Book Banners Boycotting Froot Loops, Cider Monday, Book Ownership Declines for UK Children, Obituary for Betty Rollin, Image of the Day: Henry Winkler, Review of The Road from Belhaven, Bring Me Your Midnight by Rachel Griffin, On the Plus Side by Sabrina Morgan, and Star Mother, by Charlie N Holmberg

Hi there, fellow book dragon! It's almost December, my favorite month of the year! My birthday, Christmas, New Year's Eve, I love all of the sparkle and snow and the festive atmosphere that is part and parcel with the end of the year. There's also the anticipation of a fresh new year to provide us all with hope that things will get better, and provide bibliophiles with tons of new books to add to their TBR lists. So welcome to the last post of November...lets get started with some news and reviews, shall we?!

I just loathe ignorant and prejudiced book banners...they're the information Nazi's of the 21st century. These so-called conservatives are just using their politics and a warped interpretation of the Christian faith to keep children from learning anything about anyone of other faiths, sexual orientations, or color, as if the world were only populated by WASPs. This does a terrible disservice to children, because the world is full of diverse people, and trying to pretend they don't exist or are somehow "less" than white people is just bigoted racist idiocy. I'm with Froot Loops on this one!

Conservatives Are Boycotting Froot Loops for Creating a Library of Diverse Children's Books Online

I am using yet another unhinged right-wing boycott to Streisand Effect a pretty cool little project: Fruit Loops’ free digital library with equity, diversity, and inclusion content. You can go check out really inflammatory things like Maggie’s Chopsticks, which is about a girl using utensils. May their efforts to pressure Kellogg’s into ending this initiative fail.

I LOVE this idea, and I hope that Cider Monday was successful in every indie book shop that participated!

CiderMonday: 'Put Down the Computer. Jeff Bezos Doesn't Need Any More of Your Money'

 At Book Passage, Corte Madera, Calif. Cider Monday https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQKPxboI6a9ndUwiGg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nFXcTypoMLg-gVdw celebrations, held yesterday nationwide, have become more of a complement to indie booksellers' evolving online sales prowess than counter-programming to Cyber Monday's craziness, which had been the initiative's original intent. Willard Williams, who launched Cider Monday in 2013, was co-founder of the Toadstool Bookshops, with stores in Keene and Peterborough (now under new ownership) and the renamed Balin Books ("Cider Monday began with a splash and a few spills 11 years ago among independent stores in New England") in Nashua. 

Many other indie bookstores across the U.S. were raising a glass of cider to toast the day, including:

Nowhere Bookshop https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQKPxboI6a9ndUwiGA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nFXcTypoMLg-gVdw, owned by author Jenny Lawson, San Antonio, Tex.: "Put down the computer. Jeff Bezos doesn't need any more of your money. Come celebrate Cider Monday with us instead! We're sipping cider (both regular and hard) and taking books. Come join us!"

Owning and having books in the home is very important for child development and education, not just here in the USA, but all around the world. As usual, it's the poorest families who can't afford to buy books for their children. I think the folks in the UK need someone like Dolly Parton to start a program that gives away books for free to any child who asks for one.

International Update: Book Ownership Declines for U.K. Children; IPA's New Member Associations

In 2023, more children who received free school meals said they did not have a book of their own https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQLZkOQI6a9mK0xxSA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nFC5GspoMLg-gVdw compared to the year before (12.4% in 2023 vs 9.7% in 2022), according to a recent study by the U.K.'s National Literacy Trust, which noted that book ownership is "associated with better reading performance" Indeed, a 2023 studyhttps://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQLZkOQI6a9mK0xxSQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nFC5GspoMLg-gVdw found it was one of the top three predictors of children's reading performance."

The cost-of-living crisis has a direct impact on families' ability to support reading at home, with 36.1% of parents who were struggling financially saying they were buying fewer books for their children in early 2023, the NLT said. The percentage-point gap in book ownership between children and young people who receive free meals and their peers who do not (6.6%) is now at its largest in a decade, the Literacy Trust reported, adding: "Acknowledging the associations between book ownership and reading enjoyment, attainment and longer-term outcomes, it is essential that support for book ownership should be targeted at groups with the most to benefit, including children and young people from lower-income backgrounds."

I remember reading First You Cry, along with my mother, and both of us found it to be a poignant book about life and death. We watched the Mary Tyler Moore movie of the book and cried our eyes out. I think my mother read the Last Wish, but I don't recall reading it or watching the film based on it. Still, RIP Betty Rollin.

Obituary Note: Betty Rollin

https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQLZkOQI6a9mK0x-HA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nFC5GspoMLg-gVdw>, a network news correspondent "who described intensely personal life passages in two memoirs--First, You Cry, about being diagnosed with breast cancer and having a mastectomy, and Last Wish, in which she revealed that she had helped her pain-ravaged mother end her life," died November 7, the New York Times reported. She was 87.

Ellen Marson, a close friend who disclosed the death to the Times, said the cause was voluntary assisted suicide at Pegasos in Switzerland: "Betty recently told a few close friends she was going to do this. True to form, she was resolute in her decision; Betty made it clear she did not want to hear our objections to her plan.... She felt she didn't have much more to contribute."

Rollin belonged to Compassion & Choices, an advocacy group that supports expanding access to end-of-life medicine, and had been a board member of the Death with Dignity National Center for nearly 20 years.

She wrote the first two of her seven books, I Thee Wed (1961) and Mothers Are Funnier Than Children (1964), the latter of which was published soon after she was hired as an editor and writer at Vogue magazine. She joined Look magazine as a senior editor and writer in 1966 and stayed until it folded in 1971. Rollin then went to work for NBC News in the early 1970s and stayed until 1982, when she left for a two-year stint as a correspondent for the ABC News program Nightline.

In First, You Cry (1976), Rollin wrote candidly about her delayed cancer diagnosis, her mastectomy, a divorce and the love affair that followed it, and her acceptance that her life did not end with the loss of a breast. The book was adapted into a CBS television movie in 1978, starring Mary Tyler Moore.

Her mother had ovarian cancer and died in 1983, an episode recounted in Rollin's bestselling book Last Wish (1985). When her mother said she was ready to die, Rollin and her husband "found a sympathetic doctor who suggested that her mother take a combination of drugs that would lead to death," the Times wrote, adding that Rollin "had ignored her lawyer's advice not to tell the story. 'I figured it was worth it,' she said in an interview last year with the Kunhardt Film Foundation, adding, 'I mean, I certainly didn't want to go to prison.' "

Last Wish was also turned into a TV movie, on ABC in 1992, with Patty Duke portraying Rollin and Maureen Stapleton as her mother.

Rollin told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1976 that she felt she had no choice but to be as open as possible when she was writing about her breast cancer: "I do not enjoy the fact that everyone who's read my book knows everything intimate in my life. But I think it's important for people to tell the truth. It makes you feel better to get it out, and I think it makes other people feel better, too."

I loved Henry Winkler as the Fonz, and I would love to see him in conversation and I'd also like to read his latest memoir.

Image of the Day: Henry Winkler, D'Arcy Carden and Friends

Book Passage https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQLZkOQI6a9mK0x-Sw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nFC5GspoMLg-gVdw partnered with the Curran Theater in San Francisco to present Henry Winkler in conversation with D'Arcy Carden. The two discussed their careers, their friendship, and Winkler's memoir Being Henry: The Fonz... and Beyond (Celadon). 

I've read books by Margot Livesey, but this one looks to be right up my alley. I hope that I'm able to get a copy for my birthday or Christmas.

Book Review: The Road from Belhaven

In The Road from Belhaven, Margot Livesey eloquently traces the fictional life of Lizzie Craig, a girl from eastern Scotland in the late 1880s. Lizzie struggles to navigate a life detoured with challenges and disappointments that draw her away--physically, emotionally, and spiritually--from the safe and familiar.

After her parents die when she's a year old, Lizzie is raised by her loving, hardscrabble grandparents at Belhaven Farm--located inland, in the part of Scotland called "the Kingdom of Fife." Lizzie is just a toddler when she starts to have premonitions--secret visions she calls "pictures" that reveal future events that often confuse and frighten her. Sometimes these intuitions involve "ordinary things: her grandmother choosing which hen to kill; a cow stuck in the mud by the river." But other times, they prophesize harrowing actions and accidents over which she has no control. Or does she?

Lizzie is a lonely, responsible child--happiest on the farm, doing chores and being around animals. When her grandfather hires help for the farm, Lizzie and her 13-year-old world begin to open like a chrysalis, exposing her to new adventures and experiences. This includes her learning for the first time that she has an older sister, Kate, who was sent to live with her paternal grandparents after their parents died. Circumstances change so that 16-year-old Kate now comes to live at Belhaven.

The sisters, disparate in personality, struggle to adjust to one another, but in time they find ways to bond. When Lizzie learns that her sister, being the oldest, will, in all likelihood inherit Belhaven Farm with her husband someday, Lizzie makes life choices that are dictated by that knowledge. At the age of 14, Lizzie falls in love. Much to the dismay of her grandparents, she eventually chases after her love interest, becoming a caretaker and moving from rural Belhaven to the city of Glasgow, where her life takes heart-wrenching twists and turns. Is there any way Lizzie can harness her powers of perception in order to change the course of her own life and destiny?

Compassionately drawn and emotionally charged, Margot Livesey's novel maps the tenderest places of the human heart and soul and once again displays her indelible grasp on the human condition. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

My latest reviews:

Bring me Your Midnight by Rachel Griffin is a delicious romantic fantasy (they're calling it "romantasy" these days, a fun portmanteau of a word) that tells the story of an island of witches who have had to tone down/release their magic until it's only useful for small, mundane things like flavoring tea or making special pastries, because the mainlanders are frightened of witches and magic, and this is the only way the island residents are allowed to live their lives in safety. All "dark magic" practitioners were said to have died out long ago, or been hunted to extinction by the mainlanders. Hence, when Tana learns that she's to wed the Governors mainlander scion and live a life without magic on the mainland, she accepts this as the only way to keep both parties safe and secure. Here's the blurb:

Tana Fairchild's fate has never been in question. Her life has been planned out since the moment she was born: she is to marry the governor's son, Landon, and secure an unprecedented alliance between the witches of her island home and the mainlanders who see her very existence as a threat.

Tana's coven has appeased those who fear their power for years by releasing most of their magic into the ocean during the full moon. But when Tana misses the midnight ritual―a fatal mistake―there is no one she can turn to for help…until she meets Wolfe.

Wolfe claims he is from a coven that practices dark magic, making him one of the only people who can help her. But he refuses to let Tana's power rush into the sea, and instead teaches her his forbidden magic. A magic that makes her feel powerful. Alive.

As the sea grows more violent, her coven loses control of the currents, a danger that could destroy the alliance as well as her island. Tana will have to choose between love and duty, between loyalty to her people and loyalty to her heart. Marrying Landon would secure peace for her coven but losing Wolfe and his wild magic could cost her everything else.

First off, the prose in this novel is lush and gorgeous, to the point where you feel you can smell the salty ocean breezes and feel the cool sand on your feet. This really helped the plot move along with a steady rhythm to it's HEA conclusion. Second, I enjoyed Tana's forceful insistence on finding out the truth about her magic and the lies her mother has been telling her and everyone else to be fascinating and satisfying. I revere truth-tellers and whistleblowers, and I appreciate that being one is never an easy road to travel. I also appreciate the "enemies to lovers" trope, and in this case found that Wolfe's realization that Tana and her people weren't as crass and stupid as he'd assumed just as good as Tana's discovery that "dark" magic isn't evil at all, but powerful and life-affirming. Like fire, magic here is shown to be only as good as the practitioner wielding it. I'd give this riveting novel (that I read in one sitting, it was that engrossing) an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes magic and diverse stories of its lore and practitioners.

On The Plus Side by Sabrina Morgan is a YA contemporary romantic fantasy that reads like it was written by a teenager who also writes bad fan fiction full of "Mary Sue" relationships. The prose was rife with mistakes, and the plot full of holes. The only thing this ebook had going for it was that it was a fast read. Here's the blurb: 

Annabeth (Anna) is a curvy 18 year old high school senior who moved from California to Last Fall, Michigan after her parents death in a car accident. She just wants a boring mundane senior experience, but she gets the opposite after running into Lucas Ryder (Luke). Luke is considered bad news; rumors always flying around that he is in a gang and dangerous, the thing about rumors is that though exaggerated they do have an ounce of truth. Luke does work for Frank to do some semi-illegal stuff and he does have his close friends who are with him during it all. The one thing the rumors don't seem to know is why?

Anna and Luke seem to gravitate to each other even when they don't want to. What starts as typical high school drama from a bully named Christy, parties, and feelings unsaid; soon twists into something more devastating. What Anna hasn't told anyone is that she has been getting anonymous notes from someone. What started off as harmless soon transforms into something Anna would never have imagined.

Through all the ups and downs can love win?

Anna doesn't actually sound like a true plus-sized protagonist, and she's constantly putting herself down, though it is made clear that her size is on the small side of "plus," mostly in the breasts and rear and thighs, all acceptable areas for so-called "curvy" girls to be fat in. And her love interest, Luke, sounds like a real skeevy guy who does illegal stuff and runs hot and cold in his desire for Anna. The dynamic between the two (her desperation to fit in with the other teenagers and have a boyfriend, and his desire to have sex with a vulnerable, self-effacing girl who would do anything for him, so he has all the power in the relationship) seemed to me to be unhealthy and not a great example for other "plus sized" young women looking  for ways to be happy and not bullied in high school. The story reads like a teenager telling it to her friends in the bathroom during a break, and the use of tired tropes and cliches is laughable. I'd give this book a C, and only recommend it to those who enjoy listening to teenage girls whine and be melodramatic about their lives, especially their love lives.

Star Mother: A Novel by Charlie N Holmberg, is a beautiful folkloric fantasy that reads like a myth from another age. The prose is graceful and neat, and the plot intricate and engrossing. You will never look at the stars the same way again, once you've read this beautiful tale of love and motherhood. Here's the blurb: 

A woman’s heart proves as infinite as the night sky in a breathtaking fantasy by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg.

When a star dies, a new one must be born.

The Sun God chooses the village of Endwever to provide a mortal womb. The birthing of a star is always fatal for the mother, and Ceris Wenden, who considers herself an outsider, sacrifices herself to secure her family’s honor and take control of her legacy. But after her star child is born, Ceris does what no other star mother has: she survives. When Ceris returns to Endwever, however, it’s not nine months later—it’s seven hundred years later. Inexplicably displaced in time, Ceris is determined to seek out her descendants.

Being a woman traveling alone brings its own challenges, until Ceris encounters a mysterious—and desperate—godling. Ristriel is incorporeal, a fugitive, a trickster, and the only being who can guide Ceris safely to her destination. Now, as Ceris traverses realms both mortal and beyond, her journey truly begins.

Together, pursued across the Earth and trespassing the heavens, Ceris and Ristriel are on a path to illuminate the mysteries that bind them and discover the secrets of the celestial world.

I adored Ceris, who was strong and smart and never lost her sense of self, even in the presence of the Sun, the Moon and Twilight. I was less impressed by Ristriel, who seemed rather cowardly, especially in comparison to Ceris's bravery and continued support. She was constantly trying to save him at her own expense, until he finally came clean with her about the real reason that the Sun and Moon were at war. I also felt the Sun was a bit of a possessive bastard, in that he seemed to feel that he had a right to Ceris's time and body after she bore him a star. I loved the concept of a mortal woman birthing a star, and that the other Star Mothers were then allowed to be in a gorgeous afterlife being pampered together. Some of the problems with being immortal, or at least long-lived, are discussed, and evaluated here, which I found fascinating, as I've always thought being immortal would be wonderful (but I forgot the part about watching everyone you love, from your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren on down, die and be buried, along with their memory, which can only dull in the ensuing years. Ceris struggles with finding her family after 700 years, and I felt her pain). I'd give this marvelous story full of the beauty and terror of Gods and the same of mortals, an A, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in fully created feminist mythology.

 

The Outsider's Musical on Stage, Shadow & Bone Cancelled, Percy Jackson and the Olympians on TV, Obituary Note for A.S. Byatt, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light on TV, The Count of Monte Cristo on TV, Murder in the Merton Library by Andrea Penrose, the Study Chronicles: Tales of Ixia and Sitia by Maria Snyder, and Warror Born, A Cinder Spires Novella by Jim Butcher

Happy Holidays to all my fellow book dragons! I've been away from my blog for two weeks, and I know that is too long, but things have gone from terrible to horrific in dealing with my husband's decline in mental and physical health, so I've not been able to do as much reading as I'd like, or even sitting down to think and reflect on what I've read, so that I might write a cogent review. However, some good things are on the horizon, some great books and tomorrow starts the next season of the 60 year old (as of yesterday) Doctor Who TV series, now on Disney Plus. There are also some great books to look forward to in the upcoming month and next year, and I'm looking forward to an exciting new year of books with my library book group. So, focusing on what little light that I can see at the end of the tunnel, allons-y!

I loved this book when I was a teenager, so I'm excited to see what they do with it as a staged musical. I'm hoping that they'll film it so that the rest of us, who don't live in NYC and have a ton of money, can see it.

 On Stage: The Outsiders Musical

Additional casting has been revealed for the upcoming Broadway premiere of The Outsiders https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQPdxukI6agxJhonTg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nED8ehpoMLg-gVdw, a musical adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel and Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 film, Playbill reported. Previews begin March 16, 2024 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, with opening night set for April 11.

Newly added to the cast are Joshua Boone (Skeleton Crew) as Dallas Winston, Emma Pittman (Chicago) as Cherry Valance, Daryl Tofa (Back to the Future) as Two-Bit Mathews, and Kevin William Paul as Bob Sheldon. They join previously announced stars Brody Grant as Ponyboy, Brent Comer as Darrel, Jason Schmidt as Sodapop, and Sky Lakota-Lynch (Dear Evan Hansen) as Johnny.

BOOO! This  really bums me out. I loved the version of Shadow and Bone that was serialized on Netflix, and I was looking forward to the story continuing with Season 3. But of course, as with many things I love (I'm looking at you, Firefly!), it's cancelled by some corporate bean-counter and leaves fans of the book series bereft.

Shadow & Bone Cancelled after Season 2

The IP apocalypse claims another. As the appetite for money-losing but theoretically platform building properties goes away, this mid-tier, high budget shows are most at risk. Fans of adaptations at least have the books to cherish, and for those new to the series through the show, can at least get those serious cliff hangers taken care of by reading through. I am not sure I would call any fantasy/sci-fi series safe at this point. Maybe House of the Dragon. Maybe.

Meanwhile, this series, which already had a shot and was awful, is being rebooted and will likely get all of the time and money it needs to go for many seasons. The lead role is a white male, after all, and shows like Shadow and Bone that have a female lead which normalizes women being powerful and intelligent, get the ax...misogyny, anyone?! GROW UP, Hollywood!

TV: Percy Jackson and the Olympians

 A trailer has been released for the upcoming Percy Jackson and the Olympians https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQKIwuoI6agxcREjTg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nFWsOipoMLg-gVdw series, based on Rick Riordan's bestselling YA book series, Variety reported. The show, which follows a 12-year-old boy named Percy (Walker Scobell) who leads a seemingly normal life until he learns he is a half-blood (half human, half Greek god), is set to premiere December 20 on Disney+.

The cast also features Aryan Simhadri, Leah Sava Jeffries, Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman, Jason Mantzoukas, Megan Mullay, Timm Sharp, Dior Goodjohn, Charlie Bushnell and Adam Copeland. Guest stars include Lin-Manuel Miranda, Toby Stephens, Jay Duplass, Timothy Omundson, Lance Reddick, Olivea Morton, Suzanne Cryer, and Jessica Parker Kennedy.

"Unlike with the divisive film adaptations from the 2010s that strayed from the novels, Riordan has been closely involved in the making of the Disney+ series and serves as co-writer and executive producer," Variety noted. Jon Steinberg co-wrote the pilot with Riordan, and James Bobin directed it. Steinberg and Bobin are also executive producers in addition to Dan Shotz, Bert Salke, Monica Owusu-Breen, Jim Rowe, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, D.J. Goldberg, and Rebecca Riordan.

I read Possession, like most of the world, and was awed by the excellent prose and the spicy storyline. I don't think I read any of her other works, and I wasn't aware that Margaret Drabble was her sister and rival. At any rate, she lead a fascinating life, and leaves a legacy of excellent fiction.

Obituary Note: A.S. Byatt

British author, critic, and Booker winner A.S. Byatt https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQKKxO0I6a9nIRkgGA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nFWMWlpoMLg-gVdw (Dame Antonia Susan Duffy), "one of the most significant writers and critics of our time," died November 16. She was 87. Born Antonia Drabble, Byatt studied English at Cambridge, Bryn Mawr College, and Oxford. She began teaching at University College London in 1962. The Guardian noted that her first novel The Shadow of the Sun, was published in 1964, just a year after A Summer Bird-Cage, the first novel by her sister, Margaret Drabble, "thus establishing the notorious and possibly exaggerated rivalry between them."

Byatt's reputation grew as she embarked on the Frederica Quartet, charting the changing nature of the female experience in the 20th century with the novels The Virgin in the Garden (1978), Still Life (1985), Babel Tower (1996), and A Whistling Woman (2002). "When she broke off in the middle of this project to write Possession, Byatt found both critical acclaim and a new audience," the Guardian noted. Possession won the Booker prize in 1990, becoming a bestseller both in the U.K. and U.S. The Children's Book (2009) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

The recipient of many awards, Byatt became a CBE in 1990 and a DBE in 1999. In 2014, a coleopterist working in Central and South America named a species of iridescent beetle in her honor (Euhylaeogena byattae Hespenheide), inspired by her portrayal of naturalists in the novella "Morpho Eugenia" in Angels and Insects (1992). Byatt received the Erasmus Prize in 2016, awarded by the King of the Netherlands.

"She was also remarkable for her generosity to younger writers," the Guardian noted. "At a stage of her career when she might well have been excused for finding her own professional commitments a sufficiently heavy workload, she read new work voraciously. Her floorboards cracked under the load of novels and poems sent to her by writers and publishers who valued her approval far above that of reviewers. She could not possibly have read all of them, but she read an astonishing number."

Writing in the Guardian, Lisa Allardice observed: "She loved Europe, tennis, science, art and languages. 'I think the virtue I prize above all others is curiosity,' she told an interviewer. It is this rapacious curiosity that she brought to her 10 novels, many works of criticism and essays, and in so doing she helped change the British novel into something far more intellectually capacious and outward-looking. Hers was a life defined by literature. 'I'm more interested in books than people, and I always expect everybody else to be, but they're not.' The Dame will be greatly missed."

"Antonia's books are the most wonderful jewel-boxes of stories and ideas," Clara Farmer, her publisher at Chatto & Windus, observed. "Her compulsion to write (A4 blue notebook always to hand) and her ability to create intricate skeins of narrative was remarkable. It was always a treat to see her, to hear updates about her evolving literary characters and indulge in delicious titbits of literary gossip. Like all Chatto's publishers before me, I was devoted to her and her writing. 2024 would have been her sixtieth (Diamond) anniversary as a Chatto author. We mourn her loss but it's a comfort to know that her penetrating works will dazzle, shine and refract in the minds of readers for generations to come."

Jenny Uglow, Byatt's longtime editor, said: "Working with Antonia Byatt was full of surprises.... Like many writers, she could hold the germ of a story in her head for a long time, sometimes for years, but when it emerged she would work on it assiduously in her notebooks and in conversations, reading widely to clarify the background of intellectual movements and artistic ideas, and mapping every scene in detail in her head, from the colors of clothes and the names of minor characters--which were often bizarre--to the complexity of train timetables. Finally, the shape was fully formed in her mind. Then it would flow on to the page, with not a change to be made."

 Wolf Hall was ground breaking, so I'm delighted to see that they've decided to continue through the final novel in Mantel's trilogy. Mark Rylance is a wonder as Thomas Cromwell. He plays the role with quiet menace and stringent competency and intelligence.

TV: Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light

Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQKLkLoI6a9nJxt3Hw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nFWZHypoMLg-gVdw, based on the final novel in Hilary Mantel's award-winning trilogy (Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies), will begin filming shortly, according to Masterpiece PBS and the BBC. Reuniting the creative team from the BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning first series, the project will be directed by Peter Kosminsky (The Undeclared War, The State) and adapted for TV by Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; Frank).

Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis will reprise their roles as Thomas Cromwell and King Henry VIII, respectively. The cast also includes Jonathan Pryce (Cardinal Wolsey), Kate Phillips (Jane Seymour), and Lilit Lesser (Princess Mary). Other returning and new cast members will be announced at a later date. 

"The Mirror and the Light picks up exactly where Wolf Hall ended, with the execution of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn," said Kosminsky. "I'm overjoyed to be able to reunite the extraordinary cast we were lucky enough to assemble for Wolf Hall, led by the brilliant Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis, with the original creative team of Gavin Finney (DOP), Pat Campbell (designer) and Joanna Eatwell (costume designer). We are all determined to complete what we started--and to honor the final novel written by one of the greatest literary figures of our age, Hilary Mantel."

This was another classic tale that I loved, and I'm looking forward to seeing it on TV or whatever streaming service picks it up.

TV: The Count of Monte Cristo

Jeremy Irons has joined the cast of Palme d'Or award-winning director Bille August's (The Best Intentions, Pelle the Conqueror) limited series, The Count of Monte Cristo: https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQKMwu4I6a9nKhpyTg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nFXsOmpoMLg-gVdw, a "sprawling adaptation" of the classic novel by Alexandre Dumas, Variety reported. Irons portrays Abbe Faria.

The English-language project is produced by Italian company Palomar (That Dirty Black Bag, The Name of the Rose), in collaboration with French banner DEMD Productions. The five-month shoot will wrap in Malta in December, after having filmed in France and Italy. This marks Irons's third collaboration with Danish filmmaker August, who directed him in Night Train to Lisbon and The House of Spirits.

Starring Sam Claflin as Edmond Dantes, The Count of Monte Cristo's cast also includes Ana Girardot, Mikkel Boe Fasgaard, Blake Ritson, Karla-Simone Spence, Michele Riondino, Lino Guanciale, Gabriella Pession, and Nicolas Maupas.

Noting that the journey to make the series "started five or six years ago," Carlo Degli Esposti, Palomar's co-founder and veteran producer, said, "The Count of Monte Cristo was my bedside book and it's been my lifelong dream to adapt it into a film or a series," adding that project will have "a modern edge while remaining faithful to the legacy of Alexandre Dumas's work." 

Murder in the Merton Library by Andrea Penrose is a historical mystery/romance novel, and the 7th book in the wonderful Wrexford & Sloane series, all of which I've read and enjoyed. Though the books take place in the early 19th century, the lives of Wrexford and Sloane and their adoptive family is quite delightfully modern and progressive. Of course, the romance of the two main characters is also remarkably balanced and equal, and their adoption of street urchins is heartwarming as ever. Here's the blurb: 

For fans of Miss Scarlet and the Duke and Bridgerton—a masterfully plotted mystery that combines engaging protagonists with rich historical detail, plus a touch of romance that readers of Amanda Quick and Deanna Raybourn will savor.

Responding to an urgent plea from a troubled family friend, the Earl of Wrexford journeys to Oxford only to find the reclusive university librarian has been murdered and a rare manuscript has gone missing. The only clue is that someone overheard an argument in which Wrexford’s name was mentioned.
 
At the same time, Charlotte—working under her pen name, A. J. Quill—must determine whether a laboratory fire was arson and if it’s connected to the race between competing consortiums to build a new type of ship—one that can cross the ocean powered by steam rather than sails—with the potential to revolutionize military power and world commerce. That the race involves new innovations in finance and entrepreneurship only adds to the high stakes—especially as their good friend Kit Sheffield may be an investor in one of the competitors.
 
As they delve deeper into the baffling clues, Wrexford and Charlotte begin to realize that things are not what they seem. An evil conspiracy is lurking in the shadows and threatens all they hold dear—unless they can tie the loose threads together before it’s too late.

Penrose's prose is, as usual, evocative and fascinating, if a bit too fussy with extraneous detail. The plot proceeds apace, however, and doesn't slow down much, even when in the midst of an info-dump about the engineering and production of steam engines, a subject that I found tremendously dull and uninteresting. Still, the bad guys were brought to justice and everyone's involvement proved that this extraordinary family can work wonders when they work together. So I'd give the book an A, and recommend it to anyone who has read any of the other Wrexford and Sloane mysteries.

The Study Chronicles: Tales of Ixia and Sitia by Maria V Snyder was a delightful compendium of novellas and short stories inspired by and in the world of her wonderful "Poison Study" series, begun decades ago, and with many books to it's credit. There's something for everyone in this compendium, from hilarious stories of Janco babysitting to more serious tales of kidnapping and skulduggery in the Study world and in the Glass series world. Here's the blurb: 

“Then what were you waiting for?”
He turned to her. “You.”

New York Times bestselling author, Maria V. Snyder, presents a complete collection of short stories and novellas from the dynamic and complex world of Ixia & Sitia. These stories delve into and expand the critically acclaimed Chronicles of Ixia series, featuring readers’ favorite characters: Yelena, Valek, Opal, Ari, Janco, and Commander Ambrose.

This comprehensive collection includes familiar stories: Assassin Study, Power Study, Ice Study, Shattered Glass, and Diaper Study, along with three exciting and never before seen additions: Diamond Study, Wedding Study, and After Study. Readers will also find bonus content with introductions to all the stories, detailed maps, character timelines, and amazing artwork by talented fans. For Snyder’s fans and Soulfinders, this is a must have compilation and guide for all things Ixia & Sitia. 

The illustrations and bonus content are utterly sublime, and the expanded stories are delightful fun, because there are things that those of us who read the series when it came out years ago didn't know about the worlds of these characters, and now we have this guide to the rich background that they inhabit. There's lots of thrilling and exciting moments interspersed with sweet reunions and lovely family moments that are heartwarming. I didn't even realize, as I was reading the books initially, that Commander Ambrose is a trans male character. Kudos to Ms Snyder for being ahead of the curve on that one. Hence, I'd give this collection a solid A, and recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the "Study" or "Glass" series. You won't be disappointed.

Warrior Born, A Cinder Spires Novella by Jim Butcher, is a steampunk fantasy novella set in the Cinder Spires universe, which I've not read since the first book came out years ago. I'm a huge fan of Butcher's Dresden Files series, however, and I had always hoped that the Cinder Spires books would be as exciting and endearing as the world of Harry Dresden. Unfortunately, though the first book proved interesting, it didn't have a main character that rocked my world like Harry Dresden, and therefore I was able to adopt a 'take it or leave it' attitude to the Cinder Spires novels. This novella was cheap and looked interesting enough to fork over a few dollars, however, so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the thrilling mystery of the Warrior Born attempting an extraction on a planet overrun by giant acidic devouring slugs and a dragon. Here's the blurb:

From the New York Times–bestselling author of the Dresden Files comes an all-new, action-packed fantasy adventure set in the Cinder Spires universe.

Benedict Sorellin-Lancaster hasn’t even broken in his lieutenant’s insignia when he’s summoned to meet with the Spirearch of Spire Albion himself for a very special—and very secret—purpose. The Spirearch needs Benedict to retrieve a bag he’s “misplaced” on the Colony Spire known as Dependence, which has strangely cut off all contact with the outside world. It’s a delicate mission at best, a potential bloodbath at worst.

To this end, the Spirearch has supplied Benedict with backup in the form of three Warriorborn. But unlike the courageous lieutenant, this trio has formerly used its special gifts for crime, carnage, and outright bloody murder. And all of them were caught and imprisoned because of Benedict. Now, if they behave—and make it back alive—they’ll go free.

But when the odd squad reaches Dependence, they soon discover something waiting for them: a horrific weapon that could shatter the balance of power among the Spires. And Benedict will have to bring his own Warriorborn skills to bear if he, his team, and Spire Albion are to have any hope of survival . . .

“While readers familiar with the series will have a better understanding of the ins and outs of the Cinder Spires world, this is mostly a stand-alone story that, despite its brevity, packs a lot of punch in an engaging, fast-paced read with well-defined characters . . . Add Steampunk vibes, terrifying monsters, charming talking cats, and an open ending that tantalizes readers into reading the series—this is a recipe for success. A delectable slice of SF adventure.” —Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews got it right, in that this was an engrossing story with slick prose that advances the lightening-quick plot all the way through to the shocking ending. It's a stand alone story, so those not familiar with the Cinder Spires world can pick it up and read it without fear of getting lost, or not knowing any of the back story of the characters. I also loved that there was a pack of kitty cats who managed to make it to safety when their larger Warrior Born counterparts did not. They were so adorable, yet dignified, that they were perfectly drawn characters. I'd give this sizziling thriller an A, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys steampunk stories, cats and dragons.

 

Ursula LeGuin Award Winner, Fourth Wing Comes to TV, Neil Gaiman Revives Christmas Carol on Stage in NYC, Reese Picks Maybe Next Time, The Velveteen Rabbit on TV, Nook Grand Opening in Cedar Falls, IA, Masters of the Air on TV, Kissing Kosher by Jean Meltzer, Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree, and The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

Welcome to November, my fellow readers and book aficionados! I know that we're already 11 days in, (and it's Veteran's Day, for crying out loud...thank you for your service to the women and men of the armed forces) but my husband has been in the hospital again, and things have been terribly busy and overwhelming for me as a caregiver and a mom. Still, I've got a host of great tidbits for you all and three reviews. It's prime reading weather (cold and rainy outside) so let's dig in!

I met Ms LeGuin, and loved her and her works dearly. So I'm glad that after her passing she left a legacy of an award for a fiction book of excellence. There can never be too many awards for hard working female authors.

 Awards: 2023 Ursula K. Le Guin Fiction Winner

Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell (Stelliform Press) has won the $25,000 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction https://www.shelf-awareness.co/ct/x/pjJscQONluQI6agzKkt-Gw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nEX5espoMLg-gVdw, which is "given to a writer for a single book-length work of imaginative fiction."

Organizers said, "In looping, linked stories that travel through generations, Campbell explores the effects of climate change on one slice of British Columbia: what might happen as the planet changes, and how regular people might remake their homes by growing together and reconsidering other, gentler ways to live in a drastically reshaped world."

Judges said, "Arboreality is a eulogy for the world as we know it. Rebecca Campbell's extraordinary, deeply felt book explores the difficulties of the long hard project of survival. There are no heroes or villains here--only people making brave, difficult choices, out of hope and love for their community, for art, knowledge, and beauty. Arboreality imagines things that we haven't yet considered about what can and will go wrong with our gardens, libraries, and archives if we don't act now (maybe even if we do). In her masterful and profoundly ethical stories, Campbell asks us what might be saved, what must be saved, and what it will take to do so."

Yarro's Fourth Wing got a crap-ton of good ink and recommendations this past year, and after reading it I was rather stunned at how derivative it is, especially of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series with some violent Game of Thrones and Hunger Games thrown in for those who like their fantasy grim and blood-thirsty. I am not, for the record, one of those readers. I much prefer peaceful books or at least ones with protagonists clever enough to avoid murdering their competitors (and to avoid being eaten by the dragons they're supposed to ride). But perhaps this is one of those books that will be better served on screen. One can only hope.

TV: Fourth Wing

 Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society and Amazon MGM Studios have acquired the rights to Rebecca Yarros' novel Fourth Wing https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQONn7oI6agzchpxTA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nEX57ypoMLg-gVdw and its follow-up Iron Flame--which will be released November 7--as well as the three remaining planned books in the Empyrean fantasy book series, Variety reported.

Yarros is a non-writing executive producer on the project alongside Liz Pelletier for Entangled Publishing. Variety noted that "no additional details regarding writers or cast are currently available. If ordered to series, the Fourth Wing adaptation will stream on Prime Video."

The official logline for the TV series: "Enter the brutal world of Basgiath War College where there is only one rule: Graduate or Die. Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail expected to live a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general--her tough-as-talons mother--has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. If the fire-breathing beasts don't kill her, one of her fellow riders just might. Suspense, action, romance, and dragons blend together in a propulsive fantasy adventure from New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros."

Oh to visit New York and see this performance by the wonderful Neil Gaiman! It would be the ultimate holiday treat!

On Stage: Neil Gaiman to Revive A Christmas Carol Performance

Neil Gaiman "will reprise his role as Charles Dickens for two nights only this holiday season," Playbill reported: he will present Dickens's original performance text version of A Christmas Carol https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQOOwe4I6agzdkpwSw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nEXMCmpoMLg-gVdw at New York's Town Hall December 18-19.

This is the first time Gaiman has reprised his channeling of Dickens since 2013, "when he appeared in character as the esteemed author for the New York Public Library," Playbill noted, adding that the earlier reading "was immensely popular, and audio of the event has become the most popular event download in NYPL history, now a Christmas staple."

As in the earlier performance, the event will be introduced by historian Molly Oldfield, who will share the history of Charles Dickens's in-person dramatic readings.

I love Reese W, for her performances as an actress and for her devotion to books and readers with her book club. Blessings on your head, Reese! I am going to have to find a copy of her November pick.

Reese's November Book Club Pick: Maybe Next Time

The November pick for Reese's Book Club https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQOPkrkI6agzdRoiTA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nEXZPxpoMLg-gVdw is Maybe Next Time by Cesca Major (Morrow), which Reese Witherspoon described this way: "This fascinating story follows overworked & overwhelmed London literary agent Emma, who finds herself trapped in a time loop. No matter what Emma does, she keeps living the same day over and over--all while trying to stop something terrible from happening to her family." The book is slated for a film adaptation by Apple Studios, with Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine producing.

Who among us has not had the Velveteen Rabbit read to them as a child, and then cried every time it was read again by parents or grandparents? This is a heartfelt classic book that resonates with adults and children alike. I can't wait to see it on Apple TV.

TV: The Velveteen Rabbit

Apple TV+ revealed the official trailer for The Velveteen Rabbit, a kids and family live-action animated hybrid special based on the classic children's book by Margery Williams. It will be launching globally on November 22

Produced by Magic Light Pictures, the 40-minute special features the voices of Helena Bonham-Carter, Nicola Coughlan, Alex Lawther, Paterson Joseph, Clive Rowe, Bethany Antonia, Phoenix Laroche, Lois Chimimba, Nathaniel Parker, Tilly Vosburgh, Samantha Colley, and Leonard Buckley. Magic Light Pictures co-founder Martin Pope (Academy Award nominee The Gruffalo and BAFTA- and International Emmy-winning Revolting Rhymes) produces, with a screenplay by Tom Bidwell, creator of the BAFTA- and International Emmy-nominated My Mad Fat Diary and the Oscar-nominated short Wish 143.

I have a pen pal (Hi Jen!) in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and I'm excited for her to visit this new bookstore in her hometown. I love it that they're giving out freebies! Oh how I wish someone would open up a bookstore in Maple Valley...we really need one in this growing NW town.

Grand Opening Set for the Nook, Cedar Falls, Iowa

The Nook bookshop will be hosting a grand opening celebration https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQPaxO0I6agydx91TA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nECMWlpoMLg-gVdw this Saturday, November 11, at its new location on 216 Main St., Cedar Falls, Iowa. Noting that "we're so excited to meet you," co-owners Abby Olson and Brandon Conrad posted on Facebook: "Swing by early, as our first 30 customers through the door will receive a free tote bag & free candle! We'll also have free cookies from Moo's Bakery (til they run out!)."

In August, Olson and Conrad had announced plans for the upcoming move from their mini bookshop in the Cob Mercantile market to a larger space in the storefront previously occupied by Miss Wonderful Vintage, whose owner, Ann Eastman, "was the first person to give this young couple a chance to start up their business on Main Street," K92.3 reported The booksellers said, "Ann helped our business take a huge step and now she's helped us take an even bigger one."

This is yet another series that looks awesome, and I will be watching for the premier on Apple TV+, next year. You can't go wrong with something produced by Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Also, anything Ncuti Gatwa is involved in is bound to be tremendous fun.

TV: Masters of the Air

Apple TV+ has released a trailer for Masters of the Air https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQPbnu4I6agydhwgGA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nECZ-mpoMLg-gVdw, based on Donald L. Miller's book Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the War Against Nazi Germany. The nine-episode limited series will release its first two episodes on January 26, 2024, with new episodes dropping each Friday until March 15.

Written by John Orloff, the series stars Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Nate Mann, Rafferty Law, Barry Keoghan, Josiah Cross, Branden Cook, and Ncuti Gatwa. Hailing from Apple Studios, Masters of the Air is executive produced by Steven Spielbeg through Amblin Television, and Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman for Playtone.

Kissing Kosher by Jean Meltzer is a delightful diverse romance with a bit of a YA tilt that makes it a page turner that engrosses the reader from the first chapter. Here's the blurb: Step 1: Get the secret recipe. Step 2: Don’t fall in love…

Avital Cohen isn’t wearing underpants—woefully, for unsexy reasons. Chronic pelvic pain has forced her to sideline her photography dreams and her love life. It’s all she can do to manage her family’s kosher bakery, Best Babka in Brooklyn, without collapsing.

She needs hired help. And distractingly handsome Ethan Lippmann seems the perfect fit.

Except Ethan isn’t there to work—he’s undercover, at the behest of his ironfisted grandfather. Though Lippmann’s is a household name when it comes to mass-produced kosher baked goods, they don’t have the charm of Avital’s bakery. Or her grandfather’s world-famous pumpkin spice babka recipe.

As they bake side by side, Ethan soon finds himself more interested in Avital than in stealing family secrets, especially as he helps her find the chronic pain relief—and pleasure—she’s been missing.

But perfecting the recipe for romance calls for leaving out the lies…even if coming clean means risking everything.  

I was fascinated by the fact that the protagonist, Avi, has Interstitial Cystitis and therefore suffers from chronic pain like I do with Crohns flares, and that she's just as frustrated by dismissive doctors who can't seem to do anything to help her get her life back. And her struggle for pain relief really hit home, too, as doctors nowadays, because of the "opioid crisis" are loathe to give prescriptions for pain medications to those who need them more than once or twice. They don't want their patients to get "hooked" on the pain meds. But what actually happens is that those with chronic pain are left to live in agony, often wondering if it would be better to 'end it all' rather than suffer every single day. So when Avi finally opens up to Ethan about her IC pain, he helps her find relief (and love) through medical marijuana and a few other meds and stress relievers (some sexual/intimate in nature, some involving taking time to pursue her passion for photography, and leaving a high stress job), which was hopeful and satisfying for me as a fellow woman in pain. Though it was long, the prose in this novel was bright and zingy, while the plot moved along at a graceful pace that kept me reading through the night. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in Jewish food, feuds, and love.

Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree is a prequel to the delightful Legends and Lattes, which I read and enjoyed earlier this year. This book is, like the one that follows it, a cozy fantasy novel filled with humor and 'found family' that is sure to satisfy those who were enthralled with Legends and Lattes, as I was. Here's the blurb: When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn't always what we seek.

Set in the world of New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree's Bookshops & Bonedust takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and secondhand books.

Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned.

Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she'll never be able to return to it.

What's a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?

Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn't possibly imagine.

Still, adventure isn't all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected. 

If you don't fall in love with Viv and Fern and Potroast within the first few chapters, there's something seriously wrong with you. These are charming,funny and lovable critters of all sizes, shapes and sexual orientations, and their adventures are riveting reading. I was also 'enthralled' by the skeletal 'thrall' Satchel, who liked cleaning and tidying the bookstore and making friends with the towns denizens. Even that villains are unusual and provide for an exciting ending that you won't see coming. Having longed to open a bookstore myself for most of my life, this book was right up my alley, especially populated, as it was, by orcs and talking rats and other weird characters. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who is looking for a  rousing adventure/fantasy novel that has diverse characters and a cozy bookstore. 

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger is a historical mystery/thriller novel based in a small town in Southern Minnesota, near the border of Northern Iowa (my home state) in the 1950s. I've read and loved Krueger's Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land (both reviewed on my blog), but I wasn't prepared for the amount of horrific bloodshed, murder and rape in this book, and the way that it was presented as somehow inevitable, because the rural alcoholic men involved felt that they had complete control over women/girls, both related and unrelated to them...especially if the woman/girl was pretty or very young and vulnerable. If I would have know about all the rape in this novel, I would not have purchased or read it, as being a survivor of rape myself, I avoid books that trigger those horrible memories. Here's the blurb:

In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by a shocking murder, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this dazzling novel, an instant New York Times bestseller and “a work of art” (The Denver Post).

On Memorial Day in Jewel, Minnesota, the body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. The investigation falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past.

Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn’s death threatens to expose.

Both a complex, spellbinding mystery and a masterful portrait of mid-century American life that is “a novel to cherish” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), The River We Remember offers an unflinching look at the wounds left by the wars we fight abroad and at home, a moving exploration of the ways in which we seek to heal, and a testament to the enduring power of the stories we tell about the places we call home.

Krueger is known for his lyrical prose and his great characters, especially the Native Americans of the farm country of the US, who were treated with as much racism and cruelty as POC in America at that time. This shameful history has been swept under the rug for too long, and I'm glad that authors like Krueger are writing the stories of the Native American peoples into their books so we can see how our history books have been white-washed, and readers can also note the fallout from WW2 in terms of those of Jewish descent or Japanese descent. Still, this novel wasn't as lyrical as his other two bestsellers, and there was more, as I've said before, gore and death and rape than was necessary to move the plot along. It was fairly nauseating, and I had a hard time making my way through the last half of the book. I was also not too fond of the protagonist, Sheriff Brody Dern, who seemed a bit dim to me. With that in mind, I'd give this book a B-, and only recommend it to those interested in the Midwest in the 1950s, and lives lived in small towns.