Hello Book lovers! Here we are at the final post for the month of August, which seems to have lasted a decade. At the beginning of the month we lost our air conditioning and my iMac died, and COVID 19 has claimed over 180,000 lives in the United States alone. Now in the past few days, we lost Chadwick Bozeman, who played T'Challa in the wonderful movie Black Panther just two years ago, to colon cancer. He was only 43 years old, and such a bright light in Hollywood and the world. Rest in Power, CB...Wakanda Forever! At any rate, here are some tidbits, finally, and a few reviews before we fall into Autumn.
I am so glad to read about bookstores not only hanging in there, but thriving in this quarantine economy.
Seattle's Ada's Technical Books Converting Fuel Coffee Shops to Coffee Shop/Bookstores
Ada's Technical Books http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz45361766, Seattle, Wash., is transforming the Fuel Coffee coffee shop minichain http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz45361767 it bought in June into three combination coffee shop/bookstores, the Seattle Times reported.
Limited to "summer walk-up window" service for now, the three Fuel Coffee shops are serving coffee drinks and baked goods, and now have about 100 books on hand, with 10 or so displayed at the front door. With the interiors closed, owners Danielle and David Hulton are beginning renovations; each location will have "book nooks or little bookstore areas" and carry some 1,000 nonfiction, fiction and children's titles.
Current bestsellers are children's books, anti-racism titles, and science fiction & fantasy, and already customers are beginning to shape the inventory at each shop, the Times noted. "We brought children's books to all the locations, but in Montlake we have not been able to keep them in stock," Danielle Hulton said. "People keep buying everything that's on display." At Montlake and Wallingford, farther from the center of the city than the Capitol Hill Fuel Coffee location, "new, hot titles" are moving, the Times added. "New York Times bestseller list titles don't move a ton at Ada's, but they're moving a lot at the Fuel locations," Hulton noted.
The Hultons founded Ada's 10 years ago, and the store moved and expanded three years later. It includes the Lab event space and a co-working space called the Office. In June, Ada's closed the Discovery Cafe. As its name implies, Ada's Technical Books has an emphasis on technical and science-minded books and happily describes itself as "geeky."
I can hardly wait for this series to debut! My husband and I read the Sandman graphic novels back in the 90s, and were blown away by the storytelling and the beautiful graphics. It will be thrilling to see the characters come to life on the streaming screen.
TV: Gaiman Update on The Sandman Netflix Series
On a DC FanDome panel Saturday, Neil Gaiman updated fans on the The Sandman http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz45361814, the Warner Bros TV project that was given an 11-episode series order by
Netflix last year, Variety reported. The Covid-19 pandemic had forced the production to shut down in mid-March.
Gaiman revealed that he had been using the downtime to get the script as "close to perfect as we can.... Right now as the universal pause button is starting to come off, we're starting to cast again. I'm getting these inspiring and wonderful e-mails with production designs with places that I'd only ever seen in the comics before, now being rendered in 3D, and I'm being asked to comment on it. That's amazing."
He also said the Netflix series is "still going to start in 1916, but the thing that happens in Sandman 1, the point that the story starts is not 1988. It's now. And how does that change the story? What does that give us? What does that make us have to look at that we wouldn't have to look at if we were setting it as a period piece? What is that going to do to the gender of characters, what is that going to do to the nature of characters? What's that going to do to the story? And that has been an absolute delight. Because it means we are always being true to the story and being true to the characters. But it gives us tremendous freedom to go, 'Okay if we were doing it now what would Sandman be?' And that, again, is very liberating."
This is another movie that I'm excited about, because who doesn't love Roald Dahl and Beatrix Potter and their books? And Murray Gold is responsible for a lot of the beautiful music on the later incarnations of Star Trek.
Movies: Roald & Beatrix, The Tail of the Curious Mouse
The cast has been rounded out for Roald & Beatrix, The Tail of the Curious Mouse http://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz45363155, a Sky original Christmas movie that will blend live action camera work, stop-frame animation and puppetry, Deadline reported.
Starring Dawn French as Beatrix Potter, the cast also includes Jessica Hynes (W1A), Rob Brydon (The Trip), Alison Steadman (Gavin and Stacey), Nina Sosanya (Brave New World), Bill Bailey (In the Long Run) and Nick Mohammed. Shooting began August 24.
Written by Abi Wilson, the film is "inspired by the true story of when a six-year-old Roald Dahl meets his idol, Potter," Deadline wrote. John Hannah is narrating, with music composed by Murray Gold.
More good news! Another bookstore opening in Gig Harbor!
Invitation Bookshop Coming to Gig Harbor, Wash.
Invitation Bookshop’s http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz45363107 opening next month in Gig Harbor, Wash. Noting that there are already two used bookstores in Gig Harbor, owner Allyson Howard reported that the 1,230-square-foot store will focus on new books, as well as puzzles, games, stationery and other book-related sidelines.
Howard plans to keep her inventory flexible in the store's first few months and respond to the interests and needs of her community. At the same time, she is working to curate an inclusive collection of books with the goal of "elevating voices that are either underrepresented in our community or have been historically marginalized."
With so many limitations on group gatherings in place, Howard said, her event plans will be limited for now. The bright side, though, is that she'll have some breathing room when it comes to learning how to host events. She looks forward to having children in the store for storytime sessions and hopes to feature local authors from the greater Puget Sound region. There are also plenty of "fantastic small businesses" in Gig Harbor, she added, and she's already talked to a few about potential partnerships.
Howard said she committed to her lease just before Washington State shut down retail businesses. The last several months have not been anything like what she had planned, but the one consolation has been that they are not alone in this. She added: "We're perfectly content being that scrappy small business that opened in spite of a global crisis."
Prior to starting Invitation Bookshop, Howard spent 19 years in education. She explained that despite working for a few years in academic publishing and freelancing for a literary agent for a brief stint, it was her time as an educator that honed her belief in the "social purpose of bookselling." She's tried to reflect that with her bookstore's name and its tagline: "Every book is an invitation."
"Writing and reading are open-hearted acts, and the page is where the experiences and ideas of two people meet to converse," Howard said. "It's a little act of wonder and magic. That was my favorite part of teaching, and I feel grateful that I get to continue that in my own bookstore."
The Brideship Wife by Leslie Howard is a beautifully wrought and printed historical romance that I was surprised by, which is unusual for me. I was not expecting a story of the horrors that the 19th century British class system visited on women to be so prominent. The romance was actually believable and didn't tax the plot at all. The misogyny of the aristocracy was also pointed out in detail, with poorer women being considered easy prey for vile lords and dukes to rape or use as they pleased, and then discard. But I loved the descriptions of the women struggling and successfully making a life for themselves in British Colombia, Canada. Here's the blurb: Inspired by the history of the British “brideships,” this captivating
historical debut tells the story of one woman’s coming of age and
search for independence.
Tomorrow
we would dock in Victoria on the northwest coast of North America,
about as far away from my home as I could imagine. Like pebbles tossed
upon the beach, we would scatter, trying to make our way as best as we
could. Most of us would marry; some would not.
England,
1862. Charlotte is somewhat of a wallflower. Shy and bookish, she knows
her duty is to marry, but with no dowry, she has little choice in the
matter. She can’t continue to live off the generosity of her sister
Harriet and her wealthy brother-in-law, Charles, whose political
aspirations dictate that she make an advantageous match.
When
Harriet hosts a grand party, Charlotte is charged with winning the
affections of one of Charles’s colleagues, but before the night is over,
her reputation—her one thing of value—is at risk. In the days that
follow, rumours begin to swirl. Soon Charles’s standing in society is
threatened and all that Charlotte has held dear is jeopardized, even
Harriet, and Charlotte is forced to leave everything she has ever known
in England and embark on a treacherous voyage to the New World with her sister.
From the rigid social circles of Victorian England to the lawless lands bursting with gold in British Columbia’s Cariboo, The Brideship Wife
takes readers on a mesmerizing journey through a time of great change.
Based on a forgotten chapter in history, this is a sparkling debut about
the pricelessness of freedom and the courage it takes to follow your
heart.
Howard's prose is delightfully forthright and clean, and her plot sails along on calm seas. I was mesmerized by the female characters and their struggles, so I read this novel in one sitting, and the hours flew by. Therefore I'm giving it an A, and recommending it to anyone interested in this slice of British/Canadian history that is so often ignored.
We Came Here to Shine by Susie Orman Schnall is a historical romantic novel that takes place at the 1939 New York World's Fair. I had high expectations of this book, because not a lot has been written about the Aquacade and the female swimmers who made the show what it was. I was so disappointed when I began reading, only to discover immature prose full of cliches and tropes, with characters so stereotypical that you know what they're going to say and do before they open their mouths. The protagonists come off as stupid, and the plot was so overused that readers will know what is going to happen long before the end of the novel. Here's the blurb: Set at the iconic 1939 New York World’s Fair, Susie Orman Schnall's We Came Here to Shine is
historical fiction featuring two bold and ambitious women who navigate a
world of possibility and find out what they're truly made of during a
glorious summer of spectacle and potential.
Gorgeous Vivi is
the star of the Aquacade synchronized swimming spectacular and plucky
Max is a journalist for the fair's daily paper. Both are striving to
make their way in a world where men try to control their actions and
where secrets are closely kept. But when Vivi and Max become friends and
their personal and professional prospects are put in jeopardy, they
team up to help each other succeed and to realize their dreams during
the most meaningful summer of their lives.
We Came Here to Shine
is a story of ambition, friendship, and persistence with a fascinating
behind-the-scenes look at the extraordinary NY World's Fair.
The author needs to learn, as does her female reporter character, to show, not tell everything that her characters are thinking and feeling. This limits the readers ability to empathize with these female characters, because we're being told what to think of them and how to react to them, instead of judging them by their actions and reactions. Plus, for all it's lip service to pre-war feminism, the main protagonist Vivi is continually sexually harassed and threatened, and subjects herself to leering men every time she performs in the Aquacade. After all her hard work to learn the routines and keep her career going, she ends up leaving acting and Hollywood behind to be a mother to her illegitimate daughter, and we can assume being a wife isn't far behind. So much for independence and ambition. The budding journalist Max is yet another study in what not to do if you're an independent woman seeking a career, as she is repeatedly told to shut up and stop having any ambition at all, because her boss, who is a sexually harassing scumbag, believes women can't write, and along with her staid professor at NYU, leaves Max with no choice but to manipulate and cheat her way into getting articles published in the Worlds Fair newspaper. The samples of Max's writing that readers are subjected to are terrible, full of overblown prose without style or good grammar. As a former reporter, I was horrified that she was allowed to continue to write at all. What were her professors teaching her at NYU, if she didn't even have a grasp of the basics of grammar? I'd give this disappointing novel a C+, and only recommend it to those who are interested in the 1939 NY Worlds Fair and the Aquacade attraction.
Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne is the first book in a new series by the author of the famed Iron Druid Chronicles. Having read and loved the tales of Atticus O'Sullivan, the Iron Druid, for many years, I was not surprised by how much I loved this latest series debut, which takes place in the same world as the Iron Druid Chronicles, and even features (fangirl squee!) a meeting of the two protagonists, Atticus and Al, later in the novel. Here's the blurb:
New York Times best-selling author Kevin Hearne returns to the world of his beloved Iron Druid Chronicles in a spin-off series about an eccentric master of rare magic solving an uncanny mystery in Scotland.
“Ink & Sigil is escape reading, and I loved every word.” (Charlaine Harris, New York Times best-selling author of A Longer Fall)
Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. He is blessed with an extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation for craft cocktails - and a most unique magical talent. He can cast spells with magically enchanted ink, and he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheons, especially the Fae.
But he is also cursed. Anyone who hears his voice will begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for Al, so he can only communicate through the written word or speech apps. And his apprentices keep dying in peculiar freak accidents. As his personal life crumbles around him, he devotes his life to his work, all the while trying to crack the secret of his curse.
But when his latest apprentice, Gordie, turns up dead in his Glasgow flat, Al discovers evidence that Gordie was living a secret life of crime. Now, Al is forced to play detective - while avoiding actual detectives who are wondering why death seems to always follow Al. Investigating his apprentice’s death will take him through Scotland’s magical underworld, and he’ll need the help of a mischievous hobgoblin if he’s to survive.
Hearne's trademark sense of humor is in full force here, as his characters crack wise and banter in their Glaswegian accents throughout the book. There are magic battles aplenty, and some serious drinking in between investigations into the death of Al's 7th apprentice, who died while eating a raisin scone. I was particularly enchanted by the explanations of the creation of the magical inks and their use via fountain pens on good card stock. For a pen and stationary aficionado, this book is a gold mine. Hearne's prose is, as usual, brilliant and his plots swoop and soar like a pixie on crack (or a hobgoblin on salsa, as the case may be). I fell in love with Al and Nadia and Buck, as well as "Gladys who has seen some shite", the cool Canadian woman who is Al's secretary. I enjoyed reading this book so much, I purposely slowed my reading and often stopped to savor particular passages or paragraphs. I probably could have read it all in one day, but I managed to slow it down to two days, so I wouldn't have as much of a book hangover. At any rate, I'd give this sparkling fantasy novel a well-earned A, and recommend it to anyone who finds fun and funny trips through Scotland's magical streets a must.
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