Raven Bookstore Writes to Amazon's Bezos, Carrie Fisher: A life on the Edge, Hugh Laurie develops Agatha Christie's novels for TV, Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale, The Library of the Unwritten by AJ Hackwith, The Marked and Rose & Thunder by Lilith Saintcrow and Tailing a Tabby by Laurie Cass

Happy Halloween Week, to all my fellow book lovers and general readers! It has taken me 10 days to get back to writing reviews due to ill health not just of myself, but of my beloved Mac computer that is only 5-6 years old, but apparently was created with planned obsolesence in mind, because the hard drive is dying and Apple would rather that you pay another $1,200 for a new Mac than pay a couple of hundred dollars to have the hard drive repaired/replaced. I think that kind of stinks, and I hope that Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave at his company's greed, but if not, I hope he understands when I have my son, the computer whiz, repair the computer that I can't afford to replace. At any rate, it's been cold and gray for the past 10 days, but today the sun is shining and it's a beautiful autumn day full of color and with a smokey tang to the air. I'm excited to get started.

I think this is a brilliant idea, though it reminds me of Don Quixote tilting at windmills, because Amazon is such an enormous and wealthy company that I don't believe they actually care about the indie bookstores and their owners anymore. Jeff Bozos, their CEO, has so much money he could give everyone in the world thousands of dollars and not run out of cash. He doesn't, of course, but I still laud Denny Caine for writing this letter and making a plea for a better and more fair Amazon.

Raven Book Store Writes to Jeff Bezos

Yesterday, on Twitter, Raven Book Store http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42196335, Lawrence, Kan., posted this letter to @JeffBezos "from a small independent bookstore in the middle of the country":

Last Wednesday a customer bought a stack of books from us. Right before he left, he asked me, "What parts of your business are affected by Amazon?" I blurted out, "every part." I had never articulated this before, but it's true. I know I'm not alone in saying this, and not just among bookstores, either. Your business has an unfair impact on every retail small business in America. I'm writing you to try to illustrate just how many people your business affects in a negative way.

Let's start with books, because that's where we overlap and books are my bread and butter. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it certainly seems like the book part of your business is modeled like this: sell books at a loss to hook people into Prime subscriptions, Kindles, Alexas, and other higher-margin products. While this strategy has worked really well for you, it's totally disrupted everything about the book business, making a low-margins business even tighter. Most dismayingly to us, your book business has devalued the book itself. People expect hardcovers to be 15 bucks and paperbacks to be under 10. Those margins are a nightmare for our bottom line, of course, but they also cheapen the idea of the capital-B Book. There's already enough happening to cheapen the idea of truth, research, and careful storytelling. We're dismayed to see the world's biggest book retailer reflecting that frightening cultural shift by de-valuing books.

This isn't just about business competition to us. We wish it was! We like business competition, we think it's healthy. But the way you've set things up makes it impossible to compete with you. Often the tech and e-commerce world brags about "disrupting" old ways of doing things with new, sleeker, more efficient tricks. But we refuse to be a quaint old way of doing things, and we are not ripe for disruption. We're not relics; we're community engines. We create free programming. We donate gift certificates to charity silent auctions. We partner with libraries and arts organizations. That stuff might seem small to someone aiming to colonize outer space but to us and our community it's huge. Our booksellers are farmers, authors, activists, artists, board members, city council representatives. For so many places, the loss of an indie bookstore would mean the loss of a community force. If your retail experiment disrupts us into extinction you're not threatening quaint old ways of doing things. You're threatening communities.

When I taught high school English, we did a business letter unit. Part of what I taught was to make sure every business letter has some kind of request so it's not a waste of time or paper. So, what to request from you? Some of my peers want to break your company up. Some of them want to nationalize it. Some of them want it wiped off the earth. I see where they're all coming from, but I don't think that's what I'm after today.

I could also request you stop profiting off ICE's violence http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42196338, stop enabling counterfeit merchandise http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42196339, stop fostering a last-mile shipping system that causes injury and death http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42196340, stop gentrifying our cities http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42196341, stop contributing to the police state with your doorbell cameras http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42196342, stop driving your warehouse workers to exhaustion or injury http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42196343, or so many other things. Perhaps I could just request an explanation of why this chaos and violence is apparently so essential to your strategy.

Or maybe I could request a leveling of the playing field. Small business owners are led to believe that if their idea is good enough, they can grow their business and create more jobs. Yet your company is so big, so disruptive, so dominant, that it's severely skewed the ability for us to do that. I think a big part of leveling the playing field would mean fair pricing on your part. For our part, we try to level things by being really good at what we do, and being really loud.  So we use our platform to try to teach people what's at stake as your company increases its influence and market share. I think it's starting to work. I get the feeling that we're seeing chips in Amazon's armor. Whenever we share stuff like this, it seems to resonate with our audience. Maybe someday you'll hear what we have to say. Maybe we can talk about it over pie and coffee at Ladybird Diner across the street, my treat. I'd love to show you around a vibrant community anchored by small businesses, here in Kansas, here on earth. Maybe it'll help you realize that some things don't need to be disrupted.

Sincerely, Danny Caine, Owner, Raven Book Store,Lawrence, Kan.

 This sounds like an interesting book about the late, great Carrie Fisher, however, I would like to note that her "late career weight gain" should not be the subject of gossip or shaming in a book about a feminist icon. Being fat and accepting your body as it is, is a hallmark of feminism. It is only through the media and the mostly male run diet and exercise industry that women are constantly told that they aren't pretty enough, thin enough or smart enough to do whatever they want with their lives and achieve their career goals. This patriarchal BS is never going to die until women stop paying into it. At any rate, I loved Carrie Fisher and I hope that I get the chance to check this book out at the library.

Book Review: Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge

Until author Sheila Weller wrote 2008's Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--and the Journey of a Generation, her subjects had tended toward the lurid. That such a writer has tackled the life story of Carrie Fisher would likely have amused the actress, who was also an author, a script doctor and, perhaps above all, an irreverent wit.

From her stage show and subsequent book Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher was known for her comic observations about the trials of being the offspring of flamboyant actress Debbie Reynolds and caddish crooner Eddie Fisher; about sealing her fate (for better or worse) and fortunes (for better) as brainy badass Princess Leia in 1977's Star Wars; and about coping with drug addiction and bipolar disorder. (Weller notes that Fisher was one of the first celebrities to discuss publicly having a mental illness.) Given Fisher's openness about her life, any Carrie Fisher biographer would have a galactic challenge: What can she tell readers that Fisher hasn't already?

Lots, if that biographer is Weller. She cast a net far and wide to land interviews with subjects famous and not, speaking on the record and off, but Fisher defenders nearly all. In Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge, Weller blends their recollections with what she calls Fisher's "provocative, braggingly self-deprecating (a neat trick), honest enough" accounts, as of her early failed marriage to singer-songwriter Paul Simon and her late-career weight gain. The result is a robust, many-faceted portrait of a woman whose longstanding feminism (Fisher marched for the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1980s) elevated everything she touched. Here's Fisher the script doctor's rule of thumb: "Make the women smarter--and the love scenes better." Weller reminds readers that Carrie-as-Leia's likeness was ubiquitous at the Women's March in January 2017, one month after the actress's sudden death at age 60; the cause was cardiac arrest with a likely assist from the drugs named in her toxicology report--a heartbreaking exit given her decades devoted to exorcising her personal demons.

The question while reading Carrie Fisher isn't "How did her life veer off course?" but "How did she keep it together for so long?" The answer would seem to lie in Fisher's mutual emotional support system. Going by the company described in Weller's book, it would probably be quicker to list the people who weren't Fisher's friends than the people who were. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer

I love Hugh Laurie and look forward to his adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel.

Hugh Laurie (The Night Manager, House) is developing a script for a TV adaptation of one of Agatha Christie's novels http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42221692, "but which of the Queen of Crime's books he is adapting is being kept strictly under wraps," Variety reported.

The project is through ITV-owned producer Mammoth Screen and is being developed for the BBC. In 2016, the BBC and Agatha Christie Ltd. inked a deal for seven adaptations. The BBC's Mammoth-produced projects since include three-parter Ordeal by Innocence and The ABC Murders, Variety noted.

Having interviewed the CEOs of Washington's Value Village thrift stores and Goodwill thrift stores, I can say that I have a deeper understanding of just how much money the stores make, and how little that they really do in terms of "giving back" to the community. The Salvation Army and St Vincent DePaul thrift stores are a different story because the former is connected to alcoholic rehabilitation and the latter is connected to food kitchens and outreach through the Catholic church. I still think this would be a fascinating read, because so much of what goes through these thrift stores ends up being resold or repurposed in third world countries.

Book Review: Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale

What happens to the abundance of clothes, toys, books and appliances donated to Goodwill and other charitable organizations? While people may believe that their unwanted stuff will find new homes in the community, the reality is that drop-off is often the first stop in a global and mostly hidden multibillion-dollar industry.

"In 2015, Americans tossed out 24.1 billion pounds of furniture and furnishings," writes Adam Minter (Junkyard Planet). "Along with all those old sofas went 32 billion pounds of textiles--including clothes, bedsheets, towels, and wiping rags--and 45.3 billion pounds of what the Environmental Protection Agency calls 'miscellaneous durables.' "

Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale dives into this marketplace of excess by exploring some of the socio-economic reasons for its existence: the KonMari decluttering craze, minimalist living trends and adult children with little interest in their parents' "brown furniture," as observed by professionals specializing in "home cleanouts" after a death or downsizing.

Manufacturers also play a critical role, with questionable product expiration dates, marketing gimmicks and lifespan claims. Minter's dogged and thorough reporting into the infant car seat industry, for example, might surprise parents, as it shows that used car seats likely remain quite functional--and, most importantly, perfectly safe--despite warnings from industry groups about the need for regular replacement.

The phenomenon of "fast fashion"--trendy clothing produced rapidly and sold cheaply--has grown: "Between 2000 and 2015, global clothing production doubled, while the average times that a garment was worn before disposal declined by 36 percent." Younger generations reportedly wear an item only between one and six times before it is tossed away, either because of inferior quality or the inexpensive cost and convenience of buying new.

Armed with a passionate curiosity coupled with an investigative journalism background as a Bloomberg reporter, Minter interviews and observes dozens of buyers, sorters, cutters and shippers while tracking the journey of the approximately four million tons of used clothes exported around the world each year. Secondhand details an intricate and diverse network of operations spanning the United States, Canada, West Africa, India, Asia and many other points along the way. Minter provides an eye-opening look at the ways used clothes are sold and repurposed as furniture stuffing and rags, a high-demand product for the hospitality, automotive and healthcare fields, among others. "Nobody counts the number of wiping rags manufactured in the United States and elsewhere every year. But anyone who knows the industry acknowledges that the numbers are in the many billions, and growing.... The alternative is environmentally-unfriendly paper towels and synthetic wipes."

In an accessible and engaging style, Secondhand unravels the complexities of a vast yet mostly hidden and often secretive enterprise of used clothes and goods. (A surprising number of Minter's sources in the field refused to give their names.) The result is an unparalleled look at the lifespan of everyday things and the unexpected ways our society's abundance of discarded items are, refreshingly, being repurposed for a second life. --Melissa Firman

The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith was a highly anticipated novel that I'd read several good reviews about, and I was certain was going to be a character-driven fantasy full of great imaginary books curated by Lucifer himself. Though the book takes place in Hell's Library (with some side trips into Seattle), the characters were not at all what I thought they'd be, and the underlying idea that humans choose to send their own souls to heaven, hell or purgatory, depending on the weight of their grief/guilt was a big surprise to me. Here's the blurb: 

In the first book in a brilliant new fantasy series, books that aren't finished by their authors reside in the Library of the Unwritten in Hell, and it is up to the Librarian to track down any restless characters who emerge from those unfinished stories.
Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing-- a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto.
But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil's Bible. The text of the Devil's Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell….and Earth.  

It should be noted that the Archangel Uriel, who is a woman in this book, doesn't come off in a happy/good light, but is instead cruel and predatory, and is mainly interested in advancing her political stature with the Creator in heaven. Again, a surprising twist in a book full of religious tropes turned on their collective heads. The prose was lively and danced along a brilliant roller coaster of a plot full of fascinating twists and turns and intricate characters who definitely warrant a sequel. I'd give this frist novel from Hell's Library an A, and recommend it to anyone interested in diverse religious historical fantasy. 

The Marked by Lilith Saintcrow is a weird urban romantic fantasy/horror/crime drama hybrid that had me flinching and yet turning pages until the wee hours of the morning. Jude and Preston were such full bodied characters, they practically lept from the page,and though Jude seemed dazed and confused for much of the novel, I still felt for her trying to navigate a world she never knew existed while trying to dodge a serial killer named "the Skinner" who literally wants to skin her alive and absorb her powers.  Here's the blurb: A winding road, a freak storm, and a lightning strike. Jude Altfall’s life, just beginning to coalesce after her divorce, is shattered afresh. Dazed with grief, she’s not sure if the weird things happening around her are hallucinations…or something more. And there’s the mark on her hip—a tattoo she can’t for the life of her remember getting.

Preston Marlock left a shadowy government agency two years ago, to hunt a killer. Each time the bastard strikes the trail goes cold, and not even Marlock’s more-than-natural abilities are helping. Now the killer’s taken one of his very few friends, and there’s a surviving witness. The Altfall woman is now that most precious and fragile of targets, newly Marked. All Marlock has to do is dangle her like bait, and the killer will eventually show up.
The Skinner knows some people are different. Special. He has a collection of stretched skin and pretty pictures, each harvested with care. The trick is to take them while the victim is still struggling, still alive, otherwise their power is lost. He is careful, methodical, and precise, but chance robs him of a prize. Once he realizes Jude Altfall has what he covets, and has possibly seen his face, her fate is sealed. And just to be cautious, the Skinner might swat at the annoying fly who has buzzed along his trail for two years.

Saintcrow's prose is, as always, brilliant, clear and precise, just as her plots are always woven with great care to be full of maze-like twists and turns that never bore the reader with too much backstory or unnecessary details. Though I am not a fan of the horror genre in general, I'd still give this novel an A, and recommend it to those who like their dark fantasy laced with all kinds of weird romance and twists/turns that you won't see coming.

Rose & Thunder by Lilith Saintcrow is a unique retelling of the Beauty and the Beast legend, with roses, curses, magic servants and a big library throughout...but that is where the similarities end, because Saintcrow's Bella (Isabella) is a witch, and a wanderer, and her beast, Tremont, is a weretiger whose scars and duty to the curse keep him in agony until Isabella can find a way to break the curse and enact a rescue. Here's the blurb:

Beauty…
Isabella Harpe, last in a long line of witches, drifts with the wind. Her tarot cards always ready to bring in enough to live on, and her instincts keep her mostly out of trouble. Unfortunately, bad boyfriends and even worse luck strand her near the most dangerous place for a witch to land—beside a cursed town, and an even more cursed man.
The roses…
Jeremy Tremont’s family built their house over an ancient place of power, turning it into an uneasy, rose-choked sanctuary for the weird and the dangerous alike. Scarred, quiet, and difficult, he’s not Isabella’s idea of a prospective employer, no matter how badly she needs the money. He’s paying well, and there’s only one catch: she has to be home by dusk. Because in Tremont City, bad things happen after nightfall.
And the curse.
Secrets hide in every corner, an ancient curse cloaks itself in silence, and Isabella’s arrival has begun a deadly countdown. Despite that, she may have found a home—all she has to do is figure out how to break the curse.
Oh, and survive in the dark…

Though I found Isabella interesting as a protagonist, her stubborn and stupid determination to flout the rules that Tremont sets down for her safety became tedious after awhile, and I wanted to smack her alongside the head more than once, because she didn't seem to have the slightest notion of how to defend herself or prepare for a time when she'd need to defend her life. For someone who has traveled alone as a woman around the country, this seems to me to be the height of stupidity, and I loathe female protagonists who are too stupid to live, and require men to save them at every turn. That said, Jeremy Tremont's "shyness" and inability to relate to Isabella also seemed rather stupid, and his fear of showing his scars also seemed a bit too much, especially considering how many women hook up with physically ugly older men because the men have other qualities that they value, like financial stability. And we don't really see much of Isabella's powers as a witch, other than her ability to tell when she's in trouble/danger, and when she's safe. Still, Saintcrow's prose is lovely and evocative, and her plot marches along with precise grace. I'd give this urban fantasy take on Beauty and the Beast an A-, and recommend it to anyone who likes modern retellings of classic fairy tales.

Tailing a Tabby by Laurie Cass is the second book in her Bookmobile Cat Mystery series. I'd read the first book, and then, after sending my mother all of the books in this series to date, I got a package of the second, third and fourth books in the series from mom after she'd read and enjoyed them. These are cozy mysteries that tend to be fairly bloodless and focus mostly on the quirky townspeople and the protagonist and her pet, in this case, Minnie the librarian and her cat Eddie. My 82-year-old mother likes them because she can read a chapter or two before bed each night until she's finished with the book, and because they're mass market paperbacks, they're light and easy for her to hold in her arthritic hands. While I enjoy easy reading as a mental palate-cleanser, I don't like books that are boring enough to send me to sleep, as this book proved to be. Here's the blurb: In the bookmobile, librarian Minnie Hamilton and her rescue cat, Eddie, roll out great summer reads to folks all over the lake town of Chilson, Michigan. And when real-life drama turns deadly, Minnie makes sure justice is never overdue.
The bookmobile is making its usual rounds when Minnie and Eddie are flagged down by a woman in distress. The woman’s husband, a famous artist, needs emergency medical care. After getting him into the bookmobile, Minnie races the man to the hospital in time…but his bad luck has only just begun.
After disappearing from the hospital, the artist is discovered slumped over the body of a murdered woman. Minnie knows that her new friend didn’t commit the crime, but the evidence paints an unflattering picture. Now this librarian and her furry friend have to put the investigation in high gear and catch the real killer before someone else checks out.

Cass's prose is overly-detailed and tedious, and her plot moves as slowly as molasses in January, so it took me a lot longer than usual to read the 340 pages of this mystery novel. Minnie and Eddie put me to sleep more than once, and I found that the threads of who she'd interviewed as suspects and who was exonerated got lost among her dates and romantic conundrums at her aunts boardinghouse. Still, it wasn't horrible, and I can understand why my mom loves these books. So I'd give Tailing a Tabby a B-, and recommend it to those who like small town female sleuths and their cats.

Elliott Bay Books at Sea-Tac Airport, Advice from a Bookstore Cat, Travel Mug Library, Quote of the Day, Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank, Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes, Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, and Will My Cat Eat my Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty

It's almost Halloween, and I am excited for the start of holiday season, not to mention birthday season for myself and my family, all of whom have winter birthdays. Outside, it's time for what Seattlites call "The Great Dark," where we get lots of cold rain, hail and every now and then a dusting of snow. That's okay with me, as I am a big fan of settling in a cozy chair or bed with a cup of hot tea and a few good books. Speaking of good books and procurement thereof, it would appear that Elliott Bay Bookstore has decided to expand their operations to Sea-Tac airport, which will be a godsend to weary travelers in search of some distraction during long flights.

Elliott Bay Book Company Arrives at Sea-Tac Airport

Elliott Bay Book Company http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42105343 in Seattle, Wash., has opened a bookstore in Sea-Tac Airport http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42105344 in association with the Hudson Group. The store is located in Concourse C and features staff picks, bestsellers and plenty of books by writers from Seattle and the greater Pacific Northwest.

The Hudson Group has launched similar airport ventures with other indie bookstores, including Vroman's in Pasadena, Calif., Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, Colo., and Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tenn. Hudson has locations in more than 80 airports and transportation hubs around the U.S.

I love it when cats speak out via their human servants, LOL. This looks like a fun bit of advice from a Hawaiian kitty.

Advice from a Bookstore Cat

Posted on Facebook by Talk Story Bookstore http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42105362, Hanapepe, Hawaii: "Dear All Bookstore Cats: If I 'Meow' ten times while my servant is dealing with our customers, I get carried to the back room to have my lunch. It always works. I don't even need to walk there anymore. Try it--trust me, it works."

This is a great idea that I wish more coffee or tea stands would adopt. It would save on so much plastic/cardboard waste from mugs and stirring straws.

Cool Idea of the Day: 'Travel Mug Library'

Canadian bookseller NovelTea Bookstore Café http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42105367 in Truro, N.S., is launching a "new 'Travel Mug Library! We are asking our customers to bring us a few of the many travel mugs that so many of us have stored in our cupboards. Our NovelTea team will then inspect, wash & sanitize them, and then the various travel mugs will be available for our customers to borrow as needed, and hopefully return--so that each mug can be used again and again!"This new initiative is in addition to: dine-in option with washable cups, plates and cutlery; 5% discount for bringing your own reusable travel mug with you; encouraging customers to bring their own reusable take-out containers; offering compostable cutlery, take-out containers and trays; offering a great selection of reusable straws, and cups for purchase #ReduceSingleUseOctober." 

I totally agree with Tom Mole here. Nothing can replace an actual bookstore for enjoyment

Quotation of the Day

"Bookshops are machines for serendipity--opportunities to discover the books you didn't know you wanted. The algorithmic recommendations served up by online booksellers can't compete with the pleasure of finding something unexpected on the shelves of a bookshop, reading a dozen pages standing up and knowing, as you shift your weight from foot to foot, that you've got to take it home. And no online search engine can match the knowledge of booksellers, who have an almost superhuman ability to locate the book you're looking for, even if you can only remember the color of the cover.... Whether we think of bookshops as places we can escape the pressures of the world, or spaces in which to imagine its transformation, a world without them would be infinitely poorer."--Tom Mole, author of The Secret Life of Books, in a column for The Big Issue.

Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank is the last book published by the author, who died recently. I decided to pick up a copy in memory of other books of hers that I'd read and enjoyed in the past. Unfortunately, this book was a "paint by the numbers" cliche-ridden tome that fulfilled every trope about Southern women and romance novels that exists. That said, there were still the funny, weird/quirky and warm characters that Frank is known for, they just were given a tired script to work with. Though Frank employs a Southern take on transvestite and transgender men who become drag queens, I found the motivations of the female characters to be murky and half-hearted when it came to accepting those on the LBGTQ spectrum. Here's the blurb: 

Beekeeper Holly McNee Jensen quietly lives in a world of her own on Sullivans Island, tending her hives and working at the local island library. Holly calls her mother The Queen Bee because she’s a demanding hulk of a woman. Her mother, a devoted hypochondriac, might be unaware that she’s quite ill but that doesn’t stop her from tormenting Holly. To escape the drama, Holly’s sister Leslie married and moved away, wanting little to do with island life. Holly’s escape is to submerge herself in the lives of the two young boys next door and their widowed father, Archie.

Her world is upended when the more flamboyant Leslie returns and both sisters, polar opposites, fixate on what’s happening in their neighbor’s home. Is Archie really in love with that awful ice queen of a woman? If Archie marries her, what will become of his little boys? Restless Leslie is desperate for validation after her imploded marriage, squandering her favors on any and all takers. Their mother ups her game in an uproarious and theatrical downward spiral. Scandalized Holly is talking to her honey bees a mile a minute, as though they’ll give her a solution to all the chaos. Maybe they will.
Queen Bee is a classic Lowcountry Tale—warm, wise and hilarious, it roars with humanity and a dropperful of whodunit added for good measure by an unseen hand. In her twentieth novel, Dorothea Benton Frank brings us back to her beloved island with an unforgettable story where the Lowcountry magic of the natural world collides with the beat of the human heart.

I found the mother's falling in love with a heterosexual transvestite man who likes to dress as a pirate somewhat disingenuous, and Holly's total domination by her cruel mother (who suddenly becomes lovely and kind when she falls in love with the pirate, who they keep mentioning is ex-military, for some reason) and shy caregiving of the mother and loutish neighbor and his children also rang false, or a bit too good to be true, with me. The prose was smooth, but the plot was much too easy and the characters much too stereotypical for my taste. Still,  I'd give the book a B, and recommend it to fans of DBF's other works.

Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes is a YA science fiction novel recommended on a Barnes and Noble list of new  and diverse YA fiction that you should read. Because I always think there is room for diversity of every kind in science fiction and fantasy, I picked it up at the library, and though the prose was a bit too amateurish for my tastes, I'm glad that I read it. Here's the blurb:

A hilarious, offbeat debut space opera that skewers everything from pop culture to video games and features an irresistible foul-mouthed captain and her motley crew, strange life forms, exciting twists, and a galaxy full of fun and adventure. 
Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy delivering small cargo for even smaller profits. When her sister Mari is kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that holds people hostage in cryostasis, Eva must undergo a series of unpleasant, dangerous missions to pay the ransom.
But Eva may lose her mind before she can raise the money. The ship’s hold is full of psychic cats, an amorous fish-faced emperor wants her dead after she rejects his advances, and her sweet engineer is giving her a pesky case of feelings. The worse things get, the more she lies, raising suspicions and testing her loyalty to her found family.
To free her sister, Eva will risk everything: her crew, her ship, and the life she’s built on the ashes of her past misdeeds. But when the dominoes start to fall and she finds the real threat is greater than she imagined, she must decide whether to play it cool or burn it all down.

SPOILER ALERT: It didn't surprise me at all that Eva's sister Mari actually staged her kidnapping herself, as she's some kind of intergalactic spy, but I was surprised by how easy it seemed for Eva to forgive her after all her lies and deceit get Eva and her crew into trouble. Her weird boyfriend Vakar seems like a bizarre choice, but apparently Eva has a translator that tells her how he's feeling by how he smells, so readers are regaled in every chapter with a run down of what he smells like, which becomes tedious after the first few times, especially since the author seems to have a penchant for the smell of licorice. The so called psychic cats really don't do much but sit on people's laps and purr, or hiss at those they don't like. They don't seem to have any real stake in the plot, nor do they show any psychic powers other than once at the outset of the tale. That said, this is a farcical story that is a fun distraction if you like science fiction/romance hybrids. My only other problem with this book is that the author doesn't translate the Spanish language phrases or chapter titles used throughout the book. So I'd give this novel a B-, and recommend it to anyone fluent in Spanish who also likes science fiction and female protagonists.

Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl is the third book in the Beautiful Creatures series, and probably the last book of theirs that I will read. The main male protagonist, Ethan, is just too sexist, possessive and whiny for me to read any more about his obsessive love of  magical "caster" girl Lena. I know it's set in the South, and that prejudice and discrimination and sexism run deep there, however, since this book is fantasy, and the authors female, they could have overthrown those tropes and made the female characters who have their own agency seem more than pitiful weaklings brought down by the powerful male magic workers and their evil female counterparts. Because if you have a handle on your abilities, and you aren't fawning over a guy, then of course you must be evil! Here's the blurb:

Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now that Ethan and Lena have returned home, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected - and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What - or who - will need to be sacrificed to save Gatlin?
For Ethan, the chaos is a frightening but welcome distraction. He's being haunted in his dreams again, but this time it isn't by Lena - and whatever is haunting him is following him out of his dreams and into his everyday life. Even worse, Ethan is gradually losing pieces of himself - forgetting names, phone numbers, even memories. He doesn't know why, and most days he's too afraid to ask.
Sometimes there isn't just one answer or one choice. Sometimes there's no going back. And this time there won't be a happy ending.

SPOILER, it becomes clear about halfway through the book that Ethan is going to have to sacrifice himself to save his hometown and all his family and friends from total annihilation. What's sad is that by that point, I was actually hoping for his demise, because Ethan and his newly-incubus-powered douchebag friend Link are such jerks that they're almost unbearable. All either thinks about is having sex with the caster girls they're "in love" with, and readers are treated to yet another sexist description of how little they wear and how "third degree burn hot" they are. Yuck. I struggled to finish this YA book, because it was redundant and boring, with the characters frittering away their time on stupid romance cliches. While the prose is decent, the plot is too simplistic, and you can see the ending coming a mile away. I'd give this Southern paranormal fantasy novel a C+, and only recommend it to those who have read the first two books. 

Will my Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions From Tiny Mortals About Death, by Caitlin Doughty is a somewhat macabre non fiction book filled with gallows humor and a lot of interesting information on death and dead bodies. It's Q&A format keeps the chapters focused, on topic and fascinating, even if you're a bit squeamish. Here's the blurb: 

Best-selling author and mortician Caitlin Doughty answers real questions from kids about death, dead bodies, and decomposition. 
Every day, funeral director Caitlin Doughty receives dozens of questions about death. The best questions come from kids. What would happen to an astronaut’s body if it were pushed out of a space shuttle? Do people poop when they die? Can Grandma have a Viking funeral?
In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Doughty blends her mortician’s knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to thirty-five distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. In her inimitable voice, Doughty details lore and science of what happens to, and inside, our bodies after we die. Why do corpses groan? What causes bodies to turn colors during decomposition? And why do hair and nails appear longer after death? Readers will learn the best soil for mummifying your body, whether you can preserve your best friend’s skull as a keepsake, and what happens when you die on a plane.
Beautifully illustrated by Dianné Ruz, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? shows us that death is science and art, and only by asking questions can we begin to embrace it.

Turns out that cats (and dogs) will eventually eat their owners if they are hungry enough and haven't been fed their kibble for awhile. The questions, though somewhat morbid, are all answered with good humor and sincerity by Doughty, with odd illustrations of an Asian girl and an Asian skeleton are presented at the beginning of each chapter, for some reason that I couldn't discern. But I think what Doughty is doing here is important, in that she's trying to de-stigmatize death and help children (and adults) come to terms with the end of life that is part and parcel of being mortal. Her witty answers to each question keep the book from getting too gross or dark, so it keeps the attention of the reader all the way through. While it's short (200 pages) its well worth the price for Doughty's charming walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I'd give it an A, and I would recommend this book to anyone who wonders about what happens to our bodies after death, and those who are looking for frank discussions of some end of life choices.

The Snow Sister movie, War of the Worlds TV series, Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, His Dark Materials TV series, Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Wonderland edited by Marie O Regan and Paul Kane, The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow and Stormrise by Jillian Boehme

Happy Tuesday on this brisk autumn day! I am going to try to get this blog post completed before I have to attend book group tonight, so I'm going to forgo my usual ramblings and get right into the tidbits from Shelf Awareness, followed by the reviews.

This looks like a fascinating book and movie, so I am looking forward to it's debut/premier.

Movies: The Snow Sister

Anonymous Content's "fledgling Nordic division is teaming up with popular Norwegian author Maja Lunde" on a film version of her children's book The Snow Sister http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42018262, which will be published this fall "in more than 25 territories from 20 international publishing houses," Deadline reported. The novel was published in Norway last October by Kagge Forlag.

Lunde will adapt her novel for the screen. Her books "have been translated into 36 languages and her debut novel, The History of Bees (2015), was a significant hit, selling to several territories before Norwegian publication," Deadline wrote. Her recent screenplays include the Netflix acquisition Battle.

I think that setting this new version of War of the Worlds in a time period closer to when it was written is a brilliant idea. I also think placing it in England is a wonderful idea, and the cast list is superb. This is another series that I will look forward to viewing.

TV: War of the Worlds

The BBC has released the first trailer for its reboot of War of the Worlds http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42050435, based on the classic novel by H.G. Wells, Deadline reported. Filmed in Liverpool, the series was adapted by Peter Harness (Wallander) and directed by Craig Viveiros (And Then There Were None).

The cast includes Rafe Spall (The Big Short), Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark), Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting) and Rupert Graves (Sherlock). Deadline noted that this is "the first adaptation set in Edwardian England, rather than America, and follows George, played by Spall, and his partner Amy, played by Tomlinson as they attempt to defy society and start a life together against the escalating terror of an alien invasion. Graves plays George's older brother Frederick, while Carlyle stars as Ogilvy, an astronomer and scientist."

 I loved The Night Circus, so I was thrilled when I read that Morgenstern had written another book that will be out this month. I can hardly wait to read it, though finding money for books right now is difficult, as we're in a financial pinch in my household. Still, I know the universe will manage to miracle a copy to me, eventually.

Book Review

The Starless Sea

In her first novel in eight years, Erin Morgenstern (The Night Circus) weaves a sprawling, ambitious spell of a story in which a young man becomes caught up in a centuries-old secret world of hidden archives, thwarted love and forces beyond human comprehension.

As a grad student in emerging media studies, Zachary Ezra Rawlins feels guilty about spending his winter break on pleasure reading rather than playing video games. When he takes out an uncatalogued book, Sweet Sorrows, from the university library, he reads about lovelorn pirates, the star-crossed romance of Time and Fate, and the rites of ancient orders dedicated to guarding a vast underground library on the shores of a mysterious sea. He also finds a short chapter about his own childhood, detailing a time when he unwittingly walked away from a chance to enter this secret world, and it perplexes and scares him. Determined to understand how a book written before his birth could chronicle his life, Zachary goes on a quest to track down its origins. His search leads him to a costumed ball where he meets elegant, pink-haired Mirabel and compelling, roguish Dorian. He's swept into a world where a door painted onto a wall can open, the Moon can take human form, and owls serve a shadowy monarch. Zachary searches for a way to protect a Harbor on the Starless Sea, a labyrinthine story repository filled with puzzles, secret rooms and the best room service in any world.

Thoughtful, slightly awkward Zachary makes a perfect every-reader, with his desire to take part in stories and his sympathetic nostalgia for the Choose Your Own Adventure novels. Morgenstern delivers more of the lush, lavish prose passages that made readers fall in love with The Night Circus, creating elaborate scenes that include a sprawling dollhouse landscape, a perpetual party set in a pocket universe outside time and an ocean made of honey. In a narrative of enormous scope and scale, Morgenstern takes slow, painstaking care in assembling the story's components behind fairy tale sleight-of-hand. Readers should enter her world prepared to spend a large portion of the experience combing for clues in short, metafictive fables written in a romantic, whimsical style reminiscent of the Flax-Golden Tales on the author's website.

While the plot takes its time coming together, the journey is nothing short of magical, like a fantastical, delirious dream that makes awakening back to reality a disappointment. Set aside a few quiet hours to devour this opulent feast. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

I'm also looking forward to this new adaptation of His Dark Materials series, which I loved reading, and will be keen to see on the screen.

TV: His Dark Materials

HBO released the official trailer for His Dark Materials http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42079391, a TV series adaptation of Philip Pullman's fantasy novel trilogy, "and it looks quite--for lack of a better word--epic," IndieWire reported.

The inaugural season covers the story of the first book, Northern Lights (a.k.a. The Golden Compass). The cast includes Dafne Keen, James McAvoy and Ruth Wilson.

"I thought it was time for the books to be liberated in a space that could do them justice," executive producer Jane Tranter had said during a Comic-Con panel. IndieWire noted that the adaptation "has already seen success prior to airing: The series has been renewed for a second season, which is currently being filmed. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Andrew Scott (as live-action cast), as well as Helen McCrory and Cristela Alonzo (as voice cast for dæmons) are also among some of the stars in the ensemble cast for this upcoming epic, a joint BBC and HBO production."His Dark Materials premieres November 3 on BBC and November 4 on HBO.

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl is the sequel (and second book in the series) to Beautiful Creatures, which I read last month. The authors prose is evocative, if somewhat riddled with Southern dialect, and the plot, though meandering, does make its way to the end in a purposeful, if not swift, manner. My strongest problem with these two novels is that there is a pervasive sexism in the way that women/girls are portrayed in this book (unless they're old, then they are allowed their own power/agency). The young a pretty girls are all drawn as stupid, "slutty" and mean, or, if they are a "good" character, then they're weak and confused, trying to be a martyr and/or in dire need of rescue by the male protagonists, Ethan and Link, who are also stereotypically portrayed as overly hormonal, possessive and reckless teenage boys. The way these boys talk about the girls and themselves in sexist terms is rather nauseating, and abusive, in the case of John, a new character who uses Lena's vulnerable and confused state against her, and out of misplaced guilt, she almost dies of it. Here's the blurb: Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen. Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems. 

Though I know we're supposed to think Ethan is the ultimate in romantic boyfriends, I found him, in both books, to be immature and overly possessive/obsessed with Lena, to the point that he doesn't let "no" mean no, and continues to stalk her after she's told him to go away. His idea of "love" is abusive IMO, and I am surprised that the authors would allow this kind of relationship to be highlighted. The "rescue" of the female protagonist is also a cliche that doesn't need perpetuating in modern YA literature. There are also tons of redundancies in every chapter. The authors seem to feel the need to summarize what has happened previously over and over again, as if someone with dementia was reading the novel. Still, I'd give this book a C+, and recommend it to anyone who has read the previous book, and who plans to read the third book in the series.

Wonderland, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane is an anthology of stories based in the world of the classic fantasy Alice in Wonderland. There were only two authors whose stories I wanted to read in this book, The White Queen's Pawn by Genevieve Cogman and Temp Work by Lilith Saintcrow. Having read many books by both authors I wasn't disappointed in either story, though Cogman's was more horror-oriented than Saintcrows. Still, it was nice to read something that was outside of their usual fantasy books/series, and I'd recommend this anthology for that alone. I would give these two stories As, but with the caveat that I didn't want to read the other stories by unknown authors, because I dislike reading works that aren't as well written as authors whose works are well known to me.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow was one of the rare books that I read on my Kindle Fire as an e-book. I am not really a fan of ebooks, because they're difficult to look back on, to quote or check on the ending, or anything else, plus it's hard for me to read from a screen for long periods of time without my eyes blurring. It's also difficult to erase them, so if you don't like a book you can't just take it back to the library or donate it. It's there to haunt you forever. Still, while this was an interesting book, I am glad that I didn't spend more than $10 on it, because it wasn't as well written as I'd hoped, nor was the story as cohesive as I would have liked it to be. Here's the blurb:

In the early 1900s, a young woman embarks on a fantastical journey of self-discovery after finding a mysterious book in this captivating and lyrical debut.

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place.

Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

Lush and richly imagined, a tale of impossible journeys, unforgettable love, and the enduring power of stories awaits in Alix E. Harrow's spellbinding debut--step inside and discover its magic.

For some reason, the author skips POV from chapter to chapter, to tell the story of the protagonist's (January) mother and father, and their love that is so encompassing that it obliterates the mother's love (and fathers) for their infant daughter (or at least makes it a secondary concern). I found this to be reprehensible, not romantic at all, and while they both seem to feel bad about it, they also expect their daughter to understand and forgive their bad choices that adversely effected her life. I really didn't feel any sympathy at all for either parent, as they left their child in the hands of a monster and his monsterous minions. I would have preferred to have just read January's story, and I believe the whole plot would have felt less patchwork and hard to follow if Harrow had done this. The prose was a bit redundant and slow in spots, but the characters were very well fleshed out, though they weren't as sympathetic as I would have liked. I'd give this book a B-, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in time travel of the old fashioned, hardscrabble variety.  

Stormrise by Jillian Boehme is a YA fantasy along the lines of Disney's Mulan, about a young Chinese woman who pretends to be a boy in order to join the military and fight for her family and her country. Here's the blurb:

A combat warrior will risk everything to awaken the dragons and save her kingdom in Jillian Boehme's epic YA Fantasy debut, Stormrise, inspired by Twelfth Night and perfect for fans of Tamora Pierce.
If Rain weren’t a girl, she would be respected as a Neshu combat master. Instead, her gender dooms her to a colorless future. When an army of nomads invades her kingdom, and a draft forces every household to send one man to fight, Rain takes her chance to seize the life she wants.
Knowing she’ll be killed if she’s discovered, Rain purchases powder made from dragon magic that enables her to disguise herself as a boy. Then she hurries to the war camps, where she excels in her training―and wrestles with the voice that has taken shape inside her head. The voice of a dragon she never truly believed existed.
As war looms and Rain is enlisted into an elite, secret unit tasked with rescuing the High King, she begins to realize this dragon tincture may hold the key to her kingdom’s victory. For the dragons that once guarded her land have slumbered for centuries . . . and someone must awaken them to fight once more.

I have to admit that at first I kept hearing Donny Osmonds "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan as the background music during the first few chapters of the book and while Rain/Storm trains with the other warriors. Eventually, though, the story became more complex and the music faded as I was engrossed in Rain's life and her dilemna of falling in love with her sister's intended (they'd never met, due to arranged marriages common at the time) while still trying to maintain her secret as a female in a male military unit, where discovery is punishable by death. Though I found the prose delicious and the plot swift, I was unhappy with the extreme sexism of the Chinese culture portrayed in the book, though I realize it is historically accurate. Women really were seen as only valuable as wives/mothers who were completely subservient to men and considered weak and ignorant to boot. I also didn't understand Rain's forgiveness or kindness toward Sedge, the antagonist who tries to rape and kill her, yet when he finally dies she's devastated. I think he deserved a far worse fate than what was meted out to him. Still, this was a rousing tale of dragons and battle that reminded me a great deal of Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness series. I'd give it an A, and recommend it to those who like female-driven adventure and heroism. 

Burton to Host NBA, Incorruptible by Lilith Saintcrow, The Nightjar by Deborah Hewett, Home for Erring and Outcast Girls by Julie Kibler and the Last Collection by Jeanne Mackin

Welcome to October and autumn, my favorite time of year. The air is cool and crisp, the trees are in their beautiful fall colors and we are heading for the holidays, which I love, including my husband and son's birthdays in November and my birthday in December. Unfortunately, September and October are also the start of flu season, and my household has been infected for the past three weeks. I've had to go to the ER at St Elizabeth's for breathing treatments and antibiotics and the dreaded cortisone shot. Still, I am finally feeling better, and am now able to stay upright long enough to update this blog with reviews of all the books I've read while I was sick in bed. 

I have always been a fan of Burtons, since my family and I watched him in Roots, and I watched him on Reading Rainbow. I think it's fantastic that he is hosting the NBAs.

LeVar Burton to Host National Book Awards

Actor and host of Reading Rainbow LeVar Burton will be the master of ceremonies for the National Book Awards http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz41986164 on November 20 in New York City. At the awards, the winners in five categories will be announced, and lifetime achievement awards will be presented to writer Edmund White and to American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher.

Burton is probably best known for his roles as chief engineer Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation TV and film series and as the young Kunta Kinte in the original TV miniseries of Roots. He was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow, which aired from 1983 to 2009, one of the longest-running children's TV shows and winner of more than 200 awards, including multiple Emmys and a Peabody.

In 2012, Burton launched RRKidz, a digital educational publishing company, which now holds global rights to Reading Rainbow in a partnership with series creator WNED/Buffalo. Reading Rainbow has relaunched for a new generation of children, especially to classrooms in need, and through Skybrary, a digital online reading service, and Skybrary School, for teachers and students, he continues to promote the joys and benefits of reading.

In his new podcast, LeVar Burton Reads, he chooses a favorite piece of short fiction and performs it. He is currently touring the country with a live version of the podcast.

Burton is the recipient of 13 Emmy Awards, a Grammy and five NAACP Awards. As the National Book Foundation put it, he "has demonstrated in his career that he can do it all--acting, directing, producing, writing and speaking.... with millions of fans throughout the world, Burton continues his mission to inspire, educate and entertain."

Incorruptible by Lilith Saintcrow is, I believe, a stand alone novel (vs part of one of her many great series books) that infiltrates and expands on the angel legends to create a world in which a young waitress finds herself on the run from demons sent to kill her while she's protected by a military angel ala the original "Terminator" movie. 

Having read most everything that Saintcrow has written, I was assured of excellent prose, great storytelling and a swift plot, but it's the characters that really sell this particular slender volume, from the "incorruptible" Jenna, who thinks she's cursed and is cowed by her abusive ex boyfriend to the huge Legionnaire (read: angel) soldier,  Michael, sent to protect and keep her safe, these are people who feel full bodied and unforgettable. Their cross country adventure reads like an action movie on steroids. Here's the blurb:

Jenna Delacroix is determined to keep her life as simple as possible. Maybe if she tries hard enough to be normal the nightmares and strange occurrences plaguing her all her life will finally recede. But then the monsters arrive—and with them, the man who says he's her protector.
Lonely and disciplined, Michael Gabon is just a grunt in the Legion's endless war, but now he's stumbled across something special—a living, breathing Incorruptible, the first one he's seen in more decades than he can count. She's also being hunted. And now, so is he.
On the run without backup, the diaboli haunting their trail, their only hope is working together. Even that might not be enough, because the unclean seem to know more than they should. Whether it's treachery or bad luck doesn't matter to Michael. The only thing he cares about is seeing his Incorruptible safe...
…no matter who--or what--he has to kill.

Though there is only one romantic scene in the book, I felt that the romance between the protagonists was a strong through-line in the short 270 pages, and I was left hoping for more interaction by the end. However, due to how tightly woven the story is, I don't think Saintcrow could have fit more into the narrative without it seeming gratuitous. I'd give this enjoyable page turner an A, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in urban angel fantasy.

The Nightjar by Deborah Hewett was a book I was certain that I would like, because it had so many characteristics that I look for in a good read, ie female protagonist, magic, various kinds of people imbued with different magical talents, a quest or mystery of some kind, and a British background. I also always want good prose and excellent storytelling, of course, and a strong plot. Unfortunately, this book, which looked good from the outset, turned into a pumpkin within a chapter or two, and a moldering one at that. My first problem with it was that the protagonist was clumsy and stupid, and while that can be endearing if she grows and gets more savvy as the plot moves forward, our reluctant orphaned heroine Alice remains an idiot who puts herself and everyone around her in danger over and over again. She never learns from her mistakes and seems to take pride in her stubborn ignorance and rash, ridiculous actions. She's also immature, petulant and seems more than willing to overlook her 'protectors' lies and deceit for his looks and sex appeal, even when it gets her friends killed. Ugh. Here's the blurb:

The Nightjar by Deborah Hewitt is a stunning contemporary fantasy debut about another London, a magical world hidden behind the bustling modern city we know.
Alice Wyndham has been plagued by visions of birds her whole life...until the mysterious Crowley reveals that Alice is an ‘aviarist’: capable of seeing nightjars, magical birds that guard human souls. When her best friend is hit by a car, only Alice can find and save her nightjar.
With Crowley’s help, Alice travels to the Rookery, a hidden, magical alternate London to hone her newfound talents. But a faction intent on annihilating magic users will stop at nothing to destroy the new aviarist. And is Crowley really working with her, or against her? Alice must risk everything to save her best friend―and uncover the strange truth about herself.

SPOILER alert, Crowley is a complete asshat who is only using Alice to get his sister's nightjar back, yet she still falls for him and seems to trust him when it's obvious that she should not. Though the prose was decent, I found the plot to be meandering and confusing, and, as previously stated, I hated the main characters, who were either too stupid to live or evil scumbags with their own agendas for using Alice's talents and heritage. Even the London setting seemed dilapidated and dull. I wish I hadn't purchased this book and wasted money on it, but at least now I know that I won't be wasting money on any of Hewett's other volumes. I'd give this book a C, and only recommend it to those who like bird-brained heroines who bungle everything.

Home for Erring and Outcast Girls by Julie Kibler is a story based on true events/places/people in turn of the century Texas. I didn't expect to like this story of the hard lives of drug addicted prostitutes and unwed mothers who find a home in a religious institution in Texas, but in the end the characters and their tales were irresistible. Kibler's prose is sturdy and yet manages to be lyrical at the same time, and her plot marches along at a metered pace that is not too fast or slow. Here's the blurb: In turn-of-the-20th century Texas, the Berachah Home for the Redemption and Protection of Erring Girls is an unprecedented beacon of hope for young women consigned to the dangerous poverty of the streets by birth, circumstance, or personal tragedy. Built in 1903 on the dusty outskirts of Arlington, a remote dot between Dallas and Fort Worth’s red-light districts, the progressive home bucks public opinion by offering faith, training, and rehabilitation to prostitutes, addicts, unwed mothers, and “ruined” girls without forcibly separating mothers from children. When Lizzie Bates and Mattie McBride meet there—one sick and abused, but desperately clinging to her young daughter, the other jilted by the beau who fathered her ailing son—they form a friendship that will see them through unbearable loss, heartbreak, difficult choices, and ultimately, diverging paths.
A century later, Cate Sutton, a reclusive university librarian, uncovers the hidden histories of the two troubled women as she stumbles upon the cemetery on the home’s former grounds and begins to comb through its archives in her library. Pulled by an indescribable connection, what Cate discovers about their stories leads her to confront her own heartbreaking past, and to reclaim the life she thought she'd let go forever. With great pathos and powerful emotional resonance, Home for Erring and Outcast Girls explores the dark roads that lead us to ruin, and the paths we take to return to ourselves. 

I was surprised at the number of women who were drug addicted at this time in history, and the way that the home helped them through withdrawl to start a clean life with their babies. This is something that you don't generally read about when you read about homes for unwed mothers. My only real problem with this book was the that the modern day chapters related from the POV of Cate, weren't as powerful or interesting as the lives of the women in the Berachah home. I'm also confused as to the outcome of Cate's pregnancy....we never learn what happened to her baby, if she gave it up or if the girl that she helps is actually her daughter? Yet Lizzie and Mattie's stories are so much more vivid that they make up for the weak modern day storyline, somehow. I'd give this book a B, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in real women's history at the turn of the 20th century. 

The Last Collection by Jeanne Mackin is subtitled "A novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel, and that is basically what it is about, the long term feud and hatred between these two famed fashion mavens, particularly during the time before WWII when they dueled in their Paris fashion salons. Here's the blurb: An American woman becomes entangled in the intense rivalry between iconic fashion designers Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli in this captivating novel.

Paris, 1938. Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli are fighting for recognition as the most successful and influential fashion designer in France, and their rivalry is already legendary. They oppose each other at every turn, in both their politics and their designs: Chanel’s are classic, elegant, and practical; Schiaparelli’s bold, experimental, and surreal.
When Lily Sutter, a recently widowed young American teacher, visits her brother, Charlie, in Paris, he insists on buying her a couture dress—a Chanel. Lily, however, prefers a Schiaparelli. Charlie’s beautiful and socially prominent girlfriend soon begins wearing Schiaparelli’s designs as well, and much of Paris follows in her footsteps.
Schiaparelli offers budding artist Lily a job at her store, and Lily finds herself increasingly involved with Schiaparelli and Chanel’s personal war. Their fierce competition reaches new and dangerous heights as the Nazis and the looming threat of World War II bear down on Paris.

Because this story was about real women and actual events, I was riveted from the first page onward. Not being a fashionista myself, I was not aware of the history of Chanel or Schiap, as she was called during the book, nor was I aware that, for example, Coco Chanel was a Nazi collaborator during WWII. Not being a fan of Chanel's classic clothing designs anyway (they're made for women without curves), I was heartened to read that Schiap designed clothing that was ahead of its time in whimsy and with unusual fabrics and sizes. Mackin's prose is clean and evocative while her plot is brisk and assured. I really wish that the author would have gone into what happened to Gogo, Schiap's daughter, however, as she's an important part of the fabric of the story. I'd give this winning book an A, and recommend it to anyone interested in iconic fashion.