Martin Scorcese Adapts Home, Murder Before Evensong Comes to TV, HBO Supports JKRowling's Transphobia, Verity Movie, Obituaries for Frommer, Gilbert and Barbara Taylor Bradford, The Cinnamon Bun Book Store by Laurie Gilmore, A Pirate's Life For Tea by Rebecca Thorne, and Eleven Houses by Colleen Oakes

Hello Book Dragons! It's chilly and wet and we just had a horrific wind/rain storm last week that knocked out the power in our town and the others around it, so while my husband was in the hospital with a broken hip, my son and I spent hours trying to find a hotel room somewhere nearby, and discovered that most everywhere was booked solid, until we found a room in Puyallup, WA, which is 45 minutes to an hour away from Maple Valley, but their newly renovated Best Western was a dream! Nice big beds, full free breakfast, warmth from the room heater and lots of outlets for the CPAP and nebulizer machines. There were even FREE snacks and warm cookies 24/7!  The only problem with the room was that the bathroom (they said they're going to renovate them soon) was teeny tiny and the shower had low pressure and the water never got truly hot. But warmish water is better than cold water in a freezing cold, dark house with no power, so we were happy with what we got. Now that everything's back to normal, and my husband is home, though he's using a walker and can't stand for long or get himself up off the couch, we're looking toward celebrating my son's 25th birthday on Wednesday, and Thanksgiving on Thursday. A good meal and a roster of new fall books on my TBR, and I'm a happy woman! Anyway, here's a ton of tidbits and a few reviews.

 

I read Gilead several years ago, and I thought it was boring, and not at all as insightful as I'd been lead to believe. Then there were three books after that, and I just couldn't put myself through the slow agony of reading them, so now I'm wondering WHY Scorcese (one of NYC's favorite directors) wants to produce a film adaptation of one of these dreary novels...not to say that I don't love a good Iowa story from my native state, but there are some books that don't adapt well to the screen. This is one of them, I fear.

 

Martin Scorcese to Adapt Marilynne Robinson’s Home?

This is a weird one. Martin Scorcese, the legendary director of films mostly set in gritty New York milieus, has said there is a “very strong possibility” that, barring a scheduling a conflict, he will adapt Marilynne Robinson’s novel Home. Hard to imagine a vibe further from Scorcese’s usual fare than Robinson’s quiet, contemplative story set in a small town in Iowa in the 1950s. Home is the second book in Robinson’s Gilead quadrilogy, which follows the family lives of two aging pastors who are lifelong friends. Gilead, which came in at #10 on the New York Times’s list of the 100 best books of the century , is undeniably the star of the series, but I can see why a filmmaker would be drawn to Home first. While Gilead is one of my five favorite books and a pretty perfect novel, not much happens. Additionally, it is told in letters from 76-year-old Reverend Ames to his young son, the product of a surprising, late-in-life marriage. Home has more action, mostly family drama, and is told in the third person. I’m honestly not sure what to hope for here.

This series, on the other hand, looks awesome. But you never know these days which shows will be a hit and which ones will be complete duds.

 

TV: Murder Before Evensong

Acorn TV and Paramount's Channel 5 are co-producing an adaptation of

Reverend Richard Coles' bestselling novel Murder Before Evensong

https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVeKl-oI6a4xIR8nEw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mQWJaipoMLg-gVdw.Deadline reported that Acorn has been developing the series for around two years alongside Sky Studios-backed producer the Lighthouse.

Murder Before Evensong was published in 2022 and introduces Canon Daniel Clement, a rector of Champton who becomes embroiled in a murder case. He has gone on to feature in three other of Coles's "cozy crime" novels,

including Murder at the Monastery and A Death in the Parish.

This is just despicable of HBO and their CEO...Rowling's anti-trans stance is unforgivable, and I agree with the author of this tidbit that this is just as bad as racism. FOR SHAME HBO! BOOOO

HBO Doubles Down on Support of Rowling

As HBO prepares to begin production of its planned decade-long Harry Potter reboot TV series, CEO Casey Bloys is doubling down on the network’s partnership with and support of J.K. Rowling, who has a long and well-documented history of transphobic remarks and is being sued for cyberbullying boxer Imane Khelif during this year’s summer olympics. As Variety notes, when Rowling first aired her belief “that transgender women are men and transgender men are women” in 2020, HBO parent company Warner Bros. released a usefully vague statement reiterating that “a diverse and inclusive culture has never been more important to our company and to our audiences around the world.”

At the time, the statement read as the network’s attempt to protect itself from reputational guilt-by-association. If comments Bloys made this week that “J.K. Rowling has a right to express her personal views” are any indication, though, reputational harm is either no longer a concern, or, more likely, HBO has decided that the potential cost of distancing itself from Rowling outweighs the cost of aligning itself with anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. Let’s be clear: Bloys is not wrong that Rowling has a right to her views, but that right does not include freedom from criticism or consequences. HBO is choosing to support Rowling, and that choice sends a powerful and disappointing message. It’s hard to imagine that HBO would have been willing to continue its association with Rowling if the personal views she expressed were racist in nature, and the response to transphobia should be no different. 

 

 This also looks like a winner for streamers and movie-goers alike, though I agree It Ends With Us was a stinker.

 

Verity Heads to the Big Screen

Anne Hathaway has been cast to star in Amazon MGM’s forthcoming adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s Verity. Hathaway will play the titular character, well-known writer Verity Crawford, who was injured in mysterious accident and needs someone to step in and finish the remaining books in her successful series. Verity’s husband hires a struggling writer named Lowen Ashleigh to do the job, and lo and behold (Lowen behold? Sorry.), when she begins sorting through the papers in Verity’s office, she finds the manuscript for an autobiography that reveals all manner of secrets. Will it be good? That question seems beside the point, as this year’s Blake Lively-led adaptation of It Ends With Us was quite bad (we saw it so you don’t have to) and still cleared $300 million at the box office.

These three obituaries made me so sad, as I used to love Frommer's guides, and Gilbert's feminist writing, and Barbara Taylor Bradford's Woman of Substance. Though all lead full lives, I still think that bookshelves everywhere will be less delightful without them. RIP authors.

 

Obituary Note: Arthur Frommer  

Arthur Frommer https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVeLwu8I6a4xJB4kSw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mQWcOnpoMLg-gVdw,

"who expanded the horizons of postwar Americans and virtually invented

the low-budget travel industry with his seminal guidebook, Europe on 5

Dollars a Day: A Guide to Inexpensive Travel, which introduced millions

to an experience once considered the exclusive domain of the wealthy,"

died November 18, the New York Times reported. He was 95.

First published in 1957, Europe on 5 Dollars a Day sold millions of

copies and was updated until 2007, when its name was Europe from $95 a

Day. Frommer built on the book's success by offering other guidebooks,

package tours, hotel deals, and more."His earnest prose, alternately lyrical and artless but always compulsively informative, conveyed a near-missionary zeal for travel and elevated Frommer's from the how-to genre to the kind of book that could

change a person's worldview," the Times wrote.

"This is a book," he wrote, "for American tourists who a) own no oil

wells in Texas, b) are unrelated to the Aga Khan, c) have never struck

it rich in Las Vegas and who still want to enjoy a wonderful European

vacation."

Frommer considered budget travelers better U.S. ambassadors to Europeans

and likely learned more and had a more enjoyable time than affluent

travelers. He had a few simple rules:

"Never travel first class. (If going by boat, consider freighters.) Pack

lightly enough to be free from porters, taxi drivers and bellhops. Stay

in pensions; take the room without the bath. Eat in restaurants

patronized by locals. Try to engage locals in conversation. Study maps.

Take public transportation. Buy a Eurail pass."

 

In 2013, eight months after it was sold, Frommer bought the Frommer

brand name back from Google and announced plans to publish a new series

of guidebooks--both digitally and on paper--under a new company name,

FrommerMedia, which continues to operate.

Roger Dow, the former CEO of the United States Travel Association, said

in an interview that "before him, the average American just did not go

to Europe, or much of anywhere else overseas. This guy single-handedly

opened up that prospect to a huge new population."

Obituary Note: Sandra Gilbert

Sandra M. Gilbert https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVeMwusI6a4xKhpwHA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mQXsOjpoMLg-gVdw, a critic, scholar, poet and co-author of The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, "a groundbreaking work of literary criticism that became a feminist classic," died November 10, the New York Times reported. She was 87.

Written by Gilbert and Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic was

published in 1979 and became a bestseller. "With gusto, scholarly rigor

and flashes of humor, the authors dug into the macho ethos that had long

dominated literature," the Times wrote, adding, "Their breakthrough was

to uncover the narrative strategies that Mary Shelley, Jane Austen,

Charlotte Bronte, Emily Dickinson and others deployed to gain

literary autonomy and to protest an oppressive literary patriarchy."

Gilbert, whose specialty was 20th-century literature, and Gubar, an

18th-century specialist, met as new English professors at Indiana

University in 1973. They decided to teach classics by women of the 19th

and 20th centuries in a course called "The Madwoman in the Attic."

"It felt like discovering an uncharted country," Gubar recalled.

In 1985, they co-edited The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women, a

2,457-page work spanning seven centuries, and a year later Ms. magazine

named them Women of the Year. Gilbert and Gubar edited the three-volume

No Man's Land: The Place of the Woman Writer in the Twentieth Century,

whose final volume appeared in 1994.

Their most recent book, Still Mad: American Women Writers and the

Feminist Imagination (2021), was written after Hillary Clinton's loss to

Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. "If the culture is still

changing," they wrote in the introduction, "why are we and so many of

our friends still mad?... Maybe if you shatter glass ceilings, you have

to walk on broken glass. Maybe if you lean in, you topple over."

Obituary Note: Barbara Taylor Bradford

Barbara Taylor Bradford https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVePl-0I6a4xdU8lSQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mQXZalpoMLg-gVdw, who wrote

40 novels that have sold more than 91 million copies worldwide, died

yesterday at age 91.

Her first novel, A Woman of Substance, was published in 1979 and was an

immediate hit, staying on the New York Times bestseller list for 43

weeks. The book set the style for Bradford's many blockbusters: it and

six successive titles told a multi-generational saga about the intrigues

of a wealthy, glamorous family, headed by a woman with a modest

background who had built a retail empire. As Bradford said, "I write

about mostly ordinary women who go on to achieve the extraordinary."

Bradford began writing fiction at age seven and sold a short story to a

magazine when was 10. At age 15, she joined the typing pool at the

Yorkshire Evening Post. A year later, she became a reporter on the paper

and, aged 18, its first woman's editor. Two years later, she moved to

London and worked as a columnist and editor on Fleet Street.

Jennifer Enderlin, president and publisher of St. Martin's Press, said:

"I have worked with Barbara Taylor Bradford as her U.S. publisher and

editor for almost 25 years. She was a legend in so many ways, but chief

among them was her utmost professionalism and dedication to her craft.

She never missed a deadline and if she said she was going to deliver her

book on a Thursday, that's when it would arrive. Before she embarked on

a new novel, we would invariably have a delicious lunch at one of her

favorite spots: La Grenouille or Doubles in the Sherry Netherland hotel.

And there, we would discuss the plot, the 'what ifs' of the book, and

the arcs of the various characters. She truly loved

writing and creating her unforgettable worlds--whether that world was

Yorkshire at the turn of the 20th century, or the glamorous watering

holes of London in the present day. Barbara's novels would always

transport you. She was the definition of A Woman of Substance."

Charlie Redmayne, CEO of HarperCollins, Bradford's U.K. publisher, said:

"Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first

book, the international bestseller A Woman of Substance changed the

lives of so many who read it--and still does to this day. She was a

natural storyteller, deeply proud of her Yorkshire roots--she would

regale us of her time working on the Yorkshire Evening Post with fellow

reporter Keith Waterhouse and trainee photographer Peter O'Toole, the

dawn of the Soho cafe; society, and the many happy years shared

with the love of her life, her husband, Bob. For 45 years, she was a

huge part of our company and a great, great friend--we will miss her so

much--but there is some solace in the knowledge that she is now, once

again, alongside her beloved Bob. A life well-lived...."

In lieu of flowers, Bradford asked that donations to be made to two

organizations she was proud to support throughout her career: the

National Literacy Trust https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVePl-0I6a4xdU8lTg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mQXZalpoMLg-gVdw

The Cinnamon Bun Book Store by Laurie Gilmore is a delightful cozy romance that is rife with sugar, spice and everything nice, perfect for fall reading. Here's the blurb: 

‘A charming break from reality’ Publishers Weekly

When a secret message turns up hidden in a book in the Cinnamon Bun Bookstore, Hazel can't understand it. As more secret codes appear between the pages, she decides to follow the trail of clues… she just needs someone to help her out.

Gorgeous and outgoing fisherman, Noah, is always up for an adventure. And a scavenger hunt sounds like a lot of fun. Even better that the cute bookseller he's been crushing on for months is the one who wants his help!

Hazel didn’t go looking for romance, but as the treasure hunt leads her and Noah around Dream Harbor, their undeniable chemistry might be just as hot as the fresh-out-of-the-oven cinnamon buns the bookstore sells.

 

This sexy, fun romp of a romance takes place in a small town that lends itself to gossip and good food, as the two main characters banter back and forth with chemistry aplenty. The book's zingy prose makes it a page turner, along with the slick plot and intriguing treasure hunt among the books. The HEA was nicely done, and I was so glad to finally read a romance that didn't center around horribly confused and angsty teenagers and their overblown hormones that I nearly wept with relief. I'd give this book an A-, and recommend it to adults who like their romances rife with spicy sex scenes without a teenager in sight.

 

A Pirate's Life For Tea by Rebecca Thorne is yet another cozy Sapphic (Lesbian) romance/adventure novel that takes place on the high seas and has plenty of tea and terror in equal measure. Here's the blurb: This is a gorgeous paperback edition featuring vivid orange sprayed edges, a beautiful color illustration, and a never-before-seen bonus short story!

Bookshops & Bonedust meets Our Flag Means Death in this cozy fantasy on the low seas, where lesbian pirates find out if enemies actually can become lovers!

Kianthe and Reyna are on the hunt for dragon eggs to save their hometown—but it requires making a deal with Diarn Arlon, lord of the legendary Nacean River. Simply capture the river pirate Serina, who’s been plaguing Arlon's supply chains, and bring her in for justice. Easy peasy.

Begrudgingly, the couple joins forces with Bobbie, one of Arlon’s constables determined to capture the pirate. Except Bobbie and Serina have a more complicated history than anyone realized, and it might jeopardize everything.

While Kianthe and Reyna watch this relation-shipwreck from afar, it quickly becomes apparent that these disaster lesbians need all the help they can get. Luckily, matchmaking is Reyna’s favorite pastime. The dragon eggs may have to wait. 

 

Though I enjoyed this sweet and salty tale I felt it was redundant and focused too much on the couples falling in love and chasing one another instead of working on the adventure and finding the dragon eggs. Intrigue on the high seas should have more layers for readers to become engrossed in, vs all the canoodling and denial of feelings for one another. The HEA was satisfying, and there was an extra spicy (sex) short story at the end that will leave you hot and bothered, regardless of your sexual orientation. I'd give this book a B, and recommend it to anyone who liked (as I did) Bookshops and Bonedust.

 

Eleven Houses by Colleen Oakes is a deeply profound fantasy romance (they call it romantasy nowadays) that deals with grief and loss and duty in a unique way. It's also engrossing and so well written that you won't notice the nearly 400 pages going by until you're at the end. Here's the blurb: This is an epic romantic tale of a mysterious island and the houses who have stood for centuries to guard against the dreaded nightmare of ghostly beings waiting to strike from the ocean’s depths.

On a forgotten part of Nova Scotia, there lies an island.
On that island are Eleven Houses.
In those houses sit eleven ancient families.
And they are waiting…

Mabel is one of the last surviving members of House Beuvry, one of the eleven houses on the haunted island of Weymouth. Her days, like all the other teens on the island, are spent readying her house for The Storm: a once-a-decade event that pummels the island with hurricane-level wind, water, and waves. But that’s not all the Storm brings with it—because Weymouth Island is a gate between the world of the living and the dead.

When Miles Cabot arrives on Weymouth Island after the death of his mother, he realizes quickly it isn’t like other places—and Mabel Beuvry isn’t like other teenagers. There’s an intense chemistry between Miles and Mabel that both feel, yet neither understand—nor the deadly consequences that will come with it.

With the suspicious death of an island elder, a strained dynamic with her younger sister Hali, and the greatest Storm in years edging ever closer, Mabel’s life is becoming as chaotic as the weather. One thing becomes clear: if the fortified houses of Weymouth Island can’t stand against the dead, then she—and everyone she loves—will pay the price.

Fares Well the House That’s Ready. 

 

There's something almost Shakespearean (in a Romeo and Juliet type of way) in the mythological tragedy of the 11 unique houses and all the ritual protections they must complete daily in order to ward off the great storm...and in the way that the star-crossed lovers of Miles and Mabel must put aside their own desires to secure the houses against ghostly onslaught and protect the mainland. The duty of family are paramount here, and I was fascinated by how each generation leaves behind instructions and warnings to the next to protect them in their service as guardians. The prose was prismatic and the plot rushed along like a stormy ocean, making this a page turner for the ages. I appreciated the insight into Nova Scotia (Canada) culture and legends, so much so that I found myself longing to visit this small Island. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy based on ancient legends.

 

Fantasy vs Real Life, Storytime Bookshop Opens in Kennewick, WA, The Return Movie, Orbital Wins Booker Prize, John Steinbeck's Wise Words, Renovations at Powell's City of Books in Portland, OR, Miss Austen on TV, A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan, The Other Side of the Sky by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, and The Woodsmoke Women's Book of Spells by Rachel Greenlaw

I can hardly believe that we're halfway through November, and on our way to Thanksgiving and my son's 25th birthday!  Wonderful! My husband has been in the hospital these past 8 days and is coming home tomorrow, so today I've been trying to get everything in order for his arrival with a broken hip and mental confusion (never a good combo).  Meanwhile, I've been reading some of the great books my son got me at HPB and at Elliott Bay Book Company on Capitol Hill in Seattle. We spent two hours browsing and buying and chatting with the delightful staff, and it was an uplifting and joyful experience that had me fizzing for a couple of days afterwards. There's also been a lot going on in the book world, so here are a bunch of tidbits and only three book reviews...sorry! More to follow.

 

I've always felt that there are times when life is so surreal, that it seems like we're on the holodeck on the USS Enterprise living out a fantasy. 

 

Is This the Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy?

In case you weren’t stressed out enough by ::waves arms at the whole world::, Gizmodo asked experts in computer science, philosophy, social psychology, and neuroscience if we could be in a computer simulation, and the answers may surprise you. “Using evidence-based reasoning, we can’t conclusively determine whether we are living in a simulation or not. A sufficiently sophisticated simulation can be totally indistinguishable from reality, and any bugs could always be deleted and then the simulation restarted from before their emergence.”

I have always wanted to visit Kennewick, and this gives me another reason to do so someday soon.

 

Storytime Bookshop and Events Opens in Kennewick, Wash.

Storytime Bookshop and Events https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVTcwr8I6a4yJB5zGQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mTDsP3poMLg-gVdw, a dedicated children's bookshop, has officially opened at 309 W. Kennewick Ave. in downtown Kennewick, Wash., offering a selection of primarily used books for children and families, along with some adult fiction.

"At Storytime Bookshop and Events, we take our play seriously. Our

mission is to create a space where children and families can come

together to explore the wonders of literature and imagination. We are

thrilled to bring this vision to life in Downtown Kennewick," said CEO

Lorelei Kennedy.

In addition to books, Storytime Bookshop and Events said it is

"committed to fostering a love for reading and learning through a

variety of engaging activities. The bookshop hosts interactive story

times, free and paid programming, and author signings, providing a

dynamic environment for both education and entertainment."

The business describes itself as a community hub where literacy and

creativity are celebrated, emphasizing "the importance of play and

performance, offering a safe space for children and families to explore

and discover the joys of reading." Storytime Bookshop also provides

off-site workshops, residencies, and professional development.

This sounds like a wonderful retelling and exploration of the Odyssey, with some exceptionally talented actors. I plan on seeing this when it premiers.

 

Movies: The Return

A trailer https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVTcwr8I6a4yJB5xTA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mTDsP3poMLg-gVdw has been released for The Return,inspired by Homer's The Odyssey. The film is co-written, directed, and produced by Uberto Pasolini, "who previously moved viewers to tears this year with Nowhere Special," IndieWire reported. The Return premieres in

theaters December 6.

Ralph Fiennes stars as Odysseus and Juliette Binoche as Penelope,

reuniting the actors almost 30 years after they co-starred in The

English Patient. The cast also includes Charlie Plummer, Marwan Kenzari,

Claudio Santamaria, and Angela Molina.

The official logline: "After 20 years away, Odysseus (Fiennes) washes up

on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The King has

returned from the Trojan War, but much has changed in his kingdom. His

beloved wife Penelope (Binoche) is a prisoner in her own home, hounded

by suitors vying to be king. Their son Telemachus faces death at the

hands of these suitors, who see him as merely an obstacle to their

pursuit of the kingdom. Odysseus has also changed--scarred by his

experience of the Trojan war, he is no longer the mighty warrior from

years past--but he must rediscover his strength in order to win back all

he has lost."

This book sounds utterly wonderful, and I hope to be able to secure a copy at my local library.

 

Orbital by Samantha Harvey Wins Booker Prize

British author Samantha Harvey won the 2024 Booker Prize for

her novel Orbital https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVTekusI6a4ycUgkHw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mTDJOjpoMLg-gVdw, becoming the first woman to win the award since 2019, when Margaret Atwood and Bernadine Evaristo were joint winners. Harvey's novel was published in the U.S. in hardcover by Atlantic Monthly Press in 2023 and was just released in a paperback edition by

Vintage.

Orbital is the first Booker Prize-winning book set in space. At 136

pages, it is the second-shortest book to win the prize and covers the

briefest time frame of any book on the shortlist, taking place over just

24 hours

Harvey said of writing her novel: "I thought of it as space pastoral--a

kind of nature writing about the beauty of space."

Chair of the judges Edmund de Waal commented: "In an unforgettable year

for fiction, a book about a wounded world. Sometimes you encounter a

book and cannot work out how this miraculous event has happened. As

judges we were determined to find a book that moved us, a book that had

capaciousness and resonance, that we are compelled to share. We wanted

everything.

"Orbital is our book. Samantha Harvey has written a novel propelled by

the beauty of sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets. Everyone and no one

is the subject, as six astronauts in the International Space Station

circle the Earth observing the passages of weather across the fragility

of borders and time zones. With her language of lyricism and acuity

Harvey makes our world strange and new for us.... Our unanimity about

Orbital recognizes its beauty and ambition. It reflects Harvey's

extraordinary intensity of attention to the precious and precarious

world we share."

It's no secret that JS is my favorite classic lit author, and these words, written during WW2 are poignant even now, when our country is so divided and about to be lead by a deranged despot who is racist/sexist/homophobic and anti-science, pro-book-banning. His reign, which starts in January, threatens our entire democracy.

So these words have special meaning right now.

John Steinbeck writes on January 1, 1941:

Speaking of the happy new year, I wonder if any year ever had less chance of being happy. It’s as though the whole race were indulging in a kind of species introversion — as though we looked inward on our neuroses. And the thing we see isn’t very pretty… So we go into this happy new year, knowing that our species has learned nothing, can, as a race, learn nothing — that the experience of ten thousand years has made no impression on the instincts of the million years that preceded.

But Steinbeck, who devoted his life to defending the disenfranchised and celebrating the highest potentiality of the human spirit, refuses to succumb to what Rebecca Solnit has so aptly termed the “despair, defeatism, cynicism,  amnesia and assumptions” to which we reflexively resort in maladaptive self-defense against overwhelming evil. Instead, fifteen centuries after Plato’s brilliant charioteer metaphor for good and evil, Steinbeck quickly adds a perceptive note on the indelible duality of human nature and the cyclical character of the civilizational continuity we call history:

“Not that I have lost any hope. All the goodness and the heroisms will rise up again, then be cut down again and rise up. It isn’t that the evil thing wins — it never will — but that it doesn’t die. I don’t know why we should expect it to. It seems fairly obvious that two sides of a mirror are required before one has a mirror, that two forces are necessary in man before he is man. I asked [the influential microbiologist] Paul de Kruif once if he would like to cure all disease and he said yes. Then I suggested that the man he loved and wanted to cure was a product of all his filth and disease and meanness, his hunger and cruelty. Cure those and you would have not man but an entirely new species you wouldn’t recognize and probably wouldn’t like.”

 

I'm hoping that they don't change my favorite mecca bookstore in Oregon so much that I don't recognize it when I visit next time!

 

Reorganization, Renovations Underway at Powell's

A reorganization and renovations are underway at Powell's flagship location in Portland, Ore., Willamette Week reported https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVeIlekI6a4ycEsiHw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mQWpShpoMLg-gVdw.

The reorganization includes moving the science fiction, fantasy, and

romance genres from the relatively small Gold Room on the store's first

floor to the larger Purple Room on the second floor. Those genres are

among Powell's biggest sellers, and the move will allow the bookstore to

expand them.

At the same time, what was once Powell's Orange Room will be renamed the

Home and Garden Room, and will include architecture and decor books as

well as plants from local nurseries. Books related to film and TV, which

previously resided in the Orange Room, will move to the Pearl Room.

The Powell's team is also taking the opportunity to freshen up some

paint jobs, move displays, and do other renovation work. The goal,

Powell's marketing director Jeremy Solly told Willamette Week, is to

"have it be a place people feel relaxed and can come in and take the

time." He noted too that it is the first remodel that Powell's has done

in a "long, long time."

Work has been ongoing for about a month, and Powell's hopes to have it

all complete by the end of November.

This should be an exciting series to look forward to in the spring. The cast sounds particularly amazing.

 

TV: Miss Austen

PBS Masterpiece has announced that the four-part period drama Miss

Austen https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVeIlekI6a4ycEsgHQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mQWpShpoMLg-gVdw, based on the 2020 novel by Gill Hornsby, will premiere May 4, 2025. The series is adapted by award-winning writer Andrea Gibb (Elizabeth Is Missing, Mayflies).

Starring Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard, The Durrells in Corfu), the project's

cast includes Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones), Synnove Karlsen

(Last Night in Soho), Patsy Ferran (Living), Max Irons (The Wife),

Alfred Enoch (How to Get Away with Murder), Calam Lynch (Bridgerton),

and Phyllis Logan (Downton Abbey).

Miss Austen "takes one of the most prominent literary mysteries in

history--Cassandra Austen notoriously burning her famous sister Jane's

letters--and reimagines it as a fascinating, witty and heart-breaking

story of sisterly love, while creating in Cassandra a character as

captivating as any Austen heroine," PBS Masterpiece noted.

A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan is an epic romantasy with dragons book that I could not put down. This page-turner had strong elements of McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series without seeming like a rip off or parody of same (I'm looking at you, Fourth Wing!). Here's the blurb:

New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan returns to the high-stakes, sweeping world of dragons, romance, and drama first evoked in her bestselling young adult Firelight series, in a brand-new epic adult romantasy series.

Dragons are extinct. Witches are outcast. Magic is dying.

But human lust for power is immortal.

Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous…especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it's her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. Her only friend is Stig, Captain of the Guard...though sometimes she thinks he wants more than friendship.

When Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, descends on her home, Tamsyn’s world becomes even more dangerous. To save the pampered princesses from a fate worse than death, she is commanded to don a veil and marry the brutal warrior. She agrees to the deception even though it means leaving Stig, and the only life she’s ever known, behind.

The wedding night begins with unexpected passion—and ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed. Rather than start a war, Fell accepts Tamsyn as his bride...but can he accept the dark secrets she harbors—secrets buried so deep even she doesn’t know they exist? For Tamsyn is more than a royal whipping girl, more than the false wife of a man who now sees her as his enemy. And when those secrets emerge, they will ignite a flame bright enough to burn the entire kingdom to the bone. 

Magic is not dead...it is only sleeping. And it will take one ordinary girl with an extraordinary destiny to awaken it.

I loved that Tamsyn, the protagonist, was defiant and always trying to help others and spare them pain, and I liked the male protagonist, Stig's realization that he was and is at heart a soldier, but that he could still be tender and loving with a woman, and that both of these characters had to deal with the ultra rich asshats who were only interested in using people to their advantage, much like billionaires today. The fact that both became magic creatures only added to the romance, and by the end I was breathless. I was fortunate enough to get the pretty edition of this book that has royal blue end papers, which made the beautiful cover really stand out. I'd give this deluxe addition an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes romance and magic and dragons.

 

The Other Side of the Sky by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner is a YA romantasy that was overwritten and therefore overly long, with a very slow beginning that had lots of set up for world building. The whole book really wound up and shot out at velocity once it hit page 100, however, and from then on the plot was a runaway freight train. Here's the blurb: Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner prove they are two living goddesses of writing, creating two compelling worlds with high stakes and gripping emotions." —Sarah Rees Brennan, New York Times bestselling author of the Demon's Lexicon trilogy and the Lynburn Legacy series

New York Times bestselling author duo Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner have crafted a gripping tale of magic and logic, fate and choice, and a deadly love. Perfect for fans of Laini Taylor and Brandon Sanderson.

Prince North’s home is in the sky, in a gleaming city held aloft by intricate engines, powered by technology. Nimh is the living goddess of her people on the Surface, responsible for providing answers, direction—hope.

North’s and Nimh’s lives are entwined—though their hearts can never be. Linked by a terrifying prophecy and caught between duty and fate, they must choose between saving their people or succumbing to the bond that is forbidden between them.

North and Nimh are from two different sides of the world. North is from the scientifically advanced cloud dwellers (who have been told that there's little life on the unsustainable planet below) and Nimh is from the superstitious magic users who eek out a living on the surface of the planet, which is dying due to a climate that has been damaged beyond repair (we're never told by what...nuclear war? Advanced climate change? Its explained away by both sides as being "from the ancestors" who didn't seem to leave any information behind on how to fix both worlds). Nimh inherited the wisdom of what her society considers as Godhood, but she never gained the magical abilities of her predecessors, so she only has ritual to back her up as she makes her way to a library that holds the original book of prophecy for her people. Because Nimh is considered a Goddess, she isn't allowed to be touched by anyone, and therefore spends a lot of the book yearning to touch North, whom she falls for in a big way, just as he does her. While this makes for a fascinating premise, the prose plods more than a few times, and the cliffhanger ending was all wrong, and disappointing.  Therefore I'd give this long novel a B- and recommend it only to those Brandon Sanderson readers who don't mind wading through a lot of exposition.

 

The Woodsmoke Women's Book of Spells by Rachel Greenlaw is a contemporary magical fantasy with a romantic thread that holds the story together, and some very serious themes that are unexpected. Here's the blurb: This is a story of romance, broken friendship, and staying true to yourself under the weight of family obligations. This sweet tale with light magic will appeal to readers of Sarah Addison Allen and fans of the movie (and book) Practical Magic.” —Booklist

 

There is an old tale woven through the mountain town of Woodsmoke about a stranger who appears as the first snow falls in winter, who will disappear without a trace as the frost thaws in spring, leaving a broken heart behind.

Carrie Morgan ran from Woodsmoke ten years ago, and the decision has haunted her ever since. Spending a decade painting and drifting around Europe, she tries to forget her family’s legacy and the friends she left behind. But the Morgan women have always been able to harness the power of the mountains surrounding the town, and their spells—and curses—are sewn into the soil. The mountains, they say, never forget.

Sure enough, when Carrie’s grandmother dies and leaves behind her dilapidated cottage, she returns to renovate—certain she will only be there for one winter. She meets Matthieu as the temperature dips, a newcomer who offers to help refurbish the cottage. Before long, and despite warnings from her great-aunt Cora of the old stories, Carrie finds herself falling for the charming stranger. But when the frost thaws in spring, Matthieu goes missing.

Carrie is convinced he’s real, and he’s in danger. As she fights her way across the mountains to find him, she must confront all the reasons why she left Woodsmoke and decide whether the place she’s spent the last decade running from is the home she’s been searching for.

I was surprised by the serious tone to this novel, and the clear, hard prose that keeps the smooth and mysterious plot moving at lightening speed. Greenlaw keeps readers guessing as to whether Carrie has fallen in love with a spirit of the mountains or a real man. Her strange, guilt ridden and mentally unbalanced (I would call her crazy but that is not allowed nowadays) grandmother Cora and her grandfather make things twice as difficult for Carrie, as does her ex-best-friend Jess and her former beau, who married Jess after Carrie left Woodsmoke behind. There's lots of discussions of the mental and physical toll that guilt takes on people young and old, and it was no surprise to me that the older people died in the end. Though its been compared to the delightful works of Sarah Addison Allen and Alice Hoffman, I didn't get anywhere near the same joyous and freeing vibes out of this book as I do out of theirs. This book had just too many heavy and painful emotions to have any joy or fun in it. So I'd give it a C+ and only recommend it to those who like darker, serious novels with strange romantic through-lines.

Nonbinarian Books Opens in Brooklyn, Like Water for Chocolate Comes to TV, Reactions to Horrible 2024 Election, The Household Guide to Dying Movie, The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong, This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher, Red Winter by Annette Marie and The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig

Brrrr! Its a cold and rainy day here in the PNW, and I'm trying to stay warm and cozy while I read. I feel sorry for our local neighborhood kitty, Ben, who waited out in the cold rain this afternoon for me to open the door and give him scritches and feed him some treats. He protested his wet and cold paws for a bit before settling down for a nibble. Meanwhile, I've been, like most women, mourning the awful outcome of the election on Tuesday, and hoping that if we stand together, women will prevail over the horrors to come. Here are some reassuring tidbits and reviews for ya'all.

 

This sounds like a wonderfully inclusive bookstore, and I hope that if I do get to visit NYC, that this will be one of my stops on the "famous bookstores" tour.

 

The Nonbinarian Opening Brooklyn Bricks-and-Mortar Store Friday

The Nonbinarian https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVSAw-UI6a4zKxF0Hg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mTUsKtpoMLg-gVdw, a literary mutual-aid collective that distributes queer books, will open a bricks-and-mortar bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y., this Friday, the Brooklyn Paper reported.

The bookstore, which resides at 1130 President St. in Brooklyn's Crown

Heights neighborhood, debuted as a pop-up book-bike about two years ago.

In its bricks-and-mortar home it will sell new and used titles by queer

authors, with a variety of genres for all age groups represented, as

well as gift items & local goods.

Founder K. Kerimian and their team will also have a selection of

pay-what-you-can titles for those who cannot afford full-price books.

They plan to host a variety of community events and hope the store

becomes a gathering place.

Kerimian, who was the recipient of the 2022 Carla Gray Memorial

Scholarship for Emerging Bookseller-Activists, and worked at Greenlight

Bookstore and P&T Knitwear, told the Brooklyn Paper that they never

thought the mutual-aid, bike-based pop-up would ever have a physical

storefront, but volunteers and supporters advocated for the idea.

They said: "It's a real show of faith from the people who have been

foundational in building the Nonbinarian Book Bike that we've grown to

be ready to even consider a future beyond the bike as it is, that the

people around me saw something that I wasn't ready to see."

Kerimian also noted that the Nonbinarian has distributed books in the

neighborhood before, and is familiar with the community.

I loved this book, and I liked the movie, though I felt that they left a lot of the good stuff out. Lets hope that this new streaming version does the book justice.

 

TV: Like Water for Chocolate

The first episode of the HBO Original series Like Water for Chocolate

https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVSAwUI6a4zKxFyTg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mTUsKtpoMLg-gVdw, based on Laura Esquivel's

Mexican literary classic, made its debut this past Sunday, November 3,

on HBO Latino in the U.S. and is streaming globally on Max, with new

episodes dropping weekly. An original production from Warner Bros. Discovery, the six-episode series is produced by Salma Hayek Pinault's Ventanarosa Productions, Endemol Shine North America, and Endemol Shine Boomdog.

Author Jamie Ford, who lived in the PNW for years, has some great insight on how to survive in the aftermath of this horrible election. I also agree with the ABA CEO, that its important not to wallow in despair.

 

Reactions to 2024 Election

Author Jamie Ford https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVTZxLgI6a4zdxEgSw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mTC8XwpoMLg-gVdw posted: "When Trump won in 2016, I went to my local indie bookstore the next day. I just wanted to go to my happy place and was surprised at how many other people showed up for the same reason. I saw many friends there that day and we commiserated together. I'm planning on doing the same thing [this] afternoon."

And in Bookselling This Week yesterday, ABA CEO Allison Hill wrote to

members in part, "It would be easy to despair. But that's not what we're

going to do. ABA remains committed to our work on behalf of our members

because we believe deeply in the work of independent bookstores and in

the critical role they will play in what happens next in this country.

"Independent bookstores provide inclusive and affirming community

spaces; support access to books; ally with librarians and teachers;

ensure that people can see themselves reflected in books; champion the

right to read and the First Amendment; promote long-form reading that

fosters critical thinking; create opportunities for discourse; provide

alternatives to monopolies that limit consumer choice; and bring people

together. The work of independent bookstores matters more than ever.

"If your candidates won, hold them accountable and demand bipartisan

partnerships to accomplish what is needed for all people, small

businesses, and our country to thrive.

"If your candidates didn't win, take care of your mental health, keep

the faith, and connect with others. Find ways to support yourself and

the goals you hoped your candidate would achieve to ensure that all

people, small businesses, and our country thrive.

"We know today is a painful and divisive day for many, but election

results are not the end; they're the beginning. What matters most is

what we do next."

 

This looks like a fantastic movie that I'm anxious to see. Minnie Driver's an amazing actress who always brings to bear her full array of talent to every role.

 

Movies: The Household Guide to Dying

Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting) and Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy)

"are in talks to star" in Emma-Kate Croghan's (Love and Other

Catastrophes, Strange Planet) movie The Household Guide to Dying,

based on the book by Debra Adelaide, Deadline reported. The film marks

Australian director's return to features after a 25-year absence.

Ellen Wander of Film Bridge International is selling The Household Guide

to Dying at this week's American Film Market in Las Vegas. CAA Media

Finance and WME Independent are co-repping domestic. The film is being

produced by Leesa Kahn (Come Away) and Catriona Hughes (Kokoda: 39th

Battalion) of GFN Productions, as well as James Spring (Finding Your

Feet) of Fred Films.

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong is a cozy fantasy that is as soothing and delicious as a hot cup of tea on a chilly day. The prose is delightful and substantial enough to keep the long and winding road of the plot on course. Here's the blurb:

A wandering fortune teller finds an unexpected family in this warm and wonderful debut fantasy, perfect for readers of Travis Baldree and Sangu Mandanna.

Tao is an immigrant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells "small" fortunes: whether it will hail next week; which boy the barmaid will kiss; when the cow will calve. She knows from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences…

Even if it’s a lonely life, it’s better than the one she left behind. But a small fortune unexpectedly becomes something more when a (semi) reformed thief and an ex-mercenary recruit her into their desperate search for a lost child. Soon, they’re joined by a baker with a "knead" for adventure, and—of course—a slightly magical cat.

Tao starts down a new path with companions as big-hearted as her fortunes are small. But as she lowers her walls, the shadows of her past close in—and she’ll have to decide whether to risk everything to preserve the family she never thought she could have.

There's a lot of romance woven throughout the plot, and the characters are so well drawn that you almost feel that you could step into a local farmer's market and have Tao read your fortune. The story was so engrossing that I read it all the way through in 24 hours. I'm a big fan of character-driven tales, and though there's a really diverse cast here, I fell in love with most of them right away (they reminded me of the crew of the Liberator on Blake's 7, an old science fiction TV show from the 70s...there was the whiny thief, the big brawny guy who works with him, the gal with special powers and the outlier, the baker whose goods don't look enticing but taste wonderful, sort of a metaphor for everyone in the group who looks different on the outside than they are on the inside. The added mystery of finding the big guy's little daughter spices things up and keeps the characters focused until the HEA. I'd give this big hug of a book an A-, and recommend it to anyone who likes tales of travelers and fortune tellers and found family.

 

This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher is a strange yet humorous romantasy novel that reads like a fan-fiction version of the Princess Bride, though its not as well written. That's not to say that the prose is awful, it's not...the prose is bouncy and dances well with the zippy plot, until the end of the book, which sort of fell apart like a lollipop in a thunderstorm. Here's the blurb:

Former friends and former flames reunite on a mayhem-spike quest in this cozy romantasy perfect for readers of Legends & Lattes and lovers of Shrek.

TEN YEARS AGO, THEY SAVED THE REALM. IT RUINED THEIR LIVES.

Everyone in Mythria knows the story of how best friends Beatrice and Elowen, handsome ex-bandit Clare, and valiant leader Galwell the Great defended the realm from darkness. It’s a tale beloved by all—except the heroes. They haven’t spoken in a decade, devastated by what their quest cost them.

But when they all receive an invitation to the queen of Mythria’s wedding, it’s a summons they can’t refuse . . . and a reunion for the ages—with Clare secretly not over his long-ago fling with Beatrice, Beatrice fighting the guilt she feels over how everything ended, Elowen unprepared for the return of her ex-love (the cunning Vandra), and all of them lost without Galwell. And if reuniting with former friends and lovers wasn’t perilous enough, dark forces from their past have also returned.

Dusting off old weapons and old instincts, Beatrice, Clare, and Elowen will face undead nemeses, crystal caves, enchanted swords, coffee shops, games of magical Truth or Dare, and, hardest of all, their past—rife with wounds never healed and romances never forgotten.

This time around, will their story end in happily ever after?

The first third of this book was great fun, lots of banter, etc, and even the armchair psychology wasn't too annoying, until it became apparent that no one edited the book for redundancies. So readers have to hear about the trauma, grief and pain of each main character, over and over and over again, which became tedious. The final third of the book descended into the ridiculous, with a fan service revitalization of a dead character via a magical power that we didn't even know about until just then. Why bring back a dead character and expect no consequences to the timeline? Has no one of the three people who wrote this book (book by committee, I should have known that it would end badly) ever watch Star Trek, or any of the spin-offs, especially DS9? The temporal or time police would have been all over this book. I won't go into detail and spoil it for you, but I would recommend taking the last part of the book with a grain of salt. That's why I'd give it a B-, and only recommend it as a kind of "beach read" that you don't take too seriously.

 

Red Winter by Annette Marie is a dramatic YA Japanese fantasy novel that you can almost see as a movie playing in your head as you read it. It has Japanese folk legends woven throughout it, and many beautiful descriptions of life in a town populated by spirits and gods, creatures and familiars. Here's the blurb:

Emi is the kamigakari. In a few short months, her life as a mortal will end and her new existence as the human host of a goddess will begin. Carefully hidden from those who would destroy her, she has prepared her mind, body, and soul to unite with the goddess—and not once has she doubted her chosen fate.

Shiro is a yokai, a spirit of the earth, an enemy of the goddess Emi will soon host. Mystery shrouds his every move and his ruby eyes shine with cunning she can’t match and dares not trust. But she saved his life, and until his debt is paid, he is hers to command—whether she wants him or not.

On the day they meet, everything Emi believes comes undone, swept away like snow upon the winter wind. For the first time, she wants to change her fate—but how can she erase a destiny already wrought in stone? Against the power of the gods, Shiro is her only hope … and hope is all she has left.

I loved Shiro the cursed Kitsune, and the Raven and crow people's ability to shapeshift back and forth. Though there were gorgeous illustrations throughout, I wish that this book would have been done up in comic book/anime/manga style, so I could see the dramatic showdowns and battles, as well as Emi's beautiful costumes. Of course, being the first book in the series, we're left at the end wondering what happened to Shiro and his beaded armband that keeps him from utilizing his powers. Hopefully Emi will be able to remove them in the next book. Due to this being a book set in the past in Japan, Emi is a passive and often "demure" or wimpy character who waits for others to help her or deal with her problems, because she perceives herself as a weak female. But she is determined to do the right thing anyway, and that redeems her character for me. I'd give this book a B, and recommend it to anyone fascinated by Japanese legends and stories.

 

The Thirteenth Child by Erin A Craig is and engrossing, beautifully written fantasy that has sumptuous prose and fascinating characters. Here's the blurb: All gifts come with a price.
Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive.

When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick.

But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death?

From the astonishing mind of Erin A. Craig comes the breathtaking fairy tale retelling readers have been waiting for— what does a life well-lived mean, and how do we justify the impossible choices we make for the ones we love? The Thirteenth Child is a must-read for fans of dark fairy tales, romantasy, and epic fantasy alike. 

 

Though it's dark or gothic fantasy, this book never falls into horror territory, thankfully, and I loved how focused the plot was on the beauty of life in contrast to the finality of death. I cried at the end, which I almost never do, and though it clocked in at nearly 500 pages, for once I felt that it was worth the ink, to read of Hazel's miraculous journey through her extraordinary life. The physical book itself is gloriously designed and has elegant end papers that will call to those who love looking at a well designed book. I'd give it a healthy A, and recommend this book to anyone who enjoys stories with heart and soul.