Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra & Dhonielle Clayton

  Do you ever want to read a mystery set in a fantasy world where at least one of the main characters is a person of color? What about a story about an African-American woman trekking through the Amazon on her own, à la Eat Pray Love or Wild? How about an international spy thriller set in Paris with a bisexual Asian female protagonist? I do. I like lots of different genres and am interested in reading about the experiences of people from different backgrounds. Ideally what I want to read more of are ordinary and fantastical (i.e., genre) stories that include diverse main characters, who may be diverse in multiple ways. Bonus if the story mixes genres. I have gone down many rabbit holes looking for books that combined different things that interest me. Maybe some of my combinations are esoteric, but it shouldn't be so hard to find books with POC and female leads, especially when the story is set in the contemporary or futuristic world. Imagine my delight upon stumbling across Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton.

The story is told from the point of view of three young women: Gigi, June, and Bette. Giselle "Gigi" is an African-American dancer newly arrived from California. She is laid back, sweet, naïve, and her dancing is superb. It is not long before she secures leading roles. Unfortunately making friends is much more difficult when you're on top. People hate and envy her as much or more than they admire her. Having heart condition doesn't help either. So far it hasn't stopped her and she she's determined to make sure it never does.

June is a half-Korean native New Yorker with ballet in her blood. Her mother danced but refuses to talk about time at the American Ballet Conservatory, the school the girls attend (a thinly veiled version of the real American Ballet School in New York). June's father also danced. That and the fact that he abandoned June and her mother before June was born is all she knows about him. There are two things June wants more than anything else: to find out who her father is and to be the star instead of the understudy. If she can get back at the former best friend who betrayed her or pick up a boyfriend along the way, even better.

Bette is the seemingly perfect blond who seems to have everything. Her older sister Adele was a star when she attended the conservatory and is now climbing up the ranks as a professional dancer with the American Ballet Company. Bette expected to follow in her sister's footsteps like it was her birthright. She also expected Alec, her male counterpart and friend since childhood to be by her side on and off stage. But things haven't worked out as Bette planned. First came Cassie, another music box ballerina whom teachers and audiences loved. Luckily for Bette Cassie didn't last long at the conservatory. Just when Bette thought she was on top again, Gigi came along and started getting the roles Bette always assumed would be hers.

Tiny Pretty Things combines some of my favorite things: ballet, boarding school, and girls who are as ambitious and talented as they are mean. There was so much I loved about this book. For one, I appreciated that while racism is not ignored the principal conflict among the characters has to do with ambition. Each of the three main characters, along with a few of the side characters, wants the starring role. But there is only room for one Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker.

Tiny Pretty Things tackles a lot in its 400 plus pages: eating disorders, sexuality and homophobia (lesbian and gay), teachers taking advantage of students (and sometimes vice versa), parental expectations, first love, bullying, and injuries. The downside and my one criticism is that nothing is completely resolved at the end of the book. It is clear a sequel was intended. I am eagerly waiting for that sequel, Shiny Broken Pieces, to be released in paperback. From what I've read the authors only planned two books but I hope the authors makes this a series. Tiny Pretty Things is just what I need to fill the hole left by Gossip Girl (the TV show more than than the book series).
 

Big Rock by Lauren Blakely

  Big Rock was so much fun, so hot, and so funny. Spencer is rich, smart, nice, and shall we say gifted. He is a total playboy but the women he dates seem to know and appreciate what they're getting with him. Spencer also comes from a good family with parents who adore him, his sister, and each other. Spencer's parents are so in love with each other all his father wants to do is sell the family jewelry business and retire early so he can sail around the world with his wife. Luckily Spencer's father has a buyer all lined up. He just needs Spencer and his sex life to stay out of the gossip pages for a week because the potential buyer is conservative and wants to buy a wholesome family company. Spencer not only agrees to keep it zipped up for a week, he raises things up a notch and asks his best friend Charlotte to pretend to be his fiancee. She agrees with a condition of her own. Spencer and Charlotte agree to a few ground rules, one being no falling in love. Despite their best intentions it doesn't take long before Spencer and Charlotte's fake engagement starts to feel real.

A heterosexual romance from a guy's point of view - that's not something I come across everyday. Big Rock was pretty near perfect. It was funny, steamy hot, succinct, and had likeable characters. There was no unnecessary filler, not much in the way of artificial obstacles - just two people falling in love. And I fell a little in love with this story.

Fatal Shadows by Josh Lanyon

  Pasadena bookseller Adrien English has a problem. His high school friend and current employee has been brutally murdered. Someone has ransacked his shop and is sending him threatening messages. The police seem to consider Adrien a suspect in the case of the former, and are dismissive of the latter. And then there is the matter of his heart - sudden excitements tend to send poor Adrien's heart into a tizzy.

This was a lovely little mystery. Little because it is less than two hundred pages. Lovely because Adrien is adorable. He is what I like to call an accidental detective. He runs a bookshop and is working on publishing his first book. It is mystery of course. Notwithstanding his love of  mysteries Adrien doesn't have any particular interest in being involved in an actual mystery. Nevertheless Adrien must become a detective if only to save himself. When his friend Robert is killed, the police seem ready to arrest Adrien, thinking perhaps it was some sort of lover's quarrel gone terribly wrong. Adrien thinks this might be a hate crime, perhaps a serial killer who's stalking and killing gay men. Whoever the culprit is, Adrien has to figure it out before he ends up in jail or dead himself.
 
Fatal Shadows wasn't a perfect mystery. There were a few holes and I figured out the culprit pretty easily. I was expecting a bit more romance. On Goodreads this was tagged as both a romance and a mystery. The romance was pretty scant here. This being said, this is the first in a series. Hopefully the romance that is hinted at in Fatal Shadows takes shapes in the next book.

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Zacharias Wythe is the Sorcerer Royal of England, that is he is the leader of the Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers and advisor to the crown on England's magic related matters. As a Black man, former slave, and suspected murderer of the previous Sorcerer Royal and his adopted father Sir Stephen Wythe, there are plenty of people who think Zacharias Wythe does not deserve the position. Zacharias doesn't have time to worry about that however, for he has too many other pressing problems to deal with at the moment. England's source of magic is drying up, for one. Also, someone keeps trying, and luckily failing, to kill him. On top everything there is Prunella.

Zacharias meets Prunella Gentleman at a school for young ladies with magical tendencies. The school aims to teach the young ladies how to suppress their magic because in this Regency era society women are thought to be far to frail to handle the power of magic. There is a small exception - it's fine when servant women use a bit of magic to tidy the house, make a better pie, or otherwise better serve their employers. Beyond that women are not to do magic. Magic is reserved for men, specifically White, wealthy men. Being a member of the Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers is as much a function of one's magical talent as it one's social standing. Women, poor people, and people of color need not apply. Zacharias is the exception partly because of his adopted father but mostly because he can wield the magical staff, which only a Sorcerer Royal can do. Prunella defies all expectations. Without much formal training she is one of the most powerful and naturally gifted sorcerers Zacharias has ever seen.

If Sorcerer to the Crown had a subtitle it might be something like, " How Microagressions Work." Zacharias is incredibly conscious of his position and how people view him. He's smart, talented, and Black. For many (but not all) in the Royal Society the last thing is the only thing that matters. Sure some people think he killed his father, but they only think that because they find it hard to believe that a Black man could have ever gained control of the magical staff without stealing it. People speak to Zacharias in ways they would not to a White man in his position. No matter how angry he feels, Zacharias knows he must his restrain himself. He must always act like gentleman even when people are not acting like one towards him for he is always on display. I appreciate that Cho did not shy away from race or try to make her story some sort of color blind society, but instead acknowledged it for what it was.

I also appreciated the tension between Zacharias and his adopted family. He truly loves Sir Stephen Wythe and Lady Wythe and is grateful for all they have given and done for him. He also knows they love him. Still there is a little nugget of tension arising from the fact that Sir Stephen took Zacharias away from his birth parents, he did not free Zacharias's birth parents, and Sir Stephen took a while before formerly freeing Zacharias from slavery. Similarly Prunella, a "half-caste" woman who was raised by her father's second wife after he died is grateful to her White stepmother. At the same time Prunella knows her stepmother does not consider her an equal in terms of social class. 

Sorcerer to the Crown also addresses sexism in a clever way. At its heart this book is about ass-kicking, smart as a whip women. Prunella is hands down the best sorcerer in all of England. After Zacharias sees her perform a spell while trying to control a room full of schoolchildren, he realizes that the ban on women practicing magic is ridiculous and must change. There is also Mak Genggang, a witch who comes to England when England is threatening to meddle in the affairs of her homeland. She doesn't come to beg for help but to warn England of the consequences of doing anything that threatens the women of her land. Even one of the big villains ends up being a woman. In fact, much of the action involves men standing around debating what to do and watching helplessly as the women just get stuff done.
 
It was refreshing to read Sorcerer to the Crown. Zen Cho has done something really wonderful here. She has written a historical fantasy novel with diverse characters, that addresses sexism and racism, and tells a fun story involving magicians, killer fairies, dragons, and all sorts of other fantastical creatures. Make no mistake - although the book tackles big issues it is not an "issue" story. It is a fantasy story that happens to have a diverse cast of characters and doesn't shy away from the fact that some groups of people are not treated equally. I would definitely recommend this to everyone, but especially to young women and young people of color. If you like fantasy or historical stories and wish you saw more people that look like you in them, then give Sorcerer to the Crown a try.

Black Friday Read-a-Thon

What are you doing the Friday after Thanksgiving? Okay, after shopping? How about relaxing with a good book. If books are your thing, and if you're reading this blog they probably are, then join me and many others in the Black Friday Read-a-Thon, hosted by Du Livre and Mocha Girls Read.

From Du Livre:

Hi, everyone! It's Halloween so I guess that means that we're officially in the Christmas season (I've come to accept it). If you're in the United States, you know that Black Friday is a holiday in itself. I personally prefer to sit around the house in my PJs while eating leftover turkey instead of trekking to the shopping centers, so I wanted to make my mini read-a-thons more official.

Friday, November 25 will be the Black Friday Read-a-Thon (#BFRAT). It doesn't matter if you're sitting around the house like me or fighting the hordes at 2 a.m., everyone is welcome to join! Since this is the first #BFRAT, everything will be super chill. You can make your own goals and go your own pace. In short, do you.

More information will come in the coming weeks, but for now, I just wanted to put the idea out there. If you want to challenge yourself to read on Black Friday, consider signing up.

Go to Du Livre's blog to sign up: http://dulivre.blogspot.com/2016/10/black-friday-read-thon-sign-up.html  

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Reading!

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Every day Rachel rides the commuter train from the suburbs into the city. Along the way the passes the street where she used to live with her now ex-husband Tom. Anna now lives in that house with Tom. As she rides the train Rachel can't help but gaze at her old street. If she is not staring at her old house, she is staring at another a few doors down where the cute couple she has nicknamed Jess and Jason live. Rachel likes to imagine their idyllic life.

I have this system for tracking books that come into my home. Newly acquired books are added to my handwritten "Books as of Yet Unread" list and are placed in the unread pile, which is literally a pile of books in one corner of my living room. After I have read a book one of two things happens: either I add it to my electronic catalog and find a home for the book on one of my bookshelves or it goes into the donation pile and eventually out of my home. For the first half, maybe even two-thirds of The Girl on the Train I thought it was definitely going into the donation pile.

The Girl on the Train is told from the points of view of three women: Rachel, Anna, and Megan (the actual name of the woman Rachel has nicknamed Jess). Rachel is the primary storyteller and she is an alcoholic. I'll give Paula Hawkins this much - she made Rachel's alcoholism feel real. She didn't pretty it up or minimize it. Rachel is a sloppy mess who does stupid, gross alcoholic things that hurt her and other people. It was annoying and hard to read, but again, it did read as real. Further because Rachel is an alcoholic who regularly gets blackout drunk, nothing she says or thinks can be totally trusted.

Anna and Megan are perhaps slightly more trustworthy than Rachel, but only just barely. Before becoming Tom's wife Anna was his mistress, and she admits to never feeling the slightest bit bad about that. Rachel was never real to her and the thrill of being part of a secret affair was just too much fun. Now Anna is living in the house where Rachel used to live and she finds being wife isn't always as much fun as being a mistress. She's smug, bored (and boring), and paranoid. Admittedly her paranoia is not entirely undeserved. Rachel just won't stop coming around.

Of the three women Megan is the one we hear the least from. She is also the one with the most secrets - one of which might be the end of her. She's troubled and it is awhile before we start to learn the reasons why.

I found it hard to relate to or care much any of the three narrators. They were all annoying in their own way. I don't have to like a character to enjoy a book but there must be something compelling about them, something interesting. For much of the book that was sorely lacking.

The story didn't get interesting until the last third. Something bad happens and Rachel thinks she knows something. She goes to the police. The problem is she isn't sure what she knows. No one takes her seriously. And why should they? With her multiple alcoholic blackouts she can't trust her memory and no one else can either.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to keep this book. The ending was good but I can't imagine spending any more time with any of these characters again, although I might watch the movie.

Injustice: Gods Among Us (Year One, Volumes 1 & 2) by Tom Taylor

Superman and Lois are in love, married, and expecting their first child. It's beautiful and short-lived. The Joker brings a quick end to Lois and Superman's happy ending, killing Lois and destroying Metropolis. Superman goes berserk. He takes swift and fatal revenge on the Joker. If it had ended there his actins might have been if not acceptable, at least understandable but it doesn't end there. Superman decides he wants to make sure no one else has to suffer the pain he is going through. He decides he will do whatever it takes to bring peace to the world. Sounds great right?

It is not great. Batman sees the situation for what it is immediately. Superman's intentions may be good but his actions are not. His peace is brought about and enforced through violence. People who disagree with Superman and his friends are labeled as terrorists. Luckily humanity has Batman on its side.

I can't remember what attracted me to this series. Maybe it was the artwork or that it was a complete series by the time I came across it, which meant no waiting to see how the story ended. (This is only Year One, there are four more years left for me to read.) Whatever it was I wasn't expecting anything more than a fun superhero story. Did I mention that this series is based on a video game?

The best stories make a reader think. Injustice made me think. Like many I've wondered why Batman never puts a permanent end to the Joker and his deadly antics. Here we get an answer. Batman is not a murderer. Batman understands that he has to stick to a moral code or he would be no better and no different than the criminals he fights. Superman doesn't get that, at least not yet. But again the series isn't over yet so maybe he will eventually. I am eager to find out.