Mar 06 2025

I’m Lucky To Have My Parents by Radostina Nikolova & Yana Popova

What a moving, necessary book. I fully admit that I’m not terribly cognizant of the existing literature on the topic in the English language, but I’m super glad that Papercutz had this translated from the original Bulgarian (courtesy of Borislava Pancheva) in order to reach a wider audience.

That topic is how kids can deal with parents who no longer want to be married to each other and who, indeed, go on to start new families with other people. The book begins simply enough with a young girl enjoying spending time with each of her parents, who have their strengths and weaknesses but who nonetheless love their daughter with all their hearts. Their child narrates how sometimes her parents get along, but more often don’t. She does her best to bridge the gap between them, and is heartbroken when that isn’t enough to keep them together.

Their separation makes her sad and angry, and has her questioning why they can’t all be happy again together. Mom does her best to explain that sometimes people want different things, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t love their daughter very much. More importantly, Mom tells her that it’s okay to feel all her feelings and to express them.

And soon our narrator does find herself experiencing happiness again, as her parents move on from one another but always, always ensure that their daughter knows that she is loved and supported, no matter how their family changes and grows. It’s a very important lesson, not only for kids but for parents who might need reminding that kids are people in their own right, not just vestiges of former partners and relationships. Don’t even get me started on people who leave kids behind when they split up. As Cher’s dad said in Clueless, one of the best movies ever, “You divorce wives, not children.”

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Mar 05 2025

A Song for You and I, by K. O’Neill

on the cover of A Song for You and I by K O'Neill, two smiling figures lean against eachother on a flowering hillside. One plays the fiddle and one holds a bow, as a pegasus flies above them A Song for You and I, the enchanting new graphic novel by K. O’Neill, is now available! As in O’Neill’s previous graphic novels, such as the Tea Dragon trilogy and The Moth Keeper, lush and quiet worldbuilding is balanced with characters who are searching for meaning in their own lives, finding connection with each other and the natural world.

In A Song for You and I, we meet a novice ranger named Rose, who is absolutely at the top of the class. We learn pretty early on that this novice ranger would prefer to be called Rowan, so that’s what I’ll call them for the rest of the review, even though that shift doesn’t happen immediately in the book.

As the novice rangers are assigned their final postings before inscribing their names on the gate and becoming full rangers, Rowan chafes a bit to be assigned an easy posting—because unlike the rest of the class, Rowan doesn’t really need to prove anything at this point.

Rowan’s job is to soar around a beautiful meadow on their flying horse, keeping an eye out for any dangers. It’s a sweet gig, and Rowan is very bored with it. It seems a young shepherd in the meadow is also bored with his own duties, as he frequently ignores them to play his violin instead.

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Mar 04 2025

The Tides Of Time by Sarah M Eden (EXCERPT)

Hi, readers! Today we have an excerpt from a terrific time-travel romance (rated G!) by USA Today bestselling author Sarah M Eden. The Tides of Time is the first in a proposed series of swoony historical novels perfect for anyone looking for an escape from the nightmare of the modern day.

In 1793 France, Lili Minet boards a ship bound for England, making a desperate escape from the clutches of Robespierre’s Revolutionary Tribunal. When a violent storm hits, it not only throws Lili overboard but launches her eighty years into the future, leaving her stranded in unfamiliar 1873 England.

Rescued from the sea by lighthouse keeper Armitage Pierce, Lili struggles to trust her savior while guarding the secrets of her extraordinary journey. Armitage does not anticipate her silent, cold response to his gallant efforts. As Armitage’s grandfather offers her solace and understanding, Lili begins to heal, and a fragile bond grows between her and Armitage.

But the shadows of her past refuse to stay buried. The same danger that forced Lili to flee Revolutionary France threatens her new life, putting her love and her future at risk. Together, Lili and Armitage must face the ultimate challenge: whether their bond is strong enough to overcome the perils of time and history itself.

Read on for an excerpt, which reveals intriguing secrets about Lili’s journey!

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Mar 03 2025

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

Happy Women’s History Month, readers! To begin with, let’s look at an arresting novella about a young woman who refuses to play by the rules of Victorian England, no matter the cost to herself or to anyone around her.

Winifred Notty is a troubled soul. Raised by a mother driven to madness by the intolerable pressures of society and a father who cannot reconcile Winifred’s intractable nature with his own belief in God, she’s made her way from one governess posting to the next, indulging her predilection for gore and violence while nimbly eluding justice. When she arrives at the countryside estate of the Pounds family, it’s with a hidden agenda that she readily hides behind a simpering smile and a dedication to proving herself as agreeable to everyone as she’d advertised when she first began maneuvering for this position.

The ancestral home of the Pounds is inhabited by the phrenology-obsessed Mr Pounds, the self-absorbed Mrs Pounds, the anemic teenager Drusilla and the younger, coddled heir Andrew. In addition to pretending to teach the children skills deemed useful by their social set, Winifred has to balance Mr Pounds’ undue interest in her with Mrs Pounds’ simmering jealousy. At night, Winifred explores Ensor Hall, examining portraits of ancestors and searching for hidden passageways. Through it all, she tamps down the darkness that keeps urging her to bite and to kill, as she waits for the perfect time to launch her surprise for the Pounds, their houseguests and assorted servants, all gathered at the manor for Christmas.

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Mar 02 2025

Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum

Agreeing with Anne Applebaum tends to worry me. Her book Gulag is well regarded (Pulitzer Prize, for example), but I found that the closer it got to the present day and events that I knew a fair amount about, the more tendentious and rightward-slanted I thought her account. That made me uncertain about the earlier parts of the book. She’s published a large amount of reporting and opinion, which in my view also ranges from further right than I agree with to tendentious misreading of events and deliberate misconstruing opposing positions. But credit where credit is due: in Autocracy, Inc. she offers a clear-eyed assessment of the kleptocratic dictators who rule numerous and occasionally important countries, and who would like to extend their influence over a much greater swathe of the world. Some are notionally leftist, such as Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela; others are unabashedly rightist, such as Vladimir Putin; traits that they share include contempt for liberal democracy, commitment to using state resources for personal enrichment, indifference to the lives of their countries’ citizens, and a willingness to support and learn from fellow autocrats.

Autocracy Inc. by Anne Applebaum

Autocracy, Inc. zips through the background, examples and ideas in 150 pages. In the book’s final 25 pages, Applebaum describes what she thinks citizens can do to stop Autocracy Incorporated. This brevity and directness are two of the book’s virtues. Though it describes how global interdependence has been turned into a weapon by this era’s autocrats, it is not a scholarly tome, nor even an accessible version of academic work on the subject. While I think Oilver Bullough is a better storyteller, his two books on autocracy-adjacent subjects — Moneyland and Butler to the World — have a more narrow focus. Applebaum is painting the big picture. Further, both of Bullough’s books pre-date Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That war has tightened connections among the autocrats and sped up their learning, and Applebaum’s account is a better description of the current situation.

Applebaum gives her readers one of the key insights right at the beginning: contemporary dictators are no longer stand-alone villains. Though there is no overarching ideology as there was among Communists during the Cold War, the autocrats work with each other for mutual benefit. They may be more a syndicate than a corporation, but the different branches of Autocracy Inc. know they have more in common with each other than any of them do with liberal democracies, and they act on that knowledge. That makes overturning any one of them difficult for strictly domestic opposition.

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Mar 01 2025

From a Far and Lovely Country by Alexander McCall Smith

Stop in and have some tea with Mma Ramotswe, or maybe head out to the orphan farm for a piece of Mma Potokwani’s fruitcake, or perhaps head into downtown Gaborone for lunch at the President Hotel with a side order of people-watching. In many ways, the books of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series are extended periods of people-watching in a part of a big city that’s small enough to be a village. Readers don’t see every person in every novel, but the village’s leading characters will be there, as will some new people who have come to visit, or to present the agency with a new case.

From a Far and Lovely Country by Alexander McCall Smith

In From a Far and Lovely Country, one of the new cases turns up unexpectedly, outside of office hours, and outside of the office for that matter. Mr J.L.B. Matekoni has taken Mma Ramotswe to a new peri-peri restaurant for her birthday, a birthday that he and apparently everyone else in Mma Ramotswe’s immediate circle spent the first couple of chapters forgetting. “And that is not what a good husband does.” (p. 41) Not quite everyone: Mma Potokwani had made a fruitcake for her, and it is in some way thanks to her that the woman with case came over and spoke to Mma Ramotswe in the restaurant.

As the proprietor went off to fetch the other customer [who had told him she would like to speak to the detective], Mr J.L.B. Matekoni lowered his voice and said to Mma Ramotswe, “You are too soft-hearted, Mma. You cannot take all the problems of the world onto your shoulders.”
“You cannot be sure that this lady wants to talk to me about a problem.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “But she must do,” he argued. “Why else would somebody who doesn’t know you want to speak to you in the middle of a restaurant?2
“For any number of reasons,” said Mma Ramotswe, although she was struggling to think of one. (p. 47)

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Feb 28 2025

Tantalizing Tales — February 2025 — Part Two

Hello, readers! It seemed like January just crawled on by but February hit the gas before we knew it! Let’s take a look at some of the delightful books I haven’t yet been able to cram into the shortest month, beginning with Margarita Montimore’s The Dollhouse Academy, a thriller that combines dark academia with celebrity in the most delicious way.

Ramona and her best friend Grace are thrilled to be accepted into The Dollhouse Academy, a bootcamp-style school for aspiring entertainers that churns out some of 1990s Hollywood’s biggest stars. As they train relentlessly in all things showbiz, Grace’s star begins to rise while Ramona discovers that her skills may not be up to par. When they meet their idol — singer, actress and Dollhouse graduate Ivy Gordon — Ramona soon realizes that life for the pop princess is not all that it seems.

Struggling to keep up with Grace’s rise to fame, Ramona soon begins receiving threatening anonymous messages telling her to leave The Dollhouse Academy while she still can, leading her to uncover the dark, secretive underbelly of the school’s star machine. Does she have what it takes to become the ultimate star, or will the cost be too great?

I’m ngl, I watched every episode of the sci-fi TV show Dollhouse back in the day and 100% picked up this book because of the name and the tangentially related concept. But I’m also fascinated by the idea of talent bootcamps, from the ones that created so many of the 90s boybands I love, to the KPop academies still extant today. I’m really hoping I have time to eventually slot this into my reading schedule, as I love everything about this concept.

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Feb 27 2025

When I Hear Spirituals by Cheryl Willis Hudson & London Ladd

The spiritual is a proud musical tradition created by enslaved Black people in America, who channeled the rhythms and singing of their African origins into subversive songs of solidarity and guidance, using their owners’ Christianity as a cloak for their own defiance. Cheryl Willis Hudson discusses the history of the genre in this gorgeous picture book that is aimed at children but has plenty of food for thought for adults as well.

The text of the book is simple, as a young girl describes the effect that the title songs have on her. They make her feel proud of who she is and who she came from, and give her hope and courage and strength and faith. Interspersed with her thoughts are lines from several famous spirituals, including Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen and Go Down Moses.

Perhaps more importantly, each two-page spread illustrates a scene from either the young girl’s life or from Black history in America. The latter are especially powerful, whether portraying Harriet Tubman leading the enslaved to freedom, or Martin Luther King Jr, Coretta Scott King and John Lewis leading Civil Rights marches. London Ladd’s work is excellent throughout, as he uses mixed media techniques to bring the many emotions and situations of the book to life.

To provide further context, there’s a rich section of resources at the end, with an author’s note and glossary as well. I’m 100% listening to the list of YouTube videos referenced as I type, and very much enjoying this expansion of my musical education. So if you’re looking for a book about the role of spirituals in Black history and how they can help instill pride and joy in Black children, then look no further than this beautiful volume.

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Feb 26 2025

A Short History Of Black Craft In Ten Objects by Robell Awake

with illustrations by Johnalynn Holland and an afterword by Tiffany Momon.

As Black History Month draws to a close, I decided to leapfrog past the other books in my schedule to make sure that I could provide coverage for this important title while the month is still ongoing. And this is a very important title, preserving and illuminating American history and the contributions of Black American artisans to the crafting traditions of this country, while presenting all its information in a highly accessible and engaging manner.

Robell Awake carefully chooses ten iconic items and succinctly discusses the artisans and traditions behind them. Whether discussing something as well-known and inarguably attributed to the Black community as the Gee’s Bend Quilts, to the equally famous wedding dress of Jacqueline Kennedy and its less publicized couturier Anne Lowe, to the very design of American porches, Mr Awake goes over the myriad ways in which enslaved people and their descendants made an outsized impact on American craftsmanship. Lamentably, too many of these contributions were either minimized or whitewashed, with white slave owners often taking credit for the work of those they exploited, as in the case of the furniture-maker who went by the single name Boston. Both he and the ceramicist known as Dave the Potter risked harsh punishment for even signing their works, in a time when it was illegal for Black people to be literate. As Mr Awake describes the items and the circumstances under which they were produced, he also paints a vivid picture of what it was like to be Black in America, and how that legacy is felt in and continues to the present day.

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Feb 25 2025

Speculative Mysteries coming soon!

If you like murder mysteries and speculative fiction, this Spring has a bunch of books that will appeal! Murders in fantasy empires, generation ships, fantasy empires, and … other fantasy empires. There may be a theme here?

the cover of the tomb of dragons by Katherine Addison has a spiral of black claws or bones against a fire orange backgroundThe Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison is a satisfying conclusion to the Cemeteries of Amalo trilogy that began with The Witness for the Dead and continued in The Grief of Stones. It comes out March 11th from Tor.

I remember when The Witness for the Dead was coming out, I had a lot of conversations with other fans of Katherine Addison’s book The Goblin Emperor about it. Of course we were all excited to return to the world of The Goblin Emperor, but many of us were also a little puzzled that Thara Celehar, Sad Man with a Tragic Job who is only on the page briefly, was going to be the hero of a new series. Now that we are concluding Thara’s trilogy, I feel like his appeal has grown on me for all three books!

In The Tomb of Dragons, not all of the interpersonal stuff in the trilogy is wrapped up exactly how I’d like it to be? But it is indeed all wrapped up. Thara Celehar is dealing with the fallout from The Grief of Stones, and trying to do several jobs all at once, ethically, and kindly. I think many of us can sympathize with that. The murder mystery aspect is not really at the forefront of this one. As usual, Celehar is surrounded by more people who care about him and respect him than he believes, and that’s always a cozy time, even though the actual events that befall him are often harrowing. As my smart friend Levi commented about Thara Celehar, ““truly here is a man who has not fucked around all that much and is incessantly finding out regardless.” By the end of the book I felt both that this trilogy had concluded in a satisfying way, and that the characters are embarking on greater adventures to come. I look forward to seeing what Katherine Addison will introduce us to next in this world!

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