This quote is spot on, and I will try to support any local indie bookstores more this year than last, when many books were bought on Amazon.
Indie Bookshops
'Only Survive if You Support Us'
"Also, if
you're considering #NewYearsResolutions--how about pledging to
support a local
bookshop (in person or online)? Our towns would be
sadder places
without them & Bezos owns half the world already... We
only survive if
you support us “
#IndiesRock
#SupportLocal"
--Gutter Bookshop http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz39348739,
Dublin, Ireland, in a New Year's Eve
tweet
This is an exciting list, and I am always amazed at which novels make it to the small screen from books, often by first time authors.
Fantasy Novel TV
Adaptations to Look for in 2019
Noting that
"there's a long road between a green light and a series
actually making it
to air," Vulture showcased "15 of the TV fantasy
adaptations
we confidently
feel will be premiering in the near(ish) future, as
opposed to a
one-and-done press release that hasn't come to fruition
after a few years'
time. Hell, some of them even already have a premiere
date. So here's
what you should be keeping your eyes open for when 2019
rolls
around--sorted, for your convenience, by how soon we're likely to
see them."
Congratulations to Philip Pullman the wonderful Margaret Atwood!
Awards: Bookish
U.K. New Year's Honors List
Philip Pullman was
knighted
and Margaret
Atwood was made a Companion of Honor for services to
literature in the
New Year's Honors list, the Bookseller reported. Julia
Donaldson received
a CBE for services to literature, while Chris Riddell
was awarded an OBE
for services to illustration and to charity. David
Olusoga also
received an OBE, for services to history and community
integration.
Jessica Kingsley,
founder of autism publisher Jessica Kingsley
Publishers, now
part of Hachette, received a British Empire Medal for
services to people
with autism.
Noting that he was
"very surprised and honored" to be offered a
knighthood,
Pullman said, "I believe the profession of letters should be
recognized as
having a proper place in the life of the nation, along
with science, and
sport, and music, and scholarship, and many other
human
activities.... I'm immensely grateful to those who have worked so
hard over many
years to edit, publish, illustrate, and sell my books,
and to the Society
of Authors, which does so much for the profession of
authorship. I'm most
grateful of all to those who continue to read my
books, and I hope
they don't have to work as hard as those who edit
them."
In addition, Neil
MacInnes, president of Libraries Connected, received
an OBE for
services to public libraries; and a British Empire Medal was
awarded to
librarian Ian Anstice for services to the public libraries
sector.
Baby, I'm Howling For You by Christine Warren is the first in a new paranormal romance series about a town full of shapeshifters in Washington state, most notably werewolves and werecoyotes in this novel. It's meant, I believe, to be more modern in its take on romance, in that there are sex scenes in over 60 percent of the chapters. And, also like a lot of modern romance novels, the sex talk and descriptions of the act go on for far too long. The line between erotic and pornographic is as thin as a whisper in this novel, while I prefer supernatural books that focus more on the story and developing strong female protagonists rather than endless descriptions of moist genitals and how "hard" he is at the mere mention of her name (and all the positions they take when having sex, like the inevitable 'doggy style'). Of course, these aren't the only cliches and romance novel tropes deployed in "Baby..." The men, who are all were-beasts of some type, are full of toxic testosterone and machismo. They growl and snarl and sneer, especially the male protagonist, who "claims" the (cliched) petite red headed female protagonist, and is overly possessive of her right from the get go, constantly looming over her and telling her what she can and cannot do, while also bullying her and being what I would consider emotionally abusive in order to "protect" her. But of course, our "little red" werewolf falls madly in love with him after he has sex with her, because he's big and strong and manly, and she is, regardless of what she says, a huge wimpy damsel in distress who is being stalked by an insane werecoyote and his pack of werecoyote criminals. Blech. Here's the blurb:
WELCOME TO ALPHAVILLE, where the she-wolves and alpha-males play. . .for keeps.Renny Landry is a wolf on the run. Pursued by a shapeshifting stalker and his slobbering pack of killer coyotes, she is forced to flee her job as a librarian to find sanctuary in the wooded hills of Alpha, Washington. A well-secluded safe space for troubled shifters, Alpha is Renny’s last hope. But the first person she meets there is a gorgeous alpha male with fiery eyes, fierce tattoos, and one ferocious appetite—for her…
Mick Fischer thought he left his past behind when he moved to Alpha. But fate has a way of biting him in the tail when a female wolf shows up on his property. Wounded, desperate—and disarmingly hot—Renny brings out the snarling, protective alpha beast in Mick like no other woman he’s known. Can these two haunted, hunted wolves manage to mate for life…even as the deadliest past demons howl at their heels?
There are so many redundancies in this book, I was surprised that it had any editorial supervision at all. The prose is decent, with the exception of the graphic sex scenes, and the plot is completely predictable. I'd give this book a C, and only recommend it to someone who wants a sexed-up gory romance with wolves for a beach read.
Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust is a YA retelling (or modern reboot) of the Snow White fairy tale. I was surprised at how engrossing the book was, and how inventive the author was in remaking the evil stepmother into someone very relatable and in making Snow White a teenage lesbian in search of her own path and her self. Here's the blurb: Sixteen-year-old Mina is motherless, her magician father is vicious,
and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat
at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never
guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of
glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the
first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty,
become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have
to become a stepmother.
Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her
late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out
of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite
being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce
and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes
Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is
starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must
decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever
known…or else defeat her once and for all.Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.
Lynet and Mina's stories are limned in lush prose that is so evocative you can nearly smell every room and feel the cold and see the bright silk fabrics of the Southern kingdom. In this retelling, the men are at fault for all the trauma and trouble that Mina and Lynet experience, and the most heinous villains are Minda and Lynet's fathers, who try to use their daughters for their own selfish ends. Once the men are vanquished, everything falls into place for both Lynet and Mina, and the HEA is a sweet wrap up that proves that love conquers all.
I'd give this inclusive retelling an A, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in a better ending for fairy tale heroines.
Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor is a British time-travel fantasy/SF series that hovers around Steampunk fiction but never actually lands in that genre. The prose is fusty and funny and zippy, while the plot chuffs along like a steam train across the UK. Here's the blurb: “History is just one damned thing after another.” —Arnold Toynbee
Behind the seemingly innocuous facade of St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research, a different kind of academic work is taking place. Just don’t call it “time travel”—these historians “investigate major historical events in contemporary time.” And they aren’t your harmless eccentrics either; a more accurate description, as they ricochet around history, might be unintentional disaster-magnets.
The first thing you learn on the job at St. Mary’s is that one wrong move and history will fight back—sometimes in particularly nasty ways. But, as new recruit Madeleine Maxwell soon discovers, it’s not only history they’re often fighting.
The Chronicles of St. Mary’s tells the chaotic adventures of Max and her compatriots—Director Bairstow, Chief Leon Farrell, Mr. Markham, and many more—as they travel through time, saving St. Mary’s (too often by the very seat of their pants) and thwarting time-travelling terrorists, all the while leaving plenty of time for tea.
From eleventh-century London to World War I, from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria, one thing is for sure: wherever the historians at St. Mary’s go, chaos is sure to follow in their wake.
Though I realize a great deal of British humor is based on the cliche of "bungling clerks and government lackeys," I found myself growing tired of watching one character after another die in some horrible fashion, only to have the main character assume the blame for all that goes wrong, because she's yet another self-effacing female who is beautiful but doesn't know it (because women who know they're beautiful are considered conceited and evil...heaven forbid a woman have the same confidence in herself and her intelligence and qualifications as a man!) Though it's written by a woman there's enough sexism and misogyny in this book to set the women's movement back at least two centuries. While I enjoyed the idea of this book, the execution didn't live up to it fully. So I'd give it a B-, and I'd recommend it to those who are interested in Steampunkish time travel tales that follow all the standard British tropes of science fiction.
Behind the seemingly innocuous facade of St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research, a different kind of academic work is taking place. Just don’t call it “time travel”—these historians “investigate major historical events in contemporary time.” And they aren’t your harmless eccentrics either; a more accurate description, as they ricochet around history, might be unintentional disaster-magnets.
The first thing you learn on the job at St. Mary’s is that one wrong move and history will fight back—sometimes in particularly nasty ways. But, as new recruit Madeleine Maxwell soon discovers, it’s not only history they’re often fighting.
The Chronicles of St. Mary’s tells the chaotic adventures of Max and her compatriots—Director Bairstow, Chief Leon Farrell, Mr. Markham, and many more—as they travel through time, saving St. Mary’s (too often by the very seat of their pants) and thwarting time-travelling terrorists, all the while leaving plenty of time for tea.
From eleventh-century London to World War I, from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria, one thing is for sure: wherever the historians at St. Mary’s go, chaos is sure to follow in their wake.
Though I realize a great deal of British humor is based on the cliche of "bungling clerks and government lackeys," I found myself growing tired of watching one character after another die in some horrible fashion, only to have the main character assume the blame for all that goes wrong, because she's yet another self-effacing female who is beautiful but doesn't know it (because women who know they're beautiful are considered conceited and evil...heaven forbid a woman have the same confidence in herself and her intelligence and qualifications as a man!) Though it's written by a woman there's enough sexism and misogyny in this book to set the women's movement back at least two centuries. While I enjoyed the idea of this book, the execution didn't live up to it fully. So I'd give it a B-, and I'd recommend it to those who are interested in Steampunkish time travel tales that follow all the standard British tropes of science fiction.
Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor is the sequel and final book of her Strange the Dreamer duology, which is supposed to fall into the YA fantasy genre, I believe. As usual with Taylor's books, I loved the first novel, became invested in the characters and the fantastic world building, only to be horrified at the second book's squashing of everything I found delightful about the first book, sort of like Godzilla stomping Tokyo. There's constant death, sorrow, abuse of women and children, infanticide, pain and savage revenge writ large across chapter after chapter in MON, so much so that I had to put the book down and go back to it when my stomach stopped roiling. This is certainly not a book to read if you are even slightly depressed, as it will make you want to jump off of a bridge. Here's the blurb:Sarai has lived and breathed nightmares since she was six years old.
She believed she knew every horror, and was beyond surprise.
She was wrong.
In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.
Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice—save the woman he loves, or everyone else?—while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares, has not yet discovered what she's capable of.
As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel's near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?
Love and hate, revenge and redemption, destruction and salvation all clash in this gorgeous sequel to the New York Times bestseller, Strange the Dreamer.
She believed she knew every horror, and was beyond surprise.
She was wrong.
In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.
Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice—save the woman he loves, or everyone else?—while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares, has not yet discovered what she's capable of.
As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel's near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?
Love and hate, revenge and redemption, destruction and salvation all clash in this gorgeous sequel to the New York Times bestseller, Strange the Dreamer.
I wanted to love, or at least like, this sequel. But once Taylor decided to allow a man who murdered children and infants to be revived after he was rightfully killed (along with the idiot wife who seems to love him, though he's a murdering scumbag) and then gives him a second chance to remarry his wife and rule over a town and live happily ever after, because, well, he was so sad that he killed all those babies, I was too nauseated by the evil and injustice of it all to enjoy any of the rest of the novel. SHAME on you, Ms Taylor. A serial child killer doesn't deserve to just 'start over' and have an HEA. There is no redemption for evil of that caliber, ever. I also didn't understand or appreciate why one of the children who survived his murderous rampage would heal the SOB. LET HIM DIE, I kept shouting (in my head) to the book. Also, the blurb says that its possible to "save" monsters instead, but poor Nova, who has been looking for her sister for centuries, and has become a monster herself, doesn't get the salvation of the baby-killing Eril Fane, no, she kills herself once she learns her sister is dead. So redemption is only for evil guys, apparently. This is why I am giving this novel a B-, when I should give it a C, but at least we have the two main characters with an HEA.I just don't know if I want to read any more of Taylor's books, because it's always a bait and switch with her, and I don't appreciate it.
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