#epic win for the sunny community
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Spotlight on the Tour de France
Every summer virtually the entire cycling world turns its attention to one event. It’s the grandest of the Grand Tours. With nicknames like Le Grande Boucle (the big loop) and simply Le Tour (The Tour), it’s indicative how highly regarded the Tour de France is compared to other events on the cycling calendar. Even your next door neighbor, who hasn’t touched a bike since he was 10, knows about the big bike race in July and its coveted yellow jersey.
In fact, with the release of Netflix’s compelling new series “The Tour de France: Unchained,” your neighbor might want to meet on the front lawn to talk about the highly anticipated battle between two-time Tour winner Tadej Pogačar and 2022 defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, in what will be the 110th Tour de France.
This year’s Tour, with Le Grand Départ in Spain’s Basque Country on July 1, features a plethora of general classification hopefuls looking to join Pogačar and Vingegaard as leaders of a new generation of Tour superstars. As fans and participants of stage racing are aware, one day’s performance does not define a race. The Tour’s epic three weeks of racing allows ample time for a cycle of triumph, despair, disappointment and redemption. The 2022 Tour saw that cycle play out for Team Jumbo-Visma, making for an exciting and unexpected finish with Jonas Vingegaard wearing the yellow jersey on the final podium.
Tadej Pogačar looks to retake his throne and reestablish his reign as a dominating Tour figure after winning the 2020 and 2021 Tours. A three-peat seemed within his grasp through much of the 2022 campaign. However, an unrelenting Vingegaard, supported by green jersey winner Wout van Aert and the rest of his Jumbo-Visma teammates, snatched the yellow jersey away late. This marked the first time in more than half a century that the yellow jersey and green jersey adorned members of the same team at the end of the Tour.
Pre-Tour anticipation has been focused on the Vingegaard-Pogačar duel, but with stage 1 being what Velo calls “arguably the hardest opening stage the Tour de France peloton has ever faced on a Tour’s opening day,” new story lines could develop from day one.
And when rising American rider Matteo Jorgenson of Team Movistar makes a mark, the contribution of the time he took refuge in the Bikeflights van during a thunderstorm at Amateur Road Nationals several years ago cannot be discounted.
As a company of passionate cyclists, not to mention the Official Bicycle Shipping Service of the Tour de France, intra-office communications are abuzz with Le Tour excitement.
Customer Experience Manager Gordon Wadsworth feels the extra energy and excitement every year as July approaches, and imagines the effects it may have on him as a cyclist on his local roads.
“It’s so fun during the month of July that cycling gains this extra bit of cultural relevance here in the US. That makes me as a rider feel a bit special and maybe gives my legs that extra sparkle at every red light!” Gordon says.
Gordon also revels in simply spectating what he calls “the road racing discipline executed to its absolute pinnacle.”
International Customer Service Associate Ali Goulet echoes his appreciation for the opportunity to sit back and witness an extended display of the apex of bike racing.
“July is my favorite month for the simple fact that the Tour de France brings you bike racing all day almost every day!” Ali says.
Others, like Customer Support Associate Sunny Singh, find the exhibition of power, endurance, and determination awe-inspiring.
“After having participated in a few races of my own, I can't even imagine the level of athleticism required to complete the tour. It is such an extraordinary thing to witness!" Sunny says.
Like many of us, Sunny can’t help but compare the racers’ enormous efforts to his own July rides.
“I can't wait to see their Strava activity and compare it to my own effort on my road bike."
Bikeflights Vice President Sue George shares in the excitement for the racing, but also finds herself deeply appreciating the terrain and scenery as a cyclist.
“I love seeing all the beautiful places that the route takes the peloton,” she says.
But she won’t be appreciating the terrain and scenery from behind a screen this year.
“This year will be extra special because I’ll actually be riding my bike on a bike tour in France as the Tour is occurring. And while my route and this year’s Tour route won’t overlap, it will be fun to ride some passes that have been in Tours past and experience what it’s like to be in France as the Tour is happening.”
So whether you’re a Tour superfan hanging on every pedal stroke like a GC leader on a challenger’s wheel, or just looking for some inspiration to take that neighborhood climb a little faster, the Tour has something for every cyclist.
And if you get inspired to ship your bike to France to take on Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc like in stage 15 of this year’s Tour, or maybe you just want to talk about the grueling second week of the Tour as racers endure one Category 1 climb after another, ignoring every signal their bodies can throw at them to stop, and inducing physical pain in those of us just sitting on our couches watching, you know where to find us.
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The Ultimate Showdown
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/1yXBNVz
by Im_Always_Watching
Hello, listeners! Pick any franchise you could imagine, will you? Think of any character. Imagine that character, along with dozens upon dozens of others all trapped in a death game, not unlike that of the Hunger Games. Follow an enormous cast as they make their way through a catastrophe filled, climactic battle to the death. Alliances are formed and fractured, bonds are strengthened and shattered. In the end, there can be 5 winners maximum, and 5 alone. Who will win, and who will fall into their grim demise.
Words: 13695, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English
Fandoms: OMORI (Video Game), キミガシネ | Kimi ga Shine | Your Turn To Die (Visual Novel), Dangan Ronpa Series, Breaking Bad, Metal Gear, Phineas and Ferb, Deltarune (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game), Entry Point (Roblox), Left 4 Dead (Video Games), Hitman (Video Games), 逆転裁判 | Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney, Mickey Mouse (Cartoon 2013), Addams Family - All Media Types, Team Fortress 2, Five Nights at Freddy's, Gravity Falls, OFF (Game), Despicable Me (Movies), Hamilton - Miranda, Punch-Out!! (Video Games), Batman - All Media Types, Scooby Doo - All Media Types, Helluva Boss (Web Series), Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games), Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), The Little Mermaid (Disney Animated Movies), Death Note (Anime & Manga), Fairly OddParents, Megamind (2010), Scream (Movies), Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series - Jeff Kinney, PAYDAY (Video Games), Far Cry 3, Community (TV), Doom (Video Games), WordGirl (Cartoon), Matilda - Roald Dahl, The Good Place (TV), 寄生獣 | Kiseiju | Parasyte, Coraline (2009), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Adventure Time, Creepypasta - Fandom, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Family Guy (Cartoon), Regular Show (Cartoon), Kindergarten (Video Games 2017 2019), Ozark (TV), Home Alone (Movies), Total Drama (Cartoon), Free Guy (2021), Avatar: The Last Airbender, Other unnamed fandoms, Terminator (Movies), The Lion King (Movies 1994 1998 2004), Incredibles (Pixar Movies), The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Characters: Sunny (OMORI), Mari (OMORI), Original Hiyori Sou | Midori, Original Characters, Other Characters
Relationships: Everyone & Everyone
Additional Tags: The most epic murder game you will ever see, hunger games style, but wait, theres more, Plot Twists, Death, lots of death, Too many Characters to name
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/1yXBNVz
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Communication & Jealousy in Polyamory with Kate Loree - Ep 196
Having difficult conversations with one partner is hard enough. When consensual non-monogamy is part of the equation it can feel overwhelming. In this episode, therapist Kate Loree gives insight and actionable strategies for working through uncomfortable emotions in polyamory/CNM like jealousy, envy, insecurity, and feeling disempowered. She also provides valuable tips on identifying & managing triggers with our partners and metamours. Some of what we touch on:
Attachment injury
Triggers
Grounding techniques
Getting into your “resilient zone”
The EPIC communication model
Guest Bio – Kate Loree, LMFT
Kate Loree, LMFT, is a sex-positive licensed marriage and family therapist with a specialty in non-monogamous, kink, LGBTQ, and sex worker communities.
In addition to her master’s in marriage and family therapy, she also has an MBA and is a registered art therapist (ATR). She is an EDSE-certified sex educator and an EMDR-certified therapist with additional training in the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM) for the treatment of trauma. She has been practicing psychotherapy since 2003.
Kate is the author of Open Deeply: A Guide to Building Conscious, Compassionate Open Relationships (release date 4/19/22) and cohosts the sex-positive podcast of the same name, Open Deeply, with Sunny Megatron. She’s been featured in Buzzfeed videos, and has guested on Playboy Radio and many podcasts, including American Sex, Sluts and Scholars, and Sex Nerd Sandra. She’s written for Good Vibrations, Hollywood Magazine and is a frequent public speaker.
Episode 196 Helpful Links & Resources
Kate Loree Website: http://kateloree.com
Kate Loree Facebook http://facebook.com/kateloreelmft
Kate Loree Twitter http://twitter.com/kateloreelmft
Kate Loree Instagram http://instagram.com/opendeeplywithkateloree
Kate Loree YouTube https://www.youtube.com/kateloree
Open Deeply: A Guide to Building Conscious, Compassionate Open Relationships book https://www.amazon.com/dp/164742335X/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_ZHACQ8RJHMR2R9HGHBMY
Open Deeply Podcast http://opendeeplypodcast.com
Ken Melvoin-Berg's Thunderpants Academy Gaming Page
https://www.facebook.com/ThunderpantsAcademy
Ken Melvoin-Berg's Twitter https://twitter.com/ThunderpantsDM
Sunny’s Free Kink Negotiation & Scene Planning Mini-Workbook https://sunnymegatron.gumroad.com/l/negotiationwb
Zipper Magazine website https://zippermagazine.com/
Zipper Magazine Instagram https://www.instagram.com/zippermagdotcom/
Zipper Magazine Twitter https://twitter.com/ZipperMagDotcom
Zipper Magazine Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Zipper-Magazine-113123824749292
Zipper Magazine Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxFDRtDhukxyQ_9t-Xfo2-w
Sunny Megatron TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@sunnymegatron
American Sex Podcast Discord Community http://bit.ly/discordasp
American Sex Podcast Patreon http://patreon.com/americansex
Kink Academy Online BDSM Learning Library http://bit.ly/kinkacademy
Episode 196 Sponsor & Affiliate Discount Codes/Links
*by using our links & codes you can help support our work while saving a few bucks too—win/win!
30-day free trial of Dipsea Stories when you use code SUNNY at http://dipseastories.com/sunny
For 40% off unlimited access to Calm’s entire library go to http://CALM.COM/Sunny
Hot & Healthy Erotic Humiliation recorded class https://gum.co/humiliationclass
Prostate Play for Beginners (recorded class) from Sugar Baltimore https://www.sugartheshop.com/prostate-milking-for-beginners.html
Sunny & Ken’s classes on Kink Academy http://bit.ly/kinkacademyelectric& http://bit.ly/kinkacademyhumiliation
10% off American Sex Podcast & Sunny Megatron merch with code SUNNY (t-shirts, mugs, phone cases & more) http://bit.ly/sunnyshirts
10% off your order at Lovehoney when you use this link http://bit.ly/lovehoney15This link can be a little wonky and does not keep tracking cookies. If the discount does not show up in your cart (or disappears after you shop around on the site), access the site with that link again. Your items will still be in your cart & the discount will appear)
15% off everything at Lelo.com with code SUNNY
10% off everything (with minor restrictions) online from woman-owned, feminist, trans & queer-friendly Early To Bed http://bit.ly/sunnyetbwith code SUNNY
10% off everything from Fun Factory using this link http://bit.ly/sunnyfunfactoryand the code SUNNY at checkout
15% off most items from Stockroom https://bit.ly/sunnystockroom15with code SUNNY
_______________________________________________________________
–Submit your BDSM & sex advice questions by email to [email protected]
–To support American Sex podcast, please visit http://patreon.com/americansex (plus you’ll get all episodes early, secret episodes, bonus stories from guests, on-air shout-outs, stuff in the mail & more!)
–Get friendly with us on Twitter at @AmericanSexPod or visit sunnymegatron.com or americansexpodcast.com
–Join our mailing list by visiting http://sunnymegatron.com/newsletter
Check out our latest episode!
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My Arizona Road Trip-Panergy
This Video Will Inspire You To Plan Your Next Arizona Road Trip And Show You How To Travel Arizona Cheaply!
Our trip was so cheap because we camped and hiked the whole time.
All we really had to pay for was gas and some food.
Plus, we did most of our cooking at camp, so we saved even more money by not going out for each meal.
It was such an affordable, beautiful, and action-packed vacation.
What more do you need?
Our Arizona road trip included stops in Sedona, Prescott, a desert in Nowhere (actual name), and of course, The Grand Canyon!
Click below to watch the video to see how we did it!Below Are Some Resources So YOU Can Have An Incredible Arizona Road Trip On The Cheap Too!
1. Check out these 3 SUPER EASY car camping dinner ideas so you can save money by not eating at a restaurant every night.
2. Download my free cookbook with great low-cost breakfast ideas and recipes for camping and backpacking:
3. Things to do that don’t cost much:
Hike the local trails. For example, Sedona, AZ has some incredible hiking trails that are free to access and close to town.
Go antiquing in Prescott, AZ. I had so much fun just walking around the town square looking in all the antique shops.
Look up “swimming holes” in the areas you’re going. We found 2 natural places to swim for free in Arizona, which is so nice on a hot sunny day! And it was free. Winning!
Look for community yoga classes that are free or donation based. This is a great way to get to know the local community and try a new class. Bonus if you find one at a local park!
Find a beautiful camp spot and actually RELAX. Read that book, write in your journal, connect with friends and family - be fully present and enjoy your time in nature.
Spend the day exploring a state park or a national park. There’s usually a day fee, but you can spend the whole day there. The Grand Canyon is a very popular place to see in Arizona and it’s totally worth it!
My Road Trip + Camping Essentials
Note: The links below may contain affiliate links.
My favorite day pack for hiking/exploring
Hydroflask water bottle (save money by refilling this instead of buying water bottles)
Coleman Camp Stove (cheap and it works!)
Yeti Cooler
Nut butter packets for a quick snack on the go
Epic Buffalo Bars
Re-usable Bags for holding snacks
Big Agnes Copper Spur 3P tent
Exped MegaMat Sleeping Pad (more comfortable than my bed at home!)
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this guy listens to linkin park and has all of the mental illnesses
#persona#persona 3#my art#digital art#minato arisato#makoto yuki#im drawing again?#epic win for the sunny community
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The Mandalorian Chapter 15 rewatch thoughts
- mayfeld does hear when the droid talks to him the first time, you can see him pretending not to like he hopes he’ll just go away haha. I also guess he’s had a lot of time to think, picking apart pieces of the large fascist machine he used to be a part of and going over everything he clearly regrets
- hahaha fennec and boba are in the back intensely keeping watch the entire time they’re on the prison planet. I suppose a good two thirds of this crew is uuuuh extremely wanted by the new republic lol
- the thing din’s voice does at the end when he says “but you still know your imperial clearances and protocols. don’t you.” is beyond fucking words, it sends a chill right through me
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1) din fiddling with that panel; I think he’s phenomenally nervous behind the helmet here, that’s the sort of keeping his hands busy he does when he’s anxious and 2) why the hell does boba have this many chairs instead of like space for cargo haha does he throw bounty hunter parties in here or what
- ngl boba correctly guessing at a glance what sort of ore they’re mining and informing everyone in his sardonic deadpan voice is Big Sexy
I love how he and fennec are standing together when they’re both present in these opening scenes too, first at the very back when they’re keeping a lookout:
and then in the foreground while they discuss the scan
it’s a nice subtle way to get across that they already have a dynamic, they’re somewhat used to working together as a unit at this point. (she’s also looking over at him when she asks what they might be mining in there, like she’s mostly asking his opinion instead of opening it to the floor. they’re talking the mission out between them before din enters the conversation)
- the inside of slave 1 when the ship’s moving makes me a little bit motion sick, I really love seeing it but I hope we don’t stay in here too often haha
- aaaw the small weary sigh din gives upon realizing none of his bros can go with mayfeld. I’m sorry about basically your entire life buddy
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the awkward way din adjusts the helmet like he’s trying to get used to the way it feels ;______;
- ah the distinct implication that mayfeld is needling din about this because he’s actually feeling super uncomfortable being back in empire gear and he needs to transfer that discomfort over onto someone else so he won’t have to feel through it... very psychologically understandable and such a fucking piece of shit asshole character trait to give in to haha
- din’s level of side eye is so epic you can see it straight through the helmet fhaskjfhd
- neat detail: din’s head turns slightly toward mayfeld when he calls mandalorians a ‘race’. (it’s sort of cool that we as the audience know why that bothers him, but mayfeld probably didn’t even pick up on it). also shows that mayfeld doesn’t actually quite understand what he’s talking about, even when he makes decent points he’s caught up in his own myopic nihilistic point of view. ‘we’re all the same’ ------> ‘everyone’s secretly as shitty as me deep down’. (which also betrays a lot of self loathing, since we see later he does have the capacity to NOT be that shitty when he chooses to. rick famuyiwa manages to get a LOT of really interesting nuanced stuff into this character in two short episodes, that’s super impressive)
the bright sunny look on mayfeld’s face when din finally gives in and takes the bait tho fsajdkfhasj he’s awful but that’s very funny
- rip all these excellent dudes who really only wanted to accomplish the noble goal of ruining the empire’s entire day and didn’t know they were also trying to blow up My Dad Who Does Not Deserve Any Of This, it’s honestly just really sad that there’s no moment to talk that out
well at least they blew up the entire refinery on their way out, I’m sure that’s the way they would have wanted their memories honored lol
- the comedy beat of din running out of ammo for the first time ever and the music briefly cutting out for it is so so good for me
hahahaha din seems to actually take a moment to be a little aghast at that dude who ends up crushed under the treads of the tank thing, he’s just sort of staring for a few seconds too long and that’s how pirate nr 2 takes him by surprise and shatters his shoulder armour
- I feel a bit bad -- two of the ‘pirates’ try to hold on to each other for balance and then din punches them apart and off the tank :( I mean it’s not like he could just let them murderate him either but like. ouch I’m guessing this one might haunt him for a while for several reasons huh
(the sequence is actually this guy, let’s call him pirate 3, swings the spear at din and misses, instead hitting his buddy who’s trying to get to his feet, then looks horrified and grabs for him to make sure he doesn’t fall off, and then... mando’s forehead happens to them haha)
- poor fennec and cara just running up that hill while everything’s on fire, they must be wondering what the FUCK is going on (at least cara knows that things blowing up is a sure sign din djarin is in the middle there somewhere)
- everything about carano in real life aside for one second -- I do like that we get this contrast in build between our main female characters of the episode and the way their costume designs enhance it
- awwww the little gesture din does with his hand after he removes it from mayfeld’s chest after stopping him from leaving, it’s just so... sweet. it’s a little bit appeal, a little bit reassurance, it just lightens/softens the tone of what he says a bit (he has quite a lot of like... not conciliatory mannerisms exactly, but small touches here and there that are there to communicate that he’s not angry/aggressive or trying to be a dick about it even when he’s emphatic. I keep wondering how much that is just him being him and how much is him being practiced at settling other people’s hot tempers)
- this shot is just... genius
it’s din seen entirely from the outside, with nothing of what we’ve learned to recognize as him for almost two seasons now in view -- not even his face, which we have at least a tenuous fledgling attachment to from before. it’s like we get introduced to him almost as if anew again and again in this episode, just like he’s getting introduced to new aspects of himself and what he’s willing to do and having to struggle to find ways to have that fit with who he is. his discomfort and stress is our discomfort and stress. it’s so interesting
- I can’t stop cackling at this moment even in all the tension -- you only get a sliver of din’s profile but you can feel the sheer MURDER radiating off him sdhfasjk
- aaaaaaaagh the way you get a whole different view of din’s habitual impassiveness when you can actually see his face... the way he keeps appealing to mayfeld ‘just don’t make more trouble, just shut up’, the way he goes completely silent and watchful and frozen..... those are all really obvious trauma responses, and it leads you to wonder how often he touches into that even when he’s in his element, when he’s got the full armour on. hmngh my heart
- ‘the believer’ is such a galaxy brain title for this episode, because it could be referring to either of the three men around this table or all of them at once. (and crucially the only person whose beliefs aren’t in a living, breathing state of adapting to the world around them is the empire officer, with his horrific inhuman ideology. mayfeld thinks he believes in nothing, and proves himself explosively wrong by the end of the episode, and it’s redeeming for him in some capacity. din is facing a more internal dilemma of different parts of his (and his culture’s) beliefs/values clashing and having to decide which one’s more important, to his identity and to how to exist in the world as a person (and love for the baby wins out supremely in the end. of course it does Y_____Y). the empire dude only sees the same sterile fascist world at the end of his shit rainbow that he’s clearly always done, even when faced with proof that it’s untenable. (I mean he wouldn’t give a fuck that it’s immoral because he’s y’know evil, but he’s not even fazed by the fact that the empire provably FAILED, and failed so quickly) his belief is a dead and deadening thing to contrast the others. man when this show goes off with the themes it goes OFF haha)
- love the triumphant heroic mando music kicking in as we’re finally getting to pick off imps, love that for us
- din’s protective instincts at work again, he helps mayfeld to his feet and makes sure he’s safely on board before going further in himself ;_______;
- fennec’s professional approval at mayfeld’s shot hahaha. well I guess he was supposed to be a sharpshooter back in the day huh
I do Not think she likes mayfeld even after all that, though, the withering look she sends him on her way past... should have killed him stone dead on the spot
- seeing din back in the armour is like a physical relief, I can breathe again haha
- tfw you catch yourself thinking ‘at least when all this is over we can go back to the razor crest and everything will be normal again’ and then you rEMEMBER 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
#star wars#the mandalorian#the mandalorian spoilers#the mandalorian meta#honestly I could add a lot more of my boba thirst in this lol (idk din is always Dad not Daddy to me but boba's Doing something for me haha)
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going to say two embarrassing things in one post. double whammy. but anyway first of all i forgot how fun it is to watch tv on account of not having done so at all this year until last night. like you guys know about this? shit’s insane. and two i think i may have watched emmy-winning sitcom arrested development too early in my sitcom-watching career for me to enjoy any sitcom that’s just ok. it was only the fourth sitcom i saw(first three were parks & rec, always sunny, and the office in that order) and oh let me tell you it was a game changer. i do maintain that all 5 seasons(NOT that godforsaken remix though) were tailor-made just for me but like. even the haters have got to admit the original run is UNTOUCHABLE. and then the next sitcom i watched was 30 rock(gay will arnett character to gay will arnett character pipeline flowing smoothly) and i was like hell yeah! alright! i love this! and then next i watched community and i liked community but the thing about community is it is basically the bare minimum standard for what i am willing to accept in a sitcom. some guy on imdb once described it as “hit or miss at times” or something of the sort and like. pretty much yeah. like when it’s good it’s some of the best shit ever and when it’s not so good it’s just kind of ok. and so basically if your sitcom is not AT LEAST as good as community i don’t even want it. i think it’s vile and wretched and it needs to be kept the hell away from me or i will either simply not even care about it one way or the other(hi mr schur if you’re reading this) or i will start behaving in a way not entirely dissimilar to the joker at the mere mention of it(if you know. you know. starts with “s” and ends with “chitt’s creek”). and also one more embarrassing thing actually. killing THREE birds with one post as a treat. you have never known the triumphs and defeats, the epic highs and lows of being a bitch that loves sitcoms but hates laughtracks. to this day i have still only seen one single episode of seinfeld. and that’s my toxic trait
#i thought the one episode i saw was really funny and eventually i WILL go back and watch the rest(that’s a threat)#but what can i say. i saw that one sunny episode at 17 and it was formative for me
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New Releases
With summer break almost upon us, or for those of us already lucky to be out, these new releases are perfect for road trips or sitting by the pool.
Virtually Yours by Sarvenaz Tash
Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Modern love plus online anonymity is a recipe for romantic disaster in this lighthearted new romance from the author of The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love.
How bad can one little virtual lie be?
NYU freshman Mariam Vakilian hasn’t dated anyone in five months, not since her high school sweetheart Caleb broke up with her. So, when she decides to take advantage of an expiring coupon and try out a new virtual reality dating service, it’s sort of a big deal.
It’s an even bigger deal when it chooses as one of her three matches none other than Caleb himself. That has to be a sign, right?
Except that her other match, Jeremy, just happens to be her new best friend IRL.
Mariam’s heart is telling her one thing, but the app is telling her another. So, which should she trust? Is all fair in modern love? — Cover image and summary via Goodreads
Five Midnights by Ann Dávila Cardinal
Tor Teen
Five friends cursed. Five deadly fates. Five nights of retribución.
If Lupe Dávila and Javier Utierre can survive each other’s company, together they can solve a series of grisly murders sweeping though Puerto Rico. But the clues lead them out of the real world and into the realm of myths and legends. And if they want to catch the killer, they’ll have to step into the shadows to see what’s lurking there—murderer, or monster? — Cover image and summary via Goodreads
Not Your Backup by C.B. Lee
Emma Robledo has a few more responsibilities that the usual high school senior, but then again, she and her friends have left school to lead a fractured Resistance movement against a corrupt Heroes League of Heroes. Emma is the only member of a supercharged team without powers, she isn’t always taken seriously. A natural leader, Emma is determined to win this battle, and when that’s done, get back to school. As the Resistance moves to challenge the League, Emma realizes where her place is in this fight: at the front.
Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
Balzer + Bray
It’s 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing.
Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He’s terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he’s gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media’s images of men dying of AIDS.
Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance…until she falls for Reza and they start dating.
Art is Judy’s best friend, their school’s only out and proud teen. He’ll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs.
As Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won’t break Judy’s heart–and destroy the most meaningful friendship he’s ever known.
This is a bighearted, sprawling epic about friendship and love and the revolutionary act of living life to the fullest in the face of impossible odds. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads
I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest
Roaring Brook Press
“In a world where it’s easy to lose faith in love, I WANNA BE WHERE YOU ARE is a brilliant burst of light. A dazzling debut.” ― Nic Stone, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out
When Chloe Pierce’s mom forbids her to apply for a spot at the dance conservatory of her dreams, she devises a secret plan to drive two hundred miles to the nearest audition. But Chloe hits her first speed bump when her annoying neighbor Eli insists upon hitching a ride, threatening to tell Chloe’s mom if she leaves him and his smelly dog, Geezer, behind. So now Chloe’s chasing her ballet dreams down the east coast―two unwanted (but kinda cute) passengers in her car, butterflies in her stomach, and a really dope playlist on repeat.
Filled with roadside hijinks, heart-stirring romance, and a few broken rules, I Wanna Be Where You Are is a YA debut perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sandhya Menon.
If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kann
Swoon Reads
High school finally behind her, Winnie is all set to attend college in the fall. But first she’s spending her summer days working at her granny’s diner and begins spending her midnights with Dallas—the boy she loves to hate and hates that she likes. Winnie lives in Misty Haven, a small town where secrets are impossible to keep—like when Winnie allegedly snaps on Dr. Skinner, which results in everyone feeling compelled to give her weight loss advice for her own good. Because they care that’s she’s “too fat.”
Winnie dreams of someday inheriting the diner—but it’ll go away if they can’t make money, and fast. Winnie has a solution—win a televised cooking competition and make bank. But Granny doesn’t want her to enter—so Winnie has to find a way around her formidable grandmother. Can she come out on top?
This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura
HarperTeen
Katsuyamas never quit—but seventeen-year-old CJ doesn’t even know where to start. She’s never lived up to her mom’s type A ambition, and she’s perfectly happy just helping her aunt, Hannah, at their family’s flower shop.
She doesn’t buy into Hannah’s romantic ideas about flowers and their hidden meanings, but when it comes to arranging the perfect bouquet, CJ discovers a knack she never knew she had. A skill she might even be proud of.
Then her mom decides to sell the shop—to the family who swindled CJ’s grandparents when thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during WWII. Soon a rift threatens to splinter CJ’s family, friends, and their entire Northern California community; and for the first time, CJ has found something she wants to fight for.
When the Ground Is Hard by Malla Nunn
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
In this stunning and heartrending tale set in a Swaziland boarding school, two girls of different castes bond over a shared copy of Jane Eyre.
Adele Joubert loves being one of the popular girls at Keziah Christian Academy. She knows the upcoming semester at school is going to be great with her best friend Delia at her side. Then Delia dumps her for a new girl with more money, and Adele is forced to share a room with Lottie, the school pariah, who doesn’t pray and defies teachers’ orders.
But as they share a copy of Jane Eyre, Lottie’s gruff exterior and honesty grow on Adele, and Lottie learns to be a little sweeter. Together, they take on bullies and protect each other from the vindictive and prejudiced teachers. Then a boy goes missing on campus and Adele and Lottie must rely on each other to solve the mystery and maybe learn the true meaning of friendship.
The Boxer by Nikesh Shukla
Hodder Children’s Books
Told over the course of the ten rounds of his first fight, this is the story of amateur boxer Sunny. A seventeen-year-old feeling isolated and disconnected in the city he’s just moved to, Sunny joins a boxing club to learn to protect himself after a racist attack. He finds the community he’s been desperately seeking at the club, and a mentor in trainer Shona, who helps him find his place in the world. But racial tensions are rising in the city, and when a Far Right march through Bristol turns violent, Sunny is faced with losing his new best friend Keir to radicalisation.
A gripping, life-affirming YA novel about friendship, radicalisation and finding where you belong.
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Festival Review: Hitting The Hague for Rewire 2018
As noted in our preview piece, Rewire is defined as a “festival for adventurous music” – and so 2018’s edition proved. Indeed, even getting to Rewire can be an adventure. Our last visit to The Hague involved an overnight ferry from Harwich, while this time we took one of London’s first ever direct trains to Amsterdam via Eurostar. Considering the festival organisers invited artists from every continent this year, ours was probably one of the simpler routes leading to Rewire 2018. Regardless of which route they took, each artist brought their own individual artistry with them, resulting in a truly unique festival experience.
To give you an idea of just how broad Rewire’s remit is, in a single hour on the opening night we managed to catch a bit of Brazilian baile funk, a smidgen of Slovenian free-folk, and a fierce set of Philadelphian afro-futurism, courtesy of Lyzza, Širom and MHYSA respectively. Even more remarkably, that was the second time we’d seen MHYSA that evening – she’d earlier opened the festival alongside lawd knows as SCRAAATCH, who performed a DJ set so fierce and anarchic, replete with the sound of sirens and smashing glass, that it felt like 3am straight away. Quite a start.
Fatima Al Qadiri provided a much needed breather after that. Indeed, the Kuwaiti artist sat through her own Ja7eem set, taking the best seat in the house to watch Emmanuel Biard’s visual accompaniment from the stage. While some seemed disappointed at the lack of stage action and largely beat-less music, we found the mixture of atmospheric synths, Arabic vocal samples and enthusiastic use of a smoke machine totally engrossing.
Following more synthelicious explorations courtesy of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, it was time for our favourite batacuda-loving Italians Ninos Du Brasil to get pulses racing again. Bedecked in tinsel and silver face-paint, the duo started with a bang and never let the intensity drop for a second after that. The crowd, enlivened by the frenetic live percussion and skull-crushing bass, responded in kind. “We are all Ninos Du Brasil” enthused the band from the stage (although we don’t know whether anyone used their newfound membership to try and get backstage afterwards). Definitely one of the highlights of the festival, if there is a more energetic live act out there right now then we want to see them.
That set began at midnight, after which all the Rewire action takes place entirely within the Paard van Troje venue, which boasts two separate rooms (both with fearsomely loud sound systems), several bars and even a vegan grill. You can actually buy tickets just for the post-midnight period – and those doing so were rewarded by several powerful sets. Highlights from the blurrier ends of Friday and Saturday included a relentlessly jacking techno set from Karen Gwyer, an equally pulsating live solo performance from Floating Points, an irrepressible dancefloor workout with Deena Abdelwahed, a punishing volley of volume from Lanark Artefax, and a truly titanic set from Discwoman’s Ziúr.
James Holden & The Animal Spirits at Rewire 2018
Paard saw plenty of pre-midnight delights over the weekend too, including the expressionistic noise of post-punk supergroup UUUU, a somewhat hot-and-cold appearance by Panda Bear and an almost perfect performance by SUUNS, which was only slightly marred by a brief delay following the partial destruction of a snare drum. The venue’s high point though (and arguably the high point of Rewire 2018 overall) came courtesy of James Holden & The Animal Spirits.
The Exeter-born artist’s style has broadened hugely since the fidgety techno of his Border Community debut The Idiots Are Winning, and this performance emphasised that development. Sat on a magic carpet covered in synths and surrounded by a talented crew of musicians and percussionists, Holden drew on everything from free jazz to minimalism for a performance full of heart, soul and a heavy dose of psychedelics. The only times it sounded anything other than sensational was when it tipped into the the truly transcendental. If you think that sounds like hyperbole then seek out James Holden & The Animal Spirits at the next available opportunity and see for yourself.
On Sunday Paard offered only two performances, but both brought a touch of Egyptian artistry to Rewire 2018. First Nadah El Shazly produced a dynamically agile vocal performance as she played tracks from last year’s engrossing Ahwar album. A hypnotic version of ‘Palmyra’ proved the set’s highlight, its alluring microtonal keyboard riff snaking between her drummer’s virtuoso fills.
An equally adept ensemble then took over in the form of Maryam Saleh, Maurice Louca, Tamer Abu Ghazaleh and friends. Alongside El Shazly, the group are something of a who’s who of the Cairo underground, and the broad smiles on stage between songs reflected not only their own enjoyment, but that of the audience. A perfect way to bring proceedings at Paard to a close.
Vicky Chow at Rewire 2018
While Paard was Rewire 2018’s most conventional music venue (even if the performances hosted there were anything but), some of the festival’s other sites were as imaginative as the music they contained. The most stunning was De Electriciteitsfabriek, a former power plant since converted into a cavernous arts space.
Strolling from the sunny street into this imposing industrial space immediately gave you a chill (quite literally – it was a few degrees colder inside than out), and further shivers were sent up the spine by Canadian pianist Vicky Chow. Her epic collaboration with Tristan Perich saw her playing his piece ‘Surface Image’, a composition for solo piano and 1-bit electronics. As forty miniature speakers around her shifted from single tones to a cascading whirlwind of bleeps, Chow flowed between them with a mind-boggling dexterity, although it was the tender, spacious phrasing in the final passage that truly pierced our hearts.
The theatre complex Koorenhuis, which had played host to the stunning but sadly oversubscribed Širom performance on Friday, also benefited from some piano magic. Tom Rogerson, fresh from the release of his Eno-enhanced debut Finding Shore, offered an earnest and emotive selection from his songbook. Clearly proud to be playing in front of his pregnant wife as they expect their first child, the warmth in the room gave a Sunday-friendly afternoon set a further glow.
More light (and heat) was thrown onto Rewire 2018 a little later when Juliana Huxtable premiered her Triptych beneath a giant disco ball, providing a striking contrast with the grand interior of the 13th century Grote Kerk. Flanked by a glamorous harpist and topless drummer, Huxtable’s repeated phrases about wormholes and desire managed to hit home, despite occasionally being obscured by the echoing environment.
Sadly this issue also affects the Rewire’s nominal headliner, the legendary Laurie Anderson, for whom the queue was so long that it went halfway around the Grote Kerk itself. Opening by asking the entire audience to scream for a full ten seconds, Anderson promised an evening not just of music but of stories – indeed she defined the despair of the post-Trump era as that of a population “drowning in stories”.
While her affable but commanding presence was magnetic, and her words full of wit and wisdom, too many of those words were lost as they bounced around the cavernous church. Maybe it was just where we were sat, on the flagstones adjacent to the stage owing to all the seats being taken, but those unintelligible moments couldn’t help but but impair our ability to fully immerse ourselves in the performance.
Laurie Anderson at Rewire 2018
Still, aside from the occasional overcrowding that meant we missed most of Širom and all of the much-anticipated FAKA, that was one of the only complaints possible to throw at a truly visionary festival. Rewire 2018 cemented the event’s status as one of the world’s most forward-thinking celebrations of music in all its expressive diversity and creative possibility. By boat, train, tram, plane or intergalactic flying saucer, as long as they keep putting it on, we’ll keep coming.
Kier Wiater Carnihan
#Border Community#brian eno#Deena Abdelwahed#Discwoman#Emmanuel Biard#experimental#FAKA#Fatima Al Qadiri#festival review#festivals#Floating Points#James Holden#Juliana Huxtable#kaitlyn aurelia smith#Karen Gwyer#Lanark Artefax#Laurie Anderson#lawd knows#Lyzza#Maryam Saleh#Maurice Louca#MHYSA#Nadah El Shazly#netherlands#Ninos Du Brasil#Panda Bear#Rewire Festival#SCRAAATCH#Širom#SUUNS
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2017 YA Reads by Authors of Color
*As per usual, this list will be updated as more covers are revealed
After the Fall by Kate Hart - In a story told from two viewpoints, 17-year-old Raychel relies on the support of her overachieving best friend Matt while secretly sleeping with his brother Andrew, and Matt tries to play hero and hide how much he loves her.
Akata Warrior (Akata Witch #2) by Nnedi Okorafor - A year ago, Sunny Nwazue, an American-born girl Nigerian girl, was inducted into the secret Leopard Society. As she began to develop her magical powers, Sunny learned that she had been chosen to lead a dangerous mission to avert an apocalypse, brought about by the terrifying masquerade, Ekwensu. Now, stronger, feistier, and a bit older, Sunny is studying with her mentor Sugar Cream and struggling to unlock the secrets in her strange Nsibidi book. Eventually, Sunny knows she must confront her destiny, and fight a climactic battle to save humanity.
Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han - Lara Jean is having the best senior year a girl could ever hope for.But change is looming on the horizon. And while Lara Jean is having fun and keeping busy, she can’t ignore the big life decisions she has to make. Most pressingly, where she wants to go to college and what that means for her relationship with Peter. Now Lara Jean’s the one who’ll be graduating high school and leaving for college and leaving her family—and possibly the boy she loves—behind.
Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson - 15-year-old Mary B. Addison, once accused of murdering a baby when she was nine, finds herself pregnant after release to a group home - and the only way to keep the baby is to tell the truth about what really happened six years ago.
American Street by Ibi Zobi - On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie—a good life. But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola’s mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroit’s west side; a new school; and a surprising romance, all on her own. Just as she finds her footing in this strange new world, a dangerous proposition presents itself, and Fabiola soon realizes that freedom comes at a cost. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream?
The Authentics by Abdi Nazemian - Daria Esfandyar is Iranian-American and proud of her heritage. Daria and her friends call themselves the Authentics, because they pride themselves on always keeping it real. But in the course of researching a school project, Daria learns something shocking about her past, which launches her on a journey of self-discovery. With infighting among the Authentics, her mother planning an over-the-top sweet sixteen party, and a romance that should be totally off limits, Daria doesn’t have time for this identity crisis. As everything in her life is spinning out of control—can she figure out how to stay true to herself?
Because of the Sun by Jenny Torres Sanchez - 17-year-old Dani struggles with how to process the ambiguous grief she feels in the aftermath of her mother's death after moving to New Mexico with an aunt she never met.
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco - Tea's gift for death magic means that she is a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community, but when an older bone witch trains her to become an asha - one who can wield elemental magic - Tea will have to overcome her obstacles and make a powerful choice in the face of danger as dark forces approach.
Calling My Name by Liara Tamani - Told in fifty-four short, episodic, moving, and iridescent chapters, this story follows Taja Brown on her journey from middle school to high school.
A Crown of Wishes (Star-Touched Queen #2) by Roshani Chokshi - Gauri, the princess of Bharata, has been taken as a prisoner of war by her kingdom’s enemies. Hope unexpectedly comes in the form of Vikram, the cunning prince of a neighboring land and her sworn enemy kingdom. Unsatisfied with becoming a mere puppet king, Vikram offers Gauri a chance to win back her kingdom in exchange for her battle prowess. Together, they’ll have to set aside their differences and team up to win the Tournament of Wishes—a competition held in a mythical city where the Lord of Wealth promises a wish to the victor. Reaching the tournament is just the beginning. Every which way they turn new trials will test their wit and strength.
The Closet I’ve Come by Fred Aceves - When Marcos is placed in a new after-school program for troubled teens with potential, he meets Zach, a theater geek whose life seems great on the surface, and Amy, a punk girl who doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her. These new friendships inspire Marcos to open up to his Maesta crew, too, and Marcos starts to think more about his future and what he has to fight for. Marcos ultimately learns that bravery isn’t about acting tough and being macho; it’s about being true to yourself.
Dark Goddess (Alpha Goddess #2) by Amalie Howard - After an epic struggle that unseated the Asura Lord of Death and placed Serjana Caelum’s best friend, Kyle, on his throne, the Mortal Realm is peaceful and the balance between good and evil—which Sera is sworn to protect—has been restored. But signs of a new threat to the world of men quickly begin to appear: A scourge of demons descends on the Mortal Realm, and Sera is beside herself trying to locate their source. She sends word to the gods for help, and their answer comes in the form of Kira, the living incarnation of Kali, goddess of destruction. Soon Sera and Kyle find themselves fighting not just the demon plague, but Kira and her twin. But when an even more sinister threat arises—putting not just the human world but all planes of existence in jeopardy—they must all learn to work together or lose everything.
Dead Little Mean Girl by Eva Darrows - Unapologetic geek girl Emma’s life is made a living hell by her new stepsister Quinn - until Quinn’s untimely death forces Emma to reexamine everything she thought she knew about her.
Dear Martin by Nic Stone - Justyce McAllister is top of his class, captain of the debate team, and set for the Ivy League next year—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs during the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up. Way up. Much to the fury of the white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. And Justyce and Manny get caught in the crosshairs. In that media fallout, it’s Justyce who is under attack. The truth of what happened that night—some would kill to know. Justyce is dying to forget.
Dove Alight (Dove Chronicles #3) by Karen Bao - Shy, introverted Phaet Theta has gone from being a top student to an interplanetary fugitive to the reluctant but fierce leader of a revolution. But as the death tolls rise, the cost of the war weighs heavily on Phaet. Phaet started this war because she lost someone she loved. Will she have to lose another to end it?
The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera - After “borrowing” her father's credit card to finance a more stylish wardrobe, Margot Sanchez is forced to pay off her debts by working in her family's South Bronx grocery store. But she must make the right choices about her friends, her family, and Moises, the good looking but outspoken boy from the neighborhood.
Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza - Two sisters—sole survivors of a murdered royal lineage - must reunite from opposite ends of the galaxy to salvage what's left of their family dynasty and save the universe from a greater threat.
The End of Oz (Dorothy Must Die #4) by Danielle Page - Amy Gumm must do everything in her power to save Kansas and make Oz a free land once more. At the end of Yellow Brick War, Amy had finally defeated Dorothy. Just when she and the rest of the surviving members of the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked thought it was safe to start rebuilding the damaged land of Oz, they realized they’ve been betrayed—by one of their own. And Dorothy might not have been so easily defeated after all.
The Epic Crush of Genie Lo - F.C. Yee - Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets American Born Chinese, wherein 15-year-old Genie Lo wonders if she's qualified enough to gain admission to an Ivy League school, then becomes powerful enough to break through the gates of Heaven with her fists.
Exo by Fonda Lee - For a century now, Earth has been a peaceful colony of an alien race, and Donovan Reyes is a loyal member of the security forces, while his father is the Prime Liaison--but when a routine search and seizure goes bad Donovan finds himself a captive of the human revolutionary group, Sapience, terrorists who seem to prefer war to alien rule, and killing Donovan just might be the incident they are looking for.
Flame in the Mist by Renee Adhieh - The daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko is promised to Minamoto Raiden, the son of the emperor's favorite consort. But en route to the imperial city of Inako, Mariko narrowly escapes a bloody ambush by the Black Clan. Dressed as a peasant boy, Mariko sets out to infiltrate the ranks of this gang. But she's quickly captured and taken to the Black Clan’s secret hideout, where she meets their leader, the rebel ronin Takeda Ranmaru. As Mariko gets closer to the Black Clan, she uncovers a dark history of secrets, of betrayal and murder, which will force her to question everything she's ever known.
Flying Lessons and Other Stories edited by Ellen Oh - Whether it is basketball dreams, family fiascos, first crushes, or new neighborhoods, this bold anthology—written by the best children’s authors—celebrates the uniqueness and universality in all of us. In a partnership with We Need Diverse Books, industry giants Kwame Alexander, Soman Chainani, Matt de la Peña, Tim Federle, Grace Lin, Meg Medina, Walter Dean Myers, Tim Tingle, and Jacqueline Woodson join newcomer Kelly J. Baptist in a story collection that is as humorous as it is heartfelt.
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao - A dark and edgy reimagining of the evil queen from Snow White based on Asian folklore and mythology in which Xifeng must unleash a jealous god on the world and set free the viciousness of her own soul in order to become Empress of Feng Lu.
Four Weeks, Five People by Jennifer Yu - Five teens get to know one another and work to overcome the various disorders that have affected their lives, they find themselves forming bonds they never thought they would, discovering new truths about themselves and actually looking forward to the future.
Girl on the Verge by Pintip Dunn - A provocative story about a high school senior, Kanchana, straddling two worlds, unsure how she fits in either—and the journey of self-discovery that leads her to surprising truths.
Good Girls Don’t Lie by Alexandra Diaz - A Mexican-American Juno, a realistic coming-of-age story starring good girl Josie Figueroa.
A Good Idea by Cristina Moracho - Finley returns to her small Maine hometown seeking revenge for the death of her childhood best friend Betty, and explores whether the right kind of boy can get away with killing the wrong kind of girl.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas - 16-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed.
Here We Are Now by Jasmine Warga - Despite sending him letters ever since she was thirteen, Taliah Abdallat never thought she'd ever really meet her rock star father, Julian Oliver. With her best friend Harlow by her side, Taliah embarks on a three-day journey to find out everything about her 'father' and her family. But Julian isn't the father Taliah always hoped for, and revelations about her mother's past are seriously shaking her foundation. Through all these new experiences, Taliah will have to find new ways to be true to herself, honoring her past and her future.
Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World edited by Kelly Jensen - A scrapbook-style teen guide to understanding what it really means to be a feminist packed with contributions from a diverse range of voices, including celebrities and public figures, and featuring more than forty-four pieces, including an eight-page insert of full-color illustrations.
History Is All You Left Of Me by Adam Silvera - Secrets are revealed as OCD-afflicted Griffin grieves for his first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, who died in a drowning accident. If Griffin is ever to rebuild his future, he must first confront his history, every last heartbreaking piece in the puzzle of his life.
How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana - This profoundly moving memoir is the remarkable and inspiring true story of Sandra Uwiringyimana, a girl from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who tells the tale of how she survived a massacre, immigrated to America, and overcame her trauma through art and activism.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian meets Jane the Virgin in this poignant but often laugh-out-loud funny contemporary YA about losing a sister and finding yourself amid the pressures, expectations, and stereotypes of growing up in a Mexican-American home.
I Believe In A Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo - Desi Lee is a disaster in romance. So when the hottest human specimen to have ever lived walks into her life one day, Desi decides to tackle her flirting failures with the same zest she’s applied to everything else in her life. She finds her answer in the Korean dramas her father has been obsessively watching for years. Armed with her “K Drama Rules for True Love,” Desi goes after the moody, elusive artist Luca Drakos. But when the fun and games turn to true feels, Desi finds out that real love is about way more than just drama.
The Inexplicable Logic of My Heart by Benjamin Alire Saenz - Sal used to know his place with his adoptive gay father, their loving Mexican-American family, and his best friend, Samantha. But it’s senior year, and suddenly Sal is throwing punches, questioning everything, and realizing he no longer knows himself. If Sal’s not who he thought he was, who is he?
It’s Not Like It’s A Secret by Misa Sugiura - A not-yet-out lesbian, Japanese-American teenager, Sana Kiyohara, deals with being the new kid at school, has a family with stifling traditional Japanese values (which help protect their secrets), dates a girl who hangs out with a totally different crowd, and makes plenty of mistakes along the way.
Kokoro (Kojiki #2) by Keith Yatsuhashi - Masterfully combining fantasy, science fiction and Japanese mythology, the sequel to Kojiki takes us into the heart of a war that spreads across the worlds.
Legion (Talon #4) by Julie Kagawa - The legions are about to be unleashed, and no human, rogue dragon or former dragon slayer can stand against the coming horde in book 4 out of the Talon series.
The Library of Fates by Aditi Khorana - Amrita must unravel the mysteries of her past to save her kingdom, but in doing so, she herself might come unraveled.
A Line in the Dark by Malinda Lo - Jess Wong is Angie Redmond’s best friend. But when Angie begins to fall for Margot Adams, a girl from the nearby boarding school, Jess can see it coming a mile away. As Angie drags Jess further into Margot’s circle, Jess discovers more than her friend’s growing crush. Secrets and cruelty lie just beneath the carefree surface of this world of wealth and privilege, and when they come out, Jess knows Angie won’t be able to handle the consequences. When the inevitable darkness finally descends, Angie will need her best friend.
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert - A Los Angeles native, black and Jewish Suzette, deals with the aftermath of her stepbrother's mental health crisis and navigating unexpected love.
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds - A novel in verse about the consequences of street violence, and a second novel tentatively about a crew of young musicians who find their audience in the most unlikely of places.
Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar - Based on the author's childhood in the 1960s, a young Cuban-Jewish immigrant girl adjusts to her new life in New York City when her American dream is suddenly derailed.
The Merciless III: Origins of Evil by Danielle Vega - When Brooklyn answers a call on her teen helpline, she finds herself plunged into the cultish community of Christ First Church’s youth group. She's especially drawn to Gavin, the angelic yet tortured pastor's son.Torn between an unstoppable attraction to Gavin and her obsession with the truth, Brooklyn is forced to make a devastating choice to rid Christ Church of evil once and for all...But the devil has plans for Brooklyn's soul.
The Mind Virus (Wired #3) by Donna Freitas - Skylar Cruz’s heart is shattered. But even though everyone has betrayed her, Skylar was able to negotiate a way to open the door between the Real World and the App World. Now Skylar must help the people who left the virtual world behind as they become refugees in the Real World. And for everyone who remained plugged in, a new danger has become evident. Their bodies are mysteriously dying, and it’s because of events Skylar’s sister, Jude, set in motion. A virus has been unleashed that could mean total extinction of the App World—and everyone in it.Skylar and Jude must set aside their differences and work together if they are to defeat the mind virus before the App World fades away into oblivion.
North of Happy by Adi Alsaid - In the wake of his brother's untimely death, teen chef Carlos Portillo runs away from home to find his true path in life.
Noteworthy by Riley Redgate - 17 -year-old theater student and Alto 2 at a Performing Arts boarding school, Jordan Sun, disguises herself as a boy in order to audition for the school's exclusive all-male a cappella group--and discovers a world packed with tradition, rivalry, and debauchery.
One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns #2) by Kendare Blake - The battle for the crown has begun, but which sister will prevail? With the unforgettable events of the Quickening behind them and the Ascension Year underway, all bets are off. Katharine, once the weak and feeble sister, is stronger than ever before. Arsinoe, after discovering the truth about her powers, must figure out how to make her secret talent work in her favor without anyone finding out. And Mirabella, once thought to be the strongest sister of all and the certain Queen Crowned, faces attacks like never before—ones that put those around her in danger she can’t seem to prevent.
Overturned by Lamar Giles - Nikki Tate is infamous, even by Las Vegas standards. Her dad is sitting on death row, convicted of killing his best friend. And for five years, he’s maintained his innocence. But Nikki wants no part of that. Then her dad’s murder conviction is overturned. As her dad digs into the seedy underbelly of Vegas, the past threatens everything and Nikki is drawn into his deadly hunt for the truth. But in the city of sin, some sinners will do anything to keep their secrets, and Nikki soon finds herself playing for the biggest gamble ever—her life.
The Place Between Breaths by An Na - 16-year-old Grace is in a race against time—and in a race for her life. She is smart, responsible, and contending with more than what most teens ever have to. Her mother struggled with schizophrenia until, one day, she simply disappeared. Ever since, Grace’s father has worked as a recruiter at one of the leading labs dedicated to studying the disease, hoping against hope to find a cure in time to help his wife if she is ever found. Grace does her part, interning at the lab and one day make a breakthrough, when she stumbles upon a string of code that could be the key. But something inside of Grace has unraveled. Could her discovery just be a cruel side effect of the schizophrenia finally taking hold? Can she even tell the difference between what is real and what isn’t?
Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson - Tired of being singled out at her mostly-white private school as someone who needs support, high school junior Jade would rather participate in the school's amazing Study Abroad program than join Women to Women, a mentorship program for at-risk girls.
Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman - Half-Japanese teen Kiko Himura fails to get into art school away from home, leaving her to navigate through social anxiety and microaggressions in a small town, as she reconnects with her childhood crush and learns to stand up to her self-centered mother - all while growing to love the part of her heritage she was never taught to appreciate.
The Savage Dawn (Girl at Midnight #3) by Melissa Grey - Echo awakened the Firebird. Now she is the only one with the power to face the darkness she unwittingly unleashed...right into the waiting hands of Tanith, the new Dragon Prince. Echo might hold the power to face the darkness within the Dragon Prince, but she has far to go to master its overwhelming force. The war has begun, and there is no looking back. There are only two outcomes possible: triumph or death.
The Ship Beyond Time (Girl From Everywhere #2) by Heidi Heilig - In this breathtaking sequel, Nix has escaped her past, but when the person she loves most is at risk, even the daughter of a time traveler may not be able to outrun her fate—no matter where she goes.
They Both Die in the End by Adam Silvera - Set in a near-future New York City where a service alerts people on the day they will die, about two teens who meet using the Last Friend app and are faced with the challenge of living a lifetime on their End Day.
Siege of Shadows (Effigies #2) by Sarah Raughley - Maia and the other Effigies can’t escape the eyes of the press—especially not after failing to capture Saul, whose power to control the monstrous Phantoms has left the world in a state of panic. When Saul suddenly surfaces in the middle of the Sahara desert, the Sect sends Maia and her friends out after him. But instead of Saul, they discover a dying soldier engineered with Effigy-like abilities. And although these soldiers seem to answer to Saul, Maia can’t help but wonder if he has outside help.Yet the looming danger of Saul and this mysterious new army doesn’t overshadow Maia’s fear of the Sect, who ordered the death of the previous Fire Effigy, Natalya. With enemies on all sides and the world turning against them, the Effigies have to put their trust in each other—easier said than done when secrets threaten to tear them apart.
Soulmarked by Shaila Patel - 18-year-old Liam Whelan, an Irish royal empath, has been searching for his elusive soulmate. Laxshmi Kapadia, an Indian-American high school student from a traditional family, faces her mother's ultimatum: Graduate early and go to medical school, or commit to an arranged marriage. When Liam moves next door to Laxshmi, he’s immediately and inexplicably drawn to her. In Liam, Laxshmi envisions a future with the freedom to follow her heart. Liam's father isn't convinced Laxshmi is "The One" and Laxshmi's mother won't even let her talk to their handsome new neighbor. Will Liam and Laxshmi defy expectations and embrace a shared destiny? Or is the risk of choosing one's own fate too great a price for the soulmated?
That Thing We Call A Heart by Sheba Karim - Pakistani American teen, Shabnam Qureshi, living in New Jersey, tells a lie that has unexpected consequences. When her feisty best friend, Farah, starts wearing the headscarf without even consulting her, it unravels their friendship. As Shabnam rebuilds her friendship with Farah and grows closer to her parents, she learns powerful lessons about the importance of love, in all of its forms.
The Victoria In My Head by Janelle Milanes - Cuban-American straight-As student and dutiful daughter Victoria Cruz, defys expectations when she breaks out of her shell to successfully auditions for a local rock band and winds up falling in love with the bad boy frontman.
Vindicated (Emancipated #3) by M.G. Reyes - Murder will out in the shocking conclusion to the Emancipated trilogy, where no one is who they seem and the truth has a nasty habit of showing up uninvited. The six Venice Beach housemates have made some life-alteringly bad decisions since they were each legally emancipated from their parents, including confronting a killer. And the consequences have been deadly. Now, they’re hiding out, trying to find a way out of the mess they’ve made without getting themselves killed when one of the housemates disappears, two fall in love, and another betrays them all. And when the secrets they’ve been keeping are finally laid bare, they’ll wish they’d never started looking for answers in the first place.
Want by Cindy Pon - Set in a teeming, pollution choked Taipei which follows a group of teens living on the seedy fringes of a highly divided society that works only for the elite as they decide to risk everything to take down the powerful company which controls the city,
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon - Told in alternating perspectives, When Dimple Met Rishi focuses on two Indian-American teens whose parents have arranged for them to be married.
When I Am Through With You by Stephanie Kuehn - Ben Gibson is many things, but he’s not sorry and he’s not a liar. He will tell you exactly about what happened on what started as a simple school camping trip in the mountains. About who lived and who died. About who killed and who had the best of intentions. But he’s going to tell you in his own time. Because after what happened on that mountain, time is the one thing he has plenty of.
Wild Beauty by Anne Marie McLemore - A novel of magical realism, the Nomeolvides women have tended the lust estate grounds of La Pradera which they've grown for generations, until the reemergence of a family curse starts to makes the men they love disappear, again.
Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones - 19-year-old Liesl must venture to the Underground when her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins. The Goblin King agrees to let Käthe go—for a price. In exchange for her sister’s freedom, Liesl offers her hand in marriage to the Goblin King. He accepts. As the two of them grow closer, they must learn just what it is they are each willing to sacrifice: her life, her music, or the end of the world.
You Don’t Know Me But I Know You by Rebecca Barrow - 17-year-old Audrey receives an unexpected letter from her birth mother as she and her boyfriend struggle to decide what to do about an accidental pregnancy, while facing a growing distance with her best friend, keeping secrets of her own.
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15 TO WATCH: RICK HORROW’S TOP SPORTS/NEWS/BUSINESS/MARKETING/ENDORSEMENT ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF JANUARY 16
With Jamie Swimmer
President-Elect Donald Trump’s sports industry involvement has been well chronicled, especially his golf resort holdings. What’s not as transparent is the impact his foreign policy decisions may have on the global sports industry -- and on sporting goods and apparel in particular. Overall, China exported about $482 billion in goods to the United States in 2015, more than any other country exported to the U.S., according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. It’s no secret that the vast majority of the world’s sneakers are made in China, Indonesia, Korea, and the Philippines. But look at Callaway golf clubs – the leading American club maker designs its sticks in California, but parts come from China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and many clubs are assembled in Mexico. Likewise Wilson tennis racquets are manufactured in Shanghai, as are Head and Prince. And Spalding basketballs are officially pieced together in Seoul. Within golf, four of the world’s top golf cart companies manufacture their vehicles in China, including No. 1 Marshell Electric Vehicle Co.; No. 10 EVT is in Thailand. If Trump is able to implement his anti-import trade proposals, including a 45% tariff on goods imported from China and a 35% tariff on Mexican goods, it could hit the American sporting goods industry especially hard, and may even curtail sports leagues’ expansion into Asia. Time will tell if the new President’s tough talk on trade will pan out – as a businessman with complex golf resort ties around the world, he may take a step back and reconsider some of the ramifications of his proposed policies, on sports and elsewhere.
The San Diego Chargers are officially moving to Los Angeles. The Southern California city that had no NFL teams last year will soon boast two teams for the foreseeable future. According to SportsBusiness Journal, Chargers Chain Dean Spanos made the official announcement that his team will be moving to L.A. beginning with the 2017 season. The Chargers will play their home games at Carson’s StubHub Center, which can hold only 30,000 spectators. That marks a massive downgrade in size from Qualcomm Stadium, representing the NFL’s smallest stadium by a longshot even with upgrades. The team passed up on using the Rose Bowl as a home, though they will join the Los Angeles Rams in their new $2.6 billion stadium in Inglewood upon completion. The Chargers "will change its logo to feature the letters L and A, arranged similarly" to the Dodgers' logo. It also will "have a lightning bolt." Franchise musical chairs is almost over – at least for now. Chargers economics dictate that a share of a larger pot of revenue in Los Angeles is better than more time and effort chasing stadium projects by themselves. Now, it is the Raiders turn to take center stage.
As the dust settles on the San Diego Chargers announcement that they are moving to Los Angeles, attention now focuses on the market they’re leaving behind. What will the day to day impact be on a Charger-less city? While the game day economic impact will mostly be felt by stadium-adjacent small businesses like bars and restaurants, parking facilities, and Uber drivers, the biggest hits will likely affect the region’s nonprofits, and tourism sales. Despite the knocks it is taking for current franchise relocations, the NFL tries to be a good corporate citizen. The NFL Foundation hands out millions of dollars each year through its Play 60 Challenge, “A Crucial Catch“ American Cancer Society partnership, and individual player foundation grants. In San Diego, the Chargers have contributed or facilitated about $13 million to local charities, including providing 1.3 million meals to the San Diego Food Bank and helping the San Diego Blood Bank save 200,000 lives through blood drives. As for tourism, “I can’t pay for that kind of exposure,” Tourism Authority CEO Joe Terzi told the Union-Tribune, referring to the beauty shots of sparkling beaches and sunny skies during televised Chargers games. Bottom line: the intangible benefits of having an NFL team in your city matter much more than season ticket sales and naming rights deals.
The pro tennis circuit goes Down Under this week, and for American fans, it might be time to Sock It to Me. Young Nebraskan Jack Sock, 24, just won his second career title in New Zealand – one of the run up tournaments to the Australian Open beginning on Monday – has amassed $4.8 million in prize money. Ranked No. 20, Sock needs only three wins in Melbourne to supplant No. 19 John Isner as the highest-ranking American on the ATP Tour. On the women’s side, all eyes are still on Serena Williams, as she continues her race against Father Time and off-court distractions like her burgeoning fashion career and just-announced engagement. The tennis calendar’s first Major has raised its total prize money purse to $36.2 million (AU$50 million), "continuing the tournament’s stunning growth," according to the Melbourne Herald Sun. Both the men's and women's singles champions will receive a record $2.7 million -- an increase of $218,000 -- while "first-round losers will walk away" with almost $36,000 each, up more than $8,000 from 2016. Prize money has been boosted by 14% overall. More good news – according to the Physical Activity Council, U.S. tennis participation has increased to 17.9 million players, up 1% from 2013, meaning a slightly bigger pool from which to farm much-needed future American stars.
In a unanimous decision, FIFA has voted to expand the World Cup field from 32 to 48 teams starting in 2026. According to the London Independent, the new format will feature 16 groups of three teams “that sees the top two qualify for a knockout round of 32.” This replaces the current format that sees the top two teams from all eight groups advance to the round of 16. The 2026 World Cup is likely to be hosted in North America, with the United States, Canada, and Mexico preparing to submit a joint bid. The plans will see the total number of games "increase from 64 to 80," and the new format is expected to generate around $1 billion extra for the governing body from the World Cup alone. Critics of this move slam FIFA President Gianna Infantino for making a “selfish move” to deepen his personal pockets as well as those of everyone else in soccer’s main governing body. While any tinkering has its critics, kudos to Infantino for attempting to “shake up” the World Cup format – and also to increase global participation on an unprecedented scale.
Carl Edwards stunned the racing world with his decision to retire and “pursue other interests outside of driving,” according to Foxsports.com. Edwards will not compete in the upcoming 2017 season and will be replaced by Daniel Suarez, who won the Xfinity Series championship last year. Over his illustrious 13-year career, Edwards won 28 Cup races and “might be the best driver of this generation to never win a NASCAR Premier Series championship.” NASCAR insiders figured that the 37-year-old was good for at least 5-10 more years competing on the track, hence the “totally shocked” reaction by the motor sports community. "Carl Edwards is the type of guy that once he’s done with racing, he’ll probably never, ever delve into any type of racing….The sport takes a step back without guys like Carl Edwards. We need more Carl Edwards-type individuals in racing,” said Brad Daugherty, co-Owner of JTG Daugherty Racing. Another example of an athlete walking away in his prime for reasons other than money and fame. Good for Edwards to focus on other endeavors as he moves forward.
A new economic study commissioned by LA 2024 reveals that hosting the Summer Olympics is Los Angeles could generate as much as $11.2 billion in economic output for the city. According to the Orange County Register, the analysis done by Beacon Economics and the UC Riverside School of Business Center for Economic Forecasting & Development shows that the LA 2024 Olympics could create up to “79,307 jobs” and between $152-$167 million in additional tax revenues in the city. The analysis “projected 3.3 million visitors would attend” the Games, with the average visitor “staying in the city 5.5 days and spending an average of $230.07 per day.” While these studies are often a bit exaggerated, a huge selling point for Los Angeles’ hopeful bid to land the Olympics is that the city plans on using existing arenas and stadiums throughout the Southern California area. Some question these “civic studies,” arguing they are self-serving. For the most part, this one reflects the tremendous economic potential that the Games will have for the region. Most studies also ignore the positive branding, public relations, and international awareness benefits that come to a region after hosting a two-week mega event.
While our recent spate of bad winter weather has caused millions of dollars in damage and travel nightmares for the general public and stranded sports teams alike, it’s a ray of profit sunshine for the winter sports industry. The mounds of fresh powder piling up in California and Nevada ski resorts – more than 20 feet of new snow in some areas – ski resorts are seeing visitor numbers 5-10% higher than the same time last season. And those prime ski conditions are extending across the country, according to the National Ski Area Association, a trade group for the $3 billion industry. Ski resorts in California and Nevada reported 7.25 million skier and snowboarder visits during the 2015-2016 season, a huge jump over the 4.4 million the previous season. This year will see even more visitors, but they’ll be paying higher prices: Vail Resorts Epic Pass, which offers full season access to Vail resorts nationwide, will cost you $809 this season, a 5% increase over last year. While every snow cloud has a silver lining, resort operators wouldn’t stand to profit as much on Mother Nature’s bounty if they hadn’t focused on “the fan experience” every bit as much as their more mainstream sports peers.
The San Francisco 49ers are suing Santa Clara after the city claimed that the team violated its contract. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the 49ers have invited auditors to Levi’s Stadium to review documents with the intention of proving the accusations to be false. The “team wants a judge to settle the score by requiring the city to sign documents verifying no breaches occurred.” The legal battle between the 49ers and Santa Clara has been going on for months now, but this lawsuit marks an escalation in tensions between both sides. The lawsuit states the Stadium Authority has "embarked on a scheme to concoct and fabricate false accusations of breach or nonperformance…to create a pretext for terminating the Stadium Management Agreement.” This dispute originally started when Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor “suspected taxpayer dollars were being spent on the venue in violation of the voter-approved Measure J.” While the stadium continues to bring in significant international events such as the Super Bowl and major soccer festivals, the parties continue to litigate over emotional “performance” issues. Hopefully, they can be resolved quickly in order to focus on the bigger picture.
The New England Revolution have been in search of a soccer-specific home stadium in Boston for years now, but a final plan stills appears to be out of sight. According to the Boston Globe, Revolution Owner Robert Kraft’s effort to settle down and build in Rochester is “all but dead,” as the Boston Teachers Union will not budge on their land. The union is reluctant to give up the 2.7 acres that their headquarters has called home for four decades, which has stunted Kraft’s plans. The union is “asking for a deal that Kraft…thinks is too rich.” Kraft “needs about 10 acres for his stadium, and much of that would come from UMass.” But the stadium “doesn’t work without Kraft taking over the adjacent property, too.” The union is asking for at least $15.7 million in cash to settle the issue. Kraft “wants a soccer stadium in Boston, but not if it feels like he’s being ripped off.” The Kraft family has looked long and hard for appropriate stadium solutions, using the successful model of Foxborough/Gillette Stadium/Patriot Place as a guide. Hopefully, something can be done quickly.
As the Atlanta Falcons prepare for the AFC Conference Championship, Atlanta Hawks General Manager Wes Wilcox is being disciplined after making a “racially charged joke” during a season-ticket holder event last month. According to ESPN.com, the unspecified disciplinary action came from within. Deadspin initially reported that Wilcox responded to a few challenging questions from attendees by saying he had “a black wife and three mixed kids, so I’m used to being angry and argumentative.” The team conducted an internal investigation following the comments and concluded that Wilcox in fact did not use the worlds “angry” and “argumentative,” but did mention race. Hawks Senior Vice President/Community and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Nzinga Shaw said, "…I am not convinced that what we heard and read in Deadspin is a direct quote…Wes, however, certainly did make his off-color statement, which included elements of describing his wife's race…We certainly do not approve of this behavior and we are going to handle this manner internally." Sensitivity rules the day, and those dealing with the ticket buying public should be held to a much higher standard. This is especially the case with a team fighting for its rightful market share and competing with two new stadiums opening within the next year.
South Korea has announced that it will spend approximately $780 million to prepare for next year’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Paralympics. According to the Korea Times, this number comes from the country’s Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism, as the governing body is setting up for South Korea’s first-ever Winter Olympics. Most of these expenses will be used to support “operational preparations, national team athletes’ training and facility construction.” South Korea is heavily investing in its athletes for the 2018 Olympics, as “it will pay for overseas training for athletes, recruit more foreign coaches and help secure more time for the athletes to train in the Olympic facilities.” The largest portion of the budget, approximately $608.3 million, has been allocated for construction of facilities. The overall spending budget for the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism has been reduced “following the revision of laws that allow the organizers to pursue various business activities and receive tax benefits.” All Olympic cities are acutely aware that they will be evaluated on budget performance, as well as overall legacy. Will the South Korea Games be more like the successes of London, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Sydney; or will they be evaluated in a lesser light like Sochi, Athens, and Beijing?
The San Jose Sharks have a new ticket pricing guide: sales history. According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, the Sharks are “now able to research the sales history and current demand for each individual seat at the SAP Center.” The team has used row-by-row data historically, but has since found that seat-by-seat data is far more accurate to appropriately price seats. This season’s 16 different available ticket prices will jump up to 32 different price levels for next season, and price increases will be nearly universal around the SAP Center. The biggest price hikes will be for Premium Glass seats, which sold for between “$137 and $222 per game last season.” Those same seats will go for between $300 and $400 next year” under the new pricing model. The SAP Center can accommodate up to 17,562 spectators, making it one of the smallest arenas in the NHL. As usual, SAP Center leads the way in technological and market innovation. Using the parent company’s vision and business acumen, the building now has added ammunition with which to appeal to consumers and maneuver in a highly competitive market.
MLB’s push to create more African American pitcher and catcher prospects may pay off this year with high school pitcher Hunter Greene “projected to be the first player chosen” in the MLB draft. Greene, a 6-4, 205-pound right hand pitcher, currently attends Notre Dame High School in Los Angeles. MLB's African-American population is "hovering around 8%." If drafted at the top of the class this June, Greene would become the first right-handed high-school pitcher to be selected No. 1 overall. There were “only 14 African-American pitchers on opening day rosters last year – 1.6% of all major-league pitchers.” "If you see a guy like Hunter become a really high pick as a pitcher, I’d be thrilled,” said MLB VP/Youth & Facility Development and Director of MLB's Urban Youth Academy Darrell Miller. “Talking about it is one thing, but seeing guys come through the academies, and the impact he could have on the mound, it gives these kids a vehicle, knowing there’s a chance.” The success of diversity programs must be evaluated with patience, deliberation, and long-term vision. This is one of those cases. Look for increased and consistent talent payoff in the times ahead.
Budding high school football players now have an alternative to attending college for three years before turning pro: Pacific Pro Football. According to the Washington Post, this upstart league offers players “a salary and instruction they feel is lacking in the college game.” NFL agent Don Yee, who serves as Pac Pro CEO, said that the goal is to “give young prospects a professional outlet to prepare for the NFL.” The league launches in the “midst of a growing debate about amateurism and a college model that rewards student-athletes with scholarships but not salaries.” While the NFL has shown interest in starting a developmental league, Pacific Pro is not affiliated with the NFL at all. Games will take place in smaller stadiums, “perhaps at a community college or a Division III college campus.” If the first season goes according to plan, the league hopes to expand into Northern California and potentially, the Midwest. Interesting concept that identifies an underutilized niche in the market. The league has been in the planning stages for a while, reflecting the deliberate business approach of its founders. After the WFL, USFL, and World League of American Football, the sporting public may be looking forward to another fresh alternative. It has certainly been a long time since the last one.
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Juan Giménez: 1943-2020
Legendary artist Juan Giménez passed away on April 2nd, 2020 in his home province of Mendoza, Argentina from COVID-19 complications. Giménez leaves behind an astounding legacy of story and art, notably his work with Alejandro Jodorowsky on The Metabarons starting in 1992.
“It was the middle of a sunny day of 1991 in Paris,” Humanoids CEO Fabrice Giger recalls. “I remember clearly the sparks that suddenly appeared in Juan’s eyes, while he was listening to Jodorowsky pitching him The Metabarons. I knew then that Alejandro had won him to the cause, but I didn’t fully realize that their combined genius was about to produce the most formidable space opera ever told in comic-book form.”
“I closely collaborated with Juan Giménez for 10 years and together, we created The Metabarons saga,” said writer Alejandro Jodorowsky. “What facilitated my task as we offered him to work on the complex world of the Metabarons was that he already embodied the immortal No-Name, the last Metabaron. In my unconscious, Juan Giménez cannot die. He will continue on, drawing like the master warrior that he was.”
Spanning eight books released through 2003, The Metabarons expands the mythos of the titular character from the pages of Jodorowsky and Mœbius’ The Incal, introducing a legacy of near-immortal galactic warriors. Harmonizing with Jodorowsky, Giménez brought a profound weight and emotional realism through his lush, expansive art. No concept—from cybernetic implants to sprawling planets made of marble—fell outside of his master vision. His uncanny talent of contrasting dense machinery and mammoth ships against lost souls navigating immense conflicts cemented Giménez as an internationally beloved figure.
“I closely collaborated with Juan Giménez for 10 years. Together, we created The Metabarons saga,” Jodorowsky reflects. “What facilitated my task as we offered him to work on the complex world of the Metabarons was that he already embodied the immortal No-Name, the last Metabaron. In my unconscious, Juan Giménez cannot die. He will continue on, drawing like the master warrior that he was.”
Giménez began his journey in Argentina drawing for such comic book publishers as Colomba and Record before segueing to Spanish magazines Zona 84 and Comix International. His first French release, 1979’s Leo Roa (also published under the title The Starr Conspiracy), detailed the comedic adventures of a planet-hopping journalist. A year later he served as a creative designer on the film Heavy Metal, working on the segment “Harry Canyon.” He would spend the next decade contributing to the French genre magazine Métal Hurlant as well as the Italian publication L’Eternauta among others.
His 1991 work, The Fourth Power, foreshadowed The Metabarons with a teeming, violent universe, following a military pilot as she discovers her identity throughout a cosmic war and betrayal. More recently, Giménez collaborated with authors including Carlos Trillo, Emilio Balcarce, and Roberto Dal Prà.
Giménez is internationally recognized for his work, winning The Yellow Kid Award for Best Foreign Artist at the 1990 Lucca International Comic Fair as well as the Gaudia award at the Feria Internacional del Comics de Barcelone that same year. Other accolades include the 1994 Bulle D’Or.
“There are many artists who are adored by their fans, but only a select few are equally revered by their peers,” said Humanoids U.S. Publisher Mark Waid. “Juan Giménez was the latter, able to give us not only epic moments of space opera but subtle and moving moments of humanity. Worldwide, the comics community mourns for him.”
Exploring the stars will be infinitely more lonely without this luminary talent and incredible human being. Rest in peace, Juan.
Humanoids on the passing of legendary comics artist Juan Giménez from complications from COVID-19 Juan Giménez: 1943-2020 Legendary artist Juan Giménez passed away on April 2nd, 2020 in his home province of Mendoza, Argentina from COVID-19 complications.
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As for the hype, it followed the money and attracted more of it. The publishing moguls Henry Luce and Gardner Cowles Jr. conceived of themselves as fighting a battle of ideas, as they contrasted the American way of life with the gray Soviet nightmare on the pages of their newspapers and glossy magazines. Luce published Time and Life, Cowles published Look and several Midwestern newspapers, and both loved to feature Iowa: its embodiment of literary individualism, its celebration of self-expression, its cornfields.
Knowing he could count on such publicity, Engle staged spectacles in Iowa City for audiences far beyond Iowa City. He read memorial sonnets for the Iowa war dead at a dedication ceremony for the new student union. He convened a celebration of Baudelaire with an eye toward the non-Communist left in Paris. He organized a festival of the sciences and arts. Life and Time and Look transformed these events into impressive press clippings, and the clippings, via Engle’s tireless hands, arrived in the mailboxes of possible donors.
In 1954, Engle became the editor of the O. Henry Prize collection, and so it became his task to select the year’s best short stories and introduce them to a mass readership. Lo and behold, writers affiliated with Iowa began to be featured with great prominence in the collection. Engle marveled at this, the impartial fruits of his judging, in fund-raising pitches.
The Iowa Workshop, then, attained national eminence by capitalizing on the fears and hopes of the Cold War. But the creative-writing programs founded in Iowa’s image did not, in this respect, resemble it. No other program would be so celebrated on the glossy pages of Look and Life. No other program would receive an initial burst of underwriting from Maytag and U.S. Steel and Quaker Oats and Reader’s Digest. No other program would attract such interest from the Asia Foundation, the State Department, and the CIA. And the anticlimax of the creative-writing enterprise must derive at least in part from this difference.
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These first three categories were the acceptable ones. But Category 4 involved writing things that in the eyes of the workshop appeared weird and unsuccessful—that fell outside the community of norms, that tried too hard. The prevailing term for ambitious pieces that didn’t fit was "postmodernism." The term was a kind of smackdown. Submitting a "postmodern" story was like belching in class.
But what is a postmodern story? In those years, Robinson was already in the Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Fiction, as were Jayne Anne Phillips (alumna) and Bobbie Ann Mason, model citizens of the M.F.A. nation. Joy Williams and Stuart Dybek were certainly not Victorians nor modernists nor best sellers. What was it that you weren’t supposed to do?
At the time I considered Freud and Rabelais my favorite novelists. Later I understood that I was being annoying. But I thought then, and still think now, that the three-headed Iowa canon frustrated as much as satisfied a hunger for literature that got you thinking. Iowa fiction, published and unpublished, got you feeling—it got you seeing and tasting and touching and smelling and hearing. It was like going to an arboretum with a child. You want exactly that from life, and also more.
People at Iowa love to love Prairie Lights, the local independent bookstore. In Prairie Lights I found myself overwhelmed by the literature of the senses and the literature of the quirky sensing voice. I wanted heavy books from a bunch of different disciplines: on hermeneutics, on monetary policy, on string theory, on psychoanalysis, on the Gospels, on the strange war between analytic and Continental philosophers, on sexual pathology. I was 23. I knew I wanted to write a novel of ideas, a novel of systems, but one also with characters, and also heart—a novel comprising everything, not just how icicles broken from church eaves on winter afternoons taste of asphalt (but that, too). James Wood did not yet loom over everything, but I wanted to make James Wood barf. At Prairie Lights, I would have felt much better buying the work of Nathan Englander (alum) if it had been next to that of Friedrich Engels. I felt there how I feel in bars that serve only wine and beer.
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What was he talking about? He probably didn’t know exactly. Soon Engle would make the Communist conversion; soon after, he would convert back. His youthful exuberance could fit itself to the ideology nearest at hand. Sway, image, ethos, and glory attracted him: the raw power of words. In American Song, in 1934, when he was still a darling of the conservatives, he envisioned the American poet launching poetry into the sky like a weapon:
What did this even mean? It meant that the poetic and the public, the personal and the national, could still fuse in the right words. It was a dream that, after 1939, would vanish almost as quickly as Communism in America.
When Engle got back from England, the figure of T.S. Eliot—his hard poems, his oblique criticism, his antagonism to dialectical materialism—had long since embarked on its path to ascendancy on American campuses. The United States, the last power standing, would need some high culture of its own, and Eliot set the tone. The New Critics, his handmaidens, were waiting to infiltrate the old English faculties.
Within 10 years, modernism would win an unadulterated victory, and difficult free verse would sit alongside epics and sonnets on the syllabi. The day would belong to Robert Lowell, writing as a latter-day metaphysical. Engle—in his commitment to soaring iambic lines, to the legacy of Stephen Vincent Benét, to the open idiom that had so recently remained viable—would look like a has-been.
But it was not in Engle’s character to stand still or look back. His gut told him something that most educated citizens would have to learn from sociologists: that the postwar era belonged to institutions. The unit of power was no longer the great man but the vast bureaucracy. Eliot’s "The Waste Land" had satirized the bold lyrical speaker; that voice now sounded hushed, tiny, tragically diminished, none of which appealed to a mind as brawny and sunny as Engle’s. The unit of power was no longer the poem.
But it could be the poet as a concept, a figure, a living symbol—and therefore, implicitly, the institution that handled and housed the poet. Engle began working long hours at Iowa. His new poems, when he wrote them, merely burnished his credentials as an administrator, patriot, and family man. Many were sonnets, earnestly passé, and his audience included political patrons, present or prospective. (The politician W. Averell Harriman received flattering sonnets; after Kennedy was assassinated, and despite the advice of candid, unimpressed first readers, Jackie Kennedy received memorial verses.) Between the mid-1940s and the early 1960s, Engle transformed the Writers’ Workshop from a regional curiosity into a national landmark. The fiery spear-shaft of American song would take the form of an academic discipline. The fund-raising began.
Engle constantly invoked the need to bring foreign writers to Iowa so they could learn to love America. That was the key to raising money. If intellectuals from Seoul and Manila and Bangladesh could write and be read and live well-housed with full stomachs amid beautiful cornfields and unrivaled civil liberties, they would return home fighting for our side. This was what Engle told Midwestern businessmen, and Midwestern businessmen wrote big checks.
Engle borrowed tactics from the CIA long before their check arrived in 1967. At the time, the agency sponsored literature and fine arts abroad through the Congress for Cultural Freedom to convince the non-Communist left in Britain and Europe that America was about more than Mickey Mouse and Coca-Cola. The CCF underwrote Encounter magazine and subsidized subscriptions to American literary journals for intellectuals in the Eastern bloc. Some of the CIA guys were old Iowa graduates from the early 1950s—including the novelists John Hunt and Robie Macauley—and Engle probably first connected with the CIA through Hunt.
By the mid-1960s, Engle had grown remote from the domestic workshop, and so lost control of it. He let it go its own way and founded the International Writing Program with the help of the Chinese novelist Hualing Nieh, who would become his second wife. In retrospective accounts, Engle presented this founding as a sudden idea, a spontaneously good one. But it marked the culmination of the logic of 20 years of dreaming.
...
What did Conroy assault us in service of? He wanted literary craft to be a pyramid. He drew a pyramid on the blackboard and divided it with horizontal lines. The long stratum at the base was grammar and syntax, which he called "Meaning, Sense, Clarity." The next layer, shorter and higher, comprised the senses that prose evoked: what you tasted, touched, heard, smelled, and saw. Then came character, then metaphor. This is from memory: I can’t remember the pyramid exactly, and maybe Conroy changed it each time. What I remember for sure is that everything above metaphor Conroy referred to as "the fancy stuff." At the top was symbolism, the fanciest of all. You worked from the broad and basic to the rarefied and abstract.
Although you could build a pyramid without an apex, it was anathema to leave an apex hovering and foundationless. I’ll switch metaphors, slightly, since Conroy did too. The last thing you wanted was a castle in the air. A castle in the air was a bad story. There was a ground, the realm of the body, and up from it rose the fiction that worked. Conroy presented these ideas as timeless wisdom.
His delivery was one of a kind, but his ideas were not. They were and are the prevailing wisdom. Within today’s M.F.A. culture, the worst thing an aspiring writer can do is bring to the table a certain ambitiousness of preconception. All the handbooks say so. "If your central motive as a writer is to put across ideas," the writer Steve Almond says, "write an essay." The novelist and critic Stephen Koch warns that writers should not be too intellectual. "The intellect can understand a story—but only the imagination can tell it. Always prefer the concrete to the abstract. At this stage it is better to see the story, to hear and to feel it, than to think it."
Since the 1980s, the textbook most widely assigned in American creative-writing classes has been Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction. Early editions (there are now eight) dared students to go ahead and try to write a story based on intellectual content—a political, religious, scientific, or moral idea—rather than the senses and contingent experience. Such a project "is likely to produce a bad story. If it produces a bad story, it will be invaluably instructive to you, and you will be relieved of the onus of ever doing it again. If it produces a good story, then you have done something else, something more, and something more original than the assignment asks for." The logic is impeccably circular: If you proceed from an idea, you’ll write a bad story; if the story’s good, you weren’t proceeding from an idea, even if you thought you were.
...
Why has the approach endured and thrived? Of course, it’s more than brute inertia; when institutions outlive their animating ideologies, they get converted to new purposes. Over the past 40 years, creative writing’s small-is-beautiful approach has served it well, as measured by the discipline’s explosive growth while most of its humanities counterparts shrink and cower. The reasons for this could fill many essays.
For one thing, creative writing has successfully embedded itself in the university by imitating other disciplines without treading on their ground. A pyramid resembles a pedagogy—it’s fungible, and easy to draw on the board. Introductory math and physics professors like to draw diagrams too, a welcome analogy for a discipline wishing both to establish itself as teachable and to lengthen its reach into the undergraduate curriculum, where a claim of pure writerly exceptionalism won’t cut it.
Specialization is also crucial, both for credibility’s sake and to avoid invading neighboring fiefdoms, and today’s creative-writing department specializes in sensory and biographical memory. The safest material is that which the philosophers and economists and sociologists have no claim on, such as how icicles broken from church eaves on winter afternoons taste of asphalt.
And it’s easier to teach "Meaning, Sense, Clarity" than old literature and intellectual history. Pyramid building fosters the hope that we can arrive at the powerful symbol of a white whale, not by thinking it up ahead of time, but by mastering the sensory details of whaling. "Don’t allegorize Calvinism," Conroy could have barked at me, "describe a harpoon and a dinghy!"
The thing to lament is not only that we have a bunch of novels about harpoons and dinghies (or suburbs or bad marriages or road trips or offices in New York). The thing to lament is also the dead end of isolation that comes from describing the dead end of isolation—and from using vibrant literary communities to foster this phenomenon. In our workshops, we simply accept it as true that larger structures of common interest have been destroyed by the atomizing forces of economy and ideology, and what’s left to do is be faithful to the needs of the sentence.
To have read enough to feel the oceanic movement of events and ideas in history; to have experienced enough to escape the confines of a personal provincialism; to have distanced yourself enough from your hang-ups and pettiness to create words reflecting the emotional complexity of minds beyond your own; to have worked with language long enough to be able to wield it beautifully; and to have genius enough to find dramatic situations that embody all that you have lived and read, is rare. It’s not something that every student of creative writing—in the hundreds of programs up and running these days—is going to pull off. Maybe one person a decade will pull it off. Maybe one person every half century will really pull it off.
Of course, we live in an age that cringes at words like "greatness"—and also at the notion that we’re not all great. But ages that didn’t cringe at greatness produced great writing without creative-writing programs. And people who attend creative-writing programs for the most part wish to write great things. It’s sick to ask them to aspire but not to aspire too much. An air of self-doubt permeates the discipline, showing up again and again as the question, "Can writing be taught?"
Faced with this question, teachers of creative writing might consider adopting (as a few, of course, already do) a defiant rather than resigned attitude, doing more than supervising the building of the bases of pyramids. They might try to get beyond the senses. Texts worth reading—worth reading now, and worth reading 200 years from now—coordinate the personal with the national or international; they embed the instant in the instant’s full context and long history. It’s what the Odyssey does and what Middlemarch does and what Invisible Man does and what Jonathan Franzen’s and Marilynne Robinson’s recent novels try to do. But to write like this, you’re going to have to spend some time thinking.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Iowa-Flattened-Literature/144531
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