It's April, the first part of spring! Welcome to my book blog to new book dragons and old bibliophiles. It's been crazy in my household these past few weeks, but I've still managed to get some books read and ready for review. I'm hopeful about going on a visit to HPB to turn some books in for credit and see about adding some new books to my TBR, so stay tuned.
I'm a big fan of some of the softer and sillier SF movies of the 80s and early 90s, but one in particular, the Flight of the Navigator still owns a spot in my memory banks as a movie that I wish were true, in that I'd love for a spaceship to show up and take me on adventures!
10
Sci-Fi Movies From the ’80s That Will Never Get Old
And
let’s end things with a list! I thought I would disagree with more
on this list from Collider of 10
sci-fi movies from the ’80s that will never get old,
but it’s a surprisingly good round-up of films. And possibly the
first list of movies I’ve shared where I have even seen every
single one. Which movies on the list did you love?
In
thinking about the prompt, I thought of a few sci-fi films from the
’80s I would put on my own list, but they are in no way great
cinema, like Solar
Babies
and Killer
Klowns from Outer Space.
And now I need to go back and watch
Flight of the Navigator
and The
Last Starfighter
to see if they still hold up.
This is just another crime to lay at the feet of our current fascist administration, who are banning books and making access to Canadian libraries difficult if not impossible to obtain. This should not be happening!
Louise
Penny at the Haskell Library
Penny will do other Canadian events
before ending her book tour at the
Haskell Free Library and Opera House, a
"remarkable place [that] was
built in 1904 and sits right smack dab
on the border between
Quebec [Stanstead] and Vermont [Derby
Line]."
And therein lies another story.... As
Penny explained, the Haskell "was
built by both countries as a symbol of
our strong bonds of friendship.
It is the physical reflection of what
we believe. That what happens
politically is one thing, and
transitory. What happens in our hearts is
indestructible. I am hoping Americans
will come to the Canadian events.
You will be welcomed with open arms. As
friends. As fellow villagers of
Three Pines. Where goodness, and
decency, exist."
Unfortunately, a couple of weeks after
Penny made her announcement, U.S.
Customs and Border Protection said it
would begin to restrict Canadians'
access to the Haskell Library due to
what they called "a continued rise
in illicit cross border activity."
For 121 years, Canadians have had
free access to the library using the
front door without having to go
through customs.
While Canadian officials and library
representatives criticized the
decision, "residents of both
communities gathered outside the library to
express their dismay," Vermont
Public reported, adding that people were waving to their neighbors
across the border, with Americans calling out, "We love you,
Canada!" and Canadians responding, "We love you, too!"
Under the terms of the U.S. Customs and
Border Protection's new ruling,
until October 1 non-library members
attempting to enter the U.S. via the
sidewalk next to the library will be
redirected to the nearest port of
entry, while library members will be
allowed to continue use of the
sidewalk with proof of membership. On
October 1, all visitors from
Canada wishing to use the front
entrance will be required to present
themselves at a port of entry to enter
the library from the U.S.
Haskell board of directors president
Sylvie Boudreau told Vermont Public
that upgrading the back entrance to be
wheelchair accessible will cost
more than $100,000, and the library
will also have to build a new
parking lot and sidewalk. For now,
however, she promised Canadian
patrons the organization is committed
to serving them as it always has:
"Inside the library, it's business
as usual."
"And then this
happened...https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJsdgKNkeUI6a1ucksiTw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x67FX5CtpoMLg-gVdw,"
Louise Penny posted on Facebook after
learning about the Haskell fiasco,
noting that the library "has stood
as a beacon, a statement, a physical
expression of the friendship between
our countries. Today, the American
government blocked Canadian access
in yet another shameful, callow,
petty move, by a shameful, callow,
petty administration. People on both
sides of the border took to the
streets in protest. The tide of protests
is rising.... we are the flood."
This sounds like a book right up my alley, and I will be seeking a copy at the library ASAP.
Reese's
Spring YA Book Club Pick: Heiress Takes All
Heiress Takes All by Emily Wibberley
and Austin Siegemund-Broka (Little,
Brown Books for Young Readers) is the
Spring YA pick for Reese's Book
Club
https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJsdgKNwu4I6a1ucR12SA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x67FX8OmpoMLg-gVdw,
which
described the book as: "When
Olivia's father cuts her out of her
rightful inheritance, she vows revenge.
Teaming up with an eclectic band
of high school friends and a former
teacher, Olivia plots to infiltrate
her father's lavish wedding and steal
back her share of his fortune. But
as unexpected obstacles arise, will
Olivia and her team succeed in their
daring scheme?"
Reese wrote: "This novel is your
next can't-miss read: unexpected
alliances, sharp wit, and incredible
plot twists."
This kind of sh*t makes me ashamed to
be an Iowan. The fact that Federal judges have to block this stupidity over and over is just nauseating. Iowa used to be a state that was proud of their many excellent colleges and universities, and of their range of stellar libraries that never censored or banned books, no matter how remote the location or how narrow minded the population.
Iowa’s
Book Ban Bill is Blocked, Again
A
federal judge has once again blocked Senate File 496,
the Iowa bill that would require “all public school materials be
“age appropriate” with no “descriptions or depictions of sex
acts .”
SF 496 would also require schools to remove any materials that do not
fit their intentionally, maliciously vague definitions of “age
appropriate” from shelves. Though the block is a win, Kelly Jensen
notes that, “this is the third decision made in courts over the
bill that has left schools scrambling and thousands of public school
students in the state without access to books in their classrooms and
libraries.”
Finally some good news! The Rumpus has some classy new owners.
The
Media News You Didn’t Know You Needed
Roxane
Gay and Debbie Millman will
be the new owners
of major literary and culture magazine, The
Rumpus.
In an era of vast uncertainty for independent media, I’m glad to
hear that good people are taking up the cause. Gay has an established
relationship with the mostly volunteer-run mag as a founding essays
editor, and Millman will bring a designer’s eye to the visual arts
aspect of the magazine. As if this couldn’t be sweeter, Millman
mentioned falling in love with Gay’s words through The
Rumpus before
falling in love with Gay herself (they’re married). In the
announcement, current Publisher Alyson Sinclair who is transitioning
leadership over to the pair said Gay and Millman “are committed to
staying true to the magazine’s core mission of publishing both
emerging and established risk-taking writers and artists whose work
might not receive care or a large audience elsewhere.” I can’t
wait to see what they do with the publication and wish it continued
success.
YES! The more people who attempt to open bookstores, even temporary ones, the better. This is great coming from a book buyer at a solid place like QA Book Co. I love the indie bookstore spirit in Seattle.
Quotation
of the Day
'We Have So Many Readers Who Also Want
to Be Business People'
"I realize there are still so many
book deserts. I live in a beautiful
book bubble here in Seattle. We have
about 23 bookstores participating
in our Seattle Independent Bookstore
Day Passport. It feels like every
neighborhood has its bookstore and it's
such a good feeling. I wish that
every community in our country had
that.
"I think there is opportunity
there. We have so many readers who also
want to be business people. And there
are so many creative thinkers and
creative ways to do that, for example
with pop-ups and mobile stores.
And so I feel like the more places we
have to get books and get
inspiration and talk to readers, the
better it is not just for our
industry, but really for our
communities and for our country."
--Tegan Tigani, ABA board president and
the children's book buyer at
Queen Anne Book Company, Seattle, Wash.
First Time Caller by B.K. Borison is a delicious contemporary rom-com that was fun to read and still had enough substance that it resonated with me. Here's the blurb: A hopeless romantic meets a jaded radio host in this cozy, Sleepless in Seattle–inspired love story from beloved author B.K. Borison.
Aiden Valentine has a secret: he’s fallen out of love with love. And as the host of Baltimore’s romance hotline, that’s a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls in to the station asking for dating advice for her mom, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden and Heartstrings into the limelight.
Lucie Stone thought she was doing just fine. She has a good job; an incredible family; and a smart, slightly devious kid. But when all of Baltimore is suddenly scrutinizing her love life—or lack thereof—she begins to question if she’s as happy as she believed. Maybe a little more romance wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
Everyone wants Lucie to find her happy ending…even the handsome, temperamental man calling the shots. But when sparks start to fly behind the scenes, Lucie must make the final decision between the radio-sponsored happily ever after or the man in the headphones next to her.
Aiden Valentine has a secret: he’s fallen out of love with love. And as the host of Baltimore’s romance hotline, that’s a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls in to the station asking for dating advice for her mom, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden and Heartstrings into the limelight.
Lucie Stone thought she was doing just fine. She has a good job; an incredible family; and a smart, slightly devious kid. But when all of Baltimore is suddenly scrutinizing her love life—or lack thereof—she begins to question if she’s as happy as she believed. Maybe a little more romance wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
Everyone wants Lucie to find her happy ending…even the handsome, temperamental man calling the shots. But when sparks start to fly behind the scenes, Lucie must make the final decision between the radio-sponsored happily ever after or the man in the headphones next to her.
The prose was flirty and fun, and even the sex scenes had enough laughter in them to prevent them from being awkward. I was particularly delighted with Lucie's ability to adapt to being on air on a radio program, which, having been with my husband as he worked in radio, and having been on the air a few times, I can tell you is much, much harder than it looks. The HEA here was well earned, and I was thankful that the author didn't succumb to the whole "woman is married and pregnant by the end of the story" trope, because that is not always a happy ending for women. I would give this fast-paced romance novel a B+ and recommend it to anyone looking for a breath of fresh air in their TBR.
The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang reads like the book version of one of Hayao Miyazaki's great animated films, like My Neighbor Totoro or Kikki's Delivery Service. The magical Rainfall Market is filled with wonders at every turn. Here's the blurb: Though the theme here is one borrowed from many other popular books, including The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, Gwang still manages to put a fresh spin on it with his innocent protagonist Serin, and her magical cat Issha. The prose here glitters with wit and wonder, and the plot zooms along like a cat playing at 3AM. This slender volume weighs in at barely over 200 pages, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in wisdom and the fascinating magical world that is the backdrop for the whole story. There's definitely elements of the Wizard of Oz here, (you can practically hear Serin whisper "there's no place like home" toward the end), and also legend and fairy tale elements that I'm assuming are Korean. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy or fairy tales/legends from other countries, retold.
The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck is a WWII and post-war epic historical fiction novel that has romantic elements woven throughout. There are many insights here into the difficulties and deprivations of post war Germany and England and how different classes navigated being on the wrong side of history, and dealing with the guilt of knowing that they were complicit in the deaths of 6 million people. Here's the blurb:
Three women, haunted by the past and the secrets they hold. Amid
the ashes of Nazi Germany’s defeat, Marianne von Lingenfels returns to
the once-grand castle of her husband’s ancestors, an imposing stone
fortress now fallen into ruin following years of war. The widow of a
resister murdered in the failed July 20, 1944, plot to assassinate Adolf
Hitler, Marianne plans to uphold the promise she made to her husband’s
brave conspirators: to find and protect their wives, her fellow
resistance widows.
First Marianne rescues
six-year-old Martin, the son of her dearest childhood friend, from a
Nazi reeducation home. Together, they make their way across the
smoldering wreckage of their homeland to Berlin, where Martin’s mother,
the beautiful and naive Benita, has fallen into the hands of occupying
Red Army soldiers. Then she locates Ania, another resister’s wife, and
her two boys, now refugees languishing in one of the many camps that
house the millions displaced by the war.
As Marianne
assembles this makeshift family from the ruins of her husband’s
resistance movement, she is certain their shared pain and circumstances
will hold them together. But she quickly discovers that the
black-and-white, highly principled world of her privileged past has
become infinitely more complicated, filled with secrets and dark
passions that threaten to tear them apart. Eventually, all three women
must come to terms with the choices that have defined their lives
before, during, and after the war—each with their own unique share of
challenges.
Written with the devastating emotional power of The Nightingale, Sarah’s Key, and The Light Between Oceans,
Jessica Shattuck’s evocative and utterly enthralling novel offers a
fresh perspective on one of the most tumultuous periods in history.
Combining piercing social insight and vivid historical atmosphere, The Women in the Castle
is a dramatic yet nuanced portrait of war and its repercussions that
explores what it means to survive, love, and, ultimately, to forgive in
the wake of unimaginable hardship.
Though parts of this novel were hard to read (going over the horrors of concentration camps and the evil indoctrination of children by the Nazis) I felt it was a lesson in the aftermath of brutal war and how it changes the lives of women and children in particular. Marianne was a particularly prickly protagonist, and yet her determination to help so many refugees after the war was inspiring. This is one of those overwhelming emotional novels, so if you have trouble with books that make you cry and have all the feels, you might want to skip this one. The prose was clean and straightforward, while the plot did meander a bit and was boring in spots. I'd give this book a B, and recommend it to those interested in women in post-war Germany and how they coped.Fate of Flames by Sarah Raughley is a YA fantasy novel with Marvel-like comic book superhero elements, which fuel it's zippy plot and sharp prose. Here's the blurb: Years ago, everything changed.
Phantoms, massive beasts of nightmare, began terrorizing the world. At the same time, four girls—the Effigies—appeared, each with a unique power to control a classical element. Since then, they have protected the world from the Phantoms. At the death of one Effigy, another is chosen, pulled from her normal life into the never-ending battle.
When Maia unexpectedly becomes the next Fire Effigy, she resists her new calling. A quiet girl with few friends and almost no family, she was much happier to admire the Effigies from afar. Never did she imagine having to master her ability to control fire, to protect innocent citizens from the Phantoms, or to try bringing together the other three Effigies.
But with the arrival of the mysterious Saul—a man who seems to be able to control the Phantoms using the same cosmic power previously only granted to four girls at a time—Maia and the other Effigies must learn to work together in a world where their celebrity status is more important than their heroism.
But the secrets Saul has, and the power he possesses, might be more than even they can handle.
Phantoms, massive beasts of nightmare, began terrorizing the world. At the same time, four girls—the Effigies—appeared, each with a unique power to control a classical element. Since then, they have protected the world from the Phantoms. At the death of one Effigy, another is chosen, pulled from her normal life into the never-ending battle.
When Maia unexpectedly becomes the next Fire Effigy, she resists her new calling. A quiet girl with few friends and almost no family, she was much happier to admire the Effigies from afar. Never did she imagine having to master her ability to control fire, to protect innocent citizens from the Phantoms, or to try bringing together the other three Effigies.
But with the arrival of the mysterious Saul—a man who seems to be able to control the Phantoms using the same cosmic power previously only granted to four girls at a time—Maia and the other Effigies must learn to work together in a world where their celebrity status is more important than their heroism.
But the secrets Saul has, and the power he possesses, might be more than even they can handle.
The protagonist starts out as a ridiculously rabid fangirl of one of the Effigies, which makes readers think she's a bit of a dolt early on. When she finally comes to realize that all her fellow Effigies are struggling with their own forms of PTSD and regret, she starts to grow up as she comes into her powers late in the game. This was, for me, one of those frustrating books that lean into misogynist tropes about women and girls being mean to each other and being stupid and ineffective when they're young out of fear and past phobias. I much prefer works where the women or girls come into their own and have a backbone and never say die attitude, instead of screaming and crying and hiding in the face of danger. Whining and crying protagonists, especially in a superhero story, set my teeth on edge. Anyway, I'd give this book a B- and recommend it to anyone who likes dystopian superhero girl stories.