Welcome to 2022, bibliophiles! Normally I would have posted before we were 8 days into the month, but one of the e-books I was reading turned out to be over 400 pages, and took me much longer than expected. To be fair, I've also been watching a number of shows on streaming services like HBO Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Xfinity and Paramount Plus. Some have been great, like "Superintelligence" on HBOMax, while others, like "The Power of the Dog" on Netflix was a complete waste of time, as it was poorly written, full of misogyny and not terribly well enacted (though they hired some high powered, high profile actors to do the job), so I feel that I was roped into watching that one because of the loads of hype it was given online. Still, I have well over 25 books I was gifted over the holidays to read, so I can tuck into those and will have plenty to review in the coming months. Speaking of book reviews, I will have, by the end of this year, close to 850 posts on this blog. I'm considering closing down my blog after I reach 1000 posts, (probably during 2025) because it will have served its purpose by then. I will also be 65, and I'm thinking that retirement from all responsibility, including blogging reviews for every book I read, sounds heavenly. What do you think?
I love this idea, of a town reinventing itself as a literary destination, only to encounter problems like attrition, difficulties arising from COVID quarantine, people switching to Amazon or other online booksellers, etc. I sincerely hope that Mayor Laffut is right, and that the pendulum is swinging back for bookstore owners.
Bookstores Save Belgian Community
"Nearly 40 years ago, books saved this village" was the headline for a Washington Post article about Redu, Belgium, a community that had been shrinking fast as farm jobs disappeared and families moved away. "But in the mid-1980s, a band of booksellers moved into the empty barns and transformed the place into a literary lodestone. The village of about 400 became home to more than two dozen bookstores--more shops than cows, its boosters liked to say--and thousands of tourists thronged its charming streets.
"Now, though, more than half the bookstores have closed. Some of the storekeepers died, others left when they could no longer make a living. Many who remain are in their 70s and aren't sure what will happen after they're gone. It's not just the businesses at risk. It's Redu's identity."
With only a dozen or so bookshops remaining in this "village du livre," the less optimistic "say that their trade has fallen out of fashion, and that people, especially young people, are reading fewer books," the Post wrote. Bob Gossens, owner of Bouquinerie Générale, said, "We are like Asterix: The last village fighting everyone. The Internet is breaking everything."
Anne Laffut, the mayor of Libin, the municipality in which Redu is located, offered a counter-narrative: "Life is changing, but nothing is dying. Everything is evolving.... There is a change of mentalities. The elders think the village is changing because there are fewer bookstores and it is a disappointment. But there is a new generation which is very active in Redu. Many volunteers are teaming up with the same desire for the village to continue to endure." --Robert Gray
This sounds like a great TV show, and I can hardly wait to see it...I'm also excited for the return of To Kill A Mockingbird to the stage!
TV: The School for Good Mothers
Jessica Chastain (Ava, Scenes from a Marriage) has optioned the TV rights to Jessamine Chan’s debut novel, The School for Good Mothers, through her production company Freckle Films, beating "a number of rivals to the rights," Deadline reported.
Freckle Films will team up with Finding Ohanadirector Jude Weng and Endeavor Content to adapt the project. Weng will direct, and is an executive producer on the scripted series with Chan, Chastain and her Freckle Films partner Kelly Carmichael.
On Stage: To Kill a Mockingbird
Baize Buzan, an original ensemble cast member of the Broadway stage adaptation of Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, "will return to the production January 5, the same day that Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Greg Kinnear makes his Broadway debut, succeeding Tony nominee Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch," Playbill reported. Buzan will follow Tony winner Celia Keenan-Bolger in the role of Scout Finch.
Daniels and Keenan-Bolger played their final performances January 2. Mariah Lee will also join the cast as Mayella Ewell January 11. To Kill a Mockingbird began performances November 1, 2018, at Broadway's Shubert Theatre. "On February 26, 2020--a few weeks before the Broadway shutdown--the Broadway cast gave a history-making free performance at Madison Square Garden in front of 18,000 New York City school children," Playbill wrote.
To Kill a Mockingbird will launch its national tour March 27 at Shea's Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, N.Y., starring Emmy winner Richard Thomas as Atticus Finch. Performances will begin in London at the Gielgud Theatre March 10 starring Rafe Spall.
| RIP Joan Didion, famed author, critic. |
Joan Didion, author of fiction, commentary and memoir that for many defined "the fraying edges of postwar American life," as the New York Times put it, died on December 23 at age 87.
Shelley Wanger, her editor at Knopf, said, "Joan was a brilliant observer and listener, a wise and subtle teller of truths about our present and future. She was fierce and fearless in her reporting. Her writing is timeless and powerful, and her prose has influenced millions.
"She was a close and longtime friend, loved by many, including those of us who worked with her at Knopf. We will mourn her death but celebrate her life, knowing that her work will inspire generations of readers and writers to come."
She began her career working as an editor and writer at Vogue and contributing pieces to a variety of magazines. In 1963, she published her first novel, Run River.
Didion's first volume of essays, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, was published in 1968, and her second, The White Album, was published in 1979. Her nonfiction works include Salvador (1983), Miami (1987), After Henry(1992), Political Fictions (2001), Where I Was From (2003), We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live (2006), South and West (2017), and Let Me Tell You What I Mean (2021).
Didion and her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, collaborated on a variety of projects, including screenplays for The Panic in Needle Park (1971), Play It As It Lays (1972), which was Didion's second novel, A Star Is Born(1976), and Up Close and Personal (1996). Didion's other novels include A Book of Common Prayer (1977), Democracy (1984), and The Last Thing He Wanted (1996).
Her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, written after Dunne's death, won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2005. Less than two years after Dunne's death, their daughter, Quintana Roo, died of acute pancreatitis, which Didion wrote about in her 2011 memoir, Blue Nights.
In 2005, Didion was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Belles Letters and Criticism. In 2007, she was awarded the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. A portion of National Book Foundation citation read: "An incisive observer of American politics and culture for more than 45 years, Didion's distinctive blend of spare, elegant prose and fierce intelligence has earned her books a place in the canon of American literature as well as the admiration of generations of writers and journalists." In 2013, she was awarded a National Medal of Arts and Humanities by President Barack Obama, as well as the PEN Center USA's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Glad to hear GRRM has another series coming out...I imagine it will be as popular as Game of Thrones.
George R.R. Martin Previews HBO's House of the Dragon
George R.R. Martin has seen a rough cut of the first episode of House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones prequel series based on his novel Fire & Blood. The series premieres on HBO and HBO Max this year.
On his blog, Martin gave an early thumbs up to the project, writing: "I am anticipating House of the Dragon pretty eagerly myself, for what it's worth. Okay, I am hardly objective. And I know a lot of what you will be seeing. (I, um, wrote the book). Also... mum's the word now, don't tell anyone... I've seen a rough cut of the first episode. And loved it. It's dark, it's powerful, it's visceral... just the way I like my epic fantasy."
He also praised showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, saying that they "have done an amazing job, and the cast... just as with Game of Thrones, most viewers will only have heard of a few of the actors, but I think you are going to fall in love with a lot of them. (Only to have your heart broken later when... but no, that would be telling). I think the Targaryens are in very good hands. Anticipate away. I do not think you will be disappointed. Current Mood: excited excited."
Briar Girls by Rebecca Kim Wells is a YA fantasy fairy tale retelling of Beauty and the Beast married with Sleeping Beauty. The prose was delightfully intricate and the characters fascinating, especially the more feminist characters and the LGBTQ characters who are treated like any other character, which I appreciated. Here's the blurb:The Cruel Prince meets A Curse So Dark and Lonely in
this epic reimagining of “The Sleeping Beauty” that follows a teen girl
on a quest to wake a sleeping princess in an enchanted forest, while
searching for the truth behind her own deadly curse.
Lena has
a secret: the touch of her skin can kill. Cursed by a witch before she
was born, Lena has always lived in fear and isolation. But after a
devastating mistake, she and her father are forced to flee to a village
near the Silence, a mysterious forest with a reputation for luring
people into the trees, never to be seen again.
Until the night
an enigmatic girl stumbles out of the Silence and into Lena’s sheltered
world. Miranda comes from the Gather, a city in the forest brimming with
magic. She is on a quest to wake a sleeping princess believed to hold
the key to liberating the Gather from its tyrannical ruler—and she
offers Lena a bargain. If Lena assists her on her journey, Miranda will
help her break the curse.
Mesmerized by Miranda and her promise
of a new life, Lena jumps at the chance. But the deeper into the Silence
she goes, the more she suspects she’s been lied to—about her family’s
history, her curse, and her future. As the shadows close in, Lena must
choose who to trust and decide whether it’s more important to have
freedom…or power. The plot of this novel was somewhat convoluted, and the whole "horrible and selfish parents" trope has been done to death in YA fiction, but I still enjoyed the book, for the most part, though I think the author should have had an editor who cleaned up the places where she goes into too much description of the forest and Lena's curse and connection to it. I'd give it a B, and recommend it to those who like retold fairy tales.
The Bait by CW Gortner and MJ Rose was an ebook sequel to The Steal, which I read and reviewed about 6 months ago. This series is a sort of noir crime thriller mixed with an old fashioned 50s era love story, full of cynical guys and dames who smoke and drink their way through life's traumas, while wearing stylish clothing and designer jewelry. The prose is impeccable, and the plot fairly straightforward and swift, but if you find the racism/misogyny and hypocritical social mores and classism of that era frustrating (as I sometimes did) then you might want to give this series a pass. Here's the blurb: Revenge is a diamond best served cold.
A year after THE
STEAL, Ania Throne is determined to take back what the Leopard stole
from her. Together with her lover and partner, Jerome, she stages a
spectacular heist during the Venetian Carnival, to lure out the
treacherous mastermind they unmasked. She’s willing to risk it all—until
her revenge takes a dangerous twist that could cost her what she loves
the most.
Jerome Curtis has given up everything for Ania. She
needs his help and he’s fallen head over heels for the world’s most
eligible jewelry designer. But when their daring scheme to catch the
thief who escaped turns on them, he’s targeted for a crime he never
wanted to commit—and he has to find a way out fast.
From a
glamorous costume gala to the winter canals of Venice, Ania and Jerome
must confront the choices they’ve made and bait a new trap to catch the
Leopard, before the Leopard springs his trap on them. This time, the
stakes are personal, but with more than diamonds on the line, can they
escape the bait or will it separate them forever?
The second novella in To Catch A Leopard, THE BAIT is a nail-biting romantic caper by bestselling authors C.W. Gortner and M.J. Rose.
While the book is short and well written (and yes, it is a nail biter, along the lines of early James Bond movies) I still had trouble with the pettiness and downright stupidity of the main characters, Jerome and Ania. Why would someone who has grown up with a notorious jewel thief leave her first big heist on her nightstand, right in the open for anyone to see? And why would she be surprised when said thief steals it and uses it to try and bring her and her boyfriend down? I suppose things will turn out better for our lovers in the next installment of the series, but I am not sure I really want to read it, as the sexism gets hard to take after awhile (and yes, I realize it is accurate for that era). So I'd give this sequel a B- and recommend it to anyone who read the first book in the series, so they can see where this whole thing is going.
For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten is yet another ebook that is a retelling of Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast that I'd assumed would be a fast read. Unfortunately, the author seems to have fallen in love with her own prose style/voice and would ramble on for paragraph after paragraph about the beauty of the forest, or the darkness of the shadows, the colors of the sky, the people, the food, etc. Her descriptions were so detailed they became boring and slowed the plot to a crawl. I was so glad to get to the end of this overly puffed prose piece that I nearly wept. At least 100 of the novel's 400+ pages could have been edited out for clarity and to move the characters/plot along. Here's the blurb:
The first daughter is for the Throne.
The second daughter is for the Wolf.
For fans of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale comes
a dark, sweeping debut fantasy novel about a young woman who must be
sacrificed to the legendary Wolf of the Wood to save her kingdom. But
not all legends are true, and the Wolf isn't the only danger lurking in
the Wilderwood.
As the only Second Daughter born in
centuries, Red has one purpose—to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood
in the hope he'll return the world's captured gods.
Red is almost
relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can't control, at
least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can't hurt those she loves.
Again.
But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her
magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn't learn how to use
it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood—and
her world—whole.
Ever since childhood, Redarys has known that her sister Neve, the firstborn, would ascend the throne while she would be sacrificed to the fabled wolf of a magical wood. But unlike her forebears, she doesn't have a grisly fate in store. When a new religious sect tips the balance, the woods and its devoted wolf can no longer stave off the corruptive force they had held back for generations. Only by rejecting the role of sacrifice and choosing to share the burden of her partner, does their world stand a chance. This dark retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood" and other folktales contains bloodthirsty trees, demonic dead kings, and a Green Man figure. While the lore defines this world and its politics, it is the bonds that shape this character-driven narrative. Through switching perspectives, both sisters demonstrate that their choices are made out of love and that they are not without consequences. Even though other characters tend to get lost in the mix, the action and romance will easily sweep readers along. Review by Rachel Forbes, School Library Journal
The action and romance are points of light that keep this whole novel from devolving into one long "How I love plants and the forest" rant, but I don't feel they were enough to fully sustain such a huge book. While I liked the female protagonist, Red, I thought her mother and sister seemed obsessive and insane and the priestesses completely evil. There was so much emphasis on blood sacrificed to the woods by all the characters, it became gruesome and made the book lean more toward horror fiction than I am comfortable with (I'm not a fan of the horror genre in general). At any rate, I'd give this book a C, and recommend it only to those who like their allegory blood drenched and their love stories agonizingly sacrificial.
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