Tacoma Bookstores, RIP Barbara Bailey of Bailey/Coy Books, Pasadena Game Show, Hazard by Devon Monk, Elite by Mercedes Lackey, Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton and Subway Girls by Susie Orman Schnall

Tacoma is undergoing something of a renaissance, and I am thrilled that they're supporting bookstores and literacy while they're renovating. 

'Dive into a New Read' at Tacoma Bookstores

"Calling all bookworms: if you live in Tacoma, you're in the right

place," SouthSound Talk reported, advising readers to "dive into a new

read http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz38142495"

at some of the Washington city's bookshops. "No matter the season, it's

always the perfect time to get lost in a story, learn something new or

dive into history. Luckily, there is a bevy of bookstores located

throughout Grit City where you can get your fix. From small shops that

specialize in historical and hard to find tomes, to big stores packed

with genre fiction, kids books and nonfiction, to cozy shops overflowing

with titles, to a bookstore with a strong place in the community,

there's something for every kind of book lover."

I used to love shopping at Bailey/Coy books. RIP Ms Bailey

Obituary Note: Barbara Bailey  

Barbara Bailey, a former bookseller and community activist who ran

Bailey/Coy Books in Seattle, Wash.'s Capitol Hill neighborhood for

decades, died September 1 at the age of 74, the Seattle Times reported

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz38200192.

The cause of death was a stroke.

Born and raised in Seattle, Bailey began her career in bookselling at a

small bookstore in Sun Valley, Idaho. After returning to Seattle in the

late 1970s, Bailey opened B. Bailey Books in Rainier Square, where she

was one of the "first leaseholders." In 1982, she opened another, bigger

store on Broadway called Bailey/Coy Books.

While both stores were general interest bookstores, they were, according

to Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz38200193,

"safe and welcoming spaces for the LGBTQ+ community, particularly for

those just coming out and during the height of anti-LGBTQ+ actions."

Bailey/Coy Books was also known for its "carefully curated inventory"

and "friendly staff."

In 2003, Bailey retired from the book industry and sold the store to

Michael Wells. It closed in 2009 at the height of the financial crisis.

"She was such a connector, and had such a great head for business," her

brother Thatcher Bailey told the Seattle Times. "She read like a fiend.

She was part of the literary world in Seattle, but that was less

important to her than just welcoming the community into her store, and

making it a very comfortable place for everyone."

My best friend Jenny Z lives in Pasadena, CA, and not too far from this iconic bookstore, lucky her!

Image of the Day: 'Wait, Wait... Pasadena!'

More than 150 people attended the game-show event called "Wait, Wait...

Pasadena!" at Vroman's Bookstore http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz38230631,

Pasadena, Calif., last week to celebrate the publication of Hometown

Pasadena (Prospect Park Books). Hosted by novelist Lian Dolan

(standing), who was a contributor to the book, the raucous event saw

many Hometown Pasadena contributors playing for audience members. Seated

(r.-l.) are: Rafi Simon, aka children's book author Pseudonymous Bosch;

Los Angeles Times columnist and Daditude author Chris Erskine; Instagram

influencer Mr. Pasadena; and Hometown Pasadena contributor Mary Jane

Horton. The book has been the #1 bestseller at Vroman's since its

release a few weeks ago.

Hazard: West Hell Magic Book 1 by Devon Monk is something of a departure for me, because I have several genres of books that I usually avoid like the plague. Horror, political machinations, true crime, and sports are just some of the genres I loathe, mainly because they bore me to tears. However, I am a huge Monk fan, I've read everything she's written and have yet to be disappointed in her prose or stories. So I picked up a copy of Hazard, knowing it was about magical hockey players, and figured if it was really bad, I could always give it to a friend of mine who loves sports books. I need not have worried, however, as the splendid Devon Monk came through like a champ, and provided a gripping story that didn't get so involved in hockey that it lost readers like me who aren't into sports. Her prose is brilliant, as usual, and her plot is slick as ice in a rink. Here's the blurb: Random Hazard has a stupid name and a terrible secret: he's a wizard.
Wizards aren't allowed to play in the NHL, but Random Hazard will do anything for a chance to play pro hockey. When his teammate is about to get brained by a puck going fast enough to kill, Random has no choice but to use magic.
Yes, he saved the guy's life, but he destroyed his own.
Kicked out of the NHL, the only thing left for him is West Hell, a freak league of shifters and drifters more blood sport than hockey.
Being the first wizard in a league full of monsters might get him killed. Or it just might finally prove that magic and hockey do mix.

Though I loved reading this fast-paced fantasy, I have to say that Random Hazard and his adoptive brother Duncan, though they're both in their 20s, come off as very immature boys, not men. Random has a crush on the medical assistant in his doctor's office, he has low self esteem and a fragile ego, he's constantly crying and falling apart,(physically and mentally), the actual adults in his life are always reprimanding him for one thing or another, he's impulsive and acts like a stupid 13 year old 90 percent of the time, and he lives with his adoptive parents, whom he constantly looks to for reassurance and help with everything. They also treat him like a child, and his adoptive brother even sleeps with him to prevent Random from acting out his nightmares. I understand the lure of men who are like Peter Pan and refuse to grow up, because they're optimistic and charming, but honestly, it was almost laughable how childish Random is in his reactions to everything in his life. He pouts, he sulks, and he whines like a bitch. Even his magic is all rainbows and sweet flavors and pretty lights. It all sounded very Lisa Frank to me whenever Monk described Random's spell casting results. Still, the story is often funny and engrossing, and should be a hit with the YA audience. I'd give it a B+, and recommend it to teenage boys (and girls) who like hockey and Harry Potter.

Elite by Mercedes Lackey is the second book in the YA Hunter series, which I started reading years ago, and to be honest completely forgot about until I saw a copy of Elite at a local bookstore. My review of Hunter, the first novel, dates back to 2015. At any rate, Elite is a fast-paced YA novel set in a dystopian future where a few hunters must kill monsters to save regular citizens from being eaten. It's a fairly easy concept series that reads like a cross between Divergent and a monster-hunting videogame (with some Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen series thrown in for good measure). Here's the blurb:
Joy knows she'll be facing more dangerous Othersiders than ever before as a new member of the Elite Hunter unit, but if anyone is up to the challenge it's her. She's been Hunting these monsters since she was a child, and has a pack of eleven fiercely protective magical Hounds. Then the rules change. Monsters unlike any Joy's ever seen or even heard of are breaking through Apex City's barriers and the Hunters are scrambling to find new ways to fight them--all the while hiding the true danger Apex faces from the Cits, who are ignorant of the severity of the Othersiders' attacks.
The leaders of Apex must come together to protect the city, but tensions have never been higher between the Hunters and the powerful PsiCorps, with each group competing to be the primary protector of the city. The conflict escalates even further when Joy starts discovering bodies of Psimons while patrolling the city sewers--on a special assignment from her uncle, who commands the Hunters. Someone is killing Psimons and if Joy doesn't uncover the true culprit she might just take the fall for it.
Chaos erupts when Ace, the murderous Hunter who tried to kill Joy at her Elite trials, escapes from the Army's captivity and defects to the Othersiders. Joy has no idea what Ace might be capable of with the help of the cunning Folk, but she may be about to find out; Othersider forces are gaining strength and momentum just beyond the barriers. A storm is approaching Apex City, and unless Joy and her fellow Hunters put up the fight of their lives it might just sweep them all away?

I love Lackey's ongoing Elemental Mages series, and I know I can count on her to always have beautifully clean prose and plots that move along smartly. Once you start one of her books, you generally read it straight through til the end. My one qualm is that her heroine Joy is a tiny little thing, which of course makes her all the more attractive, because men can't get enough of petite women, right? Ugh. Why there are no different colors or shapes (or ages) of female protagonists I don't know, since Lackey herself is a middle aged woman who isn't at all petite, at least she wasn't when I met her years ago at the Covington Library. But other than that one snag on a trope that I think needs to die out, I enjoyed Elite and give it a B+ and recommend it to anyone who has read Hunter.

Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton is a YA Fantasy novel that is extraordinarily well written and plotted, and much to my surprise, not at all the 'girl saved by guy' romantic fantasy I thought it would be. Here's the blurb: Inventive and heart-racing, this fierce feminist teen fantasy from debut author Bree Barton explores a dark kingdom in which only women can possess magic—and every woman is suspected of having it.

Fans of Leigh Bardugo and Laini Taylor won’t want to miss this gorgeously written, bold novel, the first in the Heart of Thorns trilogy.
In the ancient river kingdom, where touch is a battlefield and bodies the instruments of war, Mia Rose has pledged her life to hunting Gwyrach: women who can manipulate flesh, bones, breath, and blood. The same women who killed her mother without a single scratch.
But when Mia's father announces an alliance with the royal family, she is forced to trade in her knives and trousers for a sumptuous silk gown. Determined to forge her own path forward, Mia plots a daring escape, but could never predict the greatest betrayal of all: her own body. Mia possesses the very magic she has sworn to destroy.
Now, as she untangles the secrets of her past, Mia must learn to trust her heart…even if it kills her. Publisher's Weekly:In debut author Barton’s evocative, epic ode to feminism, magic, and the wonder of fairy tales, 17-year-old Mia is a motherless young woman living under the oppressive regime of the river kingdom (one of four lands whose creation myths differ). Betrothed against her will to Prince Quin, science-minded Mia plots her escape. Her one wish is to be a Huntress, joining the small elite circle of those who hunt Gwyrach (the kingdom’s name for women who practice magic), particularly since her mother was killed by a Gwyrach. Mia’s perspective is shattered and reformed in the span of a very short time as she and Quin flee for their lives after an assassination attempt at the wedding. Aided by her mother’s journal, she and the prince make their way to a place only whispered about, Refúj, where the answers to all of Mia’s questions lie. A gripping, complex narrative balances emotion and logic in this trilogy opener, while vividly crafted characters and cinematic details create a world readers will want to get lost in.

I really didn't see Mia's turnabout in perspective coming, and when it did, I found her dealing with having what is essentially healing magic to be fascinating. Suddenly, Mia is everything she's been taught to hate, and yet she discovers that all the men in her life have been lying to her, and everyone else, for decades. There were a few moments that paid homage to Atwood's "Handmaid's Tale" and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "Herland" in Mia's awakening to female power that I really enjoyed. This was such a great novel that I was glad that I'd purchased a copy in hardback instead of waiting for it at the library. The prose is gorgeous, as advertised and the breakneck pace of the plot had me gasping. A solid A for this well told tale, with a recommendation to all teenage girls to read and heed the themes herein.

The Subway Girls by Susie Orman Schnall was a book that I won a copy of from the publisher just a couple of days after I bought a copy on Amazon. I took one copy to book group with me last month and gave it away, which I now regret because this book wasn't well written and had a staid and boring plot that left me unsatisfied at the end. Here's the blurb:
In 1949, dutiful and ambitious Charlotte's dream of a career in advertising is shattered when her father demands she help out with the family business. Meanwhile, Charlotte is swept into the glamorous world of the Miss Subways beauty contest, which promises irresistible opportunities with its Park Avenue luster and local fame status. But when her new friend—the intriguing and gorgeous fellow-participant Rose—does something unforgivable, Charlotte must make a heart-wrenching decision that will change the lives of those around her forever. Nearly 70 years later, outspoken advertising executive Olivia is pitching the NYC subways account in a last ditch effort to save her job at an advertising agency. When the charismatic boss she’s secretly in love with pits her against her misogynistic nemesis, Olivia’s urgent search for the winning strategy leads her to the historic Miss Subways campaign. As the pitch date closes in on her, Olivia finds herself dealing with a broken heart, an unlikely new love interest, and an unexpected personal connection to Miss Subways that could save her job—and her future.
The Subway Girls is the charming story of two strong women, a generation apart, who find themselves up against the same eternal struggle to find an impossible balance between love, happiness, and ambition.

The prose in this novel reads like it was written by an amateur with a book on "how to write chick lit after doing historical research." The plot is slow and easily figured out, and the characters are all stereotypes and cliches. Of course the two main protagonists must end up with boyfriends/husbands, because women are nothing without a man in their lives, right? And there are plenty of excuses for the women in the 1949 era to put up with sexual harassment and sexism ("That's just the way it was, there was nothing you could do" seems to be the consensus) but when the modern day protagonist allows herself to be bamboozled by a sexist boss who lets a male coworker steal her ad campaign idea and then lets her go, after he's had inappropriate sexual relations with her and basically used her, I was seriously incensed. It takes the man who swiped her idea admitting that he's gay (and so ashamed, which is really sad) and her boss admitting he knew the guy was a rat for Olivia to finally smarten up and realize that she can do better in her life and career. But of course, she falls in love with a rich guy who sweeps her off to fancy restaurants and exotic locales before she leaves her sexist boss and his crappy agency. So she is "saved" like a damsel in distress by a guy when she should be more than capable of saving herself. There is a hastily put together HEA ending, but I was not convinced that the author understands the meaning of feminist fiction or feminism in general. Her book certain wouldn't pass the Bechdel test. And Charlotte's absolute slavery in her own household and adherence to whatever her father ordered her to do was downright disgusting. The fact that her mother had to go behind his back to help her daughter have the life and career she wanted, yet was still cowed by her ass of a husband made me sick and sad. While I realize things were different after WWII, my own mother grew up in that era, and her father never squelched her dreams, but her mother did try to force her into a career that she felt was 'proper' and didn't want my mom to become a nurse at all. My grandfather helped his daughter get back and forth to her job as a nurses aid so she could save enough to go to school and become an LPN on her own dime. At any rate, I'd give this book a C, mainly because of the poor quality of the prose and plot. I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in the history of women in advertising and beauty pageants.