Bookstore Romance Day Set for 8/20, The Wager on TV, Review of Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg, A Man in Full on TV, Jamie Ford at Third Place Books, John Williams is WAPO Book Editor, Obituary for Melissa Bank,Devil in the White City Comes to TV, Real Bad Things by Kelly J Ford, By a Thread by Jennifer Estep, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Greetings fellow bibliophiles! I hope you're all withstanding the heat by staying indoors in the AC and reading good books! I know that I am, while also binge-watching the entire first season of Neil Gaiman's Sandman on Netflix. It was, though way too gory for my tastes, a wonderfully philosophical, magical viewing experience...I laughed, I cried, and I found myself hungry for more, like now! Meanwhile, I've read three sizable books and will review them after some cool and spicy tidbits, below. Hang in there, reading friends, it's almost Autumn, when cooler temps prevail.

What a delightful idea, a day for bookstores to celebrate the many colors of romantic love. I can hardly wait!

Bookstore Romance Day Set for August 20

The third Bookstore Romance Day https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAWMweUI6aoyIh0lTw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jCXsCtpoMLg-gVdw is set for Saturday, August 20.

Independent bookstores around the country will be celebrating the romance genre through a variety of in-store activities, and throughout the afternoon there will be live-streamed panels about various romance sub-genres, including YA romance, queer romance, historical romance and more. Bookstore Romance Day was founded in 2019 to help strengthen the relationship between indie bookstores and the community of romance readers and writers.

This sounds really exciting, and I hope that it splashes across the Apple+ streaming service like a tidal wave.

TV: The Wager

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are teaming up again to adapt the upcoming David Grann nonfiction book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder. https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAWMweUI6aoyIh0jSA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jCXsCtpoMLg-gVdw

The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Apple Original Films "has landed the rights to the book, due out in April 2023. The project reteams the key players and companies behind the recently wrapped adaptation of Grann's true-crime tome Killers of the Flower Moon."

DiCaprio and Scorsese "are one of the great pairings in cinema," THR wrote, adding that "in the last 25 years the two have worked together on six movies that have generated multiple Oscar wins. The list includes Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wall Street, with Flower Moon next to be released."

I loved all the biopics that came out about three years ago about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, supreme court justice and all around bad-ass feminist lawyer. She was amazing right up until the end, when she lost her battle with cancer. She is seriously missed, since now the Supreme court is packed with idiots who want to remove all women's rights, including the right to our own bodies/abortion rights and voting rights. I will be looking for this excellent book by NPR's Nina Totenberg.

Book Review

Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendship

Longtime NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg met Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the 1970s, early in both their careers. Totenberg's thoughtful first book, Dinners with Ruth, traces their five-decade friendship. But it also provides broader meditations on friendship and building community, as well as a candid glimpse into Washington insider politics and the challenges of being a woman in that male-driven environment.

Totenberg begins at the end: "The last time I saw Ruth, it was for supper." She gives a brief overview of her long bond with Ginsburg, which lasted through grief, professional challenges, health struggles and the Covid-19 pandemic, and included many meals together. She then takes readers on a tour of her early life and family history as well as Ginsburg's, noting their similarities along with the deep differences in their backgrounds. The book continues in this way: it is primarily Totenberg's story, but she shares biographical information about Ginsburg, weaving the facts together with anecdotes from their friendship. Totenberg also emphasizes her ties to NPR colleagues Cokie Roberts and Linda Wertheimer, and the ways they supported each other personally and professionally: "natural allies as well as friends."

While the book centers on the relationship between Totenberg and Ginsburg, the chapter titles hint at its broader range of insights: "Unexpected Friends," "Fame and Friendship," "Friendship Is a Choice." Totenberg muses on her parents' friendships, which she witnessed as a child; her own budding friendships as a young woman and early-career reporter; and the longtime connections that have sustained her through subsequent years. She shares stories from her first marriage to a much older man, and the ways her friends carried her through his illness and death. Totenberg also writes joyfully of her second marriage to Dr. David Reines, a surgeon who became a close friend and medical adviser of Ginsburg. She explores the different aspects of friendship against the backdrop of highly educated, highly political Washington circles, emphasizing the simple acts of care that deepen a bond: listening, sharing meals, showing up.

Ginsburg herself appears much as readers may have already seen her: a fierce intellect with a wry sense of humor and a deep commitment to the law. But Totenberg's warm recollection of their years together reveals a different side of Ruth: her love for shopping and French bouillabaisse, her appreciation of gossip, her tenacity in being there for friends despite illness, work and other challenges. Readers will come away with a fuller portrait of RBG, but also a wonderful rendering of Totenberg's friendships and perhaps a deeper appreciation for their own. --Katie Noah Gibson

 I had a period of time in the late 80s and 90s when I binge-read all of Tom Wolfes novels, though they were sometimes more than a bit sexist. Still, Wolfe's prose was just so cool and smooth and modern that I felt like, after a lifetime of vanilla ice cream, I'd discovered lemon, chocolate cherry or cantaloupe gelato...so much rich flavor, so many colors, it was a thrill for a budding writer to gobble these novels down. It's not a coincidence that this all happened after I met John Updike in grad school, and after reading all his works, I was looking for another male writer who made sexy sentences and plush paragraphs. I look forward to seeing A Man in Full on Netflix, but I don't know how they'll get that special something inherent in his prose to translate to the screen.

TV: A Man In Full

Additional cast members have been named for A Man in Full https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAWNkugI6aoyIhBxHw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jCX5OgpoMLg-gVdw, Netflix's six-episode limited series from David E. Kelley and Regina King based on Tom Wolfe's 1998 novel, Deadline reported.

Joining previously announced stars Jeff Daniels and Diane Lane are William Jackson Harper (Love Life), Tom Pelphrey (Ozark), Aml Ameen (Boxing Day), Sarah Jones (For All Mankind), Jon Michael Hill (Widows) and Chante Adams (A League of Their Own).

Kelley serves as writer, executive producer and showrunner, with King directing three episodes and exec producing as part of her first-look deal with Netflix via her Royal Ties production company. Matthew Tinker also executive produces.

Jamie Ford is a local author turned superstar author, and I've loved all his novels and movies made from them. I've not gotten my hands on "The Many Daughters..." yet, but hopefully one day soon I will.

Image of the Day: Jamie Ford at Third Place Books

Tuesday evening, Third Place Books https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAWNxe0I6aoyIk0gSQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jCX8SlpoMLg-gVdw in Lake Forest Park, Wash., hosted the launch event for Jamie Ford's The Many Daughters of Afong Moy (Atria Books). Events manager Spencer Ruchti reported, "135 Seattleites came to see the author talk about his fourth novel since Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet."

 This lucky man gets to read and review books for a living...I am green with envy. Honestly I am glad that the big newspapers are still able to afford a books editor and a book review/recommendation section, considering how hard it is for so many papers to survive in this online economy.

 

John Williams Joins Washington Post as Books Editor

John Williams is joining the Washington Post https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAWOl-UI6aoyIRt-SA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jCXJatpoMLg-gVdw as books editor, effective September 6. In his new position, Williams will be "helping to reinvigorate this important coverage area" by leading the nonfiction and fiction books team, hiring new writers and working with colleagues to reach new audiences, the Post noted, adding: "We believe in books coverage that revels in the life of the mind and big ideas and is also consumer-oriented, giving book lovers the information they need as they choose what to read."

Since 2011, Williams has been on the Books desk at the New York Times, first as a web producer and often as a writer. Starting in 2016, he became the editor of the paper's staff book critics and has also been a mainstay of the Book Review's weekly podcast, producing and, more recently, hosting the show.

Before joining the Times, he spent six years in the editorial department of HarperCollins and later worked as a freelance writer and editor. In 2009, he started a literary website called The Second Pass, which featured reviews of new books, essays about older ones and a blog that he anchored. "I couldn't be happier that it's all led me to the Post," Williams said.

 I read and loved "Girl's Guide" and I am stunned that Ms Bank has passed at the age of only 61 (I'm 61 myself, and not nearly ready to take the dark journey). May she rest in peace and love.

Obituary Note: Melissa Bank

Author Melissa Bank https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAWOl-UI6aoyIRt-TA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jCXJatpoMLg-gVdw, best known for her 1999 bestseller The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, died August 2, USA Today reported. She was 61. In a statement, her publisher, Penguin Books, called Bank "a writer with a distinctive minimalist style and boldly hilarious voice," adding that "she captivated generations of readers with her warmly piercing takes on relationships, family and adulthood."

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing is a collection of linked short stories about Jane Rosenal, "starting at age 14 and following her adventures and travails in sex, love and work with a relatable, comic touch." Bank followed it up with The Wonder Spot (2005), a novel "about another young woman, Sophie Applebaum, and her quest to forge her own identity," USA Today wrote. 

A Philadelphia native with a master's degree from Cornell University, Bank "needed 12 years to finish The Girls' Guide in part because of a bicycle accident that damaged her short-term memory and ability to think of words," the Associated Press noted. Two stories from the book were adapted into the 2007 romantic comedy Suburban Girl, starring Alec Baldwin and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

 Devil in the White City was a book that I read with my library book group last year, and most of them loved it, while I felt it got a bit bogged down in historical detail. I'm also not a huge fan of Keanu Reeves as an actor, but I plan on watching this adaptation anyway.

TV: Devil In the White City

Keanu Reeves will star in the "long-gestating adaptation" of Erik Larson's 2003 bestselling book The Devil in the White City https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAWOl-UI6aoyIRsnTA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jCXJatpoMLg-gVdw: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, Deadline reported, adding that Hulu has put in a limited series order for the drama. This marks first major U.S. TV role for Reeves, who will also serve as an executive producer. The eight-episode series is targeted for a 2024 release, with production not expected to begin until next year.

The project "has been in various stages of development since DiCaprio bought the film rights to the book in 2010 and previously set it up as a feature at Paramount with Scorsese to direct," Deadline noted. "In 2019, Hulu announced that it was developing the project as a big-budget series with DiCaprio and Scorsese exec producing."

 

Real Bad Things by Kelly J Ford was a mystery thriller that was given to me for free as an ebook because we subscribe to Amazon Prime. I'd read a small sample and it seemed like an interesting, albeit dark book, but I was unaware that it would only get more grim and dark as it went on. The title should have clued me in. Here's the blurb:

From the author of Cottonmouths, a Los Angeles Review Best Book of 2017, comes an evocative suspense about the cost of keeping secrets and the dangers of coming home.

Beneath the roiling waters of the Arkansas River lie dead men and buried secrets.

When Jane Mooney’s violent stepfather, Warren, disappeared, most folks in Maud Bottoms, Arkansas, assumed he got drunk and drowned. After all, the river had claimed its share over the years.

When Jane confessed to his murder, she should have gone to jail. That’s what she wanted. But without a body, the police didn’t charge her with the crime. So Jane left for Boston—and took her secrets with her.

Twenty-five years later, the river floods and a body surfaces. Talk of Warren’s murder grips the town. Now in her forties, Jane returns to Maud Bottoms to reckon with her past: to do jail time, to face her revenge-bent mother, (editors note, the mother is a murderous psychopath, bent on killing, not just revenge) to make things right.

But though Jane’s homecoming may enlighten some, it could threaten others. Because in this desolate river valley, some secrets are better left undisturbed.

If you are the kind of person who hates stereotypes, particularly Southern stereotypes of the abusive, ignorant gun-toting, beer-guzzling sexist men and the stupid, pearl-clutching gossipy passive-aggressive women (and the older Southern women who won't go to the store without full makeup and dress with hose and heels, accompanied by lots of self-loathing and vicious words), this is not the book for you. Because while the protagonist is that rarity in fiction, a lesbian who doesn't hide or hate the fact that she's a homosexual, (she grew up in a severely abusive household with a brother who was half Asian and a psychopathic alcoholic mother who had many boyfriends who also treated her children like garbage) and is noble enough to try and get her brother off of a murder charge by confessing to it herself, there are still layers of awful in each character, and by the time you get to the end, you might have a case of horror and disgust fatigue. I wanted them all dead by the end, and I found Jane's ending very unsatisfying, because it was all for nothing. I'd give this bleak and horrific novel a C, and only recommend it to people who enjoy Southern horror fiction.

By A Thread, Book 6 of the Elemental Assassins series by Jennifer Estep was looking like it would be a fun "vacation from assassination" novel that I had hoped would be a break for readers and the characters in the series alike. But it was not to be, apparently, because trouble and death and pain find Gin Blanco wherever she is. Other than her dwarven friends who can heal and get rid of bodies without a trace, all her other friends and family (her sister Bria and her foster brother Finn) are pretty worthless when it comes to helping her when the shit hits the fan and she's being tortured or beaten or drained of life and powers by a vampire. They're always around at the end to greet her after she's been healed, but that just makes them seem more interested in saving their own hides and their significant other's skins than Gins. This same thing happens in all of Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, where Toby is getting gutted like a fish and all of the "protective" boyfriends and exs and family members are never around to help her fight the bad guys, ever. It's pathetic, and I would think the authors would have more respect for their B-team characters and sidekicks than to sideline them and let the protagonist nearly die in every volume. Anyway, here's the tiny blurb:

The sixth book in the USA TODAY bestselling Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series featuring Gin Blanco, who by day owns a Tennessee BBQ joint, and by night is a tough female assassin known as the Spider.
I never thought I’d need a vacation from being an assassin….

My name is Gin Blanco, and I’m the assassin the Spider. All the Ashland’s lowlifes are gunning for me and trying to make a name for themselves by taking out the Spider. So I think it’s a good idea to get out of Ashland for a while until things cool down.

So I’m headed south to a swanky beach town, along with my baby sister, Bria, for a weekend of fun in the sun. But when an old friend of Bria’s is threatened by a powerful vampire with deadly elemental magic, it looks like I’ll have to dig my silverstone knives out of my suitcase after all. But this time, not even my own Ice and Stone power may be enough to save me from coming home in a pine box.

Though Estep's writing is bright and crisp as her plots are slick and quick (so much so that they're like potato chips, you can't eat just one...I find myself jonesing for each new book in the series, because they're so easy to read), by this point in the series at least 1/3rd of the book is spent flashing back to previous books in the series, and going over her feelings about the original "bad/terrible tragedy that happened to the protagonist which propels them into a career that sets a course for revenge. This redundancy is mind-numbingly boring, especially if you've read all the other books and you're well aware of the protagonist's history and former tragedy. I honestly do not think that readers start a series on books 6-10, so much of this space wasted on flashbacks could be put to better use getting on with the new plot, new villain, new battles/fights, new characters, etc. I was particularly sad to see Gin's former hookup, the nasty and arrogant Det. Donovan, make another appearance after I assumed he was out of Gin's life for good (especially since she is now in love with Owen). So I'd give this book a B, and recommend it only to those who have read the first five books, that way you can skip the redundant recaps.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is a science fiction/fantasy/romance novel that has been chosen by The Tonight Show's Jimmy Fallon as the book of the month for their On Air book club. I'd chosen to purchase this book months before Fallon made his announcement (to huge cheering from the audience, who all got free copies), so I settled down with this book on Saturday morning and finally finished it by 3 am this morning. The prose was lyrical and engrossing and the plot seemed massive, though it managed to be straightforward enough that it doesn't drop you off into dull detail or redundancies and scientific info-dumps. Here's the blurb:  

In this exhilarating novel by the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.
 
Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before. 

Underpining the plot of this novel is the story of how horribly women are treated in the videogaming industry and the computer industry (especially software coders), from the early years to the upsweep in the 90s of new gaming companies arriving on the West Coast (mainly in Seattle/Redmond, Washington and Silicon Valley, California) to the huge conglomerate companies of today who have a lock on gaming technology, and who still don't recognize women as the powerful creators/gamers that they are.

 It's heart-wrenching to watch Sadie, a brilliant MIT grad have to continually take a back seat to her Harvard educated disabled friend (and frenemy) Sam, whose games are nothing without her fantastic creative mind and hours of hard work. I found Sam to be a rather immature, whiny bastard who can't seem to get over the fact that Sadie doesn't want to have sex with him. Like most incels, he seems to feel it's his birthright as a male to be able to use any and all women around him as his own personal sex slaves and long term lovers...never mind what the woman wants. Sadie falls in love with her teacher (who is more than a bit creepy and an abusive asshat in the end) and then falls for their gaming business manager Marx. One thing that really bothered me was that Zevin fell into a cliche trope of "women who break up with or lose their lovers" becoming nearly catatonic with depression, as fiercely bright Sadie somehow can't function without a man in her life to tell her how smart she is....really, Zevin? She's smart and independent as a woman except when it comes to her "fragile heart" because we all know how fragile women's emotions/egos are, right?! UGH. What a shame. All that tough feminism goes right down the toilet the minute a needy man shows up. The ending was also a watery compromise that came off as weak. Still, I did enjoy this inside look at the computer gaming industry, and though I had to ask my computer game-loving son what some of the acronyms meant, I felt like seeing how the sausage was made was really enlightening. I'd give this book an A-, and recommend it to anyone who wonders what it takes to make it in the gaming industry.