Greetings snowbound folks! Merry December to all book lovers and friends! This is my favorite month of the year, and we're only a week away from my birthday on December 12! There's also Christmas, of course, and Boxing Day and New Year's Eve, all great celebrations, and now that I'm negative for COVID 19 (FINALLY!!) I will be able to participate more fully in the celebrations. Of course I plan to get some new books for my birthday, so I've been feverishly trying to clear some of my TBR off the shelves so I have space for the new stuff. Hence, my review of 5 books in this post, which will be longer than usual...sorry about that! So lets get started with some tidbits, followed by reviews.
I've been reading Robin McKinley's books since I was a teenager, about the same time I started reading Patricia McKillip's gorgeous fantasy novels...they were recommended as being similar, and though both authors produced beautiful fantasy novels filled with lush and gorgeous prose, McKinley's books spanned more genres than McKillips, with her science fiction and science fiction/fantasy, gothic fantasy and YA fantasy books. She's an amazing writer/author, and deeply deserving of the Grand Master Award. Congratulations!
Awards: Robin McKinley Named SFWA Grand Master
Robin McKinley has been named the 39th Grand Master https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAmLkb4I6aliJEsiGw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jOWZD2poMLg-gVdw by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, which lauded her as "one of the leading writers of the modern fairy-tale retelling genre, and indeed, her debut Beauty, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, could be said to have started the fairy-tale retelling trend. She is also celebrated for her original fantasy novels. Her 1982 book The Blue Sword received the Newbery Honor, and its 1984 prequel The Hero and the Crown was awarded the Newbery Medal.... Her 1985 anthology Imaginary Lands won the World Fantasy Award, and Water, the 2002 collection she co-wrote with Peter Dickinson, was later nominated as well."
McKinley's other works include Sunshine (2003), a dark sensual vampire fairy tale that won the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature and was named to NPR's "Top 100 Science-Fiction Fantasy Books" list and Tor.com's list of "Best SFF Novels of the Decade." Spindle's End, McKinley's Sleeping Beauty retelling, was named one of Time Magazine's "100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time" in 2020.
SFWA president Jeffe Kennedy commented: "I read McKinley's Deerskin in my late 20s and it turned my world upside-down. From there I went on to read everything McKinley has written. With every story, each book, she haunts, delights, and enlightens me. Naming an author who's been such a profound influence on me as both a reader and a writer as SFWA's newest Grand Master is one of the greatest privileges of my life."
This looks to be an utterly delicious adaptation. I hope Netflix picks it up.
TV: Sinful Wallflowers
Sinful Wallflowers, a series of three historical romances (My Darling Duke, Her Wicked Marquess, A Scoundrel of Her Own) by Stacy Reid, is being adapted for television by Sologne Angelique Productions. Sologne Schumacher, the company's CEO and executive producer on the project, will work with Reid to create the TV series and is currently seeking a streaming partner.
"Our company's mission is amplifying the voices of historically excluded creators, and given Stacy Reid's gifts as a storyteller, we knew she was someone we wanted to work with," Schumacher said. "When I read the Sinful Wallflowers series, I knew these were characters the world needed to see." Schumacher's production team includes co-producer Leon Jones and producer/composer Marla Harvey, whose most recent work has been purchased by ESPN/Disney.
Stacy Cantor Abrams, editorial director of Entangled Publishing and Reid's editor, added: "The Sinful Wallflowers books are bestsellers and fan favorites out of Reid's entire backlist, meaning they represent the very pinnacle of historical romance. Now, we'll get a chance to see these exceptional plots and characters transformed for the medium of television. It's always an exciting process, and I'm confident these books will adapt particularly well."
Though this is not my favorite of Fitzgerald's works (Tender is the Night is a better novel on every level, IMO), I'd still really love to see what they do with the text as a musical.
On Stage: The Great Gatsby
A private industry reading of a musical stage adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAmNleUI6alicU8gSw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jOX5StpoMLg-gVdw, which entered the public domain in 2021, will be presented later this month, Playbill reported. A regional bow is expected during the 2023-24 season.
Directed by Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), the project features music and lyrics by Tony nominees Nathan Tysen (Paradise Square) and Jason Howland (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) and a book by Kait Kerrigan (The Mad Ones). Chunsoo Shin, "one of the most influential producers in Korea's theatre industry, will produce the Broadway-aimed musical with Mark Shacket as executive producer," Playbill noted.
The musical is one of many Gatsby adaptations in the works, including rock star Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine), Thomas Bartlett, and Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok collaborating on a musical stage adaptation; and Immersive Everywhere's interactive production, created and directed by Alexander Wright, which will begin March 9, 2023, at Park Central Hotel New York, transforming the 16,000 square foot ballroom into the Gatsby mansion.
You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo is a delightful science fiction comedy that I would love to see made into a TV sitcom series by someone. The premise is somewhat absurd and the action fairly constant, but Rambo's neat and tidy prose gets the fast-moving plot going at a sustainable speed for most of the book (it really hits lightspeed toward the end). Here's the blurb:
This is more Farscape meets I Love Lucy, in my opinion, but still, Niko and her crew of weird and wonderful aliens are a delight not to be missed. I don't know where Rambo has been all my life, but from now on, as with all other authors whose works inspire, entertain, enlighten and inform me, I will seek out whatever she's written and purchase it for my TBR with all due haste. Seriously, her characters are full bodied and believable, and the story arc here is fun and outrageous but clearly grounded in present day sociological realities, like the growing divide between the ultra rich wankers and the abjectly poor downtrodden working class. BTW, the whole time I was reading this book, every time they'd use the name of the bio-ship (which was self aware) You Sexy Thing, I'd hear the Hot Chocolate song "You Sexy Thing" playing on full volume in my head! ("I believe in miracles...you sexy thing, you!" Insert funky bass line here). I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes Star Trek for it's prescient science fiction and it's mirror to our current society.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is a modern literary fiction with a romantic through-line and some of the most intriguing characters I've ever encountered in a novel (Hello Marcellus!). It takes place on a fictional island in the Puget Sound area, and the protagonist, Tova Sullivan, is acerbic, witty, fussy and fascinating as she makes her nightly perambulations around the Sowell aquarium cleaning everything down to a shine. When she finally encounters charming screw up Cameron, who really needs to just grow up already, the two develop a relationship, and a lot of twists and turns in the plot start coming at readers with the ferocity of a tsunami. This is not a book that is easy to put down (so I didn't, and read it in one sitting), and though my library book group won't be reading it until November of next year, I'm glad that I got my copy in September. Here's the blurb:
For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus
After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.
Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.
Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.
Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.
Grief and abandonment aside, Tova and Cameron soon discover that found family will always make room for you in their hearts and in their town. Small town folks have a way of taking in strays and helping them put down roots and flourish, as well as allowing those who have lost their family members to tragedy to start over and make a new life wherever they are in their journey, age-wise. But oh, Marcellus, you sly and divine octopus, you...what a wonderful, brilliant creature you are! I literally could have read a whole novel full of Marcellus's ramblings about humans and other sea creatures, ones that are food and ones that are friends. Fantastic prose that charms and is deceptively simple, pairs with a plot that moves faster than Marcellus on a mission to make for a book that you won't want to end. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys odd characters and witty writing.
Whispers of Warning by Jessica Estevao is a historical romantic mystery that I bought for my Kindle Paperwhite for a really reasonable price. I wasn't expecting a lot from this novel, and wasn't surprised that the plot dragged a bit in several places. But the prose was sterling and clean, and I liked the protagonist who was strong despite being constantly crushed in her ambitions by the staunch patriarchy at the end of the 19th century (1890s belle epoque). Here's the blurb: Ruby Proulx’s new life in Orchard Beach,
Maine, faces some sinister complications in the next Change of Fortune
Mystery by Jessica Estevao.
Free from the clutches
of her con artist father, Ruby Proulx is starting to settle in at the
Belden, her aunt Honoria’s seaside hotel. She loves finally being rooted
in one place and also feels a sense of purpose as she helps Honoria
keep her business afloat by acting as a psychic medium for the hotel’s
metaphysically inclined guests.
When one of the guests,
renowned Spiritualist and outspoken suffragist Sophronia Foster
Eldridge, checks into the hotel for a monthlong stay, Ruby finds her
sense of purpose expands outside the confines of home and family.
Sophronia takes Ruby under her wing and mentors her in the mediumistic
abilities, encouraging her to fight for women’s rights.
But
not everyone is as happy with Sophronia’s appearance in Old Orchard.
When a dangerous act of sabotage is carried out and a body is found
floating in the pool of a local bathhouse, Ruby takes it upon herself to
find answers— and in the process learns that her new friend has been
hiding some deadly secrets of her own.
I found the intrigue of Sophronia's psychic audio gift to be very interesting, especially in light of her fellow "magical" fortune tellers in the hotel, many of whom are charlatans. What I didn't like was Sophronia's pathetic weakness in the face of anything even remotely dangerous or contentious. I kept wanting to shake her by the shoulders and tell her to get a backbone, already. Alls well that ends well, however, and by the end Sophronia can hold her own. I'd give this densely written mystery a B-, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in the spiritualist movement and the sufferagist movement of the late 19th century.
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers is the second book in the Monk and Robot series, and I was pleasantly surprised that Chambers managed to continue to make this charming duo and their long perambulating journey one that draws you in like wolves to a campfire. I honestly wasn't sure if Chambers could keep the innocence of Mosscap the robot and the tired cynicism of Sibling Dex the tea monk going in an interesting fashion, but not only is this sophomore effort engrossing and delightful, it's fully as fascinating as the first novel where we meet this unlikely duo and see them on the first leg of their journey of self discovery. Here's the blurb: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is a story of kindness and love from one of the foremost practitioners of hopeful SF.
After
touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some
renown) and Mosscap (a robot sent on a quest to determine what humanity
really needs) turn their attention to the villages and cities of the
little moon they call home.
They hope to find the answers they
seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing
the entropic nature of the universe.
Becky Chambers's new series continues to ask: in a world where people have what they want, does having more even matter?
Chamber's prose here is crisp and evocative, while her plot sails along like a gliding seagull. I really appreciated her extra detailed touches that outlined the world of Panga, from it's government to it's currency (called Pebs, they're kept track of in order for people to barter goods and services) to it's educational system for children. And, as usual, Mosscap's innocent view of the human world and it's philosophical conundrums is priceless and sobering...it really made me think about what we as a species want of our lives, and what we as individuals are willing to give up to achieve what we want or what we think we want to make our lives whole. Also, reading the books in this series always makes me want multiple cups of tea! I'd give this short but well written entry into the series an A, and recommend it to anyone who wonders about the intersection of AI with humanity.
Duty (Ghost Squad 2) by Lilith Saintcrow was a military romance that had just a bit too much horror/abuse mixed in for my taste. Oddly enough, having read many of Saintcrows other books/series, I was surprised by the choppy prose and uneven plot that dragged on with description after background description until I was bored to tears. This is unlike Saintcrow, whose works are usually full of action-packed sequences wherein her female protagonists kick arse and take names. Not so with Duty, where the female protagonist cowers and falls prey to victim mentality and extreme self loathing to become the "damsel in distress" that the male protagonist lusts after and wants to protect at all costs. Why he finds this pathetic woman who is too thin and beaten half to death boner-and-drool worthy is beyond me. It made him seem dog-like and stupid. Anyway, here's the blurb:
Old flames burn the hottest…
Granite Falls has secrets, and some of them are deadly. After nearly dying on his team's last mission, Paul Klemperer is heading home for the first time since signing up for the Army. His hometown's grown a little. The inhabitants are older. And life has moved on, but some things are still the same. Like the way he feels about the girl he left behind—who ended up marrying someone else.
Beck
Sommers has a divorce in the works; if she can just hold on, she'll be
able to leave this godforsaken town. Unfortunately, her
soon-to-be-ex-husband has other ideas. Her first love Paul has returned
as well, making things even more complicated. And then there's the
corruption, the drugs…and murder. Beck's
determined to fix what's gone wrong, but she has no idea how deep the
corruption goes. And Paul? Well, he's a little behind on the local news,
but one thing's for sure—he's not letting Beck get away this time.
First, though, he'll have to keep her alive.
In the end, it read like Beck just exchanged one domineering, controlling, over protective man for another. Paul seemed determined to cage Beck up for himself, just in a nicer, more friendly way, without beatings. I don't think that's any healthier for a grown woman than being in thrall to an abuser. What Beck really needed was to get a divorce and get away from all men and learn to love herself and esteem/respect herself before she starts looking for another relationship. Also, the lack of the good witty dialog that Saintcrow is known for was disturbing. All in all, a big disappointment of a novel. I'd give it a C+ and only recommend it to those who have fantasies about being rescued by some huge military dude with White Knight Syndrome.
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