This is my 52nd and last post of the year (unless I read really fast before New Year's Eve), so I thought I would review 4 books and have these bits from Shelf Awareness start us off. I am a big fan of Little Women, the book, so I'd expect the television program to be just as exciting.
TV: Little Women
The first trailer
has been released for Little Women
the TV adaptation
of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel from Masterpiece,
BBC One and
Playground (Wolf Hall, Howards End), Deadline reported.
Heidi Thomas
(Cranford, Call the Midwife) wrote the adaptation and
Vanessa Caswill
(Thirteen) directs.
The project stars
Maya Hawke (Jo), Willa Fitzgerald (Meg), Annes Elwy
(Beth) and Kathryn
Newton (Amy), with Emily Watson as their mother,
Marmee, Angela
Lansbury as Aunt March, Jonah Hauer-King as Laurie
Laurence and
Michael Gambon as Mr. Laurence. Little Women premieres on
PBS Masterpiece
May 13, 2018.
Great idea, though I doubt it will have much effect on the Tyrant in Chief.
Cool Idea of the Day:
Send a Book to Congress
A group of
concerned citizens in Seattle recently approached Kim
Hooyboer, manager
of Third Place Books
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz35450318>,
Seward Park, with the idea of
sending a copy
of Timothy Snyders
book On Tyranny: Twenty
Lessons from the Twentieth Century (Tim Duggan Books) to every member of
Congress. Seattle magazine reported that the "response from Hooyboer and
her bosses was enthusiastic. Third Place Books offered
the group, who
asked to remain anonymous to emphasize the community
effort, a
significant discount on more than half the books needed, plus
space to write
personalized letters and stuff envelopes." A friend of
the group who
lives in Vermont connected them with Vermont Book Shop
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz35450321
in Middlebury, which is contributing the other half of
the books.
"How we can
be active resistance hubs: I've been talking about this with
a lot of other
bookstores around the country in the last year," said
Hooyboer.
"Our role as booksellers is to bring the right books to the
right people at
the right time. To be principled, not partisan. That's
why it makes so
much sense for this group to come to us and for us to
help in whatever
way we can.... I think it's really easy right now to
want to close the
doors, turn the lights off, and sit in a corner, but
one of the
important things we can be doing right now is educating
ourselves and
reading these books and having these conversations with
your
community."
Desires, Known by Lilith Saintcrow was something of a surprise to me, as I was expecting a romance novel with some paranormal elements, and what I got was a full fledged Urban paranormal fantasy/action novel with very little romance at all. The protagonist, Emily Spencer, is a stupid coward who spends 95 percent of the book shrieking that what is happening can't be happening, because she refuses to alter her perception to deal with what is actually happening to her, even though it is obvious that it is really happening. She finds a djinn-bound ring at a thrift store, so she buys it to add sparkle to her Halloween Elvira costume, unaware of its power. She's a real "down to earth" (read: BORING) type of person who is more at home with financial spreadsheets than she is with dating and having fun, it seems. So even when the male stripper at the Halloween party hits on her, she can't deal with it, and basically tells him to buzz off. Meanwhile, at work, her supervisor has been sexually harassing every female in the office who isn't 80 years old, and though she's managed to deal with it in such a way that she can't get fired by the sleazy harasser, neither has she actually done anything about him, like reporting him to HR or to the boss. So when she does finally get the genie's power and asks him to do something about this cretin, the genie puts the guy in the worst possible place without killing him, she finds out and wants him to take it all back and restore this monster to the workplace! Unbelievable! What an idiot! Anyway, here's the blurb:
Desires, Known by Lilith Saintcrow
To accountant Emily Spencer, the junky thrift-store ring is perfect for her Halloween costume. A few too many drinks, a slip of the tongue, and all of a sudden, there’s a guy calling her mistress and demanding to know her desires. If she just ignores the weirdness, it’ll go away, right?
Wrong. Hal is a creature of almost limitless power, eternally bound to serve the owner of the ring. Though modern technology is puzzling, he has no difficulty deciding he likes being out in the world again. Even if he has to train a reluctant but undeniably attractive new mistress.
Unfortunately, the man who lost Hal’s ring so long ago is still around—rich, unscrupulous, and more than a little insane. He’ll try anything—deceit, treachery, torture—to regain control of Hal.
Including murder…
It makes no sense as to why Emily refuses to allow Hal to provide nice things for her, or to help her get rid of the office misogynist/harasser. Even when there are all these creatures and supernatural bad guys gunning for her, she's reluctant to accept his help to survive their attacks! WHY, for heaven's sake, would anyone with a modicum of sense or self preservation say no to that? At any rate, even after she's been through so much, at the end, we are left with Emily and Hal sharing power, but nothing else. Where's the romance? Where's the HEA? Honestly, having read most of Saintcrow's books, I expected better from her. The prose was decent, the plot swift, but the story in general leaves a lot to be desired, so I'd give this book a C, and recommend it only to those who are really into the Arabian Nights/Aladdin stuff.
Losing It by Emma Rathbone was another surprise. I'd been led to believe that this was a funny, poignant and empowering book, about a late-bloomer who is longing for her first sexual encounter. This is patently false, as the protagonist, Julia Greenfield, is a whiny, whinging weirdo who seems almost autistic or extremely neurotic at the very least in her laser focus on f-ing. Every paragraph, every encounter is examined for its potential for Julia to lose her virginity, which she seems to think is some horrific visible blemish on her life, like a red A attached to her chest, for all to see. This conceit grows tedious after the first 75 pages, and eventually it becomes annoying. Here's the blurb:
Julia Greenfield has a problem: she's twenty-six years old and she's
still a virgin. Sex ought to be easy. People have it all the time! But,
without meaning to, she made it through college and into adulthood with
her virginity intact. Something's got to change. To re-route herself from her stalled life, Julia travels to spend the summer with her mysterious aunt Vivienne in North Carolina. It's not long, however, before she unearths a confounding secret—her 58 year old aunt is a virgin too. In the unrelenting heat of the southern summer, Julia becomes fixated on puzzling out what could have lead to Viv's appalling condition, all while trying to avoid the same fate.
For readers of Rainbow Rowell and Maria Semple, and filled with offbeat characters and subtle, wry humor, Losing It is about the primal fear that you just. might. never. meet. anyone. It's about desiring something with the kind of obsessive fervor that almost guarantees you won't get it. It's about the blurry lines between sex and love, and trying to figure out which one you're going for. And it's about the decisions—and non-decisions—we make that can end up shaping a life.
I felt terribly sorry for everyone who encountered Julia, because she's such a dull and distracted ninny, and I felt even sorrier for her Aunt Viv, who had to put up with Julia tearing through all of her belongings and invading her privacy just so she can figure out how NOT to become "an old maid" like Viv. Personally, I thought Viv sounded like she was having a fine life without sex, and that she was just fine with her decision, but doltish Julia can't imagine anyone wanting to remain a virgin in her stunted view of women and women's lives. When Julia finally gets laid, much to everyone's relief, it is treated like no big deal. Julia doesn't transform, as she seems to think she will, she's still a huge pain in the rump. The prose was as dull as the protagonist and the plot was turgid. I'd give this novel a C-, and only recommend it to those who can't find something better to read.
The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg is the 13th book of hers that I've read and enjoyed. My mother has read all of her novels (except this one, which I will send to her soon) and we both agree that her storytelling is superb. Berg's prose style is similar to Fannie Flaggs, whose books brim with good characters and fascinating situations in small town America. Also like Flagg, Berg's plots are beautifully paced and strong, leaving readers without the ability to stop reading lest they miss something. Here's the blurb:
For the past six months, Arthur Moses’s days have looked the same: He
tends to his rose garden and to Gordon, his cat, then rides the bus to
the cemetery to visit his beloved late wife for lunch. The last thing
Arthur would imagine is for one unlikely encounter to utterly transform
his life. Eighteen-year-old Maddy Harris is an introspective girl who visits the cemetery to escape the other kids at school. One afternoon she joins Arthur—a gesture that begins a surprising friendship between two lonely souls. Moved by Arthur’s kindness and devotion, Maddy gives him the nickname “Truluv.” As Arthur’s neighbor Lucille moves into their orbit, the unlikely trio band together and, through heartache and hardships, help one another rediscover their own potential to start anew.
Wonderfully written and full of profound observations about life, The Story of Arthur Truluv is a beautiful and moving novel of compassion in the face of loss, of the small acts that turn friends into family, and of the possibilities to achieve happiness at any age.
“For several days after [finishing The Story of Arthur Truluv], I felt lifted by it, and I found myself telling friends, also feeling overwhelmed by 2017, about the book. Read this, I said, it will offer some balance to all that has happened, and it is a welcome reminder we’re all neighbors here.”—Chicago Tribune
I fell in love with Arthur, because he was such a wonderful, funny old soul, and though I wanted to kick Maddy in the butt for allowing herself to be used by Anderson, her abusive boyfriend, I found myself warming to her as she becomes pregnant and a caregiver for Arthur and Lucille, two elderly people who need her just as much as she needs them. If you can get through this page-turner without laughing and crying in equal measure, you're a better woman than I am. Brava, Ms Berg,Brava. I'd give this warm and delightful novel an A, and recommend it to anyone who loved A Man Called Ova or Fried Green Tomatoes At the Whistle Stop Cafe. Well worth the price, and, as the Chicago Tribune said, it will offer something of a panacea to the wounds of 2017.
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin is the sequel to her Hugo award winning science fiction novel The Fifth Season. It says on the cover that it also won a Hugo this year, which wouldn't surprise me at all. Though the dystopia presented in these novels is extreme, and painful and grotesque, I find the characters fascinating. Essun is so tough and adaptable in the face of death and the murder of her children, I am riveted by her ability to continue living, working, breathing in the face of such loss. Because this is the middle novel of a trilogy, a lot has to happen to explain the problems of the first novel and solve some of the ones presented in the second before setting things up to be completed in the third. Here's the blurb:
THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS, FOR THE LAST TIME.The season of endings grows darker, as civilization fades into the long cold night.
Essun -- once Damaya, once Syenite, now avenger -- has found shelter, but not her daughter. Instead there is Alabaster Tenring, destroyer of the world, with a request. But if Essun does what he asks, it would seal the fate of the Stillness forever.
Far away, her daughter Nassun is growing in power - and her choices will break the world. Publisher's Weekly: In this compelling, challenging, and utterly gripping work that combines elements of fantasy, science fiction, and horror, Jemisin draws readers deeper into the extraordinary setting and characters she introduced in The Fifth Season. In the world called the Stillness—which the first book hints may actually be our world, thousands of years in the future—orogenes are hated and feared for their ability to control the geological forces that shape the land. Powerful orogene Essun desperately searches for her eight-year-old daughter, Nassun, who was stolen away by her father. He hopes to find someone to “fix” the girl and excise her burgeoning orogene talent. But Essun’s search is interrupted by her old mentor, Alabaster. Alabaster is dying, and he hopes to use Essun’s powers to end the current “season,” a disastrous change in global climate that could destroy all life, by recapturing the planet’s long-lost moon, whose absence is the cause of the ironically named Stillness’s geological instability. While Essun and Alabaster struggle to save the world, an ancient entity with very different goals begins gathering its own crew of young orogenes—and it has Nassun, who in this volume becomes a character as troubled, complex, and fascinating as her mother. The Stillness and those who dwell there are vividly drawn, and the threats they face are both timely and tangible. Once again Jemisin immerses readers in a complex and intricate world of warring powers, tangled morals, and twisting motivations.
I am not quite sure why Nassun and Essun have to be at opposites,with Nassun hating and blaming her mother for everything that has gone wrong in her life (when it's obvious her prejudiced and insane father is really the cause of her childhood trauma, but for some reason she doesn't want to believe that) when their goal is, in the end, the same...to get the moon back into a stable orbit around the planet and thus end the "seasons" that are killing mankind. But Nassun seems to be in dire need of parental love, so she clutches at the "unconditional love" of a ruthless guardian who once abused her mother and killed many orogene children in his quest for domination and power. Meanwhile, Essun is living inside a giant geode, and dealing with all the political and moral problems that come with any community of people with different backgrounds and levels of power. I was glad that that old bastard Alabaster died, because, despite the author obviously wanting readers to see him in a sympathetic light, I never could stand the man. He was selfish, egotistical and, like everyone else in these books, wants to blame all of his problems on Essun, without taking any responsibility for all the things he's done to put her in an untenable position. Though these novels veer too far into the horror genre for my taste (lots of blood and gore, killing of children, lots of creepy critters who can do horrible things to kill humans), the prose is stunning and the plots move along at an almost military clip. Jemisin's storytelling powers are in full swing here, and with all that is currently happening in our world with climate change and the death of animal species and fouling of air and water, I fear that her science fictional dystopia isn't that far off in our reality. Chilling though it may be, this novel deserves an A, and a recommendation to anyone who read the first book in the series.
Merry Christmas to all my readers, and a Happy 2018 full of good books and good times!
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