Tag Archive for: aberry

Into the Blue: a Love Story by Emma Brodie

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AJ Graves is feeling stuck. She was supposed to spend this summer at training camp, which would earn her a sports scholarship, which would get her into college, which would eventually lead to her dream job: writing on Saturday Night Live.

Instead, a broken arm has her spending her summer working at a video store and writing fan fiction about her favorite show – Astronauticals, a kitschy, decades-old sci-fi program with a dedicated fan-base.

The star of the show, Eudora Drew, is a local legend. One of the many members of the Drew family who have had illustrious acting careers, she is now a bit of a recluse.

AJ’s new co-worker Noah is Eudora’s nephew, and AJ is not sure why a member of the Drew family would need to work – let alone a puny summer job at a video store. Plus, it is embarrassing when he catches her watching Astronauticals all the time.

But then, Noah shares some insider trivia with her about the production and the improvisational aspects of the show. Eudora and her husband met on the set; before his death, Ezell taught Noah some of the improv games that they play on Astronuaticals.

Noah and AJ strike up a tentative friendship, and eventually get coerced into asking Eudora to participate in a convention that AJ’s younger brother is helping to run.

Enigmatic Eudora agrees to attend, but only if Noah and AJ will spend the summer working with her on their acting. Between work and acting lessons, the pair are nearly inseparable for months. They develop a deep, intuitive connection through improv training, and suddenly AJ can see a new future for herself as an actress.

Then, without warning, Noah leaves town and Eudora coldly severs their teacher-student connection. AJ is left floundering, but determined to succeed without them.

Seven years later, AJ’s career is up-and-running. She is writing both for television and a well-known improv troupe.

That is how she gets invited to an improv performance, which is actually a covert audition for a new TV show: a reboot of Astronauticals that will have to be fully improvised due to an ongoing writers’ strike. There, among the crowd of improv actors, is Noah Drew.

Noah is now a household name; he’s the current Hollywood heartthrob and the star of an HBO series, but their connection still feels the same.

The tension is palpable in their scenes, and AJ – much to her dismay – becomes one of the stars of the TV show. Off-screen, Noah keeps his distance. Until the moment that he really, really doesn’t, and all their history comes flooding back.

Emma Brodie’s INTO THE BLUE: A LOVE STORY is not a romance novel. The love story between AJ and Noah is the central point that the novel revolves around, but everything spinning around that hub is equally important.

Every detail of the novel has been carefully crafted; Eudora’s grief, the struggle between AJ’s family and her dad’s alcoholism, even what it means for AJ to have achieved her dream and found it was not perfect. I will be thinking about this book for years to come.

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

Superfan by Jenny Tinghui Zhang

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Minnie is a college freshman, feeling adrift and isolated after relocating from Denver to Austin. College was supposed to be a time to meet lifelong friends and have new experiences. Instead she finds herself eating dinner alone in the dining hall and watching internet videos in her dorm room.

That is where she first encounters HOURglass, a soon-to-be-viral boy band modeled after K-pop groups.

The boys make her feel less alone. Their shining light beaming out of the laptop screen and into her soul. She watches their performances, follows their journal videos, participates in live streams – HOURglass becomes the center of her life.

Jenny Tinghui Zhang’s SUPERFAN is a dual-perspective novel. Half of it follows Minnie through her first year of college while the other focuses on Eason, one member of HOURglass, and a secret from his past that could destroy their chance at fame.

To the fans, Eason is Halo. He is the bad boy of the group; rough around the edges, but loved the most because of it. Each member of HOURglass has had his image and history carefully curated to endear them to their fanbase.

The public knows that Halo is the member that came in with the least experience. Minwoo was an opera singer in Korea. Julian was a professional figure skater. Colt has model-like good looks and a background in sports.

Eason’s big break came when he delivered food to an audition. A week later, he got a phone call telling him the executives liked his air of pent-up frustration. It was a break that he did not know he needed. He has worked himself to the bone to become Halo – to avoid ever going back to his old life.

HOURglass has accumulated a devoted following. Their U.S. tour has sold out stadiums, and they have a huge following for all of the videos they post. Minnie feels deeply connected to the boys, but she knows that she is one devoted fan in a legion of devoted fans.

Still seeking connection, she finds an online forum dedicated to HOURglass called The Heaven. The people are all welcoming and she can tell that they are all huge fans of the band. Minnie is even able to find support about the other issues in her life through the forum.

But there is a darker side to The Heaven. A sub-group of members has dedicated themselves to following the band. They have connections in particular industries or enough money to buy privileged information. They appear at the airports and hotels when the band is traveling. And they know the secret that is haunting Eason.

SUPERFAN is an excellent examination of fame and fandom. The ways that we claim ownership over something that can never really be ours. Minnie loves Halo, and she is motivated by wanting to help and protect him.

When they do come face-to-face, Eason also feels a connection to her – he can feel how passionate she is about HOURglass. But she is more than just their fan and he is more than just her idol, and neither of them will ever experience that part of the other.

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo

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In the final few hours before the space station where she lives is blown up, Niko Larsen receives a mysterious package. Not a shipment of supplies, which would be addressed to her restaurant. The box is large and heavy; the shipping label has been torn off. There is no indication where it came from or who sent it.

But Niko has bigger problems right now. Last Chance Restaurant is about to be visited by a food critic and Niko’s staff – the remains of her former military regiment – are beside themselves trying to prepare.

Her former sergeant, now head chef, is requesting permission to acquire an eggplant, by any means necessary. For some reason, her comms officer has seen fit to accept a reservation from a large party that claims to know Niko. And their front-of-house host, part of an alien race with the ability to see the future, is making predictions of doom.

All seems to be going well by the time the food critic, Lolola Montaigne d’Arcy deBurgh, arrives. Although she is quickly followed by an unexpected guest.

Arpat Takraven is a famous racer and apparent food connoisseur, and he is willing to pay top dollar for the privilege of dining in the same room as Lolola. Niko agrees, but before the meal can begin, the station is attacked.

With Takraven offering them shelter, Niko, her crew, and Lolola leave the restaurant. Along the way, Takraven is killed by debris. Like many of the extremely wealthy, he has a clone body that his consciousness will transfer to. In the meantime, he gives Niko a password to get the rest of them onto his ship.

Once aboard the You Sexy Thing, the ship informs Niko that the password she was given is one used to indicate to it that Takraven was under duress. The Thing has been directed to take everyone aboard to a prison planet and turn them in for theft.

As they gather themselves, Niko is surprised that a member of her crew brought along the mysterious crate from her office. Within the box is a young woman in cryosleep. She is an imperial heir with no memory of why she was sent to Niko.

The crew sets about making themselves at home on the ship, for what time they have there. They even seem to be making some headway gaining a rapport with the Thing. However, they soon find out that Lolola is not who she seems, as she forcibly takes control of the ship and changes their course to the Intergalactic Association of Pirate Havens.

Cat Rambo’s YOU SEXY THING is the first book in their Disco Space Opera series. It is full of well-developed characters and extensive lore. This book only scratches the surface of the world that Rambo has built. I found it to be a fun read, well-deserving of the phrase “space opera.”

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Review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

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Like her mother before her, Reyna dedicated her life to Queen Tilane. She swore to protect the queen from all who might harm her, and she rose in the ranks to become one of the queen’s most trusted Queensguards.

Tilane is a fickle, power-hungry ruler. When Reyna is nearly killed by an assassin – and the queen makes it clear that Reyna’s life means nothing to her – Reyna decides it is time to reevaluate her priorities.

Reyna is in a long standing, secret relationship with Kianthe, the Arcandor – the most powerful mage in the world. She has been blessed by the Stone of Seeing with almost limitless power, and required to use that power to manage magical creatures, avert natural disasters, and soothe political disagreements. Reyna is the only person Kianthe knows who sees her for who she really is.

It has been Kianthe’s dream for the two of them to run away together and open up a store that sells books and tea. After her near-death experience, Reyna is finally on board.

They set up their dream shop in a tiny town right on the border between the Queendom and a neighboring country. Kianthe, Reyna, and their shop are instantly popular with the locals, but they soon find out that Tawney is not as quiet as they thought it would be.

There are two political leaders – one from each side of the border – claiming to govern Tawney. Tawney’s citizens are also divided on this issue, meaning that New Leaf Tomes & Tea will need the blessing of both leaders in order to run smoothly.

The town is also plagued by dragon attacks. Long ago, half of the town was destroyed in a dragon attack, and the dragons return frequently to burn the ruins that remain. This is just the kind of mysterious behavior that the Arcandor needs to investigate.

Not to mention the looming threat of Queen Tilane. No person has ever managed to escape her court for long.

Rebecca Thorne’s CAN’T SPELL TREASON WITHOUT TEA is part of the growing genre known as cozy fantasy. The setting is comfortable, the danger is not too intense, and the ending is happy. Cozy fantasy is the kind of book you want to read on a cold night in front of a roaring fire – because the characters are doing the same.

I have only read a few of the more popular entries in the genre, but this is by far my favorite. The characters are well-developed and the action is exciting. Thorne is able to make the stakes feel important even though readers know that the events of the book are going to end well.

This is the first book in Thorne’s four-book series, all of which are available now. Each book is titled with a tea-related pun. Readers who enjoy puns – particularly bad puns – will find many to enjoy throughout the series.

 

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe

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Over the centuries, Su and Emerald have drifted in-and-out of each other’s lives. Long ago, they were two snakes living on the banks of a lake near Hangzhou, China. There, they heard a rumor of a lotus that could grant them immortality and the ability to turn into humans at will.

The two snakes – one white, one green – had survived much together, and sworn a bond of sisterhood. Su, the white snake, envied humans and wished to be one of them. Emerald was less eager, but wanted to make her sister’s wish come true.

They found the lotus and completed the ritual. Now living as humans, the two women want very different things out of life. Their opposing natures caused a lot of friction; the sisters have not spoken in many years.

Emerald is currently living in New York City, struggling to make ends meet. Her roommate, Bartek believes her to be a fellow twenty-something, just trying to figure things out.

The sisters’ serpentine nature is a secret that they rarely tell.

When Emerald is hurt in Central Park, opening up to Bartek is her only chance for survival. He is shaken, but he accepts who Emerald is and helps her to the best of his abilities.

Su’s life is very different. She has spent decades perfecting her ability to seem human. She has amassed assets all over the world. Her time has been spent cultivating her ideal existence – denying everything snake-like about herself.

Although she hasn’t seen her sister in many years, Su has been keeping tabs on her – monitoring the news for stories about green snakes in New York. When she sees the report, she instantly recognizes Emerald and jumps on a plane. Su is determined to bring Emerald back to Singapore and keep her out of trouble.

Su loves Singapore. The small island nation is beautifully designed and tightly run. Rules are clearly posted on signage and heavily enforced. She does not consider how Emerald will react to that level of governance. Nor does she consider how her husband – a minister in Singapore’s parliament – will react to her “wild sister.”

SISTER SNAKE by Amanda Lee Koe shows many facets of these two women. It is easy to write Emerald off as irresponsible – a woman who has acted like a teenager for hundreds of years. But the more that the book reveals about their history, the more the reader understands her determination to live a life full of experiences.

On the other hand, Su presents herself as a level-headed, rule-following woman – but the white snake has always been the more dangerous of the two.

 

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

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Klara is an Artificial Friend. She lives in a store with other AFs, waiting for a child to come in and choose her to be their companion. Every day the AFs are given a place in the store to stand as customers come in. The best part of the store is the area behind the big front window, where Klara is able to observe people passing by and feel the Sun.

AFs are solar powered, so the sun is important to all of them. But Klara sees the sun as a presence, with feelings and emotions like her.

She observes the Sun’s happiness when two people reconnect on the street in front of the store. She also sees the Sun’s special ability to heal when a homeless person and his dog are miraculously revived by the sun’s rays.

Not long after that experience, Klara is chosen by a girl named Josie. Josie and her mother have a house out in the countryside, but her mother commutes to work every day. Klara will be there to spend time with Josie and help keep her happy.

Like many children in her peer group, Josie has been “lifted” – genetically modified to improve her intelligence. Unfortunately, Josie suffered some side effects from this procedure and is frequently ill.

The illness is unpredictable, forcing Josie to stay in bed for weeks at a time. It is also very serious. Some children who exhibit these symptoms do not survive.

As Klara gets to know Josie and her world, she presents anecdotes largely without opinion. But she does possess deep insight into what people are feeling or thinking. When she lets these insights slip, it is a reminder to the reader not to underestimate her abilities – her intelligence may be artificial, but it is well-honed.

The focus of KLARA AND THE SUN is on interpersonal relationships between the people in Josie’s limited world. Klara is able to interact with each of them and develop her own relationships with them.

Readers only get a sense of the larger world: glimpses of persistent anti-robot sentiment and the ways that people’s lives have adjusted in this version of the future. Josie’s friend Rick is very smart, but he is not lifted. As Josie and Rick grow up, Klara observes how that affects what he can expect from his future.

Throughout the novel, Klara is looking back on her life. She is reminiscing about her own history. She lets the reader know that these events have all passed, but keeps the outcome to herself until the end.

Klara herself is a very interesting character. She uses unusual speech patterns when speaking to other characters, but her internal monologue flows very smoothly. Although she is not human, she feels real. The reader never questions the validity of her experience, even when confronted with the facts of her artificial nature.

 

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

Culture: the story of us from cave art to K-pop by Martin Puchner

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It can be easy to dismiss popular culture as trite and inconsequential. Superhero movies, fantasy television shows, romance novels, Korean pop music; it can all seem a little meaningless, even to the fans. I, personally, have been known to lose interest in something if I sense that it is becoming “too popular.”

But Martin Puchner’s CULTURE: THE STORY OF US, FROM CAVE ART TO K-POP invites readers to take a deeper look at these fluffy topics from a historical perspective.

Consider this: novels have always been popular culture; all of the works that we think of now as classic literature survived because they were popular. Don Quixote was so popular when it was published that an unauthorized sequel became widely circulated – an early instance of what we would now call fanfiction.

As Puchner’s book shows, culture is often developed by borrowing. Interpreting traditions that you do not understand and giving them a new meaning. He illustrates this point by examining the ways that the Romans adapted Greek gods to suit their own needs.

The Chauvet cave paintings (which have intrigued me for a long time because of their significance in the history of animation) were created over a period of thousands of years. Each generation of humans visiting the site and adding new images to instruct or entertain future visitors.

Puchner appreciates this collective experience of culture and argues against the possibility of ownership over a culture. Culture is evolving, changing as it is passed from one group of people to another.

Modern viewers think of Hokusai’s Great Wave as being indicative of Japanese art because it became so culturally significant, but printmaking is actually a technique they borrowed from China.

Traditional Japanese art was generally created with watercolors and ink, but an interest in cheap, reproducible images brought printmaking into the country. Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji took this popular technique and managed to show its versatility — and the potential it had in the hands of a master.

Cultural shifts are generally a result of this natural evolution, people passing down knowledge or rebelling against what came before. It changes to fit the needs of those currently using it.

It is not possible to know how future generations will view the culture that we are living in right now. But reading CULTURE inspired me to look at what is popular in a new way. Each chapter is dedicated to a new waypoint in our global cultural history. It examines how that moment in history is indicative of both its time and ours.

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11pm tonight. But our narrator does not know that yet. In fact, he does not know anything, including his own name.

Minutes ago, he woke up in the woods yelling the name Anna, heard a scream that was abruptly cut off, and was sent back to a crumbling manor house by a mysterious stranger – probably a murderer if the scream is any indication.

No one at Blackheath Manor seems particularly worried about the potential murder in the woods. One of the men takes our narrator up to his room, trying to help with his memory loss. The narrator’s name is Sebastian Bell, he is a doctor. He is at Blackheath to attend a masquerade ball that evening in honor of Evelyn Hardcastle’s return from Paris.

Bell continues to have strange interactions all day with people who seem to know him – including one interaction with a man in a plague doctor’s mask who delivers cryptic warnings and once with Evelyn Hardcastle herself.

Evelyn makes an immediate impression on Bell; she is one of the few people willing to help him investigate the scream he heard in the woods. Everyone else in the house has dismissed his concerns, for the most part because no one seems to know an Anna.

Late in the evening, Sebastian Bell returns to his bedroom to find a dead rabbit and a note signed by The Footman, a murderer that our narrator has been warned to look out for. Bell faints on the spot. When he regains consciousness, our narrator is in the body of Blackheath’s butler and back at the beginning of that same day.

Each time our narrator wakes up, he does so in a new body. He will have the chance to live through this day eight different times, through the eyes of eight different people. At 11pm, Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered. He will witness her death multiple times, from multiple perspectives.

Our narrator has been placed in a time loop to solve her murder, but he is not the only one – there are two other people trying to find the answer to this mystery, and only one of them will be allowed to leave once it is solved.

THE 7 1/2 DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE is a unique mystery. The narrator has the opportunity to gain first-hand experience from eight different witnesses to the crime. He gains more information each time he inhabits someone new, sometimes interacting with himself in a different body.

As he races to solve Evelyn’s murder, the narrator gains more insight into why he is here in the first place. As the man in the plague doctor mask tells him, this is not the first time he has experienced these eight days. He will keep living this day through these eight people until he – or one of his rivals – solves the murder.

 

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

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Ganymedes Piscero is in the last place he would ever want to be: on a magical ship traveling toward the most magical place on the continent, surrounded by the heirs to the provinces of Concordia – who all have magical gifts, and who all hate him.

Ganymedes – he prefers Dee, actually – is also the heir to a province: Fish Province. They govern the ocean-side beaches and have a duty to provide fish for the empire. As the heir of Fish Province, Dee should also have a Blessing, but one has never manifested for him.

Dee’s father has forced him to pretend to have a Blessing, to cover up his own infidelity. Luckily for him, no one is open about their gifts. Most of the twelve heirs refuse to share them, unless they are impossible to hide. The heir of Ox Province has the ability to breathe fire and a hot temper to match.

This pilgrimage was organized to celebrate the emergence of the twelfth heir: a tiny six-year-old from Grasshopper Province who recently manifested her Blessing. With the completion of this new generation of leaders, it is time for them all to journey to the mountain where the first Blessings were bestowed.

It is a twelve-day journey, but on the first night, Eudora – heir to Dragon Province and the Empire itself – is murdered.

As the bodies of the other Blessed begin to pile up, Dee, Grasshopper, and Wyatt of Bear Province team up to uncover the killer.

VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED by Frances White is a magical locked-room mystery. The Blessed are isolated from the rest of the world while they are onboard this vessel, but they are far from helpless.

Apart from Grasshopper, they have all known each other for a number of years. They have had time to form alliances and enforce the provincial hierarchy. And with so few of their powers known, it will be difficult to determine who is capable of hiding a murder.

Despite spending the entire novel on the boat, readers are able to get a good sense of the world. Each of the provinces of Concordia has its own terrain and culture, and the Blessed from each province has been shaped by their region.

White does an excellent job writing characters. Each of the twelve has their own unique voice and perspective. As Dee travels around the ship, trying to solve the murders, we get to experience each of them in their own environments. Dee’s voice is able to bring a lot of humor to the book, even in the face of mortal peril.

VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED works well as both a fantasy book and a mystery. When I read mystery fiction, I like it to be slightly unpredictable while also feeling solvable. Like I could have figured it out, given enough time. This book threads that needle for me. I had some suspicions that turned out to be accurate and there were also surprises waiting for me at the end.

 

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

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Becky Chambers’ A PSALM FOR THE WILD-BUILT is a small book, but it means a lot to me. I’ve actually read it twice: once when the library bought it back in 2021 and now a second time. I love its optimistic view of the future and the ways that Chambers’ world incorporates nature and technology simultaneously.

The main character, Sibling Dex, is a tea monk whose role in society is to travel from settlement to settlement. At each stop, Dex sets up their tea service and invites people to come tell their troubles over a cup of tea. Sibling Dex can offer advice or simply listen to their concerns, whichever the patron prefers.

Dex has been living this life for a few years, but suddenly they have an uncontrollable urge to change everything. To leave their routine behind and explore the wild – hoping to find crickets.

The book is set in the distant future on a lush, forested moon called Panga. The ecology is very similar to Earth, but crickets have gone extinct in all of the inhabited areas of Panga, so Dex has never experienced them firsthand.

When Dex learns of an abandoned monastery that once had a cricket population, they decide to go see for themself if the crickets are still there.

Panga is covered in roads left over from the Factory Age, a time in Panga’s history similar to our modern Earth. Those roads have not been maintained in hundreds of years and Dex is riding a pedal-driven cart with their house on the back. Needless to say, much of the journey is difficult.

After a few days of traveling alone, Dex encounters a robot named Mosscap who asks them “what do you need, and how might I help?”

Dex and Mosscap’s meeting is an event with historical significance. Robots and humans have not directly interacted since the Parting Promise.

In the distant past, the robots of Panga woke up – they suddenly gained consciousness without any human intervention; no one knows why. After that awakening, the humans and the robots came together and it was decided that they would separate from each other until such time as the robots chose to return.

Mosscap is acting as a representative of the robots. Its plan was to enter human society, ask the questions it has asked Dex, and see if the robots returning now would improve all of their lives in a meaningful way.

The two travelers decide to travel together, but the trip does not get any easier. Because they were raised to believe that robots should not be used to do menial labor, Dex has a hard time accepting Mosscap’s help at first. Eventually, the two are able to find a balance and work together to complete their journey.

As I said in my introduction, A PSALM FOR THE WILD-BUILT is a very optimistic book. The people living on Panga have found ways to thrive without destroying the ecosystem of the planet. They focus on repairing the things they have and preserving the wilderness around them. Dex is very unusual for deciding to stray from the path and journey out into the wider world.

 

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian