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Book Riot - The Podcast
The It Books of March 2025
00:44:38
Jeff and Rebecca get ready for Spring with March's It Book Knockout Round.
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- [00:01]
Jeff O'Neill
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Rebecca Schinsky
Um, I think I just won my taxes.
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Bob the Drag Queen
Yeah, I just switched to H and R Block in about one minute.
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Rebecca Schinsky
All I had to do was drag and drop last year's return into H and R Block and bam. My information is automatically there so I don't have to go digging around for.
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Jeff O'Neill
All my old papers to switch.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Nope.
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Bob the Drag Queen
Sounds like we just leveled up our tax game.
- [00:50]
Jeff O'Neill
Switching to H and R Block is easy, just drag and drop your last return. It's better with block. This is the Book Riot podcast. I'm Jeff O'Neill. I'm Rebecca Schinsky and it's time for the IT Books of March 2025. Been a slow start to the year. Rebecca. I think we can be honest here. I don't think we need to. It has been belabor the point. We haven't had a lot of, you know, we've read some stuff that we've liked. There's been some good releases, but we haven't had outside of Onyx Storm a AAA kind of a title even. Even amongst our set. We haven't had a AAA book podcast. Sort of multi quadrant hit here really in the offing. I think with March we get some interesting stuff happening.
- [01:40]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yes, March is when it starts to.
- [01:42]
Jeff O'Neill
Heat up for sure a little bit here. So if this is your first time joining us, I picked 10 books coming out in March. I give them to Rebecca one by one. She either spits it out or lets it continue into the next round. The goal here is to put the book of the month and we define that as having multiple things that could make it the book that matters the most. So in the case of Onyx Storm, clearly sales and zeitgeist that will do it. In the case of something like James, it's literary ness where he is and everything else going on. Usually literaryness is not enough by itself, nor is sales by itself, nor is name recognition enough by itself. It has to have a little bit of all those things going on at the same time, or at the very least have more need more of those things than whoever it's up against.
- [02:27]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yes, usually one of the Four Bells is not enough on its own to get you to book. You've got to read ring two or three or ideally four.
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Jeff O'Neill
Yeah. And I think the. We got a couple of like, platonic ideals, even though we didn't necessarily pick them, because I think we. I think we shunted all fours. But in hindsight, all fours. James, that's kind of.
- [02:49]
Rebecca Schinsky
You're not going to Heaven and earth grocery store. That kind of vibe.
- [02:51]
Jeff O'Neill
That's right. All right, so I've got 10. I'm going to start off here with Harriet Tubman live and in concert by Bob the Drag Queen. If my edelweiss would load properly, I could tell you all the strangeness that goes into this. It's a knockout. Got a star review from Publishers Weekly. So Bob the Drag Queen won RuPaul's Drag Race Dragon Drag. Drag Race is on. Traders, host of HBO's We're Here. And this is about Harriet Tubman, but she has come back Bill and Ted style into the. Into the present, I think, and a couple other enslaved people come along with her. And then she also wants to turn this in. She saw Hamilton or something and wants to turn this into a live show and an album, gets involved with a hip hop producer. And that's where we go from here. I have no idea what this reading experience is going to be like. 240 pages. You'll love to see it. March 25 out from Gallery Books. Up first with the automatically go. But is there anything you want to say before we move on to.
- [04:02]
Rebecca Schinsky
I mean, this is an incredible title. First of all, this is an incredible pitch and it's one of those things that if I had not already read ravery reviews of it, I would be saying it's either going to be amazing or terrible. It doesn't feel like there's much middle ground for a book like this. My expectations are high. I've. I know a couple folks who've already read it who have raved about it. Super looking forward to this. A really fun. Yeah, a fun twist on a way to explore these kinds of issues in literary fiction and make them entertaining.
- [04:35]
Jeff O'Neill
You know, it also is the case where I think probably for me, of the books I'm going to mention, this is the one that I am most interested in seeing what the reading experience is going to be like. I'm not sure. I'm not sure what my expectations are, but you could give me 10 different versions of the first 10 pages and I would believe any of them at this point. I really wouldn't know what were to go with them. Okay, so Harriet Tubman Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen moves on automatically, I should say, did I mess with the order this month? Yes, I did. Okay, I will admit that to everyone here. God, I saved all my links. And here we go.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Up next, while you're finding your right link, if you're messing with the order, if you're new to this, friends, it's because sometimes there is a title that, like, if it might run the table, we don't want it to be the first or second book that we mentioned. And then it just knocks everything else out. For the whole show.
- [05:32]
Jeff O'Neill
I had two at the end. And I don't, I think there's a chance that something else goes, but I'm not sure. But that's what I did. Okay, up next, stag Dance from Torrey peters coming out March 11th. March 11th is a big day for new releases. Also, my birthday can be a great day. My, my Tuesday walk to Powell's is going to be amazing Tuesday morning. Really.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Also the day that I get into Portland to hang out with you for a few days before our event at Powell's. So you're going to have a great March 11th.
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Jeff O'Neill
So, like I'm saying, I'm really looking forward to Tuesday morning. It's going to be fantastic. It's really going to be something special for me. I'm just kidding. So this is one novel and three stories. Her follow up to Detransition, Baby, Did I get my pronouns right?
- [06:12]
Rebecca Schinsky
Rebecca, do you know, I'm not sure about that.
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Jeff O'Neill
Okay, I'm gonna double check. Yes, I did. Thank you very much, Edelweiss. So the novel, that's the title novel, Stag Dance, a group of restless lumberjacks. Do you think Kevin Wilson's with them? Do you think he's a character in this, working on an illegal winter logging outfit? Plan a dance and some of them will volunteer to attend as women.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Interesting.
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Jeff O'Neill
That's going to be interesting. And then there's another story called the A party week in Las Vegas Strip on the Las Vegas Strip turns dark when a young crossroad must choose between two guides, a handsome mystery man or a cynical veteran trans woman offering unglamorous sisterhood. So clearly these are going to be stories that are around on either side of moving between gender lines and identifies and identifications. I don't really I think it's interesting that we get a novel in two stories. I don't know why we're doing this. It's 304 pages.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah.
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Jeff O'Neill
I. You don't see this. This is very unusual as a packaging proposition.
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Rebecca Schinsky
It is very. It is very unusual. And I. I would love to know. Yeah. Why that decision? Why not just put out the novel and then is Peters working on a short story collection? The other two could go in. I don't know. This sounds really great. I am going to pass Harriet Tubman live in concert through to the next round because mainly reasons of pattern. That detransition baby was so big.
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Jeff O'Neill
Regression to the mean.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Right. The reasonable expectation is that the next thing after a book that big will not be that big. And I think the packaging of a novel and two stories can work against you with a typical reader who's like, what is this? Like, that's. It's. Selling short stories is hard. And this is not just a short story collection, but like a novel and two short stories. What am I getting? I don't know. So I think it's going to do quite well. This has been on all of the, you know, most anticipated books of the year lists. Wouldn't be surprised to see Torrey Peters repeat her appearance on some awards nominations. Who knows, like, we'll probably be seeing this again at the end of the year, but for it book purposes, it's going to be Harriet Tubman live in concert.
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Jeff O'Neill
We have some let's be careful out there comps. The inventive audacity of George Saunders or Jennifer.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Oh, boy.
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Jeff O'Neill
I don't imagine vicious comps. I think you need two books out. I think you do this for the third book.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Maybe George Saunders especially is like such a master of a very particular thing. If I'm an author and someone like my publicist comes and says, we're going to comp you to George Saunders, I would be like, please don't be very.
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Jeff O'Neill
Very gentle with me, though. I think from the. What you're getting in the actual object, it could be a lot of short stories. Like, what is Candy House again? Is that a novel?
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Rebecca Schinsky
Right.
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Jeff O'Neill
It's not a collection of short stories.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Linked short stories or something?
- [09:10]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, maybe. Yeah. It's. It's a text object of some kind and maybe that gives us some sense of the loose. There's more of a affiliation between what's going to be in this book than just we're putting some stuff in there.
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Rebecca Schinsky
How about that stag dance? A text object.
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Jeff O'Neill
A text object. Yep, that's right. That's right. I think we can do that. Up next, talk about. This is another person that I don't think there's A big adaptation, though. I think it's just a matter of time. Stephen Graham Jones's new book, the Buffalo Hunter Hunter, comes out March 18th from Saga Press. That's SNS Press. 448 pages. It's a diary form set in the early 20th century. A Lutheran pastern is discovered inside a wall. Oh, and yeah, we kind of begin from there. Transcribed interviews and other kinds of text documents. It's an Indian revenge story written by a master of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Little tougher.
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Jeff O'Neill
Tougher, huh? I think that's right. I think that's tougher.
- [10:22]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah. Horror is really big right now. Stephen Graham Jones is beloved among a pretty sizable set of horror readers. But there's also, like, a real resistance to horror from another set of literary readers who just kind of can't go there or are more squeamish. I think the potential audience for Harriet Tubman Live in Concert, like a multi genre situation like that is wider and that's just splashy. Stephen Graham Jones is really well known for doing what he does, but I don't think, like, there's a new Stephen Graham Jones almost every year.
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Jeff O'Neill
There's a lot of them. I've heard more about this one, but you're right, there's a lot.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah. So there's. I think there's more headline potential coming out of Harriet Tubman Live in Concert, so I'm going to carry Bob the Drag Queen through to at least one more round.
- [11:10]
Jeff O'Neill
Up next is Wild Dark shore by Charlotte McConaughey. I guess we're in our Australian women living away from the things of man era, because this is kind of related to that. A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washes ashore. There's a storm. Oh, no. What are we gonna do?
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Rebecca Schinsky
Like, when I talked about Stone Yard Devotional on the podcast, I said it was by Charlotte McConaughey first. I was like, nope.
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Jeff O'Neill
Wait, that's right.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Other one.
- [11:37]
Jeff O'Neill
Yep. It's not Scandinavian noir. It's Australian ladies out on the sheep ranch doing some adjusting out there. So if you don't know, have had big hits in Once There Were wolves and migrations. 250,000 copy print run from Flat Iron that comes out in two weeks on March 4th.
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Rebecca Schinsky
I was just reading about this, and it's a family that are, like, living near Antarctica and caring for a seed bank. And then a woman washes ashore as one does. Yeah, I mean, I'm so deeply into this and name is huge. And I should be applying the same rules of, like, she had a really big hit with migrations and so can she sustain it. But we've been hearing about this one.
- [12:28]
Jeff O'Neill
And this will sell more than Buffalo Hunter X Hunter. It just will.
- [12:31]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah. And I think it will sell more than Bob the Drag Queen. And there's book club selection potential.
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Jeff O'Neill
Yeah.
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Rebecca Schinsky
For a book like this. Yeah. And she's McConaughey's, like, consistently concerned with climate in a literary fiction sort of way. That's really, you know, in the reading water right now. I'm gonna go with Wild Dark Shore.
- [12:52]
Jeff O'Neill
Okay. I think that makes sense. I think I read Migrations. I cannot remember. I feel like I did.
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Rebecca Schinsky
I did.
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Jeff O'Neill
Or Once There Were Wolves. Did I read Once There Were Wolves? I need to look up the synopsis to see. Nope, didn't read that one. That's about returning wolves to the wilderness. I would remember that. Anyway, I need to check one of those out. Okay, let's do a. Let's do a couple more. We'll do a sponsor break.
- [13:19]
Rebecca Schinsky
This episode is sponsored by Ambush by Colleen Coble. Stick around after the show to hear an excerpt from the audiobook provided by our sponsors at Thomas Nelson. Colleen Coble's ambush, narrated by Karen Peeks, is suspense perfectly balanced with closed door romance. The intricacies of a wild animal sanctuary, sabotage, secrets someone is willing to keep hidden, and the resurrection of first love make this a compelling story you won't want to miss. It's the first book in the riveting Sanctuary series from USA Today best selling author Colleen Coble, where a young woman will do anything to uncover the truth of her parents murder, even work alongside the man who once broke her heart. Perfect for fans of Alison Brennan and Danny Petrie, Ambush will be available wherever you get your books and audiobooks. On fourth.
- [14:10]
Jeff O'Neill
This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. During tax season, your personal info travels to a lot of places between payroll, your tax consultant and the IRS. If your W2 gets exposed, that's just the ticket for identity thieves. That's why Lifelock monitors millions of data points every second. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed. Or your money back. Don't let identity thieves take you for a ride. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com podcast terms apply. I had no idea what to do with this. I wasn't sure I couldn't need to hide this. I could have left it off. So I guess it makes sense to put right smack dab in the middle, which is everything is tuberculosis by John green. Coming out March 18th from his own crash course Books, which is a sub imprint at Random House, I believe. I don't have it in front of me here. The Anthropocene reviewed did quite well. John Green has moved from writing YA into what do we want to call this?
- [15:13]
Rebecca Schinsky
He's a.
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Jeff O'Neill
What is this genre? What is this?
- [15:18]
Rebecca Schinsky
It's the 10 for you, 2 for me era. Like, he has made. So he's had so many big hits and made so much money, sold so many books. He can write about whatever he wants now. I think John Green is pursuing his idiosyncratic interests.
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Jeff O'Neill
Like, he really wants people to know things that are important to him. Yeah, like, and I deeply, deeply identify with that.
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Rebecca Schinsky
I should say totally. Yeah. He wants to like, hold your hand and guide you down the rabbit hole that he has just gone down and found to be fascinating.
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Jeff O'Neill
It's like it's own. It's like green splaining. We like need a new term for it. Like Green. Like, it's. It's warm and it's engaging and it's in the spirit in the right place. But I find myself completely immune to whatever the charms of this particular era. You think I'd like to read a book about turkey books? I'm like, I don't know.
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Rebecca Schinsky
The thing is, I want to read a book about tuberculosis by like a tuberculosis expert or Siddhartha Mukherjee's book about tuberculosis. And I don't know if this is fair because I didn't read the Anthropocene reviewed. I haven't read John Green, like, maybe since the Fault in Our Stars. But my mental model of John Green is like, make everything a little zany, make everything a little, like, cute and catchy. And I don't need that in my nonfiction. I'll read your nerdy book anyway. I think there's an audience for this. But John Green probably could more easily get folks onto like a big broad story or big broad book. Like the Anthropocene reviewed more than a book with the word tuberculosis on the COVID I just think this is a hard sell. I think it's a tough sell. If anybody can do it, it's probably him.
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Jeff O'Neill
But it's structured around this kid that he met in 2019 who had tuberculosis, who had tuberculosis in Sierra alone. Got to know him, telling this kid's story, but then using, not using it, building a larger history sense of what tuberculosis is, does how important and deadly it is, but also treatable. I think that's the other thing. I've seen a little bit of Green stuff about this. I don't doubt I mean, he honestly cares about it. He really is educated himself. But I think it's, you know, it reminds me a little bit of almost like an Dave Eggers mode of like. Yeah, it was. I don't want a good comp or something like that where. I don't know, I'll be curious to see 208 pages, so it's not a big lift. I wonder who's picking this up. Are the Nerdfighteria picking this up still? They've aged into their mid-20s and maybe a little bit older by now. It's. Yeah, a Mukherjee is an interesting example or. Yeah, an Ed Yong or like, that makes more sense. But this is gonna be more narrative. It's gonna be more personal.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah.
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Jeff O'Neill
There's something to the non expert telling you the story. I. So I put it here. I don't know what you wanted. I leave it to you. I leave this dead mouse that I picked up in Stone Yard devotional to you.
- [18:09]
Rebecca Schinsky
I might be taking us the total wrong direction, but I'm not that interested in, like, zany YouTube tutorials turned into books, and I feel like this could go that direction. And Charlotte. Not Charlotte. Yeah, Charlotte McConaughey.
- [18:24]
Jeff O'Neill
Charlotte.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Now I'm gonna second guess myself about who wrote Wild Dark Shore and who wrote Stonyard Devotional. It's my new Tom Robbins. Tom Wolfe. We're gonna keep Wild Dark Shore going here.
- [18:37]
Jeff O'Neill
Okay, let's do a quick sponsor break. Layla Lalami is in a really interesting spot in her career, has been shortlisted for the Pulitzer, shortlisted for the National Book Award. It's kind of like. Yeah, I mean, if you know, you know, a wonderful, wonderful writer. And this new book sounds really interesting. March 4 from Pantheon called the Dream Hotel. I think her first foray into kind of a speculative fiction environment. She gets pulled out of line at LAX because this. This new administration's. The raa, the Risk Assessment Administration, says you're about to commit a crime. Right. So kind of a Minority Report vibe. So literary thought, crime. Leilani is as good a writer as you're going to find. I am just personally, I think the book I'm most looking forward to this month, so I'm horribly biased for it. The Moore's Account won the American Book Award. The Arab, I mean, like, she's won all of these. Been up there. She's like, just ready. Like, just ready to, like, break out.
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Rebecca Schinsky
This is perfect. It. Bookiness, like literary genre, excellent writing. It's a topic that's going to resonate right now. Lalami has a profile. It could sell. It could win awards. It could get picked for a book club. Hard to beat that. Yeah, she's going to knock out Wild Dark Shore.
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Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, it's. I mean, Chain King All Stars was also a Pantheon pick, but it feels very kind of of a piece of like literary. Not, I mean, satire for sure, but also dark. I can see an adaptation of this. Like, I just saw that Severance is now more washed than Ted Lasso. I like Severance a lot. I'm not sure it's about anything, honestly. People can say it's about corporations and work. Like, I don't know. I think it was a cool idea and it looks great. This is about something. I think this is about something in a real way.
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Rebecca Schinsky
They either know what Severance is about and no one can agree in the press around it because none of the people affiliated with it have given similar answers, or it's just like a fun mystery box. A really well told mystery box that has some twists and turns and Christopher Walken and John Turturro. Like, I have no complaints.
- [21:01]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, I love Shortage.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah. But this the dream hotel. I think you're right that it sounds like it could be a great adaptation. And it is about something. And when you can get a book that is about something and make it interesting and tie it up in a couple genres, this could go all kinds of places. So.
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Jeff O'Neill
All kinds.
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Rebecca Schinsky
We're gonna ride on with Leila Lalami.
- [21:19]
Jeff O'Neill
I. I didn't get my ducks in a row. I really wanted to talk to her about this, maybe when it's in paperback or something. And I. Anyway, I'm pissed at myself. Let's see, by the time this comes out. No, this book will not be out yet. I think I said on a previous frontless foyer that I just had my world literally and figuratively rocked by tilt. By Emma Petit March 25 From Mary Su Rucci Books. This is the story of a woman who is nearing. She's getting ready to have a baby. 36 weeks. 30. It's like towards the end. Not. It's like, not any day now, but we're getting close to any day now. She's getting ready. She and her husband have been living a sort of artistically oriented life into their mid-30s, and it's just never really panned out. And they're coming to terms with we're going to live a. Let's call it a normal life. You know, fame and fortune and stardom. Doesn't look like they're in their cards. Or if they are, it's vanishing Vanishing quickly. And other concerns are going to take whatever energy we need in the form of this new human. And I think all those pressures are on her when she has a bit of a heated exchange with an IKEA employee. And then the big one hits Portland. The big earthquake that we have long been. Not long been, but has been, you know, warned us about. Kathryn Schultz's big New Yorker article a few years ago. Lives rent free in my head. As the kids would say.
- [22:46]
Rebecca Schinsky
Don't love that for you.
- [22:47]
Jeff O'Neill
It's honestly that and just straight up dying are the things I try not to think about the most. Those two things.
- [22:52]
Rebecca Schinsky
So you're like you put your eyes pop open at 3am and it's just the big one.
- [22:57]
Jeff O'Neill
It's like did, did anyone feel that? It's either a heart attack or the big one. Neither are good news.
- [23:02]
Rebecca Schinsky
You don't want either of those to be.
- [23:05]
Jeff O'Neill
I just don't want anything to move ever again. Head in a jar. No ripples. No ripples.
- [23:12]
Rebecca Schinsky
The Jeff O'Neill story.
- [23:14]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, I want, I want, I want no ripples. 240 pages reads. You can read it in one sitting. The big one hits and she needs to make her way across Portland. So it's got a little bit of the road in it though. Fewer zombies and not quite as bleak. It happens over the course of a day. I talked to her. It's already in the can. My interview with her for First Edition that will come out that week. But we talk about like the main character walks by my house as part of it. Like it's wild. And she was very careful. Like there's a map, you know, it's a line drawing map of this area of Portland in the book and you can sort of follow this person downtown and where they go and all back. There's two scenes here that I kind of wish I didn't know about in my head.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Moving. Terrifying to guess. Yeah.
- [24:01]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah. It's a. I mean it got a huge advance. This one I got tipped for by someone in the business saying I think this is, this is the real deal. Check it out. I think it could be. I stopped trying to predict what's going to be a big deal. But there's a world in which people read this. I mean they're everyone who reads books in Portland and Seattle and San Francisco because it's right here. But it's really good. It's a really. It. It's not fun but like it's compelling. Like a disaster thing is. But it's about something and just really well Measured. I was really impressed, as you can tell by my furrowed brow.
- [24:39]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah, I'm super excited to read this. I have an 11 hour flight next week where I'm gonna look at.
- [24:45]
Jeff O'Neill
It'll take 90 minutes of it.
- [24:46]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah. But like a handful of things that I can plow through and you know, and really enjoy and I think Tilt is gonna be on the list. This sounds great. And like you busted out verbal exclamation points for a book and that doesn't happen that often. So I take that seriously. I don't know that it's got much of a shot to compete against Laila Lalami. I don't want to go up against Laila Lalami. So we're gonna carry the Dream Hotel forward. But I think that Tilt could do like, maybe it does get a big book club selection. It will be a big, I think it absolutely could, word of mouth recommendation kind of vibe. I think there's a lot of potential for it there. And you're not the only person I'm hearing Tilt buzz about. So yeah, yeah, we'll go forward with Laila Lalami. But I'm stoked for Tilt too.
- [25:36]
Jeff O'Neill
Up next, the river has roots by Amal Elmho Tar. Her first standalone novel. Do I have this right? I'm looking now. Yeah. Because she co wrote this is how you lose the time war, which was anointed by one. This is just true. I'm not making this up. But biggest on Twitter, a trigun anime influencer. What still feels like something out of a George Saunders short story.
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Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah. What a gift that we. I get to hear. You have to say, Bigelow, that's congratulations to you.
- [26:15]
Jeff O'Neill
So it's 144 pages. So it's knocking on novella.
- [26:19]
Rebecca Schinsky
Slight.
- [26:20]
Jeff O'Neill
It's kind of in there. Two sisters. It's a sister story, but they have to take care of a river on the edge of like this like fairy wood or something in this town called Thistleford. So it sounds more like. I was expecting more sci fi. This sounds pretty heavy. Fantasy.
- [26:39]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah.
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Jeff O'Neill
But strange, like weird fantasy, which I tend to like. I have no idea what this is experience is going to be like because this is how you lose the time War is a singular strange and cool reading experience. Like it's about these immortal robot assassins that fall in love across space and time. That's. That's also a thing I just said right now. And that's true. It's very cool. And also in a social short. So these in like sci fi and fantasy have more of a history of like the, the novella as form than literary fiction. Certainly commercial fiction. This. Yeah, I guess this and Harriet Tubman are like, I don't know what my reading experience is going to be and I'm kind of excited to open the mystery box and see what pops out.
- [27:18]
Rebecca Schinsky
Love to be surprised. What's the hardcover price for this one? Is it on?
- [27:22]
Jeff O'Neill
Great question. It's gonna make us mad. $24.99.
- [27:26]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah. Okay. $24.99 for a 144 page book is a tough sell. And you're right that the fantasy and sci fi spaces have more like big readers of those genres are more familiar with novellas and that like that kind of thing. They tend to be a little more open to it. But the general reading public, a 144 page novella for 25 bucks is like, that's, that's a tough sell, especially in this economy. This sounds great. I'm looking forward to reading it. I don't think it can, you know, stand in the ring against Layla Lalami.
- [28:02]
Jeff O'Neill
200,000 print run for Tor.com do you.
- [28:07]
Rebecca Schinsky
Think it's going to have a blurb on it from Bigelas Dickolis.
- [28:13]
Jeff O'Neill
Praise for previous work? No, it won't. I think the kind of. I mean again, once you are blurb susceptible in a bookstore, seeing that on there might be off putting because you don't know who that is. That's true. It's not gonna be too weird.
- [28:28]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah. And you said 200,000 copies, is that right? Yeah, yeah, that's. I mean, that's great. And I also am a little bit worried about it because how many people bought this Is how youw Lose the Time War when it was having that moment that he maybe didn't finish it. How many people read it and even.
- [28:48]
Jeff O'Neill
Know the book is going to be exactly right?
- [28:50]
Rebecca Schinsky
How many people know right? So like I. I'm a little concerned that the publisher might have learned the wrong lesson from having a viral moment.
- [28:58]
Jeff O'Neill
Okay, now we're to the two that I held in abeyance.
- [29:02]
Rebecca Schinsky
Okay.
- [29:03]
Jeff O'Neill
This one, I flipped. I flipped a coin between them for the, the stinger spot at the end. So read nothing into the placement here. All right. From Suzanne Collins, Scholastic Press, March 18th. Sunrise on the Reaping. The fifth book in the Hunger Games series, but the second prequel. And if you've lost track, join the club. This happens after the other one. The songbird of salads and steak. Salads and snakes. That's what it was. Salads and steaks. I'm getting the weird owl. Weird owl. Land here.
- [29:33]
Rebecca Schinsky
Oh, my God. That's an album I want.
- [29:35]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, right. This one is. Here's this pitch. This is Haymitch. This is Haymitch's Hunger Games when he was in the Hunger Games, played by Woody Allison. What am I. I'm late, Ms. Woody Harrelson.
- [29:49]
Rebecca Schinsky
We've done a lot of podcasting this week.
- [29:50]
Jeff O'Neill
We've done a lot. We've done a lot. I'm running out of juice here because it's 1254 and it's my bedtime, because.
- [29:56]
Rebecca Schinsky
I'm an old man, it's lunchtime.
- [29:59]
Jeff O'Neill
But Haymitch, it's his. So I don't think you need a pitch other than Haymitch Abernathy's Hunger Games.
- [30:06]
Rebecca Schinsky
It'll sell and people will get excited about the adaptation. And that's kind of all I have to say about it. I don't know that it rings any of the other it book.
- [30:17]
Jeff O'Neill
Well, here, let me make the case for it. I am not ignored. I like the Hunger Games series. I have not done any non original book stuff. I haven't done the. And I don't know that I'll read this either, but I badly underestimated Songbirds and Snake as a book and as a movie. People still care about this. I think the dystopian vibes, for reasons that I think should be obvious to everyone, are especially resonant right now. She has been a steward of her own franchises extremely well. These have not turned out to be afterthoughts. These are, you know, in line. Would I like to see the thing. Proceed. Do I care about a prequel? Not anymore. I got burned by a Phantom Menace when I was a young man, before I knew y'all were out here in the world. So I. I don't like this. This is not my jam. But this is going to do well. They're going to make a movie. This is put a. We should do this for Patreon. Let's do a power ranking of the extant franchises right now.
- [31:16]
Rebecca Schinsky
Okay.
- [31:17]
Jeff O'Neill
Because I think this one is. This is a live Wire, Rebecca. And I don't think we can pick Dream Hotel over sunrise at 3.
- [31:24]
Rebecca Schinsky
Really?
- [31:26]
Jeff O'Neill
This is going to sell a million copies? It's what? It's a new installment of One of the five grand franchises exist. But it's going to read 60,000 copies. No one you know is going to read Dream Hotel.
- [31:38]
Rebecca Schinsky
No one I know is going to read this either.
- [31:41]
Jeff O'Neill
No, you are going to know them. They're going to be next to you in the grocery store. They're Going to be parked next to you.
- [31:48]
Rebecca Schinsky
I maybe. I mean I know that Songbirds and Snakes sold. And I also was really surprised by it because I felt like I never saw it in the wild. Like where were those books being read? I mean, you're right. It's going to sell more than any other book this month and people are.
- [32:04]
Jeff O'Neill
Gonna care about it. Hey, Mitch Abernathy. People know the main character's name.
- [32:08]
Rebecca Schinsky
We need to do something about installments of big series like this as they relate to it bookiness. Because part of it bookiness is also like literary quality. Could it be an award winner? Is it gonna be on an end of year best of list?
- [32:25]
Jeff O'Neill
This could be like notables.
- [32:28]
Rebecca Schinsky
That's true. I hate this. But fine.
- [32:33]
Jeff O'Neill
I mean I. I sympathize with the. I think every year is different for a franchise or an author. You an every year author. It's hard to do this because frankly a book that we care about as much as we want to do, it's hard. It takes longer than a year to do.
- [32:48]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah, yeah.
- [32:49]
Jeff O'Neill
But there aren't enough of these. This is every few years. You're going to get every few years right now Suzanne Collins, she's smart about it. We. We may just have to see that once every 36 cycles. And it book crown is going to go to Suzanne. I mean, until proven otherwise.
- [33:06]
Rebecca Schinsky
You veto me like once a year and this can be your 2025 veto. That's fine.
- [33:10]
Jeff O'Neill
Well, I mean we're let. We can hold. Maybe we don't have to decide. We can do quantum states for Dream Hotel and Sunrise of the Reaping because we still have one more to go.
- [33:18]
Rebecca Schinsky
Schrodinger's it.
- [33:19]
Jeff O'Neill
And you know what's. You know what's left because you're doing it.
- [33:22]
Rebecca Schinsky
We're going to Talk by Karen Russell.
- [33:24]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, by Karen Russell. I so I'm very excited. Pulitzer finest. She's one of MacArthur swamplandia vampires in Lemon Grove. You know, if you know Karen Russell, you know already it's been a long time since we got a novel which is interesting. It has where in the people who where in. So let's say we got all the 20,000 literary fiction readers together in one room. We just got him. We're at Javits together and there are two doors presented to them. One is galleys for the antidote and one is galleys for the Dream Hotel. Oh, which room has a longer queue.
- [34:06]
Rebecca Schinsky
Today? I think it's the Dream Hotel. Lalami's name.
- [34:11]
Jeff O'Neill
What if I was going to say what if it's just their name and you know nothing about the book, it's just Karen Russell Lalami.
- [34:18]
Rebecca Schinsky
And it doesn't say like, author of Swamplandia. Author of. It just.
- [34:22]
Jeff O'Neill
Yep. Doesn't say anything.
- [34:24]
Rebecca Schinsky
If it's just their names, I think we get Karen Russell. If you get the pitch for the whole book.
- [34:29]
Jeff O'Neill
That's kind of what I think too.
- [34:31]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah, like the old editor's buzz panels that they used to do at BEA where they would have five big titles and the editors would talk about them and then there would be like the bull rush stampede to get galleys after and you could kind of pay attention to like which table had the line for the galleys and, you know, read the tea leaves that way. I think more people are glomming onto the description for the Dream Hotel. I think it might be close. Okay, go ahead.
- [34:59]
Jeff O'Neill
The phrase prairie witch is in the description.
- [35:03]
Rebecca Schinsky
That is a powerful phrase. It is a powerful phrase. Prairie Witch is very compelling. I might be biased as a middle aged lady who grew up in Kansas, but Prairie Witch sounds great to me.
- [35:15]
Jeff O'Neill
How about a feature on a power ranking witches by train? Because we've done. Didn't we do a swamp witch? Was that the.
- [35:20]
Rebecca Schinsky
We had. We had the bog witch earlier this year or. No Bog wife. It was bog wife.
- [35:25]
Jeff O'Neill
What was the one?
- [35:27]
Rebecca Schinsky
Oh, the Bonnie. Joe Campbell's novel last year had some swamp witches.
- [35:31]
Jeff O'Neill
Swamp bog, marsh witches. We got wetlands witches. We've got prairie witches, mesa witches, desert witches, mountain witches.
- [35:39]
Rebecca Schinsky
You need it. You need a desert witch. Yeah, a pond witch. You know, hollers have some witches.
- [35:49]
Jeff O'Neill
You mostly witches down there. As far as I can.
- [35:51]
Rebecca Schinsky
The bayou witch. You gotta have a Louisiana witch.
- [35:55]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, I definitely need to go witch. What about a. What about a fjord witch? Oh, fjord.
- [35:59]
Rebecca Schinsky
Fjord witches.
- [36:00]
Jeff O'Neill
Cul de sac.
- [36:01]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah. Not a parking lot. We're doing natural cul de sac witch.
- [36:04]
Jeff O'Neill
We were scared that out of us.
- [36:07]
Rebecca Schinsky
It's a story I'd like to hear later.
- [36:09]
Jeff O'Neill
We drive our big wheels down there and then make tracks.
- [36:12]
Rebecca Schinsky
I think we're gonna sit in Schrodinger's it book land for a second between Dream Hotel and Karen Russell. Because if the Karen Russell comes out with really great reviews, I think that has some momentum behind it. And Prairie witch is a powerful phrase. And she's doing some like, dystopian ish climate fiction ish stuff here. And Karen Russell is weird. And Karen Russell was weird before. It was like, cool in literary fiction to be weird. But how many literary fiction readers today know about that? Like, it's been a long time since Swamplandia. There are a lot of people who have aged into reading literary fiction with a genre twist who don't know from Karen Russell.
- [36:57]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah. Good. I mean, starred reviews everywhere that you get a starred review at this point from this. In terms of looking at them. The pitch for the Dream Hotel is so. It's clean as a bone and Karen Russell, you read the descriptions and it kind of feels like what if you had stir fry and cake and lollipops and your fondest high school memories.
- [37:19]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah.
- [37:19]
Jeff O'Neill
And like it was like. It's just. It's a harder. It's just way harder to pitch Karen Russell book.
- [37:23]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah. And my like to use my own axiom against me. Like, we should expect. Expect that any future Karen Russell's will not be as big as Swamplandia was.
- [37:32]
Jeff O'Neill
Right. And this doesn't feel like. Whereas the Dream Hotel feels a little bit like Dan Sinnikin talking about McCarthy or Morrison trying genre specific and breaking out because.
- [37:43]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah.
- [37:44]
Jeff O'Neill
That can rope in. I mean, Karen Russell's already. Whatever you called it. Weird fiction. Whatever you call it. There's already these elements where with. If you can pitch Leila Lami as like severance for people with MFAs. That's powerful. That's a powerful thing.
- [38:00]
Rebecca Schinsky
It is. Yeah, it is. I think we're gonna make the Dream Hotel the it book of the month.
- [38:05]
Jeff O'Neill
It book of the month with an.
- [38:06]
Rebecca Schinsky
Asterisk next to it.
- [38:08]
Jeff O'Neill
Because I'm not gonna argue. I made my pitch. It's okay. This is a format. We've done it. I would love to hear from readers. Not to say that Rebecca's wrong. Just like, what are we out to lunch on? I could be way overestimating the Hunger Games Q rating and what people are excited about this or Rebecca could be way underestimating. I could believe both or anywhere sort of in between. So give us your. We need a vibe from the Book Riot podcast listeners. Podcastookriot.com link in the shownotebookriot.com listen. If you're listening to this, you still have time to come see us at pals on March 13th. I was just looking at the calendar. Like, what's going to happen? Why am I releasing this episode? We're recording this in late February now. There'll be a link in the show notes to there, to our substack, to our Instagram, to the Patreon. All kinds of good stuff happening March, April, May, June. We're coming into the. We're coming into book season in a real way. I think probably the eight weeks between the first week of September and late October. Yeah, I think this March through June is really it for the year.
- [39:17]
Rebecca Schinsky
March through June and then fall starts on August 26 this year when RF Kwong starts new book comes out with katabasis. Sure, that's what we're going with right now.
- [39:28]
Jeff O'Neill
A whole Patreon episode of us trying to pronounce that book.
- [39:33]
Rebecca Schinsky
Actually, here's a request. If you actually do know how to speak, you know how we should say this?
- [39:38]
Jeff O'Neill
Don't email me.
- [39:39]
Rebecca Schinsky
No. Great.
- [39:43]
Jeff O'Neill
Because you know what always has worked for me by saying nod. Don't email us. It's a Streisand effect. From my email inbox. Rebecca.
- [39:52]
Rebecca Schinsky
Voice memo where someone pronounces it. I don't want to read phonetic pronunciation. Send us a voice memo to what as an attachment. Upload it. Email it. Yeah, email us a voice memo.
- [40:05]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah. Great. Because you know what Clint was just telling me I should be doing is opening and downloading files from people I don't know in my email.
- [40:15]
Rebecca Schinsky
Well, you know, we like to keep Clint's life interesting, give him a little something to worry about.
- [40:20]
Jeff O'Neill
I would like to keep my credit score as something in the triple digits.
- [40:25]
Rebecca Schinsky
Okay, fine. Keep your voice memos to yourself. Claim Jeff.
- [40:30]
Jeff O'Neill
We call them text memos. They're called words. Write them. Podcastright.com, rebecca. Talk to you later.
- [40:36]
Rebecca Schinsky
No ripples. Thanks so much for listening today. We hope you'll enjoy this excerpt from the audiobook edition of Ambush by Colleen Coble, Narrated by Karen Peeks. Available wherever you get audiobooks. On March 4, 2025, thanks to our sponsors at Thomas Nelson, what had possessed.
- [41:01]
Bob the Drag Queen
Her to agree to this crazy idea? Once Paradise Alden left Barnwell behind, turned east on 98 and entered the confines of Nova Cambridge, Alab. She breaked her green Kia soul and for the first time in 15 years, took in the moss draped trees lining the narrow streets. Home. She hadn't thought she would ever return to this place again. Once upon a time, she'd thought this corner of Baldwin county held everything her heart could desire. Until that hopeful place inside had exploded into a thousand pieces. Was she ready for this? She passed Tupelo Grove University, west of Foley, where her mother had worked a lifetime ago beyond the city limits. She left the memories behind for now and ran down her window to inhale the intoxicating scent of Weeks Bay in early January. The humidity lacked the fierce heat that would come in the summer, but the air held enough moisture to remind her the sound of a siren chased away her memories, and she instinctively let up on the accelerator. The speedometer hovered eight miles an hour above the speed limit. The bubblegum light atop the tan car behind her flashed and she pulled to the side of the street. Her window was still down, so she pasted on a smile and angled it at the officer who strolled to her door. His surly expression vanished. Howdy, miss. You have any idea how fast you were going? His deltoid and trapezius muscles bulged under his short sleeved shirt, and the rest of his body had the disproportionate appearance of someone who took steroids. The breeze ruffled his thinning brown hair, and his green eyes appraised her like a slab of steak. I forgot to turn on my cruise and I'm afraid I was speeding, Officer. He tapped his badge. Deputy Creed Green. He leered as he leaned on the top of the door, passing through. How about catching some coffee with me and I'll give you a lowdown on our nice town? What a lech. She'd met his type plenty of times over the years. County deputies in this area would be stationed at the Bon Secours substation, and some felt they could do whatever they wanted. A quick peek down the empty street let her know she was on her own. I'm starting work at the Sanctuary Wildlife Preserve. I'm the new vet. Paradise Alden. Her gaze dropped to his left hand. And it appears you're married, Deputy. I doubt your wife would appreciate your having a coffee date with me. His leer vanished and he straightened before he whipped out his paddle. Driver's license. She reached into her bag and pulled out her wallet, then passed over her license without comment. He walked to the back of her car and glanced at her plate, then got in his car. Paradise tapped her fingers on top of the steering wheel as she waited for her ticket. The tin pot dictator behind her was likely to stretch out the time as long as possible. The unfortunate truth was he was the law and she wouldn't have much recourse for a complaint. Twenty minutes later, he returned and handed her the copy of the ticket. Slow down, Ms. Alden. I'll be watching you. He held on to his side of the ticket longer than necessary before he finally released it. The ominous glare he gave her tightened her chest. Great. She'd made a formidable enemy on her first day back in the area. I'll be careful. She stuffed the ticket in her bag, then waited until he went back to his car before pulling back onto the road to finish her journey. Her pulse accelerated as she turned at the sign to the sanctuary. The drive to the cluster of buildings next to the big parking lot wound through cypress trees interspersed with pawpaw, catalpa, and black gum. The undulating fields had vegetation and grasses for the African herds roaming that area, and she caught glimpses, sources of water as well. The serene appearance soothed her fears. Maybe it would be okay. She glanced down at the angry red scars on her left arm and shuddered at the realization of what awaited her. She parked in the lot and grabbed her bag. She glanced up into the giant oak tree, reaching moss draped limbs out over the roof of her car. No big cats up there. She shut her door and turned toward the people. Time to face Blake Lawson, the man who had destroyed her life. Her employment email instructed her to proceed past the ticket booth and the gift shop to a small building tucked under another oak tree and its accompanying moss. The low slung building appeared to have had a new coat of green paint, and through the window she spotted Blake and his mother, Jenna Anderson. While paradise stood unobserved, she let her gaze roam over Blake. In the past fifteen years, he'd grown bulkier muscles and a couple of inches, but she would have recognized him anywhere. That shock of dark brown hair that stood out from his head like a plume had been tamed only with a shortcut. She'd heard he used to be a combat paramedic before the death of his stepfather, Hank Anderson, the town vet she'd worked for as a teenager. After the accident, Blake had managed to get discharged from the Marines to come help his mother at the wildlife refuge. Jenna had two small sons now, too, and from what Jenna had told her, his little brothers had played a part in the decision, too. Paradise hadn't talked to Blake directly, and she suspected he wouldn't be any happier to see her than she was to see him. She clocked the moment he noticed her by the stiffening of his shoulders and the way his smile fell away from his tanned face. Those blue eyes raked over her and his mouth flattened as she stepped through the door into the open space that held two desks, a dilapidated sofa, and a small table and chairs for lunch breaks. The muscle in Blake's jaw flexed. Paradise. He'd had no idea she was coming. Hello, Blake.