Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Movie, Cambridge Book Shops, Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings, A Conspiracy of Stars by Olivia A Cole, A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn and Miranda and Caliban by Jacqueline Carey

I loved the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, as did the other members of the library book group that I head up, so we are all excited about this upcoming movie. The trailer looks pretty good.

Movies: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The first trailer is out for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie

Society http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz36026101,

based on the bestselling novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

Producing are Paula Mazur and Mitchell Kaplan from the Mazur/Kaplan

Company (he is the owner of Books & Books http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz36026102

in southern Florida and the Cayman Islands), along with Graham Broadbent

and Pete Czernin from Blueprint Pictures (Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, In

Bruges).

Directed by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Harry Potter and

the Goblet of Fire), the film stars Lily James (Downton Abbey, Darkest

Hour), Michiel Huisman, Katherine Parkinson, Matthew Goode, Glen Powell,

Penelope Wilton, Jessica Brown Findlay and Tom Courtenay. The Guernsey

Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is currently scheduled to open

April 20 in the U.K. There is no official U.S. release date yet.

I have long had going on a trip to England, Scotland and Wales to check out all their wonderful libraries and bookstores on my bucket list. This link is to an article that outlines some of the great little bookshops in England that bookish folks like myself would love to explore.

Road Trip U.K.: Cambridge Shops 'Every Bibliophile Will Love'

"In a city which is all about books and knowledge there must be a fair

few quaint bookshops to tickle those brain cells. And a lazy wander

around a bookshop is a favorite pastime for many," Cambridge News

observed in showcasing "seven charming bookshops in Cambridge every

bibliophile will love

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz36031254."

Zenith, The Androma Saga by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings was recommended on a blog post on the Barnes and Noble SF/F blog as a new and exciting science fiction/romance series. Having been burned by recommendations from B&N before, I got my copy of this book from the library, and after reading it, I am so glad that I did. Wasting money on my own copy would have been a crime. Zenith reads like souped up Star Wars fan fiction. The characters are cliches, there is a ton of melodrama and the authors somehow feel the need to outline each character's every feeling, emotion and thought, so you have to read about any given event from several different points of view, which is boring, redundant and makes the plot drag. It's obvious from the first few chapters who the bad guys/gals are and who the "white hats" are supposed to be, and the main antagonist has a "golden hand/arm," to make her even more sinister (if she'd had a moustache she would have twirled it), while she tortures and brainwashes her brother to get him on board with her evil plan to take over the universe...laughable. Here's the Publisher's Weekly blurb: Androma “Andi” Racella was a rising star in the Arcadian military until she accidentally crashed General Cortas’s personal transport vessel, killing his daughter, Kalee. Andi fled Arcadius to avoid execution, becoming one of the most notorious criminals in the Unified Systems of Mirabel. Now dubbed the “Bloody Baroness,” Andi and her all-female crew of space pirates are planning their next heist when bounty hunter Dex Arez, Andi’s traitorous ex, captures the women and delivers them to Cortas. The general offers to pardon Andi if she rescues his son, Valen, from an impenetrable Xen Pterran prison. But Dex must accompany her, and if they are caught, the Xen Pterrans will likely kill them and declare war on the Unified Systems. First in a trilogy, this sprawling space opera from Alsberg and Cummings (the Balance Keepers trilogy) features plentiful action, complex politics, and a rich mythology. Regrettably, these assets can’t overcome the drag created by clichéd characters, manufactured drama, and an overstuffed and largely predictable plot.

I don't agree that there is complex politics or a rich mythology involved here (they're just borrowed from Star Wars and Star Trek's original series) but there is a lot of action, it is just slowed to a crawl by the melodramatic yammering of each character about their guilt over the deaths they've caused. Snore. The prose reads like fan fiction, amateurish and comic book bubble worthy. I'd give this silly novel a C-, and only recommend it to those who like very simple prose and pre-digested plots.

A Conspiracy of Stars by Olivia A Cole was on another list of new books recommended to those who like YA science fiction and its hybrids. Unlike Zenith, however, this novel had sturdy and clear prose that served it's rich and lyrical plot well. Here's the blurb:

Enter the vivid and cinematic world of Faloiv in the first book of this dazzling YA sci-fi/fantasy series, perfect for fans of Carve the Mark, Red Rising, and These Broken Stars.
Octavia has always dreamed of becoming a whitecoat, one of the prestigious N’Terra scientists who study the natural wonders of Faloiv. So when the once-secretive labs are suddenly opened to students, she leaps at the chance to see what happens behind their closed doors.
However, she quickly discovers that all is not what it seems on Faloiv, and the experiments the whitecoats have been doing run the risk of upsetting the humans’ fragile peace with the Faloii, Faloiv’s indigenous people.
As secret after disturbing secret comes to light, Octavia finds herself on a collision course with the charismatic and extremist new leader of N’Terra’s ruling council. But by uncovering the mysteries behind the history she’s been taught, the science she’s lived by, and the truth about her family, she threatens to be the catalyst for an all-out war. Publisher's Weekly: Cole’s slow-burning adventure, first in a planned duology, is set in a distant future in which mankind has evacuated Earth (aka the Origin Planet) and established the colony of N’Terra on the planet Faloiv after a temporary pit stop became permanent. Sixteen-year-old Octavia yearns to study the natural wonders and dangers of Faloiv, but when she develops the ability to telepathically hear the planet’s native fauna and encounters one of the reclusive, indigenous Faloii, she is inspired to investigate N’Terra’s secrets. It turns out that some of her fellow colonists are no longer interested in living in harmony with nature or playing by the Faloii’s rules, and it falls to Octavia and her friends to prevent war. Though Cole (Panther in the Hive) offers evocative descriptions of the natural landscape of Faloiv, the underlying critique of colonialism, while valuable, overshadows Octavia’s personal journey, and it takes quite some time for the story to gain momentum.

I don't agree that the underlying critique of colonialism overshadows Octavia's journey, nor do I feel that it took too long for the story to gain momentum. I was engrossed from chapter one right on through to the end. I felt that this novel was a page-turner, and I was glad of the indictment of mankind's greed overcoming reason to turn their science into weaponry in order to murder the natives and take over the planet for the humans. The usual toxic male domination of everything and everyone is shown here for the horror that it is, even among intelligent scientists who should know better due to our shared history on the earth. I'd give this novel an A, and recommend it to anyone who is horrified by what is happening in America and around the world with white male politicians wanting to turn the world back into a place of slaves and women without rights, where people of color and those who are different have no agency, and the environment continues to be trashed and species die because the politicians don't care about the environment, the elderly, children, the poor, POC or women's rights. This novel shows that you can move to another solar system/planet, but you can't change male human nature.

A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn is the third Veronica Speedwell mystery. I've read and enjoyed the first two, and I found this one even more adventurous than the first two. Raybourn, I felt, has upped her game here, and now that the characters are firmly established, she's allowed them free reign in this well-plotted novel. Here's the blurb: London, 1888. As colorful and unfettered as the butterflies she collects, Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell can’t resist the allure of an exotic mystery—particularly one involving her enigmatic colleague, Stoker. His former expedition partner has vanished from an archaeological dig with a priceless diadem unearthed from the newly discovered tomb of an Egyptian princess. This disappearance is just the latest in a string of unfortunate events that have plagued the controversial expedition, and rumors abound that the curse of the vengeful princess has been unleashed as the shadowy figure of Anubis himself stalks the streets of London.
But the perils of an ancient curse are not the only challenges Veronica must face as sordid details and malevolent enemies emerge from Stoker’s past. Caught in a tangle of conspiracies and threats—and thrust into the public eye by an enterprising new foe—Veronica must separate facts from fantasy to unravel a web of duplicity that threatens to cost Stoker everything...Publisher's Weekly: Set in 1888, Raybourn’s exhilarating third mystery featuring Veronica Speedwell and her colleague, Revelstoke “Stoker” Templeton-Vane (after A Perilous Undertaking), centers on the strange case of John de Morgan. De Morgan, the photo- grapher on an archeological dig in Egypt plagued with mishaps, and his wife secretly leave the dig at the same time that a jeweled diadem from the tomb of Princess Ankheset goes missing. De Morgan and his wife travel across Europe to Dover only for de Morgan to vanish from the hotel room where his wife last sees him. Did de Morgan steal the diadem and abandon his wife, or is he another victim of the curse that plagued the Egyptian expedition from the beginning? After discovering that Stoker has an unsavory connection to de Morgan, Veronica determines to uncover the truth behind the alleged curse and salvage her partner’s reputation. In audacious, decidedly un-Victorian Veronica, Raybourn has created a delightful cross between real-life reporter Nellie Bly and Phryne Fisher. 

I was delighted that we got more info on Stoker's previous marriage to the poisonous Caroline de Morgan, and that Veronica finally realizes that Caroline can't and won't ever stand in the way of the budding love that she and Stoker have for one another. And Veronica seemed much tougher and more ferocious in this installment...she didn't take crap from anyone, and she went about solving the mystery on her own terms. The prose was sparkling and full of steampunkish charm. I'd give the book an A, and recommend it to those who enjoy great couples solving mysteries in the Victorian Steampunk era.

Miranda and Caliban by Jacqueline Carey, is a reboot of Shakespeare's The Tempest (my favorite Shakespeare play, BTW) in novel form, with a focus on the innocent Miranda and her hideous companion, the witch-spawn Caliban. Carey does her best to hew closely to Shakespeare's language style, while still modernizing it enough to be understood to today's audience. While everyone knows how the Tempest ends, I wasn't at all certain that this book would allow the same ending for the star-crossed (almost) lovers. But having Prospero become an abusive and vengeful man who uses his magic to frighten, abuse and subjugate his daughter, Caliban and the spirits around him, put a whole new spin on the story that kept me turning pages until the wee hours. Here's the blurb:

Miranda and Caliban is bestselling fantasy author Jacqueline Carey’s gorgeous retelling of The Tempest. With hypnotic prose and a wild imagination, Carey explores the themes of twisted love and unchecked power that lie at the heart of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, while serving up a fresh take on the play's iconic characters.
A lovely girl grows up in isolation where her father, a powerful magus, has spirited them to in order to keep them safe.
We all know the tale of Prospero's quest for revenge, but what of Miranda? Or Caliban, the so-called savage Prospero chained to his will?
In this incredible retelling of the fantastical tale, Jacqueline Carey shows readers the other side of the coin—the dutiful and tenderhearted Miranda, who loves her father but is terribly lonely. And Caliban, the strange and feral boy Prospero has bewitched to serve him. The two find solace and companionship in each other as Prospero weaves his magic and dreams of revenge.
Always under Prospero’s jealous eye, Miranda and Caliban battle the dark, unknowable forces that bind them to the island even as the pangs of adolescence create a new awareness of each other and their doomed relationship. Publisher's Weekly: Carey (the Santa Olivia series) turns Shakespeare’s Tempest on its head, in ways that are always supportable by the original text, with this brilliant deconstruction. On the deserted island where Miranda grows up, her magician father, Prospero, keeps mostly to himself for the sake of his magical studies. Miranda is the childhood playmate and teacher of the orphan Caliban, the island’s original inhabitant, but when they come of age, their friendship grows into romance, which Prospero cannot tolerate. The magician has had plans for Miranda for years—plans involving his enemies, a love spell, and, of course, a tempest. Carey’s version of Prospero is unable to see his daughter as more than a tool, and unable to see Caliban through his preconceptions and academic prejudices. The foreordained pattern of the play mixes beautifully with Carey’s intricate characterization and eye for sensory detail, building mercilessly to dazzling, and devastating, tragic effect.

Carey's prose is, as it was in her Kushiel's series, brilliant and beautiful, while Shakespeare's grand plot goes from being a sad tale that ends well to a tragic tale of abandonment and lost love. Readers will really feel for Miranda, growing up under the magical thumb of her cruel father, while she tries to help poor Caliban to become a more "acceptable" human so as to allow them to be companions and friends when away from home and under her father's eyes. Ariel is a vicious gossipy spirit in this retelling, and other spirits also long for freedom, which Miranda manages to get for them before she and her father leave the Island. While this ending isn't as happy as Shakespeare's, it is still beautifully rendered. This book was a heart breaker, but well worth the price of the trade paperback. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to those who loved the Kushiel's series, because the tenants of Namah, "Love as Thou Wilt" certainly apply here.