Hi All. I’m JoAnn And, At The Tender Age Of 30, Hold The Position Of Crone In The Book Wenches. I Split

The War In Our Stars

Kylo Ren: It's a metaphor

Kylo Ren: you wear the scary breathing mask but you don't actually need it to breathe

Exciting news yesterday from Andrea Beaty, David Roberts and Abrams Kids! The newest book in the fabulous Rosie Revere, Engineer and Iggy Peck, Architect series has been revealed. :)  She’s ADA TWIST, SCIENTIST!

Woo Hoo! for science and Woo Hoo! for two African American kids! 

Hello!

So--me in a nutshell. I’m Marita. I’m 24 years old, I have a degree in biology that I’m going to do something with eventually, I’m fluent in French, I’m a vegetarian, and I ride a scooter. I love theater, traveling, music, and boating.

In terms of fiction, I gravitate towards science fiction and fantasy, especially in a modern-day setting. I love the books that make me feel like there’s still magic in the world, that the near future is full of limitless possibilities, and that I could walk out my front door on any given day and get swept up in an adventure.

I prefer to find weird, unrecognized books no one’s ever heard of as opposed to reading whatever’s getting a ton of attention at the moment. And yes, I know this makes me a huge hypocrite because I love telling other people what to read.

When it comes to nonfiction, I read my fair share of science writing--especially in the hard sciences--but I also like to read a lot of philosophy and theology because while science is an extremely powerful tool, there are a lot of big questions that it will never be able to answer.

My all-time favorite fiction books include John Dies at the End, Breakfast of Champions, Uprooted, Strangers and Sojourners, The Blue Castle, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Sandman, The Raw Shark Texts, Society of S, Good Omens, and Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.

Favorite non-fiction books include Guns, Germs, & Steel, A Beautiful Question, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Something Other Than God, The Violinist’s Thumb, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, Christianity for the Modern Pagan, and Lab Girl.

It would take a long time to list my all-time favorite YA books, but I’ll inhale anything by Scott Westerfeld, Neal Shusterman, Garth Nix, Holly Black, Marissa Meyer, Rosamund Hodge, and William Sleator.

The other book wenches already know this because I mention it at any given opportunity, but my favorite series of all time is Animorphs. If you need me to explain why it is a masterpiece of the English language, give me a few hours and I’ll set you straight.

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)

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.

Claire again. 

I finally got around to reading Bird & Diz written by Gary Golio and illustrated by Ed Young! 

And I have to say that I am amazed that this book didn’t win anything in the awards season this year! First of all, the illustrations are amazing. Ed Young’s use of color and motion with his mix of pastels, ink and water absolutely thrills me. You can feel the music of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie through Young’s illustrations. I felt like I was transported in among the lights and crowds of a stage watching Bird and Diz perform together. I have spent my morning listening to Bird and Diz at Carnegie Hall while I looked through the book again and again. 

Golio and Young were obviously well paired for this book. Golio’s text and use of words are so delightfully in-sync with Young’s illustrations. Golio epitomizes the rhythm and sound of the music while also showing the playful nature of the back and forth between Charlie “Bird” Parker and John “Dizzy” Gillespie. His text trips nimbly between poetry, beboppin’ onomatopoeia and prose. And the whole book illustrates so beautifully and joyously that “Bird and Diz are friends... who play together just like kids.” 

I absolutely love Bid & Diz. And I highly recommend that you go check it out at the library or get it from a bookstore. It will be worth your while!

bork bork

(psst, it tiles seamlessly)

Hey, friends! Tori here. I just wanted to gloat about this awesome haul I got at work this week, a glorious blend of paperbacks I've been lusting after and some advance reader's copies that I can't wait to dive into! Definitely top of the stack is gonna be The Land of 10,000 Madonnas by former bookseller and general awesome person Kate Hattemer. Here's what I get from the back of the cover: Prior to his death from a rare congenital heart condition, Jesse prepared a once-in-a-lifetime trip across Europe for his cousins, best friend, and girlfriend. We as readers get to join them on this excursion, as well as in their search for the answer to the question Jesse poses for them: Would you rather live a long, quiet life or a short, heroic one? This isn't my usual shtick; but I cracked it open just to get a feel for it, and before I knew it I'd read the prologue and the first two chapters. I'm definitely hooked, and can't wait to let you guys know about it and my other new treasures. Happy reading!

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