Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #800, Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
by muffy
Shortlisted in the Romance genre of the 2021 ALA Reading List, The Charm Offensive * * by Alison Cochrun (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) is a “polished, smart, and delightful debut romance” (Booklist)
Dev Deshpande, the most successful producer in the long-running The Bachelor-style reality dating show Ever After, and a romantic at heart, always manages to script the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns. But then the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star, who only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image.
Awkward, anxious, and neurodivergent, Charlie is not your typical Prince Charming and has no idea how to date twenty women on national television. As Dev coaches Charlie through filming, their relationship deepens in secret.
“With its lush locales and LGBTQ and BIPOC representation, this novel shines, especially for readers underrepresented or underappreciated in mainstream romance. For fans of Kate Stayman-London's One To Watch and Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue.” (Library Journal)
The Arc by Tory Henwood Hoen (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) is a smart, high concept love story that asks readers to consider their idea of a "perfect" relationship. For fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid, Sally Rooney, and Rebecca Serle.
When 35 year-old Ursula Byrne, successful, witty, whip-smart, and dating-apps fatigued, confesses to her best friend architect Issa, that she is ready to throw in the towel after her most recent in a string of dating disasters. Then she was handed a business card by an eavesdropper at the Stake - their "nouveau feminist wellness club." Enter The Arc: a highly secretive, super-sophisticated matchmaking service that uses a complex series of emotional, psychological and physiological assessments to architect partnerships that will go the distance.
Despite the hefty fee ($40,500) and after a lengthy process, Ursula was paired up with 42-year-old attorney Rafael Banks. They are immediately drawn to each other, and it appears that The Arc may have delivered what it promised.
“First-time novelist Hoen draws on her experiences at glossy magazines and a women's workwear start-up to perform her agile trend-skewering as she details their romance and the complications that threaten it at an indulgently hypnotic length, until the twist, or arc, arrives. With giddy hilarity and stabs to the heart, Hoen's heady cocktail of satire and celebration is a delectable addition to the dating-app and matchmaking rom-com list.” (Booklist)
Ramón and Julieta by Alana Quintana Albertson (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook), the first in the Love & Tacos series is a “fun Latinx riff on Romeo and Juliet.” (Publishers Weekly)
Set in Barrio Logan, the heart of the San Diego's Latinx community, Ramon Montez and Julieta Campos met on the Day of the Dead. Julieta, a Michelin chef hopes to save her mother’s sea-to-table taqueria, now under threat from a gentrification proposal. Handsome, ambitious Ramón is the CEO and heir apparent to his family's highly successful chain of Mexican restaurants Taco King. To her horror, Julieta discovers that her new landlord is none other than the magnetic mariachi she hooked up with at the festival. Even worse, it was his father who stole her mother's taco recipe (and her heart) decades ago in Mexico.
“With protests rising over the Taco King takeover in Barrios Logan, the star-crossed lovers must decide if their love is worth fighting for or just a recipe for disaster. Albertson's emphasis on Mexican cuisine puts a refreshing twist on the Shakespearean tragedy, and though Ramón and Julieta's dialogue is stiff at points, their chemistry is palpable. Romance fans will be pleased--but are advised not to read this one on an empty stomach.” (Publishers Weekly)
* * = 2 starred reviews
Looking for more ideas? Check out this Enemies to Lovers: The Romance Book List
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #799
by muffy
The American Library Association (ALA) has selected The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) as the winner of the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, “(a)midst the alarming spikes of violent anti-Asian hate, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu is a brilliantly fictionalized reclamation of Asian-American history.”
Utah, 1869. After being sentenced to 10 years of forced labor building the Central Pacific Railroad, Ming Tsu escaped and is settling old scores. The orphaned son of Chinese immigrants, Ming Tsu was raised by the leader of a California crime syndicate and trained to be its enforcer. By his reckoning, he has killed some 200 men. Then Ming fell in love and eloped with Ada, daughter of a powerful railroad magnate. When they were caught, Ada was kidnapped and he was conscripted into service for the railroad.
With revenge and Ada on his mind, Ming Tsu traveled towards California. En route he met a blind clairvoyant known as the prophet, and was hired as the guide and protector of a traveling miracle show featuring Proteus, a shape-shifter; the boy Hunter, who is deaf and mute but has the uncanny ability to project his voice into men's minds; and Hazel, the fireproof woman.
“Infused with magic realism, Lin's beautifully imagined first novel is an extraordinary epic with page-turning, often cinematic action that transcends the parameters of genre fiction. A brilliant debut, impossible to put down.” (Booklist)
“Part revenge fantasy, part classic bloody tale of the Old West.” (New York Times Book Review)
BONUS FEATURE
How Much of These Hills Is Gold * * * * (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) is a 2020 debut novel by author C. Pam Zhang. It was longlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Adult Fiction. It was named Best Books of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews and NPR and "100 Notable Books of 2020” by The New York Times.
At a mining camp in the late 1800s American West, 12-year-old Lucy and 11-year-old Sam woke to find their father dead. Discriminated against and destitute, the sisters fled on a stolen horse, looking for a place to bury their father properly, according to Chinese burial traditions.
The narrative moves back and forth between their parents' backstory - their gold-fueled success and the loss of their mother; and forward five years, with Sam off adventuring as a man and Lucy acting as a companion to a wealthy white woman. “This moving tale of family, gold, and freedom rings with a truth that defies rosy preconceptions. The description of human and environmental degradation is balanced by shining characters who persevere greatly.” (Library Journal)
“Zhang, just 29, writes with precocious assurance as she confronts the inseparable connections between lies, liars, and secrets; the barriers of language; the impossible price of family bonds, and the everlasting longing to find home.” (Booklist)
* * * * = 4 starred reviews
Blog Post
Playing with Math
by mrajraspn08
We’ve been homeschooling with the Tools collection for a few months now. It’s easy to make science lessons with these tools, but what about math?
Even math can be fun with the Miniature Ping Pong Table. Explore physics concepts like force and mass–hit a ping pong ball lightly and see how far it goes, then hit it harder and see how far. Why do you think you got the results you did? Next try aiming for different spots–hitting to the left far corner, center, and right far corner, for example. How do you do this (where do you stand, do you have to hold the paddle differently or hit with different amounts of force), and why does it work?
Another way to practice these skills is with Skittles. Arrange the pins, then throw the ball lightly–how many pins do you knock down, and how many more when you throw it harder? How do things change when you mix up variables like which pin you aim at or how far apart you space the pins? Skittles are the ancestor of bowling–how would you change your throw if you were using a heavy bowling ball, or trying to send it all the way down a bowling lane? There are regulations to these games–why do you think these regulations are set the way
they are?
Blog Post
Resources for Foster Parents
by mrajraspn08
Being a foster parent can be incredibly rewarding, but also incredibly challenging. If this is a path that you’re considering, here are a few resources I wish I’d had as a foster parent.
The Foster Parenting Manual is a great start for anyone thinking about fostering. Chapters include information on training, placement, and working with the school, birth parents, and caseworkers, with each chapter breaking down the information in a quick, digestible format. To The End of June goes into further detail, with the story of the system given through the stories of the people involved. As a foster parent, I found that having information about how the system worked was incredibly helpful.
It’s also important to have support and knowledge for the child. The Black Foster Care Handbook is incredibly beautiful and important, written from a former foster child who aged out of the system to children in the system about embracing their heritage and finding healing and wholeness.
Blog Post
The "Great Resignation" on the Bookshelf
by howarde
Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski | How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell | Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman | Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price
Feeling tired? Exhaustion is always present in our society, especially for people who are overworked and under-paid. But over the past couple of years, an idea shockingly anathema to the American work ethic has gone mainstream: if you’re feeling lazy, burned out, or unaccomplished, perhaps the problem isn’t you, but the system. So many newly published or re-published books on this topic have appeared on best seller lists recently. The four listed above seem to go perfectly with frequent news articles I read about people walking off the job after having re-assessed their life priorities. None of these books offer “life hacks” to help you use your time or resources more efficiently. Rather, they all argue in one way or another that being human is an un-hackable condition. They don’t claim to make work, education, or childcare magically easier, but they aim to stop readers from beating themselves up for feeling tired and overwhelmed. Whether or not these ideas are here to stay, they are definitely of our moment.
Emily and Amelia Nagoski’s Burnout addresses the question of exhaustion and unrealistic expectations placed on women specifically; Jenny Odell in How to Do Nothing advocates unlatching our attention from an extractive economy in which we are considered consumers rather than people; Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks asks us to give up on the delusion that we can do everything so we can focus on spending our limited time meaningfully; and in Laziness Does Not Exist, Devon Price argues that pushing ourselves to exhaustion in the name of productivity is bound to backfire. Add them to your hold list and then maybe take a nap.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #798 “After you’ve worked in a hotel, there’s nothing about human nature you don’t know.” ~ Jennifer Clement
by muffy
The Maid * by Nita Prose (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) is a “clever, corking, crackling novel that twists and bends the expectations it sets up as it goes along.” (CrimeReads)
25 year-old Molly Gray is an exemplary maid at the Regency Grand, a boutique hotel in an unspecified city. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms to “a state of perfection.” But Molly is different - she struggles with social skills and interprets people literally. With the recent death of her gran, Molly lost the one person who could interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.
Then Molly finds the body of a hotel guest, Mr. Black, dead in his bed, and Mrs. Black, Giselle who befriended Molly, missing. The police investigation unearths a drug ring operating in the hotel, evidence points to Molly and she quickly becomes the lead suspect in the police investigation.
“Molly is a likable, neurodivergent narrator in this outstanding debut. The character-rich mystery ends with several twists that will appeal to fans of Eleanor Oliphant and other sympathetic heroines.” (Library Journal)
Seven Down by David Whitton (also in downloadable eBook) is at once a puzzle begging to be solved, satire, and literary experiment. The narrative is presented as transcripts of interviews of seven employees of Toronto's King William hotel, between March 7, 2022 and February 3, 2024 - after a failed assassination attempt on a high-profile guest.
It turns out seven ordinary hotel employees: Summer Johnson (Reservations), Edwin Abubele (Engineering), Kathy Borsechke (Catering), Leonard Downey (Bellman), Rhonda Basiago (Security), Rodney deHoog (Hospitality), and Ivy Lew (Systems) have been sleeper agents for a shadowy organization, recruited over the course of 10 years.
Every morning they would check their Twitter account. Once the code word is issued, they would snap into action - handing off a room key card, creating a distraction in the lobby, retrieving a jar of chutney, etc. Though most of them are known to each other, they never suspected each other’s role in Operation Fear and Trembling, until it failed. Now the organization wants to find out who is at fault.
“The transcripts of their interviews are comedic and satirical as each employee shares their perspective of what happened that day. The interviews also interestingly reveal the complexities and desperation that drove each employee to fulfill their mission. Whitton pens a debut that is both comedic and introspective, skewering the attempts of an organization trying to find out what went wrong with the group of people it tried so hard to manipulate.” (Booklist)
For fans of Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People (recently made into a Netflix series) and Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library.
Fans of Rob Hart would definitely want to look out for The Paradox Hotel * (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) where time travelers check in to rest before their next flights to the past or present. Things start to get really weird when one of the hotel’s wealthy clients is found murdered, and only the hotel’s security manager can see the corpse. And with a blizzard surrounding the hotel and the timestream acting up, everyone’s trapped with a murderer on the loose.
* = Starred review
Blog Post
Slow Cooking Resolutions
by mrajraspn08
I don't do resolutions, but a few months ago, I did decide I wanted to cook some more. Cooking can be challenging, so I got a slow cooker to help ease into it. And obviously, I had to check out all the slow cooker cookbooks, right? To save you the time of going through all of them, too, here's a few of my favorite recipes from my favorite books that I've found.
I'm all about simple, easy recipes that don't require an entire grocery trip, so 5 Ingredients or Less Slow Cooker is my go-to. Their lasagna and savory sweet potatoes are recipes I make several times a month.
I'm vegetarian, so Fresh From the Vegan Slow Cooker was a great resource. Their balsamic brussels sprouts are my favorite way to cook the vegetable. I'm also a huge fan of pairing butternut squash and grains, so butternut squash risotto was another hit.
Blog Post
The Tea Dragon Society
by mrajraspn08
Every time I see The Tea Dragon Society, I think how much I like the art. But it's a kid's graphic novel. Surely it wouldn't be very interesting for an adult like me, right?
Well, a few months ago, I finally decided I was looking at it so much, I might as well read it. Best decision of the year! Besides its sweet--but not overly saccharine--art, the gentle story of a young blacksmith and the friends she meets as she learns about dying art of caring for tea dragons is like a warm hug for the soul. Though the books are short, I found myself quickly invested in each character. The best thing about these books, though, and which I haven't seen any other do nearly so well, is how effortlessly diverse the characters are. Various ethnicities, abilities, and gender identities (even non-binary!) are represented and integrated into the story without taking it over. I included the series in my entry for the AADL 2021 Staff Picks, but I loved it so much, I wanted to write a whole post about it. I only wish there were more!
Blog Post
Take a Vacation to Your Own Homeschool!
by mrajraspn08
Tired of being cooped up inside and ready for vacation? No need to get your bags packed, this vacation takes place right in your homeschool!
With Tokaido, you can see Japanese landmarks, take in the sights, and taste traditional foods. Use this as a jumpstart to learn more about the culture. Make a traditional Japanese meal yourself. Look up some of the terms used--for example, what is the story of the shokunin, and how do they differ from what we think of as artists? When did samurai exist, and what was their role in that time period? Next, pick another culture, and learn about their culture and history. Then create a whole new game based on that and invite your friends and family to play!
Not interested in an international trip? Take a Ticket to Ride across America. At each stop, make up a story about the things you would do in each city. Add up how much money you've spent on your ride--maybe even create a character and give them a budget. If you want to incorporate history, pick a year, and as you go, work out how much you're spending in that year's money, figure out what's going on in each city at that time (the first automobile show opened in New York in 1900--what cars did you see there?). How do you think travel was different during that time?
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #797
by muffy
“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives…. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” ~ Howard Zinn
Agatha of Little Neon by National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Honoree Claire Luchette (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) which the reviewer at Kirkus Reviews called “(a) charming and incisive debut.”
When their Buffalo diocese went bankrupt and Mother Roberta decides to retire, Catholic sisters Frances, Mary Lucille, Therese, and narrator Agatha are transferred to a halfway house for people with chemical dependencies called Little Neon, “painted the "chemical, lurid" color of Mountain Dew” in Woonsocket RI, a former mill town now dotted with wind turbines.
Cramped into an airless attire, the sisters care lovingly for their charges: jawless Tim Gary, Lawnmower Jill (who drove drunk too many times and now resorts to riding around town in her namesake), Horse, Baby, and Pete; and try to make a new life for themselves with community bible study group, art projects, and learning to roller skate in the garage. When the high school needs a geometry teacher, the sisters volunteer Agatha, by far the smartest among them, where for the first time in years she has to reckon all on her own with what she sees and feels.
“Employing short, clipped chapters and shimmering prose, Luchette garnishes each scene with tender and nuanced descriptions of longing and chastity, creating a lovely story of how cross-cultural exchange can foster hope and fruitful advancements. This is charming and remarkably thoughtful.” (Publishers Weekly)
A Little Hope by Ethan Joella (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook), a deeply moving and life-affirming debut set in Wharton, Connecticut, that explores the intertwining lives of friends and neighbors, and celebrates the importance of small moments of connection and the ways that love and forgiveness can help us survive even the most difficult of life's challenges.
Freddie and Greg Tyler seem to have it all: a successful career in finance, a lovely home and a beautiful daughter - until Greg was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an aggressive form of cancer, plunging them into despair and uncertainty, and turning Greg prickly, even with Alex Lionel, more of a father figure than boss. Freddie, who plans to return to writing fiction instead, takes a part-time job as a seamstress at a dry cleaner, owned by widow Darcy Crowley.
Alex Lionel, we learn, is riddled with guilt over a long-ago affair after the death of his son at 14, now hopes Kay, his wife of 50 years will agree to meet his grown illegitimate daughter, Iris. Darcy Crowley, brisk and efficient at work, continues to mourn her husband’s death and wishes to mend things with her son, addicted to pills and alcohol after a breakup with his girlfriend.
“The domino effect of neighbors' choices impact one another far more than they could ever imagine. A chance meeting blossoms into a new relationship, a tragic diagnosis inspires independence, a surprise visitor helps breach an emotional wall, a marriage's foundation becomes cracked in an instant. In his debut novel, Joella has an eye and ear for suburban pathos, highlighting tragedy and growth in equal parts… Loyal readers of Meg Wolitzer and Matthew Norman will gravitate to this immersive, illuminating novel.” (Booklist)
May your new year be filled with hope and kindness.