Welcome to the third week of April already! I've been reading up a storm inbetween dealing with my husbands illness, and my own health hurdles. However, it has been satisfying to watch my TBR stack dwindling. And the cold rainy weather was meant for curling up with a good novel and a warm cup of tea. I hope you all are enjoying the first books and buds of spring, and I hope you enjoy the tidbits and reviews herein. Keep cozy!
I've read more than a few of the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, and I'm so sorry to read that this fantastic author has passed on. Blessings on her head for her fantastic work, RIP.
Obituary Note: Anne Perry
Anne Perry, https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFKIle8I6akyIxslTA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iVWpSnpoMLg-gVdw, author of more than 100 novels that have sold more than 26 million copies worldwide, a "crime writer with her own dark tale," as the New York Times put it, died on April 10. She was 84.
Her work included two suspense series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels. She also wrote a series of books featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt's son, Daniel, as well as the Elena Standish series, set during World War I, 19 Christmas holiday novellas, a historical novel, The Sheen on the Silk, set in the Byzantine Empire, and short stories. Her most recent novel is The Traitor Among Us, the fifth installment in the Elena Standish series, to be published in September.
Ballantine Books, her publisher for more than two decades, said her work is noted for "memorable characters, historical accuracy, and exploration of social and ethical issues." In 2000, she won an Edgar Award for her short story "Heroes." She also won the Premio de Honor Aragoan Negro in 2015, was selected by the Times of London as one of the 20th century's 100 Masters of Crime, and twice was guest of honor at Bouchercon.
Perry's agents Donald Maass and Meg Davis said, "Anne was a loyal and loving friend, and her writing was driven by her fierce commitment to raising awareness around social injustice. Many readers have been moved by her empathy for people backed into impossible situations or overwhelmed by the difficulties of life. Her characters inspired much love among her fans and comforted many readers who were going through tough times themselves."
Susanna Porter, Perry's editor, said, "Ballantine Books has had the honor of being Anne Perry's U.S. publisher for over 20 years. Her novels have collectively spent many months on the New York Times and other national bestseller lists, American readers having embraced her clever and thought-provoking crime writing by the thousands. Anne in turn embraced America, relocating from Scotland to Los Angeles in her later years. Receiving her green card, she said, was one of the happiest days of her life. We will miss not only Anne's writing, but her good company, her sharp mind, and brilliant imagination."
Born in London, England, Perry spent part of her childhood in New Zealand, where at age 15, then named Juliet Hulme, she was at the center of a grisly homicide. She and her best friend murdered the best friend's mother in an attempt somehow to keep the girls together as Perry's parents were separating and about to send Perry abroad. The two went to prison for five years and were, the New York Times wrote, "given new identities and instructed never to meet again. If they violated that order, they were warned, they would return to prison and serve life sentences.
"Perry's criminal past was revealed publicly in the summer of 1994 when word leaked out that Peter Jackson would recount her story in his forthcoming film Heavenly Creatures, starring Kate Winslet as the smugly confident teenage girl who later changed her name to Anne Perry and Melanie Lynskey as her sullen and insecure classmate Pauline."
When her past became public, Perry acknowledged the crime, saying, as the Times wrote, that "she had been afraid that if she did not go along with the murder plan, her distraught friend might kill herself."
In Interiors, a 2009 documentary about Perry, she said, "In a sense it's not a matter--at the end--of judging. I did this much good and that much bad. Which is the greater?... It's who you are when time's up that matters."
I love Billy Porter and I've been reading James Baldwin's works since I was a young teenager. I'm really looking forward to this new biopic, so I hope that it debuts soon.
Billy Porter to Play Novelist, Essayist, and Activist James Baldwin in New Biopic
Allen Media Group Motion Picture has announced that Billy Porter will star as novelist, essayist, and civil rights activist James Baldwin in a new biopic. Porter will also co-write the script with screenwriter Dan McCabe. The film will be based on the biography James Baldwin: A Biography by David Leeming. “As a Black queer man on this planet with relative consciousness, I find myself, like James Baldwin said, ‘in a rage all the time,'” Porter said in a statement. “I am because James was. I stand on James Baldwin’s shoulders, and I intend to expand his legacy for generations to come.”
I remember reading some of Pollack's work in the early 90s, and I'm gobsmacked that she's passed on already. RIP
Obituary Note: Rachel Pollack
Rachel Pollack, the prolific author who wrote award-winning science fiction and fantasy, as well as bestselling books on tarot, died on April 7. She was 77.
In 1980, Pollack published Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, a guide to tarot that has never gone out of print and has been described as the "bible of tarot." In 1989 she won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for her novel Unquenchable Fire, and its sequel, Temporary Agency, won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1994. Her book Godmother Night won the 1997 World Fantasy Award, and her most recent novel was The Fissure King, published in 2017.
In the 1990s, Pollack helmed a 20-plus issue run of the comic series Doom Patrol for DC's imprint Vertigo, taking over from Grant Morrison.
During her Doom Patrol run, Pollack created the character Kate Godwin, "considered to be the first transgender superhero in mainstream comics,"the Guardian reported https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFKIkLgI6akyIx4lEg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iVWpHwpoMLg-gVdw.
Author Neil Gaiman, a friend of Pollack since the 1980s who visited her shortly before her death, wrote: "Rachel was a beloved writer of fantasy, but I prefer to describe her as a magical realist. She wrote these wonderful books of heightened reality and magical worlds where she would concretize metaphor."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1945, Pollack began her career as an author with the short story "Pandora's Bust," published in 1971 in Michael Moorcock's magazine New World. Pollack transitioned shortly thereafter, and while living in the U.K., she became an activist and coordinated a group within the Gay Liberation Front that in 1972 released the first trans manifesto, called "Don't Call Me Mister You Fucking Beast."
"Rachel was a crystallizing force in the trans movement and so many other areas," remembered British writer and cultural critic Roz Kavenay. "She was perpetually an inspirational figure, and was one of the first professional trans writers who had a career while out, and proved that it was possible to do that."
Writer and historian Morgan M Page said of Pollack's place in the tarot world: "Quite simply, Rachel was the greatest living authority on the tarot." She was a member of the American Tarot Association, the International Tarot Society, and the Tarot Guild of Australia. She taught at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, created her own tarot decks, and wrote the books for The Vertigo Tarot and Salvador Dali's Tarot, among others.
"Rachel was a trailblazer, an independent spirit, and a shining light, as she will continue to be," wrote the staff of Red Wheel/Weiser Books in a tribute. "We are so grateful and honored to have had the opportunity to work with her."
Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell is a YA fantasy/coming of age tale that would suit preteens and young teenagers, specifically because of it's focus on dealing with the feelings of insecurity and unworthiness (and depression) that plague teenage girls, in this instance. Bakewell's prose is also simple and straightforward, which suits its magical melodramatic plot quite well. There's a lot of teen angst and dealing with emotional storms while navigating the family dynamics of disapproving and approving but pushy parents. For those just coming into puberty, all of this, plus hormonal changes and fears will be familiar (and necessary) territory to explore. Here's the blurb:
Perfect for fans of Margaret Rogerson and Tamora Pierce, this standalone YA debut is a stunning cottagecore fantasy romance about a girl with powerful and violent magic which she must learn to control—or lose everything she loves.
Clara’s magic has always been wild. But it’s never been dangerous. Then a simple touch causes poisonous flowers to bloom in her father’s chest.
The only way to heal him is to cast an extremely difficult spell that requires perfect control. And the only person willing to help is her former best friend, Xavier, who’s grown from a sweet, shy child into someone distant and mysterious.
Xavier asks a
terrible price in return, knowing Clara will give anything to save her
father. As she struggles to reconcile the new Xavier with the boy she
once loved, she discovers how many secrets he’s hiding. And as she hunts
for the truth, she instead finds the root of a terrible darkness that’s
taken hold in the queendom—a darkness only Clara’s magic is powerful
enough to stop.
Clara's story is particularly poignant because she goes from throwing immature emotional tantrums that express themselves as breaking things and sprouting flowers everywhere, even inside of people's bodies, to a young woman who finally takes responsibility for her actions and reigns in her emotional storms, and learns to appreciate herself and her magic, which can heal as well as harm. Her romantic interest, Xavier, learns some of the same lessons, but also realizes that his toxic relationship with his father has to end, and that he's going to be fine without all the restrictions that his family name/magic had put upon him. There are trans and gay characters in this book, which I think the younger generations will appreciate, and the exuberance of the story and it's ending will keep them reading well past their bedtime. I'd give this sweet and feisty book a B, and recommend it to those on the cusp or just coming into puberty.
The Nurse's Secret by Amanda Skenandore is a historical romantic fiction novel set in Gilded Age New York (late 19th century). While the story itself is about the early days of professional nursing and the difficulties women faced in even the lower levels of the medical profession, I found that the romantic storyline seemed a bit forced here, instead of woven into the pattern of the plot. There was the suggestion that if a woman didn't marry, she was seen as no better than a prostitute, especially among the working classes..and while this may have been accurate to the time, I wanted to see Una, the protagonist, leading a life successfully on her own, without the snobby doctor taking her back as if he's doing her a big favor. Anyway, here's the blurb:
The unflinching, spellbinding new book from the acclaimed author of The Second Life of Mirielle West.
Based on the little-known story of America’s first nursing school, a
young female grifter in 1880s New York evades the police by conning her
way into Bellevue Hospital’s training school for nurses, while a spate
of murders continues to follow her as she tries to leave the gritty
streets of the city behind.
Based on Florence Nightingale’s nursing principles, Bellevue is the
first school of its kind in the country. Where once nurses were assumed
to be ignorant and unskilled, Bellevue prizes discipline, intellect, and
moral character, and only young women of good breeding need apply. At
first, Una balks at her prim classmates and the doctors’ endless
commands. Yet life on the streets has prepared her for the horrors of
injury and disease found on the wards, and she slowly gains friendship
and self-respect.
Just as she finds her footing, Una’s
suspicions about a patient’s death put her at risk of exposure, and will
force her to choose between her instinct for self-preservation, and
exposing her identity in order to save others.
Amanda
Skenandore brings her medical expertise to a page-turning story that
explores the evolution of modern nursing—including the grisly realities
of nineteenth-century medicine—as seen through the eyes of an intriguing
and dynamic heroine.
It's obvious that the author did scads of research into this era and the beginnings of nursing as a profession, and while I respect that, I felt that there were just a few too many info-dumps for my taste, though to be fair, most were well-woven into the plot so they didn't slow down the story very much. I really liked Una's fight to move her life to a better place, and her strength in fighting rampant misogyny was inspiring. I'd give this book a B+ and recommend it to anyone who knows or loves a nurse, and who is interested in women's history.
The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear is a historical thriller by the author of the much beloved (for good reason, too...I've read all of them) Maisie Dobbs mysteries that recounts the tale of a spy in post WWII England. Here's the blurb:
The White Lady introduces yet another extraordinary heroine from Jacqueline Winspear, creator of the best-selling Maisie Dobbs series. This heart-stopping novel, set in Post WWII Britain in 1947, follows the coming of age and maturity of former wartime operative Elinor White—veteran of two wars, trained killer, protective of her anonymity—when she is drawn back into the world of menace she has been desperate to leave behind.
A reluctant ex-spy with demons of her own, Elinor finds herself facing down one of the most dangerous organized crime gangs in London, ultimately exposing corruption from Scotland Yard to the highest levels of government.
The private, quiet “Miss White" as Elinor is known, lives in a village in rural Kent, England, and to her fellow villagers seems something of an enigma. Well she might, as Elinor occupies a "grace and favor" property, a rare privilege offered to faithful servants of the Crown for services to the nation. But the residents of Shacklehurst have no way of knowing how dangerous Elinor's war work had been, or that their mysterious neighbor is haunted by her past.
It will take Susie, the child of a young farmworker, Jim Mackie and his wife, Rose, to break through Miss White's icy demeanor—but Jim has something in common with Elinor. He, too, is desperate to escape his past. When the powerful Mackie crime family demands a return of their prodigal son for an important job, Elinor assumes the task of protecting her neighbors, especially the bright-eyed Susie. Yet in her quest to uncover the truth behind the family’s pursuit of Jim, Elinor unwittingly sets out on a treacherous path—yet it is one that leads to her freedom.
As with all of her books, Winspear's prose is artful and gorgeously rendered, which, along with a plot that moves at breathtaking speed, will keep readers turning pages into the wee hours. Elinor is a brilliant but flawed heroine who truly believes in her quest to save the family under siege, just as she fought for the underdogs during the war. I loved this novel and the characters that Winspear took such care to create as fully-fledged beings whom you feel are real enough that you might just pop round to tea in the afternoon one day. I'd give this zippy book an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes historical thrillers.
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveler (A Doctor Who story) by Joanne Harris was an ebook novella that I got for a low price on Amazon, as I have been a Joanne Harris fan ever since the publication of the fabulous Chocolat. This was about the size of a well rounded short story, which is why it was sold under the moniker "Time Trips" I suppose. But while it focused on the third Doctor of classic Doctor Who (I'm more of a fan of the New Doctor Who series started in 2005), I found it to be a pleasant story that would be a good distraction in an airport. Here's the short blurb:
Struggling to get back to UNIT HQ, his body being destroyed by radiation, the Third Doctor arrives in the most perfect English village, where everyone is happy. But is he really on Earth, or somewhere far more strange? As his body weakens, the Doctor and the Queen of the village begin to unravel the truth.
Of all the classic Doctors, Jon Pertwee's dandy "007" style Doctor was one that I found most interesting. He wasn't a clown, like number two, or a madman like number four, but was instead a mature scientist who did not suffer fools. He practiced "Venusian Judo" and had spiffy cars, and worked with UNIT on Earth while his TARDIS was unusable. Harris fully delves into Doctor #3's eccentricities while also creating a cracking good yarn. Her prose is sterling and her plot flies along at Mach 3. I'd give this short story an A, and recommend it to all fans of classic Doctor Who. You won't be disappointed.
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