Movies Eileen and This Time Next Year, Hunger Games on Stage, Ireland's Merceir Press Celebrates Freedom of the Press, Scholastic Back Tracks, What Became of Magic by Paige Crutcher, The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen, Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber, and Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood

Happy All-Hallows Eve, (and Halloween) to all my book loving friends! I will be close to 900 posts by the end of the year (888) So, I'm thinking that next year will be my final year of posting reviews to my Butterfly Books Blog. As a caregiver and the household cooking/cleaning/laundry drudge, I don't have time for as much reading as I'd like, let alone time to write up reviews for the blog that I started in 2005. I know that I should probably wait until 2025, when the blog turns 20, to call it quits, but I don't know if I can make it that far, I'm just exhausted and discouraged so much of the time that it is a major effort to get out of bed most days. Still, I fight on, but this whole horrible year has taken a toll on my mental and physical health. At any rate, here's the last post of October, please keep reading and enjoy!

I would love to see this movie, but I'm still not fond of going into a germ0-riddled movie theater without a mask and risking getting a COVID variant. Hopefully, it will come to a streaming service next year.

Movies: Eileen; This Time Next Year

A trailer has been released for Eileen https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQOIxeQI6ag0cht3Tg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nEWsSspoMLg-gVdw, director William Oldroyd's adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh's 2015 novel. IndieWire reported that the "1960s-set noir, which played out of competition way back in January at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, stars Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie in career-topping turns." Neon will open the film in limited release on December 1 before a general release on December 8.

If this movie is even half as good as Notting Hill, Love Actually or the Kingsmen, then I really want to see it, preferably on a streaming service.

This Time Next Year Movie

Deadline featured an official first look at This Time Next Yearhttps://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQOIxeQI6ag0cht3Tw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nEWsSspoMLg-gVdw, a film adaptation of Sophie Cousens's novel. Directed by Nick Moore (editor of Love Actually, Notting Hill, and The Full Monty, among others) from a screenplay by Cousens, the project stars Sophie Cookson (Kingsman: The Golden Circle) and Lucien Laviscount (Emily in Paris). The cast also includes Golda Rosheuvel (Bridgerton, Dune), John Hannah (Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Mummy), Monica Dolan (Black Mirror, Cyrano), and Mandip Gill (Doctor Who).

I would love to see this play, and how they can stage something that had such action/adventure oriented movies full of CGI.

On Stage: The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins's bestselling novel The Hunger Games https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQOJleQI6ag0chB_HA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nEW5SspoMLg-gVdw is coming to the stage in a new adaptation from Conor McPherson (Girl from the North Country), based solely on the first book of the series and its screen version. Playbill reported that the play, directed by Matthew Dunster (2:22 A Ghost Story), will premiere in London in fall 2024.

"To receive Suzanne Collins's blessing to adapt The Hunger Games for the stage is both humbling and inspiring," said McPherson. "She has created a classic story which continues to resonate now more than ever. In a world where the truth itself seems increasingly up for grabs, The Hunger Games beautifully expresses values of resilience, self-reliance, and independent moral inquiry for younger people especially. This is turbo-charged storytelling of the highest order, and I'm hugely excited to bring it to a new generation of theatregoers and to Suzanne Collins' longstanding and devoted fans."

I love this, that the Catholic church's iron fist has been removed from the throat of Ireland and it's culture and books. The fact that even one bookseller stood up to the censorship bullies is awesome and inspiring.

Freedom of the Press Celebrated with Ireland's Mercier Press

Celebrating its 80th anniversary next year, Mercier Press https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQOKn-4I6ag0dhonTg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nEWJ6mpoMLg-gVdw> was shortlisted for the IPA's Prix Voltaire, for fighting for free expression in Ireland, a country where for many years the Catholic Church and the government combined to censor a variety of books dealing with social, culture, religious, and political issues. (Until 1960, the word "pregnant" did not appear in print in Ireland, for example.)

Many books published by Mercier Press have been groundbreaking, including One Day in My Life by Bobby Sands, the IRA political prisoner who died 66 days into a hunger strike in 1981. When his prison memoir was published in 1983, one of the major booksellers in Ireland refused to sell the book, and others were hesitant. Dee Collins recalled that Mercier Press's John Spillane then visited a bookseller in Northern Ireland whose response was one of the best we've ever heard concerning controversial titles. The bookseller said, "If I don't sell it, one side will be at me. If I do sell it, the other side will be at me. Give me 20."

I was shocked to hear that Scholastic was creating a ghetto for diverse books, but I'm glad to hear that they've backtracked on this backward policy. Children deserve access to every kind of story that there is. Banning books is horrible.

Scholastic Backtracks on Book Fair Policy

Following widespread criticism, Scholastic will no longer put diverse books into a separate, optional catalog for school book fairs, the New York Times reported https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQOKn-4I6ag0dhonGQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nEWJ6mpoMLg-gVdw.

The catalog, which was dubbed "Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice," contained 64 titles pertaining to race, gender, and LGBTQ identities. They ranged from biographies of John Lewis to picture books depicting families with same-sex parents, and book fair organizers could choose to opt out of specific titles or the entire catalog.

Scholastic said it created the separate catalog in response to the many new state laws banning or restricting similar content in schools, and when the company acknowledged the new policy earlier this month, it said it had faced an "impossible dilemma" of either backing away from such titles entirely or exposing teachers, librarians, and book fair volunteers to risk.

The backlash was immediate and, in a letter quoted in the Times, Scholastic apologized to its authors and illustrators this week, pledging "to stand with you as we redouble our efforts to combat the laws restricting children's access to books."

Jonathan Friedman, director of PEN America's free expression and education program, wrote of the reversal: "Scholastic recognized that, as difficult a bind as this pernicious legislation created, the right answer was not to become an accessory to censorship. Scholastic is an essential source of knowledge and a delight for countless children. We are glad to see them champion the freedom to read."

What Became of Magic by Paige Crutcher is  a very odd and convoluted fantasy novel that I had a hard time understanding, due to it's murky prose and labyrinthine plot that stops and starts with abandon. Here's the blurb:

From Paige Crutcher, the author of The Orphan Witch and The Lost Witch, comes a new tale about a witch, a book of magic, and a beguiling and powerful creature whom she must free, even if it puts her life and soul at stake.

Aline Weir, a witch who can talk to ghosts, has kept her talents hidden ever since a disastrous middle school slumber party, choosing to be invisible and use her powers in secret to help lost souls reunite with the keys to send them home. All the while, she finds solace in a bookstore and the three mysterious women who run it… until Aline discovers the book of Mischief, and her powers are enhanced.

Living a solitary life until the age of thirty, Aline’s life takes an unexpected turn when the wrong (or perhaps right) person witnesses her using her powers and she is invited to a town that doesn’t exist on any map. Arriving in Matchstick, Aline learns of a lost magic that desperately needs to be found and only her unique powers can do it. But what she’s not told is that Magic is a person. One that is dangerous and seductive and has been waiting for a witch with a power like hers for centuries.

Readers are never quite sure if the characters surrounding Aline are friends or foes, good or bad. Aline constantly bemoans the fact that her only friend is a ghost, but later she learns that many of the witches, fates and gods surrounding her are either dead or they have their own agenda that can't be accomplished without using her in some way. Then she falls in love with "Magic" (or one aspect of magic) and, as she's a magic practitioner they're finally able to get together after dealing with bad witches and cowardly fates (they spend a majority of the book hiding). I tried to like this book, but I found all the confrontations and convolutions to be tedious and annoying, and before long I was counting the pages until the novel was finished. Boring though it was, I'd still give it a C+ or B-, I'm conflicted about the novel that much. I'd recommend it only to those who are really into witches and myths and legends about magic and its practitioners.

The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen was a grimy and grimdark YA fantasy, which is usually not my cup of tea....horror novels and dystopian societies depress and repulse me. Still, the books prose was crisp and cool, and the coming of age story of the protagonist Fie (and her grumpy cat Barf) was engaging and helped smooth out some of the rough points in the plot. Here's the blurb: 

 "Rich, harrowing, and unafraid to tackle discrimination—perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Tomi Adeyemi."—Kirkus, Starred Review

One way or another, we always feed the crows.

A future chieftain

Fie abides by one rule: look after your own. Her Crow caste of undertakers and mercy-killers takes more abuse than coin, but when they’re called to collect royal dead, she’s hoping they’ll find the payout of a lifetime.

A fugitive prince

When Crown Prince Jasimir turns out to have faked his death, Fie’s ready to cut her losses—and perhaps his throat. But he offers a wager that she can’t refuse: protect him from a ruthless queen, and he’ll protect the Crows when he reigns.

A too-cunning bodyguard

Hawk warrior Tavin has always put Jas’s life before his, magically assuming the prince’s appearance and shadowing his every step. But what happens when Tavin begins to want something to call his own?  

The prince and Tavin, his half brother (that's not much of a spoiler, to the average reader it will have been evident from the second chapter on) who serves as his double are typical teenage boys/young men who are emotionally immature but still constantly on the hunt for sex due to tall the hormones surging through their bodies and taking over whatever sense they have left in their brains. Fie, though portrayed as younger/smaller, has seen death and dealing with body disposal due to plague (and giving "mercy" to those dying in agony by cutting their throat) since she was a small child. She hasn't had the luxury of immaturity, she's had to deal with violent prejudice and ignorance for so long she's capable of handling just about anything, which is good, because her two royal male companions are idiots. That was why I felt that her falling in love with Tavin was too quick and didn't seem to make a lot of sense. She makes a deal with these two knuckleheads and somehow believes they will keep their half of the bargain, to provide guards to her people and keep them from being slaughtered by religious fanatics. Unfortunately she discovers what every POC or disabled person has discovered throughout the decades, that governments move glacially slow when it comes to giving aid to those people being brutalized by prejudiced fanatics. There's a sort of HFA ending, which suffices, but I think that the author could have done a lot more with this book. I'd still give it a B, and recommend it to anyone who has been part of a marginalized group in society.

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber is a YA romantic fantasy with a fairy tale style setting, that I had high hopes for. I've read a couple of Garber's other books, so I was not surprised that the prose was like a prom dress, full of glitter and ruffles and glamorous slashes that show some skin. My problem with it was that the 417 page plot had a few too many twists and turns, so it lagged in places that could easily discourage the casual reader from continuing to read. Here's the blurb:  

Once Upon a Broken Heart marks the launch of a new series from Stephanie Garber about love, curses, and the lengths that people will go to for happily ever after. For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings . . . until she learns that the love of her life will marry another.

Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic, but wicked, Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing.

But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game — and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’d pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after, or the most exquisite tragedy.

Evangeline seemed to me to be more than a bit crazy, as she will literally do anything, from curses to murder, to get her desire for a fairytale romance to come true. Sadly, she has the wrong guy picked out, but once she's made a deal with the devilish Prince of Hearts, who seems to be a wicked fae character bent on her destruction, she has to see her journey through. She flounces and pouts a lot, which is amusing for awhile, and then finally realizes her true love was right in front of her all along. HEA achieved. There was just too much action going on around the main characters for it to keep my interest holding steady. I'd give it a B-, and recommend it to those who enjoy enemies to lovers tales in a fantasy setting.

Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood is a short romantic contemporary fantasy that is part of a series about women in STEM professions finding the loves of their lives without having to become brainless and sacrifice their work for a relationship. Here's the blurb: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis comes a new steamy, STEMinist novella.

It will take the frosty terrain of the Arctic to show these rival scientists that their chemistry burns hot.

Mara, Sadie, and Hannah are friends first, scientists always. Though their fields of study might take them to different corners of the world, they can all agree on this universal truth: when it comes to love and science, opposites attract and rivals make you burn.
 
Hannah’s got a bad feeling about this. Not only has the NASA aerospace engineer found herself injured and stranded at a remote Arctic research station—but the one person willing to undertake the hazardous rescue mission is her longtime rival.
 
Ian has been many things to Hannah: the villain who tried to veto her expedition and ruin her career, the man who stars in her most deliciously lurid dreams…but he’s never played the hero. So why is he risking everything to be here? And why does his presence seem just as dangerous to her heart as the coming snowstorm?  

I've read a few Ali Hazelwood romantic fantasy novels, and she always manages to make the female protagonist smart and funny and someone you can really root for as a character. Hazelwood's prose is clean and bright, and her plots slide along as fast as a seal sliding on glacial ice into the water. Hazelwood's sex scenes are refreshingly original and based on reality, not some soft porn romance fiction or movie from decades past. I also loved that Ian is a tall redhead, when few male protagonists are described as handsome and covered in freckles. Hannah's HEA was perfect and funny and I hope to read more of this author's short fiction. I'd give it an A, and recommend this novella to anyone who likes their heroine smart and fearless and not available to rush into a relationship that will stall or stop her career. 

Mam's Books Opens in Seattle, Wonka Movie Debuts in December, Quote of the Day, Sequel to House on the Cerulean Sea Out in 2024, Louise Gluck Obituary, 12 Months to Live by James Patterson and Mike Lupica, A Strange Scottish Shore by Juliana Gray, and Caffeine Before Curses by Christine Pope

 The second week of October is winding down, and I've only gotten a few books completed because my husband is in the hospital yet again. I also finished up 6 weeks of physical therapy, so that took up time as well. Meanwhile, though, Sera and Nick have taken me to bookstores in Tukwilla, (Barnes and Noble and Half Price Books) where I've gotten bargains on copies of some newly debuted books that I've been enjoying, not the least of which is because in getting them from stores other than Amazon, I'm not lining J Bezo's already overstuffed pockets. It's a win-win, as the saying goes. Anyway, here are some tidbits and obits and reviews.

I really want to visit this bookstore, and also, of course, make a pilgrimage to Uwajimaya, the wonder-filled Asian grocery store in the International District. It bothers me, however, that they assume that they're the only Asian American bookstore in the PNW, when I've been going to Kinokuniya Bookstore for years in the ID.

Mam's books Celebrates Soft Opening in Seattle

Last month, mam's books https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQDZlLoI6ag1Kx0nGw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nHC5XypoMLg-gVdw, a new indie bookstore located at 608 Maynard Ave. S in the Chinatown-International District of Seattle, Wash., celebrated its soft opening with a launch party. The Seattle Times reported that the opening of mam's books "feels especially noteworthy. On its cheerful website, mam's claims to be the only Asian American bookstore in the Pacific Northwest, and it is the first free-standing independent bookstore to open in the CID in decades. The shop is expressly dedicated to serving the community at a time when the CID is engaged in a civic conversation about its uncertain future."

Owner Sokha Danh's family arrived in the U.S. as refugees from Cambodia in 1988, first living in Louisiana before moving to Washington State. "I'm very lucky to have grown up in a family that really cherished education," he said, citing library books as a key factor in his youth, though "I remember going to Barnes & Noble and not being able to afford anything.... Growing up, I saw a lot of inequities, and so I've always been a big believer in the underdog."

Danh worked at the Seattle CID Preservation and Development Authority, where he "had the special privilege of getting to know Donnie Chin and Uncle Bob [Santos]. I saw all the greats of the Asian American community doing what they do to make sure it stayed a special neighborhood." After moving over to the City of Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods, he felt that he still needed to do more.

"I think it's upon us as the next generation of Asian Americans to create spaces that are relevant for us," said Dahn, who eventually decided that he wanted to open a bookstore where the community can "talk about important issues, explore new ideas and maybe revisit old ones, and create a joyful place in the neighborhood."

He found the 1,000-square-foot space, painted it with bright colors and named it mam's books after his father, the Times noted, adding that the shop "carries literary fiction and nonfiction by Asian American authors in multiple languages, along with a section of CID history books and a wide selection of young adult and children's books. To encourage people to hang out, snacks and nonalcoholic drinks are for sale."

Mam's books is part of a "wave of new community activism street-level,supportive, and interested in preserving the CID's storied past while also building a future that embraces everything that makes the neighborhood special," the Times wrote. "I really don't feel like this space is mine," Danh said. "It belongs to the community."

The trailers for this movie look fantastic, so I can't wait to see it, though I'm not a fan of Mr Chalamet. He's got big shoes to fill from the late Gene Wilder. I also love the all-star cast (Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa! Hilarious!) and the fact that it premiers right after my 63rd birthday!

Movies: Wonka

Warner Bros. has released a new trailer https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQDalOsI6ag1KkskGg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nHCJWjpoMLg-gVdw and poster for Wonka, starring Timothee Chalamet "as the enigmatic Willy Wonka in the pic that focuses on the candymaker's origins," Deadline reported. The film's story serves as a prequel to Roald Dahl's classic book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Chalamet had previously told Vogue why he decided to take the role: "To work on something that will have an uncynical young audience, that was just a big joy. That's why I was drawn to it. In a time and climate of intense political rhetoric, when there's so much bad news all the time, this is hopefully going to be a piece of chocolate."

Directed by Paul King (Paddington) from a screenplay he co-wrote with Simon Farnaby, Wonka features a cast that includes Keegan-Michael Key, Rowan Atkinson, Sally Hawkins, Olivia Colman, Jim Carter, Matt Lucas, Natasha Rothwell, Tom Davis, Mathew Baynton and Simon Farnaby, Peter Joseph, Rich Fulcher, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Calah Lane, Colin O'Brien, Rahkee Thakrar, Ellie White, Murray McArthur, and Tracy Ifeachor.

Hugh Grant plays the "something of a whopper" Oompa-Loompa named Lofty, Deadline noted. Wonka opens in theaters December 15.

This is true!

Quote of the Day

“Bookshops offer us much more than a book. They present limitless portals to different worlds. Visiting a bookshop provides us all with an opportunity to be transported to wherever we want to go, maybe it's climbing a multi-story treehouse to find the marshmallow machine, a trip to the outer edges of the universe exploring Arrakis, or even back in time to watch the first pages of the Oxford dictionary come together. Wherever we want to go, we can get there via our local bookshop.” --BookPeople, the association for Australian bookshops, on the importance of Love Your Bookshop Day

Hurrah! I loved "House on the Cerulean Sea" so I'm sure the sequel will be awesome!

Sequel to The House on the Cerulean Sea Announced 

I was late to the The House on the Cerulean Sea bandwagon, but after a family listen on a road trip, I jumped right on (jumping out of a moving car onto a bandwagon, I guess). My understanding was that Klune initially didn’t imagine that the breakout bestseller would get a sequel, but here we are. Details are scant beyond title (Somewhere Beyond the Sea), cover, and a “fall 2024” release date. But that’s enough to get some very excited. And that includes me.

 

 Obituary Note: Louise Glück 

American poet Louise Gluck https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQDbw-gI6ag0IxEgSw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nHCcKgpoMLg-gVdw, "whose searing, deeply personal work, often filtered through themes of classical mythology, religion and the natural world, won her practically every honor available," including the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature, died October 13, the New York Times reported. She was 80. Gluck "was widely considered to be among the country's greatest living poets, long before she won the Nobel."

The Nobel committee praised her "unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal." She served as the U.S. poet laureate from 2003 to 2004. In 2016, President Barack Obama presented her with the National Humanities Medal.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Gluck's publisher, paid tribute to the poet in a Facebook post, quoting Jonathan Galassi, FSG's chairman and executive editor: "Louise Gluck's poetry gives voice to our untrusting but unstillable need for knowledge and connection in an often unreliable world. Her work is immortal." FSG also shared these lines from Gluck's poem "Faithful and Virtuous Night https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQDbw-gI6ag0IxEgSQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nHCcKgpoMLg-gVdw":

I think here I will leave you. It has come to seem

there is no perfect ending.

Indeed, there are infinite endings.

Gluck began publishing in the 1960s but her reputation grew in the 1980s and early 1990s with several works, including Triumph of Achilles (1985), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; Ararat (1990); and The Wild Iris (1992), which won the Pulitzer Prize.

Her early work, especially her debut, Firstborn (1968), "is deeply indebted to the so-called confessional poets who dominated the scene in the 1950s and '60s," the Times wrote, noting that her poetry was "both deeply personal--Ararat, for example, drew on the pain she experienced over the death of her father--and broadly accessible, both to critics, who praised her clarity and precise lyricism, and to the broader reading public.... But even as Ms. Gluck continued to weave her verse with an autobiographical thread, there is nothing solipsistic in her later, more mature work, even as she explored intimate themes of trauma and heartbreak."

She went on to publish 14 books of poetry, including Poems: 1962-2012 (2012), a complete compendium of her published poetry at the time. "Today it is considered required reading by any aspiring poet--and, arguably, anyone serious about modern American literature," the Times noted. Gluck won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2014, for Faithful and Virtuous Night. 

"Louise Gluck was one of my two favorite teachers at the Iowa Writers Workshop," poet Rita Dove recalled in a Facebook post, adding that two decades later, "upon the conclusion of my Poet Laureateship, I suggested her to the Library of Congress as my successor, but at the time she shied away from such a public position. Fortunately, by 1999 she had reconsidered, agreeing to serve with W.S. Merwin and me as 'Special Consultants to the Library of Congress' for the LOC's bicentennial year, and a few years after that was willing to take on the U.S. poet laureate post for a term. 'What are we without this?' RIP, Louise. The literary landscape will never be the same."

From Gluck's poem "A Summer Garden”

Infinite, infinite--that

was her perception of time.

She sat on a bench, somewhat hidden by oak trees.

Far away, fear approached and departed;

from the train station came the sound it made.

The sky was pink and orange, older because the day was over.

There was no wind. The summer day

cast oak-shaped shadows on the green grass.

12 Months To Live by James Patterson and Mike Lupica is a legal thriller that is outside my normal range of reading, but Patterson and Lupica's TV commercial with these two grumpy old guys partnering up to write a book was so charming I decided to give it a go. Both men are old hands at writing vigorous, muscular prose, so I was expecting that, but what I wasn't expecting was the thrill ride of a plot that gripped me from the first chapter to the last with vice-like, mesmerizing paragraphs. Here's the blurb:

“Patterson and Lupica make a great team” (Carl Hiaasen) who get “deep into the lives of strong women” (Louise Penny) and Jane Smith is their greatest creation—a badass lawyer with a year to live.

“Jane Smith is the best character we’ve ever created. Bar none.”
—James Patterson and Mike Lupica

Tough-as-nails criminal defense attorney Jane Smith is hip-deep in the murder trial of the century. Actually, her charmless client might’ve committed several murders.

She’s also fallen in love with a wonderful guy. And an equally wonderful dog, a mutt. But Jane doesn’t have much time. She’s just received a terminal diagnosis giving her twelve months. Unless she’s murdered before her expiration date.

Poor Jimmy, Jane's assistant and an ex-cop, really gets put through the wringer in this book; beaten, shot, nearly run over, etc...to the point of disbelief in his survival. However, coming from a long line of hard to kill fathers and grandfathers, I can only assume this smart old dude just believes in the "never say die" motto of his generation and guts it out. One of the few things I disliked about the book was that everything that makes Jane "tough" and "admirable" and a "winner" in this book are attributes mainly subscribed to men, so Jane comes off as a guy with the veneer of a woman. It's as if regular women, who have to deal with pain every month and the extreme pains of childbirth, not to mention rampant abuse, both sexual and physical, can't be kind, or vulnerable, or beautiful in a feminine way, or caring and nurturing, because those things somehow negate the ability to be tough and smart and witty/sarcastic, while being an excellent lawyer who "never loses a case." 

I call BS on this misogyny, and I can point to my own mother, who worked full time as a nurse, cooked, cleaned and kept house for our family and raised 3 children with only sporadic assistance from my philandering, spendthrift father. She was also beautiful, feminine and graceful, took in and fed neighborhood children with crappy parents and volunteered for decades with Planned Parenthood, helping women, sometimes clandestinely, to take control of their own reproductive health. She was also fierce and never backed down from a bully, though she was only 5ft4 and weighed around 117 pounds. Men twice her size quailed in fear when she'd get in their face and read them the riot act. She's 86 years old and still kicking butt, BTW. So other than that, this was an unput-downable novel with so many twists and turns in the plot I nearly got whiplash. I'd give this fascinating thriller an A-, and recommend it to anyone who wants to be transported to another place and time.

A Strange Scottish Shore by Juliana Gray is an Emmeline Truelove mystery with a lot of romance and romantic yearning woven throughout the plot. Here's the blurb:

The acclaimed author of A Most Extraordinary Pursuit brings a dazzling voice and extraordinary plot twists to this captivating Scottish adventure...
 
Scotland, 1906. A mysterious object discovered inside an ancient castle calls Maximilian Haywood, the new Duke of Olympia, and his fellow researcher Emmeline Truelove north to the remote Orkney Islands. No stranger to the study of anachronisms in archeological digs, Haywood is nevertheless puzzled by the artifact: a suit of clothing that, according to family legend, once belonged to a selkie who rose from the sea and married the castle’s first laird.
 
But Haywood and Truelove soon realize they’re not the only ones interested in the selkie’s strange hide. When their mutual friend Lord Silverton vanishes in the night from an Edinburgh street, their quest takes a dangerous turn through time, which puts Haywood’s extraordinary talents—and Truelove’s courage—to their most breathtaking test yet.

The prose in this odd mystery novel is overwritten and, like a strong perfume, almost cloying in it's sweet and sour paragraphs. The plot is also foggy and almost impenetrable at times, so you find yourself as a reader all at sea. The ending is meant to be something of an HEA, but it's ultimately unsatisfying, because we're not sure of where everyone ends up in space/time. I'm also not a fan of authors who think that the distant past was a great place because there was no technology or medicine or science. White-washing history doesn't account for facts like the huge mortality rate for women and infants, and for death from diseases that are easily diagnosed and treated in the last two centuries. And what about the belief that people died from being frowned on for one thing or another by God or gods of that time? No one understood germs or handwashing or general cleanliness, so one scratch gone septic could do you in. Romanticizing history is a dangerous and slippery slope. Therefore I'd give this book a C+, and only recommend it to those desperate to hear more about Scotland's sexist legend of the "selkie" or women who wear seal skins but can emerge from them as human and mate with regular lonely fishermen, as long as those men steal their seal skins and hide them to keep the women from transforming back into seals and swimming away.

Caffieine Before Curses by Christine Pope is a paranormal "cozy" mystery that is the first book in a series. Since the main character "Skye" has a bakery/coffee shop, and her best friend's name is Deanne, I felt compelled to pick up this free volume on my Kindle Paperwhite and give it a whirl. Here's the blurb:

When a movie shoot ends in murder, a caffeine fix might be the star’s only hope.

Skye O’Malley’s grandmother always told her she inherited the Sight. But other than an occasional message from a blob of tea leaves or a vague dream, Skye doesn’t think she’s anything special, since she can’t even predict which of her coffee-shop customers will order hard-core black or fancy frou-frou with extra foam.

The only instinct she can rely on is the jangly feeling that something is about to happen. Like when her best friend (and only employee) Deanne tells her that a film crew is coming to their hometown of Las Vegas, New Mexico. The lead is Hollywood’s hottest action-movie star, Max Sullivan, who just happens to be Skye’s former "boy next door"…and her lifelong, unrequited crush.

Just having him around unbalances Skye's carefully curated existence. But when she starts having disturbing dreams involving Max and a prop gun, she can’t ignore them. Especially when the film’s notoriously unpleasant director turns up dead, and the evidence points to one prime suspect. Max.

Max needs a miracle, not a not-quite witch. But he’s placing all his trust in Skye — and her murky tea leaves — to help him find the real culprit before the actual murderer gets away clean.

So Max is, of course, a gorgeous, famous and wealthy movie star whom Skye has had a crush on for decades, and surprise, he uses that attraction to force Skye into helping him out when he's up on a murder charge. Of course, she's happy to help because women can't help themselves around handsome men (in most romance novels) and will throw caution and common sense to the wind the minute the super-hot guy throws an ounce of attention their way, which is pathetic, but par for the course in nearly every romance or romantic-threaded fiction out there.  And Skye downplays her tea-reading gift, because all women are taught not to be "conceited" or  proud or excited about their skills, or smarts...wouldn't want to have the men get jealous, right? They might kill you or your career, after all, if you wound the fragile male ego. Ugh. Still, it's a funny novel with clean prose that moves along at a decent pace. So I'd give it a B- and only recommend it to those who like cliches and tropes about women and paranormal romances in full force in their reading materials.

 

 

Henry Winkler on Signed Copies for Indie Booksellers, All the Light We Cannot See Comes to Netflix, The Buccaneers Comes to Apple+, Banned Books and Studs Terkel, The Onion on Banned Books, the Rose Code by Kate Quinn, Starter Villain by John Scalzi, Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris, and Spider and Frost by Jennifer Estep

Autumn greetings, my fellow bibliophiles! Here we are in October already, and I'm trying to stay on top of my TBR while also dealing with caregiver's duties and my husbands cognitive and physical decline. It gets worse everyday, and makes trying to help him more difficult and stressful. Still, here are some tidbits and reviews for you all as fall gives us beautiful colors and cooler temps.

I used to love watching Happy Days, especially when the Fonz was on, because he was so hilarious. I loved this funny video he made for his new book, and I hope to be able to get a copy of his book one day soon.

Henry Winkler on Signed Copies!

In a very amusing video, Henry Winkler, whose memoir, Being Henry: The Fonz... and Beyond, will be published by Celadon Books October 31, talks about having signed 7,000 copies of the book for indie booksellers. His signature comes in a variety of colors, he says: green is his favorite color and only seven of the 7,000 signatures are in orange. Aaaaay, check it out here https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQCOkO8I6ag2dRB-Tg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nHXJGnpoMLg-gVdw.

I really enjoyed All The Light We Cannot See, and I'm looking forward to this series on Netflix. I hope it lives up to the book.

TV: All the Light We Cannot See

Netflix has released the official trailer for All the Light We Cannot See https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQCPk-UI6ag1Ix4gHA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nHXZKtpoMLg-gVdw, the limited series based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Anthony Doerr. Starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, Louis Hoffman, Aria Mia Loberti, Nell Sutton, Lars Eidinger, and Marion Bailey, the four-part series is directed and executive produced by Shawn Levy, written by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders), and recently had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. It premieres globally November 2 on Netflix.

I loved both the book and the TV/movie adaptation of the Buccaneers that starred a very young Kate Beckinsale. This new version is going to be fantastic, I'm sure.

TV: The Buccaneers

Apple TV+ has released a trailer for The Buccaneers https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQCAl-sI6ag1IhwkHA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nHUpajpoMLg-gVdw, an eight-episode drama based on Edith Wharton's final novel, that will make its global debut November 8 with the first three episodes, followed by new episodes every Wednesday through December 13.

The music-driven series blends 1870s English aristocracy with a modern soundtrack produced by Stella Mozgawa (of the band Warpaint), featuring songs from performers like Taylor Swift, Maggie Rogers, Bikini Kill, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Angel Olsen, Brandi Carlile, and more, along with original music from Folick, Lucius, Alison Mosshart, Warpaint, Gracie Abrams, Sharon Van Etten, Bully, Danielle Ponder, and more. The Buccaneers stars Kristine Froseth, Alisha Boe, Josie Totah, Aubri Ibrag, Imogen Waterhouse, Christina Hendricks, Mia Threapleton, Josh Dylan, Guy Remmers, Matthew Broome, and Barney Fishwick.

The Banned Books debate heats up, and even the late, great Studs Terkel was drawn into this by ridiculous parents who somehow think that their children will never hear curse words and should be shielded from something they're likely to see and hear when they're still in elementary school, especially now with the internet providing kids with access to anything and everything. Personally, I loved Working, and the TV show that was adapted from the book.

Robert Gray: 'WARNING! BANNED BOOKS AHEAD! Read at Your Own Risk'

In January of 1982, the same year Banned Books Week https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQCAl-sI6ag1IhwlHA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nHUpajpoMLg-gVdw would be launched, author Studs Terkel traveled to Girard, Pa. (pop. 2,500), where a group of parents had protested the use of his bestselling book, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, in a Girard High School English class.

Terkel, who had been invited to the school "by a determined teacher backed by an equally firm school principal, spoke in the afternoon after talking to class after class in the morning about academic freedom and the meaning of his work," the New York Times reported, adding that he later pleaded his case "in the low and warm tones of a suitor, and the 650-member student body twice gave him standing ovations. 'I am deeply moved,' he said."

That night, however, at a meeting with parents, passions ran higher and some tempers flared. ''Mr. Terkel, you are corrupting the morals of our children,'' said one protesting mother. Although Working is based on recorded interviews with working people describing their jobs and lives in their own voices, "it was that profanity that stirred dispute, after the book had been in use in English classes for senior vocational students here for about seven years," the Times noted.

''We strongly object to profanity in the book and fear that students will receive a distorted view of the working world by reading it,'' said parent Linda Burns. Before his arrival, Terkel had observed, referring to the protesters: "The exquisite irony is that they are the heroes and heroines of this book." When he was asked why he had come to Girard, he replied: ''I came to see what makes you tick."

Daily media coverage (including here at Shelf Awareness) shows that the volume knob on book banning has been turned up to 11 in recent years.You already know the reasons why. The atmosphere is at once serious, damaging, sometimes dangerous, and sometimes, well, just absurd.

Ah, the wonderful satirical Onion, always bringing laughter and truth to the day's news.

The Onion happily fed the absurdity flames with a satirical (if maybe just a little too close to reality) piece headlined "Small Group of Parents Explains Why They Are Responsible for 60% of Book Bans https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQCAlsI6ag1IhwlEg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nHUpajpoMLg-gVdw."

Among the reasons:

* "I had just moved to a new county without many friends, and joining book bans seemed like a great way to meet people."

* "Once you start censoring a child's education it's hard to stop. The power is quite intoxicating."

* "I think I speak for all Americans when I say that my opinion is just more important."

* "Nothing can defeat the love we have for our kids and the hate we have for yours."

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn was an overwrought historical fiction novel about the code-breaking women who worked at Bletchley Park, known as the Bletchley Circle, and their trials and tribulations during and soon after WWII. Here's the blurb: 

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network returns with another heart-stopping World War II story of three female code breakers at Bletchley Park and the spy they must root out after the war is over.

1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.

1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter--the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger--and their true enemy--closer.

First of all, this book was way too long, and could have used a decent editor to clip about 200-300 pages from the bloated paragraphs and melodramatic chapters. I didn't like any of the female protagonists much, because all of them were either wimps, weirdos, fools or mean and jealous vipers. Though I did feel sorry for Beth, who was confined to an asylum and nearly lobotomized due to an evil man she trusted (most all of the men in the book were evil), but once she escaped, she still held the ridiculous idea that she couldn't say anything to anyone because of the secrets act they'd all signed that prevented treason. She seemed, clearly, to be autistic, and no one wanted to actually help her deal with her mental illness. Mab was just a social climber and Osla was ridiculously naive to think she could marry into royalty, especially Prince Philip, who had been marked for marriage to Queen Elizabeth 2 for a long time. There was so much description and breakdown of code breaking math and other BORING things that the book became a slog about a third of the way through. The prose was a bit breezy for the stiff and melodramatic plot. All in all I'd give this, our October book for my library book group, a C+, and only recommend it to those who want fraught romances between awful people along with a lot of info-dumping about WWII code-breaking.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi is a humorous science fiction novel, that is charming and wonderfully replete with spy cats and unionizing dolphins. Even if you've never read any of Scalzi's previous books, you can read Starter Villain in an afternoon and laugh at the sarcasm and pithy humorous take on secret government organizations. Here's the blurb: Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place.

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.
 

Having read Scalzi's Lock In and Old Man's War series, and a couple of his stand-alone novels, I expected the prose to be clean and brilliant, and the plot to be smart and swift. I was not disappointed. Scalzi's many awards attest to his competency at wordsmithing. What they don't tell you is that his work just gets better and better with each new book. I loved last years Kaiju Preservation Society, yet I wasn't expecting a book this year to just blow me away...but Scalzi delivers, and manages to engross the reader in the story of a schlumpy substitute teacher caught up in international espionage right from the first chapter. I couldn't put Starter Villain down. And I roared with laughter at the salty socialist dolphins and the brilliant business owning cats, who were basically running the CIA. I'd give this delightful story an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes Monty Python, or Mad Magazine, or George Carlin or any other witty TV shows or books from past eras. 

Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris is a non fiction humor book that is not at all like the other humor essay collections of his that I've read. While his early work had a funny POV on life, this book was more sarcastic and cruel and sour than his other books. He seemed bent on misanthropy and his mental health seemed porous at best. Here's the blurb:

David Sedaris, the “champion storyteller,” (Los Angeles Times) returns with his first new collection of personal essays since the bestselling Calypso

Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask—or not—was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. As Happy-Go-Lucky opens, he is learning to shoot guns with his sister, visiting muddy flea markets in Serbia, buying gummy worms to feed to ants, and telling his nonagenarian father wheelchair jokes.
 
But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he’s stuck in lockdown, unable to tour and read for audiences, the part of his work he loves most. To cope, he walks for miles through a nearly deserted city, smelling only his own breath. He vacuums his apartment twice a day, fails to hoard anything, and contemplates how sex workers and acupuncturists might be getting by during quarantine.
 
As the world gradually settles into a new reality, Sedaris too finds himself changed. His offer to fix a stranger’s teeth rebuffed, he straightens his own, and ventures into the world with new confidence. Newly orphaned, he considers what it means, in his seventh decade, no longer to be someone’s son. And back on the road, he discovers a battle-scarred America: people weary, storefronts empty or festooned with Help Wanted signs, walls painted with graffiti reflecting the contradictory messages of our time: Eat the Rich. Trump 2024. Black Lives Matter.
 
In Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris once again captures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about these recent upheavals, personal and public, and expresses in precise language both the misanthropy and desire for connection that drive us all. If we must live in interesting times, there is no one better to chronicle them than the incomparable David Sedaris.

I don't know if it was lockdown or just his world weary attitude that made Sedaris's jokes fall flat and his POV seem angry and ugly instead of funny and interesting, but I found myself wanting to stop reading about halfway through. I stuck it out, but was disappointed in the authors dour/ugly vision of everyone, from his partner, who comes off as an uptight prig, to his siblings, who seem like lunatics, to his father, who must have been mentally unstable and abusive, but who gets a pass because his adult children all want to laugh at him behind his back and somehow normalize his sexual/physical abuse. Shudder. I'd give this dull and depressing book, which isn't funny at all, a C, and only recommend it to die hard fans of Sedaris and his work. 

Spider and Frost by Jennifer Estep is a fantasy adventure novel that is an Elemental Assassin and Mythos Academy crossover. Since I've read all the elemental assassin novels, I thought I'd give this short crossover a shot. The chapters are traded off between Gin Blanco, the Spider, and Gwen, a student hunting magical objects who attends the Mythos Academy. Having been familiar with Gin, I found her part of the story interesting, while Gwen seemed much too young and simpering to be in charge of dealing with bad guys bent on stealing and selling artifacts. She had no "chill" and her sword seemed to be in charge of sarcastic and annoying commentary, since she was too delicate for such things. Here's the blurb:

This crossover novella, Spider and Frost, mixes magic and mythology in an action-packed adventure. Perfect for fans of Ilona Andrews, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Rick Riordan.

WHEN AN ASSASSIN . . .
My name is Gin Blanco, and I’m on vacation. Sort of. As the assassin the Spider, it’s hard for me to completely relax, but I’m determined to enjoy a scenic train ride and a nice, quiet lunch before heading back home to Ashland.

My plans change when Gwen Frost boards the train. The girl says she’s heading back to Mythos Academy, the fancy private boarding school, but I can’t shake the feeling that Gwen is hiding something—and is in far more trouble than she realizes.

. . . MEETS A CHAMPION
My name is Gwen Frost. I might have saved the world from Loki, the evil Norse god of chaos, but I’m still chasing down Reaper villains. It’s all part of being the Champion of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory.

I’ve been assigned to protect some mythological artifacts that are being transported via train to Mythos Academy, but some Reapers are hot on my trail, and they’ll do anything to recover the artifacts—and kill me.

Also on the train is Gin Blanco, who claims to be the owner of the Pork Pit barbecue restaurant. My psychometry magic keeps whispering that there’s more to her than meets the eye, although I can’t tell if Gin is a friend, an enemy, or something else entirely.

Note: Spider and Frost is a 28,000-word crossover novella between the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series and the Mythos Academy young adult series. It is told from the points of view of Gin Blanco and Gwen Frost.
Spider and Frost takes place after the events of Last Strand, book 19 in the Elemental Assassin series.

Obviously, I enjoyed Gin's POV much more than Gwens, though I liked being able to see how smooth and cool Gin was in action from an outside perspective. At one point Gwen notes that Gin seems so mature and capable and cool, that she wonders if she will ever be like that. I can tell you just from reading some of Gwen's POV on herself and her work as Nike's champion, that Gwen will never reach Gin's level of Spider chill and ruthless efficiency at dispatching the enemy. Estep's prose was serviceable, and her plot only slowed down occaisionally, whenever explanations were needed for Gin or Gwen's powers. Still, the novella was somewhat entertaining, so I'd give it a B-, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys crossover novels from one author.