Welcome my favorite fellow book lovers! It's election day, and I'm late in posting my latest reviews. I have some great new books that I'm reading, thanks to a shopping trip to Half Price Books yesterday, and today, though I'm struggling with a Crohns disease flare, I'm feeling fortunate to have new books awaiting me on my TBR piles. The weather has turned cold (though not yet freezing here in the PNW) and the days darker as we ride through rainstorms to December, my favorite month of the year. So cozy up and enjoy your hot cup of choice with some good books and a furry companion. Here's my long lost tidbits and reviews for your enjoyment.
This sounds fascinating. My late best friend RM Larson was a huge fan of all things Irish, and she would have loved this series about "the Troubles" Ireland experienced for decades, as the Irish people were striving for independence from Britain, just like we did over couple hundred years ago.
TV: Say Nothing
A trailer has been released for FX's
Say Nothing,
based on the nonfiction bestselling
book by Patrick Radden Keefe.
IndieWire reported that the
project "tells the true story of 'The
Troubles,' the decades-long conflict
between the United Kingdom and
Northern Ireland, including the rise of
the Irish Republican Army. As
part of that, the story delves into
'the Disappeared,' centering, like
the book, on the mystery of a missing
mother of 10."
Adapted by Joshua Zetumer, the series
cast includes Lola Petticrew,
Hazel Doupe, Anthony Boyle, and Josh
Finan.
Keefe called the characters
"complicated," saying, "How you feel about
them should shift. And I think that the
challenge for us, this was true
for me with the book, very, very true
with the series, is: How do you
capture the romance of those politics
without romanticizing them
yourself? And I think part of the
answer is that you show the costs not
just in the final episodes... but from
the very first scene. The first
person you meet is Jean McConville [one
of the Disappeared]. And the
hope is that the sense of those costs
kind of hangs over the whole
series, even when it's kind of lark-y
bank heists and so forth, that you
have a sense that there is this kind of
Tell-Tale Heart beating in the
background."
Zetumer added: "I think one of the
things we were trying to do from the
beginning was capture the energy of
what it feels like to be in your
twenties or a teenager and really get
caught up in a cause. That was the
sort of guiding principle that was
driving us forward.... The challenge
is like, what not to include, because
it's 40 years of history. It's
this vast swirl that's around the
characters. You're getting the whole
history of the Troubles in the course
of the book. And so the question
was: 'Okay, what do you cut out?' "
Reproductive rights are one hot button issue that I have a stake in as a woman, and as a mother and a rape survivor. Women need to have full control of their bodies and the decision whether or not to bring a pregnancy to term. Right now women are dying due to these draconian abortion bans. This has to end.
Read
Up On Reproductive Rights
Virginia
is the
only state in the American south without a post-Dobbs abortion ban
or mandatory waiting period. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe
v. Wade in
June 2022, our reproductive healthcare resources have been stretched
to a breaking point as women have had to travel from all over the
region to access the care they need. Freedom and democracy are on the
ballot this year, yes, but let me say it plainly: our lives are on
the line. You need look no further than the 56%
increase in deaths of pregnant women in Texas since
its abortion ban was enacted to understand what’s at stake. Whether
you want to deepen your own understanding of the history and context
of reproductive rights or beef up your talking points, you’ll find
great resources in LitHub‘s
list of the 10
best books about reproductive rights.
I would add Jessica Valenti’s recently released Abortion:
Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win.
I'm a huge fan of Virgin River (the streaming program, I've not read the books), so this new adaptation intrigues me. I will be keeping an eye out for its debut.
TV:Thunder Point
Virgin River and Sullivan's Crossing
author Robyn Carr has partnered
again with creator/showrunner Roma Roth
to adapt her nine-book Thunder
Point series into a dramatic scripted
TV project, Deadline reported.
This is the third Carr property that
Roth has adapted through her
company, Reel World Management, which
she runs with Christopher E.
Perry. Roth is the creator, showrunner,
executive producer, and head
writer on Sullivan's Crossing, which
she set up as a straight-to-series
order with CTV and Fremantle. She is
also executive producer of
Netflix's Virgin River, which recently
announced its seventh season.
"Thunder Point has drama, mystery,
and romance, all the ingredients you
need to successfully build a global hit
series," said Roth. "It is
certain to appeal to fans of both
Sullivan's Crossing and Virgin River
but this time the story is told from a
male perspective. We are beyond
excited to be continuing our incredibly
successful run with bestselling
author Robyn Carr."
Book Bans are another draconian law that has been put into place by the new brand of Christian Conservative/Republican fascists who seem to forget that Hitler started his reign of terror by killing the intellectuals/scholars and banning/burning books and art that he didn't want people to see. The more people you keep in ignorance the easier they will be to control. Ugh.
In
Case You Needed One More Reason to Vote
A
new report from PEN America covering the full 2023-2024 school year
shows a 200% increase—that’s a tripling—in
school book bans. The
report analyzes
10,046 bans nationwide that sought to pull more than four thousand
unique titles from school shelves. This data lands in sharp contrast
to the
ALA’s report in September that attempts to ban books in public,
school, and academic libraries declined significantly
in the first eight months of this year. Which is right? Let’s go
with both and neither. The reports address different samples and
different time frames, and it is possible for both narratives to be
true.
The
PEN America report captures data through the end of the 2023-2024
school year, so it maybe goes through June of this year at the
latest, while the ALA report runs through August 31. If overall
banning attempts decreased after the school year ended and/or
decreased in the public sector enough to offset an increase in
schools, these findings can exist side-by-side. There may also be
some political strategy at work. Book banning is a wildly unpopular,
losing issue for the right—most
Americans oppose book bans —and
if book banning attempts are actually declining so far in this school
year, it is more likely because Republicans recognize that a bunch of
high-profile book banning attempts will not help their electoral
chances than because some sea change has already occurred. Don’t
let up your efforts just yet.
The Isles of the Gods by Amie Kaufman is a YA seafaring romantasy that I felt had an odd start, but then ramped up fast and once it got going, the plot was unstoppable. Here's the blurb: Looking for a sweeping summer read? Magic,
romance, and slumbering gods clash in this riveting romantasy about a
seafaring girl and a playboy prince who band together in a precarious
journey.
Selly has salt water in her veins. So when her father leaves her high and dry in the port of Kirkpool, she has no intention of riding out the winter at home while he sails off to adventure. But any plans to follow him are dashed when a handsome stranger with tell-tale magician's marks on his arm commandeers her ship. He is Prince Leander of Alinor and he needs to cross the Crescent Sea without detection so he can complete a ritual on the sacred Isles of the Gods. Selly has no desire to escort a spoiled prince anywhere, and no time for his entitled demands or his good looks. But what starts as a leisure cruise will lead to acts of treason and sheer terror on the high seas, bringing two countries to the brink of war, two strangers closer than they ever thought possible and stirring two dangerous gods from centuries of slumber.
Selly has salt water in her veins. So when her father leaves her high and dry in the port of Kirkpool, she has no intention of riding out the winter at home while he sails off to adventure. But any plans to follow him are dashed when a handsome stranger with tell-tale magician's marks on his arm commandeers her ship. He is Prince Leander of Alinor and he needs to cross the Crescent Sea without detection so he can complete a ritual on the sacred Isles of the Gods. Selly has no desire to escort a spoiled prince anywhere, and no time for his entitled demands or his good looks. But what starts as a leisure cruise will lead to acts of treason and sheer terror on the high seas, bringing two countries to the brink of war, two strangers closer than they ever thought possible and stirring two dangerous gods from centuries of slumber.
I enjoyed the female protagonist being such a tough gal, but felt that, as usual, (in romance novels or romantasy, where its a trope that the female protagonist gives up on her dreams and career to follow the male lead into being a wife/mother/household slave with no life of her own) her romantic inclinations toward the spoiled prince weakened her character considerably. It was only when he made it clear that he wouldn't prevent her from being a sailor that I felt more comfortable with their romance, especially when he makes her an origami ship to remind her that she will be able to get back on the seas as soon as possible. The prose here was, like the sea, changeable yet flowing and storming and fascinating, as it moved the plot along at a clip. I'd give this eager YA novel a B, and recommend it to anyone who likes tales of the old gods, and pirate ships and the brave women who sailed the high seas.
Waking Romeo by Kathryn Barker is a dystopian science fiction romance novel melded to the classic Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. There were so many twists and turns in the plot that at one point I just gave up trying to predict what would happen next, and decided to "go with the flow" and just let the tale wash over me. Barker's prose is imaginative and bright, though the subject matter is often dark and depressing. Still, it was riveting reading what happens to this time-traveling Romeo and Jules, as she likes to be called, and how the author manages to break down the classic play so that its seams of misogyny and class warfare are laid bare, and readers can see the end result of the selfish monetary grabs of this century doom further centuries to a slow and painful death. Here's the blurb: If you're a fan of Shakespearean theater and Doctor Who, this is most definitely the book for you...you just have to trust that the author will eventually get you to that HFN ending you want. While it's not an absolute necessity that those who read this book be familiar with R&J and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, it does help a great deal. The non-linear narrative is plotted into 5 acts, like a play, which I found fascinating, but if you're not an old theater major like myself, you might find it frustrating instead. The end pairing of characters from two different classics was refreshing, but again, if you've not read classic lit, you might find it bizarre. I'd give this unusual book a B+, and recommend it to theater fans who enjoy classic lit tropes re-imagined.
Empire of Shadows by Jacquelyn Benson is a long but delightful Indiana Jones meets the Mummy meets Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell mysteries adventure novel that will have you on the edge of your seat by the third chapter. This historical fantasy never wavers and played out in my mind like a movie. Here's the blurb:
Nice Victorian ladies don’t run off to find legendary lost cities.
One
trifling little arrest shouldn’t have cost Ellie Mallory her job, but
it’s only the latest in a line of injustices facing any educated woman
with archaeological ambitions. When Ellie stumbles
across the map to a mysterious ancient city, she knows she’s holding her
chance to revolutionize Pre-Colombian history. There’s just one teensy
complication. A ruthless villain wants it, and Ellie is all that stands
in his way.
To race him to the ruins—and avoid being
violently disposed of—she needs the help of maverick surveyor Adam
Bates, a snake-wrangling rogue who can’t seem to keep his dratted shirt
on. But there’s more than Ellie’s scholarly
reputation (and life) on the line. Her enemies aren’t just looters.
They’re after an arcane secret rumored to lie in the heart of the ruins,
a mythical artifact with a power that could shake the world.
Between
stealing trousers, plummeting over waterfalls, and trying not to fall
in love with her machete-wielding partner, will Ellie be able to stop
the oracle of a lost empire from falling into the wrong hands?Empire of Shadows is the first book in the Raiders of the Arcana series, rip-roaring historical fantasy adventures perfect for fans of Romancing the Stone and The Mummy.
"Sassy
banter and sizzling romantic tension sparkle throughout the fast-paced
action ... Fans of Indiana Jones-style historical fantasies will be
eager for the next adventure." - Booklist of the ALA
Thankfully good prevails over the evil greed of the bad guys, and all is restored to order in the end, however, that ending is sloppy and overly "romantic" in a "love conquers all" way, though Ellie was supposed to be a Suffragette who never wanted to be chained to a marriage and children. Ellie proclaims several times that she wanted to travel the world as an archeologist ala Indiana Jones, but better, because she wanted to save all the artifacts from being bought and sold and used by evil people for their own nefarious ends. But in the end, when she's asked what she really wants, she caves completely to the stereotypical female in need of romance and says "you" to Bates, who, to his credit, did help save her from ruin. Insert eye roll here. There's a lot of good banter that goes on between the two of them, which is fun, and Benson's prose is fresh and zingy, while her plot zooms along like a freight train. I did enjoy this story, though it was a bit too long at nearly 450 pages. Where are the good book editors out there? I'm serious that no book really needs to be longer than 350 pages at best. Someone has got to teach these authors to tighten their prose up so the manuscript sings all the way through. Still, I'd give this hefty adventure an A, and recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Lara Croft or Indiana Jones or the Mummy.
The Apology Project by Jeanette Escudero is a humorous rom-com with a redemption story arc that is oddly satisfying as the main character grows up in the end. Here's the blurb: Millie (as Amelia calls herself) is a huge mess of a person, cold and distant and intent on climbing the ladder at her law firm, and ignoring the misogyny around her in service to that rise up the career ladder. Fortunately, this behavior comes to bite her in the butt, and she embarks on an apology tour to many of the people she's wronged, though she comes to realize that some of them have actually wronged her. Millie gets petulant and is often immature and passive aggressive at the start of the book, but gradually she begins to see the error of her ways, and the causes (from her childhood, of course) of her cruelty and disregard for the feelings of other women, especially. It bothered me as a feminist that most of her revelations about herself came at the hands of the handsome male protagonist, with whom she has exciting sexual encounters, but who is keeping a large and terrible secret from her (and who acts smugly superior to her throughout the book...I felt that he was too much of an asshat to be a good match for her, but apparently the author feels that toxic masculinity is irresistible in a partner) and whom she forgives nearly instantly for his heinous actions! Boo, hiss! But, having made mistakes in my own past for the promise of continued great sex with a man, I can almost forgive Millie her stupidity (the problem there is that Millie is 40 years old, while I was only an idiot in my 20s when I fell for the wrong guy...and John is 50, so both of them should know better by now). Still, I'd give this middle-aged woman grows up tale a B+ and recommend it to anyone who tries to address their past regrets head on.
