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Today’s edition of SFF Daily Deals is sponsored by DFJonesAuthor.com. 

The best YA ebook deals of the week, handpicked by Book Riot and sponsored by ThriftBooks. 

How did we get here? Who are the key players, and why is Russia so intent on undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty? As you may imagine, it’s been a long, blood-soaked road. There are several internet articles that ably break down the historical and political factors that led to the current crisis. This Vox article covers the region’s contentious history up to 2014, and Al-Jazeera has neatly summarized the recent developments — though the fast-moving nature of the crisis means that it will probably be out of date by the time you read this....

I had the incredible opportunity to talk to a few BookTubers of color who are making positive changes to the book community. Here, they shared their thoughts about the importance of diverse representation in literature while also sharing some stories that gave them the representation and validation they’ve been searching for. Vanessa: vynexa https://youtu.be/r6elB_nPJLU “Representation should be like looking in the mirror, not like looking at someone’s portrait multiple times a day, every day....

— Casey: This was my choice, so I’ll start. I read (and loved) Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One last year, so You, by Austin Grossman, (a video game mystery) seemed like my kind of book. And it was, at times… but I didn’t like this book as much as I thought I would. What did you think? Marisa: First off, I don’t want anyone to assume I didn’t like this book because it was about video games....

Even with the recent reboots to the Godzilla and Universal Monsters franchises, a lot of folks out there still seem to think that monsters aren’t scary or cool. Maybe that’s because we’ve grown up in a post–Lon Chaney world, so we tend to collectively think that all monsters are about as scary as the “Monster Mash.” If you’re in this camp, then allow me to make this argument: If monsters weren’t scary, and if monsters weren’t cool, then Guillermo del Toro would be out of a job....

I can’t say I’m surprised. But I am creeped out a little, and a bit underwhelmed. So maybe DC is working at lowering the bar so as to wow us? My brother has been arguing that Marvel overall makes better content than DC. Never mind that we grew up on WB 39’s Batman and Superman show blocks. It would help, however, if DC films overall took pages from the MCU and focused on expanding their roots rather than trying to grab for dollars....

The new exhilarating romance from The New York Times bestselling author of The Proposal, a Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick! We have 5 copies of The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory to give away to 5 Riot readers! Just complete the form below to enter. This sweepstakes is open to residents of Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec). Entries will be accepted until 11:45pm, June 23, 2019....

But then, inevitably, the war ended. They could have artificially extended the war, MAS*H style, but Americans were sick of reading about it by now. Sales of superhero comics dropped while romance, horror, and teen comics surged. All superheroes struggled, but none more so than the Sentinel of Liberty. What was a Nazi fighter to do with no Nazis to fight? Growing Pains Cap and his faithful sidekick, Bucky, limped along for a few years, fighting the expected slew of gangsters and goofy supervillains, and repeatedly saving Cap’s not-girlfriend, a government investigator (later reporter) named—wait for it—Betsy Ross....

For some reason, I don’t remember Eric Carle as part of my childhood at all. My infancy/toddlerhood/early childhood was in the early 1980s, and when I think back to the books I remember, or look at pictures, Carle and his books just don’t show up. I’m not sure I was even familiar with him until college or graduate school, when I would babysit for various families. Without fail, there would be a stack of Carle board books or picture books to read — and I fell in love....

Of this challenge, Davis said: “Getting that balancing act was probably the hardest part. I really wanted to highlight a lot of the social issues that come along with the Westerns like race issues and gender issues, and talk about class and queerness. But it was also very important to me to set this in a fictional world. So, it’s not America. A lot of the danger is fantasy based....

When I say “find for free,” don’t worry: I mean legally free. They are being published by platforms like Webtoon, Tapas, etc., that pay their creators. A lot of webcomics are free to read, but sometimes, for example in Tapas, you’ll only have available a couple of chapters before you need “ink” to read more. For you to get “ink,” you’ll need to pay for it with real money. I’ve only included webcomics that are free to read in their entirety on this list, though!...

I want to publish a children’s book, but I don’t read enough of them. Chicks Rule! was one of the few that interested me enough to read the whole thing. First, I’ve seen many children’s books that feature a girl in a hijab on the cover, but Chicks Rule! was the first I’ve seen with an animal! Second, I was intrigued by the clever title (I’m a sucker for puns), and then once I read it I appreciated the empowering message....

In absolute perfect timing, that same week, Chrissy Teigen visited her local library for the first time in 23 years and was equally as enthusiastic. She tweeted: — chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 7, 2019 My favourite part of the tweet thread was when she wrote: “I walked in and was like “wait you can just….walk in?” then I walked out and was like “wait you can just…walk out?” Discovering the Public Library First of all, let me just say that I get where Maddy Smith is coming from....

A dark and gripping debut crime thriller, The Fields immerses you in small-town Iowa. When police investigator Sergeant Riley Fisher arrives on the scene of an already horrific crime, she discovers the victim was a childhood friend connected to a dark past she thought she’d left behind. The investigation grows complicated as more victims are found. Drawn deeper in, Riley soon discovers implications far beyond her Midwest town. Jones was an incredibly innovative librarian and activist, playing a huge role in shifting library services and culture to be more inclusive....

Fans received a few hints at the plot with the initial announcement in June. The prequel will take place on the morning of the reaping of the 10th Hunger Games, 64 years prior to the first book in the Hunger Games trilogy. In the press statement, Collins described her approach to the new book as exploring the state of nature and what is required for survival. “The reconstruction period ten years after the war, commonly referred to as the Dark Days—as the country of Panem struggles back to its feet—provides fertile ground for characters to grapple with these questions and thereby define their views of humanity,” Collins shared....

In the last few years, however, I’ve stopped thinking of December as a month to “catch up” up on my reading. If I haven’t already completed the Read Harder challenge, I don’t make an effort to do so. I don’t scroll through my Libby holds, furiously calculating how to cram in just a few more of the buzzy 2021 releases I really meant to get to. I don’t look back over my reading spreadsheet, note that I didn’t read as many books in translation as I had hoped to, and then immediately rush to add several to my TBR....

The New York Times bestselling author of Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane Moriarty, is back with Apples Never Fall, a novel about marriage, memory, and how the people we love the most can hurt us the deepest.If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father? This is the dilemma facing the four Delaney siblings. Apples Never Fall follows the Delaney family as they grapple with the aftermath of their mother’s disappearance....