Welcome to the NPR Books tumblr, curated by Petra Mayer. Sit down and stay awhile!
Sword Stone Table is a new anthology of stories that present new takes on the legends of King Arthur from the points of view of marginalized authors – critc Liza Graham says “you’ll find a lot to like and, almost certainly, something to love” in its pages, “whether you’re seeking adventure, tragedy, self-discovery or just plain fun.” Check out her full review here.
– Petra
Anuk Arudpragasam revisits Sri Lanka’s civil war – the backdrop for his first novel, The Story of a Brief Marriage – in his new A Passage North. But this time, instead of examining lives in the midst of war, Arudpragasam is looking at how people survive in war’s aftermath. Critic Jenny Bhatt calls the book a “tender elegy” for lives lost – check out her full review here.
– Petra
Kristen Radtke began writing Seek You, her new book about loneliness, in 2016, when it wasn’t a subject people were talking a lot about – long before the pandemic imposed loneliness on all of us. Critic Gabino Iglesias says the book’s highest accomplishment is “telling everyone that they aren’t alone in their loneliness, and that could be the first step into ending the loneliness epidemic.” Check out his review here.
– Petra
Image by Deb Lee for NPR
YOU GUYS it’s the last day to vote in this year’s Summer Reader Poll! (TBH so many of you have voted already that my brain is kinda exploding at the thought of tabulating all of it, but hey, MOAR PLS.)
Tell us all about your five favorite SF/F books here – voting is open until 5pm EDT today!
– Petra
This month, our kids’ books columnist Juanita Giles recommends Cardboard Kingdom: Roar of the Beast by Chad Sell. It’s the story of a bunch of little kids just on the verge of being big, who hoard cardboard to make beast and monster costumes. But Juanita says it’s much more than that. “Roar of the Beast is a book that speaks to the difficulties of the little-kid to big-kid transition, especially the internal difficulties: Why do I feel sad and don’t know why? Why did this part of my personality suit my friends yesterday but not today?” Check out her full column here!
– Petra
Cover composite by Amna Ijaz/NPR
We’re trying something a little new this month (new to us, anyhow!) – a look ahead to some of the books we’re excited about in July – there’s a rainbow of fruit flavors! Everything from a graphic novel about loneliness to a reimagining of the legends of King Arthur – check out the preview here!
– Petra
Photo Illustration by Becky Harlan/NPR
This summer we’re doing a hella fun series of podcast crossovers between Pop Culture Happy Hour and Life Kit designed to introduce readers to genre fiction – and today’s episode makes me so happy because it’s ROMAAAANCE! Give your day the HEA it needs with this great conversation between some of my favorite bookworms: PCHH host Linda Holmes, Code Switch’s Karen Grigsby Bates, Unfriendly Black Hotties host and frequent PCHH guest Christina Tucker and romance author Adriana Herrera. Check it out here, and hear some great recommendations! (Nthing KGB’s recommendation of The Kiss Quotient, which is one of the all-time great contemporaries.)
– Petra
Carrie Vaughn is a veteran of the SF/F scene – and she brings her experiences to play in her new novel Questland, about murderous shenanigans at a high-tech, high fantasy theme park.
“Does the interplay between Arthurian legend and Monty Python make you weak at the knees?” asks critic Jason Heller. “Do the words ‘critical fail’ send you into a panic? If so, Vaughn’s book is a cornucopia of sly references, winking asides, and not-so-hidden meanings.” Check out his full review here!
– Petra
Illustration by Deb Lee for NPR. Photo credits: Mission Photo, Fonda Lee, Ainslie Coghill, Christina Orlando
It’s back it’s back it’s BAAAACK!!! Our famous Summer Reader Poll is live today – and I’m so excited for this year’s topic!
Ten years ago (before I came to NPR Books, imagine that) we polled readers on their favorite sci fi and fantasy. Now, that list has a few, uh, holes in it (I’m so sorry, Octavia Butler!) but not only that, there have been absolutely seismic changes in the field since 2011. So we thought it’d be the perfect time to find out about your favorite SF/F of the past decade – tell us all about it here!
And as you may know by now, our polls aren’t straight-up popularity contests – otherwise, I’m betting this year would be all N.K. Jemisin and nothing else. (Okay actually that would be pretty great.) Nevertheless! We always bring in a panel of expert judges who use your nominations to curate an out-of-this-world final list. And this year WHOOO my god have we got great judges! NPR critics, multiple award-winners and of course Book Concierge darlings: Amal El-Mohtar, Tochi Onyebuchi, Ann Leckie and Fonda Lee. (A not so secret secret about the summer poll: I do it every year partly so I can talk to authors I have giant fan crushes on …)
So here’s that link again – click here and vote for your favorite SF/F of the past decade! Voting will be open … until so many votes come in that I feel like counting them all will kill me.
Happy Summer Poll Day!
– Petra
The Natural Mother of the Child is Krys Malcolm Belc’s account of giving birth to a child as a non-binary parent, and how that experience helped clarify his thinking around his gender. Critic Britni de la Cretaz calls it a “necessary and long overdue” examination of transmasculine parenthood and the question of “Where do transgender and non-binary parents fit, especially in a world that is determined to force them into a box labeled ‘mother?’” Check out their full review here.
– Petra