A Diverse Reading List For The Holidays: Because Representation Matters. We’ve Gathered Some Of Our

whhhhhhhaaaaatttttt!!

I have no idea how this is going to turn out, but I am sUPER EXCITED FOR IT

Neil Patrick Harris To Star In Netflix’s A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS

This is just to say that there’s a number of ways Rowling could’ve made her Magical North America work without causing real harm to a lot of real people. That would be for her to have treated American peoples — all of us — with the same respect that she did European. Pretty sure she would never have dreamt of reducing all of Europe’s cultures to “European wizarding tradition”; instead she created Durmstrang and Beauxbatons and so on to capture the unique flavor of each of those cultures. It would’ve taken some work for her to research Navajo stories and pick (or request) some elements from that tradition that weren’t stereotypical or sacred — and then for her to do it again with the Paiutes and again with the Iroquois and so on. But that is work she should’ve done — for the sake of her readers who live those traditions, if not for her own edification as a writer. And how much more delightful could Magic in North America have been if she’d put an ancient, still-thriving Macchu Picchu magic school alongside a brash, newer New York school? How much richer could her history have been if she’d mentioned the ruins of a “lost” school at Cahokia, full of dangerous magical artifacts and the signs of mysterious, hasty abandonment? Or a New Orleanian school founded by Marie Laveau, that practiced real vodoun and was open/known to the locals as a temple — and in the old days as a safe place to plan slave rebellions, a la Congo Square? Or what if she’d mentioned that ancient Death Eater-ish wizards deliberately destroyed the magical school of Hawai’i — but native Hawai’ians are rebuilding it now as Liliuokalani Institute, better than before and open to all?

N. K. Jemisin

http://nkjemisin.com/2016/03/it-couldve-been-great/#sthash.YYqbnjzj.dpuf

(via absintheabsence)

On a Chris Haughton kick today. Cannot wait for his new book, Goodnight Everyone,  in the fall. <3

Chris Haughton’s beautiful storybook Shh! We Have A Plan was recently transformed into a live theatre production by Cahoots NI. We were lucky enough to make the backdrop animations, including these little fellows.

YAAAAAASSSS! Well Read Black Girl is awesome. Check out this great interview and get with it. <3 Also Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

The Biggest Problem in Publishing? The Invisibility of Black Women Writers

And how #WellReadBlackGirl is changing the game.

MC: What do you hope people will get from following WRBG?

GE: Whenever I read a book that speaks to me, I immediately want to tell the world about it. Every post [on Instagram] is about a writer I admire, a book I’ve read, or a title I’m adding to my “To Be Read” pile. When people use the hashtag #WellReadBlackGirl, it suddenly transforms the solitary experience of reading into a social activity.  

People are constantly looking for diverse reading recommendations. I spend a lot of time finding compelling content produced by Black women: new book releases, essays, poetry, culture writing, etc. I want WRBG to give these extraordinary writers a voice and introduce them to new audiences. Publishers need to fully acknowledge the role Black women play in literary culture. We’re creators, as well as consumers. We deserve that recognition.

Okay y’all, Melissa here and we have something extremely important to discuss today.  I just finished reading the third book in the Winner’s Curse trilogy, so let me give you the spoiler-free lowdown on...

The Winner’s Kiss

First off, I’ll just say that I hate the title.  Like, YES there is considerably more kissing in this book than in Crime (LOLLLLL ‘cause there was none in Crime), but kissing wasn’t the point of this finale??? I personally think that The Winner’s CROWN would have been a much better title (also would have kept the “C” trend.  It’s actually perfect. ugh no one consults me.)

BUT I will TOTALLY take a dumb title over the AWFUL NEW COVERS they were proposing! For those of you who somehow missed that whole debacle, Macmillan announced back in November that they were going to do a complete overhaul of the covers.  Before the series was even finished.  After releasing the original cover for the new book (as seen above).  COMPLETE MAYHEM ENSUED.

UGH. I physically cannot look at them.  The best part, though, is that... Don’t these covers look familiar? Hmmmm... Like, super familiar.

WAIT. I KNOW.

Look at that.  It’s uncanny.  And so unfortunate.  ‘Cause unlike Celaena of Throne of Glass, Kestral is not an assassin. IN FACT she can barely throw a knife. No, Kestral uses her wit and smarts to tear you down.  As soon as you show any weakness, she will destroy you with her words and war tactics.  She’s very Sherlockian at times.  So these new covers make no sense.

But this rant has a happy ending!  Macmillan heard our cries! They listened!  Over Christmas they announced that they were throwing out the new covers and going back to the originals.  Which is HUGE.  I have been lamenting various cover changes since the dawn of time and no one has ever listened. It is so heart-warming.

Anyway, the point of all of that is that I would take a title like The Winner’s Poop Bucket if it meant I didn’t have to look at those covers on my book shelf.  REJOICE.

So let me get back to my thoughts on the actual content of the final book, haha.

The Winner’s Kiss (foreal this time)

Ugh, guys, it was SO. GOOD.  You will not be disappointed in this last installment.  I will admit that I had been extremely hesitant about starting this book because I just couldn’t see how everything would be resolved in a way that I wanted.

First, the ending of Crime was BRUTAL. Like tear my heart out, throw it on the ground, and jump on it repeatedly brutal.  Let’s just recap the ending real quick (if you don’t want to be spoiled because FOR WHATEVER REASON you haven’t read Crime, don’t read):

Kestral gets shipped off to a prison camp in the north

Arin sails away for his home in Heran

They both said some pretty gross things to each other beforehand

My babies, come back! Love each other! 

So how was Kiss going to fix everything?!  Even if Arin and Kestral somehow made their way back to one another, how could they reconcile all the things that were said??? Needless to say, I was emotionally distraught before I even started this book.

BUT WORRY NOT. Marie is badass, and she throws some completely unexpected twists at you from the very beginning. And, between you and me, she COMPLETELY makes up for the lack of kissing in Crime.  And then some. (I’m wiggling my eyebrows right now).  Girlfriend totally got my back.

And, some might say more importantly, she wraps up the major conflict with the emperor of Valoria in a way that I greatly enjoyed, but didn’t guess at all.  You go, Marie.  Like, I had a couple guesses for how everything would end, but even when I only had 50 pages left to read, I still had no idea.  So HOLLER.

The Winner’s Kiss is definitely worth the wait and all of the drama over covers.  Honestly, I’m going to go back and read it again ‘cause I sort of inhaled it this time around lolllll

The book doesn’t actually come out for another month (March 29), but GUYS IT’S SO WORTH IT. Just hold out a bit longer!  And then come back here and discuss it with me, obvs.

Peace, Melissa

Hi all. I’m JoAnn and, at the tender age of 30, hold the position of Crone in The Book Wenches. I split my work life between managing the operations of the bookstore and being a massage therapist. I split my personal life with reading, gaming, various crafting, and pounding back movies/shows/anime.

I have fairly eclectic reading tastes, but my go-to comfort zone is genre fiction (sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, horror, and romance). I also read a bunch of YA and graphic novels.

I’m a giant nerd so that is my wheelhouse and probably going to be really evident in the bulk of my posts.

Hello from your friendly neighborhood Book Wench!

Since I’m the first of us slackers to actually post something on here, I figured I’d go ahead and introduce myself and our blog and what we’re about!

So, About Us:

The Book Wenches are a collective of fantastic booksellers, former coworkers, and eternal friends Alia, Claire, Jo Ann, Marita, Melissa, and Tori. Life has drawn several of us away from our beloved bookstore to distant and varied lands of the book industry. Thus out of a desire to keep in touch and to keep each other updated on the books we love, this blog was created!

While you will certainly encounter a wide range of genres, age levels, and interests here, we are all deeply invested in reading and promoting diversity in literature and are huge fans and supporters our faves @weneeddiversebooks.

We’ll be here to talk with you about what we’re reading–what’s new, what’s classic, what’s yet to be…and what’s good.

About Me:

Oh hey, I’m Tori! I’m 25, biracial, and coming to you live from the coffee shop I work in when I’m not out peddling books.

I primarily read Young/New Adult, but you can also expect a good deal of Middle Grade, some picture books, and occasionally an adult book or two (my attention span isn’t really capable of handling anything over 300 pages). The vast majority of what I read is Fantasy and Science Fiction (I am a sucker for a good fairy tale retelling), with a little Romance thrown in. I’m also a big fan of comics and graphic novels.

My favorite book of all time is The Two Princesses of Bamarre. The best book I read this year was Welcome to Night Vale (@welcometonightvalebook). The book I’m most excited about in 2016 is Catherine Egan’s Julia Vanishes (seriously guys, it is so good–I plan to read it at least twice more before it comes out in June)

Let's be friends

Hello!

I’m Claire. I am 25, still shelving away at the bookstore, and hopefully a librarian someday. A little about me: My favorite things in the whole wide world are reading, movies, popcorn, tiny towns on Lake Erie, music, art and making art, and British panel shows. And also my fellow booksellers. I will love them forever.

I tend to be a bit of a reading odd-ball. I adore children’s books, especially middle-grade, picture books, and YA. And pretty much in that order. I read a possibly unhealthy amount of romance novels, fair number of graphic novels, the occasional literary memoir, and fiction. I will probably post a lot about illustrators, book covers, and picture books. Because they are pretty much my favorite things about the book industry.

This year I am attempting to branch myself back out into grown-up people lit. Because, like Tori, I don’t usually have the attention span for an adult book that takes me longer than a week to read.

My favorite books of all time are the Queens Thief middle grade series by Megan Whalen Turner. I will probably be writing at least one entire post about my love for her and her books. I have a very strong belief that absolutely everyone needs to read her books. They are wonderful and hilarious and Eugenides is just the bomb-diggity and holy-crap Attolia and Eddis are badasses and I could go on and on. -> Like that sentence, WHAT!

I can’t wait to get started!

H! Alia here.

I’m holding an OMG-I’m-going-to-TRY-to-read-all-these-books-this-weekend reading party by myself for these books in time for the American Library Association (ALA) Youth Media Awards on Monday morning! These are just a few of the books being considered RIGHT NOW in secret meetings by the Newbery Committee…

Follow this link for a live webcast of the awards on Monday (8am) and info about every award up for grabs!  

These awards are where they announce the Newbery, Caldecott, Geisel, Pura Belpré, Printz, Sibert, Odyssey, Stonewall, Coretta Scott King, Schneider Awards and more…That’s a lot!! And I’m SO EXCITED for it.

Also, the ALA Midwinter Conference is underway in Boston. Ah a land of Book Talk, ARCs, F&Gs and cool people…

Teachers! Holding Mock Caldecotts and Mock Newberys are GREAT ways to get your kids excited about reading. Woo!

Yay for books! Yay for book awards!