Hey Bibliophiles! It's the second week of May already! Time flies when life is full of chaos, as mine has been for the past 7 months. But we are fortunate that the sun is out more often these days, and it's pretty warm and flowery outside. There are two neighborhood cats sunning themselves on our porch as I write this, both anxious to get some chin scritches from me, because I'm the most allergic member of the family, and they also know I'll give them some cat treats just to keep them happy...I'm a soft touch when it comes to kitties and doggos, and I think they can sense that, lol. I've been quite sick this past week or so, which is why I'm posting these reviews so late. Sorry, folks. But here's some tidbits and reviews for your perusal. BTW, I love this QOTD below.
Quotation of the Day
"I've always been a big reader. When you love books, you end up loving everything about them: I love stories and I love writing, I love the way that words work together and the magic of all that, but also I love holding a book. I love feeling the paper in my hands. I love the smell of a bookstore or the smell of a library. It's so easy to feel the magic and possibility of that. It just makes sense that I'm always sending my characters to a bookstore. That is also a really important part of vacation to me.
"Anytime you're in a new town, you want to see what their local bookstore is like because they're all a bit different, but at the same time there's something really familiar. It's a little home-away-from-home. If you're a book person, you're always going to feel pretty cozy in a bookstore. Their role in my life is a huge piece of my career; just having the support of booksellers is why I am where I am now. There's no doubt about that. Even if I weren't writing or publishing now, I would still feel the same about bookstores. There's this feeling of possibility that I don't quite feel anywhere else."--Emily Henry, whose novel Happy Place (Berkley) is the #1 May Indie Next List Pick
Though I wasn't a fan of Cutting for Stone, Abraham Vergheses first big bestseller, I do think I might want to pick up a copy of his latest, just because Oprah said it was riveting reading.
Oprah's Book Club Pick: The Covenant of Water
Oprah Winfrey has chosen The Covenant of Water https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFLZlegI6akxJEx-GQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iVC5SgpoMLg-gVdw by Abraham Verghese (Grove) as her 101st Oprah's Book Club selection.
Noting that she was enthralled by her selection, Winfrey said, "It's one of the best books I've read in my entire life. It's epic. It's transportive. Many moments during the read I had to stop and remember to breathe. I couldn't put the book down until the very last page. It was unputdownable!"
Verghese observed: "Hearing the melodious and signature voice of the person who has done more for books in America than anyone alive, then hearing her passion for my book, which she'd read more closely than any reader I know, well, I teared up. My thoughts were flashing back through the decade-plus of writing The Covenant of Water, during which time my mother had died. The call felt like a miracle. I'd been reflexively standing throughout the conversation and when we hung up, I'm not ashamed to say I got to my knees and gave thanks. Mom would have approved."
I used to love reading Harriet the Spy books when I was a kid, so I imagine this series is lots of fun, though I wish it was live action and not animated.
TV: Harriet the Spy Season 2
The second season of Harriet the Spy https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFLZw7gI6akxKxF0SA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iVC8LwpoMLg-gVdw, based on the classic children's novel by Louise Fitzhugh, premieres tonight on Apple TV+. Produced by the Jim Henson Company, the animated series features a voice cast that includes Beanie Feldstein (as Harriet), Jane Lynch, Kimberly Brooks, Charlie Schlatter, Lacey Chabert, Crispin Freeman, Grey Griffin, and Bumper Robinson. Guest stars this season include Jaeden Martell, Brad Garrett, Michelle Trachtenberg, and more.
The Apple Original series is written and executive produced by Will McRobb, with Sidney Clifton as producer. Lisa Henson and Halle Stanford executive produce on behalf of the Jim Henson Company with John W. Hyde, Nancy Steingard and Wendy Moss-Klein also serving as exec producers, and Terissa Kelton as co-executive producer. Chris Prynoski, Shannon Prynoski, and Ben Kalina executive produce for Titmouse Animation Studios.
Wow! A 50K volume library? Sign me up for this documentary!
Movies: Umberto Eco: A Library of the World
Cinema Guild, which has acquired U.S. rights to Umberto Eco: A Library of the World https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFLZw7gI6akxKxF0TA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iVC8LwpoMLg-gVdw, a documentary about the Italian author, has released a trailer that "takes viewers inside Eco's extraordinary personal library," Deadline reported. Directed by Davide Ferrario, the doc will be released beginning June 30 at Film Forum in New York City, followed by an expansion across the country.
"A documentary immersion into all things Eco, Davide Ferrario's film takes us on a tour of Umberto Eco's private library, guided by the author himself," according to a description of the film. "Combining new footage with material he shot with Eco in 2015 for a video installation for the Venice Biennale, Ferrario documents this incredible collection and the man who amassed it. As Eco leads us among the more than 50,000 volumes, we also gain insight into the library of the mind of this vastly prolific and original thinker." In the trailer, Eco observes: "A library is both symbol and reality of universal memory. Libraries are the common memory of humanity."
An American Beauty by Shana Abe is a historical fiction-based on-fact romance of the life of Arabella Huntington, a woman from the extremely impoverished post-war South who used her beauty and intelligence to save her family from starvation and become an icon of the Gilded Age. I've read everything Abe has written, and she's not disappointed me once. Her prose is lush and "gilded" without being fussy and her plots are as beautifully paced as a waltz that never falters. Here's the blurb:
The New York Times bestselling author of The Second Mrs. Astor returns with a spellbinding new book perfect for fans of HBO’s The Gilded Age
and readers of Marie Benedict. This
sweeping novel of historical fiction is inspired by the true
rags-to-riches story of Arabella Huntington—a woman whose great beauty
was surpassed only by her exceptional business acumen, grit, and
artistic eye, and who defied the constraints of her era to become the
wealthiest self-made woman in America.
1867,
Richmond, Virginia: Though she wears the same low-cut purple gown that
is the uniform of all the girls who work at Worsham’s gambling parlor,
Arabella stands apart. It’s not merely her statuesque beauty and
practiced charm. Even at seventeen, Arabella possesses an unyielding
grit, and a resolve to escape her background of struggle and poverty.
Collis Huntington, railroad baron and self-made multimillionaire, is
drawn to Arabella from their first meeting. Collis is married and thirty
years her senior, yet they are well-matched in temperament, and
flirtation rapidly escalates into an affair. With Collis’s help,
Arabella eventually moves to New York, posing as a genteel, well-to-do
Southern widow. Using Collis’s seed money and her own shrewd investing
instincts, she begins to amass a fortune.
Their relationship
is an open secret, and no one is surprised when Collis marries Arabella
after his wife’s death. But “The Four Hundred”—the elite circle that
includes the Astors and Vanderbilts—have their rules. Arabella must earn
her place in Society—not just through her vast wealth, but with taste,
style, and impeccable behavior. There are some who suspect the
scandalous truth, and will blackmail her for it. And then there is
another threat—an unexpected, impossible romance that will test her
ambition, her loyalties, and her heart . . .An American Beauty
brings to vivid life the glitter and drama of a captivating chapter in
history—and a remarkable woman who lived by her own rules.
I loved Bella's iron spine and her utterly fierce determination to not allow her family, her siblings and her mother, to starve or not have a decent home to live in or clothing to wear. She was willing to expend her own heart and soul to keep them happy and healthy. I don't know that they truly appreciated all that they did for her, but as a person who has lived with someone who also never appreciated all that I've done for my family and household, I could understand that it's often a thankless task to be the strong one, the smart one, the one with ambition who doesn't let anything set her back for long. I also understand how Bella put aside her own needs and desires because the welfare of her family was paramount. I've been doing that for most of my life. I loved the way that Abe made these historical figures fell real and fully dimensional. She's an astounding storyteller. I'd give this marvelous book (which did, indeed, remind me of the streaming series The Gilded Age, which I loved), an A, and recommend it to anyone who loves Bridgerton or other costume dramas.
The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk is a bookish mystery that has a weirdly uneven plot and no really enjoyable characters...everyone's a terrible person in one way or another, even the female protagonist, Liesl, comes off as a wimpy self effacing idiot who wants to have an affair but is too much of a coward to commit to it because she knows her husband is a good father and a good man. Here's the blurb:
Anxious People meets the delights of bookish fiction in a stunning debut following a librarian whose quiet life is turned upside down when a priceless manuscript goes missing. Soon she has to ask: what holds more secrets in the library—the ancient books shelved in the stacks, or the people who preserve them?
Liesl Weiss long ago learned to be content working behind the scenes in the distinguished rare books department of a large university, managing details and working behind the scenes to make the head of the department look good. But when her boss has a stroke and she's left to run things, she discovers that the library's most prized manuscript is missing.
Liesl tries to sound the alarm and inform the police about the missing priceless book, but is told repeatedly to keep quiet, to keep the doors open and the donors happy. But then a librarian unexpectedly stops showing up to work. Liesl must investigate both disappearances, unspooling her colleagues' pasts like the threads of a rare book binding as it becomes clear that someone in the department must be responsible for the theft. What Liesl discovers about the dusty manuscripts she has worked among for so long—and about the people who care for and revere them—shakes the very foundation on which she has built her life.
The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections is a sparkling book-club read about a woman struggling to step out from behind the shadows of powerful and unreliable men, and reveals the dark edge of obsession running through the most devoted bookworms.
I became frustrated by all the crappy people in this book, and their nasty, underhanded dealings with each other and the library. I need to have one character, at least, who I can count on to do the right thing and be a halfway decent human. I didn't really find that here, and when reading the final chapters I was not surprised that the person you'd least suspect turned out to be the worst of the lot. I won't spoil the ending for you, except to say that it is painful and sad. I'd give this depressing story a C+, and recommend it to people who enjoy reality TV that shows the worst that humanity has to offer.
The Unplanned Life of Josie Hale by Stephanie Eding is a YA romantic comedy that reads like it was written by an immature/young fan fiction writer who read a book on how to write a romance novel. Every beat of the book was standard YA romance fiction, even the dialog between the characters read like something you'd see in a YA romantic comedy on Netflix. Josie is a non-too-bright woman who ends up living with two of her high school pals, one of whom she's had a crush on since their glory days. Guess who she ends up with? Him, of course, because gee-whiz, turns out he had a crush on her too all these years! The sweetness devolves into gooey ridiculousness once the set up is finished. Here's the blurb:
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