Sunday, October 27, 2024

100 Years of Solitude Comes to TV, Kirkus Award Winners, Happy 60th Rizzoli Bookstore, Picture of Dorian Gray on Stage, Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks, Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher, Night Owls by A.R. Vishny, One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and The Road From Belhaven by Margot Livesey

It's almost Halloween, and October is running out on a rain storm to November. It's been fairly mild here, temperature wise, with temps in the 50s and 60s, and lots of humid air with lightening and thunder and hail every 5 or so days. Since this area is used to all the waterworks, there hasn't been any real flood or storm damage, and though the days are dark, it's been great reading weather, with all the cozy nesting items on full display. For me, this means hot tea with vanilla soy milk and snacks, both sweet and savory, as well as warm sweaters and pjs and fuzzy socks and blankets. My Crohns disease and arthritis haven't taken well to the change in weather, however, so I've had to take pain killers and naps along the way, and hope that the episodes will subside soon. There have been a few interesting things going on in the publishing world, detailed below, along with my reviews.
 
 I remember reading this book back in the 80s, and being impressed by the writing and the span of time the story outlined. I am looking forward to see the series on Netflix, debuting the day before my birthday.
 
TV: 100 Years of Solitude
Netflix has released first-look images from the upcoming series 100
Years of Solitude https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVXcw7oI6a41Kk92GQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mSDsLypoMLg-gVdw, based on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's classic novel, Deadline reported. The adaptation will be split into two eight-episode seasons, and the first will launch on December 11. The project has been sanctioned by the family of the author.
The team behind the project "started looking for the cast in 2022 and
estimate they saw over 10,000 candidates for the 25 main characters
across the seven generations of the Buendia family," Deadline
reported.

Production designers Eugenio Caballero, Oscar winner for Pan's
Labyrinth, and Barbara Enriquez, Oscar nominated for Roma,
oversaw the building of four versions of Macondo to reflect the passage
of time. The producers "sourced period furniture from local antique
stores and other fabrics and artifacts were made by local artisans,"
Deadline noted. "The attention to detail extended to the costume team,
led by Catherine Rodriguez, which conducted painstaking research
based mainly on the national records and on watercolors available from
the time."

All of the books that won awards sound wonderful to me, and I plan on seeking them out at the library in 2025.

Awards: Kirkus Winners
The winners have been announced for the 2024 Kirkus Prizes https://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVXcw7oI6a41Kk92HQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mSDsLypoMLg-gVdw, in fiction, nonfiction and young
readers' literature. The awards were chosen from books reviewed by
Kirkus Reviews; each winner receives $50,000.

Fiction winner: James by Percival Everett (Doubleday). The citation
reads, "In Percival Everett's audacious reimagining of Huckleberry Finn,
Jim--the enslaved man who travels the Mississippi River with Huck--is
revealed as James, who can write, argue with Voltaire, and speak in
elevated English. This enthralling novel can be read on its own, but
Everett has made it a necessary companion to Twain's masterpiece."

Nonfiction winner: Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on
the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham (Avid Reader Press).
"Meticulously reported, beautifully written, and devastating in its
account of an entirely preventable tragedy, Adam Higginbotham's book
reveals the facts of a news story many Americans recall but few
understand: the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in January
1986, killing all seven crew members on board."

Young Readers' Literature winner: Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow
(Candlewick). "Humor, grace, and tenderness bring to life this
beautifully realized story. Ian, a white teen growing up in rural
poverty and struggling with his mother's opioid addiction, finds support
and community in the friends, neighbors, and random caregivers he
gathers--all symbolized by the stray dog who gives the novel its title."

Awards: Ursula K. Le Guin, New American Voices Winner:
It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne de Marcken (New Directions)
has won the $25,000 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, sponsored by the Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation and given to a writer for a single book-length work of imaginative fiction. The prize is intended to recognize writers Le Guin spoke of in her 2014 National Book Awards speech: realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now.

The judges called It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over "a work of quietly
detonative imagination. Written in the guise of a zombie novel, it
quickly reveals itself to be a deeply felt meditation on the many
afterlives of memory, the strange disorienting space where our pasts go
to disintegrate.Haunting, poignant, and surprisingly funny, Anne de Marcken's book is a tightly written tour de force about what it is to be human."

This is yet another bookstore on my bucket list, and I congratulate them on 60 years of success!
Happy 60th Birthday, Rizzoli Bookstore!
Congratulations to Rizzoli Bookstore https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVXexeUI6a41dRAjSw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mSDMStpoMLg-gVdw, New York City, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a series of events that began this fall and will run into 2025. They include conversations with Laurie Anderson, David Godlis, Garth Greenwell, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ira Sachs, Patti Smith, and Chris Stein, among others. In addition, New York ensemble Tredici Bacci pays tribute to Rizzoli's influential role as a film producer with a concert inspired by the soundtracks Nino Rota composed for Federico Fellini's films. There will also be limited-run collections of anniversary tote bags and pencils.

The store was founded in 1964 by Milanese entrepreneur Angelo Rizzoli,
who was a publisher of books, newspapers, and magazines, and owner of a
chain of bookstores in Milan, including the Rizzoli flagship store
located in the Galleria. He also was a producer of classic films such as
Fellini's Une Parisienne, and La Dolce Vita.
During its 60 years, the bookstore has had both a screening room and
served as the backdrop for many TV shows and movies, including Law &
Order, Manhattan, Falling in Love, The Room Next Door, and more.

This is my favorite book by Oscar Wilde, and I love the many ways its been interpreted in film. Now its on Broadway on stage, and I would love to see it performed live! How exciting! Yet another reason I need to visit New York before I die.

On Stage: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Dates and a theatre have been announced for the highly anticipated
Broadway run of The Picture of Dorian Gray, based on the classic novel by Oscar Wilde, Playbill reported. The 14-week limited engagement will begin previews March 10, 2025, at the Music Box Theatre,
with an official opening March 27.

Sarah Snook, star of the hit TV series Succession, will make her
Broadway debut with the transfer, playing 26 characters in a solo
version of the novel. Adapted and directed by Kip Williams, the
production is coming to New York following a sold-out run in London's
West End earlier this year. It originated at Sydney Theatre Company
(where Williams is artistic director) in 2020.

"I could not be more thrilled to have found a home for The Picture of
Dorian Gray at the Music Box Theatre," Williams said. "Its stunning
design makes it the perfect venue for our show, and I extend my great
thanks to the Shubert Organization for the honor of presenting Dorian in
a space that has celebrated so many remarkable productions. I eagerly
anticipate the moment when audiences can experience this new adaptation
of Oscar Wilde's extraordinary story in such an exquisite theatre."

"We are delighted to be calling the Music Box Theatre our home for The
Picture of Dorian Gray," added producer Michael Cassel. "This stunning
theatre, home to so many legendary plays and musicals over its 103-year
history will enhance the production's unique storytelling, allowing us
to share this timeless tale in an extraordinary, resonant setting."

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks (yes, the beloved actor) is a series of short stories surrounding a communication theme with an old-fashioned typewriter of various vintages used as a catalyst for the plot movement of each tale. Here's the blurb: 
  A collection of “first-rate” short stories (The New York Times) that explore—with great affection, humor, and insight—the human condition in all its foibles.

A small-town newspaper columnist with old-fashioned views of the modern world. A World War II veteran grappling with his emotional and physical scars. A second-rate actor plunged into sudden stardom and a whirlwind press junket. Four friends traveling to the moon in a rocketship built in the backyard. These are just some of the stories that Tom Hanks captures in his first work of fiction.

The stories are linked by one thing: in each of them, a typewriter plays a part, sometimes minor, sometimes central.

To many, typewriters represent a level of craftsmanship, beauty, and individuality that is harder and harder to find in the modern world. In these stories, Hanks gracefully reaches that typewriter-worthy level. By turns whimsical, witty, and moving,
Uncommon Type establishes him as a welcome and wonderful new voice in contemporary fiction.
 
 
 
 
Hanks' prose is fine and mature, while his plots, though sometimes struggling with holes, manage to get the job done in the end. Though I enjoyed most of the stories, a few were weakened by obscure characters and those plot holes mentioned previously. I'd give the book a B, and recommend it to anyone who knows what it was like to hammer away at the keyboard of an old manual (or electric) typewriter before the advent of the word processor and computer programs.
 
Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher is a wonderful romantic fantasy set in a medieval or Arthurian world. I found the book to be like fine chocolate, expertly crafted, delicious and leaves you wanting more. Here's the blurb: Stephen’s god died on the longest day of the year…
Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now the pair must navigate a web of treachery, beset on all sides by spies and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind…
From the Hugo and Nebula Award winning author of
Swordheart and The Twisted Ones
comes a saga of murder, magic, and love on the far side of despair.  
 
I've read several other books by Kingfisher, and  while I'm aware it's the non de plume of Ursula Vernon, I still found myself wondering if her books weren't written by the author of the House on the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune, because they have the same kind of cozy "vibe" for lack of a better word. The same fully realized, lovable characters who are oddballs or outcastes of some sort, and the same struggles against the powers of darkness that would see them gone from their world.  I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes spritely dialogue and satisfying endings.
 
Night Owls by A. R. Vishny is a slow-starting bizarre dark YA fantasy novel (billed as a paranormal romance, which it is not, in the strict sense of the words) with a romantic through line for the main characters. Here's the blurb:
In this thrilling paranormal YA romance debut steeped in folklore, two estries—owl-shifting female vampires from Jewish tradition—face New York's monstrous underworld to save the girl one of them loves with help from the boy one of them fears before they are, all of them, lost forever.
Clara loves rules. Rules are what have kept her and her sister, Molly, alive—or, rather, undead—for over a century. Work their historic movie theater by day. Shift into an owl under the cover of night. Feed on men in secret. And never fall in love.
Molly is in love. And she’s tired of keeping her girlfriend, Anat, a secret. If Clara won’t agree to bend their rules a little, then she will bend them herself.
Boaz is cursed. He can’t walk two city blocks without being cornered by something undead. At least at work at the theater, he gets to flirt with Clara, wishing she would like him back.
When Anat vanishes and New York’s monstrous underworld emerges from the shadows, Clara suspects Boaz, their annoyingly cute box office attendant, might be behind it all.
But if they are to find Anat, they will need to work together to face demons and the hungers they would sooner bury. Clara will have to break all her rules—of love, of life, and of death itself—before her rules break everyone she loves.
In this stand-alone debut, A. R. Vishny interweaves mystery, romance, and lore to create an unputdownable story about those who have kept to the shadows for far too long.
While I loved the historical Jewish theater details (I never knew there was an entire area of Jewish theaters in NYC that kept the theater arts thriving for decades) Vishny's prose was, especially in the first few chapters, awkward and overly elaborate, with frequent long infodumps that slowed the plot to a crawl several times. The last 60 pages things sped up nicely, which was grand, and it all ended with a somewhat nice HEA, though it wasn't without sacrifice at the loss of so many historical films. I'd give this ethnic vampires in love story a B, and recommend it to fans of unique vampire tales.
 
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a contemporary romance that, while mostly well written in Reid's smooth and lush prose, was somewhat hobbled by redundancy and melodrama. Here's the blurb: From the author of Maybe in Another Life, and Daisy Jones and the Six, comes a breathtaking new love story about a woman unexpectedly forced to choose between the husband she has long thought dead and the fiancé who has finally brought her back to life.

In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure.

On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.

Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again. When Emma and Sam get engaged, it feels like Emma’s second chance at happiness.

That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and he’s been trying all these years to come home to her. With a husband and a fiancĂ©, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants, while trying to protect the ones she loves.

Who is her
one true love
? What does it mean to love truly?
Emma knows she has to listen to her heart. She’s just not sure what it’s saying
.
 
So TJR's huge success with Daisy Jones and the Six, which was made into a Netlfix series, has her publishers pushing out her backlisted books in hopes of making lightening strike twice, which I understand, from a financial POV. However, you can tell that TJR was working out the kinks in her writing style with these early novels. For example, there's some gauzy passive sentence construction in this book before we even reach page 100, and then there's the overly sweet female protagonist Emma, who seems stupid, frankly, and who constructs her whole life around the young men she believes are her "soul mates," like some goofy teenager. It also seems implausible to me that she would meet both of her guys in high school, and that their love would be lasting when it was created while they were all still being ruled by teenage hormones. Insert eye roll here. I also don't buy the sexist idea that women, especially young ones, aren't "complete" or truly themselves without a man in their life. Emma can't seem to function without Jesse or Sam, and when deprived of Jesse (who seemed like a controlling narcissistic jerk to me) she run home, like a child, and tanks her independent life to be "safe" with her parents and be treated like a child again, molding herself into the dutiful daughter that they wanted her to be.It's only when Sam comes back into her life that she's able to grow up and act like a halfway independent adult at 30 years of age. Ah, that old patriarchal saw of infantilizing women...so common as to be trite. I also found it hard to believe that it took her an entire 3 day weekend with Jesse the jerk, having sex and listening to him whinge on about how everything has changed (including Emma, how dare she cut her hair after he'd been gone for THREE years!) and how angry he was that time didn't stand still for him while he was stranded on a desert island....boohoo. So I'd give this fast moving tale a C+ and only recommend it to die hard TJR fans.
 
The Road From Belhaven by Margot Livesey is a women's historical paranormal novel that has coming of age and complex understanding of the mysteries of the human mind, heart and soul at it's core. Here's the blurb:
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a novel about a young woman whose gift of second sight complicates her coming of age in late-nineteenth-century Scotland.
Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven Farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small child that she can see into the future. But her gift is selective—she doesn’t, for instance, see that she has an older sister who will come to join the family. As her “pictures” foretell various incidents and accidents, she begins to realize a painful truth: she may glimpse the future, but she can seldom change it.

Nor can Lizzie change the feelings that come when a young man named Louis, visiting Belhaven for the harvest, begins to court her. Why have the adults around her not revealed that the touch of a hand can change everything? After following Louis to Glasgow, though, she learns the limits of his devotion. Faced with a seemingly impossible choice, she makes a terrible mistake. But her second sight may allow her a second chance. 
The Road from Belhaven displays “the marvelous control of a writer who conjures equally well the tangible, sensory world . . . and the mysteries, stranger and wilder, that flicker at the border of that world.” —The Boston Globe
Livesey's prose is misty and intriguing, but there were times when, though I realize she was a woman of her era, that I found the protagonist, Lizzie, to be too wishy-washy and unable to deal decisively with her ex-lover Louis, who manipulates her into sex and then, when she's pregnant, abandons her, and disavows their daughter. That she finally finds her way to getting her daughter and marrying a better man to be a father to her, is more a testament to luck and her seer ability than to her own courage as a woman. Still, I'd give this crisply-paced novel a B-, and recommend it to anyone who is into paranormal historical stories from the turn of the 20th century.




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