Happy Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year! It's also going to be one of the hottest days of the year here in the PNW, so I'm doing what any smart book lover would do, staying indoors with the air conditioning going full blast and reading some great new fiction on my Kindle Paperwhite (and regular paper books, too). I've got some great tidbits and three reviews for you today, so sit back with a tall glass of iced tea (or my favorite summer drink, an Arnold Palmer) and enjoy!
Though I agree that everyone should read The Handmaid's Tale, I think they should also read Bonnie Garmus's Lessons in Chemistry, a fictional yet all too real look at women in STEM careers and the misogyny that they face every day.
10 Essential Books By Women That Men Need to Read
In May, organizers of the Women's Prize for Fiction, which is awarded annually to a novel written in English and published in the U.K., launched a vote to create a list of 10 essential books for men, written by women https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAPclugI6ao2dhAlTA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jEDpegpoMLg-gVdw.
The campaign was inspired by statistical research in Mary Ann Sieghart's book The Authority Gap: Why Women Are Still Taken Less Seriously Than Men, and What We Can Do About It, which showed that while women read novels by men and women almost equally, fiction written by women is rarely read by men. Over 10 days, 20,000 votes were cast, narrowing 60 recommended books down to 10. Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale topped the list, which can be seen here https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAPclugI6ao2dhAlTA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jEDpegpoMLg-gVdw.
"Thank you to the hardworking jurors and the readers who voted--I'm honored," Atwood said. "There was no Women's Prize for Fiction at the time I wrote The Handmaid's Tale but it was true then as now that many male readers shied away from books by women (except for murders and fantasies with wizards) and may also have felt excluded from them. It was normal for men to say to me, 'My wife just loves your books,' a double-edged compliment. But The Handmaid's Tale is not about men vs women. It's about a totalitarianism--it is not a paradise for all men, any more than any totalitarianism is. All totalitarianisms control women in specific ways having to do with reproduction. Take note in light of current events in the USA: the state's claim to ownership of women's bodies will also affect men."
This sounds fantastic, and I think more of Shakespeare's plays could use this kind of gender reversal...after all, there are several that already do, and were written for women dressed as men or men dressed as women. Shakespeare was ahead of his time.
On Stage: The Lady Hamlet
Sarah Schulman's The Lady Hamlet https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAPdlu4I6ao2dRp_Ew~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jED5empoMLg-gVdw, "a gender-defying comedy about two women, both born to play Hamlet," will make its world premiere June 27-July 21 at the Provincetown Theater in Provincetown, Mass., Playbill reported. Directed by artistic director David Drake, the play's cast features Jennifer Van Dyck, Kate Levy, John Shuman, Anne Stott, Laura Scribner and Brandon Cordeiro.
"I am thrilled beyond measure for The Lady Hamlet to finally reach her audience," said Schulman. "I emerged as a playwright into a world of all-male, all-white seasons selected by mostly male artistic directors when the few women writers who could squeeze through had to confront a wall of all-male critics who knew nothing about women's lives. The new inclusion, fought for by women and people of color in the American theatre, includes lesbian protagonists, women writers over 50, and a reconsideration of serious/funny writers whose works were discarded in the blizzard of male sameness that dominated in repetition. David Drake asked himself the question that all artistic directors must ask, 'Where are the lesbian plays? Who are the women writers who have been overlooked?' The answer gives this fun and funny Lady Hamlet the life she has long deserved."
This also looks like a great book to movie adaptation of classic literature. I can't wait to see it.
Movies: Persuasion
Netflix has released a trailer for the latest adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel Persuasion https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAPdlu4I6ao2dRp_Tw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jED5empoMLg-gVdw, starring Dakota Johnson, with theater director Carrie Cracknell making her feature directorial debut, Indiewire reported. The cast also includes Cosmo Jarvis as Frederick Wentworth, along with Harry Golding, Richard E. Grant and Nikki Amuka-Bird. Persuasion is produced by American Sniper Best Picture nominated producer Andrew Lazar and Christina Weiss Lurie. Executive producers are Elizabeth Cantillon via her untitled MRC Film Romance label, Michael Constable, and David Fliegel. The film premieres on Netflix July 15.
I loved this movie with Meryl Streep, (and the marvelous Stanley Tucci), so I can only imagine how fantastic it will be as a staged musical! Wow! If only I lived closer to Chicago!
On Stage: The Devil Wears Prada Musical
The pre-Broadway engagement of the Elton John-Shaina Taub musical The Devil Wears Prada https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAPexekI6ao1IUwiGA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jEDMShpoMLg-gVdw, based on Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel and the 2006 film adaptation, "is showing its fashion sense for the first time in Prada-appropriate stylized photos," Deadline reported.
The production, which will run for a limited five-week engagement in Chicago's James M. Nederlander Theatre July 19-August 21, stars Beth Leavel as Miranda Priestly and Taylor Iman Jones as Andy Sachs "and the new photos show the actors looking suitably chic as the iconic fashionistas," Deadline noted. Broadway plans have not yet been disclosed.
Directed by Anna D. Shapiro, with music by John and lyrics by Taub, and a book by Kate Wetherhead, the musical features choreography by James Alsop. The cast also includes Javier Munoz, Christiana Cole, Megan Masako Haley, Tiffany Mann, Michael Tacconi and Christian Thompson.
Elinor Lipman was one of my writing mentors in graduate school (Lesley College class of 1985) and she was, I recall, quite a witty and fascinating author. She's the one mentor who was honest with me about my talent for writing non fiction. She recommended that I look into journalism, and I did. Thus began a 35 year career in reporting/journalism. I like her books, too.
Summer Reading With Author Elinor Lipman
Elinor Lipman wrote another one of my favorite summer books. In the Washington Post recently, she recalled "61 summers of reading... the books that mattered https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAPexekI6ao1IUwjTg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jEDMShpoMLg-gVdw," including this memory from 1961: "My dad, an avid reader and devoted patron of my hometown library, makes a special request of the director: Could we take books out for the whole summer--for as much as 10 weeks? The answer was yes, not that I understood the need. Our vacations were never longer than two weeks, and always the first half of July...."Did a few themes lodge themselves in my subconscious that summer?... I know of one thing that stuck: Before securing our cabin at Oak Hill Lodge, the Lipmans had been turned down by the nearby Lake Dunmore Hotel, its phony-polite letter noting that 'the people who return year after year, and feel most comfortable here, are gentiles.' The insult incubated for 35 years before it led me into my third novel, The Inn at Lake Devine."
And that prompted memories of a June 2015 SA interview in which Lipman told me her connection with independent booksellers https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAPexekI6ao1IUwjTw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jEDMShpoMLg-gVdw "is about personal relationships and continuity and history. And it's about the introductions on the road, too, almost always lovingly crafted and personal. One of my dearest friends is a bookstore owner, Naomi Hample, the middle of the three Argosy Books-owning sisters in New York. When I met her for the first time she said, 'I've always known I'd meet you someday.' I said, 'How come?' She said 'because I've read all your books and I felt like I already knew you.' Sigh. Is such an answer not the exclusive intellectual property of an indie bookseller?"A fine summer read with genuine indie bookseller credentials. What more could we ask for? Maybe some vacation time to reread The Inn at Lake Devine. --Robert Gray contributing editor
I can't believe it's been 25 years since the Harry Potter series made it's debut. Though I despise JK Rowling's horrible homophobic TERF stance, I do still love her HP books and movies, which are magical and delightful.
Harry Potter Books at 25
An "oral history of Harry Potter at 25 https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAKJkOQI6ao1KxhxGw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jFW5GspoMLg-gVdw" was featured in the Guardian, which spoke with several book trade veterans who played a role in Bloomsbury's release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on June 26, 1997, and the decades-long Pottermania aftereffects, including:
Barry Cunningham, head of children's publishing, Bloomsbury (now publisher, Chicken House): "One day the literary agent Christopher Little rang me and said: 'I've got this great book, would you read it?' Although he didn't tell me that everybody else had turned it down, I could tell from the manuscript that I wasn't the first to see it. I took it home that night and read it. The most common question everybody wants to know is 'Did I see it immediately?' I can't pretend that I did, but I knew children would love it."
Rosamund de la Hey, children's marketing director, Bloomsbury (now founder of the Mainstreet Trading Company, St. Boswells): "I was 25 and new to the job, and the very first manuscript I was given was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Barry handed it over with the words: 'Read this. I think it's a bit special.' I read it overnight and was completely blown away. I came back into the office slightly possessed.
Before the editorial meeting, I rolled the first three chapters into a scroll, shoved in a load of Smarties and tied it with a purple ribbon. The scroll was inspired by the Hogwarts school setting and the Smarties were to say, I think it will win the Smarties prize [for children's books]. The children's list had only been going two years, and it hadn't been an outstanding success. We knew we were up against it."
Thomas Taylor, illustrator of the first book jacket, who was also working in a children's bookshop in Norwich at the time after finishing art school: "We had 10 of the first hardback editions stacked up on a table at the front of the shop. I kept thinking I should buy one, but thought I'd wait for the signed copy they were going to send me. About six months after publication, I began to realize this book was becoming really quite popular. My colleagues kept saying to customers: 'Do you know who this is? He illustrated the cover art.' People didn't believe it because why would I be standing behind the till? It was very awkward and embarrassing. Of course, those 10 books all went and I didn't buy one, so I never had a first edition." --Robert Gray
Brute of All Evil by Devon Monk is the 9th book in her Ordinary Oregon series, and, as with all the other books in this series, I loved every minute of reading it. To be honest, though, I have loved nearly all of Monk's books/series, with the exception of her books about magical hockey players, which I just couldn't get into (sports bore me to tears). She's really my all around favorite urban fantasy author, and this is my second favorite book of the year. Without getting too spoilery, this book brings Delaney and Ryder's story arc to a nice HEA ending, though the path to the altar is not without peril. Here's the blurb:
Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman was the second YA romance of hers that I've read, and while they're interesting and irreverent, I find myself dissatisfied by the end of the book, which felt unresolved to me. We never know if the two awkward and shy to the point of mental illness protagonists ever get married or have a life together, and we don't know if any of the other couples go the distance, either. Here's the blurb: A young woman arrives in Los Angeles
determined to start over and discovers she doesn’t need to leave
everything behind after all, from Abbi Waxman, author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill
When Laura Costello moves to Los Angeles, trying to escape an
overprotective family and the haunting memories of a terrible accident,
she doesn’t expect to be homeless after a week. (She’s pretty sure she
didn’t start that fire — right?) She also doesn't expect to find herself
adopted by a rogue bookseller, installed in a lovely but completely
illegal boardinghouse, or challenged to save a losing trivia team from
ignominy…but that’s what happens. Add a regretful landlady, a gorgeous
housemate and an ex-boyfriend determined to put himself back in the
running and you’ll see why Laura isn’t really sure she’s cut out for
this adulting thing. Luckily for her, her new friends Nina, Polly and
Impossibly Handsome Bob aren't sure either, but maybe if they put their
heads (and hearts) together they’ll be able to make it work.
If found myself getting frustrated with the childish passivity of Laura, who couldn't muster enough spine to tell her ex-boyfriend, who was a narcissistic controlling asshat, to f-off and shove him away when he tried to physically touch her...he also goes on abusive sexist rants about her, and she just sits there and takes it, instead of, again, shutting him up and calling the police to get him out of her life. She also can't seem to muster the courage to tell Bob that she loves him, when its obvious that he feels the same about her. They're both so timid and shy it's embarrassing to read about their encounters. Still, due to her fantastic housemates, things all work out in the end. The writing is clear and consistent, while the plot is wobbly in spots, but eventually gets you to the soggy and unsatisfying ending. I'd give this book a B-, and recommend it to people who are very shy and intimidated by just about everything around them.
Dirty Deeds 2, An Urban Fantasy Collection by Devon Monk, et al, is a collection of novellas by some excellent female authors whose works I've read and enjoyed for years. Here's the blurb:
No comments:
Post a Comment