strange and random happenstance

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: June 30th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic artistocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets....

From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes “a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror” (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico - “fans of classic novels like Jane Eyre and Rebecca are in for a suspenseful treat” (PopSugar).

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find - her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind."

I know Gothic is my comfort zone, but I'm ashamed to say so much of my bookshelves are white authors, so how about this, let's try something new that feels like home? Baby step your way out of your comfort zone.   

Opium and Absinthe by Lydia Kang
Published by: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: June 30th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the bestselling author of A Beautiful Poison comes another spellbinding historical novel full of intrigue, occult mystery, and unexpected twists.

New York City, 1899. Tillie Pembroke's sister lies dead, her body drained of blood and with two puncture wounds on her neck. Bram Stoker's new novel, Dracula, has just been published, and Tillie's imagination leaps to the impossible: the murderer is a vampire. But it can't be - can it?

A ravenous reader and researcher, Tillie has something of an addiction to truth, and she won't rest until she unravels the mystery of her sister's death. Unfortunately, Tillie's addicted to more than just truth; to ease the pain from a recent injury, she's taking more and more laudanum...and some in her immediate circle are happy to keep her well supplied.

Tillie can't bring herself to believe vampires exist. But with the hysteria surrounding her sister's death, the continued vampiric slayings, and the opium swirling through her body, it's becoming increasingly difficult for a girl who relies on facts and figures to know what's real - or whether she can trust those closest to her."

Vampire mania and opium addiction? I'm in!

The Silk House by Kayte Nunn
Published by: Hachette Australia
Publication Date: June 30th, 2020
Format: Kindle, 323 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Weaving. Healing. Haunting. The spellbinding story of a mysterious boarding school sheltering a centuries-old secret by the bestselling author of The Botanist's Daughter.

Australian history teacher Thea Rust arrives at an exclusive boarding school in the British countryside only to find that she is to look after the first intake of girls in its 150-year history. She is to stay with them in Silk House, a building with a long and troubled past, where the shadows hide more mysteries than she could ever imagine.

In the late 1700s, Rowan Caswell leaves her village to work in the home of an English silk merchant. She is thrust into a new and dangerous world where her talent for herbs and healing soon attracts attention.

In London, Mary-Louise Stephenson lives amid the clatter of the weaving trade and dreams of becoming a silk designer, a job that is the domain of men. Arriving in the market town of Oxleigh, she brings with her a length of fabric woven with a pattern of deadly plants that will have far-reaching consequences for all who dwell in the silk house.

Intoxicating, haunting and inspired by the author's background, The Silk House is the exceptional new gothic mystery by Kayte Nunn."

Yep, I'm ALL about the Gothic this week! 

The House on Widows Hill by Simon R. Green
Published by: Severn House Publishers
Publication Date: June 30th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 3190 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Ishmael Jones investigates a haunted house...but is haunted by his own past in the latest of this quirky paranormal mystery series.

"That house is a bad place. Bad things happen there..." Set high on top of Widows Hill, Harrow House has remained empty for years. Now, on behalf of an anonymous prospective buyer, Ishmael and Penny are spending a night there in order to investigate the rumours of strange lights, mysterious voices, unexplained disappearances, and establish whether the house is really haunted. What really happened at Harrow House all those years ago? Joined by a celebrity psychic, a professional ghost-hunter, a local historian and a newspaper reporter, it becomes clear that each member of 'Team Ghost' has their own pet theory as to the cause of the alleged haunting. But when one of the group suddenly drops dead with no obvious cause, Ishmael realizes that if he can find out how and why the victim died, he will have the key to solving the mystery."

See? It's my Gothic week!

Come When I Call You by Shayna Krishnasamy
Published by: Deep Dark Press
Publication Date: June 30th, 2020
Format: Kindle, 216 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For fans of The Little Stranger and Never Let Me Go comes a riveting and elegantly chilling tale of secrets, lies, and things that creep in the night.

Anna Maron has always been the clever cousin, the older one. The follower of rules. Now sixteen, she attends the prestigious Claymore Manor boarding school, a place where girls find and lose themselves, and boys like Ben offer endless distraction. Where life seems almost normal, and Anna can ignore those things she longs to forget - like the things that she sees...and wishes she didn't.

Anna has almost convinced herself that she’s not all that different, until her cousin Lucia shows up, bruised and battered, and desperate for help. Lucia, with her chilling charm and mystery. Lucia, who shares the same strange gift as Anna, but embraces it even as her hold on reality crumbles away. Now a snowstorm is moving in, and icy weather brings a reckoning of past and present...and the living and dead.

In this deliciously unnerving contemporary gothic novel, Shayna Krishnasamy draws readers into a tale that uniquely explores the ties that bind, the lies we tell ourselves, and how some secrets only come alive in the dark."

GOTHIC!!!

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: June 30th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the latest thriller from New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound - and dangerous - secrets hidden within its walls?

What was it like? Living in that house.

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity - and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father's book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father's death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself - a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

Alternating between Maggie’s uneasy homecoming and chapters from her father’s book, Home Before Dark is the story of a house with long-buried secrets and a woman’s quest to uncover them - even if the truth is far more terrifying than any haunting."

"True" haunting made meta? YAS!

Murder at Blackwater Bend by Clara McKenna
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: June 30th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Wild-hearted Kentuckian Stella Kendrick cautiously navigates the strict demands of British high society as the future Lady of Morrington Hall. But when petty scandals lead to bloody murder, her outspoken nature could be all that keeps her alive...

Following a whirlwind engagement to Viscount “Lyndy” Lyndhurst, Stella is finding her footing within an elite social circle in picturesque rural England. Except tea time with refined friends can be more dangerous than etiquette faux pas - especially in the company of Lady Philippa, the woman Lyndy was once set to marry, and her husband, the ostentatious Lord Fairbrother...

Outrage erupts and accusations fly after Lord Fairbrother’s pony wins best in breed for the seventh consecutive year. The man has his share of secrets and adversaries, but Stella and Lyndy are in for a brutal shock when they discover his body floating in the river during a quiet morning fishing trip...

Suddenly unwelcome around hardly-grieving Lady Philippa and Lyndy’s endlessly critical mother, Stella faces the bitter reality that she may always be an outsider - and one of her trusted new acquaintances may be a calculating killer. Now, Stella and her fiancé must fight against the current to catch the culprit, before they’re the next couple torn apart by tragedy."

I just finished rewatching Berkeley Square and am all about American women marrying into the English upper class. 

Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: June 30th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The beloved author returns with a remarkable novel of both raw suspense and lyric beauty - the story of a lost pilot and a wartime photographer that will leave its mark on your soul.

In 1947, photographer and war correspondent Janey Everett arrives at a remote surfing village on the Hawaiian island of Kauai to research a planned biography of forgotten aviation pioneer Sam Mallory, who joined the loyalist forces in the Spanish Civil War and never returned. Obsessed with Sam’s fate, Janey has tracked down Irene Lindquist, the owner of a local island-hopping airline, whom she believes might actually be the legendary Irene Foster, Mallory’s onetime student and flying partner. Foster’s disappearance during a round-the-world flight in 1937 remains one of the world’s greatest unsolved mysteries.

At first, the flinty Mrs. Lindquist denies any connection to Foster. But Janey informs her that the wreck of Sam Mallory’s airplane has recently been discovered in a Spanish desert, and piece by piece, the details of Foster’s extraordinary life emerge: from the beginnings of her flying career in Southern California, to her complicated, passionate relationship with Mallory, to the collapse of her marriage to her aggressive career manager, the publishing scion George Morrow.

As Irene spins her tale to its searing conclusion, Janey’s past gathers its own power. The duel between the two women takes a heartstopping turn. To whom does Mallory rightfully belong? Can we ever come to terms with the loss of those we love, and the lives we might have lived?"

I need to do a full on Beatriz binge this summer I think...

A Duke, The Lady, and a Baby by Vanessa Riley
Published by: Zebra
Publication Date: June 30th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Created by a shrewd countess, The Widow’s Grace is a secret society with a mission: to help ill-treated widows regain their status, their families, and even find true love again - or perhaps for the very first time...

When headstrong West Indian heiress Patience Jordan questioned her English husband's mysterious suicide, she lost everything: her newborn son, Lionel, her fortune - and her freedom. Falsely imprisoned, she risks her life to be near her child - until The Widow's Grace gets her hired as her own son’s nanny. But working for his unsuspecting new guardian, Busick Strathmore, Duke of Repington, has perils of its own. Especially when Patience discovers his military strictness belies an ex-rake of unswerving honor - and unexpected passion...

A wounded military hero, Busick is determined to resolve his dead cousin’s dangerous financial dealings for Lionel’s sake. But his investigation is a minor skirmish compared to dealing with the forthright, courageous, and alluring Patience. Somehow, she's breaking his rules, and sweeping past his defenses. Soon, between formidable enemies and obstacles, they form a fragile trust - but will it be enough to save the future they long to dare together?"

We have now moved on from the Gothic to Dukes. 

Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: June 30th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean returns with the much-anticipated final book in her Bareknuckle Bastards series, featuring a scoundrel duke and the powerful woman who brings him to his knees.

Grace Condry has spent a lifetime running from her past. Betrayed as a child by her only love and raised on the streets, she now hides in plain sight as queen of London’s darkest corners. Grace has a sharp mind and a powerful right hook and has never met an enemy she could not best...until the man she once loved returns.

Single-minded and ruthless, Ewan, Duke of Marwick, has spent a decade searching for the woman he never stopped loving. A long-ago gamble may have lost her forever, but Ewan will go to any lengths to win Grace back…and make her his duchess.

Reconciliation is the last thing Grace desires. Unable to forgive the past, she vows to take her revenge. But revenge requires keeping Ewan close, and soon her enemy seems to be something else altogether - something she can’t resist, even as he threatens the world she's built, the life she's claimed…and the heart she swore he'd never steal again."

See? Dukes!

Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan
Published by: Doubleday
Publication Date: June 30th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The iconic author of the bestselling phenomenon Crazy Rich Asians returns with the glittering tale of a young woman who finds herself torn between two men: the WASPY fiancé of her family's dreams and George Zao, the man she is desperately trying to avoid falling in love with.

On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao and she instantly can't stand him. She can't stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can't stand that he knows more about Casa Malaparte than she does, and she really can't stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa and they are caught by her snobbish, disapproving cousin Charlotte. "Your mother is Chinese so it's no surprise you'd be attracted to someone like him," Charlotte teases. The daughter of an American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself in favor of the white side, and she adamantly denies having feelings for George. But several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekending with her new fiancé, Lucie finds herself drawn to George again. Soon, Lucie is spinning a web of deceit that involves her family, her fiancé, the co-op board of her Fifth Avenue apartment building, and ultimately herself as she tries mightily to deny George entry into her world--and her heart. Moving between summer playgrounds of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant fashion, Sex and Vanity is a truly modern love story, a daring homage to A Room with a View, and a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures."

Your perfect summer escapist fantasy! 

Star Wars: Age of Rebellion by Greg Pak, Simon Spurrier, Marc Guggenheim, and Jon Adams
Published by: Marvel
Publication Date: June 30th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Age of Star Wars - an epic series of adventures uniting your favorite characters from all eras - reaches the iconic heroes and villains of the original trilogy! Witness the moments that defined them, the incredible battles that shaped them - and their eternal conflict between light and darkness! Solo stories spotlight major figures from Star Wars Episodes IV-VI - from Luke, Leia and Han to Lando, Yoda and more! And on the dark side, Darth Vader is joined by Boba Fett, Jabba the Hutt, Grand Moff Tarkin and the cold, calculating bounty hunter known as IG-88!"

I've been really all about Star Wars lately... 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Room with a View, Beatriz Williams, Clara McKenna, Gothic, Kayte Nunn, Kevin Kwan, Lydia Kang, Riley Sager, Sarah MacLean, Shayna Krishnasamy, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Simon R. Green, Star Wars, Vanessa Riley

Z: The Beginning of Everything
Based on the book by Therese Anne Fowler
Starring: Christina Ricci, Maya Kazan, Sarah Schenkkan, Jamie Anne Allman, David Strathairn, Kristine Nielsen, Scott Rosenfeld, David Hoflin, Jim True-Frost, Talia Balsam, Matt Malloy, Holly Curran, Jordan Dean, Corey Cott, Andrew Call, Andrew Bridges, Joel Brady, AJ Cedeno, Christina Bennett Lind, Natalie Knepp, Lucy Walters, Bill Phillips, Tony Manna, Cameron Scoggins, Conor Donovan, Randy Kovitz, Sean Bell, Ian Jarvis, Jun Naito, and Gene Jones
Release Date: January 27th, 2017
Rating: ★★★★
To Watch

Zelda is a bit of a whirlwind to the belles of Montgomery, Alabama. She swims, in a nude colored bathing suit, she dances, ballet as well as the more risque numbers, she parties, she drinks, she smokes, she hangs outside the local whorehouse with her friends shaming the men going inside. She isn't like anything that is expected or acceptable, yet she is endearing, even to her exasperated family. She's the baby who is going to break all the rules and when F. Scott Fitzgerald enters her life, he's the biggest break their is. A Yankee who aspires to be a writer who will break her heart again and again, yet she cannot live without him, she cannot give him up. And she does try. But then his book is finally accepted for publication and Zelda finally accepts his marriage proposal and their whirlwind of a life begins. Arriving in New York City Zelda is overwhelmed by how vast and big their new life shall be. They get married and the nonstop party begins that very night in the honeymoon suite of their hotel. Zelda soon realizes that in order to fit in she's going to have to be even bolder and brassier and bare herself to be accepted as Scott's wife. So she transforms into a character straight out of one of Scott's stories. Short hair, sultry dresses, no more frills and furbelows for the wife of F. Scott! But also because she's his wife, no more freedom with her own artistic expression. Any dreams of taking her "it" girl status to the next level in Hollywood is stifled by Scott. She's there to come to his readings, to inspire him, to be on his arm as he parades his success in front of all those who thought he'd never make it. A success that needs a followup if they are to keep living the life they are. Because the bills keep piling up and Zelda keeps spending the money, being kept in the dark by Scott as to their finances. Therefore they must leave New York and they get a house in Westport. There all their troubles are amplified and things come to a head. But one thing is certain, no matter how bad they are for each other they cannot survive apart. 

Therese Anne Fowler's book on Zelda Fitzgerald is an interesting logistical puzzle when you get to adapting it. From the framing device to Zelda and Scott's power dynamic to the narrative style, everything had to be reconsidered within this new medium. First and foremost is switching from a first person narrative to a hybrid which fleshes out the characters as something other than just how Zelda sees them while maintaining her voice. In order to successfully do this I was intrigued that instead of having Zelda and Scott somewhat equals they softened Zelda and hardened Scott, leaning heavily into being "Team Zelda" as Fowler herself puts it. Instead of Zelda's work and influence on Scott as a kind of "collaboration under duress" Scott is all out stealing her words and making them his own. He comes across as a pilfering, hostile, unlikable drunk, who will hurt Zelda any way he can. Now the book didn't endear me to Scott, but this series, it made me really hate him. There wasn't really any grey areas to their relationship, it was much more black and white, and to me, maybe a bit more romantic because there is the victim and the victor, and Zelda is deified as the true genius. While this might feel less realistic, Zelda has spent years being the millstone around Scott's neck in biographies and movies, so perhaps it was time for a little justice. Perhaps it was time for Zelda to be the out and out heroine. It sure made for bingeable viewing! Each thirty minute slice of life flowed into the next until the abrupt ending, which was meant to bridge into a second season which was commissioned and then cancelled. I can see why, once their daughter Scottie enters the picture their life changes and the show wouldn't have had the roaring twenties ritziness that so exemplifies the first season. The look, the feel, the sets, the costumes, everything made this time period come alive, almost more than the book. Because if anything, the twenties is about appearances, and well, no matter how well written a book is, sometimes things have to be seen to be believed.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1920s, Christina Ricci, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Roaring Back to Reading, Roaring Twenties, Team Zelda, Therese Anne Fowler, Wife, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, Z: The Beginning of Everything, Zelda Fitzgerald

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: March 26th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 375 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

On the eve of her husband's death Zelda looks back on their life and writes to him about their future, their next great act that she doesn't know will never come. She was the belle of the ball and he was the Yankee soldier with ambitions of being a writer who swept her off her feet despite a lack of prospects and a northern upbringing. But marrying an unpublished writer would be folly. Therefore Zelda broke Scott's heart in order to push him to finish rewriting his first novel. Eight days after This Side of Paradise was published they were married and their decadent life in New York City began. Their bank account would widely fluctuate from being able to afford the most luxurious raccoon coats to not being able to buy groceries. Not that Scott bothered to tell Zelda about their finances, when in need he'd sacrifice his talent and his time writing his next great novel to churning out a story for the magazines he vocally reviled. But New York would prove too costly and with a baby on the way they moved to Minnesota to be near Scott's family. There Zelda found a surprising opportunity besides being a new mother she started to write pieces for the magazines Scott disliked. But he didn't dislike the money or his wife getting credit, even if he often received partial or full credit on her work. Zelda did dislike that. But what was she to do as the wife of a famous author who was notorious for spending more than he could earn. This habit soon led them to a vagrant lifestyle in France where their money could stretch further. They surrounded themselves with artists and authors yet Zelda resented always being the wife. And then Hemingway came into their life. Driving even more of a wedge between the now acrimonious couple. But through the years to come, the ups and downs, the coast to coast relocations, the drinking, the hospitalizations, they always came back to each other, until they no longer could. Until that day in December when Scott left this world.

There's a fine line that is tread when writing a fictional book about a real person, you have to go more for the emotional connection while still keeping enough historical content to ground it in reality. I find this is even more so for wives of authors, and yes, this is a whole subset of historical fiction. Because so much is known about certain authors that their wives, even if they aren't as famous as Zelda, are part of the mystique of the author. Part of their legend. And a truly successful book about a "wife" is one in which she is able to break away from her husband's legacy and be seen for herself. The problem is with Scott and Zelda they are so intertwined that this book is more about their suffocating co-dependence and how that affected Zelda emotional, physically, and artistically. And to get this emotional connection Fowler has gone the logical root of being "Team Zelda" and demonizing Scott, to an extent. Because as she mentions at the end of the book, fans of the Fiztgeralds are all about taking sides. But just the basic facts of Scott viewing the life they lived together as fodder for HIS work ONLY should be enough to make you sympathize with Zelda. Her letters, her stories, her reviews, her diaries, her experiences, all of it, Scott laid claim to. She was his "wife" and nothing more. Fowler shows quite clearly and sympathetically that this is what destroyed them. They destroyed each other because Scott laying claim to Zelda's life forced her into a mental collapse resulting in him becoming her caretaker. So while I felt the narrative got to the heart of the issue I still felt that it could have been presented more eloquently. The beginning of the book is so beautifully written but as the story continues, as Zelda's life disintegrates, the quality trails off, the story becomes more elliptical and suffers. This book is a good start for those interested in Zelda and the Fiztgeralds, but as the author says herself; "Look closer and you'll see something extraordinary, mystifying, something real and true." Just don't look for it here.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alcohol, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, France, Minnesota, New York, Roaring Back to Reading, Team Zelda, Therese Anne Fowler, This Side of Paradise, Wife, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry
Published by: Redhook
Publication Date: June 23rd, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 544 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A sweeping tale of revolution and wonder in a world not quite like our own, A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians is a genre-defying story of magic, war, and the struggle for freedom in the early modern world.

It is the Age of Enlightenment - of new and magical political movements, from the necromancer Robespierre calling for revolution in France, to the weather mage Toussaint L'Ouverture leading the slaves of Haiti in their fight for freedom, to the bold new Prime Minister William Pitt weighing the legalization of magic amongst commoners in Britain and abolition throughout its colonies overseas.

But amidst all of the upheaval of the early modern world, there is an unknown force inciting all of human civilization into violent conflict. And it will require the combined efforts of revolutionaries, magicians, and abolitionists to unmask this hidden enemy before the whole world falls to darkness and chaos."

Oh so close to being REGENCY MAGIC!!!

The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: June 23rd, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Katherine Addison, author of The Goblin Emperor, returns with The Angel of the Crows, a fantasy novel of alternate 1880s London, where killers stalk the night and the ultimate power is naming.

This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not the book you are expecting.

In an alternate 1880s London, angels inhabit every public building, and vampires and werewolves walk the streets with human beings in a well-regulated truce. A fantastic utopia, except for a few things: Angels can Fall, and that Fall is like a nuclear bomb in both the physical and metaphysical worlds. And human beings remain human, with all their kindness and greed and passions and murderous intent.

Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of this London too. But this London has an Angel. The Angel of the Crows."

Alternate history geek in me is excited, but so is the Ripperologist in me!

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho
Published by: Tor.com
Publication Date: June 23rd, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 160 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Zen Cho returns with The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, a found family wuxia fantasy that combines the vibrancy of old school martial arts movies with characters drawn from the margins of history.

A bandit walks into a coffeehouse, and it all goes downhill from there. Guet Imm, a young votary of the Order of the Pure Moon, joins up with an eclectic group of thieves (whether they like it or not) in order to protect a sacred object, and finds herself in a far more complicated situation than she could have ever imagined."

I am so excited for this book I have literally had it preordered since before there was cover art!

Hunted by the Sky by Tanaz Bhathena
Published by: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Date: June 23rd, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Exploring identity, class struggles, and high-stakes romance, Tanaz Bhathena's Hunted by the Sky is a gripping adventure set in a world inspired by medieval India.

Gul has spent her life running. She has a star-shaped birthmark on her arm, and in the kingdom of Ambar, girls with such birthmarks have been disappearing for years. Gul’s mark is what caused her parents’ murder at the hand of King Lohar’s ruthless soldiers and forced her into hiding to protect her own life. So when a group of rebel women called the Sisters of the Golden Lotus rescue her, take her in, and train her in warrior magic, Gul wants only one thing: revenge.

Cavas lives in the tenements, and he’s just about ready to sign his life over to the king’s army. His father is terminally ill, and Cavas will do anything to save him. But sparks fly when he meets a mysterious girl - Gul - in the capital’s bazaar, and as the chemistry between them undeniably grows, he becomes entangled in a mission of vengeance - and discovers a magic he never expected to find.

Dangerous circumstances have brought Gul and Cavas together at the king’s domain in Ambar Fort...a world with secrets deadlier than their own."

I have always loved stories in India, no matter the time period or fantastical bent.

What's Left of Me is Yours by Stephanie Scott
Published by: Doubleday
Publication Date: June 23rd, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A gripping debut set in modern-day Tokyo and inspired by a true crime, for readers of Everything I Never Told You and The Perfect Nanny, What's Left of Me Is Yours charts a young woman's search for the truth about her mother's life - and her murder.

In Japan, a covert industry has grown up around the "wakaresaseya" (literally "breaker-upper"), a person hired by one spouse to seduce the other in order to gain the advantage in divorce proceedings. When Satō hires Kaitarō, a wakaresaseya agent, to have an affair with his wife, Rina, he assumes it will be an easy case. But Satō has never truly understood Rina or her desires and Kaitarō's job is to do exactly that--until he does it too well. While Rina remains ignorant of the circumstances that brought them together, she and Kaitarō fall in a desperate, singular love, setting in motion a series of violent acts that will forever haunt her daughter's life.

Told from alternating points of view and across the breathtaking landscapes of Japan, Stephanie Scott exquisitely renders the affair and its intricate repercussions. As Rina's daughter, Sumiko, fills in the gaps of her mother's story and her own memory, Scott probes the thorny psychological and moral grounds of the actions we take in the name of love, asking where we draw the line between passion and possession."

True crime? I'm listening!

The Kingdom of Liars by Nick Martell
Published by: Gallery/Saga Press
Publication Date: June 23rd, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 608 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this brilliant debut fantasy, a story of secrets, rebellion, and murder are shattering the Hollows, where magic costs memory to use, and only the son of the kingdom’s despised traitor holds the truth.

Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king’s nine-year-old son, by his father David Kingman. Ten years later on Michael lives a hardscrabble life, with his sister Gwen, performing crimes with his friends against minor royals in a weak attempt at striking back at the world that rejects him and his family.

In a world where memory is the coin that pays for magic, Michael knows something is there in the hot white emptiness of his mind. So when the opportunity arrives to get folded back into court, via the most politically dangerous member of the kingdom’s royal council, Michael takes it, desperate to find a way back to his past. He discovers a royal family that is spiraling into a self-serving dictatorship as gun-wielding rebels clash against magically trained militia.

What the truth holds is a set of shocking revelations that will completely change the Hollows, if Michael and his friends and family can survive long enough to see it."

Memory for magic is a memorable and fascinating conceit! 

Elemental: Shadows of the Otherside by Whitney Hill
Published by: Benu Media
Publication Date: June 23rd, 2020
Format: Paperback, 308 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Enter an urban fantasy world where elves, vampires, weres, djinn, and others maintain a precarious balance of power in North Carolina. Welcome to Otherside.

Private investigator and sylph Arden Finch is determined to come out of the shadows and practice her forbidden magic. There's just one problem: the elves have a bounty on elementals like her.

When an elf hires Arden without realizing what she is, she seizes the chance to gain leverage in the dangerous world of Otherside - even if it means risking exposure. But as the case grows more perilous, Arden draws the attention of the region's deadliest power players.

Fans of Kim Harrison, Faith Hunter, and the early Anita Blake series will find a kick-ass heroine to love in Arden.

Content warnings: swearing, light consensual sex, physical violence, death, slurs (not toward any real racial or ethnic group/identity), threat of sexual violence."

All about the urban fantasy!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: H.G. Parry, India, Katherine Addison, Nick Martell, Regency Magic, Ripperologist, Stephanie Scott, Tanaz Bhathena, The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, True Crime, Urban Fantasy, Whitney Hill, Zen Cho

Zelda Fitzgerald is a tragic figure, and not just because she died sedated and locked in in a fire that broke out at the hospital she was living at in Asheville, North Carolina, claiming her life and the lives of eight other women when she was only forty-seven, but because she will forever be known, and to some vilified, as F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Zelda Sayre, was the pampered baby of her family. She was active and artistic from an early age, taking an interest in swimming and dance, and later an interest in drink and boys. She was as shocking as she could be given the society she was surrounded with and her strict father, the judge. But the war and the parties for the troops gave her greater leeway than a southern belle would normally have and right before her eighteenth birthday she met F. Scott and both their lives would be forever entwined and she would find notoriety as the "first American flapper."

After their marriage while she at first reveled in Scott's success, the fact that she was contributing to that success uncredited was a thorn in her side. He often took whole sections of her writing, especially from her journals, and used them for his work. When she'd write pieces of her own she would have to share writing credit just in order to get paid a fair price, or that's what Scott and his agent said. She was creatively stifled, not able to write or draw or do anything without Scott overriding her. Therefore she took solace in dance. Only she took her escape to the extreme, pushing herself too hard, making herself sick. When Scott finally told her to give up her dreams she broke down and was hospitalized. From the age of thirty onwards she would spend her life in and out of hospitals. Many people will insist that her illness and Scott's caregiving duties are what led him to never fulfill his early potential. But Scott put it best: “Perhaps 50 percent of our friends and relatives would tell you in all honest conviction that my drinking drove Zelda insane - the other half would assure you that her insanity drove me to drink.” They weren't good for each other and they self-destructed, but what a conflagration to behold.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1920s, Alabama, Alcohol, American, Asylum, Caregiving, Dance, Drinking, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flapper, Hospitalization, North Carolina, Roaring Back to Reading, Southern Belle, Zelda, Zelda Fitzgerald, Zelda Sayre

The Great Gatsby
Based on the book by F. Scott Fitgerald
Starring: Tobey Maguire, Jack Thompson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joel Edgerton, Carey Mulligan, Elizabeth Debicki, Jason Clarke, Isla Fisher, Adelaide Clemens, Kate Mulvany, Iota, Gus Murray, Max Cullen, Brendan Maclean, Richard Carter, Jake Ryan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kim Knuckey, David Furlong, Steve Bisley, Callan McAuliffe, and Tasman Palazzi
Release Date: May 1st, 2013
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

After the events of the previous summer Nick Carraway is a disillusioned drunk who has had himself committed. Talking with Dr. Perkins he reveals that the only true thing he found through all he endured was Jay Gatsby. Dr. Perkins recommends that Nick, who has always had ambitions of being a writer, write about Gatsby. Write about his experiences with this man. The book doesn't need to be for anyone other than himself, but the doctor thinks it will help Nick recover. Over the course of the winter as it thaws and becomes spring Nick writes Gatsby's story, which begins with Nick going to see his old college classmate Tom Buchanan in East Egg, an athlete through and through who spends his copious leisure time playing polo or playing around with his mistress Myrtle. Myrtle is a bit of a surprise to Nick as he thought Tom happily married to Daisy, who happens to be Nick's cousin. But according to Myrtle's sister, neither Tom nor Myrtle love their respective spouses. This is the first real step down into the depravity that will take ahold of Nick. But for awhile he will stay afloat because of his neighbor in West Egg, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby throws the most lavish, most decadent, most extraordinary parties, and yet no one, other than Nick, has actually ever been invited. They just show up and the Bacchanalia begins. But who would throw a party and then not partake of the revels? That is the enigma of Gatsby. Soon though Nick will be privy to all because of his unique situation and relation to Daisy. Gatsby has a favor to ask, a simple favor, he wants Nick to invite Daisy to tea, and then he'll just stroll in and sweep Daisy off her feet. Because five long years ago they were in love. This was before the war, when Jay was a penniless nobody, and Daisy loved him but knew she must marry for money. Now Gatsby wants to erase the intervening five years. Make Daisy's love for Tom nonexistent, and their happiness guaranteed. But life can't be so easily rewritten. Time moves forward, tragedy strikes, and disillusionment settles in.       

An over-the-top, frenetic, hyperactive adaptation that is the unholy lovechild of Dick Tracy and Sin City. But The Great Gatsby lacks the production quality and artistry of those two films which actually broke new ground instead of mashing up a whole lot of old and trying to make it new again. The problem all resides with Baz Luhrmann, he wants this film to be Busby Berkley on acid but he just doesn't have the talent of even the lowliest Hollywood hack director from the golden age of cinema. His work is all surface and no substance, just movies with catchy playlists, which on paper would make Luhrmann the ideal director for The Great Gatsby, but the problem is this adaptation strives to be something more, something greater, and therefore Luhrmann should have backed the hell away and just messed about with more absurd themes for the MET Gala. How about vintage advertising with a smattering of Erté? Because he sure as hell loved those visuals in this film, which, while cool, would have made Fitzgerald roll over in his grave. As for the framing device that reeks of a hackneyed Citizen Kane wannabe, it seems more like some desperate need to make Nick's narration plausible to a modern audience instead of just accepting that sometimes stories have narrators. Yes, it was interesting having Nick locked up for being a dipsomaniac writing Gatsby's story as therapy, thus combining Zelda and Scott into a single creative force that birthed the novel, but it was unnecessary. So much of this film is unnecessary. The movie takes half of it's screen time trying to figure itself out, much like the actor's accents. Leo finally landed on Kennedy if you were wondering, as for some of the others it's anyone's guess. But the end result of all THIS is a film that somehow succeeds in spite of itself because of the casting. Leo brings a depth to Gatsby you never thought possible. You feel he is lonely and hopeful and lost. You actually feel for him. You can see why Nick believes in him. Leo is a Gatsby to believe in and his loss is our loss.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Asylum, Baz Luhrmann, Carey Mulligan, Citizen Kane, Dick Tracy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby, Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nick Carraway, Roaring Back to Reading, Sin City, The Great Gatsby, Zelda

Shadowplay by Joseph O'Connor
Published by: Europa Editions
Publication Date: June 16th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Shadowplay by New York Times best-selling author, Joseph O'Connor, is set during the golden age of West End theater in a London shaken by the crimes of Jack the Ripper.

Henry Irving is Victorian London's most celebrated actor and theater impresario. He has introduced groundbreaking ideas to the theater, bringing to the stage performances that are spectacular, shocking, and always entertaining. When Irving decides to open his own London theater with the goal of making it the greatest playhouse on earth, he hires a young Dublin clerk harboring literary ambitions by the name of Bram Stoker to manage it. As Irving's theater grows in reputation and financial solvency, he lures to his company of mummers the century's most beloved actress, the dazzlingly talented leading lady Ellen Terry, who nightly casts a spell not only on her audiences but also on Stoker and Irving both.

Bram Stoker's extraordinary experiences at the Lyceum Theatre, his early morning walks on the streets of a London terrorized by a serial killer, his long, tempestuous relationship with Irving, and the closeness he finds with Ellen Terry, inspire him to write Dracula, the most iconic and best-selling supernatural tale ever published.

A magnificent portrait both of lamp-lit London and of lives and loves enacted on the stage, Shadowplay's rich prose, incomparable storytelling, and vivid characters will linger in readers' hearts and minds for many years."

Ripperologist here who happened to work in the theatre! 

The Woman in the Green Dress by Tea Cooper
Published by: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: June 16th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A cursed opal, a gnarled family tree, and a sinister woman in a green dress emerge in the aftermath of World War I.

After a whirlwind romance, London teashop waitress Fleur Richards can't wait for her new husband, Hugh, to return from the Great War. But when word of his death arrives on Armistice Day, Fleur learns he has left her a sizable family fortune. Refusing to accept the inheritance, she heads to his beloved home country of Australia in search of the relatives who deserve it more.

In spite of her reluctance, she soon finds herself the sole owner of a remote farm and a dilapidated curio shop full of long-forgotten artifacts, remarkable preserved creatures, and a mystery that began more than sixty-five years ago. With the help of Kip, a repatriated soldier dealing with the sobering aftereffects of war, Fleur finds herself unable to resist pulling on the threads of the past. What she finds is a shocking story surrounding an opal and a woman in a green dress...a story that, nevertheless, offers hope and healing for the future.

This romantic mystery from award-winning Australian novelist Tea Cooper will keep readers guessing until the astonishing conclusion."

Cursed gems!?! YAS!

Nightingale House by Steve Frech
Published by: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: June 16th, 2020
Format: Kindle, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For fans of Stephen King, Mark Edwards, and The Haunting of Hill House comes a dark tale of a mysterious house haunted by tragedy.

The Nightingale House is a new beginning for widower Daniel Price and his young daughter Caitlyn. After months of grief, this will be the place where they start their life as a family of two.

But something is wrong - Daniel can’t settle. There’s an odd, cold feeling in the master bedroom, and a mysterious dripping noise that seems to move from room to room. Whispers of I can’t sleep echo through the corridors, long into the night.

And then Daniel uncovers the chilling story of the family who lived in the house years before, of betrayal, tragedy, and murder. Could the Nightingale House be not the home Daniel dreamed of for his daughter - but a place that will bring their worst nightmares to life?"

Everyone should have a good haunted house story to read in the summer months.

Vera Kelly is Not a Mystery by Rosalie Knecht
Published by: Tin House Books
Publication Date: June 16th, 2020
Format: Paperback
To Buy

The official patter:
"The “splendid genre-pushing” (People) Vera Kelly series returns in full force as our recently out-of-the-spy-game heroine finds herself traveling from Brooklyn to a sprawling countryside estate in the Caribbean in her first case as a private investigator.

When ex-CIA agent Vera Kelly loses her job and her girlfriend in a single day, she reluctantly goes into business as a private detective. Heartbroken and cash-strapped, she takes a case that dredges up dark memories and attracts dangerous characters from across the Cold War landscape. Before it’s over, she’ll chase a lost child through foster care and follow a trail of Dominican exiles to the Caribbean. Forever looking over her shoulder, she nearly misses what’s right in front of her: her own desire for home, connection, and a new romance at the local bar.

In this exciting second installment of the Vera Kelly series, Rosalie Knecht challenges and deepens the Vera we love: a woman of sparkling wit, deep moral fiber, and martini-dry humor who knows how to follow a case even as she struggles to follow her heart."

If you're missing Killing Eve, this book is for you.

American Demon by Kim Harrison
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: June 16th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 496 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"RACHEL MORGAN IS BACK - AND THE HOLLOWS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME.

What happens after you've saved the world? Well, if you're Rachel Mariana Morgan, witch-born demon, you quickly discover that something might have gone just a little bit wrong. That the very same acts you and your friends took to forge new powers may have released something bound by the old. With a rash of zombies, some strange new murders, and an exceedingly mysterious new demon in town, it will take everything Rachel has to counter this new threat to the world--and it may demand the sacrifice of what she holds most dear."

I know I'm not the only one who thinks that summer should be all about new Urban Fantasy reads!

Glow: Book I, Potency by Aubrey Hadley
Published by: Ruby and Topaz Publishing
Publication Date: June 16th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 420 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Sleeping Syndrome has returned after a six-month hiatus. This time, it's popped up in New York, and it's wiped out an entire homeless shelter. The same night of the outbreak - thousands of miles away - Harper, a seventeen-year-old girl, finds herself face-to-face with a glowing figure in the desert outskirts of her neighborhood. As the world goes on high-alert from the Syndrome, Harper is kidnapped and taken to the Base of Ki, a massive dome with a sheening white city and fantastic technology...built by beings from another solar system. There, she must form cross-species alliances to save her friends, family, and the human race before she loses all chance of returning to Earth."

It's finally out!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Aubrey Hadley, Glow, Joseph O'Connor, Killing Eve, Kim Harrison, Rachel Morgan, Ripperologist, Rosalie Knecht, Stephen King, Steve Frech, Tea Cooper, The Haunting of Hill House, Tuesday Tomorrow, Urban Fantasy, WWI

The Great Gatsby
Based on the book by F. Scott Fitgerald
Starring: Paul Rudd, Martin Donovan, Mira Sorvino, Francie Swift, Alex Bisping, Bill Camp, Heather Goldenhersh, Janine Theriault, Matt Malloy, Richard Jutras, Jerry Grayson, Megan Broadman, Paul Hopkins, and Burt Harris
Release Date: January 14th, 2001
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Twenty miles outside New York City there are two eggs. Nick Carraway has found himself in the less desirable West Egg as he works in bonds in the city. But he has acquaintances in East Egg and the convergence of East and West will be memorable. One night he takes himself over to West Egg to see an old classmate from Yale who just so happens to have married his cousin Daisy. The Buchanans live a charmed and luxurious life, never worrying about what happens in their wake, and a ghost from the past will soon change their lives forever. But first there's the dinner. Nick is the only other guest besides the golf pro and childhood friend of Daisy, Jordan Baker. When Tom Buchanan gets a call during the dinner hour and Daisy storms out after her husband Jordan fills Nick in on the gossip. Tom has a girl in the city and that's her on the phone. Nick's a little surprised that Tom has the brainpower to juggle two women, but Jordan's suspicions are soon confirmed when Tom forces Nick to join him on a trip into New York City where they pick up Myrtle Wilson on the way. Once they reach the city Nick tries to break away from the couple only to be dragged into a party at their love nest with Myrtle's sister. There Nick can barely stomach the lies about Daisy being a Catholic and the violence that Tom unleashes against Myrtle and therefore he drinks. Later, inebriated, he stumbles home where he finds a manservant asleep on his front step with an invitation from his neighbor, the infamous Jay Gatsby, to come to his next party. The night of the party Nick walks over to Gatsby's house that's lit up like the world's fair. Nick feels a little superior to all the party goers knowing that he was in fact invited by the host, unlike most who just pile into a car on a weekend and head out to West Egg. Nick meets his elusive host and is invited to lunch in the city where Gatsby tells him his story and how Nick can help him achieve the one goal he has been working towards. He wants to see Daisy. Jordan fills in the details for Nick about how Gatsby and Daisy where an item but he went off to war and she married Tom. But Gatsby has never forgotten her and wants Nick to invite Daisy over so that Gatsby can show her the man he has become in an effort to take her away from her life without him. There reconciliation is everything Gatsby could have hoped for. What happens next as a result is nothing but a tragedy.    

What I find odd is how little impact any adaptation of The Great Gatsby has ever had on me. With the 1974 version I know I watched it with my Mom because she wanted me to see it, and she liked heckling movies with Robert Redford, but the only scene in the whole film I remembered is Edward Herrmann playing the piano. Then there's this TV adaptation and I have nothing. Just a blank. Oddly I remember tons of press leading up to the broadcast. An article in People about Toby Stephens being Maggie Smith's son and the "next big thing" has stayed with me more than the adaptation. Now I adore Toby, but my adoration didn't happen for many, many years, in fact it wasn't until after watching this and even Cambridge Spies and Poirot and The Queen's Sister that he made a lasting impression with Jane Eyre, but rewatching it I think I can be exempted for my lapse in memory because he's SO Jay Gatsby that you don't think of him as an actor who exists outside this role. That smile which feels like a veneer to coverup the mobster underneath is perfection. Unlike with Redford's performance you actually believe all the rumors about this Gatsby. Also I don't think I've ever seen Toby Stephens smile this much, which in itself would throw off even his diehard fans. So yes, at the time, I will admit, I was in this mainly for Paul Rudd, and a little for Mira Sorvino, because I've always loved her. But I don't know how everything about it was so forgettable because it is actually a really strong adaptation. For the first half hour it feels a bit like a beat for beat remake of the 1974 version, but listen to the genius music from Carl Davis hinting as to where this adaptation is going to go, he brings this to a whole new level. It feels like a made for TV movie that would have been event viewing in 1986, "Sidney Sheldon presents The Great Gatsby!" In fact I bet despite being only seventeen in 1986 Paul Rudd would have looked exactly the same if this was made then! And as for Rudd's Nick Carraway, at first I found his narration a little too detached, but then I noticed the subtle wry humor, the smirks, the badly concealed laughter, and I came to love this snarky version of Nick. The only flaw in the whole adaptation is the added specificity of Gatsby's wealth being tied up in fake bonds, though my Dad would probably say it was Myrtle's overly graphic death. Yes, the bonds angle made a nice parallel to what Nick's work was, but I didn't like this invented specificity. Gatsby is and should remain a mystery. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Bonds, Cambridge Spies, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Eyre, Mira Sorvino, Paul Rudd, Poirot, Roaring Back to Reading, Robert Redford, Sidney Sheldon, The Great Gatsby, The Queen's Sister, Toby Stephens

The Great Gatsby
Based on the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Starring: Sam Waterston, Bruce Dern, Mia Farrow, Lois Chiles, Robert Redford, Scott Wilson, Karen Black, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Edward Herrmann, John Devlin, Howard Da Silva, Patsy Kensit, Marjorie Wildes, and Roberts Blossom
Release Date: March 29th, 1974
Rating: ★★
To Rent

Nick Carraway is sailing the choppy waters from West Egg to East Egg to visit an old classmate from Yale and his wife, who happens to be Nick's cousin. Tom and Daisy Buchanan have a luxurious life of ponies and idleness. In fact Daisy barely is able to work up anything other than a sweat in the hot summer air until her friend Jordan mentions Nick's neighbor, a certain Gatsby who is known for his parties. But Gatsby's name is soon forgotten as Tom's mistress calls the house just as they are about to sit down to their repast. Tom is wild about his mistress Myrtle, and soon Nick is headed into New York City to spend a day cavorting with Tom and Myrtle and their new puppy. Their relationship is painted as a tragic love story, both no longer love their spouses and want to be together, but rumor is that Daisy, being a Catholic, would never allow a divorce. They live in a world of rumor and supposition. No one knows what's true or what's fantasy. And no one is gossiped about more than Gatsby. Did he kill a man? Did he go to Oxford? Did his family die and leave him a fortune? Did he earn all the money for his mansion in only three years? Soon Nick will be closer to the truth than anyone else as Gatsby invites him into his house and into his confidence. Because Gatsby needs Nick. Nick will be his conduit to Daisy. Gatsby has loved Daisy since they first met though they haven't set eyes on each other in almost eight years. Nick can be the cover for their affair and from Nick's point of view, if Tom is free to be with Myrtle why can't Daisy be with Gatsby? Their affair takes them back to their youth as they waltz about his house, he in his uniform, her in her debutante dress, yet perfect happiness is hard to find in this world, which is messy and complicated. Perhaps it's a fool's errand to think you can recapture what is lost, and they are all perfect little fools. 

The 1974 adaptation of The Great Gatsby is a technicolor phantasmagoria that felt like it had more in common with Roald Dahl's adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that debuted three years earlier than the original source material by F. Scott Fitzgerald. As we luxuriate over a veritable rainbow of shirts and more vintage copper jelly molds than I've ever seen I almost expected Mia Farrow to break into song using one of the many fish-shaped molds as her singing partner. Because this adaptation is all about how things look, the feel of old Hollywood, the pastel suits and shirts suitable for a revival of Easter Parade, forgetting that classic cinema actually crafted a narrative that didn't feel like one overly long photoshoot for Ralph Lauren, who actually provided Redford's costumes. That idea of the still image, the photograph, is brought home again and again with the images of Daisy plastered throughout Gatsby's private rooms. And if the visuals hadn't bombarded you enough with the director's vision the music will drive it further into your brainpan with the constant use of the song "What'll I Do." That earworm of "what'll I do with just a photograph of you" will get under your skin like an itch you cannot scratch while the actors play at being in a film while actually just sleepwalking through this piece trying to look pretty for the camera. Pretty pictures of what was and will always be a doomed romance with some heavy handed foreshadowing means the film has created it's own symbolism instead of actually bothering with any of the book's. In fact I feel sorry for Bruce Dern, while Redford and Farrow are off waltzing in prewar garb in some tragic glimpse of faded romance, he should be applauded for being memorable with what little he was given because the rest of this film could float away like one of those pink clouds Daisy wishes to put Gatsby in and no one would miss it when it's gone.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Bruce Dern, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Daisy Buchanan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby, Hollywood, Mia Farrow, Roald Dahl, Roaring Back to Reading, Robert Redford, The Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan

The House of Whispers by Laura Purcell
Published by: Penguin Books
Publication Date: June 9th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A new gothic Victorian tale from Laura Purcell, set on the atmospheric Cornish coast in a rambling house by the sea in which a maid cares for a mute old woman with a mysterious past, alongside her superstitious staff.

Consumption has ravaged Louise Pinecroft's family, leaving her and her father alone and heartbroken. But Dr. Pinecroft has plans for a revolutionary experiment: convinced that sea air will prove to be the cure his wife and children needed, he arranges to house a group of prisoners suffering from the disease in the caves beneath his new Cornish home. While he devotes himself to his controversial medical trials, Louise finds herself increasingly discomfited by the strange tales her new maid tells of the fairies that hunt the land, searching for those they can steal away to their realm.

Forty years later, Hester arrives at Morvoren House to take up a position as nurse to the now partially paralyzed and mute Miss Pinecroft. Hester has fled to Cornwall to try to escape her past, but surrounded by superstitious staff enacting bizarre rituals, she soon discovers her new home may be just as dangerous as her last."

I am ALWAYS waiting for the newest Laura Purcell with an expectant hush, but the fact that this one is in Cornwall and has fairies!?! The wait isn't so quiet! 

The Secret of Mowbray Manor by Jude Bayton
Published by: Wild Rose Press
Publication Date: June 9th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 314 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Kathryn Westcott, masquerading as a tutor, accepts a position at the Clayton ancestral home of Mowbray Manor with one objective - to discover the fate of her friend, Lady Aramintha Clayton. Kathryn is horrified when she learns of Aramintha's death and the dubious circumstances surrounding how she died.

Suspecting the family knows more than they are prepared to say, Kathryn forms an alliance with both Clayton sons and a tenuous friendship with their aloof half-brother Benedict. One of them holds the key to solve the puzzle of Aramintha's demise.

No one is who they pretend to be in this house full of secrets. Someone does not want their villainy exposed and will use everything within their power to stop Kathryn from revealing the truth. Even if it means murder."

Seriously, just say "ancestral home" and I want to know more!

The Summer House by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois
Published by: Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date: June 9th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When seven murder victims are found in a small town, the homicide investigation shakes a small-town sheriff to her core in James Patterson's tense thriller.

Once a luxurious southern getaway on a rustic lake, then reduced to a dilapidated crash pad, the Summer House is now the grisly scene of a nighttime mass murder. Eyewitnesses point to four Army Rangers - known as the Night Ninjas - recently returned from Afghanistan.

To ensure that justice is done, the Army sends Major Jeremiah Cook, a veteran and former NYPD cop, to investigate. But the major and his elite team arrive in sweltering Georgia with no idea their grim jobs will be made exponentially more challenging by local law enforcement, who resists the Army's intrusion and stonewall them at every turn.

As Cook and his squad struggle to uncover the truth behind the condemning evidence, the pieces just won't fit - and forces are rallying to make certain damning secrets die alongside the victims in the murder house. With his own people in the cross-hairs, Cook takes a desperate gamble to find answers  - even if it means returning to a hell of his own worst nightmares..."

It's June so it's time for the beach reads! Though I want to make clear none of us should actually be on beaches. So this is you stay at home beach read!

A Study in Murder by Callie Hutton
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: June 9th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A mystery author is charged with murder - and the plot thickens faster than anyone can turn the pages - in USA Today bestselling author Callie Hutton's new series debut, perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Ellery Adams.

Bath, England, 1890. Mystery author Lady Amy Lovell receives an anonymous letter containing shocking news: her fiancé, Mr. Ronald St. Vincent, has been dabbling in something illegal, which causes her to promptly break their engagement.

Two evenings later, as Lady Amy awaits a visit from Lord William Wethington, fellow member of the Bath Mystery Book Club, her former fiancé makes an unexpected and most unwelcome appearance at her house. She promptly sends him to the library to cool his heels but later discovers the room seemingly empty - until she stumbles upon a dead Mr. St. Vincent with a knife in his chest.

Lord Wethington arrives to find Lady Amy screaming and sends for the police, but the Bobbies immediately assume that she is the killer. Desperate to clear her name, Lady Amy and Lord Wethington launch their own investigation - and stir up a hornet's nest of suspects, from the gardener who served time in prison for murder to a vengeful woman who was spurned by St. Vincent before he proposed to Lady Amy.

Can they close the book on the case before the real killer gets away with murder?"

Victorian murder mystery in BATH!

The Ghosts of Sherwood by Carrie Vaughn
Published by: Tor.com
Publication Date: June 9th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 112 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Carrie Vaughn's The Ghosts of Sherwood revisits the Robin Hood legend with a story of the famed archer's children.

Everything about Father is stories.

Robin of Locksley and his one true love, Marian, are married. It has been close on two decades since they beat the Sheriff of Nottingham with the help of a diverse band of talented friends. King John is now on the throne, and Robin has sworn fealty in order to further protect not just his family, but those of the lords and barons who look up to him - and, by extension, the villagers they protect.

There is a truce. An uneasy one, to be sure, but a truce, nonetheless.

But when the Locksley children are stolen away by persons unknown, Robin and Marian are going to need the help of everyone they’ve ever known, perhaps even the ghosts that are said to reside deep within Sherwood.

And the Locksley children, despite appearances to the contrary, are not without tricks of their own..."

Summer to me is a time when I think of Robin Hood and King Arthur, so this book is released just at the right time!

Crush and Color: Keanu Reeves by Maurizio Campidelli
Published by: Castle Point Books
Publication Date: June 9th, 2020
Format: Paperbacks, 80 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Maurizio Campidelli's Crush and Color: Keanu Reeves is a fangirl dream's coloring book featuring the star of John Wick..."

Because you're stressed and what better way to relax than coloring and Keanu?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bath, Beach Read, Callie Hutton, Carrie Vaughn, Coloring Book, Cornwall, James Patterson, Jude Bayton, Keanu Reeves, King Arthur, Laura Purcell, Robin Hood, The House of Whispers, Tuesday Tomorrow, Victorian

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Published by: Penguin
Publication Date: 1925
Format: Hardcover, 198 Pages
Rating: ★★★
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Nick Carraway has moved east to sell bonds in New York City. Because that's what young men do to make money right? Move east and sell bonds. But living out on Long Island he has an advantage across the bay. His wealthy former classmate from Yale, Tom Buchanan, lives in a luxurious house with his wife Daisy, who just happens to be Nick's cousin. At Nick's first dinner at their home he meets Jordan Baker, a rather infamous golfer, and gets ringside seats to the drama of the Buchanan household. There's trouble in paradise as Tom's mistress has the gall to call during the dinner hour! Of course, being old classmates, Nick is drawn into Tom's extramarital activities, and it isn't long before Nick is partying in the couple's love nest in the city where Myrtle's sister is insisting to Nick that Tom and Myrtle are miserable in their marriages and if it wasn't for Daisy being a Catholic there'd be two divorces and one marriage faster than you can blink. Nick can't be sure of this assertion and soon his life is about to be complicated by even more intrigue. He's going to be brought into Jay Gatsby's orbit. Jay Gatsby is Nick's infamous neighbor. Infamous for his parties and his secretive past. Everyone comes to his parties and yet no one ever sees him. Nick is about to see a lot of him as he brings Nick into his world and into his greatest regret, losing Daisy, the love of his life. He asks Nick to be a go-between. Of course fearing rejection he uses his own go-between, Jordan Baker. The request is simple enough, can Nick invite Daisy to his humble abode, only to have Gatsby swing in and take them to his manse next door? Nick is glad to help, especially as it's Jordan asking, and soon, like Daisy, he is under Gatsby's spell. But as Gatsby and Daisy's courtship from before the war proves, love and wooing never go smooth. Soon Tom realizes what is happening and there is a great reckoning that not everyone survives. That is the price of wealth and woo.

The Great Gatsby is light on plot with little depth and an unreliable narrator and for those very reasons it has become a classic. Other than a distinct "Americanness" and much rumination on the American Dream, everything is open to interpretation. Can we believe a word Nick says? Probably not. Can we blame Gatsby for how he made his fortune in order to woo the woman he loves? Depends on how he really got his money... which the characters themselves like to discuss ad nauseam. Can the valley of ashes be real or is it just a metaphor? You can literally read anything you want into this book. I was strongly reminded in the laborious and best skipped introduction of certain friends of mine who can talk for hours on end about the color symbolism in 2001: A Space Odyssey. What red means in one shot, followed by the blue of another. If they had a desire to, which I'm sure they don't, they could go into the symbolism of color that larders the pages of this book. The green light at the end of Daisy's dock, the golden sheen coming off Gatsby, all of it can be taken as something or nothing. The green could be tied to Daisy and how her voice is full of money. The green could be her openness to Gatsby's return. His golden sheen could be an outward aura of his wealth or a reference to the golden calf from the Bible and all the symbolism that weights him down because of that. In fact, though I never took a high school class that actually read The Great Gatsby, I can see why it's a popular one to teach. There is so much that can be drawn out of this book literally anything any student says is a possible interpretation. There is no wrong answer where it comes to The Great Gatsby! In fact, here's my weird little interpretation. I think The Great Gatsby is the inspiration for the TV series Remington Steele. Now prove me wrong! You literally can't. Steele is a man of infinite style whose past is dubious and who embodies the American Dream. He may or may not have tragedy in his past and as for that past, it shifts and changes with each retelling. Who knows, he might also have medals for heroic service as well as the known warrants for his arrest. This is how much this one book has become a part of the American consciousness that a popular TV show from the 80s could draw meaning form it for a modern audience and make it continually relevant. The Great Gatsby is a book for the ages.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1920s, 2001, American Dream, Daisy Buchanan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby, High School, Nick Carraway, Remington Steele, Roaring Back to Reading, Symbolism, The Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, Unreliable Narrator

If you were only allowed to pick one writer who encapsulated the zeitgeist of the 1920s your answer would be F. Scott Fitzgerald. I mean he is credited with naming this era the Jazz Age, a moniker first used in his 1922 short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age. What's more is he embodied the hedonistic lifestyle of free flowing booze and partying that everyone associates with this decade. Most of his early life, growing up in Minnesota and New York State, disappears in the telling of his life as if he emerged fully formed as a not-quite-graduate of Princeton and a second lieutenant in the infantry stationed in Montgomery, Alabama, where he met Zelda. Their lives were so entwined that you can't tell the story of one without the other. Their pasts are almost irrelevant. Yet Scott wanted to be a writer more than he wanted anything else, even a degree from Princeton. But his hastily completed novel, The Romantic Egotist, was rejected by Scribners. With the war ended and the thought that he might forever lose Zelda if he couldn't support her he rewrote The Romantic Egotist and it was published by Scribners as This Side of Paradise on March 26th, 1920, and eight days later he married Zelda.

Always hard up for cash due to their dissolute lifestyle Scott was forever writing short stories which he hated while trying to write his next great novel. He failed in many artistic attempts, from theater to cinema, and eventually he, Zelda, and their daughter Scottie, ended up in Paris as part of the Lost Generation where a dollar could stretch farther. But Europe, and Scott's friendship with Hemingway, didn't help their marriage, and they slowly destroyed each other. Scott died in Hollywood at the age of 44 from a heart attack virtually forgotten. After his death his work was reevaluated due to a resurgence in popularity in World War II because The Great Gatsby was chosen to be a part of the Armed Services Editions. His work is also a staple of high schools and colleges across the country, guaranteeing he will never be forgotten, even if it's sometimes students bemoaning having to read his work. Well Scott would have probably bemoaned it himself, not read the book, and written his own.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1920s, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hollywood, Jazz, Paris, Princeton, Roaring Back to Reading, Tales of the Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby, The Lost Generation, This Side of Paradise, WWII, Zelda Fitzgerald

So here we go! The blog is fully back. Or I'm hoping it is. We'll see won't we? I took a year off in an attempt to quell the chaos that my life had become. Well, I don't know how things are going for you but that didn't work out so well. I was so excited for the start of this decade, the twenties are back people! But I didn't want it to start with a pandemic like it did a hundred years ago. Just goes to show that everything has a price apparently. The pandemic had me thinking I'd scrap my return, just continue to hide out in my house grumbling about people not wearing masks or social distancing, but then I realized that now IS the time to come back. Everyone needs an escape right now and everyone needs a community to belong to, and books set in another time are a perfect panacea, and my friends, my online community, YOU are what is keeping me sane. So it's time to get Roaring Back to Reading! To delve into the decade of decadence. The Roaring Twenties, where authors became stars and were fodder for gossip columnists! I'll be talking about several celebrity authors, some, like Scott and Zelda, who embodied the zeitgeist far more than say Virginia Woolf or Agatha Christie, who were still very influential. I'll be looking at the books, the adaptations, the stories of their lives, and I hope you'll join me. What else do you have on the books?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:01 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1920s, Agatha Christie, Blog, Blogging, Community, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Online, Pandemic, Reading, Roaring Back to Reading, Roaring Twenties, Twenties, Virgina Woolf, Zeitgeist, Zelda Fitzgerald