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.