Welcome to Catalina Comes to TV, Honoring Strand Bookstore Owner Bass, Pride Month Bookstore T-shirt, A Pair of Aces is Reese's Pick, Obit for Marjane Satrapi, Swordheart by T Kingfisher, The Midnight Train by Matt Haig, Across the Vanishing Sky by Catherine Cowles, and Nightfall in the Garden of Deep Time by Tracy Higley

 It's June, the start of summer reading, fellow book lovers! Rejoice! Stay out of the carcinogenic sunshine and curl up with a good beach read in your favorite cozy spot in your home, be it bed or big chair.RIP to my best friend Muff Larson, who would have turned 65 on June 1st. I still miss her though she's been dead for 18 years...and it seems like just yesterday. Also, today Anthony Stewart Head, who played Giles the librarian (with wit and wisdom) on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, died of pneumonia, though he was only 72. A number of great actors, authors and musicians have died this year, including (though she was a nurse, not any of the other professions listed) my mother, who died at the end of March. It's only half over and its already been a tough year. At any rate, I've been reading a lot and trying not to let loss get the better of me. Here's my latest tidbits and reviews. 

 

I'm a big fan of Kelley and of the Lincoln Lawyer, so I will definitely be keeping an eye out for this new TV program. 

TV: Welcome to Catalina

David E. Kelley (The Lincoln Lawyer) is adapting another Michael Connelly crime novel, the 2024 bestseller Nightshade, for television. Deadline reported that the project, titled Welcome to Catalina, is in development at HBO Max "under the streamer's model for drama procedurals intended to return each year with sizable orders and moderate cost. The model was introduced by the Emmy-winning medical drama The Pitt, which produces 15 episodes a year."

Written by Kelley, Welcome to Catalina centers on Los Angeles County Sheriff's Detective Stilwell, "who has been 'exiled' to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor," Deadline noted.

The Strand Bookstore in New York has long been on my bucket list, and I think it's wonderful that NYC is honoring the former owner of the store by naming a street after him. People who create community through books and bookstores are rock stars, IMO. 

Image of the Day: Honoring Strand Owner Fred Bass

New York City officially renamed part of E. 12th Street at Broadway Fred Bass Way, celebrating the life and work of second-generation Strand Bookstore owner Fred Bass, who died in 2018. Yesterday, Councilman Harvey Epstein and current Strand Bookstore owner Nancy Bass Wyden unveiled the sign together outside the flagship store.

Bass Wyden said, "My father believed deeply in New York City--in its readers, its curiosity, and the communities that make it such a vibrant place. He dedicated his life not only to building Strand Bookstore, but to preserving something he felt was essential: a place where people could discover ideas, stories, and one another."

Epstein added, "Strand Bookstore is woven into the fabric of our community: in my life, from buying birthday presents and family gifts to spending countless hours with my kids browsing shelves, reading books, and picking out books and Strand swag together. It is deeply meaningful to honor the life and legacy of Strand Bookstore owner Fred Bass right here in our neighborhood. As Strand Bookstore approaches its 100th anniversary next year, we recognize the enormous role it has played in shaping New York City's cultural and intellectual life."

YAY Pride Month bookstore shirts, especially in a red state like Texas, land of MAGA idiots.

Cool Idea: Pride Month Bookstore T-shirt

Hyperbole Bookstore in College Station, Tex., has found a creative way to celebrate Pride Month, posting on Instagram: "Happy Pride!! We are so excited to uplift our fellow LGBTQ+ readers, customers, and community partners this month. In celebration, we've created an exclusive, rainbow-tastic Pride version of our Hyperbole t-shirt that we'll be selling all month in the store. We will be donating 100% of the profits to the Trans Education Network of Texas and the Trevor Project, so be sure to visit us this month and grab a shirt to support two wonderful organizations and show your bookish pride!! These will be available in-store all month long (and for our long-distance friends who may want a shirt, please shoot us an e-mail or call during business hours). Happy Pride."

This book is high on my To be Acquired list, so I'm hoping to get a copy soon...Reese usually has good taste in novels.

Reese's June Book Club Pick: A Pair of Aces

A Pair of Aces by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is the June pick for Reese's Book Club, which described the book this way: "Though they come from vastly different worlds, Polly Adler and Eunice Carter are each trailblazing women in their own right. Eunice Carter, an assistant district attorney for the City of New York, made history as Manhattan's first Black female prosecutor. Meanwhile, Polly Adler spent years building her business to become one of the city's most notorious madams. When Mob boss Lucky Luciano's power and corruption go too far, the two women forge an unlikely alliance to bring him down in a way only they can."

Persepolis was a ground-breaking graphic novel, and I'm saddened by the passing of its author, Marjane Satrapi...I hate the fact that they made her cause of death sound so misogynistic. I doubt, as a feminist, she would have appreciated being seen as someone who died for love of a man. Anyway, RIP. 

Obituary Note: Marjane Satrapi

Marjane Satrapi, graphic novelist, film director, and children's book author, died today, June 4. She was 56.

According to a statement issued by friends and family, "Marjane Satrapi died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life." (Swedish producer, actor, and screenwriter Ripa died April 8, 2025.)

Born and raised in Iran, Satrapi studied abroad for a time and then moved to France permanently in her early 20s. She was best known for her graphic novels Persepolis and Persepolis 2, which were originally published in French and then appeared in English, published by Pantheon in 2003 and 2004. The graphic novels featured an autobiographical character and chronicled her difficult childhood and adolescence in the brutal Islamic Republic. The bestselling graphic novels were made into an animated film co-directed by Satrapi that was released in 2007. The film won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar in the best animated feature category.

Cannes Film Festival head Thierry Fremaux said, "Marjane was an extraordinary artist and a charming woman who embodied the joy of creation and the sorrow of exile and painful memories. We mourn her this morning."

Satrapi was also well-known for her film Radioactive, a 2019 live-action biography of Marie Curie that was based on a graphic novel by Lauren Redniss and starred Rosamund Pike.

Satrapi's other work included the graphic novel Chicken with Plums, about how a musician's life falls apart after his wife destroys his violin. Chicken with Plums also was made into an animated feature. Throughout her life, Satrapi remained opposed to the Islamic Republic's repressive cultural and political policies and its subjugation of women. She edited a collection of graphic stories, Woman, Life, Freedom, published in the U.S. in 2024 by Seven Stories Press.

Swordheart by T. Kingfisher is an adventure romantasy that, as with all Kingfisher's other novels, delivers a cracking good read with lux prose while also creating a page-turning plot that will keep you up until the wee hours. Here's the blurb:  

A beautiful hardcover edition featuring turquoise sprayed edges, a foil stamp on the casing, and custom endpapers.

The delightful charm of The Princess Bride meets the delicious bodyguard romance of From Blood and Ashin this cozy fantasy romance from New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher

Halla has unexpectedly inherited the estate of a wealthy uncle. Unfortunately, she is also saddled with money-hungry relatives full of devious plans for how to wrest the inheritance away from her.

While locked in her bedroom, Halla inspects the ancient sword that's been collecting dust on the wall since before she moved in. Out of desperation, she unsheathes it―and suddenly a man appears. His name is Sarkis, he tells her, and he is an immortal warrior trapped in a prison of enchanted steel.

Sarkis is sworn to protect whoever wields the sword, and for Halla―a most unusual wielder―he finds himself fending off not grand armies and deadly assassins but instead everything from kindly-seeming bandits to roving inquisitors to her own in-laws. But as Halla and Sarkis grow closer, they overlook the biggest threat of all―the sword itself. 

The relationship between Halla and Sarkis is dreamy and deliciously tense, and the resulting HEA very imaginative. Having read 3 of Kingfisher's other novels (I'm not a fan of horror, so I didn't read the two that were firmly ensconced in that genre), I wasn't surprised at how much I enjoyed this romantic fantasy storyline and its found family undercurrents...there's also a "cozy" atmosphere to the book, which is just my speed of late. I'd give this enchanting novel an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes House on the Cerulean Sea or Travis Baldree's cozy fantasies.

The Midnight Train by Matt Haig is "kind of" a sequel to his bestselling (and popular with book groups everywhere) Midnight Library, which added a refreshing spin to the time-travel fantasy genre. Here's the blurb:  

When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop?

No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there.
The chance to re-live the moments that meant most.
To see what kind of person you really were.

For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice.

Before he gave it all away.

He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything. A magical, time-travelling love story, from the world of The Midnight Library. 

 

That last blurb line is a bit of a misnomer, because this book is different from Midnight Library, in that it was about the choices we make in our lives in terms of how we live them via jobs and family, etc. People at the library are allowed to relive their lives in terms of different choices, only to discover that their original life was the only one worth living. The Midnight Train is about where you stop on the "death" train after you perish, so you can review where your choices took you in the wrong or right direction...and in this case, so the protagonist, Wilbur, can kidnap himself in a dream state and get his past self to realize that his relationship to Maggie, his wife, was more important, in the end, than his greed and pride on building a bookstore empire worth millions. Basically, people over profit. This is not a new idea, I remember back during my childhood hearing adults say "you can't take it with you" about miserly rich people who died alone because they felt that gaining money was more important than caring for and about family. People like that were looked on with pity (and yes, some envy/jealousy by people like my dad who were shallow).  I'd give this book a B+, and recommend it to those who were intrigued by the life choices issues in Midnight Library.

 

Across the Vanishing Sky by Catherine Cowles is an older YA romance with a great deal of added suspense to keep readers turning pages. Here's the blurb: 

The limited deluxe edition includes designed edge pages.

A heart-stopping small town romance from New York Times bestselling author Catherine Cowles, the first in a brand-new series.

He spent a lifetime trying to escape his dark past…but to save her, he'll wade back into the shadows.

Braedyn Winslow never expected to return to Starlight Grove―the town that took everything from her. Not after her best friend, the one who'd sacrificed so much for her, vanished without a trace. But with a young son to raise and a past that won't stay buried, Brae is back…and determined to uncover the truth.

She just didn't count on the brooding, reclusive mountain man living next door.

Dex Archer is the stuff of local legend―silent, rugged, and surrounded by whispers of his and his brothers' violent father. But Brae sees through the scowl and his parentage to the man beneath: fiercely loyal, unexpectedly kind…and just dangerous enough to protect her when someone starts warning her off her search.

The closer she gets to the truth, the harder it is to stay away from Dex. And as things get more perilous, Brae realizes the only person she can rely on is the one man who swore never to trust again.

Only someone isn't happy that Brae has been digging, and they'll do anything to stop her. But Dex? He'll do anything to save her, even slip back into the dark.

 

Brae and Dex's slow-burn romance is very well written, as is the rest of the book, which glides along a swift and decisive plot with rich and detailed prose. The suspense and addictive characters kept me glued to the page, though, at over 400 pages I wasn't expecting to encounter that kind of story arc. There wasn't a cliche in sight, and the author kept the tropes to a bare minimum. I'd give this delectable book an A, and recommend it to anyone who might enjoy a fast-paced romance with suspense and twists and turns galore.

 

Nightfall in the Garden of Deep Time by Tracy Higley is a magical realism novel that didn't quite gel for me, though it had it's moments of lucidity. Here's the blurb: 

You’re invited…to a timeless party in a Secret Garden.
Expect to come back transformed.

Kelsey Willoughby doesn’t have time to pursue her dream of writing a novel. Imagination doesn’t pay the bills, and she’s busy saving her beautiful bookshop from online competition, hotel developers, and the sneaking suspicion that nobody reads anymore.

Not to mention all those voices telling her she doesn’t have talent.

But then the vacant lot of weeds next door starts to shimmer.

When Kelsey stumbles into a luminous nighttime garden party, larger than the vacant lot that holds it and filled with enigmatic guests, she suspects they hold the key to saving the bookshop, and perhaps even to her own mysterious origins.

But answers aren’t forthcoming, not until Kelsey is willing to confront her past, step into her potential, and push deeper into the unknown edges of the garden, where an unexpected journey takes her into a world of dangerous revelation.

With evocative prose and a deeply-embedded mystery, the magical realism of Nightfall in the Garden of Deep Time immerses readers in a delicious adventure of creativity and the arts. A must-read for anyone pursuing a creative life.

This is one of those bizarre books that, just when you think you have a handle on where the plotline is going, it moves in the opposite direction, leaving you scratching your head, wondering what is going on. The prose is dream-like, weaving in and out of moments that weren't linear, but the author gives you no warning that you're not when you thought you were. I sincerely do not agree with the blurb that this book is a must for creative people of any stripe. It would only confuse and depress most of them. The ending leaves much to be desired, as it devolves into a TED talk-like rant on how creatives need to just get on with it, while not really giving them any actual tools to do that. WEIRD. That's the best word I can think of to describe this book. I'd give it a B-, and only recommend it to those who like experimental fiction books, especially ones that are designed to make creatives feel superior to the rest of the human race.