Lots of Book News, Wharton adaptations, A Woman of No Importance wins Plutarch Award,Book Larder, Exit Strategy by Martha Wells, Defy or Defend by Gail Carriger, and A Cup of Normal by Devon Monk

I'm going to rely on Bookselling News for this blog post, along with three book reviews of shorter books. I've been having a rough time concentrating on my massive TBR, probably because of my fears/worries about the coronavirus and how it's likely to spread faster now that businesses are opening up again.  We've been told that a vaccine is only 6-8 months away, which is fast for vaccine production...however, that just means that I've got to dodge getting this deadly virus for the rest of the year, and hope that the doctors get better at treatments to keep immune compromised people alive until the vaccine debuts. Fingers crossed!

#ReadIndieForward Launches

Shelf Awareness and Sourcebooks have teamed up to launch #ReadIndieForward http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz44281773, a pay-it-forward campaign to support indie bookstores and share the joys of reading. Like a chain letter for books, #ReadIndieForward encourages readers to buy one book a week from indies for as many as eight to 10 weeks, send those books to family and friends, and ask recipients to pay it forward with their friends and families--and mention the gift and bookstore on social media. Readers can purchase books directly from their favorite independent bookstore, Indiebound.org or Bookshop.org, which has a special page for #ReadIndieForward.

Shelf Awareness publisher Jenn Risko said, "While indies experience what we know is one of their most challenging times ever, #ReadIndieForward is a great reminder to readers that the best way to help their local bookstore is to simply buy a book from them. As our industry continues to quarantine in place, we all know there's nothing like the excitement of getting a new book that takes us on a journey of the mind. Leave it to Dominique Raccah to come up with this simple yet powerful idea. We're grateful that she chose to partner with us on it."

Sourcebooks publisher and CEO Dominique Raccah said, "We have seen an amazing outpouring of generosity from authors and readers during the Covid-19 pandemic through initiatives like Save Indie Bookstores. #ReadIndieForward is another way for book lovers to share their love of reading and provide support to the independent bookstore community."

American Booksellers Association CEO Allison Hill said, "ABA is grateful to Sourcebooks and Shelf Awareness for creating an opportunity for book lovers to celebrate books, support independent bookstores, and connect with one another in a meaningful way during this crisis. #ReadIndieForward is exactly what we all need right now: Something to connect us, and something to look forward to."

Booksellers and publishers can join the campaign by visiting http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz44281773, which features downloadable social media assets that can be personalized with their logo, as well as ads to promote #ReadIndieForward to their communities, staff, authors and readers across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 I love this idea,and wish that a bookstore in or near Seattle would do it, too.

Cool Idea of the Day: Literati's Virtual Public Typewriter

Noting that one of the consequences of temporarily closing two months ago was the inability to get new notes on the shop's public typewriter, Literati Bookstore http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz44283653, Ann Arbor, Mich., wrote on Facebook: "Yet, now more than ever, I want to read the notes our customers often left behind: Notes of love, loss, introspection, hope, and, yes, the occasional fart joke. I feel like we all need an anonymous outlet during these unsettling times.

"When I lamented this to Oliver Uberti, co-editor of our book Notes from a Public Typewriter, he said, 'I have an idea.' He called up his brother Justin, a software engineer at Google, and a few weeks later, voila!--a virtual typewriter complete with clicks, clacks, and a carriage return! The world's smallest publishing house is once again accepting submissions. Head over to our homepage http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz44283653, and scroll down. We'd love if you left a note behind. And, as with life (and our analog machines), there is no delete key. Type strongly and don't look back."

Ooooh, I love Edith Wharton adaptations!

TV: The Custom of the Country

Sofia Coppola is teaming up with Apple to develop an adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz44283670. Deadline reported that this is "the latest Apple TV+ project for The Virgin Suicides director, who has also directed feature film On the Rocks, starring Bill Murray and Rashida Jones, for the streamer."

The book is being adapted with an eye toward a limited series order, to be written and directed by Coppola. Deadline noted that in 2014, Sony Pictures Television "developed a project that would have starred Scarlett Johansson, who was set to exec produce as well."Coppola has said that Undine Spragg, the main character, "is my favorite literary anti-heroine and I'm excited to bring her to the screen for the first time."

 I want to read this book, which sounds like it deserves this award, if not a few others.

Awards: Plutarch Winner

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell (Viking) has won the 2020 Plutarch Award for the Best Biography of 2019 http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz44313915. The award is sponsored by the Biographers International Organization.

Caroline Fraser, chair of the Plutarch Award Committee, commented: "The life of an obscure figure, Virginia Hall, rose to the top of the Plutarch list this year in Sonia Purnell's remarkable feat of research and storytelling. Combing Resistance files in Lyon and archives in London, Paris, and Washington, D.C., Purnell retraced Hall's well-concealed life, revealing the extreme perils and betrayals she faced, including the misogyny of handlers who nearly got her killed.

Vulnerable, reckless, and ruthless, Hall emerges as a character of great complexity: an American woman who survived behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France with a wooden leg and a questionable French accent, setting up spy networks for Churchill's government and refusing to evacuate as the Gestapo closed in. With the propulsive power of an espionage thriller, A Woman of No Importance sheds new light on the role of women in warfare."

 I have no idea where this bookstore is in Seattle, but I love this quote because it sounds very optimistic about "The new normal" of doing business in the age of the coronavirus plague.

Bookseller Moment: Book Larder 

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz44315329"Morning in the shop http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz44315329." Book Larder http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz44315330 bookstore, Seattle, Wash., posted a Facebook video, noting: "This is what the current state of things looks like. Books stacked on tables for easy access. A dedicated area for packing and shipping boxes of cookbooks. Everything set up so anyone working has their own space. Soon I'll put the sandwich board sign in the open doorway and don my mask and gloves so you can pick up orders, me inside, you outside. With your help, we've made it work. We're planning what the next phase looks like, so we can welcome you safely, teach classes from afar, and continue to celebrate authors and their books. It sometimes feels like navigating with the stars instead of a map. But we'll get there. Thank you for joining us on this ever-changing journey!"

 This is a good summation of what I am experiencing now. There are days when I struggle to get out of bed, and sometimes succumb to over-sleeping.

From an article by Sarah Stiefvater in Publisher’s Weekly: Here’s how Susan Biali Haas, M.D., a physician who speaks and writes about stress management, burnout prevention and mental health, sees it. “There’s nothing wrong with being productive or creative,” she writes. “It can be a helpful, constructive way to cope. But we must also allow ourselves space to not be ‘amazing.’ Our world has not faced anything like this in over a century. It’s big. It’s OK, and even appropriate, to not be OK. Some people may feel like failures because they are not sufficiently ‘seizing the moment’ within this pandemic. Because they are struggling to cope. I have felt this way at times.”

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells is the 4th book in the Murderbot Diaries series. I love this series and have read books 1-3 with great zeal. I think I read book 4 previously, and just forgot about it, because much of this book was familiar to me. Here's the blurb: 

Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever showed it respect must be a system glitch, right?

Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.
But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?
And what will become of it when it’s caught?

Well's prose is spic and span clean and brimming with dry humor and wit. The plots of her Murderbot books are straightforward and snappy, never lagging for a minute. I ama fan of Murderbot's elegant fighting ability and relentless goodness,and humanity, though this bot doesn't cotton to humanity as a role model at all. Sometimes it takes an outsiders perspective to see humanity's foible's clearly. That's why I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes military science fiction or robots and social science fiction.

Defy or Defend by Gail Carriger is another of her "Finishing School Girls" romantic/comedic fiction novels. I've read most of Carriger's books, and I adored them all. Here's the blurb: 

A vampire hive descending into madness. A beautiful spy with a sparkly plan. The bodyguard who must keep them from killing each other.
SPY
Dimity Plumleigh-Teignmott, code name Honey Bee, is the War Office's best and most decorative fixer. She's sweet and chipper, but oddly stealthy, and surprisingly effective given the right incentives.
VERSUS KNIGHT
Sir Crispin Bontwee was knighted for his military service, but instead of retiring, he secretly went to work for the War Office. Mostly he enjoys his job, except when he must safeguard the Honey Bee.
Neither one is a vampire expert, but when the Nottingham Hive goes badly Goth, only Dimity can stop their darkness from turning bloody. And only Crispin can stop an enthusiastic Dimity from death by vampire.
In a battle for survival (and wallpaper), Dimity must learn that not all that sparkles is good, while Cris discovers he likes honey a lot more than he thought.
Spinning off from the Finishing School series, featuring deadly ladies of quality, this story stands alone, but chronologically follows Poison or Protect before the start of the Parasol Protectorate Series. It's Cold Comfort Farm meets Queer Eye meets What We Do In The Shadows from the hilarious author of the Parasol Protectorate books.

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I have no idea where this line came from or how to get rid of it, but the blurb has it right, there's a lot of fun and witty verbal jousting in this slender volume, and Dimity and Cris' love is just meant to be, full of delicious romps of all kinds. As in all of her novels, the prose is sparkling clean and wonderful fun, as are her plots which contain just enough twists and turns to keep the reader turning pages. A solid A, with the recommendation for anyone who loves British lit and witty, fun characters.

A Cup of Normal by Devon Monk is the first book of short stories of hers that I've read. Though it must be noted that I have read everything else that that author has written, mainly because her prose is pure gold, and her plots never drag or flag. Here's the blurb: These twenty-two short stories are measured out with a cup of normal and a pound of the fantastic.  From dark fairytales to alien skies, Monk's stories blend haunting yesterdays, forgotten  todays and twisted tomorrows wherein: ...A normal little girl in a city made of gears, takes on the world to save a toy.... ...A normal ancient monster living in Seattle, must decide if love is worth trusting a hero... ...A normal patchwork woman and her two-headed boyfriend stitch their life and farm together with needle, thread, and time... ...a normal vampire in a knitting shop must face sun-drenched secrets... ...a normal snow creature's wish changes a mad man's life... ...a normal man breaks reality with a hamster... ...and yes, a normal little robot, defines how extraordinary friendship can be. Poignant, bittersweet, frightening, and funny, these stories pour out worlds that are both lovely and odd, darkly strange and tantalizingly familiar, where no matter how fantastic the setting or situation, love, freedom, and hope find a way to take root and thrive.

What I love about short stories as expertly crafted as these (and the only author better at short story writing, in my estimation, would have to be the master himself, Ray Bradbury) is that you can laugh with one of the more amusing ones and cry with heartbreak at the next. Monk is a born storyteller, and as such she exudes the joy and purpose of words and language with every paragraph. This lovely, too short book of tales deserves nothing less than an A,and a recommendation for anyone who loves science fiction, fantasy and/or steampunk to give it a whirl. You won't be disappointed.