Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story Comes to TV, Octavia's Bookshelf Opening in Pasadena, The Nurse on TV, Dog Man, the Musical on Stage, How to Walk Away by Katherine Center, Not Here to Be Liked by Michelle Quach, Wild is the Witch by Rachel Griffin and Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra

Welcome to 2023, bibliophiles and book dragons! So far this year has been a bit challenging, but I am certain that things will smooth out as time goes on. Meanwhile, I've been reading all my birthday and holiday gift books at a furious pace, and while some have been wonderful fun to read, others have been something of a slog. So here's to starting the new year with fortitude and courage to keep going and surmounting life's hurdles.

I adored the first couple of seasons of Bridgerton, and I'm thrilled that there will be some offshoot series penned by the awesome and mighty Shonda Rhimes, who was being like Taylor Sheridan with writing a bunch of great TV series at once before it was a "thing," and keep in mind that she didn't get nearly the money or constant praise or carte blanche budgets that Sheridan does, mainly because she's a woman of color. That guarantees that she will always have to work twice as hard for half as much as white guys like Sheridan. Not trying to rain on the Yellowstone-creator's parade, as I love all the shows he's penned so far, but just pointing out that he's got privilege that Rhimes doesn't, and yet she's made it in Hollywood anyway, with style and flair.

TV: Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

Netflix has offered a sneak peek at the upcoming series Queen Charlotte:A Bridgerton Story https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAiJxOsI6algJEp-GA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jPW8WjpoMLg-gVdw,based on a novel co-written by Shonda Rhimes and Julia Quinn, author ofthe historical-romance books adapted into the hit Bridgerton TV series.IndieWire reported that the prequel "focuses on the rise of the titularroyal, played by India Amarteifio. Actress Golda Rosheuvel portrays the queen in Bridgerton."

The new sneak peek at Queen Charlotte introduces Arsema Thomas as ayoung Lady Danbury. Adjoa Andoh plays Danbury in Bridgerton. Cyril Nriis set to play then-Lord Danbury opposite Thomas. Michelle Fairley,Richard Cunningham, Connie Jenkens-Grieg, Sam Clemmett, CoreyMylchreest, Kate Brayben, and Keir Charles round out the cast.

The official logline for the eight-episode prequel series reads:"Centered on Queen Charlotte's rise to prominence and power, this Bridgerton-verse prequel tells the story of how the young Queen's marriage to King George sparked both a great love story and a societal shift, creating the world of the Ton inherited by the characters inBridgerton.""Queen Charlotte has been such a moving character to write and nowhaving the opportunity to work with Julia to adapt this story into a book is such an exciting opportunity," said Rhimes, who also serves as an executive producer alongside Betsy Beers and Tom Verica. "I can'twait for fans of this universe to read the story of a character that hasresonated so deeply with our audience."

It seems like the fantastic Octavia Butler is finally getting her due, though it's posthumous, for her brilliant science fiction. Now they're opening a bookstore in Pasadena, where a good friend of mine lives, in her name, which is excellent. I sincerely wish them great success.

Octavia's Bookshelf Opening in Pasadena, Calif., Next Month

Octavia's Bookshelf https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAiKleUI6algJE8gGA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jPWJStpoMLg-gVdw, an independent bookstore that will focus on the work of Black authors, Indigenous authors and other authors of color, is slated to open next month in Pasadena, Calif., LAist reported.

Located at 1361 North Hill Avenue, the bookstore is named for author and Pasadena native Octavia Butler. Store owner Nikki High explained that Butler was "the first Black sci-fi writer that I read, and it was the first time that I saw Black people in the future."

High decided to open a bookstore of her own after her grandmother diedin May 2022. This past September she launched a GoFundMe campaign to help her open the bookstore, and in November she signed the lease. So far she has given the space a new coat of paint, installed a sign on the door and put up one wall of bookcases. She is aiming to be open for businessin mid-February. In addition to books, High plans to offer coffee and a curated selectionof products "from artisans around the world and in our neighborhood."

She hopes to create a space where "readers from all walks of life canenjoy these books" and find community. "I also like to think that we all have an Octavia in our lives--someonewho is before their time, a wordsmith," High told LAist. "And I justthought it was a neat way to honor all of the Octavias in our life."

My mother was a nurse (in addition to being a wife and mother of three) for nearly 45 years, and when I worked with her in hospitals and nursing homes, I was always so proud to be the daughter of a natural healer and wonderfully compassionate nurse. That said, I realize this is the exact opposite of my mother's kind of nursing, with this woman being a serial killer. Still, it sounds interesting.

TV: The Nurse

The Nurse https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAiKleUI6algKxl0HA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jPWJStpoMLg-gVdw, a Danish thriller TV series adapted from the book by Kristian Corfixen, will make its debut on Netflix later this year. The project is based on the true story of nurse Christina Aistrup Hansen, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2016 for four counts of attempted murder of patients at Nykbing Falster Hospital. Produced by SAM Productions and directed by Kasper Barfoed, The Nurse stars Josephine Park (Baby Fever, Doggystyle) as Hansen and Fanny LouiseBernth (Ride Upon a Storm) as her colleague Pernille Kurzmann Larsen.

Some of my son's favorite books when he was little were Dav Pilkey's Cat Kong and Dogzilla, which are hilarious and adorable. I bet this musical will be a huge success.

On Stage: Dog Man: The Musical

TheaterWorks USA will bring Dog Man: The Musical based on Dav Pilkey's bestselling book series, back to New York City beginning March 4 at New World Stages ,where the kid-friendly production will continue through April 30, Playbill reported. Opening night Off-Broadway is set for March 13. Jen Wineman will direct and choreograph the limited engagement, withcasting to be announced. The musical has an original book and lyrics by Kevin Del Aguila (currently playing Osgood in Broadway's Some Like It Hot) and music by Brad Alexander (See Rock City & Other Destinations) with orchestrations by Lloyd Kikoler. Dog Man: The Musical debuted aspart of TW USA's Family Summer Theater program in 2019.

How to Walk Away by Katherine Center is a "women's fiction"/romance novel (Women's Fiction used to be called "Chick Lit" in the old days, until too many women protested the misogynist moniker for the genre and the men in power just changed it enough so that they don't catch flak about ghetto-izing an entire genre of fiction, especially considering women buy more books than men do, every year) about a rather anxious woman who is scared of many things, not the least of which is flying. So of course her bully boyfriend becomes a pilot and immediately wants to propose to her on his first solo flight, and when he crashes the plane and walks away without a scratch, but leaves his girlfriend Margaret paralyzed and broken, Margaret begins to wake up and realize that she needs to take the reins of her life and quit being a doormat and slave to what everyone else wants for her, and build the life she wants for herself. Here's the blurb: Margaret Jacobsen is just about to step into the bright future she’s worked for so hard and so long: a new dream job, a fiancé she adores, and the promise of a picture-perfect life just around the corner. Then, suddenly, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life, everything she worked for is taken away in a brief, tumultuous moment.

In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Maggie must confront the unthinkable. First there is her fiancé, Chip, who wallows in self-pity while simultaneously expecting to be forgiven. Then, there's her sister Kit, who shows up after pulling a three-year vanishing act. Finally, there's Ian, her physical therapist, the one the nurses said was too tough for her. Ian, who won't let her give in to her pity, and who sees her like no one has seen her before. Sometimes the last thing you want is the one thing you need. Sometimes we all need someone to catch us when we fall. And sometimes love can find us in the least likely place we would ever expect.

How to Walk Away is Katherine Center at her very best—a masterpiece of a novel that is both hopeful and hilarious; truthful and wise; tender and brave. 

I loved that this was a story of redemption, but I also felt that Margaret was way too shallow and dependent on her mother, as a grown woman, to run her life for her...she just seemed completely spineless, (no pun on disabled people intended). It also bothered me that it took a man, a physical therapist (who also happens to be a sexy Scottish guy, and Scotsmen are my kryptonite) to get her to see that, and to help her find her own intestinal fortitude. That said,  I did love the subplot of Margaret's wild sister shaking things up and making the entire family become more honest with themselves and each other. I've read several other Center novels, and, as usual, her prose is gorgeous and fun, while her plots whizz by like a helicopter in a windstorm. Seriously engaging stuff, and I couldn't put this book down once I started reading it...it was another "read in one sitting" novel. I'd give it an A, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys stories of finding oneself and rising from the ashes of tragedy.

Not Here To Be Liked by Michelle Quach is a delightfully wry YA "enemies to friends" romance novel that had me hooked from the first chapter. Eliza Quan is a young journalist who edits her high school paper with the sharpest red pen (and sharpest mind) possible. Unfortunately, as with most institutions of learning, there's a misogynistic hierarchy in place, and when it comes time to name the new editor in chief for the next year (her senior year), Eliza loses to a handsome and charming newcomer guy with less than half her experience and expertise. All the teachers and principal do nothing but mumble about it, and allow the travesty to stand. Infuriated (as I would be, if I were in her shoes), Eliza writes a feminist manifesto, detailing her outrage at this lack of meritocracy, and while she never intends it to be made public, someone on the newspaper staff publishes the piece, and all sorts of hijinks ensue. Here's the blurb:

Emergency Contact meets Moxie in this cheeky and searing novel that unpacks just how complicated new love can get…when you fall for your enemy.

Eliza Quan is the perfect candidate for editor in chief of her school paper. That is, until ex-jock Len DiMartile decides on a whim to run against her. Suddenly her vast qualifications mean squat because inexperienced Len—who is tall, handsome, and male—just seems more like a leader.

When Eliza’s frustration spills out in a viral essay, she finds herself inspiring a feminist movement she never meant to start, caught between those who believe she’s a gender equality champion and others who think she’s simply crying misogyny.

Amid this growing tension, the school asks Eliza and Len to work side by side to demonstrate civility. But as they get to know one another, Eliza feels increasingly trapped by a horrifying realization—she just might be falling for the face of the patriarchy himself.

Though I dislike the fact that Eliza had to be somewhat "humbled" in order to finally "have it all" with her work life and love life (guys don't have to be humbled...when they are smart and driven and successful, they're lionized by our entire society as being exactly what every man should be), I was still glad that it all turned out so well for Eliza and her friends in the end. Though they only eluded to it briefly, I also loved the fact that they brought in the horrible stereotype of the "perfect" Asian student who has no social life but has perfect grades and gets into Ivy League colleges with ease. Its racist and unfair to expect all Asian teenagers to be brilliant and shy...like any other race of people there are good students and bad ones, extroverts and introverts alike. The author's prose was spunky and witty and, along with her zesty and fast-moving plot, made this book a real page turner, and a heart-warming one at that. I'd give this novel an A, and recommend it to any woman who is tired of reading romances full of tired tropes and cliches, where the woman gives up everything for her man. 

Wild is the Witch by Rachel Griffen is a witchy/magical YA romance with that takes place in my current home state of Washington (not DC). It's rife with lovely descriptions of flora and fauna in the Puget Sound area, and reading about the magic and majesty of our local forests made me want to hike some of the trails I've heard about.  Here's the blurb:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Nature of Witches comes an immersive, enemies-to-lovers contemporary fantasy standalone.

After a night of magic turns deadly, Iris Gray vows to never let another person learn she's a witch. It doesn't matter that the Witches' Council found her innocent or that her magic was once viewed as a marvel―that night on the lake changed everything. Now settled in Washington, Iris hides who she really is and vents her frustrations by writing curses she never intends to cast. And while she loves working at the wildlife refuge she runs with her mother, she loathes Pike Alder, the witch-hating aspiring ornithologist who interns with them.

When Pike makes a particularly hurtful comment, Iris concocts a cruel curse for him. But just as she's about to dispel it, an owl swoops down and steals the curse before flying far away from the refuge. The owl is a powerful amplifier, and if it dies, Iris's dark spell will be unleashed not only on Pike but on everyone in the region.

Forced to work together, Iris and Pike trek through the wilderness in search of the bird that could cost Pike his life. But Pike doesn't know the truth, and as more dangers arise in the woods, Iris must decide how far she's willing to go to keep her secrets safe. 

Griffin's prose is fresh and beautifully descriptive, though at times I felt she got carried away with overly long descriptions of the forest and the animals and plants that inhabit it. Too many descriptive paragraphs on the glory of a tree can get to be tedious. That said, it only causes minor pauses in her plot, which provides enough twists and turns to keep readers turning pages long into the night. Being an animal-lover myself, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Iris's relationships with owls and wolves and other rescue critters. The vital work that wild animal sanctuaries do cannot be overstated. However, I didn't really like Pike, who seemed like an anti-witch asshat and totally not worthy of her adoration...nor did he seem that sexy, just an arrogant nerd who held an entire group of people accountable for the actions of one grifter.  I couldn't really see him and Iris as a couple, or a couple who would last...but since she "turned" him, now I gather that they have no choice in their mentor/mentee relationship. I'd give this book a B+, and recommend it to outdoorsy people who love a good witch tale.

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra was a 3 buck ebook that I bought, assuming it would be a lot more fun than it was. This is a historical fiction "based on reality" kind of novel that really could have used someone with a red pen to slash all the puffed up prose and keep the author from derailing the wobbly plot at every turn. It was about 110 pages too long, much of that due to redundancy and maudlin characters who are surrounded by prose that is so pretentious, you imagine the author rifling through a well-thumbed thesaurus every few pages, looking for 10 cent words to describe something when a 5 cent word in everyday English would have done just fine...ugh. I hate bloated prose. Here's the blurb: Like many before her, Maria Lagana has come to Hollywood to outrun her past. Born in Rome, where every Sunday her father took her to the cinema instead of church, Maria immigrates with her mother to Los Angeles after a childhood transgression leads to her father’s arrest.

Fifteen years later, on the eve of America’s entry into World War II, Maria is an associate producer at Mercury Pictures, trying to keep her personal and professional lives from falling apart. Her mother won’t speak to her. Her boss, a man of many toupees, has been summoned to Washington by congressional investigators. Her boyfriend, a virtuoso Chinese American actor, can’t escape the studio’s narrow typecasting. And the studio itself, Maria’s only home in exile, teeters on the verge of bankruptcy.

Over the coming months, as the bright lights go dark across Los Angeles, Mercury Pictures becomes a nexus of European émigrés: modernist poets trying their luck as B-movie screenwriters, once-celebrated architects becoming scale-model miniaturists, and refugee actors finding work playing the very villains they fled. While the world descends into war, Maria rises through a maze of conflicting politics, divided loyalties, and jockeying ambitions. But when the arrival of a stranger from her father’s past threatens Maria’s carefully constructed facade, she must finally confront her father’s fate—and her own.
It is a love letter to life’s bit players, a panorama of an era that casts a long shadow over our own, and a tour de force by a novelist whose work The Washington Post calls “a flash in the heavens that makes you look up and believe in miracles.” 

I disagree with WaPo, in that this book did the opposite of making me believe in miracles. It was so cynical and all the characters so awful when limned with the dreadfully overblown prose, that I felt miracles were the stuff of children's tales told by an idiot by the time I was done reading it. (and before I forget, Marra falls for that oldest of tropes of male writers, describing women's bosoms and breasts every time we encounter any female character--blech on his misogynistic head). And reading the full 412 pages was a mighty slog, too, each chapter dense with depressed people with awful past secrets and no morals. I didn't even like the "strong female protagonist" Maria, who was vindictive and cruel, though she did have a couple of moments of compassion (but only ones that would reflect well on her). Her toupee-loving boss was a clown caricature of a studio exec, and only her boyfriend Eddie seemed to have any decency or talent, yet he wasn't allowed to use them due to racism in Hollywood before, during and after WWII. I found this book boring, depressing and outrageous in equal measure, and for that, and the other reasons outlined above, I can't give it better than a C+, with the recommendation that only those who want to read about immigrants in early Hollywood picking this one up...and for the love of all that is holy, do not pay full price for this novel...get it from the library or with a steep ebook discount. Don't waste any more than you have to on this disappointing tome.