Greetings fellow page turners and book sniffers! Welcome to the last post of May, as we're already on the cusp of June and Gemini territory! My former best friend RM Larson was a huge reader and bibliophile, like myself, and her birthday was June 1 (*she passed away over a decade ago), so I will be thinking of her on Thursday, and wishing that the two of us could discuss books and life and everything inbetween again...you never realize how important communicating with a good friend is until they're gone. Meanwhile, here's some tidbits and reviews to keep you busy before or after you've popped outside to enjoy the warmth of the sunshine.
Oh how I love it when bookstores post pithy responses to Amazon's dominance of the book biz. Go Poppy!
Chalkboard:
Poppy Books & Gifts
"Our staff is cuter than Jeff
Bezos. #ShopLocal" was the sidewalk chalkboard message outside Poppy Books
& Gifts https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFWMk7oI6ahndREjGQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iSXpLypoMLg-gVdw,
Spanish Fork, Utah, which posted on Instagram: "Want to know why books
on Amazon are so much cheaper than any bookstore? They sell books for
nearly 0% profit, and occasionally at a loss, in order to price out small
bookstores. Their hope is that the competition will be eliminated, and
they'll be able control the market and bump up the price of books to what
they are in reality. GROSS! If you appreciate personalized
recommendations, keeping money circulating in your local economy, cute displays,
talking books with other book-loving people, or even the
experience of going to the bookstore, support your local indie bookstore
today so we're here tomorrow!"
I agree that generational labels can be quite divisive, pitting one age group against another, at a time when we really need to come together to solve many of the crisis facing American society today. As a person born toward the end of the Baby Boom following WWII, I can honestly say that those born in 1960-64 are different than those born right after the war in 45-46. My mother was born just before the war, in 1937, and her outlook on life is vastly different than my own, doubtless due to being raised during the last gasp of the Great Depression on a farm in Iowa. I was born in a small town, and we moved around a lot until I got into Jr High School, but I was raised in town, surrounded by stores and people and not by corn or soybean crops and farm animals. I also had the good fortune of having parents who were invested in my education and educational opportunities, so I was encouraged to be a frequent flyer at all the local libraries and bookstores. I agree with Robert Gray...we're all readers here!
Deeper
Understanding
Robert Gray: Millennial, Gen Z, Gen X,
Boomer? How About... Reader?
Millennial, Gen Z, Gen X, Boomer.
Noting that "generational research has become a crowded arena," Pew
Research Center https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFWMk7oI6ahndRB2Gg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iSXpLypoMLg-gVdw announced this week it had "decided
to take a step back and consider how we can study generations in a way that
aligns with our values of accuracy, rigor and providing a
foundation of facts that enriches the public dialogue."
PRC added that the "field has been
flooded with content that's often sold as research but is more like
clickbait or marketing mythology. There's also been a growing chorus of
criticism about generational research and generational labels in
particular."
I've never liked the term Boomer, so I
see this small change of focus by PRC as progress. If I have to have a
tag, I'd prefer Reader, and hope this transcends generational labels. Of
course I know that it doesn't, but as a Reader I can still imagine it
does. That's one of the benefits of reading, along with time travel,
which also defies generational labels. To address the issue, PRC spoke with
outside experts, including those who have been publicly critical of its
generational analysis; and invested in methodological testing to
determine whether it could compare findings from earlier telephone surveys
to the online ones being conducted now. Experiments were also
conducted with higher-level statistical analyses that would isolate
the effect of generation.
The process led to a set of guidelines
that PRC believes "will help frame our approach going forward. Many
of these are principles we've always adhered to, but others will
require us to change the way we've been doing things in recent years....
By choosing not to use the standard generational labels when
they're not appropriate, we can avoid reinforcing harmful stereotypes or
oversimplifying people's complex lived experiences.... We'll only talk
about generations when it adds value, advances important national
debates and highlights meaningful societal trends."
PRC also released an article noting
that while it can be useful to talk about generations, there are some
important considerations for readers to keep in mind whenever they come
across a news story or research about generations:
* Generational categories are not
scientifically defined.
* Generational labels can lead to
stereotypes and oversimplification.
* Discussions about generation often
focus on differences instead of similarities.
* Conventional views of generations can
carry an upper-class bias.
* People change over time.
Reading the news from PRC triggered
memories of a couple of SA columns
I wrote in 2008 about Boomers and the book trade. Specifically, I
recalled this sentence: "Boomers will age, but they won't grow
old." Although it would make a fine clickbait headline now, it's
actually from a book titled Generation Ageless: How Baby
Boomers Are Changing the Way We Live Today... and They're Just
Getting Started by J. Walker Smith & Ann Clurman.
I was probably intrigued by the title
then, but 15 years later it seems like speculative fiction. "Baby
boomers, more than any other demographic group, will shape the future of the
marketplace," the authors wrote. "They are in control and will
remain so for decades to come. For boomers, getting older does not mean
resigning oneself to a deceleration into death. They will continue to be
actively involved in their lifestyles, spending lots of money and
searching for more new things to try.... Boomers will age, but they
won't grow old."
Spoiler alert: We did grow old. In
2008, I wrote, "Cue the theme music from Jaws. Baby Boomers are in the
retail waters and they're not leaving soon. Will they still be reading in
2018 or 2028 or 2038? Yes. Will they still be buying books in
bricks-and-mortar bookstores? Maybe."
As it turns out, they/we are still
buying books from indies, and continued to do so even through a
global pandemic. Fifteen years ago, I suggested that "the book world
will have to find a way to surf Boomer-infested waters. One of the
questions I initially asked readers was whether tech-savvy BBs will be
transferring their book reading and buying habits to an online environment
by the year 2018."
At the time, one bookseller predicted
that while some Boomers might gravitate to an online reading life by
2018, "bricks-and-mortar stores have less likelihood of losing them to
the ether than we do the younger generations. They want to talk about
what they know about--in person. They want the interaction that the cozy
independent bookstore can offer. I think this is the generation that may
be doing their research online, but we'll still get the pleasure of
their company. Until mobility becomes an issue. Then you start
delivering."
Boomers in general may re-invent themselves over and over
out of excitement or new enthusiasms; indie booksellers must
re-invent themselves continuously to stay alive. The world is dynamic, and
bookselling is a challenging way of life."
Millennial, Gen Z, Gen X, Boomer. Just
call me Reader. And cue the #BookTok video.--Robert Gray,
contributing editor
AMEN to Wanda! YES!
Quotation
of the Day
"Until a drag queen walks into a
school and beats eight kids to death
with a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, I
think you're focusing on the
wrong shit." --Wanda Sykes in her new Netflix
special, Wanda Sykes: I'm an Entertainer
Though I'm not a huge Papa Hem fan, I think this movie sounds fascinating.
Movies:
Across the River and Into the Trees
Across the River and Into the Trees https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFWOluQI6ahmJh5xTw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iSXJespoMLg-gVdw, the long-awaited Ernest Hemingway
adaptation starring Liev Schreiber (Spotlight), Matilda De Angelis (The
Undoing), Josh Hutcherson (The Kids Are All Right), and Danny Huston (The
Aviator), has set North American release plans with Bleecker Street,
Deadline reported. Based on the last full-length novel
published by Hemingway in his lifetime, the film is directed by Paula
Ortiz (The Bride) and will bow exclusively in theaters this fall. It
was adapted for the screen by BAFTA Award winner Peter Flannery (The
Devil's Mistress).
The Gifts by Liz Hyder is a historical speculative fantasy fiction novel that combines the gut-wrenching misogyny of The Handmaid's Tale with the 19th Century Steampunk-ish milieu of Sherlock Holmes stories. There's also a great underlying theme of the religious oppression of women (and men, though they tend to use God as an excuse for the most horrific behavior, here) and the existence of Angels as metaphor for their desperation for freedom. Here's the blurb:
"Remarkable...for fans of fantasy-inflected historical novels such as Sarah Perry's The Essex Serpent." —Publishers Weekly
It will take something extraordinary to show four women who they truly are...
October
1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in the English
countryside as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her
shoulders.
In London, rumors of a "fallen angel"
cause a frenzy across the city, and a surgeon desperate for fame and
fortune finds himself in the grips of a dangerous obsession, one that
will place the women he seeks in the most terrible danger.
The Gifts
is an astonishing novel, a spellbinding tale told through five
different perspectives and set against the luminous backdrop of
nineteenth century London, it explores science, nature and religion,
enlightenment, the role of women in society and the dark danger of
ambition.
This is, to be blunt, a weighty tome of a novel that could easily have had 95 pages edited out of it with the result being a much tidier book that didn't have all the redundancies and gushing descriptions of nature that ground the plot to a halt. While I understand the author wanting to write in the style of the 19th century, with all it's furbelows and fancies, there was no need to hew so closely to that standard, especially considering the modern message of women's freedom that was being told here. That said, I was really hoping for the death of the surgeon Edward to be one involving dismemberment and pain, giving him the same torture he inflicted on others. Still, burning to death isn't an easy way to go. (Sorry, SPOILER!). I also thought his wife was a complete ninny, and was kind of hoping she'd die of being such a wimpy lame-ass coward. Anyway, in the end, people get where they need to go, and though we will never know their final fate, I had hopes that the "angels" lived long and happy lives. I can't say that I didn't find the prose a bit much and the plot to be slow-going at times, so my final grade has to be a B-, and I'm being generous. Next time, I think the author needs to leave out all the boring and horrific descriptions and just tell the story, plain and simple.
The Tiffany Girls by Shelley Noble is a lovely historical novel with an undercurrent of romance that takes place at the turn of the 20th century in New York and Paris. The story focuses on Louis Comfort Tiffany's glorious glass creations that were made and sometimes designed by a group of women artisans known as "Tiffany Girls." Here's the blurb:
New York Times bestselling
author Shelley Noble wows with a gripping historical novel about the
real-life “Tiffany Girls,” a fascinating and largely unknown group of
women artists behind Tiffany’s most legendary glassworks.
It’s
1899, and Manhattan is abuzz. Louis Comfort Tiffany, famous for his
stained-glass windows, is planning a unique installation at the Paris
World’s Fair, the largest in history. At their fifth-floor studio on
Fourth Avenue, the artists of the Women’s Division of the Tiffany Glass
Company are already working longer shifts to finish the pieces that
Tiffany hopes will prove that he is the world’s finest artist in glass.
Known as the “Tiffany Girls,” these women are responsible for much of
the design and construction of Tiffany’s extraordinary glassworks, but
none receive credit.
Emilie Pascal, daughter of an
art forger, has been shunned in Paris art circles after the unmasking of
her abusive father. Wanting nothing more than a chance to start a new
life, she forges a letter of recommendation in hopes of fulfilling her
destiny as an artist in the one place where she will finally be free to
live her own life.
Grace Griffith is the best copyist
in the studio, spending her days cutting glass into floral borders for
Tiffany’s religious stained-glass windows. But none of her coworkers
know her secret: she is living a double life as a political cartoonist
under the pseudonym of G.L. Griffith—hiding her identity as a woman.
As
manager of the women’s division, Clara Driscoll is responsible for
keeping everything on schedule and within budget. But in the lead-up to
the most important exhibition of her career, not only are her girls
becoming increasingly difficult to wrangle, she finds herself obsessed
with a new design: a dragonfly lamp that she has no idea will one day
become Tiffany’s signature piece.
Brought together by
chance, driven by their desire to be artists in one of the only ways
acceptable for women in their time, these “Tiffany Girls” will break the
glass ceiling of their era and for working women to come.
Noble's prose is as prismatic and beautiful as Tiffany glass, and her plot is light and bright and moves along like a cloud swooping along on a blue sky. I enjoyed her female characters and how feisty they were in trying to establish themselves as artists and designers. I really enjoyed Grace's story, being a former journalist myself, and Emilie's story of escaping a terrible parent and a bad time to reinvent herself also rang true for me, as I escaped my parents ruinous divorce by moving away to college. I also learned a lot about glass-making and the layering of colored glass to reflect light that is breathtakingly beautiful. The ending was satisfying and the book itself compelling enough to keep me reading into the wee hours. I'd give it an A, and recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed the beauty and artistry of a Tiffany window or lamp or other product.
The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Bernard Goldberg is a fantasy reboot of the Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, only this time with an illegitimate daughter solving the crime like her redoubtable father would have done, with deductive reasoning. They throw in an ancient Dr Watson, and his handsome adult son to spice things up and add an air of legitimacy to the proceedings, but I still found myself balking at the idea that Holmes would have had an affair, no matter how brief, with Irene Adler, whom he felt admiration for, but was also very competitive with during their encounters in the AC Doyle tales. Holmes also struck me as gay at best, and asexual at worst (for the era...there's nothing wrong with asexual individuals, IMO). At any rate, here's the blurb: From USA Today and internationally bestselling author Leonard Goldberg comes The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes,
a new thrilling tale of the great detective’s daughter and her
companion Dr. John Watson, Jr. as they investigate a murder at the
highest levels of British society.
1914. Joanna Blalock’s keen
mind and incredible insight lead her to become a highly-skilled nurse,
one of the few professions that allow her to use her finely-tuned brain.
But when she and her ten-year-old son witness a man fall to his death,
apparently by suicide, they are visited by the elderly Dr. John Watson
and his charming, handsome son, Dr. John Watson Jr. Impressed by her
forensic skills, they invite her to become the third member of their
investigative team.
Caught up in a Holmesian mystery that spans
from hidden treasure to the Second Afghan War of 1878-1880, Joanna and
her companions must devise an ingenious plan to catch a murderer in the
act while dodging familiar culprits, Scotland Yard, and members of the
British aristocracy. Unbeknownst to her, Joanna harbors a mystery of her
own. The product of a one-time assignation between the now dead
Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler, the only woman to ever outwit the
famous detective, Joanna has unwittingly inherited her parents’
deductive genius.
Though I generally don't have a problem with romance or romantic themes in books, here the younger Dr Watson falling immediately under the spell of Holme's daughter seems forced. Especially considering Joanna has a young son to look after (she's a widow). Watson Jr seems to be an afterthought, and none to bright in most of the scenes he's in, with his father and Joanna doing most of the work to solve the crime (which many will have figured out by around halfway through the novel). The prose was a bit stodgy, but the plot didn't flag at all, and the ending was fairly well done. I'd give this mystery a B-, and recommend it to anyone who longs for a female Sherlock Holmes.
Back Lash by Devon Monk is the re-edited latest book out in the Shame and Terric urban fantasy series that Monk premiered back in the 90s. Though I loved it on the first reading, this newly enhanced version is sublime, with not a whisker out of place and a plot that is like a bullet train headed to the station. Here's the blurb:
Magic isn’t a blessing with drawbacks, it’s a curse with upsides.
Shame
Flynn and Terric Conley hadn't meant to become the living, breathing
vessels for Death and Life magic. But they hadn't meant to die, be
reborn, break magic, save the world, and kill a few psychopaths along
the way, either.
The one thing they had meant to do was to seal magic away so it could never be used to kill again.
When
a string of dead bodies–people killed by magic–appear throughout
Portland, Oregon, Shame and Terric must scramble to uncover who broke
the locks on magic and how.
Before Terric’s sister becomes the next target.
Before the Russian mob locks them in their sights.
Before the question of who can control magic is decided by bullets and blood.
I love Shame, and his death magic that he tries desperately to control, not always successfully. Terric's life magic also has it's problems, but they're not as entertaining as Shame's, because his magic is barely controlled destruction. And people in pain are somehow always more interesting than the kind and lovely people who come around to heal and help everyone in the wake of the latest devastation. (Why is that? Why do we always want to see what happened when cars or trains or planes crash?) That said, as with all of Devon Monk's books, there is so much beauty and tenderness under the pain and suffering that it's hard to put her books down. I'd give this wonderful novel an A, and recommend it to anyone who has read her Allie B urban fantasy series and wants to know whatever happened to Shame and Terric after they shut down magic for good. Trust me, you will be engrossed and fascinated by the answer.
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