The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

Summary from Goodreads:
New York Times Bestseller

In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited—"not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault." Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.

There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck was a random find at BEA (I think it was handed to me in passing).  So I gave it a whirl. Ehhhh...it was a perfectly fine self-improvement/personal growth book about learning how to not give a fuck about stuff that gets you nowhere (loser friends, jobs you hate, dead-end relationships, etc) and learning to give a fuck about the stuff that does (hard work, meaningful relationships, etc). This is all well and good...except for the unfortunate fact that I didn't find it terribly interesting and very little of his ideas seemed to stick in my head. I'm not a follower of Manson's blog, so I really had no expectations going in.  Perhaps this book would work better for fans or blog followers. I prefer Sarah Knight's The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck: How to Stop Spending Time You Don't Have with People You Don't Like Doing Things You Don't Want to Do which was much funnier and was far more memorable and useful given that it was a parody of a sort. Dear FTC: I was given a paper galley at BEA in May.

Angel Catbird, Volume 1 by Margaret Atwood, Tamra Bonvillain, and Johnnie Christmas

Summary from Goodreads:
Lauded novelist Margaret Atwood and acclaimed artist Johnnie Christmas collaborate on one of the most highly anticipated comic book and literary events of the year!

On a dark night, young genetic engineer Strig Feleedus is accidentally mutated by his own experiment and merges with the DNA of a cat and an owl. What follows is a humorous, action-driven, pulp-inspired superhero adventure-- with a lot of cat puns.

Published in over thirty-five countries, Margaret Atwood is one of the most important living writers of our day and is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Her work has won the Man Booker Prize, the Giller Prize, Premio Mondello, and more. Angel Catbird is her first graphic novel series.

Atwood's The Blind Assassin was named one of Time magazine's 100 best English-language novels published since 1923 and her recent MaddAddam Trilogy is currently being adapted into an HBO television show by Darren Aronofsky.

Now before you get all "Angel Catbird is super-weird and pulpy, whateven is this?" I'm going to recommend that you check out In Other Worlds where Margaret Atwood talks about her early childhood literary influences.  Angel Catbird is definitely from an earlier genre of comic.

1) The introduction is absolutely perfect.

2) This is weird, and pulpy, and feels very mid-century B-horror movie (in the "mad scientist" vein) with strange body horror.  I thought it worked really well. There are half-cat people and cat people and rat-people and sentient rats and a cat-bat-vampire (?) and, of course, the owl-cat-man Angel Catbird.

3) It felt too short - was there a way to maybe split it into two volumes instead of three?

4) The cat vs. bird facts/statistics were nice but felt out of place.

Dear FTC: I bought my copy of this book.

Faith, Volume 1: Hollywood & Vine (Issues 1-4) by Jody Houser

Summary from Goodreads:
Valiant's most demanded hero steps out of Harbinger and into an all-new miniseries adventure!
Orphaned at a young age, Faith Herbert - a psionically gifted "psiot" discovered by the Harbinger Foundation - has always aspired to greatness. But now this once ordinary teenager is taking control of her destiny and becoming the hard-hitting hero she's always known she can be - complete with a mild-mannered secret identity, unsuspecting colleagues, and a day job as a reporter that routinely throws into her harms way! Well, at least she thought it would When she's not typing up listicles about cat videos, Faith makes a secret transformation to patrol the night as the City of Angels' own leading superhero - the sky-soaring Zephyr!
But flying solo is going to be tougher than she ever thought when Zephyr uncovers a deep-rooted alien conspiracy. Two-bit burglars and car thieves are one thing, but when the world needs a hero to stave off an full-blown extraterrestrial invasion, will Faith find herself in over her head or ready for her biggest challenge yet?
Rising star Jody Houser (Orphan Black) and explosive artists Francis Portela (Green Lantern) and Marguerite Sauvage (DC Comics Bombshells) pilot a new chapter for the high-flying hero that People Magazine calls "a superhero we can all admire."

Collecting: Faith 1-4

When Faith was announced as a spin-off from Harbinger I put it on my pull list immediately.  A plus-sized/real-sized superhero who can fly, making her "weightless"?  Also a smart lady?  Sold.  Gimmie.  So I originally read this trade in floppies, but I did a quick re-read for our graphic novel group this month.

I really love this arc. Faith steps out on her own as a superhero (and unassuming Buzzfeed-like journalist - the only suggestion I'd make about the disguise is that the wig is a bit obvious it's a wig...) only to discover a secret plot to kidnap psiots! I really love the combination of the two artists' work - one to draw "real life" panels and one to draw Faith's "fantasy" panels. Great to see Archer pop up here (really need to read Armstrong & Archer along with about a hundred other things, haha). I'm so glad to see that Faith is continuing as an ongoing series and that Harbinger Renegades will be starting up as well.

Dear FTC: I bought all the floppies.  

A Scot in the Dark by Sarah MacLean (Scandal & Scoundrel #2)

Summary from Goodreads:
Lonesome Lily Turned Scandalous Siren

Miss Lillian Hargrove has lived much of her life alone in a gilded cage, longing for love and companionship. When an artist offers her pretty promises and begs her to pose for a scandalous portrait, Lily doesn't hesitate...until the lying libertine leaves her in disgrace. With the painting now public, Lily has no choice but to turn to the one man who might save her from ruin.

Highland Devil turned Halfhearted Duke

The Duke of Warnick loathes all things English, none more so than the aristocracy. It does not matter that the imposing Scotsman has inherited one of the most venerable dukedoms in Britain—he wants nothing to do with it, especially when he discovers that the unwanted title comes with a troublesome ward, one who is far too old and far too beautiful to be his problem.

Tartan Comes to Town

Warnick arrives in London with a single goal: get the chit married and see her become someone else's problem, then return to a normal, quiet life in Scotland. It's the perfect plan, until Lily declares she'll only marry for love...and the Scot finds that there is one thing in England he likes far too much...

The recent Dukes of Warnick are a particularly unlucky lot.  The title (and rapidly enlarging ducal fortune) passed through fourteen heirs in the space of two weeks before landing on the recalcitrant Scottish Brute, Alec Stuart.  When the solicitor turns up to inform Alec of his miraculous fortune, Alec shrugs him off.  So the efficient London man leaves Alec in peace for five years...until Alec's dazzlingly beautiful ward Miss Lillian Hargrove lands herself in the scandal of all scandals.

A nude painting.  Painted by a man who is not her husband.  Who is an actor.  Quell horror.

Lily has been betrayed.  Derek Hawkins (sound familiar? You'll figure out where he's appeared before.) swept her off her feet and begged her to pose nude for him.  A painting just for him.  No one would see it.  He promised and she loved him....  Lily now has ten days before the painting is exhibited on the final day of the Royal Academy Exhibition and ruins her forever.  The last thing she needs is a very surly, six-and-a-half-foot tall, riveting Scotsman in an ill-fitting suit breaking down her front door.  And then he has the effrontery to tell her what to do.

Alec, for all that he means well, goes about doing everything wrong.  He has no interest in Society, while Society regards him as something akin to a sideshow attraction.  And he hasn't the faintest idea what to do with a ward who is in her mid-twenties.  He decides that the best course of action is to get Lily married before the painting is unveiled.  When he commands Lily to attend a ball hosted by his best friend King (and King's wife Sophie, the hero and heroine of the marvelously excellent previous book in the series, The Rogue Not Taken) Lily counters him.  Not by refusing to attend, mind, but by deliberately trying to scuttle his attempt to find her a husband (no spoilers).  So begins the tug-of-war between a man and a woman who are absolutely perfect for each other but whose sizable baggage keeps getting in the way (and Alec's baggage is unique, let me tell you).

This a swoony, swoony romance with a feisty, feminist heroine at its center.  Lily claims the male gaze for her own, obsessing over Alec's kneecaps when he appears in a kilt.  She's clever and fiercely independent.  Lily's nude painting scandal is directly influenced by the contemporary problem of revenge porn and leaked sex tapes or nude photographs.  All those ton gossips pointing their fingers?  We've seen them Twitter-shaming the poor woman for having trusted her partner and posed for the pictures.  Lily takes control of her scandal in a strong, fist-raised conclusion to the book.  But for all the kick-assed-ness Lily exudes, there's a palpable sweetness in the progression of her happily-ever-after.  I cried so many happy tears.

To go with the swooniness, there are two lovable canines and guest appearances from at least one Rogue and the aforementioned King and Sophie and...the Dangerous Daughters!  That's right, Sophie's Scandalous Sisters Seleste, Seline, and Sesily (no Sera, sadly) make a significant appearance and befriend Lily.  We get to see far more of the women than we did in Sophie's book, particularly Sesily who is amazing.  We also, drum-roll, get a brief visit to the Fallen Angel!!

My wish-list for Sarah now includes:
1) a novella for Lord Stanhope, bc you KNOW that man has a history
2) a novel for Sera, because her husband needs to either die or get punched in the dick and then start appreciating her (mostly sentiment held over from the last book, but still)
3) a novel for Sesily, because that girl is amazing and she needs an amazing dude to appreciate her

A Scot in the Dark is available TODAY!!  Run out and buy it or download it from your retailer of choice!  And if you are new to Sarah, never fear, you can read this without having read any of her previous books but you'll want to hide your credit card....you might need to go on a binge. *grin*

Dear FTC: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and OF COURSE I had this pre-ordered for my Nook.

If I Only Had a Duke by Leonora Bell (The Disgraceful Dukes #2)

Summary from Goodreads:
After four failed seasons and a disastrous jilting, Lady Dorothea Beaumont has had more than enough of her family’s scheming. She won’t domesticate a duke, entangle an earl, or vie for a viscount. She will quietly exit to her aunt’s Irish estate for a life of blissful freedom. Until an arrogant, sinfully handsome duke singles her out for a waltz, making Thea the most popular belle of the season.

The duke ruined her plans and he’ll just have to fix them.

Dalton, Duke of Osborne, is far too heartless for debutantes or marriage—he uses dalliances and public spectacle to distract from his real purpose: finding the man who destroyed his family. When his search leads to Ireland, the last thing he needs is the determined, achingly innocent Thea, who arrives in the dead of night demanding he escort her to her aunt. His foolish agreement may prove his undoing. The road to the Emerald Isle is fraught with unforeseen dangers, but the greatest peril of all might just be discovering that he has a heart...and he’s losing it to Thea.

At the end of the previous book in Leonora Bell's The Disgraceful Dukes series (which I have not read although it is on my Nook), Lady Dorothea Beaumont releases the hero (to whom she is affianced) so he can marry the woman he loves (Thea is literally at the altar when she finally works up the courage to defy her mother and do this).  Thus, Thea was exiled to her aunt's cottage in Ireland where she is quite happy to spend her time helping keep bees, make marmalade, and explore the Duke of Osborn's nearby property which contains a surprising and important hidden art collection.  As If I Only Had a Duke opens as Thea returns to London determined to convince Osborn to allow her to study the collection.

Dalton, as he prefers, has no intention of doing anything with his father's ill-gotten gains.  Least of all with Lady Dorothea Beaumont whose mother is on such-a-quest-from-hell-to-snare-a-duke-for-her-daughter that she [see previous book] to snare Dalton's best friend.  Which didn't work out, thankfully for both the friend and Dalton.  Besides, even if he were attracted to the girl (and he isn't, he really, really isn't) his nighttime exploits as the vigilante the Hellhound would put her in danger.  So Dalton takes his revenge - he makes Thea popular despite her pleas that she just wants to exit Society and study his art collection (not a euphemism, get your mind out of the gutter).

Thea is, understandably, pissed that Dalton has made her the center of attention.  Worse, her mother and grandmother are determined to marry her off to a horrible, lecherous man simply for the sake of a four-letter aristocratic title.  So Thea outwits Dalton and convinces him to take her to Ireland in secret.  And as with any good road-trip historical romance, things go deliciously side-ways.

Thea and Dalton have excellent chemistry together as characters.  Thea is finding her own way as a woman after years of being under constant scrutiny and criticism from her mother.  Dalton learns to trust that Thea won't condemn him for his actions.  The secondary characters of Con (Dalton's Irish manservant-cum-comrade) and Molly (an Irish teenager Thea befriended) provide a bit of comic relief.  The madcap roadtrip from London to Bristol is a delight.

However, what didn't really work for me was the Hellhound B-plot and how it worked into Dalton's past.  It did provide the impetus to get Dalton to go to Ireland, and take Thea with him, but it didn't do much for me.  In fact, the plot just rolled over with a whimper and a conclusion off the page.  For something that provided so much conflict early in the book I would have liked a bit more out of the resolution of that plot point.  But it wasn't off-putting, so I'll definitely back up to read Book 1 and look for the next book in the series.

If I Only Had a Duke is out on Tuesday, August 30!

Dear FTC: I received a DRC of this book via Edelweiss.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Summary from Goodreads:
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hellish for all slaves, but Cora is an outcast even among her fellow Africans, and she is coming into womanhood; even greater pain awaits. Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her of the Underground Railroad and they plot their escape. Like Gulliver, Cora encounters different worlds on each leg of her journey.

Whitehead brilliantly recreates the unique terrors of black life in pre-Civil War America. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.


If The Underground Railroad doesn't win all the literary prizes this year then those judges have no idea what they're missing.

This a raw, searing, gutting novel of will and grit and fear and mistrust and hope. Whitehead has pulled from so many parts of history to create the world that Cora occupies, from racism and the inhumanity of slavery to eugenics to Tuskeegee. All the open wounds laid bare.  Whitehead also chose to use elements of magical realism and alternate history novels to explore different ideologies that have been floated in the past regarding racism and segregation.  Cora is transported between states using a literal underground railroad - one state seems to have a sort-of progressive benevolent (yet menacing) segregation, another violently rejects all African-Americans or sympathizers, another presents an ideal utopia.  The plot and writing are truly phenomenal. A masterpiece.

(My only regret is that Oprah surprised us by picking this for her bookclub, moving up the publication date by over a month and goofing up my reading schedule.  I had just finished being wrecked by Homegoing so wasn't able to get this at the beginning of the month.)

Dear FTC: I got an ARC of this book at the Adult Author Breakfast at BEA and you can be sure that I'll be buying a copy of this, too.

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

Summary from Goodreads:
A compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream—the unforgettable story of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession upends the economy

Named one of BuzzFeed’s “Incredible New Books You Need to Read This Summer”

Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself, his wife, Neni, and their six-year-old son. In the fall of 2007, Jende can hardly believe his luck when he lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers. Clark demands punctuality, discretion, and loyalty—and Jende is eager to please. Clark’s wife, Cindy, even offers Neni temporary work at the Edwardses’ summer home in the Hamptons. With these opportunities, Jende and Neni can at last gain a foothold in America and imagine a brighter future.

However, the world of great power and privilege conceals troubling secrets, and soon Jende and Neni notice cracks in their employers’ façades.

When the financial world is rocked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Jongas are desperate to keep Jende’s job—even as their marriage threatens to fall apart. As all four lives are dramatically upended, Jende and Neni are forced to make an impossible choice.

I was not lucky enough to get an early galley copy of Behold the Dreamers but I heard so many good things about it.  Cameroonian immigrant family working for a white family who gets their money from Lehman Brothers in 2008?  Gimmie.  I did finally luck into an Edelweiss approval this month!  So I was able to read it before publication (almost - the DRC expired with about 30 pages to go!  Curses!  So I had to read those quickly at the store.)

The glue in this novel is the relationship between Jende and Neni.  Both of them have huge dreams.  Jende wishes to be someone important, perhaps a businessman, but someone who can prove to his family back in Limbe that he is more than just the garbage man who knocked up his girlfriend (even though he was able to earn enough to later bring her to the US and marry her here).  He wants his son to get a good education, become a doctor or lawyer.  Someone with money.  Neni wants desperately to finish her education, something almost impossible as a single(-ish) mom in Cameroon, so she starts classes at a community college with the ultimate goal of becoming a pharmacist.  When Jende lands a well-paying job as the private chauffeur to the Edwards family  - financier father, ladies-who-lunch mother, law-student-turned-spiritual wanderer elder son, precocious younger son - it looks as if the family's fortunes are rising.

Until the bottom falls out of Lehman Brothers, as it did in any investment company in 2008 who cooked their books and used those wretched subprime mortgages.  Mr. Edwards winds up in an awkward situation (read: tabloid expose).  Jende loses his job.  The Jonga's asylum application becomes complicated.  And tensions within both families reach the boiling point.

Behold the Dreamers is a rich, textured novel about one immigrant family's experiences during the economic downturn of 2008-2009.  The Jongas are in pursuit of the American Dream - the idea that any person can have a good life if he or she works hard and follows the rules.  It's the dream that I, as a white American citizen, was told my Germanic ancestors crossed the Atlantic for and that presumably is the same dream that pulls twenty-first century emigrants here from all over the world.  But the system is working against the Jongas (immigration/INS, financial, family ties back in Cameroon, institutionalized racism) and it pushes Jende and Neni to make hard choices.  Mbue's omniscient narrator does not judge the characters.  The reader is allowed to determine whether characters' morals or decisions are "bad" or "good" and I really enjoyed that.  Also, the writing is absolutely fabulous.

I wanted perhaps a little bit more closure at the end (no spoilers).  It felt a little one-sided in those last 5-10 pages, in my opinion, but it doesn't take anything away from the book as a whole. I will be thinking about the Jonga family, particularly Neni, for a long time.

Behold the Dreamers is available now in the US wherever books are sold.

Dear FTC: I read most of this book from a digital galley via Edelweiss but it expired so I had to borrow a finished copy from my store.

Mythic, Volume 1 (Issues 1-8) by Phil Hester and John McCrea

Summary from Goodreads:
Science is a lie, an opiate for the masses. The truth is, magic makes the world go 'round. And when magic breaks, MYTHIC fixes it. Apache shaman Waterson, Greek immortal Cassandra, and cell phone salesman Nate Jayadarma are the crack field team assigned with keeping the gears of the supernatural world turning, and more importantly, keeping you from ever knowing about it. Join Eisner nominee PHIL HESTER (Green Arrow, The Coffin) and Eisner winner JOHN McCREA (Hitman, The Boys) on their latest expedition to the dark heart of weird comics. Collects Mythic #1-8.

Mythic is a really fun take on the mythology vs technology divide, similar to what Neil Gaiman did with American Gods but only more cracked out. If that makes sense.  Magic and gods and demons are a real thing, managed by a secret organization of other gods and magic workers to handle incidents.  A bit like the Fables universe from Bill Willingham. The story took a bit to get going, in my opinion, and perhaps that's because Hester and McCrea went really big right away. I sort of had to go with it for a few chapters. Once I had the "villain" figured out and how all the characters were related it was really fun. I'd missed this one in issues so I'm glad Noel pushed this one out for the Graphic Novel group at the store.   (Bonus: Phil came to our Graphic Novel Book Group meeting at the store - he's a local so it was really fun to talk to him about themes and if they're going to write more...and that's a maybe if he and McCrea can get the time to work on it.) Dear FTC: I bought my copy of this book.

Classic Penguin: Cover to Cover by Paul Buckley

Summary from Goodreads:
From Drop Caps to Deluxes, Penguin Creative Director Paul Buckley presents a visual overview of the innovative covers that have put Penguin Classics at the forefront of the book design world

In Classic Penguin: Cover to Cover, Paul Buckley showcases more than ten years of stunning cover designs from Penguin Classics. This curated tour begins with the now-iconic redesign of the signature Penguin Classics black-spine series in 2003 and moves through award-winning series like the Penguin Classics Graphic Deluxe Editions, Penguin Drop Caps, and Penguin Horror. Exhibiting a mesmerizing array of front covers and full cover layouts, Paul Buckley illuminates the unique and inventive approaches to typography, image, and design that grace Penguin’s covers of the best works in literature. Throughout the book, the artists and designers including Chris Ware, Ivan Brunetti, Jillian Tamaki, Jessica Hische, and Ruben Toledo who have collaborated with Penguin Classics offer commentary on the design process. For lovers of classic literature, book design, and all things Penguin, Classic Penguin has you covered.

It's so pretty!!!! I want all the Penguins!!

Even though I have a copy of Penguin 75 I had to have a copy of Classic Penguin.  I love, love, love how Penguin, under the direction of Paul Buckley, have been designing their classics lines.  Black Spines, Drop Caps (oooh, Drop Caps), Graphic Deluxe Editions, Horros, and the forthcoming Galaxy cloth-bound SF/Fantasy editions.  A must-have for classics and graphic design fans, especially since a number of the designers and artists talk about their design process for a number of the books.  (But the Coralie Bickford-Smith cloth-bound designs weren't discussed at all...humph!)

Dear FTC: I bought my copy of this book.

How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly's Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life by Heather Havrilesky

Summary from Goodreads:
Should you quit your day job to follow your dreams? How do you rein in an overbearing mother? Will you ever stop dating wishy-washy, noncommittal guys? Should you put off having a baby for your career?

Heather Havrilesky, the author of the weekly advice column Ask Polly, featured on New York magazine’s The Cut, is here to guide you through the “what if’s” and “I don’t knows” of modern life with the signature wisdom and tough love her readers have come to expect.

How to Be a Person in the World is a collection of never-before-published material along with a few fan favorites. Whether she’s responding to cheaters or loners, lovers or haters, the depressed or the down-and-out, Havrilesky writes with equal parts grace, humor, and compassion to remind you that even in your darkest moments you’re not alone.

Not quite as awesome as Tiny Beautiful Things from the Dear Sugar columns (I 💖 Cheryl Strayed), but How to Be a Person in the World is definitely a solid collection of advice columns.  The Ask Polly tone is much less supportive Den Mom (Dear Sugar tone) and more Here is Some Common Sense.  A good summer read. (And I do hope that the people who wrote in basically asking for permission to cheat on their partners got dumped. What tools.  And that's basically the Ask Polly line.)

Dear FTC: I bought my copy of this book.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2 by JK Rowling, adapted by John Tiffany and Jack Thorne

Summary from Goodreads:
The Eighth Story. Nineteen Years Later.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London’s West End on July 30, 2016.

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

My kingdom for enough money to fly to London and see this live.

OK, so everyone under the sun is going to have a review of HP8.  I'm going to throw out a few thoughts here and otherwise advise you to read it yourself if you want to have an opinion.  I'm going to try not to spoil the plot.

First, I did like this a lot.  I thought it was very intriguing and well-paced (Act II cliff-hanger, whaaaaaat) with a lot of good ideas.  Rowling plays with a lot of themes she couldn't in the original seven books.  What kind of a parent would Harry be and how would he deal with a child both so very different and so very much the same as himself?  How does being "the boy who lived" still weigh on Harry?  How does the legacy weigh on his children?  How do his adult relationships change?

Second, given that this is a play there is no narrator unlike the previous seven books.  All those books - with the exception of the first chapter/prologue of each - were narrated via Harry's limited, and often quite biased, perspective.  With a play, there is no filter.  Each character speaks directly to the reader/audience.  And I find that the most interesting aspect of Cursed Child.  How would the series have turned out if Rowling had used a different type of narrator or shifted the perspective between characters?  Very different, I think.

Third, the stagecraft required of this play is going to be of the mind-bogglingly difficult kind.  I would love to see that set design.  (And the stage directions are very amusing to read.)

Dear FTC: I bought my copy of this book - OF COURSE - after flying back from Atlanta in the morning and working a release party at the bookstore at night.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Summary from Goodreads:
The unforgettable New York Times best seller begins with the story of two half-sisters, separated by forces beyond their control: one sold into slavery, the other married to a British slaver. Written with tremendous sweep and power, Homegoing traces the generations of family who follow, as their destinies lead them through two continents and three hundred years of history, each life indeliably drawn, as the legacy of slavery is fully revealed in light of the present day.

Effia and Esi are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle’s dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast’s booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia’s descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

I missed Yaa Gyasi's signing line at BEA (rats) but I was able to get approved for an Edelweiss galley and for that I am so grateful (Gyasi will be signing at Prairie Lights in October, yay for Iowa Writer's Workshop alums).  This is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

The structure of this novel serves up the plot to perfection.  Once Effia and Esi are introduced in adjacent chapters - in settings both sublimely beautiful and terrible - the plot unfolds through two branches of the family tree.  Every chapter follows a subsequent generation, alternating branches, Effia's line then Esi's line.  Reading other reviews, I noted that some readers were frustrated that Gyasi changed narrators so often. Just when we wish to have more time with a character, we jump branches and generations.  But I thought this was such a good way of representing the pull of time.  The characters cannot go back to have questions answered, to find things that were lost, or make different choices. Time only goes forward.  This was especially true for those chapters set among Esi's descendants who were sold into slavery in the American South - there was no going back to know one's grandparents, or home village, or ancestral tongue.  Brutal.

Homegoing is so well-crafted it's almost unbelievable that this is a debut. This book will break you, in a good way.  Keep the tissues handy.

Dear FTC: I received a digital galley from the publisher via Edelweiss.