Iowa Bookstore's Food Fundraiser, Obit for Jim Hamilton of Forbidden Planet, Don't Let The Devil Ride on TV, Wuthering Heights Movie, Quote of the Day, Sheraton Boston's Goodnight Moon Suite, Queen Esther by John Irving, Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree, Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson, and the Locksmith's Daughter by Karen Brooks

Hola amigos and amigas, it's the third week of November, and its been a hell of a month, healthwise and otherwise. So I am behind in my posts, and for that I apologize, but it couldn't be helped. But today I will rectify that situation with some news and reviews from the book world, or at least my corner of it. Keep cozy and keep reading, fellow book lovers!

 

This is a great idea, and I notice that more stores and communities are banding together to bolster food bank resources for all the people affected by our current fascist POTUS's draconian policies that are removing food stamp benefits and social security benefits and other programs (such as free school lunches) from the poorest people in our society, all so mega rich asshats can get a tax break on their billions. Thank heaven there are caring people out there who are helping prevent starvation in the supposedly richest nation on earth. Good for you, Iowa bookstores...now if you'd just quit voting for evil, lying dictators!

 

Cool Idea: Iowa Bookstores' Food Nonprofit Fundraiser

HEA Book Boutique and Swamp Fox Bookstore hosted a book swap.

On Sunday, in reaction to the administration's efforts to halt SNAP food

benefits for more than 40 million people, five Iowa bookstores banded

together to raise funds for HACAP, a nonprofit and member of Feeding America that serves nine counties in eastern Iowa.

HEA Book Boutique and Swamp Fox Bookstore hosted a book swap at Lowe Park in Marion, where for $15 readers could swap up to five gently loved books and shop with the stores as well as with the Green Dragon Bookshop, in Fort Dodge, Perennial Pages Bookshoppe, Ackley,

and Sisters Books and Nooks, Cedar Rapids. Once all rental fees were covered, profits were donated to HACAP. More than 70 people attended the event, and more than $900 was raised for HACAP.

In a related note, yesterday the New York Times reported at length on

the independent bookstores that are collecting food for Americans whose food assistance is being threatened by the administration. The Times wrote in part, "Independent bookstores have long operated as hubs for activism and community service. In recent years, some stores have increasingly waded into political and social issues by conducting voter registration drives, sending free books to L.G.B.T.Q. prison inmates and distributing emergency contraceptives to women in states where abortion access has been restricted. Dozens of bookstores have rallied around the issue of food insecurity in recent weeks, according to the American Booksellers Association."

RIP Mr Hamilton! Forbidden Planet is an iconic bookstore.

 

Obituary Note: Jim Hamilton 

Jim Hamilton, co-owner of Forbidden Planet International and Forbidden Planet Glasgow, died November 9. He was 67. Bleeding Cool reported that Hamilton and Kenny Penman had been the owners of Science Fiction Bookshop in Edinburgh, Scotland, which opened under previous owners in 1975 and was purchased by them in 1985. The first Forbidden Planet, founded by Nick Landau, Mike Lake, and Mike Luckman, launched in 1978 as a small store on Denmark Street, then relocated to larger premises.

The original partners then teamed with Hamilton and Penman to open other

stores around the country, "expanding Forbidden Planet out and making it

the first British proper chain of stores," Bleeding Cool wrote. In 1992

and 1993, the original chain split into two firms--Forbidden Planet and

Forbidden Planet Scotland, later renamed Forbidden Planet International.

Hamilton had remained prominent since, especially in the running and

recent relaunch of Forbidden Planet Glasgow.

Penman, his business partner for more than 40 years, wrote to staff:

"Both Jim and I came from pretty ordinary working class backgrounds, and

despite not coming from wealthy families both had happy childhoods a big

part of which was the escapism of the cheapest form of entertainment

going--comics. It was our first passion, and for both of us, it never

waned as we grew Forbidden Planet from one little shop on the

backstreets of Edinburgh. We were a partnership; I had perhaps more of a

business head, but Jim knew comics like no one else, and he was always

the one guiding the product mix....

"When we started out, our ambition was that Science Fiction Bookshop

would be the shop Jim, as a fan and collector, wanted to shop in. We

worked hard to achieve that over the years, and I know he was very proud

of the amazing shop that is our Glasgow store. There were always new

things to be doing, but I think he felt we had nearly achieved what he

set out to do, and more, by bringing all sorts of new fans into the

fold, with the Sauchiehall St branch. If there was one thing we can all

do to remember Jim, I think he would be more than happy if, by our love

and application, we finally perfected his vision."

This sounds fascinating, and I can't wait to stream it on one of the streaming platforms we subscribe to at my house.

 

TV: Don't Let the Devil Ride

Tomorrow Studios (The Better Sister, One Piece) has acquired the novel

Don't Let the Devil Ride by Ace Atkins, which will be adapted for TV by

award-winning showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker (Marvel's Luke Cage).

The story: "Addison McKellar thought she knew the man she

married--charming, successful Dean McKellar--until he vanished. Fearing

the worst, she hires private investigator Porter Hayes, an old friend of

her father and a legend in Memphis. As Hayes starts pulling at loose

threads Addison's entire life unravels. Her husband's prosperous

construction firm? It doesn't exist. Instead, her easy, affluent

lifestyle is funded by blood money from Dean's shadowy international

mercenary firm--and she doesn't even know his real name."

This also sounds intriguing, and I've often wondered why there aren't more modern adaptations of the Bronte sisters works.

 

Movies: Wuthering Heights

Warner Bros has released an official trailer for Wuthering Heights,

writer-director Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Emily Brontes

gothic romance novel. Deadline reported that the film, starring Margot

Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, "is gearing

up for a Valentine's Weekend 2026 premiere in theaters."

The cast also includes Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin

Clunes, and Ewan Mitchell. Fennell wrote, directed, and produces. Robbie

produces through her LuckyChap Entertainment, marking the production

company's third collaboration with Fennell (Saltburn, Promising Young

Woman).

This is true! Indie Bookstores are amazing community hubs of information and education.

Quotation of the Day

"The independent bookstores, their superpower is that they can make the

store whatever they want, they can stock whatever they want. And when

you think about the market as a whole, that creates incredible diversity

in stock and books and displays and experiences in bookstores. When we

homogenize it, what we have instead is something that looks really

sterile.

"Bookstores are currently building their capacity to be centers that

activate their communities and keep their communities informed about

issues like the freedom to read, like the banks skimming off the top of

transactions, and so much more. What we're doing right now is building

this network of independent bookstores into a political force that I

know can have a clear voice and stand up for the issues that impact

them."--Philomena Polefrone, associate director of American Booksellers for Free Expression

I would LOVE to stay in the Goodnight Moon Suite! Complete with a bowl full of mush (What is mush? Is it like cream of wheat?). I imagine it will be very cozy and a wonderful way to get into Margaret Wise Brown's world. I bet there are millions of children who, like myself, grew up hearing their mothers read them Goodnight Moon at bedtime.

 

Cool Idea: Sheraton Boston Hotel's Goodnight Moon Suite

Sheraton Hotels has teamed up with HarperCollins, publishers of the

beloved children's book Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown,

illustrated by Clement Hurd, to re-create the book's iconic bedroom in a

suite at the newly renovated Sheraton Boston Hotel.

Available through February 2026, the suite is designed for guests of all

ages, who "can actually step inside the book's whimsical world," House

Beautiful reported, adding that the life-size re-creation of Hurd's illustrations

features "Kelly-green walls, red-and-yellow accents, the cozy fireplace,

and even the bowl full of mush."

"Goodnight Moon Suite at Sheraton Boston was dreamed up with the hope of creating a universal moment of comfort," said Peggy Roe, executive v-p & chief customer officer at Marriott International. "For so many of us,

Goodnight Moon is just that. It's more than a book; it's a beloved

memory, and one I have created time after time with my own children. We

wanted to capture that sense of home and tranquility and deliver it to

the often busy and bustling world of travel."

Queen Esther by John Irving is what is often described as "literary fiction," though in this case it felt more like a very poorly executed romance novel written by a misogynistic man past his prime. I read all 7 of Irvings original novels, and I even read Trying to Save Piggy Sneed, but when it came to Son of the Circus and the novels following Sneed, (one of which had an interview with Irving in which he recommended that all teenage girls take a turn as prostitutes, so they might know better how to please men), I was so grossed out by Irvings obvious narcissism and misogyny and pedophilia that I couldn't, in good conscience, read any more of his books. His formerly acclaimed prose had also degraded and become cliche-ridden and dull, full of info-dumps and agonizingly slow plots. Here's the blurb: 

After forty years, John Irving returns to the world of his bestselling classic novel and Academy Award–winning film, The Cider House Rules, revisiting the orphanage in St. Cloud’s, Maine, where Dr. Wilbur Larch takes in Esther—a Viennese-born Jew whose life is shaped by anti-Semitism.

Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board the ship to Portland, Maine; her mother is murdered by anti-Semites in Portland. Dr. Larch knows it won’t be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; in fact, he won’t find any family who’ll adopt her.

When Esther is fourteen, soon to be a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic New England family with a history of providing foster care for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren’t Jewish, but they despise anti-Semitism. Esther’s gratitude for the Winslows is unending; even as she retraces her roots back to Vienna, she never stops loving and protecting the Winslows. In the final chapter, set in Jerusalem in 1981, Esther Nacht is seventy-six.

John Irving’s sixteenth novel is a testament to his enduring ability to weave complex characters and intricate narratives that challenge and captivate. Queen Esther is not just a story of survival but a profound exploration of identity, belonging, and the enduring impact of history on our personal lives showcasing why Irving remains one of the world’s most beloved, provocative, and entertaining authors—a storyteller of our time and for all time.

The above blurb is full of lies...first of all, this novel should NOT have been called Queen Esther, because we only read a bit about her at the beginning and again at the end of the book. 95 percent of the novel is about James (Jimmy) Winslow (Esther's son or grandson) and his creepy pal Claude, who are obsessed with women's breasts (all the women in the novel have their breasts described repeatedly and evaluated every time they are mentioned) and sex, and with male circumcision. This was not a good story, it was a bunch of research into post WWII Jewish people and a bunch of weird women and male wrestlers who are all apparently trying to avoid having babies via heterosexual sex, but are obsessed with still actually having children nonetheless. There's barely a mention of Dr Larch from Cider House Rules, and there's a lot of discussion of Jimmy learning the German language (WHY? Who cares? I didn't, nor did it make Jimmy any more endearing, it made him even more strange and stupid) and a lot of the women in his life telling him that he must get a girl pregnant (even though he spends much of the novel nowhere near America) so he can avoid the draft for the Vietnam War. He finally gets his lesbian friend to offer up her girlfriend, who wants to "try" heterosexual sex, to sleep with him for a prescribed three days, after which she gets pregnant and allows the child to be raised by all the weird women in Jimmy's life. There's also a lot of fawning over a dog whom everyone's concerned about becoming incontinent in the bathtub during a thunderstorm, which never actually happens. There's little coherency to the plot or the prose, which is awful. I never would have purchased this book if I had known what a slow and boring slog it would be to read, replete with reprehensible characters. The POV is oddly omniscient, and the prose reads like it was written by a grad student studying post WWII America for a thesis paper...There's also liberal use of exclamation points, for no apparent reason, throughout the book. Grotesque and boring, I'd give this book a C-, and I can't really imagine anyone who would enjoy reading this misogynistic twaddle. Give it up, Irving, you've lost it.

 

Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree is a cozy romantasy adventure, and the first of his novels that I've read (I've read and enjoyed the others in this series) that has a main character who is cowardly and completely unlikable. Here's the blurb: Return to the fantasy world of the Legends & Lattes series with a new adventure featuring fan-favorite, foul-mouthed bookseller Fern

Fern has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller’s life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling ennui, transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend’s coffee shop. What could be a better pairing? Surely a charming renovation montage will cure what ails her!

If only things were so simple.
It turns out that fixing your life isn’t a one-time prospect, nor as easy as a change of scenery and a lick of paint.

A drunken and desperate night sees the rattkin waking far from home in the company of a legendary warrior, an imprisoned chaos-goblin with a fondness for silverware, and an absolutely thumping hangover.

As together they fend off a rogue’s gallery of ne’er-do-wells trying to claim the bounty the goblin represents, Fern may finally reconnect with the person she actually is when nothing seems inevitable.  

 

So despite the excellent prose and easily-followed plot, there wasn't the beloved or fascinating characters that populated Baldree's other books to keep the reader engrossed in their adventure. Fern is foul mouthed for no other reason that other characters don't expect a small rodent to say such violent sounding things. She's not a good person, really, as she starts up a bookstore, then gets drunk and leaves her friends holding the bag in the middle of the night. We learn that apparently Fern is really more suited to a brigand's life on the road, rather than running a bookstore, which was her dream before. So while on the road she tells tales from the books she has read, and has some hair raising adventures which she barely survives, and all this culminates in her realizing that a cozy bookstore is not for her. Her companions on the road are a brilliant elf maiden and a magical troll goblin who is just plain creepy in the end. There wasn't a character here whom I was invested in reading about their journey. I'd give this book a B- and only recommend it to those who have read the other books in the Legends and Lattes series and who like road-trip tales with questionable characters.

 

Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson is a paranormal romance that answers the question "what if the Loch Ness Monster was a shape-shifting dude?" Here's the blurb: Keyanna “Key” MacKay is used to secrets. Raised by a single father who never divulged his past, it’s only after his death that she finds herself thrust into the world he’d always refused to speak of. With just a childhood bedtime story about a monster that saved her father’s life and the name of her estranged grandmother to go off of, Key has no idea what she’ll find in Scotland. But repeating her father’s mistakes and being rescued by a gorgeous, angry Scotsman—who thinks she’s an idiot—is definitely the last thing she expects.

Lachlan Greer has his own secrets to keep, especially from the bonnie lass he pulls to safety from the slippery shore—a lass with captivating eyes and the last name he’s been taught not to trust. He’s looking for answers as well, and Key’s presence on the grounds they both now occupy presents a real problem. It’s even more troublesome when he gets a front row seat to the lukewarm welcome Key receives from her family; the strange powers she begins to develop; and the fierce determination she brings to every obstacle in her path. Things he shouldn’t care about, and someone he definitely doesn’t find wildly attractive.

When their secrets collide, it becomes clear that Lachlan could hold the answers Keyanna is after—and that she might also be the key to uncovering his. Up against time, mystery, and a centuries old curse, they’ll quickly discover that magic might not only be in fairy tales, and that love can be a real loch-mess. 

This is another one of those romantasy novels that make love and sex into a cure-all for everything from curses to magical entrapment. But, as usual, Key is just so beautiful, and Lachlan just so handsome, that their love is inevitable, and it breaks the curse that is on him and his father. An HEA ensues, of course. This is a somewhat silly, but cozy romance, so I'd give it a B, and recommend it to anyone who wonders about the gender and mating habits of infamous, legendary monsters.

 

The Locksmith's Daughter by Karen Brooks is a historical mystery/thriller which is quite a fascinating look into Elizabethan England and its extensive spy network. Here's the blurb: From acclaimed author Karen Brooks comes this intriguing novel rich in historical detail and drama as it tells the unforgettable story of Queen Elizabeth's daring, ruthless spymaster and his female protégée.

In Queen Elizabeth's England, where no one can be trusted and secrets are currency, one woman stands without fear.

Mallory Bright is the only daughter of London's most ingenious locksmith. She has apprenticed with her father since childhood, and there is no lock too elaborate for her to crack. After scandal destroys her reputation, Mallory has returned to her father's home and lives almost as a recluse, ignoring the whispers and gossip of their neighbors. But Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's spymaster and a frequent client of Mallory's father, draws her into his world of danger and deception. For the locksmith's daughter is not only good at cracking locks, she also has a talent for codes, spycraft, and intrigue. With Mallory by Sir Francis's side, no scheme in England or abroad is safe from discovery.

But Mallory's loyalty wavers when she witnesses the brutal and bloody public execution of three Jesuit priests and realizes the human cost of her espionage. And later, when she discovers the identity of a Catholic spy and a conspiracy that threatens the kingdom, she is forced to choose between her country and her heart.

Once Sir Francis's greatest asset, Mallory is fast becoming his worst threat—and there is only one way the Queen's master spy deals with his enemies.

This novel's prose is clean and crisp, and the plot moves along at a bracing clip. Mallory is a fascinating character, and her ability to move around the shady underworld of English society in the 16th century is a wonder to behold. I enjoyed all the lock-picking information and the mysteries solved, so I'd give this book a B+ and recommend it to anyone who is interested in women in history who didn't get their due in the history books for all they accomplished for Queen and country. 

ages, who "can actually step inside the book's whimsical world," House

Beautiful reported, adding that the life-size re-creation of Hurd's illustrations

features "Kelly-green walls, red-and-yellow accents, the cozy fireplace,

and even the bowl full of mush."