Storymusing: Nightfall in the Garden of Deep Time by Tracy Higley

 

Nightfall in the Garden of Deep Time

by Tracy Higley

Kelsey is running the Chestnut Street Book Emporium for her “Gran,” who is actually her adoptive grandmother. She doesn’t know who her parents were at all. But Gran has had a stroke and is now living in assisted living.

Unfortunately, a developer and the city itself are breathing down Kelsey’s neck to get Gran to sell. There’s a big luxury hotel going in next door and the developer wants the property. The city is after her for back taxes as well. She either has to commit to paying a chunk of the back taxes and doing installment payments or they’ll seize the property and auction it off. Can she commit to those payments when Gran is in care and the facility also needs to be paid?

Kelsey has also put her own dreams on the back burner. She wanted to write for a living but a little bit of discouragement from two sources over the years sent her reeling pretty quickly. She stuffed the manuscript in a drawer and left it there.

And Kelsey’s boyfriend? Don’t get me started. Not exactly supportive, but then they’ve only been dating for a month.

“Despite everything going on, I savor this moment in my happy place, grateful for this bookshop that is everything I love stacked and bundled and shelved into one cavernous and glorious space with a hundred mysterious corners.”

The author creates for us an old-time bookstore, and the city neighborhood replete with a variety of shop owners, old and young, of varying backgrounds. It feels like a bit of Sesame Street that lives in so many of our hearts.

“Listen, Kelsey, you let me know if you need me to chain myself to the bookshop or anything, to stop the bulldozers. You know I will.”

Was that her neighbor William or …?

The story is picturesque and idyllic in places, but in contrast to the heartbreak and pain of life.

When Kelsey visits Gran to talk about all this, Gran mutters cryptic statements about the garden being the key. But there’s no garden. Can things get worse? Of course they can!

Then, one night, Kelsey finds the garden in the walled off lot next to the store, and a host of people inside, both demanding and supportive. Is this just a dream? If so, it’s a very literary one. Can they help her figure out how to save the bookshop?

I loved so much of the story, it really is for readers and writers, in particular. She has so much to say about imposter syndrome without naming it.

I feel a certain kinship with Kelsey – pushing my own writing aside so often for the more immediate necessities of family life and work at the library. “Imagination doesn’t pay the bills,” Kelsey thinks to herself in the first chapter. Thankfully, my work at the library includes the writer’s group, which keeps bringing me back to my own writing.

The biggest problem I had was that the author “read” it while I’m used to voice actors “performing” a story. I still enjoyed it, but it took a while for me to get into the story, and I think I would have enjoyed reading it more if I’d read it in a hard copy instead of listening to it.

First person and present tense is an interesting choice, bringing a sense of immediacy to a rather long book. It’s a lovely homage to the arts. There’s a bit of a side quest that didn’t really connect to me. I felt like it could be tightened up a bit and still keep the lush prose and deep dive into what it means to be an artist and persevere. It’s a strong 4 stars for me. I’m definitely glad I spent the time reading it and would recommend it to others.

Storymusing on TVA Baby and Other Stories by Terry Bisson

 

TVA Baby and Other Stories 

by Terry Bisson

For the month of June our Thematic Book Club went with the concept of “The Future.” It was no problem choosing a book this month as I have a number of science fiction books sitting on my shelf at home that I’ve requested over the years for gifts.

The author Terry Bisson first caught my attention with a humorous award winning short story, “They’re Made Out of Meat.” It’s told from the perspective of two aliens watching humans. They are grossed out by the fact human bodies are made out of meat. I found it quite hilarious at the time.

I don’t remember when I requested the collection, TVA Baby, but it must have been in a book review magazine I read at work. I put the book on my wish list and it came to me one holiday as a gift.

I picked it up expecting straight up science fiction. It turned out to be what I’ve learned to call more speculative fiction — somewhere between science fiction and tall tales. Some are inspiring, some are kind of depressing, but most are thought provoking in one way or another.

To be honest, the first story in the collection, TVA Baby, left me wondering if I really wanted to read this collection. It seemed like a cross between a macho action story of the John D. MacDonald variety and a singularly ruthless Murdoch from the A-Team.

Private Eye slowed things down and had more of a Philip Marlowe meets the ennui of the future just trying to get by. I found it much more interesting and enjoyable.

Pirates of the Somali Coast again had me wondering if I really wanted to read this book? The young main character dances without reality through a bloody pirate take over of his cruise ship. It seems to ask the question, what if a child really could not tell the difference between video games and reality? A problem I have never seen in a child, to be honest, though I suppose there may be a few out there who really couldn’t tell the difference.

The Stamp was one of the shortest but also one of the more interesting, featuring a boy who had purchased some stamps for his brother’s birthday that showed things which hadn’t happened yet. The identity of the two children makes it all the more interesting.

Catch ‘Em in the Act was intriguing if a bit gritty. A young man gets a hold of a video camera that claims to help the viewer stop crimes, but actually seems to make people do things they wouldn’t otherwise consider until he viewed them through it. A bit Supernatural and rather interesting to see where it led.

The rest of the stories were at different turns sad and lovely, absurd and cringe-worthy, inventive, bland, crude, and thought provoking.

Brother Can You Spare a Dime was one of the most interesting and creative of the stories in this collection. It starts with a homeless man who is being pushed along by the police. The homeless man finds himself transported to the future and realizes the dimes have his face on them. He comes to the conclusion that he must do something in the past worthy of the honor of having his face on the money which brings about the beautiful future and returns to his own time. I do love a good time travel story, and I love any story with a good twist ending, as this one goes on to have.

Overall, I did not enjoy every story, but they were definitely thought provoking and made my brain consider new avenues of thought that helped me start working on one of my own stories again. Venture in at your own risk.

Storymusing: Upon a Once Time

 

The theme for our book club in February was “A Retelling.” They seem to be everywhere, particularly in Young Adult literature. I was able to pull a short collection of stories from my bookshelf at home called Upon a Once Time. Unfortunately, it isn’t one that would be widely available because it came from a Kickstarter by Todd Sanders of the Air and Nothingness Press. http://aanpress.com/ Though this book was a limited run and is sold out, they have quite a catalog of other books.

If you’ve never heard of such a thing, Kickstarters for books and games have become quite common. There’s a Kickstarter page devoted to “Publishing” which says “Explore how writers and publishers are using Kickstarter to bring new literature, periodicals, podcasts, and more to life.” The proposed projects run a fascinating gamut of fiction and non-fiction, including comics, art books, zines, and so much more. You can check it out at https://www.kickstarter.com/publishing. I’ve seen both new authors, anthologies of new and established authors, and even well-established authors creating projects through Kickstarter.

I thought the cover art for this book, by Serena Malyon, was incredibly lovely, giving the feel of a fantastical yesteryear very appropriate for fairy tale retellings. Malyon is a Canadian freelance illustrator and artist. Her site calls this piece “Tokens” and says it was worked in watercolour and gouache. Its colors are muted but the picture is detailed. You can view more of her artwork on her web site at https://www.serenamalyon.com/

It’s also nice that it was an anthology, showcasing 21 different authors. I love this way of getting to experience what different authors have to offer. I might like a couple stories, really not care for one at all, then find one that I absolutely loved! It’s a great way to find new authors to follow.

There was a Tom Thumb retelling set in space, Little Tom’s Reality by Rebecca E. Treasure, that caught my attention and the twist of it was particularly poignant to me. Tom is a small child never allowed to leave his living quarters because the winds would whisk him away. His home life is not pleasant though and one night he becomes desperate to see the outside so he sneaks into his mother’s spacesuit. When he opens the airlock, it is nothing like he imagined.

Diamonds, Toads, And… Pumpkins? by Melissa Mead was delightfully humorous and yet wretchedly realistic in how women have to sometimes put up with others deciding what their existence means and what they need. It reminded me a bit of a Sir Terry Pratchett story, whose long running Discworld series borrowed heavily from fairy tales and other fantastical stories. Excellent company to be in.

I always love a good golem story. I don’t know what it is about the idea that appeals to me so much, perhaps the alien-ness of experiencing the world as a clay person, not quite human, and often fumbling. The Rabbi’s Daughter And The Golem by Alex Langer did not disappoint as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, I highly recommend it. I still have the companion volume to read.

The theme for our book club in March is “Self-improvement” and I’ve been reading ahead. I quickly finished the audio recording of The Life-Changing Magic of NOT GIVING A F*CK: how to stop spending time you don’t have with people you don’t like doing things you don’t want to do by Sarah Knight. It’s a truly practical parody.  I’ve picked up another, more serious, self-improvement book and I’ll have lots to recommend in this area next month.

Book Review: Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang

 

Guest review by Tarren Young

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence:

An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution

by R.F. Kuang

 

Whose job is it to determine who is and who isn’t civilized?

It started with a bestie raving about the reviews. From that alone, I was amped up not with just a monstrous desire, but an unyielding need to read Babel by author R.F. Kuang. This fascinating book delves deep into the underpinnings of academia using an underlying magic, crackling like an unseen electrical current, to discuss colonialism in great detail.

Robin Swift is “saved” by Professor Lovell after his mother dies of cholera in Canton, China. In England, he is raised by Lovell and tutored until he is old enough to attend Oxford, where Lovell works. There, Robin meets his first real friends – Remy, Victoire, and Letty. As they learn the mysterious silver work that underpins the modern conveniences of the world they live in, the gross inequities that their work rests on are revealed and the four must make some hard decisions.

Babel, starting in the mid 1800’s, is at its core a fictional social commentary of the mindsets different classes of people held during that period. A sharp, but often jagged, line that cuts right into humanity itself. One class of people believe this, another believes that. Yet everyone benefits in some form from the academic brains and silver work, the magic that sits at the heart of Oxford, the Tower of Babel.

Even though everyone benefits, what happens at the Tower is like the old Vegas saying, “What happens at Babel, stays at Babel.” What exactly goes on at Babel? Who runs Babel? And as such, who truly benefits from Babel? What social class of people are reaping the benefits from the work at Babel?

Though some of the characters seemed to be a bit one dimensional, I feel they were portrayed that way to attest to the hierarchy hive mind of how specific social classes were viewed. Several characters seem to be more human, and that’s what this book really tries to address. Who is considered human, and who is below that status—in the mindsets of those different social classes.

Another facet of what this novel does — it seeks to understand, and deconstruct our understanding. It is an exploration to challenge preconceived notions of what the reader thinks they already know.

I willingly admit that this has been the most academic novel I have read since the early 2000’s when I was in college. And, if I’m being honest, it felt daunting at times. Some parts of the novel were fascinating, but it did not stop me from wanting to DNF (did not finish) the book at times. The one-dimensional characters fell into that consideration.

I did love learning more about a time and situation I only knew a hairs breadth about. And the later characters showed growth. There was witty and sarcastic banter! (Sarcasm may not be the high class of social acceptance for academia, but I do enjoy good sarcasm.) Despite the spots of tedium, it also seemed accessible. There were some thought-provoking twists one could not see coming that were appreciated as well.

However, in all of this, there is still something I can’t quite put my finger on about the book that made me not rate it a full four stars. (My overall rating on the book was 3.5/5 stars.) I have been wracked with it for a week, and I still have yet to come to a solid conclusion on why.

Even with this still niggling in the back of my brain, I am glad to have read it, to have learned, to challenge myself — to still think on it long into the early depths of the morning.

             

Story Musing: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel by David Mitchell

 

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel by David Mitchell

Our thematic book club’s topic for September was “Welcome Fall.” Sometimes I choose something that I’ve been wanting to read and sometimes I just browse through our digital catalogs for things that are available based on the theme. I do that particularly to find audio books I can listen to on my commute. This month it just so happened I found The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel by David Mitchell. I had previously read and loved Bone Clocks by this author.

Bone Clocks definitely had a more horrific feel for me than this story, but both had a fantastical epic story. As I started to listen to Jacob de Zoet, I realized I had picked up this book on audio once before and had a really hard time getting into it. This time, I thoroughly enjoyed it but I have to say, the title makes no sense. It’s a linear third person historical novel of a person who does not prolong his life in any way. Why a thousand autumns? I still don’t know.

 “Nagasaki itself, wood gray and mud brown, looks oozed from between the verdant mountains’ splayed toes. The smells of seaweed, effluence, and smoke from countless flues are carried over the water. The mountains are terraced by rice paddies nearly up to their serrated summits.”

Dejima holds a fascinating place in history just outside Nagasaki, as I learned both from this book and a little research after reading it. It was created by digging a canal across a small peninsula then building a long bridge, so it was linked but easily cut off and controlled. It was used as the only trading port for the Portuguese then the Dutch during the 200 years when Japan was largely isolated. It was designed to keep the foreigners from mixing too much with the people of Japan. Only Japanese citizens of a very few professions were allowed to go into Dejima, and the foreigners were not allowed onto Japanese land at all for about 200 years. It is now a national historic site.  (https://nagasakidejima.jp/english/history/ and https://www.japanistry.com/dejima/)

There’s a lot to recommend about this book. The history portrayed seems, from my limited reading, fairly accurate. There’s a fantastical and horrific element to it that becomes clear as the story goes on, but it is not described graphically at any point. The real life details, particularly surrounding the slaves lives, are more horrific at times. The detail of the time period, the humor of interactions, descriptions, the characters, the romance, the reality, the diplomacy — there’s so much going on here.

The story opens in 1799, near Nagasaki, at the House of Kawasemi the concubine, who is in labor, and it is not going well. Aibagawa is a mid-wife studying under the local Dutch surgeon, Dr. Marinus. Through the application of modern medicine, such as it is at that time, she pulls off what seems like a minor miracle, leaving the local magistrate in her debt.

After the delivery, we fast forward several months to the entrance of Jacob De Zoet as he transcribes the proceedings of the trial of one Daniel Snitker, Chief Clerk of the Dutch East Indies Company on the manmade island of Dejima, near Nagasaki.

Described as a pastor’s nephew, de Zoet is appointed the clerk in Dejima to check the books for inaccuracies and many men are implicated is shady dealings. Of course, honesty is not always welcome. Jacob is reviled by the men who served under Snitker — Arie Grote, with his wild tales and ready deals, Piet Baert, Ivo Oost, and Gerritszoon. They ably torment Jacob, who is not steeled against their tactics, but each has a tale to tell of how he came to be there, which is revealed in due course.

“Jacob considers telling Vorstenbosch about the scene at breakfast but sees nothing to be gained. Respect, he thinks, cannot be commanded from on high.”

There is also the matter of the De Zoet Psalter, a book of hymns, hidden in his room. It was supposed to be sealed up with all the other Christian artifacts in a barrel and surrendered to the Japanese government until they left again. If it is discovered, there will be hell to pay.

Jacob is pretty much just tolerated by the local people but he makes himself useful to the interpreters to whom he teaches a more full understanding of the Dutch language. Ogawa Uzaemon is one of these interpreters who plays an important role in the story.

Orito Aibagawa returns to the story, chasing a monkey absconding with and amputated leg. Jacob is besotted on first meeting her. He tries to befriend Dr. Marinus in hopes of making contact with her but is repulsed, at first.

Jacob is further rewarded for his honesty by being placed in a position of servitude to those who hate him. He is, generally speaking, a good guy, and he does manage to make friends over time, both with other Europeans and local people. How he does this is part of the curiously wonderful story.

After her father dies somewhat unexpectedly, her stepmother sells Orito off to temple that holds a terrible secret which only begins with drugging the women who go there as sisters. This is an incredibly simplistic explanation of this small part of the plot that has huge ramifications and tendrils branching throughout the story.

Each of the characters in the huge cast are well drawn and introduced at the appropriate time, so that the reader is not overwhelmed. The intricacies of the situation are well portrayed and as the plot unfolds, it blooms outward into a story of epic proportions told through well detailed scenes from several different perspectives.

The story progresses through various twists and turns until Jacob becomes proves why he deserves to be the title character.

This book easily encompasses a trilogy but is presented in one volume for continuity. I appreciate that as it provides a transportive experience.

The reading on the audio version bothered me a little bit as the characters often sounded from Great Britain rather than the people of Nagasaki. A larger cast would have helped the listener more fully envision the story. Or, perhaps, if the female actor had been Japanese, that would have been sufficient. Still, listening to it on audio in the car was vastly entertaining and took me on a long journey as the novel is huge, around 900 pages. The pronunciation of Dutch names was very helpful to this reader.

I really enjoyed this story and turned around to pick up another immersive tale by Mitchell for next month. I highly recommend his writing.

Book Musing: Akata Woman by Nnedi Okorafor

 

Akata Woman

by Nnedi Okorafor

I have been thoroughly fascinated by this series since the beginning, with Akata Witch and Akata Warrior. I have enjoyed reading them myself, but this time I listened to part of the book on audio. Listening was even better so I could hear the pronunciation of the words by a wonderful reader, Nene Nwoko. Nwoko is an actress born and raised in Nigeria who now lives in America.

Sunny Nwazue is the main character, growing from a girl in the first book to a young woman by the third book. She was born with albinism, so she has always felt like an outsider but when she finds out she has magic in her, things begin to get better. She ends up being doubled, which makes her unusual even among Leopard People, the magic folk, and an outsider again. Being doubled means her spirit face, Anyanwu, is separated from her and can go out on its’ own, which it often does. This frustrates Sunny to no end.

Luckily Sunny has some good friends – Chichi, Sasha, and Orlu. They are also Leopard people, each on their own journey of learning. Luckily, Chichi is there to fill in gaps in Sunny’s knowledge because she was raised knowing she was a Leopard person, which Sunny was unaware. Her parents are still clueless about it, though Sunny’s mother has some inkling that she is more like her grandmother than any of the would be comfortable with.

Sunny also has two brothers who always come into the stories as do her parents. I like this aspect of the stories, as so often, main characters don’t seem to have parents or siblings for one reason or another. They operate in isolation which isn’t reality for many of us. I like seeing how family’s interact in fantastical books.

One of my favorite minor characters in the book is a wasp creature that lives in Sunny’s room and makes beautiful sculptures for her every day. A wasp is not something you would see as a benevolent creature in too many books. I like the unusual choice.

One thing I love about these books is how they are influenced by the folklore of Nigeria. In the folklore, Anansi is a God who sometimes takes the form of a spider. Anansi has a lot to do with knowledge and stories. I first read of Anansi in a picture book then later in Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys. Here, the spider is called Udide and never takes a human form.

Udide tasks Sunny and her friend Chichi with bringing back a ghazal that Udide wrote a millennia ago and was stolen by the Nim women, who Sunny and Chichi are descended from. Udide threatens to rain down horrible destruction on the human world if Sunny and Chichi don’t retrieve it for Udide.

In this adventure, we learn the sad and harsh background of Chichi’s mother. An interesting story in its’ own right. Then the four friends have to go on a magical journey together on The Road. It takes them to a fantastical land, with creatures both friendly and antagonistic.

The book also touches on the political unrest in Nigeria and at the end, the Covid pandemic. This is important to grounding the story in the real world, something that can’t be ignored, and yet not heavy handed or the central focus of the story.

It seems clear that Okorafor is leaving the door open for another book in this series. I will be watching for it. In the meantime, she has many other books to explore. 

Book Review: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

By V.E. Schwab

Reviewed by Michelle Wells

Just a quick note to say that this review marks a change for the blog. I’ve decided to only write one review a month so that I won’t be so rushed in my reading and can do a more in depth review of the books. New reviews will be put up on the first Friday of the month and cover whatever I happen to be reading at the moment. I jump between genres with wild abandon. I apologize if that confuses anyone.

Why did I pick this book up? A friend raved about the writing and I needed something that I could sink my teeth into, something that would sweep me up in a story. This book did that fairly well.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue covers several hundred years and begins with a young woman being coerced to marry, “for the good of the village.” It is 1714 in Villon-sur-Sarthe, France. Addie does not want to marry and runs to the woods on the eve of her marriage to pray for deliverance, but Estele has warned her to beware the gods that answer after dark. The god, or devil, that answers Addie’s prayer demands a price. Even in her fear, Addie makes a bargain that at once frees her and damns her.

She is freed from the marriage, and all constraints of obligation, but now no one recognizes her, or remembers her once they have left her presence. Though it takes her time to learn the limits of this new life, Addie figures out ways to survive, and eventually to thrive and enjoy the beauty of art and life. She even figures out how to leave a mark on history.

While the story touches upon various major events in history during the time period covered, it is largely a glancing blow as the story focuses upon Addie, and her relationships with the god/devil she calls Luc, and other people she interacts with, most notably musicians and artists.

In looking back at the story, I was surprised at how early Henry Strauss is introduced. I thought it was much farther into the book, perhaps because he's a very average character, until we find that he can remember Addie. He runs a book store and she tries to steal a book, but it doesn't go down quite the way she expects.

The timeline is a little shallow, like a stone skimming across a pond through many jumps until it sinks in the end, though I did enjoy the ride. “Ooo, I recognize that, and oh, hey, yeah, I recognize that.”

I really wasn’t sure precisely where this was going, right until the final pages, so that is always a plus in my estimation. Things changed directions a bit several times throughout the book, and more often toward the end. I was very concerned at one point that it was turning into one of those books that extolls the virtues of an abusive relationship under the guise of romance, but thankfully that did not turn out to be the case.

Did it develop any deeper themes? Mainly that there is beauty to be found in life in between the pain.

The concept was intriguing, the settings lovely, and nicely described, but the book could have been condensed and not lost anything. Her interaction with her old friend Estele, after her pact with the devil, is echoed by her interaction with her friend Isabelle, without any useful addition. Fewer scenes included but developed more fully might have provided a richer reading experience.

The writing style drew me in and carried me along easily, but it was a long, slow, drawn-out ride. Is this zen or shallow? Addie can’t have any possessions or even leave a mark – with pencil or other tools. It almost forces her into a shallow life. There are mentions of more – trying to save people in World War II and a time of madness, but they aren’t drawn in any depth. It’s still always in relation to her and her relationships, just a framework.

Schwab is a prolific author, 20 books in under 10 years, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts which plays into this story through her use of art works to give Addie a presence in history. Various artists are inspired by her, though they cannot capture her directly. Bea, an art student and friend of Henry’s, notices the similarities in the art works and considers it for a thesis project. I loved this frame of the story, perhaps because of my own college experience. It was easily recognizable and gave me a tangible way into the story.

I listened to a lot of the book on audio and the narrator is quite excellent, bringing to life the French accent and the changing nature of it as Addie gradually loses it. Her male voices were believable too. Without such wonderful narration, I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it quite as much as I did.

The most important thing in a book is to tell a good story. I was entertained. Is it a book that is going to stick with me? I suspect not. Did it offer any revelatory thoughts or inspire me to new thoughts? No.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

 

Once Upon a River

by Diane Setterfield

Diane Setterfield is masterful at weaving the shimmering threads of a simple tale, richly told, into a complex and beautiful tapestry. There is a saying, variously credited in different places, that easy reading is hard writing. I suspect that is very true of Setterfield’s stories.

Her writing, in its’ pacing and richness of language, reminds me very much of Neil Gaiman, and though it is in a gothic vein, there is a touch less horror to it. There is both the fantastical but also the scientific here.

This story opens in the local drinking house of a village on the Thames, where a stranger appears, broken nose and eyes nearly swollen shut, carrying the body of a 4-year-old girl, who is generally acknowledged to be dead. His burden discharged, the stranger collapses and the local nurse, Rita, is sent for. A few hours later, the little girl returns to life, or so it seems. But who is she? No less than three different people claim to know who she is, but are any of them correct?

Helena Vaughn believes it is her daughter who was kidnapped two years before, but her husband is woefully certain it is not. Robin Armstrong claims she is his little girl, who he has not seen for a year, and whose mother attempted to drown the little girl then took her own life, a week before. His stepfather, Robert Armstrong sets out to learn the truth. Lilly White, the housekeeper for the parsonage, is certain she is Ann, her little sister, but Lilly is middle aged and her sister disappeared when Lilly was a child herself.

Who is this child? And why does she not speak and tell them? Was she fished out of the river by Quietly, the boatman who it is said haunts the river, fishing out the drown and carrying those in need to either their rest or back to the living?

Rita, the nurse, and Daunt, the photographer who arrived carrying the girl after his own mishap, are both enamored of the child and brought together by their interest in seeing her safe. Rita has her own scientific theories and barters with Daunt to help her in testing them in exchange for sitting for photographs.

Setterfield gives us the action but also gives us scenes which illustrate the backstory of the main characters in detail then sets about bringing them all together. It is a rich and engrossing tale told masterfully by a writer at the height of her abilities. I cannot recommend this story more.

Book Review: The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker

 

The Hidden Palace  

by Helene Wecker

It is not every day that a book of this caliber comes along. I tried to savor it, to read it slowly, really hear the words in my head, but I confess that I stayed up late Sunday night rushing through the ending. If you haven’t read The Golem and the Jinni, I highly recommend you go and read that one before reading this one. I promise you it will be worth it.

You can find my review of the original book here https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2020/04/book-review-golem-and-jinni.html

A quick recap – In The Golem and the Jinni we meet the main characters, Chava Levy, who was created to be a bride for a man who dies on the ocean crossing to America, and the Jinni, Ahmad al-Haidid, who was bound with iron by a wizard and ended up in a flask that was sent to America. Chava and Ahmad meet in New York during the early part of the 20^th century. There is a myriad cast of neighborhood characters where Chava lives, where the Jinni lives, and even up town, where Sophia Winston lives.

In this book, we add in Kreindal Altschul, a young woman whose rabbi father creates another golem to take to Europe to help his people, but never has the chance. Kreindal ends up in an orphanage, master of a golem in hiding.

Sophia returns, somewhat changed and continuing to change over the course of the novel as she travels to the Middle East in search of treatments or a cure for her ailment. She comes into contact with a Jinniyeh, who is much like the Jinni was in the beginning, arrogant and a loner, concerned only with her own well-being and needs.

Chava’s friend Anna Blumberg returns with her son, Toby. There are limits to Anna’s friendship with Chava. She knows what Chava is and what she can do, has seen it, and her first priority is always keeping Toby safe, sometimes to his detriment.

Maryam and Sayeed Fadoul, purveryors of a small coffee shop in Little Syria also return, trying to run interference between the people of the neighborhood and the strange power they know Ahmad holds.

Things are a bit tense between Chava and Ahmad now. He's restless and becoming irritable. They tend to debate and squabble just as part of their relationship. They also have very different perspectives of the world, she was literally created to serve while his entire existence is founded on being a creature of whimsy with little natural constraints because of his power. He naturally chafes at the restraints from time to time in this different type of existence.

I've loved every little interlude and vignette that make up the fully realized whole. Wecker is a fantastic story teller. She brings history to life in a fantastical story. Her sidelong description of the Triangle factory fire is heartbreaking as we see how it affects people in the story. The storyline is at once fresh and original, the plot surprising and yet reasonable, so that one thinks, ah, of course that happened, after it happens.

I can’t recommend this book, and the first, highly enough. I look forward to the next one though I fear it will be few years before it is ready.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

 

The Ten Thousand Doors of January 

by Alix E. Harrow

I’m not even sure where to start with this book — it’s so big and full of story.

I suppose we should start with January, so named by her mother for the god Janus, who looks both forward and backward.

“You don’t know a thing about me; you can’t see me sitting at this yellow-wood desk, the salt-sweet breeze riffling these pages like a reader looking for her bookmark.”

When the story opens, she seems like a normal little girl, though out of place in this time period and circumstance.

“I wondered if Africans counted as colored in London, and then I wondered if I did, and felt a little shiver of longing. To be part of some larger flock, to not be stared at, to know my place precisely. Being “a perfectly unique specimen” is lonely, it turns out.”

January lives in a manor house with a rich man for a guardian while her father searches the world for artifacts for him. It’s a bit sad, but there is so much more to the story, and as it unfolds, we are taking on a very rich and full journey.

“When I was seven, I found a Door . . . at some level there is always a doorway. A dividing point between here and there, us and them, mundane and magical. It is at the moments when the doors open, when things flow between the worlds, that stories happen.”

There may not be ten thousand doors in this story, but there are a great many. There are also a great many misperceptions and the author is masterful in painting rich pictures that do not give us more information than we need to know at that point in the plot. The writing is beautiful in the pictures it presents and the words chosen.

January has a governess, Miss Wilda who is a bit stodgy, and a friend from the local grocer’s, Samuel Zappia, though she isn’t supposed to spend time associating with him. He still manages to slip her stories to read. He also presents her with her best friend, a puppy she names Sinbad. This dog is just a dog in this novel, but also all of the best things a dog can be, a best friend and protector.

January finds a book in a chest, which she presumes was left there for her by her guardian, which sets her on a journey as it tells the story of Miss Adelaide Lee Larson and her explorations through Doors.

“I wanted to run away and keep running until I was out of this sad, ugly fairy tale. There’s only one way to run away from your own story, and that’s to sneak into someone else’s. I unwedged the leather-bound book from beneath my mattress and breathed in the ink-and-adventure smell of it.”

As I said, there are many Doors in this story, and just as you think you have a handle on what is happening, you step through a new one into something that builds a new story onto the one you are reading.

“…there are these places—sort of thinned-out places, hard to see unless you’re doing a certain kind of looking—where you can go to somewhere else. All kinds of somewhere elses, some of them packed full of magic. And they always leak, so all you have to do is follow the stories.”

A fantastical journey I hope you will take.  

Book Review: Legacy of Hunger: Book 1 in the Druid's Brooch Series

Legacy of Hunger

by Christy Nicholas

I came into the Druid’s Brooch series later on and I’ve enjoyed ALL the books I’ve read, they’ve stood well on their own. So, in reading this book, I was going back to the beginning.

Valentia McDowell is a young woman in America, circa 1846. Her father has a prosperous farm in Ohio, but Valentia has always been fascinated by stories of her grandmother’s homeland and a mystical brooch her grandmother had. She longs desperately to travel to Ireland.

The story begins in Pittsburgh, with a fire. Valentia proves herself resourceful in caring for her mother and leading their servants to safety, while her father and brother are away seeing to some other business. The author portrays the fear of a fire in an early city where a mass of people are hemmed in with wooden construction very well.

Valentia is a well-to-do young woman of the time, very aware of her station but also kindhearted. I would say downright arrogant at times, but “pride goeth before a fall” and she is definitely humbled, time and again. However, she pitches in to help care for patients who were caught up in the fire and suffer from burns and smoke inhalation.

Finally, Valentia’s mother convinces her father to capitulate and Valentia sets off for Ireland with her brother and servant, Maggie. She can’t wait to begin her grand adventure, but reality of the harshest kind soon sets in. It is a long sea voyage and illness overtakes them. The brother and sister do not make the crossing unscathed.

The book is filled with charming details that set the scene beautifully, “There were tinges of marsh grass and mud, and the faint tang of cow manure on the breeze. The scent was clean, bright, and she relished it.” And sometimes not so lovely details, as when Valentia visits a work house in Ireland, as the potato blight is ongoing.

Valentia makes some good friends in Ireland, who help her on her way, and also meets some people who seem to want to help her, but for their own purposes. Her friends also help open Valentia’s eyes to the hardships the people of Ireland are enduring and entreat her to help as best she can. Though she has lived a fairly sheltered life, Valentia is swift to take up the cause wherever and however she can, as she pursues her own goals. Finding her family in Ireland is not a simple process, and Valentia has many adventures on her journey.

I really enjoyed this book, it was moving and compelling. An excellent historical summer read with just a touch of fantasy. It is full of wonderful imagery, adventure, a bit of romance, and a few tears too. I highly recommend it, and you’ll just be starting the journey as there are many more books in the series.

Book Review: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Akata Witch

by Nnedi Okorafor

I have found myself gravitating toward YA Literature again lately. I simply find that there are really great books being written in that area with strong voices - incredible, accessible, fast-paced stories.

About six months ago I came across Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor on a list of best sci-fi and fantasy books and immediately added it to my collection. I love anything that uses mythology in it and this sounded great.

Sunny Nwazue is a young woman who walks in two worlds.

Sunny’s parents came from Nigeria to America, had three children, then something told Sunny’s mother that they needed to go back to Nigeria so they did. The story begins there, in Nigeria. “You see why I confuse people? I’m Nigerian by blood, American by birth, and Nigerian because I live here.” Sunny is also albino.

There is a good bit of pain in this book. The author doesn’t flinch away from it, and she doesn’t sugar coat it. Sunny’s mother loves her very much, but her father is less caring. He is very, very strict, almost contemptuous of her, hitting her if she gets out of line. Corporal punishment is used in the school. Sunny is bullied and physically attacked by a classmate named Jibaku. These are regular facets of Sunny’s life, but the worst is yet to come.

There is a ritual serial killer on the loose, named Black Hat Otokoto, killing and maiming little children. Then Sunny sees something in a candle flame one night, a scene of apocalyptic proportions. She doesn’t know what to make of it, but she soon will, as she learns about the Leopard People and her own abilities. (Lambs are ordinary folk who don’t have talent with Juju.)

Sunny makes new Leopard friends – Orlu, Sasha, and Chichi. They become a team destined to fight off this darkness together using Juju and teamwork. They are more than the team though, they are each wonderful individual characters. 

In this world, learning is more than its own reward, the Leopard people are also rewarded FOR it, in a very interesting way. World defining elements are explained in boxed entries as the issue comes up – such as money leopard people earn for learning, called chittim, and spirits called masquerades.

There is also a lot of lovely, happy bits to balance the fear and pain. Sunny loves to play soccer. Ghost Hoppers, giant grasshoppers, start appearing in Sunny’s house. A wasp artist is one of those fantastical details. (I don’t want to give how it comes about away, but it is an incredibly charming detail, watch for it.)

It is a richly developed book full of mythology and intricate with original details. I highly recommend Akata Witch. I’m about to start Akata Warrior myself.

Book Review: The Turn by Kim Harrison

The Turn

by Kim Harrison

I loved The Hollows series by Kim Harrison, an urban fantasy set in a future where the population of humans was damaged by a plague and the Inderlanders (pixies, fae, witches, vampires, werewolves, etc.) have come out of the closet in order to keep society running. However, it’s not always an easy mixing of groups.

This is a fantastic prequel to The Hollows series, pulling in fast-paced action with patriarchal office politics of the sixties, paranormal characters, and genetic engineering.

Felecia Eloytrisk, Trisk for short, is an elf. We are introduced to her as she is graduating from college as a geneticist and hoping to get a job with an Elven run facility. Unfortunately, this is the sixties and the good old boys network is alive and well, even in Elven society.

Trisk’s chief nemesis, Trenton Kalamack, has bullied her all through school because she is a dark elf instead of one of the fair-haired elven elite. Then he picks a fight at the college job fair. Of course, Trisk is blamed and runs out of time to execute a contract for employment.

A lot of favorite characters show up here, like a teen musician, Takata, with his crazy drummer driving a beat up van as they try to get away from the plague restrictions.

Trisk goes to work for a human lab where they’ve been working on a virus to use in biological warfare that will make humans sick enough for U.S. forces to take over a building or area without having to actually kill people. Trisk is under a directive from the Elven enclave to make sure the virus won’t affect Inderlanders.

Meanwhile, she is also developing a tomato that will revolutionize crops worldwide, and also a virus to help introduce needed modifications to elves that will allow them to procreate again reliably.

Trenton is working on the same problem from a different angle and he is a self-righteous, entitled sob. He's sent to double check Trisk’s work and ends up causing serious problems.

There’s intrigue and male/female politics at play here but I think the author keeps characters from becoming too one dimensional.

Plus, there’s a pixie, and she’s fantastic! A great ride!

Book Review: The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper

The Dark is Rising

by Susan Cooper

I honestly can’t remember when I first read this book, it was probably either something I picked out of the school library as a child OR something that a family I babysat for in high school was reading at bedtime. Either way, it quickly became one of my favorites and I have read it MANY times over the years. I had been just waiting for the chance to read it to my own daughter, but I try not to force the books I want to read on her, so I had to wait, and wait . . . and wait.

Finally, she picked it out of the options. As we read, I realized that it is a bit different from the books that we are used to reading together. It’s a very literary book. The plotting is good and the descriptions rich and full, but the exposition can get just a tiny bit tedious when you are used to more action.

I still love it though.

Will Stanton is the seventh son of a seventh son and lives in a big old farmhouse with his large family in a little English village. On his eleventh birthday, Will learns that he is the last of the Old Ones, born to hold back the Dark from taking over the world.

It’s a lovely story, full of family, village friends, and mythology from Arthurian and Celtic legend.

It all starts on Midwinter’s Eve, when Will goes out to take care of the rabbits, but they recoil from his touch. His dogs seem skittish around him too, and the radio goes berserk every time he gets near it. He and his brother James take a cart to get some hay from Farmer Dawson and the rooks are spooked too. There’s a tramp wandering around, and Farmer Dawson refers to him as The Walker. The farmer also gives Will something for good luck, a curious iron ornament of a circle quartered by a cross, and tells him to put it on his belt like an extra buckle.

So begins a tremendous journey that takes Will Stanton, The Sign Seeker, on the adventure of a lifetime, right in his own backyard, awakening him to the magical nature of the people around him and the stories of the legends that are part of his world.

The Dark is Rising was published in 1973 and I think you’ll see quickly how other legends influenced it, and how it influenced future fantasy.

I highly recommend it if you have any love at all for the fantasy genre.

Book Review: The Golem and the Jinni

The Golem and the Jinni

by Helene Wecker

This is a literary fantasy novel of the very highest caliber.

The Golem is created by a man at the request of another.

The man who created the golem was once a promising Rabbianic student but then, “Yehudah Schaalman awoke to darkness and the certain knowledge that he was somehow damned.”

The man who purchased the Golem’s life brings her to America, waking her on the ship over, but he is ill. He dies and she is left to fend for herself.

She sees the Statue of Liberty for the first time – “ . . . those on deck were waving and shouting at her with jubilation, crying even as they smiled. This, too, the Golem thought, was a constructed woman. Whatever she meant to the others, she was loved and respected for it. For the first time since Rotfeld’s death, the Golem felt something like hope.”

That is, until a wise man sees her and realizes what she is. He takes her in and helps her cope with her own existence. The golem hears and feels people’s thoughts and desires, it is overwhelming at times. The Rabbi tells her -

“A man might desire something for a moment, while a larger part of him rejects it. You’ll need to learn to judge people by their actions, not their thoughts.”

The golem knows what she is.

She looked back down to her fingertips. Nails, teeth, hair: none of these features were made of clay.

“I hope,” she said, watching her own mouth move, “that no one was harmed in my making.”

The Rabbi’s response is one of my favorite lines in the book -

The Rabbi smiled sadly. “So do I. But what’s done is done, and you are not to be blamed for your own creation, whatever the circumstances.”

The Jinni is very old and his existence has been whimsical, spying on travelers near the desert where he grew up in Syria, building his own invisible palace in the desert of glass and gold. But there is a huge lapse of time when he does not know what happened, he simply wakes when a metal smith in New York City breaks the words binding him into a tea kettle that came from Syria by rubbing out some words. The metal smith kindly helps him find his footing, gives him a home and employment. The Jinni is still bound by a metal cuff on his wrist, to keep him from doing any magic.

This story brings the Golem and Jinni together in a version of New York City very long ago. Their lives before they meet and during the time they know each other are beautifully wrought.

The descriptions are detailed and the story is thought provoking. It goes into the back story of each character quite deeply.

I cannot emphasize enough how beautifully constructed and told this story is. This is one of those stories that you wish you could wipe from your mind in order to have the pleasure of discovering it all over again. It deserves far more than five stars. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Book Review: The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman

The Secret Chapter

by Genevieve Cogman

Book 6 in The Invisible Library

I have loved this series from the beginning. Irene is a cross between a librarian and a secret agent. Such fun!

In Cogman’s world, or worlds, there are humans, which includes librarians, Fae who are chaotic, and Dragons who represent order. There are a multitude of worlds, exactly like the Earth, that can be traveled between. Events on the worlds often diverge at different points in the timeline, and Librarians can travel in time as well. Librarians can also travel to, and through, The Library, where books from the different worlds are held. This helps to keep the balance between chaos and order in some way.

There is a truce in force between dragons and Fae, and the librarians are the neutral party. Irene is the library representative to a tripartite commission to handle irregularities, Prince Kai, son of His Majesty Ao Guang, and Irene’s live-in lover, is the dragon representative.

We start with a Fae party, with all the debauchery and danger inherent therein. Then Kai and Irene arrive home to find her parents there. This is the first time we are meeting them and they are surprisingly ordinary. She has some very serious questions for them regarding her parentage. She knows she was adopted but she wants to know how it happened.

Irene is sent on a mission to negotiate for a book and Kai decides to accompany her. This is where it gets really interesting. Irene and Kai head to a high chaos world where a Mr. Nemo (who reminds me very much of a certain villain in old movies like the James Bond classic Goldfinger) entraps them in a plot of his own. (The Fae tend to take on stereotypical archetypes, it’s part of their nature.)

Of course, it’s not as simple as that but the action and intrigue only get better from there. I highly recommend all the books in this series and this one is perhaps a little more light and fun.