G'day fellow readers!
I've not posted previously because I've been sick with some kind of awful flu virus for about a week and a couple of days, and since I couldn't get out of bed or even sit up for more than a few minutes, all I could really accomplish was to drink fluids, take meds, read and sleep. So I am short on tidbits this time because I've not been able to really scour Shelf Awareness or some of my other book related newsletters, like Book Riot or Goodreads, but the one I do have is pretty cool, if I do say so myself...and I dearly wish that they had this vending machine in Cambridge, Mass, when I was living there in the 80s.
Cool
Idea of the Day: Tarot Card Vending Machine
"Cool thing alert--we have a TAROT
CARD VENDING MACHINE!
https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFONn7oI6ak0JEglGw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iUX57ypoMLg-gVdw"
Copper Dog Books, Beverly, Mass., posted on Instagram. "For the low cost of $1, you can
get a tarot reading from our vending machine. And the best part? We've
stocked it with our favorite decks. (Erin Morgenstern's Phantomwise Tarot
is in here!) Kick off spring with a tarot card reading!"
I've got four books to review, so here goes!
The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labushkes is a WWII story told through the eyes of three different women at different ends of the war. Before the war begins, in 1933, while the Nazis are coming to power, American Althea James accepts an invitation to do a cultural exchange in Berlin from Joseph Goebbels. She falls for a creepy Nazi and ends up believing their lies until she sees how the Nazis are really treating intellectuals and artists and Jewish people. At the beginning of the war, in 1936, Hannah escapes Berlin for Paris, and finally hopes she's free and safe. Little does she know that the City of Light will soon be overrun by the Germans and she will be in more danger than ever. She works at a library that is full of copies of books burned by the Germans. Then in New York toward the end of the war in 1944, widowed Vivian is working for the Armed Services Editions, which ships books to Allied soldiers across the world, and she suddenly encounters a shifty senator's attempts to censor the books, making the classic stories unreadable for the troops. As Viv engages in a fight to keep the ASE's censorship free, she encounters the other two female characters just when she needs their help the most. Here's the blurb:
Berlin 1933. Following the
success of her debut novel, American writer Althea James receives an
invitation from Joseph Goebbels himself to participate in a culture
exchange program in Germany. For a girl from a small town in Maine, 1933
Berlin seems to be sparklingly cosmopolitan, blossoming in the midst of
a great change with the charismatic new chancellor at the helm. Then
Althea meets a beautiful woman who promises to show her the real Berlin, and soon she’s drawn into a group of resisters who make her question everything she knows about her hosts—and herself.
Paris 1936. She
may have escaped Berlin for Paris, but Hannah Brecht discovers the City
of Light is no refuge from the anti-Semitism and Nazi sympathizers she
thought she left behind. Heartbroken and tormented by the role she
played in the betrayal that destroyed her family, Hannah throws herself
into her work at the German Library of Burned Books. Through the quiet
power of books, she believes she can help counter the tide of fascism
she sees rising across Europe and atone for her mistakes. But when a
dear friend decides actions will speak louder than words, Hannah must
decide what stories she is willing to live—or die—for.
New York 1944. Since
her husband Edward was killed fighting the Nazis, Vivian Childs has
been waging her own war: preventing a powerful senator’s attempts to
censor the Armed Service Editions, portable paperbacks that are shipped
by the millions to soldiers overseas. Viv knows just how much they mean
to the men through the letters she receives—including the last one she
got from Edward. She also knows the only way to win this battle is to
counter the senator’s propaganda with a story of her own—at the heart of
which lies the reclusive and mysterious woman tending the American
Library of Nazi-Banned Books in Brooklyn.
As Viv
unknowingly brings her censorship fight crashing into the secrets of the
recent past, the fates of these three women will converge, changing all
of them forever.
Inspired by the true story of the
Council of Books in Wartime—the WWII organization founded by
booksellers, publishers, librarians, and authors to use books as
“weapons in the war of ideas”—The Librarian of Burned Books is
an unforgettable historical novel, a haunting love story, and a
testament to the beauty, power, and goodness of the written word.
The prose for this novel was rather straight-laced, but still held the shape of the fast-moving plot quite well. I enjoyed Viv's story, fighting for books for soldiers in 1944 to be the most enthralling, but really each woman's story had something going for it. To be honest, though I though Althea was kind of dim, and I couldn't understand how she could be so utterly naive to buy everything the Nazis told her. Still, once you get past the first chapter or so, you're in for a fast-moving tale. I'd give it a B+ and recommend it to anyone who likes books and tales of women working in the resistance during WWII.
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan was the second book of hers that I read, and this was more of a historical romance than it was a literary fiction novel. The prose was crisp and clean and followed a strong plot that marched along until everyone was coupled up at the end. HEA's all around! Here's the blurb:
Three
plucky women lift the spirits of home-front brides in wartime Britain,
where clothes rationing leaves little opportunity for pomp or
celebration—even at weddings—in this heartwarming novel based on true
events, from the bestselling author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir.
After
renowned fashion designer Cressida Westcott loses both her home and her
design house in the London Blitz, she has nowhere to go but the family
manor house she fled decades ago. Praying that her niece and nephew will
be more hospitable than her brother had been, she arrives with nothing
but the clothes she stands in, at a loss as to how to rebuild her
business while staying in a quaint country village.
Her niece,
Violet Westcott, is thrilled that her famous aunt is coming to stay—the
village has been interminably dull with all the men off fighting. But
just as Cressida arrives, so does Violet’s conscription letter. It
couldn’t have come at a worse time; how will she ever find a suitably
aristocratic husband if she has to spend her days wearing a frumpy
uniform and doing war work?
Meanwhile, the local vicar’s
daughter, Grace Carlisle, is trying in vain to repair her mother’s gown,
her only chance of a white wedding. When Cressida Westcott appears at
the local Sewing Circle meeting, Grace asks for her help—but Cressida
has much more to teach the ladies than just simple sewing skills.
Before
long, Cressida’s spirit and ambition galvanizes the village group into
action, and they find themselves mending wedding dresses not only for
local brides, but for brides across the country. And as the women
dedicate themselves to helping others celebrate love, they might even
manage to find it for themselves.
While I generally like HEAs and happy couples, several of these romances felt a bit forced to me, and I realize that with a war on everyone wanted to get in as much happiness as they could while still alive, but does that always mean finding a person of the opposite sex and getting married and having babies? What about the women, like Cressida, who aren't interested in children, but focused instead on a successful design career? Why would she succumb to the whispers and warnings of "becoming an old maid/spinster" and "dying alone?" It's misogynistic to think that women can't have fulfilling lives without men and babies. Not all women want or need those things, or are willing to sacrifice their livlihoods for them, as is inevitable, even today, when you have a marriage and a child or children. Women still do a majority of the caretaking of children, plus the household chores of cooking and cleaning and scheduling, etc. And women who still want a career have to do double duty and often burn out over trying to keep all the balls in the air. Though I was disappointed that Cressida succumbed to the fear of being a spinster, I was glad that Grace finally got some gumption and flowered as a person before marrying her childhood sweetheart. I was also glad to see discussions of how class lines were broken down during the war and the snobs had to work alongside commoners and do the same duties and share the same dangers. All in all I'd give this book another B, and recommend it to anyone who likes historical romances.
Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders is a YA science fiction adventure that takes readers on quite a ride, with spicy prose and a zippy/twisty plot that will keep you guessing. Here's the blurb:
Outsmart Your Enemies. Outrun the Galaxy.
“Just please, remember what I told you. Run. Don’t stop running for anything.”
Tina never worries about being 'ordinary'--she doesn't have to, since she's known practically forever
that she's not just Tina Mains, average teenager and beloved daughter.
She's also the keeper of an interplanetary rescue beacon, and one day
soon, it's going to activate, and then her dreams of saving all
the worlds and adventuring among the stars will finally be possible.
Tina's legacy, after all, is intergalactic--she is the hidden clone of a
famed alien hero, left on Earth disguised as a human to give the
universe another chance to defeat a terrible evil.
But when the
beacon activates, it turns out that Tina's destiny isn't quite what she
expected. Things are far more dangerous than she ever assumed--and
everyone in the galaxy is expecting her to actually be
the brilliant tactician and legendary savior Captain Thaoh Argentian,
but Tina....is just Tina. And the Royal Fleet is losing the war,
badly--the starship that found her is on the run and they barely manage
to escape Earth with the planet still intact.
Luckily, Tina is
surrounded by a crew she can trust, and her best friend Rachel, and she
is still determined to save all the worlds. But first she'll have to
save herself.
Buckle up your
seatbelt for this thrilling YA sci-fi adventure set against an
intergalactic war from internationally bestselling author Charlie Jane
Anders.
Though I enjoyed this book I did feel it was in need of an edit to tighten it up in parts. Though that's a minor nitpick, as Anders is a smart, creative author who never falls prey to the same petty science fiction/romance/women in space tropes that those of us who've been reading SF for decades grow weary of reading repeatedly. I'd give this novel an A, and recommend it to fans of Becky Chambers works.
The Clockwork Scarab By Colleen Gleason is a YA Steampunk mystery (the first in a series) featuring the intrepid Mina Holmes and Evaline Stoker, the latter sister of Bram of Dracula fame and the former the niece of Sherlock Holmes of 221B Baker Street. It's got all the trappings of a fun romp into the alternate Victorian world of famous detectives and vampire writers, but I felt at times as if the writer were sneering a bit by condescending to the reader. Here's the blurb: Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes never meant to get into the family business.
But
when you're the sister of Bram and the niece of Sherlock, vampire
hunting and mystery solving are in your blood. And when two society
girls go missing, there's no one more qualified to investigate.
Now
fierce Evaline and logical Mina must resolve their rivalry, navigate
the advances of not just one but three mysterious gentlemen, and solve a
murder with only one clue: the strange Egyptian scarab. The stakes are
high.
If Stoker and Holmes don't unravel why the belles of London society are in such danger, they'll become the next victims.
It's alarming how similar the author paints the teenage girls of that era with teenage girls of today, in all their snotty, cruel one-ups-manship. That said, by the end Mina and Eva were able to see the value in each others methods and skills and able to work together to find a solution to the mystery. I'd give this book a B, and recommend it to YA readers who love steampunk stories.
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