Mrs Everything Comes to TV, Bookshop Lisbon Letter, The Stars We Steal by Alexa Donne, Faith Taking Flight by Julie Murphy, Peace Talks by Jim Butcher, and The Flight Girls by Noelle Salazar

Hello to all my fellow quarantined book lovers. Congratulations on making it this far into the year of hell, 2020. I still have hope that things will turn out okay by the end of the year, and that we'll have a vaccine by Christmas or soon after New Years. Meanwhile, keep your masks on and your hands clean, and stay 6 ft apart! 

I read this book, and the Big Summer book that followed it, and while I enjoyed them, I am really looking forward to seeing how they translate to the small screen.

TV: Mrs. Everything

Sister Pictures has optioned Jennifer Weiner's bestselling novel Mrs. Everything http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz44946334 and will adapt the book for TV, Deadline reported. Weiner, Carla Hacken for Paper Pictures, and Kate Fenske for Sister will be executive producers on the series, which is set during the 1950s in Detroit, where Jo and Bethie Kaufman "are sisters who, as their lives unfold against the backdrop of Vietnam, the civil rights movement, and women's liberation, find themselves struggling to honor their unique truths versus pleasing the world."

I read about this letter in the Shelf Awareness email newsletter today, and I found it so moving that people all over the world are supporting bookstores and others love of literature.

Bookshop Lisbon Letter: In an unusual, moving letter that will accompany galleys of My Brilliant Life by Ae-ran Kim, translated by Chi-Young Kim (Forge, January 26, 2021), the author wrote:

My Korean publisher informed me who I would be addressing with this letter.

I agonized over what to write, thinking of recipients far away, and I decided to share with you, the booksellers of America, something written by a neighborhood bookstore owner in Korea.

Titled "Three Months of COVID-19 and the Transformation of a Bookstore Owner's Thoughts," this essay was printed in issue 512 of a Korean publishing magazine, Planning Meeting. The essay is written by Jeong Hyun-joo, the owner of Bookshop Lisbon, which had been in steady business for five years, confessing that the store was in the red for the first time. She writes about worries, difficulties, and fears of the coronavirus era. At this bookstore, they launched a program sending new books to monthly subscribers. And one day she receives a message from a subscriber:

"I live in the quarantined city of Daegu. I saw how excited my friend was to receive a book from your bookstore yesterday. I was only getting food delivered and worrying about how to get masks, and at first I was amazed that you could get books delivered during this time. Later, I found myself thrilled. Thanks to you, I saw my friend in good spirits for the first time in a while. Thank you."

Jeong started wondering what else a bookstore could do during the coronavirus era. She couldn't afford to send new books but she decided she could send used books and samples to Daegu, and put out a call on social media for people to sign up for free books; the store would pay the delivery fees. She only expected about twenty people to sign up, but soon she was getting pings every minute, so she posted another message, asking if her followers would donate books that she would send. I'm sharing a part of her essay with her permission, to best convey that time:

Not long after I posted, money came into my account. My family sent some cash to cover some delivery fees. With that amount I could send books to eighty people. Soon there were payments of 30,000 won and 50,000 won. When I looked at the names I realized that they were members of our bookshop reading room--the regulars who gather in the evening to read together. They had sent money into the account where they had been sending monthly membership fees, without saying a word about it to me. When I reached out, I was told: "I have family in Daegu, too. I want to help out." "I hear there are people asking for children's books. Please use my donation to deliver books to kids."

I cried a little reading the messages. It became clear in that moment why I hadn't been able to let go of the bookstore even during these difficult times. For me, the bookstore and the people who came to the bookstore, were my social and emotional safety net. Through their actions, my customers were telling me that the world isn't all bad, that there are quite a lot of good people out there, that I can keep believing in the goodwill of people.I sent a thousand books to Daegu, to 160 people.

As I am not young, I know that goodwill doesn't always come back to you as goodwill. But something like a fairytale happened at my bookstore, all because there are people who love books.

I understand that an author is to introduce her book through this letter. But I thought it would be better to use this opportunity to relay this small, luminous anecdote to American booksellers. Of course, a miracle lasts a mere minute and beauty exists for a split second, but these moments come together to forge a life and to create memories. I learned this from people much better than me, and through so many books from around the world. I send my deepest gratitude to all of you guarding our collective "social and emotional safety net," both in the past and into the present day.

The Stars We Steal by Alexa Donne is a YA science fiction/romance novel that was a really fast read, due to the zingy dialog-fueled prose. Here's the blurb: Engagement season is in the air. Eighteen-year-old Princess Leonie “Leo” Kolburg, heir to a faded European spaceship, has only one thing on her mind: which lucky bachelor can save her family from financial ruin?

But when Leo’s childhood friend and first love, Elliot, returns as the captain of a successful whiskey ship, everything changes. Elliot was the one who got away, the boy Leo’s family deemed to be unsuitable for marriage. Now he’s the biggest catch of the season and he seems determined to make Leo’s life miserable. But old habits die hard, and as Leo navigates the glittering balls of the Valg Season, she finds herself falling for her first love in a game of love, lies, and past regrets.

Fans of Katharine McGee and Kiera Cass will be dazzled by this world of lost love and royal intrigue. 

The plot was part star-crossed beauty and the beast romance and part "Bachelor" reality show in space. Though she seemed to fall prey to the trope of female protagonist who is too stupid and naive to live too often, I did like Leo and her impatience with all the superficial royal caste system that forces young women to marry for money or power, instead of love. Her sister Carina seemed to pick up even more of the "bimbo blonde royal teen" trope, while all of the other women/girls were smart and cynical and therefore mean and/or evil. Thankfully there was a secondary storyline with a gay character who was out and proud, which alleviated some of my disgust with all the cliches. I'd give this peppy page turner a B+, and recommend it as a summer read to anyone who likes YA romances. 

Faith Taking Flight by Julie Murphy is a YA superhero novel that seems to be based on a graphic novel/comic book, about a fat & fabulous teenager who discovers the reality behind the truism of  "never meet your heroes/heroines." Here's the blurb:

From Julie Murphy, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dumplin’, comes the first in a two-book origin story of Faith, a groundbreaking, plus-sized superhero from the Valiant Entertainment comics.
Faith Herbert is a pretty regular teen. When she’s not hanging out with her two best friends, Matt and Ches, she’s volunteering at the local animal shelter or obsessing over the long-running teen drama The Grove.
So far, her senior year has been spent trying to sort out her feelings for her maybe-crush Johnny and making plans to stay close to Grandma Lou after graduation. Of course, there’s also that small matter of recently discovering she can fly….
When the fictional world of The Grove crashes into Faith’s reality as the show relocates to her town, she can’t believe it when TV heroine Dakota Ash takes a romantic interest in her.
But her fandom-fueled daydreams aren’t enough to distract Faith from the fact that first animals, then people, have begun to vanish from the town. Only Faith seems able to connect the dots to a new designer drug infiltrating her high school.
But when her investigation puts the people she loves in danger, she will have to confront her hidden past and use her newfound gifts—risking everything to save her friends and beloved town.

Obviously I loved the fact that the protagonist is a plus-sized teen who is comfortable in her own skin and learning to love her ability to fly and float in the sky. What I found difficult to believe was that she wasn't bullied and harassed mercilessly by her classmates in high school. I also found it unusual that she had both a guy and a gal vying for her affections. Perhaps things have changed since I was in high school, back in the late 70s, but most guys and gals wouldn't be caught dead dating a fat girl at my high school...they'd be ridiculed for months, if not years. But, as I said, maybe things have changed for the better since then. Still, I loved Faith's pluck and optimism, if not her willful blindness to the evil of her favorite TV show star. The prose was fluffy and fun, and the plot flew as fast as Faith, so I'd give this fantastic novelized superhero comic an A, and recommend it to anyone who longs to see larger women represented in the world of superheroes.

Peace Talks by Jim Butcher is the 16th book in the Dresden Files series of fantasy fiction that takes place in Chicago. One thing that seems obvious about this book is that it was part of a much larger tome that was split in half by the publisher, with book 17 coming out in September. So as a reader you have to accept that there will be a terrible cliffhanger at the end as a set up for book 17, right from the start. That said, I've read all of the Dresden Files, and I'd bet that Butcher is winding down on the series by now, probably ending it by book 20 or before. Here's the blurb: Harry Dresden is back and ready for action, in the new entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files.

When the Supernatural nations of the world meet up to negotiate an end to ongoing hostilities, Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, joins the White Council's security team to make sure the talks stay civil. But can he succeed, when dark political manipulations threaten the very existence of Chicago—and all he holds dear? 

I've met Jim Butcher, who, back in the 90s, had a TV show based on the Dresden Files going as well as his books, and yet with all that success he was still a nasty jerk to his fans, myself included. That bad experience aside, I love Harry Dresden, and his Foo dog mouse and the entire cast of characters surrounding him. That, and the kick-ass prose, along with plots that scream along at 100 MPH, always keep me coming back for more, though I am loathe to put more money in Butcher's pockets. Still, there was a bit more than a whisper of fan service to this book, with a lot of rehash of old experiences and traumas from previous books. The whole "Harry's greatest hits" revisited felt like padding and pandering, and while I can't say it was the most horrible thing I've ever seen in a novel, I was still surprised that Butcher (and his editors) would allow that kind of fluff to pad out his work. He should know better, and know that his fans expect better. However, once the novel got up a head of steam, I was riveted to the page and I enjoyed the roller coaster ride that is a day at the office to Harry Dresden. I'd give this novel a B, and recommend it to anyone who is a die hard Dresden Files fan, with the warning that you'll have to step around some cow pies to get to the good stuff in this one.

The Flight Girls by Noelle Salazar is the August book for my library book group. It's a fictionalized account of the formation and missions and lives of the women pilots who made up the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during WWII, who trained male pilots and ferried airplanes back and forth to various bases during the war, at great personal risk. Here's the blurb: Shining a light on a little-known piece of history The Flight Girls is a sweeping portrayal of women’s fearlessness, love, and the power of friendship to make us soar.

1941. Audrey Coltrane has always wanted to fly. It’s why she implored her father to teach her at the little airfield back home in Texas. It’s why she signed up to train military pilots in Hawaii when the war in Europe began. And it’s why she insists she is not interested in any dream-derailing romantic involvements, even with the disarming Lieutenant James Hart, who fast becomes a friend as treasured as the women she flies with. Then one fateful day, she gets caught in the air over Pearl Harbor just as the bombs begin to fall, and suddenly, nowhere feels safe.

To make everything she’s lost count for something, Audrey joins the Women Airforce Service Pilots program. The bonds she forms with her fellow pilots reignite a spark of hope in the face war, and—when James goes missing in action—give Audrey the strength to cross the front lines and fight not only for her country, but for the love she holds so dear.
“Captivated me from the first page and never let go...a powerful tale of courage and sacrifice by the Women Airforce Service Pilots during WWII. A spectacular first novel.”—Sara Ackerman

As you might have gleaned, I am a huge fan of historical romance fiction, with a strong female protagonist, and this book certainly fits the bill. I worked on the WWII floor of the Personal Courage Wing of the Museum of Flight in Seattle, and I learned all about the museum's WASP and WAVE displays then, as well as about the nearly 20 million women who worked in factories and businesses across America (Rosie the Riveter was their icon) to keep the economy going during the war years, when the men were overseas fighting for freedom. These were brave women who dared to wear pants and jumpsuits, to get their hands dirty and work without safety regulations to help the war effort. I greatly admire them all, and this story, though it contained fictional characters, was just wonderful and poignant. My mother was only 4 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, so she was a child during the war, living on a farm in Iowa, yet she remembers her mother, my grandmother, having to deal with rationed sugar and flour, and my grandfather getting extra gas rations so that he could run his tractors into the fields for harvest. 

I found the prose elegant and evocative, and the plot flew as fast as the Spitfire's Audrey flew across America. Though I had to read the book on my computer's digital reading ap, I still enjoyed every paragraph. I'd give this lovely story an A, and recommend it to anyone who wonders about the lives of WASPs during WWII.