Friday, 31 August 2018

#9: The Italian House: The unmissable read of the summer

The Italian House: The unmissable read of the summer
Teresa Crane (Author)

(32)

Buy new: £0.99

(Visit the Bestsellers in Romance list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.)

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#4: The Fall of Gondolin

The Fall of Gondolin
J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Christopher Tolkien (Editor), Alan Lee (Illustrator)

(3)

Buy new: ~~£20.00~~ £14.00
34 used & new from £11.39

(Visit the Most Wished For in Books list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.)

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Review: The Mermaid - Christina Henry

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Over at Kirkus – 10 Fall Books to Look Forward to

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Over at Kirkus – 10 Fall Books to Look Forward to

It’s Friday and we are over at Kirkus! Today, Ana lists 10 books she is looking forward to reading this fall.

Go over there to check out the whole list.

The post Over at Kirkus – 10 Fall Books to Look Forward to appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

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#7: The Island Villa: The perfect feel good summer read

The Island Villa: The perfect feel good summer read
Lily Graham (Author)

(47)

Buy new: £1.99

(Visit the Bestsellers in Romance list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.)

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New video by Penguin Books UK on YouTube

Talking Books with Michael Palin
Michael Palin discusses his new book, Erebus, as well as the process of recording the audiobook edition. See behind-the-scenes of the recording process and get a sneak-peek at the book. Available to pre-order now in CD or download: https://amzn.to/2MBf1JD

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“Has much to recommend it” – Normal People by Sally Rooney

"Sally Rooney is a good writer. Normal People is a good book, just as Conversations with Friends was a good book. She has a good eye and we will watch with real interest to see what she does next. Let's just hope we get something with a bit more meat than simply boy meets girl."

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“Has much to recommend it” – Normal People by Sally Rooney

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Shelf-Discipline: How to Read More Before Your Next Book Spree

At Goodreads, we always encourage our members to read more. But sometimes, the number of books still waiting on your Want to Read shelf can feel a little daunting…

(GIF credit: Black Books)

So we asked avid readers on Facebook and Twitter if they’ve ever tried a book-buying hiatus: a temporary (and we stress temporary), self-imposed ban from buying more books until they finish the current ones on their to-read list.

Needless to say, some reactions were (understandably) strong...

(GIF credit: The Mindy Project)

But overall, there was sound advice from fellow bibliophiles who have survived, thrived, and ultimately enjoyed more stories as a result. Below is a list of some the most popular tips and tricks. Let us know which ones speak to you in the comments.

Happy reading!

(GIF credit: Short Circuit)

1. "I tell myself that I need to read at least three books that I’ve bought and haven’t read yet," says Jimmy.

2. "If I find a book interesting, I take a picture of the cover to add to my to-read list. That way, I can put the book back without truly losing it," says Samantha.

3. "I work across the street from my favorite bookstore, so I park as far away in the opposite direction as possible," says Hannah.

4. "The best way to conquer [a book-buying ban] is by revisiting a library or joining a new library. Also, keeping a record of how much you're saving by USING the library leads to a pretty good high," says Lauren.

5. "I make a list of the books I want to buy and give myself a certain timeframe. If I finish my book buying ban, I start checking them off one by one as a reward," says Josie.

6. "I have a lot of physical books (it’s my preference), but I was still buying and borrowing from the library. So I took little, easy-to-peel-off stickers and put them on unread books, then I ascribed an amount: $2 for each book I read. Now I have a reward system that has me reading the books I own, but still lets me buy new books,'" says Ashley.

7. "Put all the books you own and haven’t read in a stack or [on an] eye-level shelf where they glare at you every time you walk out your door. Visualize it when you’re tempted to buy a book," says Kim.

8. "Can't buy anything when you have no money," says Clay.

9."Tips for sticking with it are to do the ban with a friend or two. It helps keep you accountable. Also, library, library, library," says Elena.

Have you ever tried a book-buying hiatus? Share your experience with us in the comments!

Check out more recent blogs:

The Big Books of Fall

7 Great Books Hitting Shelves Today

The Creators of 'Saga' Recommend Books for Their Fans

posted by Marie on August, 30

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Thursday, 30 August 2018

#8: The Kicking the Bucket List: The feelgood bestseller of 2017

The Kicking the Bucket List: The feelgood bestseller of 2017
Cathy Hopkins (Author)

(981)

Buy new: £0.99

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Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Children's/Young Adult Book Picks August 2018 - US Published Post

Katherine Marsh - Nowhere Boy - Published by Roaring Brook Press (August 7, 2018) - ISBN-13: 978-1250307576 - Hardback

An "important and riveting story, masterfully told" of family, sacrifice and the friendship between a young Syrian refugee and an American boy living in Brussels. Nowhere Boy is a "captivating book" that focuses on the "discourse around the refugee crisis." The Center for Children's Books calls it a "perilous journey, tempered by the striking realism of obstacles refugees face daily."

Fourteen-year-old Ahmed is stuck in a city that wants nothing to do with him. Newly arrived in Brussels, Belgium, Ahmed fled a life of uncertainty and suffering in Aleppo, Syria, only to lose his father on the perilous journey to the shores of Europe. Now Ahmed’s struggling to get by on his own, but with no one left to trust and nowhere to go, he’s starting to lose hope.

Then he meets Max, a thirteen-year-old American boy from Washington, D.C. Lonely and homesick, Max is struggling at his new school and just can’t seem to do anything right. But with one startling discovery, Max and Ahmed’s lives collide and a friendship begins to grow. Together, Max and Ahmed will defy the odds, learning from each other what it means to be brave and how hope can change your destiny.

Set against the backdrop of the Syrian refugee crisis, award-winning author of Jepp, Who Defied the Stars Katherine Marsh delivers a gripping, heartwarming story of resilience, friendship and everyday heroes. Barbara O'Connor, author of Wish and Wonderland, says "Move Nowhere Boy to the top of your to-be-read pile immediately."

Ethan M. Aldridge - Estranged - Published by HarperCollins (August 7, 2018) - ISBN-13: 978-0062653864 - Paperback

Rising star author-illustrator Ethan M. Aldridge delivers a fantasy adventure with all the makings of a classic. Illustrated with over two-hundred pages of watercolor paintings, this epic graphic novel is perfect for fans of Amulet.

Edmund and the Childe were swapped at birth. Now Edmund lives in secret as a changeling in the World Above, his fae powers hidden from his unsuspecting parents and his older sister, Alexis. The Childe lives among the fae in the World Below, where being a human makes him a curiosity at the royal palace.

But when the cruel sorceress Hawthorne seizes the throne, the Childe and Edmund must unite on a dangerous quest to save both worlds—even if they’re not sure which world they belong to.

Kristin O'Donnell Tubb (Author), Iacopo Bruno (Illustrator) - The Story Collector: A New York Public Library Book - Published by Henry Holt and Co. (August 28, 2018) - ISBN-13: 978-1250143808 - Hardback

"For every book lover who fantasized about getting locked in the library overnight,The Story Collector is a dream come true!" ―New York Times-bestselling author Alan Gratz

In the tradition of E. L. Konisburg, this middle-grade mystery adventure is inspired by the real life of Viviani Joffre Fedeler, born and raised in the New York Public Library.

Eleven-year-old Viviani Fedeler has spent her whole life in the New York Public Library. She knows every room by heart, except the ones her father keeps locked. When Viviani becomes convinced that the library is haunted, new girl Merit Mubarak makes fun of her. So Viviani decides to play a harmless little prank, roping her older brothers and best friend Eva to help out.

But what begins as a joke quickly gets out of hand, and soon Viviani and her friends have to solve two big mysteries: Is the Library truly haunted? And what happened to the expensive new stamp collection? It's up to Viviani, Eva, and Merit (reluctantly) to findout.

Keir Graff - The Phantom Tower - Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers (August 21, 2018) - ISBN-13: 978-1524739522 - Hardback

Twin brothers discover their new home is also a portal--for an hour a day--to a parallel dimension in this rollicking middle-grade adventure, perfect for fans of The Mysterious Benedict Society

Colm and Mal are twins so identical their own mom can't tell them apart, but they're different in just about every other way. Mal's a pragmatist while Colm's a dreamer, and they bicker and battle constantly. Neither brother is excited to be moving to Chicago for a fresh start with their mom just after their dad's death. But nothing cures homesickness like intrigue--and their new home, Brunhild Tower, has plenty of it: mysterious elderly neighbors who warn against wandering the building at midday, strange sounds in the walls, and an elevator missing a button for the thirteenth floor.

One day, that button appears--and when the doors open on the missing floor, the boys are greeted by the strangest puzzle yet: a twin building that is stuck in time and bustling with activity. All of Brunhild Tower's former residents live on in this phantom tower, where the rules of the real world don't apply. But when the brothers and their newfound friends discover they're all trapped by an ancient curse, they must band together to set everyone free before it's too late.

KR Alexander - The Collector - Published by Scholastic Press (August 28, 2018) - ISBN-13: 978-1338212242 - Paperback

Josie always liked visiting her grandmother in the countryside. But when her mother loses her job in the city and they're forced to relocate along with Josie's sister, Annie, she realizes she doesn't like the country that much. Especially because Grandma Jeannie has some strange rules: Don't bring any dolls into the house. And never, ever go near the house in the woods behind their yard. Soon though, Josie manages to make friends with the most popular girl in the sixth grade, Vanessa. When Vanessa eventually invites Josie back to her house to hang out, Josie doesn't question it. Not even when Vanessa takes her into the woods, and down an old dirt road, toward the very house Grandma Jeannie had warned her about.

As Josie gets caught up in her illicit friendship with Vanessa, Annie is caught in the crossfire. What follows is a chilling tale of dark magic, friendship, and some verrrrrry creepy dolls.

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Review: City of Bastards - Andrew Shvarts

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Trash & Treasure: Foz Meadows on Worldcon 76 (a Recap)

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Trash & Treasure: Foz Meadows on Worldcon 76 (a Recap)

Trash & Treasure is a miscellany of monthly opinions on SFF, fandom and general geekness from Foz Meadows. This month’s entry is a recap of Worldcon 76 that took place in San Jose between August 16-20…

This year, I was lucky enough to attend Worldcon 76 in San Jose, where I had a wonderful time. As an extrovert who seldom gets the chance to talk SFF-shop in daily life, cons are a way for me to recharge my creative and mental batteries, and while there were invariably some issues regarding marginalisation and accessibility to be learned from in the future – not only in the leadup, but both during the con itself and afterwards – the overall experience, at least for me, was a positive one.

From Friday to Sunday, I participated in seven events: six panels and a shared reading with fellow Book Smugglers authors Kate Elliott and S.L. Huang. The reading was packed, and all three pieces – including Lisa’s excerpt from her Book Smugglers novella, The Little Homo Sapiens Scientist – were well-received by the audience; it was a genuinely wonderful way to spend an hour. Panel-wise, while I would be hard-pressed to pick a favourite appearance, the Breaking Out of the Margins panel with Michi Trota, JY Yang, Caroline Yoachim and Sarah Kuhn was definitely a personal highlight. While discussing what we most wanted for the future of diverse storytelling, we coined the term #ownvoicestrash to highlight our desire for marginalised creators to be able to tell as many tropey, indulgent, fluffy, light, ridiculous stories as we want, without always having to bear the representational burden of being serious and deep about our identities and politics. Given how much of my WIP folder at present can be accurately described as #ownvoicestrash, it was immensely validating to find the sentiment shared by such a group of amazing, talented writers, and left me more eager than ever to finish the various projects on which I’m working.

One discussion I wish could’ve run longer was Saturday’s Author vs Fan Ownership panel, where I appeared with John Scalzi, Renay Williams, Eric Kaplan and Greg Hullender. Though the outcome of the panel itself was positive, I felt that the conversation spent too long discussing strictly legal definitions of ownership, rather than – as I suspect was more intended by the panel description – the problem of fan entitlement and the etiquette of navigating author/fan relationships. Though the panel discussion eventually started to move in these directions, we ran out of time before they could be addressed in any depth. Afterwards, multiple audience members asked for my thoughts about the recent trend in claims by some fandom extremists that fans literally own the stories they love, whatever those stories might be, just by straight-up virtue of passion.

To give an example of two of the more toxic examples of this sense of fannish entitlement, taken from both ends of the fan-political spectrum, consider both the MRA Star Wars fans who tried to crowdsource funding for a new, lady-free version of The Last Jedi, and the lone Voltron: Legendary Defender fan who tried to blackmail Studio Mir into making their gay ship canon. In both cases, there’s a belief that wanting a personal, idealised, specific version of the narrative to exist in canon should not only trump the plans of the creators, but effectively constitute a shouted BECAUSE REASONS! override of their actual, legal ownership.

My response to this logic is simple: no fan, no matter how popular their ship or the groundswell, perceived or actual, behind their support of an alternate canon, speaks for the entirety of fandom. That being so, even if we accepted the frankly bizarre claim that loving a story entitles a fan or fans to take ownership of it canonically and legally, this power would rest with all fans, not just those who subscribe to a single, specific interpretation of what should happen. If a random Keith/Lance shipper is entitled to take over Voltron just because they want to see two boys kiss, then so is someone who ships Shiro with Keith instead, or Lance and Hunk, or any one of the hundred other romantic permutations possible between the characters. Which is why we have fanfiction in the goddamn first place: because canon is, of necessity, finite in a way that our imaginings of it are not. I have immense sympathy with the frustrations of marginalised groups and their desire to see themselves reflected in their favourite stories and characters, and as a fanwriter, I’m obviously in favour of discussing the potential canonical development of particular stories along our preferred lines. But to claim that wanting something is the same as being entitled to it is, in just about any context, an incredibly toxic mindset. Whatever legal liminalities exist around fan ownership of fan-produced content based on the IP of others, there is zero ambiguity about their ownership – or rather, their lack thereof – of the canon itself.

On Sunday night, I attended the Hugo Awards ceremony. San Jose was my fourth time attending a Worldcon, and so my fourth appearance at the Hugos: I’ve been nominated for Best Fan Writer three times now (!), but have only been in the audience on two of those occasions. It’s always a tense, anticipatory feeling in the leadup, but even if there’s a flash of momentary disappointment at not winning, it’s difficult in the extreme to feel bad about coming in second to writers like Kameron Hurley, Abigail Nussbaum and Sarah Gailey. It’s an honour just to be nominated – and more, it’s an honour to be able to be there regardless. I’m not generally given to welling up in public, but there’s something about the Hugos that always gets to me: the memoriam for those we’ve lost in the previous year, even when I don’t recognise the names, reminds me of the interconnectedness and longevity of fandom; of the largeness of a community which, when it’s just me in front of my keyboard, can often feel small. Listening to the acceptance speech given on behalf of Ursula Le Guin for her posthumous win was likewise poignant in the extreme, while N.K. Jemisin’s historic third consecutive win for her Broken Earth trilogy had the whole room on its feet, cheering.

There were, of course, people outside the room who were vastly less impressed with Jemisin’s achievement – and, indeed, with the con itself. After publicly stating his intent to break the convention’s code of conduct and being banned accordingly, a certain Sad Puppy decided to show up anyway. He filmed in a hotel lobby for a bit on Friday, then briefly wandered around before being evicted, but while both this cameo and his broflakey twittering encouraged a handful of random white supremacists to show up and picket out front on Saturday, he didn’t join them. As the drama unfolded, a peanut gallery of amused onlookers formed on the upper level of the con venue, watching as the protestors, who were outnumbered both by a bored-looking police presence and by the antifa who showed up to counteract their yelling, succeeded only in blocking access to the blood donation van for a couple of hours. Honestly, the whole affair created about as much disruption as a burst sewage pipe: there was a brief stink out front, people took an alternate foot-route to avoid it, the relevant authorities tidied everything away while the con took basic health and safety precautions, and then things went back to normal.

Even so, in light of my third non-win as a Hugo nominee, I find myself reflecting on the origins of the Puppies: of the bitterness of those other non-winners who, instead of celebrating the achievements and success of their peers, decided there was more to be gained from throwing over the whole institution in a fit of pique. Which makes me reflect, in turn, on the question of fan entitlement that our panel never quite addressed: of the hubris of individuals who feel so fundamentally entitled to their view of canon, their view of a world and its characters, that they interpret any disagreement as a kind of belligerent theft. As with the canon of any given narrative, an award is a necessarily finite thing: no matter how many potentially deserving recipients along various axes exist in a given year, a single prize cannot be given to all of them. Someone is always going to be omitted, just as the canon of a story will always omit some narrative possibilities: that is, both definitionally and fundamentally, an integral part of any human action that requires us to make a choice, and no matter how you carve things up, it’s something that cannot change.

Yes, there can be biases and nepotisms that unfairly steer the decision-making process in any award-giving context, but anyone claiming that the Puppies were the first to raise such concerns regarding the Hugos clearly wasn’t paying attention: for years prior to Correia’s initial tantrum, there were widespread discussions of logrolling, accusations of favouritism and arguments about the etiquette of self-promotion every time Hugo season rolled around. What differentiated the Puppies wasn’t their observation that the Hugos don’t always celebrate the most popular stories in a given year or that not everyone agrees with the actual winners (see also: the Oscars, the Emmys, the Clarke, the Man Booker, literally every other major award since the dawn of time and continuing forever, amen), but their rageful, entitled certainty that they alone knew what was Worthy. And because of this, we now have a major schism in SFF, as distinct from all the other, smaller schisms that invariably make up any complex whole: those who share in joyful celebration of the winners, and those who chant actual Nazi slogans outside convention centres.

Personally, I know which side I’d rather be on.

(PS: the Hugo Losers party had a chocolate fountain.)

The post Trash & Treasure: Foz Meadows on Worldcon 76 (a Recap) appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

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New video by Penguin Books UK on YouTube

Poet Hera Lindsay Bird reads ‘Ways of Making Love’ from her poetry collection
Powerful young poet Hera Lindsay Bird explores the power, clumsiness, charm and absurdity of attraction in Ways of Making Love. Get the book at https://ift.tt/2N4803I For more LGBTQ writing, visit https://ift.tt/2wyz4xF and follow #PrideBookClub. FULL TEXT Like a metal detector detecting another metal detector. Like two lonely scholars in the dark clefts of the Cyrillic alphabet. Like an ancient star slowly getting sucked into a black hole. So hard we break international sporting legislation, leaving the conveners of the Olympics with a serious logistical challenge. You are a denim tree and I’m the world’s fastest autumn. I am the Atlantic Fortress, and you are General Sherman taking me from behind. You stride up the cold stone steps of parliament, waving a petition to orgasm. A lip of cloud brushes the roof of the barn. The pale trees curve around the eye and back into the brain. It’s like watching porn through a kaleidoscope. or a slow wind in a kite factory. It’s like dogs trying to do it people style, but failing due to the inflexibility of their anatomical structure. A cloud of bats float slowly up into your brain rafters. You roll down my stockings, like the sun peeling ocean from a soviet globe. I want you in the red shade of a mammoth in the Natural History Museum. In a seventeenth century field, tilling the earth like flesh tractors. In the airlock of a space station, my heart shaking like an epileptic star. Between the plastic sheets of a lobotomy table because writing poetry about having sex with someone when you could be having sex with them instead is the last refuge of the stupid. It’s like getting three wishes and wishing for less wishes. It’s like inventing a flag the exact same colour as the sky. It’s like crying over spilled milk before it’s out of the cow. It’s like breaking into a field at dawn with a flamethrower and fireballing the cow so you can get your crying over and done with and immediately begin adjusting to your new milkless existence. But loving you isn’t really like killing cattle no matter what poetry wants you to believe. The day is a vault the sun has cracked open money flying everywhere like really expensive leaves and here I am begging you to come back as if you were already gone ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Penguin channel: https://ift.tt/2ygTzig Follow us here: Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/penguinukbooks Website | https://ift.tt/xNmtGX Instagram | https://ift.tt/2ygyyo2 Facebook | https://ift.tt/2wmBKky

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New video by Penguin Books UK on YouTube

Poet Jay Bernard performs ‘Screwface’
Ted Hughes Award-winning poet Jay Bernard performs their poem ‘Screwface’ at #PenguinPride Live in Brighton. For more LGBTQ writing, visit https://ift.tt/2wyz4xF and follow #PrideBookClub. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Penguin channel: https://ift.tt/2ygTzig Follow us here: Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/penguinukbooks Website | https://ift.tt/xNmtGX Instagram | https://ift.tt/2ygyyo2 Facebook | https://ift.tt/2wmBKky

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New video by Penguin Books UK on YouTube

Poet Jay Bernard performs ‘Bras’
Ted Hughes Award-winning poet Jay Bernard performs their poem ‘Bras’ at #PenguinPride Live in Brighton. In ‘Bras’, Jay Bernard plays with the softness of the vocabulary around breasts and lingerie, and the tension of growing up gender-non-conforming with a female body. For more LGBTQ writing, visit https://ift.tt/2wyz4xF and follow #PrideBookClub. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Penguin channel: https://ift.tt/2ygTzig Follow us here: Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/penguinukbooks Website | https://ift.tt/xNmtGX Instagram | https://ift.tt/2ygyyo2 Facebook | https://ift.tt/2wmBKky

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New video by Penguin Books UK on YouTube

Writer Hilton Als on how he got his name, from ‘White Girls’
Writer and critic Hilton Als reads from ‘White Girls’, his book of essays covering everything from queerness and Brooklyn to fashion and Michael Jackson. In this clip, Als tells the story of how he got his name, and the weight he carries of lives lost and potential unfulfilled. Get the book at https://ift.tt/2N36ezG For more LGBTQ writing, visit https://ift.tt/2wyz4xF and follow #PrideBookClub. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Penguin channel: https://ift.tt/2ygTzig Follow us here: Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/penguinukbooks Website | https://ift.tt/xNmtGX Instagram | https://ift.tt/2ygyyo2 Facebook | https://ift.tt/2wmBKky

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“Quiet outrage, humble love” – Sea Prayer by Khalid Hosseini

Sometimes less is more. Khalid Hosseini's fourth book, Sea Prayer, barely runs to forty pages, functions as more of a collaboration between the author and Dan Williams, the artist who produced the covers of Hosseini's earlier books, can be read in about thirty minutes if you were that way inclined - but has, all the same, a power that stops you in your tracks.

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“Quiet outrage, humble love” – Sea Prayer by Khalid Hosseini

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The Creators of 'Saga' Recommend Books for Their Fans

Earlier this year, the co-creators of the hugely popular comic book series Saga
announced that they'd be going on hiatus until at least 2019.

During the last six years, writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Fiona Staples have created 54 issues of the epic space opera about a young couple on the run.

But Saga fans shouldn't worry: Volume #9 (which includes issues 49 to 54) will be published in October—and Vaughan and Staples are offering these reading recommendations to tide you over until they return.

"Fiona and I are very grateful to readers for their passionate response to the end of Saga’s ninth volume and for supporting our upcoming extended 'intermission,'" says Vaughan. "While you’re waiting for Hazel to return (we promise, her story’s just begun), here are a few of our recommended reads to help keep you company…"

Brian K. Vaughan's Book Recommendations

Ice Cream Man Vol. 1: Rainbow Sprinkles

by W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo, and Chris O'Halloran

"I’ve literally never read anything like this 'genre-defying' sorta-anthology thing, but it’s f---ing awesome. The writing is strange and deeply unsettling, and the artwork is gorgeous. The new comic I most look forward to reading each month."

The Stars My Destination

by Alfred Bester

"I read this 1955 classic after a Saga reader recommended it. Wise, hilarious, scary, genuinely subversive, and feels like it was written tomorrow."

Sleepless, Vol. 1

by Sarah Vaughn and Leila del Duca

"The most romantic comic out there. So good. One of those stories you fall right inside of."

Sabrina

by Nick Drnaso

"It was hard to track down a physical copy of this after it was nominated for the Man Booker prize, but absolutely worth the effort. This is the best standalone graphic novel of and about this decade."

Maestros, Vol. 1

by Steve Skroce

"This ingeniously filthy 21st-century fantasy, written and drawn by the legendary Steve Skroce, makes Saga look tame. Full disclosure: Steve is the co-creator of our graphic novel We Stand on Guard, but I think that book’s aged pretty damn well, so I don’t mind shamelessly plug-within-a-plugging it here."

Fiona Staples' Book Recommendations

The Gravediggers Union, Vol. 1

by Wes Craig and Toby Cypress

"The art in this zombie comic makes it feel like a nutty ’60s cartoon. So fun!"

The Last Wish

by Andrzej Sapkowski

"The first collection of short stories featuring Geralt of Rivia, of The Witcher video game series. I didn't know what to do with myself after I finished The Witcher 3, so I dove into the dark and funny source material."

Grass Kings, Vol. 1

by Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins

"This comic is penciled and inked by Tyler Jenkins, and Hilary Jenkins lovingly hand-paints each page with watercolors. A beautiful, dreamy prairie mystery."

The Buried Giant

by Kazuo Ishiguro

"This novel follows an elderly couple who realize their village is suffering from collective amnesia and decide to go questing for their nearly forgotten son. Graceful and bittersweet fantasy."

Vinegar Teeth #1

by Damon Gentry, Troy Nixey, and Guy Major

"Detective Artie Buckle’s new partner is a super weird tentacled alien, drawn with lots of gooiness. This is an awesome monster comic packed with jokes and fascinating background details."

Do you have reading recommendations for graphic novel fans? Share your suggestions in the comments!

Check out more recent blogs:

The Ultimate Fall Reading List for YA Book Fans

7 Great Books Hitting Shelves This Week

The Big Books of Fall

posted by Cybil on August, 27

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Wednesday, 29 August 2018

#9: Crew (Crew Series Book 1)

Crew (Crew Series Book 1)
Tijan (Author)

(21)

Buy new: £3.11

(Visit the Bestsellers in Romance list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.)

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Taxonomy of story, or, why murder?

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Mal Peet - Mr Godley's Phantom - Book Review - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books (David Fickling)

It's 1945 and Martin Heath, like many men at that time, is struggling to settle, to find his place again after the horrors of war. When an old comrade sends him a letter, telling of a position that's just come up with an elderly fellow called Mr Godley in the deepest and loneliest part of Devon. Martin travels there and so begins a dark mystery...

David Fickling Books proudly presents new fiction for adults. The first title to be published in October 2018 will be the last book ever finished by Mal Peet. The author sadly passed away in 2015 and is sorely missed by Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books. However, his memory continues through this marvellous book "Mr Godley's Phantom". It truly highlights his amazing and brilliant storytelling skills.

This book has to be one of my favourite reads of the year and one I hope will get new readers to appreciate the other seven books that have already been published. He started to write his first novel at the age of 52 and produced some of the best books for teenagers. Like this book, he slowly sucks you into the narrative distilling a dark supernatural feeling that you have no idea where it will take you or leave you. The simplicity of the plot is laced with a mysterious edge comprising of part ghost/part crime novel and something slightly more seductive.

The story harks back to the 1940's, just after the war. Mal Peet manages to effectively write a story very evocative of this time period. He really gets the emotions and dark feelings across in this story. You can almost feel the emotions of the characters who captivate you the more you get to know them, but you don't really know them.

It's a very intelligent story which hangs in the realms of reality. It has a sharp and snappy no-nonsense dialogue. You WILL definitely turn the pages quickly which, in this case, will be at the speed of a fast Rolls Royce car. You'll journey comfortably across the Devon landscape before being led into a thrilling, but unsettling, ending that will make you truly squirm inside. This is a deep psychological look into two characters with traumatic previous lives.

This book is one of the best atmospheric stories that I've read - it will come back to haunt you again and again. It is a truly brilliant book attributed to a truly brilliant man. Mal Peet.

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Review: Magic Triumphs - Ilona Andrews

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“Measured and balanced” – 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

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“Measured and balanced” – 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

"The lessons have been drawn from essays previously published in the media which the author has collated and reworked to provide a concise and readable study of global problems man faces today alongside those he should be preparing for. There is little new or surprising, rather it enables the reader to focus without the usual partisan bluster..." - Jackie Law reviews 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

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Tuesday, 28 August 2018

The Ultimate Fall Reading List for YA Book Fans

It’s time to cozy up with a new season of favorites, YA readers! From contemporary standalones that promise all the feels to fantastical finales guaranteed to cause book hangovers, there’s something for every well-versed fan of the genre to enjoy.

So how did we create this list of young adult must-reads? We took a look at the top titles publishing between September and December. This was measured by how many times a book has been added to Goodreads members' shelves. From there, we narrowed down our list to only include books that were rated at least four stars by early reviewers. If you're curious about how to read and rate prepublished books, check out our book giveaways.

Which of these fall gems will you be adding to your Want to Read shelf? Share them with us in the comments!

Contemporary