It's giveaway time! 🎉 📚
 "Reading The Bird King on my road trip; it's an excellent book for travel and adventure." —Rebecca Wiens
👋 Hello readers!👋 Over in the Facebook group, we're talking about The Bird King — first impressions, and the roles of religion and magic in this historical fiction. In a short essay about writing this book, G. Willow Wilson described it as "almost a kind of autobiography."
"Yes, it's got salty French monks and magical mapmakers and — I'm going to spoil something here — at one point, an actual sea monster," she writes, "but they are all pieces of me (yes, even the sea monster), trying to find a way back to that place beyond absolutes." It has me thinking a lot about the ways in which the fantastical can illuminate the real.
Here's what some of you are thinking:
"For some reason the writing style was hard for me to get into at first, but once I got used to it, it was easier to read without missing details. LOVE the characters so far — looking forward to Hassan's character being more developed, and to see the deep friendship and loyalty between him and Fatima play out! Love the setting/description of their environment and surroundings too. I've not read a book taking place in this era of history before, and I'm really enjoying it. Very refreshing." —Olivia Nixon-Hemelt
"I am almost finished with it. I really enjoyed the fantastical realism. The overall story-line seems to deal with tolerance and acceptance. I think this work is a subtle reminder that we are living life all wrong!" —Danielle Aloia
"The time frame is exciting and the visual of the Alhambra is delicious. Can't wait to dive in again this morning." —Joan McSween
And Erin Summerhays pointed to a quote she especially loved: "Once a story leaves the hands of its author, it belongs to the reader. And the reader may see any number of things, conflicting things, contradictory things."
Found a quote or passage that really struck you? Share it in this thread — or respond directly to this email and let me know!
Happy reading, Arianna
🎉 Book Giveaway! 🎉  ICYMI: We're getting ready to dive into Lara Prior-Palmer's riveting memoir Rough Magic next month.
The book — our first nonfiction selection — describes Lara's impulsive decision at 19 years old to sign up for "the world's longest, toughest horse race" — 10 days on 25 ponies, over 1,000 kilometers of Mongolian grassland — and chronicles her surprising success despite having no formal training or qualifications other than a love of horses and great competitive drive.
You can read an early chapter here.
To celebrate, Catapult is giving away ten signed copies to BuzzFeed Book Club members! (USA addresses only.) Respond to this email by Wednesday May 22, 6pm ET, and tell us about a memoir you love — you might be selected as a winner.
💖 Bookish Products We Love 💖 A new series to highlight the reading-related products that bring us joy. This month: bookplate stickers and stamps.
  I've got a bit of a stationery problem — I like buying paper and ink products more than like actually using them — but one thing I use religiously are bookplates. My philosophy for lending books is if I give someone a book from my library, I've made peace with never seeing that book again — and I like knowing that wherever that book goes, so will its lineage. (Plus, if a friend *does* want to return it, my name in the front makes it impossible to forget where it came from.)
Want to catch up on past BuzzFeed Book Club reads? Pick up Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken, The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh, Sugar Run by Mesha Maren, My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, The Friend by Sigrid Nunez, or Family Trust by Kathy Wang. 📖
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