Greetings, readers! It's the second week of November, and I'm struggling to keep my TBR big enough to keep me well-read each week. The cost of books, like the cost of everything, has gone up exponentially, and as a result, even books on Amazon that previously cost a pittance now cost full price, (anywhere from 26-30 dollars per hardback) which makes it difficult to purchase hardback or paperback books in groups of 4 or more. So many people are having their food benefits and social security checks cut down to the bone, that there are many who are going hungry and hoping not to become homeless this winter. All because our current administration is corrupt, greedy, lying and fascists, who are more concerned with book banning, removal of LGBTQ citizens rights and misogyny/control/enslavement of women with a side of racism that is literally killing POC all over the nation. The wealthy continue to amass more money than they could spend in several lifetimes, while the country's poor struggle to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. So you can imagine how difficult it is to work books into an already strained budget (and libraries are overwhelmed with people seeking reading material and other services, so they're no help due to long lines on the book holds front). But, like every food pantry and person who cares, I fight on! So here goes with my latest reviews and a smattering of book related news.
I love that famed author Louise Penny joined the resistance and solidarity in keeping a joint American/Canadian bookstore alive, despite efforts by our fascist government to shut it down. Go Louise!
Image
of the Day: Louise Penny at the Haskell Free Library
Phoenix Books (in Essex, Burlington,
and Rutland, Vt.), with Brome Lake Books in
Quebec and the Haskell Free Library and
Opera House, hosted author Louise Penny for the only U.S. stop on her
tour for Black Wolf (Minotaur), the 20th book in the Chief Inspector
Gamache series.
Penny canceled all her U.S. tour stops,
including a launch at the Kennedy Center, in protest and solidarity
with her fellow Canadians. The Haskell Library was chosen because it
straddles the U.S./Canadian border, with entrances on both sides.
"This is my moment [to resist], and I could, and if I didn't,
then shame on me," Penny said. Some 800 people attended two
sold-out weekend readings, and more than 450 watched a livestream of
Saturday's event. Phoenix Books noted that it was "proud to
support Louise, who has done events at our store twice in the past,
and honored to promote American-Canadian unity at the Haskell and
with Brome Lake Books."
I love reading about bookstore and famous actress and Oprah book picks. They always choose some unique author with a different perspective. I've discovered more than a few good books this way.
B&N's
November Book Club Pick: Like Family
Barnes & Noble has chosen Like
Family: A Novel by Erin O. White
(The Dial Press) as its November
national book club pick. In a live
virtual event on Tuesday, December 2,
at 3 p.m. Eastern, White will be
in conversation with Mallory Rochester,
store manager at Barnes & Noble
in Calabasas, Calif.
B&N described the book this way:
"Life-long friends endure the ups and
downs of adulthood in this glowing tale
of chosen family and complicated
love. In an idyllic town, cozied up
between river and mountain, six
friends raise their families in a
seeming Eden. When tragedy strikes,
secrets and forgotten dreams resurface
and the three couples must
confront difficult truths."
Books-A-Million's
Inaugural Book of the Year Pick
Books-A-Million has selected Dungeon
Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (Ace) as its inaugural Book of the Year
pick, which "recognizes the title that
best embodies the joy of reading and
the enthusiasm of Books-A-Million's
team." Impetus for the selection
came from Olivia McDaniel, v-p of
marketing, "whose love for the
series inspired an internal book club and
a wave of new fans across the company."
"I've never played video games or
even thought about DnD--Dungeons &
Dragons, for the uninitiated--but I
fell completely in love with Dungeon
Crawler Carl," said McDaniel.
"It's the most fun I've ever had
reading--and I can't stop talking about
it. I've personally convinced
more than 70 people to read the series,
from coworkers and gym friends
to Facebook acquaintances I hadn't
spoken to in years, and every single
one of them couldn't put it down. No
matter what kind of reader you are,
this book is for you."
I agree that indie bookstores are magical, and I try to shop at one every month or so, though my dollar doesn't go as far due to their prices being higher. Still, indies are an essential part of the community, and they sustain both authors and readers in ways JB and Amazon never will. One of the first bookstores I found in Seattle when we moved here in 1991 was the Couth Buzzard, where the owners became friends and they let me work shelving books to pay for used tomes that kept my TBR at a healthy height. Now the Couth Buzzard, in a new location and with new management, is holding free soup kitchen nights, fundraising for local food banks and giving away food from local restaurants to those in need in Ballard.They're a lifeline, feeding body and soul in the burbs.
Quotation
of the Day
"It would truly be difficult to
explain all the different ways that
indie bookstores sustain me.... I just
can't tell you how it feels to go
to an indie bookstore to do an event,
to be hosted with a million guests
who are also being hosted, and having
this beautiful experience curated
by somebody who understands why
everyone's there and how everybody
feels.
"And I am so aware of the indie
booksellers selling the book. I connect
on Instagram. I get e-mails. I get to
see some of the Indie Next
nominations--which are always just
completely mind-blowing because
that's extra work somebody chose to do
on your behalf. But the way I
really interact is when I come to these
events. It's just magic."
"You can be at an indie bookstore
you have never heard of in a town
you've never heard of, and there'll be
a hundred people there because
it's such a personal hand curated
experience. That is so special."
--Catherine Newman, author of Wreck
This book sounds utterly fascinating, and I will be keeping an eye out for a cheaper used copy.
Movies:
Simultaneous
Sony Pictures has pre-emptively
acquired rights to Oscar-nominated
writer Eric Heisserer's (Arrival) debut
novel, Simultaneous. Published
last week by Flatiron Books, the novel
"is a suspenseful psychological
thriller revolving around a past-life
regression therapist and an agent
from the Predictive Analytics
department of Homeland Security who become unlikely partners when
they discover a phenomenon tied to reincarnation, uncovering a
supernatural killer exploiting his own past lives," Deadline
reported.
Producers on a planned film adaptation
will include Heisserer and Carmen
Lewis under Heisserer's Chronology
banner. Heisserer most recently
served as showrunner, executive
producer, and writer for the Netflix
series Shadow and Bone, based on the
works of Leigh Bardugo.
Irish Stewed by Kylie Logan is a fun and cozy mystery that I found lurking on my TBR shelves that has been waiting to be read for at least a few years. I'm glad that I picked it up now, as it was just the breath of fresh air that I needed this past week. Here's the blurb: The author of the League
of Literary Ladies Mysteries introduces a delicious cozy culinary
mystery series featuring ethnic eats.
After flopping as a personal chef to a Hollywood movie star, jobless Laurel Inwood finds herself humbled in Hubbard, Ohio, helping her aunt Sophie run her restaurant. Much to Laurel’s dismay, Sophie’s Terminal at the Tracks is not the cozy bistro her aunt would have had her believe—it’s a run-down greasy spoon in an old railroad station. To save the dingy diner, Laurel cooks up a plan to feature alternating ethnic cuisine as specials.
But first there’s the problem of the body in the booth. Slumped over a table with a receipt spike in his back is Jack Lancer—“the Lance of Justice”—an investigative reporter for local TV news. Assisted by the drop-dead gorgeous owner of the neighboring Irish store—who may or may not be a suspect—Laurel sets out to track down a killer who had no reservations about impaling a newshound. But as she turns up the heat, will she end up in the soup herself?
After flopping as a personal chef to a Hollywood movie star, jobless Laurel Inwood finds herself humbled in Hubbard, Ohio, helping her aunt Sophie run her restaurant. Much to Laurel’s dismay, Sophie’s Terminal at the Tracks is not the cozy bistro her aunt would have had her believe—it’s a run-down greasy spoon in an old railroad station. To save the dingy diner, Laurel cooks up a plan to feature alternating ethnic cuisine as specials.
But first there’s the problem of the body in the booth. Slumped over a table with a receipt spike in his back is Jack Lancer—“the Lance of Justice”—an investigative reporter for local TV news. Assisted by the drop-dead gorgeous owner of the neighboring Irish store—who may or may not be a suspect—Laurel sets out to track down a killer who had no reservations about impaling a newshound. But as she turns up the heat, will she end up in the soup herself?
I really enjoyed reading about Laurel's journey in helping her aunt with a run-down restaurant railway station that is in the red and needs help to get back on track. The prose was clean and clear, and the plot chugged along with familiarity, but the ending left it unclear as to whether Laurel would go back to her lucrative job, or be manipulated by her aunt and an Irish Traveler with the hots for her into staying in the one-horse town forever. Still, the romance was light and the characters very black hat/white hat, which was refreshing. I'd give this short and sweet novel a B+ and recommend it to all the cozy readers out there who like some romance in their mystery.
Dance of Thieves by Mary E Pearson is a YA romantasy that's full of adventure and skulduggery and a fierce thief turned elite guard who falls for the outlaw leader she's duty bound to arrest. Here's the blurb: Though this book is a hefty 505 pages, the sterling prose and muscular plot are engrossing enough that you'll be halfway through the book before you know it. I could not put this book down, though there were times when it teetered on the edge of tedium with too many descriptions/explanations. Still Kazi is a ferocious warrior whose moral code was fascinating, and her ability to lead and find solutions in difficult situations was unmatched. I didn't really see what she saw in Jase, who was kind of a jerk, but since this is a YA novel, romance was inevitable, and he was the only candidate. I'd give this book a B, and recommend it to anyone who likes tough female protagonists who don't back down.
Try Your Worst by Chatham Greenfield is an LGBTQ YA romance that took the classic grumpy/sunshine romance trope and added some mystery into the mix to make for an exciting and engrossing read. Here's the blurb:This cozy mystery is about rivals who must find
out who has been framing them for crimes they didn't commit, from
Stonewall Honor-winning author Chatham Greenfield.
Sadie Katz and Cleo Chapman have been rivals since birth. Literally. They entered the world competing to be the first baby born in the new year, and ever since Cleo beat out Sadie for that title, she has been nonchalantly beating Sadie at just about everything--and making it look easy.
Now in the fall of their senior year, Sadie and Cleo are neck-and-neck for valedictorian. But then a string of increasingly serious pranks take over their high school, and all signs point to Sadie and Cleo as the perpetrators. Suddenly expulsion is on the line, and the only way to clear their names is to team up and find out who is framing them. It's not only suspects the girls are questioning, though. Sadie's ivy league dream isn't feeling as appealing as it once did, and Cleo is wondering if it's about time she start fighting for what she really wants instead of just accepting whatever comes easiest. With their futures on the line, the two grow closer, and both begin to wonder: Could it be that Sadie and Cleo weren't meant to be rivals at all, and were instead destined to be something more?
Sadie Katz and Cleo Chapman have been rivals since birth. Literally. They entered the world competing to be the first baby born in the new year, and ever since Cleo beat out Sadie for that title, she has been nonchalantly beating Sadie at just about everything--and making it look easy.
Now in the fall of their senior year, Sadie and Cleo are neck-and-neck for valedictorian. But then a string of increasingly serious pranks take over their high school, and all signs point to Sadie and Cleo as the perpetrators. Suddenly expulsion is on the line, and the only way to clear their names is to team up and find out who is framing them. It's not only suspects the girls are questioning, though. Sadie's ivy league dream isn't feeling as appealing as it once did, and Cleo is wondering if it's about time she start fighting for what she really wants instead of just accepting whatever comes easiest. With their futures on the line, the two grow closer, and both begin to wonder: Could it be that Sadie and Cleo weren't meant to be rivals at all, and were instead destined to be something more?
The prose was dazzling and helped the zingy plot move at a clipped pace, which made for a real page turner of a novel. The romantic tension and the way the two main characters must come together to try and figure out who is setting them up with increasingly horrific pranks kept me reading into the wee hours. Both Sadie and Cleo have mental health issues, which are treated as a normal part of the teenage experience, which was a refreshing POV to say the least. I loved the cover illustration because the artist didn't try to slim the two main characters down or make the cover abstract, assuming that fat bias/prejudice would keep readers from buying the book. I believe that there are many larger teenagers who will see themselves reflected on the cover and in the pages of this novel, and will purchase it and recommend it to their friends. The growth of the two characters was heartening, and I found this book worthy of an A-, with a recommendation to all those big gals out there who are budding lesbians hungry to read stories that feature people like themselves.
A Hidden Fire by Elizabeth Hunter is a self published historical romantasy novel that was full of intrigue and danger and the art of the Italian Renaissance. Here's the blurb: Every hero has a secret. Every secret comes to light.
Giovanni Vecchio is not your typical book dealer. Scholar, vampire, and former assassin, he's spent five centuries hiding from the sins of his past and from the immortal enemies who want him truly dead.
When a young librarian crosses his path, Giovanni realizes she might be the key to solving a mystery that has obsessed him for centuries.
Beatrice De Novo is intelligent, curious, and completely unprepared for the dark world Giovanni inhabits, a world of ancient powers, elemental magic, and vampires who can command the forces of earth, air, fire, and water.
As their search for a lost library turns into a dangerous pursuit across the globe, passion ignites between them, and Beatrice must decide if she can trust a man who's lived a hundred lifetimes of secrets.
Giovanni Vecchio is not your typical book dealer. Scholar, vampire, and former assassin, he's spent five centuries hiding from the sins of his past and from the immortal enemies who want him truly dead.
When a young librarian crosses his path, Giovanni realizes she might be the key to solving a mystery that has obsessed him for centuries.
Beatrice De Novo is intelligent, curious, and completely unprepared for the dark world Giovanni inhabits, a world of ancient powers, elemental magic, and vampires who can command the forces of earth, air, fire, and water.
As their search for a lost library turns into a dangerous pursuit across the globe, passion ignites between them, and Beatrice must decide if she can trust a man who's lived a hundred lifetimes of secrets.
I wasn't expecting the male protagonist to be an immortal vampire, but what was interesting was that the author had him appear to be more "normal" than most literary vampires, with no aversion to garlic or crucifixes or running water. Gio even realizes that his romantic fascination with B, as she likes to be called, makes him seem like a pedophile, as she's in her 20s and he's over 500 years old (and he's also dead). But their attraction will not be denied, and they end up working together and developing a relationship despite their different worlds and lives. The author did seem to utilize an editor, as there was only two typos to be found in the whole book, which is amazing, and made the fine prose more readable. There were shades of Outlander and A Discovery of Witches throughout this book, which is to its credit. The time the two spend hunting in library archives also fascinated me, as I've always considered libraries to be treasure troves of items for bibliophiles and historians everywhere. I'd give this engaging book a B+ and recommend it to readers of vampire romantasy and historical paranormal novels like Outlander, as well as those who are devotees of library research.
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