Releasing the Notes

From the publisher’s summary: “The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.”

This blurb accurately depicts the mood and tone of The Night Circus, within whose pages a darkly beautiful world of mystery and magic unfolds. There is more to the story, of course. The circus travels the world seemingly without a schedule. It inspires hundreds of devotees called rêveurs, or dreamers, who do their best to follow it through its travels. And not only are the tents in black and white, but so are all of the exhibits. And all of the exhibits are magical.

The circus is planned and run by two young magicians – Celia and Marco – who are in a duel where only one of them can survive. Over the years that encompass this contest, each of them tries to create exhibits that show their mastery over their art. But sometime during those years, these same exhibits become an intricate and starkly beautiful love story. To read this book is to be captivated not only by the circus itself but by the very story that creates it.

What would you do to change the course of history? This is one of the questions posed by Alix Harrow’s book The Once and Future Witches. In a world where magic no longer exists, and set in the late 1800s in fictional New Salem, the book features three sisters – Juniper, Agnes, and Bella – who became estranged when the older two left home to get away from their abusive father. Juniper, as the one left behind, bore the brunt of his brutality and isn’t eager to forgive her sisters for abandoning her. 

However, on the evening of the Spring Equinox of 1893, half-forgotten nursery rhymes and old wives’ tales become the catalyst for magic to reenter the world and sweep the sisters back into each others’ lives. From there they embark on a journey to renew their relationship and show that witches have always had a place in the world.

Full of romance and wonder, this book’s magical system will have the reader wishing that witches had a place in our world, too.

Like most English majors, I had to read Homer’s The Odyssey when I was too young to appreciate it. And, like many English professors, mine highlighted that Circe, the witch Odysseus and his men lived with for a year, was a villain because she used her feminine wiles to enrapture him. I wasn’t sure that I agreed with that assessment, which was why I was delighted to find this retelling, giving Circe a backstory that makes her a rounder and more interesting character.

The story actually begins an unspecified time earlier with Circe’s growing up years in the house of her father Helios. There she is ignored or bullied by turns. When she turns to forbidden magic, she is cast into the mortal realm to live out her immortal days. She meets and loves many mortals, who almost always leave her, but she also develops her own skills and lifestyle that bring richness and variety into her life. From Daedelus to the queen of Crete, Circe interacts with the major players of Greek myth in ways that make those stories (and hers) more interesting.

What I liked most about this book is that it shows that Circe had a life both before and after her interlude with Odysseus. While The Odyssey made it seem as though she only existed for Odysseus, Circe makes it clear that she, as an immortal being, had an existence much richer and full of wonder than one year with a lost sailor would have given her. 

“It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.” 

Every November the small island of Thisby hosts the Scorpio Races, where the most dangerous kind of horse, the vicious and deadly capall uisce, emerge from the sea and where the bravest or most desperate take their chances to tame and race them. 

For very different reasons both Puck and Sean must win the race this year. Puck is desperate to keep her family’s shop open. She fears that without its small income her brother will be forced to move to the mainland to find work. And even though she would be the first woman to ever enter the races, she sees winning them as her only hope.

Sean, the reigning champion of the Races, wants to get out from under the thumb of the Malverns, the powerful family that owns most of the capall uisce on Thisby.  He dreams of being able to win his own capall uisce and opening his own stable, and thus riding into glory for himself alone.Told in dual POV, and drawn from Celtic mythology, The Scorpio Races is an atmospheric, haunting book that will make you want to win your own horse.

Set in a fictional world that mirrors our own, Babel is about biracial Robin Swift who is rescued from his dead mother’s arms right before he too succumbs to cholera in China. He is taken to England and raised by the mysterious Professor Lovell, an Oxford professor of translation, who works in the even more mysterious Babel. Robin hopes to enter Oxford’s Royal Institute of Translation, located in Babel, and to prepare he spends years studying Ancient Greek, Latin, Mandarin, and his native Cantonese.

Once Robin enters the world of Babel, where words are literally turned into magic, he realizes there is a darker side to the whole enterprise. What he learns motivates Robin into what many in his life consider extreme actions. But the question this book asks is, “Can subjugation and cultural appropriation ever lead to good?” Finding your own answer to the question will, in my opinion, color your response to the book. Me? I loved it.

This is the first line of Piranesi’s latest journal entry: “When the Moon rose in the Third Northern Hall I went to the Ninth Vestibule to witness the joining of the three Tides.”

Wait, what? It gets better: Piranesi is sure that only 15 people have ever existed, including himself and the Other. He has empirical evidence of this because he has found the remains of 13 of them and tends to them faithfully. Besides honoring the dead, Piranesi explores his home full of statues, dodges the tides (plural), fishes for food and harvests seaweed for fuel. 

As we the readers can easily see, something is very different about Piranesi’s world, or at least his world view. As the Other comes in and out of Piransi’s life, it becomes apparent to us that Piranesi might not be understanding everything going on around him. The mystery of this world becomes deeper with the appearance of “16,” and the Other warns Piranesi to avoid him or risk going mad.

This book is one of the most unusual and interesting books I’ve read in a while. It doesn’t take long to realize that Piranesi isn’t a reliable narrator, but fully understanding what’s actually going on took me much longer. And the ending was so unexpected that I still think about this book more than a year after I read it. The story will stay with you.

You know the story: beautiful princess is rescued by handsome prince; they live happily ever after. Even the fairytale retellings that have been popular over the past couple of decades tend to have this basic structure, whether it’s the princess rescuing herself or someone else. But what about a fairytale where the princess is rescued by accident, or where the handsome prince isn’t either a prince or handsome?

These are just some of the ways that Spindle’s End differs from any other kind of fairytale retelling that I’ve read. The princess involved, Rosie, is a princess, she has been rescued, and she’s been blessed with many gifts, but that’s where the similarities end. Katriona,the fairy godmother, rescues Rosie by kidnapping her in a moment of panic, and taking the princess to her home in the Gig.. Raised in an unconventional household run by two fairies and in a place where magic runs riot, Rosie spurns all of her magical gifts for the talents she develops while growing up in the Gig. And, of course, there’s the un-handsome, un-prince.

How does all of this end? With marriage, of course. But you’ll have to read it to find out who.

On July 29, 1714, Addie LaRue is supposed to marry widower Roger in her small French village. However, the last thing she wants is to marry a much older man and spend the rest of her life caring for him and his children. Instead, she prays to the old gods for a life of freedom and more time. One of the old ones, whom Addie names “Luc,” agrees to give her what she wants as long as she agrees to give him her soul when she becomes bored with her life.

Soon Addie realizes that the freedom and time that she has won have come at a steep price. Even though she lives for centuries, no one can remember her once she leaves their sight. The ramifications of this sink in almost immediately when she can’t keep a job or get a place to live – why would a landlord let you back into the room you’ve rented if they don’t remember you renting it in the first place?

Of course, Addie experiences many of history’s important events, like the French Revolution, although they only seem to touch her remotely. Through all of this time her only long-term contact is is with Luc, who keeps trying to manipulate her into giving up her soul. And then she meets Henry.

This book is part historical fiction and part dark romance, with a tone and themes that make it, unlike Addie herself, unforgettable.

I love almost everything Neil Gaiman has written. Stardust is one of my favorites. Set in the fictional village of Wall, along with parts of Faerie, Stardust centers on Tristran Thorn and his quest to win the love of the town beauty Victoria. To gain a kiss (and maybe more), Victoria tells Tristran that he must bring back a fallen star and present it to her. Tristran then sneaks into the forbidden realm of Faerie and sets off to retrieve the fallen star.

When Tristran finds the star, he realizes that his quest is much more complicated than he thought it would be. Not only is the star not a piece of cold space rock, but Tristran is not the only one who wants to find the star, Yvaine.  Witches want the youth-giving properties of her heart, and aspiring kings want the stone she wears around her neck to prove they’re worthy of the throne. Thus begins a quest like no other where Tristran and Yvaine take off across the vast realm of Faerie to save Yvaine and win Tristran his true love. 

Magical and funny, this book is a delight.

If you’ve anything else by Marissa Meyer, you know that she is a master of retelling. In Heartless, Meyer creates a backstory for the Queen of Hearts, explaining how she became the  cruel and, well, heartless despot whom Alice met in Wonderland.

The story follows Cath, the daughter of a noble wishing to rise in Wonderland society Cath doesn’t want to help her mother climb the social ladder – she loves to bake. While her secret desire is to open her own bakery, Cath’s mother sees a different future for her daughter, in which she marries the king (who loves her baked tarts). At a ball in the royal palace Cath meets Jest, the new court jester, and the two begin a clandestine relationship. However, the king also wants to marry Cath and bring her, and her tarts, to the palace permanently. The ensuing love triangle brings tragedy to Cath and Jest, and launches Cath into her place as the ruthless Queen of Wonderland.

I always like a good backstory for a villain, and this one doesn’t disappoint.

Mika Moon is a YouTuber with a secret: the magic she pretends to work in her videos is actually real. As one of the few witches in Britain, she knows that making these videos is against the rules (Witches hide who they are), but she can’t help herself. An orphan who is isolated from other witches because of another rule – witches stay safe by staying away from each other – her loneliness makes her want to reach out any way she can.

This is why she is shocked when she receives a message on her account asking for her help to teach three young witches who desperately need magic training. Acting on the message is the biggest rule breaking Mika has been involved in, but it turns out that going to Nowhere House and meeting Terracotta, Rosetta and Altamira, as well as their caretakers, is worth any risk to Mika. 

However, something comes along to threaten this family, and Mika decides that she’ll do anything to protect them.

This book features a charming use of magic, adorable young witches and a grumpy/sunshine romance. It’s a fun low-stakes read.

I love any book about books or libraries and I try to read as many as I can. What I love the most about The Midnight Library is that the set up for it is completely unique. Imagine a library where all of the possibilities of your life are represented by books on shelves. Which possible lives might you choose if you were given the chance to fix the mistakes you’ve made?

This is the question that Nora Seed is asked when she finds herself in the library after a suicide attempt. Nora’s list of life regrets are seemingly endless: should she have stayed with her swimming? Did she make the right choice when she left the band? Why hasn’t she become a glaciologist? And the biggest one, what choices has she made that brought her to the brink of despair?

Guided by her favorite high school librarian Mrs. Elm, Nora chooses and then lives the many possible trajectories her life could have taken, from success and fame to love and family. Ultimately, though, she’ll need to choose the reality that she can live with.

This book was one of the secret projects that Sanderson published in 2023, and my personal favorite of the four. In it, we meet Yumi and a man who calls himself Painter, both of whom live in very different worlds.

Yumi is a highly honored and revered woman in her society, where people are blessed through the talents that she demonstrates to the spirits. Because of how important her role is, Yumi can never spend a day or even an hour as a normal person. She doesn’t feed herself, dress herself, or even bathe herself. She longs for a touch of normalcy in her life.

Painter, on the other hand, is tasked with hunting down and destroying the nightmares that haunt his city, which feed on the fears and psyches of the people. They can only be destroyed when a skilled and trained painter gives them another form through art. Painter also plays an important role in society, but describes himself as “pest exterminator who went to art school,” not exactly a role he enjoys.

Painter and Yumi meet in an incredibly unusual way, and together they work to uncover mysteries about their worlds that neither of them even suspected. This book has another gentle romance with lots of action and intrigue, and an ending that I can’t forget.

Charlie Nancy has always hated his father, who left his mother heartbroken and who tormented him with pranks and nicknames his entire life. When Mr. Nancy dies, Charlie attends his funeral and learns some things about his life that he never suspected. For one, Charlie had a twin who he can’t remember. For another, Mr. Nancy is actually Anansi, the West African trickster god. Charlie is understandably shocked, especially when he’s told that his twin is the one who inherited all of their father’s powers and charm.

Just as though summoned, Charlie’s brother Spider soon appears in his life, bringing with him upheaval and grief, but also fun and a sense of whimsy that Charlie realizes he’s been missing. Linked through the mythology introduced in its spectacular companion novel American Gods, this book highlights the metaphor of myth’s role in our lives: we are the stories we tell ourselves. This story will leave you with the same sense of wonder and whimsy that Spider brought to Charlie’s life, and which most of us, I think, forget.

In the capital city of Hallandren, where magic is based on color and Breath, Lightsong is a god. He shares his godhood status with others, the Returned, who also died heroically and have been resurrected as immortal, all-powerful beings. But Lightsong is bored. After all, how many banquets and art exhibitions can one god be expected to attend? 

Enter Siri, who is expected to marry the God King – the head of the pantheon – and her sister Vivenna. Although now living separate lives, these two sisters will together have a world-changing effect on Hallandren and the gods who live there.

Yes, Warbreaker is set in the Cosmere universe, Sanderson’s signature setting, where all of the planets share an origin story but not a magic system. That said, as a stand-alone novel Warbreaker’s story is set apart from other series like The Stormlight Archives or Mistborn. Full of humor, action and palace intrigue, a unique magic system, and with one of the sweetest love stories I’ve ever read, this book is an absolute must-read for fantasy lovers, even if they’ve never heard of the Cosmere.

Disclaimer – when this book was published 15 years ago it was considered a stand-alone. However, recently Sanderson has said that he wants to write a continuation of Siri and Vivenna’s story. In my humble opinion, the book is so good on its own that it needs a sequel like an ordinary person needs more Breath. In other words, not at all.