The Prisoner’s Throne

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by Holly Black
First sentence: “
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Others in the series: The Cruel Prince, The Wicked King, The Queen of Nothing, The Stolen Heir
Content: There is some violence, including torture, and mild swearing. It’s in the YA section (grades 6-8) of the bookstore.

Spoilers for all the rest of the series, obviously.

Oak and Wren have successfully overthrown the Court of Teeth, but the problem is that even though Wren is queen, Oak has been thrown in prison. It’s not fun, being a prisoner in ice, and watching Wren use her magic to unmake things. It’s not until Oak’s sister, Jude, decides to rescue him that he makes his move: ask Wren to marry him. But, that creates a whole other level of conflict: there are attempts on Jude and Cardan’s lives, and there’s a hag witch that has Wren under her spell. The question is: can Oak play his cards right to stop everything.

I’m not sure if Black is going to keep writing books set in Elfhame, but honestly, I’d read them if she does. I love this world, I love these characters, and Black spins such a good tale. It’s been too long since I’ve visited the world, and yet I found myself slipping back into the rhythms and the magic of the stories that Black spins. I appreciate that the danger feels real, that nothing is safe, and that the stakes are high. It makes for an unputdownable book.

Another excellent addition to the Elfhame series.

Drawing Deena

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by Hena Khan
First sentence: “I wince as the sharp metal tool scrapes against my molars and pricks my gums.”
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Content: There are some tense moments, and Deena experiences a panic attack. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

What Deena really wants to do is draw. She’s good at it, and she loves it. However, her parents are always super stressed about money, and they are always pushing her towards doing something that will help her earn a living. They work hard – her mother has a clothing business, that Deena is sure she could help with – but they are unwilling to spend their money on art lessons. There are other money issues, and it all weighs on Deena, until she starts having anxiety attacks.

This is a quiet little book, without high-stakes conflict, but I thought that Khan did well with the characterizations. I could feel Deena’s parents’ stress, and understood their hesitation to spend money (I’ve been there!). I could understand why Deena wanted to both pursue her art but also to make her parents happy. I got the friendship conflicts and Deena’s jealousy of her cousin. I also liked her portrayal of anxiety, especially in someone who didn’t know they had it. Nothing in the book was high-stakes, but Khan is a good writer and while the book was quiet, it was a good sort of quiet.

I really liked it.

The Serviceberry

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by Robin Wall Kimmerer
First sentence: “The cool breath of evening slips off the wooded hills, displacing the heat of the day, and with it come the birds, as eager for the cool as I am.”
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Release date: November 19, 2024
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: It’s small and thin, with illustrations, nothing super difficult, so even interested younger people could read it. It will be in the Science section of the bookstore.

In this slim book, Kimmerer reflects on the inherently service- and gift-oriented nature of, well, nature, and how humans can learn from that. It’s a simple thesis, but one that I think is inherently radical: if we gave up a market economy, where people are expected to earn and consume and live for the individual, and moved toward a more gift-based economy, where if you had enough you shared with others, regardless of what they did or did not have, the world would have to change.

My religious tradition espouses this, at least on paper, and so I was interested to read how Kimmerer approached it. She was very much “wow, wouldn’t this be a better way to live?” I kept thinking of the Bill McKibben books I’ve read, and how forthright and outspoken he is about the climate, culture, and how capitalism isn’t good for the earth. Contrast that with Kimmerer: she’s saying many of the same things but is much less, well, cranky about it. She is out there witnessing that she finds fulfillment in giving to others, and finds joy in the knowledge that others have received of her bounty. She lambasts those who take without care of those who have less – she tells a story about someone who stole the stand that the free farm food was on, and compares it to companies who take from the earth without thought or consequence. Perhaps her method is a better way of getting people to think about the costs of capitalism: she’s soothing, she’s kind, she’s reflective, and she’s out there reminding people that giving of your excess, rather than hoarding it, is in fact the way to a better, happier life.

This is one I’m going to buy and reread because it’s a good reminder of what’s good in life.

Audiobook: The Faculty Lounge

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by Jennifer Mathieu
Read by Lisa Flanagan
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some swearing, including a few f-bombs. It’s in the adult fiction section of the bookstore.

It starts as a mostly typical year at Baldwin High School in Houston, TX, until a beloved former English teacher (and current substitute) dies in a classroom (on his free period). That sets off a chain of events that includes a misstep of an ash scattering, parent complaints, pregnant teenagers, and inter-department romances. There’s not really an over-arching plot; it’s a series of vignets, each chapter about a different person in the high school from the principal to a janitor, about their experiences over the course of a school year, the ups and downs, the ways in which politics effect the school day, and the inner lives of teachers.

I really liked this one, especially on audio. It’s mostly just a character study, but Mathieu is a good enough writer to pull it off. And Flanagan was an excellent narrator, giving life to the different characters. I know Mathieu is (was? at least when she came to Wichita for an event, she was) a high school English teacher, and so she knows the ropes, and it comes across in this book. It’s entertaining and fun to listen to, and I didn’t mind that there really isn’t a plot. I liked learning about the characters, the way the chapters built upon each other, the way it felt like I was sitting with friends or co-workers to learn about their lives and their experiences teaching.

Definitely a fun read.

Monthly Round-Up: July 2024

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It was an interesting reading month. I read a lot, or it least it felt like it did, and yet, there wasn’t anything that really stood out as my favorite. If I had to pick one, I’d probably pick this one:

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret

It was fun, it was entertaining, and I had a good time while reading it.

As for the rest:

Adult Fiction:

Brightly Shining
The Unwedding (Audiobook)
That Prince is Mine (Audiobook)
Slow Dance

Middle Grade:

Painting the Game
Unstuck
Operation: Happy
The Thirteenth Circle

Non-fiction:

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent
Soul of an Octopus (audiobook)

What was your favorite this month?

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret

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by Benjamin Stevenson
First sentence: “There are quite a few differences between an Australian Christmas and the stereotypical Northern Hemisphere fare seen in most books and movies.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, Everyone On This Train is Suspect
Release date: October 22, 2024
Content: There are murders, of course. It will be in the Christmas book section of the bookstore.

Ern Cunningham is back, and this time he needs to exonerate his ex-wife from the murder of her boyfriend. The problem is that she woke up covered in his blood, with no memory of how that happened. So, Ern heads to Australia’s Blue Hills and the Christmas magic show in order to figure out the murder.

Of course, there are twists and turns, and Stevenson’s trademark humor (Ern even learns the true meaning of Christmas… but it’s not what you think). The book is laid out like an advent calendar (read one chapter a day!), with references to Christmas specials and fair play mysteries. All the clues are there, if you can figure out how to put them together (no surprise: I didn’t). It was fun and entertaining, and a delightful addition to this series.

The Thirteenth Circle

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by MarcyKate Connolly and Kathryn Holmes
First sentence: “There was an alien in Cat Mulvaney’s bedroom.”
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Content: There are some intense moments. It’s in the Middle Grade section of the bookstore.

Dani desperately wants her parents to take her interest in science seriously. Cat desperately wants her father to pay attention to her. And so both need to win the McMurray Youth Science competition and get into ScienceU. The problem: they’re working together and Cat wants to prove that aliens exist, and Dani knows that they don’t. It just so happens that every 13 years crop circles appear in a nearby field, and they’re due to appear this year. And Cat’s figured out when and where. All they have to do is gather evidence… and see whose theory is the solid one.

It’s a mild spoiler to say that this is solidly realistic fiction; there are, in fact, no aliens. But, Dani and Cat do uncover a conspiracy and they do end up realizing that working together is better than working against each other. I liked this one well enough; I liked how Dani and Cat would gather evidence and then work out hypotheses based on the evidence. It was unbelievable how much time these 13-year-olds spent running around the town late at night, but I can forgive that. And the whole conspiracy was a bit over the top, though it fit the story.

Will it be my favorite book this year? No, but it’s a good one.

Slow Dance

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by Rainbow Rowell
First sentence: “The wedding invitation came, and Shiloh said yes, of course she’d be there.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There was swearing, including several f-bombs, as well as on-page sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

In high school, it was always Shiloh-and-Cary-and-Mike. They were always together, and everyone assumed that Shiloh and Cary were together. But they weren’t. They were just friends. And now, 14 years after they last saw each other, after Shiloh has been married and divorced and had two kids, Cary is back in her life. They re-met at Mike’s second marriage, back in Omaha – Shiloh never left, actually – and tried to pick up where they left off. There were some false starts and miscommunication, but in the end, and despite everything else going on in their lives, it was just too good – too right – to be back in each other’s orbit again.

On the one hand, I really enjoyed this. I connected with the characters — it’s set in 2006, when they were 33 (I was 34 that year) — and the situations they found themselves in. I liked Shiloh and Carey, even when they weren’t communicating well, or Shiloh was acting anxious, or just everything. On the other hand, this was very slow and very mundane. There wasn’t a lot of what a reader would expect out of a romance in it. Even a second-chance one. There was no third-act fallout, there was very little conflict or tension. And while I liked the thoughtful, reflective quality of a book, it’s not really what readers have come to expect out of something billed as romance.

Is this a book for everyone? Probably not. But I enjoyed it.

Audiobook: That Prince is Mine

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by Jayci Lee
Read by Olivia Song
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of on-page, somewhat explicit sex as well as swearing, including many f-bombs. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Emma Yoon only wants two things to be happy: to open her culinary school and to have her godmother, a Korean matchmaker, arrange a marriage for her. She doesn’t believe in love matches – her parents had one that failed spectacularly – and she trusts that her godmother will find someone perfect for her. On the other hand, is Prince Michele Chevalier – the crown prince of some small European country – doesn’t want an arranged marriage, and so he’s in LA as a visiting professor to find someone to fall in love with so he can take her home and live happily ever after.

Of course, they have a meet-cute and of course, they fall in love despite Emma’s misgivings.

It’s a cute enough book, and the narrator does a decent job, but I found it annoying. Mostly because it was so repetitive. Lee lays out at the beginning that Emma doesn’t want a love match, that she needs to use her godmother’s matchmaking services because only Emma can help save her business and that Michele needs to find someone that he’s Compatible with and can Love Forever. That’s all fine and good. The problem is that Lee needs to tell us these facts Every. Single. Chapter. It got really old really fast. And, honestly, while I was entertained by the book, that one issue kind of dampened my enjoyment. I honestly didn’t feel any chemistry between the main characters, and it all just kind of fell flat.

I wanted to enjoy this one a lot more than I actually did, which is too bad.

Operation: Happy

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by Jenni L. Walsh
First sentence: “A dog is at the top of my wish list.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There are some intense moments – bombs dropping on Pearl Harbor, and an attempted assault – though it is short and age-appropriate. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Jody is the daughter of a Marine, who is stationed in Pearl Harbor in 1940. If you know history, you know where this is going. The book is divided into two: before the attack, where Jody is enjoying living in Hawaii and having her family around, and then after, when she, her mom, and her sister are evacuated to San Francisco, dealing with the aftermath of the attack.

It’s a slim book to handle all that’s in there, but Walsh handles it quite beautifully. As a reader, you get a sense of the idyllic Hawaiian life before the attacks, how Jody loves spending time with her dog and her family. And then the intensity of the attacks and the spiral afterward, when Jody’s mom becomes overwhelmed and depressed and Jody and her sister have to figure out how to deal with creating a livable life for themselves in San Francisco. And I appreciate that while Walsh didn’t sugarcoat the panic or the fear, she made it age-appropriate.

The only thing I didn’t get was the purpose of the chapters written from the dog’s perspective. While it never veered into speculative, I didn’t feel like they added much to the story. But, aside from that, it’s a charming historical novel that addresses some intense subjects.