QOTD: Not the time to be Complacent, Lessons in Chemistry comes to Apple + TV, The Book of Charlie Review, Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, The Only Purple House in Town by Ann Aguirre, The Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune, A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong, and Snared by Jennifer Estep

"It's mad, it's gay, the lusty month of May" from the musical Camelot. Welcome to glorious  May Day, where you can gather and share a basket of flowers and honey and treats with those you love to celebrate Springtime renewal. It's actually been warm enough that we've had the air conditioner on all week this past week as temperatures rose into the 70s and low 80s, which is remarkable for this time of year in the PNW.  I've been reading up a storm, and have 5 plus reviews to share with you all. Happy reading!

I strongly agree! We cannot let the fascist book banning thugs win! No thought police!

Quotation of the Day

'Not the Time to Be Complacent'

"Librarians are being harassed, threatened and fired. Whether it is a history of racial oppression in America or books on the human sexual experience, every person in this country has a right to find that information in their local library, unfettered by shame."I issue a challenge--do not be silent. Now is not the time to be complacent. The right to read freely is an American right. Let that be known."--Peter Coyl, president of the Freedom to Read Foundation, accepting the Innovator's Award at the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes ceremony last Friday.

 I adored this book, so I'm very excited to see the TV streaming version, which will be out soon.

TV: Lessons in Chemistry

Apple TV+ released a first-look teaser for Lessons in Chemistry https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFKNkOoI6akydxF-Gg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iVX5GipoMLg-gVdw, based on the novel by Bonnie Garmus. Starring and executive produced by Academy Award-winner Brie Larson (Room), the series makes its global debut on Apple TV+ this fall. The cast also includes Lewis Pullman, Aja Naomi King, Stephanie Koenig, Kevin Sussman, Patrick Walker, and Thomas Mann.

What a magnificent life this man lead, for over 100 years! Amazing! My maternal grandmother was also born around the turn of the 20th century, around 1901 and she lived to be 100 as well, though she didn't live as dramatic a life as Charlie did.

Book Review: The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man

In 2007, longtime Washington Post columnist David Von Drehle and his wife, tired of the "hassles of urban parenting," uprooted their children and moved from Washington, D.C., to the suburbs of Kansas City, Mo. There, where "the skies are bigger than the egos," they settled into a new life. One day, Von Drehle spied a neighbor across the street washing a car in the August heat. That man was 102-year-old Charlie White, self-made, "hale and sturdy and razor-sharp," who would become a very good friend of Von Drehle--and an influence so profound that he inspired The Book of Charlie, a splendidly woven, inspirational memoir that explores the meaning of life and the resilience of the human spirit.

Over the course of seven years, Von Drehle became fascinated by Charlie and his history. He was born when William Howard Taft was president, and he experienced life before the existence of highways, radio, movies, even penicillin. Whip-smart, independent, and crafty Charlie grew up with four siblings in a family that accommodated his father, a Christian pastor--who died at the age of 42 in a freak accident when Charlie was eight. The tragedy forged an indomitable, stoic resourcefulness in Charlie, inspiring him to set off on adventures that included traveling across the country in a Model T and by hopping trains; playing saxophone in Jazz Age bands; putting himself through college; and serving in World War II. Along the way, there was a deeply rewarding career as a doctor, as well as marriages, children, and familial challenges. Through it all, Charlie endured and thrived. He chose not to dwell on unhappiness. He simply "didn't have time to be sad." He understood and accepted that "every life is a mixture of comedy and tragedy, joy and sorrow, daring and fear," and barreled on.

Charlie made an art out of living; in much the same way, Von Drehle--with eloquence, care, respect, and admiration--makes art out of Charlie's life story. As demonstrated in his other books (Rise to Greatness; Triangle: The Fire that Changed America), Von Drehle's appreciation for history shines throughout the narrative. This deeply engaging personal portrait of a remarkable centenarian also offers an absorbing account of the inventiveness of U.S. citizens--and the U.S., as it continually strives to evolve and improve. -- Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner is a classic literary fiction novel about two couples and their lives between the end of the depression and the early 1970s. This is our May selection for my Library Book Group. I've read two other books by Stegner (whom I didn't realize was my fellow Iowan) that I recall enjoying more than I enjoyed this novel, which was riddled with misogyny. Larry, the novel's protagonist and narrator, is a real piece of work whose ego and sexist attitude drive his constant loathing of Charity, the wife of his fellow professor and friend Sid. His own wife, Sally, who ends up dependent on him due to contracting Polio, but even prior to that, she's described as "soft" and weak and accommodating, never daring to order her husband around the way that Charity controls her husband and children's lives (and the lives of their friends, Larry and Sally, all to good effect) because being a strong and smart woman is somehow "unwomanly," though she saves Larry and Sally several times. Here's the blurb: Called a “magnificently crafted story . . . brimming with wisdom” by Howard Frank Mosher in The Washington Post Book World, Crossing to Safety has, since its publication in 1987, established itself as one of the greatest and most cherished American novels of the twentieth century. Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between Vermont and Wisconsin, it is a work of quiet majesty, deep compassion, and powerful insight into the alchemy of friendship and marriage. 

It's deceptively simple: two bright young couples meet during the Depression and form an instant and lifelong friendship. "How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these?" Larry Morgan, a successful novelist and the narrator of the story, poses that question many years after he and his wife, Sally, have befriended the vibrant, wealthy, and often troubled Sid and Charity Lang. "Where is the high life, the conspicuous waste, the violence, the kinky sex, the death wish?" It's not here. What is here is just as fascinating, just as compelling, as touching, and as tragic.

Crossing to Safety is about loyalty and survival in its most everyday form--the need to create bonds and the urge to tear them apart. Thirty-four years after their first meeting, when Larry and Sally are called back to the Langs' summer home in Vermont, it's as if for a final showdown. How has this friendship defined them? What is its legacy? Stegner offer answers in those small, perfectly rendered moments that make up lives "as quiet as these"--and as familiar as our own. --Sara Nickerson

Larry spends an inordinate amount of time blathering on and on about the beauty of the land, the forest and the houses owned by his friends Sid and Charity, so if you're not a naturalist who finds flora and fauna fascinating, you'll be bored to tears by this novel. But I found Larry's jaundiced view of Sid and Charity's relationship (he thinks Sid is Charity's "slave," though Sid has inherited wealth and could have left Charity at any time. Sid is completely aimless, wanting to be a poet but not even being able to accomplish that on his own, until Charity comes along and gives him a family, and purpose, and a job as a college professor.) Sid points out to Larry that he loves Charity deeply, and that their relationship is one of the few things that keeps him going...he's such a sad sack and wimpy, insecure and immature person that without someone to steer him in the right direction, his life would have amounted to nothing. Larry is also a writer whose overweening ego gets in his way as he and Sally are so poor they're barely getting by, and Sally is fragile and pregnant. Enter Charity, who helps Larry get a better job, gets decent housing for them both and generally makes their lives better...which Larry deeply resents because he's a man, and she is supposed to be a subordinate woman, like his own fragile and tiny wife.  Hence Larry spends a lot of this novel pointing out how overbearing and controlling Charity is, and how mad this makes him, and how sorry he feels for his buddy Sid, who is so "henpecked" (boo-freaking-hoo) when he neglects to also point out that about 95% of the time, Charity's schemes are beneficial to everyone around her, from her friends and family to her community.  Anyway, I'd give this well written but ultimately unsatisfying novel a B- and recommend it to guys who dislike women being in charge.

The Only Purple House in Town by Ann Aguirre is a delightful romantic fantasy that I had the good fortune of winning from Aquirre's publisher on her FB page. So I was able to read the novel months before it's debut, which is very exciting for me as a bibliophile. I've read several other Aguirre novels, mostly her science fiction, and I've always appreciated her elegant and elastic prose that seems to stretch to fit nearly any genre she puts pen to. This magical novel is no exception, and I was totally engrossed from the first paragraph to the last. It's brilliant story of "found family" and LGBTQ characters is perfumed with happiness and hope, so much so that you won't be able to stop turning pages until the book comes to an end...I certainly devoured it in one sitting, and it left me yearning for more. BTW, I've always dreamed of owning a purple Victorian house. Here's the blurb:

From New York Times bestselling author Ann Aguirre comes the magical town of St. Claire, where anything is possible…

Iris Collins is the messy one in her family. The "chaos bunny." Her sisters are all wildly successful, while she can't balance her budget for a single month. It's no wonder she's in debt to her roommates. When she unexpectedly inherits a house from her great aunt, her plan to turn it into a B&B fails—as most of her plans do. She winds up renting rooms like a Victorian spinster, collecting other lost souls...and not all of them are "human." 

Eli Reese grew up as the nerdy outcast in school, but he got rich designing apps. Now he's successful by any standards. But he's never had the same luck in finding a real community or people who understand him. Over the years, he's never forgotten his first crush, so when he spots her at a café, he takes it as a sign. Except then he gets sucked into the Iris-verse and somehow ends up renting one of her B&B rooms. As the days pass, Eli grows enchanted by the misfit boarders staying in the house…and even more so by Iris. Could Eli have finally found a person and a place to call "home"? 

This "cozy" book is written in lyrical prose that keeps the silken plot flying along on falcon's wings.  I adored Iris's ability to choose misfit roommates who were on journeys of discovery, like herself. And her secret admirer, Eli, was such a heartfelt character that I couldn't wait for Iris to fall for him as well. Each character got a well-outlined past, so that their strengths were evident the longer they were together. I also enjoyed their triumph against the powers of prejudice and hatred that tried to censor the household, which is something that every LGBTQ ally has on their minds these days. I'd give this sweet and refreshing novel (like a cool glass of lemonade on a hot day) an A, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys found family novels and cozy stories of personal journeys to find out who you are. If you are at all like me, this is a book you will cherish for decades to come.

The Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune is another kind of 'found family' novel, except this one is based in a post-robopocalypse world and is a science fiction retelling of the Pinocchio story combined with a bit of The Wizard of Oz and the original Star Wars movie. Here are the charming droids held together with a bit of wood and wire, the old wise man/father who is a reformed android and the last human boy who loves his found family and their way of life enough to risk his life going to the empire's stronghold to retrieve his his father from the forces of evil. Insert a "Blue Fairy" who is actually an unchained/reprogrammed sex android, and you have the makings of a classic book that does more than reboot an old fairy tale. It transforms it into a work that resonates in today's polarized society and culture. Here's the blurb: New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune invites you deep into the heart of a peculiar forest and on the extraordinary journey of a family assembled from spare parts.

“An enchanting tale of Pinocchio in the end times.” —P. Djèlí Clark

In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.

The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans.

When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.

Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?

Inspired by Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E, In the Lives of Puppets is a masterful stand-alone fantasy adventure from the beloved author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.

The Wall-E character mentioned above is actually an annoying reprogrammed Roomba vacuum cleaner named Rambo--who never seems to shut up and drove me crazy until he saved the day near the end. I also found the nurse bot, Nurse Ratched, to be a bit bizarre in her blood lust, but she was still more tolerable than Rambo the Roomba. There were also a number of Wizard of Oz elements to this book, with the four heroes going off to see the Blue Fairy/Wizard in the big city, just like Dorothy and her crew did...and Vic encounters a man who collects human artifacts in much the same way the Wizard was like the snake oil salesman that Dorothy meets in Kansas before she's taken to Oz in the tornado. Vic's group also learns, as did Dorothy, that there's no place like home, and that love can save you from evil conformity. I loved this beautifully written novel, just as I loved TJ Klune's previous novels mentioned above. Please TJ Klune, WRITE MORE NOVELS! I'd give this fantastic book an A, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys R2D2 or Wall-E, or the Wizard of Oz written with robots.

A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong is a mystery/romance/fantasy that was fascinating and fun, written in lush and meaty prose by an author who knows how to keep a rich plot from flagging for even a second. Though it was an ebook, I couldn't put it down, and found myself yearning for more after the story was read. Here's the blurb:

In this series debut from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, a modern-day homicide detective finds herself in Victorian Scotland—in an unfamiliar body—with a killer on the loose.

MAY 20, 2019: Homicide detective Mallory Atkinson is in Edinburgh to be with her dying grandmother. While out on a jog one evening, Mallory hears a woman in distress. She’s drawn to an alley, where she is attacked and loses consciousness.

MAY 20, 1869: Housemaid Catriona Mitchell had been enjoying a half day off, only to be discovered that night strangled and left for dead . . . exactly one hundred and fifty years before Mallory is strangled in the same spot.

When Mallory wakes up in Catriona’s body in 1869, she must put aside her shock and adjust quickly to her new reality: life as a housemaid to an undertaker in Victorian Scotland. She soon discovers that her boss, Dr. Gray, also moonlights as a medical examiner and has just taken on an intriguing case, the strangulation of a young man, similar to the attack on herself. Her only hope is that catching the murderer can lead her back to her modern life . . . before it’s too late.

In A Rip Through Time, New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong introduces a brand-new series mixing mystery, romance, and fantasy with thrilling results.

I felt that Mallory/Catriona was such a strong character that I was a bit put off when she began to fall in love with Dr Gray, because I believed she had much more pressing matters, like getting home before the real Catriona wreaks havoc in her life, than romantic entanglements. SPOILER WARNING, for those who prefer an HEA ending, this novel ended on something of a cliffhanger, probably as a set up for book 2 of the series. If you are like me and prefer to have your heroine out of danger by the end, this isn't the book for you. That was one of my only disappointments with the book, so I'd still have to give it a B+ and recommend it to anyone who liked Time After Time and The Time Travellers Wife and other time-traveling mysteries.

Snared by Jennifer Estep is the 16th book in her Elemental Assassin's series, and another exciting adventure for our heroine, Gin Blanco. Here's the blurb: 

If you don’t know Gin “the Spider” Blanco, you don’t know dangerous female heroines.

Irony 101—The Spider herself snared in someone else’s web…

Another week, another few clues trickling in about the Circle, the mysterious group that supposedly runs the city’s underworld. Gathering intel on my hidden enemies is a painstaking process, but a more immediate mystery has popped up on my radar: a missing girl.

My search for the girl begins on the mean streets of Ashland, but with all the killers and crooks in this city, I’m not holding out much hope that she’s still alive.

A series of clues leads me down an increasingly dark, dangerous path, and I realize that the missing girl is really just the first thread in this web of evil. As an assassin, I’m used to facing down the worst of the worst, but nothing prepares me for this new, terrifying enemy—one who strikes from the shadows and is determined to make me the next victim. 

 Esteps EA series has become kind of a "palate cleanser" for me, since I know the characters so well by this point that I can predict what will happen to them and when. I find it comforting that Gin always saves the day/person, and that good triumphs over evil in the end. That said, I still think Estep wastes a lot of time in re-capping the previous books, which is redundant and wastes the reader's time. Still, I enjoyed this fast-moving ebook, written in Esteps sparkling prose, so I'd give it a B, and recommend it to anyone who has read the other 15 novels in the series.