Alex Is Reading...SORCERER TO THE CROWN

This debut fantasy is the most sink-in-and-enjoy book I've read in quite awhile--the kind of book that makes me stop periodically and think, "Why do I bother reading anything that I like less than this? I could be reading this!"

It is also one of those books where I, to be totally honest, just want to rip off the dust jacket and write READ THIS BOOK across the cover instead. The cover is not good. The cover is a red splodge with a vaguely decipherable dragon across the top. The book, on the other hand, is a spectacularly handled regency diversion, a funny, spirited mix of disarmingly likeable characters, court politics, personal feuds, grumpy fairies, surprise dragons, and thoroughly considered, culturally diverse magical practice.

You might be reminded of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell from the premise on its own: England is losing its magic, and everyone wants to know why. Sorcerer to the Crown's protagonists are its superpower, though. Atypically for its genre, none of the three main characters is white. More typical are the harangued young gentleman and the strong-minded young woman who leads him on a chase, but this familiarity is paired with originality; generally speaking, regency heroines aren't nonchalantly traipsing through London with the majority of England's magical power tucked in their reticules.

(The third major player, by the way, is a Malaysian witch named Mak Genggang, who is so delightful that I will just leave her for you to discover on your own.)

It's a thoroughly fun book, and I'm already excited about the sequel--check it out in our scifi/fantasy section!

What To Read Next

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer is my favorite book by the absolute queen of regency romance. There are no bodice-rippers here--she's all family friendly, the long eighteenth century by way of the 1930s. This book features a haughty man of morals finding himself aghast at the cheerfully wild behaviors of a heroine who will remind you very much of Cho's Prunella.

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian is the starting point of this quintessential Napoleonic sea epic. Between battles against man and tide, you will learn so much about boats. Just, absolute loads about boats. You will not mind this, and the characters are wonderful.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin is a fantasy novel which drags a distant child of the emperor into the treacherous capital. There, barely restrained gods live, either the potential ruler's best hope for salvation, or an even greater danger to her than her vicious family.

Evelina by Frances Burney is where Jane Austen got her stuff. If you like Gossip Girl and Pride and Prejudice, it's time to back up to the 1770s, where hair is tall, gambling is rampant, and there's nothing worse you can be than a nice girl in London.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison is not set in our world, but it borrows a little steampunk and drags it back to the seventeeth/eighteenth centuries. Much like Sorcerer's Zacharias Wythe, newly enthroned Maia is racially an outcast, insecure as the new emperor. It's not an action book. Instead, intrigue, threats, and all, it moves slowly and gently through Maia's growth in a role he never expected.


His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik is the natural fantasy counterpart to Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin novels, featuring sentient dragons piloted by humans into the Napoleonic wars by brave men (and the occasional woman). Book-loving dragon Temeraire by far outshines everything else in the series, but the action is great and the human hero is noble--which I assume is something you like a little, if you like this genre at all.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell  by Susanna Clarke is a period fantasy that features Dickensian characters, heaps of intricate description, and a particularly good scene with the gargoyles of Yorkminster coming to life.

Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix is an upcoming (2016) young adult novel by the author of the Abhorsen series, mixing regency romance, magic, and mystery.

The Strangler Vine by M.J. Carter is a Sherlock Holmes-style mystery featuring a whiningly naive member of the East India Company paired with a jaded ex-member of same, trekking across India in search of a missing author and finding death and corruption along their trail. Complex, textured, and very aware of exactly what kind of role the British had in colonized India, it's a quick-paced, highly readable, fun adventure, absolutely packed with historical goodies.

Alex Is Reading...UPROOTED

As soon as it came out, I heard about a dozen ravingly positive reviews of Naomi Novik's new adult fantasy novel Uprooted (including Clarissa's--check out her shelf talker in Sci Fi). I finally pushed aside the vast piles of upcoming kids' books I absolutely have to read, and gave Novik's departure from Napoleonic dragon battles some precious reading time. Verdict before plot: if the first fifty pages don't grab you, KEEP GOING. It will be reading time well-spent. From that moment (really, page fifty, I mean it quite literally) 'til the end of the book, Uprooted is a tense, fast-pasted, highly creative and sometimes (satisfyingly) gruesome fight-for-your-life against the raging, dangerous and extraordinary power at the heart of a forbidding wood.

The plot of Uprooted is basically this: seventeen-year-old apparently average village girl Agnieszka is snatched from home by a magician called the Dragon, who protects the villages from the evil powers of the forest, but no one likes him much because he's a jerk. Everyone is surprised her pretty friend doesn't get taken instead, but it turns out this is because Agnieszka is incredibly magical, and in a really weird way, too. Which is good, because it turns out her weird way of doing magic is the best chance local humankind has of stopping the woods in its tracks before it kidnaps, murders, and buries the entire country in malevolent carnivorous trees.

A lot of the most interesting stuff, aside from the monsters, is how Novik writes about magic in this book, especially when the ways that Agnieszka and the Dragon experience the same spells are completely different. Complicated, original magic is one of the coolest things about good fantasy. Smart girls learning magic (and possibly frightening everyone in the process) is even better, and as it turns out, that is a genre that exists for all ages. So please, pick up the Novik, but do not stop there. Here are some suggestions for the entire family.

LADIES, LEARNING, MAGIC

Among Others by Jo Walton -- (Found in SF, and currently on our bargain table) The magic learning doesn't really take place in school in this book, but the protagonist, while plowing through hundreds of sci fi novels and processing the death of her twin sister and the looming threat of her mother, is forced to learn how magic works, in order not to do any more damage than she already has by using it.

Circle of Magic by Tamora Pierce -- (Available online; recommended for middle school+) This quartet gives one volume to each of four young students of magic, who all use a different medium. The first three books are about girls Sandry, Tris, and Daja. The magic is neat, and the characters are among my favorites by Tamora Pierce. 

Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness -- (Fiction/SF) You can find this trilogy of magical academia, Oxford, and women's friendships in both adult fiction and science fiction, and they delight our readers from both sides of the aisle.

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett -- (SF) Like most Discworld novels, this one stands alone just fine, as it tackles collegiate sexism through a girl who has the appalling gall to want to study magic at university.

Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell -- (Kids' Graphica) Antimony Carver is a poker-faced girl with a mysterious past, going to a boarding school populated with possessed students, sentient robots, ghosts, and monsters. She also learns magic from the gods that live in the nearby wood. This is an awesome, awesome graphic novel series that unfolds slowly, beautifully, and sometimes painfully, page by page.

Lirael by Garth Nix -- (YA/SF) The sequel to Sabriel stands firm enough without its predecessor. The first large chunk of it takes place in a vast library inside a glacier. There, teenage Lirael learns step by painstaking step how to use a power she does not want to gain the things that she does. The mythology of these books is always tremendous, and Lirael fails to make right choices in all the places that result in an extremely satisfying story.

I've previously mentioned Nnedi Okorafor's upper middle grade Nigerian fantasy Akata Witch, and I emphatically continue to recommend that. I'd also advise anyone who digs around in used bookstores to keep their eye out for Monica Furlong's Wise Child, Caroline Stevermer's A College of Magics and Pamela Dean's Tam Lin. They're three very different but all very good books that I'd put in your hands if I could get them into my own. Last of all, it's not quite in the theme of the list, but I recommend Patricia A. McKillip's The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, and truly all McKillip novels for a delicious sense of place, magic, and wildness in full flower.

Alex Is Reading...WINGS OF FIRE

WHEW. This last Thursday's event with Chris Colfer and his fourth Land of Stories book was a huge success! I was told by one fan that it was "the best book signing [they'd] ever been to," and from up at the register and outside with the loooooooong line, I saw so many glowingly happy faces. This kind of hectic day really is one of my favorite things about the job.

Our next kids' event is coming right up! Tui Sutherland, (local!) author of the Wings of Fire series, will be with us on the NINETEENTH OF JULY AT 2PM. The seventh book of the series, WINTER TURNING, has just come out, and it is time to celebrate!

(Look at this awesome cover art. LOOK.)

If you haven't read Wings of Fire already, it is not too late to start. They are quick-paced, action-packed dragon adventures, featuring warring tribes, peril, and cool dragon powers. The main characters are a growing cast of slightly unusual dragonets (young dragons, of course!)--starting with five dragonets from different groups, who have been raised in isolation with the hopes that they will fulfill a prophecy to end the war. But while they do want the war to end, they quickly discover they are not so interested in acting on the orders of any adult dragon they meet. Instead they set off to fix things in their own way--if only they can keep from being killed in the process.

In short: this series is dragon Game of Thrones for kids (9+ is the recommended age), and it is awesome.

If you have read the whole series, and you are looking for something to feed your reading appetites when the last page is finished, here are a few more books you might check out until, some day in the hopefully not too distant future, Wings of Fire eight comes out.

IN THE MEANTIME, top three:

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin -- In a fantasy landscape based on China and Chinese mythology, a young girl travels through legend and story in the company of a dragon to make her poor family's fortune.

Dragon of the Lost Sea by Lawrence Yep -- An evil witch has trapped the sea in which dragon princess Shimmer and her people live inside a single pearl. Although Shimmer is an outlaw, she may be the only hope of her people. Alongside a poor human boy named Thorn, Shimmer quests for the missing pearl that will restore her home, and perhaps her people's faith in her.

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson -- A graphic novel about a villain (Ballister), a hero (Goldenloin), a morally questionable benevolent organization (the Organization), and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, a shapeshifting girl sidekick with ten times the personality of everyone else, who is so...so....so much more than Ballister expects.

A Few More Great Choices:

Dealing With Dragons series by Patricia C. Wrede

The Thickety series by J.A. White

Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins

House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi


We hope to see you on Sunday! Until then--happy reading!

Kidsmith Presents: Television Inspired Literature

We're obsessed. It's all we can think about. It's all we talk about. It's all I'm going to blog about today: Reign. CW's drama about Mary, Queen of Scots is a show a few of us children's booksellers discovered and fell in love with. Naturally after we watched all available episodes we sought out other ways to feed our obsession in the form of books. Thus, it has inspired a new monthly feature on the blog brought to you by the kidsmith booksellers.

Television Inspired Literature will go up once a month. We know first hand that book lovers can also be TV lovers and want to share our obsessions with you. Based on popular TV shows, we've come up with some YA book titles that you might enjoy if you like the show. If you have any suggestions for TV shows we should feature or books we may have missed let us know in the comments!

Without further ado may I present the first Television Inspired Literature:

Guilty Pleasures

The other day, one of our book buyers Mark and I were having an in-depth conversation about music. "What music do you listen to that is a guilty pleasure?" I honestly couldn't think of anything. Akin to books, I fully believe that if you like something, you like it, and why worry about what others will think. Just like other traits we can't always pick what lights up our brain's pleasure centers, and if it doesn't hurt anybody then WHO CARES. Embrace what you like! Listen to Sublime and read trashy romances!

But Mark's question resurfaced for me this week when I started watching the new History Channel series Vikings. Vikings is an original series that follows characters based on legendary sagas and set around the time of the first Viking raids on England. There's a badass shieldmaiden lady warrior. There's music from Wardruna, one of my favorite bands. There's handsome men with long hair (perhaps the Achilles heel of this bookseller). I can't stop looking at this show and it makes me feel a little ... guilty. The acting is good. The premise is cool. While occasionally historically inaccurate, the sets and ships and armor and weapons and clothes are cool. Gabriel Byrne is always good. The pacing and dialogue is a bit ... rough, but the show is young and could always improve.

Anyway, it's definitely a guilty pleasure for me. If you're in the same longship here are some recent acquisitions to the UBC to read during the commercials so by the end of your hour you feel like you've done something productive.

Hounded by Kevin Hearne. A series that melds all kinds of ancient mythology into a modern day fantasy adventure mystery quest. Thor makes an appearance eventually. The author also wins my award for best book dedication ever: "Look, Mom! I made this! Can we put it on the fridge?"

The Vikings by Else Roesdahl. A quick and dirty history with lots of pictures.

The Kings in Winter by Cecelia Holland. A historical fantasy novel of Celtic chieftains fighting off their Viking overlords. GOOD LUCK.

Niall Ferguson's book on Vikings, as well as the Sagas are also obvious books you should have already read. Get off the internet and go read them now.

Got any other guilty pleasures to share? Confess in the comments!

Getting Used to the Holidays

Strapped for cash? Maxed out your holiday budget and realized you have three more people to shop for? NEVER FEAR! THE UBC IS HERE! If you want inexpensive gifts, we got ya covered. Throw off the shackles of the antiquated notion that a book has to be new to be a great gift. We have newer titles as well as vintage finds and out-of-print gems that make great gifts without breaking the bank.

A Dance with Dragons, Volume 5 of "A Song of Ice and Fire," by George R.R. Martin

$18

Everyone wants this one! And we just got one in the UBC in time to woo your moon-and-stars! It's in great condition. I'll hold it for you no password required, just give us a call! Or stop by and it can be yours!

Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy box-set by Sigrid Undset

$50

When this box set came in my heart stopped. It literally took my breath away for a spell. This would be a magnificent treasure to give the love of your life, or the weirdo in your life that is obsessed with Scandinavian literature. A beautiful vintage collection with a slipcase in great condition. Really cool type details on the title pages as well. *swooon*

The Unofficial Lego Builder's Guide by Allan Bedford

$13

I read this crazy thread on Reddit the other day where a poster wrote to gripe about how expensive Legos are. "Why!" Why so expensive!? A particularly perceptive poster responded something along the lines of the fact that Lego pieces have to be made to fit within 1/1000th of an inch of each other and that's with all bricks made since 1958. ASTOUNDING. So for the Lego-lover in your life, here's an exhaustive guide to all the many ways you can precisely click those blocks in together. A springboard for creativity, a technical how-to to stretch the dollars spent on all those Legos, and a surefire way to get your budding engineer reading a little before playing.

The Nervous System by Olof Larsell

$35

Carl says, "If you've got the guts, this would be a great gift." And I have to agree. I am firmly entrenched in the camp that everything that happens inside my body is wizards and gnomes making magical cogs whirr with pixie dust. YET. I couldn't stop pouring (poring?) over this book. Such a cool vintage find with great illustrations throughout, many of which are in color. A great one to give for a doctor (there's lotsa those in this neighborhood) as a pretty gift for a collection, or to give for an artist to hack up and use in a multimedia piece. Or, Carl suggests, "a perfect gift for that nervous Nelly."

Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James

$13

Another hot ticket that many are after these days, treat the fancy lady of affluence to a bit of guilt-pleasure reading! Tide over the Downton fan with some intrigue until January.

Ed Ruscha monograph

$10.50

Whether you're new to Ruscha or an old fan - this is a great, unexpected gift for just about anyone. Ruscha's work is minimal, playful, clever and though provoking. I'd gift this bad boy to an art nut, a free spirit, a writer, a type nerd, anyone not crazy about reading, someone with too many books to read already, or keep it for yourself as a treat for all this exhausting thinking about to whom to give gifts. Get a taste of what Ruscha's all about here.