GRRM Opens Beastly Books in Santa Fe, Little Fires Everywhere Comes to TV, Travel Words at Kinokuniya, Mrs Martin's Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan, Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia and Kopp Sisters on the March by Amy Stewart

Merry Christmas to all my book loving friends and readers! I've got 12 new books on my Bed TBR, just waiting to be opened and savored, or whipped through at lightening speed, depending on the genre and author and prose style. Meanwhile, I have a bunch of book news and three reviews to post, so let's get to it, shall we?!

Most people don't know that GRRM taught at my Alma Mater, Clarke College (now Clarke University) in Iowa before he embarked on his solo writing career, which catapaulted him to fame with A Song of Ice and Fire, and the Game of Thrones TV series. Before that, he also wrote a TV series based on the Beauty and the Beast legend that I adored back in the 80s. Yes, I did meet him and speak with him when I was a freshman at Clarke, and he gave me a copy of his book, A Song for Lya. I am thrilled that he's opened a bookstore, though it is in a state I have never visited and likely never will (due to being disabled, not for lack of desire). But I am glad that he's opening a place for those who love his work and others works.

George R.R. Martin Opens Beastly Books in Santa Fe

On November 30, author George R.R. Martin opened Beastly Books http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42847189, an independent bookstore located at 418 Montezuma in Santa Fe, N.Mex., next door to the Jean Cocteau Cinema http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42847190, which he had acquired in 2013.

On his blog http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42847191, Martin noted that the theater has been hosting "amazing author events" over the past six years. "Dozens of terrific, award-winning, bestselling writers have appeared at the JCC to speak, read, and sign their books... SF writers, mystery writers, historical novelists, romance writers, thriller writers, mainstream literary writers, YA authors, non-fiction writers and journalists... the list goes on and on. And all of them have signed stock for us. The only problem was the Jean Cocteau lobby was far too small for us to display all of these wonderful autographed books."

Beastly Books was named in honor of Cocteau's most famous film, Beauty and the Beast, as well as "a certain TV show I worked on in the '80s" by the same name, Martin wrote. "Needless to say, we have a huge stock http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42847192 of my own books--A Song of Ice and Fire, Wild Cards, and all the rest. All signed. But we have a lot of other fantastic books by other authors too, and all of them are autographed as well."

The shop also offers coffee, tea, hot chocolate and soft drinks, with plans to add pastries soon. "You can visit the Iron Giant as well... but no, he's not for sale," Martin joked, adding: "Do come by and visit us the next time you come to the Land of Enchantment. Beastly Books. Hear us roar!"

I read Little Fires Everywhere, and I still don't see why it was a bestseller and deserving of a TV series on Hulu, but I might watch an episode or three just to see if the story translates better on the screen than it does in the book, which was rife with characters I loathed.

TV: Little Fires Everywhere

Hulu released a combo teaser clip/release date video to announce that Little Fires Everywhere http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42876550,its upcoming limited series based on Celeste Ng's bestselling book, will premiere March 18, 2020, Deadline reported.

Developed and written by Liz Tigelaar (Life Unexpected, Casual), the project stars Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, leading a cast that includes Joshua Jackson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jade Pettyjohn, Jordan Elsass, Gavin Lewis, Megan Stott, Lexi Underwood and Huang Lu.

The series is produced by Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine, Washington's Simpson Street and ABC Signature Studios, a part of Disney Television Studios. Tigelaar will serve as creator, showrunner and executive producer. Executive producers are Witherspoon, Washington, Lauren Levy Neustadter, Pilar Savone and Lynn Shelton. Celeste Ng is also producing.

This is such a cool idea! I am sorry that I missed this event in Seattle.

Image of the Day: Travel Words

Books Kinokuniya http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz42878121 in Seattle, Wash., recently hosted the launch for Explore Every Day: 365 Daily Prompts to Refresh Your Life (Lonely Planet). The event featured an interactive activity from the book: everyone wore a name tag on which they wrote their five "travel words." Then, says author Alex Leviton, "they found someone they didn't know who'd written down a similar word, or a word they admired (e.g., adventure and challenge). Then everyone had to suggest to each other a local thing to do based on one of the person's words--the Wing Luke Museum for 'learning' or kayaking on Lake Union for 'adventure.' Everyone stayed late to keep talking, and a nine-year-old girl even did the 'buy a fruit or vegetable you've never eaten' prompt. It warmed my heart."

Mrs Martin's Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan is an utterly brilliant lesbian romance novel about two older women, one in her 60s and the other in her 70s, who work together in the late 19th Century to bring down an odious misogynist male relative. Bertrice Martin is a wealthy widow with a fierce temper and a brilliant mind whose nephew is attempting to suck her dry of her fortune because he's a lazy slob who feels entitled to her money. Violetta Beauchamps is the vile nephew's landlord, who has been fired because she dared to try and collect his many months past due rents, when women of that time were expected to be meek and not question "gentlemen" even when the man was doing something nefarious. Violetta decides to try and collect back rent from Bertrice anyway, and then get out of town before anyone notices that she's no longer a landlord, but as she schemes with Bertrice to take down the evil nephew, she finds herself falling in love. Here's the blurb:

Mrs. Bertrice Martin—a widow, some seventy-three years young—has kept her youthful-ish appearance with the most powerful of home remedies: daily doses of spite, regular baths in man-tears, and refusing to give so much as a single damn about her Terrible Nephew.
Then proper, correct Miss Violetta Beauchamps, a sprightly young thing of nine and sixty, crashes into her life. The Terrible Nephew is living in her rooming house, and Violetta wants him gone.

Mrs. Martin isn’t about to start giving damns, not even for someone as intriguing as Miss Violetta. But she hatches another plan—to make her nephew sorry, to make Miss Violetta smile, and to have the finest adventure of all time.

If she makes Terrible Men angry and wins the hand of a lovely lady in the process? Those are just added bonuses.Author’s Note: Sometimes I write villains who are subtle and nuanced. This is not one of those times. The Terrible Nephew is terrible, and terrible things happen to him. Sometime villains really are bad and wrong, and sometimes, we want them to suffer a lot of consequences. 

I'm not normally a regular romance reader, but this slender volume called to me. I wasn't disappointed in the deliciously witty prose and the whirlwind plot, either, which made me laugh and cry and wonder why there aren't more smart senior women in books in general. I'd give it an A, and recommend it to anyone who wants a fun and fast read with characters that are memorable and realistic. 

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia has a bit of a misnomer for a title. Tuesday, goth queen of the internet data miners, doesn't actually speak to one specific ghost until page 148, and even then, we don't really get the gist of why she hears her dead best childhood friend's voice until around page 200. Tuesday's current besties are a delightful gay man named Dex, and her next "Dorry" teenage neighbor, both of whom are often more interesting than Tuesday, and certainly keep the plot zipping along on this roller-coaster ride of a novel. Here's the blurb: A handsome stranger. A dead billionaire. A citywide treasure hunt. Tuesday Mooney’s life is about to change…forevermore.
Tuesday Mooney is a loner. She keeps to herself, begrudgingly socializes, and spends much of her time watching old Twin Peaks and X-Files DVDs. But when Vincent Pryce, Boston’s most eccentric billionaire, dies—leaving behind an epic treasure hunt through the city, with clues inspired by his hero, Edgar Allan Poe—Tuesday’s adventure finally begins.

Puzzle-loving Tuesday searches for clue after clue, joined by a ragtag crew: a wisecracking friend, an adoring teen neighbor, and a handsome, cagey young heir. The hunt tests their mettle, and with other teams from around the city also vying for the promised prize—a share of Pryce’s immense wealth—they must move quickly. Pryce’s clues can't be cracked with sharp wit alone; the searchers must summon the courage to face painful ghosts from their pasts (some more vivid than others) and discover their most guarded desires and dreams.

A deliciously funny ode to imagination, overflowing with love letters to art, from The Westing Game to Madonna to the Knights of the Round Table, Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts is the perfect read for thrill seekers, wanderers, word lovers, and anyone looking for an escape to the extraordinary. 

The prose style of this rambunctious novel is often mysterious and shadowy, while the plot keeps things swooshing by so fast that the mystery of where the treasure hunt will end, what they will find and who will show up to try and thwart our heroes will keep most readers on the edge of their seats. Though they could be pretty annoying with their agendas, I still loved Dex and Dorry, and I felt that Tuesday's journey back to herself wouldn't have been the same without them. The reprehensible rich guy and his murderous relatives just added to the tension, though I couldn't understand why Archie's sister and mother didn't do more to help their son escape his vile brother. If one of my siblings was a murderer and was trying to kill one of my other siblings, I would do my best to protect the sibling in danger, especially if I knew this was happening as a mother to these adult children. Anyway, I was riveted to this fascinating novel, and I'd give it an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes quirky mysteries with literary and pop culture references. 

Kopp Sisters on the March by Amy Stewart is the 5th book in her Kopp sisters series. Having read all of the Kopp sisters novels, I found this installment to be one of the best of the bunch. Norma, my least favorite character, has more to do in this book, and is therefore slightly less annoying and irritating than in previous volumes. Ditto for Fleurette, who normally is so flighty, silly and spoiled that I want to smack her alongside the head. Because she has a lots of sewing to do, and befriends "Roxi" or Beulah, so she has more to do than sulk and pout and cause trouble for her sisters. But even our protagonist, Constance, is trying to find her path in this book, because she's been fired from her policewoman/jail matron job, and doesn't seem to realize that her leadership and detective skills would be of great use during WW1 or elsewhere in law enforcement. Here's the blurb: In the fifth installment of Amy Stewart’s clever and original Kopp Sisters series, the sisters learn some military discipline—whether they’re ready or not—as the U.S. prepares to enter World War I.

It’s the spring of 1917 and change is in the air. American women have done something remarkable: they’ve banded together to create military-style training camps for women who want to serve. These so-called National Service Schools prove irresistible to the Kopp sisters, who leave their farm in New Jersey to join up.

When an accident befalls the matron, Constance reluctantly agrees to oversee the camp—much to the alarm of the Kopps’ tent-mate, the real-life Beulah Binford, who is seeking refuge from her own scandalous past under the cover of a false identity. Will she be denied a second chance? And after notoriety, can a woman’s life ever be her own again?  
In Kopp Sisters on the March, the women of Camp Chevy Chase face down the skepticism of the War Department, the double standards of a scornful public, and the very real perils of war. Once again, Amy Stewart has brilliantly brought a little-known moment in history to light with her fearless and funny Kopp sisters novels.

Stewart's prose is sturdy and crisp, and her plot unflagging. I was fascinated by the National Service Schools for training women, which I had never heard of before, and I was glad to see that women were as eager to serve their country in The Great War as men. This is an overlooked part of history rich with stories of women going above and beyond, and I laud Amy Stewart for highlighting it with her Kopp sister characters. I am certain that the next book, which will hopefully be set either in the war itself or soon after, will be just as enlightening. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it highly for anyone who has read any of the other Kopp sisters books. 

-->