Happy New Year to all my fellow bibliophiles and blog readers! 2021 was quite a year of struggle and change, but also a year that wasn't as freeing as I'd hoped, as cases of the new varients of the coronavirus came into play and made life outside of quarantine really risky for those of us with compromised immune systems. Still, there were surprises and new seasons of my favorite shows to binge-watch (I am looking at you Star Trek Discovery and Yellowstone and Witcher) while some new shows bloomed on the small screen for those of us seeking good stories to watch inbetween books we're reading (Dune, Foundation, the end of See, the story of Boba Fett and several others come to mind). In 2022, there will be new Star Trek series coming up and more from the Outlander series and the Marvelous Mrs Maisel, which I loved because it was about women making it in the world of Stand Up comedy. Meanwhile, I've been reading more books on my Kindle Paperwhite than ever, mainly due to the cheaper price, and for birthdays and Christmas I've asked for gift cards for books so that I can buy all the books I've been waiting to read all year long by some of my favorite authors. Unfortunately, the weather has been uncooperative, and in the last few days we've had snowfall every day, which turns icy at night, making it hard for delivery trucks to arrive and drop off packages of my hardbacks and paperbacks. So for now I'm practicing patience as I wait for those books and I've been catching up on some new ebooks on my Kindle. Feel free to join me in putting on some comfy PJs, grabbing a blanket and sitting down in a cozy chair near the fireplace with a cuppa tea and a new book...bliss!
I'm looking forward to seeing this adaptation, as I'm sure it will be spectacular. I read George Orwell's two most famous books back in high school, and I remember thinking that though they were considered "speculative" futuristic fiction, I fully believed that his views of society were realistic and already coming into play, in terms of losing privacy and having the government watch everyone.
Julia/1984 Retelling Adapted to Large and Small Screens
Sandra Newman’s “Julia,” a feminist retelling of George Orwell’s much-adapted 1949 dystopian political novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” has found publishers on both sides of the pond.
Variety understands that while film and TV rights won’t be optioned for several months yet, there is already tremendous interest in “Julia,” which will be published after Newman’s next novel “The Men” is released in 2022.
Newman’s version is fully authorized by the Orwell Estate, which is is represented by literary agency A. M. Heath.
Orwell’s novel is set in an imagined future beset by war, surveillance and propaganda where Great Britain is a province of totalitarian superstate Oceania, ruled by the Party, led by Big Brother. It follows party worker Winston Smith who enters into a forbidden relationship with his colleague Julia.
“Julia” depicts the same events as “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” only this time as seen through Julia’s eyes.
Bill Hamilton, literary executor of the Orwell Estate, said: “I am delighted by Sandra Newman’s imaginative retelling of Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four,’ through the eyes of Julia. Two of the unanswered questions in Orwell’s novel are what Julia sees in Winston, and how she has navigated her way through the party hierarchy. Sandra gets under the skin of Big Brother’s world in a completely convincing way which is both true to the original but also gives a dramatically different narrative to stand alongside the original. The millions of readers who have been brought up with Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four,’ will find this a provocative and satisfying companion.”
Newman is the author of the Bailey’s Prize-longlisted “The Country of Ice Cream Star,” “The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done,” which was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, “Cake,” “The Heavens,” the memoir “Changeling” and “How Not to Write a Novel.”
“Nineteen Eighty-Four” has been adapted as feature films in 1956, directed by Michael Anderson and in 1984 by Michael Radford, which features Richard Burton’s last performance. Television adaptations include a 1953 version from CBS and 1954 and 1965 versions from the BBC. There have been numerous radio and theater adaptations and also ballet and opera versions.
This is fascinating, a little gold book was discovered in the dirt, and turns out to be an historical treasure. I hope the museum buys it and makes the Baileys rich.
A Metal Detectorist Discovered a Tiny Gold Book From the 15th Century That Might Have Belonged to King Richard III’s Wife
The book is worth an estimated $130,000.
An English nurse named Buffy Bailey made a stunning discovery of a tiny, solid gold book while on holiday near York. Bailey and her husband, Ian, were walking near farmland when their metal detector alerted them to something under the ground. They began to dig, expecting to find the usual detritus.
Instead, the miniature gold book is thought to be connected to King Richard III, and could be worth an estimated £100,000 ($134,500)
“I dug down five inches and it was just there—I still didn’t believe it was anything special,” she told the BBC. Perhaps it was a souvenir trinket dropped by a tourist, she thought.
Once the nurse, who chose York for her metal detecting holiday because of its rich history, cleaned the tiny book, she realized how lustrous and heavy the object was.
The book, possibly a bible or a book of hours, is engraved with Saints Leonard and Margret, patron saints of childbirth, which has led experts to the conclusion that it may have been a gift to someone during pregnancy.
Only nobles were allowed to carry gold during the 15th century, so the owner of this .2 ounce, 22- or 24-karat gold trinket is thought to be a relative of Richard III as it was found close to land he owned between 1483 and 1485. This has led to speculation that it could have belonged to his wife Anne Neville.
Experts are thrilled at the news of the discovery due to its value and uniqueness. Some are saying that the book might have the same maker as the Middleham Jewel, a sapphire and gold pendant, also with engravings linked to childbirth, that was also found by a metal detectorist. The jewel is also thought to have belonged to royalty or nobility and was discovered near Middleham Castle, the childhood home of Richard III near York.
The Yorkshire Museum bought it for £2.6 million ($3.5 million) in 1992. It is thought the museum may decide to purchase the book as well.
Every year I sort of unofficially take the King County Library System's reading challenge, and because I read so much during the year anyway, I like being able to check books off the list one by one.
KCLS Reading Challenge Categories for 2022
Read a book in each of these categories.
1. Cover is your favorite color
2. Set somewhere you've wanted to visit
3. Main character is over 50
4. By an Asian or Asian-American author
5. About a library or set in a library
6. Set in another century
7. A one-word title
8. Recommended by a friend
9. Has won an award
10) Recommended by library staff
Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer is a delicious YA fantasy novel that I found on the shelves of The Sequel Bookstore in Enumclaw, WA. The book was low priced and looked to be in new condition, so I purchased it without looking at the interior, knowing that I'd read other books by this author and that they were generally a ripping good read. I was surprised to discover, upon opening the book that I discovered it was an edition signed by the author! What a thrill! Anyway, it turned out to be a great novel and now I get to put it in a place of pride on my bookshelves. Here's the blurb: From New York Times bestselling author Brigid Kemmerer comes a
blockbuster fantasy series, about a kingdom divided by corruption, the prince
desperately holding it together, and the girl who will risk everything
to bring it crashing down.
Apothecary apprentice Tessa Cade
is tired of seeing her people die. King Harristan and his cruel brother,
Prince Corrick, ignore the suffering of their people and react
mercilessly to any sign of rebellion, even as a sickness ravages the
land. That's why she and her best friend Wes risk their lives each night
to steal the petals of the delicate Moonflower, the only known cure.
But it's not enough to keep everyone she loves safe-or alive.
When
Prince Corrick commits an act of unspeakable cruelty, Tessa becomes
desperate enough to try the impossible: sneaking into the palace. But
what she finds there makes her wonder if it's even possible to fix their
world without destroying it first.
Brigid Kemmerer's captivating
new series is about those with power and those without . . . and what
happens when someone is brave enough to imagine a new future.
I could not put this book down, it was such an exciting page-turner! The prose was beautiful and lush without falling into the overly fussy state that some fantasy writers fall prey to, and the plot was full of twists and turns (The prince turning into the pauper trope was especially well done) that moved along with deft precision. Tessa learning that not everything is black and white in politics was also made interesting to readers, even those like myself who are generally not into political fiction. I'd give it an enthusiastic A, and recommend it to anyone looking for a thrilling political fantasy that has some ramifications in our own society, (re: access to vaccinations for the coronavirus).
Matrix by Lauren Groff was an ebook that I purchased because the hardback novel was way too expensive (over 28 dollars) and, after reading the first few chapters for free online, I was hooked into the 13th century world of this reluctant abbess, and I just HAD to know what happened to her! This is historical LBGTQ fiction at it's finest. Here's the blurb:
One of our best American writers, Lauren Groff returns with her exhilarating first new novel since the groundbreaking Fates and Furies.
Cast
out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, deemed too coarse and
rough-hewn for marriage or courtly life, seventeen-year-old Marie de
France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished
abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease.
At first taken aback by the severity of her new life, Marie finds focus
and love in collective life with her singular and mercurial sisters. In
this crucible, Marie steadily supplants her desire for family, for her
homeland, for the passions of her youth with something new to her:
devotion to her sisters, and a conviction in her own divine visions.
Marie, born the last in a long line of women warriors and crusaders, is
determined to chart a bold new course for the women she now leads and
protects. But in a world that is shifting and corroding in frightening
ways, one that can never reconcile itself with her existence, will the
sheer force of Marie’s vision be bulwark enough?
Equally alive to the sacred and the profane, Matrix
gathers currents of violence, sensuality, and religious ecstasy in a
mesmerizing portrait of consuming passion, aberrant faith, and a woman
that history moves both through and around. Lauren Groff’s new novel,
her first since Fates and Furies, is a defiant and timely exploration of the raw power of female creativity in a corrupted world.
I find it odd that the blurb and jacket copy skate around the fact that Marie is a lesbian and a royal bastard who has been shunned from court life because she is smart, tall and big boned and considered too "ugly" to marry a minor noble and have children and a life around the periphery of Eleanor's court. In fact, she has a serious crush/infatuation with Eleanor, who treats her with cruelty and disdain (this doesn't keep Marie from still worshiping Eleanor, and writing her a book of love poems and other missives) throughout her life. Even though she isn't a religious person per se, Marie becomes a kind of saint who gets visions from the Virgin Mary (who is God to her) about how to turn things around at the ruined and wretched abbey where she's been made the holy mother Abbess by Eleanor. Within it's walls, Marie's skills as a resourceful leader shine, and within a decade Marie has turned the place completely around, making it a way station for other women rejected by society for various reasons, and building up the crumbling structures within and without the abbey walls (at one point she builds a labyrinth and a visitors chapterhouse, all devised and built mostly by the nuns themselves, who also create a large series of gardens and stables for farm animals) thereby ensuring that the women who live there can be well fed, treated for medical disorders and learn to read/write or devote themselves to becoming nuns. It is also a somewhat safe space for women who love other women, which is astonishing for the time. The fact that Marie is able to accomplish so much during her lifetime and create a space for women, run by women, where they're protected from the misogyny of society and the Catholic church is nothing short of miraculous. I heartily recommend this fascinating book, and I'd give it an A.
On the Plus Side: A BBW Romantic Comedy by Alison Bliss is billed as a "plus sized" romance novel, when in reality it's just a romance novel with a female protagonist who looks like a blonde Kim Kardashian (ie has big breasts and a big butt and wears skimpy, form-fitting clothing and high heels to display her body to it's best effect to the male gaze). There's nothing about our heroine that would lead anyone to make fun of her or even call her fat, because she has the kind of body that is in style and deemed acceptable/f-able to men...big breasts and bottoms are considered sexy and desirable, not detestable or ugly. Valerie doesn't have fat arms or legs or a tummy, or dimples of chub on her thighs...in fact on the cover she looks like a model, not like a "BBW= Big Beautiful Woman", at all. Here's the blurb: Thanks to her bangin' curves, Valerie Carmichael has always turned heads
-- with the exception of seriously sexy Logan Mathis. Just Valerie's
luck that the object of her lust-filled affection is also best friends
with her overprotective brother. But Valerie's determined to get Logan's
attention . . . even if it means telling a teeny little lie to get a job at his new bar.
Logan can't remember a time when Valerie didn't secretly fuel all his
hottest fantasies. Now the curvaceous she-devil is working behind his
bar, tempting him every damn night. It's only when he finds Valerie's
naughty things-to-do list that Logan decides to break every rule in the
book -- by making each red-hot deed a reality.
No one warned
them that they were going to fall this hard. And no one warned them that
sometimes the smallest secrets can have the biggest consequences.
So though the prose was clean and the plot swift, I was still taken aback that this story was considered a BBW novel, when it was just soft core porn for guys who like big boobs and bums. Valerie sounds like most typical privileged white cis-gendered girly girls who are on the prowl for men and have no real life outside of the guys that they want to bang. The men, on the other hand, are all stereotypical macho asshats who are domineering, possessive and often abusive toward the women in their lives, whom they infantilize by making all their decisions for them and not "allowing" them to run their own lives as adults. They're "over protective" (meaning aggressive asshole who treats all women like his personal sex slaves who are not allowed any agency in their lives) and their sexist world view is repulsive enough that it leads to a lot of near-rapes and fighting between men fueled by toxic masculinity. That all guys are stupid and ruled by their dicks is a given here, and all women are simpering idiots who believe that their only value to men is in their body and their sexuality is also par for the course. I can't imagine why anyone would want to read such misogynistic garbage, but if you dig lots of "paint by numbers" pornographic sex scenes, then this is the book for you. I'd give it a C- (and I am being generous) and I can't think of any woman I know who would want to waste her time and money on this kind of crappy "romance" novel that totally isn't for larger women at all, and really isn't funny, either.
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