Hello fellow Bibliophiles and Coronavirus quarantined friends! I've got a mixed bag of stuff for you all today, including 4 book reviews and lots of tidbits. Here we go!
This is true of every community I've ever lived in:
Quotation of the Day
"Independent bookstores are connectors. They connect people to many worlds, to discover people and places we'd never know otherwise. They also connect readers to other readers, and to writers and poets. They provide people with a peaceful place to browse, a place for conversation, a refuge offering comfort and inspiration. Indie bookstores are where we find community.... Bookstores build a more compassionate and aware citizenry. Books allow us the hope of living in a world of shared humanity, as we become closer to those unlike us who we meet in books. Plain and simple, indie bookstores are the heart of their neighborhoods."
--Linda Kass, owner of Gramercy Books in Bexley, Ohio
This is the most adorable kitten disguised as a neck scarf I've ever seen!
Bookshop Cat: Minerva at Arts & Letters Bookstore
Arts & Letters Bookstore Granbury, Tex., showcased its new feline bookseller on Facebook, posting: "We would like to introduce you all to our latest employee http://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz45134035.
Her name is Minerva, and she is about 8 weeks old. Her favorite pastimes are meowing and playing with her toy mouse. So come by and say hi to our special little bookstore cat!"
I really want to read this book, it sounds fascinating, especially as I become more disabled by my chronic ailments as time goes on.
Book Review: Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body
A candid and engaging memoir-in-essays, Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Body offers readers deep insight and broad perspective on disability, as reflected in Rebekah Taussig's life.
Taussig, an independent woman, successful educator and prolific Instagrammer (@sitting_pretty became paralyzed at age three following treatment for childhood cancer. Because her parents didn't treat her any differently than her five siblings--several years passed before she got her first wheelchair--Taussig initially didn't see herself as disabled. "I continued to sleep on the top bunk on the top floor of the house. I learned how to pull my body up the side of my bunk bed, my feet mere props as I used my arms to lift myself up higher and higher until I tumbled onto the top mattress." Like many young children, "I believed that I was royally beautiful, valuable, and fully capable of contributing to the group." That idyllic view changed as she began to understand--often painfully--how society considered people like her. "I consumed and digested the culture around me and slowly learned, with certainty, that I was not among those who would be needed, admired, wanted, loved, dated, or married."
Sitting Pretty is a groundbreaking and candid memoir that immediately draws the reader into Taussig's world with a casual, witty and confident tone. Through her interactions with friends, family and strangers, Taussig shows that concepts such as ableism ("favoring, fetishizing, and building the world around a mostly imagined, idealized body while discriminating against those bodies perceived to move, see, hear, process, operate, look, or need differently from that vision") permeate society. She addresses the lack of accessible housing and the dearth of gainful employment (with health insurance) for people with disabilities; shatters misconceptions that they are helpless and devoid of sexual attraction; and takes on the media's influence in perpetuating stereotypes and disability through the lens of "inspiration."
While acknowledging her privilege and position as someone who is highly educated (she holds a Ph.D. in disability studies), Taussig conveys that her greatest struggles aren't always physical. Sitting Pretty poignantly demonstrates that the biggest obstacle is the common inability to see past disability so that all people can be fully accepted and integrated into society. Only with that emotional connection will it be possible to create a community of understanding and respect. Sitting Pretty is a refreshingly welcome and necessary addition to the voices that may help get everyone there. --Melissa Firman , writer, editor and blogger at melissafirman.com
These both sound wonderful, I can hardly wait for Hollywood to get back into filming TV series and movies.
TV: Shadows in the Vineyard; The Flight Attendant
Landmark Studio Group has partnered with District 33 to develop and produce Shadows in the Vineyard http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz45164830, a limited event drama series based on the book Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World's Greatest Wine by Maximillian Potter, Deadline reported. Noah Wyle and Judith Light will star and executive produce the project, which will be written by John Newman (Get Shorty, Proud Mary), Peter Cambor and Potter.
"This is a fascinating crime story, but it's really a love story," Potter said. "I went to Burgundy not knowing or caring a thing about wine; I went to report on a crime, but I fell in love with Burgundy. When I was losing faith in the world and my fellow man, burned out by the ugliness I had been covering as a journalist, Burgundy came out of nowhere and restored my faith in life, in humanity. The world needs to know a place and a people like Burgundy exists as it gives us all hope and something to aspire to. Maybe now more than ever."
The Flight Attendant
Michelle Gomez (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) has been cast as a series regular in HBO Max's series The Flight Attendant http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz45164831, based on the novel by Chris Bohjalian. Kaley Cuoco stars in and executive produces the project. The cast also includes Sonoya Mizuno, Michiel Huisman, Colin Woodell, Zosia Mamet, Merle Dandridge and Griffin Matthews.
Production was underway on The Flight Attendant when the Covid-19 pandemic "shut down virtually all TV and film production in mid-March. Gomez was shooting prior to the shutdown, but her casting was never announced. The series is eyeing a return to production in late August," Deadline wrote.
True To Form by Elizabeth Berg was an ebook that I downloaded from the local branch of the KCLS this past week. I've read a number of Berg's works, and I have enjoyed most of them. This one, published years ago, somehow escaped my notice until now. Here's the blurb: Katie Nash -- the beloved heroine of Elizabeth Berg's previous novels Durable Goods and Joy School
-- is thirteen years old in 1961, and she's facing a summer full of
conflict. Her father has enlisted her in two care-taking jobs --
baby-sitting for the rambunctious Wexler boys and, equally challenging,
looking after Mrs. Randolph, her elderly, bedridden neighbor. To make
matters worse, Katie has been forcibly inducted into the "loser" Girl
Scout troop, compliments of her only new friend Cynthia's controlling
mother. Her only saving grace is a trip to her childhood hometown in
Texas, to visit her best friend Cherylanne. But people and places change
-- and Cherylanne is no exception. When an act of betrayal leaves Katie
wondering just what friends are really for, she learns to rely on the only one left she can trust: herself.
Full of the joys, anguish, and innocence of American adolescence, True to Form is a story sure to make readers remember and reflect on their own moments of discovery and self-definition.
While I don't remember this protagonist from Joy School or Durable Goods, I do remember what it was like to be 13 and finding it hard to deal with puberty and crushes and all manner of adults who suddenly seemed like the most embarrassing and stupid people on earth, lol. I also remember the desperate need to fit in, and to curry favor with the popular girls in hopes of having friends to hang out with and talk on the phone for hours. I, too, had to take care of older people when I volunteered at the hospital as a candy-striper, and I also baby sat some local kids for money to buy books or records or Tiger Beat magazines. So when Katie throws her friend under the bus in order to get closer to the popular girls (who, unsurprisingly, don't actually want to be her friends, they just want to use her to do their homework), I could understand her anguish when she realizes her mistake. Though I hate reading books on a tablet or my computer, I really enjoyed this novel and read it all in an afternoon. Berg's prose is delicate and fragrant with nostalgia, while her plot never flags. I'd give this book a B+ and recommend it to anyone who grew up in the 60s and remembers what it was like to be an adolescent.
The Rivals by Vi Keeland is a spunky romantic tour de force that had me turning pages into the wee hours. The prose was shiny and the plot whipped along like a disco party on steroids. And though I try not to judge a book by it's cover, the hottie that they have in a Tux gracing the cover of this book only amped up the sizzle for me. Here's the blurb: A sexy, enemies-to-lovers standalone from #1 New York Times Bestseller, Vi Keeland.
The feud between Weston Lockwood and me started at the altar.
Only neither of us attended the wedding, and the nuptials happened decades before either of us was born.
Our
grandfathers had been best friends and business partners, at least up
until my grandfather’s wedding day—when his bride-to-be blurted out she
couldn’t marry him because she was also in love with Weston's
grandfather.
The two men spent years fighting over Grace
Copeland, who also happened to be their third business partner. But in
the end, neither man could steal half of her heart away from the other.
Eventually,
they all went their separate ways. Our grandfathers married other
women, and the two men became one of the biggest business rivals in
history.
Our fathers continued the family tradition of feuding. And then Weston and I did, too.
For the most part, we kept as much distance as possible.
Until
the day the woman who started the feud died—and unexpectedly left one
of the most valuable hotels in the world to our grandfathers to share.
Now I’m stuck in a hotel with the man I was born to hate, trying to unravel the mess our families inherited.
As usual, it didn’t take long for us to be at each other’s throats.
Weston Lockwood was everything I hated: tall, smart, cocky, and too gorgeous for his own good. We were fire and ice.
But
that shouldn’t be an issue. Our families were used to being at war.
There was just one minor problem, though. Every time Weston and I
fought, we somehow wound up in bed.
The "hate-sex" that these two share is hotter than a volcanic explosion, so be prepared for some well written sex scenes that actually make sense within the not-insubstantial plot. The rest of the story is engrossing and the characters are smart enough to let readers see their emotional build-ups and their struggles. I am not normally a huge fan of regular romance novels, but this one has moved to the top of my list of favorite contemporary romances of all time. I'd give it a solid A, and recommend it to anyone who can appreciate sexy romances that build toward love relationships.
Sky Without Stars by Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell is a science fiction/epic family drama novel that, though it was over 570 pages long, zoomed along at top speed until the end. It's the first book in a series (the System Divine), so there's a lot of world building going on, but that barely slows the ricochet plot to a slightly more sedate pace. Here's the blurb: In the tradition of The Lunar Chronicles, this sweeping reimagining of Les Misérables
tells the story of three teens from very different backgrounds who are
thrown together amidst the looming threat of revolution on the French
planet of Laterre.
A thief.
An officer.
A guardian.
Three strangers, one shared destiny…
When
the Last Days came, the planet of Laterre promised hope. A new life for
a wealthy French family and their descendants. But five hundred years
later, it’s now a place where an extravagant elite class reigns supreme;
where the clouds hide the stars and the poor starve in the streets;
where a rebel group, long thought dead, is resurfacing.
Whispers of revolution have begun—a revolution that hinges on three unlikely heroes…
Chatine
is a street-savvy thief who will do anything to escape the brutal
Regime, including spy on Marcellus, the grandson of the most powerful
man on the planet.
Marcellus is an officer—and the son of a
renowned traitor. In training to take command of the military, Marcellus
begins to doubt the government he’s vowed to serve when his father dies
and leaves behind a cryptic message that only one person can read: a
girl named Alouette.
Alouette is living in an underground
refuge, where she guards and protects the last surviving library on the
planet. But a shocking murder will bring Alouette to the surface for the
first time in twelve years…and plunge Laterre into chaos.
All
three have a role to play in a dangerous game of revolution—and together
they will shape the future of a planet.
I read Les Miserables when I was in my early 20s, and though I enjoyed the book, I've never liked the musical/opera version, though I know that its very popular. The pain and suffering in Les Mis just gets to be too much, especially when all the songs sung in the musical version are so tragic and sad, just like the characters. This novel takes that same tack, with every character either being a horrible rich person with no conscience or a poor person being oppressed (read: beaten, starved, jailed) by the current tyrannical regime. Of course there are the unique bits that make it science fiction, with towns built in old spaceships, and everyone having a phone implanted in their arms, among other things (and Madame Le Guillotine has a Star Wars style lightsaber used to chop heads instead of an actual metal blade) but those seem somehow inconsequential in light of the fact that English is now a forgotten language and no one can read anymore (therefore books must be hidden away to be preserved). Still, this felt like more social science fiction than actual nuts and bolts SF to me. It is a fast read, with a well known plot, so I'd give it a B+ with the recommendation for all who like epic fantasy characters with their SF,and those who love Les Mis.
The Peculiar Miracles of Antoinette Martin by Stephanie Knipper is a "magic realism" novel that I found engrossing and uplifting. Here's the blurb:
Sisters Rose and Lily Martin were inseparable when growing up on their family’s Kentucky flower farm yet became distant as adults when Lily found herself unable to deal with the demands of Rose’s unusual daughter. But when Rose becomes ill, Lily is forced to return to the farm and to confront the fears that had driven her away.
Rose’s daughter, ten-year-old Antoinette, has a form of autism that requires constant care and attention. She has never spoken a word, but she has a powerful gift that others would give anything to harness--she can heal with her touch. She brings wilted flowers back to life, makes a neighbor’s tremors disappear, and even changes the course of nature on the flower farm.
Antoinette’s gift, though, comes at a price, since each healing puts her own life in jeopardy. As Rose--the center of her daughter’s life--struggles with her own failing health and Lily confronts her anguished past, the sisters, and the men who love them, come to realize the sacrifices that must be made to keep this very special child safe.
Written with great heart and a deep understanding of what it feels like to be different, The Peculiar Miracles of Antoinette Martin is a novel about what it means to be family and about the lengths to which people will go to protect the ones they love.
Though I know we are supposed to love the protagonist miracle child Antoinette, I thought she was a horrible little brat for most of the book, and though she's smart enough to know that healing causes her seizures, she has no sense of self preservation, and keeps pitching a fit when her mother refuses to let her exchange her life to heal her mother's heart condition. I did like Rose and Will and Seth, but Lily seemed too wishy-washy and cowardly for me. She was also indecisive, and couldn't seem to figure out whether or not to care for her niece or leave the farm and go her own way. I also didn't understand why Rose or Lily just couldn't tell Eli that Antoinette couldn't heal his wife of ALS because it would bring her deadly seizures and that her healing of serious ailments didn't last for long anyway. They waited until Eli was desperate enough to try and kidnap a child before they said anything....idiots. the prose was clean and decent, and the plot light and swift as a breeze. Still, I'd give this novel a B-, and recommend it to those who like magic realism about children who can perform miracles.
No comments:
Post a Comment