The Magic in Changing Your Stars by Leah Henderson

First, apologies for not having a better image of this book's cover. I am having some formatting issues and the new Blogger platform is giving me fits, so I've defaulted to an image I took for Instagram (complete with tap shoes). You should be able to click on the image to enlarge it. I couldn't get a saved image of just the cover to load properly. 

The Magic in Changing Your Stars by Leah Henderson is a middle grade book about a boy named Ailey who desperately wants to win the role of the Scarecrow in his school's production of The Wiz. He's a rapper and a dancer but he can't sing and he's not so hot at memorizing lines. Still, he's made up his mind; Scarecrow is the role he wants and he's certain he can make the role unique, both in the way he moves and dresses. 

But, when it's Ailey's turn to try out for the role, he totally freezes and can't remember a single line. His competition, a girl named Mahalia with a fabulous voice, does a fantastic job of trying out so Ailey is certain he won't get a callback. Feeling defeated, he goes home and later admits what happened to his grampa [sic], who is in a hospital bed. Grampa tells him the secret he's kept from all but one person, about his own personal defeat and how he's lived with regret his entire life. 

Grampa sends Ailey to fetch and care for a pair of tap shoes that were given to him by the famous dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and when Ailey makes a wish, the shoes magically transport him back in time, to the day of Grampa's mistake. Can Ailey convince a young Grampa, then known as "Taps", that he has the talent and help him summon the courage to dance for Mr. Robinson? Together, will they change the way the stars align for the old man he adores? 

Recommended but not a favorite - I didn't love the writing style, which kept The Magic in Changing Your Stars from being a favorite, but I did love the story and got totally sucked up into it, at least partly because I'm a sucker for anything that involves time travel. But, I also liked the theme that hard work pays off and even if it's painful or embarrassing or terrifying, you should do your best to make your heart's desire come true. 

I recognized a few famous names used by the author as character names but only a few, so I also really loved the fact that the author included a substantial list of character names she used in the book and where they came from. That list would be terrific for kids looking for ideas for Black History Month as it described each famous Black person briefly but enough that it certainly piqued my interest to read more about some I'd never heard of. 

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday - Mine, all mine

Harmonious grass sharing. 

Or not. 

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey

Recent arrivals (top to bottom):

• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo and
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - both purchased
• Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain - gift from publicist Meryl Zegarek (Thank you!!!)
• The Magic in Changing Your Stars by Leah Henderson - from Sterling Kids for review
• Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse - bought for an Instagram buddy read
• Rage by Bob Woodward - purchased
• Not pictured: Becoming by Michelle Obama - also purchased

Confession: I gave in and accepted a few books from publishers, this past couple of weeks. Only one has arrived so there will be probably be a few ARCs in the next Malarkey. I have no regrets. But, while I've updated my review policy to say I'll take on children's books, I'm thinking of the other books I accepted as a hiccup. Hic. Oh, excuse me. 

Books finished since last . . . well, it was a Tuesday Twaddle (thank you, holiday):

• Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
• Finna by Nate Marshall
• Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
• Fear by Bob Woodward

Yikes, not my best fortnight. 

Currently reading:

• The Magic in Changing Your Stars by Leah Henderson
• Becoming by Michelle Obama

I didn't mean to start Becoming but it arrived Sunday afternoon (still strange getting mail on Sundays) and I was stuck with a cat on my lap, a pair of reading glasses, and Becoming. The other books I was reading were in the bedroom. So, I had no choice but to pick it up and start reading. Uh-huh. No choice at all. 

Posts since Tuesday Twaddle:

• Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake and Jon Klassen (book review)
• Fiona Friday - Isabel desires a jelly doughnut (cat photo)
• One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes (book review)
• Tokyo Ueno Station by Yū Miri (book review)
• Five Minute Pete the Cat Stories by James Dean (book review)
• Fiona Friday - Kissies (cat photo)

In other news:

Our first cool front arrived so we were able to open the windows part of the day, starting Friday! That first cool day of fall is always my favorite day of the year. And, I was also excited to catch and release (with the help of Huzzybuns, who took the jar outside) a Mediterranean gecko that was hanging out in my bathtub before the kitties spotted him. The perfection of Friday was wrecked by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, unfortunately. Favorite tweet of the day:

TV-wise, we haven't watched anything new and it just occurred to me that I haven't even checked to see if my favorite shows have returned for the fall season or the possibility of new episodes evaporated with the arrival of the pandemic. Except for one. We're looking forward to Season 2 of The Mandalorian. But that's about the only thing I know about that's coming up, soon. In the meantime, we've decided we need to watch Hamilton, again. We've only watched it once. Once is not enough. 

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday - Kissies

Smooch

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Five Minute Pete the Cat Stories by James Dean

I bought this Pete the Cat collection out of curiosity and because I love cats. It's clear the stories are meant for beginning readers. In fact, it's such an easy-reading book that I felt like I'd been caught in the act of doing something subversive when my husband walked in the door while I was reading 5-Minute Pete the Cat Stories. 

Having said that . . . they're simplistic, yes, but I love Pete's attitude. His boundless cheer had me smiling all the way through the book. Too bad my grandkids are 1200 miles away. I'll hang onto this book and hope we can read it together (or eldest granddaughter can read it to me) when the pandemic ends. 

Recommended - Simple text for early readers, cute illustrations (who doesn't love a blue cat?), and everyday happenings and adventures that most children can probably relate to make 5-Minute Pete the Cat Stories a great book for gift-giving or having on hand when grandchildren visit. As to parents . . . sorry, guys, you're really going to have to fight to keep from being asked to read 12 stories in a row. I'd make sure to have a bookmark on hand for bedtime reading and say, "We can read X Pete stories, but then we'll save more for later!" Been there with the begging for more. 

On a different note: Blogger has rolled out its new platform and no longer offers the option to revert to the historical version. I don't like it; I never like dramatic change because I become accustomed to a certain set of icons and learn to use them quickly. I'll get used to it, I know, but there is one thing I haven't figured out and if anyone knows how to work it, I'd appreciate the help. I tried to remove the image above and replace it with one that is more accurate as to color (Pete is blue, not black) but I cannot find a "remove image" feature, anywhere. And, now the option to contact Blogger about problems with the new platform has also disappeared. Anyway, let me know if you can help!

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Tokyo Ueno Station by Yū Miri

I never carried any photos with me, but I was always surrounded by people, places, and times gone by. And as I retreated into the future, the only thing I could ever see was the past. 

~p. 17

And in the winter, my mother and Setsuko would knit sweaters for everyone in the family. We could only afford cheap yarn and thread so the sweaters quickly developed holes, but the women would repair them neatly.

~p. 37

I confess that I bought Tokyo Ueno Station by Yū Miri (who also goes by Miri Yū) for two completely shallow reasons:

1. I loved the cover
2. It has Tokyo in the title and I've been slowly collecting Japanese titles, particularly if the setting is a place I've visited.

The interesting thing is about buying Tokyo Ueno Station based mostly on the cover is that I saw the train station, the bus, the man in the fancy suit, the runner, the panda . . . and totally overlooked the homeless people lying on the ground, on a pile of possessions, in front of a makeshift hut. But, that's the one of the main settings and the viewpoint of the main character, who is looking back at his life. He's speaking from beyond, now, but his last years were spent in a homeless encampment in the park adjoining a Tokyo train station. And, as you're reading it, you can't help but theorize about how he ended up there.

Kazu was born in Fukushima in 1933. His family lived in poverty and even after marriage he had to travel wherever necessary to earn money. Most of the time, that meant he wasn't home to spend time with his wife and see his children grow. When tragedy struck for the first time, Kazu was shocked to his core and grieved deeply. More tragedy followed and eventually he moved to Tokyo, but why? What happened that led to Kazu's homelessness? And, what are the odd parallels between Kazu's life of struggle and the Imperial family?

I think one of the things that fascinates me the most about Tokyo Ueno Station is that it sounds like it is an utterly depressing story and yet I didn't find it depressing. Yes, Kazu's life appears to fit the words, "Life sucks and then you die." And, yet, there is something about his acceptance of all of the hardship thrown at him and his final passing that I found almost uplifting. At any rate, I didn't find the book depressing at all.

Recommended - I would not read this book when you're already down in the dumps because it might affect other people negatively, but I found Tokyo Ueno Station brilliantly written and engrossing. The story jumps back and forth in time but you don't know till nearly the end (although, when you hear the name "Fukushima" you can assume the final tragedy) what happened to Kazu to drive him to life in a hut made of cardboard and other scraps. It was not exactly what I expected.

What I love best about Tokyo Ueno Station is the way it places you in Kazu's world, so you really get a feel for why that expression about poverty being expensive means. The story about the cheap yarn made me think of the story I recently read about how a wealthy person can afford quality boots that will last years and years but a poor person will have to buy several pairs over the same time period because s/he can afford only a lesser quality that falls apart. In the long run, the person with less money ends up spending more.

You also see how the homeless are overlooked, almost invisible until they become an eyesore and must be tucked out of sight. You get an idea how grief can drive someone to run away from himself and his life. Tokyo Ueno Station is a harsh story but a deeply meaningful one. I'm so glad I bought it on impulse.


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes

The raspberries, Mrs. Marshall said, would he net the raspberries? That, too, was pushed through the keyhole, and back came the little shrill whistle. Oh yes, he would net them. If he netted himself, the birds would see no difference. He would bud, he would blossom, his toes would take root in England, his fingers would splay down comfortably into the soil. 

~p. 46

But first, thought Laura, she would start some of the evening's cooking before eating. She began to move pans back and forth off the stove. She used the colander, the grater, wooden spoons of various sizes, and a small army of basins. Her cheeks became flushed. Would the sauce bind? And lo, it bound, while her heart did likewise. But with a hiss, something else boiled over disastrously, so that the cat, who knew Laura, got up and withdrew in prudent haste. A sad brown smell invaded the cluttered kitchen. Mopping up the ruins, Laura thought of Mrs. Abbey, their former and best cook, Mrs. Abbey, who had been killed by a flying bomb while taking a cup of tea with her niece Flo in Putney. 

~p. 66

Now that her father was home, her mother always seemed to be standing by the stove, stirring things, and frowning at the book in her hand. Victoria's bedtime, which had been an elastic affair, returned to a legal appointed hour. 

~p. 156

I must be in a Mollie Panter-Downes mood, lately, because I went looking for One Fine Day after reading her Postwar stories, Millie's Room, and now I'd really, really like to start on her WWII dispatches (but I think I'll wait so I don't totally run out of Panter-Downes books).

One Fine Day is about a small family, the Marshalls, and it's set a year after the end of WWII on a single day. You're mostly in Laura's head, but occasionally you'll also spend a little time in the minds of her husband Stephen and daughter Victoria.

Before the war, the Marshalls had a bustling household with servants, a nanny, and at least one gardener. Their house is large for a family of three and they're clearly very well off but now that the war is over, the young gardener has been killed, and many of the servants have found alternative employment, the majority of the cleaning, cooking, and some of the gardening is left to Laura to handle.

The reader follows Laura as she does a little gardening and cooking, goes to pick up her food rations, visits the home of a young man to see if he'd be willing to help out her elderly gardener, bikes to a young Roma man's home to which she knows her dog will have run after escaping the house, stops on the way to visit with the family who own the largest home in the village, and visits a scenic point.

Both Laura and Stephen consider the fact that their house is too large and their chores overwhelming. Should they sell and move to a smaller place? They think about the fact that upkeep of their home dominates their time and energy. Maybe they should take more time to enjoy life and occasionally take a holiday or go for a nice visit to the point to picnic and enjoy the view. They think about their lives and how they've changed: what life was like before and during the war, and how different everything has become in a few long years.

Recommended - A very understated, very English story of a day in the life of a family that survived the war. I had a little trouble getting through the book because I was having a tired week and kept falling asleep, but at the same time I kept marking passages and I was very aware of Panter-Downes' unique turn of phrase. She was really quite a brilliant wordsmith. If you want to know what life was like in England during or after WWII, Mollie Panter-Downes places you within everyday life like nobody else I've encountered.

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday - Isabel desires a jelly doughnut

She is genuinely driven crazy by the scent of strawberries. And, yes, I was eating in bed. tch, tch

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake and Jon Klassen

In Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake, Badger lives in his aunt's brownstone and spends his days studying rocks (although I don't think the word "geologist" is ever used). Since Aunt Lula moved out, Badger's had the place to himself and he's turned the living area into a study with all of his rocks and tools. He's content. He has a routine. Then, one day Skunk shows up on his doorstep and is shocked to find that Badger has no idea why he's there. Skunk says Aunt Lula has told him he can stay with Badger.

They have a little conflict and Badger rudely tries to pass off a small closet as the guest room, but Skunk is a happy-go-lucky little stinker and spends his time making the acquaintance of all the neighborhood chickens, cooking very nice meals for the two of them, and generally being a nice housemate. As they get to know each other, Badger begins to question his desire to have the brownstone to himself, again. But, he's already written a letter to Aunt Lula insisting that he can't work properly with a housemate.

When Badger finally goes far enough to offend Skunk and Skunk abruptly moves out, Badger realizes that a little compromise is not a bad thing if you have a companion to enjoy meals and conversation with. He doesn't want to go back to being alone. Will Badger be able to find Skunk and make amends?

Highly recommended - I'm not sure of the age range for Skunk and Badger but I'm presuming it should be called a middle grade book. You could read it aloud to a not-quite-yet-reading child and readers in second to middle grades would probably read it on their own, depending on the individual's skill level. What I love most about Skunk and Badger is that it's very silly but has a sweet theme. I loved the chicken invasion and the way Badger slowly softens to the chickens. I also just happen to be a fan of rocks (I wanted to be a geologist, at one point, hence the availability of rocks to photograph with the book). So, I had fun reading a children's book with a geologist in it, even if he happened to be a badger.

Also, very important: the illustrations are marvelous. It's a fine thing when even illustrations make you smile or laugh, as these do.

I received an ARC of Skunk and Badger from Algonquin's Young Readers line in exchange for an unbiased review and I can tell you in a completely unbiased way that it's one of my favorite books of the year. I found myself yearning to have my grandchildren nearby. I know Skunk and Badger will make them giggle, when we're finally able to see each other, again. I loved the characters, the often-unexpected word choices, the wackiness, and the gentle undercurrent about the importance of friendship.

The scheduled release date for Skunk and Badger is September 15. Many thanks to Algonquin for the review copy!


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Tuesday Twaddle

Recent arrivals (all purchased, clockwise from top left):

• The Joy of Botanical Drawing by Wendy Hollender
• The House on the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune
• Tokyo Ueno Station by Yū Miri
• The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni

I've already read two and both were excellent. My thanks to Paula and Eileen for the Sam Hell recommendation!

Books finished since last Monday Malarkey:

• Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams
• Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake
• One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes
• Tokyo Ueno Station by Yū Miri
• 5-Minute Pete the Cat Stories by James Dean
• The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni

I set aside Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig. It just wasn't the right book for the moment, although I love his writing and I am freaking dying to read his new release, The Midnight Library. That may be my next purchase. We shall see. 

Currently reading:

• Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

I finished The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, last night, and decided to set aside Lolly Willowes, which I started at the same time as Sam Hell and which is a very, very good book but maybe a little too similar to One Fine Day, stylistically. I will return to it, I just lost track of the characters after getting immersed in Sam's story and then started thinking about the fact that it had the same sort of atmosphere as One Fine Day, in a way (mostly because it's an older title; the two books are otherwise nowhere near the same), and decided that I didn't want to restart it to familiarize myself with the characters, right now. I'm only on p. 15 of Challenger Deep and I am in a flighty reading mood, obviously, so don't be surprised if it also doesn't stick.


Posts since last Malarkey:

• Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD (book review)
• A Castle in the Clouds by Kerstin Gier (book review)
• Fiona Friday - Fun with ribbon (cat photo)
• The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin (book review)
• Minnie's Room by Mollie Panter-Downes (book review)
• The Readers' Room by Antoine Laurain (book review)
• Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams (book review)
• Fiona Friday - Claimed (cat photo) 

In other news:

Last week I watched a series called The Other One, a British comedy about a wife and daughter who find out the man of the house was a bigamist, after his death, and have to deal with both their grief and their newly intermingled lives.

There are only 7 episodes, including the pilot, and I can't recall which channel I watched this show on. BritBox, maybe? I don't think it was Acorn. Bottom line, it's more stupid than funny but The Other One is what I'd call stupid with heart, particularly in the relationship of the half sisters, Cathy and Cat. When they each find out about the half-sister they never knew, both are . . . kind of thrilled. They may be grieving and Cathy goes a little nutso, at one point. But, they both appreciate having a sister and Cat, in particular, is determined that "sister" must mean "friend". Also, best final episode ever. While I didn't find the series exactly laugh-out-loud funny, we were in hysterics over the ending. It was worth it for the ending alone.

We took a few short foodie road trips over Labor Day weekend. One was to the butcher and the grocery store in our favorite little MS town. Husband had heard the grocery store carried BBQ sauce from one of our favorite restaurants, The Blue Rooster, so we went to check that out and bought a bottle. We were surprised to find that they also carry the BBQ sauce made in my hometown (which I naturally think is excellent), Head Country.

That was Friday. Huz took off an extra day to make it a 4-day weekend. On Saturday, we drove to Donna's Produce #6, our favorite outdoor produce market. I just ate some of the honeydew we bought. Oh, wow. Best honeydew I think I've ever tasted. We also went to a little shop that's new, not far away. It's basically a storefront for a meat processing establishment, I think, but they had some terrific variety for such a small store. We bought crab-stuffed green peppers and ate them for supper on Saturday. Yum. Too crowded, though, and a bit ironically everyone at the outdoor market wore masks except for the cashier but there were a lot of under-the-nose or -chin mask-wearers in the meat market. So, if we go back to the meat store during the pandemic it'll have to be a quick in-and-out.

I can't remember what we did on Sunday. Hmm. On Monday, we were going to go fetch food from my favorite sandwich shop (they also do pizza) but they were apparently closed so that was a #fail. Later, we drove younger son's car back to his apartment. We had a socially-distanced chat on the patio on Saturday afternoon, but Kiddo and Daughter-in-Law came in separate cars, went to run some errands after, and then he was too tired to drive his car home. We planned to grab some chili con queso from our favorite taco place while we were in town dropping off Kiddo's car but they appeared to be closed, too, so that was another #fail. We're finding, though, that just taking a 30-minute drive is incredibly refreshing and helps blow away that trapped sensation that you get during a pandemic.

Our mask mandate ends in a couple weeks so we may feel a little less confident about shopping, at that point, and we're trying to squeeze in as many errands as we can, till then.

If you're American, how was your Labor Day weekend?


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday - Claimed

This is a vinyl tablecloth I've been using as a painting dropcloth but I think it's been claimed.

Also noteworthy: Today is Fiona's fake 11th birthday. And, by "fake" I mean "estimated". We can only guess because she was found by a highway, as a kitten. It seems like just yesterday that she adopted us. Love this sweet girl.

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams

I bought a copy of Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams after seeing that Mike Chen, author of A Beginning at the End, was going to talk to Kelly McWilliams about what it's like to release a pandemic novel in the midst of a genuine pandemic (which both of them have done). I neglected to put the time for that talk on my calendar but would have really liked to sit in. However, I did make a beeline to buy a copy of Agnes because I love a good pandemic novel.

In fact, I don't really consider Agnes at the End of the World a "pandemic" novel, per se, although there is a pandemic in the book and it is the catalyst for change. The vast majority of the book focuses on Agnes, her life as a woman in a restrictive and isolated apocalyptic cult community that's been around for several generations, how she became the perfect, compliant member of her community and what caused her to break the rules, in the first place, then really break them when the "Prophet" in her community forces everyone to go into a dark and terrifying underground bunker and Agnes breaks away with her little brother.

There's what I'd call a paranormal, spiritual, or mystical aspect to this story. Agnes has a special ability to hear the natural world. The stars sing, the trees hum, sometimes she thinks she's spoken to directly by God. The cult and Agnes's realization of how she's been deceived is a major part of the storyline but first you get to know Agnes and see her daily life. Then, you realize something is going to have to change (it's obvious why). But, it's not clear that Agnes will have to do more than just run away till later in the book, as her powers grow.

Highly recommended - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⁣  Excellent writing. I felt entirely immersed in Agnes's uncomfortable world. While not exactly what I was expecting, once I got into Agnes at the End of the World, I was eager to race to the ending and particularly enjoyed what happened after she escaped.

The religious/mystical aspect of Agnes at the End of the World was a little off-putting to me, at first, but also a bit familiar as I grew up Baptist and dated a fundamentalist during high school (women only were allowed to wear skirts or dresses in his church, which I attended while we were dating). I could relate to the tug between personal beliefs and the thought that there must be something better, at least as far as the treatment of women. And, there's this: A friend of mine (now deceased) once told me she learned her psychic abilities by first learning to listen to the land when her father, a farmer, picked up a handful of dirt and said, "The soil will tell you what it requires." Partly because of that friend, Mary, the woo-woo part of the book actually felt quite real to me.

Many thanks to author Mike Chen for the recommendation. Also, you should read his books.


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Readers' Room by Antoine Laurain

In The Readers' Room by Antoine Laurain, Violaine LePage awakens in the hospital to find that she was badly injured in a plane crash, she is missing pieces of her memory, and the author of a bestselling mystery that she published cannot be located. With the Prix Goncourt coming up and Sugar Flowers a likely contender, this is a serious problem that could end her career.

The author of Sugar Flowers has never made an appearance at the publishing company, instead asking for his or her contract (the name of the author could be of either gender) to be sent to a hotel in London. And s/he has stopped responding to emails.

When a police officer shows up at the publishing house to say that she's read Sugar Flowers and the murders described in the book exactly match two murders that she's investigated, then a third person the officer thought connected to the murdered men is killed, Violaine and her employees come under suspicion. Who wrote this wildly bestselling book? Is there a connection between Violaine or any of the other employees and the victims? If so, what is it? And, what do sugar flowers (made by bakers) have to do with their deaths, if anything?

Recommended - I found The Readers' Room captivating and couldn't put it down. The ending was a little disappointing but I enjoyed the book enough that I dashed off to see what else Laurain's written and have added another of his books to my wish list.

I received a copy of The Readers' Room unsolicited in the apparent hope of my unbiased opinion (there ya go) but I didn't keep the publicity material so I'm afraid I have no idea who sent it. Whoever you are, thanks!

Vintage 1954 is the other Laurain title I put on my wish list, if anyone wants to buy me a birthday present. ;)


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Minnie's Room by Mollie Panter-Downes

I had my husband buy me a copy of Minnie's Room by Mollie Panter-Downes on one of his trips across the pond because I love, love, loved Good Evening, Mrs. Craven. It's one of my all-time favorite short story collections for the way the author was able to plunk you in the midst of wartime England (WWII) and reveal what everyday life was like. So, I had high hopes for Minnie's Room, her collection of postwar short stories.

While the stories themselves could be a little ho-hum, not much to see here (everyday life after the war apparently interests me a lot less than during), Panter-Downes' writing style absolutely blows me away. She had a phenomenal ability to place the reader in a scene, making the characters and their surroundings so vivid that you can practically see the "miniature Gobi" brought in from the seaside, feel the wind, smell the cooking or the wine or the musty dampness.

The title story is actually the only story I fully recall off the top of my head. "Minnie's Room" is about a woman who works in an upper class home but has decided it's time for her to retire and get a small place of her own. What you see in the brief interaction between Minnie and her employer of many years and the family's quiet mumblings is what we now call a sense of entitlement. Minnie has been important to the running of their household, she'll probably be impossible to replace, and they think she should stay. The family feels a bit wounded by her announcement. But, Minnie has a mind of her own. "Minnie's Room" is really kind of a bland story and yet it's also very revealing in a fly-on-the-wall kind of way, like you're eavesdropping on the boss and his wife and daughter.

Recommended but not a favorite - Brilliant writing but possibly not the right book for the moment. While Minnie's Room will not end up in my favorite short story collections, I liked the stories for the author's stunning ability to choose the perfect descriptor and it seems likely that I'll give it a second reading in the future.



©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin is a middle grade book that tells the story of Suzy, who has become silent after the death of her best friend from drowning. It doesn't make sense to Suzy that Franny drowned; Franny was always an excellent swimmer. Suzy's convinced that she can't have simply drowned without something major having occurred, even though her mother says these things just happen and even strong swimmers like Franny can drown if something goes wrong.

Convinced that something strange must have happened to lead to Franny's death, Suzy studies up on jellyfish and decides it must have been a jellyfish sting that killed Franny instantly. But, Suzy needs help making sure that's the case, so she reads up online and searches for a scientist who specializes in jellyfish to help her.

Franny and Suzy had fallen out, a while back, and just before Franny's death Suzy did something to let Franny know that she was hanging out with the wrong people, just to get her attention. Is guilt driving Suzy's determination to find a lethal jellyfish to explain Franny's death or is she just unable to accept the death of a person she cared for when it happened so far away? Can a new friend help Suzy move on?

OK, this is weird. When I closed The Thing About Jellyfish, I was totally blown away. I liked the progression from "girl not speaking because she's clearly traumatized" to "friendship and kindness help child emerge from grief" and while I thought the facts about jellyfish were a bit much, the story didn't go where I expected it to go, exactly, and I liked that. It's best to be surprised in your reading, rather than for things to unfold as expected, in most cases.

Having said that, when I went to review The Thing About Jellyfish, this morning, I couldn't remember a thing about it. That's unusual for me. I find very few books instantly forgettable and it's only been 2 weeks since I read it. So, while I gave it 5 stars because I had to know what would happen to Suzy and whether or not she was actually going to get in touch with the scientist of her choosing, in hindsight I probably ought to bump that down a bit for so quickly evaporating from my memory (I had to read the book description to jog my memory). But, it's an excellent read so I won't.

Recommended - Sad and uplifting, interesting and (at one point) a little shocking. While I found this story didn't stick with me, as a child I think I might have just shrugged and reread it, remembering that I enjoyed it in spite of having forgotten the details of the content.


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday - Fun with ribbon

I know this is a terrible photo but it's my favorite of the week. After I posed Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams with a red ribbon (which normally hangs from a knob so the cats can bat at it or drag it around the house) for Instagram, Fiona looked eager to play. Her wish came true.

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

A Castle in the Clouds by Kerstin Gier

Confession: I bought A Castle in the Clouds by Kerstin Gier mainly because I liked the cover, particularly the fact that there's a cat on the cover. I almost removed it from my shopping cart but the cat threw me over the edge (and the story sounded fun, anyway).

A Castle in the Clouds is about a German teenage high school dropout named Sophie Spark who works at an aging, upscale hotel in the Swiss Alps as an intern. Not much happens in the first third to half of the book, other than the introduction of a very large cast as the reader gets to know Sophie, beginning with her interaction with an obnoxiously witty 9-year-old regular patron. You see her everyday life and learn about the mysterious "forbidden" cat who manages not to be seen by the bad-tempered one of the two co-owners.

There's a love triangle but it's a little odd. One of the teenage boys is the son of one of the hotel owners (it's a family-run hotel), the other has a grandfather in the jewelry business and a knack for climbing the outer hotel walls and sneaking through windows. Is he a thief? One of the families visiting and planning to attend the annual New Year's Ball is headed by a Russian oligarch who is going incognito. Is the oligarch up to no good?

You know something interesting is going to eventually happen because there's a prologue in which Sophie is covered in blood. But, the book is generally understated, a little everyday, and very fluffy. It's more about Sophie wondering what could be happening and getting it wrong, her odd little quirks like naming the birds that perch on her window ledge, and the two handsome young men circling her. The mystery is weak. I liked it that way, myself.

Highly recommended - I've never read Kerstin Gier and at the time I picked it up, I'd just read something a little too heavy that was getting me down. So, a fluffy read was exactly what I needed. I found A Castle in the Clouds light, a little adventurous, and humorous with a likable heroine. And, I loved the forbidden cat. The mystery is admittedly not that great and that's fine with me, since I'm no longer a big mystery fan. I was hoping for a light read and that's what I got. So, don't go into the reading of A Castle in the Clouds expecting a complex mystery. While it kept me guessing, A Castle in the Clouds is not the kind of book that mystery lovers tend to appreciate. I thought of it more as a love triangle YA with a little excitement on the side. Because A Castle in the Clouds was the perfect book for me at that moment, I gave it 5 stars.

Translated from the German.



©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD

Expressing [...] deep frustration in response to [George] Zimmerman's acquittal, Alicia Garza, a community organizer based in Oakland, California, posted this message on Facebook: "I continue to be surprised at how little black lives matter . . . Black people, I love you. I love us. Our lives matter." Garza's friend, Patrisse Cullors, a Los Angeles-based activist, shared the Facebook post and added the hashtag, powerful in its simplicity, #BlackLivesMatter. Opal Tometi, a social-justice activist living in New York City, reached out to Garza and offered to help build a digital platform that could mobilize action for meaningful change. [...] The #BlackLivesMatter message resonated with many across the social media platforms of Facebook and Twitter, and with that amplification a rallying cry for the millennial generation was born. 

~p. 27

I chose this quote because I watched a video, a few days ago, in which a White man held a sign saying "Black Lives Matter" and people yelled abuse at him, calling him a traitor to his race, flipping him off, asking him, "What about White lives?" Maybe those people will never get it but it's always been clear to me what the protesters in the BLM movement are saying has never meant Black Lives Matter More Than Others. If they did, I'm sure that's what the hashtag would say. No, it's always been about the fact that Blacks are treated with less value and dignity, killed by police and incarcerated at a higher rate, discriminated against quietly through societal structure. Black people in this movement —a peaceful movement started by women— have done their best to explain, although it shouldn't be necessary. But, the anger amongst certain groups who choose to take offense persists. And, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? makes it crystal clear why such a movement is necessary, why it's particularly necessary for young people of any color to find their people, at least for a time.

The author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? is a psychologist who was charged with teaching about racism at university level, way back in the 80s or 90s (I didn't mark the date mentioned), who has been researching, talking about, and living racism as a light-skinned Black woman, for decades. She knows her stuff. The book I read is the updated 2017 version; the original was published in 1997. And, it is not exclusively about Blacks. It's about the psychology of why Black kids cluster together (the short answer: because they need to, at least for a time, to understand who they are) but the book is also about dominant groups and how those who are dominant convince the people they consider beneath them that they are, in fact, lesser. That includes women and other minorities.

The relationship of the dominants to the subordinates is often one in which the targeted group is labeled as defective or substandard in significant ways. For example, Blacks have historically been characterized as less intelligent than Whites, and women have been viewed as less emotionally stable than men. The dominant group assigns roles to the subordinates that reflect the latter's devalued status, reserving the most highly valued roles in the society for themselves. Subordinates are usually said to be innately incapable of being able to perform the preferred roles. To the extent that the targeted group internalizes the images that the dominant group reflects back to them, they may find it difficult to believe in their own ability. 

~p. 104

The comment about the targeted group internalizing images reflected back by the dominant group explains the women who claimed Hillary Clinton should not be president because women are weak.  If you've never seen the video in which a woman said Hillary shouldn't be president because she might have a hormone swing and start a war to Jordan Klepper, and then he asks, "But, haven't all wars been started by men?" you should. It's both hilarious and a good object lesson.

I'm getting off-track. There is so much depth to this book that I feel like I can't adequately describe it but it's a 5-star read that talks not only about the importance of developing identity for Blacks but about the concept of redlining that's kept blacks in less affluent neighborhoods, Affirmative Action (how it started and what it does and not do; the false concept of "ratios" as a legal imperative, for example), the ideology of "color blindness", White identity, multi-racial identity, and also that of Latinx, Native, Asian and Pacific Islanders, Middle Eastern/North African . . . everyone has some need to band together with other people who bear some similarity to them as their identities are developing. Tatum also goes into the importance of making sure children of other races and ethnic backgrounds adopted by White parents are exposed to people like them and how damaging it can be to not do so.

Highly recommended - I wish every adult would read this. An incredibly detailed and easily digestible book about race that goes far, far beyond what you expect from the title of the book but also explains the reasoning for banding together as one is developing his or her identity in a way that has completely clarified it, at least for this reader. In my case, I felt like I learned a lot about myself, as well. For example, while my friends were not entirely homogeneous, I mostly hung out with Christians because my identity was so thoroughly wrapped up in church, as a child. And, it was the Native Americans clustered together on the steps at lunchtime that I always wondered about, not Blacks. There were not many Blacks or other minorities in my hometown, in fact. It was White Bread City, probably 98% White. I'm fortunate that I grew up with a father who made it clear to us that racism was wrong. Most of my friends from home didn't learn that lesson.


Link to review of another book I recommend highly:

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrice Kahn-Cullors and Asha Bandele


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey

Recent arrivals:

• Our Long Love's Day by Elizabeth Guider
• Finna by Nate Marshall

Both of these are purchases. Elizabeth Guider is in my F2F book group and one of the ladies asked me to buy a copy and read it because she wants to hear my opinion. I've meant to try one of Elizabeth's books for a while, so I figured now is as good a time as any. Finna by Nate Marshall is the poetry book that I meant to buy in the first place. The other Finna, which I accidentally ordered, has already been reviewed and is sci-fi. I've linked to the review in my posts list, below.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• Castle in the Clouds by Kerstin Gier
• The Time of Green Magic by Hilary McKay
• The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
• Minnie's Room by Mollie Panter-Downes
• The Readers' Room by Antoine Laurain

I've been reading a lot of very light, very thin books. Two middle grade, one YA. Again, I'm just going with what calls to me. I've been very happy with my reading, lately. I didn't read as much, these past two weeks, but that's OK. At least two nights I didn't feel like reading at all and I've found it's best to just go with it if I don't feel like reading, rather than forcing myself to read. 

Currently reading:

• Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams
• Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

Agnes at the End of the World is another pandemic novel. I think I may have mentioned that when it arrived. What can I say? I enjoy them. I like how very different they all seem to be from each other. This particular fictional pandemic has nothing in common with our current one, as far as the disease goes. But, it's always interesting seeing what different authors imagined would be done to curtail a virus gone wild and what they anticipated going wrong, worldwide (like power outages, food shortages, etc.)

I tried to read When Democracies Die by S. Levitsky and D. Ziblatt but I didn't get very far because — even though it was written in 2017 and little had been done to threaten our democracy, yet — it anticipated what's happening. Basically, it just tells you how democracies have died in the past, although the authors do refer to what the current president said during his candidacy and what he did early in his administration to show how they paralleled dying democracies of the past. At the point I quit, what's happening in the United States was so much worse than anything I'd yet read (who could have anticipated the damage to the postal service?) that it was depressing the hell out of me. I'll try again, soon. Maybe I'll be better able to tolerate it in a week.

Instead of just giving up because the book was so upsetting, I kept glancing at it and thinking, "Later." Finally, though, I realized I wasn't going back to it, at least for now, and started Notes on a Nervous Planet, which is about Matt Haig's challenges with anxiety and depression and what he has learned.



Posts since last Malarkey:

• Dominicana by Angie Cruz (book review)
• On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves (book review)
• Fiona Friday (cat photo)
• Where Are the Galapagos Islands? by Megan Stine (book review)
• The Time of Green Magic by Hilary McKay (book review)
• The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin (book review)
• Finna by Nino Cipri (book review)
• Fiona Friday (cat photo)

In other news:

It took about 2 weeks for me to choose my next painting project (here's the free Kate Morgan tutorial I'm currently watching) but it requires a lot of supplies I've never used, like acrylic ink. I often will just stick with what I have on hand but I'm in the mood to try something completely new so I ordered the necessary art supplies. Of course, with the mail situation the way it is, they're taking their sweet time getting here. So, I went to Kate Morgan's website and looked at some of her other work, then I decided to do a collage using what I've got on-hand. I'm still working on that. I did a first attempt and asked my Facebook friends (maybe you all know this because everyone who visits is a FB friend?) whether I should stop where I was at or continue to work on it. The response started out, "Leave it as is" and then eventually became about 50-50 leave it vs. add the other details. So, I left my first attempt as is and started on a second collage using the same printout photo and almost identical background colors. It will probably take a few more days but art is my passion, at the moment, and I'm having so much fun. It's nice to finally be back in the swing of things after several weeks of, "Uh, what do I do with myself, now?"

We've had a busy weekend, since early predictions showed both of the Gulf Coast hurricanes headed our way. It keeps changing by the hour, but the current prediction places us on the wet side of both. My gut feeling is that Tropical Storm Laura (as of late Sunday night, she has been downgraded) is the one we need to worry about. I guess we'll see. We're 100 miles inland but Hurricane Katrina did some major damage to our area in spite of that so I don't take hurricanes for granted. We've restocked our hurricane food, gassed up the cars, bought D batteries for the flashlight that needs them, and I did some deep cleaning in case the power goes off. I've found it's awful to stare at the dirt on the floor and think, "If only I could vacuum." Been there. Best to get the homestead as clean as possible in advance of potential power outage. And, if we just get rain . . . wow, my house looks terrific. I'll enjoy that, for sure.

TV-wise, I recently watched The Delivery Man. I think there are only 8 episodes. I enjoyed it but Darren Boyd seems to play everything the same way, as the slightly awkward and mildly sarcastic fellow who tries a little too hard and stumbles his way through life, never quite managing to get the girl. Still, I wouldn't have watched it if I didn't find it entertaining. The laughs were cheesy ones, but still fun.

Husband chose a second series that we're still watching (but no bingeing allowed, ever — he can only stand 2 episodes in a row of anything), Party Tricks. The male lead, Rodger Corser, has become a favorite Australian actor (I've watched him in The Heart Guy, aka Doctor Doctor, and Glitch). It's about a journalist who decides to run for premier of Victoria and you get to see a lot of nice scenes of Melbourne. If you've been to Melbourne, as we have, that's particularly fun but I also do like the storyline that the two characters running for premier have a history and the current premier, a female, is thrown off her game by his candidacy against her.

And, I'm still rewatching Downton Abbey when the mood strikes. I have now been through the sinking of the Titanic, the loss of a maid who decided to become a secretary, WWI, Matthew's injury and recovery, Sybil running off with Tom, the Spanish Flu, Lavinia's tragedy, the whole will-they-won't-they between Matthew and Mary, the preparations to sell Downton, and now Edith has been jilted at the altar. So, I'm on Season 3. I was surprised to find that Edith's jilting was the one thing that made me cry. I always hated the way they kept stringing her along as the potential spinster, although I like what is about to happen to her. Then, I'll hate what happens after that. I remember, now, why Downton Abbey was so addictive.


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Finna by Nino Cipri

It's kind of a funny story how I ended up with this book. I read a review about a book of poetry with the exact same title, complete with a sample of the poetry, which I loved. I mean, I loved that poem so much I immediately got online and ordered the book. Then, it arrived and I discovered that I did not have a book of poetry but a sci-fi published by Tor. Well . . . I like sci-fi, so that wasn't going to kill me and I read it. I've ordered the poetry book, now, incidentally. I can't wait to read it.

Finna by Nino Cipri is another multiverse book but it's totally different from the one I reviewed, yesterday: The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin. Finna takes place in a store that's similar to an IKEA but with crazy room designs rather than sleek, Swedish modern furnishings. It also happens to have a portal that leads to other worlds. Occasionally the wormhole will open up and someone will wander into this multiverse. There used to be a team of people who were charged with rescuing customers who accidentally walked from one world to another, but they were disbanded by corporate and now the boss just chooses a couple random, minimum-wage employees to risk their lives using the Finna, a device that helps them find the missing customer.

Ava and Jules used to be a couple but they've broken up. Ava is trying to avoid Jules completely but she's called in to work on a day that Jules is also working. When an elderly lady goes missing and Ava discovers that the wormhole has opened, Ava and Jules are chosen to rescue her.

I wrote a review about Finna at Goodreads and apparently didn't save it so I'm just having to go by memory but I think what's most interesting about Finna is that while it's set in a multiverse and there are some interesting scenes because of that, I thought the book was as much about the relationship as the action.

I confess to finding the relationship a little confusing at first because Jules is gay trans (nonbinary, I think) and goes by "they" instead of he or she. This was my first time reading the use of "they, them," etc. to describe an individual. Since there were two characters searching for the missing woman in the multiverse, "they" often could refer to the two as a former couple or as a pair of people working together and I would have to halt, briefly, to figure it out. But, I liked the viewpoint of seeing this very different type of couple struggling with the same things that wreck other relationships with the added complication of prejudice from the boss and customers.

Will they be able to find the missing woman? Will they survive their search in the dangerous multiverse? If they do survive, will Ava and Jules be able to move forward and become friends?

Recommended - A serendipitous purchase, Finna has been accused of being too much like a couple other books and I can see why people draw those parallels, especially to Horrorstör. I found that because of the emphasis on the relationship and the fact that the store was unique in the naming of the room styles, its uniquenesses outweighed the multiverse in an IKEA-like store framing. I also appreciated reading about a kind of couple I've never read about before. Expanding the old horizons is a favorite thing.

One small warning: it can get a little bit gory at times. I'm surprised I didn't have nightmares after reading Finna.


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin

I bought a copy of The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin because I kept seeing it all over Instagram and while I'm pretty sure I couldn't figure out quite what it was about, I was intrigued. I've heard of the author but I'd never read any of her books and The City We Became is the first in a series, so it seemed like a good place to start.

And, now I understand why I was unsure what the book is about. You can call it speculative fiction or urban fantasy; I prefer the latter. A person represents or is, each borough of New York City as the city is about to be thrust into an inter-dimensional war. Each of the boroughs personified by an individual must figure out how to protect the city and is faced with unique challenges of his or her own. Gradually, the individuals/boroughs seek each other out because they will have more power together. But, one of the boroughs is weak and influenced by the dark side (so to speak). How will they win without the combined power needed to face the enemy?

What I loved about The City We Became was that it tackled so many subjects. The people who represent the boroughs are an extremely diverse bunch and with them come their personal histories and experiences. So, through their experience, we see racism, misogyny, sexism, xenophobia, entitlement, the problem with gentrification, the virtual erasure of Native Americans from a city's consciousness. It is both brilliant and entirely unique.

Highly recommended - Astounding writing. I don't normally like fantasy (although I'm intrigued by the concept of the multiverse) but The City We Became is a wild ride and it touches on so many important topics that I loved it for that alone. I did occasionally find it a bit overwhelming; that is typical of fantasies, for me, and the reason I seldom read them. But, the ending was absolutely perfect and I'll probably end up sending this book to my son in New Jersey (who works in Manhattan), at some point. I think he'll appreciate the way the author described and personified each of the boroughs and I'm certain he'll love the ending.


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Time of Green Magic by Hilary McKay

Get ready for a gushy review because I absolutely loved this book. OK, I'll try not to gush.

In The Time of Green Magic, Abi has lived with her beloved grandmother and her father, Theo, since her mother died when Abi was only a year old. But, now Theo has fallen in love. When Theo and Polly marry, two new siblings enter the family. Max is a teenager and Louis is 6. Abi hates being stuck in the middle. She misses her grandmother, who has moved to Jamaica, and doesn't particularly like her crowded new home.

When the family finds out they must move, the only place they can find that's acceptable is an ivy-covered old house with what Abi calls a "Narnia lamp" hanging by the front door. It's a little spooky but it's large enough for all of the children to have their own rooms. But, once they move in, strange things begin to happen. When Abi is reading a book about someone on a raft in the ocean, she feels the wind and hears the waves. It's like she was really there.

Meanwhile, Louis wants a friend and he thinks an owl (a "nowl" in Louis-speak) has been taking the treats he leaves on the windowsill. But, one day the animal that he's been feeding comes in and it is not an owl at all. And the more it comes to visit, the larger and more volatile it becomes. Can the magic of the ivy-covered house save the family?

Highly recommended - Ohmygosh, I loved this book. I loved the touches of magic, the writing, the description of the house. But, what I really loved more than anything was the characterization. Max, Abi, and Louis all acted their age. I've tired of the "young genius" trope. It was a delight to read about a 6-year-old behaving like a little kid and making a mistake that could get him killed. I also loved Theo's kindness and found him a believable parent — the kind who is fun and caring and a little silly but also has a lot of weight on his shoulders. The way the magic of the house helps the children work through their issues and band together is just marvelous. I will have to see what else I can find by this author. I loved this book so much I can hardly tell you.

The Time of Green Magic is the first ARC I've read since I considered leaving the blog world and decided to just give up ARCs for a while (maybe permanently), instead. It took me a couple months to get over that feeling of anxiety that ARC reading had begun to give me. It was just time to read off my own shelves exclusively. But, I'm so glad I got to read The Time of Green Magic. It is every bit as magical as its title indicates, with characters that I absolutely adored. Because everything is wacko, thanks to COVID-19, I have no idea whether or not it released in July, as the cover says, but if you have a middle grader who loves a touch of magic, it's worth ordering. Or, buy it for yourself. I love it enough to recommend it to other adults.

My thanks to Simon & Schuster for the review copy!

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Where Are the Galapagos Islands? by Megan Stine

I don't have a whole lot to say about Where Are the Galapagos Islands? but I thought it was an excellent little book. One of the books I threw in my cart when I went crazy at Book Outlet, I bought the book specifically because a friend is leading a tour of the Galapagos Islands in the future (probably in 2022; hard to say, at this point) and I realized I haven't read anything at all about the Galapagos Islands in quite some time. Most of what I've read in the past probably had to do with Darwin. I've read his Voyage of the Beagle, long ago, and that was enough to pique my interest in the island's amazing wildlife.

The book describes the history of the islands' discovery, why nobody settled on the Galapagos Islands for hundreds of years after they were discovered, the visits by pirates and privateers, which country the islands belong to, the animals that are unique to the Galapagos Islands, how turtles on the various islands got Darwin thinking about the differences that led to his evolutionary theory, which islands are now occupied, the destruction humans have already caused, and why travel to the islands risks ruining everything.

I thought for a children's book that's so slim (112 pages), Where Are the Galapagos Islands? was stunningly informative. It was particularly interesting to me that the blue-footed booby is a Galapagos resident because a friend (not the same friend who is leading the tour) had just posted a photo of a blue-footed booby on Facebook right before I read the book. I'd just glanced across it, thought "Cool," and said nothing. And, there they were in the book, apparently unique to the islands. Double cool.

Highly recommended - Whether you have a child who likes learning about the world or loves nature, or you're thinking you want to head to the Galapagos Islands yourself, one day, Where Are the Galapagos Islands? is an excellent read, entertaining and much more informative than I expected. I usually pass on children's books after I finish them but I think I'll hang onto this one in case I decide to go on that tour and want to reread it closer to the time.


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday

The kitties love their fountain but they don't particularly appreciate being photographed while they're taking a drink.

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.