Hello Bookish friends! Here's the last blog post and reviews of September, which seemed to rush by on a humid wind.In the last couple of months there's been a lot of media, both social and regular TV/newspapers/websites, about the states that have been banning certain books from school and public libraries, with varying degrees of success. That even some of these bigoted individual adults/parents were able to get classic and LGBTQ books taken off the shelves is horrible, and brings to mind the Nazi book burnings of the 1930s-40s, and Ray Bradbury's cautionary tale Fahrenheit 451 about regular state-sanctioned book burnings that are forced on the public to keep them ignorant and complacent. It's horrifying that people actually think banning a book will keep children and teenagers from seeking out those books to find out why they're so subversive. Children need to read a wide variety of material in order to grow and learn to think on their journey to adulthood.
Meanwhile, here's a few tidbits and a couple of reviews...sorry that there aren't more but my reading time is consistently reduced by having to care for my husband, and in the past week, my son, who caught a nasty respiratory virus.
This is another form of censorship by prejudiced, ignorant people who want children to fear 'drag queens' because they're different. Shame on those people, and double shame on the ones calling in the bomb threat to this bookstore in Utah.
The King's English, Salt Lake City, Utah, Cancels Drag Queen Storytime After Bomb Threat
The King's English Bookshop https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQCKkewI6ag2Jx8lEw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nHWJCkpoMLg-gVdw in Salt Lake City, Utah, canceled a drag queen storytime yesterday morning due to a bomb threat on the bookstore's block. Store co-owner Calvin Crosby reported that all staff members, as well as drag queen Tara Lipsyncki, were safe. The bookstore remained closed for the rest of the day and staff were sent home with pay.
The event, which was scheduled to start at 11 a.m., would have benefited Brain Food Books, a nonprofit owned by the King's English, that distributes books to children and teens without access. After the cancellation, Crosby and Lipsyncki made matching donations to Brain Food Books.
While the storytime itself has not been rescheduled, the King's English is launching Lipsyncki's children's book Letter from the Queen, illustrated by Cherry Mock, on October 11. Crosby said the store will celebrate Lipsyncki's work and offer a storytime then. Crosby noted that there were in fact two separate bomb threats made on Sunday, both of which targeted the bookstore. They were the first in the store's 46-year history.
I loved LeVar Burton as Geordie LaForge, the engineer on Star Trek The Next Generation. The fact that he kept this pro-reading book show going for decades makes me adore him even more. He's the perfect person to be the chair of Banned Books Week.
Banned Books Week Starts October First
The honorary chair of BBW is LeVar Burton, the first actor to hold this position. A lifelong literacy advocate, Burton was the host of the PBS children's series Reading Rainbow; hosts the LeVar Burton Reads podcast; and was executive producer of The Right to Read, a documentary that frames the literary crisis in the U.S. a civil rights issue. He is also the author of Aftermath, The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, and A Kids Book About Imagination.
Burton commented: "Books bring us together. They teach us about the world and each other. The ability to read and access books is a fundamental right and a necessity for life-long success. But books are under attack. They're being removed from libraries and schools. Shelves have been emptied because of a small number of people and their misguided efforts toward censorship. Public advocacy campaigns like Banned Books Week are essential to helping people understand the scope of book censorship and what they can do to fight it. I'm honored to lead Banned Books Week 2023." On Wednesday, October 4, Burton will be in a live-streamed conversation with Da'Taeveyon Daniels, the youth honorary chair for Banned Books Week, about censorship and advocacy.
My mother once responded to a woman who noticed (I don't remember whether we were in the library or a bookstore, but it was probably the former) that I was reading an adult book by a female author who was famous at the time, and I was only 12 or 13 years old (this was around 1973). My mother told the busybody that I was already reading at the college level of comprehension, and that as long as I could read and understand what I was reading, that she would continue to allow me to read anything and everything I wanted to read. My mom also said something along the lines of "My daughter's my smart child, so MIND YOUR OWN DAMNED BUSINESS." So I totally get where Nora Roberts is coming from in the third graph here when she notes that her parents never told her that you can't read XYZ book. My parents were also very much in favor of their three children reading and flourishing through knowledge and the worlds found in books.
Author Nora Roberts on book bannings:
When I grew up in suburbs outside of D.C., everyone in my house read. Books were everywhere. I didn't see this as a gift, but just as the normal, ordinary way of things.
In hindsight I understand it was a gift more precious than diamonds. Those trips to the library. My mother's monthly book club and my father's collection of Louis L'Amour and Edgar Rice Burroughs. My brothers' Hardy Boys and comic books. Being handed both Shakespeare and Eloise as a child. My Classic Illustrated subscription and the Nancy Drews my mother faithfully bought for me. All great, wonderful gifts.
Never once in my memory did either of my parents ever say: No, you can't read that... That's not appropriate... That's not for you. I just picked up a book from the shelf, the table, the collection in the attic and read.
My formative years included a great, marvelous scope of stories. Books were treasures to be enjoyed, doors opening to worlds to be explored. Stories, a foundation of the human experience, to be discussed.
I raised my kids exactly the same way, with trips to the library, with books all over the house, with the freedom to choose and explore. I do remember another parent once expressing dismay that my boys read comics. And my thought was: But they're reading! They still are, as grown men, who enjoy the written word and stories, and the freedom to explore those worlds.
Now, as a grandmother, I'm stunned and appalled that some have amassed the power to say no to ALL children, all teenagers when it comes to reading certain books, when it comes to what trained educators can offer in school libraries. There, in my opinion, they have no right.
I think back to my formative years, and a house full of books, and the gift of being encouraged to read, read, read. I wish that for everyone. Freedom, exploration, the opening of doors to other worlds, other viewpoints and experiences.
I would not be the woman, the human, the writer I am without that freedom.
I really want to see this movie, though I've not read the book. It has an all star cast and has earned rave reviews at Cannes.
Movies: Killers of the Flower Moon
Apple has "shared a first look at best actress hopeful Lily Gladstone" in a film clip from Killers of the Flower Moon https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQCMwuoI6ag2KhwnTA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nHXsOipoMLg-gVdw, the historical epic based on David Grann's 2017 book and directed by Martin Scorsese. The Hollywood Reporter noted that In the clip, Gladstone (Certain Women, Reservation Dogs) "goes toe-to-toe with Leonardo DiCaprio, playing recently returned war veteran Ernest Burkhart who is aggressively trying to court Gladstone's Mollie."
The cast also includes Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, William Belleau, Louis Cancelmi, Tatanka Means, Michael Abbot Jr., Pat Healy, Scott Shepard, Jason Isbell, and Sturgill Simpson. The Apple Original film, which earned rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival starring has set its wide theatrical release for October 20, and will subsequently stream on Apple TV+.
The Tea House on Mulberry Street by Sharon Owens is a contemporary Irish fiction novel that is somewhat similar to Maeve Binchy's warm tales of odd village folks and their lives and loves. Here's the blurbs: A dilapidated tea house in Belfast, Ireland, is second home to a
handful of down-in-the-dumps locals in this flat-footed debut, a
bestseller in Owens's native Ireland. Brought together by a common
fondness for Muldoon's Tea Rooms—and the establishment's luscious cherry
cheesecake—the members of the motley cast have little else in common.
Occupying center stage are the shop owners, Daniel and Penny Stanley,
whose very different dreams threaten their 17-year marriage. Penny longs
for beautiful things and exotic vacations, but Daniel pinches pennies
and worries over a long-held secret. Then there are the
regulars—starving artist Brenda Brown, who believes her boring name is
holding her back in the art world and spends her time penning love
letters to Nicolas Cage; wealthy bookshop owner Henry Blackstaff, who
escapes his imperious Brontë-loving wife to spy on Rose, the florist
across from the tea house; and magazine editor Clare Fitzgerald, who
returns from New York periodically to search for her lost childhood
love. Owens strives to craft rounded characters with weaknesses and
flaws—Daniel is revealed to be a former petty thief; Brenda makes an
unexpected decision about her blossoming career—but manages only to
create disjointed figures whose motives are hard to credit. Even Belfast
is a pallid presence, little more than a stagy backdrop for this
unsatisfying medley of tales. Agent, Helenka Fuglewicz for Publisher's Weekly.
Muldoon's Tea Rooms on Mulberry Street in Belfast is the
crossroads for a vibrant cast of characters, each of whom is at a
crossroads in his or her own life. From the proprietors, Daniel and
Penny Stanley, to the winsome florist across the street, the starving
artist next door, the philandering businessman across town, his plump
little doormat wife, the spinster sisters down the road, and the
pretentious society matron, everyone who enters the tearoom for a scone
and some Earl Grey leaves a bit more resolved to make changes in his or
her life. Must be the ingredients they use, for the tea shop itself
hasn't changed a whit since the Stanleys inherited it from Penny's
parents. But when a tragic accident nearly destroys the restaurant, the
Stanleys undertake the most drastic changes of all. Owens, a
best-selling author in her native Ireland, makes it all unfold as
smoothly as the shop's cherry cheesecake in her charming debut novel,
which will surely appeal to fans of Maeve Binchy and Rosamunde Pilcher. Carol Haggas for the American Library Association.
I have to agree with the Publisher's Weekly review here, in that there are too many characters, each with a chapter to their name, to keep track of the story arc, so it leaves the reader confused as to who is who and who is on the outs with their wife or pining after an old acquaintance. For me, it created a tension similar to that of being ill-prepared for a test. These characters, especially the creepy Nicholas Cage stalker (who eventually does get through to him, though she doesn't even have his address, so I found it hard to believe that her letters would go anywhere but the LA dead letter office) seem to think a great deal of themselves, and though it all turns out well in the end, it's not very comforting or warm when each character has to make a huge life change and attitude change to have a decent life. While I understand that the author was going for a specific friendly-village-folk tone, I didn't feel that close to the characters who seemed like stereotypes and rather two-dimensional. I'd give this book a C+, and recommend it to someone who wants a very light read on contemporary Ireland.
Cassiel's Servant by Jacqueline Carey is a romantic historical fantasy that re-writes Carey's first bestselling fantasy novel "Kushiel's Dart" from the point of view of Joscelin V, a Casseline warrior priest and beloved protector of Phedre no Delaunay, courtesan spy from the court of night-blooming flowers. This 22 year old novel was a revelation when I read it, and I was overjoyed to be able to read the story afresh from the POV of the male protagonist, instead of the female protagonist. Here's the blurb: The lush epic fantasy that inspired a generation with a single precept: “Love As Thou Wilt."
Returning to the realm of Terre d’Ange which captured an entire generation of fantasy readers, New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Carey brings us a hero’s journey for a new era.
In Kushiel’s Dart,
a daring young courtesan uncovered a plot to destroy her beloved
homeland. But hers is only half the tale. Now see the other half of the
heart that lived it.
Cassiel’s Servant is a retelling of cult favorite Kushiel’s Dart
from the point of view of Joscelin, Cassiline warrior-priest and
protector of Phèdre nó Delaunay. He’s sworn to celibacy and the blade as
surely as she’s pledged to pleasure, but the gods they serve have bound
them together. When both are betrayed, they must rely on each other to
survive.
From his earliest training to captivity amongst their
enemies, his journey with Phèdre to avert the conquest of Terre D’Ange
shatters body and mind… and brings him an impossible love that he will
do anything to keep.
Even if it means breaking all vows and losing his soul.
“Decadent and dark, Cassiel’s Servant
reveals the secrets of the mysterious Cassiline brotherhood. In this
gorgeously realized novel, Carey returns to the world of Terre d’Ange
and offers us a new and dazzling perspective on a character we thought
we knew.”—Nghi Vo, author of The Chosen and the Beautiful and Siren Queen
As with all of her books, Carey's prose is voluptuous and entrancing, and her plots do not flag, no matter how much political/social detail she stuffs the chapters with, which is quite a feat, as normally such discussions bore me to tears. But there's still a great deal of trials and tribulations, adventure and spycraft, and the rocky romance between a man who has sworn himself to chastity and a woman who has sworn to painful prostitution, due to bearing the mote of red in her eye that marks her as Kushiel's Chosen.
Though again, I'm not a fan of pain/gore/torture and war, the Kushiel's series was so compelling that I read all of Carey's works, and loved them all. "Love As Thou Wilt" and Phedra's marque (a stylized rose tattooed on her spine that was completed as part of her indenture with the houses of prostitution called the Court of Night Blooming Flowers) have become so popular that there are a number of fans who have had the legend and the marque tattooed on their bodies. I was able to meet Carey at a reading in Seattle in the early 2000's, and there were a number of people, even then, who were able to show Carey their tattoos and explain how much the books had inspired them. I was surprised at the number of young women there who had read the steamy sex scenes and were very open with their questions about Phedra and about the different houses in the court, who specialize in one type of love/sexuality or another. I wonder of those same young gals, now in their 30s, are reading and enjoying this book with it's more military POV, and much fewer sex scenes. I also wonder if many of them still keep the tradition from the novels of celebrating "Longest Night" with a masquerade ball and an alcoholic drink called Joy (Joie). At any rate, though it was over 500 pages long, I loved reading about Joscelin's youth and upbringing, and his deep love of Phedre. This novel deserves nothing less than an A, and a recommendation to all who have read any of the original Kushiel's series, and wish to deepen their knowledge of Terre 'd Ange.
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