Review: "Detour on an Elephant" by Barbara File Marangon

Detour on an Elephant by Barbara File Marangon
Published 2014 via Ogham Books
★★★

Marangon wanted to dance on the biggest stages on Earth—but first she thought she'd have a side adventure with the Greatest Show on Earth.

Detour on an Elephant chronicles Marangon's year with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. It sounds like a wild ride of an experience—it was the seventies, and things we take for granted today (like the ability to call home at will) were distant dreams...even more so on a circus train. My family used to take Amtrak across the country when I was little, and there were toilets in the rooms and showers down the hall—but not so on these circus trains. In the old days of the Big Top, all of the performers were given a bucket of cold water to wash themselves and their clothes or costumes, writes Marangon. We were actually privileged to have a sink of our own with cold running water on the train (50).

Marangon intersperses her stories about the circus with briefer stories about a short period spent dancing in Austria. It was easier, at the time, to get work dancing in Europe than in the US—easier and with more job stability, if not the same glamour. Klagenfurt, where she danced, looks lovely now (especially in warmer weather!), but at the time it sounds pretty grim, and the contrast of socially acceptable work as a dancer (combined with isolation and limited opportunity) against even less conventional work in the circus but a vibrant social life and diverse experiences is valuable.

A part of me wanted to remain in the circus world forever. The only thing to think about each day was traveling to the next city and the two or three daily shows to perform. There were no worries about making the rent money or paying the bills each month, finding work, or going to look for new friendships and relationships. In the circus, everything was taken care of. The work was constant, your home was the train, and friendships and relationships were found with other performers. A person like me, with little or no family, could find comfort and security in the adopted circus family. However, the price you pay for the security of a family is the loss of freedom. For this reason, I had decided to separate myself from this secure world at the end of the tour. The longer I stayed, the harder it would be to leave. One day I would wake up, too old to get off the train and begin another life. What would happen to me when I couldn’t dance or perform anymore? That would be the only life I would ever have known: the circus. (148)

Two things I would have liked: first, I never quite understood what Marangon's act looked like—partly that's because it's been many years since I saw a circus perform, and partly because that's just not what she focuses on. I would have liked to hear more about that and about the other dancers (though I love that she talks so much about other performers and workers who weren't in the spotlight). And second, I hope that if this goes to another edition it'll get another round of copy editing; mostly it's fine, but some things made me laugh (as when Marangon repeats a German sentence she learned while working in Austria and almost every single word has an error), and it took me a while to find Tiger, Tiger (which she mentions) because in Detour on an Elephant the author's name is spelled Charlie rather than Charly.

Marangon went on to continue her dance career, and altogether it sounds like she created a rich and exciting life for herself. I hope that Chasing Castles eventually comes out in an ebook format, because I'd be curious to read about those further adventures.

Review: Longform essay: "How to Accidentally Settle Down (with Your High School Boyfriend)" by Katherine Ryan

How to Accidentally Settle Down (with Your High School Boyfriend) by Katherine Ryan
Published December 2023 via Amazon Original Stories

Sometimes things don't go as we expect, and sometimes things go exactly as we expect...decades later than we expect. That's what happened for Katherine Ryan when an old relationship became a new relationship.

This is published by Amazon Original Stories, so it's not a full-length memoir but rather the length of a long essay. Ryan takes readers through her relationship history, basically, with a side of comedy career—the former mostly somewhat toxic but the latter progressively more successful. If you're familiar with any of her work, it won't surprise you that she has some pointed things to say about the barriers women face in comedy. Per usual, I would have liked more scenes and less speeding along through what happened, although in fairness it does keep the story moving right along; the book can easily be read in one sitting.

Ryan isn't really my style as a comic, but it sounds like she's lived a pretty interesting life. I found myself wondering where she might have gone with a full-length memoir—which it looks like she may have already published, so this might make for a useful quick read for anyone considering reading her full-length book.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Ghost Roast" by Shawnelle Gibbs, Shawneé Gibbs, and Emily Cannon

Ghost Roast by Shawnelle Gibbs, Shawneé Gibbs, and Emily Cannon
Published January 2024 via Versify
★★★★

The last thing Chelsea wants is for her new, popular friends to find out about her dad's ghost-hunting business, but when a midnight adventure lands them in the slammer for the night, her secret's not just out—she'll be separated from her friends and working as a professional ghost-hunter all summer.

And there's just one other thing: while Chelsea's father's equipment can detect ghosts, he can't see them himself...but Chelsea can. And that's where things get complicated.

This graphic novel is wonderful fun—lively, with New Orleans flavor and a cast of entertaining characters. There are a couple of stories at play here, not just Chelsea's but the complicated backstory of the house where she and her father end up working for much of the summer. There are a couple of things about the illustration that took me a moment to get used to (the floating heads feel like something pulled from manga, though I'm not sure if I'm mixing up styles here), but overall the illustrations are beautiful, and I particularly appreciate the detail paid to Chelsea's braids.

While the book doesn't take itself too seriously, it also covers some harsh parts of history (slavery, more general racism, etc.) in a thoughtful manner. There's one dropped plot point that I wish had been returned to (one character wanting the old building open to the public; another character wanting to turn it into a boutique hotel and presumably turn a profit), but...oh gosh, how much fun would a whole series featuring Chelsea and her ghost-busting crew? With the whole of New Orleans to explore—and its rich and complicated history—there would certainly be enough adventures for them, and I'd love to see the main cast again.

Thanks to the authors and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Cheap Old Houses" by Elizabeth Finkelstein and Ethan Finkelstein

Cheap Old Houses by Elizabeth Finkelstein and Ethan Finkelstein
Published October 2023 via Clarkson Potter
★★★

3.5 stars. If you've ever dreamed of buying a falling-down house and restoring it, this is a book for you. The authors run the Instagram account Cheap Old Houses, and this book covers a set of (you guessed it) cheap old houses that have been bought and rehabilitated.

The personal stories are interspersed with information about certain aspects of old houses—Elizabeth Finkelstein is a historical preservationist by training, and topics include newel posts, fireplaces, vintage stoves, and so on. I was in it for the house stories and pictures, and my only real wish here was that there were more—more stats about the individual houses, more photos (especially 'before' photos—the photos in the book are mostly 'after' photos, including a lot of detail shots, with the occasional 'not finished yet' picture). I'd have loved floor plans and answers about what someone living in a 15,000 square foot mansion does with all of those rooms!

I hope this is the first of many books, though—I'd love to see further, more specific books on the topic. This one breaks down the sections by type of house: mansions, farmhouses, time capsules, cabins, and unconventional homes (conversions); I cannot tell you how much I would love an entire book about conversions. (In another life I want to live in a converted church.) But it's a nice mix...and now I can hope that some of the people profiled here will write their own memoirs about the experience of rehabbing a house, because then I can live vicariously through them.

I'd strongly, strongly recommend reading this in a format that allows for colour—a black-and-white ereader is not the optimal vehicle for this book.

Review: "Out of the Blue" by Alison Bliss

Out of the Blue by Alison Bliss
Published 2020 via Forever
★★

A tale as old as time: man wants woman, woman wants man, woman is convinced that man can't possibly want her. Throw in some clumsiness and (in this case) a weight-loss/body-image plotline, and you have a bread-and-butter romance.

I'll note straight off that this was exactly what I was looking for when I read it—I was sick and tired and wanted something that didn't require me to think too hard. That said:

- Preslee is set up to be a classically cute-klutz of a heroine. In the first chapter alone, she calls herself clumsy, trips, trips and falls into the hero, trips and catches herself, accidentally hits the wrong button on a workout machine (simultaneously messing up her livestream), is called accident-prone, steps on a loose string and trips herself (falling into the hero's arms), and walks into a treadmill. It's clear that her defining personality trait is going to be "klutz". But then it's dropped almost entirely: In Chapter 2, a character calls her "a bit clumsy"; in Chapter 3, she knocks a stapler off her desk; and in Chapter 10, she trips on a root. That's it. Now...I don't like the klutziness-as-character-flaw trope. It's so overdone in romance that it's no longer recognizable as something edible, and it usually reads to me (rightly or wrongly) as though the author isn't willing/able to do the work that a more interesting character flaw would require. But if that is going to be her Defined Flaw, I'd at least like it to be consistent. (How is this not an issue with Preslee working in an antique store?)

- Heroes making bets about heroines will never go over well. Doubly so when it's about something that is societally extremely sensitive (weight); triply so when the hero then spends most of the book using the heroine to suit his own means and gaslighting her about it. As part of this, he also pressures her into weekly, semi-public weigh-ins, and...my dude, you're never coming back from that.

- The book doesn't pass the Bechdel test. In fact, if there were a male version of the Bechdel test, it would only barely pass that.

- A little too much slapstick for my liking. Personal preference, but...when Preslee trips and falls in the first chapter, she ends up with a bandage that everyone thinks looks like a pantiliner, because, well, romance novel. Much later in the book, when she and Adam are watching a movie, the sounds of next door's...horizontal activities...are so loud that they need subtitles for the movie, and Preslee still needs Adam to explain what's going on next door. I'm not sure if this is slapstick or just over-the-topness, but rather than being cute-funny it left me questioning Preslee's intelligence.

- Adam is meant to be a good guy, because this is a romance novel that wasn't written in the 80s. But mate. You were already never coming back from the gaslighting and related mess. You didn't need to add to the mix inviting an unsuspecting woman over to your house to tell her that you want her to "do" you; telling her that even though she thinks she's safe to drive (and you have no reason to question her judgement), she's had (as have you) more than a single sip of alcohol, so she'll have to ride with you; and cutting off her means of escape in the process.

Again, this was what I was looking for at the time, and I can't fault it for being a bread-and-butter romance. Overall it doesn't feel very up to date, though, and it's one I'm unlikely to return to.

Review: "The Dyatlov Pass Mystery" by Cédric Mayen and González Jandro

The Dyatlov Pass Mystery by Cédric Mayen and González Jandro
Translated from the French by James Hogan
English edition published December 2023 via Europe Comics
★★★★

The Dyatlov Pass mystery is one that has fascinated me since I first read about it in 2016. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that the story has been turned into a graphic novel, or that it's been translated into English—I was fully prepared to struggle through the French if need be, and the state of my French is dire, so it's a delight that this is available in English.

The basic gist is this: in January of 1959, ten hikers set out into the remote wilderness of Russia for a multi-day hike. They were experienced trekkers, and this hike would qualify them for the highest ranking of hiker, so to speak. One had to turn back early due to chronic pain—and he would be the only survivor.

When searchers eventually located the bodies, strewn in and near the woods close to their tent, it was clear enough how the hikers had died: some from hypothermia, some from catastrophic injuries. What was less clear was why they had died. Why did they erect their tent on an open slope instead of in the protection of the trees—and what had compelled these experienced, competent hikers to leave the tent in the middle of the night in a perilously cold winter night?

In The Dyatlov Pass Mystery, Mayen and Jandro set out to tell a fictionalized version of the story. There are two time lines at play—one, the time line of Ivanov, the prosecutor tasked with finding out what happened (and where the last of the bodies were); two, the hikers themselves as they set out on their ill-fated expedition. The case is well documented, as (among other things) the hikers kept detailed diaries and took photographs, although not all of the material has been made public (because USSR). Theories also run the gamut from the prosaic to the, well, highly unrealistic, and here it's up to Comrade Ivanov to decide how much credence to give to some of the more outlandish theories. Did someone find them out in the wilderness and attack them? Did they think an avalanche was coming? Had the men fought over the two women in the group? Or was it some sort of missile—or aliens?

This is a fictionalized version of the story, a sequence of events that could have happened based on the information at hand (and with a fair amount of elaboration, especially when it comes to dialogue and backstories) but not claiming to have all the answers. The art is strong—not my favorite style, but gets the job done and then some—and was the deciding factor in this being a four-star rather than a three-star read for me. Sometimes I think the story plays up the Drama in unnecessary ways, but it's pretty restrained, all things considered.

Where most of my questions came were at the end. I won't get into how Mayen and Jandro end the final section from the perspective of the hikers except to say that I don't think the last panels represent the most realistic portrayal. But...there's also a "dossier" at the end that goes into more of the research that has been done into the case, including interviews with some of the people who have investigated it in more recent years. What's so odd to me is that when Mayen interviews Johan Gaume, who did some mathematical modeling about the case that made big news a couple of years ago, he says to Gaume that "you uncovered what drove the mountaineers to flee their tent" (p. ~106*). Why they left the tent has always been the biggest question (other things, like "what happened to so-and-so's tongue", are very easily explained by things like months of decomposition and animal activity before all the bodies were found), and I fully agree that Gaume's findings have led to the most logical conclusions to date. But...they're not the conclusions that Mayen and Jandro focus on, or really portray, in the book. Rather, he plays up the possibility of something unlikely in the story itself—and in the dossier he gives a lot of credence to the people who run dyatlovpass dot com, which is a mine of information but very chaotic, and who wrote a nearly incoherent book on the subject. It leaves me wondering why the story doesn't lean in more to Gaume's research, and why the list of sources includes (among other media) only two books.

All that said: while I don't recommend this as one's sole source of information about the Dyatlov Pass incident—it's fiction, after all, and besides which quite literally every book, fiction and nonfiction, that I have read on the subject draws a different conclusion about what happened—it makes for an excellent story. I will be hanging on to this to reread.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*I read an ARC, and quotes may not be final.

Review: "Iris Kelly Doesn't Date" by Ashley Herring Blake

 

Iris Kelly Doesn't Date by Ashley Herring Blake
Published October 2023 via Berkley
★★★

In this third book in the Bright Falls universe, Iris doesn't date—she's more comfortable with casual sex than long-term romance. And Stevie does date, but she's still reeling from the end of her last relationship (not least because her ex, still one of her best friends, is now dating one of her other best friends).

I enjoyed the first two books of this series, but book three felt a bit as though the series is running out of steam...which is unfortunate, because it also felt a bit as though Stevie's friend group was introduced here so that there will be sufficient characters for future books. There's Ren, the very definition of a Diversity Character: Ren was Japanese American, nonbinary, pansexual, and the single coolest person Stevie knew (25). There's Adri, Stevie's toxic ex, who's perfectly dreadful but could probably be given a redemption arc. And there's Vanessa, Adri's current girlfriend, who isn't really characterized beyond hot and too good for Adri but could be fleshed out if she dropped Adri.

Iris spends a fair amount of the book struggling to write her second romance novel, eventually falling back on tried-and-true tropes, both in her novel-within-the-novel and in the novel itself: Fake dating. It was one of Iris's least favorite tropes—she could never really imagine a situation in real life where fake dating would be necessary—and yet...here she was with Stevie-whatever-her-last-name-was standing before her, asking Iris to fake date her (109). And that's fine, I guess. I am rapidly tiring of the recent narrowing in on certain tropes (fake dating, enemies to lovers, grumpy and sunshine), but I understand that it's really no different from, e.g., the way category romance has leaned on particular tropes for decades—it just now has a Gen Z TikTok spin to it, and I'm a salty millennial who doesn't understand TikTok, or TikTok trends.

But I didn't find myself particularly invested in either Iris or Stevie—I want good things for them, sure, because they're perfectly nice characters and one wants nice things for one's nice characters, but if they'd gone their separate ways in the end I...would not have been scandalized, or really all too bothered. I think I may just be tiring of this as a series, though; there are only so many times that romantic leads from previous books can show up on page to make goo-goo eyes at each other, say "awwwww, baaaaabe, I love you so much", and make out in front of all their friends before it gets old. (It's annoying in real life, and it's annoying in books. And yes, I know, if I pick up a romance novel I should probably know better.) I can't rule out reading further books, should they come about—you never know, I might love Adri ProbablyHasALastName Euler Isn't Actually Toxic—but...I wouldn't mind a bit of a departure from tropes and people incessantly swooning over their established partners.

Review: "999" by Dan Farnsworth

999 by Dan Farnsworth
Published 2020 via Simon & Schuster UK
★★★

A call comes in, and the sirens start—but the ambulances don't peel out of the station, because they're probably already on the road, coming from another job. In 999, Farnsworth describes his career in the Ambulance Service, from taking 999 calls to training to go out on calls himself.

This is a pretty straightforward medical memoir. It's more anecdotes than extended stories (good, because it means more different stories; bad, because they aren't as fleshed out—ideally, you'd have a mix), though as the book goes on Farnsworth talks more and more about mental health within the Ambulance Service and his work to bring the importance of good mental health into the spotlight. He also makes an effort to talk about all patients with respect and to talk about treating them all with respect, especially when they're on various parts of society's margins, which I appreciate—you'd be surprised by how often medical memoirs really let the writers' biases show.

A couple of quick quotations:

After Farnsworth was assaulted on the job: The following day, a police office calls to tell me that my assailant has been given a formal warning and ordered to pay me compensation: £20, to be paid in instalments. Every week for the next two years, 20p will land in my account. There's some more of that gallows humour I was talking about. (86) I highlighted this not just for the gallows humour (which...yes...it's totally absurd), but also because it's a reminder of how much the guy in question must be struggling. Needing to pay that fine in instalments of 20p, in the 21st century...? That says something about the ways people can fall through the cracks.

And this, just because it's both funny and observant: What's funny is, when I give talks in schools...they ask a lot of the same stuff as adults. Little boys, just like grown men, will ask how fast my ambulance goes (not much more than 90mph, unless you're going downhill with the wind behind you. Although I tell them it goes as fast as Lewis Hamilton's car). And they'll also want to know the worst thing I've seen. That suggests a morbid curiosity about what can go wrong with a body is inbuilt in humans. But when a little kid asks that question, I'll tell them that I once saw someone being sick. And if I really want to give them a thrill, I'll tell them that I once saw someone being sick twice. (121)

Review: "You Will Feel It in the Price of Bread" by Katya Hudson

You Will Feel It in the Price of Bread by Katya Hudson
Published February 2023 via Muswell Press
★★★

Hudson was already living outside Ukraine when Putin's forces invaded, but she felt the loss of home keenly. In You Will Feel It in the Price of Bread, she chronicles first her childhood in a happier Ukraine, and then the first days and weeks and months of war as she struggled with fear for her loved ones and the isolation and helplessness of being so far away.

This is a slim volume, easily read in one or two sittings. The earlier part of the book, Hudson's descriptions of her childhood and her deep love for her grandmother, felt stronger to me, though I'm not sure how much of that is that I've read so many descriptions of the war in Ukraine over the past year and a half. (I'm not talking so much about news fatigue—I'm still reading those news articles—but rather that my instinct upon news of war is always to search for stories, memoirs, about what is lost through that war, and those stories are harder to find.) I'd recommend The Rooster House if you're looking for a more detailed memoir of life in (and out of) Ukraine, but it was an interesting read. Hudson's grandmother shines throughout.

Review: "All I Want for Christmas Is Utahraptor" by Lola Faust

All I Want for Christmas Is Utahraptor by Lola Faust
Published December 2023 via Storm Crow Press
★★★★

Lola Faust is back with a Christmas story, and here's the list of content warnings:

Christmas (trees and otherwise), jewelry, Jeff Koontz, coffee, capitalism, generational wealth, management consulting, private equity, Utah, Chicago, Australia, Etsy, antiques, cigars, cottages, mountains, lakes, ducks, fishing, dysfunctional families, functional families, previous loss of a parent, financial abuse, breakups, dinosaurs, dinosaur sex, feathers, dinosaur feathers, high school, hockey, Canadians, universities, Tinder, alcoholism, food trucks, car dealerships, creepy older men, vintage buses, casseroles, miniature marshmallows, salads (conventional and Midwestern American), salt flats, helicopters, birthday cakes, French press coffee, in-laws (legal and common-law), marriage, organized religion, disorganized religion, Edmund Spenser, E.T., alligators (imagined), water treatment plants, dictation software, nostalgia (loc. 4)

I'd like to add a few things to the mix:

- Men named Thad
- Casual sexual harassment from men named Thad
- Use of the term "love-swamp"
- Use of the word "moist"
- Incorrect use of the word "querulous"
- Overly inclusive content warnings
- Dinosaur semen

...for a start.

This is easily one of the most conventional romances that Faust has published, as it's basically a tongue-firmly-in-cheek second-chance romance with the minor twist that the hero is a twelve-foot utahraptor. The details are playful—Holly knows Rocky because he was part of a Utahraptor Inclusion pilot program at her high school, which was chosen "mostly because its ceilings were sixteen feet high, which made it more accessible for the dinos" (loc. 169). Meanwhile, Rocky's "convertible" is a VW bus with the top taken off (loc. 284)... It is also way, way more tame than, e.g., Wet Hot Allosaurus Summer, despite the dinosaur semen; while there's probably a thing or two that should land Holly in the ER, she does keep all of her limbs, so there's that. (I read a couple of passages out to my s.o., then asked him to Google something for me. He gave me a pained, suspicious look and refused. "It's nothing weird!" I said. "Will you please Google 'Were dinosaurs monogamous'?" After that I got him to Google whether or not utahraptors were monogamous, so it's safe to say that I've used up my let-me-Google-that-for-you goodwill for the month.)

Anyway. The whole thing is ridiculous, I have absolutely lost the plot in terms of how to come up with a coherent rating, and I am entertained.

Still feeling just fine about never having met a dinosaur in real life, though. Ditto for men named Thad.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "To Prussia with Love" by Roger Boyes

To Prussia with Love by Roger Boyes
English edition first published 2012
★★

I'm always interested in 1) house memoirs and 2) location memoirs that take place in places that aren't written about all that much, and in theory this fits the bill—restoration of a crumbling old manor house in Brandenburg! Yes please. Unfortunately, I forgot that I really can't stand British Male Humour™, and that's...what this book is.

Berlin is a city-state, surrounded by the state of Brandenburg, which covers a geographically much larger area but has a markedly smaller population than Berlin. (For context, Berlin has a population of roughly 3.6 million; Potsdam, which is Brandenburg's biggest city and in some ways functions as a suburb of Berlin, has a population of about 160,000.) Brandenburg was part of East Germany, and even now it's the sort of place that people are more likely to come from than to move to by choice. So when Boyes and his partner found themselves with the opportunity to move to Brandenburg and restore an old mansion, his feelings were—not unreasonably—somewhat mixed.

Boyes paints the experience as something quite slapstick, but I have to assume that there is barely a scene in here in which Boyes has not used extensive creative license to make things funnier, in a British Male Humour™ kind of way. (A quite racist British Male Humour™ kind of way, as it happens.) The bare bones of it is: British man and German woman move to German woman's family house in the sticks; they don't quite have money for reno so he decides that they'll turn it into a BnB; she isn't happy that he's steamrolling over everything, and he can't understand why; very, very, very minor shenanigans ensue and he does his best to blow them into Drama of epic proportions. I expect that most of the conversations in here are either "Well, that's what I would have said if I'd thought of it in time" or "Of course I said that; I thought it would make a funny line in the book I was planning to write about it".

I'm very tired now, and tempted to swear off cis male writers for a while again.

Review: "Sweat Equity" by Aurora Rey

Sweat Equity by Aurora Rey
Published October 2023 via Bold Strokes Books
★★★

I don't want to renovate a house, but I love reading about house restoration—and I don't want to make cheese, but I'm very happy to eat it. So when we get a romance between a contractor and a cheesemaker who needs her house redone, I can get behind that.

This is sweet—good communication between the two heroines, a decent amount of house detail, and nice give-and-take with supportive family members. As a bonus, I'm thrilled that there's no homophobia anywhere in the book, as it's something that is (or until very recently was) far too often used as the primary conflict in lesbian romance novels, and, like...I don't want homophobia anywhere near my lesbian romance novels. Even better, Rey avoids a lot of the things that gave me pause in the last reno romance of hers that I read, and I think, if I remember correctly, that there's also more falling-down house in this one.

It's worth noting, though, that there's precious little conflict here, either between the heroines or in the rest of their lives. Part of me really appreciates that (and they are almost always responsible, communicative adults about conflict when it does arise! wild concept! very underrated!), because it makes for a soothing read. (I also appreciate that Maddie's family conflict isn't resolved the way the book sets it up to—I was already pre-cringing, but the book cheerfully subverted that particular trope.) Part of me would have liked, well, some more conflict, though, because there ends up being very little tension (and what feels like very low stakes) throughout the book. Still, a fun read.

Children's books: Animals: "Tully the Tadpole", "Do Newts Eat Noodles?", and "Lucas the Spy Cat"

Tully the Tadpole by A.M. Ruggirello, illustrated by Alexis Madau (Cardboard Monet Publishing)
Do Newts Eat Noodles? by Cliff Beneventi, illustrated by Oana Cocheci (independently published)
Lucas the Spy Cat by Samantha Shannon, illustrated by Lei Yang (Rawlings Books)

Back into the world of children's books...this time with animals!

Tully the Tadpole
In Tully the Tadpole, Tully sees all the other tadpoles changing shape into something else...but Tully's not so sure that that's the only option for the future.

Simple but lush illustrations punctuate this rhyming tale-about-a-tail (or something like that) as Tully accepts that, sometimes...a tadpole is just different, and that's okay. It's a wonderfully versatile story: Tully is different from the other tadpoles, but how that difference corresponds to human differences is largely up to the reader's imagination. This could be a story about gender, or about disability, or about something else entirely—the bigger point is that Tully never loses sight of who Tully is. A lovely, understated story for young readers.

Do Newts Eat Noodles?
Do newts eat noodles?
Do lions eat lemons?
Do iguanas eat ice cream?

This alphabet book won't answer those questions, but it will give you (wait for it) plenty of food for thought. The format is very simple (same question repeated for different animals and types of food), but the illustrations are clean and playful, and I particularly appreciated the focus on less common animals—we have lions and elephants, yes, but also jellyfish and otters and (of course) newts. And umbrellabirds! Today I learned that umbrellabirds exist.

Overall, a fun twist on a classic style and a good fit for the pre-kindergarten crowd.

Lucas the Spy Cat
Do you know what your cat gets up to at night...? In Lucas the Spy Cat, the narrators set out to learn just that—with unexpected results. (After all, you can't expect a cat to give up all its secrets!)

The story's strength is in its imagination—it's a chance for kids to let personification run rampant and dream up nighttime scenarios of their own for beloved pets. The rhymes are sometimes rather forced, and I think I would have preferred the story to break out of the rhyming constraint altogether, but the games at the end are a fun addition; there's enough variety for kids to pick whatever interests them most. (There's also plenty of detail in the illustrations to keep kids busy looking for new finds.) I could imagine this as a series, with Lucas getting up to different secret adventures each book.

Thanks to the authors and publishers for providing review copies through NetGalley.

Review: "Same Time Next Year" by Tessa Bailey

Same Time Next Year by Tessa Bailey
Published December 2023 via Amazon Original Stories
★★★

Sumner needs a visa, and fast. Britta doesn't need anything, but as long as there are no strings attached—and with a payout to sweeten the deal—she's willing to be Sumner's wife...on paper. For now.

I've only read one of Tessa Bailey's books, and I picked up this novella partly to refresh my memory and see if I should read more of her full-length works. And...well, I'm not saying never again, but this isn't really my cup of tea. 2.5 stars. Let's talk about book length, let's talk about sex, and let's talk about getting an American visa.

Book length: Again, this is a novella. That's great in some respects: it's a quick story, readable in one or two sittings, with a focus on the two characters. But...in other respects this feels like Bailey took an idea for a novel and just left out the side plots and characters to focus on the main characters (and the main characters in bed), and that's not generally the strategy I'd suggest for a novella. Makes me wonder whether a full-length version of this wasn't going where the author had hoped...or whether this is meant as a teaser of sorts for longer books set in the same world.

Sex: When I read It Happened One Summer, I found that the sex was a bit too oh-baby-oh-baby-do-me-harder-oh-baby for my personal reading preferences, and here it's kind of...that on speed. If you like your romance-novel sex explicit, dirty, and full of screaming that should (but inexplicably doesn't) wake the neighbors, this might be one for you. It's still not so much my thing, but I wouldn't be altogether surprised if at some point (in the future or in the past; I haven't gone through her backlist) Bailey opted to eschew the whole 'plot' part of things and write erotica.

Getting an American visa: Don't take your green card advice—or time line—from this book. It is at best wildly optimistic and at worst involved not even so much as a basic Google search of research. This is another place where I might have preferred this to be a full-length novel, as in a longer work it could have made a ton of sense as an extended conflict: naïve hero and heroine thinking they can be married, green-carded, and divorced with nary a whiff of suspicion in a year...only to find out that the process will take much longer than that, and either they'll have to stay married for (potentially) years or Sumner will have to give up his green card dreams. But in the shorter version it just...takes quite a lot of willful ignorance of reality and bypassing of hard questions.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "A Night Divided" by Jennifer Nielsen

A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen
Published 2015 via Scholastic
★★

In East Berlin, Gerta is living a life divided: her father and one of her two brothers were in West Berlin when the wall went up, and she and her mother and other brother are at the mercy of the communist state—and the Stasi. It's been years, and though Gerta yearns for a freer life, she cannot imagine that it will ever be possible.

Until she sees her father on a viewing platform on the other side of the wall—and he signals to her. Dig.

I read this not long after Over and Out, and if I take anything away from the two stories it's the viewing platforms that were available in West Berlin to peek over into the East—West Berlin was landlocked, but East Berlin was the zoo. (The realities and mechanics of the Berlin Wall still boggle my mind somewhat.) The stories are fairly similar—both middle grade books focused on family and friendship and survival, both with girls ultimately determined to escape into the West. A Night Divided feels a bit more realistic to me in terms of the eventual escape plan, and I appreciate the details about life in the DDR. Things aren't bad for Gerta, but they're not good, either, and in East Berlin there is always, always the threat that things will get worse. Too, informants were common in East Germany, some collaborating by choice and others under threat from the Stasi. I'm not sure how heavily youth were involved in this (Wikipedia tells me that some 10,000 informers were underage, and this article is worth a read), but it's a compelling plot line—a reminder that at the time, even your most trusted friends could not always be trusted, and your most private spaces could be bugged.

I'd love to find some more YA or adult fiction exploring life in East Germany (but without turning into thrillers or noir or whatever—you'd think this would not be such a tall order, and yet), but this makes for a great intro for middle grade readers.

Review: "Over and Out" by Jenni Walsh

Over and Out by Jenni Walsh
Published March 2022 via Scholastic
★★★

I read The Berlin Letters recently and got curious (again) about life behind the Iron Curtain, so...I poked around to see what YA/MG lit has to say about it. In Over and Out, Sophie lives a decent life in East Berlin—decent, but fragile. Her mother's white-collar job means that Sophie will likely be assigned a blue-collar job when she is older rather than be able to follow her dreams to be an inventor. And when Sophie's teenaged neighbor falls afoul of the state, Sophie is asked to be a snitch—with terrible consequences if she doesn't comply. There's only one thing to do: escape over the Wall.

What strikes me most about the (limited amount of) East Germany fiction I've read is that books tend to focus on one thing: escape. Sometimes it's getting somebody else out, and sometimes it's getting the protagonist out, but either way the West represents a happy ending. And...don't get me wrong, I understand why, but at the same time, the vast marjority of those living in East Germany were, well, there until the Wall fell.


Sophie's escape route (no spoilers) feels like a stretch to me, but it is based on real events. The lengths to which people went to get out feel unfathomable to me, and yet when I put them in a present-day context—refugees piling into boats to get to Europe, say, or struggling through the Darién Gap, or perching precariously on a ship rudder—it feels markedly less wild to think that someone, or thousands of someones, might try to get across a wall. I would have liked more details focused on life in East Berlin (or the rest of East Germany) rather than a primary focus on escape, but this makes for a good introduction for MG readers.