By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult
Goodreads blurb: Two women, centuries apart–one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays–are both forced to hide behind another name to make their voices heard. In 1581, Emilia Bassano–like most young women of her day–is allowed no voice of her own. But as the Lord Chamberlain’s mistress, she has access to all theater in England, and finds a way to bring her work to the stage secretly. And yet, creating some of the world’s greatest dramatic masterpieces comes at great cost: by paying a man for the use of his name, she will write her own out of history. In the present, playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. Although the challenges are different four hundred years later, the playing field is still not level for women in theater. Would Melina–like Emilia–be willing to forfeit her credit as author, just for a chance to see her work performed? Told in intertwining narratives, this sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire asks what price each woman is willing to pay to see their work live on–even if it means they will be forgotten.
This is an ARC review thanks to a gift from the publisher. It comes out August 20th, 2024
My take: 4.75 out of 5. Jodi Picoult writes so beautifully and getting swept up in her books is a privilege. This one took a bit longer for me to get into, the dual timeline took a while to find its rhythm but once you are in it was a lovely read. I understand why we needed the dual timelines, but I most definitely gravitated much more to the 1500 storyline than the current one. The ending was beautiful and so much to be said about being a woman in not just the arts but the world. Oh did I mention that this revolves around the world of theater? of course I was going to love it. Also, did I just become a Shakespeare denier after this book? probably, maybe that is the sorcery magic of her writing.
One of my favorite quotes in the book: :i have often thoguht that the reason young ladies are denied a classical education is because, all things being equal, men would be left behind in the dust”
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
Goodreads blurb: In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family’s social position. What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain’s king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England’s heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king’s favor. Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition’s wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.
My take: 3.25 out of 5. I love a good magical book and I was intrigued by this but ultimately my intrigue led to confusion. FYI I still don’t know what a familiar is. But in terms of what is going on is that I think so much wanted to be accomplished that it might have been a bite too large to chew. Especially given the ambiguity of the ending. Ambiguous endings are always a great choice but not necessarily when so much of the story has been painstakingly detailed. It was an A for effort, less successful in execution for me.
How to Plot a Payback by Melissa Ferguson.
Goodreads blurb: He crossed an ocean, and it still wasn’t enough to escape his lifelong nemesis. Now he has to work with her. Successful screenwriter Finn Masters just landed his dream job writing for Neighbors, one of Hollywood’s highest-rated, longest-running sitcoms. The only downside? It will put him back in proximity of the show’s universally adored, optimistic, altruistic star, Lavender Rhodes, who has been inadvertently ruining his life since they were school chums in England. But she doesn’t even know she destroyed his acting career and wrecked his relationship with the love of his life. He’s not about to let this woman yank yet another dream out from under his feet. In fact, he realizes he’s been given the ideal opportunity to plot his payback: spinning her character in shocking new directions. What could go wrong? Only everything. As Finn’s not-so-brilliant plot backfires one scene after the next, catching him in the blasts, he’s forced to think about this impossible, infuriating… and maybe even lovable woman in an entirely new light.
my take 3 out of 5 – It takes a lot of suspension of disbelief for the main premise here, as two people from the same class from the same graduating class in rural UK to end up in the high powered world of LA TV and really not meet or interact more until then. But I am good at suspending my disbelief and was happy to go along with it. In conclusion it was a very bland, middle of the road romance that really did not give me much to fully fall in love with it. Miscommunication stories are not my favorite and here we had it in spades, but this got a lot of points back with TV behind the scenes which was really fun to go through. I think in general Finn seems just way too put together to be this worked up about Lavender’s issues and Lavender seems to perfect to be a relatable character so in that is where this could be super cute romance just falls down the middle of the road for me.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
Goodreads blurb: An audacious, wildly funny, completely unpredictable novel by a writer so singular that it’s hard to compare her to anyone else . . . absolutely brilliant.” —Kevin Wilson
A bold, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman’s attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world—from the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of The Knockout Queen. As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet’s always known she’d have to make it on her own. So she enrolls at her local junior college, even though she can’t imagine how she’ll ever make a living. She’s still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor—and while the affair is brief, it isn’t brief enough to keep her from getting pregnant. Despite everyone’s advice, she decides to keep the baby, mostly out of naiveté and a yearning for something bigger. Now, at twenty, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed, and on the verge of eviction. She needs a cash infusion—fast. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, and soon finds herself adapting some of Jinx’s advice from the world of wrestling. Like how to craft a compelling character and make your audience fall in love with you. Before she knows it, she’s turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price? Blisteringly funny and filled with sharp insight, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a tender tale starring an endearing young heroine who’s struggling to wrest money and power from a world that has little interest in giving it to her. It’s a playful and honest examination of the art of storytelling and controlling your own narrative, and an empowering portrait of coming into your own, both online and off.
This is an ARC review thanks to a gift from the publisher. It comes out June 11th, 2024
my take: 3 out of 5. This is an indie movie in a book, an ode to someone down on their luck and how they get back on their feet. I can actually see this playing so much better as a script and on the screen than on the page. I can totally get along with a reemergence and reinvention arc, if most of her problems weren’t of her own making due to not so great decisions. I find it hard to feel bad for people who make terrible decisions, think maybe I have a very low tolerance and empathy for dumb decisions and really do not feel like making fun of them so these types of books put me in a really awkward emotional position. There are also some very problematic interactions. The whole parental relationships are a lot, and I actually found more that supportive, her fathers help a tad creepy. I did leave this with a full knowledge of how Only fans works that I had no idea, but I was still very turned off by Margo.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Goodreads blurb: A time travel romance, a speculative spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingeniously constructed exploration of the nature of truth and power and the potential for love to change it Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley. In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machine,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But he adjusts quickly; he is, after all, an explorer by trade. Soon, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a seriously uncomfortable housemate dynamic, evolves into something much more. Over the course of an unprecedented year, Gore and the bridge fall haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences they never could have imagined. Supported by a chaotic and charming cast of characters—including a 17th-century cinephile who can’t get enough of Tinder, a painfully shy World War I captain, and a former spy with an ever-changing series of cosmetic surgery alterations and a belligerent attitude to HR—the bridge will be forced to confront the past that shaped her choices, and the choices that will shape the future. An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks the universal What happens if you put a disaffected millennial and a Victorian polar explorer in a house together?
my take: 3 out of 5. This book was a total disappointment to me. I was so looking forward to it, it seemed like I was going to get a new version for the Time Travelers Wife and I was here for it. The description made me so excited. Alas, this will not be the read of the year I expected it to be. It was ok and mediocre at best in my opinion. There are very many reasons why but the first one is that It took me way to long to get into the book and by the end, in a quite cute ending, I realized I didn’t really care about them, I was so not invested. What is good? It is very well written, and the ending does take one for a loop. It also has some ridiculously detailed historical detail, that me as a fan of historical fiction can appreciate. Some things that bugged me: Until the dance scene I really didnt know why she liked Graham, like i get this is a romance, but why does she like him? there is cero chemistry built here when we are supposed to be invested in them as a couple. Why all the Taylor Swift hate?? And as progressive as I want to think I am, might this book be too woke for historically accuracy? i mean of 5 people they bring from centuries back 3 are gay? and openly so? It’s cool, but somewhat a tad anachronistic. Finally the The foreboding felt a bit off, like you knew thing were going to go bad, but it felt like a disappointment how things went bad, I Was expecting more of a wow moment
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