YAY! It's May! The "lusty month of May" if you're a fan of the Camelot movie musical (which I am). It's already warming up outside and the sun is shining several days a week, which is quite a feat for gray and rainy Seattle...so warm welcome, Book dragons, to another edition of my book review blog. By the end of the year, I should be within spitting distance of one thousand posts! But I'm still undecided as to whether to retire the blog at that point or continue on. Meanwhile, though, here are some tidbits from the increasingly scary world of bookselling in America.
That Jeff Bezos is enough of a scoundrel to actually try and tank Indie Bookstore Day is not a surprise, what is a surprise is that so few people seem angry about such a sh*tty move to line his already bulging pockets with money.
Amazon
"Accidentally" Plans Book Sale Event At Same Time as
Independent Bookstore Day
This
Saturday was Independent Bookstore Day, a truly fun day to be a book
person with access to, and affinity for, an independent bookstore. On
April 15th, Amazon announced a week-long "book sale event"
that included the 26th. Several
folks were not pleased about this .
And I can understand why of course. Amazon says that it was
unintentional, though of course if you are an indie bookstore this
rings pretty hollow. So either it was intentional…or it wasn’t.
To my mind, either is a bad look for Amazon: either they new the
optics would be bad and just wanted to flex anyway or it didn’t
understand that the optics would be bad. (The Machiavellian move
would have been to have it the week before Independent Bookstore Day
to pull forward any marginal book-buying dollars and claim "we
didn’t want to detract from the indies!").
This is true, IA City is an iconic town, an aisle of wonderful strangeness in the middle of a conservative state. My father, a lifelong Democrat who was born and raised on an Iowa farm, got his master's degree from U of IA, and though they're famed for their Writer's Workshop, I felt that I had to get out of Iowa to discover myself and see the rest of America.
“Poetry
City”: Iowa City, Iowa
A
pretty interesting city-profile of Iowa City –which
I will cede without protest as the most literary city in the U.S. on
a per capita basis (1000 writers out of 75,000 citizens. Park Slope
could never). It is also smack dab in the middle of Iowa, which like
the rest of the Midwest has gotten red (and redder) over the last few
decades. I grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, the home of the University of
Kansas, which enjoys/endures a similar status as an oasis of
strangeness for its state. Iowa City is iconic, but dozens and dozens
of college-towns provide precious incubation and respite for people
who think and exist differently. We’re lucky to have them, and we
should not take them for (land) granted.
I love that Canadian bookstores banded together for their Indie Bookstore Day, despite the despot from DC hanging colonization over their heads.
Canadian
Independent Bookstore Day: 'Yesterday Felt Like One Giant Hug'
Canadian Independent Bookstore Day was
also held on Saturday, with
more than 200 indies participating. Led
by the Canadian Independent
Booksellers Association, CIBD invited
"readers, writers, illustrators,
publishers, and others to support and
advocate for independent
businesses and a flourishing
bookselling community, while investing in
Canadian culture."
This year, CIBA commissioned artwork
from Canadian artist and
illustrator Jose Bisaillon to help
celebrate CIBD, describing
the illustration as "a bright and
dynamic ode to the role that indies
play in their communities."
"Canadian Independent Bookstore
Day is a joyful celebration of readers,
reading, and local bookstores,"
said Laura Carter, CIBA's executive
director. "What better way to
spend a Saturday than in a bustling
bookstore, surrounded by your
community, sharing the love of books and
the connections they create?"
I'm really looking forward to this movie, as I LOVED the book, which focused on an oft-neglected group of people, Senior Citizens who are still able-bodied and have minds as sharp as a tack. Plus, anything with Helen Mirren in it has to be a winner.
Movies:
The Thursday Murder Club
Netflix has released a premiere date
and set of first-look photos for
The Thursday Murder Club, based on
Richard Osman's bestselling 2020 novel and directed by Chris
Columbus, Deadline reported. The film, starring Helen Mirren, Pierce
Brosnan, Celia Imrie, and Ben Kingsley, will premiere August 28.
The latest film to be produced through
a partnership between Netflix and
Amblin Entertainment, the project's
cast also features Naomi Ackie,
Daniel Mays, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Tom
Ellis, Jonathan Pryce, David
Tennant, Paul Freeman, Geoff Bell,
Richard E. Grant, and Ingrid Oliver.
I love that Backman found out that teenagers are going back to basics and reading real, physical copies of books. Good for them, and even better for future generations.
Quotation
of the Day
'The Young People Are Taking Everything
Over Now, and It's Going to Be Great'
"When writing My Friends--when I
was really stuck and struggling with my
confidence--I went with my 12-year-old
daughter to The English Bookshop in Stockholm. It was a Saturday, it
was freezing cold outside, and the place was absolutely PACKED with
teenagers. They were all insanely passionate about books I'd never
heard about. My daughter went on and on about book genres I didn't
even know existed. Then all of a sudden, one young woman asked a
staff member, 'Do you have White Nights by Dostoevsky?'
"I remember standing there in this
small indie bookshop just thinking,
'Whoever is saying young people don't
read anymore is out of their
goddamn minds.' Whenever I feel lost in
the industry part of the book
industry, I think about that Saturday.
The young people are taking
everything over now, and it's going to
be great."--Fredrik Backman, whose novel My Friends (Atria
Books) is the #1 May Indie Next List pick
Speaking of Backman, his latest novel sounds like a winner, and I am looking forward to reading it. I've read most of his backlist, and really enjoyed about 3/4 of them. I hope to add My Friends to the list.
B&N's
May Book Club Pick: My Friends
Barnes & Noble has chosen My
Friends by Fredrik Backman as its May national book
club pick. In a live virtual event on Friday, May 23, at 3 p.m. Eastern, Backman will be
in conversation with Lexie Smyth,category manager for fiction at B&N
and Brenda Allison, frontlist buyer at B&N.
B&N described the book this way:
"My Friends, the newest novel from the
author of A Man Called Ove, follows
four teens who forged a bond that
neither time nor circumstance has ever
broken. The story unfolds in
alternating timelines between present
day and twenty-five years ago, the
summer one of our teenage protagonists
created what would become his
most famous piece of artwork. Backman
has once again masterfully penned
a tale of loveable, flawed and fully
realized characters in search of
connection. You will laugh, you will
cry, and you will want to stretch
this read out beyond the last page."
*One
word answer: NO*
Do
We Really Need More Male Novelists?
Ella
Creamer asks this question over at The
Guardian .
You may have heard word of Conduit Books, a new indie press that will
initially focus on publishing literary fiction and memoir by male
authors. Jude Cook, the novelist and critic behind Conduit, is going
this direction because he sees male authors as "often
overlooked" in a publishing landscape correcting for years of
male domination and awareness of toxic masculinity in literature.
What Creamer accomplishes in this piece is to point out that the data
behind the publishing rates and success of male novelists doesn’t
offer a clear enough picture to make my eyes go saucer-sized with
recognition of a real problem. I came away from the article with the
same belief I had going in: men aren’t reading as many novels as
women. I don’t want to rehash the men aren’t reading discourse of
earlier this year, but you
can explore it at Vox.
Also, in a blog post from the National Endowment for the Arts, Sunil
Iyengar reports these numbers,
"In 2017, the share of women reading novels or short stories was
down to 50.0 percent, and, in 2022, to 46.9 percent. Men readers saw
their fiction-reading rate slip from 35.1 percent in 2012 to 33.0
percent in 2017 and then to 27.7 percent in 2022." I recommend
reading
the full article at The
Guardian
if just for the choice quotes from authors and publishing
professionals.
Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood is a cozy romantasy, produced with adorable cover art and infused with a lingering sweetness that could make it something of a page turner for those who love easy reading. Here's the blurb: In this spellbinding warm and cozy debut
novel, a burned-out witch will need to turn to her friends and trust in
herself to find the magic in her own life again.
Belladonna Blackthorn hasn’t lost her magical spark, precisely . . . but she hasn’t seen it in a while either.
With her witchcraft under wraps and a toxic boss making her days miserable, Belle is struggling to keep her beloved Lunar Books afloat and just make it through the day. The last thing she has time for is perfecting her magic.
So when her thirtieth birthday brings a summons from her coven and a trial that tests her worthiness as a witch, Belle fears the worst. With only the month of October left to prove herself or risk losing her magic forever, Belle will need all the help she can get—from the women in her life, from an unlikely mentor figure and even from an infuriating coven watchman who’s sworn to protect her.
Belladonna Blackthorn hasn’t lost her magical spark, precisely . . . but she hasn’t seen it in a while either.
With her witchcraft under wraps and a toxic boss making her days miserable, Belle is struggling to keep her beloved Lunar Books afloat and just make it through the day. The last thing she has time for is perfecting her magic.
So when her thirtieth birthday brings a summons from her coven and a trial that tests her worthiness as a witch, Belle fears the worst. With only the month of October left to prove herself or risk losing her magic forever, Belle will need all the help she can get—from the women in her life, from an unlikely mentor figure and even from an infuriating coven watchman who’s sworn to protect her.
This book mostly concerns itself with Belle growing out of her immature insecurities and into a strong sense of self and a spine for creating magic and unapologetic mayhem. I loved that her fight against corporate bullying and capitalist "bottom-lining" was successful, and she was able to save her magical bookshop, an oasis of beauty and joy amidst the cynicism of the city for not just her own soul, but for the souls of all the readers and dreamers around her. I've always felt that bookstores and libraries were like churches, in that you could go in depleted and come out refreshed and rejuvenated. The prose was straightforward and the plot meandering in the most lovely way. I'd give this delightful ebook an A- and recommend it to anyone who feels that there's not enough magic in todays corporate world.
The Scarlet Veil by Shelby Mahurin is a YA romantasy that, while in need of a good editor to purge at least 200 pages from its hefty but lovely frame, is still a ripping good yarn, full of action and humor and dark romance (meaning that the male protagonist is a creepy otherworldly vampire, which is somehow thought to be sexy in the years since the breakout publication of the Twilight series and its sparkling undead). Here's the blurb: I just do not get books that provide mostly female YA readers with a dominating male protagonist, steeped in toxic masculinity, who infantilizes the female protagonist and gets away with what would be, under other circumstances, pedophilia.
Gross. What does that say about us as a society and culture that we're encouraging young women to find old dead men sexy and viable as partners? Celie comes off as not too bright, and her often petty behavior somehow ends up working to move the plot along toward a bizarre conclusion. I'd give this well written but labyrinthine plotted novel a B, and recommend it to those who find vampire romances exciting.
Isola by Allegra Goodman is a historical literary fiction novel that was a Reese's Book Club pick last year. It's a gripping survival story that had me laughing and crying for the protagonist as she fights for her life under harsh circumstances both within and without civilization. Here's the blurb: “A new generation of survival story . . . an
extraordinary book that reads like a thriller, written with the care of
the most delicate psychological and historical fiction.”
A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this “lushly painted” historical epic of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.
Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. That journey takes a unexpected turn when Marguerite, accused of betrayal, is brutally punished and abandoned on a small island.
Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.
Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.
A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this “lushly painted” historical epic of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.
Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. That journey takes a unexpected turn when Marguerite, accused of betrayal, is brutally punished and abandoned on a small island.
Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.
Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.
What was most interesting about this story was that it reminded me, former history major, that women were especially devout about religion in centuries past, calling on God as a father figure to save them from hard situations because that was what they'd been raised to do...men, holy or not, were protectors and saviors, while women were expected to be gentle and motherly and passive (and basically useless unless they were born to the working class of peasants). Reputation was a huge deal, as was virginity before marriage. So when Marguerite finds herself stranded on an island with her lover/husband after her cruel and greedy guardian takes all of her money and spends it on his own enterprises (and tries to control her into being his own mistress, which, since he's been her guardian since childhood is just creepy AF), she relies on her beloved to kill animals for them to eat and provide shelter for their survival. After her husband dies, as does her child, and she nearly succumbs to starvation, Marg rallies and finds ways to hunt and preserve her own food and tan the animal hides to keep herself from freezing to death. Because she had her nurse/nanny/grandmother replacement with her for most of her journey, she relies on the lessons taught by Damienne to help her survive. Unfortunately, once Damienne dies of old age and starvation/exposure, its as if she never existed, and I don't think that her character got her due for being the one who raised Marg and taught her everything she knew about coping in harsh conditions. But this story, though it's based on reality, is amazing, I found myself longing for retribution for Marg after all she'd been through. I'd give this page turner an A, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in historical survival stories.
Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy is an LGBTQ romantasy novel that is by turns sweet and salty, and has some truly fine banter/dialog between the main characters, which will keep readers turning pages until the wee hours. Here's the blurb: From debut author Maiga Doocy comes the
charming tale of an impulsive sorcerer and his curmudgeonly rival as
they venture deep into a magical forest in search of a counterspell that
can break the curse between them—only to discover that magic might not
be the only thing pulling them together.
Leovander Loveage is a master of small magics. He can summon butterflies with a song or turn someone’s hair pink by snapping his fingers. Though such minor charms don’t earn him much respect, anything more elaborate always blows up in his face, and so Leo vowed long ago never to use powerful magic again.
That is, until a mishap with a forbidden spell binds Leo to obey the commands of his longtime rival, Sebastian Grimm. Grimm is Leo’s complete opposite—respected, exceptionally talented, and absolutely insufferable. The only thing they can agree on is that revealing the curse between them would mean the end of their respective magical careers. They need a counterspell, and fast.
Leovander Loveage is a master of small magics. He can summon butterflies with a song or turn someone’s hair pink by snapping his fingers. Though such minor charms don’t earn him much respect, anything more elaborate always blows up in his face, and so Leo vowed long ago never to use powerful magic again.
That is, until a mishap with a forbidden spell binds Leo to obey the commands of his longtime rival, Sebastian Grimm. Grimm is Leo’s complete opposite—respected, exceptionally talented, and absolutely insufferable. The only thing they can agree on is that revealing the curse between them would mean the end of their respective magical careers. They need a counterspell, and fast.
I loved the Grimm/Loveage pairing, because grumpy hardworking guy from a farming background vs wastrel nobility who spends his time and energy on pranks and drinking is a classic romantic trope, and here its done with deft prose and paragraphs of witty dialog that I couldn't get enough of. I also appreciated the couple's journey, and their encounters with other magic practitioners and wild magic animals outside the confines of their safe university and homes. I must admit that I didn't really like Leo, who is supposedly charming and beautiful enough that people overlook his crappy behavior (they actually overlook it because he's a rich noble son), but I found him to be a sh*tty person and an even worse friend, who puts others in danger without a second thought, as long as it serves him well. The fact that he's matured out of his mostly idiotic behavior by the end of the book doesn't account for his nasty past antics, which he is never held accountable or responsible for...just like in actual society, when ultra rich young scions aren't held accountable for their reprehensible actions, since they can afford good lawyers to buy people's silence. UGH. Makes my blood boil. Anyway, thankfully Grimm is not a dickhead, and the glimpses we get of his life are cozy and wonderful. I'd give this elegantly written and expertly plotted novel an A, and recommend it to anyone who loves LGBTQ sexy/spicy romances in a magical setting.
No comments:
Post a Comment