Monday Malarkey - 2 weeks' worth of Malarkey

I have two stacks of books, this week,  because I decided to go ahead and let myself ditch the book-buying ban for the library sale (so cheap!) and then I trashed it entirely when we started our "social distancing" to help flatten the curve and try to get that COVID-19 virus under control. Part of my reasoning is that bookstores will need our help. So, with that in mind I'll be placing an order with an indie bookshop, tomorrow.


The last two weeks' arrivals, left to right:

• Woman on the Edge by Samantha M. Bailey - purchased; pre-ordered
• The Prisoner's Wife by Maggie Brookes - from Berkley Books for review
• The Passing Bells by Phillip Rock - purchased; for plague reading
• Ruthless by Sarah Tarkoff - unsolicited from Harper Voyager

Woman on the Edge is one that I pre-ordered before my book-buying ban and I'll save it for when I need something fast-paced. The Prisoner's Wife is a tour book and The Passing Bells was recommended by author Melanie Benjamin. Ruthless is the third in a series so I looked it up to see if it stands alone. Looks like the books need to be read in order so until/unless Harper Voyager is able to send me the first two books (one is currently out of stock), I will not be reading this one right away. But, it does sound like it's my kind of series.

And, my library sale purchases, left to right: 

• Lies And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Tales by Washington Irving
• The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton
• The Signet Classic Book of Southern Short Stories, ed. by D. Abbott and S. Koppelman

All of these were purchased on a day that I went over to see Kiddo and visited the perpetual book sale in the town where I used to live (Kiddo lives there, now, with his wife). He's been bored waiting to start work so I took him out to eat and then we went to the library sale and back to his apartment to hang out together for a while. It was fun and I'd do it more regularly if there wasn't a plague happening.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
• Promised by Leah Garriott
• A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn

Currently reading: 

• And They Called It Camelot by Stephanie Marie Thornton
• Nature's Best Hope by Douglas W. Tallamy

The former is a fictionalized account of John and Jackie Kennedy, from the time they began dating. The latter hasn't been opened for a week. Much as I'm aching to read it, this was a crap reading week and I even had to finish a tour book review post a day late. Hopefully, this week will be better. I did have a problem with obsessing over the pandemic news, last week, but we're in "cancel everything" mode, now, so I feel a little less like I need to pay attention constantly to how the world is burning around me, although I'll check the news at least once a day.


The last two weeks' posts:

• Nerp! by Sarah Lynne Reul (book review)
• Mini reviews: Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby by Matthew Inman, Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle, Crosstalk by Connie Willis (book reviews)
• Fiona Friday - Droopy (cat photo)
• Promised by Leah Garriott (book review)
• A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn (book review)
• Fiona Friday on the Wrong Day - I get on your lap, plz? (cat photo)

In other news:

We finished watching Doctor Who just after I saw a comment section in which die-hard fans argued about the fact that the ending of Jodie Whittaker's last episode, "The Timeless Children" (I don't know if this is her first or second season) was "not canon" and therefore they were never going to watch the show ever, ever again. I was fine with it but I'm a fan without being obsessed. I don't always like particular actors or episodes but I have my favorite Doctors (Tom Baker, of course, is my #1) and companions. I come and go. I thought the furor was kind of funny. I did think the previous episode was too frenetic. It exhausted me.

Otherwise . . . um, I don't remember what I watched. Mostly, I obsessed over the COVID-19 news, although I saw this coming a mile away and advised my Facebook friends to stock up on the kinds of things we normally get for hurricane season, weeks ago. So, when it came time for people to panic buy, we just needed a few things like eggs, bread, spinach, and coconut (for the Social Distancing cooking of coconut bars Huzzybuns did, yesterday). I only got enough for about 2 weeks but we have things in the fridge and freezer, of course, so we should be fine for a while. Huz still has to go in to work but I'm pretty much planning to cancel everything on my agenda.

And, wow, isn't this so much harder than you could have imagined? I think most of those of us who are doing the Social Distancing thing have been doing it for only a day or two. It really becomes immediately clear how often we just hop in the car to get out of the house, how important the gym is to the daily routine, how much it sucks that you really shouldn't go out to get any of those things you forgot on your final run to the store. But, I don't want us to become another Italy so I'm working hard at dealing with the little and big disappointments. The biggest: I was due to have my reconstruction surgery in a few weeks. It can wait for a long time, if necessary, but I was really looking forward to getting that over with. Ah, well. C'est la vie.

I hope everyone is well and enjoying some good reading time. There's a weekend Social Distancing Readathon happening, next weekend. Whether or not I participate will probably depend on if/when the husband starts teleworking. If we're successfully getting chores done during the week because he's not so tired from his commute, maybe he'll let me get away with a goof-off reading weekend. I could use some intense reading time, as slow as my reading's been, this year.

Happy reading and stay healthy, everyone!


©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 on the Wrong Day - I get on your lap, plz?

Fiona probably looks sad to the casual observer, but this is her pleading face. She was on the couch next to me, asking if she could climb onto my lap.

Posting this late because I'm glued to Coronavirus coverage, I confess. I'll try to be better. Everyone stay safe out there and if you're sticking close to home, helping to flatten the curve, I hope you manage to get in plenty of fun reading 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.

A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn (Veronica Speedwell Mystery #5)

In A Murderous Relation, Veronica and Stoker have been called from Cornwall to London. One of Queen Victoria's grandchildren, Prince Eddy, is caught up in what could be a tremendous scandal. Veronica and Stoker are tasked with retrieving a gift given by Eddy, aka Prince Albert Victor, to someone of ill repute. Meanwhile, London is being terrorized by a vicious killer, not yet known as Jack the Ripper. Are the two related?

OK, confession. It's 1:00 AM and I have not finished A Murderous Relation, so I'll tell you what I think of it, so far, and then return to finish up, later.

I love the main characters, as I did in the first Veronica Speedwell book I read, A Dangerous Collaboration (#4 in the series). Veronica is smart, clever, and knowledgable. Stoker is a little more distant in this book than he was in the last and I'm finding his diminished role somewhat disappointing. But, every now and then he'll say something that makes me smile and I love the interaction between the two of them.

However . . . and this is a big however . . . I absolutely hate the setting of this book. A Dangerous Collaboration was set in a castle on an island off the coast of Cornwall and it was partly that setting that made the book so much fun. In A Murderous Relation, Veronica and Stoker are undercover to try to find the gift given to Aurore, the woman whose home is like a playground for perverts (she doesn't like to think of it as a brothel). And, that is so not my thing. I anticipated much less of the . . . scenery, I guess you could say? I didn't realize so much time would be spent on descriptions of people doing icky things. I'm finding that it creeps me out so thoroughly that I keep setting the book aside. I haven't decided whether or not I'll finish it, so I'm going to leave this review open-ended and report back on Friday. If I decide to abandon the book, I'll say so. If I continue, I'll finish with a recommendation line. I'm going to sleep on it.

Fiona Friday will be moved to Saturday to make room for my Friday update on the book.

I received a copy of A Murderous Relation from Berkley Books for review. Thanks! My apologies for the delayed ending to this review. I shall return.

UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!! UPDATE on Friday!!!

It's Friday morning and I made my decision to continue reading A Murderous Relation, yesterday, after sleeping on it. I decided I liked the characters too much to give up on them merely because of the location in which the storyline had ended up. And, I also figured they couldn't stay in the brothel, forever. Excellent decision! Not long after I began reading, Veronica and Stoker discover a body, try to escape from the brothel, and things get really exciting and tense (the way I like them). At that point, the pages began to fly. I don't want to give away any plot points but a character from a previous Veronica Speedwell book (which I have not read) shows up every bit as villainous as before but this time with an unexpected sidekick.

Highly recommended - If you are squeamish about scenes in a brothel, I recommend a little skimming to get past that bit, which went on longer than I was able to tolerate on Wednesday evening but ended quickly, after I picked the book up again. However, I wouldn't skip anything because the story builds on each incident and slowly becomes a little more complex than just rescuing a Prince from his self-made scandal by stealing a jewel. It also becomes much more dangerous, to the point at which the question becomes, "Will anyone get out of this alive?" And, then, other things happen. At any rate, there are some heart-pounding action scenes, which I love, and Stoker's role picked up enough to satisfy me. I closed the book thinking, "I need to go back to the beginning of the series." I like Veronica Speedwell and Stoker, the way they sort of spin around each other without landing (Will they? Won't they?), the vocabulary (always looking things up while reading this series, including photos of historical characters who make appearances), and the time period. Loads of fun and I'm so glad I returned to the book.


©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.

Promised by Leah Garriott

It's 1812 and Margaret Brinton is in search of a husband. To that end, she attends a matchmaking party where she hopes to find a match. But, Margaret doesn't plan to look for love. Instead, she is happy to find someone who will do his own thing and let her be. Margaret, you see, is a wounded soul. Once engaged to her next-door neighbor, she discovered that he was unfaithful several times over. A man with mistresses is fine by her, provided she knows what she's getting into. Edward's unfaithfulness was a shock, and she doesn't ever want to go through that again.

At the party, Margaret meets Mr. Northam and Lord Williams. Mr. Northam is a handsome rake. He will do nicely. But Northam's arrogant cousin, Lord Williams, is determined to keep them from becoming engaged. When she's very publicly insulted by Lord Williams and then a romantic moment with Mr. Northam is interrupted, Margaret and her brother Daniel have no choice but to return home. She will wait for Mr. Northam to visit. Then, perhaps, he will finish what Margaret is certain was an interrupted proposal.

But, then things go topsy-turvy. Margaret's parents have arranged her betrothal to none other than Lord Williams, the man who thwarted her happiness by making her a pariah at the matchmaking party, thanks to his insulting behavior. As Lord Williams becomes involved in her everyday life, though, Margaret finds that she's increasingly drawn to him. He is not at all what she originally thought. He is kind, steady, and determined to help Margaret and her family in any way. But, by the time Lord Williams leaves her family home, she's convinced him that she can never be his bride. Should Margaret try to salvage the blooming relationship she was determined to avoid? Or, should she go with her original plan and marry a rake to protect herself from further heartbreak?

Recommended - Promised was absolutely the right book for the moment, for me. While I did find Margaret's waffling about whether or not she was doing the right thing in thwarting Lord Williams' efforts to save her from Mr. Northam and her constant inner argument about whether or not she really was attracted to Lord William a little tedious, I liked the hero and heroine enough to root for the obvious ending (it's romance . . . obvious is good), which was definitely very satisfying. There are some very Jane Austen-like elements in Promised. While at first they felt a little done (as in been there, read that), that turned out to be inaccurate. There was plenty about Promised that was unique and surprising. I enjoyed it very much.


My thanks to Shadow Mountain and Laurel Ann of Austenprose Book Tours for the review copy!

Unrelated note: I missed posting my weekly Monday Malarkey due to circumstances beyond my control. Monday Malarkey will resume at its regular time, next week.

©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 - Droopy

©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. 

Mini reviews - Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby by Matthew Inman, Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle, Crosstalk by Connie Willis

Time for mini reviews! Most of what I currently have left to review is from my home library, so I'm going to shift to mini reviews to get some of them knocked out. 

Alyce of At Home With Books (a dormant blog since 2016) very kindly sent me a copy of Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby (an Oatmeal book) by Matthew Inman and a gift card to buy more books when I was in desperate need of cheering up. I can't even begin to tell you what a huge upper that was. I am still so grateful for the laughs in a week that was mostly about crying and anxiety.

Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby is equal parts gross and hilarious. I was familiar with The Oatmeal comics but I guess I'd never really paid much attention to them. The gross ones involve a lot of illustrations of baby vomit and poop; they were not my favorites. But, there were plenty of comics that lacked the yuck factor and made me laugh, especially the ones specifically about cats. I shared my absolute favorites with the Spousal Unit and he enjoyed them, too.

Recommended but may require a strong stomach - I have a pretty strong stomach, I guess. I did have babies, after all, and the gross part goes with the territory. If you love The Oatmeal, you'll love this book.

I used part of the Amazon card Alyce sent me to buy a copy of Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle, a book that's been on my wish list, for a while. I absolutely love Strange Planet comics, little 4-box comics in which aliens make sense of life on Earth.

Deb Nance of Readerbuzz put it this way: "What if we could look at our world through fresh, if alien, eyes?" That's what Nathan Pyle does in Strange Planet. I'll share the comic that first caught my attention, below. I love the way Pyle examines humanity through slightly different viewpoint, the language making a lot of the strangeness of our lives clear. On the lower left cover of the book, an alien proudly shows off his sunburn saying, "It's the star damage." In one comic I read off Pyle's Instagram, a few days ago, the aliens were ordering pizza (I forget their name for pizza) and I laughed at one of them shouting out, "More fungus slices!"

Here's the comic that made me fall in love with Strange Planet:

Highly recommended - Loads of laughs and a huge upper. I will read this many times, in the future, I'm sure. So grateful to have a copy in my home library.

I love Connie Willis but I'd never heard of Crosstalk till recently. It sounded like my kind of book so I bought a copy.

When Briddey Flannigan and her boyfriend, Trent, get a procedure that's supposed to help them connect emotionally, it has a shocking side effect. Briddey (short for Bridget) becomes telepathic. At first, she can only hear one other voice. But, eventually, her telepathy becomes stronger and the thoughts coming from other people's heads overwhelm her. With the help of C.B., the first man she heard upon coming telepathic and a co-worker of hers, she learns to block the chaos. C.B. is weird. He's brilliant but he works in the basement and stays away from people. And, Briddey is in love with Trent. So, why is she finding herself so drawn to C.B.?

When Trent begins to show signs of telepathy and Briddey finds out his real reason for wanting to get the procedure, things go haywire.

Recommended to sci-fi fans - Not Willis's best but a fun read. In comparison to past works by Connie Willis, Crosstalk comes closest to Bellwether. Both are light, funny, romantic, and silly, even a little slapstick. Both have sci-fi attributes but Crosstalk didn't entirely make sense to me. I got the telepathy but not the idea of harnessing it via technology. I just couldn't buy into that concept. And, it was a bit too long, but I enjoyed Crosstalk enough to keep going and I have no regrets.

©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.

Nerp! by Sarah Lynne Reul

Nerp! by Sarah Lynne Reul is an unusual book and I love it for that. An incredibly silly tale about a little monster who doesn't want to eat anything offered to him, it's written entirely in gibberish and yet still totally comprehensible. "Nerp," for example, is obviously "nope". I think it's easier to show illustrations, in this case, so I took a couple interior photos:

Pardon my poor job of cropping. You can see how, even though there's no such thing in reality as "frizzle frazzle hotchy potch," it's clear that it's a food item and the little monster is saying, "No way. I'm not eating that."

The unnamed little guy is offered dish after dish after dish, all with hilarious names, and turns them all down. Then, as the determined parents walk into the room with two more dishes to try to persuade him (or her) to eat, they hear a lengthy slurp and find their little monster has chosen to eat something . . . unusual. But, they're happy the kiddo is eating.

Highly recommended - I had a huge grin on my face while I read this book and I know absolutely without question that my eldest granddaughter would be doubled over in peals of laughter if she was close enough to read it to her. Actually, she's reading on her own, now. She might need a little help with the nonsense language, but I'll bet she'd have a blast reading it between the giggle fits. I love it that an entire book is told in gibberish and yet still completely clear of meaning. And, the illustrations are absolutely perfect. So expressive. You know immediately how that little monster feels. So. Much. Crazy. Fun.

My thanks to Sterling Children's Books for the review copy. Nerp! has just been released, today! Cool. If you have a little picky-eating monster (or even if you don't), you should rush right out to get this one. The giggles will be worth every penny.


©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:

• A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow - from Tor (Macmillan) for review via Shelf Awareness
• Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo - purchased

Yes, I finally broke my month-long book-buying ban for Children of the Land. After Adam of Roof Beam Reader recommended it, I added Children of the Land to my wish list and then kept thinking about it because it sounded exactly like the kind of book I've been seeking. So, I gave in. But, I went right back to not buying, after.

A Song Below Water is an exciting arrival, too. I love both of the covers. So eye-catching!



Books finished since last Malarkey:

• The Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin
• Nerp! by Sarah Lynne Reul

And, I finished up the month of February with 10 books read, again. This has been a disappointing year, so far, but while 10 books is below average for me, I acknowledge that it's not awful; I'm not in a reading slump, just sluggish by comparison with the usual reading rate. I have had to frequently pep-talk myself about this.



Currently reading:

• Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
• Nature's Best Hope by Douglas W. Tallamy

The nonfiction read I started last week wasn't doing it for me, so I moved on to Nature's Best Hope. I'm not very far into it but my little nature-crazy, tree-hugging, greenie inner self is loving it. It's about how individuals can create their own healthy little ecosystems at home to encourage natural life and how crucial the variety of life on Earth is to human survival. I also started reading The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich but then set it aside to read Such a Fun Age after Kiley Reid appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.



Last week's posts: 

• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins with thoughts and a link (book review, friend quotes, thoughts)
• Top Reads in 2019 - fiction (list with brief descriptions)
• The Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin (book review)
• Fiona Friday - What we're reading (cat photo)

I missed two fiction favorites so I'll put them in a future post with favorites from some other category (nonfiction, children's, whatever I get to). Or, maybe I'll post about them separately. Waffle, waffle.


In other news:

I forgot to watch Chicago Fire on Wednesday! Completely forgot. So bummed. There were a couple nights that we just vegged on news and we watched two episodes of Doctor Who, but that's about it for TV. It always surprises me to realize how little TV I watch, when I do these updates.

Kiddo's car is sputtering, so we went over to his apartment for Huzzybuns to give it a drive around the block, this weekend. Yep, it needs to go into the shop. We all went out for Mexican food, after, and it was fabulous. Veggie fajitas! I have a new favorite. Our local Mexican place is going sharply downhill (they've stopped giving you guacamole and pico de gallo with your fajitas and cut back on the quantity of all the other ingredients but bumped the price up $2) and we lost our Tex-Mex chain restaurant, so I guess we'll drive 30 miles when we want to go out. Fortunately, we don't go out for Mexican food very often.

This week was also the first week I've managed to go to the gym regularly since pre-surgery. I bought a Fitbit to help motivate myself. It's working. I'm a wimp, right now, but I managed to gradually increase my workout during the week. One step at a 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 - What we're reading

©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 Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin

Rooney was about a thousand years old and still regarded women through a prehistoric filter where you told them the way it was going to be and they said, "Yes, dear," and went to iron some socks. 

~p. 171

In The Antidote for Everything, Georgia Brown is a urologist and a bit of a rebel with her nose ring and discreet tattoos. Jonah, her best friend, fellow doctor, and the man she considers her only family, is gay and a little flamboyant with a tendency to sink into the occasional deep depression. As The Antidote for Everything opens, Georgia gets unwelcome news during a surgery and there are hints that something is amiss with Jonah. Then, Georgia flies off to Amsterdam and, after saving a life on the plane, finds herself madly attracted to her patient and having a nice little European fling.

When she returns, Georgia realizes that things are even worse than she suspected. Jonah's transgender patients, some of whom are her patients as well, are being told they can no longer be treated at the clinic and the administrators are trying to find a way to get rid of Jonah, as well. In fact, it looks like they may have grounds for firing him. Is there any way Georgia can help Jonah salvage his job and restore their transgender patients to their healthcare providers? Is it really legal to refuse to treat people who are transgender? What's going on with drugs that have been disappearing from the clinic? Is it possible Jonah has a drug problem Georgia doesn't know about?

OK, hmm. There are a lot more questions than that and then, of course, the simmering, long-distance romance between Georgia and Mark (the airplane patient), both of whom experienced similar losses early in life. The farther you get into The Antidote for Everything, the more complex the plot becomes and the more harrowing the events. Taken as separate ideas, I liked much of what this book is about. I liked the wit and humor (as in the quote above). I liked the three main characters. I liked the fact that it touches on a hot-button topic (discrimination against LGBTQ), and I thought the element of romance felt realistic. There's a lot to admire in The Antidote for Everything. The author is a doctor and her writing is sharp. She even managed to find a surprisingly large number of LGBTQ sensitivity readers to make sure she got it right.

But, I found the book was not as cohesive as I'd have liked it to be. I thought Kimmery Martin handled the emotions of attraction and how finding commonalities feeds into the magnetism between two people very nicely. But, the fact that Georgia and Mark spent most of their time on separate continents and because of that the romance was just an element threaded through the main story bugged me, for some reason. It sometimes felt like Mark was almost an afterthought. I also felt like the book made me a little too angsty. I'm not LGBTQ, but I have a lot of friends who are and the fact that our government is currently weakening anti-discrimination laws and removing rules or guidelines to stop discrimination is incredibly frustrating, primarily because it makes no sense to me. Why would someone be offended if their renter is gay? Why would anyone feel like baking a cake is participating in a wedding? They're just transactions. On that note, the pain of rejection is something I thought the author handled especially well.

Off my soapbox.

Recommended - A timely topic, great characters, and much to discuss. I didn't fall in love with this book, but I liked it a lot and I think it would make a good book club selection if you're not afraid to tackle religious freedom vs. discrimination.

Update: I totally forgot to thank Berkley for the review copy. Thank you!!! I will seek out more by Kimmery Martin.


©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.

Top Reads in 2019 - fiction

I may (or may not) do a separate post on nonfiction and children's favorites, later, but I decided I needed to go ahead and get this post done. In the end, I opted not to narrow down to 5 or 10 and instead just stack up every book I put in my favorites corner on the pile, but I can actually narrow down pretty easily, now that I've had time to stare at the stack and ponder. So, I've put an asterisk by each of my Top 5.

My 2019 Fiction Favorites:

1. The Round House by Louise Erdrich - The mystery of a brutal rape and the teenage boy determined to solve it shines a light on how poorly the law works for Native American women due to the clash between Reservation law and that of non-Native land.

2. Alpine Ballad by Vasil Bykau* - A WWII story of escape from a Nazi prison camp into the mountains and the brief romance of two of the escapees is one of the books that has most firmly stuck with me. I have got to find more by this author. You can click through to read my review but I called it "heartbreaking and achingly beautiful".

3. Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen* - Time travel is one of my absolute favorite story elements and Mike Chen combined that element along with a dilemma about the family his time-traveling protagonist must leave behind to a stirring emotional level that's equally satisfying as a sci-fi.

4. In Another Time by Jillian Cantor* - Another book with a time travel element, this time a portal from Nazi Germany to the future. The author kept me guessing and the pages absolutely flew.

5. Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen* - When people asked me what my #1 read was in 2019, I always answered Harry's Trees. The story of a widow, a widower, and a little girl, there was just something magical and charming and transcendent about this book. It's a clutch-to-your-chest-and-sigh book. It's going on the good shelves.

6. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman - Another charming read, maybe a little over-the-top but in such a fun way. Nina is bookish, has a cat, and is extremely organized. But, then her father's death opens up a new world and turns her perfectly ordered life on its head. So fun.

7. Vox by Christina Dalcher* - The book I was most worried about because of mixed reviews, Vox turned out to be so gripping that I was shocked at my inability to put it down. Very thought-provoking and timely. I'd love it if my book group discussed this one.

8. The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri - Another book ripe for discussion, this time the story of a man who lived in a peaceful place until war drove him and his family out of the country. From happy family to grieving refugees, they seek a better life.

9. Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson - A stranger infiltrates a neighborhood book club, gets everyone drunk, and asks probing questions to set them up. But, she doesn't know what she's getting into, this time. I love Joshilyn Jackson's writing but I thought she reached a new level with this novel.

10. The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves  - One of those books that was so gripping I told my husband I'd see him when I finished. And, yet, it was a relationship book, not a thriller! Wild.

11. The Rent Collector by Camron Wright - I considered leaving this one out of the favorites stack because I went back and changed my rating and its flaws seemed to have been mentally amplified over time. Still, as I was reading it I was so rapt that I remember how much I enjoyed the story. And, it did end up in the favorites corner. So, I decided to leave it.

12. Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center - I had to reread my review to remember what the conflict was in this story, but I still remember the tension and one particularly heart-pounding scene. I have not yet read a second Katherine Center book. I need to amend that. Though the story didn't entirely stick with me, the feeling I got from the reading did.

13. How Not to Die Alone by Richard Roper - This is a "house of cards hit by a puff of wind" type of book. What happens when you've lied about your life and then created an elaborate story around that inadvertent lie and you're about to be exposed? Funny, gross, moving. Loved it.

14. The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner - One of three books I read that take place at least partly at a Japanese internment camp, a wonderful story of friendship that touched me deeply. I just loved it.

15. Wunderland by Jennifer Cody Epstein - Another story of friendship but one that sours during WWII when one girl finds out she's part Jewish and the other joins the Hitler Youth. Alternating with a story that takes place decades later, when the daughter of a German woman finds out her mother has died and digs into her letters to find out the truth about her past.

All of these books had one thing in common. They sucked me in and held me tight. While some stuck with me more than others, they all moved me or made me smile, took me to some magical place or made me think.


©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.

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins with thoughts and a link

Reading American Dirt and even getting it in the mail was such an interesting experience. It literally arrived in my mailbox right as the controversy was erupting, after a months-long wait (I pre-ordered it). After reading a lot of articles and some thoughts by individuals, I was pretty sure I wanted to put off reading the book. I would read it eventually, sure, with a healthy skepticism of its accuracy — I'd already paid for it, after all — but I figured there was no hurry. Then, I spoke to my friend Michelle (formerly blogger Kookie at A Fraternity of Dreamers). Michelle has Mexican ancestry and she knows her history, her Mexican food, her soccer players. I don't. We finished reading the book on the same day, so we were able to chat about it while it was still fresh in our minds.

WARNING: THIS DESCRIPTION CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!

PLEASE SKIP TO THE SAFE LINE IF YOU PLAN TO READ AMERICAN DIRT AND DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANY DETAILS OR PLOT POINTS FROM THE STORY!!!!!

American Dirt is the story of Lydia Quixano Pérez, a bookstore owner in Acapulco who unknowingly has befriended a drug lord named Javier. Her husband is a journalist and she has one child, a son named Luca. The book opens with an incredibly tense scene in which Lydia and Luca are huddled in a shower enclosure while gunfire rattles outside. They're at a family cookout and as they hide they overhear the shootings of everyone present, the search for Lydia, the men walking through the house to make sure they've left no survivors. Lydia knows the deaths of nearly her entire family must be connected to the article her husband wrote exposing Javier. Lydia thought Javier would find the article flattering. He must not have. Now, she has no choice but to run.

Javier's friendship with Lydia started innocently enough. He loved books, wrote poetry, and was oddly magnetic. Lydia enjoyed Javier's company until she became aware of what he did for a living. She's seen and heard enough, by the time of the mass shooting, to know that Javier has tentacles throughout the country so even as she's running, Lydia is careful who she speaks to and what she says. But, as she and Luca ride buses, stay in overnight migrant centers, walk, and ride the dangerous train known as The Beast, they are dogged by a young man with a tattoo that Lydia recognizes. Is he pretending to be a migrant or has he really left the drug business?

-------------------------SAFE LINE! SAFE LINE! SAFE LINE!------------------------------

NO SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT. 

Recommended with dramatically mixed feelings. Instead of summarizing my thoughts, I've decided to summarize our discussion a bit, share Michelle's review, and directly quote a few of her thoughts. I highly recommend you read Michelle's review:

Michelle's review of American Dirt at Facebook

Michelle and I were jumping back and forth between the comment section below her review (which you can see) and another post at Facebook, so you can't see the entire conversation at Facebook. This is an analogy Michelle wrote about the book:

Imagine you are in a horrific car crash and barely escape with your life. Someone asks you to tell them what it was like and before you even open your mouth someone who SAW the crash describes it. They get it mostly right, but they can't describe the physical and emotional impact the accident had on you. American Dirt is a bystander to the Latin American immigrant experience.

~Michelle McIntyre 

That seems fair.

I came into the reading from an entirely different perspective, of course: ignorance of the Mexican culture. My extent of experience in Mexico amounts to a couple of walks across the border from Texas as a young child and then a teenager. I don't remember much.

Without knowing what the author got right or wrong (except from articles I'd already read; there are tons of them online if you've missed out), I viewed American Dirt on its merits as a piece of writing, like any other novel, and my general feeling was that it was marketed badly. Billed as a tale of immigration, American Dirt is really (in my opinion) a thriller. The author is equally guilty in the mischaracterization of the book. She talked about her desire to tell the story of a people viewed as  "faceless brown masses" (a quote even I find extremely offensive — maybe there are people who see immigrants that way but I certainly do not). But, then she added that she wanted to make her heroine "someone like me". This makes little sense as Lydia is not typical of the masses; she is a bookstore owner with plenty of money and her weird friendship with a cartel boss further sets her apart.

So, there's a little bit of a disconnect, there. I think if you leave out the attempt to market American Dirt as a a novel of immigration and look at it as a thriller, it works. Thrillers tend to lack depth and are meant to be fast-paced. The idea is to propel you through the pages and give you a vicarious thrill, not to deeply examine an important social issue, although a social issue (immigration; environmental crisis, etc.) can serve as the backdrop. So, I agree with Michelle's car crash example in that as a thriller the book skims over the emotional and physical impact of immigration and focuses, instead, on the escape.

I also thought Cummins' comment in the author's note about wishing someone slightly browner than her had written the book was a bit of garbage pandering to her audience. As someone who has been published, I think I can safely say that no author wishes someone else had written her book, period, regardless of the shade of their skin. I do, however, know that writing a thriller set in another country is nothing new and, yep, authors get details wrong when they don't know the location or the people intimately or don't do their research. The argument that someone shouldn't have written a particular book has been around for ages, not just in contemporary fiction but in historical, where there can be a huge difference between fiction written by historians and popular fiction.

Michelle said she enjoyed parts of the book and agreed that it wouldn't have been so controversial, had it been marketed as a thriller. But, there were times that elements struck her as lazy googling instead of real research:

The real shame of it is most of those details could have been avoided if she’d just done her research. I’m sure she Googled “famous Mexican soccer player” to get the name Hernandez, but if she’d just turned around and Googled his name she would have realized he’s never called that. That really bugged me. 

We also talked about the author's part in the controversy. This was my opinion:

Her author's note just added fuel to the fire. She painted herself as some sort of heroine trying to reveal hidden truth. Nah. You wrote a thriller. It was good but not brilliant. It's a fun read if that's what you're in the mood for. Thrillers sell; that's the real reason she got the big bucks and the knowledgable writers didn't. A little honesty about that would have probably prevented the controversy (although, controversy generally is a good thing for publishers because any publicity is golden -- people *are* buying the book out of curiosity -- so this won't necessarily lead to thoughtful action, IMHO). [...] She also has some writerly ticks, things she reused, especially toward the beginning. One was people pouring beverages that nobody bothered to drink, including Luca. And, she did some weird head-hopping. There was one page where she was in Lydia's head, then Luca's, then Soledad's. That is generally considered bad writing, although some authors can pull it off well. She did not.

Michelle agreed and noted that Cummins referred to her mother as Abuela, capitalized, which is like calling your own mother "Grandma". It's normal to say something like, "You're going to have a great time at Grandma's house!" to your child. That's not what was happening. In one case, a policeman referred to Lydia's mother as Abuela, as well, which is just bizarre. No policeman calls a victim's mother "Grandma". If you know Mexico, you'll apparently notice a lot of little mistakes like that in the book. Another one is Luca ordering extra sour cream on his tacos — something I probably would not have noticed if I hadn't read about it, although the fact that Luca's extra sour cream order comforted Lydia did. What? Why would someone ordering extra anything comfort you? That was weird.

The bottom line:

Mistakes were made. The marketing of this book implied that there was some deep, unique revelation or insight about the immigrant experience in American Dirt when, in fact, even the journey (which is, admittedly, pretty exciting reading) was not apparently accurate. Even I noticed that Cummins had a priest warn migrants about the dangers of The Beast and then . . . nothing happened. Everyone was nice to Lydia and Luca on The Beast. I've read two other books in which people rode that train and while she is the only author who bothered explaining why people ride on top (it's a freight train — there are apparently no passenger trains at all in Northern Mexico, thanks to American influence) in the other books I read, one person who rode The Beast was raped and the other robbed.

The use of barbed-wire-wrapped centerpieces at a party and the way the author painted her nails with the cover image were additionally incredibly offensive, so it wasn't the marketing alone that stirred people up. As a white American with European roots, I would never have spotted most of the inaccuracies or seen the book as racist and I respect the opinions of those who find the book upsetting. But, I do think the proper marketing could have prevented some of the anger and hurt. And, clearly, authors should be very careful what they say about their writing.

If you read American Dirt, read it as a thriller but bear in mind what those who know the country have to say. Better yet, take Michelle's advice:

I could go on forever talking about the flaws of American Dirt, but I’d rather talk about the books that tell the REAL Latin American stories. Read Luis Alberto Urrea, Octavio Paz, Jennifer Clement, Alfredo Vea Jr. and Sandra Cisneros. Read Juan Rulfo, Yuri Herrera, Carlos Fuentes, and Carmen Boullosa. Read Juan Pablo Villalobos, Daniel Saldana Paris, Sergio Pitol and Elena Garro. All of them tell the story of American Dirt a million times better than Jeanine Cummins.

©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 (left to right):

• A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn and
• And They Called It Camelot by Stephanie Marie Thornton - both from Berkley for review/tour
• The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

The Flatshare was a pre-order so I'm still hanging in there with the book-buying ban. And, that purchase is kind of a funny story. I'm a fan of paperbacks so I deliberately chose the paperback version of The Flatshare when I ordered it but I didn't know I was pre-ordering until I realized the book hadn't arrived. I went back to check my receipt and shipping notifications . . . and discovered I'd not only pre-ordered a book without realizing it but I'd ordered a book that wasn't going to be released for over 6 months. But, I wanted it in paperback so I shrugged it off and waited.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis
• Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Angela Davis is interesting and writes a bit above my intellectual level. She is one sharp cookie! I have one last book by Haymarket Books but I didn't manage to find it in time for Black History Month reading, so I guess it'll sit till 2021, unless I locate it and decide not to wait.


Currently reading:

• The Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin

I've also started a nonfiction read but I don't know if it will stick.


Posts since last Malarkey:

• Dragonshadow (Heartstone #2) by Elle Katharine White (book review)
• The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James (book review)
• Fiona Friday - Comfy (cat photo) 

In other news:

We spent half of last week in going to and from Northern Arkansas and spending time with my family for my Aunt Mary's "Celebration of Life". It was so fun! I haven't seen any of my cousins from that side of the family for decades. Literally, decades. I did a terrible job of describing what my husband does and where he works, when the relatives asked. He overheard and gave me a lesson, which cracks me up. I know I used to know the history of where he works but I'd forgotten it. And, I never have paid much attention to what he does for a living, although I know his current job title.

After we returned home, we watched a couple episodes of Rush and then Sanditon, but that's it. We were hoping to catch up on Dr. Who. Maybe next week.


©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 - Comfy

©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 Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

In 1982, Viv Delaney leaves home to get away from her anxiety-ridden mother and start a new life. Her intent is to go to New York City but she quickly runs out of money and ends up working in the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. It doesn't take long before Viv starts to notice strange things: a strong smell of smoke, the frequent appearance of a woman who is both angry and terrified, a little boy, doors that fling themselves open, and a couple of hotel guests who seem more than a little shady. When Viv hears about the strange deaths that have taken place in the area, seemingly unconnected and mostly unsolved murders of young women, she starts investigating. Are the deaths really unconnected or did the police miss something? Is there a serial killer in Fell? Who are the ghosts that haunt the Sun Down Motel and why? What are they trying to tell her? Will she discover the answers before it's too late?

In 2017, Viv's niece, Carly arrives at the Sun Down Motel full of questions. What happened to her aunt Vivian, who disappeared while working at the Sun Down Motel in 1982? Is she dead or alive? Why was the investigation into her disappearance given up so quickly? If she's alive, where did she go and why didn't she ever contact her sister, Carly's mother, who has since passed away?

Following in the footsteps of Viv, Carly sets out to find answers. She gets a job at the Sun Down Motel, finds a roommate, and begins asking questions. But, the ghosts of the past are still haunting the present. Will Carly be able to figure out what happened to her missing aunt? Is her disappearance connected to the murders of young women that took place in Fell around that time? With a little help from a man with a troubled past, Carly starts digging. But, the only person who wants to talk about Aunt Vivian is seriously creepy.

Highly recommended - Ohmygosh, what a fantastic mystery/suspense with wonderful characters, genuinely suspenseful writing, and plenty of scare-your-socks-off moments. At one point while I was reading The Sun Down Motel, I realized that I was so tense I was sitting on the bed bolt upright, taking quick, shallow breaths. Very few suspense books truly grab me and hold on the way The Sun Down Motel did. I particularly recommend The Sun Down Motel to anyone who loves paranormal elements as the ghosts (if a little heavy-handed in the number of appearances) are among the most believable I've read.

Weird side note: I guessed what happened to Viv about halfway through the book but it actually didn't matter. It was just a guess and I had to know the answers. The book held onto me fast and I madly flipped pages. In fact, The Sun Down Motel gripped me so thoroughly that I had to warn my husband I wasn't coming up for air till I finished. He shrugged and went off to do outdoor work. I have no idea what he did, I was so immersed. The Sun Down Motel is going into the favorites pile, for sure.

Many thanks to Berkley Books for letting me join in on this tour and providing the book.

©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.

Dragonshadow (Heartstone #2) by Elle Katharine White

Dragonshadow by Elle Katharine White is the second in the Heartstone series published by Harper Voyager. In the first, Heartstone, Aliza Bentaine goes on some dangerous adventures and falls in love with a dragon rider when a group of Riders are hired to protect her home, Merybourne Manor, from a gryphon invasion.

In Dragonshadow, now married to the dragon rider, Alastair Daired, Aliza is trying to get excited about her duties in the family castle. But, she's kind of bored and in need of a different kind of challenge. When Alastair gets an invitation from House Pendragon to help deal with an unknown but deadly creature, Aliza insists that she must accompany Alastair. But, their destination is far to the north, she's not so great with heights, and Aliza will have to ride on Alastair's dragon over the dangerous Old Wilds.

What will Aliza and Alastair find when they reach House Pendragon? Is someone following them? What's up with the mysterious silver box that keeps appearing wherever they go? Are the dead creatures they find on their long journey North in any way connected to the mysterious deaths at House Pendragon?

Highly recommended - I had a couple minor problems with Dragonshadow. One is that there were a few too many creatures. I had trouble keeping track of them and then a little difficulty understanding the answer to the mystery (it took a little thought; I did eventually puzzle it out). This particular fantasy has a slightly over-built set of monsters, in my humble opinion. Having said that, I truly enjoyed the complexity of the plot and Aliza is a character I enjoy for her adventurous spirit. Plus, So. Much. Happened. Heartstone is a fantasy version of Pride & Prejudice, so there's a lot more interaction, manners, dancing. In Dragonshadow, it's all about the mystery of who is killing people and creatures, the dangerous journey, and why people are acting shifty, once Aliza and Alastair arrive. I enjoyed Heartstone but I liked Dragonshadow even better and I'm really looking forward to the third book in the series, which I plan to read soon.

My thanks to Harper Voyager for the review copy of Dragonshadow.

©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 (click to enlarge):

• The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich - from HarperCollins for review
• Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel - from Berkley for review/tour
• Nerp! by Sarah Lynne Reul - from Sterling Children's Books for review

I'm still sticking to my book-buying ban but I had a close call when my bestie texted me about the library sale, last week, "Want to go?" I'd set my cellphone down on the kitchen counter and I always leave the ringer off, so I didn't see her text until 2 or 3 hours too late. I have mixed feelings about that, of course. If I acquire anything at all, a library sale seems like the best way to go. But, right now I'm in get-rid-of-it mode, making piles of books to donate and filling a box with books to swap. So, missing the book sale was probably for the best. Right? Right.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• Crosstalk by Connie Willis
• The World of Sanditon by Sara Sheridan

Crosstalk is about 500 pages and I liked it but I thought it was maybe 100 - 200 pages too long. It's a romantic comedy with a touch of sci-fi, closest in style to Bellwether if you're a Willis fan and unfamiliar with it.

I talked about The World of Sanditon a little within my review of Sanditon but neglected to mention it in the subject line (link below if you missed it and are interested). It's a fun and educational read that I enjoyed pairing with the book and mini series.



Currently reading:

• Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis
• Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

I'm almost done with Freedom is a Constant Struggle but didn't quite manage to finish, last night. And, while I started to read Red, White, and Royal Blue about three days ago, I only read a handful of pages and then didn't manage to read anything at all for several nights, so I'm looking forward to digging into that, this week. I've entirely stopped reading my insomnia workbook. Maybe I should have known better. I have this weird problem with workbooks. Whenever I'm instructed to "keep a log of [this, that, the other thing]" I have this tendency to tell myself I don't want to wreck the book so I'll find a notebook to keep my log in. And, then I don't get around to finding a notebook. That's what's happened with the insomnia workbook. I learned a little from the introductory material and I'll try to get back to the workbook, soon, but I think for now I'll set it aside and maybe start one of my other books on insomnia.


Posts since last Malarkey:

• A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen (book review)
• Sanditon by Jane Austen and Kate Riordan (book review)
• Fiona Friday - NEW BOX!!!! (cat photo)

In other news:

I watched an episode each of Sanditon and Chicago Fire and then looked to see what else Rodger Corser has done besides The Heart Guy (aka Doctor Doctor) and Glitch because he's become a favorite actor. I discovered Rush (a police ensemble show) is available on Amazon Prime, so I watched an episode of that.

The difference between an Australian police show and an American one seems to be the amount of talking during dangerous situations. The Australian officers in Rush try to talk people down from the emotional ledge rather than charging into every situation with guns blazing and shouting to put the weapon down or whatever, although there's no less tension. I was fascinated by that. That minor difference makes for a very different viewing experience and I'm looking forward to more.

©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 - NEW BOX!!!!

©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.

Sanditon by Jane Austen and Kate Riordan

The original Sanditon (not the one shown above) was an unfinished novel by Jane Austen. Only about 60 pages of text were written by Austen before she died and it has since been completed by at least one other author. This is a specific version that I'm reviewing, a tie-in with the mini-series starring the woman on the cover. The version of Sanditon completed by Kate Riordan is actually a novelization of that TV adaptation, which was originally aired on ITV and is currently showing on America's PBS.

Sanditon is the story of Charlotte Heywood, a country girl whose family gets to know Tom and Mary Parker when Tom is injured while passing through their rural village and the Heywoods help him out. Charlotte comes from a very large family with loads of small children. I actually missed this part of the first episode of Sanditon, the mini series, but it can't have lasted long. I think I came in about 10 minutes late, certainly not much more. When the Parkers invite Charlotte to come stay with them in Sanditon, a beach village that Parker is building into a resort he hopes will become a thriving tourist destination, Charlotte's excited to go someplace new.

Charlotte is a bit naïve and outspoken so while she is heartily welcomed by the family, she almost immediately falls afoul of Tom Parker's brother Sidney's opinion. Sidney is hard to pin down. He's clearly involved in the building of Sanditon but not as directly as Tom. His job, as the story opens, is to bring some of his friends down from London in the hopes that they'll fall in love with Sanditon, talk about it, encourage more people to come, and make it successful with a little introductory word-of-mouth. Charlotte is fascinated by architecture and always enjoys whatever time she can fit in with Young Stringer, the foreman at the worksite but she spars with Sidney Parker. Occasionally, something will happen to soften Sidney's opinion of Charlotte but then she'll say or do something to offend him again and they'll bristle in each other's company.

There is an older woman, Lady Denham, who has invested money in the business and she has an entire storyline of her own. She is wealthy and has taken in a distant relative named Clara as her ward. She also has a niece and nephew, Esther and Edward Denham, who live in Sanditon. All three are devious creatures who only care about her money and she knows it. She acquired her wealth by marriage and is rude to all, generous to no one, but gleefully willing to get involved in finding wealthy spouses, at least for the niece and nephew, who are only related to each other by marriage and have a weird, possibly incestuous (but not, since they're not technically related) relationship.

There is also a young Jamaican heiress, Georgiana, whose story is interwoven with Charlotte's as they become friends. Lady Denham wants nephew Edward to try to marry Giorgiana because she's so fabulously wealthy. But, Georgiana already has a boyfriend and he is the reason her guardian, Sidney Parker, has removed her from London to Sanditon.

So, you have a sort-of, potential love triangle with Charlotte, Sidney, and Young Stringer. Then there's a mystery about what will happen between the young Georgiana and the boyfriend that Sidney is so determined for her to avoid that he's practically got her locked up with a hired woman. And, there are the three greedy relatives of Lady Denham who are constantly saying nasty things to each other while trying to weasel their way into Lady Denham's affections. Esther has a potential suitor who is a Lord. But, she only has eyes for her brother. Will Charlotte find love with wealthy Sidney or decide Young Stringer could make her a happy home? What will happen to Georgiana when Charlotte gets involved in her romance and Georgiana disappears? When Lady Denham falls ill, will she finally choose to pass on her inheritance to one of her relatives?

Recommended - There are lots of very entertaining scenes and I love the way things keep happening in Sanditon, especially what Charlotte inadvertently does to help bring in tourists. But I didn't like the sheer number of nasty people in the story or the ending of Sanditon because it felt very un-Jane-like to me; and, there were times I wrinkled my nose during certain scenes. Would Jane have a character say/do this? Well, it's not Jane's after the first 60 pages or so and I had to remind myself of that. But, I do think Kate Riordan's writing is excellent. I got totally swept up in the story and enjoyed it enough to give it 4/5, in spite of an ending I disliked. I'm glad I read it. The story is very different from most of what we know of Jane.

While watching the mini series and reading people's opinions, I've found I'm seeing the same words used repeatedly: "too modern". The modernness (compared to Austen's other works) didn't bother me a bit. It is definitely not as much about manners and social interaction as it is about commerce and money — Tom finding enough money to pay his workers so the resort can be finished and turn a profit, Lady Denham's fierce way of dangling her own money but refusing to share with anyone, a young black heiress whose money is so important that most people don't even act like they're aware she's black at all (but those who do are rip-roaring racists). It's about a new type of lifestyle and whether or not it will work. Romance, flirtation, social interaction, manners . . . they're all there but in a different way than Jane fans are accustomed to. The men are enterprising and not all apparently wealthy in the traditional landowner style. Times are changing and they have the ability to pursue money instead of having to accept their lot. It's really quite fascinating and I wish Jane had lived long enough to flesh this one out. But, I enjoyed the novelization by Kate Riordan enough that I'll be looking to see what else she's written.

The World of Sanditon by Sara Sheridan is a bonus book that Grand Central sent along with Sanditon. Nobody told me I was obligated to review it but I really enjoyed it and want to talk about it! Subtitled, "The secrets, romance and history behind Jane Austen's final story," it is not strictly a "making of" book but does relate the history of the Regency time period in which Sanditon is set directly to the story, sometimes quoting the script, sometimes examining some item (like bathing machines) that is used in the book and series, often relating the setting as a whole and the background of what was happening to how it played out in the story.

There are 2-page spreads with brief interviews of the actors, photos from the production, and loads of other photos of paintings and items from the time period. There are even some interesting stories that offer a taste of how and why people behaved the way they did. I loved the story of Lady Grange, a woman who threatened the man who impregnated her at gunpoint when he refused to marry her and then apparently had a decent marriage for 25 years . . . till she found out about his mistress. Then, things got ugly. It's a cautionary tale (this one from the Georgian period) that helps explain Sidney Parker's worry about his ward and her tempting money, which would become the property of whomever she married.

Such a fun book. I took my time reading The World of Sanditon because I didn't want to get to far into it and forget what it was about before my tour but it's worth returning to as a reference book, not just useful as a companion. So I'm sure I would have actually had equal fun zipping through it and then revisiting.

My thanks to Grand Central Publishing and Laurel Ann of Austenprose for the copies of Sanditon and The World of Sanditon!


©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 Beginning at the End by Mike Chen

A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen is a post-apocalyptic tale that takes place 6 years after a pandemic. In an opening prologue that gives you a glimpse of the panic as the pandemic breaks out, a British pop star called Mojo is in concert (in New York, I think) when everyone receives a phone warning that the disease has spread out of control and the concert ends abruptly.

In the current time, 6 years post-disaster, the world is very different. 70% of the world's population died during the epidemic and the survivors are just trying to get some semblance of a normal life, but everything has changed. There are people who abide by the rules and try to get housing in the cities and those who've gone off-grid. There are also plenty of outlaws and a lot of mental health issues caused by a post-traumatic stress related to the pandemic. The government is trying to get a grip on all this by following any further potential outbreaks of the disease closely. Housing is also strictly controlled and families are watched carefully for signs that parents are unable to take care of their children due to the post-apocalyptic syndrome that burdens so many.

Mojo is now Moira, a young woman working an everyday job. She's engaged and has hired Krista to do her wedding planning. Krista does anything she can to earn money and she's in desperate need of a cash infusion to prevent losing her current home. She's a character who doesn't like to think of her messy past and youthful trauma, but it affects her in many ways. It's hard to know whether to admire Krista or scrunch your nose at her in distaste.

Moira works with Rob, a widower with a daughter named Sunny who keeps to himself. Sunny has been acting out in school and the agency that watches out for family stress is threatening to take her away from Rob. He's aware that he has contributed to the problem but he's a good father. Rob needs people to testify on his behalf that he's a good and caring parent but he's been such a loner since the pandemic that he doesn't have any friends to help out.

I can't remember how Rob encounters Krista but he enlists her help (for pay). Meanwhile, Rob becomes friends with Moira. As the three lives intersect, fear is rising. There have been several rumored breakouts of the illness that caused the pandemic.

Will Rob be able to keep his daughter from being taken away and put in a place where he doesn't believe his child will be cared for properly? When Moira's father begins a very public search for her as Mojo and her face is splashed everywhere, will someone turn her in? Is Krista really willing to do anything for money or does she have a heart in there, somewhere? Will there be another pandemic? If so, what will happen to everyone? Will the population survive?

Recommended - I was so crazy about Mike Chen's first book, Here and Now and Then, that I pre-ordered A Beginning at the End. While I ended up giving it a 4/5 because the second half of A Beginning at the End becomes exciting, tense, and even a little heart-pounding, I struggled with the beginning of the book because the challenges were kind of . . . meh. And, I kept getting Krista and Moira confused. After I resolved my issue with keeping the two female characters distinct in my mind and once the pace picked up, I loved the book enough to raise it from an average rating to above average. It didn't sweep me up quite the way Here and Now and Then did, but it's worth sticking out the beginning — if you consider it slow, as I did — for the exciting latter part when it appears that the virus may be spinning out of control, again, and everything is going wrong. It's worth noting that I've already thought about rereading A Beginning at the End, so while I'm not giving it my highest recommendation, that latter half was thrilling enough to think about revisiting.

Also worth mentioning: Mike Chen's stories contain elements that I love (time travel; dystopia) but both of his books are, at their heart, stories about family being the most important thing in life. I love that. I will definitely watch for more by Mike Chen.


On a side note: What timing. I read A Beginning at the End in January, before the Coronavirus outbreak exploded. I wonder what Mike Chen thinks of what's happening. I keep finding myself reflecting back on the story. You get glimpses of what happened during the pandemic in A Beginning at the End, but it's told in flashbacks so there's a bit of distance. In fact, I did find myself thinking that I might have preferred a story about the pandemic to one about the aftermath. Then, I kind of got what I wanted in the second half when it becomes more tense, although there were plenty of surprises.

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