Looking for Alaska/Nancy Drew TV series, Lady of Devices and Her Own Devices by Shelley Adina, The Weight of the Stars by K.Ancrum and The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear

I watched some interesting movies tonight, the best being "Mortal Engines" which is based on some YA books that I thought I'd read, only to discover that I had mistaken the title for Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments YA series, which involves Shadowhunters, demons, angels and is completely different than this dystopian steampunk movie. Perhaps because I've not read the books, I enjoyed the Mortal Engines for its simple storyline with the romantic subplot, and I was thrilled that the lead bad guy was played by the wonderful Hugo Weaving. I adore his acting and his gravely voice that purrs through his lines with menace and antipathy. I gather it wasn't a popular movie in the theaters, and that the readers of the book series hated it as well. That's okay, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just happen to disagree. I think others who are into steampunk fantasy will like the movie as well. 

Meanwhile, here are two books that are going to be made into TV series that I am really excited about...I loved nearly all of John Green's books, and Nancy Drew was my jam when I was about 7-8 years old. I read all of her books that were in the Mt Pleasant Library. Once I turned 10, I felt that I'd outgrown Nancy, so I left her behind for serious science fiction, fantasy and the odd bit of literature and folklore/mythology. 

TV: Looking for Alaska; CW's Nancy Drew

Timothy Simons (Veep) and Ron Cephas Jones (This Is Us) will be series regulars opposite Charlie Plummer and Kristine Froseth in Looking for Alaska http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz40321602, Hulu's eight-episode limited series based on John Green's novel, Deadline reported. The project, which has begun production, comes from Paramount Television and Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage's Fake Empire.

Pamela Sue Martin, who starred in The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, the first TV series adaptation of the Nancy Drew books http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz40321603 that ran from 1977-79 on ABC, has been cast as a guest star in the pilot episode of the CW network's new series, "giving a nod to the TV history of the iconic character," Deadline reported. Martin "will appear alongside newcomer Kennedy McMann, who is taking the mantle of playing the amateur detective."

Written by Noga Landau, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage and directed by Larry Teng, the untitled project "centers on 18-year-old Nancy Drew (McMann) and is set in the summer after her high school graduation. She thought she'd be leaving her hometown for college, but when a family tragedy holds her back another year, she finds herself embroiled in a ghostly murder investigation--and along the way, uncovers secrets that run deeper than she ever imagined."Martin will play Harriet Grosset, a psychic who offers her talents to help Nancy investigate a murder. Deadline noted that the name of the character "appears to be paying homage to Nancy Drew's origins: author Harriet Adams is credited with shaping up the literary character and early storylines, while Grosset & Dunlap was the publisher of the first books in the series."

Lady of Devices and Her Own Devices by Shelley Adina were recommended on the Parasol Protectorate Facebook page as lovely steampunk fantasy novels, so I had to check them out right away! I managed to get these first two books from the library (they don't, for some odd reason, have the third or fourth books in the series so I am going to have to buy copies next week). I was surprised, almost shocked, to discover how well written they were, and how much I enjoyed the fully formed characters that Adina has created with her fortifying prose.  The plots of both books weren't predictable, and once the story moved past the first 43 pages of the Lady of Devices, it got a head of steam and chugged along like a train that's right on time. Here are the blurbs:

Lady of Devices: London, 1889. Victoria is Queen. Charles Darwin's son is Prime Minister. And steam is the power that runs the world.
At 17, Claire Trevelyan, daughter of Viscount St. Ives, was expected to do nothing more than pour an elegant cup of tea, sew a fine seam, and catch a rich husband. Unfortunately, Claire's talents lie not in the ballroom, but in the chemistry lab, where things have a regrettable habit of blowing up. When her father gambles the estate on the combustion engine and loses, Claire finds herself down and out on the mean streets of London.
But being a young woman of resources and intellect, she turns fortune on its head. It's not long before a new leader rises in the underworld, known only as the Lady of Devices. When she meets Andrew Malvern, a member of the Royal Society of Engineers, she realizes her talents may encompass more than the invention of explosive devices. They may help her realize her dreams and his . . . but sometimes the closest friendships can trigger the greatest betrayals.
Her own Devices:Escaped lunatics, lost children, vengeful lords, and love. Really, the situation is becoming quite impossible.
Left alone after the Arabian Bubble financial disaster, Lady Claire Trevelyan now leads the cleverest group of gamblers and reformed cutpurses in the London underworld. The lightning rifle she took from a rival gang contains a unique source of energy--and its inventor has been locked up in Bedlam by powerful men in order to suppress its very existence. In order for Lady Claire to understand it, she must consult with the mad scientist ... even if it means breaking her out of the most frightening institution in London.
Then, in a moment of madness, she becomes engaged to Lord James Selwyn, who knows nothing of her double life. He expects her to be the perfect hostess to the rich investors interested in his and Andrew Malvern's Kinetick Carbonator. But how can Andrew stand by and watch Claire marry someone she does not love?

I loved that Lady Claire doesn't shy away from doing what she has to do to protect the street children in her care, and that she is a smart and strong and independent woman at at time when it was very difficult to be a woman in society. The point is made, several times, that sexism and misogyny were so rampant that young bright women were often committed to lunatic asylums for not conforming and becoming obedient, slave-like wives and mothers. I liked that there are other characters, a young Churchill and a brave engineer that they have to break out of a lunatic asylum, who are also flouting society's rules, and that they all travel to Canada regularly because it's a country that provides asylum to brilliant women who want to have careers in science and engineering. I often think of running away from the USA to the better healthcare and culture that is Canada, so I know how Lady Claire feels! At any rate, I'd give these first two books in the series an A, and recommend them to anyone who enjoys steampunk stories with a pinch of romance. 

The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum was an amazing book that shattered me with it's incredible beauty. This YA science fiction book was described as poetic and intense, but I didn't realize that I was in for a passionate book written in a very unusual style/format that swept me up and didn't deposit me back into reality until the last page. Several times I got so caught up in the story that I was surprised when I discovered that my tears were falling, wetting the page. I'd never even heard of this title or author until I read a list of new and diverse science fiction books that had come out in the past month, and since science fiction and YA SF/Fantasy have long been in need of diverse voices, (instead of all old white men or women) I felt compelled to check this one out of the library. Here's the blurb:

A vivid, evocative YA lesbian romance about how the universe is full of second chances.
Ryann Bird dreams of traveling across the stars. But a career in space isn’t an option for a girl who lives in a trailer park on the “wrong” side of town. So Ryann becomes her circumstances and settles for acting out and skipping school to hang out with her delinquent friends.
One day she meets Alexandria: a furious loner who spurns Ryann’s offer of friendship. After a horrific accident leaves Alexandria with a broken arm, the girls are brought together despite themselves—and Ryann learns her secret: Alexandria’s mother is an astronaut who volunteered for a one-way trip to the edge of the solar system.
Every night without fail, Alexandria waits to catch radio signals from her mother. And now it’s up to Ryann to lift her onto the roof day after day until the silence between them grows into friendship, and eventually something more.
The Weight of the Stars is the new LGBT young adult romance from K. Ancrum, written with the same style of short, micro-fiction chapters and immediacy that garnered acclaim for her debut, The Wicker King.

Though it is obvious that Ryann is gay from the outset (and that she has gay friends, and friends of various religions and ethnicities), to me this book didn't read like a "YA lesbian romance," really, because the protagonists don't actually like each other for a good portion of the book, and then, when they do fall in love, its not expressed in a sexual fashion, it is more delicate and subtle than that. They do things for each other that are mature expressions of love, and readers are allowed into Ryanns mind and heart, so they understand why she must go into space ahead of her beloved Alexandria. Ryann is so tough, yet so caring and compassionate that I adored her from the first chapter on. I'd give this book an A, which almost seems inadequate, and recommend it to anyone who likes young brilliant characters in their science fiction. 

The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear  is the 16th Maisie Dobbs mystery produced by the talented hands of Winspear. This one takes place during the London Blitz in 1940, when the Germans bombed London almost to ruins. I've liked sensible, yet sensitive Maisie right from the first, and I feel like she's an old friend by now, having seen her through deaths and birth and romance and pain. Winspear's prose is never stodgy, and her lively characters keep readers turning pages into the wee hours. Her plots are often straightforward, but in this volume, I found that I couldn't figure out whodunnit at all in advance of the reveal in the last couple of chapters....amazing! Here's the blurb:

Beloved heroine Maisie Dobbs, “one of the great fictional heroines” (Parade), investigates the mysterious murder of an American war correspondent in London during the Blitz in a page-turning tale of love and war, terror and survival.
When Catherine Saxon, an American correspondent reporting on the war in Europe, is found murdered in her London digs, news of her death is concealed by British authorities. Serving as a linchpin between Scotland Yard and the Secret Service, Robert MacFarlane pays a visit to Maisie Dobbs, seeking her help. He is accompanied by an agent from the US Department of Justice—Mark Scott, the American who helped Maisie get out of Hitler’s Munich in 1938. MacFarlane asks Maisie to work with Scott to uncover the truth about Saxon’s death.
As the Germans unleash the full terror of their blitzkrieg upon the British Isles, raining death and destruction from the skies, Maisie must balance the demands of solving this dangerous case with her need to protect Anna, the young evacuee she has grown to love and wants to adopt. Entangled in an investigation linked to the power of wartime propaganda and American political intrigue being played out in Britain, Maisie will face losing her dearest friend—and the possibility that she might be falling in love again.

Though Joseph Kennedy (father to John F and Robert Kennedy) gets roasted for being the worst American Ambassador to Great Britain ever, (he was, apparently, a Nazi sympathizer in addition to being a bootlegger) I found Maisie's insight into the American mindset in the year before we joined the allies in WWII to be fascinating. From the British standpoint it is clear that America should have joined in the battle against fascism in 1939-40, before the German bombing raids began. However, hindsight is always 20/20, and who knows if Americans would have been so committed to the war had it not been for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941? At any rate, this book captures the whole look and feel of WWII London and gives readers a finely tuned mystery to solve as well. I'd give it an A, and recommend it to anyone who has read any of the other Maisie Dobbs mysteries. I can hardly wait for the next installment myself!