All's fair in love and space operas.
The Thread's Must-Read
"Children of Blood and Bone" by Tomi Adeyemi
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Tomi Adeyemi is just getting started, I hope.
Her first novel, “Children of Blood and Bone,” hit shelves in March with rave reviews, and it’s been sitting on The New York Times best-seller list for four weeks. (It’s above “The Hate U Give” and “Turtles All the Way Down” — two other young adult powerhouses.)
On top of that, she sold the film rights to the novel before it even came out, in a seven-figure deal. Sometimes these flashy, big money book deals make me roll my eyes, but I’m thrilled about this one — I tore through her book in a weekend.
“Children of Bone” has been called both “Black Lives Matter-meets-fantasy world” and “‘Black Panther’ with magic.”
It’s a sprawling, gasping, vividly drawn novel that unfolds in a West African-inspired world. Though the land has a rich history of magic, all of that ended in a bloody revolution that severed peoples’ powers and brutally subjugated those once capable of magic. Now Zelie, whose mother was murdered in the chaos, has the chance to bring magic back.
Throw in runaway royalty, vicious power struggles and an unrelenting sense of danger, and “Children of Bone” is a blood rush. The book never flinches from death. The characters’ raw emotions draw from Adeyemi’s own perspective. In an article on NPR, Mallory Yu writes: “Tomi Adeyemi says to write about this fear she drew on her experience of being black in America in a time of high-profile police shootings of unarmed black men. One passage describing Zelie's panic was essentially a diary entry she wrote after the killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.”
For anyone wondering how fantasy channels the fears and conflicts of an age, “Children of Blood and Bone” delivers with fervor.
-Tracy Mumford
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Love (and music and glitter) saves the day "Space Opera" by Catherynne M. Valente
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In Catherynne M. Valente's new novel, a washed-up glitter punk musician has to save all humanity by singing in an intergalactic version of the Eurovision Song Contest. (Also, there are murderhippos.)
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An "exhausted" Martin Luther King Jr.'s final 31 hours "Redemption" by Joseph Rosenbloom
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A bomb threat, a march turned violent and a militant black power group all weighed heavily on the civil rights leader during his last speech in 1968, says "Redemption" author Joseph Rosenbloom.
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Poetry Friday: Take a (line) break To celebrate National Poetry Month, The Thread is showcasing three poems every Friday from local independent publishing houses.
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"Two Sisters" leave home for Syria, tearing a family apart "Two Sisters" by Åsne Seierstad
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Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad's new book is a heartbreaking but necessary account of two teenage sisters from a moderate Muslim family who fled to war-torn Syria after becoming radicalized.
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Sloane Crosley returns, elevating anecdotes with humor and feeling "Look Alive Out There" by Sloane Crosley
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Sloane Crosley returns to form with her first essay collection in eight years, covering everything from an escalating battle with her neighbor's hip but noisy children to mountain climbing in Ecuador.
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A stop-motion, shaggy dog masterpiece "The Chandelier" by Claire Lispector
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Brazilian modernist Clarice Lispector's second novel, written when she was 26, is an essentially story-free story, fragmentary and obsessed with the nature of thought — but it will carry you away.
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From B-Boys to X-Men: Alt-comics' Ed Piskor goes mainstream Cartoonist Ed Piskor is best known for his award-winning "Hip Hop Family Tree" series, and for working with alt-comics legend Harvey Pekar. So how did he get Marvel to give him a shot at the X-Men?
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Madeleine Albright warns: Don't let fascism go "unnoticed until it's too late" "Fascism: A Warning" by Madeleine Albright
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The former secretary of state describes President Trump as "the most anti-democratic leader that I have studied in American history."
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Meg Wolitzer asks the big questions "The Female Persuasion" by Meg Wolitzer
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At the start of Meg Wolitzer's new novel, a young woman is groped at a fraternity party -- and her question, "Why is it like this, and what are we supposed to do about it?" echoes through the book.
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Would you want to know the exact date of your death? "The Immortalists" by Chloe Benjamin
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Chloe Benjamin's novel "The Immortalists" follows four young siblings who meet with a traveling psychic. The psychic predicts the date of their deaths -- and that knowledge shapes every decision they make.
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Ousted commander aims to "Fight Like a Girl" against gender bias in Marines "Fight Like a Girl" by Kate Germano with Kelly Kennedy
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Kate Germano worked to hold female recruits to a higher bar. Then she was fired. In a new book, the retired officer talks about her efforts to improve training for women throughout the Marine Corps.
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