I have been struggling with Crohns disease and Sjogren's Syndrome for the past 8 days, so this post has been postponed for too long. My apologies to my readers, and my thanks for your patience. I will get right to it with two tidbits and four book reviews, coming right up!
This looks like an exciting program that I can hardly wait to watch, hopefully on BBC America (which is where I will soon be watching the latest season of Doctor Who with the new female Doctor!)
TV: His
Dark Materials
The BBC has
doubled the order for His Dark Materials
an adaptation of
Philip Pullman's trilogy (Northern Lights, The Subtle
Knife, The Amber
Spyglass), ahead of its debut. Deadline reported that
the Bad Wolf and
New Line production "has already been handed a second,
eight-part season.
Filming kicked off earlier this month in Cardiff at
Wolf Studios Wales
for season one of the drama, which is thought to be
one of the most
expensive British scripted series to date."
Written by Jack
Thorne, and His Dark Materials stars James McAvoy, Dafne
Keen, Ruth Wilson,
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Clarke Peters, Ariyon Bakare,
Georgina Campbell,
Anne-Marie Duff, Ian Gelder and Will Keen. Tom Hooper
will be lead
director and helm the first two episodes, with Dawn
Shadforth
directing an episode and Otto Bathurst directing two.
It seems that, in this age of grotesque behavior from the White House, that society in general is experiencing a time in which some people feel the need to act out in public, treating clerks and wait staff and public servants with rude, aggressive behavior. Miss Manners recommends walking away, but there are times when it is difficult or impossible to get away from these ill-mannered brutes. I recommend being as polite as possible in telling them to shove off. It saddens me that there are so few who ascribe to common courtesy or polite society anymore.
Miss Manners on
'Pushy' Bookstore Customers
In yesterday's
"Miss Manners" column (courtesy
of the Washington
Post), "the manager of a retail chain bookstore" asked
about how to deal
with customers "who want to discuss their political or
religious beliefs
with me or my employees" to the point of saying who to
vote for and what
church to attend. "I cannot just pretend to agree with
them, even if I
wanted to, because then I would risk offending other
customers in the
store who disagree."
Miss Manners
responded in part: "There is no need to address any
personal questions
about your affiliations. Rather, Miss Manners advises
you to say, 'Let
me think what books might interest you. Do you prefer
ones that agree
with you, or are you interested in finding out what your
opponents are
arguing?'
"Should they
persist, rather than taking up your offer, you should add,
'Well, look
around. You're bound to find something that will interest
you.' And then
excuse yourself to tend to other customers."
The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson is a hardback tome that, by nature of its title and book cover (I am a sucker for a book cover of stacks of books or full bookshelves) attracted me like the proverbial moth to flame. I was expecting something similar to "How to Find Love in a Book Shop" or "Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Book Store" but this was much more mystery/ finding your roots/family kind of story than those books, and it was also much less lighthearted. The protagonist, Miranda (named for the sheltered girl in Shakespeare's The Tempest) inherits Prospero's Bookstore from her Uncle Billy, and embarks on a journey of discovery when he leaves scavenger-hunt-style clues for her in books and letters that he's sent to people in his life prior to his death. Here's the blurb: A woman inherits a beloved bookstore and sets forth on a journey
of self-discovery in this poignant debut about family, forgiveness and a
love of reading.
Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric Uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s twelfth birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear from him again until sixteen years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy—and one final scavenger hunt.
When Miranda returns home to Los Angeles and to Prospero Books—now as its owner—she finds clues that Billy has hidden for her inside novels on the store’s shelves, in locked drawers of his apartment upstairs, in the name of the store itself. Miranda becomes determined to save Prospero Books and to solve Billy’s last scavenger hunt. She soon finds herself drawn into a journey where she meets people from Billy’s past, people whose stories reveal a history that Miranda’s mother has kept hidden—and the terrible secret that tore her family apart.
Bighearted and trenchantly observant, The Bookshop of Yesterdays is a love letter to reading and bookstores, and a testament to the healing power of community and how our histories shape who we become.
Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric Uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s twelfth birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear from him again until sixteen years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy—and one final scavenger hunt.
When Miranda returns home to Los Angeles and to Prospero Books—now as its owner—she finds clues that Billy has hidden for her inside novels on the store’s shelves, in locked drawers of his apartment upstairs, in the name of the store itself. Miranda becomes determined to save Prospero Books and to solve Billy’s last scavenger hunt. She soon finds herself drawn into a journey where she meets people from Billy’s past, people whose stories reveal a history that Miranda’s mother has kept hidden—and the terrible secret that tore her family apart.
Bighearted and trenchantly observant, The Bookshop of Yesterdays is a love letter to reading and bookstores, and a testament to the healing power of community and how our histories shape who we become.
I figured out the "secret" of this book within the first twenty five pages, and I daresay other readers will, too, but oddly enough, that didn't diminish my enjoyment of the plot unfolding, as it normally would. Meyerson's prose is crystal clear, cool and hearty and propels the rollercoaster of a plot along at breathtaking speed. The characters are believable, if more than a bit stupid and way too secretive and insecure, but this only makes them seem all the more human, tragically. I really wanted to smack Amanda's mother up alongside the head, and I wanted to kick her Uncle Billy in his tiny gonads repeatedly. Despite that, I'd give this book a B+, and recommend it to anyone who has had their life upended by family drama.
Apex by Mercedes Lackey is the third book in her YA Hunter series, the finale that wraps everything up. Here's the blurb: Being a member of the Elite Hunter Command imperils Joy in more ways
than one. In their latest clash with Othersiders, the army of monsters
nearly wiped them out. Apex City is safe for now. But within the city
barriers, Joy must wage a different kind of war.
The corrupt and powerful PsiCorps is determined to usurp the Hunters as chief defenders of Apex City and Joy is now squarely in their crosshairs. Unused to playing political games, she has very few people she can truly trust-not even Josh, her first friend in Apex City, who broke up with her when it became too dangerous for a Psimon to be dating a Hunter.
Then Josh comes to Joy for help. He fears that Abigail Drift, the head of PsiCorps, will soon use him in her twisted experiments designed to empower PsiCorps and render Hunters superfluous--a scheme that's already killed off dozens of Psimons. Joy manages to smuggle Josh to safety, but he cannot evade Drift forever?
As Joy faces ever more powerful Othersiders, she is helped by the most surprising ally imaginable---the same Folk Mage she once met in battle on the train to Apex City. But can Joy trust the most cunning and treacherous of all Othersiders?
In the thrilling finale to Mercedes Lackey's #1 New York Times bestselling trilogy, Joy must risk everything to end a brutal war?before she loses all she's ever loved.
The corrupt and powerful PsiCorps is determined to usurp the Hunters as chief defenders of Apex City and Joy is now squarely in their crosshairs. Unused to playing political games, she has very few people she can truly trust-not even Josh, her first friend in Apex City, who broke up with her when it became too dangerous for a Psimon to be dating a Hunter.
Then Josh comes to Joy for help. He fears that Abigail Drift, the head of PsiCorps, will soon use him in her twisted experiments designed to empower PsiCorps and render Hunters superfluous--a scheme that's already killed off dozens of Psimons. Joy manages to smuggle Josh to safety, but he cannot evade Drift forever?
As Joy faces ever more powerful Othersiders, she is helped by the most surprising ally imaginable---the same Folk Mage she once met in battle on the train to Apex City. But can Joy trust the most cunning and treacherous of all Othersiders?
In the thrilling finale to Mercedes Lackey's #1 New York Times bestselling trilogy, Joy must risk everything to end a brutal war?before she loses all she's ever loved.
As usual, Lackey's prose is golden, and her plots never flag as they zoom along to their thrilling conclusion. This series had a number of loose ends to tie up, and it seemed for awhile that Lackey wasn't going to be able to pull it off, but she did, and there was an HEA for just about everyone in the book. I enjoyed the action and death defying battles against the nasty "othersiders" who range from dragons to harpies and red caps and snake people, all the way to roving giant eyeballs of death, and I loved that Joy was able to take them all on with an aplomb that belied her age. This is a series that I think fans of Tamora Pierce would enjoy, and also fans of Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid and Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden might enjoy. It deserves an A and a sincere thanks to Lackey for writing yet another series that can propel readers out of their everyday doldrums into an exciting futuristic world.
Markswoman by Rati Mehrotra is another YA adventure series, this one set in Asiana, a place that combines India with the Middle East and Asian cultures. The prose was evocative but dense and full of cultural references that were fascinating, but not always fleshed out. the plot meandered a bit, but always got back on track, though the switching POV from chapter to chapter was slightly cumbersome. Here's the blurb:
An
order of magical-knife wielding female assassins brings both peace and
chaos to their post-apocalyptic world in this bewitching blend of
science fiction and epic fantasy—the first entry in a debut duology that
displays the inventiveness of the works of Sarah Beth Durst and Marie
Lu.Kyra is the youngest Markswoman in the Order of Kali, one of a handful of sisterhoods of highly trained elite warriors. Armed with blades whose metal is imbued with magic and guided by a strict code of conduct, the Orders are sworn to keep the peace and protect the people of Asiana. Kyra has pledged to do so—yet she secretly harbors a fierce desire to avenge her murdered family.
When Tamsyn, the powerful and dangerous Mistress of Mental Arts, assumes control of the Order, Kyra is forced on the run. She is certain that Tamsyn committed murder in a twisted bid for power, but she has no proof.
Kyra escapes through one of the strange Transport Hubs that are the remnants of Asiana’s long-lost past and finds herself in the unforgiving wilderness of a desert that is home to the Order of Khur, the only Order composed of men. Among them is Rustan, a disillusioned Marksman whose skill with a blade is unmatched. He understands the desperation of Kyra’s quest to prove Tamsyn’s guilt, and as the two grow closer, training daily on the windswept dunes of Khur, both begin to question their commitment to their Orders. But what they don’t yet realize is that the line between justice and vengeance is thin . . . as thin as the blade of a knife. Publisher's Weekly:This enjoyably melodramatic science fiction and fantasy blend rings familiar sounds from slightly unusual bells. In a vastly depopulated Asia (here called Asiana) recovering from a long-past Great War that set civilization back to a medieval state, judicial executions are carried out by orders of trained, ascetic Marks-women who can read minds and are armed with psychically aware daggers. The blades, along with teleportation hubs, are gifts from mysterious visitors who “had come down from the stars.” Kyra, newly elevated to Markswoman status, makes her first kill, taking out a captured member of the outlaw gang that wiped out her village and left her to be raised by the Order of Kali. Fearing the order’s new headwoman, Kyra escapes and finds refuge with the shunned Order of Khur, the only all-male order. She plans to return and take command of the Order of Kali once she’s strong enough to duel the headwoman, a legendary fighter. One of the Khur members, Rustan, helps prepare Kyra for the duel despite his qualms over her moral stances. The setting is lightly sketched; though the Hindu goddess Kali is depicted with her typical attributes, the Order of Kali has few relevant rituals or observances, relegating a real-world religion to window dressing. Debut novelist Mehrotra ably paces her story, giving just enough hints and revealing just enough secrets, but the revelations won’t surprise any reader who’s familiar with fantasies with strong romance elements.
SPOILER ALERT. Once Kyra discovers that the head of the Tau clan (who slaughtered her family) is probably her father, and that the man she killed is her half brother, things get morally interesting as she tries to deal with her need for vengeance and her desire for justice within her order. Though I knew there was a romantic subplot woven throughout the novel, I got a bit tired of Rustan's being a sexist jerk and his attitude toward Kyra bordered on abusive. Still, I would give this book a B+ and recommend it to those who enjoy diverse epic fantasy.
Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire is the 12th October Daye fantasy novel in this series, and having read them all, I was interested to see how Toby's relationship would progress after the horrors of the last novel's abduction of her intended, Tybalt, the King of Cats. Things do not go well, as expected, and Tybalt feels too damaged to help his court of cats or his fiance, so, as usual, it's up to Toby to set things right by herself, though she has an apprentice (who seems to be fairly worthless in a fight, and she ends up expending a lot of energy keeping him from getting a scratch on him) and a "sister/fetch" who is more concerned with her own damaged lover than she is with helping Toby deal with the latest crisis. At this point I am unsure why McGuire even has these characters attached to Toby, unless its because they're an easy way for the bad Fae to "get" to her by kidnapping and/or trying to kill them. The same goes for her daughter Gillian, who elected to eschew her fae blood and lead a life as human and bland as possible. Inevitably, this leads Gillian to get the roommate from hell who helps to abduct her and deliver her to the Queen of bad Fae, where she's used as a pawn for said insane queen to try and wrest something impossible from Toby. This leads to Toby being typically covered in blood and gore and having to make hard choices that earn her nothing but contempt from the people she loves and calls family (though she's saved all their lives/kingdoms multiple times, but hey, don't let that give you a reason for even the slightest kindness or courtesy toward Toby). Here's the blurb:
Things are not okay.
In the aftermath of Amandine's latest betrayal, October "Toby" Daye's fragile self-made family is on the verge of coming apart at the seams. Jazz can't sleep, Sylvester doesn't want to see her, and worst of all, Tybalt has withdrawn from her entirely, retreating into the Court of Cats as he tries to recover from his abduction. Toby is floundering, unable to help the people she loves most heal. She needs a distraction. She needs a quest.
What she doesn't need is the abduction of her estranged human daughter, Gillian. What she doesn't need is to be accused of kidnapping her own child by her ex-boyfriend and his new wife, who seems to be harboring secrets of her own. There's no question of whether she'll take the case. The only question is whether she's emotionally prepared to survive it.
Signs of Faerie's involvement are everywhere, and it's going to take all Toby's nerve and all her allies to get her through this web of old secrets, older hatreds, and new deceits. If she can't find Gillian before time runs out, her own child will pay the price.
Two questions remain: Who in Faerie remembered Gillian existed? And what do they stand to gain? No matter how this ends, Toby's life will never be the same.
In the aftermath of Amandine's latest betrayal, October "Toby" Daye's fragile self-made family is on the verge of coming apart at the seams. Jazz can't sleep, Sylvester doesn't want to see her, and worst of all, Tybalt has withdrawn from her entirely, retreating into the Court of Cats as he tries to recover from his abduction. Toby is floundering, unable to help the people she loves most heal. She needs a distraction. She needs a quest.
What she doesn't need is the abduction of her estranged human daughter, Gillian. What she doesn't need is to be accused of kidnapping her own child by her ex-boyfriend and his new wife, who seems to be harboring secrets of her own. There's no question of whether she'll take the case. The only question is whether she's emotionally prepared to survive it.
Signs of Faerie's involvement are everywhere, and it's going to take all Toby's nerve and all her allies to get her through this web of old secrets, older hatreds, and new deceits. If she can't find Gillian before time runs out, her own child will pay the price.
Two questions remain: Who in Faerie remembered Gillian existed? And what do they stand to gain? No matter how this ends, Toby's life will never be the same.
SPOILER ALERT The discovery that Gillian's "mom" is actually Toby's great, great grandmother, who has been bespelled by Maeve to have eternal life (she's the woman who saved Tam Lin and doomed Maeve to the wild hunt, so all the fae consider her a traitor and loathe her), puts yet another monkey wrench in the works of Toby's life, while her idiot ex has no idea, apparently, who he was married to originally or who he's married to now (I mean a 500 year difference in age is so far beyond a May/December romance it's ridiculous). There's a little novelette at the end of this book that delves into the shallow waters of Gillian's POV of her rescue at the hands of her real mother, and learning to deal with her new life as a fae. Fair warning it does nothing to endear readers to Gillian, who is a mean, petty, stupid and shallow person who is only interested in her own comfort. I found her repulsive and felt sorry for Toby that her child has grown up to be such a b*tch. Still, McGuire's sterling prose and page-turning plot kept me reading until the wee hours, though part of that time was spent rolling my eyes and grinding my teeth at her despicable 'family' who routinely fail her. Thank heaven for the Luidaeg (pronounced Lou-shak) who seems to be the only one in Toby's corner. I'd give this book an A-, and recommend it to anyone who has read the other books in the October Daye series. Though I have reservations about how Toby is treated in these books, I will doubtless purchase the next book in the series the moment it hits the shelves.
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