Bookshops in UK and in US on the Rise, Wonder, the Musical, RIP Gene Wolfe, Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts, The Secrets of Paper and Ink by Lindsay Harrel, The Peacock Emporium by Jojo Moyes, and Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner

The tragic news this week is the fire that burned part of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, though most of the priceless art work and the stained glass windows were saved, thank God. Many on Facebook posted photos of the fire, but also posted illustrations of the hunchback of Notre Dame crying against his beloved spires. Still, there has been a very successful campaign to gather money to rebuild the burned parts, and the plans to renovate to bring the cathedral back to its former glory are already in hand. 

Meanwhile, in Britain and in the US, more bookstores and bookshops are opening than ever before. So there is optimism about the future of print books, it seems.

 British Bookshops Defy Negative High Street Trends

Although a record number of small retailers closed in Britain last year--an average of 16 stores a day--bookshops "are bucking the trend http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz40352524," the Bookseller reported. A record net 2,481 stores disappeared from Great Britain's top 500 high streets in 2018. In total, 3,372 shops opened, compared to 5,833 closures. (2017 net loss: -1,772 stores), according to PwC research compiled by the Local Data Company.

Despite the widespread decline, "bookshops took second spot of the biggest growth categories after gyms with ice cream parlors. Bookshops reported a net change of 18 units with 42 openings and 24 closures," the Bookseller wrote.

While welcoming the news, Booksellers Association managing director Meryl Halls said, "We are delighted that the PwC report confirms the strong showing for bookshops on our high streets that the BA highlighted earlier in the year, and we continue to be immensely proud of the hard work and creativity by booksellers that has led to this situation...

"Booksellers are creative and deft, but they can't save high streets by themselves. We need to work in collaborations and civic partnerships with others to ensure our high streets survive and flourish, and we need government to recognize the enormous part high street retail plays in the culture and economy of the U.K. and act to support it, partly through business rates reform, which currently clearly unfairly favors online and out of town retail."

Indie Bookstores 'Thriving and Growing'

Indies in neighborhoods across the U.S. "are places to discover new books and make new friendships," Voice of America noted in a piece headlined "U.S. Independent Bookstores Thriving and Growing http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz40352533." Despite two decades of big box and online competition, "about 10 years ago something remarkable happened as indie bookstores came back to life, many thriving and growing every year."

"I do think it's a special place for people to come," said Lelia Nebeker, the book buyer at One More Page Books http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz40352534, Arlington, Va. "When people come in and share their experiences about a book or an author, it can foster a sense of community where people can meet other people who share their interests."

At Hooray for Books http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz40352535 in Alexandria, Va., owner Ellen Klein attributed part of her success to providing a wide variety of books for the diverse neighborhood: "In this community we have a lot of mixed race families, and so we're trying to serve them as well, and it's wonderful seeing more books with mixed race characters....

"We are a place where you can come for events, you can meet authors, get books signed, and buy books you might not necessarily stumble upon on your own.... We're going to keep doing what we do well, and hope that our community loves having us around enough to support us."

 I enjoyed this book and the movie made from it, so I was delighted to read that they're making a musical from it that will be on Broadway.

On Stage: Wonder Musical

R.J. Palacio's bestselling children's novel Wonder http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz40379963, which was adapted by Lionsgate into a hit movie, "may be heading to Broadway," Playbill reported. Tony-winning producer Jill Furman (Hamilton) has signed on as lead producer for a stage musical version of the book. A creative team will be announced at a later date.

"I am beyond happy and grateful that Wonder is being adapted for theatre by this incredible team," said Palacio. "What I've always loved the most about musical theatre is its timelessness--its ability to resonate around the world and across generations. That Wonder and its message of kindness is to become part of that canon for the ages is, quite literally, a dream come true."

Furman added, "R.J.'s indelible characters leapt off the page, and I wept through the movie. I couldn't help but feel there was a musicality to the characters' voices and their story. At a time when 'otherness' is under attack, Wonder celebrates difference in a beautiful way that we should all admire and emulate."

 Yet another author has died, the talented Gene Wolfe. RIP Grand Master Wolfe.

Obituary Note: Gene Wolfe

Science fiction/fantasy author Gene Wolfe http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz40382110, who wrote more than 30 novels including his best-known work, the Book of the New Sun series, died on Sunday, Tor reported. He was 87. Published from 1980 to 1983, the books in the tetralogy won British Science Fiction, World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Locus, Nebula and Campbell Memorial Awards. In a 1998 poll, the readers of Locus magazine considered the series as a single entry and ranked it third among fantasy novels published before 1990, following only the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Wolfe won the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award in 1989, the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1996, and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2012, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named him a Grand Master. Wolfe's other series include the Book of the Long Sun, the Book of the Short Sun and the Wizard Knight.

"Wolfe's fans include Michael Swanwick, Neil Gaiman, Patrick O'Leary, Ursula K. Le Guin, and many, many more, and he was praised for his exciting prose and depth of character," Tor wrote. "He leaves behind an impressive body of work, but nonetheless, he will be dearly missed."

"I was going to see him in Peoria on Wednesday, and now I never will," Neil Gaiman tweeted adding a link to a 2011 Guardian piece http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz40382113 in which he had written: "I've met too many of my heroes, and these days I avoid meeting the few I have left, because the easiest way to stop having heroes is to meet them, or worse, have dinner with them. But Gene Wolfe remains a hero to me. He's just turned 80, looks after his wife Rosemary, and is still writing deep, complex, brilliant fiction that slips between genres. He's my hero because he keeps trying new ways of writing and because he remains as kind and as patient with me as he was when I was almost a boy. He's the finest living male American writer of SF and fantasy--possibly the finest living American writer. Most people haven't heard of him. And that doesn't bother Gene in the slightest. He just gets on with writing the next book."

Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts is the engaging and fascinating story of Maud and L Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of Oz books and his wife. Maud Gage Baum was raised in an unusual household with a feminist/sufferagette mother who wanted her daughters to be independent and get a college education. While Maud and her sister both struggled to live up to their mother's expectations that they not settle for the drab life of a wife and mother, both women succumb to love and the lure of family life and get married and have children before either can graduate from college. Mauds life with Frank is something of a roller coaster, but when she hears of the movie being made of her husband's Wizard of Oz book in 1938-39, though she's nearing 80, she travels to the set to see if she can help the studio big wigs and writers stay true to the beloved classic book. She meets and befriends a young Judy Garland on the set of the film, and helps her navigate the shark infested waters of Hollywood. Here's the blurb: Hollywood, 1938: As soon as she learns that M-G-M is adapting her late husband’s masterpiece for the screen, seventy-seven-year-old Maud Gage Baum sets about trying to finagle her way onto the set. Nineteen years after Frank’s passing, Maud is the only person who can help the producers stay true to the spirit of the book—because she’s the only one left who knows its secrets.

But the moment she hears Judy Garland rehearsing the first notes of “Over the Rainbow,” Maud recognizes the yearning that defined her own life story, from her youth as a suffragette’s daughter to her coming of age as one of the first women in the Ivy League, from her blossoming romance with Frank to the hardscrabble prairie years that inspired The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Judy reminds Maud of a young girl she cared for and tried to help in South Dakota, a dreamer who never got her happy ending. Now, with the young actress under pressure from the studio as well as her ambitious stage mother, Maud resolves to protect her—the way she tried so hard to protect the real Dorothy.

The author of two New York Times bestselling nonfiction books, The Eighty-Dollar Champion and The Perfect Horse, Elizabeth Letts is a master at discovering and researching a rich historical story and transforming it into a page-turner. Finding Dorothy is the result of Letts’s journey into the amazing lives of Frank and Maud Baum. Written as fiction but based closely on the truth, Elizabeth Letts’s new book tells a story of love, loss, inspiration, and perseverance, set in America’s heartland.

Lett's prose is brilliant, and her mesmerizing blend of historical background and fictional conversations makes the plot whiz by like a firefly. I only wish we could have found out, during the story, what happened to Maud's sister and her niece, Magdalene, who grew up in a hardscrabble area of the Dakotas. Anyway, I loved this book almost as much as I loved the Wizard of Oz movie, which I first saw when I was only 4 years old in 1965 (the author notes that she also saw it when she was 4 in 65, what a coincidence!). I'd give it an A, and recommend it to anyone who loved the books or the movie, or was inspired by them to let their imagination run free.

The Secrets of Paper and Ink by Lindsay Harrel was mislabeled as regular fiction, when in reality the author turns it into "inspirational fiction" (meaning it's Christian religious fiction) 2/3 of the way through the novel, which nearly ruined it for me, as I don't like stories ramming religious messages down my throat as a reader. Shame on this publisher for trying to pass this offensive tale off as regular fiction! That said, prior to the religious messages, the novel wasn't too bad. It was a rather stereotypical representation of women and romance and abusive relationships, however. But I did feel that the main character, Sophie, was healing from the trauma of her abusive husband who died in an accident. Ginny Rose, the secondary protagonist, seemed like quite a wimp to me, however, and a blind one at that if she didn't see that her husband running off to London to "find himself" was merely an excuse for starting up a new adulterous relationship while leaving Ginny in charge of his failing bookstore. I didn't feel that Ginny's husband deserved any forgiveness for his horrible treatment of his wife, but her complete innocence strained my credulity. Here's the blurb:

As a counselor, Sophia Barrett is trained to help people cope with their burdens. But when she meets a new patient whose troubles mirror her own, she realizes she hasn’t dealt with the pain of her recent past. After making a snap decision to get away for the summer, Sophia moves overseas to an apartment above a charming bookstore in Cornwall, England. She is hopeful she will find peace there surrounded by her favorite thing: great literature.
Bookstore owner Ginny Rose is desperate to save her business without asking for help from a husband who’s decided to take a break from their marriage. Ginny never imagined she’d be solely responsible for keeping afloat her husband’s dream, but the unexpected friendship with her new renter has her feeling more optimistic. Between the two of them—and Ginny’s brother-in-law, William—the bookstore might stand a chance.
Then Sophia finds a notebook in the bookstore that contains journal entries from Emily Fairfax, a governess who lived in Cornwall more than 150 years ago. Sophia learns that Emily harbored a secret passion for becoming an authoress—as well as a deep love for her childhood friend, Edward, whose station she dared not dream to touch.
Eager to know more of Emily’s story, Sophia goes on a quest—dragging Ginny and William with her—to discover the heart of the woman behind the beautiful entries. Soon Ginny’s need to save the bookstore becomes more than a way to save her marriage, and Sophia finds new purpose of her own. Together they find that sometimes both heartache and hope can reach across the centuries.

 I found the story within the story conceit more interesting than the lives of the

protagonists, and though I knew what was coming, I loved the reveal of who Emily 

Fairfax really was.I'd give this book a C+, mainly for the religious stuff clumsily 

woven into the story. I'd recommend it to those who enjoy a romance and English

history. 

The Peacock Emporium by Jojo Moyes is another book that was a disappointment, though it also takes place in a small English village. I’ve read 4 of Moyes other books, and I am always surprised when her storytelling doesn’t live up to the standard she set with the wonderful “Me Before You.”  Though that novel tells a tale of regular people, this book outlines the lives of some of the snobbish and awful aristocracy, and the regular people who marry into their families (and help clean up the gene pool, IMHO). Here’s the blurb via Publisher’s Weekly: Moyes moves forward from her Me Before You trilogy with an emotionally luscious, freestanding novel about generations of mothers and daughters navigating grief and the satisfaction of self-discovery. Suzanna Peacock lives in a small town in Suffolk near the estate of the family from whom she has estranged herself, and struggles with an unsettled marriage and pressure to have a baby. Despite her awkwardness with people, she opens a quirky coffee and curio shop. A young mother in an abusive relationship and an Argentinian male midwife become her close friends at the shop, but she keeps even from them her inner turmoil about her relationships to her missing birth mother, wild debutante Athene Forster, and to Vivi Fairley-Hulme, the mother who raised her. Moyes moves back and forth though the timeline to tell Suzanne and Vivi’s stories with profound sympathy. Though this is not a romance novel like Moyes’s previous works, it maintains their legacy of diving into the emotions of desire and connection, and a spirit of optimism and setting the world right.

I don’t think it maintains the legacy of her previous works at all, and I have to say that I didn’t really like anyone in this book except poor old spineless slave Vivi, who puts up with her hideous mother in law and her wimpy, distracted husband, as well as her ungrateful, nasty children. If I were Vivi, I would have bought myself a plane ticket to somewhere sunny and just left them all to their own devices. Instead, she constantly takes care of everyone’s needs but her own, and puts up with all kinds of verbal abuse from all corners. It is only toward the end that she finally gets some help with her vile MIL, but even then, the daughter she raised as her own is a complete idiot and treats her Vivi like dirt, while never seeming to know what the hell she wants from life. Ugh. I would give this book a C, and that’s being generous, and only recommend it to those who believe in this classist BS that is misogynistic as hell.

Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner was, by contrast, a thoroughly delightful story about two young women whose friendship binds them on a journey of self discovery. Here’s the blurb: Every Friday night, best friends Delia and Josie become Rayne Ravenscroft and Delilah Darkwood, hosts of the campy creature feature show Midnite Matinee on the local cable station TV Six.
But with the end of senior year quickly approaching, the girls face tough decisions about their futures. Josie has been dreading graduation, as she tries to decide whether to leave for a big university and chase her dream career in mainstream TV. And Lawson, one of the show's guest performers, a talented MMA fighter with weaknesses for pancakes, fantasy novels, and Josie, is making her tough decision even harder.

Scary movies are the last connection Delia has to her dad, who abandoned the family years ago. If Midnite Matinee becomes a hit, maybe he'll see it and want to be a part of her life again. And maybe Josie will stay with the show instead of leaving her behind, too.
As the tug-of-war between growing up and growing apart tests the bonds of their friendship, Josie and Delia start to realize that an uncertain future can be both monstrous...and momentous.

I laughed my butt off one minute and the next I’d be misty eyed, so this tale pulls out all the stops on what teenagers call “The feels.” Though I understand why she needed to meet her father to ascertain why he abandoned Delia and her mentally ill mother, I knew he would turn out to be one of those cowards who, when something goes wrong with a partner in any relationship, cuts and runs like a asshat. I really felt for Delia, as I know what it is like to try and gussy up some family horror with stories you make up in your head to make living with it more palatable. I also understood Josie’s need to get away from the limiting public access format and spread her wings for the sake of her career. Because my husband is a huge fan of old crappy horror films (he never finds them laughable, no matter how awful they are), I could just imagine these two young women introducing the films and making skits around them, like the old “coffin cornballs” of the 60s and 70s that we used to watch on Saturday night. Zentner’s prose is witty and wonderful, and his plot shiny and sure. I’d give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone looking for excellent storytelling and insights into the old horror movie hosts of yesteryear.