The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen 28-year-old Josey Cirrini will never be the southern belle her mother was, or the beloved civic figure her father was before his death. She’s resigned herself to a life dedicated to caring for her domineering mother, comforting herself with a secret closet full of candy and snack cakes. (Every chapter is also named for a thematically appropriate sweet.) And then one day a trashy, outspoken woman turns up in the closet and refuses to leave. Josey recognizes Della Lee, who is clearly on the run from someone. At Della Lee’s prompting, Josey leaves the house without her mother to get a sandwich from a small sandwich shop. Chloe, the owner, is only a couple of years older than Josey. She’s just kicked out her boyfriend, Jake, who revealed that he cheated on her. Here is where we start noticing that the book isn’t your average chick lit. Chloe and Josey become friends, of course, but eggs cook hard and coffee boils in the pot when Jake and Chloe are in the room together. And Chloe has a book problem. They just show up when they think she needs them, and follow her around until she reads them. Usually she likes them, but not when the books seem to be telling her something she doesn’t want to hear. The only magic around Josey seems to be the unpleasant kind that pulls in her stomach and lets her know whenever the mail man, Adam, is getting close. Josey finds that there’s more to herself and her family than she knew in this bewitching story. As with Addison’s Garden Spells, this was one I found myself sneaking away to read.
Chalice by Robin McKinley Once upon a time and quite unexpectedly, a young beekeeper named Mirasol was chosen to be the new Chalice for her demesne, the Willowlands. She is the first Chalice ever to hold her Chalice in honey rather than the standard wine or water. The previous Master and his Chalice both died in an irresponsible accident, the Master without an Heir and the Chalice without an Apprentice. Now the Master’s younger brother has been called back to serve as Master – but he is a Third Level Priest of Elemental Fire, mostly fire now with only vague memories of being human. Even so, Mirasol can tell that he has a better understanding of what the Willowlands needs than his brother did. Neither Mirasol nor the reader knows very much about what the job of Chalice involves, besides giving the ritual chalices at the Circle’s ceremonies, and being able to feel and hopefully mend Willowland’s fraying earthlines. Things are not necessarily going well, but might get better as she and the new Master have more time to learn their roles. But there isn’t more time. Some members of the Circle have sent to the Overlord for a new, outblood Heir. And Mirasol knows that Willowlands will fall apart if it is forced to accept yet another new Master after the devastation left by the old one. 
AGENCY
ELKS RUN COLLECTED ED VOL 1
Killer Princesses
Nation by Terry Pratchett Once upon a time, perhaps a two hundred years ago or so, in a world very but not quite like ours, a young boy left his boy soul on the Island of Boys and prepared to go back to the Nation in the canoe he had made. Back at home, there would be a feast. He would be given the tattoo that said he was a man and he would have the soul of a man. At the same time, a ship with an exceptionally devout captain and a mutinous first mate sailed to the remote Mothering Sunday islands to take a girl to her father. And then there was a wave, which left Mau and Ermintrude the only survivors on what the boy called Sunrise Island. Mau is thrust into new doubt – how could Imo have let this happen to his people? But even though he now believes that people invented the gods, he hears the voice of Locaha, the god of death, talking to him, and the Grandfathers telling him to put back the god anchors and start bringing them their offering of beer again. Ermintrude, meeting Mau, decides to introduce herself as Daphne. She starts hearing voices too – and both Mau and Daphne find reason to stay alive helping the other. But they are not alone for long, as Sunrise Island was the biggest of a tiny chain, and the straggling survivors from all the islands start coming, looking for refuge. Mau might be possessed by a demon, since he left his boy soul behind and never got his man soul. Daphne is just a trouserman girl, too pale to look normal. Still, the demon boy and the ghost girl, struggling to learn each others languages, are the ones rebuilding the new, tiny Nation. My one frustration with the book, really, was that it was clear that they were speaking different languages to start with and gradually learning to understand each other – but there was no difference in language or typeface to tell you which language was being used at any given point. In the hands of anyone but Terry Pratchett, this story could have been depressing, preachy, or worse. But the compelling action and the thinky questions never really answered keep it from being preachy, while Pratchett’s signature humor keeps it from being depressing. This is a great book about the meeting of cultures and the meaning of religion. While it’s written with teen protagonists, there’s a lot here for adults as well.
Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton Here we have a delicious book for Library Mama – a romance set in a knitting shop in a magical town.
The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faria. Translated by Elisa Amado. There are a whole lot of picture books about colors. This one is different. You really need to touch it – but I’ll do my best to describe it. It’s all black, with white text. If you look, and then feel, you’ll notice that the text is in Braille on the top of the page, and printed on the bottom half. The pictures are black on black raised images, for feeling, not looking. It starts like this “Thomas says that yellow tastes like mustard, but is as soft as baby chick feathers.” Red is sour like unripe strawberries, and hurts when he skins his knees. The B-word is never mentioned, but this is a fabulous book for exploring the topic, as well as for just thinking about what colors mean. My only sad note is that Mr. FP only wanted to read it once – so maybe it’s better for kids a little older. Certainly every adult I’ve shown it too has been enthralled. We don’t get too many books from Venezuela here in the states – particularly not picture books. There’s a good reason this one did.
Mrs. McMurphy’s Pumpkin by Rick Walton. Illustrated by Delana Bettoli Mrs. McMurphy has a pumpkin problem. Each one of the four mornings before Halloween in this cumulative tale, a pumpkin shows up with additional features and threatens to eat her when it has its teeth. Though this threat might otherwise make the book a little scary for young readers, Mrs. McMurphy (who appears to live alone) never shows any fear. Instead, she politely but firmly tells the pumpkin to mind its manners and sends farther and farther away – even to the North Pole. Along the lines of (attempting to quote without the book here) “And what lovely ears they are! But I’m afraid no one is allowed on my counter.” The pumpkin, menacing as it is, doesn’t have a chance. I’ve never really gotten into Halloween books for kids, but this one is a charmer. Mrs. McMurphy’s kind, no-nonsense attitude is really funny, while at the same time offering a strong example of Independent Womanhood. The beautifully detailed, folksy illustrations make this a story to savor.
The Explosionist by Jenny Davidson Edinburgh, late 1930s. The world is on the brink of a second world war. Fifteen-year-old Sophie’s boarding school is shaken by the bombing attacks of rogue explosionists. (It took me most of the book to realize that Sophie herself was not going to become an explosionist. Whew.) In this world, Napoleon won the battle of Waterloo and Europe is divided into quite different countries – Scotland is not part of the United Kingdom but the New Hanseatic League. Spiritualism gained ground at the turn of the century, rather than fading out as it did in ours. You’ll notice that I found the setting fascinating, particularly as the differences between this world and ours are laid out in one place only in the author’s note at the back. But the setting sets off Sophie, a smart and thoughtful girl forced by the impending war to make important decisions about her future now. Very few girls are going to university, with many joining the military and the brightest and most beautiful going to join IRLYNS. IRLYNS (pronounced, irrationally but amusingly, irons) is a top-secret program which trains women to be the driving force to help high-placed men do great things in service to the country. The inequality of this, in a country where women do have high-ranking jobs, is very much an issue for Sophie, much as she wants to serve her country. Her daily life includes trying to hide a crush on her chemistry teacher, cutting gym class to have tea with the professor next door and his housekeeper’s visiting Danish nephew, Mikael, and attending her great-aunt’s regular séance. Then the medium from the séance is murdered, and Sophie starts hearing voices herself. Sophie and Mikael will both have to get over their distrust of spiritualism to solve the mystery, which might be linked to the war, but is definitely putting them at risk. You might not have time to think about the issues that are being raised while you’re racing to see if Sophie and Mikael make it through, but though the setting is historical, the issues are still blazingly relevant. This is a rare and delightful gem.-
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