Category: Book Events

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Book Event

I was able to attend an event hosted by Oxford Exchange Bookstore discussing the book Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

This was a fun discussion with lots of laughs that went into how gothic books are typically written because many people in the group read the gothic genre. I was unaware that gothics typically are very slow-paced to let gloom seep in slowly. This was brought up because many reviews complained about the pacing.

I loved how much was researched about this book by the other members. I didn’t know that there were so many things that were based on real people and places in this story.

We went through examples of how this story commented on colonialism. Like them bringing their own soil to where they were to take over. (If anyone has read this, they should hopefully know what that means).

 Everyone liked Naomi. The best compliments she received were that she was fun and unapologetically her. Also, that she was inspiring in how she fought for control in a part of history where there wasn’t much control for women in their life.

Everyone absolutely loved the imagery and were amazed at how the author could write disgusting things so beautifully that made readers entranced by her words yet feel icky inside. It was funny because during the meeting, we looked up if this book would be turned into a movie because everyone agreed it would be excellent for film. We found that Hulu bought the rights a long time ago to turn it into a series, but no one has heard anything about it since then.

Near the end of this event, it definitely showed how great this book is for discussion. It felt like a Nancy Drew game, with everyone trying to piece things together and laughing the entire time.

Thank you, Oxford Exchange, for this event.

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Book Event

I attended an event hosted by Mysterious Galaxy for the book Playing the Witch Card by Jenni Marchisotto.

I loved the beginning because the host asked Jenni to choose between spooky things. Apparently, she likes Sabrina the Teenage Witch over Hocus Pocus because Sabrina was her childhood. She loves Beetlejuice over Nightmare Before Christmas. She laughed about the fact that she has been a witch as an adult almost every Halloween. How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix is one of her scariest reads. And she isn’t a big fan of scary movies because they stick to her. There is a scene in Independence Day that still haunts her. Blare Witch Project is the only scary movie she has sat through.

If anyone wants to learn about Jenni’s history with tarot cards and where they began, apparently, she was sent off to church with a friend because her parents wanted to take a vacation without her. Because her family wasn’t a big church family, she brought a tarot deck with her to church camp, thinking it would be cool. Hahaha. From then on, she went in and out of tarot cards as a young adult but really leaned into them as a full adult. She loves them because it makes her think of her life in full circle, like her past and what may be coming up. She doesn’t think of tarot cards as a fortune-telling thing but as a way to push someone to think about their situation differently.

She then gave a little history of tarot in general. She explained how they became more to the forefront of popularity during the time of the civil war and that they didn’t come from any particular tradition. They are European and came from games and spiritualism. So, she was very intrigued by how tarot cards can be whatever someone decides them to be. They have always been that way.

What makes the town special in her story is the town matriarch that keeps it looking very Halloweeny—in a spooky not scary way. She said one of the main characters has a steampunk Victorian Halloween vibe.

Jenni explains how she can’t name her characters until she knows their parents because she needs to think about what their parents would name them. So, to develop characters, she has to think about where the people came from and what the generations before may want from the characters. She has to dive into the past and figure out the whys.

There is the trope of fated mates in the story, but the main characters make the trope their own by tearing it up, throwing it aside, getting out, having a kid, and insisting on not being the fated mate. They made their own way.

Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow is a witch book recommendation by Jenni. She also enjoyed Cackle by Rachel Harrison.

Her absolute favorite trope is second-chance romance. She loves that because she loves the idea of people being fated to be together. Later, she would love to try the one-bed situation and a secret baby situation.

When asked if she would dive into another person from the town’s story, she said it depends on how things go with her publisher.

This was a fun and cute event. Thank you Mysterious Galaxy.

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Book Event

Tonight, I attended an event with Meet Cute Romance Book Shop to celebrate the launch of Accidentally in Love by Danielle Jackson.

The two other authors in discussion were Nikki Payne, who is an anthropologist who also writes romance books, and Denise Williams, who is the author of I hate you and its sequel, I Still Hate You.

The three authors started off the discussion with a few icebreakers. One of the icebreakers asked where one would tell someone to visit and what they would tell them to do from where they are from. Denise said she would tell someone to go to the fair but not try fried butter because it isn’t good for you. But then she started to describe what fried butter is, and Nikki started laughing and told Denise that she is not, not selling it because she made it sound so good.

They then talked about the similarities their female heroines have in their books. Danielle noticed that each of their main characters has a work life and has experienced burn-out or close to burn-out at some point. Denise agreed that her main characters are highly focused on their work because that is how she is. She also believes it is an excellent way to show that character’s passions aside from the romance. Nikki added to the conversation, saying that she never mentioned the word burn-out in her book but that it is what happened. That it is something that happens very often for a lot of women. But that love can help people burnt out by giving them a different perspective and showing them how to move to achieve a different kind of agency and reach what they were really working to achieve.

The next topic was family. Danielle said that she loves having family in books, especially parents, to cause trouble, give tough love, provide support, and to show relatable characters, and use parallels with their past lives. She uses parents and family as a great entry point in understanding characters and their motivations. Denise uses siblings a lot more in her writing to show different perspectives and world views. She explained that she loves to play with the sibling dynamic and that for her it gives interesting dialogue and helps move the story forward.

In discussing what kind of heroines they like to write, Danielle describes herself as quiet, straightforward, and just grumpy. Hahaha. So, she said she relates well with her main character in Accidentally in Love. In that novel, Sam has a lot going on, but she is just grumpy and Danielle expressed that people in books should have the allowance to just be grumpy if that is how they are. So, for her, she made the hero the sunshiny one and the heroine the grumpy one, which is a dynamic she enjoys doing. Nikki, she loves writing heroines who see everything in different perspectives than everyone else around them. Denise’s favorite heroine she wrote is the attorney RJ who knows she is a bad***. She enjoyed writing her in a way where she was unapologetically her. Denise found that very empowering. She described writing this character as writing how alpha men are written in books.

All of their books have interracial couples. Nikki said that each time she does that, she does it intentionally and pulls a lot of research for her books because it falls into anthropology. Denise said that all of her books but one have interracial couples, and for her, it is very natural to write because of how she has lived and her relationships. Danielle said that for her, what she did intentionally in her book The Accidental Pinup was give the white hero the messy background and the black heroine the emotional support with the cleaner background. She also gave her couple in that book a discussion that she has had similarly with her husband because she is also in an interracial relationship where the heroine explains how she has to live compared to how he can live.

This discussion was fun, cute, and insightful to listen to. Thank you, Meet Cute!!

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Book Event

Today we discussed Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid with Oxford Exchange Book Club. It seriously was a fun discussion. This book opened up many readers to discuss things we usually wouldn’t have discussed. We learned so much about each other and saw everyone light up with their passions.

But honestly, all I am going to say about this book, from my perspective, is that it is very triggering. The best way I can describe how triggering is by saying that if I were younger and had gotten ahold of this book when I was not mentally stable, I would have unalived myself because of the ending.

Below is a spoiler.

In this book, the main character, a victim of multiple forms of abuse, turns into a monster at the end and kills people. For me, that is the worst nightmare for many victims of abuse. Many young kids grow up scared to death that they will turn into the monsters that feed off of them. They demonize themselves. They humanize and make excuses for everyone else. Then at the end, this is what happens with the main character. She ‘has the seed of her papa’s monster living inside her,’ which was too much for me.

I love dark stories. I need them. But I also appreciate it when people are careful. Alice by Christine Henry is a book on this theme that does this amazingly, with still many trigger warnings. She demonizes the abusers by making them creatures. She gives strength to the abused. She uses tactics to put the perfect distance between the reader and the story while still offering the reader the glorious wave of darkness they can relate to and are looking for.

I would recommend Alice all day for those who love the dark sides of things. This one, not so much to those who have been abused. To those I would say to be extra careful.

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Book Event

Loyalty Books hosted an event to discuss The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson.

I loved listening to Alaya. She was very intelligent and insightful when it came to humanity and perspectives. She also put much care into her book to ensure certain characters came across as she wanted, along with certain social situations, contrasts, environments, and how the cities and her world would function. I could tell she cares so much. She said she rewrote four-fifths of the book, and the character Joshua was the big reason for the rewrite because she wanted to get him right.

Malinda Lo asked Alaya to describe her book since, most of the time, how an author would describe their book is different from how it is defined on the back cover. She started by saying, “This may not seem commercial.” Haha, but how she described her novel sold it to me, even though I have already bought it.

To Alaya, her book is a big idea of far-future sci-fi, like a new wave of sci-fi, with big social ideas about a young woman born in a place called a library, which was founded in the aftermath of a war. In the library, there are four gods that are giant AIs. Her world has eight gods in total, four of which are in the library. The main character is considered something between a human and an AI because she was born in the library. Through her relationships, the main character discovers the library’s history and what it means to be her.

Malinda Lo added to describe the book as a vast, complex, multi-layered world that blows her away.

Malinda Lo asked where Alaya’s idea came from. Alaya said her idea started with a basic concept while she was in the shower of a woman crossing a desert, leaving a library she didn’t want to leave, and heading toward a god that wanted to kill her. She also knew that the image she had in her head was sci-fi, not fantasy.

Alaya then went on to explain that world-building was very important to her in this story. She wanted the world to feel lived in, and like it could exist but to give a certain experience to it. She wanted to figure out how an organized society would work where people could download themselves or back themselves up. Or how a world would work where giant AIs can store so much knowledge. When she was writing and world-building, she felt like she was discovering her world, like she was chipping away at it and revealing it.

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Book Event

I was able to attend a book discussion hosted by Oxford Exchange Bookstore, discussing the book Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher. It was a very insightful conversation!

We first opened the discussion with what kinds of fairy tales we saw in this story. A few that were named were “Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella,” “Pinocchio,” and loosely “Wizard of Oz,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and “Rumpelstiltskin.” Everyone thought that this was a story that lived adjacent to fairy tales and in conversation with fairy tales instead of any kind of retelling.

Just about everyone in this group loved this book for a variety of reasons. One was the spaced-out surprising humor. Another was the Blistered Land, which everyone wanted to see more of. Many liked how refreshing it was that the main character was older and in her thirties. They forgave her for being as weepy as she was because of how sheltered she was growing up. And everyone loved the side characters, especially the dust-witch.

It was very interesting to hear that a majority of people believed that it was the land that gave the main character the magick to make the bone dog, which I agree with and was not something I had thought of. Another interesting topic that was discussed in this conversation was feminism and how many couldn’t wrap their minds around this being a feminist book, especially since it still had such misogynistic requirements.

This book brought up many conversations about life, literature, prose, history, and other forms of media. One of the questions that it also brought up that still lingers in my mind is what is more fairytale-like, someone having to partake in a tortuous punishment for the rest of their lives or someone just dropping dead?

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Book Event

I attended a book event with Brookline Booksmith discussing The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson, who was very nice. I loved hearing about her ideology and passion. The interviewer, Lindsey Kelk, was also very passionate and described her love for Juno Dawson’s books as borderline unhealthy. Haha.

Apparently, Juno, who is from the UK, was in New York last week and, at the moment of this interview, was in Illinois networking and promoting her books. She is from the UK. The interviewer was also from the UK before she moved to the states and asked Juno what the most incredible thing she has eaten while in the States was. Juno said that she had Red Lobster for the first time and assumed there would be more lobster, but she had a great salmon salad. For the most terrifying eating experience in the States, she had hot Korean food in New York when she isn’t a girl that loves spicy food.

Then they started talking about the books. The series, which I haven’t read, is about five high school friends who are all powerful witches. The story then jumps to years later when they are in their 30s, all living very different lives and running different covens. There is also a trans witch. The first book deals with the division of the friendship group and then in book two they have to pick up the pieces.

I bought it right as they were discussing it. I was personally sold on witches in their 30s.

Juno explained how she has been in the industry for ten years and has realized she has had a lot of impact on LGBTQ+ people’s lives but didn’t have much commercial success. Now that she is having commercial success, it is interesting to her. Success came to her when she wrote all her favorite things in one novel because she wasn’t very optimistic about her success. But then, when she talked to booksellers, they were enthusiastic about her witch book, which is everything she wanted to say about the trans debate. She wanted to explore if covens are just a woman’s space and what happens if a trans witch is introduced into that world. She decided to explore this topic in fantasy, which she loves because fantasy helps take the edge off real issues. For her, she comes for the fantasy and witches and stays for the emotions.

Lindsey, who has been in the industry for twenty years and was an editor previously, complimented Juno and how her characters were done so well. She wanted to know how Juno started to make her characters. Juno said she tries to find a thing to love in each of them and that all the women in the books are the different sides of her personality.

I loved how nerdy Juno was. She LOVES Buffy, which I can highly relate to, and Doctor Who and more relatable shows I grew up with. She said she always has a rough guide when she plots, while her best scenes creep up on her. BUT the big twists were planned right from the beginning.

She is so excited to be able to go home after her tour, and it just be her and Her Majesty’s Royal Coven 3 for her to focus on. She didn’t want to start the conclusion of her series until she could sit down and focus solely on it.

There is a very good chance Her Majesty’s Royal Coven will be appearing on TV! It got picked up by Left Blank Pictures. So there are many exciting things in the work for Juno Dawson. I was very happy to have heard what this author had to say. Thank you, Brookline Booksmith.

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Book Event

This is a small post about the event I attended with Oxford Exchange Bookstore for The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo. Since the book is a novella, I thought a small post would do.

For me personally, this book wasn’t for me, but I was very busy at the time to be able to go into the metaphoric writing that this had. So, I wanted to listen in and get the other side of things.

What I learned was that this book is for people who love puzzles and deciphering things. A whole other brand of brilliant minds that do not link up to my own. I was told that this book was about “remembering the small moments and how sorrows, tragedies, and anger can fuel people.” For many, this novella was very subtle and refreshing. For others, they wanted more from it and felt like it glossed over too many things. It was an interesting book that was short and sweet. So, it was nice because I did not feel like I had wasted my time when I tried reading it.

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Book Event

I was able to attend an event with Writer’s League of Texas discussing Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood, and Myth by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton.

Black Chameleon is Deborah’s first memoir. She expressed how for so long she lived in stanzas and lines being a poet first. With this memoir, she was trying to figure out how to hold integrity on the page. She realized in her life that things don’t translate to a page and so she wanted to see where poetry enters and exits in prose.

She explained how she had started collecting stories of her life for almost a year but found that something wasn’t working. She began thinking about the mythology of Black American women and questioning what her origin would be. She expressed how she felt African mythology didn’t explain her and how the American context didn’t feel right. So, diving into and creating mythology was a space for her to explain, give context, and figure out how she and her family became who they are. After she wrote her first myth, she finally felt seen.

She tapped into culture and reframed it into herself, which brought her joy. She gave what her people needed, mythology for themselves, to explain why they are who they are, while implementing Black and South culture.

It was very interesting and insightful to hear her explain how she wanted to feel intentional with her existence, instead of a byproduct of someone stealing her from her home and bringing her people to new lands.

Her goal was to immortalize herself in a tale. Create stories that never die. Give herself over to a tradition that will never be forgotten since she knows her people always feel like a forgotten people. She needed a space of belonging to work side by side with her memories. A new understanding of who she was in this world. And so, she created it.

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Book Event

This evening I was able to attend an event with Oxford Exchange Bookstore discussing The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean.

Everyone liked how the main character was a very real person who had flaws, especially when it came to her being a mom and trying her best. One of the best and cutest parts people found about the book was the motherhood parts. Even the readers who don’t normally care for books revolving around motherhood. They loved how and where she gave birth to her son. The remarks and things said between her and her son. And how the main character, as a mother, was represented in a very human way.

Everyone loved how the story was structured, with the past and present meeting at the perfect place and clippings of real-world and fantasy-world quotes and articles at the beginning of the chapters. They felt it helped enhance the story and blend the world.

One of the biggest discussions was how in this book, they didn’t just talk about books. They also talked about video games, which brought a nice familiar aspect that lent coziness to the story.

A character everyone loved was Jarrow. They also loved how his asexuality was presented and actually recognized. It was amazing how the brother believed his sexuality compared to a lot of media and tropes where asexuality is unbelieved.

This book seemed like such a great book for bibliophiles and booksellers with all the descriptions on how certain books taste. It led us to discuss what kind of books we would eat and what they may taste like. We were thinking for horror, a thick, inky taste like blood.

This book and author both seem to have gone through many challenges. It sounds highly frustrating that so many parts of the book had to be taken out, including how it was supposed to be set in different countries. Also, how it was supposed to be a series but got condensed into one. Because of this, it left some parts feeling unfinished to some readers, while others found it fine. But I feel that the author is inspirational for tearing this book apart and still telling a decent, well-characterized story.