Weekly Reader Thursday Next Edition: Something Rotten (The Thursday Next Series Vol. IV) by Jasper Fforde; Return to Swindon Brims With Shakespearean Jokes and Comedy

Weekly Reader Thursday Next Edition: Something Rotten (The Thursday Next Series Vol. IV) by Jasper Fforde; Average Return to Swindon Brims With Shakespearean References and Comedy




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: On Jasper Fforde's website, he stated that when he wrote The Well of Lost Plots, that he missed writing about Swindon and Thursday Next’s eccentric family, so he had Thursday immediately leave Book World to return in the next book, Something Rotten.

Unfortunately, I am just the opposite. Swindon is nice and it's good to see some characters returning like Thursday's time-hopping father and her well-meaning but intrusive mum. As before with the books there are plenty of humorous moments, literary references, and strange situations. But darn it all, I miss Book World!

Anybody could write about a place like Swindon, anybody. It takes a true creative spirit like Fforde to take his and other literary characters and build an entire world around them with its creatures, rules, technology, and events. It's like coming down from the ultimate Imagination Trip or a high. You have been to this exciting colorful place that afterward seems like a let down.
It's not that Something Rotten is a bad book. It's great, but the Swindon setting is dull in comparison to the bright, imaginative, colorful Book World.


Anyway, Thursday misses her normal life in Swindon so after two years as the Bellman (leader in Book World), she returns to Swindon with her two-year-old son, Friday and memories of her still-eradicated husband, Landen. No sooner does she return to her hometown and her LiteraTec job in Spec Ops, than she as usual is hit with problems.

First, she has to bring Hamlet along so he can study how the various Outlander play productions and movies portray him. In his absence, the other characters in Hamlet revolt and write their own play called The Tragedy of the Not-At-All Boring Polonious, Father of the Noble Laertes, Who Avenged His Fair Sister Ophelia, Who Was Driven Mad by the Callousness of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Catchy title aside, the characters need a master copy and since one no longer exists Thursday has to find a clone of Shakespeare's to break up their revolution and set things straight with the characters.

St. Zvlkx, a friar from the 11th century has returned to Swindon and his prophecies are spot on including that something bad will happen after Swindon wins the Super Hoop Croquet Tournament. So Thursday and co. have to dust out their mallets and do some footwork on the croquet field.

The Goliath Corporation is suddenly declaring itself a religion and Yorrik Kaine, who had been a disgraced politician and a fictional escapee from Book World, now suddenly has gained a cult-like following and goes on a rampage against all things Danish (Don't ask.) including burning books by Danish authors. Not to mention that Landen is still eradicated and Thursday is the target of an assassin who kills by slapstick (No, really don't ask.)

Let's get the good stuff out of the way first. The way Fforde draws in Hamlet is pretty clever. According to Thursday, he is concerned that he is portrayed as a “ditherer” and he would worry even if he had nothing to worry about so he makes the most out of his trip to the Outland. He compares notes on various productions with his favorite being the Zeffirelli Film where he is played by Mel Gibson (“Horatio is played by Danny Glover, yes?”) He also spends some time flirting with Lady Emma Hamilton, the mistress of Lord Horatio Nelson who is staying in the Next home after a time traveling expedition gone awry.
Thursday also reveals a secret shared among book, author, and Reader. Everyone brings a little of themselves into what they read so each time they read a book, they experience it differently. “To each their own Hamlet,” she says.

Thursday deals with the various adventures with her usual cunning and resourcefulness, particularly when she is assigned to locate and destroy Danish books. She sends SpecOps agents in the wrong places (“The Danish Embassy is the first place they think we’ll look! Check the Singaporean Embassy instead!”) while gathering up all the Danish books by truck loads and sneaking them into the Socialist Republic of Wales. (By a stroke of luck, there also happens to be a Shakespeare clone in Wales so two of her problems are resolved.)

There is some great attempts at political satire with the character of Yorrik Kaine. A political figure with no previous experience suddenly luring followers against a select group and creating legions of fans who are mesmerized by his every word and swayed by his “off-the-cuff-he-tells-it-like-it-is” shtick may sound awfully familiar until you realize this book was published in 2004! Still, the parallels are so uncanny that this Reader wondered if Kaine’s followers wore hats that said “Make Swindon Great Again,” before they were considered cool.

There are parts that don't work so well. After the nuances and cleverness that Fforde gave to the various literary characters, the Swindon characters just aren't as interesting.

After three books, Thursday finally gets Landen back. But his return is so anticlimactic and his presence in the book is so minor that he may as well have stayed gone. 

There are a couple of new characters like St. Zvlkx and an assassin called the Windowmaker (a typo on the business card) that seem very Pythonesque in their characterizations. They have some interesting clever moments, but they are more set up as jokes, jokes that run thin after awhile. 

Many of the various plots and characters don't jell as well as they had in the first three books. They make a hodgepodge of ideas that don't go anywhere and aren't tied together very well. The less said about the croquet and Goliath-as-religion plots, the better.

Something Rotten was intended to be the final book in this tier of the Thursday Next series and it shows. Certain storylines are wrapped up and character's identities are revealed. One revelation appears odd at first, but it makes sense the more one thinks about it and answers several questions.
The other character revelation doesn't work quite so well because it leaves a large gaping plot hole about how another character didn't know about that person’s identity. Not only that but another possibility would have made a lot more sense.

Something Rotten is okay for a normal book series but when the previous three Thursday Next books were so creative, so clever, and so bursting with literariness and imagination, it becomes even more of a shame than it should be.

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Red Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. III) by Philippa Gregory; The Lancaster Side With A Very Different But Equally Memorable Protagonist

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Red Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. III) by Philippa Gregory; The Lancaster Side of the Cousin's War With A Different But Also Memorable Protagonist

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: One interesting thing with Historical Fiction is that you can get multiple perspectives from the same point in history. Like Rashomon, different characters will give their own versions of the events based on their background and relations to the events in question. These multiple points of view aren't necessarily wrong, after all what really is fact and truth when history is written by the winners? But they are how the characters see them.

Philippa Gregory had previously told of the War of the Roses from the Yorkist point of view from Elizabeth Woodville, wife of King Edward IV and protagonist of the White Queen. In Lady of the Rivers, Elizabeth's mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg's allegiance shifted from the Lancasters when she was a Lady in Waiting to Margaret d'Anjou to York when her husband and son supported the Yorks and her daughter plead for mercy in front of King Edward IV.

Now in her third book in the Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series, The Red Queen, Philippa Gregory gives us the Lancastrian side from the point of view of someone who is a very different lead character from Elizabeth Woodville, but just as memorable in her own way: Margaret Beaufort, cousin to King Henry VI and mother to King Henry VII.

When she is a little girl, Margaret believes that she is headed for a life of spiritual piety.
Unfortunately, her opportunistic relatives particularly her cold mother have other ideas. She is arranged to marry Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond. The marriage is brief as Edmund is a young man who is more interested in hanging out with the guys than being a husband. He is killed but not before Margaret gives birth to a son, Henry Tudor.

After his birth, Margaret has a vision in which Henry, her son, is God's anointed king. She never wavers through that vision not during the War of the Roses. Not during her two subsequent marriages to Sir Henry Stafford and Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby. Not during the reigns of King Edward IV and King Richard III, and not when she is separated from her son as he is sent in exile to be raised and trained by his paternal uncle, Jasper Tudor.

In writing The Red Queen, Gregory made a conscious effort to make Margaret Beaufort as different from Elizabeth Woodville as possible. In a way, it reminds me of the approach Marion Zimmer Bradley gave to Guenivere and Morgaine in Mists of Avalon by making them two different women with different religions, motives, and approaches but making them very strong forceful characters in their own individual ways. Gregory pulls the same feat here.

While Elizabeth Woodville is from a family rooted in their Pagan past, Margaret is clearly a die-hard Christian. Even as a child, she is happy to have “saint’s knees” (wounds from kneeling in prayer so much) and has ambitions to become an abbess or after she hears about Joan of Arc, a warrior for God. Her whole life is driven by the desire to do something significant in the name of her God.

While Elizabeth Woodville has loving parents who encourage her to put herself forward and brazenly approach King Edward, Margaret’s home life is less cozy. Her father committed suicide before she was born and her mother has so little affection for her daughter that when Margaret goes through a troubled labor giving birth to Henry, her mother insists that they save the baby and let Margaret die. Margaret's unloving home could be one of the factors why she is so devoted to her religion. Finding no love from her earthly mother and father, she seeks it from her Heavenly Father.

Margaret's role she is told is severely limited to being the wife of one powerful man and the mother of another. While she acquiesces to the role, like her rival Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort finds a way to use it to her advantage. Once she believes that Henry, her son, is chosen to be the next king she visualizes herself as Queen or rather Queen Mother singing her name “Margaret R,” as in Margaret Regina or Margaret Richmond.

Throughout the book, Margaret shows single mindedness in her goal of making her son King so everything else is secondary. After Edmund Tudor’s death, she clearly falls in love with his brother, Jasper and vice versa but they don't act on their emotions because Margaret feels that she has a higher purpose. Jasper is also sent away to raise Henry in exile and to make sure the boy fulfills his eventual duty as King. Margaret is so driven by her desire to make Henry king that she foregoes a maternal relationship with him and is not physically close to him until he reaches adulthood.

During the War of the Roses, Margaret is firmly on the side of the Lancasters because of Henry VI’s spiritual faith which she doesn't realize often prevents him from ruling since he spends more time in prayer or in a coma than making decisions. Still Margaret is committed to that side to the point where she shames her second husband, Stafford into fighting the Yorks which for a long time he resists. She never lets go of that image of being Joan of Arc fighting for her God if only from the side lines.

The only husband who is a match for Margaret's steely resolve is Stanley. Unlike Margaret's unwavering devotion to her side, the Stanleys are known to turn coats for whoever is winning, often keeping the Yorks and Lancasters, as well as Margaret, guessing. Stanley is the only one to call Margaret's spiritual belief into question by asking whether it is God's will or really hers that her son is to be King, a question that she cannot answer.

Stanley also is able to put many of her thoughts into action. After King Edward IV dies and his sons are put into the Tower of London, it is Stanley who reminds her that there are currently three obstacles in the way of her Henry becoming King and at least two of them are young defenseless boys and what is she going to do about it. Her answer is, of course, historical speculation but leads to a very possible outcome and eventually tragedies to come farther down the Tudor line.

Through Stanley's influence, Margaret does learn to compromise slightly when she realizes that she and Elizabeth Woodville share a common enemy in Richard III. Even though Margaret thinks Elizabeth Woodville is a witch and her daughter, Elizabeth of York, is a slut who is in love with her uncle, she willingly arranges the marriage between her son and Elizabeth's daughter. However, she clearly lets the younger Elizabeth know who's in charge. Though Elizabeth of York counters with a great comeback suggesting that she won't be so easily swayed and possibly foreshadows more potential trouble in the union between the two former rival houses.

The Red Queen presents a very different protagonist from Elizabeth Woodville. Like her predecessor, Margaret Beaufort is not always likable. She is militant, fanatic, and egocentric with her view of God and her destiny. But she is definitely unforgettable.

Classics Corner: Holes by Louis Sachar; Three Stories Blend To Make One Superb YA Classic

Classics Corner: Holes by Louis Sachar; Three Stories Blend To Make One Superb YA Classic




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: I always said that Louis Sachar's Newbery Medal Winning novel, Holes is deep for a YA novel. Heck, it is deeper than most adult novels. Teachers wisely have used this book to teach their students about paying attention to detail and multiple narratives.

Holes doesn't tell one interesting story. Instead, Sachar tells three and wraps them all in one ambitious, cleverly written superb classic.

Story #1 is that of Stanley Yelnats IV and his adventures at Camp Green Lake. Stanley's family has been under a curse for five generations. This curse often puts Stanley in the wrong place at the wrong time such as when he is caught with a baseball player's pair of athletic shoes that was donated to a children's home. Stanley is arrested and sent to an all-boys detention camp, Camp Green Lake.
The camp is in the middle of the desert and the nasty Warden and her cohorts demand that the boys dig one hole a day. They claim that they are trying to “build character” but it doesn't take long for Stanley to realize they are looking for something but what?

Story #2 is about Stanley's “no good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great grandfather,” Elya Yelnats and the origin of the Yelnats family curse. Elya was a young Latvian man who fell in love with a girl. To win her over, Elya's friend, Madame Zeroni suggests that he should take a pig up the mountain and tend to it so it will grow stronger. When he is done with that, he should then take Madame Zeroni up the mountain so she can grow stronger. However, if he fails, he and his family will be cursed always and for eternity.
Unfortunately, Elya rejects the flaky girl when she can't decide between her two suitors.
So, Elya flees to America forgetting about Madame Zeroni and his promise to carry her up the mountain. He realizes the consequences when his family becomes hit with bad luck, particularly his son, Stanley Yelnats I who has a chest of valuables stolen during a stagecoach robbery.

Story # 3, my favorite, is of Western outlaw, Kissin’ Kate Barlow. Kate is a schoolteacher in the once-thriving town of Green Lake. She becomes romantically involved with Sam, an African-American onion farmer. When they are caught kissing, Kate's schoolhouse is burned down and Sam is lynched and shot to death.
Out of revenge, Kate goes after the members of the lynch mob by shooting them then leaving a kiss as her trademark. Kate begins a 20 year career of robbing trains, banks stagecoaches (including a stage that had as a passenger, one Stanley Yelnats I), and killing people who get in her way. Rumors are eventually spread that she buried the loot that she stole out in the desert and anyone who searches for it will have to go digging. And what a coincidence, that in modern times there is a delinquent camp for boys that can do just that.

As you can tell, Holes is not an easy story to tell and that's what makes it a great book. In my previous entry for A Wrinkle in Time, I praised YA books that recognize their Reader's intelligence. They can tell an engaging and inventive story that draws in young Readers while using bigger concepts and effective storytelling that doesn't talk down to them. Holes has all of that and more.

Off-handed conversations become important later on. Some things happen to Stanley in the present which are answered in one of the flashbacks stories. Characters are introduced in the present whose relatives had great significance in the past.
Sachar chose not to write his book in a chronological linear manner. Instead, he combined the three stories using excerpts from each into the chapters sorting them by plot and thematic element. The questions asked by characters in the present are answered by characters in the past and struggles caused by character's actions in the past are resolved by character's actions in the present. Confused yet?

Holes is not just a book with a deep narration. It also has a lot of humor, depth, and a lot of warmth. Much of the humor lies in Sachar’s writing. He first describes Camp Green Lake as “There is no lake at Camp Green Lake.”
He describes Kate Barlow as a beautiful school teacher loved by her students and many of the men in town. The men came to her adult education classes hoping to get a date with her, but Sachar tells us “all they got was the education.”

The humor isn't just limited to the narration. Names add to the funny elements to the story. Stanley Yelnats’ first and last names are the same forward and backwards (His great-great grandmother thought that was clever and it stuck with subsequent generations.)
All of the campers and staff have nicknames. The campers call each other names like Zig Zag, X Ray, Armpit, Magnet, Squint, Twitch, and Zero after some physical characteristic or personality trait. To receive a nickname means that you are accepted as one of the gang, as Stanley (later Caveman) discovers.
The staff are called The Warden (her title to show she's in charge), Mr. Sir (The Warden’s sadistic second in command) and Dr. Pendanski AKA Mom (the boy's counselor who affects a kind demeanor but is really condescending and patronizing to the boys, particularly Zero).

Besides the clever narration and word play, Holes discusses real world issues like homelessness, child abandonment, juvenile delinquency, and most notably racism. Kate and Sam are an interracial couple in the late 1800’s. Their encounters as Sam fixes Kate’s school roof, window, door, and eventually her broken heart are beautiful making them among the best literary romantic couples of all time.

Sachar, however, doesn't shy away from the ramifications from a racist town that may not have minded Sam when he sold them onions but raises Holy Hell when he and a white school teacher fall in love. After Sam is killed, Kate transforms from a sweet schoolteacher to an angry outlaw and Green Lake changes from a lush green garden spot to an arid decayed desert. These changes reveal the hateful nature that was buried under the residents of Green Lake bringing that hatred out in the open.

Stanley's family also has much to answer for. While Elya's crime of forgetting about Madame Zeroni wasn't as great as Sam’s murder, he reveals his egocentricism and ungratefulness by not even thinking of her until it is too late. Elya's actions still led to many generations of bad luck, poverty, and tragedy for his family. The only way the curse can be resolved is through Stanley.

Stanley unwittingly becomes the catalyst for great change during his time in Camp Green Lake most importantly in his friendship with Zero.
Zero is a small camper who doesn't say much and is frequently bullied. Stanley and Zero strike up a friendship when Stanley teaches Zero to read and Zero helps his new friend dig his holes. They defend each other after they are bullied.
When Zero runs away from camp, Stanley orchestrates a daring escape attempt to find him earning them the support of the formerly apathetic campers. When Stanley and Zero are reunited, things happen that tie all three stories together and allows Elya's curse to be broken and Kate to finally receive some peace. What was broken by hatred and selfishness is made whole because of friendship and self-sacrifice.

Holes is one of the most ambitious YA novels with its multiple perspectives, time hopping narrative, and combination of humor, social issues, and warmth. Louis Sachar won the Newbery Medal for his efforts and rightfully deserved it.

Classics Corner: Matilda by Roald Dahl; The Gold Standard of Dahl's Illustrious Career

Classics Corner: Matilda by Roald Dahl; The Gold Standard of Dahl's Illustrious Career




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: There are many who believe that the definitive Road Dahl book is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (even more so if they grew up with the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder). Don't get me wrong, Charlie is a wonderful book. Who can forget the luscious candy room where everything is edible, the great glass elevator which takes you into every room in the factory, the spooky tunnel, Violet Beauregard turning into a blueberry, and Charlie Bucket winning the factory in the end?

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a great book, but the true gold standard, the best of Dahl's work, is his tale of a well-read genius telekinetic little girl who decides that she has had enough of bullying adults. Roald Dahl's best book is Matilda.

Matilda is the second child of Harry and Zinnia Wormwood, a crooked used car salesman and his Bingo playing wife respectively. While her repulsive parents and dim older brother sit in front of the TV all day, Matilda learns to read at three. When her parents and brother go off to their daily activities, Matilda walks by herself to the public library. The kindly librarian, Mrs. Phelps encourages her to read longer adult books so that by the time she is five, Matilda's reading list includes Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, The Grapes of Wrath, Animal Farm and others.

While most parents would be impressed, the Wormwoods are not. They constantly belittle and abuse Matilda. That's nothing compares to what Matilda receives at school. The headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, is a terrifying beast of a woman. She insults and abuses the students. Trunchbull is the nightmare of every school kid.

However there is a light in this education nightmare. Matilda's teacher, Miss Jennifer Honey, is a kind soul who bonds with Matilda when she learns the girl can solve difficult math problems in her head and can read books above her level.

Matilda also discovers that she has telekinetic powers and can move things with her mind. Her new friendship with Miss Honey and her discovery of her powers inspire the young girl to take matters into her own hands and fight the adults who oppress her.

Matilda is a great example of Dahl's extraordinarily gifted writing. He always had a talent for drawing in Readers with intrusive comments. Matilda begins in such a way. The opening features a narrator getting irritated with parents fawning over their children. If the Narrator were a teacher, they would describe the kid slightly differently.

“If I were a teacher I would cook up some real scorchers for the children of doting parents,” the Narrator tells us. 'Your son Maximilian is a total washout….I hope you have a family business you can push him into when he leaves school because he sure as heck won't get a job anywhere else.’ Or if I were feeling lyrical that day, I might write, 'It is a curious truth that grasshoppers have hearing organs in the side of the abdomen. Your daughter, Vanessa, judging by what she's learned in this term has no hearing organs at all’....... I think I might enjoy writing end-of-term reports for the stinkers in my class.”

However, the Intrusive Narrator knows real talent when they see it and the Reader can feel the anger that a gifted child like Matilda is born to such an awful family. The book describes the Wormwoods as shallow, superficial, simple minded people. Matilda, by contrast, is more intelligent and self-aware. When Matilda reads books, she finds adventure and friendship, things she doesn't have. The narration says, “The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She traveled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.”

Dahl’s writing sees the world the way that kids see it, especially where adults are concerned. Dahl's adults are either good or bad. There is no in between. This is especially true of the adults in Matilda.

As previously stated, The Wormwoods sans Matilda are lazy couch potatoes who can't understand why Matilda would want to read when she has a TV in front of her. They constantly neglect and belittle their daughter. However, Matilda fights back by using her brain. She plays pranks on her unassuming parents like gluing her father's hat to his head or borrowing a neighbor’s parrot to make them think the house is haunted. The pranks are her only defense in a family that doesn't understand or love her.

Dahl also presents an even worse adult in the Trunchbull. She is the type of sadist who would pull a girl's pigtails and send her over a fence or force feed a large chocolate cake to a boy during an assembly for fun. She has several means of torture such as the Chokey, a closet with a door of sharp spikes and broken glass at her disposal. Miss Trunchbull's secret is that she is so reprehensible that no adult believes their kids when they tell them how bad she is and the ones that do are often afraid of her. It falls to the children to fight against her and they act like veterans in a long war that can't be won.
The antidote for Trunchbull and the Wormwoods is Miss Honey, the good adult. Miss Honey is a sweet kind fragile woman who the Narrator tells us has the unique talent of making children love her. She recognizes Matilda's intelligence and knows that she is capable of great things.

However, Miss Honey’s past is not a happy one. She had been abused as a child and still is in fear of her abuser. In an all too frightening and real moment, Dahl shows how childhood trauma can manifest itself in adulthood. Miss Honey is still so emotionally scarred that she can't cut herself off from her abuser. All she can do is provide a light and guidance for her students and become a catalyst to inspire Matilda's heroism.

Matilda's telekinesis comes about in a strangely natural way. It is an emotional reaction to all the stress that her family and Trunchbull put her under. It is also because of the boredom of learning lessons that are too easy for her. Her revenge against Trunchbull is sort of a light-hearted version of Carrie White’s.
Instead of Carrie using her telekinesis to enact revenge and cause chaos against all that she feels wronged her, Matilda is more selective. Matilda only uses them against Trunchbull and that is after she bullies another student.

Matilda knows her villains and she knows the cause of her abuse: Trunchbull and her parents. She is active in Trunchbull's removal, not just for herself but for Miss Honey and the other students.
Outside forces remove her parents from her life, but Matilda is once again instrumental in offering the right suggestion over where she will live afterwards and giving herself the happy home that she deserves.

While all of Dahl's books present wonderful imaginative situations with just the right touch of darkness so things don't get too saccharine, Matilda is his best. It is the crown jewel in Dahl's literary treasures.

New Book Alert: Seance on a Summer's Night by Josh Lanyon; Witty Protagonist and Creepy Setting Make For Brilliant Gothic Novel

New Book Alert: Seance on a Summer's Night by Josh Lanyon; Witty Protagonist and Creepy Setting Make For Brilliant Gothic Novel

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: The key with LGBTQIA fiction these days is that they don't always have to do with being LGBTQIA. What I mean is that, while there are romances about boy meets boy or girl meets girl and dramatic coming out stories in less enlightened times or in modern day in front of a disapproving family and society, that isn't all there is to Queer Literature.

To be truly equal means to cover all barriers. One of the ways to do that is to put LGBTQIA characters in genres where their sexuality isn't the most important part of the book. It is essential to their character, but no more so than it would be for a straight protagonist obtaining a heterosexual love interest. The sexuality and gender roles become a subplot in that book.

Josh Lanyon's novel, Seance on a Summer's Night is that type of book. Yes the protagonist, Artemus “Artie” Bancroft is gay. Yes, he spends multiple parts of the book discussing his love life and yes, he obtains a male love interest in the book. However, Artie's sexuality takes a back seat in what is a memorable Gothic Novel and Ghost Story with a witty protagonist who happens to be gay.

Artie is a New York theater critic who is summoned back to Green Lanterns, his childhood home in Russian Bay, California, by his Aunt Halcyone. Halcyone raised Artie ever since his parents died and the two have been close until Halcyone’s marriage to Ogden Hyde, a domineering philandering tyrant. Artie moved to New York to pursue his career and a romance with Greg, a married man. Now, one year after Ogden's death, Halcyone summons Artie back saying that she “can't handle the situation” and that she needs Artie's “cool head and strong shoulders” to help with said situation.

The situation is that Green Lanterns appears to be haunted. Halcyone wants to turn the ornate many-roomed mansion into an inn. However, people report missing items, mysterious footsteps when no one is there, and transparent figures seen out of the corner of one's eye. Staff keep quitting and no guests check in because of fear of ghosts. Ogden's bed ridden sister, Lianna is consulting with mediums. Above all, rumors are spread that Ogden's death was no accident and that he was murdered something that Ogden's ghost has confirmed.

Seance on a Summer's Night is the perfect read if someone is looking for a good Gothic ghost story to curl up with. All the tropes are there. There is the creepy house with dark rooms, secret passages, and dim lighting just waiting for someone to see something spooky pop out of the shadows. (It makes one wonder why anyone would want to visit there but many people like to visit haunted places like Winchester Mystery House. Plus I live near St. Louis where one of the favorite tourist destinations is the Lemp Mansion and Brewery, so who am I to judge?)

If the setting didn't give off a spooky enough atmosphere, then the people who dwell within Green Lanterns certainly will. Everyone appears to be hiding something and has their own private agenda.

Lianna was once a social butterfly but now spends her days lying in bed, reading Tarot cards, and talking to her only friend, medium Roma Loveridge. She also goes on nightly walks looking for Ogden and in one creepy chapter almost falls to her death. Roma herself produces some spooky moments with her séances that may or may not be on the level. She also has a strange psychological hold on Lianna and sometimes Halcyone which makes Artie extremely suspicious.

The remaining servants, Tarrant and his daughter, Ulyanna appear to resent the increased workload and Artie's presence. Seamus Cassidy, a handsome gardener, captures Artie's eye but maybe hiding his true intentions and connection to the goings-on at Green Lantern. Then there's Halcyone who Artie wants to believe is innocent of Ogden's murder but is acting more and more mysterious and keeps dropping hints about how she can't be forgiven for something.

Poor Artie doesn't know who to trust when everyone in Green Lanterns is acting suspiciously, even family members and people he had known for years.

Characterization is Lanyon's strong suit and he gives us a brilliant protagonist in Artie. Artie is very witty and prone to providing sarcastic one-liners. When Halcyone quotes the “more things in heaven and earth” line from Hamlet, Artie replies “That's right, Hamlet. There's fire and water.”

Artie is a fervent skeptic which is why Halcyone contacted him to see if there are any human agencies behind the haunting. Artie is the type of person who attends a seance and looks underneath the table for strings and flashlights. He proves to be helpful by observing clues for a rational explanation. However, he is so convinced by his skepticism that he refuses the possibility of thw supernatural even when it's right in front of him and all scientific reasoning has disappeared.

Besides being a skeptical cynic, Artie exhibits a softer side. He cares deeply for Halcyone and is protective of her because of the scares and the earlier abuse she received at the hands of Ogden. Even though he doesn't get along with Lianna, he expresses concern for her when she appears to be on the edge of a breakdown.

Artie shows vulnerability when thinking about his love life. He is haunted by the death of one former boyfriend and is still hurting over his breakup with Greg. His moments with Cassidy are sweet but tinged with sadness as Artie finds it difficult to fall in love again and also is suspicious of Cassidy’s true nature.

When Artie encounters the ghosts, he realizes that his one liners, skepticism, and vulnerable nature can't protect him from the secrets and fear that surrounds him.


Seance on a Summer’s Night has a descriptive spooky Gothic setting and a clever well-rounded protagonist. It is a great read for those hot July and August nights when you need a chill down your spine and a good scare.

New Book Alert: Wanted in Paradise By Kate Ashenden; Romance Has Charming Couple And Beautiful Island Setting

New Book Alert: Wanted in Paradise By Kate Ashenden; Romance Has Charming Couple And Beautiful Island Setting




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: One thing that many Romance novels have are unforgettable locations. Settings that are beautiful and make the Readers want to pay them a visit at least in the pages of a book.

Kate Ashenden's novel Wanted in Paradise has one. This Romance novel is set mostly at the Maldives. Ashenden captures the beauty and splendor of these Indian Ocean islands and gives us a sweet charming couple to experience it.

Jasmine Hartwell, a publicist receives the plum job offer to help promote pop sensation, Romeo Moretti’s Power to Change concert. Besides a great business opportunity, there is another reason. Romeo and Jasmine were once in love. Jasmine had previously been in a relationship with Romeo's temperamental brother, Diego and when her relationship with Diego went south, Romeo provided more than a shoulder. Diego found out and Romeo and Jasmine separated. Jasmine, no sooner goes to the island than she and Romeo realize that they still have feelings for each other.

Wanted in Paradise has all the tropes found in Romance novels but Romeo and Jasmine are a good pair of protagonists and the Maldives setting is so beautiful that this Reader is willing to overlook the formulaic content and the occasional lapse in credibility to experience a whole that is greater than some parts.

The Maldives setting is what makes this book. Ashenden describes the scented flora and white sandy beaches with the blue waves so well that this Reader actually felt sand beneath her toes. There are many pages where Romeo and Jasmine walk hand in hand in the scenic beaches or that Jasmine and other characters partake in sailing, snorkeling, and other activities. Reading books like this always makes me wonder whether the location makes an upswing in real-life tourism or the setting itself benefited from the author's recent vacation. Either way, Maldives is a beautiful and unique setting for such a novel and is not one a lot of writers choose making it fresh in the Reader's eyes.

While Maldives could be a paradise on Earth, Ashenden’s writing shows awareness of the country's problems, many of which are the direct result of climate change. In the book, many of the beaches are losing their splendor and natives are being driven from their homes because of environmental disasters. Corrupt business executives destroy the waters and skies with industrialization and create a sprawl by building hotels where land used to be. Hence, the Power to Change concert which highlights the concerns towards the Maldives’s rapidly declining environment.

Besides the setting, Ashenden’s lead couple are well written. It would be tempting to make Romeo, a conceited womanizing shallow star who is a bad boy but redeemed by the love of a good girl. Ashenden thankfully does not do this. Despite the fame and screaming fawning female fans, Romeo is actually a nice guy who is genuinely concerned about climate change. Even though, the concert is televised he wants to make it as low key and green powered as possible.

Romeo also reveals his love and commitment towards family and those around him. He originally ends his earlier romance with Jasmine out of loyalty to his brother and when Diego disappears, he is worried about him and how it will affect his mother. Even when Jasmine gets involved with Romeo, they resist at first until they are completely sure whether they love each other.

When Jasmine is temporarily seduced by a wealthy sheik, Romeo is jealous but is also concerned about whether the man will hurt Jasmine and interfere with the concert because of his ties to the aforementioned corrupt businesses.
Jasmine is also a well developed character. She suffers from PTSD from surviving a typhoon that killed many including her cousin. While she is understandably still shaken and comforted by her well meaning parents, she wants to pursue her career in public relations and is as committed to bringing awareness to climate change as Romeo is.

Jasmine's time working under Romeo's direction is filled with all the experiences a recent employee has working in a new position. Many opportunistic employees resent her presence and she is nervous about pitching her ideas. However, she shows how good a publicist she is by offering suggestions to make the concert more personable so the people at home can relate to the Maldivian struggles.

Jasmine also shows some naivete and Romanticism. She is naturally swept up in this new exciting world and when she is offered gifts such as an expensive purse and tube dress from an admirer, she can't help but be impressed despite how untrustworthy the source turns out to be.

However, her passages with Romeo are very sweet as they bring out the best in each other. When Jasmine realizes she's wrong, she admits it and works to improve her situation.

There are some parts in Wanted in Paradise that are a bit contrived. Characters, long gone, suddenly make a reappearance. There is some manufactured suspense as the concert is sabotaged but the saboteur is easy to guess. This is the type of book that is easy to figure out but is earnest in its play on tropes.
With a well-written loving couple and a beautiful evocative setting, Wanted in Paradise makes for perfect summer reading by the pool or the beach.

New Book Alert: The Meadows (Legacy of Darkness) by London Clarke; Gripping Horror and Psychological Thriller Becomes A Story of Redemption

New Book Alert: The Meadows (Legacy of Darkness) by London Clarke; Gripping Horror and Psychological Thriller Becomes A Story of Redemption




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: London Clarke's The Meadows is the best kind of horror or psychological thriller. Many novels of these types pile on the scares and we want the protagonists to escape from the spooky situation.

Then there are ones like The Meadows where the scares happen, but it might be impossible for the protagonist to escape, because the protagonist themselves are the problem. The protagonist is filled with some deep secret or personal problem that affects the environment around them. They do this to the point where no one knows if the spooky things are real, manifestations of the protagonist’s guilt, or just hallucinations from an already unhinged mind.

Scarlet is a Nasville-based songwriter and recovering alcoholic. During a drunken binge, she mentioned a childhood fantasy about buying an old mansion and turning it into a B&B. A realtor takes her up on the offer and shows her a property with a unique and bizarre history. Despite her apprehensions, Scarlet longs for a fresh start and decides to pursue that dream.

Unfortunately, Scarlet not only purchases a big sprawling Southern house called The Meadows, she buys a curse to go with it. She hears footsteps and whispers particularly some that countdown to some mysterious deadline. She also sees apparitions of creepy hooded figures in the woods. Then she hears the back story that the house was the central location for a cult that may or may not still be on the premises and that it may or may not be haunted by former members or their sacrificial victims.

The Meadows is a great book for experiencing fear. Like the best kinds of horror novels, it doesn’t overdo with big scary monsters or axe-wielding serial killers. The creepiest moments are some of the most subtle such as when Scarlet is alone and she hears or thinks she hears someone chanting numbers. When the monsters come in full force at the end, the fear is well-earned because of the build up that happens in the previous chapters.

Some of the scariest parts involve Scarlet’s friends’ encounters with the mysterious goings-on. One friend disappears and is missing throughout most of the book. In one of the scariest parts of the book, another friend comes down the stairs in a hypnotic daze repeating the same phrase over and over as though he were brainwashed or possessed by demons.

Above all, author London Clarke really opens up how these events affect Scarlet. She is guilt-stricken about her alcoholic behavior and has trouble remembering large chunks of her life caused by heavy drinking. She is also consumed with grief over a death that happened when she was younger. When she believes she sees a ghost from her past, she is willing to run towards it that she wants to sacrifice her life to make the pain go away.

It is clear that Scarlet is every bit as haunted as her environment, so it becomes hard to tell whether the mysterious events are external or from within. Until the events affect her friends, Scarlet isn’t sure whether they are real or all in her head. That makes the most interesting kind of haunting when the protagonist is every bit as psychologically damaged as the house.

The Meadows ultimately becomes a story of redemption. Scarlet has to look inward to find her inner strength to battle the monsters haunting her house and the monsters inside herself. Even though, she surrenders to the temptation to drink, she realizes how wrong she is and fights with those urges. She realizes how much of her life had been surrendered to her addiction and is committed to making the B&B for a new fresh start.

Scarlet battles the horrors in her house as much as she battles the horrors of alcoholism and grief. With a house and a protagonist that are haunted, The Meadows is a true horror novel indeed.

New Book Alert: Sapphire and Planet Zero by Christina Blake; Amazing Hero’s Journey Voyages To Unique Planet

New Book Alert: Sapphire and Planet Zero by Christina Blake; Amazing Hero’s Journey Voyages To Unique Planet




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: Sapphire and Planet Zero could be best described as MYTHS IN SPACE!!!!

It is about a young woman who goes on a Hero's Journey by discovering her destiny through a magical creature, is received a task, given many trials, and faces a great enemy to ascend into a different higher role. This journey is more of a science fiction based one as the young protagonist visits another planet.

Sapphire is a typical teen with a typical teen life with friends, school, and ultra talented parents who don't spend much time with her. Unfortunately, some things are happening which makes her life….not so typical. A bottle of perfume from her grandmother's shop appears to cast a spell on her. People are mysteriously dying with no probable cause, including one of her classmates, and her newfound black cat, Toby begins talking.

Well it turns out that Toby is from Planet Zero and says that the planet has been conquered by Thaddeus, a powerful wizard. Oh yes and Planet Zero is inhabited by a species called the squila who each have a twin on Earth and Thaddeus has been killing squilla on Zero. So when the squila dies so does the twin. Oh and did I mention that Sapphire is half-squila on her mother's side and that she is the one destined to bring down Thaddeus?

So Sapphire has no choice but to gather Toby and her friend, Luke and take a trip to Zero to take on Thaddeus. They have to free the Good Ones, squilan leaders, from Thaddeus. Fortunately, they left clues for any attempted rescue and that's what Sapphire, Toby, and Luke must do follow those clues to find the Good Ones.

Sapphire and Planet Zero is in the grand tradition of the works of Madeleine L'Engle and Ursula K. LeGuin, a blend of fantasy and science fiction. Author, Christina Blake handles both aspects very well.

Planet Zero is a very evocative fanciful setting and the squila are a fascinating new species. They are human in appearance but are more attractive. There are also some other strange properties that make them stand out such as crystals running through their veins and violet eyes. (So did Elizabeth Taylor have squilan ancestry?) They also stop aging at 19 and appear forever youthful. When Sapphire's grandmother arrived on Earth however, she hid her squilan appearance and took an aging potion so her body could appear like that of an Earth woman. She also put a spell on her daughter, Sapphire's mother, to make her the most beautiful woman on the planet cancelling her anti-aging abilities as well.

The most interesting aspects about squilan life is that they are born with some unique power or ability. Sapphire's grandmother has magic powers and even calls herself a witch. While on Planet Zero, they encounter Nathan, a friendly young man with telepathy and telekinesis (“anything with tele-,”he says.) Who helps them. Unfortunately, Thaddeus's corrupt influence causes the squilans to use their powers against each other such as the moment when Sapphire and Co. witness a club brawl consisting of people fighting with powers that produce tornadoes, water, and flight. (Sort of like what would happen if the X-Men got really drunk during a night out.)

A fantasy or science fiction novel is only as good as its protagonist and Blake gives us a good one. One nice aspect is that Sapphire is clearly described as a person of color. It is refreshing to get some diversity in fantasy and science fiction, particularly in the former which unfortunately is still lagging behind other genres in that respect.

While the narrative uses the “Chosen One” motif, Blake doesn't go overboard in making Sapphire too perfect or too much like a Mary Sue. When she first hears about her half-squila ancestry, she is naturally horrified and angry at her grandmother for hiding it all these years. She can be stubborn and argumentative, often bickering and challenging Toby's advice especially when it doesn't make sense to her. She goes on this adventure like a normal teen would, stubborn and sullen but willing to learn.
Sapphire has just as many virtues as flaws. She and her friends are very smart and use their intelligence to solve the clues. She also expresses tremendous strength in character in her fights with Thaddeus. Another chapter that shows her strength is in her encounters with the Milo, a team of siblings who use their various powers to test Sapphire and her friends so they can be ready to face Thaddeus. Though the tests are physically and mentally challenging, Sapphire is able to use those lessons to her advantage in her final battle against Thaddeus and his Troop.


In some ways, Sapphire can be contrasted with Rey in the new Star Wars movies. However, where the Star Wars movies fails is in making Rey too superhuman. There is no meaningful transition in which she discovers the Force and uses it in small ways making rookie mistakes before she masters it. In The Force Awakens, she already uses the Jedi Mind Trick before even really knowing what the Force is. By The Last Jedi, she is using it in ways no one had done previously like making rocks stop in mid-air and contacting Kylo Ren telepathically.

By contrast, Sapphire is only learning about her connections to Zero. While she uses new-found powers in an extraordinary way by the end, it is a logical process. Her first time on Zero is filled with embarrassing faux pas and even her encounters with the Milo take a toll on her. Her mastery of her squilan heritage is clearly earned as we saw it evolve from her beginnings as a brash uncertain confused girl to a strong confident leader by the finish. Sapphire's journey also leaves us ready for another adventure with her (which a sequel is advertised at the end of the book. It hopefully should be another great read.)

Sapphire and Planet Zero has the interplanetary travel of science fiction but doesn't get too technical. It has the magic of fantasy but doesn't get too fanciful. Instead it creates a 21st century Hero Journey which is the perfect marriage of both genres.

Weekly Reader Thursday Next Edition: The Well of Lost Plots (Thursday Next Series Vol.III) by Jasper Fforde; Thursday Takes A Literary Journey Further Into The Fascinating Book World

Weekly Reader Thursday Next Edition: The Well of Lost Plots (The Thursday Next Series Vol. III) by Jasper Fforde; Thursday Takes A Literary Journey Further Into the Fascinating Book World




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: When last we left Thursday Next in Lost in a Good Book, her husband Landen had been eradicated, while she is pregnant with his child, had been screwed over by the Goliath Corporation, and had several enemies on her tail including Aornis Hades, the bitchy magical sister of Acheron Hades, her arch enemy. What's a girl to do? Why enter the Great Library of Book World and go into hiding inside the pages of an unpublished murder mystery novel of course!


The Well of Lost Plot's main storyline is somewhat convoluted. It continues plot threads from Lost in a Good Book such as Thursday's psychic encounters with Aornis and the machinations of Yorrik Kaine, an escapee from Book World who now plays the role of corrupt politician in England. There are also murder attempts on various Jurisfiction agents including Thursday and her handler, Miss Havisham. Some sinister characters such as the Minotaur from Greek mythology and Big Martin from the horror story “Better Wait Until Big Martin Comes,” are lurking about causing trouble. Thursday has to face her second trial for Fiction Infraction inside the pages of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and where the heck is Godot and why are we waiting for him?

The biggest draw in this book is not the plot but the journey into Book World itself as Thursday learns what it's like to be a literary character. (Well a literary character in her world or more of a literary character than she already is. Never mind, just go with it!) Thursday is inside a hoary clichéd murder mystery called Caversham Heights replacing the character of Mary Jones, sidekick to Jack Spratt, detective extraordinaire. In the Book World, literary characters can take sanctioned breaks either inside other books or out in the real world, called the Outland, as long as someone else replaces them. When they get a replacement, the plot can continue as normal and the Reader is none the wiser that any change has been made. (If they leave their book without permission, that results in Page Running and is therefore illegal.)

Getting published is the most important goal for any literary character. Caversham Heights is waiting inside the Well of Lost Plots, a depository for unpublished books waiting to fly into Reader's hands. Besides the books themselves, the Well is filled with construction workers who build plots, characters, and settings and shop that sell words and plot devices. (Thursday receives A Shot in the Dark plot device which comes in handy later.) There is also the dreaded Text Sea which is just letters made from destroyed master copies of unpublished works which the gang from Caversham Heights are in fear of getting thrown in.

Besides the unique world, Fforde gives us the limitations of the lives of literary characters and how they get bored doing the same things over and over. They are mystified by Thursday’s arrival and keep asking questions about the Outland like why Outlanders drive on parkways and park on driveways. Thursday struggles through life as a literary character by doing without certain things that aren't important to the text, such as having breakfast and being surrounded by the bizarre denizens like faceless extras with no back story inside the books.

There are characters that go through great lengths to change their storylines such as in a creepy chapter in which the extras of Shadow the Sheepdog are willing to stage Thursday's murder to get an emotional high.


As always Fforde handles his and other author's characters well. In this volume, he takes great fun in making characters act differently than they do in their original works. Lucy Deane, the goody-two-shoes from Mill on the Floss becomes a gun-wielding psychopath to destroy her rival, Floss’ heroine, Maggie Tulliver. Miss Havisham and Thursday host a support group for Wuthering Heights characters who have grudges against Heathcliff (which is everyone except Catherine Earnshaw), while Heathcliff behaves like an aging womanizing rock star. Uriah Heep, David Copperfield's villain is originally Uriah Hope, a genial, sweet guy until a misspelling goes awry and turns him into the sniveling sycophant Dickens's readers know and despise.


Of course Fforde's original characters are on hand as well. Thursday shows the same feistiness and determination as she always does, particularly in her mental battles with Aornis Hades as she struggles to hold onto her memories of the eradicated Landen and fight her enemy.


The characters from Caversham Heights are an intriguing bunch as they go through the motions of a plot they know isn't working. When Thursday makes suggestions to shake things up such as Jack patch things up with his wife (instead of doing the whole 'tortured single detective’ thing), they are confused but they are willing to do so to save their home.

The most interesting original characters are a pair of Generics (background characters that have no real purpose or story), named ibb and obb. It's entertaining as Thursday teaches them about humanity using traits like sarcasm or subtext. The Generics ultimately evolve into fleshed out characters, the curvaceous beauty, Lola and the pretentious brainy, Randolph.

Interesting details pile up about the Book World. Characters talk on footnoterphones which are one-on-one conversations found in, where else, the footnotes. They can travel from book to book either by reading the pages or slipping in through the bar codes. Terms like TravelBook (information guide for Jurisfiction agents) and Echolocator (an artisan who destroys echoed words) are thrown around but thankfully are given epitaphs before each chapter to explain them.

A new interactive device called Ultra Word is created which will make reading more interesting by inserting music, scents, and visuals along with the words.

There is even an awards ceremony called the Bookies in which various literary characters receive awards like “Most Troubled Male Lead” and “Dopiest Lead Shakespeare Character.” In true action-adventure format, it is at the Bookies, in front of the entire Book World, where Thursday and her friends confront their enemies and solve the mystery with every literary character watching.
The Well of Lost Plots is a brilliant piece of metafictional writing. It makes every book lover long to schedule a holiday inside its pages.

New Book Alert; The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins; Charming Magical Southern Tale About Friendship in a Small Town

New Book Alert: The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins; Charming Magical Southern Tale About Friendship in a Small Town


By Julie Sara Porter


Bookworm Reviews



Spoilers: There are bookworms and there's Sarah Dove. She is the type of reader in which books talk to her, literally in her case.



In Karen Hawkins’s charming and magical novel, The Book Charmer, Sarah first hears the voices of books when she is a little girl. She hears the voice of her ancestor's diary begging for her to read it. After much deliberation and argument (Sarah wanted to read about dragons), she agrees and becomes fascinated with her family history.


The Doves are a unique family in Dove Pond, South Carolina. They have always produced seven daughters and each one is bestowed with some unique ability. The seventh (in this case, Sarah) is the most powerful and is often the head of the family and her community. Sarah's ability to hear books calling to her is put to good use in her role as town librarian. The books long to be matched to the right person and tell her who should read them. Sarah is able to match a Reader with the right book to solve their problems or answer their questions.


However, a once thriving town, Dove Pond is now dying. Businesses and residents are leaving. The mayor, an honorary position, is tremendously lazy and is inept in handling the town's funds. Even many of Sarah's sisters have left leaving only her and Ava, a horticulturist who hears plants the way her sister hears books. If Sarah doesn't act fast, there won't be much of a Dove Pond left.


Enter Grace Wheeler. Grace arrives in Dove Pond with her troubled orphan niece, Daisy, and her dementia-ridden foster mother, Mama G., to accept the job as Dove Pond’s Town Clerk. Sarah's books tell her that the new arrival will be the one to save Dove Pond, so she wants to get Grace to join the committee of the upcoming Apple Festival as a springboard to save the town. At first, Grace is reluctant but when the two eat coffee cake and carpool together, a friendship begins to develop.


The plot of The Book Charmer is similar to many of the other books of this type. Big City person visits a small town (usually in the South) of good-hearted eccentric locals. At first, the City Slicker has their own personal problems and doesn't want to have anything to do with them but still they begin to like it there, and become an active member of the community helping to save it from dying. Expect some cute little magical touches and a friendship and/or romance with a local.
It's not a bad plot, and if done right the results can be quite pleasant. Luckily Hawkins does it right. Grace and Sarah make for an interesting duo that play the familiar plot rather well.

One way is that they compliment each other so well. Sarah is a romantic almost otherworldly figure. She takes much of the strangeness of her family and the town in stride. She treats her beloved books like wise old friends and she is always on the lookout for signs and omens like flowers inexplicably changing color to let her know she is on the right track.
Sarah is an engaging people person who knows a great deal about the locals’ personalities, interests, and of course reading habits. She takes her role as a community lead seriously because she loves Dove Pond and doesn't want to see it die.

Grace is the more cynical realist. A former foster child, she developed a tough exterior that she uses in her relationships with others. While she could have been written as a heartless yuppie or an urban snob, Hawkins instead writes her as someone who is overwhelmed. She is trying to care for her niece and mother so when the mayor forces her to chair the Apple Festival, it's no surprise that at first she instantly delegates it to someone else and automatically resigns.
However, once she is tricked into rejoining the Festival committee, Grace shows a strong business strategy and work ethic. When she realizes the town's finances are in bad shape, she is able to plan a business outreach to send businesses to Dove Pond for the festival. To reach out to local business owners, she needs to get to know them and that's where Sarah comes in.

Grace and Sarah make for a great team that work well together and are able to use their talents to achieve their goals. Sarah wouldn't have the business acumen to draw in various companies without Grace and likewise Grace wouldn't understand how the town works without Sarah. They are practically two halves of the same woman representing the realist and romantic sides.

There are also other interesting characters that go through great change throughout the book. Daisy starts out as a rebellious sullen girl, but begins to enjoy being a part of the town when she is given extra duties such as reading to children. While Mama G’s faculties are diminishing, she is still on hand to provide a sympathetic ear and some words of encouragement. There is Trav Parker, an Afghanistan war vet and childhood friend of Sarah's who begins to develop a fondness for Grace and Daisy. His relationship with Grace and her family allows him to move beyond his PTSD and self-imposed isolation. There are also other memories of the community that are likable and charming in their own ways.

That's what this book has plenty of. Charm. The Book Charmer is a sweet book that casts a gentle spell on the Reader. While it does mention serious topics like dementia, death, mental illness and others, the book does not overwhelm the Reader with them. Instead it suggests that even when things are at their darkest, there is always a solution out of it. There is some light to be offered whether it is through the kind words of a friend, a gentle walk through town, a slice of coffee cake, the smell of a new flower, or the pages of a beloved book.

New Book Alert: Broken Sea by Nigel Peace; 1960’s Romance Leads To Journeys of Self-Discovery For Protagonists

New Book Alert: Broken Sea by Nigel Peace; 1960’s Romance Leads To Journeys of Self-Discovery For Protagonists

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The 1960’s were a time when young people all over the world woke up and strove to change the world around them. Of course many know of the American hippies and activists who protested the Vietnam War and campaigned for causes such as civil rights and women and LGBT rights. But they weren't the only ones. The United Kingdom had the mods, rockers, and hippies, young people who rebelled against conformity  and embraced the counterculture of the era. France had student riots in May of 1968. Even Communist-era Eastern Europe saw its share of protesters particularly in then-Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring.

The Prague Spring was a period of liberal reform in Czechoslovakia, under strict Communist rule. The Spring lasted from January 5-August 21, 1968. The reforms included loosening of restrictions towards media, speech, and travel and a decentralization of the administrative government. The Soviet government was not happy with the new reforms and in August of 1968 sent Warsaw Pact tanks and troops into end the Spring. The Spring officially ended on August 21, 1968 but many artistic and cultural figures emerged from that time including Milan Kundera’s novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It also produced long-term after effects as many of the people involved in the Velvet Uprising of 1989 that ended Communism forever in Czechoslovakia were also actively involved in the Prague Spring.

Nigel Peace captures that heavy time of student revolt, experimentation, and discovering one's identity in his novel, Broken Sea. Broken Sea involves a love story between a young Englishman and a Czech woman and sees them try to change their worlds and themselves.

Roy comes from a middle class family. He is studying in Manchester to be an engineer, but his heart isn't really into his studies. While vacationing in Wales, Roy encounters Eva, a student from Czechoslovakia who is studying English. The two fall in love and begin an affair in which they are challenged by their changing countries, prejudice from friends and family, and their own perspectives and expectations.

Broken Sea gives us two protagonists that contrast greatly in their backgrounds and outlooks, and both take their own journeys towards self-discovery.

For Eva, her journey is more external. She is involved with the political climate in her country even when she isn't physically there. She is captivated by the independence that she sees among her fellow students and begins to embrace a freer lifestyle including a passionate romance with Roy. However, she still can't get the events from her home country out of her mind.

Every time, Eva returns to her country, it is with a sense of trepidation, fear, and caution over a world that changes so quickly that it's hard to keep up. She sees a friend gain acceptance as a journalist during the Spring and then find his newfound reputation ruined when the tanks go marching in.

In one of several particularly gripping moments, a fellow émigré hears that Eva is returning to Czechoslovakia and asks her to locate her brother. Eva is shocked to learn that the brother was killed in public during a revolt.

The chapters with her and friends and family dealing with the Communist-governed Czechoslovakia are gripping. Tanks roll in. Leaders’ regulations become stricter requiring citizens to follow Communist rule or else. People who were once good friends become spies so it becomes more difficult to express oneself or to trust others.

Eva has a difficult time reconciling the political situation with her independence that she was able to use in England. She feels caught between the world that she once knew and the world that Roy offers and finds it hard to reconcile them.

While Eva's journey deals more with the political hemisphere, Roy's is more internal because it deals with him finding his own place in the world separate from the expectations from his class and family. He studies engineering because his family expects him to, but he is more drawn to philosophical more esoteric paths to knowledge.

Roy gets involved in counter culture ideals like vegetarianism and free love. He is filled with questions about his existence, so he becomes heavily involved in Spiritualism including visiting a creepily accurate medium. He works through his confused feelings with music. (A song for the book is available on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5pByvDwxO8)

Like many young people going off to college and university, Roy is trying to discover himself and in a time like the 1960’s, he experiments. He also finds a creative outlet in his relationship with Eva that allows him to express himself fully.

The romance between Eva and Roy has some sweet moments in which they defend one another in front of critical friends and family members. Even when they are apart, they share an almost psychic sense towards each other. Their romance is almost a release from the tension that they felt when they were surrounded by the political and personal tension.

Most of all Roy and Eva have to navigate through a world of intolerance. Where friends make unkind comments. Where governments can change quickly leaving cruel laws and a battered populace. Where even the slightest cultural difference can lead to a shift in feelings and a rift between lovers. Where sometimes the only thing you can do to fight intolerance is to discover who you really are and what the world around you is really like.

New Book Alert: The Last Collection: A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel by Jeanne Mackin; Fun, Juicy, Stylish Novel Explores The Rivalry Between Two Fashion Icons

New Book Alert: The Last Collection: A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel by Jeanne Mackin; Fun, Juicy, Stylish Novel Explores The Rivalry Between Two Fashion Icons




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: The fashion world in the 1930’s was largely ruled by two women: Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel. The two were different in style, politics, private lives, and temperament. So naturally the two hated one another and fought both verbally and physically. However, Schiaparelli and Chanel were two stylish, grandiose, larger-than-life figures who dominated everyone they came near. When they were together, it was a guarantee that sparks would fly. Jeanne Mackin explores the rivalry between the two fashion mavens in her novel The Last Collection, which is a fun novel that is drenched in juicy gossip, catty bitchiness, and elegant style.

In some ways, The Last Collection reminds me of Feud: Bette and Joan, the miniseries which explored the rivalry between Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange) and Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon) and how the two divas argued on the set of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and off the set. In both, the rivalry between two colorful figures are explored as we learn they are more alike than they realize. What was true for Crawford and Davis is also true of Schiaparelli and Chanel at least through Mackin's writing.

Schiaparelli and Chanel are explored as a study in contrasts in the novel. Schiaparelli, called Schiap by her friends, is a warm, charming, eccentric figure. Chanel is more regal, polished, and standoffish. Schiaparelli favors a more whimsical fashion style using bold colors, embellishments such as animal and musical notes on her clothing, and hats shaped like shoes. Chanel’s look is more formal and sedate with dark colored early-era power suits and elegant gowns. Schiaparelli had one bad marriage and dotes on her sometimes exasperated daughter, Gogo. Chanel has no husband or child but plenty of lovers. Schiaparelli is a liberal socialist who loses clients because she refuses to serve people with Nazi ties. Chanel is more conservative and doesn't mind cozying up to German officials sometimes horizontally.

Despite their apparent differences, the two designers are also similar in many respects. They are both flashy characters who walk into a room as though they own everything and everybody inside. They are both strong-willed women of immense creative talent and business sense. They also share the aesthetic ideal that fashion is more than just pretty clothes and accessories. They see fashion as being indicative of someone's personal style that tells the world who that person is. They are also hot-tempered cutthroats who will do just about anything to get the better of each other.


With their extreme egos, overbearing flashiness, and penchant for drama, the two fashion designers go through extreme lengths in their rivalry. Schiaparelli takes great delight in stealing a high priced client from Chanel. Chanel retaliates by greeting Schiaparelli at a formal event with an embrace. Oh yeah and Schiaparelli is in front of some candles and Chanel can't resist leaning her rival ever so slightly closer to them. Well you can guess what happens next. (Reportedly, this incident was true to life.)

They also take verbal swipes at each other particularly after Chanel starts seeing a man with Nazi ties and Schiaparelli accuses her of being a collaborator. When the Designer Duo are together, one has the urge to call a lion tamer or a boxing match referee to force the two back into their corners until the next round.


Chanel and Schiaparelli are two bombastic larger-than-life personalities that dominate the novel so much that they overpower the other characters. To Mackin's credit, she wrote some interesting characters that contrast with them. Lily Sutter, the narrator, is a mousy recent widow visiting her wayward brother, Charlie, in Paris and gets swept up into the duo's fashion world by working for Schiaparelli as a window display designer, companion for Gogo, and a spy between the two fashion houses. In the process, Lily befriends both designers finding tenderness and vulnerabilities behind their facades.


Lily and her friends are well-rounded characters. Charlie is particularly charming as is his mistress, the elegant and married Ania. Lily also has some sweet moments with Otto, a German musician-turned-driver who is the farthest thing from a Nazi. In working closely with Schiaparelli and Chanel and becoming involved with Charlie's love life as well as her own, Lily learns to let go of her grief towards her husband's death and move on. In another novel, these characters would stand out and be the most memorable aspects. However, Chanel and Schiaparelli leave such a bold presence that everything else without them seems like filler. Heck, Willy Wonka would have a hard time standing out among these two.

The Last Collection is a fun stylish tour de force inside the world of fashion in pre-WWII France. Like an elegant gown, it stands out and just asks to be admired.

Classics Corner: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle; Classic Newbery Winner Science Fiction Fantasy About Conformity and Individuality

Classics Corner: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle; Classic Newbery Winner Science Fiction Fantasy About Conformity and Individuality




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: The best YA books are the ones that realize that their Readers are young, but intelligent. They don't talk down to them. They aren't afraid to discuss topics like death, desertion, separation, even higher concepts about faith and individuality. They do all that and still provide their Readers with an engaging read that captivates their imagination.

Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time is that type of book.

A great book has to have a great protagonist. Meg Murray is a great protagonist. She is not a model of perfection. She is insecure, impatient, unsure of herself, and often confused about the world around her. She is smart but doesn't do well in school because she follows the “shortcuts” her genius father encouraged her to take in Math. She deeply loves her family and even communicates with her selectively mute brilliant brother, Charles Wallace but is concerned about the whereabouts of her father who has been missing since Charles was a baby. It's not easy being Meg but that's what makes her so understandable.


One night (“a dark and stormy night,” yes, L'Engle bravely used that as her opening line.), Meg and her family encounter a strange visitor, Mrs. Whatsit who tells them that there is such a thing as “a tesseract.” A tesseract is a wrinkle in time, similar to a wormhole, in which someone can travel vast distances very quickly. It also happens to be what Meg's parents were studying and maybe where her father disappeared into.

Before too long Meg, Charles Wallace, their new friend Calvin O'Keefe, Mrs. Whatsit, and her companions Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which travel through the tesseract to another dimension.

A Wrinkle in Time is filled with imaginative situations and characters. The three Mrses. are a fascinating trio, and certainly the most memorable characters of the bunch. Mrs. Whatsit appears as a cloaked character and of the enigmatic three is the most human in behavior and appearance. Mrs. Who constantly speaks in quotations particularly from literature and philosophers because she can't use human terms for what she means. Mrs. Which is a being composed of light whose speeches are written in a stilted manner like “Qqquiettt chillldd.”

The three Mrs. are the kinds of characters that are so intriguing that they steal every moment they are in. Fortunately, they don't get too overdone. L'Engle knew when to use them such as tessering the children, giving them explanations, and bestowing them gifts. She also knew when they should back off. After all, such powerful seemingly omnipotent beings could make the quest too easy or make Meg nothing but a mere observer in her story. But Meg isn't. She, Calvin, and Charles Wallace are the real heroes of the story. It is their journey to go on, their lesson to learn, and L'Engle (and the Mrses.) let them, especially Meg, learn it.


As with many quests, each step on their journey is designed to teach the children something and not always are the lessons happy ones. When they encounter a dark cloud like spirit hovering over called The Black Thing, the kids learns that there is evil and darkness around or rather beings that do horrible things for selfish and cruel reasons and that there are people that want to stop that evil. (Their father is an example of a hero wanting to stop The Black Thing.)

When they encounter such characters as the Happy Medium and Aunt Beast, they learn not to take everything at face value. They also learn about appreciation and unconditional love, things that they will need in their final test on Camazotz, a very strange sinister planet.

To retrieve Meg and Charles Wallace's father, the children visit Camazotz, where the houses all look alike, residents move in the same exact formation at the same exact time, and everything is rigidly controlled by rules, regulations, and paperwork. Seeing that A Wrinkle in Time was first published in 1962, this was probably L'Engle's commentary about 1950’s-’60’s suburbia and conformity. If so it was a dire situation that she saw.

The people of Camazotz do the bidding of IT, a creature who runs the world with precision and sameness. He believes that individuality must be removed and that everyone must be alike. (“Like and equal are not the same thing,” Meg declares.)

What Meg realizes as she encounters IT is that she needs to use her compassion, love, acceptance and even her flaws like impatience, anger, awkwardness-all the things that make her an individual to fight IT and save her brother, friends, and father.
A Wrinkle in Time is a Newbery Medal Winner and deservedly so. It is an engaging fantasy adventure with brilliant characters and a lesson that Readers of all ages need to learn.

Classics Corner: I Never Promised You A Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg; Disturbing But Memorable Novel About A Woman Struggling With Schizophrenia

Classics Corner: I Never Promised You A Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg; Disturbing But Memorable Novel About A Woman Struggling With Schizophrenia




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: No this book has nothing to do with the classic country song of the same name by Lynn Anderson except sharing a title.

Instead I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, shows what happens when a highly creative person has schizophrenia. The hallucinatory world that they create in their mind could be a peaceful retreat one minute and a walking nightmare of frightening creatures and self-destruction, the next.

16-year-old Deborah Blau is being taken to a psychiatric hospital. She has hallucinations of a fantasy world of her creation called Yr and has lately been cutting herself in punishment because the Yrian creatures order her to. At first her parents are in denial. They are a typical suburban family. They worked hard to get to where they were and to avoid prejudice from their Antisemitic neighbors. This shouldn't happen to them. But it does and when Deborah keeps harming herself, they realize that they have no choice but to send her to the hospital.

The book is fascinating as we get into possibilities of the cause of Deborah's schizophrenia and why it began so early. After all schizophrenia doesn't usually begin until one reaches their late teens or early twenties. There are many probable causes such as an operation to remove a tumor from Deborah's brain, the family going through a period of poverty and having to live with a strict Old World grandfather, and a stint in summer camp where she was bullied by anti-Semitic campers and teachers. There wasn't one specific reason, but several.

Of course psychological studies marched past the book's 1962 published date and it's late 1940’s setting. We now realize that exterior situations may not be the only causes for psychiatric disorders. Sometimes it's neurological or genetic reasons that are the cause.

However, it is human nature to look for reasons and explanations behind the unexplained. Why would a bright talented young woman suddenly withdraw into herself and succumb to hallucinations? There must be a reason and Deborah, her family, and psychiatrist Dr. Fried are determined to find it.

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden also shows how the mind of a schizophrenic works by using their delusions to protect oneself and create barriers and prohibitions from the outside world. It also shows the difference between creative imagination and psychological hallucination and delusion. Nowhere is this most prominent than in Deborah's brain creating Yr.

When she's a child, Yr is a place that she retreats to in times of comfort. She believes that the characters protect and love her. She created little interesting details like a language called Yrian and the world's separate time frame. She has a strong creative artistic mind that could write fantasy stories if properly used. However, when Yr takes on a sinister tone is when the depths of Deborah's mental illness reveals her private Paradise is instead a private Hell.

As she grows older, Deborah's delusions become more terrifying as Yrian characters threaten her with punishments as she cuts and burns herself to acquiesce to their rages. This shows that while there is nothing wrong with creating an imaginary world, what made Deborah's world a product of insanity is that they wanted to hurt her or rather her own fears and insecurities manifested themselves as beings to hurt her.

Fried helps her recognize the monsters found in Yr were created by her own psyche. For example, she reveals that one of the Yrian characters is actually a stand-in for Deborah's strict grandfather.

Since Deborah's fantasy life is such a large part of her mental illness, Fried has to help Deborah see through her delusions by using reality. Once, Deborah reveals that the Yrians are punishing her because she almost threw her baby sister out of a window. Dr. Fried uses simple logic to help her realize that since Deborah was five years old at the time, she could not have lifted the baby and opened the large heavy window by herself.

Above all, Deborah receives the courage to silence her hallucinations and to accept a world beyond them. In the psychiatric hospital, Deborah makes friends with other patients who also have mental illnesses such as one who believes that she is married to the abdicated King Edward. Deborah and the other patients call themselves “nuts” and “sickos” and mock the orderlies and patients who aren't as mentally ill as they are or worse than them.

However, they want lives outside the hospital. The patients look on with envy at Doris, a patient who left the hospital and started a new life. When Doris returns after a relapse, they react with fear that if that happened to her, it could happen to anyone. However, Deborah wants to recover to succeed when Doris did not.

When Deborah strives to recover, she has to take the good and bad of the real world around her. When she argues about a friend's punishment, Fried quotes the book's title and says that she never promised life would be perfect or fair. There will always be hardships, violence, and hatred. People will mess up and sometimes the wrong people will get in trouble.

The difference is that Deborah can choose to live in that world instead of one ruled by her mental illness and the fear it represents.