Amazon in Iowa, The French Dispatch movie, Strange Love by Ann Aguirre, Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris, and To be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

I've been meaning to post reviews all week, I've just either been too sick and tired or unmotivated to do so...I've also been caught up in watching some TV series and Netflix shows and of course the new season of Star Trek Picard on CBS All Access. I'd like to point out that as a show that you have to pay to download, stream and watch on your computer, I think it should be ad free, but no, the greedy people at CBS are squeezing Star Trek fans for every dime they can wring from them, so if you want a no-ads version you have to pay extra each month, which is, frankly, highway robbery. Anyway, here's some tidbits and three book reviews.

I'm a native of Iowa, and I'd always hoped that as my home state is always behind in popular culture that they'd escape the ravages of big, soulless corporations like Walmart and Amazon. Alas, no, the big river of Jeff Bezo's billions has made its way to a warehouse in sleepy little Bondurant, where my younger brother Kevin used to go to smoke weed with his best slacker buddy John. Of course the local republican senator is thrilled to sell his town into slavery, because he will doubtless get a lot of campaign money from Bezos and Co, especially when he provides tax breaks for Amazons billion dollar business. So sad. 

Amazon in Iowa, The Rise of the Amazon Empire

Amazon plans to open its first Iowa fulfillment center http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43340753 in Bondurant later this year. At the new 645,000-square-foot facility, "employees will work alongside Amazon robotics to pick, pack and ship small items to customers such as books, electronics and toys," the company said.

Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon's v-p of global customer fulfillment, noted that the "site will help us continue to serve customers with great delivery options and we appreciate the strong support from local and state leaders."

Calling the announcement "jet-fuel for Iowa's future," State Senator Zach Nunn (R.-Bondurant) commented: "Bondurant's partnership with Amazon's fulfillment center will spark growth for Main Street entrepreneurs, builds on Iowa's high standard of living, and will improve hometown quality of life for families across Iowa."

Next Tuesday, February 18, PBS Frontline will air the two-hour documentary Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43340754. Noting that Bezos "is not only one of the richest men in the world, he has built a business empire that is without precedent in the history of American capitalism," Frontline said the film explores how his "power to shape everything from the future of work to the future of commerce to the future of technology is unrivaled. As politicians and regulators around the world start to consider the global impact of Amazon--and how to rein in Bezos' power--Frontline investigates how he executed a plan to build one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world."

 I've always enjoyed the peek into the lives of New Yorkers provided by New Yorker magazine. So I'm looking forward to this movie, which sounds fascinating.

Movies: The French Dispatch

Searchlight Pictures has shared a first look at Wes Anderson's upcoming film The French Dispatch http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43340797, "about the doings of a fictional weekly magazine that looks an awful lot like--and was, in fact, inspired by--the New Yorker," which featured several photos (some also appearing on IndieWire http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43340798) from the highly anticipated movie.  The editor and writers, as well as the stories it publishes--three of which are dramatized in the film--are also loosely inspired by the real magazine. Not coincidentally, Anderson "has been a New Yorker devotee since he was a teenager, and has even amassed a vast collection of bound volumes of the magazine, going back to the 1940s."

The cast includes Bill Murray as Arthur Howitzer, Jr., the French Dispatch's editor (inspired by Harold Ross), Owen Wilson as Herbsaint Sazerac, "a writer whose low-life beat mirrors Joseph Mitchell's," Elisabeth Moss, Tilda Swinton, Fisher Stevens, Griffin Dunne, Adrien Brody, Lois Smith, Henry Winkler and Bob Balaban.

The movie's New Yorker cartoon-inspired first poster "is like a Where's Wally for the American filmmaker's most reliable contributors," Yahoo noted, adding that other cast members highlighted on the poster include Timothée Chalamet, Jeffrey Wright, Benicio Del Toro, Léa Seydoux, Lyna Khoudri, Stephen Park and Mathieu Amalric. The French Dispatch hits theaters August 28.

Strange Love by Ann Aguirre is a science fiction romance hybrid that appears to have been self published by Aguirre. I've read at least 4 of her other science fiction novels that were published by traditional publishers, so I knew that Aguirre, unlike most self published authors, knows how to write and is an experienced storyteller. Here's the blurb:

He's awkward. He's adorable. He's alien as hell.
Zylar of Kith B'alak is a four-time loser in the annual Choosing. If he fails to find a nest guardian this time, he'll lose his chance to have a mate for all time. Desperation drives him to try a matching service but due to a freak solar flare and a severely malfunctioning ship AI, things go way off course. This 'human being' is not the Tiralan match he was looking for.

She's frazzled. She's fierce. She's from St. Louis.
Beryl Bowman's mother always said she'd never get married. She should have added a rider about the husband being human. Who would have ever thought that working at the Sunshine Angel daycare center would offer such interstellar prestige? She doesn't know what the hell's going on, but a new life awaits on Barath Colony, where she can have any alien bachelor she wants.

They agree to join the Choosing together, but love is about to get seriously strange.

 

Zylar and Beryl's romance is certainly strange and unusual, but that said, the love scenes are not as weird or laughable as one might assume. Though the discussion of lubrication and fluids tends to go on and on, the actual sexual exchanges between the two protagonists are blush-worthy and intimate and hot, which surprised me as a reader. I also liked that there was a warrior "fight for your right to marry and have children" element to the book, because heroines who can't do anything but be blond and bouncy and petite and dumb as a box of hair make me ill. The focus on females being able to care for a clutch of eggs/infants was a bit of a turn off, as science fiction pointing to traditional roles for women seems to be a waste of a good venue for hopeful feminist futures to me. That said, the females in the book have a great deal of independence and agency, and there is even a satisfying takedown of a rich alien dude-bro who is a complete jerk. Note to those who loathe typos, there were three instances of words in the wrong place and missing words in this book that are jarring. But on the whole, the copy is clean and the plot zippy. I'd give it an A- and recommend it to anyone who enjoys wild romantic relationships in a science fiction setting.

Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris is a sequel to the blockbuster bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which I read with my book group last year. This book takes place after Auschwitz has been liberated by the Russian army, and some women (and men) are convicted (without trial) of being collaborators with the Nazis, because in this case Cilka was surviving by having sex (actually being raped) with German soldiers. Like Tattooist, this book is based on the real lives of concentration camp survivors who wanted to tell Morris what really happened to them during the war. Here's the blurb:

From the author of the multi-million copy bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz comes a new novel based on a riveting true story of love and resilience.

Her beauty saved her — and condemned her.

Cilka is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices how beautiful she is. Forcibly separated from the other women prisoners, Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly taken, equals survival.
When the war is over and the camp is liberated, freedom is not granted to Cilka: She is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. But did she really have a choice? And where do the lines of morality lie for Cilka, who was send to Auschwitz when she was still a child?
In Siberia, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar, including the unwanted attention of the guards. But when she meets a kind female doctor, Cilka is taken under her wing and begins to tend to the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under brutal conditions.
Confronting death and terror daily, Cilka discovers a strength she never knew she had. And when she begins to tentatively form bonds and relationships in this harsh, new reality, Cilka finds that despite everything that has happened to her, there is room in her heart for love.
From child to woman, from woman to healer, Cilka's journey illuminates the resilience of the human spirit—and the will we have to survive.

It has always amazed me to read about women and children who faced extraordinary odds and horrific daily reminders of death to come out of these brutal death camps and grow up, or get healthy and get married and carry on lives full of good things after all the trauma they experienced. I don't think I could keep from going mad in that kind of place, surrounded by grim horror and death. This is good time to remind readers that this is not a lighthearted or easy book to read. It's painful and full of ugliness, sickness, unfairness, brutality, rape, and death. I cried many times reading the book, and I had to stop and put the book down and calm my nausea by remembering that the events in the book all happened 75 years ago, and almost everyone who was in Auschwitz and was liberated in 1945 is dead by now, unless they were a child at the time. So be warned that you might, like me, have to take a break during and after reading it, though it does have a happy ending. It made me feel as if my enduring the pain of Crohns and Sjogrens and Arthritis and Asthma/Allergies is really not as brave as I think it is. Still, I learned about the prisoners in Soviet gulags after the war, and I felt that this character's life had depth and meaning. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to those who think Holocaust stories are overly hyped or romanticized. 

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers is a science fiction novella by the author of the excellent The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which I enjoyed (and several others that I didn't enjoy.) Here's the blurb:

A stand-alone science fiction novella from the award-winning, bestselling, critically-acclaimed author of the Wayfarer series.
At the turn of the twenty-second century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. Through a revolutionary method known as somaforming, astronauts can survive in hostile environments off Earth using synthetic biological supplementations. They can produce antifreeze in subzero temperatures, absorb radiation and convert it for food, and conveniently adjust to the pull of different gravitational forces. With the fragility of the body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to journey to neighboring exoplanets long known to harbor life.
A team of these explorers, Ariadne O’Neill and her three crewmates, are hard at work in a planetary system fifteen light-years from Sol, on a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds. But as Ariadne shifts through both form and time, the culture back on Earth has also been transformed. Faced with the possibility of returning to a planet that has forgotten those who have left, Ariadne begins to chronicle the story of the wonders and dangers of her mission, in the hope that someone back home might still be listening.

 Be warned that there is a great deal of technical jargon, lots of technical scientific detail and other boring things that can make a couple of paragraphs feel like 10 pages if you're not a space science nerd. Also know that the four characters in the book are in a polyamorous relationship, meaning that the protagonist, Ariadne, is sleeping with both guys and the other woman on the team in a loose rotation. So if that kind of sexuality bothers you, this isn't the novella for you. All that said, I found the internal and external explorations in this book fascinating. The bodily modifications that they all undertake to be able to go down to the planet's surfaces were interesting and the loss of contact with earth kept the tension in the plot high. I can't say much without spoiling everything, but overall, I liked this short book. I'd give it a B+ and recommend it to space science/astronaut nerds who like books about exploring alien worlds.

American Dirt Controversy, RIP Mary Higgins Clark, Pennie Picks The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, Hamilton Becomes a Movie, The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman, Secrets of the Chocolate House by Paula Brackston, and Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore

Normally I wouldn't get into this kind of controversy, but this has become THE book scandal of the year. I feel for the author, who never asked for this, and who didn't really think her novel was a defining book of the immigrant experience, (that was her tone-deaf publisher's marketing dept), but I also understand how the Latina author community would be up in arms because their novels, written by actual Latina/Latino immigrants are often passed by, or given no marketing at all. So perhaps something good will come of this, in that it has gotten people talking about publishing racial bias and cultural appropriation. I seriously do NOT approve, however, of the death threats and censorship that some people are calling for. That's just shameful behavior.

American Dirt: Commentary on the Controversy

Commentary on American Dirt continues, particulary since Flatiron Books canceled http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235880 Jeanine Cummins' bookstore tour.

In a Washington Post story called "Threats against the author of American Dirt' threaten us all http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235881," Ron Charles lamented that threats of physical violence had caused the tour to be cancelled. "More than 30 years after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa demanding the assassination of Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses, here we are terrorizing one of our own novelists."

He called the book "a melodramatic thriller tarted up with flowery ornaments and freighted with earnest political relevance. The book might have fallen unremarked into the great vat of sentimental suspense fiction that New York pumps out every year, except for an unprecedented collision of promotion and denunciation."

A major problem, he wrote, was the publisher's decision to make the book "the defining novel of the immigrant experience--an emotional story powerful enough to galvanize the sympathy of a nation," the kind of effort, however flawed, that has a powerful history: "It's worth recalling an earlier melodramatic thriller tarted up with flowery ornaments and freighted with earnest political relevance by a white woman named Harriet Beecher Stowe. We can debate how egregiously Stowe appropriated the lives of black people and exploited their suffering, but President Abraham Lincoln said that Uncle Tom's Cabin sparked the Civil War. If American Dirt similarly motivates some Americans to fight against this country's immoral immigration actions along the southern border, then more power to Cummins. And once engaged in that struggle, these readers might move on to better books."

He ended: "The best critics of American Dirt are clearly motivated by a desire to defend the integrity of Mexican culture and the humanity of our most vulnerable residents. But in today's toxic atmosphere, those valuable critiques have been drowned out by a cowardly chorus of violence."

In a statement http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235882, the National Coalition Against Censorship focused on the how the tour cancellation hindered discussion of a variety of issues that might have

taken place in bookstores. "Threats that are made in an effort to force the cancellation of an author's appearance at a bookstore threaten freedom of speech and the open exchange of ideas. Debate is essential in a free society, and bookstores play an integral part in the process by which ideas are disseminated and debated. An author appearance does more than provide customers the chance to meet the person behind the book. It gives them the opportunity to ask questions, express their own opinions, and even to disagree...

"Given that some of the stores had sold as many as 300 tickets for these events, it is likely that thousands of people were denied an opportunity to hear Cummins. This does more than disappoint the book's fans. Readers critical of the book have lost public forums to express their views as well. Some might have wanted to peacefully protest in front of the store.

"The cancellation of the American Dirt tour is a lost opportunity to discuss immigration--one of the most fraught issues in American life today--as well as other important subjects, including who gets to tell what stories, whose voices are prioritized in our cultural spaces and how the lack of diversity in publishing impacts the stories and authors given platforms."

The Guardian noted that booksellers are handling sales of the book http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235883 in a variety of ways. City Lights, San Francisco, Calif., is not selling the book while Green Apple Books, also in San Francisco, is displaying copies of books by Latinx authors next to American Dirt.

Cellar Door, Riverside, Calif., is donating 20% of the store's profits from American Dirt to RAICES http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235884 (the Refugee and Immigration Center for Education and Legal Services).

In Slate http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235885, Laura Miller spoke off the record with "several editors at Big Five houses [about] what went wrong in the publication of American Dirt, how it might have been avoided, and how the landscape has changed--if at all."

"Some of this is generational," a white assistant editor told Miller in discussing how such a book could have be published. "I would have spoken up 100% about how problematic the book was."

An editorial director of an imprint seconded the generational aspect, saying, "Over 50 it's just white people who went to Harvard, but the pool of people under 35 is much more diverse."

Positioning was a key problem in the American Dirt controversy, Miller wrote: " 'From what I've heard,' said one senior editor, 'it's a really quick, pacey, dramatic read, and there's a whole coterie of people who will say that to their friends, and word of mouth will move across the country like wildfire.' In other words, the novel is a work of commercial fiction, much like Where the Crawdads Sing and other titles that sell in large numbers while generally flying under the radar of cultural critics and political commentators. Where Cummins' publisher went wrong, in this formulation, was to present American Dirt as if it was also, in the senior editor's words, 'a contribution to a vital understanding of this issue,' with the implied claim of representing the issue accurately rather than using it as a backdrop for an entertaining suspense story. 'It's a commercial book that was mispositioned as literary,' another senior publishing executive observed."

Miller pointed to several examples of somewhat similar books positioned differently. A recent one is Don Winslow, "a white author who writes bestselling thrillers about Latin American drug cartels in which the characters are arguably just as much stock figures as those in Cummins' novel, yet his work is not presented as social commentary, with all the heightened attention such pretenses bring with them."

The book, still the bestselling fiction title in the country, will not be hurt by the controversy. Miller wrote: "No one I spoke to expected the controversy over American Dirt to harm the novel's commercial prospects. 'The consumers don't care. They. Don't. Care,' said one editor with exasperation. 'If it does register, they'll just write it off as PC.' While one source said he was sure the incident is 'humiliating' to Cummins, her publisher, and other people associated with the book, you can wipe your tears away with money.'"

In conclusion, Miller quoted a publisher on how the controversy might affect publishers. "I don't see this leading to a decision not to acquire a book that we would have acquired in the past at all. But I do think that in cases where there's a mismatch between the identity of the character and author, the value of those books over books where the author is a member of the community being written about will be more closely scrutinized. There's a fine line between free expression--which can mean publishing books that not everyone on the staff likes--and publishing responsibly, ethically, and with proper due diligence."

In one of the funnier, pointed commentaries on the controversy, McSweeney's published "As a 28-Year-Old Latino, I'm Shocked My New Novel, Memoirs of a Middle-Aged White Lady, Has Been So Poorly Received http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235886" by Carlos Greaves.

It reads, in part, "When I set out to write this novel, which takes place in Iowa and centers around 46-year-old Meradyth Spensir and her 8-year-old son Chab, my goal was to shed light on the struggles that white middle-aged women in America face--struggles that I, a 28-year-old Latino man, don't know much about but I would imagine are pretty tough. And as far as I'm concerned, I freaking nailed it....

"Despite... minor cultural inaccuracies, I still think Memoirs of a Middle-Aged White Lady captures the essence of what it means to be a middle-aged white woman in America. I admit that, when the idea first came to me, I was worried that, as a non-woman, a non-white person, and a non-middle-aged person, I wouldn't be able to do this story justice. But the question I kept asking myself was: if not me, then who? Who was going to write about the middle-aged white woman experience in this country? Middle-aged white women? Can middle-aged white women even type? I'm seriously asking this because, again, I didn't actually talk to any when I was working on this novel, so I would genuinely like to know."

 Though I am not a fan of thrillers in general, I did read a couple of her books and enjoyed them. RIP to a prolific author.

Obituary Note: Mary Higgins Clark

"Queen of Suspense" Mary Higgins Clark http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235890 died on Friday at age 92. In a career that lasted 45 years, she wrote 56 books, all bestsellers. They were mostly suspense novels, some written with her daughter Carol Higgins Clark and others with crime novelist Alafair Burke in the Under Suspicion series. She also published a memoir, Kitchen Privileges, and several children's books. More than 100 million copies of her books are in print in the U.S. alone.

A lifetime dream of hers was to be a published writer, and after being widowed at age 37 with five children, she famously wrote at her kitchen table before dawn before commuting into New York City for her job. Her writing career started in 1975, when she was nearly 50 and published Where Are the Children?. Among her best-known work are A Stranger Is Watching; The Cradle Will Fall; Loves Music, Loves to Dance; Let Me Call You Sweetheart; and Daddy's Gone A Hunting. Her most recent book, Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry, appeared last November. (Exactly a month ago, Shelf Awareness published a Reading With... column with her http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43235891. Our favorite part of that: Q: "How technology has altered the way a mystery is written." A: "If in your story you want to put a body in a dumpster, it's hard to find one that doesn't have a camera pointed at it.")

Clark acknowledged having a formula. Speaking with CNBC, she said once, "In my case, it's always a woman, a young woman. Smart, intelligent, and something happens. She's not on the wrong side of town at 4 in the morning. She's living her life and something crosses it. And by her own intelligence, she works her way out of it."

In an announcement of her death, Carolyn Reidy, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, Clark's publisher for 45 years, called Clark "simply, a remarkable woman who overcame an early life of hardship and challenges, never doubting her ability as a natural-born storyteller (and she was one for the ages), and who persevered through trial and rejection until she at last achieved her Holy Grail of being a published author.

"Those of us who are fortunate to have worked with Mary--and at Simon & Schuster, that is multitudes--know her as a person of tremendous loyalty and dedication: In this day and age it is exceedingly rare for an author, especially one as prized as Mary, to remain with a single publisher for an entire 45-year career.

"She was similiarly devoted to her readers, until very recently going out of her way to meet them while on tour for every one of her books, and drawing tremendous energy and satisfaction from her interactions with them, even though she long ago could have pulled back from that part of being an author. She was, too, a generous member of the literary community, especially toward new authors, and was well known beyond the publishing world for her support of innumerable philanthropic and civic causes."

Reidy quoted Michael Korda, S&S editor-in-chief emeritus, who said, "Mary and I have been dear friends, and worked together since 1975, during which time we never had a cross word between us, which surely sets something of a record for author-editor relationships.

"She was unique. Nobody ever bonded more completely with her readers than Mary did; she understood them as if they were members of her own family. She was always absolutely sure of what they wanted to read--and, perhaps more important, what they didn't want to read--and yet she managed to surprise them with every book. She was the Queen of Suspense, it wasn't just a phrase; she always set out to end each chapter on a note of suspense, so you just had to keep reading. It was at once a gift, but also the result of hard work, because nobody worked harder than Mary did on her books to deliver for her readers. She was also, unfailingly, cheerful under pressure, generous, good humored and warm-hearted, the least 'temperamental' of bestselling authors, and the most fun to be around. I feel privileged to have enjoyed 45 years of her friendship, and saddened that I will no longer be able to pick up the phone and hear her say, 'Michael, I think I've figured out how to make this story work.' She was a joy to work with, and to know."

Clark's legacy includes the Mary Higgins Clark Award, an annual prize given by the Mystery Writers of America to the year's best suspense writing.

I am posting this because I read and loved this novel, and it steams me that Jojo Moyes plagiarized the book as a whole and turned it into The Giver of Stars, and because she's got more of a "name brand" than Richardson, her book gets tons of good reviews and expensive marketing, while everyone overlooks the fact that Moyes cheated her way to fame and fortune with this book. She should be ashamed!

Pennie Picks: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

Pennie Clark Ianniciello, Costco's book buyer, has chosen The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson (Sourcebooks Landmark, $15.99, 9781492671527) as her pick of the month for February. In Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, she wrote: "If you've never heard of the Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, I can't think of a better way to get a taste than through this month's book buyer's pick, Kim Michele Richardson's The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.

"Cussy Mary Carter is part of a mobile library that delivers books to people in sparsely populated Appalachia. She is also the last of the blue-skinned people of Kentucky. Cussy battles not only prejudice against her skin color, but also the fear of the power of the written word."

I am so excited to see this come to the big screen, since it's impossible to get tickets to see it live on Broadway, and it's also seriously expensive (out of most people's price range). 

Movies: Hamilton

"Movie theaters aren't throwing away their shot to have Hamilton http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43237623 on the big screen," Variety noted in reporting that Disney is bringing a film of Lin-Manuel Miranda's stage hit, with the original Broadway cast, to movie theaters October 15, 2021. Hamilton director Thomas Kail filmed the stage show before the original Broadway cast members began to depart. The musical was inspired by Ron Chernow's 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton.

"Lin-Manuel Miranda created an unforgettable theater experience and a true cultural phenomenon, and it was for good reason that Hamilton was hailed as an astonishing work of art," said Disney CEO and chairman Robert Iger. "All who saw it with the original cast will never forget that singular experience. And we're thrilled to have the opportunity to share this same Broadway experience with millions of people around the world."

The original Broadway cast includes Miranda as Alexander Hamilton; Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson; Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr; Christopher Jackson as George Washington; Jonathan Groff as King George III; Renee Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler; and Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton.

Miranda added: "I fell in love with musical storytelling growing up with the legendary Howard Ashman-Alan Menken Disney collaborations--The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin. I'm so proud of what Tommy Kail has been able to capture in this filmed version of Hamilton--a live theatrical experience that feels just as immediate in your local movie theater. We're excited to partner with Disney to bring the original Broadway company of Hamilton to the largest audience possible."

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman is a wonderful historical fiction novel that uses a slice of magic realism to recount the lives (and deaths) of several families at the end of WWII. Here's the blurb: “Oh, what a book this is! Hoffman’s exploration of the world of good and evil, and the constant contest between them, is unflinching; and the humanity she brings to us—it is a glorious experience.” —ELIZABETH STROUT, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Olive Kitteridge

In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime. She finds her way to a renowned rabbi, but it’s his daughter, Ettie, who offers hope of salvation when she creates a mystical Jewish creature, a rare and unusual golem, who is sworn to protect Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she and Lea and Ettie become eternally entwined, their paths fated to cross, their fortunes linked.

Lea and Ava travel from Paris, where Lea meets her soulmate, to a convent in western France known for its silver roses; from a school in a mountaintop village where three thousand Jews were saved. Meanwhile, Ettie is in hiding, waiting to become the fighter she’s destined to be.
What does it mean to lose your mother? How much can one person sacrifice for love? In a world where evil can be found at every turn, we meet remarkable characters that take us on a stunning journey of loss and resistance, the fantastical and the mortal, in a place where all roads lead past the Angel of Death and love is never ending. 

I've read several of Hoffman's other novels, and her prose never fails to delight, even at the most horrific and painful times in her novels, the lush and powerful sentences flow along the silken plot like a river of chocolate. But it's Hoffman's ability to create unforgettable characters that really make her stories shine, and this book is no exception. Not only could I not put the book down once I started it, but, like all good art, just reading this story changed me, made me laugh and cry and feel for these people caught in the vile and hideous machine that was the Third Reich of fascist Germany. We must never forget the Holocaust, and how evil people nearly obliterated an entire group of human beings merely because they were Jewish. At any rate, I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone and everyone who can read. It's worth the time and money (or just the time if you get a copy from the library), believe me.

Secrets of the Chocolate House by Paula Brackston is a fantasy fiction novel with a romantic subplot and a whiff of The Time Traveler's Wife about it. While I enjoyed it, I felt that the protagonist Xanthe, was sometimes a bit too stupid to live, and kept getting herself into situations where she was way in over her head, when she should have had the sense to know enough to plan things better, with an escape route. Here's the blurb:

The second novel in a bewitching series "brimming with charm and charisma" that will make "fans of Outlander rejoice!" (Woman's World Magazine)

New York Times bestselling author Paula Brackston’s The Little Shop of Found Things was called “a page-turner that will no doubt leave readers eager for future series installments” (Publishers Weekly). Now, Brackston returns to the Found Things series with its sequel, Secrets of the Chocolate House.
After her adventures in the seventeenth century, Xanthe does her best to settle back into the rhythm of life in Marlborough. She tells herself she must forget about Samuel and leave him in the past where he belongs. With the help of her new friends, she does her best to move on, focusing instead on the success of her and Flora’s antique shop.
But there are still things waiting to be found, still injustices needing to be put right, still voices whispering to Xanthe from long ago about secrets wanting to be shared.
While looking for new stock for the shop, Xanthe hears the song of a copper chocolate pot. Soon after, she has an upsetting vision of Samuel in great danger, compelling her to make another journey to the past.
This time she'll meet her most dangerous adversary. This time her ability to travel to the past will be tested. This time she will discover her true destiny. Will that destiny allow her to return home? And will she be able to save Samuel when his own fate seems to be sealed?

Brackston's prose is good, but a bit too ornate at times for my taste (if it were a dress it would have frills and bows). The story at the center of the novel, about the morality of "time spinning" to save certain people in history, is an intriguing one, and the romances of the main character with the man in her current century vs the man who lived 500 years in the past are a bit distraught. I was also not a fan of the cliffhanger ending. But, as I really don't want to go through all the anxiety of the main character again, I won't be reading the next novel in the series to find out what happens to our intrepid heroine. I'd give this book a B- and recommend it to fans of Outlander, or the Time Traveler's Wife.

Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore is a YA retelling of the Red Shoes fairy tale in feudal Germany and with the Romani/travelers as the main protagonists. Here's the blurb:

With Anna-Marie McLemore's signature lush prose, Dark and Deepest Red pairs the forbidding magic of a fairy tale with a modern story of passion and betrayal.
Summer, 1518. A strange sickness sweeps through Strasbourg: women dance in the streets, some until they fall down dead. As rumors of witchcraft spread, suspicion turns toward Lavinia and her family, and Lavinia may have to do the unimaginable to save herself and everyone she loves.
Five centuries later, a pair of red shoes seal to Rosella Oliva’s feet, making her dance uncontrollably. They draw her toward a boy who knows the dancing fever’s history better than anyone: Emil, whose family was blamed for the fever five hundred years ago. But there’s more to what happened in 1518 than even Emil knows, and discovering the truth may decide whether Rosella survives the red shoes.
"McLemore is at her finest... She writes open-heartedly about families found and families given, the weight of expectation and the price of duty, and in the end offers up something that's vibrant, wondrously strange, and filled to the brim with love of all kinds." ―Booklist, starred review
"McLemore weaves in powerful themes of identity, family, and first love, but there are also much-needed messages about overcoming hurtful stereotypes and expectations. McLemore's poignant retelling is a must-read for fans of fantasy and fairy tales." ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Lavinia is called Lala for most of the book, and Lala is a very bright young woman who tries her best to save her family during a time when threats of burning witches was an everyday fear. Much like the Jewish people, the "Gypsies" as the Romani were then called, were thought to be witches because they had healing knowledge of herbs and were often called upon to be midwives and weavers/dyers in the villages where they settled. I laud the author for having Alifair be a transgender character and for others in the village to be gay/lesbian or bisexual. Rosella's story didn't entrance me as much as Lala's did, but it was still interesting, and helped her learn about herself and her heritage. The prose is pretty, often meandering, but always comes back to the intricate plot, which doesn't lag, thankfully. I'd give this novel a B+ and recommend it to anyone who likes Romani tales and LGBTQ stories with unexpected endings. 

Happy 15th Birthday Butterfly Books, Little Free Libraries, Vromans Wine Bar Opens, Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber, Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows and Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

15 years ago on Super Bowl Sunday, my husband sat me down in front of my iMac computer and helped me start this blog, because I was bored with the Super Bowl (Football in general bores me to tears) and he figured writing book reviews would keep me occupied for a couple of hours. Flash forward and here we are with over 700 posts and over a thousand books read and reviewed! I'm excitged to see what the next 15 years will bring, if blogspot stays running that long (and if I'm able to keep up with the blog until I'm 75!) So happy birthday Butterfly Books.

I'm not a fan of Jojo Moyes, especially of this book, (Giver of Stars) which is a plagiarized version of the Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek. Because Moyes has a bigger "name" or brand in the publishing world, she can say that she didn't steal the idea and the prose for this book, and get away with it, which really chaps my hide. But the fact that her publisher is donating Little Free Libraries in communities that need one is a good thing, so I thought I'd post this anyway.

Cool Idea of the Day: Little Free Libraries Inspired by Jojo Moyes

As part of its promotion for Jojo Moyes's novel The Giver of Stars, about the Packhorse Librarians from the WPA period, Pamela Dorman Books/Viking created hand-painted Little Free Libraries http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43207408 as a way to bring books into communities, as the Packhorse Librarians did. Moyes donated one to her village, and it sits outside the Fitchingfield Post Office.

I have a dear friend, Jenny Z, who lives in Pasadena, and has access to Vroman's and their cool new wine bar and books. I am deeply envious of her ability to attend this event, which should be wonderful.

Vroman's Wine Bar Set for February Opening

The 1894, a new beer and wine bar located in Vroman's http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43210736 flagship store in Pasadena, Calif., is on track for a February opening, Pasadena Star-News reported http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43210737.

The bar is named after the year in which Vroman's originally opened, and can seat around 40 people. In addition to craft beer, food and wine, The 1894 will also serve a selection of literary-themed session cocktails, which are cocktails that use things like sake, vermouth or sherry as a base rather than hard alcohol.

Bar manager Bentley Hale, who has some 20 years of experience in the bar and restaurant business and founded a company specializing in wine education events, told PSN that she plans to focus on local beer and wine, and emphasize tastings.

"I really want to focus a lot on wine flights and offering the tasting pours instead of full glasses so people can really taste and be able to explore the wine list and not have to commit to just one glass," explained Hale.

The 1894 will also be used as a space for some bookstore events, including book clubs and literary trivia.

Vroman's announced its wine bar plans http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz43210738 last year, and had intended the opening to coincide with the store's 125th anniversary last November.

Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber is a "women's fiction" novel that is actually more closely related to the Magical Realism of MJ Rose and Sarah Addison Allen, two authors whose work I adore (and read at every opportunity). Webber's prose is luscious and evocative, while her plot flows along like a babbling brook over smooth river stones. The story is not too light or too dense, but just the right weight to keep readers turning pages into the wee hours to find out what happens to each charming or eccentric character. Here's the blurb:

Heather Webber's Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe is a captivating blend of magical realism, heartwarming romance, and small-town Southern charm.
Nestled in the mountain shadows of Alabama lies the little town of Wicklow. It is here that Anna Kate has returned to bury her beloved Granny Zee, owner of the Blackbird Café.
It was supposed to be a quick trip to close the café and settle her grandmother’s estate, but despite her best intentions to avoid forming ties or even getting to know her father’s side of the family, Anna Kate finds herself inexplicably drawn to the quirky Southern town her mother ran away from so many years ago, and the mysterious blackbird pie everybody can’t stop talking about.
As the truth about her past slowly becomes clear, Anna Kate will need to decide if this lone blackbird will finally be able to take her broken wings and fly.

I've long been a fan of classic Southern fiction by Flannery OConnor and Pat Conroy and Harper Lee, among others. But really good Southern characters have to be authentic and believable, to not descend into charicatures. Fortunately, Webber is an experienced enough author to keep her characters fresh and full bodied and full of Southern manners and grit. I enjoyed this book enough to give it an A, and recommend it to anyone looking for a delightful story about finding your place in this world and learning to forgive your family.

Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows is a YA fantasy novel with a tenuous romantic subplot and a lot of horrific political themes. Though the bulk of the story takes place with the protagonist (a young princess) in prison, every other chapter is a flashback to what got her there in the first place. This wouldn't be so bad if the transitions from then to now weren't so jarring and jagged. the plot tends to slow to a crawl from one chapter to another as well. Here's the blurb:

“A fully realized fantasy world complete with dragons, treachery, and flawed characters discovering their courage. I couldn’t put it down!” —C. J. Redwine, New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow Queen
From the New York Times bestselling co-author of My Plain Jane comes a smoldering new fantasy trilogy perfect for fans of Victoria Aveyard and Kristin Cashore about a girl condemned for defending dragons and the inner fire that may be her only chance of escape.
Mira has always been a symbol of hope for the Fallen Isles, perfect and beautiful—or at least that’s how she’s forced to appear. But when she uncovers a dangerous secret, Mira is betrayed by those closest to her and sentenced to the deadliest prison in the Fallen Isles.
Except Mira is over being a pawn. Fighting to survive against outer threats and inner demons of mental illness, Mira must find her inner fire and the scorching truth about her own endangered magic—before her very world collapses.  And that’s all before she ignites.

I found Mira to be a whiny and wimpy protagonist who spends an inordinate amount of time being rescued by her cell mates and being meek, weak and scared the rest of the time. She only grows a spine toward the end of the novel, and even then she seems shocked and appalled at her newfound powers, which made me want to slap her alongside her privileged head. Still, she does finally escape, but I wasn't interested in finding out more about her or all the manipulative, horrible adults around her in subsequent books in this series. For that reason, I'd give this book a B, and recommend it to anyone interested in a fantasy Polynesian culture that imprisons those who speak the truth. BTW, the dragons are almost incidental in this book, so if you're looking for some dragon-intensive reading, don't look here.

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan is a YA fantasy novel that centers around a misogynistic culture similar to that of feudal Japan or China, where women were considered possessions/property and their only use was as concubines for the king or wives/mothers to breed heirs for husbands or the king. Enter into this a young woman, Lei, who falls in love with another of the "paper"caste girls, Wren (who is a secret ninja assassin by birth and training) and you have a fast-moving tale of intrigue and duplicity. The prose was silken and the plot flashed hot and fierce as fire, but the institutionalized rape culture was really hard to digest. Here's the blurb:

Uncover a riveting story of palace intrigue set in a sumptuous Asian-inspired fantasy world in the breakout YA novel that Publisher's Weekly calls "elegant and adrenaline-soaked."

In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it's Lei they're after -- the girl with the golden eyes whose rumored beauty has piqued the king's interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king's consort. There, she does the unthinkable: she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world's entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge.

One of my main problems with this story is that the author never calls what happens to these poor teenage girls, taken against their will and forced into sexual slavery, RAPE, which is exactly what the king, who is a narcissistic psychopath, does to each of them. Each excruciating detail of their horrible treatment is outlined in every chapter, which was nauseating and unnecessary, I felt. I also thought Lei didn't become strong and angry fast enough, but I am sure the culture she was raised in didn't allow for young women to become tough and strong in their choice of sexuality. Though I was able to finish the book, I don't think I will be seeking any of the sequels, it's just too difficult to wade through the sexism and hatred of women.I'd give this book a B, and recommend it to anyone interested in YA lesbian stories set in feudal Asia.