Friday, May 6, 2022

A Merry Month of May Multitude of Book Musings (Too much?)

 


This month I’m taking a page from some friends and sharing what I’ve been reading, what I liked and didn’t like about the books, and any musings about them. I guess I’ve hit a few genres this past month.

What I’ve been reading - 

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow – This book brings together a wide variety of elements in a single masterful alternate timeline historical novel. The three Eastwood sisters represent ancient archetypes of mother, maiden, and crone. Agnes Amaranth is a single mother to be, working in a sweatshop, who falls in love with a man who has used his own limited witchcraft to advocate for worker’s rights. Beatrice Belladonna is a librarian who, far from a spinster yet, finds romance with a female journalist, if she can trust herself. James Juniper is a young maiden with a deadly secret. The three find each other again and themselves embroiled in the fight for the woman’s right to vote and to practice witchcraft, after fleeing their father’s farm. I’ve read everything else written by this author to date and just love her style and depth. I highly recommend this book, without reservation.

The Vanishing Type by Ellery Adams – I love this series for so many reasons, not the least of which is because I love books in general. As a librarian, reading a mystery series where the main character is a former librarian turned bookseller who adores books and recommending them to patrons in her store, is just my idea of heaven. She mentions so many books that I recognize, and so many I don’t, that even the non-mystery portion of the story is fascinating. I also adore how she often finds books to help people with troubles in their life, something called bibliotherapy. With this story, Adams builds layer upon layer of mystery into the story. Nora is the owner of Miracle books, while her friends from the Secret, Book, and Scone Society include Hester, Estella, and June. They’ve come to trust and rely on each other. They do so again as Hester’s secret about the baby she gave up for adoption comes out into the open just as her boyfriend proposes. It’s a bumpy ride but Adams keeps us on the rails.

The Nobel Lecture in Literature 1993 by Toni Morrison – This lecture begins with Morrison relating a folk tale that she has heard in numerous cultures, about young people challenging an old blind person and that wise person putting them in their place. But then she extends the tale, asking, what if the wise person and the young entered a dialog to better understand each other – how much more could come of it? I had the sense that I would need to read it again and again to find the meaning within it. The second part was a simple acceptance speech of the award and thoroughly inspiring to me because it spoke about the writers of the future. Perfect for any aspiring writers.

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler – I picked this book up thinking that the title indicated a comforting read. For some reason, the description didn’t disabuse me of the notion. I started reading and it was intriguing, if a bit lackluster. After a while, something reminded me of another book I’d read and I realized I’d read one other book by this author and didn’t care for it. I hate to put a book down and kept reading, soon finding that this book was really about one of the most dysfunctional families I’ve ever read about. The writing is interesting, it draws you on, your mouth drops open on a regular basis at the things people do. It’s not my cup of tea but the book is well written. If you like a slice of life about dysfunctional families, then this book is for you. I found it . . . unsatisfying.

The Taming of the Few: Guardians of the PHAE Book 1 by Rowan Dillon – Though this is a first urban fantasy for this author, it is not her first book. I admit that she is a member of my writer’s group and I have enjoyed her historical fantasy stories for years. The characters in this tale are thoroughly entertaining, from irascible Max with his Vietnam era PTSD and ability to talk to the wind, to swim coach Anna’s growing ability to convince the water to do her bidding, as iridescent scales slowly cover her arms. It seems a shift in the magnetic poles has caused magic to come to the surface in many people. These latent abilities have stirred fear in some and there is brewing resentment as factions move toward unrest and armed conflicts. I’m thoroughly enjoying the tale, though I’m only 30% of the way in.


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