The Vanishing Bookstore

The Vanishing Bookstore was published on New Year's Day 2025. It is a historical fantasy fiction story, a genre I have never heard of before. I decided to give it a try just to mix up my usual reading fare. It was a delightful read.

The publisher's summary:

1692. On the outskirts of Salem, a bookstore stands covered in overgrown vines. Inside, a young woman hides a linen-wrapped journal under a loose floorboard and runs away, panicked by the sound of hounds barking in the distance. The bookstore vanishes into thin air…

Present day. Stepping inside a pale-pink house on one of the oldest streets in Salem, Dora can’t believe she’s about to finally meet the mother she thought died tragically when she was just a child. But the excitement is short-lived. Dora’s mother has fear in her eyes, and with a trembling voice she whispers: ‘my life is in danger, and now so is yours…’

Desperate not to lose her mother all over again, Dora digs into her family’s mysterious past, and stumbles upon a seemingly impossible secret: the key to their survival is hidden in a bookstore that no one has seen for generations.

Losing herself amongst thorny brackens and twisted ferns, Dora eventually finds the path that leads to the bookstore. But someone is watching her. They’ve been waiting for her.

As she pushes open the beautiful blue door hidden amongst the sharp brambles, and stands in front of rows of crumbling leatherbound books with faded pages, she has no idea of the secrets she is about to uncover. Or that her life is in more danger than ever before…

To my surprise I enjoyed this book. I am not a fantasy fan but the book reads more like a mystery. It is fast paced and kept my attention well. Given the title, I was expecting the story to be about a bookstore. It isn't. It is an engaging story about sisterhood that spans centuries. The witchcraft the sisters were known to practice doesn't become a part of the story until the last 50 pages. I felt uncomfortable reading the specific spells that the characters spoke and their request for Hecate to help them. Hecate originated in Thrace, an area that includes parts of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. She was originally a mother goddess of wilderness and childbirth and is the goddess of crossroads, the underworld, magic, witchcraft, and the moon. 

Up until the point where witchcraft became prominent, I loved this story. It reads fast and was engaging. I am rating it 4 out of 5 stars. I cannot fault the author for writing about witchcraft when the book description stated it was magical. 

The Stolen Queen

The Stolen Queen was published last month on January 7, 2025. It’s another riveting story from Fiona Davis, author of the 2024 novel The Spectacular.  The Stolen Queen, we read about the real life Egyptian female pharaoh Hatshepsut who is referred to as Hathokare in the novel. Her story and that of the two main characters are revealed in a dual timeline between 1936 and 1978. 

The publisher's summary:

Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. That is until an unbearable tragedy strikes.

New York City, 1978: Nineteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.”

Meanwhile, Charlotte is now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art. She’s consumed by her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant.

The night of the gala: One of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing, and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening. Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, and a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger.

This is a riveting story! Not only was the mystery interesting but the history surrounding ancient Egypt was fascinating. It was obvious that the author performed a lot of research. I was initially confused, though, why she did not use the real name of Hatshepsut for the story. The Author's Note states that she had to alter the dates of events in the storyline so she decided to create a fictional character instead. Likewise, the author changed the names of Hatshepsut's husband and son.

The issues concerning the repatriation of stolen artworks is addressed toward the end of the story. The characters dialogue reveals some of the reasons for and against repatriation. Some archeologists prefer that stolen artworks remain in their current museums as these museums have all the resources to store and display them properly. Others believe that they should be returned to the country they came from regardless of the condition of local museums. Can you imagine how few ancient artifacts the major museums would have if all of the artifacts had to be repatriated?

As with every Fiona Davis novel, the writing was superb. From the compelling characters to the perfect pacing readers are in for a treat. 5 out of 5 stars.

War on Gaza

Renowned cartoonist Joe Sacco recently published his latest book War on Gaza. Sacco is famous for his reporting on life in Gaza. He is well renowned for creating the reportage comic sub-genre. However, this book is less about war on Gaza or war in Gaza but more about "I hate the USA." Only two pages out of the book’s 37 pages is directed against Israel. Three explain why he wrote the book. The remainder express Sacco's hatred of the U.S. and it's leaders.

He mocks our politicians for creating a "kinder, gentler genocide" and drew a line drawing of Biden in a diaper with a dialogue box "patent is pending." Also, we see another drawing of Biden with a scarlet "G" on his forehead which I thought was cute. I like the scarlet letter analogy. In addition, he uses sarcasm to rewrite Biblical passages such as "O, Israel, let a monument be raised atop the flattened cities of Amalek so that future generations will never forget the Miracle of Joe Biden's Hallucination." Of course, the November 2024 presidential election choices are what a "rotting republic deserves."

Sacco describes himself as "our hero cartoonist" out for a stroll. He claims he was walking to a postal box to mail a check to the IRS but that the government stole the check from the box. He might be paranoid but I am inclined to believe that this actually happened. 

This comic is dripping in anger and hate with a ton of sarcasm on every page. I give the author credit for his cleverness but the anti-American attitude was too much for my taste.

The Pot Thief Who Studied Calvin

The Pot Thief Who Studied Calvin was published last month. It is author J. Michael Orenduff's 10th Pot Thief murder mystery. The series features an antique seller who specializes in ancient works of clay and porcelain. Each installment of the series is titled "The Pot Thief Who Studied.  . ." It’s an interesting premise for a series. 

The publisher's summary: 

An Albuquerque ceramics dealer soon turns amateur sleuth after he gets a 3D-printed pot to die for.

Hubie Schuze usually digs through the dirt—often illegally—to find the ancient ceramics he sells in his shop, Spirits in Clay. But thanks to his nephew, Tristan, a computer science student at the University of New Mexico, Hubie receives a unique 3D-printed pot. And after a photo of it runs in the local paper, it becomes a popular item.

Unfortunately, the pot is sought-after by all the wrong people, and strange characters start darkening the doorway of Hubie’s shop. They’re willing to do anything to get their hands on the pot, and after Det. Whit Fletcher summons Hubie to the morgue, he discovers that includes murder. Now, to get to the bottom of things, Hubie must uncover what's so hot about this pot, before the cold-as-ice-killer strikes again. 

I wasn't expecting this story to be a cozy mystery but that's exactly what it is. Our amateur sleuth sells ceramic pots in between telling one joke after another. He is an expert on Calvin, Ross Calvin that is, but had to learn the finer points on John Calvin's predestination theory for his soon to be father-in-law. Ross Calvin wrote Sky Determines: an Interpretation of the Southwest, one of Hubie’s favorite books. This Calvin was a real-life Episcopalian priest whose 1934 book is a classic of New Mexico literature. He also was an adherent on predestination.

The story opened with a prologue at the local Albuquerque morgue where Hubie was present to identify the body. The story then shifts backwards in time to explain how the body ended up there. The first third of the book did not include a murder and I was getting anxious for it to happen so that I could read about the investigation. However, it came more than halfway through the story. The "investigation" consisted of the big reveal where Hubie explained every part of the case to a group of all the possible suspects. 

I had never heard of 3D-printers before. The author gives a good presentation of how they work early in the story. 

"It can operate in several ways. The one I used sets the printer to run its stylus over the surface of an object you want to copy. The movements of the stylus are stored in the printer’s memory. Then you have it follow the pattern of the object it now has in its memory, but this time it’s laying down soft clay as it goes, so it makes an exact duplicate of the object it traced.”

The book ends with a discussion between Hubie and his new bride whether the deceased's death was predestined. This story began and ended with the merits of predestination, which I had originally assumed given the title of the book. Pretty interesting. 

5 out of 5 stars.

The Saint Laurent Muse

I was lucky to receive an advanced review copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. C. W. Gortner is one of my favorite authors and I have been anxiously awaiting his new novel . The Saint Laurent Muse will be published on March 18, 2025.

The publisher's summary:  

The Paris runways of the 70s come to wild and splashy life in this novel of fashion's “It Girl” Loulou de la Falaise and her life partying and designing with Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, and Halston. Nightlife! Gowns! Cocaine! Glamour!

It’s the 1970s, and from hippie London to Warhol’s Factory in New York, reluctant aristocrat Loulou de la Falaise is desperately seeking adventure. Having escaped an early, unhappy marriage, she arrives on a whim in Paris—the champagne-soaked heart of the fashion world, where the rigid old world of haute couture and the ffast-paced new world of ready-to-wear are vying for supremacy.

Glamour, sex, and cocaine nights fuel the Paris fashion scene. Its crown prince is the soulful and intensely gifted Yves Saint Laurent, whose sexy tuxedos for women and chic Rive Gauche boutiques reflect women’s desire for seductive independence, a desire Loulou knows all too well.

Loulou’s bohemian flair immediately captures Saint Laurent’s attention, and they embark on a glorious intimate friendship as artist and muse. Together they revel in the excesses of high society, decadent parties, and the hedonistic underworld of gay nightclubs, where the young and beautiful become prey, and dangerous rivalries start to emerge. Their course collides with eccentric designer Karl Lagerfeld, intent on his own conquest. Lagerfeld’s bitter professional rivalry with Yves divides Paris even in an era when anything goes. As Yves plunges into a dangerous, secret affair with Karl’s enigmatic young companion, and Loulou finds herself falling in love with a colleague’s handsome boyfriend, evanescent illusion and savage deception will bring them to the brink of ruin.

Intoxicating and unforgettable, The Saint Laurent Muse is the dramatic imagining of a lifelong friendship between two kindred spirits, and of a tumultuous time and place in fashion history that will never be seen again.

I had a difficult time becoming interested in the book. Alot of characters were introduced in the first 40 pages and I couldn't keep them straight. When Loulou began working for St. Laurent, around page 60, the characters were kept to a minimum as the focus was on the shop where the designers worked. The story then took off. However, my confusion over the plot was based upon the main character not being as famous as other women that Gortner has written about, such as Coco Chanel and Lucretia Borgia. I searched Wikipedia to determine whether Loulou was a real life person and she was. She was the second of three muses that Yves Saint Laurent had in his studio. Designers Karl Lagerfeld and Halston are featured prominently for their drug use at parties as well as their competition with Yves.

What was Yves Saint Laurent known for? He was the first haute couture designer to sell a ready to wear collection. He also changed his style of clothing to bohemian. Loulou was the inspiration for these designs. She wanted women to feel comfortable with their clothing. Loulou created jewelry for herself to wear at the parties that she attended. Yves liked them enough to eventually promote her to be the jewelry designer for his brand. Other firsts for him included the creation of the beatnik look, the pea coat, smock tops, and thigh high boots. Saint Laurent is often said to be the designer responsible for the acceptance of women wearing of pants. 

It was fun to read about the suits that Yves was famous for creating. A tuxedo for women, Le Smoking, was one such creation. I remember seeing a lady where one at a party I attended many years ago and was impressed with it. I was lucky though, early in my career, to own one of his suits.

The party scene in Paris was distasteful. Although accurate in its description, I hated to read about all the cigarette smoking, alcohol and drug use at the nightly parties that the staff engaged in. I don't know how anyone would be able to work the next day after partying to 2 am, but they did. Also, Loulou was promiscuous and I wondered whether she would contract HIV. 

All in all, The Saint Laurent Muse is a compelling read. 4 out of 5 stars.

2025 New Release Reading Challenge

I will be rejoining the New Release Reading Challenge in 2025. Since most of the books I read in any given year are new releases this should be an easy challenge to complete. My participation level is New Release Veteran which requires me to read 61 - 100 books. 

Challenge Rules 

1)  The challenge runs the calendar year from January 1st through December 31st.

2)  Books must be published in 2025.

3)  Books can count towards more than one challenge, meme, book-tag, or book-list.

4)  The minimum length for a book to qualify is 100 pages and can be in any format such as physical, e-book, ARC or audiobook, in any genre (including graphic novels and comics), set in any era (past, present, or future), and written for any reading age group.

5)  You don’t have to be a book blogger to participate, you can link to your review on Goodreads or Booklikes or anywhere that you post a review of a newly released book.

6)  If you want to spread the love, please use #2025NewReleaseChallenge on any and all social media sites where you promote your reviews.

7)  There is a Facebook Group for the New Release Challenge, to have a place where we can keep up with each other, cheer each other on, and get to know each other better. It is also a place where we can help each other find even more new releases. For those of you who have already participated, it’s the same group as before.

8)  You can also link to your review on Goodreads or Booklikes or anywhere that you post a review of a newly released book.

9)  There are five levels in the New Release Challenge:

1-30 books per year – New Release Newbie

31-60 books per year – New Release Pro

61-100 books per year – New Release Veteran  (my personal goal)

101-200 books per year – New Release Enthusiast

200+ books per year – New Release Obsessed

Please consider joining the challenge with me. It's a fun way to find new books that interest you. You can sign up for the challenge here.