Welcome to Book Beat!
Book Beat aims to highlight other books that we may hear about through friends, social media, or other sources. We could see a gorgeous ad! Or find a new-to-us author on a list of underrated romances! Think of Book Beat as Teen Beat or Tiger Beat, but for books. And no staples to open to get the fold-out poster.
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Four Weddings to Fall in Love
Author: Jackie Lau
Released: July 25, 2023 by Jackie Lau Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Series: Weddings with the Moks #1Max Mok has four weddings to attend this year…
When I meet Kim Sung at a friend’s wedding, I don’t make the first move. God, no. But she’s delightful and gorgeous, and she asks me to dance. Later, we go to her hotel room and…
Okay, I admit it doesn’t go well. She might be all about one-night stands, but I’m not used to having them.
That should be the end of it. I can forget about her or, more likely, obsess about it whenever I can’t sleep.
But then I see her at a second wedding. Apparently, she’s a family friend of my cousins. All three of them are getting married this summer, and she’ll also be at the next two weddings, along with her parents.
Kim is even more beautiful than last time, and I really want the chance to prove I’m not a complete disaster in bed. I also want to take her on an actual date, but she has no interest in dating anyone.
More than anything, though, I need to avoid her because I’m too embarrassed to hold a conversation, and my brothers have found out about my unfortunate one-night stand.
Oh, no. She’s coming this way. What do I do?
New Jackie Lau alert!
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The Privilege of Play
Author: Aaron Trammell
Released: April 18, 2023 by NYU Press
Genre: NonfictionThe story of white masculinity in geek culture through a history of hobby gaming
Geek culture has never been more mainstream than it is now, with the ever-increasing popularity of events like Comic Con, transmedia franchising of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, market dominance of video and computer games, and the resurgence of board games such as Settlers of Catan and role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Yet even while the comic book and hobby shops where the above are consumed today are seeing an influx of BIPOC gamers, they remain overwhelmingly white, male, and heterosexual.The Privilege of Play contends that in order to understand geek identity’s exclusionary tendencies, we need to know the history of the overwhelmingly white communities of tabletop gaming hobbyists that preceded it. It begins by looking at how the privileged networks of model railroad hobbyists in the early twentieth century laid a cultural foundation for the scenes that would grow up around war games, role-playing games, and board games in the decades ahead. These early networks of hobbyists were able to thrive because of how their leisure interests and professional ambitions overlapped. Yet despite the personal and professional strides made by individuals in these networks, the networks themselves remained cloistered and homogeneous—the secret playgrounds of white men.
Aaron Trammell catalogs how gaming clubs composed of lonely white men living in segregated suburbia in the sixties, seventies and eighties developed strong networks through hobbyist publications and eventually broke into the mainstream. He shows us how early hobbyists considered themselves outsiders, and how the denial of white male privilege they established continues to define the socio-technical space of geek culture today. By considering the historical role of hobbyists in the development of computer technology, game design, and popular media, The Privilege of Play charts a path toward understanding the deeply rooted structural obstacles that have stymied a more inclusive community. The Privilege of Play concludes by considering how digital technology has created the conditions for a new and more diverse generation of geeks to take center stage.
Non-fiction about tabletop gaming nerdery, especially as it relates to race.
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Solomon’s Crown
Author: Natasha Siegel
Released: March 14, 2023 by Dell
Genre: Historical: European, LGBTQIA, RomanceTwo rival kings fall desperately in love—but the fate of medieval Europe hangs in the balance.
Twelfth-century Europe. Newly crowned King Philip of France is determined to restore his nation to its former empire and bring glory to his name. But when his greatest enemy, King Henry of England, threatens to end his reign before it can even begin, Philip is forced to make a precarious alliance with Henry’s volatile son—risking both his throne, and his heart.
Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, never thought he would be king. But when an unexpected tragedy makes him heir to England’s royal seat, he finally has an opportunity to overthrow the father he despises. At first, Philip is a useful tool in his quest for vengeance . . . until passion and politics collide, and Richard begins to question whether the crown is worth the cost.
When Philip and Richard find themselves staring down an impending war, they must choose between their desire for each other and their grand ambitions. Will their love prevail if it calls to them from across the battlefield? Teeming with royal intrigue and betrayal, this epic romance reimagines two real-life kings ensnared by an impossible Follow their hearts, or earn their place in history.
Sarah popped this one into the Slack since it’s in the wheelhouse for a couple of our reviewers. Historical fiction mixed with a queer rivals romance.
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Tonight, I Burn
Author: Katharine Adams
Released: November 7, 2023 by Orbit
Genre: LGBTQIA, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Thorn Witch #1Thorns, Tides, Embers, Storms, and Ores. All five covens are bound in servitude to the tyrant High Warden of Halstett.
Penny Albright is a daughter of the thorn coven, forced to patrol the veil between the realms of Life and Death, keeping it safe and whole. Each night, one thorn witch—and only one—must cross the veil by burning at the stake. Each morning, that witch returns with the help of their magical lifeline. Failure to follow the rules of Death risks them all.
But one morning, Penny’s favorite sister Ella doesn’t return. And that night, determined to find her, Penny breaks the rules. She burns in secret.
What she finds in Death is a manor that shouldn’t exist, home to the devastating Lord Malin, who shouldn’t be there. Malin offers Penny a dangerous deal: Ella’s freedom in exchange for information about the High Warden.
But all isn’t as it seems in Life or Death. Penny’s bargain leads her to Alice, a mysterious captive prophet… and to a rebellion brewing in the shadows of their city. And as Penny’s world splits between her growing love for the ethereal Alice in Life and her attraction to the seductive Malin, in Death, she’ll face a devastating choice.
Because it’s not just her sister’s life that hangs in the balance. It’s the fate of all magic.
All it takes is one witch—and one spark—to set the world ablaze.
This one has had its release date pushed back, but queer fantasy witches are always of interest to the Bitchery.
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Oooh THE PRIVILEGE OF PLAY sounds fascinating. I feel like I’ve spent most of my life adjacent to a lot of this specific type of nerdery (I say this with love and affection) while not actually being fully in it. I have my own related nerdery with history and creativity but gaming isn’t my thing. I hung out with a group of D & D people in college and I married into a game loving family. It sounds like this articulates something that I’ve sensed and never been able to articulate well. I’ve always known gamers who *weren’t* white men, but they seemed to be swimming upstream to get to the same place other gamers already were.
I don’t think I will read THE PRIVILEGE OF PLAY, but damn if that blurb doesn’t shed some helpful light on Gamergate. (For anyone who missed that internet episode, it was “integrity in gaming” used as a shield for virulent misogyny.)
Jackie Lau is a one-click author for me! Excited.
This presumably isn’t going to be a problem for everyone, but speaking as someone who is always extremely excited for queer historical romances, Solomon’s Crown is a hard no. Because y’all, it’s Phillip II. As a protagonist. The Albigensian Crusade Phillip II.
And the book tries to be like no no, he’s not that guy he’s not, y’know, genocidal or anything, no no just a totally different king – who’s got the name and title and history and privileges at the same time and everything is exactly the same except – he’s cool. And! Paired with Richard the Lionheart, only ditto, not actually historical dirtbag Richard, except for all the ways he’s definitely him.
I suspect that the Venn diagrams of people who know stuff about history and people who like historical novels have to wind up overlapping a bunch. Like I don’t know a ton about that era, at all, but if you know anything about Phillip II at all, it’s atrocities, right? I love AU but I can’t be the only one who was just not able to get around it. Like if you’re going to make them different guys, give them different names for pity’s sake.