June's second week is looking to be warm and rainy, with intermittent sun breaks throughout the week, which is great, because I will only be outside once or twice this week for a doctors appointment and blood tests. The rest of the time I'll be indoors where there's AC and lots of lovely books to read!
I loved ET: The Extraterrestrial, which was written by Wm Kotzwinkle, and I also enjoyed some of the other children's fiction he's written. So I imagine this will be a fun series to watch.
TV: Felonious Monk
Fox is developing Felonious Monk https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAPZk7kI6ao2KxAiGg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jEC5LxpoMLg-gVdw, a one-hour drama based on William Kotzwinkle's novel. Deadline reported that the project, from writer Michael Brandon Guercio (Treadstone) and Fox Entertainment, "is about a disgraced cop with anger issues-turned-monk who returns to his hometown to take care of his dead uncle's outstanding business debts, and suspects foul play. Now, he's forced to abandon his serene monastery life in order to solve his uncle's murder and other homicide cases."
Guercio executive produces along with Jordan Cerf of Mosaic. Kotzwinkle serves as consultant. Felonious Monk was published by Blackstone in 2021, the first in a series.
This also looks like a wonderful adaptation, so I am hoping to catch it when it comes onto one of the streaming services I subscribe to.
TV: Tiny Beautiful Things
Hulu has picked up Tiny Beautiful Things https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAPZxu8I6ao2K00lTA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jEC8enpoMLg-gVdw, based on Cheryl Strayed's book, to series. Deadline reported that Kathryn Hahn (Wandavision) will star in the half-hour comedy from ABC Signature and Hello Sunshine. Liz Tigelaar (Little Fires Everywhere) is creator and executive producer of the series. Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Lauren Neustadter, Stacey Silverman and Jayme Lemons executive produce, along with Strayed and Hahn. Eight episodes are planned.
"As we emerge from a pandemic during which stories like those told in Tiny Beautiful Things helped us feel a sense of community and camaraderie at a moment we most needed it, this is a prescient story to be able to tell at this moment in time and we're grateful to be able to tell it," said Craig Erwich, president, Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment.
Tigelaar added: "It has been such an honor to work with Cheryl Strayed, a writer who has had such a profound impact on my life, and, along with an amazing writing staff, adapt her book into series. Just like Dear Sugar, the advice column she helmed, Cheryl brings compassion, wisdom, humor and love to everything she does, and this show is no different. I'm so grateful to Hello Sunshine and Jaywalker, who entrusted me to tell this story. And I'm beyond thrilled to be working with Kathryn Hahn, whose gift is imbuing the fierce, complicated characters she portrays with humor, honesty, and vulnerability.... This project feels like coming home."
This is another series I can hardly wait to see! I read the Sandman graphic novels decades ago, and I loved them all. So August 5th can't come fast enough for me!
TV: The Sandman; The Midnight Club
Netflix has set a premiere date of August 5 and released a full trailer for The Sandman https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAPZwb0I6ao2Kht2Sw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jEC8D1poMLg-gVdw, the highly anticipated series based on the DC graphic novels by Neil Gaiman. The Hollywood Reporter noted that Netflix won rights to the show in 2019 with an 11-episode, straight to series pickup. Warner Bros. TV produces; Gaiman, Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, Grey's Anatomy) and David S. Goyer (Blade, The Dark Knight) are writing the series, with Heinberg serving as showrunner. All three are executive producers.
Netflix also released the first teaser for The Midnight Club https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAPZwb0I6ao2Kht2SA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jEC8D1poMLg-gVdw, a 10-episode series adapted from the works of Christopher Pike, Deadline reported. Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong co-created The Midnight Club and executive produce with Trevor Macy, along with Julia Bicknell Pike. Flanagan also directed some episodes.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus is literary romantic/comedy ("rom-com") that was so well written and delightful that I could not put it down, and read it straight through in 8 hours yesterday. I LOVED every paragraph, every chapter, and found myself profoundly moved and with a "book hangover" when I finished "Lessons". The prose was sharp, witty and intelligent, and the plot was a hurricane force gale that took no prisoners. My first thought after reading it was, "EVERYONE should READ THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW!" I'm not as much of a book pusher as I used to be, especially since the quality of books that I have in hand varies so widely nowadays. Yet LIC is one of those rare books that makes it onto my list of books that I will be urging people to read for the next 20 years or so, because it is destined to be a classic of the rom-com genre. Here's the blurb: A must-read debut! Meet Elizabeth Zott: a
one-of-a-kind scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour
when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show.
“It's
the world versus Elizabeth Zott, an extraordinary woman determined to
live on her own terms, and I had no trouble choosing a side.... A
page-turning and highly satisfying tale: zippy, zesty, and
Zotty.” —Maggie Shipstead, best-selling author of Great Circle
Chemist
Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would
be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average
woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings
Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except
for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated
grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True
chemistry results.
But like science, life is unpredictable.
Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a
single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking
show Supper at Six.
Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic
acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her
following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out,
Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to
change the status quo. Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.
For once, I agree with everything said in the above blurb. I laughed out loud (LOL) more than a few times at the dry as a bone, deadpan humor of the brilliant Elizabeth Zott, who refuses to allow the cultural and societal misogyny of the time (and of our time, too, unfortunately) to stop her from being an independent woman of science and a single mother raising a strong and smart daughter. Though we have more women in STEM careers now than ever before, women are still being sexually harassed, assaulted, paid half of what their male coworkers are paid and struggling to get and keep jobs worthy of their education and experience in male-dominated fields. It's frustrating that things haven't progressed as far as women fighting for equality in the 50s and 60s had hoped, even with the recent strides of the ME,TOO movement. Oh how I wish that Elizabeth Zott actually existed and had a TV show that proved that chemistry and cooking were one and the same, and that women can do or be anything they want to be. She would have jump started the Women's Movement and we'd probably be fighting fewer battles for basic rights, like reproductive rights, now in this restrictive "Christian" republican male-dominated America. Garmus's scathing indictment of religion as a means of oppression was so logical and smartly written that even those of us who do believe in God (but I'm not a part of any church and don't consider myself a Christian per se) will stand up and cheer. I'd give this book an A+, and recommend it to EVERYONE with a pulse. Seriously, this is the best book of 2022 (or the past 22 years, IMO) and you're missing out if you don't read it right now. "Now set the table, children, your mother needs a few moments to herself."
Shatter the Sky and Storm the Earth by Rebecca Kim Wells are a YA fantasy duology that combines the better elements of McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern with a Tibetan LGBTQ Mulan and some Tamora Pierce-style heroines to create a fascinating coming of age tale that will keep you reading into the wee hours. Here's the blurb: Shatter the Sky: A determined young woman sets out to rescue
her kidnapped girlfriend by stealing a dragon from the corrupt emperor
in this stunning fantasy debut.
Raised
among the ruins of a conquered mountain nation, Maren dreams only of
sharing a quiet life with her girlfriend Kaia—until the day Kaia is
abducted by the Aurati, prophetic agents of the emperor, and forced to
join their ranks. Desperate to save her, Maren hatches a plan to steal
one of the emperor’s coveted dragons and storm the Aurati stronghold.
If
Maren is to have any hope of succeeding, she must become an apprentice
to the Aromatory—the emperor’s mysterious dragon trainer. But Maren is
unprepared for the dangerous secrets she uncovers: rumors of a lost
prince, a brewing rebellion, and a prophecy that threatens to shatter
the empire itself. Not to mention the strange dreams she’s been having
about a beast deep underground.
With time running out, can Maren
survive long enough to rescue Kaia from impending death? Or could it be
that Maren is destined for something greater than she could have ever
imagined?
Storm the Earth: Maren
and her girlfriend Kaia set out to rescue Sev and free the dragons from
the corrupt emperor in the explosive finale to the journey that began
with Shatter the Sky.
Though it's never mentioned (perhaps they don't have a word for it in the world that Wells has built) that protagonist Maren is bisexual, I was glad to see that it was so well accepted for young people to have lovers of both sexes. Yet I was also a trifle saddened that Maren seemed to "grow out of" her homosexual/lesbian relationship and, now that she was more "mature," she was seen to be more fully in love with a person of the opposite sex, who just happened to be wealthy and a prince. Blech...it was sexist and a romantic fantasy trope/cliche that the main female character end up with the handsome prince at the end, for an HEA. I don't think Maren, after all she's been through, needed to be attached romantically to anyone, really. Sev was kind of a cowardly jerk anyway, and I found myself thinking that Maren could do better than either Kaia or Sev. I did love the dragon, particularly the baby dragon Tasia. The prose was jubilant and bright, and the plot full of adventure and twists. I'd give this duology a B+ and recommend it to anyone who dreams of dragons.
Last Chance Books by Kelsey Rodkey was a YA romantic comedy that I was able to snag cheap for my Kindle paperwhite. Though it was decently written, and the plot moved along swiftly, I ultimately felt that this novel fell short of a satisfying read. Here's the blurb:
Frankly, I found Jasper to be a complete assh*le, and I can't imagine why Madeline finds him so irresistible, and why he's given second and third chances with her, when he's done nothing but sabotage and undermine her and her bookstore right from the first chapter. Even his own brother thinks he's kind of a jerk, and his parents profusely apologize, at one point, for all the terrible things he's done. For some reason, Madeline feels guilty for things she had no control over, and she goes from being a strong advocate for her bookstore and herself into being a wimpy giggly girl who just wants any guy to be her boyfriend, even if they're a misogynistic chump. She should have called the police on Jasper, but instead she lets him run roughshod over her plans and her life. Somehow his life is seen as more important, because he's male. The ending is very unsatisfying for book lovers, and so I'd give this weak rom-com a C, and not recommend it to anyone.
These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan is a YA magical fantasy novel that could have used a good editor to trim it's over 400 pages down by at least 150 pages. Over-writing seems to be a problem in a lot of "high" fantasy novels, and while I realize its something of a trope, it adds nothing to the story for the author to take 5 paragraphs to describe and say what it is she needs to say instead of one paragraph. Here's the blurb:
Cruel Prince meets A Court of Thorns and Roses in this sexy, action-packed fantasy about a girl who is caught between two treacherous faerie courts and their dangerously seductive princes.
Brie hates the Fae and refuses to have anything to do with them, even if that means starving on the street. But when her sister is sold to the sadistic king of the Unseelie court to pay a debt, she'll do whatever it takes to get her back—including making a deal with the king himself to steal three magical relics from the Seelie court.
Gaining unfettered access to the Seelie court is easier said than done. Brie's only choice is to pose as a potential bride for Prince Ronan, and she soon finds herself falling for him. Unwilling to let her heart distract her, she accepts help from a band of Unseelie misfits with their own secret agenda. As Brie spends time with their mysterious leader, Finn, she struggles to resist his seductive charm.
Caught between two dangerous courts, Brie must decide who to trust with her loyalty. And with her heart.
Finn and Prince Ronan were NOT all that sexy, so I didn't really see why Brie had so much trouble navigating her relationship to them. She was pretty busy trying to save her sister from these evil fae, so I would have thought she'd focus on that, instead of being breathlessly infatuated with people she knows have hidden agendas. The writing is overblown and the plot plods on, while the story itself could have used a haircut of at least 110 pages. I'd give this book a C+, and recommend it to those who have a lot of time to wade through flowery prose and heavy plot points.
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