Barnes and Noble Stores are Boring, Emma, Call of the Wild and Babette's Feast Movies, Oddest Book Title of the Year, The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg, and Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

This has been a challenging day, so I am going to get to it and do the reviews and get this posted ASAP. 

I love this quote, mostly because it is the naked truth about B&N. Though I enjoy shopping at Barnes and Noble (I have yet to meet a bookstore I didn't like), it's a fairly dull place without much character, like you'd find in an independent, mom and pop-style bookshop. Quotation of the Day

James Daunt: 'B&N Stores Crucifyingly Boring'

"I now arrive at Barnes & Noble where they've had a loyalty program forever and a day. And yet if you walk into any of the Barnes & Noble bookstores, they are the most crucifyingly boring stores. Which is odd, because they know what people want, they have all this data, and yet they can't interpret it and they've been unable to manipulate that knowledge to in any way deliver decent bookstores to people....

"We have to use our character and personality, the curation and the intellectual engagement that we have as booksellers with the titles that are published, an ability to seize the book that not many have noticed, to champion it, to spread it. If we can't do that, then we have no role and we'll be destroyed."

--James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble and managing director of Waterstones, in a keynote speech at the FutureBook conference in London, as quoted by the Bookseller

 I'm really excited to see what they will do with both Emma and Call of the Wild. Harrison Ford is old and grizzled enough to make the latter really interesting.

Movies: Emma and The Call of the Wild

The first trailer has been released for "a lively update" of Jane Austen's Emma http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42569537, featuring Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) "as the iconic lead character in a social class satire brimming with comedic wit," Entertainment Weekly reported.

Directed by Autumn de Wilde from a script by Eleanor Catton, the film's cast also includes Johnny Flynn, Bill Nighy, Mia Goth, and Callum Turner. Emma opens in limited release on February 21.

"Harrison Ford goes on the adventure of a lifetime with his new dog" in the trailer for The Call of the Wild http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42569538, based on the Jack London novel, the Hollywood Reporter wrote. Directed by Chris Sanders, the film also stars Dan Stevens, Omar Sy, Karen Gillan, Bradley Whitford and Colin Woodell. The Call of the Wild will be released February 21.

This was one of my favorite movies of the 1980s, though I don't talk about it much, because it is a very personal story for me...it is one of those movies that moved me right down to the bottom of my soul. I read all of Isak Dinesen's works in the 80s (and a couple in the early 90s) and I remember gasping at her brilliant prose and gorgeous storytelling. The film was stark and beautiful, but I still loved the book better. Now they're "re-imagining" the story to be set in the Midwest, (I was born and raised in Iowa) so I am cautious yet curious as to what they'll do with it.

Movies:  Babette's Feast

Alexander Payne (The Descendants, Sideways) will direct a re-imagining of Babette's Feast http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42647198, the 1988 Oscar-winning Danish film which Gabriel Axel wrote and directed from a story by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen). Deadline reported that the script will be written by Guy Branum (The Other Two, The Mindy Project).

The film "will be set in a religious community in small-town Minnesota, where two older, unmarried sisters accept a refugee, who leads them to confront their regrets, over an extraordinary meal," Deadline wrote.

 Wow...a title about Dirt Holes is apparently the oddest thing they could come up with....LAME. I would have thought the Cheese War book would have won.

The winner of the 2019 Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42647203 is The Dirt Hole and Its Variations, a re-released classic hunting and trapping guide by Charles L Dobbins. The Bookseller, which sponsors the prize, reported that the winning title "swept away the competition, claiming 40% of the public vote." Catherine Donnelly's Ending the War on Artisan Cheese was second (24%), followed by Xanna Eve Chown's Noah Gets Naked (18%). 

Horace Bent, administrator of the prize, said: "Once again it has been a standout year for this, the world's most prestigious literary gong. I salute the late, great Charles L Dobbins, The Dirt Hole... and all its many beautiful variations, although I doubt the variations are beautiful to the foxes, bobcats and coyotes they are designed for. I also tip my hat to Dobbins for contributing a number of Diagram-worthy odd titles to the world."

Because no prize could be given to the author, Dennis Drayna, who nominated this year's winner, was awarded the traditional "passable bottle of claret."

The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg is the third book in her "Arthur Truluv" series, and for this one Berg decides to "flip the script" a bit and has everything revolve around a group of women who confess their "sins" or "problems" to one another, forgive the member confessing and then eat dessert. So there isn't as much of a story with a set of a few characters who go from point A to point B and end up with an HEA ending. It's more like a lot of short stories stitched together with one of the characters from previous books hanging around to make it cohesive and hearken back to the past. Here's the blurb: When a group of friends in Mason, Missouri, decide to start a monthly supper club, they get more than they bargained for. The plan for congenial evenings—talking, laughing, and sharing recipes, homemade food, and wine—abruptly changes course one night when one of the women reveals something startlingly intimate. The supper club then becomes Confession Club, and the women gather weekly to share not only dinners but embarrassing misdeeds, deep insecurities, and long-held regrets.
They invite Iris Winters and Maddy Harris to join, and their timing couldn't be better. Iris is conflicted about her feelings for a charming but troubled man, and Maddy has come back home from New York to escape a problem too big to handle alone. The club offers exactly the kind of support they need to help them make some difficult decisions.
The Confession Club is charming, heartwarming, and inspiring. And as in the previous books that take place in Mason, readers will find friendship, community, and kindness on full display.
“[A] feel-good testament to taking risks, falling love, and reinvention . . . Berg effortlessly wraps her arms around this busy universe of quirky characters with heartbreaking secrets and unflagging faith. . . . Readers new to Berg’s Mason will be dazzled by this bright and fascinating story, and fans will be cheering for the next volume.”—Publishers Weekly 

Though I loved this book and seeing some of the characters from previous books, I found it slightly difficult to get into and track as to who was who. I also didn't like how judgy some of the women were of others, usually based on their religious background. That said, Berg's prose is gold, and her plots never fail to arrive at the station on time. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who has read the first two books in the series.

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim is one of those books on the NYT bestseller's list that has gotten rave reviews and tons of "good ink" from all the usual print outlets (newspapers and magazines). I had heard that it was masterfully written and a unique story that involved disabled children, so I figured that I would get a copy from the library and see what all the fuss was about. Turns out, I am really glad that I didn't waste any money on this huge bummer of a novel. Most of the characters are horrible people, and one of the parents, Elizabeth, is either a sociopath or a victim of Munchausen's by Proxy, a dreadful mental illness wherein a parent, usually a mother, physically and mentally harms and abuses her child in order to get attention from doctors and nurses and pity/sympathy from the public. This horrific waste of air actually laughs and "feels free" when her autistic son is murdered by being burned alive. And if that doesn't make you want to retch, the daughter of the immigrant Korean family who own the hyperbaric chamber used to scam the parents of disabled children actually sets the fire that kills the boy and a mother of another handicapped child (who also has other children), all because she can't come to terms with being sexually molested by a doctor who is taking treatment for low sperm count. This shitheal of a doctor totally gets away with it, too, and goes off without having to take responsibility for his actions. UGH. Here's the blurb:

How far will you go to protect your family? Will you keep their secrets? Ignore their lies?
In a small town in Virginia, a group of people know each other because they’re part of a special treatment center, a hyperbaric chamber that may cure a range of conditions from infertility to autism. But then the chamber explodes, two people die, and it’s clear the explosion wasn’t an accident.
A powerful showdown unfolds as the story moves across characters who are all maybe keeping secrets, hiding betrayals. Chapter by chapter, we shift alliances and gather evidence: Was it the careless mother of a patient? Was it the owners, hoping to cash in on a big insurance payment and send their daughter to college? Could it have been a protester, trying to prove the treatment isn’t safe?
“A stunning debut about parents, children and the unwavering hope of a better life, even when all hope seems lost" (Washington Post), Miracle Creek uncovers the worst prejudice and best intentions, tense rivalries and the challenges of parenting a child with special needs. It’s “a quick-paced murder mystery that plumbs the power and perils of community” (O Magazine) as it carefully pieces together the tense atmosphere of a courtroom drama and the complexities of life as an immigrant family. Drawing on the author’s own experiences as a Korean-American, former trial lawyer, and mother of a “miracle submarine” patient, this is a novel steeped in suspense and igniting discussion. Recommended by Erin Morgenstern, Jean Kwok, Jennifer Weiner, Scott Turow, Laura Lippman, and more-- Miracle Creek is a brave, moving debut from an unforgettable new voice.

I do not know what the authors listed saw in this godawful book to recommend it, but I The parents were dupes, all thinking that hyperbaric treatment from people who weren't actual medical professionals would somehow "cure" their children of diseases like autism and cerebral palsy, and when Elizabeth's son gets better on an allergen and gluten free diet, they all start following her "protocol," but not well, and are surprised that their children don't respond as well as hers did. I think that her son responded because she was so abusive and cruel to him every second of every day that he had no choice but to try and appear more "normal" because he was told, repeatedly, that he was not wanted just as he was, that he was unlovable and annoying, and deserved the physical and mental abuse and control his mother dished out. I couldn't feel even an ounce of sympathy for Evil Elizabeth, and I felt the other parents were also abusive by putting their children through these quack treatments. 

The author tries to get readers to sympathize with these lame parents by saying that all mothers feel like they'd like to kill their children at one time or another. This just isn't true, and it makes me worry about the authors children. I never, ever wanted to kill my son or harm him in any way. I can't think of any moms that I know who would actually want to murder their children just because they are handicapped or sometimes annoying or difficult. The only people who seemed sane to me were the protesters, though I don't agree with their methods of getting parents attention and trying to shut down the hyperbaric chamber. At any rate, this lame courtroom drama ends with at least a bit of justice being served, but, as I pointed out earlier, a rapist gets away with his crime and the Korean mom,Young, ends up looking heroic instead of weak and stupid, which is what she really was, unable to even get the truth from her husband and daughter, and then forgiving them immediately because she only wants to see the 'good' in her family. Blech. I'd give this book a D, and only recommend it to those who like lots of anti-heroes and parents, especially mothers, being portrayed as vain, weak, cruel or sociopathic.