Welcome to September, readers and book dragons! It's finally fall, and I'm looking forward to cooler temps and rain, primary cozy book reading season! It's also time for hot tea and new shows and a slate of new fall fiction! Exciting! I've been reading several books from my older TBR piles, and I have discovered why they've been waiting around to be read for so long. Most aren't that interesting or well written. Still, it was something fresh to my reading palate. So here's some tidbits and reviews for ya'all.
This just makes me ill...every time I turn around yet another woman is accusing Neil Gaiman, whose work I've loved over decades, of sexual assault. I can hardly fathom why this talented and overtly feminist author would commit such disgusting and heinous crimes. WHY NG? A handsome man, such as yourself, could easily date women and I'm sure have consensual sex...why turn evil and harm women instead?
Neil
Gaiman Accused of Sexual Assault by Sixth Woman
When
the news first broke of The Tortoise’s reporting on women coming
forward about Neil Gaiman, I thought this was probably going to turn
out to be much, much worse.
This recent allegation, backed up by a phone recording of someone
alleged to be Gaiman,
is indeed worse. (A side note: The Bookseller did it’s due
diligence and sought comment from multiple parties associated with
Gaiman, including his US and UK publishers, and author associations
of which Gaiman is a member. None of them responded. I don’t think
that is going to work for much longer here).
This is fascinating...I can't imagine why people would think that election years are bad for books and readers...I know that political sleaze only makes me want to escape into books faster. I can't believe I'm the only one, either. Most people I know are disgusted or at the very least turned off by political pandering. So I will take my former presidential book lists and go read until it's all over in December.
Thanks, Obama. Fallacies About Books in an Election Year
If your TBR is
looking lighter than usual going into fall, it’s probably because
of the
widely held belief that election years are bad for books.
It makes intuitive sense—it’s certainly hard enough to get press
coverage and consumers’ attention when you’re not competing with
wall-to-wall politics—but like so many things that feel
true, it’s not actually born out by data. As Circana’s Brenna
Connor told The
Washington Post,
“Sales during election years don’t show major declines.”
In 2016 and 2012,
sales dropped by 1 percent compared with the prior year; in 2008,
they grew by 7 percent. In 2020, sales hit a 15-year high — in part
because adults had more time to read, and bought more educational
materials and children’s books as a result of school closures.
Since 2020 was an
outlier, Connor looked at data from the previous presidential
election, in 2016, and found that there were fewer new books that
November compared with the previous year: New ISBNs, the unique tags
used to identify books, fell by 8 percent.If you’re scratching your
head about how publishing fewer new books doesn’t cause a
proportional dip in sales, remember: the vast majority of books sold
in any given year are backlist titles. Simon & Schuster’s
Jonathan Karp seems to have this one right: “The idea that books
shouldn’t come out during the fall of a presidential election is
‘somewhere between being an old wives’ tale and a canard.'”
I loved the Matrix and the Crow, so I will be looking into this new series based on the Joe Ledger novels. It should be good stuff.
TV: Jonathan Maberry's Joe Ledger
Novels
Chad Stahelski, director of the John
Wick movie franchise, plans to develop author Jonathan Maberry's Joe
Ledger novels for TV. Deadline reported that Stahelski, who acquired
rights to the book series through his 87Eleven Entertainment
production company, was known for his stunt work on The Matrix
franchise and original The Crow before he moved to directing.
"I really loved reading the Joe
Ledger series," he said. "It's an all-time epic action series with
intrigue, suspense and such engaging characters. As I read it, I could see
the immediate cinematic potential."
Maberry commented: "Chad's career,
both behind and in front of the camera, pretty much defines the kinds
of things I love to watch. The Matrix, The Crow, John Wick--and so
many others are solidly in my wheelhouse. And we're both lifelong
martial artists as well as professional pop-culture geeks. When we
sat down for the first time to discuss Joe Ledger, it was clear that
he not only read the books but deeply and empathetically understood
the characters. I don't think I've ever met someone in Hollywood whose
mind runs along tracks this similar to my own. He's also a visionary and a
hell of a lot of fun. This is what they mean when they talk about
'Hollywood magic.' "
I'm a big fan of Sissy Spacek, so I will have to go see this movie when it's out.
Movies: Die, My Love
Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte have joined
the cast of Die, My Love, based on the 2017 novel by Ariana
Harwicz. Deadline reported that the film, directed by Lynne Ramsay,
"reunites Spacek and Nolte following their work together on Affliction, the
1997 crime drama written and directed by Paul Schrader." The
cast also includes Jennifer Lawerence, Robert Pattinson, and LaKeith
Stanfield. Ramsay is directing from her script
written with Enda Walsh. Producers on the project include Justine
Ciarrocchi and Lawerence on behalf of Excellent Cadaver, as well as Martin
Scorsese and Andrea Calderwood.
The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley is a cozy adventure/thriller/mystery novel that I couldn't wait to read. There's an awesome quote early on that goes: " Sometimes it feels like we (women) still spend so much time trying to teach the house not to catch on fire, instead of teaching the arsonist not to light it" which is something the wise and wonderful protagonist, Louise, says to her friend, young Tanner, who becomes her "getaway driver" as she tries to escape her past crimes. Here's the blurb: An unforgettable pairing of a college dropout
and an eighty-four-year-old woman on the run from the law in this story
full of tremendous heart, humor, and wit from the USA Today bestselling author of The Invisible Husband of Frick Island.
Twenty-one-year-old Tanner Quimby needs a place to live. Preferably one
where she can continue sitting around in sweatpants and playing video
games nineteen hours a day. Since she has no credit or money to speak
of, her options are limited, so when an opportunity to work as a live-in
caregiver for an elderly woman falls into her lap, she takes it.
One slip on the rug. That’s all it took for Louise Wilt’s daughter to
demand that Louise have a full-time nanny living with her. Never mind
that she can still walk fine, finish her daily crossword puzzle, and
pour the two fingers of vodka she drinks every afternoon.Bottom line: Louise wants a caretaker even less than Tanner wants to be one.
The two start off their living arrangement happily ignoring each other
until Tanner starts to notice things—weird things. Like, why does Louise
keep her garden shed locked up tighter than a prison? And why is the
local news fixated on the suspect of one of the biggest jewelry heists
in American history who looks eerily like Louise? And why does Louise
suddenly appear in her room, with a packed bag at 1 a.m. insisting that
they leave town immediately?
Thus begins the story of a
not-to-be-underestimated elderly woman and an aimless young woman who—if
they can outrun the mistakes of their past—might just have the greatest
adventure of their lives.
There was a lot of things to love about this "buddy" story, but one of the things I loved most about it was that both Tanner and Louise had physical problems, from a broken leg to a broken hip, that made it important for them to learn to trust and rely on one another, when both were feeling miserable and alone and angry at the world. They grew as people and as women during the course of this book, and the twist at the end was delightful. This was such an an engrossing novel that it became a page turner that I couldn't put down. I'd give Tanner and Louise, and their funny, sad, intelligent journey of the heart an A, and recommend this book to those who are fans of Kristin Hannah and Fannie Flagg.
The Listening House by Mabel Seeley is a classic mystery novel about a boarding house and its cast of characters during the Great Depression in the 1930s. It was also written in the 1930s, so the prose is full of odd phrases and word usage, but if you're a fan of classic lit or classic movies like the Maltese Falcon, they won't seem strange to you at all. Here's the blurb: Down
and out in the Depression, Gwynne Dacres moves into a seedy and
sinister boarding house, where she exposes deadly secrets in this
classic mystery by Mabel Seeley
After losing her
copywriting job, young Gwynne Dacres seeks a place to live when she
stumbles upon Mrs. Garr's old boarding house. Despite the gruff landlady
and an assortment of shifty tenants, Gwynne rents a room for herself.
She spends her first few nights at 593 Trent Street tensely awake, the
house creaking and groaning as if listening to everything that happens
behind its closed doors.
A chain of chilling events leads to the
gruesome discovery of a mutilated body in the basement kitchen, dead of
unknown circumstances. Was it an accident or murder? Under the
red-black brick façade of the old house on Trent Street, Gwynne uncovers
a myriad of secrets, blackmail, corruption, and clues of a wicked past.
As she closes in on the truth, the cold, pale hands of death reach for
Gwynne in the night.
What surprised me about this book wasn't the use of sexist terms for women, such as "dame" or "doll," but the way that the female protagonist took it all as normal everyday conversation, having to skirt around slavering, creepy men who seem to treat all women under the age of 50 as if they're prostitutes (which is seen as a fate worse than death for a young woman, as proven later in the novel, when we discover a teenager is kidnapped for a brothel and forced into prostitution, and instead of attempting to escape and come back to her parents, she commits suicide rather than bring shame on her household). It goes even further when one of the other boarders who practically forces Gwynne to date him, tells her (he doesn't ask her permission at all) that they're going to get married...and she goes along with it, though she really doesn't seem to like his overbearing and loud ways during their short "courtship." It's as if, once he lays claim to her, she has no choice/agency in her life from there onward. Due to the "hard boiled" language and the stuffy plot, this was a book that took me a lot longer to read than normal, and there were parts that I found tedious and dull. I'd give this old fashioned mystery a C+, and only recommend it to those who don't mind old time morality and sexism with their mystery stories.
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher is a bittersweet updated version of the Goose Girl fairy tale, with a few surprising twists and turns. Here's the blurb: From author T. Kingfisher comes A Sorceress Comes to Call—a dark reimagining of the Brothers Grimm's "The Goose Girl," rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic.
Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms—there are no secrets in this house—and
her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend. Unless you
count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia
feels truly free is on her daily rides with him.
But more than
simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force
their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days,
on end. Other mothers aren’t evil sorcerers.
When her mother
unexpectedly moves them into the manor home of a wealthy older Squire
and his kind but keen-eyed sister, Hester, Cordelia knows this welcoming
pair are to be her mother's next victims. But Cordelia feels at home
for the very first time among these people, and as her mother's plans
darken, she must decide how to face the woman who raised her to save the
people who have become like family.
I found the first part of this book rather slow going, but once it was past the first 25-30 pages, things started to pick up, and the bright prose popped along the sleek rails of the dark fairytale plot to a satisfying conclusion. I'm a big fan of books that contain "found family," and this book takes its time to develop that family, but it's still amazing once Cordelia begins to trust them and they all start to work to defeat her evil mother, (who can take over her daughter's mind and treat her like a puppet, which is the ultimate violation). This fascinating take on The Goose Girl (and I loved that story as a child) deserves a B, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys re-worked fairy tales by modern authors.
Foxglove by Adalyn Grace is the second YA romantasy book in her Belladonna series. I'm trying to find a way to purchase the third book, Wisteria, but I've not been able to afford it just yet. Here's the blurb: Foxglove is the captivating sequel to the Gothic-infused Belladonna, in which Signa and Death face a supernatural foe determined to tear them apart.
A duke has been murdered. The lord of Thorn Grove has been framed. And
Fate, the elusive brother of Death, has taken up residence in a
sumptuous palace nearby. He's hell-bent on revenge after Death took the
life of the woman he loved many years ago...and now he’s determined to
have Signa for himself, no matter the cost.
Signa and her cousin Blythe are certain that Fate can save Elijah Hawthorne from wrongful imprisonment, if
the girls will entertain Fate’s presence. But the more time they spend
with him, the more frightening their reality becomes, as Signa exhibits
dramatic new powers that link her to Fate’s past. With mysteries and
danger around every corner, the cousins must decide whom they can trust
as they navigate their futures in high society, unravel the murders that
haunt their family, and play Fate’s unexpected games—all with their
destinies hanging in the balance.
Daring, suspenseful, and seductive, this sequel to Death and Signa's story is as utterly romantic as it is perfectly deadly.
The prose in this book was entrancing, and helped the flowery plot progress, even after moments when it seemed to get bogged down in details. I loved that Death was such a hottie, though he retained his creep factor, and his brother Fate, who was traditionally the golden god type, was a real asshat who wanted to destroy death's relationship for nothing but petty revenge and so he could steal Signa, whom he wrongfully believes is the reincarnation of the goddess of life, his mate. I liked Signa's strength and dauntless courage, but as is usual with romantasy, I hated it that she lost all sense whenever she's in the presence of her lover, Death. Still, the story was full of surprises, and I'd give this book a B-, and recommend it to those who like their romances dark and deadly.
Under Your Spell by Laura Wood is a romantic comedy/fantasy with a rock and roll twist that I was surprised to find delightful and fun. The prose was bouncy and bright, and the plot zoomed along like a favorite guitar riff from an 80s pop ballad. Here's the blurb: The
daughter of an aging rock star finds herself working for the hottest
musician on the planet and is shocked when sparks start to
fly—especially since she swore she’d never, ever date a celebrity—in
this unputdownable romance that is perfect for fans of Christina Lauren
and Emily Henry.
She wants three things. He isn’t one of them...
Dumped
by her cheating ex, fired from her dream job, and about to lose her
flat: Clementine Monroe is not having a good day. So when her sisters
get her drunk and suggest reviving a childhood ritual called the Breakup
Spell, she doesn’t see the harm in it.
But now Clemmie has
accidentally ruined a funeral, had her first one-night stand, and she’s
stuck with a new job she definitely doesn’t want—spending six weeks
alone with the gorgeous and very-off-limits rock star, Theo Eliott.
He’s
the most famous man on the planet. Her life’s a disaster. As their
summer together turns into its own kind of magic, is Clemmie cursed to
repeat the mistakes of her past—or will her future see all her wishes
come true?
I'm not the type to love celebrities or the lurid yellow journalism that is part of their everyday lives. That said, I did love Theo and Clemmie's enemies to lovers romance, and their relatable need for some authentic, real trust and love in their lives...not to mention a 'real' job and a decent apartment on Clemmie's part. Having been fired from a job and being homeless with no one familiar to rely on, (when I was in my 20s) I could especially relate to Clemmie's dilemma. Therefore I was heartened that she and her sisters were able to get a spell working to her advantage and get her life back on track, in all respects. I could also understand her problems with her absentee father, as my own father, though not a rock star, was gone a majority of the time when I was growing up because he was a workaholic and a party-person and philanderer who found home life boring, with too much responsibility. It was good that Clemmies dad finally decides to try and have a relationship with her, but I found that my father wasn't so interested in doing the same until he lay on his deathbed in 2019. Anyway, I'd give this complicated but fascinating book a B-, and recommend it to anyone looking for a celeb romantic beach read.
No comments:
Post a Comment