Here is a novel that I had been meaning to read for a while; I am not at all sure what took me so long. Here is a story about three friends, their hopes, their realities and their interconnected lives.
Tim, Joel and Kerry are schoolmates who are finishing up their educations. Tim and Kerry are taking their A levels and hope/plan to study medicine. Joel, on the other hand, is an upcoming football (soccer) star.
A lot happens between this description and the very early events in the novel. What will happen to the three as they move into their post school days and life does not (always) cooperate?
The interrelationships among Kerry, Joel and Timare complex. Will they be able to help one another through? Those who have recently entered this stage of life will relate to this novel. Others who have passed through these developmental phases will either look back with nostalgia or be glad to be in a different life moment.
This is a book about growing up. It is a story of trying to find one’s way.
A note: The author shares that her husband’s life was saved when he received CPR. She is very much an advocate of people learning this procedure. Readers will see how this fits in with the story.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballentine for this title. All opinions are my own.
A coven of modern-day witches. A magical heist-gone-wrong. A looming threat.
Five octogenarian witches gather as an angry mob threatens to demolish Moonshyne Manor. All eyes turn to the witch in charge, Queenie, who confesses they’ve fallen far behind on their mortgage payments. Still, there’s hope, since the imminent return of Ruby—one of the sisterhood who’s been gone for thirty-three years—will surely be their salvation.
But the mob is only the start of their troubles. One man is hellbent on avenging his family for the theft of a legacy he claims was rightfully his. In an act of desperation, Queenie makes a bargain with an evil far more powerful than anything they’ve ever faced. Then things take a turn for the worse when Ruby’s homecoming reveals a seemingly insurmountable obstacle instead of the solution to all their problems.
The witches are determined to save their home and themselves, but their aging powers are no match for increasingly malicious threats. Thankfully, they get a bit of help from Persephone, a feisty TikToker eager to smash the patriarchy. As the deadline to save the manor approaches, fractures among the sisterhood are revealed, and long-held secrets are exposed, culminating in a fiery confrontation with their enemies.
Funny, tender and uplifting, the novel explores the formidable power that can be discovered in aging, found family and unlikely friendships. Marais’ clever prose offers as much laughter as insight, delving deeply into feminism, identity and power dynamics while stirring up intrigue and drama through secrets, lies and sex. Heartbreaking and heart-mending, it will make you grateful for the amazing women in your life.
About the Author:
Bianca Marais cohosts the popular podcast The Sh*t No One Tells You About Writing, aimed at emerging writers. She was named the winner of the Excellence in Teaching Award for Creative Writing at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies in 2021. She is the author of two novels, Hum If You Don’t Know the Words and If You Want to Make God Laugh, as well as the Audible Original The Prynne Viper. She lives in Toronto with her husband and fur babies.
Half an hour before the alarm will be sounded for the first time in decades—drawing four frantic old women and a geriatric crow from all corners of the sprawling manor—Ursula is awoken by insistent knocking, like giant knuckles rapping against glass. It’s an ominous sign, to be sure. The first of many.
Trying to rid herself of the sticky cobwebs of sleep, Ursula throws back the covers, groaning as her joints loudly voice their displeasure. She’s slept in the buff, as is her usual habit, and as she pads across the room, she’s more naked than the day she was born (being, as she is, one of those rare babies who came into the world fully encased in a caul).
Upon reaching the window, the cause of the ruckus is immediately obvious to Ursula; one of the Angel Oak’s sturdy branches is thumping against her third-floor window. Strong winds whip through the tree, making it shimmy and shake, giving the impression that it’s espousing the old adage to dance like no one’s watching, a quality that rather has to be admired in a tree. Either that, or it’s trembling uncontrollably with fear.
The forest, encroaching at the garden’s boundary, looks disquieted. It hangs its head low, bowing to a master who’s ordered it to bend the knee. As the charcoal sky churns, not a bird to be seen, the trees in the wood whisper incessantly. Whether they’re secrets or warnings, Ursula can’t tell, which only unsettles her further.
That infernal billboard that the city recently erected across from the manor property—with its aggressive gigantic lettering shouting, ‘Critchley Hackle Mega Complex Coming Soon!’—snaps in the wind, issuing small cracks of thunder. A storm is on its way, that much is clear. You don’t need to have Ivy’s particular powers to know as much.
Turning her back on the ominous view, Ursula heads for the calendar to mark off another mostly sleepless night. It seems impossible that after so many of them—night upon night, strung up after each other seemingly endlessly—only two remain until Ruby’s return, upon which Ursula will discover her fate.
Either Ruby knows or she doesn’t.
And if she does know, there’s the chance that she’ll want nothing more to do with Ursula. The thought makes her breath hitch, the accompanying stab of pain almost too much to bear. The best she can hope for under the circumstances is that Ruby will forgive her, releasing Ursula from the invisible prison her guilt has sentenced her to.
Too preoccupied with thoughts of Ruby to remember to don her robe, Ursula takes a seat at her mahogany escritoire. She lights a cone of mugwort and sweet laurel incense, watching as the tendril of smoke unfurls, inscribing itself upon the air. Inhaling the sweet scent, she picks up a purple silk pouch and unties it, spilling the contents onto her palm.
The tarot cards are all frayed around the edges, worn down from countless hours spent jostling through Ursula’s hands. Despite their shabbiness, they crackle with electricity, sparks flying as she shuffles them. After cutting the deck in three, Ursula begins laying the cards down, one after the other, on top of the heptagram she carved into the writing desk’s surface almost eighty years ago.
The first card, placed in the center, is The Tower. Unfortunate souls tumble from the top of a fortress that’s been struck by lightning, flames engulfing it. Ursula experiences a jolt of alarm at the sight of it for The Tower has to signify the manor; and anything threatening their home, threatens them all.
The second card, placed above the first at the one o’clock position, can only represent Tabitha. It’s the Ten of Swords, depicting a person lying face down with ten swords buried in their back. The last time Ursula saw the card, she’d made a mental note to make an appointment with her acupuncturist, but now, following so soon after The Tower, it makes her shift nervously.
The third, fourth and fifth cards, placed at the three o’clock, four-thirty and six o’clock positions, depict a person (who must be Queenie) struggling under too heavy a load; a heart pierced by swords (signifying Ursula); and a horned beast towering above a man and woman who are shackled together (obviously Jezebel). Ursula whimpers to see so many dreaded cards clustered together.
Moving faster now, she lays out the sixth, seventh and eighth cards at the seven-thirty, nine and eleven o’ clock positions. Ursula gasps as she studies the man crying in his bed, nine swords hovering above him (which can only denote Ursula’s guilt as it pertains to Ruby); the armored skeleton on horseback (representing the town of Critchley Hackle); and the two bedraggled souls trudging barefoot through the snow (definitely Ivy). Taking in all eight sinister cards makes Ursula tremble much like the Angel Oak.
Based on the spread, Ursula absolutely should sound the alarm immediately, but she’s made mistakes in the past—lapses in judgment that resulted in terrible consequences—and so she wants to be a hundred percent certain first.
She shuffles the cards again, laying them down more deliberately this time, only to see the exact same shocking formation, the impending threat even more vivid than before. It couldn’t be any clearer if the Goddess herself had sent a homing pigeon with a memo bearing the message: Calamity is on its way! It’s knocking at the window, just waiting to be let in!
And yet, Ursula still doesn’t sound the alarm, because that’s what doubt does; it slips through the chinks in our defenses, eroding all sense of self until the only voice that should matter becomes the one that we don’t recognize anymore, the one we trust the least.
As a result of this estrangement from herself, Ursula has developed something of a compulsion, needing to triple check the signs before she calls attention to them, and so she stands and grabs her wand. She makes her way down the hallway past Ruby’s and Jezebel’s bedrooms at a bit of a clip before descending the west wing stairs.
It’s just before she reaches Ivy’s glass conservatory that Ursula breaks out into a panicked run.
Excerpted from The Witches of Moonshyne Manor @ 2022 by Bianca Marais, used with permission by MIRA Books.
This is another holiday entry in this series for the very beginning readers. This time young readers have a Halloween story. With brightly colored illustrations and repetitive text, this title invites children to practice their reading. There are additional activities at the end of the book.
These stories are simple but I do think that they can help beginning readers to feel a sense of mastery. Those who have this book, please encourage a child to read it out loud to you.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Norwood House Press for this title. All opinions are my own.
Are you the sort of person/reader who just cannot walk by a bookstore without going in? Have you ever dreamed about being the one to own the shop? Anyone who answers yes will want to give this title a look. It is an entertaining, sometimes curmudgeonly take, on what it means to be the one in charge.
The author owns a used bookshop in Scotland that I hope to visit one day!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Profile Books for this title. All opinions are my own.
Pub Date: 29 August 2019
CONFESSIONS OF BOOKSELLER and SEVEN KINDS OF PEOPLE YOU FIND IN BOOKSHOPS
A very funny life with books.
“Bythell’s wicked pen and keen eye for the absurd recall what comic Ricky Gervais might say if he ran a bookshop.”—Wall Street Journal
“Warm, witty and laugh-out-loud funny…”—Daily Mail
“Bythell is a skillful writer . . . he creates a full, appealing world populated with colorful characters . . . an endearing and thoughtful book.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“…amusing and often cantankerous stories [that] bibliophiles will delight in, and occasionally wince at…”—Publishers Weekly
Praise for Shaun Bythell and Confessions of a Bookseller
“Something of Bythell’s curmudgeonly charm may be glimpsed in the slogan he scribbles on his shop’s blackboard: “Avoid social interaction: always carry a book.” —The Washington Post
“Bythell’s wicked pen and keen eye for the absurd recall what comic Ricky Gervais might say if he ran a bookshop.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Irascibly droll and sometimes elegiac, this is an engaging account of bookstore life from the vanishing front lines of the brick-and-mortar retail industry. Bighearted, sobering, and humane.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Amusing and often cantankerous stories [that] bibliophiles will delight in, and occasionally wince at.” —Publishers Weekly
Thanks to Tabitha Bailey and Spark Press for providing me with information on this new novel.
About the book:
This intriguing and fast-paced novel takes a look into the nature of Silicon Valley professionals, the obsession with success and current state of the tech industry. From the perspective of Mike Trigg, a veteran of the industry, the novel serves as a great read for those well-educated on the topic and those who are interested in finding out more.
Forty something Sam Hughes is at a crossroads disillusioned
professionally, stretched financially, strained in family life. As he teeters toward midlife crisis, a return to his midwestern roots and fortunate mishap give his start-up career one more chance but also forces him to choose between massive entrepreneurial success and his morals, friends, and family.
Just as he’s wondering if his start-up career and marriage might both be over, an inadvertent discovery pulls Sam back into his former company, where he begins to unravel the insidious schemes of the founder and venture investors that led to his ouster. Driven by his desire for redemption, he discovers a conspiracy of fraud, blackmail, and manipulation that leads to tragic outcomes threatening to destroy not only the company but Sam’s moral compass as well. Entangled in a web of complicity, how far will he go to achieve his dreams of entrepreneurial success and personal wealth?
The author:
Mike Trigg was born in Kentucky and raised in Wisconsin. He earned a BA from Northwestern University and an MBA from University of California, Berkeley. Over his twenty-five-year career in Silicon Valley, he has been a founder, executive, and investor in dozens of venture-funded technology start-ups, as well as a contributor to TechCrunch, Entrepreneur, and Fast Company. He lives in Menlo Park, California, with his wife and two sons. Bit Flip is his first novel
An excerpt:
Sam rationalizing his actions to Heather, his wife (p. 273)
“I thought you’d be excited. This is what we always wanted.”
“This is what you always wanted! I just wanted a normal marriage, a normal family. Crazy money was never my dream—especially not this way.”
“What do you mean ‘this way’? It’s not like I broke the law or something.”
“Sam . . .” Heather paused, her agape mouth expressing the sentiment that seemed so self-evident it didn’t need stating. “You’re covering up misstated revenue, fake customer accounts, and a sexual assault by one of your board members. I’m not a corporate attorney, but that seems pretty much like breaking the law. You can’t lie to get the company sold. That’s not you.”
“Or maybe this is just what it takes to make it,” Sam said. “Maybe I’ve just been the nice guy too long—grinding away, working my ass off my whole career, trying to do things the ‘right way,’ whatever the hell that means, and not even realizing it’s the guys who lie and cheat and manipulate who make it. I’m forty-five! I don’t have that many more shots on goal. I’ve got to get this win.”
What could be cuter than a large pink pig with a (less than large) green umbrella? The illustrations in this picture book are adorable and just so sweet. The story is imaginative and will be enjoyed by young children as they meet the animals and find out about the umbrella’s adventures. Children will be left with a new affection for their bumpershoots!
Many thanks to NetGalley and North South Books for this title. All opinions are my own.
Joyce's mystery and fiction book reviews with some non-fiction too! 