Hey Book Dragons! It's the end of February and Mermaid/Pisces season already, as we head into March and hopefully, some early spring warmth! I'm looking forward to some new series and some new seasons of well-loved series returning. There are also a bunch of great new books coming out in the spring by my favorite authors, including a new Shana Abe and some MJ Rose, Maria V Snyder and Devon Monk! I have about 20-30 authors who are my favorites, and whose works I snap up the minute they become available, but that's a list for another post. Meanwhile I have a bunch of new reviews and some great tidbits from the publishing/bookselling world ahead. Enjoy, and hang in there, spring is on the horizon!
I've been a part of B&N's Membership program for decades, though since the pandemic, I've not shopped in an actual store (even before the pandemic, the closest Barnes and Noble to me closed down, so I've not sought another one out in at least 6 years), so I've had no opportunity to use my membership discount card. Now they're offering this premium membership, and I'm torn as to whether to pony up the extra $15 bucks per year when I don't even know where my nearest store is anymore, and Amazon still usually beats B&N online's prices by a lot. But! We shall see how this all shakes out in the future....it might still be worth investigating.
B&N Launches 'Premium Membership' Program
Barnes & Noble has launched a "Premium Membershiphttps://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFCPxekI6ak2K09wHQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iXXcShpoMLg-gVdw" program that costs $39.99 per year and features "offers, perks, and exclusives," as well as "everyday discounts and many more benefits," the company noted. The Wall Street Journal reported that in asking customers to pay an annual fee for a range of perks, the bookstore chain is following some of its competitors, including Amazon and Walmart, "whose respective Prime and Walmart+ programs offer no-minimum free shipping, among other benefits."
B&N is also launching a free, lower-tier membership program that allows members to earn a virtual stamp for every $10 spent in a purchase (10 stamps = $5 reward).
Noting that both new programs "will give Barnes & Noble the opportunity to learn more about its customers--from what they read to when and how often they buy--so that it can pitch them more effectively," WSJ wrote that the offerings are loosely modeled after a membership program at Waterstones, which is also owned by Elliott Management.
"If you don't have a free program, the vast majority of your customers are blank to you," said James Daunt, CEO of B&N and Waterstones, adding that with such a program, "you can learn what they are buying, and then promote to them and engage them."
Daunt added that the new paid-membership program would replace a previous one, which offered discounts for purchases made inside B&N's physical stores--as well as free shipping for most online orders--and cost $25 a year. He estimated that at least three-quarters of the 5.5 million people currently paying $25 annually would sign up for the new $40-a-year program, and that number will be bolstered by new customers attracted to the Premium Membership.
Ah, Queen Anne, the hill of ill repute in centuries past, and now a hang out for the rich and famous of the Seattle area. I'm so glad that, after QA books went dark that these people decided to reopen a bookstore on QA Hill. I wish I could actually visit it, but the pandemic has had me sequestered for over 3 years now. Still, Happy Birthday to QABC!
Happy 10th Birthday, Queen Anne Book Company!
Congratulations to Queen Anne Book Company https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFCPxekI6ak2K09xHQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iXXcShpoMLg-gVdw, Seattle, Wash., which will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a weekend long celebration March 4-5. Festivities will include gifts and giveaways, bags of sweet treats for all who stop by, photo opportunities, a Happy Birthday Wall of Wishes from customers, and the donation of 10% of the weekend's proceeds to the Queen Anne Helpline and Mary's Place, two organizations that provide essential services to children and families.
In 2013, the de Jonges, longtime Queen Anne residents, joined with indie bookstore professional Janis Segress, who recently became general manager of Elliott Bay Book Company, to do what at that time seemed risky--open a bookstore to replace Queen Anne Books, the shop that had been shuttered four months earlier. Four veteran booksellers from the former shop returned to work their bookselling magic.
"The past 10 years are marked by the loyal support of this neighborhood," said Judy de Jonge. "Community is our watchword, first and foremost. We support our local schools, our neighborhood literacy programs, we host author events with local writers, and we are here day in and day out helping our customers find their next best book." Queen Anne Book Company's staff includes children's book buyer Tegan Tigani, who is on the board of the American Booksellers Association andhas been nominated to be president for a two-year term, starting in May.
I have always been a huge fan of Susan Sontag's works, and her brilliant mind, which is why I'm a bit queasy to read that dull actor Kristen Stewart is set to play SS in a movie. I've not seen Stewart in many on screen roles, but what I have seen is unimpressive. She deadpans because she doesn't seem to have any range as an actor...she's wooden and disengaged from her fellow actors and the audience. In other words, she's boring on screen. Hopefully she will display something more in portraying Sontag, who was witty and magnificent.
Movie: Sontag
Kristen Stewart will play Susan Sontag in the tentatively titled Sontag https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFCPxekI6ak2K09-Eg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iXXcShpoMLg-gVdw, based on Ben Moser's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Sontag: Her Life, Screen Daily reported. The film is directed by Kirsten Johnson, who is co-writing with Lisa Kron.
Stewart is president of the international jury at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, which is taking place now and where filming will begin before moving on to shoot in California, New York, Paris and Sarajevo."We're using Berlin as a moment to kick off the project and do documentary footage of Kristen as the head of the jury and talking to her about how she's going to become Sontag," said Brouhaha Entertainment co-founder Gabrielle Tana. "It will be a drama, but with a documentary aspect to it. Kirsten has a wonderful approach to storytelling, and this is reflective of that, so she will use documentary in it."
This sounds fascinating, and, as I'm a big Richard Armitage fan, I'll be keeping an eye out for this TV show, though I've not read the book.
TV: Fool Me Once
Richard Armitage (The Hobbit trilogy), Michelle Keegan (Brassic) and Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous) will lead the cast of new Netflixseries Fool Me Once https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFCAlrgI6ak2Kh1-GA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iXUpfwpoMLg-gVdw, based on the Harlan Coben novel. Variety reported that the eight-part series, produced by Nicola Shindler's Quay Street Productions, is "the eighth project to emerge from Coben's partnership with Netflix, which has seen his works adapted in four languages." Previous collaborations include Safe, The Stranger and Stay Close. The cast also features Emmett J.Scanlan (Kin), Dino Fetscher (Years and Years) and Adeel Akhtar (Ali & Ava). Coben exec produces alongside Shindler, series writer Danny Brocklehurst and Richard Fee. Charlotte Coben, Yemi Oyefuwa, Nina Metivier and Tom Farrelly are also writing on the show while Outlander director David Moore will lead direct, with Nimer Rashed helming the series' second block.
"I'm thrilled and honored to once again be collaborating with my uber-talented partners Danny, Nicola and Richard," said Coben. "Fool Me Once will be our fourth Netflix series together, and man, it never gets old!... I can't wait to see how this dream cast brings these characters to life."
The Liar's Crown by Abigail Owen is a delicious dark YA fantasy that kept me riveted to the page from the start. The prose seems light and breezy at first, but it builds, along with the juicy, twisty plot, to a crescendo that leaves readers wanting more, like right now! Here's the blurb: Some shadows protect you…others will kill you in this dazzling new fantasy series from award-winning author Abigail Owen.
Everything
about my life is a lie. As a hidden twin princess, born second, I have
only one purpose—to sacrifice my life for my sister if death comes for
her. I’ve been living under the guise of a poor, obscure girl of no
standing, slipping into the palace and into the role of the true
princess when danger is present.
Now the queen is dead and the
ageless King Eidolon has sent my sister a gift—an eerily familiar
gift—and a proposal to wed. I don’t trust him, so I do what I was born
to do and secretly take her place on the eve of the coronation. Which is
why, when a figure made of shadow kidnaps the new queen, he gets me by
mistake.
As I try to escape, all the lies start to unravel. And
not just my lies. The Shadowraith who took me has secrets of his own. He
struggles to contain the shadows he wields—other faces, identities that
threaten my very life.Winter is at the walls. Darkness is
looming. And the only way to save my sister and our dominion is to kill
Eidolon…and the Shadowraith who has stolen my heart.
I'm fascinated by how many dark fantasies I've read lately that have the trope of magic equating to dark, shadowy beings living inside one or more protagonists. Here the male protagonist, Reven, carries the magic shadows within him, and he soon learns that his evil brother also has powers, but uses his to control people's minds. There's a lot of political stuff, but it never gets too boring, and the romance between the shadowraith and Meren the twin with brains is deliciously slow burning. I can't really say too much more without spoiling a lot of the book, so I'll just give it an A, and recommend it to those who enjoy fairy-tale retellings that are dark fantasy/romances.
Pandora, by Susan Stokes-Chapman is a historical romance-fictional retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Pandora's Box. The prose is meticulous and full of grotesque description of life at the turn of the 19th century, when England was a cesspool of filth and starvation for most of it's population. The plot slowly gains momentum, but if you're in the mood for something that moves at a clip, this book isn't for you. It takes more than 50 pages for it to really get going, and even then, there are redundancies and info dumps that slow things down to a crawl. Here's the blurb:
Steeped in mystery and rich in imagination, an exhilarating historical novel set in Georgian London where the discovery of a mysterious ancient Greek vase sets in motion conspiracies, revelations, and romance.
London, 1799. Dora Blake, an aspiring jewelry artist, lives with her odious uncle atop her late parents’ once-famed shop of antiquities. After a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, her uncle begins to act suspiciously, keeping the vase locked in the store’s basement, away from prying eyes—including Dora’s. Intrigued by her uncle’s peculiar behavior, Dora turns to young, ambitious antiquarian scholar Edward Lawrence who eagerly agrees to help. Edward believes the ancient vase is the key that will unlock his academic future; Dora sees it as a chance to establish her own name.
But what Edward discovers about the vase has Dora questioning everything she has believed about her life, her family, and the world as she knows it. As Dora uncovers the truth, she comes to understand that some doors are locked and some mysteries are buried for a reason, while others are closer to the surface than they appear.
A story of myth and mystery, secrets and deception, fate and hope, Pandora is an enchanting work of historical fiction as captivating and evocative as The Song of Achilles, The Essex Serpent, and The Miniaturist.
Though it takes too long to get going and become interesting, once things start to move, they really get going, and by the end it's one gasping moment after another. I liked Dora and her fight for independence from her odious uncle, but I found the final rehabilitated prostitute/housekeeper trope to be sad and nauseating. Still, I'd give this book a B-and recommend it to those who like mythical re-tellings done in the style of HG Wells or Jules Verne.
Fuzz by Mary Roach is a non-fiction humorous book about so-called "nuisance" animals, like raccoons, rats, bears, geese, etc, who, due to our ever-expanding human footprint, are losing their habitats and are now having to interact with humans in funny or often destructive ways. Here's the blurb: Join "America’s funniest science writer" (Peter Carlson, Washington Post), Mary Roach, on an irresistible investigation into the unpredictable world where wildlife and humans meet.
What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.
Roach tags along with animal-attack forensics investigators, human-elephant conflict specialists, bear managers, and "danger tree" faller blasters. Intrepid as ever, she travels from leopard-terrorized hamlets in the Indian Himalaya to St. Peter’s Square in the early hours before the pope arrives for Easter Mass, when vandal gulls swoop in to destroy the elaborate floral display. She taste-tests rat bait, learns how to install a vulture effigy, and gets mugged by a macaque.
Combining little-known forensic science and conservation genetics with a motley cast of laser scarecrows, langur impersonators, and trespassing squirrels, Roach reveals as much about humanity as about nature’s lawbreakers. When it comes to "problem" wildlife, she finds, humans are more often the problem—and the solution. Fascinating, witty, and humane, Fuzz offers hope for compassionate coexistence in our ever-expanding human habitat.
I've read a couple of other Roach books, including Stiff and Gulp, and since I really enjoyed them with my library book group, I thought this book would also be a good choice for my book group in March. That said, I wasn't as enchanted with this book as I was with the other two, mainly because Roach seems to have more of a bias and an agenda in this book than she did in her others. She seems determined to highlight humanity as being the real nuisance, and expects farmers and homeowners to find non-violent solutions to animals who invade their homes or eat their crops or cause other vandalism. She skirts over the fact that rats and mice (and squirrels and raccoons) carry disease and foul homes with their urine and feces, as well as causing expensive damage by chewing through wires/power lines and cables of all kinds. Allowing rodents to roam free on your property is a recipe for disaster and diseases that can be life-threatening. If it's a choice between my family's health and that of an invasive species like a rat or a seagull or a raccoon or possum, I choose my family, and if the rats need to die or be poisoned/trapped, then that is what I will do. I believe my grandfathers, both farmers, felt the same way, and often killed raccoons, foxes, rats and other invasive animals that were destroying their crops...and no, they couldn't afford to let a certain percentage of their crops be consumed by pests. That assumes that there will only be one kind of pest predation, and that the pests in question will somehow know when to stop eating the crops so that the farmer can still make a living. Animals are not that smart, and it appears that "city folk" like Roach are into anthropomorphizing these creatures so as to make them seem more human-like and sympathetic, when they're not at all like humans and don't really care if a farmer and his family starve. Roach keeps pointing out how "cute" various animals are, as if that should be the deciding factor as to whether or not to kill them if they're eating holes into your home or eating your crops. Roach's usual humor comes off as snarky and cynical and ill-informed, and her book has way too many info dumps that slow the book down to a snore-fest at every turn. I'd give this lame duck of a book a C, and only recommend it to people who think PETA is a good organization. (I don't).
Last Chance Book Club by Hope Ramsay is a Southern cozy romance that was a lot like Southern Sweet Tea from McDonalds...tooth-achingly over-sugared colored water that really doesn't taste too much like tea, more like liquid candy with a little flavoring. The prose was spritely and silly, which was fine for the first several chapters but got tiresome after the first half of the book. The plot was standard enemies to lovers fare, so you know where this plane is going to land before the first chapter is over. The author also used the tired trope of the petite busty blonde protagonist and the handsome reprobate cowboy male protagonist, who only needs the love of a good woman to set him straight. Ugh...insert eye roll here. He also, of course, provides a father figure to her nasty, snotty 12 year old son. Sigh. I've noticed that the "hot single mom divorced from a bad executive man who ignores his child" trope is used in at least 70 percent of the romance novels that I see these days. Here's the blurb: After a painful divorce, Savannah White wants nothing more than to
find her happy place. So when she gets the chance to pack up her life
-and her son - and move to the idyllic town where she spent childhood
summers, she jumps at the opportunity. Last Chance is just as charming
as she remembered. She's even invited to join the local book club, where
talk soon turns to Savannah's plan to bring the ramshackle downtown
movie theater back to life. A new challenge is just what Savannah needs
to move forward.. . .
Dash Randall wants to put his fortune to
good use, but he remembers Savannah as the bratty "princess" who
descended upon him each June, causing no end of trouble. But the
teenager he remembered has grown into a gorgeous and generous woman, and
it isn't long before Dash finds himself wanting to make brand new
memories with Savannah. But first, Dash and Savannah will need to make
peace with their pasts to find a new chance for love.
At least, thank heaven, they make the point that the protagonists, who are all over each other sexually, aren't actually cousins or related by blood. That said, it was still a bit squicky that they still held grudges over silly things they said or did to one another when they were children, decades ago. And that they found that somehow they were sexually attracted to each other though they'd almost been raised as siblings...ewww. Both Savannah and Dash needed to grow the heck up and stop acting like they were still children, especially if they wanted to go into business together or raise that snotty, entitled tween, whose response to everything good in life is that it's "tight," as if that is the only term that teenagers use to discuss their feelings nowadays. Blech. I'd give this gross and goofy romance that made Southerners seem like a collection of stereotypes a C+, and only recommend it to anyone stupid enough to think that's okay.
Nevernight by Jay Kristoff is a dark adventure fantasy along the lines of Vespertine and other assassin/steampunk series, many of which I've read and enjoyed over the past few decades. This would almost be a YA romance/horror book, but Kristoff manages to somehow make the gore more palatable by describing it with such lush prose that you almost don't notice that he's talking about a disembowelment or a beheading. That said, there's too many instances of sexuality and gory battles/deaths/torture for this to be appropriate for anyone under the age of 18. Here's the blurb: Nevernight is the first in an epic new fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author, Jay Kristoff.
In
a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a
school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed
her family.
Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is
barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone
and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god,
hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for
speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer,
and a future she never imagined.
Now, a sixteen year old Mia is
apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic —
the Red Church. Treachery and trials await her with the Church’s halls,
and to fail is to die. But if she survives to initiation, Mia will be
inducted among the chosen of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step
closer to the only thing she desires.
The plot is full of surprising reveals, including who the mole/traitor is at the Assassin's school, and that, along with the riveting prose and well developed characters kept me turning pages into the wee hours. Mia and her shadow cat are like something out of a twisted Miyazaki animation (like Kiki's Delivery Service) and her fellow apprentices are all just as interesting (and full fledged). I've already got the second book in the series set up on my Kindle, and I'm looking forward to reading it after I've finished the Book of Most Precious Substance, which is proving to be completely different than I thought it would be. Anyway, I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone interested in Assassin Academies for orphaned youth in a twisted, gore-soaked Harry Potter's Hogwarts-style of environment.
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