Heya Fellow Book Friends! It's already nearly the end of the first full week of August, and it has been somewhat harrowing, as an old friend's father just passed and my deceased father's birthday was August 1. He would have been 92. So there's been a lot of sadness and reflection, in addition to reading a number of books, because we've had to cancel our cable TV subscription, (groceries and gas are so expensive we've had to cut corners), so there will be no more programs recorded on the DVR. Myself and my husband will have to rely on streaming services to watch specific programs, like Strange New Worlds, or Oldies like Lost in Space on METV or Paramount Plus. But that is okay, I can always go on a reading jag for a month or two until the dust settles. Here are some tidbits and reviews for you all.
What a great idea to get more people reading! I wish they'd thought of this when I was in my 20s and 30s!
Gen
Z Hooks Up with "Read Dating"
Gen
Z has become so bored
of dating apps
(Boda) that some of them have even created a business named after
their ennui. The startup began hosting IRL dating events in
bookstores in New York in 2023, and now they’ve taken the trend
across the pond. Ceci Brown recounts her
experience at a "read dating" event
where attendees were instructed to bring a book inscribed with their
contact info to share with someone they wanted to get to know better.
It sounds exactly as cute and much less awkward than you might
expect.
Though I've read the books and seen the movies, I somehow can't imagine how Katniss' story will play out on the stage. Should be exciting.
On
Stage: The Hunger Games
Mia Carragher (One Night in Istanbul,
The Gathering) will star as
Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games:
On Stage, the live stage production adapted by playwright Conor
McPherson from Suzanne Collins's first novel in the bestselling
series, Variety reported. She joins a cast that includes Euan Garrett
as Peeta Mellark and Joshua Lacey (All the Old Knives) as Haymitch Abernathy.
"I'm really excited to play
Katniss. I relate to her quite a lot,"
Carragher said in the video clip via
Instagram. "I
think she's very fearless, but then
she's also got that nurturing
quality about her. Everyone needs to
come and watch The Hunger Games: On Stage because it's going to be
nothing like you've ever seen."
Dunster said: "We searched far and
wide, and comprehensively, for our
Katniss. It is not easy to step into
Suzanne Collins' amazing creation
and only one actor combined Katniss'
charisma and combat skills--her
quiet, tough determination and her
brilliant creativity, athleticism and
humor. We've found our Katniss in Mia
Carragher, and we can't wait for
audiences to see her."
I'm a big Scalzi fan, and I got this message from Goodreads about his latest book, and it was so warm and funny that I had to share it. Gotta love this wonderful science fiction author...he never disappoints.
A
Goodreads Message from John Scalzi
|
I sincerely hope that this partnership will keep their stories alive, and ensure that future generations have access to accurate information about the history of WWII and the Holocaust.
Baker
& Taylor Publisher Services to Sell and Distribute Yad Vashem
Baker & Taylor Publisher Services
will handle sales and distribution in
the U.S. and Canada for Yad Vashem, the
World Holocaust Remembrance
Center, effective immediately.
Yad Vashem, located in Jerusalem, is
dedicated to preserving the memory of the victims of the Holocaust as
well as to Holocaust research, documentation, and education. Yad
Vashem has an expanding book publishing program with more than 700
titles that includes research studies, memoirs, documents, albums,
and diaries related to the Holocaust. About half of its titles are
available in English.
"Books are at the heart of what we
do at Yad Vashem--telling the stories
of Holocaust victims, paying tribute to
the survivors, and conveying the
accurate history of this cataclysmic
juncture in time," Yad Vashem
marketing director Susan Weisberg said.
"There is no question in my mind
that we are beginning a mutually
beneficial partnership that will
provide Yad Vashem an outlet for
expanding its audience and promoting
our goal of disseminating accurate
knowledge about the Holocaust."
Play For Me by Libby Hubscher is a delightful romcom that touches all of the bases of a good romantic beach read...grumpy guy vs sweet optimist woman? Check. Damaged guy is "healed" by expertise of optimist woman? Check check! Brooding and dickish guy falls in love with optimist woman, despite his disinclination toward relationships due to his "brokenness"? Checkarooni! HEA where woman gives up her career dreams to be wife and mother of jerkface's children (which she didn't want before she met him, of course) Inevitable Check! Here's the blurb: Though this is almost a paint-by-numbers rom-com, and if you've read any romance novels in the last 35 years, you know where this plane's going to land, I would still give this funny book a B, and recommend it to anyone who likes baseball and/or classical music. The prose was slick and the plot engrossing enough to keep me turning pages until the wee hours. Just try to ignore the Hallmark Channel level of misogyny, and read it anyway.
The Busybody Book Club by Freya Sampson is a cozy mystery with a host of quirky, fascinating characters and a plot that has more twists and turns than a garden labyrinth. Here's the blurb: They can’t even agree on what to read, so how are they going to solve a murder?
Having recently moved from London to a small Cornish seaside village, Nova Davies started a book club at the local community center, but so far it’s a disaster. The five members disagree on everything, and to make matters worse, a significant sum of money is stolen during one of the meetings, putting the much-loved community center at risk.
Suspicion for the theft falls on book club member Michael, especially when he disappears and a dead body turns up at his house. But the book club has their own theories. Agatha Christie superfan Phyllis is determined to prove Michael’s been framed, while romance reader Arthur believes there’s a mystery woman involved, and teenage sci-fi fan Ash thinks dark forces are at play.
While trying to locate Michael, solve the murder and recover the stolen money, each of them has their own secrets to protect. But despite the danger closing in, they won’t rest until they’ve cracked the case and gotten everyone safe at home with a book, where they belong.
Having recently moved from London to a small Cornish seaside village, Nova Davies started a book club at the local community center, but so far it’s a disaster. The five members disagree on everything, and to make matters worse, a significant sum of money is stolen during one of the meetings, putting the much-loved community center at risk.
Suspicion for the theft falls on book club member Michael, especially when he disappears and a dead body turns up at his house. But the book club has their own theories. Agatha Christie superfan Phyllis is determined to prove Michael’s been framed, while romance reader Arthur believes there’s a mystery woman involved, and teenage sci-fi fan Ash thinks dark forces are at play.
While trying to locate Michael, solve the murder and recover the stolen money, each of them has their own secrets to protect. But despite the danger closing in, they won’t rest until they’ve cracked the case and gotten everyone safe at home with a book, where they belong.
Due to Sampson's high quality prose, I could picture each member of the book club as I was reading the book, especially the hilariously crabby and suspicious Phyllis and her stinky old farting dog Craddock. Nova was too wimpy and cowardly for my taste, especially as the female protagonist, and she relied on everyone else to help her do things she should have been able to do herself, as a fully grown woman. Still, this is a zingy short novel that is loads of fun, and I'd give it a B+, and recommend it to anyone who likes small town character-driven mysteries.
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel is a historical mystery/romance full of lush prose and beautifully designed by Gallery Books. I was not expecting the high quality prose or the sparkling plot, because a lot of historical fiction novelists just phone it in, while info-dumping all their historical research ad nauseum. Having read other books she's written, I was surprised by Harmel's elegantly rendered characters and her sweeping story that entrances readers immediately, starting on page 1. Here's the blurb: Kristin Harmel returns with an electrifying new novel about two jewel thieves, a
priceless bracelet that disappears in 1940s Paris, and a quest for
answers in a decades-old murder.
Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, Annabel: take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance.
But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette’s four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an exquisite diamond bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown for safekeeping. Soon after, Annabel was executed, and Liliane’s body was found floating in the Seine—but the bracelet was nowhere to be found.
Seventy years later, Colette—who has “redistributed” $30 million in jewels over the decades to fund many worthy organizations—has done her best to put her tragic past behind her, but her life begins to unravel when the long-missing bracelet suddenly turns up in a museum exhibit in Boston. If Colette can discover where it has been all this time—and who owns it now—she may finally learn the truth about what happened to her sister. But she isn’t the only one for whom the bracelet holds answers, and when someone from her childhood lays claim to the diamonds, she’s forced to confront the ghosts of her past as never before. Against all odds, there may still be a chance to bring a murderer to justice—but first, Colette will have to summon the courage to open her own battered heart.
Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, Annabel: take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance.
But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette’s four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an exquisite diamond bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown for safekeeping. Soon after, Annabel was executed, and Liliane’s body was found floating in the Seine—but the bracelet was nowhere to be found.
Seventy years later, Colette—who has “redistributed” $30 million in jewels over the decades to fund many worthy organizations—has done her best to put her tragic past behind her, but her life begins to unravel when the long-missing bracelet suddenly turns up in a museum exhibit in Boston. If Colette can discover where it has been all this time—and who owns it now—she may finally learn the truth about what happened to her sister. But she isn’t the only one for whom the bracelet holds answers, and when someone from her childhood lays claim to the diamonds, she’s forced to confront the ghosts of her past as never before. Against all odds, there may still be a chance to bring a murderer to justice—but first, Colette will have to summon the courage to open her own battered heart.
If you liked the movie "Monuments Men" you will love this delicious tale of jewel thieves and Holocaust survivors getting back items that were stolen from them by the avaricious Nazis. I'd give this riveting tale an A, and recommend it to anyone interested in jewels and the history of art stolen from Jews during WWII.
The Knight and The Moth by Rachel Gillig is a gothic historical romantasy novel that has garnered a ton of good ink from websites to videos to print media. I was expecting to be WOWed by it, and I was underwhelmed by this misogynistic, horror-centric novel of pedophiles and young women being victimized by their impoverished circumstances. Here's the over-hyped blurb: From New York Times bestselling
author Rachel Gillig comes the next big romantasy sensation, a gothic,
mist-cloaked tale of a young prophetess forced on an impossible quest
with the one knight whose future is beyond her sight. Perfect for fans
of Jennifer L. Armentrout and Leigh Bardugo.
Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.
Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.
Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.
Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.
So, just to save you time and heartache, turns out that there are no actual Gods, and all the girls who age-out of being Diviners are dead. Their mother abbess is actually a horribly greedy woman who is just using these orphan girls for the money that they bring in, and once they're no good to her anymore, they're murdered. This, after 10 years each girl spends being drowned repeatedly for the sake of prophecy and then brought back to tell people of their omens. There's not even a good ending, as the duplicitous boy-king forces Sybil, the last Diviner, to become his bride to help legitimize his reign, though he knows about the background of the false gods, and only got her to agree to this arrangement by coercion and manipulation (including removing her pet gargoyle from her side). So, to recap, misery at the beginning, in the middle, and destruction and pain at the end. I can't think of a more depressing novel that has so little to say that shines a light on the human condition. It's a condemnation of religion, to be sure, but beyond that this gruesome tale deserves none of the accolades it has garnered. I'd give it a C, and that is only because the prose is fine, and manages to make the painful plot bearable.
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