Happy Book Lover's Day today, August 9, 2023! Sorry that I've not posted for so long, my fellow bibliophiles, but my husband had emergency brain surgery on July 30, and our household has been in turmoil ever since. Granted, it was in some crisis already, because my husband had been in the hospital twice after devastating falls that broke ribs, an eye socket and a shoulder blade, but we were not expecting the brain bleeds and clots to form up so quickly in his head. Fortunately, he survived, but he's still in a delicate state and needs help with a lot of daily activities, so I've become a caregiver, along with my son, and we're both exhausted. At any rate, I'm here now, and I've managed to read 4 books and gather some interesting tidbits for you all. Take care and keep cool...avoid sunburn, stay indoors and read!
I love this quote because it's true, teenagers are likely to do exactly what you don't want them to do, and if you ban a book, they will swarm to find it, like moths to firelight.
Quotation
of the Day
Jesse Andrews's Message to Book
Banners: 'You're Fighting the Sea'
"The colossal number of targeted
books, disturbing as it is, reflects a deep and optimistic truth. It's a
function of the vastness of the number of young people in the last decade or
two who have learned to love reading. "Gen Z reads. Gen Alpha, or
whatever we're calling them, also reads. This is why the young-adult genre has
exploded. Young people are smart and they're voracious and I think
they're about to bring our national literacy, and national quality of
conversation and thought, to a much higher place than where it is today.
"And if you worry that these book
bans might slow them down, don't.Parents should know this already. There
is no force on earth greater than a teenager's will to do something
you've told them not to. So good luck, Moms for Liberty. You're fighting
the sea."--Jesse Andrews author of Me and Earl and the Dying
Girl, in Deadline
I lived in Florida for nearly 5 years, and I was appalled at the ignorance, racism and sexism that I encountered. Now it looks like the sunshine state is doubling down on banning books and removing access to new ideas from children and adults. Shame on them. I hope that the citizens of the panhandle of FLA find a way to read the 350 banned books and see how important freedom to read really is.
Sally
Bradshaw Responds to Florida Book Bans
In a Tampa Bay Times column called
"What my second grade 'honorable mention' taught me about Florida book
bans
https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFeNkb0I6ahiJEwiSQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iQX5D1poMLg-gVdw,"
Sally Bradshaw, founder and owner of
Midtown Reader, Tallahassee, Fla., recalls winning "a box of
beautiful hardback books" for her honorable mention in an
essay-writing contest, books that she enjoyed starting on the ride
home.
"As a bookworm growing up in a
small Southern town, books were my portal to worlds very different
from my own," she continues. "Our public library was a sanctuary. Our local
bookstore, a hidden gem. I couldn't wait to get lost in the stacks by
myself--away from my mom for just long enough to imagine I was a grown up with
the power to choose my own adventure.
"I loved the sound of the
librarian's stamp in a book's jacket pocket. I rushed to volunteer when I was old
enough at my own school library. It was among those bookshelves that I
found the power to see into a world beyond my own experience; to understand
the far-ranging thoughts of others; and to find comfort in the
knowledge that people can become extraordinary despite the trauma and
challenges they endure.
"Never did I imagine that other
children would not have the power and solace afforded by an unfettered access
to books. Yet, today this is the stark new reality in Florida and
increasingly across America. We have arrived at the Orwellian moment when
under the ironic cry of 'freedom,' Florida government has effectively
empowered extremist groups and outliers to become censors for
everyone, pulling literature from public bookshelves if just one parent finds a
book offensive. More than 350 books have been removed from school
shelves in Florida over the last year.
"In Florida's Panhandle this has a
particularly devastating effect, because rampant poverty in our region
makes libraries the only available source of books for many thousands of
children. Absent stories and the power of the written word, and without
books in libraries which make those stories available to all, how
will we give these children the tools to understand and overcome their
own circumstances and provide a vision to which they can aspire?"
She concludes, "Recently someone
asked why our bookstore Midtown Reader in Tallahassee has made banned books a
regular topic of discussion. We've worked hard to be a place where
everyone, of every background and political persuasion can gather to
read, think and share. We've refrained from partisan battles
preferring to provide diverse content and allow readers to pursue ideas and
consider opposing viewpoints as a healthy and appropriate outcome of
reading and learning.
"But when it comes to real
freedom--the kind where you exercise the sovereignty of the individual while
others are fully allowed to do the same--there can be no compromise."
I've read a Tove Jansson novel, and it was delightful. I sincerely hope that this series comes to a streaming service soon.
TV:
The Summer Book
SAG-AFTRA has granted a waiver to The
Summer Book, a series based on Tove Jansson's novel,
to shoot during the current strike. Deadline reported that the
guild has now allowed 68 projects the ability to shoot during the current
strike. The Summer Book, starring Glenn Close and Anders Danielsen Lie,
is directed by Charlie McDowell,with Robert Jones adapting the book for
screen. "I'm deeply honored to be adapting
one of my favorite novels, Tove Jansson's The Summer Book, and to film
in Finland, the beautiful country in which this story is based,"
McDowell told Deadline
https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFeNkb0I6ahiJE92Gw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iQX5D1poMLg-gVdw
earlier this spring. "It's long been a dream of mine to work
with Glenn Close. I've long admired her thoughtfulness, immense
versatility, and deeply captivating presence both on the stage and on
screen. I first discovered Anders Danielsen Lie from his brilliant
collaborations with Joachim Trier, and he's quickly become one of my
favorite actors out of Scandinavia. I can't imagine a more
magnificent duo to collaborate with on this film."
I adore this series, and am currently watching it. Its a warm fuzzy hug of a series and shows how teenagers really react to coming out as LGBTQ people.
TV:
Heartstopper, Season 2
Netflix has released a trailer
Heartstopper https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFeNw-0I6ahiKx0lEw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iQX8KlpoMLg-gVdw, season 2, based on the YA graphic novel
and webcomic series by Alice Oseman. Variety reported that the
trailer "gives a look at the students setting off for France. The queer
romantic comedy series is set to return on August 3."
Kit Connor and Joe Locke star in the
series, which "skyrocketed in popularity after its April 2022 series
premiere, reaching Netflix's top 10 list in 54 countries. The streamer
was quick to renew the series for second and third seasons," Variety
noted. The cast also includes William Gao, Yasmin Finney, Corinna Brown,
Kizzy Edgell, Stephen Fry, and Olivia Colman.The TV series is written,
created, and executive produced by Oseman.
I read the Pendragon series many years ago, and I imagine it will lend itself well to the small screen.
TV:
The Pendragon Cycle
Jeremy Boreing, co-CEO of the right
wing media organization Daily Wire, will take a temporary leave of absence
from his position to co-direct The Pendragon Cycle
https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFeBlegI6ahhIR0kHA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iQU5SgpoMLg-gVdw,
based on the book series by Stephen R. Lawhead. Deadline reported
that the company's streaming service DailyWire+ "is lining up a
September start in Europe for what it is calling its biggest-budget
production to date, a fantasy series inspired by Arthurian legend."
Boreing will co-direct with Ryan
Whitaker (Surprised by Oxford). A "multinational" cast is being
finalized with filming due to take place in Italy and Hungary. The TV project is
inspired by the first two books of the series, Taliesin and Merlin. The
Daily Wire told Deadline it will not need an interim agreement from the
Screen Actors Guild, which is currently on strike.
I've been a paperback book fan for decades, mainly because, as a kid/teenager/young adult they were affordable to impoverished students like myself. I recall, when I was a kid, finding a round rack in the local drugstore that turned and had many alarming paperback covers on the stories within, but at 25cents per book, I was often able to finagle two quarters from my mom to buy them...it was a huge treat, because we didn't have a bookstore in most of the small Iowa towns I lived in, so I used the library at least once a week.
Robert
Gray: Happy Belated Paperback Book Day!
How did you celebrate Paperback Book
Day on July 30? Or perhaps a better question would be: Did you know PBD was
even a thing? I confess it crept up on me. What is PBD? Officially, it's
a day to acknowledge both the importance of the format in making
books more affordable and accessible to the general public, as well as an
acknowledgement of Penguin's role in the effort.
This is how Penguin describes
https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscFfZxe8I6ahhIEtxSQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6iQC8SnpoMLg-gVdw
the historical turning point: "In 1934, on his way to London
after visiting his friend Agatha Christie, the young publisher Allen
Lane stopped at the station bookstall at Exeter St. Davids and saw
that all the books on sale were of a poor quality and overpriced.
What was needed, he realized, were good books at a price everyone
could afford. Within a year he had founded Penguin Books, creating a
paperback revolution that democratized quality literature and would
fundamentally change the publishing world forever."
On July 30, 1935, Penguin released its
first 10 paperback titles, featuring orange covers for fiction,
blue for biography and green for crime. Each cost sixpence. The lineup
included Ariel by Andre Maurois, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway,
Poet's Pub by Eric Linklater, Madame Claire by Susan Ertz, The
Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mysterious
Affair by Agatha Christie, Twenty-Five by Beverley Nichols, William by E.H.
Young, Gone to Earth by Mary Webb, and Carnival by Compton Mackenzie.
The jury will always be out for book
historians on whether this was the birth of the paperback. Even the
Guinness World Records folks have a qualifier: "Allen
Lane was not the first publisher to attempt a run of high quality mass
market paperbacks, but his was the first to achieve significant success.
The branding and overall philosophy of the new Penguin imprint
was heavily influenced by an earlier series of books, published
under an imprint called The Albatross, which were printed in
Germany in 1932."
A Tender Thing by Emily Neuberger is a delightful historical romance novel about a young woman from a small town farm with aspirations to become a stage actress. Having been a theater major who grew up in small towns in Iowa, I felt that I could understand where the protagonist, Eleanor, was coming from when she set off for the bright lights of Broadway from her hometown in Wisconsin (though it should be noted that Wisconsin was known more for their dairy farms than for pig farms, like the one Eleanor grew up on). Neuberger's prose is deft and incisive, which is a help to her zig-zagging plot. Here's the blurb:
An
exhilarating debut novel set under the dazzling lights of late 1950s
Broadway, where a controversial new musical pushes the boundaries of
love, legacy, and art.
Growing up in rural
Wisconsin, Eleanor O'Hanlon always felt different. In love with musical
theater from a young age, she memorized every show album she could get
her hands on. So when she discovers an open call for one of her favorite
productions, she leaves behind everything she knows to run off to New
York City and audition. Raw and untrained, she catches the eye of famed
composer Don Mannheim, who catapults her into the leading role of his
new work, "A Tender Thing," a provocative love story between a white woman and black man, one never before seen on a Broadway stage.
As
word of the production gets out, an outpouring of protest whips into a
fury. Between the intensity of rehearsals, her growing friendship with
her co-star Charles, and her increasingly muddled creative--and
personal--relationship with Don, Eleanor begins to question her own
naïve beliefs about the world. When explosive secrets threaten to
shatter the delicate balance of the company, and the possibility of the
show itself, Eleanor must face a new reality and ultimately decide what
it is she truly wants.
Pulsing with the vitality and drive of
1950s New York, Emily Neuberger's enthralling debut immerses readers
right into the heart of Broadway's Golden Age, a time in which the music
soared and the world was on the brink of change.
I found it odd (SPOILER ALERT) that Eleanor had such a crush on (much older) Don, who was the creative writer/composer of the music in the show, when it was obvious that he was just using her as a "beard" because he was gay and didn't want that to effect the chances of his musical to become a groundbreaking hit. He makes it clear early on that he doesn't desire any type of physical relationship with her, he actually shies away from her touch, yet she still somehow believes that she has a chance to become his beloved. She just seemed too naive for belief, though I'm aware that girls growing up on Midwestern farms were kept in the dark about nearly everything to do with sexuality and love, which my mother, born and raised on a dairy farm in Iowa, also had to deal with when she finally was able to leave home. Still, even my mother wasn't naive enough to fall apart so easily and to not see what was evident about coworkers. At any rate, though, I found the whole "groundbreaking" production with a POC guy and a white girl to be fascinating and handled realistically. I could hardly put this book down, it was such an excellent tale of theater in the 50s. I'd give it a B+, and recommend it to anyone who is a fan of coming of age theater youth stories.
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer is a delicious magic realism fantasy novel that is part Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and part Matilda, with a sprinkling of Alice Hoffman and Sarah Addison Allen's magical prose for good measure. This book was compelling right from the first paragraph, particularly since it involved books, teachers and librarians and reclusive writers on a small island. Here's the blurb: Years ago, a reclusive mega-bestselling
children’s author quit writing under mysterious circumstances. Suddenly
he resurfaces with a brand-new book and a one-of-a-kind competition,
offering a prize that will change the winner’s life in this absorbing
and whimsical novel.
Make a wish. . . .
Lucy
Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents
who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy
found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack
Masterson. Now a twenty-six-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to
share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially
seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic
death of his parents. Lucy would give anything to adopt Christopher, but
even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream
without proper funds and stability.
But be careful what you wish for. . . .
Just when Lucy is about to give up, Jack Masterson announces he’s
finally written a new book. Even better, he’s holding a contest at his
home on the real Clock Island, and Lucy is one of the four lucky
contestants chosen to compete to win the one and only copy.
For
Lucy, the chance of winning the most sought-after book in the world
means everything to her and Christopher. But first she must contend with
ruthless book collectors, wily opponents, and the distractingly
handsome (and grumpy) Hugo Reese, the illustrator of the Clock Island
books. Meanwhile, Jack “the Mastermind” Masterson is plotting the
ultimate twist ending that could change all their lives forever.
Of course I loved Lucy and Christopher, who are both readers and who love fantasy novels and wishing for a better world for them both. I also found the illustrator to be a fascinating character, though I'm not sure why there was an instant attraction between him and Lucy...it seemed a dangerous/risky path to follow when Lucy should have been concentrating on winning the game so she could adopt Christopher. As with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I enjoyed watching the other contestants reveal themselves and their ultimate reason for wanting to win the book. Learning everyone's backstories was fascinating, and yet I wasn't surprised by the "twist" at the end that allowed everyone to achieve their dreams. A very satisfying page-turner like this deserves an A, and a recommendation to all my fellow book lovers out there who read and wish that they could live inside of their favorite tomes.
Cytonic (Skyward book 3) by Brandon Sanderson, was the final book in the Skyward Trilogy, and it was packed with revelations and information that shone a light on things that weren't quite clear in the first two books. The characters were bizarre and imaginative, and the main character, Spensa, was clearer and even more interesting as a person the longer the book went on. There were plenty of twists and turns that I did not see coming, and Sanderson pulls out all the stops for the last 1/4th of the book, which makes for an exhilarating ending. Here's the blurb: The third book in an epic series about a girl who will
travel beyond the stars to save the world she loves from destruction
from the author of the Reckoners series, the Mistborn trilogy, and the
Stormlight Archive.
Spensa’s life as a Defiant
Defense Force pilot has been far from ordinary. She proved herself one
of the best starfighters in the human enclave of Detritus and
she saved her people from extermination at the hands of the Krell—the
enigmatic alien species that has been holding them captive for decades.
What’s more, she traveled light-years from home as an undercover spy to
infiltrate the Superiority, where she learned of the galaxy beyond her
small, desolate planet home.
Now, the Superiority—the
governing galactic alliance bent on dominating all human life—has
started a galaxy-wide war. And Spensa’s seen the weapons they plan to
use to end it: the Delvers. Ancient, mysterious alien forces that can
wipe out entire planetary systems in an instant. Spensa knows that no
matter how many pilots the DDF has, there is no defeating this predator.
Except that Spensa is Cytonic. She faced down a Delver and
saw something eerily familiar about it. And maybe, if she’s able to
figure out what she is, she could be more than just another pilot in
this unfolding war. She could save the galaxy.
The only way
she can discover what she really is, though, is to leave behind all she
knows and enter the Nowhere. A place from which few ever return.
To have courage means facing fear. And this mission is terrifying.
It's fascinating that the Delvers are really rogue AI that were created by a heartbroken individual who doesn't want anything to change in the universe, due to losing someone they love, so they create and copy many hateful AIs to keep one place from the degradation that comes with time. I was hoping for there to be more about Spensa once she returned home, but there wasn't much about the final "battle" if you want to call it that. Still, I was glued to this book until the final page. I love space adventures and pilots who fly starships (witness my decades-long love of all the Star Trek shows that have come along during my lifetime...I've always wanted to go out into space with one of those, with their charismatic cast and crew). though it was a bit too long (All of Sanderson's books could use a good editorial haircut), I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who has read the first two books in the series. Believe me, you'll be surprised by the ending. In Defense of Witches by Mona Chollet is a non-fiction book about feminism and how misogyny has effected women throughout history, right to the present day. It was the book chosen for August for my library reading group, and as the leader of said group, I feel I'm required to read a book all the way through to the end. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered to struggle my way through what read like a master's thesis that the author padded out a bit with some historical research to make a book. Chollet is French, so I gather the book had to be translated, but whomever did the deed wasn't very good at making connections between ideas/paragraphs, so the prose is choppy and disjointed, which ultimately leads to a frustrated reader. Here's the blurb: Mona Chollet's In Defense of Witches is a “brilliant, well-documented” celebration (Le Monde)
by an acclaimed French feminist of the witch as a symbol of female
rebellion and independence in the face of misogyny and persecution.
Centuries
after the infamous witch hunts that swept through Europe and America,
witches continue to hold a unique fascination for many: as fairy tale
villains, practitioners of pagan religion, as well as feminist icons.
Witches are both the ultimate victim and the stubborn, elusive rebel.
But who were the women who were accused and often killed for witchcraft?
What types of women have centuries of terror censored, eliminated, and
repressed?
Celebrated feminist writer Mona Chollet explores three
types of women who were accused of witchcraft and persecuted: the
independent woman, since widows and celibates were particularly
targeted; the childless woman, since the time of the hunts marked the
end of tolerance for those who claimed to control their fertility; and
the elderly woman, who has always been an object of at best, pity, and
at worst, horror. Examining modern society, Chollet concludes that these
women continue to be harrassed and oppressed. Rather than being a brief
moment in history, the persecution of witches is an example of
society’s seemingly eternal misogyny, while women today are direct
descendants to those who were hunted down and killed for their thoughts
and actions.
With fiery prose and arguments that range from the scholarly to the cultural, In Defense of Witches seeks to unite the mythic image of the witch with modern women who live their lives on their own terms.
I disagree with the blurb, in that the prose is hardly fiery, and the arguments made aren't that compelling, and one of the members of my book group followed the trail of the footnotes and discovered that the statements made and attributed to certain professionals or authors or scholars were long out of date and had been refuted by those same people, and other papers had been recently written refuting the claims as well. The things Chollet says in her book are obvious re-treads of things we've all heard before, while she claims the book to be about feminism and witches, there's very few paragraphs written about witches at all. It seems that she stretches into unbelievable shapes to connect everyday misogyny or sexism to witches and witchcraft, when what she really does is mostly complain about men and the culture of misogyny that they've authored through the decades. So many points are made again and again that by the middle of the book, I was bored nearly to death. The author also doesn't propose any solutions or discuss ways in which society has changed to allow women to break the glass ceiling. Yes, we have a ways to go, but great strides have been made since the 70s, and though now we're watching the pendulum swing back, many more women are fighting hard for reproductive rights and for fair trials for things like rape and domestic violence. So I can only give this slipshod book a C, and recommend it to anyone who's been living under a rock since the 60s and has no idea what has been going on with women in society.
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