Left-Handed Booksellers of London – Please, Mr. Nix, We Want Some More

Lynn: Have you ever read a book that feels as if it has been written specifically for you? That is exactly how I feel about The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (Harper/KT, Sep. 2020) It is as if I had a wonderful conversation with Garth Nix about fantasy books and he immediately wrote this marvelous book with all those elements in play. I’ve always loved Garth Nix’s work. The Old Kingdom series is one of my all-time favorites but The Left-Handed Booksellers feels special. An urban fantasy set in an alternate England with bookshops that are far more than bookshops and booksellers with special gifts keeping an eye on the magical elements of Britain. What urban fantasy fan, bookstore-loving reader could possibly ask for more?

Susan Arkshaw has grown up with a single mother who often seems to be so distracted or inward-focused that she seems absent. Yet Susan’s childhood has been a good one, bolstered by a recurring comforting dream of being guarded by unusual beings. Now 18, Susan has earned a place at a prestigious art school in the fall but she is leaving for London early, on a mission to track down the father she has never known anything about. Her first stop in London is with her most concrete prospect and it is a spectacular disaster. With the stab of a silver pin, a strange young man dispatches the man Susan came to see. Suddenly they are pursued by creatures out of legends and nightmares into a place outside of the world Susan knows. The young man, Merlin St. Jacques, is on a search too, and their paths seem linked. Incredibly, Susan discovers a world of legend, myth, and magic that exists alongside her own, and policed by the Booksellers of London. The Booksellers possess special gifts and abilities. The left-handed, such as Merlin, have more physical gifts for combat while the right-handed have more intellectual gifts. Together, they keep the supernatural world more or less in check. But something has knocked the system completely out of order and Susan may be the key to it all.

This intelligent, inventive, and immersive story is a pure pleasure to read. The writing flows so smoothly, the characters are wonderfully developed individuals (complete with flaws and quirks) who grow and change through the story. The plot is compelling with perfectly placed twists and chapter-ending cliff-hangers and the magic system and world-building are simply superb. I read this as slowly as I could manage and still, the book was done before I was ever ready to stop reading. I loved the touches of humor, the comments on writing, publishing, the book world, and the expertly managed story arc. The resolution was completely satisfying but left me yearning to stay in this incredible world.

My only complaint is that the jacket blurb says this is a stand-alone book. Please, Mr. Nix, more, please! The booksellers of London and this brilliant world are just too good to leave behind!

Cindy: Merlin is a great character, and like Lynn, I’m hoping this isn’t the end. I’d love more of him, Susan, and the Booksellers of London. Merlin laments being denied access to the customers, mostly being assigned to moving stock around. He even pleads to be put in Special Orders, “That would be better than the stockroom.” His cousin, Vivien, replies, “You would get cross checking Books in Print and destroy the microfiche reader…” These and other nods to the professional bookseller world are fabulous for the book nerd readers amongst us.

Another favorite element is the frequent complaints about the dangerously close-to-truth knowledge that ignorant fantasy writers put in their books. Even the Bard gets a slap when Susan compares the information she’s been given by the Booksellers. She asks, “Like Oberon and Titania?” Merlin’s muttered response is “Shakespeare knew too much.”

This story is recommended for high school, but it’s definitely an adult crossover. Lynn and I enjoyed it as thoroughly as any teen will!

The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh: A Controversial Life

Cindy: From the back cover of The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh (Random/Schwartz & Wade, 2020) by Candace Fleming:

First person to successfully
fly across the Atlantic.

Media Sensation.

Nazi Sympathizer,
Anti-Semite.

Environmentalist.

White Nationalist.

Charles Lindbergh
was all this and more.

Fleming delivers a stunning teen biography of a complex man, structuring it in two sections: his historic rise to world fame, and his fall from hero-worship by many and his disenchantment with technology that had been his life’s passion. Most students will have heard of his achievement of completing the first solo trip across the Atlantic in an airplane, a feat that brought him discomfort with the celebrity. Some will have heard about the kidnapping of his firstborn son, but Fleming’s storytelling, using much dialogue right from Charles’ and wife Anne’s diaries and other writings will keep them turning the pages as the tragedy and the investigation unfolds. Fewer will know the details of his fascination with Hitler and Nazi “orderliness,” his serious work with a doctor in inventing a pump that kept organs alive outside the body in order to prolong life, perhaps indefinitely, and his rise as a White Nationalist leading rallies that sound oh-so-familiar today.

Just as Fleming did with The Family Romanov and another aviator in Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart, Charles comes to life with all of his human frailties, incongruities, and troubling behaviors. Just as clear is his drive and demand for precision. I realize it was a different time, but Anne was a saint to put up with him…as were his other two families in Europe that she didn’t know about. In fact, Anne is as fascinating to read about in many ways as is Charles. In this wonderful Publisher’s Weekly Q&A with Candace Fleming, she admits she came to like Anne quite a bit. Celebrities and heroes. There’s a lot to ponder here. Strap on your reading goggles and prepare yourself for quite a ride when you read this one!

Lynn: I am such a fan of Fleming’s biographies and this one not only captured my complete attention, it stayed in my mind for days after I finished it. Absorbing and wonderfully written, Fleming’s masterful biography incorporates the diaries and writings, as Cindy says, of both Charles and Anne, allowing these complicated individuals to tell much of their own stories. Charles especially reveals himself as incredibly complicated and flawed, socially stunted, and seemingly unable to connect emotionally with others. I was fascinated by his decades-long search for a way to end death, something that guided his thinking in multiple ways.

Lindbergh’s early years and the story of the tragic kidnapping of their first child was familiar to me from other books but I still appreciate Fleming’s presentations of this period of his life for young people. She did an excellent job of providing the necessary historical and cultural background necessary for understanding. I found the last third of the book, beginning with the family moving to England, the lead up to the war, the isolationist political efforts, and Lindbergh’s older years to be deeply interesting and packed with information that was new or provided expanded details.

The book includes outstanding back matter with an extensive bibliography and source notes and well-chosen photographs that tie directly to the text. I read this in galley and I am eager to see the finished copy. 6 starred reviews and every one deserved! This will be a great crossover book for adult readers.

Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth – Masterful Storytelling

Lynn: Ask a reader what they are looking for in a book and you will get a myriad of answers. Some want to be informed, others seek to be uplifted, diverted, or entertained. Some readers want a thriller, or a mystery, while others want romance, a good laugh, or a satisfying cry. But I am convinced that what is basic to all readers is the love of story. There are few writers working today who tell a better story than Philip Pullman. Since The Golden Compass (Random/Knopf, 1995) burst into the children’s book world, Pullman has enthralled readers. He has also challenged, enraged, confused, and astonished readers at times but his richly inventive books have never failed to weave a story like no other.

His latest, The Secret Commonwealth (Random/Knopf, 2019) has just published and I dropped everything else to read it. I will admit to groaning when I first got it and discovered that it was 633 pages long! As a book reviewer with towering stacks of books waiting to be read, that 633 pages meant that 3 other books got pushed way back in the queue! But Pullman worked his magic again and I was snared from the first word, sinking with exquisite pleasure back into Lyra’s world. I speak from the heart here when I say that I was immediately deeply immersed in the story. 633 pages flew by. I hated having to put the book down, thought about it when I wasn’t reading it, and found every reason to return to it. I’m thinking about it still. Philip Pullman is a master storyteller and this book should not be missed.

Plot??? I can’t begin to do it justice. Let’s just say that this is 8 years after The Amber Spyglass (Random/Knopf, 2000) and 20 after the events of La Belle Sauvage (Random/Knopf, 2017). Lyra is now 20, a student at St. Sophia’s College, and deeply miserable because she and her daemon Pantalaimon have quarreled seriously and are barely speaking to each other. Can you hate your own soul? Authoritarianism is rising, there are desperate immigrants fleeing horrors in their homeland, once benign governments shaping information to manipulate their citizens, brutal terrorists, and cynicism and scorn rule. There are journeys and mysteries, love and sacrifice, hope and despair, good people and bad, and of course, the question of the secret commonwealth. This is a magnificent sweeping story and I loved every word. There is also a whopping cliff-hanger that has left me bereft as I try to calculate how long I have to wait till the next book. This reader cannot wait.

Cindy: A few weeks ago, before even realizing that The Book of Dust, book 2, was imminent, I showed the HBO His Dark Materials book trailer to my 8th graders before book talks. Every copy of The Golden Compass circulated, something I hadn’t achieved through my booktalks. The first episode of the HBO series airs November 3rd. Then Lynn alerted me to her reserved library copy of The Secret Commonwealth and I ordered the audiobook immediately. I am happily immersed in the story, about halfway through, and can’t wait to get back in my car each day. Lyra and Pantalaimon’s arguments are fierce and heartbreaking and the narration makes them come painfully to life. Michael Sheen did such a beautiful job narrating La Belle Sauvage that I knew I wanted to listen again. It will take me longer to read it, but as Lynn said, we don’t want this story to end.