Full Effect by Sonia Patel (October 11, Cinco Puntos Press): A couple Rioters recommended this one so it was a must read. Loved Rani’s voice from the first page. (egalley)

Elizabeth Allen

Never Look an American in the Eye: A Memoir of Flying Turtles, Colonial Ghosts, and the Making of a Nigerian American by Okey Ndibe:  The cover originally caught my eye and I am so glad I picked it up.  Ndibe has an ear for language that comes across as both musical and accessible. His tale of growing up in Nigeria, his friendship with Chinua Achebe and his eventual U.S. citizenship was a fun by poignant read. (ARC, paperback)

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren:  I’m not the first person to recommend this book on Book Riot, and I will not be the last.  Jahren’s tale of her growth as a scientist centers around her quirky and enduring friendship with a fellow scientist that both enhanced her career and her life.  On top of it including fascinating information about science, Jahren’s writing is beautiful and poetic. (hardcover)