RIP Peter Straub, The Storied Life of AJ Fikry Movie, Representative Katie Porter in Conversation, The School for Good and Evil Movie, Belladonna by Adalyn Grace, No Funny Business by Amanda Aksel, Daughter of Sparta by Claire Andrews, A Psalm For the Wild Built by Becky Chambers, and No Rings Attached by Rachel Lacey

Hola fellow book dragons! It's the second week of September, and while we're still struggling with health issues in my house, things are starting to even out. I've been reading up a storm, and after my office chair broke, I was able to find a larger sized red one that suits my needs perfectly. My son just finished putting it together for me, thank heaven. He's a great person and I'm so proud of the helpful and compassionate young man he's become. I've got 5 books to review but I might hold one back for next week. Meanwhile, here's some obits and tidbits for all ya'all.

Though I'm not a fan of the horror genre, even I've heard of Peter Straub. I believe I read one of his ghost books, which were early works for him, but I didn't read any of the later more scary novels.

Obituary Note: Peter Straub

Peter Straub https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscASOl7gI6alnIRojHw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jDXJbwpoMLg-gVdw, "whose literary novels of terror, mystery and the supernatural placed him in the top ranks of the horror-fiction boom of the 1970s and '80s, alongside writers like Ira Levin, Anne Rice and his close friend and collaborator Stephen King," died September 4, the New York Times reported. He was 79.

"He was a unique writer in a lot of ways," said King. "He was not only a literary writer with a poetic sensibility, but he was readable. And that was a fantastic thing. He was a modern writer, who was the equal of say, Philip Roth, though he wrote about fantastic things."

A fan of Henry James and John Ashbery, Straub published several poetry chapbooks before turning to novels, and began writing about the supernatural after two more conventional novels were unsuccessful. Julia (1975) "was a novel that involved what turned out to be a ghost, so it was a horror novel," he told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in 1996. "I didn't know much about the field at that time. I just wanted very much to write a novel that would make money so I wouldn't have to get a job. With the first sentence, I felt this enormous relief. I felt at home right away."

His next two novels, If You Could See Me Now (1977) and Ghost Story (1979), were also bestsellers. Both books were adapted into films, the former as Full Circle in 1977 and the latter in 1981. Julia was also filmed, as The Haunting of Julia.

King, who wrote a blurb for Ghost Story, recalled: "We got it at the post office. It was all kind of split open. And so I was driving and my wife opened it and she started to read it to me. And by the time we got back to our house, we were both really excited, because we knew that this was really sort of a masterwork."

King and Straub would team up in the early 1980s to write The Talisman (1984). They reunited in 2001 to write a sequel, Black House, and were discussing a third book, but it was still in its earliest stages at Straub's death.

Overall, Straub's books and stories were nominated for a dozen World Fantasy Awards, winning four, and 14 Bram Stoker Awards, with 10 wins, among many other award nominations. He was named a World Horror Grandmaster in 1997, won a Stoker award for life achievement in 2006, was named an International Horror Guild living legend in 2008, and received a life achievement World Fantasy Award in 2010.

In a tribute to her father on Twitter,

Emma Fusco-Straub, author and co-owner of Brooklyn's Books Are Magic wrote, in part: "Ok this is going to be long and rambling but here goes. My father, Peter Straub, died on Sunday night. He was the f-cking best, and here's why, with photos.... This Time Tomorrow was all about him dying, which is a weird thing to give your parent when they are, in fact, still alive, but I am so glad I did.

Every bit of my love for him is in that book, and it is one of the great joys of my life that he read it (so many times) with so much pleasure and pride. That book, and our mutual understanding, meant that when he died, I didn't doubt for a second that he knew how grateful I was to be his, and vice versa. I leave you with the sportiest Big Pete ever looked. Now go read one of his books."

 I'm really looking forward to this movie, as I read the book and enjoyed it.

Movies: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Vertical Entertainment has released the official trailer https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscASPxLgI6alnIRFxEg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jDXcXwpoMLg-gVdw for The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry based on the 2014 novel by Gabrielle Zevin, Collider reported. Directed by Hans Canosa from a script by Zevin, the film stars Kunal Nayyar, Lucy Hale, Christina Hendricks, Blaire Brown, Lauren Stamile, David Arquette and Scott Foley.

Zevin also serves as a producer on the film alongside Canosa, Claude Dal Farra, Brian Keady, and Kelsey Law. Nayyar, Hale, and Hendricks are executive producers.

 I love this interview because this is a representative who actually cares about the workers and working poor of the country, and California in particular. She's a rare politician who actually wants to work to change things for the better...and she's an author.

CALIBA Fall Fest: Katie Porter in Conversation

"Thank you for all of the work you do," said Representative Katie Porter (D.-Irvine) during a keynote conversation at the California Independent Booksellers Alliance Fall Fest https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscATZkb8I6alnKxtwHA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jDC5D3poMLg-gVdw in Sacramento, Calif., Saturday morning. She was in conversation with American Booksellers Association CEO Allison Hill to discuss her background, her experience being a congresswoman as well as a single mother of three, and her upcoming book, I Swear: Politics Is Messier Than My Minivan (Crown).

"In my job I get to see a lot of what makes our communities vibrant, and I think during the pandemic we saw a lot of that go away," she continued. "So I just want to thank you all for being part of the fabric of your communities. For being small business owners as well as people who are sharing education and literacy and culture with the communities you work in."

Porter recalled her viral "whiteboard moment" with Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, when she used a whiteboard to illustrate the financial challenges facing a single mom working full-time as a bank teller at a Chase branch in Irvine, Calif. When she asked Dimon what the woman should do--take out pay-day loans or even skip meals--he answered that he didn't know and he'd "have to think about it."

As frustrating as those answers were, she said, much more upsetting were the responses of her congressional colleagues, who all said the same thing: How did you ever think to ask that? "And I thought, do you not see the person who sweeps the floor? Do you not see the person who works in the bank when you walk in there?"

Expanding on her time in Congress, Porter noted that when people talk about members of Congress, the general sentiment seems to be that they only work when they're in Washington and are on vacation at all other times. She disputed that, saying that the "most important" parts of her job all happen when she is at home in her congressional district. Her time in Washington, meanwhile, entails fielding 15-20 appointments each day while trying to stay on top of upcoming votes, which can be a frustrating and bewildering process. "So if it seems to people like we don't always know what we're doing, it's truly because we don't," she remarked.

Porter has never accepted corporate donations or lobbyist money, and said she's tried to "pull back the curtain" on fundraising. She pointed out that there's a strange double standard with fundraising, where a congressperson is supposed to talk about it with every potential donor they meet, but they're "never supposed to talk about it with anyone else."

She added that she "actually likes campaigning" and even fundraising, because "every conversation is with somebody who cares about our democracy." The only reason voters should give money to her, "is if you think you're investing in a better democracy."

Porter suggested that booksellers reach out to their congresspeople and ask them to visit the store and speak to staff and customers. Booksellers could also host town halls with congresspeople at their stores.

Discussing her reading life, Porter said she reads a lot to her kids and briefly did a "boy book blog," featuring books that reflected "what my boys really are like." When it comes to personal reading, she mostly turns to romance, particularly romantic comedies like Beach Read by Emily Henry and The Unhoneymooners Christina Lauren."I need to be inspired that my meet cute is out there somewhere," she said. "Probably not in the halls of Congress, but out there somewhere." --Alex Mutter

 This also looks like a move I'd really love to see, because it is based on a fun book series and it has a magnificent cast.

Movies: The School for Good and Evil

Netflix offered a first look at The School for Good and Evil https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscATblb4I6alnKx52SA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jDCZT2poMLg-gVdw, a movie based on the book series by Soman Chainani, Entertainment Weekly reported. The cast includes Sophia Anne Caruso, Sofia Wylie, Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington and Laurence Fishburne. The film premieres October 19.

Director Paul Feig was first brought the script more than three years ago and couldn't get the story out of his head: "I'm always looking for female friendship stories--those are my favorite movies to make--and I've also always wanted to create a world, and I've never really had a chance to do that. I got to scratch the surface of it with Ghostbusters, but that was still our world. So this just had everything I wanted. It was only after I read the script that I started reading the books, and I fell in love with everything in them. They're very dense books, very inventive and fun, like Alice in Wonderland."

Feig added that he worked closely with Chainani on the adaptation and "was really jonesing to get to work with visual artists to create something new. If you look at all my movies, you'll notice I always take on a different genre every time. I want to work my way through all the genres, but fantasy was never a genre that I thought I would end up doing. It is a hard genre to do, and is a very specific genre. But once I read this and could visualize the world of it, it was really fun."

EW added that if all goes according to plan, Feig hopes to explore this new world further with sequels. "The goal is definitely for this to be a franchise," he said. "I mean, this cast is just stellar. I have to pinch myself every time I watch the movie. From Charlize, and Kerry, and Laurence, to Michelle [Yeoh], and Cate Blanchett as the voice of the [Storian], to this amazing new young cast who are just so deep and wonderful, inventive and charismatic, it was really a thrill."

 

Belladonna by Adalyn Grace is a beautiful YA romantic take on the short gothic story Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. If you haven't read the story, which was published in 1844, I urge you to do so, because it's beautiful and dark and reads like Gail Carrigers more steampunk noir books. Anyway, Bella is also a young woman who believes herself cursed by Death, the physical entity, since infancy, when everyone around her died, but Death passed her by due to her being able to see him and not fear him at all. AS she grows she alternately fears and is fascinated by the shadowy form of Death, and the two develop a kind of relationship, though it is not without it's twists and turns and near-death convos. Here's the blurb:

New York Times bestselling author Adalyn Grace brings to life a highly romantic, Gothic-infused world of wealth, desire, and betrayal.

Orphaned as a baby, nineteen-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each more interested in her wealth than her well-being—and each has met an untimely end. Her remaining relatives are the elusive Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at Thorn Grove, an estate both glittering and gloomy. Its patriarch mourns his late wife through wild parties, while his son grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation and his daughter suffers from a mysterious illness. But when their mother’s restless spirit appears claiming she was poisoned, Signa realizes that the family she depends on could be in grave danger and enlists the help of a surly stable boy to hunt down the killer.
 
However, Signa’s best chance of uncovering the murderer is an alliance with Death himself, a fascinating, dangerous shadow who has never been far from her side. Though he’s made her life a living hell, Death shows Signa that their growing connection may be more powerful—and more irresistible—than she ever dared imagine.

Grace's prose is entrancing and lush, and her plot is velvety smooth and though there are surprises at the end, it still feels like you're cocooned in the deadly beauty of the story and the shock is muffled by that softness. Even the cover of the book is delicious and delightful in a sensual way. I would give this beautiful book an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes dark fantasy and/or Rappacinni's Daughter....or Neil Gaiman's Sandman series.

No Funny Business by Amanda Aksel is a YA rom-com with a lot of heart, but I personally didn't find it all that funny. I only LOLed twice, which is paltry compared to the time I've laughed when reading other books that laid no claim to comedy. The prose was snappy and the plot brisk and straightforward, which is all to the good, but I could have used more yucks for my buck. Here's the blurb: Two down-on-their-luck comedians embark on a road tour and find more than a few good laughs on the way.

Olivia Vincent dreams of stand-up comedy stardom. Bustling around a busy Manhattan law office by day and hustling from club to club by night, she can’t catch a break. Work is falling through the cracks, and after ditching a major client to make a performance, Olivia gets the boot.  

Determined to pursue her dreams, she snags an audition in Los Angeles for a coveted spot on late-night TV. But the only way to get there is to join seasoned stand-up Nick Leto on a cross-country road tour. She agrees on one condition—no funny business.

Icky comedy condos, tiny smoking nightclubs, and Nick’s incessant classic rock radio are a far cry from life on the Upper East Side. Reality sets in, and Olivia wonders if she can hack it in showbiz or if she’s just a hack. As Nick helps Olivia improve her act along the way, sparks begin to fly and ignite what they thought was an impossible flame. Maybe being stuck with Nick in a Jeep isn’t so bad. As long as it doesn’t get in the way of Olivia’s actual funny business.

My problem with the whole "enemies to lovers" trope here is that Nick is kind of an asshat. He strings Olivia along and then tells her at the end that he is done with stand up and looking to do something else, even though he's making a good living doing comedy and apparently is talented and handsome. But then, he's also a jerk. So that makes me think that Olivia is kind of a shallow, stupid person who only finds very handsome guys interesting but is willing to ignore a crappy character and mean personality because of those looks. This made me sad and I felt that Olivia could have done better. That said, the book sailed along and I read it in a day. So I'd give it a B, and if you're looking for a distracting book about up and coming standup comedians and all that they have to sacrifice for their careers, then this is the book for you.

Daughter of Sparta by Claire Andrews was a surprisingly fast-paced mythological fantasy romance that was so compelling I couldn't put it down. It retells/reworks the story of Daphne and Apollo from Daphne's perspective, so that we learn what this teenage girl has to go through to save all the gods on Mt Olympus. Here's the blurb:

In this thrilling reimagining of ancient Greek mythology, a headstrong girl becomes the most powerful fighter her people have ever seen.

Seventeen-year-old Daphne has spent her entire life honing her body and mind into that of a warrior, hoping to be accepted by the unyielding people of ancient Sparta. But an unexpected encounter with the goddess Artemis—who holds Daphne's brother's fate in her hands—upends the life she's worked so hard to build. Nine mysterious items have been stolen from Mount Olympus and if Daphne cannot find them, the gods' waning powers will fade away, the mortal world will descend into chaos, and her brother's life will be forfeit.

Guided by Artemis's twin—the handsome and entirely-too-self-assured god Apollo—Daphne's journey will take her from the labyrinth of the Minotaur to the riddle-spinning Sphinx of Thebes, team her up with mythological legends, such as Theseus and Hippolyta of the Amazons, and pit her against the gods themselves.

A reinterpretation of the classic Greek myth of Daphne and Apollo, Daughter of Sparta by debut author Claire Andrews turns the traditionally male-dominated mythology we know into a heart-pounding and empowering female-led adventure.

That last line of the blurb is entirely true...it is a heart-pounding adventure led by a young woman who refuses to give up or to give in, even when the odds and gods are stacked against her. In the original myth, Daphne is a nymph who, after Apollo was struck by Cupids arrow, was pursued by Apollo without cease, (she'd been stricken by Cupid as well, but with an arrow of loathing, so she hated Apollo), though she wanted to remain a virgin and said so many times. When Apollo finally catches her, she begs Gaia, or Earth, to remove her looks so she won't have to be raped by Apollo, and the Earth hears her and turns her into a laurel tree. Apollo then takes the leaves from the tree and makes a crown of them as a symbol of his undying love. In this retelling, Daphne believes herself to be a regular human who has worked all her life to become a Spartan warrior, though she's reviled because she's a woman and an outsider who wasn't born there. She ends up on the journey with Apollo because she's such an excellent warrior, and because Apollo turns her friend and brother into animals and tells her that he won't turn them back unless she helps to retrieve the Muses from captivity. I enjoyed this retelling and the stout heart of Daphne the warrior, so I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes re-tooled Greek myths.

A Psalm For the Wild Built by Becky Chambers is a short science fiction novel that takes place in the far future when humans have overcome climate change and have worked in harmony with the planet, after the robots became sentient and were allowed to leave humanity and live in the wilderness for 200 years. Chambers creates such realistic and odd characters that you find yourself yearning to meet them in real life. Here's the blurb: Winner of the Hugo Award!

In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, bestselling Becky Chambers's delightful new Monk and Robot series, gives us hope for the future.

It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.

One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered.

But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.
They're going to need to ask it a lot.

Becky Chambers's new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?

What's fascinating about this book is how it takes religion, or rather a free form sort of spirituality and asks the reader to figure out how that spirituality plays out when it comes to sentient beings like robots who work via logic and study, and who don't have human needs to take into consideration. The aforementioned Tea Monk is a good guy, but he's got a hole in his soul that nothing can seem to fill...until he meets the robot, and they begin a dialog. I won't spoil any more for future readers, but I found this book, with its Japanese anime austerity prose and twisty, off road plot, to be tender and gentle and poignant. I'd give it a B+ and recommend it to anyone who likes Chambers works, or who enjoyed The Name of the Rose or A Canticle for Leibowitz and their fascinating monks.

No Rings Attached by Rachel Lacey is a lesbian romance from a series in which I'd read and enjoyed the first book. Though it had a few slow moments when the author had us going over every emotion in her main character's heads for the 50th time, there were still some great love scenes and some great chemistry between the protagonists. Here's the blurb:

From award-winning author Rachel Lacey comes the second installment in the Ms. Right series: a captivating romance about a reluctant bookseller finding love in unexpected places.

Lia Harris is tired of being the odd one out. She’s never quite fit in with her uptight family, and now that her roommates have all found love, she’s starting to feel like a third wheel in her own apartment. Fed up with her mother’s constant meddling in her love life, Lia drops hints about a girlfriend she doesn’t have. But with her brother’s London nuptials approaching, she needs to find a date to save face. Lia turns to her best friend, Rosie, for help, and Rosie delivers—with the fun, gorgeous Grace Poston.

Grace loves to have a good time, hiding her insecurities behind a sunny smile. Her recent move to London has provided her with a much-needed fresh start. Grace isn’t looking for love, and she hates weddings, having weathered more than her fair share of heartache. Friendships are different, though, so for Rosie’s sake, she reluctantly agrees to pose as Lia’s adoring girlfriend for the wedding festivities.

Both Grace and Lia are prepared for an awkward weekend, complete with prying family members and a guest room with only one bed. As it turns out, they get along well—spectacularly, in fact. Before they know it, the chemistry they’re faking feels all too real. But is their wedding weekend a fleeting performance or the rehearsal for a love that’s meant to last?

I wanted to love this book, but there was just too much family and friend drama that seemed over the top to me. I enjoyed the look into the sex lives of lesbian couples, and I liked that the characters weren't perfect, but Grace seemed like she had enough mental illness to really need some time with a therapist/psychiatrist. Lia also seemed kind of a bore, always wanting to discuss every single emotion or decision to death. But somehow they work it out for a final HEA. I'd give this book a B-, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys books about lady loves and going for your dreams.