Welcome to August, the hottest (and therefore my least favorite) month of the year. I've been staying indoors reading, of course, but I'm aware that everyone and everything outside, including Ben, the wandering cat in our neighborhood, are roasting in the 80-90 degree temps. Anyway, here's some tidbits and reviews to distract you all from the suns burning rays.
I read several books by Edna O'Brien when I was a preteen, and I remember asking my mother about the feminist themes in the books. She read a couple of them, too, though she barely had a spare moment to herself when my brothers and I were growing up. RIP EOB
Obituary
Note: Edna O'Brien
Irish author Edna O'Brien
who explored the complications and
contradictions of women's lives in a
literary career lasting more than half
a century, died July 27. She was
93. In a series of novels beginning
with The Country Girls "that were at
first banned in Ireland but feted
abroad, O'Brien gave voice to women
struggling with the oppressive and
hypocritical expectations of rural
life," the Guardian wrote. "Her
focus widened in later works such as
House of Splendid Isolation and The
Little Red Chairs, but always
maintained the keen intelligence and
daring that made Philip Roth once
hail her as 'the most gifted woman now
writing fiction in English.' "
Faber, her publisher, called O'Brien
"one of the greatest writers of our
age. She revolutionized Irish
literature, capturing the lives of women
and the complexities of the human
condition in prose that was luminous
and spare, and which had a profound
influence on so many writers who
followed her. A defiant and courageous
spirit, Edna constantly strove to
break new artistic ground, to write
truthfully, from a place of deep
feeling. The vitality of her prose was
a mirror of her zest for life:
she was the very best company, kind,
generous, mischievous, brave."
In 1950, after leaving a convent where
she was being educated and
considered being a nun and then
qualifying as a pharmacist, she married
writer Ernest Gabler against
her family's wishes--a hurried
decision she described in 2011 as going
"from them, to him; from one
house of control, to another." The
couple moved to London with their two
sons in 1959, and O'Brien started
working as a reader for the publisher
Hutchinson, which soon commissioned her
to write a novel.
The Country Girls, written in three
weeks, "was swiftly banned in
Ireland, as were O'Brien's next six
novels, beginning with two sequels
that completed The Country Girls'
inevitable trajectory: 1962's The
Lonely Girl, and 1964's
mordantly-titled Girls in Their Married Bliss,"
the Guardian wrote.
After her marriage ended in 1967,
O'Brien continued to publishing novels
and story collections, including A
Pagan Place, Time and Tide, House of
Splendid Isolation, Down by the River,
Wild Decembers, In the Forest,
Girl, August Is a Wicked Month, and The
Little Red Chairs. She also
wrote a short biography of James Joyce
in 1999 and Byron in Love, about
the poet's love life, in 2009. Her play
Virginia was about Virginia
Woolf.
Her awards included the 2001 Irish PEN
lifetime achievement award, the
2006 Ulysses medal from University
College Dublin, the 2011 Frank
O'Connor International Short Story
Award for "Saints and Sinners," the
2018 PEN/Nabokov Award, and the 2019
David Cohen Prize for Literature.
In a move that demonstrated changed
attitudes in Ireland, President
Higgins awarded her the country's
highest literary accolade in 2015. Also, in
2018, she was made a Dame of the Order of the British Empire.
"In some ways I suppose a lot of
the material of my life has been ripe
for literature, but a bit of a handicap
for what is laughingly called
everyday life," she said in 1999.
"But that's the bargain.
Mephistopheles didn't come, you know.
He was already there."
In the New York Times, critic Lucy
Scholes recalled interviewing O'Brien
in 2015: "At one point, we
discussed critics who'd diminished her
subject matter as 'the narrow world of
the heart'
She'd almost roared her response.
'Well, the heart ain't that narrow,
and the heart keeps beating!' "
I read these books, and though I enjoyed the first book "Wool" the most, I was thrilled to find that the TV streaming version of this science fiction trilogy was very well done. I was surprised how diligent and smart Rebecca Ferguson was as the female protagonist who discovers what is really going on outside the Silo. I'm looking forward to season 2.
TV: Silo
Season 2
During San Diego Comic-Con, Apple TV+
announced that the second season of the hit series Silo, which is
based on Hugh Howey's sci-fi
stories--including the novellas Wool,
Shift, and Dust--will premiere
November 15 with the first episode,
followed by one new episode every
Friday through January 17, 2025.
Steve Zahn (The White Lotus, Treme) is
joining the season 2 cast, which
includes returning stars Rebecca
Ferguson, Common, Tim Robbins, Harriet
Walter, Chinaza Uche, Avi Nash,
Alexandria Riley, Shane McRae, Remmie
Milner, Clare Perkins, Billy
Postlethwaite, Rick Gomez, Caitlin Zoz,
Tanya Moodie, and Iain Glen.
I believe that I read this book, and at the time I had no idea that Stephen King was behind it. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie version.
Movies: The
Long Walk
Judy Greer (The Best Christmas Pageant
Ever) and Mark Hamill are the
latest additions to the cast of The
Long Walk,
Lionsgate's adaptation of Stephen
King's 1979 novel, which was
originally published under the author's
pseudonym, Richard Bachman,
Deadline reported.
UUUUGGGGGHHH! This just nauseates me, that such a wonderful author is now sounding more like skeevy male predators in politics and in movie studios. WHY, Gaiman? Do you really have to become a middle aged while male cliche? And of course you have to fall in line with all the other old white male predators and not take any responsibility for your actions...for shame.
Neil
Gaiman Accused of Sexual Assault by Two More Women
In an exclusive four-part podcast series last month, Tortoise
Media reported that two women, who were 20 and 23 at the time of the
alleged events, had
accused Neil Gaiman of sexual assault. The story was picked
up in a few places but didn’t go wide in the way you’d expect
when a famous writer with a huge and devoted fandom is the subject of
a #metoo report. Now, two
more women have come forward with similar allegations, and
one of them has receipts in the form of a $275,000 settlement that
was accompanied by an NDA. Gaiman has denied all allegations.
Almost 100 books in, I'm going to be buying a copy of this book ASAP. I've read and loved some of Rainbow Rowell's other books, so buying this one is a no-brainer.
Reese's
August Book Club Pick: Slow Dance
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell (Morrow)
is the August pick for Reese's
Book Club, which described the book as
"the story of two kids who fell in
love before they knew enough about
love to recognize it. Two friends who
lost everything. Two adults who
just feel lost. It's the story of
Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought
would end up together, trying to find
their way back to the start."
Reese wrote: "Happy 99th Reese's
Book Club Pick! This month's pick
invites you into the bittersweet world
of Shiloh and Cary, where
childhood promises are tested by time,
and love finds its way back
through unexpected twists."
The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick is a magical romantic fantasy (or romantasy as it's now called) that is, along with a number of romantasy or fantasy books, a huge seemingly poorly edited tome that is well over 600 pages long, when the story could have been told in half that number of pages. Why publishers are pushing their series authors to pad their books out with paragraph after paragraph and chapter after chapter of descriptive fluff and informational background/character history is beyond me. Are there legions of Brandon Sanderson fans out there goading publishers into believing his way of writing enormous melodramatic books with pages of unnecessary world building intricacies and Easter egg laden test/subtext is the only way to build a fanatic following who will buy all your fat tomes the minute they hit the shelves? Or are the publishers establishing a "value" strategy of saying that the number of pages equals a quality of story that they're paying for, which they somehow wouldn't get with a regular sized manuscript of 300 pages or less?Either way, it's ridiculous, and I'm tired of reading books like this that all have the same Sarah Maas-style abused/starved and impoverished (yet gorgeous and petite enough that she's irresistible to the huge and manly bad-boy male protagonist) female protagonist, empowered with magic and a talent for either thievery or assassination, that she can't control or barely understands, who is struggling to save a select few, or an entire town that are under the heel of an evil and sadistic king/dictator of some kind. Rinse and repeat with nearly every romantasy series out there...I think SJM should start charging a fee for use of her plots/characters/storylines. Here's the blurb: FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD. MAGIC FAVORS THE LIARS.
Ren is a liar and a thief, a pattern-reader and a daughter of no clan. Raised in the slums of Nadežra, she fled that world to save her sister. Now, she has returned with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house, securing her fortune and her sister’s future.
But in the city of dreams, her masquerade is just one of many. Enigmatic crime lord Derossi Vargo, stony captain of the guard Grey Serrado, dashing heir Leato Traementis, and the legendary vigilante known as the Rook all have secrets that could unravel her own.
And as corrupt nightmare magic begins to weave its way through the city of dreams, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled—with Ren at their heart.
Ren is a liar and a thief, a pattern-reader and a daughter of no clan. Raised in the slums of Nadežra, she fled that world to save her sister. Now, she has returned with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house, securing her fortune and her sister’s future.
But in the city of dreams, her masquerade is just one of many. Enigmatic crime lord Derossi Vargo, stony captain of the guard Grey Serrado, dashing heir Leato Traementis, and the legendary vigilante known as the Rook all have secrets that could unravel her own.
And as corrupt nightmare magic begins to weave its way through the city of dreams, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled—with Ren at their heart.
Of course Carrick tries to keep readers guessing as to the identity of the Rook, who is the Robin Hood character here, working for justice for the oppressed and impoverished masses, but I knew by about 1/3rd of the way through the book who was under the disguise. This world is like all the others in romantasy series right now, in that the cities (which are always placed in some feudal historical era) are divided between the rich/nobility and the poor/commoners, though the whole city in this case is full of gypsies/Romany people who uphold the magical old ways and utilize fortune telling of various kinds with the aristocracy who seem to be akin to the Spanish or Italian nobility of past centuries, deeply superstitious and fearful of the magical gypsy common folk, whom they'd prefer to wipe out, but are mostly afraid to do so (with the exception of the one evil genius aristo who has plans to kill everyone he doesn't like). Our female protagonist Ren has to navigate the various strata of society, initially as a grifter to make enough to have food and a home for herself and her sidekick street urchins, but as she discovers, there are good aristos and bad ones, and she ends up abandoning her plan because she falls in love with the members of one household in particular. I would have preferred this book be edited down to under 400 pages, but I did manage to read it all the way through the puffed up prose and the heavy plot. I'd give it a B, and recommend it to fans of Sarah J Maas and Brandon Sanderson.
Mrs Nash's Ashes by Sarah Adler is a refreshingly witty and light romantic comedy that was a real page-turner to boot. The prose was bright and sparkling and the plot swift and light enough for this to be an excellent beach read. Here's the blurb: A New York Public Library Best Book of 2023!
A starry-eyed romantic, a cynical writer, and (the ashes of) an elderly woman take the road trip of a lifetime that just might upend everything they believe about true love.
Millicent Watts-Cohen is on a mission. When she promised her elderly best friend that she’d reunite her with the woman she fell in love with nearly eighty years ago, she never imagined that would mean traveling from D.C. to Key West with three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash’s remains in her backpack. But Millie’s determined to give her friend a symbolic happily-ever-after, before it’s (really) too late—and hopefully reassure herself of love’s lasting power in the process.
She just didn’t expect to have a living travel companion.
After a computer glitch grounds flights, Millie is forced to catch a ride with Hollis Hollenbeck, an also-stranded acquaintance from her ex’s MFA program. Hollis certainly does not believe in happily-ever-afters—symbolic or otherwise—and makes it quite clear that he can’t fathom Millie’s plan ending well for anyone.
But as they contend with peculiar bed-and-breakfasts, unusual small-town festivals, and deer with a death wish, Millie begins to suspect that her reluctant travel partner might enjoy her company more than he lets on. Because for someone who supposedly doesn’t share her views on romance, Hollis sure is becoming invested in the success of their journey. And the closer they get to their destination, the more Millie has to admit that maybe this trip isn’t just about Mrs. Nash’s love story after all—maybe it’s also about her own.
A starry-eyed romantic, a cynical writer, and (the ashes of) an elderly woman take the road trip of a lifetime that just might upend everything they believe about true love.
Millicent Watts-Cohen is on a mission. When she promised her elderly best friend that she’d reunite her with the woman she fell in love with nearly eighty years ago, she never imagined that would mean traveling from D.C. to Key West with three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash’s remains in her backpack. But Millie’s determined to give her friend a symbolic happily-ever-after, before it’s (really) too late—and hopefully reassure herself of love’s lasting power in the process.
She just didn’t expect to have a living travel companion.
After a computer glitch grounds flights, Millie is forced to catch a ride with Hollis Hollenbeck, an also-stranded acquaintance from her ex’s MFA program. Hollis certainly does not believe in happily-ever-afters—symbolic or otherwise—and makes it quite clear that he can’t fathom Millie’s plan ending well for anyone.
But as they contend with peculiar bed-and-breakfasts, unusual small-town festivals, and deer with a death wish, Millie begins to suspect that her reluctant travel partner might enjoy her company more than he lets on. Because for someone who supposedly doesn’t share her views on romance, Hollis sure is becoming invested in the success of their journey. And the closer they get to their destination, the more Millie has to admit that maybe this trip isn’t just about Mrs. Nash’s love story after all—maybe it’s also about her own.
Millie and Hollis have some excellent banter, reminiscent of old movies like "Bringing Up Baby" and "Desk Set," with Katherine Hepburn. It's interesting that Millie is described as being somewhat larger, or voluptuous, but the cover art has her as a "regular" sized person, which is a shame. I'm also sad that the ending, at least for Mrs Nash's Ashes, is so anticlimactic, making the lesbian love story something of a Macguffin for the heterosexual love story between Hollis and Millie, the latter of whom has been used and abused by Hollywood and all the creepy boyfriends who came after the TV show Millie was on as a child/teenager. Unfortunately, Millie seems terribly gullible and stupid, especially about her own health and safety, enough so that she needs someone "cynical", like Hollis (because of course its the male protagonist who has common sense and restraint here), to ensure that she's not raped/murdered or further abused by the evil celebrity obsessed general public, whose only function is to use and abuse has-been actors. So while this novel is cute, it's also sexist and predictable, and I'd give it a B-, and only recommend it to those who want something easy to read for their beach vacation.
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo is the sequel fantasy novel to Bardugo's successful Ninth House, which I read a long time ago. This is part of the review that I wrote for 9th House in 2019: "The
plot was twisty and dark, and the characters weird and often cruel, but
the relationship between Alex and her mentor "Darlington" (A mashup of
Daniel Arlington) was what made the novel readable. Alex can actually
"see" and speak to ghosts, (or Grays, as she calls them) and that is
what helps her figure out what each society is doing, or trying to do,
to get/keep their "house" in wealth and power. There is a great deal of
death and manipulation and vile behavior in this book that made me
somewhat nauseated, as I am not a fan of the horror genre, and this book
leans pretty far into those waters. Even the teachers aren't safe here,
and there's really no one to turn to as a character to admire, which
usually means I won't like the book, even if it has good strong prose
and a twisty but sturdy plot, as this one does. But I found myself
wondering what Alex will do next, so I am probably going to break my ban
on horror fiction and read the next one anyway." Turns out I was right, and I did get a copy of this next book in the series last year, and finally got the chance to read it this past week. Unfortunately, it's even darker than the first book, with more horrific death, and the characters "break into" Hell itself to save Darlington from a life of slavery to a demon overlord. Here's the blurb: Wealth. Power. Murder. Magic. The Ivy League is going straight to hell in the sequel to the smash New York Times bestseller Ninth House from #1 bestselling author Leigh Bardugo.
Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory—even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.
Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.
Thick with history and packed with Bardugo’s signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, violence, and all too real monsters.
Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory—even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.
Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.
Thick with history and packed with Bardugo’s signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, violence, and all too real monsters.
So yeah, I get it, rich people and their offspring are all greedy asshats, who deserve to get eaten by demons or tortured/obliterated by same. And Ivy League colleges like Harvard and Yale should be open to all, not just children of wealth and privilege, with a few "scholarship" (read: poor) students thrown in as a sop to their consciences. I know that from trying to navigate grad school on the East Coast myself. It's demoralizing to be one of only a few "commoners" among the American "rich royalty" at these big institutions of higher education (it's even more demoralizing when you realize that you, the commoner, are smarter and more talented than 75% of these children of nepotism and wealth). Sadly, it's a system that feeds on itself, and is unlikely to ever change. So Bardugo's fantasy here has little to no hope of ever becoming a reality. The ending was more sad than satisfying, and therefore I'm going to give this sequel a lackluster B-, and only recommend it to those who've read Ninth House and wonder what happens to the crew trying to save Darlington...turns out saving him was more bloody trouble than it was worth.
Valiant Ladies by Melissa Grey is a YA historical romantic fantasy that is a kind of LGBTQ take on the Three Musketeers, with two swashbuckling lesbians out to save the world and their relationship in 17th century Spain. Here's the blurb: Two teen vigilantes set off on an action-packed investigation to expose corruption and deliver justice in Valiant Ladies,
Melissa Grey's YA historical fiction novel inspired by real seventeenth
century Latinx teenagers known as the Valiant Ladies of Potosí.
By day Eustaquia “Kiki” de Sonza and Ana Lezama de Urinza are proper young seventeenth century ladies. But when night falls, they trade in their silks and lace for swords and muskets, venturing out into the vibrant, bustling, crime-ridden streets of Potosí in the Spanish Empire's Viceroyalty of Peru. They pass their time fighting, gambling, and falling desperately in love with one another.
Then, on the night Kiki's engagement to the Viceroy's son is announced, her older brother—heir to her family’s fortune—is murdered. The girls immediately embark on a whirlwind investigation that takes them from the lowliest brothels of Potosí to the highest echelons of the Spanish aristocracy.“Valiant Ladies brings the remarkable lives of two forgotten women to vivid, riotous life. Delightfully ahistorical, terribly romantic (have you ever shipped sword lesbians harder??), and all steeped in vigilante justice hell-bent on taking down a violent patriarchy—there’s only one word for it: badass.” —Mackenzi Lee, author
I completely agree with Ms Lee, because I found myself rooting for Kiki and Ana and their love in a time when women were seen as chattel/property, and sold off by their fathers to the highest bidder. Grey's prose is sparkling and keen as a knife's edge, while her plot gallops along faster than a horse who is afraid of storms at the first blast of lightening and thunder. Even the banter between the well drawn characters is top notch and scintillating. I'd give this wonderfully engrossing read an A, and recommend it to anyone who loves badass women saving the day in an oppressive patriarchal society.
By day Eustaquia “Kiki” de Sonza and Ana Lezama de Urinza are proper young seventeenth century ladies. But when night falls, they trade in their silks and lace for swords and muskets, venturing out into the vibrant, bustling, crime-ridden streets of Potosí in the Spanish Empire's Viceroyalty of Peru. They pass their time fighting, gambling, and falling desperately in love with one another.
Then, on the night Kiki's engagement to the Viceroy's son is announced, her older brother—heir to her family’s fortune—is murdered. The girls immediately embark on a whirlwind investigation that takes them from the lowliest brothels of Potosí to the highest echelons of the Spanish aristocracy.“Valiant Ladies brings the remarkable lives of two forgotten women to vivid, riotous life. Delightfully ahistorical, terribly romantic (have you ever shipped sword lesbians harder??), and all steeped in vigilante justice hell-bent on taking down a violent patriarchy—there’s only one word for it: badass.” —Mackenzi Lee, author
I completely agree with Ms Lee, because I found myself rooting for Kiki and Ana and their love in a time when women were seen as chattel/property, and sold off by their fathers to the highest bidder. Grey's prose is sparkling and keen as a knife's edge, while her plot gallops along faster than a horse who is afraid of storms at the first blast of lightening and thunder. Even the banter between the well drawn characters is top notch and scintillating. I'd give this wonderfully engrossing read an A, and recommend it to anyone who loves badass women saving the day in an oppressive patriarchal society.
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