Ursula LeGuin Award Winner, Fourth Wing Comes to TV, Neil Gaiman Revives Christmas Carol on Stage in NYC, Reese Picks Maybe Next Time, The Velveteen Rabbit on TV, Nook Grand Opening in Cedar Falls, IA, Masters of the Air on TV, Kissing Kosher by Jean Meltzer, Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree, and The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

Welcome to November, my fellow readers and book aficionados! I know that we're already 11 days in, (and it's Veteran's Day, for crying out loud...thank you for your service to the women and men of the armed forces) but my husband has been in the hospital again, and things have been terribly busy and overwhelming for me as a caregiver and a mom. Still, I've got a host of great tidbits for you all and three reviews. It's prime reading weather (cold and rainy outside) so let's dig in!

I met Ms LeGuin, and loved her and her works dearly. So I'm glad that after her passing she left a legacy of an award for a fiction book of excellence. There can never be too many awards for hard working female authors.

 Awards: 2023 Ursula K. Le Guin Fiction Winner

Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell (Stelliform Press) has won the $25,000 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction https://www.shelf-awareness.co/ct/x/pjJscQONluQI6agzKkt-Gw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nEX5espoMLg-gVdw, which is "given to a writer for a single book-length work of imaginative fiction."

Organizers said, "In looping, linked stories that travel through generations, Campbell explores the effects of climate change on one slice of British Columbia: what might happen as the planet changes, and how regular people might remake their homes by growing together and reconsidering other, gentler ways to live in a drastically reshaped world."

Judges said, "Arboreality is a eulogy for the world as we know it. Rebecca Campbell's extraordinary, deeply felt book explores the difficulties of the long hard project of survival. There are no heroes or villains here--only people making brave, difficult choices, out of hope and love for their community, for art, knowledge, and beauty. Arboreality imagines things that we haven't yet considered about what can and will go wrong with our gardens, libraries, and archives if we don't act now (maybe even if we do). In her masterful and profoundly ethical stories, Campbell asks us what might be saved, what must be saved, and what it will take to do so."

Yarro's Fourth Wing got a crap-ton of good ink and recommendations this past year, and after reading it I was rather stunned at how derivative it is, especially of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series with some violent Game of Thrones and Hunger Games thrown in for those who like their fantasy grim and blood-thirsty. I am not, for the record, one of those readers. I much prefer peaceful books or at least ones with protagonists clever enough to avoid murdering their competitors (and to avoid being eaten by the dragons they're supposed to ride). But perhaps this is one of those books that will be better served on screen. One can only hope.

TV: Fourth Wing

 Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society and Amazon MGM Studios have acquired the rights to Rebecca Yarros' novel Fourth Wing https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQONn7oI6agzchpxTA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nEX57ypoMLg-gVdw and its follow-up Iron Flame--which will be released November 7--as well as the three remaining planned books in the Empyrean fantasy book series, Variety reported.

Yarros is a non-writing executive producer on the project alongside Liz Pelletier for Entangled Publishing. Variety noted that "no additional details regarding writers or cast are currently available. If ordered to series, the Fourth Wing adaptation will stream on Prime Video."

The official logline for the TV series: "Enter the brutal world of Basgiath War College where there is only one rule: Graduate or Die. Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail expected to live a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general--her tough-as-talons mother--has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. If the fire-breathing beasts don't kill her, one of her fellow riders just might. Suspense, action, romance, and dragons blend together in a propulsive fantasy adventure from New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros."

Oh to visit New York and see this performance by the wonderful Neil Gaiman! It would be the ultimate holiday treat!

On Stage: Neil Gaiman to Revive A Christmas Carol Performance

Neil Gaiman "will reprise his role as Charles Dickens for two nights only this holiday season," Playbill reported: he will present Dickens's original performance text version of A Christmas Carol https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQOOwe4I6agzdkpwSw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nEXMCmpoMLg-gVdw at New York's Town Hall December 18-19.

This is the first time Gaiman has reprised his channeling of Dickens since 2013, "when he appeared in character as the esteemed author for the New York Public Library," Playbill noted, adding that the earlier reading "was immensely popular, and audio of the event has become the most popular event download in NYPL history, now a Christmas staple."

As in the earlier performance, the event will be introduced by historian Molly Oldfield, who will share the history of Charles Dickens's in-person dramatic readings.

I love Reese W, for her performances as an actress and for her devotion to books and readers with her book club. Blessings on your head, Reese! I am going to have to find a copy of her November pick.

Reese's November Book Club Pick: Maybe Next Time

The November pick for Reese's Book Club https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQOPkrkI6agzdRoiTA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nEXZPxpoMLg-gVdw is Maybe Next Time by Cesca Major (Morrow), which Reese Witherspoon described this way: "This fascinating story follows overworked & overwhelmed London literary agent Emma, who finds herself trapped in a time loop. No matter what Emma does, she keeps living the same day over and over--all while trying to stop something terrible from happening to her family." The book is slated for a film adaptation by Apple Studios, with Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine producing.

Who among us has not had the Velveteen Rabbit read to them as a child, and then cried every time it was read again by parents or grandparents? This is a heartfelt classic book that resonates with adults and children alike. I can't wait to see it on Apple TV.

TV: The Velveteen Rabbit

Apple TV+ revealed the official trailer for The Velveteen Rabbit, a kids and family live-action animated hybrid special based on the classic children's book by Margery Williams. It will be launching globally on November 22

Produced by Magic Light Pictures, the 40-minute special features the voices of Helena Bonham-Carter, Nicola Coughlan, Alex Lawther, Paterson Joseph, Clive Rowe, Bethany Antonia, Phoenix Laroche, Lois Chimimba, Nathaniel Parker, Tilly Vosburgh, Samantha Colley, and Leonard Buckley. Magic Light Pictures co-founder Martin Pope (Academy Award nominee The Gruffalo and BAFTA- and International Emmy-winning Revolting Rhymes) produces, with a screenplay by Tom Bidwell, creator of the BAFTA- and International Emmy-nominated My Mad Fat Diary and the Oscar-nominated short Wish 143.

I have a pen pal (Hi Jen!) in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and I'm excited for her to visit this new bookstore in her hometown. I love it that they're giving out freebies! Oh how I wish someone would open up a bookstore in Maple Valley...we really need one in this growing NW town.

Grand Opening Set for the Nook, Cedar Falls, Iowa

The Nook bookshop will be hosting a grand opening celebration https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQPaxO0I6agydx91TA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nECMWlpoMLg-gVdw this Saturday, November 11, at its new location on 216 Main St., Cedar Falls, Iowa. Noting that "we're so excited to meet you," co-owners Abby Olson and Brandon Conrad posted on Facebook: "Swing by early, as our first 30 customers through the door will receive a free tote bag & free candle! We'll also have free cookies from Moo's Bakery (til they run out!)."

In August, Olson and Conrad had announced plans for the upcoming move from their mini bookshop in the Cob Mercantile market to a larger space in the storefront previously occupied by Miss Wonderful Vintage, whose owner, Ann Eastman, "was the first person to give this young couple a chance to start up their business on Main Street," K92.3 reported The booksellers said, "Ann helped our business take a huge step and now she's helped us take an even bigger one."

This is yet another series that looks awesome, and I will be watching for the premier on Apple TV+, next year. You can't go wrong with something produced by Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Also, anything Ncuti Gatwa is involved in is bound to be tremendous fun.

TV: Masters of the Air

Apple TV+ has released a trailer for Masters of the Air https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQPbnu4I6agydhwgGA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nECZ-mpoMLg-gVdw, based on Donald L. Miller's book Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the War Against Nazi Germany. The nine-episode limited series will release its first two episodes on January 26, 2024, with new episodes dropping each Friday until March 15.

Written by John Orloff, the series stars Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Nate Mann, Rafferty Law, Barry Keoghan, Josiah Cross, Branden Cook, and Ncuti Gatwa. Hailing from Apple Studios, Masters of the Air is executive produced by Steven Spielbeg through Amblin Television, and Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman for Playtone.

Kissing Kosher by Jean Meltzer is a delightful diverse romance with a bit of a YA tilt that makes it a page turner that engrosses the reader from the first chapter. Here's the blurb: Step 1: Get the secret recipe. Step 2: Don’t fall in love…

Avital Cohen isn’t wearing underpants—woefully, for unsexy reasons. Chronic pelvic pain has forced her to sideline her photography dreams and her love life. It’s all she can do to manage her family’s kosher bakery, Best Babka in Brooklyn, without collapsing.

She needs hired help. And distractingly handsome Ethan Lippmann seems the perfect fit.

Except Ethan isn’t there to work—he’s undercover, at the behest of his ironfisted grandfather. Though Lippmann’s is a household name when it comes to mass-produced kosher baked goods, they don’t have the charm of Avital’s bakery. Or her grandfather’s world-famous pumpkin spice babka recipe.

As they bake side by side, Ethan soon finds himself more interested in Avital than in stealing family secrets, especially as he helps her find the chronic pain relief—and pleasure—she’s been missing.

But perfecting the recipe for romance calls for leaving out the lies…even if coming clean means risking everything.  

I was fascinated by the fact that the protagonist, Avi, has Interstitial Cystitis and therefore suffers from chronic pain like I do with Crohns flares, and that she's just as frustrated by dismissive doctors who can't seem to do anything to help her get her life back. And her struggle for pain relief really hit home, too, as doctors nowadays, because of the "opioid crisis" are loathe to give prescriptions for pain medications to those who need them more than once or twice. They don't want their patients to get "hooked" on the pain meds. But what actually happens is that those with chronic pain are left to live in agony, often wondering if it would be better to 'end it all' rather than suffer every single day. So when Avi finally opens up to Ethan about her IC pain, he helps her find relief (and love) through medical marijuana and a few other meds and stress relievers (some sexual/intimate in nature, some involving taking time to pursue her passion for photography, and leaving a high stress job), which was hopeful and satisfying for me as a fellow woman in pain. Though it was long, the prose in this novel was bright and zingy, while the plot moved along at a graceful pace that kept me reading through the night. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in Jewish food, feuds, and love.

Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree is a prequel to the delightful Legends and Lattes, which I read and enjoyed earlier this year. This book is, like the one that follows it, a cozy fantasy novel filled with humor and 'found family' that is sure to satisfy those who were enthralled with Legends and Lattes, as I was. Here's the blurb: When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn't always what we seek.

Set in the world of New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree's Bookshops & Bonedust takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and secondhand books.

Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned.

Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she'll never be able to return to it.

What's a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?

Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn't possibly imagine.

Still, adventure isn't all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected. 

If you don't fall in love with Viv and Fern and Potroast within the first few chapters, there's something seriously wrong with you. These are charming,funny and lovable critters of all sizes, shapes and sexual orientations, and their adventures are riveting reading. I was also 'enthralled' by the skeletal 'thrall' Satchel, who liked cleaning and tidying the bookstore and making friends with the towns denizens. Even that villains are unusual and provide for an exciting ending that you won't see coming. Having longed to open a bookstore myself for most of my life, this book was right up my alley, especially populated, as it was, by orcs and talking rats and other weird characters. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who is looking for a  rousing adventure/fantasy novel that has diverse characters and a cozy bookstore. 

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger is a historical mystery/thriller novel based in a small town in Southern Minnesota, near the border of Northern Iowa (my home state) in the 1950s. I've read and loved Krueger's Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land (both reviewed on my blog), but I wasn't prepared for the amount of horrific bloodshed, murder and rape in this book, and the way that it was presented as somehow inevitable, because the rural alcoholic men involved felt that they had complete control over women/girls, both related and unrelated to them...especially if the woman/girl was pretty or very young and vulnerable. If I would have know about all the rape in this novel, I would not have purchased or read it, as being a survivor of rape myself, I avoid books that trigger those horrible memories. Here's the blurb:

In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by a shocking murder, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this dazzling novel, an instant New York Times bestseller and “a work of art” (The Denver Post).

On Memorial Day in Jewel, Minnesota, the body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. The investigation falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past.

Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn’s death threatens to expose.

Both a complex, spellbinding mystery and a masterful portrait of mid-century American life that is “a novel to cherish” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), The River We Remember offers an unflinching look at the wounds left by the wars we fight abroad and at home, a moving exploration of the ways in which we seek to heal, and a testament to the enduring power of the stories we tell about the places we call home.

Krueger is known for his lyrical prose and his great characters, especially the Native Americans of the farm country of the US, who were treated with as much racism and cruelty as POC in America at that time. This shameful history has been swept under the rug for too long, and I'm glad that authors like Krueger are writing the stories of the Native American peoples into their books so we can see how our history books have been white-washed, and readers can also note the fallout from WW2 in terms of those of Jewish descent or Japanese descent. Still, this novel wasn't as lyrical as his other two bestsellers, and there was more, as I've said before, gore and death and rape than was necessary to move the plot along. It was fairly nauseating, and I had a hard time making my way through the last half of the book. I was also not too fond of the protagonist, Sheriff Brody Dern, who seemed a bit dim to me. With that in mind, I'd give this book a B-, and only recommend it to those interested in the Midwest in the 1950s, and lives lived in small towns.