Haunted Bookstore in Seattle Closes, Mary Oliver Movie, The Book of Blood and Roses by Annie Summerlee, Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel, The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren, Bingsu For Two by Sujin Witherspoon, and The Mother-Daughter Book Club by Susan and James Patterson

It's July, and though its pretty hot outside, I'm looking forward to August and the end of summer, which is right around the corner. Everyone around me in my neighborhood and in Seattle are going out and about in swimwear and shorts and t-shirts, soaking up as much sunshine as they can while its blazing hot and bright. Not for me, however, so I've been indoors doing a ton of reading. I've got 5 reviews for you this time, so grab an iced tea or coffee and enjoy!

Though I'm sorry to see them go, its great that this bookstore will adapt by doing pop ups and fairs soon...you can't keep good booksellers down!

Haunted Burrow Books in Seattle, Wash., Closes Storefront

Haunted Burrow Books, which opened in 2025 at 430 15th Ave. E in Seattle, Wash., with a focus on horror, fantasy, science fiction, and occult titles, closed its storefront last month, but will continue doing pop-ups and vendor fairs throughout the city.

In an Instagram post, owner Roxanne Guiney thanked the community for its support and noted: "The brick-and-mortar space was always meant to be a temporary venture for Haunted Burrow, as both an experiment and a chance to run a real bookstore for a little bit before getting back to regular life. Like a bunny, we were here for a good time, not a long time. And it turned out to be a great time. A solidly amazing time.

"Thank you for your support, your kindness, your generosity, your love for reading, your friendship, and all of your book recommendations! We'll be lurking around Seattle's markets and vendor fairs soon, slinging books and chatting about our new favorites. Until then, continue being kind, and enjoy your next read."

I discovered Mary Oliver during my freshman year of college, and though I was snobbish and stupid enough to assume she wouldn't be as great a poet as the classic guys, like Frost, Whitman and Sandburg, the beauty and simplicity of her poems soon set me straight, and made a believer of me. I will look forward to seeing this movie, because, if done respectfully, it should be marvelous and amazing.

Movies: Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver's life and career are explored in the new documentary Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, directed by Sasha Waters. Deadline reported that the film has opened at IFC Center in New York City and will debut on July 11 at Laemmle theaters in Los Angeles before expanding to select theaters nationwide.

"She's a poet for people who love poetry, but she's also a poet for people who might think they don't really like poetry or might not really know about poetry or might feel intimidated or bored by poetry," Waters said. "She invites people into the work at every level, and she's not interested in playing with language for the sake of playing with language.... I think she's interested in asking the viewer to share an experience or to reflect on their own experience."

Noting that there is "pressure, I think, to put celebrities in documentaries," Waters observed: "So, for me, it was really important that if we were going to do that, there needed to be a real connection, like why are they in the film? Helena Bonham Carter, there's a TikTok of her reading a Mary Oliver poem. So that's how I found out she was a Mary Oliver fan. Stephen Colbert told a guest on his show that he sent the poem 'The Summer Day' to his children on the first day of summer every year."

The Book of Blood and Roses by Annie Summerlee is a paranormal romantasy LGBTQ novel that is simply written in the YA style, with a plot that is also easy reading and allows for a ton of vampire tropes and cliches to sneak in on tiny bat wings. Here's the blurb: A vampire hunter goes undercover at a mysterious university—and finds herself falling in love with her roommate, an alluring vampire, in book one of a seductive sapphic paranormal fantasy. (Editor's note: WHY do they never use the word LESBIAN to describe sexual relationships between two women? Is the word so off-putting in our society that they have to resort to the ancient word for love between women, via the poet Sapphos?)

This hardcover edition includes a gorgeous illustrated book case beneath the jacket and designed endpapers! “Then her red eyes are on mine, gentle, deadly. . . . She takes her time, kissing my neck. . . . I pull her closer, and I say, Bite me.”

In the mists of the Scottish Highlands is a university where vampires study alongside humans. Rebecca Charity is a vampire hunter undercover at the university, searching for the mysterious Book of Blood and Roses, a lost compendium of ways to kill vampires. If she finds it, she’ll be one step closer to avenging her parents, who were slain by those creatures of the night.

But when Rebecca arrives, she finds something unexpected: a coffin. Her new roommate is Aliz Astra, scion of one of the most powerful vampire families . . . and the most beautiful woman Rebecca has ever met. The maddeningly gorgeous Aliz is everything that Rebecca has always hated but also everything she’s ever wanted, and now Rebecca doesn’t know if she wants to kiss or kill her.

When one moonlit night Aliz rescues her from a vampire attack, she accidentally makes Rebecca her Familiar. Now they must work together to break the curse—but as they get closer to solving the mystery, Rebecca and Aliz get closer, too. Can a vampire hunter ever fall in love with a vampire?

 

The prose here is so simplistic and the plot so uneven and easy that I felt very unsatisfied, even before the weird and stupid ending, where the two "sapphic" lovers decide to be lovers forever, even without the compulsion of one of them being an enthralled familiar. Any reader could see that ending coming a mile away, but there are still questions left unanswered. I thought with all the fancy cover and endpaper designs that the story had to at least rise to the level of decent, but what I got was purely mediocre. Unfortunately, I'd give this pathetic Mary Sue tale of vampire cliche addiction (thank you Twilight) a C+ and only recommend it to readers who are obsessed with lesbians and bloodsuckers.

 

Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel is a so-called "women's fiction" novel that is really a feminist treatise enrobed in fiction, about the right of women to have the ultimate say-so over their own bodies (and reproductive systems) no matter their age. It's hilarious, brilliant and one of those novels that will stay with you for the rest of your life...particularly as a woman. Here's the blurb: At seventy-seven, Pepper Mills is too old to be a stranger in a strange land. She didn’t choose the Vista View Retirement Community of Austin, Texas―that would be her three grown children―but when she grudgingly moves in, she not only makes new friends, she falls in love. Then the exhaustion, vomiting, and confusion start. She fears it’s cancer, dementia, a stroke. But a raft of tests later, the news is even more shocking: She’s pregnant.

As word gets out, everyone wants a piece of her: the press and paparazzi, activists and medical researchers, belly-rubbers and rubber-neckers all descending on Vista View while Pepper struggles to determine her next move. Soon she has some hard decisions to make―and some she’s not allowed to make.

Enormous Wings is an urgent novel about female agency and bodily autonomy, morality and mortality. It’s about what happens when you don’t get to choose anymore. It’s about motherhood and family, sex and love and friendship, and how those bedrocks―even so late in the day―can still change, and then change everything.

 

The only problem I had with this book was the ending, in that I seriously doubt that Pepper would have the vigor and stamina that it takes to care for a newborn, and I would think she would make arrangements for who is going to care for her child once she dies, probably before the kid hits puberty. I realize that there are women who live to be in their 90s or even 100, but they're not common, and they certainly experience cognitive and physical decline once they hit their 80s. By the time Pepper is 80, her little one will still be a toddler. I had a rough time running after Nick as a 3 year old when I was in my 40s, let alone 4 decades later. I'm 65 now and I could no more manage a baby or a toddler than I could sprout wings and fly. And we're meant to believe that the father is enraptured by his new daughter, but his life expectancy is even lower than Peppers. I get what Laurie is saying throughout the novel, however, that children/babies are, in general, miraculous beings, and that women and girls, should they want to, should be allowed to raise children whenever they feel ready for the responsibility. Pepper is approached by so many weirdos and "pro-life" nutjobs who try to persuade her that she's some kind of saint or angel for being pregnant at an advanced age, and they want her to be their PR spokesperson for all kinds of different agendas. Pepper manages to tell the PR Hacks on both sides to STFU, and quietly helps a young teenager get an abortion outside of Texas and their ridiculous ban on abortion. I felt there was a decent balance of viewpoints in the book, but again, the whole shining light around babies part got to be a bit much, IMO. Still, the prose was amazing and the plot complex but well constructed enough to keep you turning the pages into the wee hours. I'd give this fascinating novel an A, and recommend it to anyone over the age of 50 who has strong opinions, pro and con, about women's reproductive rights.

 

The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren is an enemies-to-lovers rom-com that's both semi-sweet and a bit salty. Here's the blurb: Christina Lauren returns with a swoonworthy novel following the buttoned-up heir of a grocery chain and his free-spirited artist ex as they fake their relationship in order to receive a massive inheritance.

Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed, and they both went on their merry ways.

Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.

Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents—his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.

But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.   

WHY are artists, especially if they're women, called "free spirited," which translates to the kind of infantilized woman who can't make any money, balance a checkbook or survive without a big strong wealthy man at her side? UGH. We're almost to page 100 when we readers finally get a glimpse into the horrible people who comprise West's family, and his abusive father's manipulation of his children, setting them up for toxic competition with one another and using his (the father, Ray's ) wealth and power only for blackmail and manipulation and general evil. Of course West buys Annas art, making way for her to experience a real surge in her career, and then it all blows up when Ray tries to use Anna's impoverished background to force West to take over their toxic billion dollar company. Of course West does the right thing, eventually, and there's a nicely cleaned up HFN ending. Christina Lauren is actually the pen name of two women who write rom-coms together, and for the most part their meticulous prose is a winner, as is their well-crafted plots. I'm not a fan of cliches about women in romantic comedies, however, so for that I'd have to give this novel a B, and recommend it as a beach read for all those writers, artists and creatives who dream of having a very wealthy guy pluck them from obscurity and take care of all their bills/money problems.

 

Bingsu For Two by Sujin Witherspoon is a debut (local author) romance that's surprisingly well written and edited, especially as I believe it was self published. I enjoyed it more that I thought I would, and I stayed up half the night reading "just one more chapter!" Here's the blurb: Meet River Langston-Lee. In the past 24 hours, he’s dumped his girlfriend, walked out of his SATs, and quit his job at his parents’ cafe in spectacularly disastrous fashion—even for him.

Somehow, he manages to talk his way into a gig at a failing Korean cafe, Bingsu for Two, which is his lucky break until he meets short, grumpy, and goth Sarang Cho. She’s his new no-BS co-worker who’s as determined to make River’s life hell as she is to save her family’s cafe.

After River accidentally uploads a video of his chaotic co-workers to his popular fandom account, they strike viral fame. The kicker? Their new fans ship River and Sarang big-time. In order to keep the Internet’s attention—and the cafe’s new paying customers—River and Sarang must pretend that the tension between them is definitely of the romantic variety, not the considering the "best way to kill you and hide your body" variety.

But when Bingsu for Two’s newfound success catches the attention of River’s ex and his parents’ cafe around the corner, he faces a choice: keep letting others control his life or stand up for the place that’s become home. And a green-haired girl who’s not as heartless as he originally thought.
 
Bingsu for Two delivers a swoon-worthy romance that'll make you crave a Korean cafe adventure of your own. Fans of young adult romance books and books for teen girls will love this addictive debut that dishes up a serving of humor, heart, and hope.

  

For those who don't live in an area like Seattle, with its heavy Asian population, Bingsu is a Korean shaved ice-with-flavoring (and milk) dessert that is really popular during this time of year, when Seattle's pale folk go outside to enjoy some solar radiation and heat. Asian Goth young gals used to be a dime a dozen in Seattle, when my husband and I moved here in 1991. Now that grunge is a thing of the past, (considered classic nowadays, believe it or not), the number of goth folks has declined considerably. Anyway, though I realize he's young, I found myself disliking River and his wimpy wishy-washy attitude about life, in that he can't seem to land on why he doesn't want to do anything that will mature him emotionally or propel him into the future. Though his parents come off as stereotypical domineering and controlling Asian immigrants who only "want what is best" for their child, it still annoyed me that River never felt that he could just tell them the truth about his hopes and fears for the future, and how much he'd come to hate the corporatization of his parent's formerly cozy family-oriented coffee shop. GROW A SPINE, River! I did like that Sarang gave River lots of crap about his behavior, and though they end up in an enemies to lovers romance, it wasn't too pretty or cutesy, which was a huge relief. All in all, a satisfying read with a bit of a sloppy HFN ending. I'd give it a B+.

 

The Mother-Daughter Book Club by Susan and James Patterson is what is called nowadays "friendship" fiction, which is just another ghettoization of "chick lit." What this really is is a romance novel gussied up to look like something with less "pink" frou-frou, in order to appeal to "serious" readers. LOL. Here's the blurb" “An entertaining book ... As friends talk books, hopes, dreams … and dishy revelations … it’s romantic love—both old and new … that drives  the story forward.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
Between their busy lives and their far-flung residences, the Mother-Daughter Book Club—four longtime college friends and their five daughters—more often discuss the books on their nightstands via 2 a.m. texts than in-person meetings. And maybe it’s just as well, after what happened at their last get-together ...            
 
So it’s an emotional reunion when they finally gather again, this time on the spectacular shores of Italy’s Lake Como. Sightseeing excursions, reminiscing fueled by “Como-politans,” and a hint of vacation romance all build toward the book club’s trademark “Night of Secrets.”            
 
These friends, and sometime rivals, are close readers—of novels, memoirs, and of each other. But as the years and the distance cast shadows and doubt, confidences and sympathies turn into surprising revelations.  

  

Every chapter alternates between characters, to the point that you really need a scorecard to remember who is who and what their deal is. Most are having troubles with their marriages or love lives, which are smoothed out and/or solved completely by the end of the book, like that's even possible or close to reality. Sadly, for those of us who are lifelong readers, there's not a lot of book discussion going on here, so if you're looking for bookish folks and recommendations, look elsewhere. The "secret" revelations are hardly unexpected, having been outlined beforehand, and most of the younger women tended to keep their real secrets close to the vest, as they say. Inevitably one "old maid" character (whom everyone feels sorry for because she's a virgin, which is stupid, because all of their nightmares and problems come from their sex and love lives, which this smart woman has passed by), finally falls in love with a tourist boat captain (because that's so likely, right? Sarcasm) who pops her cherry and they decide to stay together and live HEA. Most of the "mothers" in this book are wreaks, and not very inspirational, and the daughters all seemed to be entitled brats. They made me glad that I had a son, who is not at all pretentious and doesn't expect his mother to approve of his life or his love life. Ugh. I've read a number of James Patterson's thrillers, especially ones co-authored with celebrities or ex-presidents, but this book, with its lazy prose and meandering plot didn't really live up to the Patterson standard. I'd give it a B-, and only recommend it as a "throw away" beach read.