Obit for Susan Vreeland, Dietland TV Show, Two Books I'd Like To Read, The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon, Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig, Breath of Fire by Amanda Bouchet and The Love Letter by Cathleen Schine

I was gutted last week when I read about the unexpected death of author Susan Vreeland. Her book, The Forest Lover, about painter Emily Carr really moved me, and when I visited Vancouver and actually viewed paintings by Carr, I was utterly taken in by them, and felt that I had an even deeper connection to the art for having read Vreeland's novel. I was not aware that Susan Vreeland was in frail health, or that she'd had cancer. I read all but one of her novels, and I loved them all. She was a magnificent prose stylist who made art and artists come alive on the page. She will be missed. RIP.

Obituary Note: Susan Vreeland

Susan Vreeland http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz34005453, author of novels exploring about art and artists, died on Monday. She was 71.

Perhaps her best-known novel was Girl in Hyacinth Blue (1999), about an

alleged painting by Vermeer and its various owners over the centuries.

Other works included The Passion of Artemisia, focusing on the inner

life of Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi; The Forest Lover,

a fictionalized account of the life of Canadian painter Emily Carr; Life

Studies, stories about Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters

from the points of view of people who knew them; Luncheon of the Boating

Party, about Renoir and his world as he creates his masterwork; and

Clara and Mr. Tiffany, about Clara Driscoll, who conceived and designed

Tiffany Lamps.

TV: The Shannara Chronicles, Dietland

A first-look trailer for the second season of The Shannara Chronicles

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz33972263,

based on the fantasy series by Terry Brooks, has been released. It will

premiere October 11 on Spike, "its new home following the move from

sister Viacom network MTV," Deadline reported. The cast includes Austin

Butler, Ivana Baquero and Malese Jow.

I read Dietland a year ago, I think, and I enjoyed Plum Kettle telling her story about being a fat girl and fat woman. That said, Joy Nash, who is set to play Plum is just pleasantly plump, not really fat at all. But that's Hollywood for you, they rarely use actual fat people for roles that call for fat people. The exception is This Is Us, a TV show that hired the wonderful Chrissy Metz to play a larger woman on the program. Of course, she has to be desperately trying to lose weight, because if she accepted herself the entire diet industry would explode with concern trolls and 'professionals' signaling her doom from obesity, but at least there's a beautiful, smart and desirable fat lady on TV representing all of us who are bigger than a size 16, which is most women in America. 

Joy Nash (The Mindy Project, Twin Peaks) has been cast in the lead role

of Plum Kettle for Dietland

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz33972264,

AMC's 10-episode straight-to-series darkly comedic drama based on Sarai

Walker's 2015 novel, Deadline reported. The project is from Marti Noxon

(UnReal), Skydance TV and AMC Studios.

"Joy is everything I hoped we'd find in our leading woman--beautiful,

smart and blazing with talent," said Noxon. "When she auditioned the

whole room was electrified. I can't wait for the world to meet her

'Plum.' "

I have been wanting to read the two books listed below since I first heard about them, so I am really excited that they're finally going to be out on shelves this month. 

Love and Other Consolation Prizes: A Novel by Jamie Ford (Ballantine,

$28, 9780804176750). "Ford excels at historical fiction, especially set

in the Pacific Northwest. In this tale, the reader follows the life of

Ernest Young, experiencing the early 1900s in Seattle. He is raffled off

in the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exhibition. The story then follows adult

Ernest as the 1962 Seattle World's Fair opens. Rich with historical

detail and touching on a time period not widely known (the wilds of

Seattle's early days), this moving story comes together and draws the

reader in." --Alissa Williams, Morton Public Library, Morton, Ill.

George and Lizzie: A Novel by Nancy Pearl (Touchstone, $25,

9781501162893). "The daughter of two renowned narcissistic

psychologists, Lizzie's problem has always been overthinking everything.

George, raised in a very adoring family, comes into Lizzie's life with

one goal--to love her completely and forever. Can she relinquish the

past to move toward the happiness that could be hers in the future?

Relationships, good and bad, past and present, all come together to make

a truly wonderful tale of the reality of the struggles of everyday life.

Very well-written." --Debbie Wittkop, Southwest Public Libraries,

Columbus, Ohio

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon, is a YA book that was recommended to me by Emily Weisenberger, whose teenager goes to school with my son Nick. I was way down on the holds list for the book at the library, so I was surprised when I discovered that I'd gotten a copy set aside for me about a fortnight ago. I was surprised again by how engaging the prose and plot were, and how fascinating the characters became as I ripped through the book in less than 12 hours. Though I realize all young male/female romances are compared to Romeo and Juliet, this novel earns a nod to the Bard's best, because they keep the tone light with humor and romantic with circumstance. Here's the blurb:  

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.
The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

Each circumstance seems to affect Daniel and Natasha's relationship, to the point where it seems that these two are doomed to never have anything but the one perfect day together, where they meet, fall in love and are torn apart again. But Yoon is obviously a hopeless romantic, enough so that she gets the two back together in a weird way for a last minute HEA that will have you going "Awwww" right up to the last paragraph. This beautifully written story deserves an A, and a recommendation to anyone who loves Romeo and Juliet stories set in modern day NYC, with diverse protagonists.

Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig is our September book for my library book group. We'd read one other Doig book, and enjoyed it in the past, so I felt we couldn't go wrong with an author who tells stories of the Western US in the past with such heart and soul. That said, I didn't remember the late Doig's prose as being so bouncy and full bodied, nor his plots so engaging as to become page-turners. Yet I couldn't put down the Last Bus To Wisdom, because I just had to know what happened to 11 year old Donal on his trip cross country to stay with his great Aunt Kate for the summer. Here's the blurb:

The final novel from a great American storyteller.
Donal Cameron is being raised by his grandmother, the cook at the legendary Double W ranch in Ivan Doig’s beloved Two Medicine Country of the Montana Rockies, a landscape that gives full rein to an eleven-year-old’s imagination. But when Gram has to have surgery for “female trouble” in the summer of 1951, all she can think to do is to ship Donal off to her sister in faraway Manitowoc, Wisconsin. There Donal is in for a rude surprise: Aunt Kate–bossy, opinionated, argumentative, and tyrannical—is nothing like her sister. She henpecks her good-natured husband, Herman the German, and Donal can’t seem to get on her good side either. After one contretemps too many, Kate  packs him back to the authorities in Montana on the next Greyhound. But as it turns out, Donal isn’t traveling solo: Herman the German has decided to fly the coop with him. In the immortal American tradition, the pair light out for the territory together, meeting a classic Doigian ensemble of characters and having rollicking misadventures along the way.
Charming, wise, and slyly funny, Last Bus to Wisdom is a last sweet gift from a writer whose books have bestowed untold pleasure on countless readers.

I completely agree that this novel is charming, wise, funny and so heartfelt, that you'd have to be colder than the Dakotas in winter to not fall in love with the characters Doig sets before us. This novel gives us a delightful peek into what things were like at the end of an era, in the early 1950s, before the West was changed forever by the mores and nascent technology of the 60s and 70s (and the radical changes that took place in the 80s and 90s with the computer revolution). It's hard for those of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s to imagine the hero worship of bronc-busters and cowboys and Indians of the West, and to understand the lifestyle of the tramps, hobos and migrant workers of that era who developed family-style groups that moved from place to place, harvesting hay, fruits and vegetables with backbreaking labor that was later taken over by machines. Donal is our view into an almost forgotten world, as we watch saints and sinners board the "dog bus" (Greyhound) and he strives to get their autograph and learn about their lives. Though this novel was about as near to perfect as it gets, I wish that Doig had given us a few paragraphs about what happened to Donal after he reunited with his grandma and he grew up on Rags Rasmussen's ranch. What would happen to such an insightful kid in the swinging 60s and the disco dancing 70s? What would he be like if he lived to today, a retired 80 year old ranch hand with a load of great stories to tell? At any rate, this last novel of Doigs deserves an A, and a recommendation to anyone fascinated by the old West.

Breath of Fire by Amanda Bouchet is the sequel to A Promise of Fire that I read a couple of weeks ago. Though these novels are primarily fantasy romances, I was hoping that the sequel would have the protagonist, Catalia Fisa, beloved (and protected) by the gods Zeus and Hades and Poseidon, being more independent and aggressive and working to fix the problems of the realms before things devolve into all out war and slaughter. Unfortunately, Cat, as she calls herself, is immature enough (and weak enough) that she still runs from her destiny and refuses to control her powers and deal with evil doers. She also "melts" and loses whatever mind she had to begin with the minute her mortal lover Griffin gets anywhere near her. He's extremely possessive and brutal, and he's abused her in the past, which she seems to feel is forgivable because his passionate love of her is so "sexy". Anyone who is that tyrannical and obsessed doesn't really understand the meaning of love, in my opinion, because if you have to compel or kidnap someone to be with you and force them into giving you binding vows that they will never leave you, you don't really love them or deserve their love in return. Love can't be compelled. It must be given of your own free will, with the knowledge that you can't force someone to have feelings for you. Though Cat constantly describes his rock hard body and his handsome face, I didn't find him attractive at all. He seemed frightening in a rapist and abuser kind of way, and the members of his team seemed to be the only men who could show Cat any understanding or tenderness that wasn't connected to sex. Anyway, here's the blurb from Publisher's Weekly: 

Bouchet ramps up the excitement in her second Kingmaker Chronicles fantasy romance (after A Promise of Fire) with high-intensity passion; adrenaline-fueled battles of wits, magic, and might; a host of magical creatures; and enough politics and world-shaking to keep readers eager for the final volume. Catalia Fisa is the “impetuous,” “reckless,” and “terrifyingly selfless” Lost Princess, inheritor of the bloodline of the gods. She has become both the lover of Sintan warlord Griffin and a key piece of his strategy to unite the three realms of Thalyria under a single ruler. But her powerful, sadistic mother, Andromeda, stands in their way at every turn. Bouchet treads gently as she develops the larger-than-life aspects of her setting, and godly support and oracular wisdom build dramatic tension around the idea of fate without falling into deus ex machina. Griffin’s good intentions make his possessive alpha jealousy feel loving, Cat’s sharp tongue and personal insecurities balance her magical powers, and the emotional complexity of the relationships among their fellow fighters supports a feeling of camaraderie that makes the fight scenes really work.

I disagree that Griffin's "possessive alpha jealousy" feels loving at all. It's more scary than loving, as he tries at every turn to keep Cat from "danger," while it's obvious that if they're going to win at the deadly arena games, they will need every single one of her powers and her reckless ability to throw herself into battle to protect and defend her loved ones. Even when Griffin realizes Cat is pregnant (before she does, which stretches my credulity), he allows her to battle in the arena and get kicked and cut in the abdomen more than a few times, yet he keeps telling her to be careful and cautious, as if that will help. At any rate, there is apparently one more book in this series coming out next year, and I will probably read it just to find out what happens at Cats wedding and if she's able to kill her evil mother in time to save the kingdoms. I'd give this book a B+, and recommend it to anyone who likes Greek mythology mixed in with their fantasy romance.

The Love Letter by Cathleen Schine was recommended on a book website as a book about a bookstore owner and other bibliophiles in a small town in New England. It isn't listed as a genre novel, though in reality, it's a romance novel for middle aged women, set in the 1990s. While this normally would be right up my alley, I was put off by the terribly vain and insecure protagonist, Helen, who is about 10 years older than I am, but in this novel she seems much younger than her 40s because of her immaturity. She's hypersexualized, and can't seem to control her "flirting" with everyone who she comes into contact with, from the patrons of the bookstore to the mailman and even her young co workers, whom she requires worship her (both male and female). If that weren't bizarre enough, she finds, reads and memorizes a love letter from "Ram" to "Goat" that is so passionate in its purple prose that she is certain that it must be about her, though there is no evidence of her name anywhere on it. A young man who works in the store, Johnny, who is all of 20, develops a crush on Helen that he's certain is love, so eventually Helen succumbs to his ardent and heated stares and has sex with him, though she knows its going to mean more to him than it will to her. Meanwhile, Helen's equally bizarre and vain mother and grandmother call to tell her they'll be coming for an extended stay/visit to the large family homestead, and once there, her mother Lillian slips in and out of the house on what are obviously liaisons with a lover somewhere in town. Readers will know who this lover is right away, and I am sure we're meant to find it comical that Helen thinks she's hiding her affair with young Johnny from everyone when her mother knows what is going on almost immediately. Here's the blurb via Publisher's Weekly: One summer morning in her 41st year, Helen MacFarquhar, the divorced owner of an audaciously pink bookstore in an exclusive Connecticut shore town, finds a mysterious letter in her mail. Addressed "Dear Goat,'' and signed "As Ever, Ram,'' it is a love letter of such intensity and passion that she becomes obsessed by its urgently suggestive message. The effect of that letter on Helen's orderly life is the burden of this comedy of manners, which in Schine's capable hands also becomes a witty send-up of cultural hypocrisies and modern relationships. The letter is next read by Johnny Howell, 20-year-old college student and part-time help at Helen's store. Magic strikes; like some characters in Shakespeare's comedies, Johnny immediately falls in love with Helen, and, after a series of misunderstandings, they consummate what has become a mutual passion. Subterfuge is necessary, of course, especially when Helen's 11-year-old daughter returns from camp and Helen's ditsy globe-trotting mother and grande-dame grandmother also decide to spend some weeks in Helen's large old house. Schine's prose is as light and delicate as gossamer and as earthy as colloquial slang and sex.  The twist ending is nicely foreshadowed and quite delicious in its implications. Like the love letter of the title, this book enchants and seduces.

Unfortunately, this book didn't enchant or seduce me at all. Helen is often as cruel as she is vain, flighty and demanding in her need for everyone to find her sexually attractive. Her egotism is nauseating as well. The only "magic" that strikes Johnny is lust, which seems normal for a 20 year old, but creepy when it's a 42 year old that is the object of his desire and when she preys on him, initially just for sex. When it is revealed that Lillian, Helen's mother, is moving in with the town librarian, an older woman, the only one who doesn't see it coming a mile off is Helen. In the end, Helen realizes that she's in love with Johnny, which would be okay if there was some kind of closure to the realization. Is Johnny going to quit college and come live with Helen and work in the bookstore, or is Helen going to fly to NYC and build a love-nest with her young boyfriend? We'll never know, because once it's revealed who the author of the love letter is (it's her mother's lesbian lover) the book just ends. The prose is fluffy and the plot scattershot. I'd give this bad romance a C, and only recommend it to people who find May-December romances riveting reading.