You’re gonna have stories after 15 years in the biz

We’ve been in the business of books for 15 years. And, friends, we have some stories.

Members of the Book Riot team poured one out for the ideas that didn’t survive, cringed at old mistakes, fought the good fight in the comments section, celebrated some of our highest highs as staff, and so much more.

Did you know:

We once had dedicated sites for food writing and comics? We made an in-person apology to author Jennifer Weiner? We held live events attended by people from all over the world?

All true! Celebrate 15 years as an independent media company with us by hearing from the actual humans behind Book Riot. You can also find us talking about the biggest controversies we’ve witnessed. – SZW

ON AIR

AI is already everywhere in publishing

closeup of a robot's finger pressing a key on a laptop keyboard

We know. We’re tired of talking about AI, too. But this is the timeline we were given, and we’re not going to make things easy for the wannabe robot overlords.

Despite the publishing industry’s vested interest in protecting intellectual property and promoting the arts—and its ongoing litigation against Meta, Open AI, and Anthropic—corporate leaders are encouraging wider use of AI tools.

Employees at HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette told WIRED‘s Adam Morgan that they are using LLMs to “email literary agents, write publicity and back-cover copy, design cover art, and generate marketing materials, often at the direction of their executives.”

We’re not going to name names, but we read a LOT of book synopses and marketing copy, and we are 0% surprised by the AI claims.

The worst offenders are emoji-fied lists of tropes in place of actual descriptions of the book.

OTOH, it’s important to understand AI tools and be able to recognize their output so you don’t become the latest literary prize to award a story that appears to have been written by AI.

Hear our conversation about these issues, recent adaptation news, and more on the Book Riot Podcast.

THE STACK

Sports manga to get your heart racing

If you want to fly through a stack of books in one sitting, you can’t do much better than a sports manga series. The combination of illustration-heavy, text-light pages along with the fast pace and competition of a sports story makes it impossible to just read one volume. Here are three to get you started.

Haikyu!! by Haruichi Furudate

One of the most well-known sports manga series is Haikyu!! Shoyo Hinata is determined to be one of the best volleyball players, despite being shorter than most of his competitors. Specifically, he wants to beat Tobio Kageyama, the “King of the Court,” who humiliated him in a middle school game. But that’s made difficult when they become teammates in high school.

GalaXic Baseball League by Acky Bright*

This sci-fi sports manga series raises the stakes. Earth’s team faces expulsion from the GalaXic Baseball League, unless they can win the Survival Tournament. After years of being in last place, that seems unlikely—until the team’s new GM comes up with an innovative plan to recruit new talent.

Chihayafuru by Yuki Suetsugu

Sports manga isn’t limited to what you played in P.E. class. Chihayafuru is about a middle schooler who plays a competitive version of the Japanese card game karuta. She’s introduced to the game by a new transfer student, and the two grow closer as they play. It’s part sports manga, part shōjo manga, part poetry!

Looking for more? Check out 14 of the best sports manga.

*A message from our sponsor

MYSTERY/THRILLER

Some slightly spooky spiritualism

close of up two people holding hands on a table with a crystal ball between them at a seane

Every year in October, I line up all the witchy and ghosty books for a spooky season reading sprint. The genre and setting may vary along the spooky spectrum, but the flavor I’ve been reaching for this year is “mystery with a side of spiritualism.”

These books feature séances and tarot, where the mystery is solved with the help of the cards or some spectral assistance. Other times, the whodunit itself is to determine whether the person pulling the cards or summoning spirits is gifted or running a con.

If you like your spooky season reading lighter on the scare scale and more on the moody, vibey, mystery side of things, you’ve come to the right place.

Cards on the Table by Lana Harper and Jilly Gagnon – Two sisters descended from Bridget Bishop get a life-changing opportunity to do witchy work for a very wealthy widow. But when they arrive at the estate to start the gig, they’re embroiled in a murder mystery that someone is clearly trying to pin on them. A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers – In this Gothic murder mystery set in London, a woman who swindles the rich via séance has just been arrested for her latest con. Then a stranger appears with an offer she really can’t refuse: he’ll get her out of jail if she can use her particular set of skills to stage a haunting and prove his wife was murdered. But she may not have to stage the haunting after all… Hazardous Spirits by Anbara Salam – I read Anbara Salam’s The Salvage last year and immediately ran to her backlist, which is how I discovered this Gothic read. In 1920s Edinburgh, a woman’s husband has confessed to her that he can communicate with the dead. But when they get involved with a society of psychics and mediums, she begins to wonder if he’s a fraud or the real deal.

See the full list here. —VD

LADIES PLAY BALL, TOO

If it weren’t hard, everyone would do it

This year marked the first time in 70 years where women had a professional baseball league in the United States.

The Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL) launched its inaugural season in Springfield, Illinois–neutral ground for the four teams, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and New York–and fans flocked from across the nation to see their favorite women play ball.

I made the pilgrimage this summer, turning my 5-year-old into the most enthusiastic San Francisco Firebells fan imaginable. It was an incredible experience, and without question, one of the queerest spaces I’ve had the pleasure of being in (and yes, that includes Pride!). The players were phenomenal and incredibly diverse, representing the best of ball playing globally.

That got me thinking about books. What was the field looking like in the sport of sapphic baseball romances? Despite the history of women’s baseball and the popularity of A League of Their Own–both the 1992 original and the 2022 Netflix series–there is a noticeable lack of f/f baseball romances. (And no, softball isn’t baseball).

Playing for Keeps by Jennifer Dugan–This YA novel follows star baseball player June, who is on her way to a rich college ball career and nursing a bad injury and baseball ref Ivy, who dreams of officiating at the professional level. The first time they meet, Ivy tosses June from a game for grandstanding–but their start as enemies doesn’t last long. Soon, sparks are flying.

Heart of the Game by Rachel Spangler–Sarah’s passionate about baseball and when she becomes a full-time sports reporter, she’s thrilled. It’s at a game when Sarah meets Molly and finds an instant spark. The chemistry isn’t as quick for Molly, who worries Sarah may be more into baseball than a relationship–and that Sarah may abandon her like her ex.

The Change-Up by Syd Parker: Sawyer Evans is a college baseball coach and runs a training program for female athletes. She loves her life but is disappointed her baseball career ended when she finished college. Bellamy Carter is an accountant with a son, and for most of his life, it’s been just the two of them. But when Sawyer is in town on a scouting trip for Bellamy’s son, their lives may end up becoming more entangled–and romantic–than either could have imagined.

Where technically Spangler’s title isn’t about the ball players, and where a romance like Chris Paynter’s Two For The Show is about a lesbian ballplayer in the male leagues, it seems like there’s a lot of space here to take the popularity and passion behind the WPBL and grow the options for sapphic baseball romance. That’s not to touch on the fact that these romances don’t represent the diversity of the actual women playing baseball at any level–collegiate or professional.

The field is wide open, and there’s certainly an eager audience. – KJ

SWORDS & SPACESHIPS

Cozy fantasies for book goblins

Photo © Amanda Hackwith 2019

A. J. Hackwith is the author of Goblin Market, out tomorrow from Ace. Below, they recommend three goblin-cozy fantasy books.

I like a goblin kind of cozy. A cozy that is twigs in your hair and a chip in your favorite mug. That’s why I wrote a fantasy that explores the lore of the Goblin Market from the perspective of a goblin changeling named Toast. If all the cozy fantasy books had a house party, you’d find Goblin Market squatting on the back steps, befriending a feral tom cat and snacking on cherries to see how far we can shoot the pits. Goblin cozy is unpredictable, scrappy, often queer, and sometimes feral but anchored by a resilient heart. If that’s your kind of cozy, then I have some great recommendations for what to read after Goblin Market:

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune: Queer found families (for every definition of queer) are at the heart of a good cozy fantasy for me. You can’t ask for better than The House in the Cerulean Sea, with an orphanage for magical youth. The residents include an excitable blob that wants to be a bellhop when he grows up, a were-Pomeranian, and possibly the anti-Christ. But the heart of the house is their caretaker Arthur, and his growing relationship with Linus, the reluctant government worker who is supposed to decide their fates. Read this one with tea and a little treat.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna: If there’s one thing goblins love, it’s misfits and eccentric found family. Mandanna’s novel has both. If you’re looking for a cozy fantasy with plenty of witchery and colorful characters, the residents of Nowhere House are for you. Witch Mika is drawn there for the job of teaching three magical girls. Bonus: there’s a grumpy librarian, which automatically raises a star in my book.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers: There’s an essence to goblins that requires things to be just a little earthy—shabby around the edges, close to some good dirt, maybe a little wild. That’s why I’d argue Becky Chambers’s tale of a wandering tea monk and the curious robot he encounters on the road is an excellent goblin-cozy fantasy. Chamber’s novel is an excellent antidote for modern heartache, and best enjoyed somewhere green.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

John le Carré, born October 19, 1931

Did you know? le Carré appears several times as an extra in a party scene in the 2011 film version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

CRITICAL LINKING

You are now free to roam about the internet

a laptop computer with scattered headlines on its screen against a red background

Dig into the best recent crime & thrillers.

An audiobook could be the key to an EGOT for this legendary actress.

Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Klara and the Sun ain’t it.

One author is sending half a million books to support prison literacy programs.

A new series of travel books presents writers exploring the places they call home.

END NOTES

Written by Rebecca Schinsky, S. Zainab Williams, Danika Ellis, Kelly Jensen, Vanessa Diaz, and Jeff O’Neal. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.

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