Quote of the Day, White Fang, Book Trailer for the Great Alone, Elliott Bay Goes Airport, The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas,Star Wars Leia, Princess of Alderaan, and Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray

YES! Storytellers/authors are the "custodians of empathy!"

Quotation of the Day

"When all else is gone, it is stories that can save us. Ambiguity and

complexity are at the heart of human condition and now more than ever we

need writers to remind us of this.... We are the custodians of empathy,

the gateway to otherness. [It is writers who can show] how it feels to

be someone else, or to believe something else. This sometimes horrifies

us, but it is the best books that take us to these places.... Long live

stories, the written world and the publishers who believe in it and

booksellers who press it into hands of readers, agents who help writers

up and everyone else engaged in this great labor of love and faith."

--Writer and broadcaster Sally Magnusson in her keynote speech at the

Scottish Book Trade Conference in Edinburgh

This is awesome, I loved Jack London's stories when I was a kid...they were adventurous and fascinating.

TV: White Fang

Netflix picked up the animated feature White Fang

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz36127375,

based on the Jack London story, and is planning a 2018 release, the

Hollywood Reporter wrote. Directed by Alexandre Espigares, who won an

Oscar for his 2014 animated short, Mr. Hublot, the project's voice cast

includes Rashida Jones, Eddie Spears, Nick Offerman and Paul Giamatti.

I just finished this book last weekend, and will review it below, but I think the book trailer is pretty cool.

Book Trailer of the Day: The Great Alone

The Great Alone: A Novel http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz36127371

by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's Press).

Very interesting, that Elliott Bay has decided to branch out into airports. Hopefully, they won't be too snobby about their choice of books to highlight.

Elliott Bay Book Company Landing Next Year at Sea-Tac Airport

Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, Wash., plans to open a bookstore at

Sea-Tac Airport in 2019 in association with the Hudson Group. Located on

the C Concourse, the store will feature "our staff recommendations,

bestsellers and our beloved Northwest authors and titles as well as the

latest releases you can grab when making your next connection," said

Elliott Bay general manager Tracy Taylor.

The Port of Seattle, which operates Sea-Tac Airport, has been putting an

emphasis on adding local and women- and minority-owned businesses,

particularly food retailers. "From kiosks to in-line stores, we are

excited to offer customers more choices for dining and retail

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz36127334 at

Sea-Tac Airport, to build a platform for local chefs and shop owners who

celebrate the Pacific Northwest, and to recognize equity and

sustainability practices that passengers can feel good about

supporting," Port of Seattle Commission President Courtney Gregoire told

South Sound magazine.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah is her 16th novel (and I've read about 10 of them), and though it just debuted, it has become a huge bestseller and received a number of good reviews from print and online publications. Usually, I eschew bestsellers, because they rarely live up to the hype and I often find them to be formulaic and dull. But after reading and loving Hannah's The Nightingale last year, I thought that chances were good that she wouldn't disappoint with this year's bestseller, either. I was right, and The Great Alone is a page-turner that I devoured in one day, from the moment I woke up until I was ready for bed that night. The prose is, of course, brilliant, but it's the characters and sense of place that really set this wonderful novel apart, and that keep the riptide of the plot whooshing along.

Here's the blurb: Alaska, 1974.
Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed.
For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival.

Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.
Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if means following him into the unknown.
At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources.
But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.
In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska—a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.

Though I can't fathom why any woman would stay with a man who beats her nearly to death, repeatedly, I do understand that women of that time (I was the same age as Leni in 1974), like my mother, had very few rights, including not having the right to get a credit card without their husband's okay, and having very few rights in court when it came to custody of children or of getting away from domestic violence and abuse. Though women had just gotten the right to a legal abortion, men still ruled the legal system and the police/government. My own mother, a nurse who worked every day to heal people and worked another shift at home raising three children (two with chronic illness), put up with a great deal of philandering and cruelty from my own father, because she knew that in a divorce, the courts wouldn't be on her side, and she didn't want her children to be caught in the crossfire. She waited as long as she could, until the year I graduated from high school and went off to college, to divorce my father, knowing that she still had to get my younger brother through his final year of high school, somehow. But my father wasn't beating her,and wasn't insane like Ernt, who should have been locked up many years before he moved his family to Alaska. Though he was a Vietnam vet and POW, and I gather we're supposed to have some sympathy for him because of PTSD, I loathed the man from the outset, and had no sympathy for his violent and insane attitude. And though I felt Cora should have grown a spine long before she did, I was saddened by what happened to her, and somewhat saddened by Leni's homecoming, though the ending was as close to an HEA as possible for these troubled characters. This book gets a well deserved A, and a recommendation to anyone who wonders what it was like to homestead in Alaska when it was still wild.

Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas is the 7th (or 8th, depending on if you count the coloring book) book in the Throne of Glass series, which I've read though and reviewed on this blog. Tower of Dawn isn't a direct sequel to the last Throne of Glass novel, however, which left Aelin, our heroine, in the hands of the enemy fae queen in the end. This novel takes up the story of Lord Chaol Westfall, who, in my opinion, was a real bastard and treated Aelin like crap because he was frightened of her power (and jealous of it, I think. Most men seem to feel emasculated by women who are more powerful/wealthy/titled than they are). This story picks up when he and Nesryn Faliq (his guard and erstwhile lover) set off to the far eastern lands ruled by the great Kahn to try and drum up an army to fight the demon valg in their homeland and to find healers to help Chaol win back the use of his legs after he suffered a spinal injury from the valg. I knew at the outset that he would fall in love with his healer, Yrene Towers, but I was surprised that Nesryn fell in love with flying Ruks with one of the heirs to the Kahn's throne. Maas' prose is rich and fine, and her plot here moves along at a metered pace but without any plotholes, which is some feat, considering the length and breadth of the other novels in the series. Here's the blurb:

Chaol Westfall has always defined himself by his unwavering loyalty, his strength, and his position as the Captain of the Guard. But all of that has changed since the glass castle shattered, since his men were slaughtered, since the King of Adarlan spared him from a killing blow, but left his body broken.
His only shot at recovery lies with the legendary healers of the Torre Cesme in Antica--the stronghold of the southern continent's mighty empire. And with war looming over Dorian and Aelin back home, their survival might lie with Chaol and Nesryn convincing its rulers to ally with them.
But what they discover in Antica will change them both--and be more vital to saving Erilea than they could have imagined.

Reading about Chaol's physical and mental recovery was not unlike reading stories of soldiers recovering from PTSD and physical injuries in Afghanistan during our latest war in the Middle East. The fact that it comes down to dealing with your mental demons as well as your physical demons rings true in this fantasy world and in the real world. Still, there was a lot of melodrama around the budding relationships that seemed to get a bit too swoon-worthy for my tastes. But I enjoyed the ending and the set up for the next book,when we will see who wins when the fae queen battles Aelin. A well deserved A, and a recommendation to anyone who has read the preceding books in the series.

Star Wars Leia, Princess of Alderaan, and Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray. Though these two novels were written by the same author, you wouldn't know it if you took the book jackets off of both and asked several people to read them in tandem. Both do have strong female protagonists, and both have strong prose and excellent storytelling. However, the book about Leia is light years apart from Defy the Stars in terms of creative characters and plot. This is probably due to the fact that we all know Princess Leia's story from watching the Star Wars movies, so when we learn of her rebelliousness as a teenager, it doesn't seem unusual or out of character. But I was delighted to know more about her adoptive parents, Bail and Breha Organa, and their involvement in the nascent rebel alliance, along with Mon Mothma, a character I'd overlooked in nearly all the Star Wars movies. Since there isn't a blurb for this novel, I will just say that I felt it was like reading a well written script for a Star Wars prequel. While I enjoyed it, it was lightweight  reading, and only appropriate for those who enjoy detailed backgrounds on the characters they've come to know and love in the Star Wars universe. I'd give it a B, and recommend it to Star Wars geeks and fangirls everywhere.

Defy the Stars, however, was a much meatier read, full of wonderful characters, lush prose and a succulent plot that moved along beautifully and kept me turning pages long into the night. Here's the blurb:

She's a soldier -- Noemi Vidal is willing to risk anything to protect her planet, Genesis, including her own life. To their enemies on Earth, she's a rebel.
He's a machine -- Abandoned in space for years, utterly alone, Abel's advanced programming has begun to evolve. He wants only to protect his creator, and to be free. To the people of Genesis, he's an abomination.
Noemi and Abel are enemies in an interstellar war, forced by chance to work together as they embark on a daring journey through the stars. Their efforts would end the fighting for good, but they're not without sacrifice. The stakes are even higher than either of them first realized, and the more time they spend together, the more they're forced to question everything they'd been taught was true.
An epic and romantic adventure, perfect for fans of The Lunar Chronicle. Publisher's Weekly:In this poignant and profound SF novel from Gray (the Firebird trilogy), resources are scarce, humans populate multiple planets, and a colony world called Genesis is battling Earth for independence. Noemi Vidal, a 17-year-old fighter pilot from Genesis, is on a training run when an Earth army of humanoid robots known as mechs attacks her squadron. Noemi gets separated from the group and seeks refuge on a broken-down research vessel. On board is Abel, the first mech ever created. A showdown ensues before a quirk in Abel’s code dictates that he submit to Noemi’s command. Using information gleaned from Abel, Noemi hatches a plan to liberate Genesis that necessitates the mech’s destruction. It’s not long, though, until Noemi is forced to wonder whether Abel has transcended his programming. Noemi and Abel share the narrative, and together they weave a tale that examines the ethics of war and tackles questions of consciousness, love, and free will. Gray’s characters are nuanced, her worldbuilding is intelligent, and the book’s conclusion thrills and satisfies while defying expectations.

I completely agree with PW's estimation of the book, in the nuanced characters and intelligent world building. I felt as if I were reading something that was a combination of ST Next Generation, (especially the episodes where Data questions his humanity), The Expanse, a TV show that questions sentience of a created lifeform, and Blade Runner, the stylized futuristic movie where you can see the vast difference between the haves and the have nots, while being amazed at the lack of value placed on artificial life, especially when that life is obviously sentient enough to want to live longer than it was programmed to live.  Watching Noemi broaden her worldview and realize that all mechs are not the same, is a wonder to behold. Being a fan of science fiction romance hybrids and of YA, I thought I'd enjoy this book, but I expected it to be less literary and somewhat dumbed down. Thankfully, it was not dumbed down in the slightest, and should be shelved in with regular science fiction books, in my opinion. It is only nominally YA, and should be read by adults who are looking for a great story about AI. I'd give it an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction/romance and stories about artificial intelligence. 

I would like to make brief mention of a book that I enjoyed but am not going to finish called "I'll Have What She's Having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy" by Erin Carlson. I picked up this book because I adore Nora Ephron, and I've loved her spicy memoirs just as much as I loved her iconic movies, like When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle. Unfortunately, Carlson rambles along about stars and celebs that are barely connected to the films, and thus the whole book devolves into a gossip rag, which is not why I wanted to read it. I loved the behind the scenes stories, but I really didn't like how the book comes to a complete halt for the ruinous gossip. It felt skeevy and I lost interest about 100 pages in. Still, if you are a fan of classic romantic comedies, and of the brilliant Nora Ephron, may she rest in peace, I would recommend you give this book a glance.