Welcome to November, book lovers! I have a lot to write about, though most of it isn't good, unfortunately. I'm glad it's November, though, because October sucked, and November has my husband and son's birthdays and Thanksgiving, all celebrations that I love!
I figure if you don't like anything the fantastic Neil Gaiman has written, there is something wrong with you. He's written and developed TV shows so many times, and he's such a versatile and wonderful wordsmith, I love just about everything he's done...and I'm excited that there's another season of American Gods coming up.
TV: Gaiman on American Gods, Season 3
The third season of American Gods http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz46157504, the Starz series based on Neil Gaiman's 2001 novel, will debut January 10, 2021. Deadline reported that the new season starts in Chapter Nine of the novel, with Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) "hiding out from the New Gods in a sub-zero Badger State town where mystical forces and the body count both seem to be rising," as the war between Odin's (Ian McShane) Old Gods and the New Gods "has apparently taken on new significance for Gaiman in this year of election."
In a letter about the new season, Gaiman wrote: "When we embarked upon making Season Three of American Gods, we had no idea how timely it would turn out to be.... We knew also that we wanted to continue to root the show in the landscapes of America. To explore what 'America' means to its people and to talk about immigrants--about the very different people who came to this remarkable land and brought their gods with them. The new gods of phone and app and glitter demand our attention and our love, and the old gods want to mean something again.
"America must be for all of us, and American Gods must reflect that. This season truly feels as if it does.... The struggles of the gods and the people in Season Three of American Gods are the struggles of America. We didn't think it would prove as timely when we plotted it, nor did I think the novel would still be relevant when I wrote it over 20 years ago. But I'm glad it's happening now, in a year when it feels as though diverse stories are being heard, and honored, and allowed to change the future."
Shakespeare and Company is an iconic bookshop that all bibliophiles long to visit during their lifetimes (even if you're not a huge fan of the French). I think it's awful that they're having to struggle, like most bookstores, during the coronavirus quarantine, but I would imagine their fans from all over the world will be ordering from their website and donating to their cause.
Legendary Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz46167460 is appealing to customers for help to counter losses incurred during the Covid-19 pandemic. In a letter to friends of the bookshop the bookseller expressed appreciation to supporters who have already reached out, but added that "we are struggling, trying to see a way forward during this time when we've been operating at a loss, with our sales down almost 80% since March. With this in mind, we would be especially grateful for new website orders from those of you with the means and interest to do so....
"Today, each morning, taking down the wooden shutters, opening those same doors, and welcoming readers and writers--whether travelers from across the world or the Parisians who are still able to visit us--always feels like an immense privilege. Because, as well as being a bookshop, Shakespeare and Company is a community, a commune (often literally), of which you are all a part. We are here today, almost seventy years after that first morning, because of you. We send our best wishes for your health and safety. May we all thrive together soon."
Proprietor Sylvia Whitman told the Guardian: "We're not closing our doors, but we've gone through all of our savings... which we were lucky to build up, and we have also been making use of the support from the government, and especially the furlough scheme. But it doesn't cover everything, and we've delayed quite a lot of rent that we have.... Right now our cafe and bookshop is open, but it's looking like we will have to close both because bookshops are considered non-essential. The one big difference is that we're adamant this time we're going to be ready to keep the website open."
Since the letter went out, Whitman said the shop had been deluged with offers of support as well as online orders: "I think it's going to give us a real boost in getting through this next chapter. We haven't said anything publicly before because we just feel so aware everyone is in difficult situations. We just want to ask people to help us do what we do, which is sell books."
I imagine that this perfume smells delicious, because there is nothing sexier than the smell of a bookstore full of books (at least to me).
'Want to Smell Like a Million Books?' Try Powell's by Powell's
Powell's Books in Portland, Ore., is introducing its own limited-edition unisex fragrance, Powell's by Powell's http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz46169401, promising a scent that "contains the lives of countless heroes and heroines. Apply to the pulse points when seeking sensory succor or a brush with immortality." Available for preorder now on Powells.com, it will be sold in stores beginning November 27.
"With notes of wood, violet, and biblichor, Powell's by Powell's comes in a 1-ounce glass bottle nestled in a faux book," the bookseller noted. "Just a few dabs to the pulse points will deliver the wearer to a place of wonder, discovery, and magic heretofore only known in literature."
This movie sounds awesome, and I can hardly wait for it to reach Netflix before Christmas!
Movies: The Midnight Sky
Netflix has released a trailer for The Midnight Sky http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz46169418, based on the novel Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton. IndieWire reported that George Clooney, who starred in sci-fi films Solaris and Gravity, "is finally ready to tackle outer space from the director's chair with his upcoming adventure." The ensemble cast includes Clooney, Felicity Jones, Kyle Chandler, David Oyelowo, Tiffany Boone, and Demian Bichir.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Clooney said one of the things he had learned about space from working with Alfonso Cuaron on Gravity was that "once you're in the antigravity kind of world, there is no north and south or east or west, because it doesn't exist in space. Up isn't up, and down isn't down. So the camera can be upside down, characters can be upside down, and it's hard to do, because you're constantly rotating the camera, and hoping you're not doing it so much you make everybody sick. Alfonso did it just beautifully."
The Midnight Sky will premiere December 23 on Netflix, following a limited theatrical release.
This is a beautiful funerary poem that I wish I'd known about before my father's funeral a couple of years ago.
A Song of Living
Because
I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.
I have sent up my gladness on wings, to be lost in the blue of the sky.
I have run and leaped with the rain, I have taken the wind to my breast.
My cheeks like a drowsy child to the face of the earth I have pressed.
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.
I
have kissed young love on the lips, I have heard his song to the end,
I have struck my hand like a seal in the loyal hand of a friend.
I have known the peace of heaven, the comfort of work done well.
I have longed for death in the darkness and risen alive out of hell.
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.
I
gave a share of my soul to the world, when and where my course is run.
I know that another shall finish the task I surely must leave undone.
I know that no flower, nor flint was in vain on the path I trod.
As one looks on a face through a window, through life I have looked on God,
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.
Amelia
Burr
1878-1968
Educated by Tara Westover is the non fiction memoir that my book club is reading for November. Having never heard of Ms Westover, I was unsure what to expect from this lengthy memoir. I certainly didn't expect the horrific level of blood, gore and sheer misogyny, not to mention the physical and mental abuse detailed on nearly every page of the book, and visited upon the author, who grew up with insane Mormon parents and siblings. These children were not allowed to go to school, to go to the doctor or hospital even if they were critically ill, and they were forced to endure endless abuse from one another and from their father, while their mother stood by and let it happen. If that weren't nauseating enough, the author doesn't get away from this insanity until the end of the book. She keeps making excuses to go back to her abusive household, though she has to know her father and brother will never really change their ways, and her father will always consider her, especially, expendable (as in he puts her, repeatedly, in harsh and dangerous situations where she could be killed, and he considers it "Gods will" if she does die). Here's the blurb: Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
Bill Gates called this book amazing and inspiring (perhaps it's because he grew up in the exact opposite situation to Westover, being from a wealthy family who were supportive and caring). I consider it neither. It took me nearly all month to read it because it was just a litany of horrors, and Ms Westover didn't seem to be smart or strong enough to break away from her insane family, even though they repeatedly abused her and accused her of being a "demon" and a "whore." There was nothing inspirational about reading the insane ramblings of her father or hear about the latest abuse perpetrated by her psychopathic brother Shawn. She continually makes excuses for her father, her brother and her lame, idiotic mother who lies to her daughter and doesn't lift a finger to help her when she's being beaten or shoved into some hellish machine by her father. I loathed this family and their use of religion as a justification for keeping women illiterate, enslaved and abused. SHAME on them all. Anyone who finds it inspirational is a ghoul who enjoys reading about pain and suffering inflicted on women and children by religious fanatics. Though I am glad that Westover managed to finally get her PhD and become educated, I am not a fan of her constant whining about "losing her family" and not fitting in with the other students. Seriously, anyone who was raised as she was wouldn't fit in because they were so isolated by their abusers. I just can't fathom why she kept going back for more. I thought the prose was pretentious and the whole book a serious waste of paper and ink. I'd give it a D-, and I can't recommend it to anyone because it is just too awful.
Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center is the third book of hers that I've read. This one is something of an adventure/romance, and while it's about extreme camping and wilderness shenanigans, I still found the romantic through-line, along with the personal growth of the main character, fairly satisfying. Here's the blurb: Helen Carpenter can’t quite seem to bounce back. Newly divorced at
thirty-two, her life has fallen apart beyond her ability to put it
together again. So when her annoying younger brother, Duncan, convinces
her to sign up for a hardcore wilderness survival course in the
backwoods of Wyoming—she hopes it’ll be exactly what she needs.
Instead,
it’s a disaster. It’s nothing like she wants, or expects, or
anticipates. She doesn’t anticipate the surprise summer blizzard, for
example—or the blisters, or the rutting elk, or the mean pack of
sorority girls. And she especially doesn’t anticipate that her
annoying brother’s even-more-annoying best friend, Jake, will show up
for the exact same course—and distract her, derail her, and . . . kiss
her.
But it turns out sometimes disaster can teach you exactly
the things you need to learn. Like how to keep going, even when you
think you can’t. How being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes
getting really, really lost is your only hope of getting found.Happiness for Beginners
is Katherine Center at her most heart-warming, captivating best—a
nourishing, page-turning, up-all-night read about how to get back up.
It’s a story that looks at how our struggles lead us to our strengths.
How love is always worth it. And how the more good things we look for,
the more we find.
Center's prose is evocative and engaging, and her plot full of moments of tenderness alternating with moments of sheer terror. I found Helen's brother extremely annoying and I would not have forgiven him for being the ultimate screw up, especially when he kills her pet. I also think her brothers friend Jake, who has basically been stalking her since he first saw her (he's 10 years younger than she is) isn't as much charming as he is creepy for much of the book. The fact that her grandmother and her brother support his infatuation makes it even creepier, but eventually I assume that his adulation of her blooms into actual love, because of course they end up together (trust me, that's not a spoiler, it's obvious that they'll end up together from the first part of the book). I'd give it a C+, mainly because of the sudden change of attitude toward the sh*tty brother and his machinations with grandma. I'd recommend it to anyone who has tried to reinvent themselves and discovers that they just needed to grow up.
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby is the second novel of his I've read. But I should warn my fellow readers that, because this book takes place in the mid to late 60s and early 70s in England, there's a great deal of sexism and male BS, often put in an "aw shucks, wasn't life great back then" nostalgic light by Hornby, who, like most men, can't really write women characters with 100 percent accuracy, and seems to appreciate a time when women had to fight to get a career amid all the sexual harassment perpetrated by their male contemporaries. Anyway, here's the blurb: A brilliant novel from the bestselling author of High Fidelity, About a Boy, and A Long Way Down.
Set in 1960's London, Funny Girl is
a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw
as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingénue to
television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters.
Insightful and humorous, Nick Hornby's latest does what he does best:
endears us to a cast of characters who are funny if flawed, and forces
us to examine ourselves in the process.
Barbara/Sophie is one of those dazzlingly beautiful young women who found Lucille Ball of I Love Lucy fame to be a huge inspiration, and this story is the often wry and witty tale of her determined rise to stardom via that new medium of television. While I loved Sophie's devotion to becoming a TV comedienne, I found her capitulation to what her fans and her PR people wanted (ie a romance/engagement with her nasty co-star, who man-shores around with every woman he sees) to be lame and weak and ultimately disappointing. Hornby's prose is engaging and his characters/plot enthralling, as I couldn't put the book down until I knew what happened to Sophie and her writers and costars on the TV series "Barbara (and Jim)." Sophie's encounter with the actual Lucille Ball is sad, and her actual marriage and sacrificing career for family also struck something of a sour note with me, though I know that was common at the time. Still, this book deserves a B, and I'd recommend it to anyone who is curious about London and BBC TV in the late 60s.
The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop by Fannie Flagg is the long awaited sequel to her bestselling Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, which was made into a fantastic and delightful movie about 25 years ago. Flagg's prose is smooth as silk, and her plots always move along beautifully toward an HEA that will have you weeping tears of joy and sorrow. Here's the blurb: A heartwarming novel about secrets of youth rediscovered, hometown
memories, and the magical moments in ordinary lives, from the beloved
author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Bud
Threadgoode grew up in the bustling little railroad town of Whistle
Stop with his mother, Ruth, church-going and proper, and his Aunt Idgie,
the fun-loving hell-raiser. Together they ran the town’s popular
Whistle Stop Cafe, known far and wide for its fun and famous fried green
tomatoes. And as Bud often said of his childhood to his daughter
Ruthie, “How lucky can you get?”
But sadly, as the railroad
yards shut down and Whistle Stop became a ghost town, nothing was left
but boarded-up buildings and memories of a happier time.
Then
one day, Bud decides to take one last trip, just to see what has become
of his beloved Whistle Stop. In so doing, he discovers new friends, as
well as surprises about Idgie’s life, about Ninny Threadgoode and other
beloved Fannie Flagg characters, and about the town itself. He also sets
off a series of events, both touching and inspiring, which change his
life and the lives of his daughter and many others. Could these events
all be just coincidences? Or something else? And can you really go home
again?
For once I agree with the blurb that this is a heartwarming novel full of flashbacks to the 30s and 60s and 80s, so we find out the fate of all the great characters who populated Fried Green Tomatoes. I was especially delighted that Dot Weems kept writing to everyone in the gang, first with a kind of newsletter and later with a Christmas letter and then emails. And Buddy was such a sweet guy, right up until his death, that I loved reading about all that his daughter and her friend did for him in revitalizing Whistle Stop and the Cafe for him and for posterity. The kindness and general decency of people in Whistle Stop, even once they live elsewhere, is truly inspirational. I loved every page of this book, and I know that my mother, who also loves all of Fannie Flagg's novels, will love it, too. I'd give it an A, and recommend it to anyone who wants an uplifting and heartwarming tale that will keep you engrossed and engaged for hours.
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