Happy Birthday Phinney Books, Piranesi Movie, The Night Manager Season 2, Quote of the Day, Pride Display Burned in Portland, OR, James Baldwin Estate Inks Development Deal, the Wren in the Holly Library by KA Linde, Where the Dark Stands Still by AB Poranek,Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny, and Bedsocks and Broomsticks by G Clatworthy

Hola fellow book lovers! Today is the last day of June already, as we head into hotter than hades summer weather  for the next two months. Fortunately, we have air conditioning, so I stay relatively cool indoors and spend as much time as possible reading and writing letters and blog posts. I hope that you all are getting ready for the 4th of July and reading lots of exciting books! BOOM!

 

I remember visiting this bookstore just a couple of days after it opened, because it was in my old neighborhood of Phinney Ridge, which was where Jim and I landed when we first moved here from Florida.  I loved getting to know the PNW during those years, and I'm glad that Phinney Books is surviving and thriving!

 

Happy 10th Birthday, Phinney Books!

Congratulations to Phinney Books https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVCIxukI6a5mKhlxSw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mXWsehpoMLg-gVdw, Seattle,

Wash., which celebrated its 10th anniversary with a thank-you party for

customers, staff, and book industry friends last Thursday, June 20.

Guests were invited to write down the top 10 favorite books they read in

the past decade (and submit them to win prizes, including a store gift

certificate and a year of Phinney by Post book subscription). The party

continued through the weekend with a 10% storewide discount. Tom Nissley

and Laura Silverstein bought the bookshop in 2014

(previously Santoro's Books).

Though I'm not a fan of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange novel, I did enjoy the film adaptation, and I imagine this adaptation will be just as engaging, though it's animated (I prefer live action).

Movies: Piranesi

Laika has acquired the rights to Susanna Clarke's 2020 novel Piranesi

https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVCIxukI6a5mKhl-Tw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mXWsehpoMLg-gVdw

and will make an animated adaptation directed by the studio's president

and CEO Travis Knight, Variety reported. Knight (Kubo and the Two

Strings; Bumblebee, from the Transformers franchise), said: "Piranesi is

a treasure, and very dear to me. As a filmmaker, I can scarcely imagine

a more joyful experience than wandering through the worlds Susanna

dreamed into being. She's one of my all-time favorite authors, and with

Piranesi, Susanna has created a beautiful, devastating and ultimately

life-affirming work of art."

Clarke added: "Animation is one of my favorite things. I've been

inspired by so many animated movies, and Laika has produced such

extraordinary work--movies like Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings,

full of beauty and wonder and weirdness."

The Night Manager is another adaptation that I really enjoyed, especially the great casting of Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie. Though the latter won't be in season 2, I bet it will still be engaging and fascinating. 

 

TV: The Night Manager, Season 2

Casting choices have been announced for the second season of The Night

Manager, which continues to be inspired by John le Carre's bestselling

novel, with series creator David Farr also executive producing and

writing the new season, Variety reported. Georgi Banks-Davies (I Hate

Suzie, Paper Girls) is directing Season 2.

Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman are reprising their roles as former

military officer Jonathan Pine and intelligence officer Angela Burr

respectively. Also returning for the new edition are Alistair Petrie as

Alexander "Sandy" Langbourne, Douglas Hodge as Rex Mayhew, Michael

Nardone as Frisky, and Noah Jupe as Daniel Roper. Previously announced

cast include Diego Calva, Camila Morrone, Indira Varma, Paul Chahidi,

and Hayley Squires.

"Story details are being kept under wraps, but the return of several

cast members who were in the Season 1 orbit of villain Richard 'Dicky'

Roper (played by Hugh Laurie) gives hint that there is unfinished

business there," Variety noted, adding that while Laurie is among the

executive producers on Season 2, so far there has been no indication

whether he is returning as Roper.

Season 1 of The Night Manager (which aired on AMC in the U.S.) scored

Golden Globes wins for Colman (best supporting actress), Hiddleston

(best actor in a limited series or TV film), and Hugh Laurie (best

supporting actor). The new season, which takes place eight years later,

is set to air on BBC in the U.K. and on Amazon's Prime Video outside the

U.K. (including the U.S.).

This is true...bookstores are sacred spaces, along with libraries and theaters. They carry some of the culture of humanity. They enlighten, entertain and inform.

 

Quotation of the Day

"Books have made me feel more, and they've granted me access to spaces

and ideas I never would have encountered. In many ways, the sum of

literature is the sacred for me, and without it I don't know where I

would be. To imagine a world without books... impossible. And the same

for indie bookstores, which are the very places that carry the

sacredness of story. But who opens that door? The indie booksellers, the

ones who give so much of their lives to making books available to

people. I suppose what I'm saying is those indie booksellers (and anyone

who is spending their life doing this kind of work) are the reason I am

here. They're the storykeepers--the ones we, or at least I, need to keep

going."--Morgan Talty, author

 

 

This just disgusts me...what kind of cowardly person(s) tries to burn down a bookstore just because they're fascists who are opposed to the LGBTQ community...this is not the 17th century, and witch hunts are no longer a way for idiots to display their closed minds and shriveled souls. For shame, whomever did this. I'm glad that the damage was minimal and no one was hurt.

 

Pride Display Burned at Dark Star Magick, Portland, Ore.

A Pride display at Dark Star Magick was lit on fire

https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVCKweUI6a5mdhl1SA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mXWMCtpoMLg-gVdw earlier this week, FOX12 Oregon reported.

Early Monday morning, someone smashed one of the store's windows, poured some type of accelerant on the Pride display, and lit it on fire. Around 4:30 a.m., Portland Fire & Rescue responded to the fire and put it out. The fire had not spread further than a pile of books in the display.

None of the apartments above the bookstore were affected.

"Whoever did this put at risk an entire apartment building full of

people," store owner Steve Kinchen told FOX12. "They need to be caught.

This is not acceptable. This is not the Portland that we love. This kind

of nonsense has to stop. We're just small business people trying to make

a living."

I've been a fan of James Baldwin's writing since I was about 12-13 years old. I'm thrilled that they're going to adapt some of his works for TV and film. I don't know how they will be able to capture the grace and sheer brilliance of his prose on screen, but I look forward to their efforts nonetheless.

 

Fremantle Development Deal with James Baldwin Family Estate

The works of James Baldwin "could be headed to the small and big screen"

after Fremantle North America struck a deal with the Baldwin Family

estate https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVCLkOsI6a5mdhEjTg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mXWZGjpoMLg-gVdw via Trevor Baldwin, nephew and founder of the Baldwin United Fund.

Deadline reported that the deal allows for the development of new

adaptations of the author's books for TV and film. Original Productions

will handle the documentary side of the agreement, which comes ahead of

what would be Baldwin's 100th birthday in August.

"We are deeply honored to bring James Baldwin's timeless works to a new

generation," said Dante Di Loreto, president of scripted programming,

Fremantle North America. "We are committed to preserving Baldwin's

legacy while making his powerful narratives accessible and compelling

for contemporary audiences. This collaboration underscores our

dedication to producing content that entertains and inspires."

The Wren In The Holly Library by K. A. Linde is a gorgeous romantasy novel that is stunning on the outside, with sprayed edges, stenciled artwork and beautiful endpapers, and elegant prose with a stunningly beautiful story inside. This book is something every bibliophile would be proud to display on their shelves. Here's the blurb: Can you love the dark when you know what it hides?

Some things aren’t supposed to exist outside of our imagination.

Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse’s world into a cataclysmic war of near-total destruction. The New York City she knew so well collapsed practically overnight.

In the wake of that carnage, the Monster Treaty was created. A truce...of sorts.

But tonight, Kierse―a gifted and fearless thief―will break that treaty. She’ll enter the Holly Library...not knowing it’s the home of a monster.

He’s charming. Quietly alluring. Terrifying. But he knows talent when he sees it; it’s just a matter of finding her price.

Now she’s locked into a dangerous bargain with a creature unlike any other. She’ll sacrifice her freedom. She’ll offer her skills. Together, they’ll put their own futures at risk.

But he’s been playing a game across centuries―and once she joins in, there will be
no escape.

 

This is the first of several "Beauty and the Beast" fairytale retellings that I read this past month, and by far the most elegant and satisfying. The romance wasn't too porn-ish or sappy, and the fantasy was well grounded in myth and legend. I loved Kierse and Graves, and how their relationship changed over the course of the novel...and I loved the adventuresome spirit of Kierse. The ending was very satisfying, and I found myself hoping for another book in this series right away. All in all, a well-deserved A, and a recommendation to anyone who enjoys revamped fairytales with romance and lustrous prose that glides along a swift plot.

 

Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek is another romantasy Beauty and the Beast retelling, but it takes place in a distant time period that seems to correspond to the 17th century or before, with the Christian Church running entire towns and doing its best to kill off anyone seen as pagan or magical. It's billed as YA, though I would certainly not give it to anyone on the younger side of that spectrum, and only recommend it to those 17 -15 years old, at least, due to a lot of violence and gore and massive intolerant misogyny by the Church. Here's the blurb: A girl with dangerous magic makes a risky bargain with a demon to be free of her monstrous power in this “dark, devastating, and gothic” young adult fantasy.
Liska knows that magic is monstrous, and its practitioners are monsters. She has done everything possible to suppress her own magic, to disastrous consequences. Desperate to be free of it, Liska flees her small village and delves into the dangerous, demon-inhabited spirit-wood to steal a mythical fern flower. If she plucks it, she can use its one wish to banish her powers. Everyone who has sought the fern flower has fallen prey to unknown horrors, so when Liska is caught by the demon warden of the wood—called The Leszy—a bargain seems better than death: one year of servitude in exchange for the fern flower and its wish.

Whisked away to The Leszy’s crumbling manor, Liska soon makes an unsettling discovery: she is not the first person to strike this bargain, and all her predecessors have mysteriously vanished. If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her taciturn host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts—figurative and literal—of his past. Because something wakes in the woods, something deadly and without mercy. It frightens even The Leszy…and cannot be defeated unless Liska embraces the monster she’s always feared becoming. 

 The Beast, Leszy, comes across as an arrogant and selfish person who has no problem killing off his apprentices to save himself, and our female protagonist falls in love with him rather quickly, and puts her life and magic on the line to save him, and then to save her village from being overrun by monsters. The death of the Leszy, though he killed himself, is seen as heroic enough to put paid to his debt for being a monster, though that act also murders the romance and leaves our heroine responsible for keeping her village safe. She ends up in a situation that she was trying to avoid at the start of the book, which made the whole novel bittersweet at best, sour at worst. I'd give this book a B- and only recommend it to those who are die-hard fans of Beauty and the Beast revamps.

 

Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny (she really needs to change her last name), is a modern rom-com novel with a strange plot and unusual characters who keep advancing that plot with odd happenstance intertwined with mundane everyday small town life. It's a book that I am certain many women will like because the main character, Jane, is very insecure and a people-pleaser who carries around a lot of guilt that informs nearly all her decisions in life, which is apparently familiar to many American women. Here's the blurb:

Alternately bittersweet and laugh-out-loud funny, a wise, bighearted novel of love, disaster, and unconventional family—from the acclaimed author of Standard Deviation, who has been called the "literary descendant of Jane Austen, sharing Austen's essentially comic world view" (NPR).   

Jane falls in love with Duncan easily. He is charming, good-natured, and handsome but unfortunately, he has also slept with nearly every woman in Boyne City, Michigan. Jane sees Duncan's old girlfriends everywhere—at restaurants, at the grocery store, even three towns away.

While Jane may be able to come to terms with dating the world's most prolific seducer of women, she wishes she did not have to share him quite so widely. His ex-wife, Aggie, a woman with shiny hair and pale milkmaid skin, still has Duncan mow her lawn. His coworker, Jimmy, comes and goes from Duncan's apartment at the most inopportune times. Sometimes Jane wonders if a relationship can even work with three people in it—never mind four. Five if you count Aggie's eccentric husband, Gary. Not to mention all the other residents of Boyne City, who freely share with Jane their opinions of her choices.

But any notion Jane had of love and marriage changes with one terrible car crash. Soon Jane's life is permanently intertwined with Duncan's, Aggie's, and Jimmy's, and Jane knows she will never have Duncan to herself. But could it be possible that a deeper kind of happiness is right in front of Jane's eyes? Katherine Heiny's Early Morning Riser is her most astonishingly wonderful work to date.

The male protagonist, Duncan, who has slept with dozens of women in town and all around the area, is supposed to be sympathetic somehow, especially once he settles down with Jane and helps raise Jimmy, who is the town idiot (very low IQ) and marries Jane, as well as having a child with her. His past philandering, which seemed more like prostitution to me, is totally forgotten, and we, the audience, are just supposed to believe that he's turned over a new leaf, and that he didn't get any STDs from all those one night stands. Some of the other small town people, like Aggie, were just horrendously irritating and controlling, not to mention mean-spirited, so I didn't find them funny at all, though I gather that is why they were there, as small town archetypes. I imagine to big city people, the trials and tribulations of weird small town people seem hilarious, but having grown up in small towns in Iowa, I don't really find them funny so much as annoying and sad. So I'd give this rather boring and depressing book (It mystifies me that Jane feels she has to take care of Jimmy for the rest of her life out of guilt for something that wasn't her fault. He should have been sent to a home or assisted living facility for people that can't survive on their own) a C+ and only recommend it to people who find pathetic people enslaved to their past entertaining.

 

Bedsocks and Broomsticks by G Clatworthy is a cozy mystery/urban fantasy novel that I got for a song for my Kindle Paperwhite. It was a quick and silly novel written in a light and breezy style with a fast moving plot. Here's the blurb:  

Village Fetes can be murder.

When Fi's electrical powers cause her to be fired from her job, the last thing she wants to do is help the Witches', Wizards' and Warlocks' Institute host the annual Halloween Fete. But when a judge collides with her, she's thrown into a murder investigation...as the prime suspect. Can she clear her name and catch the real killer?
Jam and Jerusalem meets Midsomer Murders meets magic.

If you like cozy British settings, sarcasm and witches, you'll enjoy this series.

This is one of those novels that would make a good beach read, because it's easy to figure out whodunit after the first 25 pages. Also the witches involved are a bunch of grumpy and competitive old women whose most important use of magic seems to be to grow the biggest vegetable or make the best pie for the village carnival, to win the first place ribbon that is highly coveted. There's a lot of goofy bits, with one of the witches only able to fly a vacuum cleaner instead of a broom due to her young age, but there's also some funny moments with the sarcastic small dragon familiar who is left behind by the character who was murdered. The IT worker at the heart of the novel is kind of clumsy and goofy, but gets the job done in the end. I'd give this quick read a B-, and recommend it to those who like supernatural mysteries and wise-cracking familiars, like the cat from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

 

Book-based Tony Award Winners, B&N Buys Tattered Cover, Lady in the Lake Comes to TV, Devil in the Stack Review, The Husbands by Holly Gramazio, Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson, Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent and Summer at the Santorini Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin

Hey there, fellow bibilophiles! I hope that this finds you all staying cool as we swing into a long, hot summer for the next couple of months. Then it's on to fall, my favorite season, when the weather is cool and crisp and the urge to snuggle under a cozy blanket in a warm and well lit spot with a hot cup of tea and a nice stack of unread books with which to wile away an evening, or a day and an evening! A girl can dream! Anyway, onward, to the reviews and tidbits below.

 

I love the fact that producers are adapting books to movies and stage plays and musicals now more than ever! I wish I could see these, but I've never been able to travel to NYC and get tickets....one more item for my bucket list.

 

Tony Award Winners: Books on Broadway

Several book-related productions came up winners at last night's Tony

Awards, including:

The Outsiders, based on the novel by S.E Hinton: Best musical; direction

of a musical (Danya Taymor); sound design of a musical (Cody Spencer);

lighting design of a musical (Brian MacDevitt and Hana S. Kim)

Suffs, inspired by the book Jailed for Freedom: American Women Win the

Vote by Doris Stevens: Best book of a musical (Shaina Taub); original

score (Shaina Taub)

The Great Gatsby, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel: Costume design

of a musical (Linda Cho)

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, based on stories by Christopher Isherwood:

Scenic design of a musical (Tom Scutt)

This was big news this week, as there are many bibliophiles who love the Tattered Cover, and will be sorry to see it purchased by a chain bookstore, instead of remaining independent.

B&N and Tattered Cover CEOs: 'Support for Store to Thrive Again'

Barnes & Noble has confirmed that it made an offer to buy Tattered

Cover, Denver, Colo., an offer that was accepted Monday by the owners

https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQjdk-8I6a5mIhAkHA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nPD5KnpoMLg-gVdw, Bended

Page, and must still be approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which

could happen in the next month or two.

B&N CEO James Daunt said in a statement, "Tattered Cover is a storied

bookseller that has long been central to the literary life of Denver.

Its loss to the community would have been a calamity and Barnes & Noble

will provide the support necessary for it to thrive again."

B&N added that "under the acquisition agreement Tattered Cover will

retain its name, distinct identity and its staff. Barnes & Noble remains

committed to serving local communities with excellent bookstores and

promoting literacy. They are looking forward to preserving what has made

Tattered Cover so special within the bookselling landscape for over the

last 50 years."

Tattered Cover CEO Brad Dempsey, the bankruptcy lawyer hired last year

to help turn the company around, told Denverite that his goal was to

"preserve and protect Tattered Cover's legacy for the future," which the sale to B&N fulfills. B&N's bid was the only one that included keeping all stores open, which would have led to store closures and employee layoffs.

He said that Tattered Cover staff and customers "still have the spirit

of Joyce Meskis, the spirit of Tattered Cover, the spirit of Cherry

Creek. We just have to adapt to the current era and be able to use what

we have here to really let take the best of the past, but merge it into

the future to put it on a sustainable platform."

One of the competing bids for Tattered Cover came from former CEO Kwame Spearman, who headed the company for two turbulent years. In a

statement, he said, "While it is important that the business will

continue to operate, it is disheartening to see Colorado lose its

independently owned and managed bookstore. Despite this setback, I

remain confident in our local economy and firmly believe that

independent bookstores can still thrive in Colorado."

 

This looks exciting, especially with Natalie Portman in the lead role.

TV: Lady in the Lake

Apple TV+ has released a trailer for Lady in the Lake

https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQjdk-8I6a5mIhAjGA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nPD5KnpoMLg-gVdw, the upcoming seven-part limited series based on Laura Lippman's 2019 bestselling novel. Starring Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram, the project's cast also includes Y'lan Noel, Brett Gelman, Byron Bowers, Noah Jupe, Josiah Cross, Mikey

Madison, and Pruitt Taylor Vince. The Apple Original Drama premieres

July 19 with two episodes, followed by new episodes every Friday through

August 23.

The soundtrack is composed by Marcus Norris, founder and artistic

director of the South Side Symphony. The live performances are composed

and produced by Bekon, a Grammy-nominated producer known for his work on Kendrick Lamar's albums DAMN. and Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

This book sounds fascinating, though I'm not a huge fan of non fiction about computer programming. Still, this could be the exception to the rule.

Review: Devil in the Stack: Searching for the Soul of the New Machine

If you are a typical person interacting with most technology, your only

concern is that it "just works," as Steve Jobs liked to say of Apple

products. But that simple metric wasn't enough to satisfy journalist

Andrew Smith. The product of his curiosity is Devil in the Stack, a

fascinating journey into the world of computer code, its history, the

people who create it, some of its current controversies, and its

implications for the future of society.

Smith's four-year odyssey in what he calls the microcosmos is so

engrossing, in part, because he's not content to be a bystander in the

coding process. Instead, with refreshing self-deprecation, he describes

his halting steps toward acquiring proficiency in the art, a task that

finds him settling on the language known as Python, whose creator, Dutch

programmer Guido van Rossum, is one of a roster of key programming

figures he interviews.

With insight and wit, Smith recounts his immersion in this sometimes

strange fraternity, as he attends Python's annual conferences and

participates in PyWeek, its biannual game-creating competition. This is

all part of a broader exploration of the subject of open-source

software, illuminating both the beauty of its collaborative aspects and

the frequent challenges to realizing them. By the end of his book, as

the Covid pandemic explodes in March 2020, Smith has progressed

sufficiently in his often frustrating education to become immersed in

writing code for a Covid dashboard for residents of the Bay Area, where

he lives.

For all his passion for coding, he doesn't shy away from controversial

topics in the field. He calls out the "staggering homogeneity within the

profession," reflected in that fact that a mere 7% of coders are women,

while less than 3% are Black, and describes the real world consequences

of this lack of diversity. He also investigates whether a certain

personality type or brain structure makes someone especially adept at

writing code, submitting to MRI brain scans in Germany and at MIT by

researchers trying to answer that question. Smith devotes considerable

attention to the urgent subject of algorithms and artificial

intelligence, a misnomer he insists should be abandoned for the term

machine learning. While he avoids the more apocalyptic aspects of that

topic, he doesn't shy aware from its dark side.

In taking readers on an intellectually stimulating guided tour of the

sometimes exotic world of programming, Smith hopes to "open a broad discussion of what we want code to do for us and what we don't." Anyone who's curious about the why and how of what makes computers do what they do will find Devil in the Stack a fertile introduction. --Harvey Freedenberg

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio is a magic realism/contemporary romantic fiction book that starts with a funny premise (what if you could exchange the husband that you have for a different one by sending him up into the attic?) and slowly develops into a meditation on what constitutes a genuine relationship, or love, or a happy marriage and a happy life? Here's the blurb: The Husbands delights in asking: how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options?
When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living? 

 

While I understand the point that Gramazio is making here (when is good enough enough?) I found myself growing impatient with the protagonist, Lauren, who is never satisfied with any man she's married, and is pretty shallow and often stupid in her quick judgement and reaction to every single guy she "meets" who comes out of the attic. She also hates her life in most of the scenarios, and the changes that her new man has wrought in her life. Lauren seems weak willed and cowardly as well, never wanting to commit, mostly due to her own insecurities and issues. The one guy she seemed to really love she still sends into the attic, and then spends months going through man after man, just to get him back, which never happens. Her indecisiveness really got on my nerves before I was halfway through the book. Even after she meets the male version of herself, who is something of a calculating jerk (she comes to his rescue, but he refuses to come to hers), she can't seem to gather any wisdom from his over 400 new wives/husbands, and instead just becomes more cold and calculating. Eventually she destroys any chance of returning her imperfect husband, and thus ends an unhappy tale on a sad note. I felt, with her shallow mindset, that she should have stopped going through husbands and just divorced whichever guy she was married to and lived a happy life as a single woman who needs to deal with her own issues before she can share her life with someone. I'd give this book a B-, and recommend it to women who can't imagine being single and are constantly in search of a guy to marry.

 

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson is a fantasy superhero dystopian story that started out reading like an old fashioned comic book and eventually blossomed into a revenge fantasy with a strong romantic subplot. Here's the blurb: How far would you go for revenge if someone killed your father?
   If someone destroyed your city?
   If everything you ever loved was taken from you?
   David Charleston will go to any lengths to stop Steelheart. But to exact revenge in Steelheart’s world, David will need the Reckoners—a shadowy group of rebels bent on maintaining justice.
   And it turns out that the Reckoners might just need David too.
   Look for book two in the Reckoners series, Firefight, available now.

 I've read more than a few books by Sanderson, and I will say this for him, he's consistent in the fact that he can't seem to write a book under 300 pages. Most of his work are series of books, but each book in any given series runs at least 400+ pages, and it's not only hard on the eyes, but if you have arthritis, your hands can feel like they're going to fall off by the time you're 200 pages in. That said, if you've got the guts and grit for the long haul that is a Sanderson tale, by all means, go for whichever fantasy or science fiction or YA novel of his takes your fancy...they're all good, in only the way that books written by born wordsmiths can be. Sanderson is one of those geniuses like Mark Twain, or Steinbeck, or Fitzgerald, or LeGuin, who can't not write...it's part of their DNA to create stories until they die in harness, so to speak. So I did enjoy Steelheart, even though it had some serious misogyny moments in it, and it needed an editor to trim out some of those overwritten paragraphs, and I liked the fact that the main character, David, is just a regular guy (a stand-in for the audience, or the common man) who wants revenge on the seemingly superpowered "Epic" named Steelheart who murdered his father. I didn't like the fact that David somehow felt that a young woman was the prize, or trophy, for being brave and revolutionary and kind of a mouthy, arrogant jerk. That whole romantic subplot stank of seeing women as possessions, not people. I'd give this book a generous B-, and recommend it to those who enjoy comic book superheroes and revenge stories with a twist.

 

Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent is a grim, dark (read: horror/torture of women porn) fantasy/romance that requires a strong stomach to read and psychopathic mindset to enjoy. Here's the blurb:

A former slave fighting for justice. A reclusive warrior who no longer believes it exists. And a dark magic that will entangle their fates.

Ripped from a forgotten homeland as a child, Tisaanah learned how to survive with nothing but a sharp wit and a touch of magic. But the night she tries to buy her freedom, she barely escapes with her life.

Desperate to save the best friend she left behind, Tisaanah journeys to the Orders, the most powerful organizations of magic Wielders in the world. But to join their ranks, she must complete an apprenticeship with Maxantarius Farlione, a handsome and reclusive fire wielder who despises the Orders.

The Orders’ intentions are cryptic, and Tisaanah must prove herself under the threat of looming war. But even more dangerous are her growing feelings for Maxantarius. The bloody past he wants to forget may be the key to her future… or the downfall of them both.

But Tisaanah will stop at nothing to save those she abandoned. Even if it means gambling in the Orders’ deadly games. Even if it means sacrificing her heart.

Even if it means wielding death itself.

Fans of epic romantic fantasy like Sarah J. Maas will devour this tale of dark magic, passionate romance, vengeance, and redemption.

I would not have picked this book up had I known that there was going to be seemingly endless descriptions of beatings, lashings, stabblings, disembowelings, etc in every single chapter, and that we'd have to revisit the torture and abuse of the main character, Tisaanah, every other chapter, so there's no escape or relief from the blood and pain inherent in this novel. For me it was stomach-turning and unnecessary, and it smacked of psychopathic  or sadistic need to get off on hurting/maiming people, particularly women and children. Not cool, Broadbent...it is creepy and disgusting. And at over 500 pages, (again, where the heck are the decent book editors?) this tome had plenty of time for focusing on something other than pain and abuse and slavery (though  I gather we're supposed to find it more palatable because Tisaanah is white?)The romance doesn't really go anywhere until the final chapters of the book, and even then, its somewhat pathetic due to the evil spirit that inhabits Tisaanah's mind (after already having inhabited her paramours mind previously). I'd give this massive bloodbath of a book a C+ and only recommend it to people who get off on reading about slavery, pain and suffering.

 

Summer at the Santorini Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin is a contemporary romance and "beach read" that is by turns funny, sad and weird. Here's the blurb: 

A Greek island holiday. A fake-dating pact. A chance at true love?

After losing her job as a book scout, hopeless romantic Evie needs a fresh start. So when she hears that her eccentric grandmother has just taken on a small bookshop in Santorini, Evie jumps at the chance to visit her.

But life on the island is not as idyllic as it first seems. Gran has a tempestuous relationship with her landlord and he’s threatening to take the bookshop away from her. So when Gran asks Evie to fake date her landlord’s Greek God of a grandson, Georgios, to keep the family on side, she reluctantly agrees.

As the sun sets on Evie’s Greek holiday, can she save the bookshop – and fake date her way to love?

My main problem with this book is that Evie, the main character, isn't just "shy" or introverted, she is autistic...she literally has a meltdown when there's more than one person in a room, and if she starts having feelings that she can't deal with (which is just about every feeling, because she's also massively insecure and self hating) she literally runs away from the scene and hides, just like a recalcitrant toddler. She can hardly look anyone in the eye, she makes questionable choices in social situations (like when she wants to hug the male protagonist Georgio, she ends up wrapping her legs around him and practically dry humping him, in public, purely out of clumsiness) and is constantly embarrassed by her outrageous bully and "extroverted" grandmother, who seems like someone who is bipolar and has yet to be diagnosed (she's had 9 husbands, and lies that all of them died in some spectacular accidents), but who is a con artist and fabulist (and narcissist) and schemes to get her granddaughter Evie into a long term relationship. Of course her madcap scheme comes to an end when Evie and Georgio find out the truth, but then profess their love for one another anyway. Evie also came off as rather stupid, when she didn't realize that one of the rescue dogs her grandmother brings home (who is named "Pee Wee" for crying out loud!) is leaving puddles of urine all over the bookstore and urinating on people and furniture too. Dog urine stinks to high heaven, so how she could continually clean up after this nasty lap dog and not realize he was the culprit beggars belief. So I wasn't enamored of any of the characters in this book, as Evie's mother and sister are also extroverted bullies, and the situation seemed ridiculous. Therefore I'd give this novel a C+ and only recommend it to those who are willing to suspend their disbelief at a high level throughout the novel. 

Powell's Bullish Perspective, Costco to Stop Selling Books, Eruption Movie, LeGuin's Writer's Residency, Happy Medium by Sarah Adler, Seasparrow by Kristin Cashore, Emmaline Waters, This is Your Life by Maggie Bloom, The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson, A Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden and Go As a River by Shelley Read

The second week of June has flown by, and I've been reading up a storm! I've read 6 or 7 books now, but since I always include bookish tidbits on my blog,I will just have to pick and choose books for review this round. Sorry! Still, since last week I've also binged the third season of Bridgerton on Netflix, and  viewed some new episodes of a Star Wars series and watched some movies, most of which were either awful or forgettable. Thus I land back into my TBRs full of books, knowing that at least a few of them are going to be wonderfully satisfying to my mental palate. 

 

I love Powell's City of Books in Portland, and I'm so glad that they're investing in their future!  I'm so bummed that I missed their Warehouse Sale, but it sounds like it was standing room only, and I'm sure that everyone else would have gotten to the genres I like best and cleaned them out by the time I got there!

 

Powell's Books Has 'Bullish Perspective'

Like many booksellers, sales at Powell's Books, Portland, Ore., rose during the pandemic but are now below pre-pandemic levels. Still, the bookseller is optimistic about the future, and will soon introduce a new website and has taken out a $4.5 million loan that will be used to make a variety of improvements, according to the Portland Business Journal.

"We've got a bullish perspective on where we're going," CEO Patrick

Bassett said.

Owner Emily Powell added, "We are addressing deferred maintenance,

day-to-day needs, and working to elevate the experience of our

bookstores for everyone. We are not ready to discuss the details at this

time, but we welcome more discussions in the future."

The revamped website will likely launch this summer. Without revealing

details, Bassett told the Journal, "We have been working for the last

couple years on re-platforming our e-commerce... We've got a new website

hopefully coming out this summer, and we think that's going to provide

customers a much better experience." In the 1990s, Powell's was one of

the first booksellers to sell extensively online.

The store's loan was secured by the Powell's warehouse, which was the

site last weekend for a wildly popular sale that aimed to clear out

extra inventory accumulated during the pandemic. Deep discounts

attracted thousands of people, some of whom waited for hours to get into

the building.

Bassett told the Journal: "We wanted to clear the shelves [of] some of

the stuff that hadn't been selling over the last handful of years and

make room for some good stuff... Close to 40,000 units sold."

It was apparently the first time Powell's opened its warehouse for a

sale, and so successful that Powell's will likely repeat the event.

"With that kind of turnout, we'll have to figure out some way of doing

something like this again," Bassett said. "We have certainly learned a

lot about how to make this a much better experience for all, even if

there are long lines. We're excited for next year already."

 

This is also a huge bummer...I used to love perusing the Costco book tables at my local Costco in Covington. They've changed a lot over the years, and now that they're insisting on having a membership just to buy a hot dog, and they're eliminating the book tables, I really have no reason to renew my membership or darken their doorstep ever again, which is sad.

Costco to Stop Selling Books Year-round

Costco plans to stop selling books regularly

https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQiPwuoI6a5nIxh_Hw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nPXcOipoMLg-gVdw at its stores around the U.S. beginning in January 2025, the New York Times reported, citing four publishing executives who had been informed of the warehouse retailer's plans. The company will instead sell books only during the holiday shopping period, from September through December.

During the rest of the year, some books may be sold at Costco stores

occasionally, but not in a consistent manner, according to the

executives, who spoke anonymously in order to discuss a confidential

business matter that has not yet been publicly announced, the Times

noted.

The company's shift away from books is due in large part to the labor

required to stock them, the executives said, noting both the constant

turnaround of books and the fact that copies have to be laid out by hand

instead of rolled out on a pallet as other products often are at Costco.

The decision "could be a significant setback for publishers at a moment

when the industry is facing stagnant print sales and publishing houses

are struggling to find ways to reach customers who have migrated

online," the Times wrote, adding that while the retailer isn't as

critical to the book trade as bookstore chains like Barnes & Noble, "it

has provided a way for people who might not otherwise seek out books to

see them.... Shoppers could also browse books at Costco in a way that is

difficult to do online."

The change may also impact Costco's customers, particularly those who

live in areas without a bookstore, the Times added, noting that "because

many books at Costco were impulse buys, some of those sales may not

shift over to Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Instead, they might not happen

at all."

In recent years, Costco has noticeably cut back on its book inventory.

Pennie Clark Ianniciello, who retired in 2021 after 32

years with Costco, was the longtime book buyer and a major force in the

book business. Her "Pennie's Picks" column, which appeared in Costco

Connection, the monthly magazine that goes to many Costco members, often

dramatically boosted sales of highlighted books.

 

This movie looks fascinating. I am a fan of Crichton's books and movies, and I imagine this one will be just as thrilling as the first one of his that I watched, The Andromeda Strain.

Movies: Eruption

Oscar winning directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (Free

Solo, Nyad) have come aboard as part of the package to helm an

adaptation of Eruption https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscQiPwuoI6a5nIxglEg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6nPXcOipoMLg-gVdw, the new novel by Michael Crichton and James Patterson. Deadline reported that Chin and Vasarhelyi "will be in the center of meetings to be held next week in which they'll pitch the book, a large scale earth-threatening thriller about a volcano explosion in Hawaii.... The

aim is to pitch studios and financiers with the expectation that a deal

will be made before a screenwriter is hired." They might also be

directing a documentary on the life of the late Crichton.

Eruption "will be their biggest challenge to date, but their background

in extreme sports makes them an intriguing choice, which prompted

producers Sherri Crichton, James Patterson and Shane Salerno to choose

them over numerous other helmers," Deadline wrote.

 

I loved meeting the fabulous ULG, back in the 90s, and I really miss her spitfire presence in the book world now that she has passed on. I imagine she would love knowing that her home is to become a writer's residence, spawning new fiction every day.

Ursula K. Le Guin’s Home to Become Writers Residency

Grab your favorite notebook and start looking at flights to PDX. Ursula K. Le Guin’s family have donated the Portland, Oregon home where the beloved writer composed many of her novels to local nonprofit Literary Arts , which will transform it into a writers residency. Literary Arts executive director Andrew Proctor said in a statement that Le Guin “had a clear vision for her home to become a creative space for writers and a beacon for the broader literary community.” The building’s function will be changing, but elements from its former resident’s life, including her books and rock collection (!) will likely be left for visitors to enjoy.

Happy Medium by Sarah Adler is a rom com with a fantasy bent that will leave you smiling for hours after you've finished it. Here's the blurb: A clever con woman must convince a skeptical, sexy farmer of his property's resident real-life ghost if she's to save them all from a fate worse than death, in this delightful new novel from the author of Mrs. Nash's Ashes.

Fake spirit medium Gretchen Acorn is happy to help when her best (read: wealthiest) client hires her to investigate the unexplained phenomena preventing the sale of her bridge partner’s struggling goat farm. Gretchen may be a fraud, but she'd like to think she’s a beneficent one. So if "cleansing" the property will help a nice old man finally retire and put some much-needed cash in her pockets at the same time, who's she to say no?

Of course, it turns out said bridge partner isn't the kindly AARP member Gretchen imagined—Charlie Waybill is young, hot as hell, and extremely unconvinced that Gretchen can communicate with the dead. (Which, fair.) Except, to her surprise, Gretchen finds herself face-to-face with Everett: the very real, very chatty ghost that’s been wreaking havoc during every open house. And he wants her to help ensure Charlie avoids the same family curse that's had Everett haunting Gilded Creek since the 1920s.

Now, Gretchen has one month to convince Charlie he can’t sell the property. Unfortunately, hard work and honesty seem to be the way to win over the stubborn farmer—not exactly Gretchen's strengths. But trust isn’t the only thing growing between them, and the risk of losing Charlie to the spirit realm looms over Gretchen almost as annoyingly as Everett himself. To save the goat farm, its friendly phantom, and the man she's beginning to love, Gretchen will need to pull off the greatest con of her life: being fully, genuinely herself.
 

I loved that Everett the ghost was an arrogant jerk and kind of a pain for most of the book, and that Gretchen, though she's supposedly been talking to dead people for years, struggles to handle him and still deal with the hottie goat farmer she's inexorably falling for. There are some real LOL moments in the book, and there are an equal number of head-scratching moments when it's so annoying that she can't seem to be honest with Charlie the farmer or express her feelings to him, and you just want to grab her by the shoulders and shake her until her teeth rattle. Still, the prose is steady and smart, and the plot is like a bullet train on steroids, so you will likely finish this book in one sitting. I'd give it an A-, and recommend it to anyone who likes an anti-heroine turned hero.

 

Seasparrow by Kristin Cashore is an adventure/fantasy/romance novel set in the world of her popular series Graceling (I've read all the books in that series). Though the book is way too long (where are the good book editors these days?!), I enjoyed reading about some side characters and others who finally get their day in the sun (or, in this case, their time on a ship in a storm). Here's the blurb:

Make the harrowing journey home with Queen Bitterblue's sister and spy, in the fifth novel in the bestselling Graceling Realm series.
Hava sails across the sea toward Monsea with her sister, the royal entourage, and the world’s only copies of the formulas for the zilfium weapon she saved at the end of Winterkeep. During the crossing, Hava makes an unexpected discovery about one of the ship’s crew, but before she can unravel the mystery, storms drive their ship off course, wrecking them in the ice far north of the Royal Continent. The survivors must endure a harrowing trek across the ice to make it back to Monsea. And while Queen Bitterblue grapples with how to carry the responsibility of a weapon that will change the world, Hava has a few more mysteries to solve—and a decision to make about who she wants to be in the new world Bitterblue will build.

Cashore's prose is ornate but sturdy, and it helps when the plot, which moves at a trot for the most part, flags due to some fanciful puffed up descriptions of things like storm clouds or a freezing sea, or icy lake...personally, I had no idea that there were so many metaphors for miserable cold and its effects on humans and animals. The blue foxes get a lot of ink in this book, so if you're not an animal/pet fan, you might want to skip this one. I had a hard time with the female protagonist's unresolved hatred of herself and her inability to deal with parental abuse, while also wanting to constantly "disappear" and be invisible (which is part of her "grace" or magical powers) whenever she's in a room with more than one or two people. I understand that there are introverted people, but Hava takes the trope one step beyond that into self-anihilation. These feelings of self loathing are unresolved by the end of the novel, just as a warning. Anyway, I'd give this book a B- and recommend it to those who like fantasy pirate ship stories and don't mind reading about the horrors of being ship wreaked.

 

Emmaline Waters, This is Your Life by Maggie Bloom, is a newly adult YA rom-com with a female protagonist who defines the words "dumpster fire." The protagonist is not at all charming, but rather pathetic and promiscuous, and a disaster as a parent and a person (why haven't young women like these heard of "the morning after" abortion pills or just abortion in general?) Here's the blurb:

Recent college grad Emmaline’s “real life” is shaping up to be a bit too real:

1. Mind-numbing, dead-end job? Check.
2. Aloof, self-absorbed boyfriend? Check.
3. A mountain of debt even Sir Edmund Hillary would have trouble surmounting? Check.

So when Emmaline lands an interview for a food-critic job at the Boston Sunday Times, she’s sure she has (finally!) stumbled onto the road to success. But soon an unexpected detour—in the form of Mark Loffel, her high school one-night stand—(re)appears, sending Emmaline careening in a whole new direction.
When the dust settles, will Emmaline have the life of her dreams? Or will her adorable little secret be revealed for every Tom, Dick, and Mark to see?

 

I had numerous problems with this book, first being that it was poorly written. The prose was murky at best and the plot hopped and stopped, like a lame bunny rabbit. The main character seemed to be some men's idea of the perfect woman, a slut who can't control her libido after even one drink or one kiss from guys like her sleazy, married boss. Em can't then take responsibility for her bad choices, like not using birth control, and instead saddles her aging, ill parents with her illegitimate child, whom she refers to as her "sister" until the child is 5 (!!) when her father's heart attacks finally clue her into the fact that she's going to have to raise her child herself and grow the F up. She drinks too much as well, and makes more bad choices, and eventually we're supposed to believe that her daughter takes the news of her "real" parents in stride, which borders on the unbelievable. The ending is cutesy and stupid, and I felt cheated. I'd give this ridiculous novel a C, and I can't think of anyone I'd recommend it to.

 

The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson is a hilarious fantasy/adventure novel ala the late, great Terry Pratchet that will have you in stitches the whole way through it's daunting 375 pages. Here's the blurb:

A man awakens in a clearing in what appears to be medieval England with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or why he is there. Chased by a group from his own time, his sole hope for survival lies in regaining his missing memories, making allies among the locals, and perhaps even trusting in their superstitious boasts. His only help from the “real world” should have been a guidebook entitled The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, except his copy exploded during transit. The few fragments he managed to save provide clues to his situation, but can he figure them out in time to survive?

Note from Brandon:
Sometimes an idea just won’t let go of you for years. The initial seed of this novel was the title that eventually turned into The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England. At first there was no story go to with that title, but I wrote it down and kept coming back to it, wondering what that book could possibly be about. Something else I thought about off and on for years was the classic concept of a man waking up in another time and another place, with no idea how he got there. It was when those two ideas came together, and I placed a book with that title into that man’s hands, that this novel was born. I hope you’ll have as much fun with it as I did!

If you don't laugh out loud at least 10 times during the course of this charming and fascinating novel, you have no sense of humor. At all. The protagonist is a guy whose had the stuffings beat out of him, body and soul, and is looking for a little redemption. What he feels are screw ups throughout his life are actually his so-called friends and family setting him up to be the fall guy, to make their egos inflate and rise to the top of their evil empire. Fortunately an older woman who is a disguised goddess and a human woman who is a "wise woman/witch/shamaness" in this world realize that there's a great guy who has been given a bad hand for most of his life, and they set out to change that. Along with the hilarious marketing pamphlet excerpts included with the drawings in this book, a cracking good yarn unfolds and a satisfying conclusion is had by all. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys the works of Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman.

A Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden is a very long (425 pages!) romantasy novel that I was able to purchase cheap in ebook format for my Kindle Paperwhite. Here's the blurb: Captured by the king of darkness, she was forced to find the light within.

Arwen Valondale never expected to be the brave one, offering her life to save her brother’s. Now she’s been taken prisoner by the most dangerous kingdom on the continent, and made to use her rare magical abilities to heal the soldiers of the vicious Onyx King.

Arwen knows better than to face the ancient, wicked woods that surround the castle on her own, which means working with a fellow prisoner might be her only path to freedom. Unfortunately, he’s as infuriating as he is cunning—and seems to take twisted pleasure in playing on Arwen’s deepest fears.

But here in Onyx Kingdom, trust is a luxury she can’t afford.

To make it out of enemy territory, she'll have to navigate back-stabbing royals, dark magic, and dangerous beasts. But untold power lies inside Arwen, dormant and waiting for a spark. If she can harness it, she just might be able to escape with her life—and hopefully, her heart. 

This is one of those "sacrificial lamb" stories with a female protagonist who gets beat up and tortured, but the big bad guy always falls in love with her because she's so noble and self sacrificing, which seems to be a big turn on for evil royalty...insert eye roll here. Though the prose is decent (not great, not terrible), the plot has holes and sags from info-dumps in far too many places. It took me a lot longer to read this than it should have, because I was bored with all the puffery and overused tropes in the novel. I'd give this one a C+, and recommend it to those who find self-flaggelating female protagonists compelling.

Go As a River by Shelley Read combines gothic romance with historical fiction to create an unforgettable, if sad, coming of age novel. Here's the blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family’s peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado—the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land and determined to live as he chooses.

Victoria encounters Wil by chance on a street corner, a meeting that profoundly alters both of their young lives, unknowingly igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known. She flees into the surrounding mountains where she struggles to survive in the wilderness with no clear notion of what her future will bring. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the beautiful but harsh landscape the meaning and strength to move forward and rebuild all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River threatens to submerge her homeland—its ranches, farms, and the beloved peach orchard that has been in her family for generations.

Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, Go as a River is a story of deeply held love in the face of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendship, and, finally, home—where least expected. This stunning debut explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river—gathering and flowing, finding a way forward even when a river is dammed.

This novel, like the Grapes of Wrath, is about struggling to live in hard times, and dealing with prejudice and deep loss. I love that Victoria is able to save her peach orchard and her soul, and move on with her life when it becomes clear that her town will be flooded by the installation of a dam. Though the subject matter is almost stifling in its pain, the delicate and lush prose moves the story's plot along at a swift pace towards a satisfying ending. I'd give this book a B+, and recommend it to anyone who has read and enjoyed Ivan Doig or William Kent Krueger's novels.