Hey Book friends! It's already the end of week 2 of January going into the third week of the month, so January is just whipping by, which is a blessing because the temps have never been lower outside. Its been around 15 degrees at night and it only gets up to 30-40 degrees during the day, and of course, being the rainy PNW, we aren't getting much sunshine and I'm worried about our neighbor's kitty cats, who come to our TARDIS (representing Doctor Who, yo!) front door and meow loudly for treats every night at around 1:30 AM when I do my walk on the treadmill. Levi, the big white kitty, tends to not get any kind of entry into his family's home during inclement weather, so I worry that he will die during the cold nights without shelter and heat. So I've been putting out a blanket for him and giving him extra treats in hopes that he will survive this cold snap.
Meanwhile, after a successful trip to Powell's City of Books in Portland, OR, I've been reading up a storm! Reading under a cozy blanket with a hot cuppa tea and some tea biscuits is pure bliss.
I'm thrilled that there's another bookstore opening in Seattle, especially in the eclectic neighborhood of Fremont, which has been known to call itself "The Center of the Universe" LOL. I love that they're focused on diversity!
Charlie's Queer Books Opens in Seattle,
Wash.
Since its early November opening in
Seattle, Wash., Charlie's Queer
Books
https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQXalOUI6a9jIB91Eg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nCCJWtpoMLg-gVdw
has been selling LGBTQ+ titles
and creating an inclusive community
space in the city's Fremont
neighborhood, the Seattle Times
reported.
Located at 465 N. 36th St. in a
modified house, the store offers a
wide-ranging inventory that includes
classic and contemporary queer
literature, titles for all ages, and
more. Proprietor Charlie Hunts, who
co-owns the bookstore with his wife,
Madeline Burchard, told the Times
that the store is "expansive in
our selection and expansive in who we
are as intersectional beings."
Alongside books, the store offers
stickers, prints, candles, and
clothing. The shop's second floor
features a comfortable reading nook
and a meeting space that can seat 12,
which has been used for book clubs
and community meetings.
Charlie's Queer Books owners Madeline
Burchard and Charlie Hunts.
He began last summer with a "disco
book cart" that he brought to Pride
events in several Seattle
neighborhoods. The cart did so well in Fremont
that the neighborhood "absolutely
just felt like such a natural fit. We
had a wonderful mix of neighborhood
folks and tourists, which is a
winning combination."
It was also important to Hunts to
create a welcoming, queer space "that
doesn't center around alcohol or
nightlife. You can bring your dog, your
kid, however you define your family,
and just enjoy it."
Though I've not read any of the winning titles, I am excited that there's a specific award for PNW writers. Congratulations to the winners.
Awards: Pacific Northwest Book Winners;
Story Prize Finalists
Winners have been announced for the
2024 Pacific Northwest Book Awards,
sponsored by the Pacific Northwest
Booksellers Association and chosen by
independent booksellers. The winners:
Weird Rules to Follow by Kim Spencer
(Orca Book Publishers)
The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra
Magpie Earling (Milkweed
Editions)
Cascadia Field Guide, edited by Derek
Sheffield and CMarie Furman in
conjunction with Elizabeth Bradfield
(Mountaineers Books)
Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City by
Jane Wong (Tin House)
You Just Need to Lose Weight by Aubrey
Gordon (Beacon Press)
Doppleganger by Naomi Klein (Farrar,
Straus and Giroux)
What is happening in Florida and Texas with book bans sickens me.The schools are already so terrible, that taking away books necessary for children's education seems redundant. But I find it amusing, in a grim way, that they've now decided to ban dictionaries and reference books, including ones about the Bible, while not banning the Bible outright...one would assume that they feel that much of the sexual and violent material within the Bible will go over student's heads, so that if they ban reference books that break down various books of the Bible, students won't understand what they're reading. That's a lot of work to go to in order to ensure that children remain ignorant of the realities of the world and facts about sexuality, race, LGBTQ lives, etc. What do they think will happen when these students graduate? That they will never encounter an LGBTQ person, or a person of color? Or do they assume that they will automatically hate different groups because they have no knowledge of them? It's just sad, really. You can't legislate or ban what any given child will become during their lifetime. Book bans are fascist and stupid.
Florida
School District Bans the Dictionary
No
quippy headline for this one, folks. A
list of more than 1600 titles that were recently pulled from district
shelves
in Escambia County, Florida was released yesterday as part of a
lawsuit brought against the county by PEN America, Penguin Random
House, and a group of authors whose work has been impacted. Among
them are:
- five editions of the dictionary
- five editions of The Guiness Book of World Records
- eight encyclopedias
- three editions of Ripley’s Believe It or Not
- a few reference works about the Bible
- biographies of several celebrities.
All
were pulled from district shelves in December under a new law that
bans schools from having books containing “sexual conduct.” You
can see
the full list here.
The hearing begins today. In the meantime, students do not have
access to the material.
Tor.com
Becoming Reactor
Effective January 23, the science
fiction and fantasy-focused online
magazine Tor.com will become Reactor.
As Reactor, the online magazine will
continue to publish speculative
short fiction and will expand its
coverage to also include romance,
horror, and other genres. The
rebranding will coincide with the launch
of a redesigned website
https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQXbl-QI6a9jJxx3Sw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nCCZaspoMLg-gVdw,
and the change
will better reflect the fact that
Tor.com is publisher agnostic and
independent from Tor Publishing Group.
"We have always been the place to
come to for science fiction and
fantasy," said Tor Publishing
Group president and publisher Devi Pillai,
"but with a new name, a new
design, we are going to have a magazine that
will be more of a pop culture hub for
people who love genre of all
types. We want to expand the audience
and the community that Tor.com has
built over the past 15 years."
Chris Lough, Tor.com's director,
remarked: "Oh, how we have waited for
this day. For the past 15 years we have
published discerning yet joyful
works of media criticism, along with
award-winning short fiction and
art. Now, starting in 2024, the look
and functionality of our magazine's
website will finally match the maturity
of our contributors and the
needs of our community." Tor.com was founded in 2008. It has won
the Locus Award for Best Magazine for the past seven years.
How exciting! Another bookstore opens, and this one is a new and used bookstore in Tacoma! My son and I will have to take a trip out to Tacoma to visit this place.
Clover
Daydreams Comes to Tacoma, Wash.
Clover Daydreams, a new and used
bookstore with an emphasis on diverse
and inclusive titles, has opened
in Tacoma, Wash.
https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQXbkOwI6a9jJ0pyTw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nCCZGkpoMLg-gVdw,
the
News Tribune reported.
Located within a thrift store called
Black Sheep Resale, Clover
Daydreams carries fiction and
nonfiction for all ages with an emphasis
on historically marginalized voices,
along with a selection of zines and
stickers. Owner Clover Tamayo also
offers audiobooks and delivery, and
print books range from $5 to $35.
Tamayo told the Tribune that they were
not an avid reader as a child,
and they realized later in life that it
was "because I didn't have the
books I wanted. When you have stories
that really connect with who's
reading them, that is the big
difference. Just to be able to see
yourself and see joy, or some sort of
shared self or shared
identity;it's really
uplifting to have that."
Though Clover Daydreams had its grand
opening inside of Black Sheep
Resale earlier this week, the bookstore
actually debuted last year as an
online and pop-up store. Tamayo noted
that South Tacoma did not have a
small, independent bookstore of its
own, and providing books to that
community "is super important."
Tamayo plans to operate Clover
Daydreams inside of Black Sheep Resale
for at least the rest of 2024.
Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes is a farcical, funny, wild ride of a science fiction book with a romantic subplot that's just as strange as the zig-zagging plot and the slangy prose. Here's the blurb:
A hilarious, offbeat debut space opera that
skewers everything from pop culture to video games and features an
irresistible foul-mouthed captain and her motley crew, strange life
forms, exciting twists, and a galaxy full of fun and adventure.
Captain
Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy
delivering small cargo for even smaller profits. When her sister Mari is
kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that holds people hostage
in cryostasis, Eva must undergo a series of unpleasant, dangerous
missions to pay the ransom.
But Eva may lose her mind before she can raise the money. The ship’s hold is full of psychic cats, an amorous fish-faced emperor wants her dead after she rejects his advances, and her sweet engineer is giving her a pesky case of feelings. The worse things get, the more she lies, raising suspicions and testing her loyalty to her found family.
To free her sister, Eva will risk everything: her crew, her ship, and the life she’s built on the ashes of her past misdeeds. But when the dominoes start to fall and she finds the real threat is greater than she imagined, she must decide whether to play it cool or burn it all down.
Though I enjoyed the fast pace of the novel, I have to say that, due to the cover and the blurb on the cover about 'psychic cats' that I assumed we'd get more action sequences from those kitty cats, and that they'd help Eva with her rescues and ship problems and family problems (why does the dirtbag father get off scott free after all the crap he's pulled with his daughter? He should be in jail somewhere). But I did find Eva's reluctant passion for her alien lover Vakar to be funny and strange, especially since he exuded the scent of licorice to let others know when he was feeling amorous, LOL. You find yourself wondering "why" a lot during the course of this odd space opera...why licorice? Why don't they translate all the Spanish that the main character spouts? Why didn't her sister let Eva know that she didn't need to be rescued, or that she was working for some agency that wants to bring down the "Fridge" syndicate? Things aren't so much resolved at the end as they're okay for now. I gather that there's a sequel, but to be honest I found the loose prose and the plot holes too tedious by the second half of this 400+ page tome. I'd give the work a C+, and recommend it to people who read and enjoy fan fiction.The Comfort Book by Matt Haig is a short but sweet self help non fiction book that outlines several positive and uplifting things people can think about or do to help them overcome challenging hard times. Here's the blurb: The new uplifting book from Matt Haig, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library, for anyone in search of hope, looking for a path to a more meaningful life, or in need of a little encouragement.
Named by The Washington Post as one of the best feel-good books of the year
“It is a strange paradox, that many of the clearest, most comforting life lessons are learnt while we are at our lowest. But then we never think about food more than when we are hungry and we never think about life rafts more than when we are thrown overboard.”
The Comfort Book is Haig’s life raft: it’s a collection of notes, lists, and stories written over a span of several years that originally served as gentle reminders to Haig’s future self that things are not always as dark as they may seem. Incorporating a diverse array of sources from across the world, history, science, and his own experiences, Haig offers warmth and reassurance, reminding us to slow down and appreciate the beauty and unpredictability of existence.
Named by The Washington Post as one of the best feel-good books of the year
“It is a strange paradox, that many of the clearest, most comforting life lessons are learnt while we are at our lowest. But then we never think about food more than when we are hungry and we never think about life rafts more than when we are thrown overboard.”
The Comfort Book is Haig’s life raft: it’s a collection of notes, lists, and stories written over a span of several years that originally served as gentle reminders to Haig’s future self that things are not always as dark as they may seem. Incorporating a diverse array of sources from across the world, history, science, and his own experiences, Haig offers warmth and reassurance, reminding us to slow down and appreciate the beauty and unpredictability of existence.
I really enjoyed most of this book, though at times the advice was redundant, just by saying the same thing in a different way. Still, many of the calls for kindness and treating yourself with gentle warmth were wonderfully insightful, and much needed in today's fast paced and impersonal world. I've read Haig's Midnight Library, and I enjoyed it, so I wasn't surprised that I enjoyed his clean and soft prose here, and felt that he was doing his best to make the world a better place through kindness and understanding. I'd give this lovely book an A, and recommend it to anyone who is feeling blue, or sad, or directionless.
The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss is the backstory of Bast, a fae from the Kingkiller Chronicles who deserved more of a fleshing out than he got in the two KC books out currently. Here's the blurb: Patrick Rothfuss returns to the wildly popular
Kingkiller Chronicle universe with a stunning reimagining of "The
Lightning Tree." Expanded to twice its previous length and lavishly
illustrated by Nate Taylor, this touching stand-alone story is sure to
please new readers and veteran Rothfuss fans alike.
Bast knows how to bargain. The give-and-take of a negotiation is as familiar to him as the in-and-out of breathing; to watch him trade is to watch an artist at work. But even a master's brush can slip. When he accepts a gift, taking something for nothing, Bast's whole world is knocked askew, for he knows how to bargain—but not how to owe.
From dawn to midnight over the course of a single day, follow the Kingkiller Chronicle's most charming fae as he schemes and sneaks, dancing into trouble and back out again with uncanny grace.
The Narrow Road Between Desires is Bast's story. In it he traces the old ways of making and breaking, following his heart even when doing so goes against his better judgement.
After all, what good is caution if it keeps him from danger and delight?
Bast knows how to bargain. The give-and-take of a negotiation is as familiar to him as the in-and-out of breathing; to watch him trade is to watch an artist at work. But even a master's brush can slip. When he accepts a gift, taking something for nothing, Bast's whole world is knocked askew, for he knows how to bargain—but not how to owe.
From dawn to midnight over the course of a single day, follow the Kingkiller Chronicle's most charming fae as he schemes and sneaks, dancing into trouble and back out again with uncanny grace.
The Narrow Road Between Desires is Bast's story. In it he traces the old ways of making and breaking, following his heart even when doing so goes against his better judgement.
After all, what good is caution if it keeps him from danger and delight?
This delicious fantasy is perfect, since it's so small, for reading in the doctor's office, or at the airport, or while waiting in line anywhere. The illustrations are magical and the prose is golden, as is the zippy plot that glistens with Rothfuss' elegant wordsmithing. Rothfuss somehow manages to make some of the fairy tale tropes that we all grew up on, like beware of making bargains that aren't very well thought out with fae, because they will take your wish and twist it beyond recognition. Bast makes a lot of bargains with children, whose main currency is secrets and information, and that alone adds some fascination to the story, as we want to see what happens to the abused child who bargains for their father to leave and never come home (it ends well, thankfully). I'd give this lovely short novel an A, and recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Bast from the Kingkiller Chronicles.
Coffee, Milk and Spider Silk by Coyote JM Edwards is a cozy fantasy novella that had some interesting characters and almost had me liking spiders as a whole...note that I said almost. Things with extra legs still give me the creeps. Anyway, here's the blurb: This was another fun ebook that didn't take me long to read on my Kindle Paperwhite. I felt the prose was as soft and luscious as a cupcake from Gwen's cafe, but the plot needed a bit more heft. Also, Gwen seemed very insecure to the point of cowardice, and she was so afraid of everyone and everything that I had no idea how she kept the cafe doors open, when anything new sent her into a panic. I almost believed that Gwen was on the Autism spectrum, given her behavior, but I think in this world they didn't have such a thing. At any rate, predictably, Gwen triumphs over her fears and makes the cafe a success, along with her minotaur friend, her teenage dryad who is good with website advertising on various platforms and her partner in the Guard. I'd give this book that reads like a children's fable a B-, and recommend it to anyone who likes seeing monsters as primary heroes or heroines.
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