Welcome to April and it's showers of Spring reading! I've got three books to review and a ton of bookish tidbits for you all today, so lets get this show on the road!
What a great idea, to combine cat adoption with book buying! I wish I lived closer to Nevada, so I could visit this enticing bookstore with the wonderful name.
The Radical Cat Comes to Reno, Nev.
The Radical Cat https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz51605176, a combination feminist bookstore, community space and cat adoption center, has opened in Reno, Nev., This Is Reno reported https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz51605177.
Co-founders Melissa Hafey, Rosie Zuckerman, Ilya Arbatman and Mike Hafey work with the SPCA of Northern Nevada to "host transitioning cats who are available for adoption." The store's event plans include author readings, homework help and workshops with local artists, educators and business owners, as well as "cat-assisted therapy" sessions. The store's mission, continued Zuckerman, is to "nurture a revolution in Reno/Sparks by promoting positive mental health, radical inclusion, a love of great books and meaningful connection."
Radical Cat began as a pop-up called Pussycat NV, and after three "wildly successful pop-up events" the co-founders decided to turn it into a permanent establishment. They were able to raise more than $9,000 with the help of the Reno community, which they put toward building out the space, buying furniture and bringing in inventory.
While the store is currently open, the team has yet to establish regular hours. They plan to be open most days of the week and are looking to host a grand opening celebration in late April or early May.
Who doesn't love Indie bookstore day? What a great gig to be the ambassador to a day celebrating our cherished non-chain/Amazon book shops. They are, indeed, the heart of the book industry.
Angie Thomas Named IBD Ambassador
Angie Thomas https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz51632179, author of The Hate U Give and On the Come Up, will be the ambassador for this year's Independent Bookstore Day https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz51632180 celebration, scheduled for Saturday, April 30.
"Indie bookstores are the heart of our industry, and we must continue to support them in the same way that they support and champion books," Thomas said. "With the immense impact that indie stores have had on my career, I couldn't be more honored to be the ambassador for this year's Independent Bookstore Day."
IBD has grown every year since its founding in 2013, with 872 bookstores https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz51632181 slated to participate this year, and it will be the first in-person IBD celebration since the start of the pandemic. The week leading up to IBD will be a Spirit Week, featuring themed days and encouraging customers and staff to dress up as their favorite bookstore characters.
This looks like an intriguing book that I will have to look into borrowing or purchasing.I'm always fond of books that go over the history of an given subject, and it sounds like this book does just that.
Book Review: Been There, Done That: A Rousing History of Sex
Sex is one of those eternally beguiling subjects. Even once the mystery of where babies come from is dispelled, there is that persistent, even nagging sense that one might be doing it wrong. For Popular Science executive editor Rachel Feltman, that insecurity festered for years under the wet blanket of a Sunday school education that further foisted shame upon pretty much all carnal acts. So, it would be fair to suggest that the wildly entertaining Been There, Done That: A Rousing History of Sex is as much an act of reclamation and redemption as it is an eye-opening stroll through a rather colorful evolutionary history of sexual activity.
"I'm writing this because I hope you can learn quickly what it took me far too long to learn: that today's mainstream definition of sex is deeply flawed and that this has the ability to cause us harm," Feltman writes in her introductory chapter, "Everything Weird Is Normal--Everything Normal Is Weird." Without wasting any time, she then discusses duck penises; homosexuality in the wild, wild west; "a blob with 720 sexes that displayed both fungal and animal characteristics"; and the "really stupid" yet commonly accepted calendar for clocking weeks of pregnancy.
It would seem that Feltman has left no stone unturned when it comes to facets of gender, intercourse, masturbation, sexually transmitted infections, birth control, performance anxiety, pornography, kinks, etc.
And through the sheer volume of examples she wields with no shortage of quips, asides and witticisms, there does seem to be ample evidence to suggest that, yes, somewhere, someone has indeed been there and done that. "That weird thing you like? It's fine. I promise," she assures readers. "Like, really. It's probably not even that weird. Like, not to offend you? I'm sure you're a unique snowflake and all, a real rebel without a cause, but, like, trust me, people have been weirder." Right down to the ancient Egyptian use of crocodile dung as a barrier method, or the 19th-century cottage industry of goat testicle grafts for virility--Feltman makes a fairly airtight case!
After such a kaleidoscopic ride, Been There, Done That resolves without being especially titillating, nor didactic. It shines, instead, as an irreverent invitation to be enchanted by one's body, rather than ashamed; to be present in desire, rather than dislocated from it; to cast off the veil of insecurity and embrace one's whole self. --Dave Wheeler, associate editor, Shelf Awareness
Open Books was one of my favorites of the many bookstores I visited when my husband and I moved to Seattle in 1991. That the clerk was welcoming and as much of a fan of reciting poems as I was, was just icing on the cake. I wish this wonderful specialty bookstore nothing but great success in their new location.
Open Books: A Poetry Emporium Reopening Soon in Seattle's Pioneer Square
Open Books: A Poem Emporium https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz51662993 will reopen this month in a new space in the historic Good Arts Building in Pioneer Square in Seattle, Wash., Crosscut reported.
The new location--a block from the Pioneer Square light rail station and a short walk from the waterfront (and from Shelf Awareness's office)--is about 350 square feet smaller than Open Books' previous home in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood, where the store resided for 25 years. Despite the smaller size, it has a wider, more open layout, and owner Billie Swift and her team have put in a space called the Parlor, which features a cozy reading chair, a turntable and library desk.
After announcing her plans to move late last year, Swift turned to the community for help, and Open Books raised $51,300 through donations. The all-poetry bookstore struggled during the first two years of the pandemic and its previous building was put up for sale. Swift hopes it will thrive in the new space and benefit from better foot traffic.
"We're going to create a space that we are hoping is going to be around for another 25 years," Swift told Crosscut.
I read and loved Sarah Plain and Tall, and Skylark and Caleb's Story when I read them back in my grad school days and after I moved to Seattle. They were imbued with emotion and simple, elegant prose that was heartfelt and beautiful. RIP to this wonderful author.
Obituary Note: Patricia MacLachlan
Patricia MacLachlan https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz51664175, an award-winning author "known to millions of young readers as the author of Sarah, Plain and Tall, a novel about two motherless farm children and the gentle woman who comes to the prairie to make them whole," died March 31, the Washington Post reported. She was 84.
MacLachlan wrote more than 60 children's books during her career. She "deplored children's books of the moralizing kind, those sledgehammers of literature wielded by grown-ups determined to pound ideas into young minds," the Post noted.
"Among some writers there's this ghastly notion that one has to teach children lessons," she once told the Orange County Register. "That's condescending and incorrect. It's not what writing is about. You write to find out what you're thinking about, to find out how you feel."
Sarah, Plain and Tall received the Newbery Medal and has sold more than seven million copies since it first appeared in 1985. The book was adapted into a 1991 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie starring Glenn Close as Sarah and Christopher Walken as Jacob Witting, the father of Anna and Caleb. MacLachlan co-wrote the script.
She also wrote several sequels, including Skylark (1994), Caleb's Story (2001), More Perfect Than the Moon (2004) and Grandfather's Dance (2006). MacLachlan's other books include Journey (1991), Baby (1993) and Cassie Binegar (1982). She wrote several books with her daughter, Emily MacLachlan Charest, including Once I Ate a Pie (2006), Fiona Loves the Night (2007), I Didn't Do It (2010), Cat Talk (2013) and Little Robot Alone (2018).
"Children read with a certain belief and vision about finding themselves in literature," MacLachlan said when she received a 2002 National Humanities Medal. "Literature changes their lives. They have a sense of closeness with literature that speaks for them."
MacLachlan's connection to the Wyoming of her youth--and to the world of Sarah, Plain and Tall--was such that throughout her life, she kept a souvenir of the prairie, the Post noted. "I carry a small bag of prairie dirt to remind me of where I began--the prairie that I miss and still dream about," she said in an interview published on the website Two Writing Teachers. "It is sort of like a charm from my childhood. I had a wonderful childhood with wonderful parents who were storytellers and educators. They loved and respected children. So, my little bag of prairie reminds me of them, too."
Crudrat by Gail Carriger is her second book in the "Tinkered Stars" science fiction series, after the 5th Gender. Though the overt sexuality of the 5th Gender put me off a bit, I did want to give Crudrat a try, because it seemed more of a YA book than 5G, and I love YA novels about young people finding their way in the world, against the odds.Crudrat delivers on all the YA fronts and as a science fiction/adventure novel, with it's intrepid heroine Maura and her crud-eating critter (who is described as something like a blue cat) defying the odds and becoming friends with a fuzzy white alien (kind of like a polar bear combined with Big Hero Sixes BayMax) who takes her to his home planet where she discovers that her athletic abilities make her perfect to become a kind of intergalactic spy. Here's the blurb:
New York Times
bestselling author Gail Carriger brings you a fast-paced young adult
scifi adventure featuring a capable heroine, her adorable pet, and the
alien they accidentally rescue.
Abandoned
Outcast
Crudrat
With
only her crud-eating murmel and a fuzzy alien stranger to help, Maura
must find a way to survive, before they catch her and blow what’s left
of her life into space.
In the far future, on a space-port the
size of a city, crudrats scrape out a meager living cleaning the great
machines that generate usable power. Only children can safely traverse
the cramped tunnels and the massive blades that harvest crud. But one
misstep and a crudrat gets caught on a blade edge and killed. Like rats,
they scurry through the bulkheads, duty-bound to clean the air ducts so
everyone else can breathe.
But, when they grow too big to be
useful, they become outcasts. Now one of the forgotten, Maura might just
be able to turn rejection into escape – if she’s resourceful enough.
In
this classic YA adventure about finding one’s place in the universe,
Gail Carriger brings golden age-style science fiction into the 21st
century, stuffs it full of heart, and gives it a finely polished,
gleaming edge.
What I loved about this book was Maura's realization that what made her an outcast and a successful Crudrat is intrinsic to her nature, and is an advantage, rather than a disadvantage. Carriger's prose is sterling, as usual, and her sense of humor and whiz-bang plots keep readers glued to the page long past bedtime. I could not put it down, and I was sorry to see the end, as I was enjoying all the mischief that Maura, her murmel and Fuzzy get up to on his home planet. A solid A is warranted here, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantastic science fiction adventure stories that are witty and gripping.
Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by T.L. Huchu is the second book in the Edinburgh Nights series of what seem to me to be YA fantasy novels. Though it's not marketed as such, Ropa Moyo seems to be the classic YA heroine, going on a quest to set things right with the spirits of post-apocalyptic Scotland. I remember enjoying the first book in the series, The Library of the Dead, but finding Ropa to be a bit too full of herself, which seemed like a defense mechanism against her impoverished background and lack of education. Still, in this sophomore effort Ropa's swagger helps her survive amidst all the lies and secrets of the three magic schools and the magical "banks," libraries and other institutions that all vie for supremacy at the cost of the lives of those around them. Here's the blurb: Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by T. L. Huchu is the second spellbinding book in the Edinburgh Nights series.
Some secrets are meant to stay buried
When
Ropa Moyo discovered an occult underground library, she expected great
things. She’s really into Edinburgh’s secret societies – but turns out
they are less into her. So instead of getting paid to work magic, she’s
had to accept a crummy unpaid internship. And her with bills to pay and a
pet fox to feed.
Then her friend Priya offers her a job on the
side. Priya works at Our Lady of Mysterious Maladies, a very specialized
hospital, where a new illness is resisting magical and medical remedies
alike. The first patient was a teenage boy, Max Wu, and his healers are
baffled. If Ropa can solve the case, she might earn as she learns – and
impress her mentor, Sir Callander.
Her sleuthing will lead her
to a lost fortune, an avenging spirit and a secret buried deep in
Scotland’s past. But how are they connected? Lives are at stake and Ropa
is running out of time.
That last sentence isn't exactly true, as what Ropa's lead to is not the actual fortune but the people all vying for the money, and the King behind all the death and mayhem who is trying to secure his power over the schools, libraries and magical societies that are ruled independently by some very nasty old hidebound magicians. What I find most curious about both the Edinburgh Nights books is that Ropa, though mouthy, self confident and tough, never thinks to apprise her boss/mentor why the unpaid internship is unacceptable to her as the sole provider for her family (which consists of her retired magical grandmother and her snotty, whiny little sister who seems to appreciate none of what Ropa does or has to do to keep her alive and fed). She needs to be able to pay rent and food and clothing for her family, and I don't see why her mentor couldn't slip her some cash to help her keep her family fed, as it's in his best interests to do so. She also agrees to solve a huge murder mystery for free, which is insane, as she can't take other paying work while she's embroiled in solving the murder. She should have stood up for herself, or at the very least apprised her boss that she needs to go part time on the internship because she needs paying work ASAP. Also, I would think that Ropa would be glad to see the backside of her nasty little sister when the sister gets a scholarship to a prestigious school in Aberdeen. That's one less mouth to feed and one less worry for a young woman whose back is already burdened with too much responsibility. But no, she tries, and fails, to get the money to keep her sister at home in their leaky old caravan. Why? Anyway, I'd give this book a B, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys magical YA fantasy with a lot of twists and turns.
The League of Gentlewomen Witches by India Holton is a rolicking magical fantasy/romance with a fast-paced plot that kept me reading into the wee hours. Pirates and Pettifers and witchcraft, oh my! This book reminded me of Gail Carriger's Souless and Finishing School series at their best...full of wit and adventure and lots of enemies-to-lovers romance with plenty of sparky dialog. Here's the blurb: Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the teahouse. . . .
Miss
Charlotte Pettifer belongs to a secret league of women skilled in the
subtle arts. That is to say—although it must never be said—witchcraft.
The League of Gentlewomen Witches strives to improve the world in small
ways. Using magic, they tidy, correct, and manipulate according to
their notions of what is proper, entirely unlike those reprobates in the Wisteria Society.
When the long lost amulet of Black Beryl is discovered, it is up to
Charlotte, as the future leader of the League, to make sure the powerful
talisman does not fall into the wrong hands. Therefore, it is most
unfortunate when she crosses paths with Alex O’Riley, a pirate who is no
Mr. Darcy. With all the world scrambling after the amulet, Alex and
Charlotte join forces to steal it together. If only they could keep
their pickpocketing hands to themselves! If Alex’s not careful, he might
just steal something else—such as Charlotte’s heart.
With all the hatred and restrictions between the witches (who are never allowed to admit that they are witches) and the pirate community, I was worried that Charlotte and Alex would never be allowed to continue their relationship once it was apparent that one couldn't live without the other. Fortunately, all's well that ends well, and things worked out for the two protagonists, though I'd imagine things will get sticky again once they're married and start a family. Still, this book keeps things light and fresh, with sparkling prose and a "faster than a flying pirate house" plot. I'd give it an A, and recommend it to anyone searching for a delightfully distracting novel that is Steampunk-ish and similar to Gail Carriger's works.
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