Worst-Case Scenario Experience, Wigtown Book Festival, Pipi Longstocking on Stage, Maid on TV, Wilder Girls by Rory Power and There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool

It's almost Thanksgiving, and here I am struggling to get books read and not be distracted by a thousand holiday movies, Apple TV offerings (SEE with Jason Momoa is a standout of great acting and script writing and directing) and regular TV programs that are winding down for their fall finales, or finishing up their run as a series. Despite pessimism running rampant these days in America (and on social media) I am looking forward to the glittery lights and snow covered landscapes of Christmas and New Years. Anyway, here's a bunch of interesting tidbits and two reviews. Happy Thanksgiving to all my bibliophile friends.

I remember reading this book back when it first came out, and I thought it was hilarious, though my boyfriend at the time found it more instructional than funny (but he's one of those people who sees the worst case scenario in every situation he encounters, everyday.) I wish I could visit this museum experience!

At Philadelphia's Frankfurt Institute: The Worst-Case Scenario Experience

The "Worst-Case Scenario Experience," an exhibition at the Franklin Institute http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42424223 based on The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook by Philadelphia natives Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht, has opened and runs through April. The exhibit allows museum-goers to learn 13 survival skills, including how to pick a lock, how to get out of quicksand and how to jump from a moving train. Also in the "gymnasium": listening stations that offer additional advice and how-tos from the original audiobook narrated by the late Burt Reynolds, as well as a live actor who plays the role of the "worst-case pro." The exhibit displays everyday items that can be used for extreme survival and displays graphics about fear and anxiety and how stress, physical exhaustion and disorientation can make surviving more difficult. In the "hall of fame" gallery, the exhibit documents real-life incidents of near-death escapes, from evading an angry lion to surviving a shark attack, and celebrates people who encounter worst-case scenarios daily: emergency first responders, wildlife rescue workers, psychologists and physical trainers In March, the Worst-Case Scenario celebrated its 20th anniversary with a fully updated and expanded edition, which will be on sale at the exhibit. Quirk Books is one of the co-producers of the "Worst-Case Scenario Experience."

One of the main items on my "Bucket List" is going to Wales to Hay on Wye and Wigtown in Scotland to visit these places where book shops outnumber regular stores and where you can find lots of like-minded readers to chat with about books!

Wigtown Book Festival

Although they had no plans then to return so soon, Fred credits Kathy's recent retirement from Frostburg State University and the support of his "well-seasoned staff" at Main Street Books for allowing the couple to come back as festival volunteers last month.

"The Wigtown Book Festival is a huge undertaking," he said. "It started as a weekend event and has now become the second largest book festival in the country after Edinburgh. Many people are repeat customers. What we like about Wigtown's events is how close they are to each other. The village green is the center of the set-up with five other locations used that are a few steps away. This creates such an intimacy for all who attend as well as the town since the authors, staff and festival goers are all together and run into each other all the time."

With only about 900 residents, Wigtown is not large, but for 10 days each year book-lovers make the pilgrimage to this rural village in southwest Scotland. In 2019, more than 29,000 people attended 200-plus events, ranging from author talks and children's/YA programming to forums on current events (Brexit) and music. There were breakfasts, hosted by the Bookshop Band and Wigtown Feasts, dinner forums held in the homes of local residents.

"The streets are full of book lovers as the town is also the home to 16 second-hand book shops. For that reason it is easy to make friends and hold conversations with strangers since you all have books as a common love," Fred said. "We were lucky enough to rent the snug (extra room) above The Old Bank Bookshop and spend time with the owners Ian and Joyce Cochrane and their daughter Helena. When not staffing an event at the festival, we were helping out in downstairs bookshop."

With 30 years bookselling experience, Fred had no problem recommending titles he spotted on the shelves to readers. He said that for Wigtown booksellers, festival week is like the Christmas season for U.S. booksellers: "Kathy and I were often support for the Old Bank staff and made many cups of tea to keep them going. Lots of books are being put in customer's hands and talk of books can be heard in every bookshop, tea shop and cafe."

The Powells arrived in Scotland a few days before the start of the festival and worked in a variety of roles--as a set-up team, stewarding author events and staffing an interactive map exhibit set up in an old bank. Fred noted that the festival would not happen without all the volunteers involved: "This year there were over 150 folks doing everything from parking cars, picking up authors at airports and train stations, selling tickets and so much more. Across the year, the festival office estimates that there were 4,300 volunteer hours to support the Festival Company."

Kathy observed that although southwest Scotland "is very remote, the residents are rather cosmopolitan. The festival has found a way to choose topics--such as farming or bird watching--that tie the locals' interest with the book world.... It's not just a place that loves books but a town that loves ideas. This may be the real draw. Wigtown may be a bit off the map, but you are not really remote if you have a great festival. I loved talking with all the U.K. and international visitors as I volunteered at events during the festival. In a divided world, books can be the great unifier."

A handseller at heart, Fred noted: "Lastly, I couldn't call myself a bookseller without recommending three titles from authors that presented at the festival: The Way Home: Tales from a Life without Technology by Mark Boyle (OneWorld), Our Man in New York: The British Plot to Bring America into the Second World War by Henry Hemming (Quercus); and Dark Skies: A Journey into the Wild Night by Tiffany Francis (Bloomsbury Wildlife)."

When I asked him what his "elevator pitch" might be to handsell a Wigtown Book Festival trip to other American booksellers (or book-lovers, for that matter), he replied: "There is no better place to immerse yourself in the world of books than Wigtown Scotland and their annual book festival. The air is full of 'book talk' from festival goers of all ages, authors and friendly town folks. New books, secondhand books and amazing cakes make it 10 days to treasure. Don't just read about bookshops, go to Wigtown and live it!"--Robert Gray

 I've read Pippi Longstocking several times throughout my life, but I always found the original movie somewhat off-putting. But now they're doing a circus stage production of the story, which should be very exciting. I hope that someone films it for the rest of the world to enjoy.

On Stage: Pippi at Cirkus

Pop House Productions and the Astrid Lindgren Company will celebrate Pippi Longstocking's 75th anniversary http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42496436 next summer with Pippi at Cirkus http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42496437, "a fun, musical circus show in collaboration with Cirkus Cirkör http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42496438," Broadway World reported. ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus is exec producing and will be responsible for the show's lyrics to accompany previously released instrumental music by Benny Andersson, among others. Tilde Björfors, Cirkus Cirkör's founder, director and artistic director, is the circus director alongside Maria Blom, who will direct the actors.

"I had the privilege of meeting Astrid several times and her calm, confident radiance with a bright glitter in her eyes always made a deep impression on me," said  Ulvaeus. "Västervik, where I grew up, is only 55 kilometers from her Vimmerby, so we are both Smålanders. I especially remember how proud I was when she said that I was 'a real Emil.' I have the deepest respect for her work and hope we can present something she would have been proud of."

Olle Nyman, CEO of the Astrid Lindgren Company, added: "Imagine being in the audience when Pippi goes to the circus; it's totally irresistible! Pippi wants to play and not just sit in her place, so this will be great fun. We are extremely excited about this opportunity to share the strong, independent, fun and brave Pippi with this amazing company."Pippi at Cirkus will premiere at Cirkus June 26, 2020 and will run throughout the summer.

This book is on my Library Book Groups list of books for next year, and I can hardly wait to read it. Now it appears it will become a Netflix series, which should be fascinating to watch.

TV: Maid

Netflix has given a series order to Maid http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42541907, inspired by Stephanie Land bestselling memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive, according to Deadline. The project is from writer Molly Smith Metzler (Shameless, Orange Is the New Black); John Wells Productions; Margot Robbie's LuckyChap Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television, where the project had been in development. Metzler will write, executive produce and serve as showrunner on the series.

"Stephanie Land's book is a powerful and necessary read, with incredible insight into the struggles people face whilst just trying to get by," said LuckyChap Entertainment in a statement.

Wells commented: "Stephanie tells the searing and remarkably human story of a young woman battling to find a secure future for herself and her infant daughter, Mia, in the face of overwhelming odds and governmental assistance programs of impossible complexity."

Channing Dungey, v-p original series at Netflix, added that Maid "is a poignant portrait that chronicles Stephanie Land's strife and victories, and has the power to connect with our members around the world as they identify with her struggles and root for her success."

Wilder Girls by Rory Power is a bizarre YA dystopian novel that resembles a combination of Lord of the Flies (with girls instead of boys) and the Andromeda Strain with a little Hunger Games thrown in for good measure. The prose is fine and gritty, but the plot wanders a bit and there is no real resolution in the end. Here's the blurb: A feminist Lord of the Flies about three best friends living in quarantine at their island boarding school, and the lengths they go to uncover the truth of their confinement when one disappears. This fresh, new debut is a mind-bending novel unlike anything you've read before.

It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.
But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there's more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.
  I find it amusing that they say that this is unlike anything you've read before, while at the same time saying the book is a "feminist" retelling of Lord of the Flies...so if you've read that classic tale, you've obviously read something like this book before. And I don't really think its a "feminist" retelling if you just replace the boys with girls. Yes, the main character is a budding lesbian, but here, that is almost a trope, since it's a girl's school, and everyone expects homosexuality at schools segregated by gender. I think the point that the author makes here, that girls are just as mercenary and cruel and murderous as boys when they are struggling to survive, is one that has been made before in many other books, so it's nothing new. The only "new" or fresh take that I got from the book is that the parasitical infection is caused by climate change, because when ice in a cold place like an Island in Maine melts, the bacteria and creatures it uncovers can come back to life and infect all the flora and fauna in the area. There are lots of gruesome and deadly monsters and grotesque transformations in this book, so if you have a weak stomach, this isn't the book for you. It was even a bit too horror-oriented for me, which is why I'd give it a B-, and only recommend it to those who enjoy survivalist/environmental nightmares. 

There Will Come A Darkness by Katy Rose Pool is a YA fantasy novel reminiscent of Lord of the Rings and Six of Crows with some of Cashore's Graceling series thrown in for spice. The dystopian world it takes place in is well written, as are the characters, most of whom are well fleshed out, though they skirt stereotypes. The plot marches along at a decent pace, and once you get past the first 50 pages you may find yourself unwilling to put the book down until you've finished it, it's that compelling. Here's the blurb:

The Age of Darkness approaches.
Five lives stand in its way.
Who will stop it . . . or unleash it?
For generations, the Seven Prophets guided humanity. Using their visions of the future, they ended wars and united nations―until the day, one hundred years ago, when the Prophets disappeared.
All they left behind was one final, secret prophecy, foretelling an Age of Darkness and the birth of a new Prophet who could be the world’s salvation . . . or the cause of its destruction. With chaos on the horizon, five souls are set on a collision course:
A prince exiled from his kingdom.
A ruthless killer known as the Pale Hand.
A once-faithful leader torn between his duty and his heart.
A reckless gambler with the power to find anything or anyone.
And a dying girl on the verge of giving up.
One of them―or all of them―could break the world. Will they be savior or destroyer?

Oddly enough, Pool doesn't make her protagonists likeable, (and surprisingly, that wasn't a deal-breaker for me this time.) Anton is weak and selfish and cowardly, Hassan lies and is gullible, Ephyra has little conscience and is willing to kill anyone, from parental figures to an entire town full of people, to keep her sister Beru alive, and Beru, who is actually a zombie (surprise) seems to also have no conscience, as she allows her sister to continue to kill to keep her living, when her time has passed, and she knows that it isn't sustainable for either of them to go on this way. Jude is a conflicted and somewhat stupid homosexual who is in love with his best friend, but can't seem to understand that his best friend doesn't love him back,and is, in fact, more interested in avenging his family (who were killed by Ephyra) than he is in hooking up with Jude. All of these characters have a role to play in saving their world from the Witnesses, a growing group of fanatics who want to kill anyone with a "grace" (this world's word for magical powers) and make the world "normal" with themselves and their god and priests in control, of course. It's obvious, at the end, that this is a series and we won't know the full extent of the consequences of everyone's actions until book 2 comes out. Still, I found this book riveting reading, and I'd give it an A-, and recommend it to anyone who likes adventure oriented magical fantasy. 

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Vroman's Walk of Fame, NYC's Drama Book Shop Reopening, This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger, Chasing the Shadows by Maria V Snyder, and the Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

This will be my 701st post, on a blog begun out of boredom on Superbowl Sunday in 2005. It's been something of a roller-coaster, but I believe that I've written a lot of good reviews and certainly made some changes in how I read and what I read as a result. 

My good friend Jenny Z lives in Pasadena, CA, where Vroman's is located, and she is able to attend events at the newly expanded bookstore/winebar/cafe. How I envy her having this treasure of a store in her backyard! Anyway, I love that they're celebrating great writers with an author walk of fame, which is something that Amazon will never be able to do.

Image of the Day: Mosley Joins Vroman's Walk of Fame

Vroman's <http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42424194>, Pasadena, Calif., hosted a ceremony this past weekend celebrating the newest inductee into its Author Walk of Fame, Walter Mosley. Mosley added his handprints and signature, joining fellow honorees Lisa See, Michael Connelly, Luis J. Rodriguez and Naomi Hirahara. Following the dedication, Hirahara joined Mosley for a conversation about his books. Vroman's held a tandem celebration of the bookstore's 125th anniversary, where California State Senator Anthony Portantino honored the bookstore with a Senate resolution marking its 125 years of service to the community.

 There used to be a drama bookstore near where I was living in Cambridge, MA during grad school, and I recall being fascinated by it. I would love to visit the original in NYC, but I doubt that is in the cards at this point. Still, Lin Manuel Miranda is a total rock star for helping to save this iconic shop. Theater majors and drama nerds everywhere rejoice!

NYC's Drama Book Shop Reopening in 2020 at New Location

New York City's Drama Book Shop http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42452613 will reopen next spring at 266 West 39th St., "in a garment district storefront just a block south from its previous location," the New York Times reported, adding that the bookshop "is a century-old mainstay of the city's theater community, selling scripts and books about the stage."

The legendary store was purchased http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42452615 last January by Lin-Manuel Miranda and three of his Hamilton collaborators after they learned it would be closing due to a large rent increase. The other partners are Thomas Kail, who directed the musical; Jeffrey Seller, who was the lead producer; and James L. Nederlander, whose company operates the Broadway theater where the it is running.

"It was both a destination for tourists and it was also our hub, and so we wanted to keep it close to the theater district," Miranda said. "And, too, we're in the business of creating community, and that's another thing the Drama Book Shop does, and that's incalculable--I can't tell you how many creative teams on theater companies say 'Let's go meet at the book shop and talk there.' "

After closing the store's previous location in January, they "moved its contents into storage, and, with the assistance of city officials eager to preserve an arts-related business in Midtown, looked for a new location," the Times noted.

David Korins, who created Hamilton's set and is the store's designer, said the new centerpiece will be a large, spiral worm-shaped sculpture of dramatic literature, bursting out of the back wall and corkscrewing into the space.

"With a look inspired by European cafes and a reading room atmosphere, it will sell coffee, merchandise and writing materials, along with play scripts, librettos and books about the arts," the Times wrote. A basement level could be used for classes, readings or other gatherings.

"Early on, Jeffrey sent me an article about European cafes of 100 years ago, and how they were beautiful spaces where people would sip coffee and exchange ideas," Korins said. "We wanted to create a space where we were looking back into the past and into the future, so the space is carved up like a reading room cafe, with a tin ceiling, aged with patinas, and mix and match furniture."

The manager of the former location will helm the new store, with the operation overseen by a Hamilton-related company that already handles another Midtown business--the musical's merchandise shop, the Times reported.

"I'm the old guy in the bodega who is still talking about boxers. I'm an aggressively small-business person http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42452618," Miranda recently said at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York, adding: "We're opening a bookstore in post-Kindle, post-Amazon America!"

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger is a magnificent book that I spent an entire day reading, enthralled by his divine storytelling. I believe I'd read Ordinary Grace years ago, but I don't recall much about it. Still, this tale of two orphan boys, Odie and Albert, and their Native American friend Mose, as well as a little recently orphaned girl with strange precognitive gifts, Emmy, and their journey to freedom and a decent life is utterly enthralling. Krueger's prose is gorgeously simple, yet it flows like a river along the smooth and swift plot. Here's the blurb: A magnificent novel about four orphans on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression, from the bestselling author of Ordinary Grace.

1932, Minnesota—the Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an orphan named Odie O’Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee, he and his brother Albert, their best friend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.
Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphans will journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an en­thralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole. 

This story reminded me of Mark Twain's works and of Ivan Doigs tales of the old West. Odie is such a tough kid in terrible circumstances who still manages to have a tender heart and soul, you can't not be moved by his travails. I thought I might have a problem with Emmy becoming a kind of Deus Ex Machina in the end, but I didn't, really, I was only saddened that we don't get as much information about what happened to her as an adult as we do with the other characters. Still, this great sweeping tale of the Midwest during the depression deserves an A, and I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a classic story.

Chasing the Shadows by Maria V Snyder is the sequel to Navigating the Stars that came out a year or so ago. I've read all of Maria's wonderful fantasy series, including her Poison Study series that is just brilliant. Now she's got a desert fantasy series going and this science fiction series, so I can only imagine what is next for the talented Ms Snyder. Her prose is clean, clear and vibrant, as it winds along her plot with precision and grace. Here's the blurb: Year 2522. Lyra Daniels is dead.

Okay, so I only died for sixty-six seconds. But when I came back to life, I got a brand new name and a snazzy new uniform. Go me! Seriously, though, it's very important that Lyra Daniels stays dead, at least as far as the murdering looters, know.

While dying is the scariest thing that's happened to me, it morphed my worming skills. I can manipulate the Q-net like never before. But the looters have blocked us from communicating with the rest of the galaxy and now they believe we've gone silent, like Planet Xinji (where silent really means dead).
A Protector Class spaceship is coming to our rescue, but we still have to survive almost two years until they arrive - if they arrive at all. Until then, we have to figure out how to stop an unstoppable alien threat. And it's only a matter of time before the looters learn I'm not dead and returns to finish what they started.

There's no way I'm going to let the looters win. Instead I'll do whatever it takes to save the people I love. But even I'm running out of ideas.

Ara Lawrence is a fun character, but her need to save everyone but herself gets her beat up and nearly dead many times in this book. Her love of Niall is also sweet, but somehow seems a bit too hormonal and obsessive for someone her age (that said I am sure its realistic for many young women in their late teens...I just was never one of them). Still, she is a fully-formed character, as are all the others in this book,and I loved seeing Ara "worm" into the Q-net without any assistance, and try to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. I loved the storytelling and the whole book, and can hardly wait for book three coming out next year in November. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who read the first book in the Sentinel of the Galaxy series, Navigating the Stars.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern is the sophomore book by the author of the brilliant and much beloved Night Circus, which made the author a rising star, though it was only her first novel. Because this book took 8 years to create, it was highly anticipated, and many people were hoping it would cement her reputation as a master of magical fantasy. I was so excited to get a copy of this book that I nearly waited by the door for delivery on November 5,Guy Fawkes Day, which would prove to be prophetic. 

It has been a long time since I was so disappointed in a novel like this. I wanted so desperately to love Starless Sea. I kept struggling through the disjointed stories and fragments of tales littered through each chapter, as I sought some sort of cohesive narrative or plot. The whole "meta novel" idea, of a book about a book(s) that had the characters become part of the book about a book while you were reading about them in a book (yeah, I know, makes your head hurt, doesn't it?!) not only didn't resonate with me, it bored and confused me, and made me wonder what the point was. Even Morgenstern's prose was stilted and soupy with sentimental weirdness. I kept thinking that it had to get better and come together at some point, but it didn't even start to ask the right questions until around page 300, and then most of them are never answered. 

Here's the blurb: Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.

To add to my immense frustration with this book, every chapter that he was in starts out by naming the protagonist, Zachary Ezra Rawlins, in italics in the first words of the chapter. This annoyed me to no end, and by the final chapter I wanted to scream "WE KNOW HIS NAME, for heaven's sake! STOP already!" Meanwhile, all we really learn is that the so-called "Starless sea" is really made of honey, that bees are great cooks who can make anything out of honey, and that there are doors that move in and out of time. Other than obsessing about honey and books and keys and secret clubs set to kill anyone who knows about the underground library near the honey sea, that's all she wrote. There's no real resolution, no ending per se. There is little that even makes sense in this world, and sadly, no reason to want to visit or revisit it, because it's all nonsense and bits of tales about people who are the embodiment of things like Fate or the Moon. I don't even know how to grade this pastiche of bizarre narratives. I can't recommend it, either, as it becomes tedious and boring during the first chapters. So the only thing I can do is warn you that if you decide to pick up this book,expect to be confused, irritated and befuddled before you're through it. I hope that Ms Morgenstern does better on her third book, which I will likely borrow from the library instead of buy.

Margaret Atwood Honored by Queen Elizabeth II, Scatterbrain chosen by FBF, The Chocolate Maker's Wife by Karen Brooks, Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, and Smoke by Anna Beguine/Lilith Saintcrow

Once again I am late in writing my reviews and putting them up on this blog. I can only say that there has been more extenuating circumstances than usual, but I also can lay some blame on a long awaited book by Erin Morgenstern, author of the brilliant Night Circus, a book that remains on the top 5 list of my all time favorite fantasy novels. Her sophomore effort, The Starless Sea, is labyrinthine and difficult to read and understand. There are bits of poetic prose from books within the book that buttress every chapter, and there are fragments stories/myths also interspersed throughout the book. The protagonists wander through this maze without understanding why, and the lack of a coherent plot is headache-inducing. I am on page 320, and it is just starting to make connections and become more coherent in terms of how people are connected to the stories and each other. This was not as good a book as Night Circus, IMO. I know I have about 200 pages to go, but I really feel manipulated into some weird hallucinatory, senseless metafiction by the author, which angers me, because it's obvious that Morgenstern has the skill to write a beautiful book that makes sense.There are also some things the author does that make me wince, like starting every chapter that is about the protagonist with his full name, Zachary Ezra Rawlins, in italics, followed by whatever he's doing or thinking. And just a few pages ago, we learn, apropos of nothing, that he's gay and is in love with another, older male character named Dorian. I cannot roll my eyes hard enough here. Anyway, here are the tidbits for the first part of this month. Reviews to follow.

It's about damned time they handed an award or two to Atwood, whose prescience has changed women's fiction forever. I remember reading The Handmaids Tale 30+ years ago and thinking that things could never get that bad in America for women. Ha. I've been proven wrong more than once in the past few years.

Margaret Atwood Honored by Queen Elizabeth

On Friday, Queen Elizabeth named Margaret Atwood a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42276736 for her services to literature, the CBC reported, adding that Atwood told British media she felt "a bit emotional" in the presence of the Queen while accepting the prestigious accolade during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle. The Royal Family's Twitter account noted the event: ".@MargaretAtwood was made a Companion of Honour by Her Majesty for Services to Literature. #Investiture."

"When you see the Queen at her age and her schedule that she puts out, it's an inspiration to everybody, you just keep going," Atwood said after the ceremony.

Founded by King George V in 1917, the Companion of Honour is an award for those who have made a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government over a long period.

Earlier this month, Atwood was a co-winner of the Booker Prize http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42276738 for her novel The Testaments. She later announced that she would be donating her Booker winnings to Indspire to support education of Indigenous students.

 This was a pick for last month, but it's a book that sounds fascinating, especially now when scientists are doing more work mapping the human brain and trying to find out why we think as we do, why we get dementia and Alzheimers and how some people are able to create works of genius.

Frankfurt Book Fair New York Picks Scatterbrain

The Frankfurt Book Fair New York has selected Scatterbrain: How the Mind's Mistakes Make Humans Creative, Innovative, and Successful by Henning Beck as its October Book of the Month.

The organization described the book this way: "In this mind-bending book, an esteemed neuroscientist explains why perfectionism is pointless--and argues that mistakes, missteps, and flaws are the keys to success.

"Remember that time you screwed up simple math or forgot the name of your favorite song? What if someone told you that such embarrassing 'brainfarts' are actually secret weapons, proof of your superiority to computers and AI?

"In Scatterbrain, we learn that boredom awakens the muse, distractions spark creativity, and misjudging time creates valuable memories, among other benefits of our faulty minds. Throughout, award-winning neuroscientist Henning Beck's hilarious asides and brain-boosting advice make for delightful reading of the most cutting-edge neuroscience our brains will (maybe never) remember."

Henning Beck received his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Graduate School of Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience, University of Tübingen. He is a lecturer, workshop leader and scientific consultant.

The Chocolate Maker's Wife by Karen Brooks is a historical romance that takes place in mid 17th century England. Women at that time were considered pawns to be used in marriage to make their families/fathers more wealthy and/or powerful. Abuse was rampant, of course, and we learn that our heroine, Rosamund, though the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman, is no exception to this rule. Here's the blurb:

Damnation has never been so sweet...
Rosamund Tomkins, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman, spends most of her young life in drudgery at a country inn. To her, the Restoration under Charles II, is but a distant threat as she works under the watchful eye of her brutal, abusive stepfather . . . until the day she is nearly run over by the coach of Sir Everard Blithman.
Sir Everard, a canny merchant, offers Rosamund an “opportunity like no other,” allowing her to escape into a very different life, becoming the linchpin that will drive the success of his fledgling business: a luxurious London chocolate house where wealthy and well-connected men come to see and be seen, to gossip and plot, while indulging in the sweet and heady drink.
Rosamund adapts and thrives in her new surroundings, quickly becoming the most talked-about woman in society, desired and respected in equal measure.
But Sir Everard’s plans for Rosamund and the chocolate house involve family secrets that span the Atlantic Ocean, and which have already brought death and dishonor to the Blithman name. Rosamund knows nothing of the mortal peril that comes with her new title, nor of the forces spinning a web of conspiracy buried in the past, until she meets a man whose return tightens their grip upon her, threatening to destroy everything she loves and damn her to a dire fate.
As she fights for her life and those she loves through the ravages of the Plague and London’s Great Fire, Rosamund’s breathtaking tale is one marked by cruelty and revenge; passion and redemption—and the sinfully sweet temptation of chocolate.

Sadly, though Sir Everard at first seems like a kindly benefactor, he is intent on using Rosamund to exact revenge on a man he sees as his rival, when in reality, Matthew is just as much of a pawn as Rosamund, though he is blackmailing Everard with a horrible secret (SPOILER ALERT). Aubrey, Everard's son and his daughter Helene have been having an incestuous affair for years, and Helene is with child by her brother. Though his children are vile and insane enough in their actions, Everard isn't as concerned with what they've done as he is with what will happen to his reputation and family name if the truth gets out. So he sends his son away and his daughter leaves with her baby in a boat when the ship she's sailing on is attacked by pirates. We never find out if she and her child are alive or dead, but after Everard dies from what appears to be a massive coronary or stroke, Aubrey tries to force Rosamund to marry him, when she's in love with Matthew (and she's become a canny business woman to boot). This was a fairly compelling read, with romance and mystery and a woman finding herself and her life's work, after being abused and used despicably by most of the men she's encountered. I'd give this book an A-, and recommend it to anyone who finds the birth of chocolate mania in England of interest, and those who like well told historical romance.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo is the first book in a new adult fantasy series, this time set in the "secret societies" founded and fostered at Ivy League universities like Yale, where this novel takes place. I've never found much to like about fraternities or secret societies, usually because they're created by men to help other men become rich and powerful, and they have traditionally excluded women and people of color or religions other than Christianity. Yet the protagonist of this novel, Alex, is such a train wreck, I felt compelled to read on to learn how she'd manage to do anything with her life other than throw it away on self hatred and fear.  Here's the blurb: The mesmerizing adult debut from Leigh Bardugo, a tale of power, privilege, dark magic, and murder set among the Ivy League elite.

Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most prestigious universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. Their eight windowless “tombs” are the well-known haunts of the rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street’s biggest players. But their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And, sometimes, they prey on the living. 

The plot was twisty and dark, and the characters weird and often cruel, but the relationship between Alex and her mentor "Darlington" (A mashup of Daniel Arlington) was what made the novel readable. Alex can actually "see" and speak to ghosts, (or Grays, as she calls them) and that is what helps her figure out what each society is doing, or trying to do, to get/keep their "house" in wealth and power. There is a great deal of death and manipulation and vile behavior in this book that made me somewhat nauseated, as I am not a fan of the horror genre, and this book leans pretty far into those waters. Even the teachers aren't safe here, and there's really no one to turn to as a character to admire, which usually means I won't like the book, even if it has good strong prose and a twisty but sturdy plot, as this one does. But I found myself wondering what Alex will do next, so I am probably going to break my ban on horror fiction and read the next one anyway. I'd give Ninth House a B, and recommend it to anyone interested in East Coast Ivy League Colleges and their secret societies.

Smoke by Anna Beguine (one of Lilith Saintcrow's pen names) is a "dark" (read horror) fantasy thriller that I was hoping to like a lot more than I did. The protagonist is a nasty chain-smoking anorexic drug addict and alcoholic who is, of course, the standard "petite" female (because only petite women are sexy in nearly all of the romance novels ever written) and who seems to only want to die in some weird fashion, but like many a coward, can't quite get the job done. Rosemary Ames (the femme fatale protagonist) lives on cigarettes, booze and drugs, and is rail thin because she never seems to eat, yet somehow, men still salivate over this pathetic broken creature because she is...I suppose mean and vulnerable are the best ways to describe her so-called allure. Here's the blurb: Rosemary Ames is committing suicide one slow masochistic step at a time during the coldest winter on record. Until, that is, she witnesses a murder. The cops want her under protection. Her sometimes boyfriend wants her in his bed. And the killer? He has plans for her too. Rose is the killer's key to a tangled labyrinth of stone, where unimaginable power waits to be grasped by beings far more--and less--than human. Her only safety may be Michael Constantius. He says he's in love with her. He says she's safe. But Michael's keeping secrets too. He knows what lies under the city, and he seems to know more than he should about what makes Rose tick. In fact, he seems obsessed with her. And just a little bit scary... What do you do when you find out you want to live just as someone is trying to kill you? And what can you do when you find out monsters are real?

I found myself loathing Rosemary almost as much as she loathes herself. Her anorexic friend and fellow drug addict Kitty seems tobe the only person she cares for, yet she doesn't really take steps to protect her at all, and when things go south for Kitty, Rosemary is too bound up with her own problems to really intervene, not that there's anything she really could do against the powerful vampires who populate the book. Oddly rendered, the vampires are split into two groups, the ones who drink human blood and become insane and the ones, like Michael, who instead have learned to manipulate a human into fostering a psychic connection with them so that they can feed off the human's emotions and spirit or soul. In exchange, they turn the humans into a kind of immortal, but though they claim to love their psychic companions, they're really little more than pets that they constantly manipulate mentally and can't be parted from once they're psychically linked to one another. Michael tricks Rosemary into bonding with him when she's drunk and high and ill from what I can only assume is lung cancer from smoking. Once he forces her to agree, he then heals her and purges her of her illness. 

You would think this would stop the mouthy Rosie from smoking or drinking again, but you'd be wrong, because she goes back to both and tries to buy enough drugs to kill herself, only to fail when it becomes clear that the vampires are one step ahead of her and have no intention of letting her die, since Michael is their leader and is now "healthy" off of sucking out her emotions/soul every time they are in bed together. If this all smacks of non consensual sex and slavery,then you're on the right track. Somehow we're supposed to find this romantic, when it really isn't. Rosemary doesn't really have a choice, and yet she considers herself "in love" though she knows she's being mentally manipulated by Michael. I found this whole book distasteful, dreadful and sexist in the most horrible fashion possible. The protagonist is too stupid to live, and yet she does, while her kinder best friend dies. I'd give this book a D, but I don't really understand why it was written in the first place. It seems beneath an author like Lilith Saintcrow to write such misogynistic clap trap. I can't think of anyone masochistic enough to recommend the book to, either. Perhaps fans of that twaddle Twilight? Or fans of it's nasty sister fan fiction, 50 Shades of Grey? Unfortunately I bought the second book in this series before I read the first one, so now I am stuck wondering whether I should plunge back into the sewer of this world of senseless violence and slavery. Ugh. I will let you know if I do read it in another post sometime before the year ends.   

 
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