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Twisted Tales: Almost There Review
The latest Twisted Tale is here and asks “What if Tiana made a deal that changed everything?”
New Twisted Tale writer, Farrah Rochon starts dramatically enough with the climatic scene in the catacombs as Tiana crushes the talisman in front of Dr. Facilier. Well, she was about to crush it when the Shadow Man offers the one thing she wants most.
You might think it’s the restaurant as he did but Tiana is much better than that. She’ll earn her restaurant fair and square. Rochon does a lovely job in displaying Tiana’s strong ethics and respect for herself right in the first chapter. But then Dr. Facilier offers the big ace in his sleeve, he can bring her Dad back.
It’s too tempting, seeing her beloved father again and living the rest of his years out as he was supposed to, how could she not want that. That and a little persuasive blackmail and Tiana shakes the poor sinner’s hand.Now a year, she and her father have their supper club and Naveen no longer remembers who she is (it was an additional clause to the spell even though it hurts Tiana’s heart to see him). But the universe is all about symmetry. With Mardi Gras season beginning again, Dr. Facilier is switching up the deal and Tiana realizes that she’s truly stuck under his thumb.
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Book Highlight: The Wonders We Seek
The Wonders We Seek: Thirty Incredible Muslims Who Helped Shape the World by Saadia Faruqi and Aneesa Mumtaz is an informative book that does exactly what it says in the title.
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Deborah Gregory Interview
Deborah Gregory is a fabulous fashion designer, author, journalist and Mama Cheetah creator of the Cheetah Girls. Here she talks about her famous creation and what she’s creating next. 1. What draws you to cheetahs and their fierce patterns?
The first time I made a cheetah dress I was about 11 years old. I bought the fabric and made the dress by hand. The next day in school my dress came apart at the seams and my bloomers were showing! My best friend Candy Brown gave me her sweater to wrap around my waist! My attraction to animal prints was so natural I can’t even tell you what it was but I can tell you that the kids in school started yelling at me: SHE’S GREAT! (as in Tony The Tiger. pobrecito kiddies didn’t know the difference!)
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Author Highlight: Ann M. Martin
Ann M. Martin has shaped so many lives with her children and young adult fiction ever since the 80s I believe. The first Martin classic has lived on in pop culture with reboots and reprints is The BSC-The Babysitter’s Club!
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Ranking The Mother-Daughter Book Club
Home for the Holidays: Home for the Holidays takes top spot for being one of the few holiday novels that I’m interested in. Yeah, I confess I’m not a magical Christmas fan. But this one makes me feel the spirit. It also has the riveting addition of Becca having a POV after three years of being in the club. With the secret santa exchange and the hilarious prank at the end (I literally had to put the book down I was laughing so hard) and the big confession bonding moment that allows the girls to let go of the past and embrace the present, it’s just one the best book in the series for me.
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Do you ever wonder?
Do you ever wonder what happens to authors who somewhat drop off the Earth? For example, Fiona Dunbar who wrote the Lulu Baker series and several other children’s books pretty much finished output 12 years ago. While she’s still active enough on twitter so people know she’s alive, I still wonder about other authors.
Like Rhonda Stapleton who wrote the Stupid Cupid trilogy. I really enjoyed it and well that’s it from her. No way to find her on the internet among the hundreds of Rhonda Stapletons in social media. Which is too bad because I thought she could come up with more fun books.
But I always found it fascinating, these people who complete their dream to write a book and then go back to their lives from before.
Anyway if anyone has any thoughts to add, feel free to comment.
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Book Highlight: Every Body Looking
This has some commonalities with Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X following a girl’s coming of age story featuring first gen problems in verse form.
However, Ada’s story takes a different track. Her name in Igbo means “first child” befitting how she shoulders the expectations and pressures of everyone else, trying to be a good Catholic girl. She is more than aware of the standards she’s suppose to follow, to be quiet, to be submissive, to pray.
But college is where she begins to find her path, and follow her passion to dance and feel in control of her body and find the courage to be herself.
With the verse, there is minimal text but the implications resonate as readers learn about her fraught relationship with her mother whose toxic bonds she must learn to cut, her father’s smothering religiousity that trap her and scare her to swallowing the secrets and traumas she experience.
There is a slight romance but that is simply a sweet unfolding in the background as she navigates her isolation and her boundaries. Additionally, through flashbacks and present-day, Iloh also touches on small town racism and loneliness in comparison to her time at Howard.
A quick, thoughtful read of an introspective coming of age.
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Celeb-inspired mysteries
Now I’m not talking about books written by celebrities but books where these celebrities solve mysteries in their every-day lives. Like these below.
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My Bonny Light Horseman Review
Jacky Faber is back on the continent gaining glory, admirers and enemies by the dozens. We last left Jacky in a state of contentment, reunited with her Jaimy with plans to marry, and crossing the seas trading coal and ballasts for Faber Shipping Worldwide but good things never last for our favorite adventuress. Finally she’s going to answer to British Intelligence.
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Cynthia Leitich Smith Interview
Cynthia Leitich Smith is the award-winning author of Hearts Unbroken, Sisters of the Neversea and Ancestors Approved among many others. She also serves as falculty for the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program and curates the Heartdrum imprint for HarperCollins . She kindly took the time to answer my questions about representation, creating her imprint, story process and more. She also provided the images for this interview. 1. While there’s a call for diversity in literature these days and an audience for these stories, what was it like in the beginning for you to break into this industry to share your stories focusing on your heritage?
My first book manuscript, JINGLE DANCER, sold in the late 1990s and was published in 2000. My first three books—including INDIAN SHOES and RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME—sold in quick succession thereafter.
While they all feature Native protagonists, I don’t think of them as being about heritage per se. To me, JINGLE DANCER is about a tradition passed down intergenerationally, INDIAN SHOES is a collection of daily life stories about a boy and his grandfather; and RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME is about beginning to heal after sudden loss.
That said, I was blessed to connect early on with Rosemary Brosnan, with whom I still work at HarperChildren’s. She’s one of the few long-time advocates of inclusion within the editorial branch of the publishing industry.
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Rachel Reads & Reviews 