Hot List: Books Break Out of Kindle, A Sci-Fi Saga, Social Justice Stories

The Hot List– Turnstyle’s weekly look at what’s keeping us sane and smiling.

BookShout! (iPad app)

BookShout! is the greatest thing to happen this week. So far the online publishing industry has been able to get away with the walled garden approach. When you buy a book on your Kindle, it doesn’t leave your Kindle. However, BookShout is changing that. With the capability to import your Kindle and Nook e-books, this app has the opportunity to change the landscape. Oh, and hey, it’s also a social reading application. If you want to read a book with your book club and share some notes and ideas, you can do that and it’s easy. — Kurt Collins

Saga Vol. 1 (Comic Book Trade Paperback)

What can be said about Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples space opera? Everything. Starting with OMG AWESOME. If you’ve ever loved a comic book then this collection of the first six issues of Saga is a must. At just $9.99 it’s also a steal. A pair of star-crossed lovers from two armies at perpetual war race across the galaxy to protect their infant daughter from the evil Prince Robot IV. Yup. Magic vs. Science! Robot Sex! Bounty Hunters! Saga is the best comic going, hands down. -Noah Nelson

Voice of Witness (Book Series)

These excerpts from the work of students in the Voice of Witness Education Program. They’re a quick dive into the amazing experiences of ordinary people. Among them: a Nepali exile to Bhutan whose family was abused by police following a royal directive; a music scholar from China who was sentenced to a prison farm as a 20-year-old, and served 18 years; a man who learned that the “gay flu” he acquired in 1981 was HIV; a Fijian native now on the maintenance staff of Berkeley High School who just became an American citizen.

Voice of Witness is a book series founded by 826 Valencia’s Dave Eggers and Lola Vollen. It tells social justice stories using oral history principles, and their education initiative brings these principles into the classroom (disclosure: I’m an advisory board member for the VOW Education Committee).– Nishat Kurwa