Heart Wants Books

The Daughter of Dr. Moreau

November 17, 2022

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As we’re going into Thanksgiving week mode here at Heart.Wants.Books. We’re doing what our favorite Professional-Permission-Giver Kendra Adachi says over at The Lazy Genius Collective in the Lazy Genius Principle #12: Schedule Rest. And what better way to schedule rest during the Thanksgiving holiday week than by planning to curl up with Veronica and Stoker on their next mystery adventure, A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn! Then plan to join us on Friday, December 9, at 7:30 PM CST for our raucous discussion by registering here!

Silvia Moreno-Garcia from SilviaMoreno-Garcia.com credit Martin Dee

Back in December 2020 Heart.Wants.Books. Reviewed Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It was on both of our top five books of 2020 list. In May of 2021, we reviewed her backlist title Gods of Jade and Shadow for Mythology in May which became one of my top four fiction favorites for last year. WITH ALL OF THIS BEING SAID, it should come as no surprise that The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is a STRONG contender for the Best Of in 2022! Moreno-Garcia, at least according to her awards-heavy website biography, still lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her next novel, Silver Nitrate, is slated to be released in July 2023. Go ahead and put this novel of horror films, mystery, and magic on your TBR. We’re sure to read along with you.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is 342 pages of delicious prose, the retelling of the 1896 H.G. Wells science fiction novel The Island of Doctor Moreau, set in the Yucatan wilderness in the year 1877. Wells’ tale is the story of a shipwrecked man left on the island of a mad scientist who creates human-animal hybrid creatures by using vivisection. Moreno-Garcia also uses philosophical and religious themes including pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity, and human’s interference with nature. I particularly loved her subtle digs at the patriarchy by focusing on man’s desire for god-hood and man’s superiority over women and animals. She also brings in 1870’s Mexican politics and social themes with the native Mayan revolts. The entire impetus of Dr. Moreau’s experiments was to create a workforce that would be both capable and docile for farms and factories without being required to pay a wage. (Hmm, where have we heard of that concept before? The patriarchy is gross.) All of these heavy themes are so well woven into the story of Dr. Moreau’s daughter Carlota and small hacienda in the vivid, overgrown jungle. I thought about how on one of the cruises Adam and I took we could have swum in a cenote, just like Carlota and her staunch protector Montgomery Laughton, but didn’t. The view from the top was spectacular and so is my regret.

Even though I don’t see myself re-reading this July 2022 release, I’m hesitant to give less than a 5 star review to The Daughter of Doctor Moreau for all the reasons I stated above. This season pass author is here to stay on my TBR list, because anything new will be recommended to the library immediately. I have several backlist titles to get through, but I don’t think I’ll re-read any of her titles in the near future. It’s hard to give five stars to a title I won’t re-read, but I know that I’ll read and recommend anything else she writes. The STRUGGLE. IS. REAL. So, we’ll say 4.5 and rounded up to 5.

What retelling of a classic novel has given you pause for thought about historical AND current issues?

~Ashley

What’s more comfortable to read than a season pass author?! I don’t even know. Shocking no one, I have a few titles by Silvia Moreno Garcia on my holds list, and as Ashley mentioned, so far, they’re all at least contenders for favorites of the year, and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is no different.

When The Daughter of Doctor Moreau opens, Dr. Moreau needs a new mayordomo and his patron brings Montgomery into the mix. He and Carlota narrate the book, and I adored reading from both perspectives. Carlota is young, trusting, and her piece is very much a coming of age story as she learns some hard truths about the world in which she lives. Montgomery has lived a bit of life, made some bad choices, and is wiser, and jaded, as a result, so he’s just trying to work and pay off his debts. The back and forth of these two perspectives and how Moreno Garcia writes them both is simply gorgeous. I haven’t been to a cenote, but thanks to her picturesque descriptions, I have a very clear image in my head. And then there’s the story, which is phenomenal! The first part is a quiet domestic scene to build the world, and then we are off with all the ills that plague the world of Dr. Moreau, both in his home and in the world. I don’t want to say more, but how the plot unfolds might be my favorite part!

Like Ashley, I’m giving The Daughter of Doctor Moreau 4.5 stars, because a 5 star read needs to be reread, in my opinion, and that is the only thing holding me back. That said, I do think a reread would be a very fun hang to see all those Easter eggs in perfect clarity. I’m VERY excited for Moreno Garcia’s next title, and delighted we still have more of her backlist to read.

Who is a season pass author for you, and what would you recommend we consider reading and reviewing from them?

~Nikki

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Book Review

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

November 10, 2022

Words. Words. Words. We’re so ready to talk to you about words! Specifically the words of Deanna Raybourn as we continue reading and discussing her Veronica Speedwell Mystery Series of books at Virtual Book Club! Join Heart.Wants.Books. By registering here as we gather on Friday, December 9th at 7:30pm CDT to dissect book number three, A Treacherous Curse. Nikki will probably be re-reading books 1 and 2 on audio before we discuss book 3 and Ashley plans on going into book 3 without a re-read. However neither of us recommends starting this series with the title we’re discussing. Spoilers will abound! So, get reading!

This may come as a shock to you, darling readers, but Cloud Cuckoo Land is the first Anthony Doerr book I have read. A surprising admission for you, I am sure, since you all know I read oh so many books and All The Light We Can Not See has been such a bestseller – 200 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2015 – among numerous other awards and accolades, and is being released as a limited series by Netflix in the near future. Not only is Doerr a novelist, he has written a memoir – Four Seasons in Rome, and his short stories have been published in multiple anthologies and have won O. Henry awards for short fiction. His works have been published into 40 different languages, and if you want more specific information, I suggest you read the biography on his website. He lives with his family in Boise, Idaho.

In the 637 pages there unfolds three timelines and five points of view all centered around an ancient Greek novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land, that has been read, enjoyed, preserved, and translated repeatedly over hundreds of years. Doerr’s story is about… stories. The way they are told to us, either orally or through written or printed words. How we communicate to each other about the story – the story passing through each of our memories and experiences where we glean our own interpretation. Or the shared experience of listening to the story with a loved one for the first time, and how sometimes the reason the story exists in the first place was to ensnare the imagination into leaving reality for just a short period of time. How the power of story can save us, and how one story changes the lives of everyone it touches over the course of centuries can in itself become a story.

The most telling thing about this book, however, is that it is dedicated to librarians: then, now, and in the years to come. They are the preservationists of freedom of thought and expression as well as bastions of kindness and tolerance in a world that doesn’t seem to value those things. More importantly it’s a world that doesn’t seem to want those values to be found together in the same place or in the same persons – a kind, caring, tolerant person who also values freedom of thought and expression for everyone else? Eureka, a truly good human being, is a librarian!

I am giving Cloud Cuckoo Land a 4.5 star review, rounded up to five. I probably won’t re-read it, but I’m certainly going to read Doerr’s other works and recommend them to everyone I know who loves stories and how they find themselves to us – usually through a kind, tolerant librarian. This book certainly made me think about stories, about technology, about climate change, but mostly about the way we treat each other as humans and how stories can bring even the most disparate persons together.

What piece of fiction has connected you to another person in a surprising way?

~Ashley

P.S. Go Hug A Librarian.

As some of you may recall, this is not my first, but my third title to read by Anthony Doerr. I first read All The Light We Can Not See which is where I fell in love with Doerr’s writing and storytelling, and also developed immense side eye for the way he structured the novel combined with the (lack of sufficient) labeling of the chapters. Read: I had to go back to the table of contents during almost every chapter transition to figure out where we were in the timeline compared to the last chapter, and yes, I’m still bitter. I’ve also read, and adored, his memoir Four Seasons in Rome, which thank goodness is linear. I’m definitely here for reading the rest of Doerr’s backlist and anything else he wants to gift us in the future, just know it could require more brain cells than you have during tech week of your child’s play. (Just me, it’s fine.)

Just as I expected, I adored Cloud Cuckoo Land! Yes, it’s a 600+ page book, but not a one of those pages, paragraphs, or sentences is a waste. Ashley already told you about the story, but I want to add that those three timelines she mentioned cover range from the 1400s to the 2400s, and they’re all very well labeled, somewhat linear, and very connected. Despite the linear nature of the story, Doerr pretty bluntly tells you the ending well before you get there, if you only notice, and for this anxious reader who sometimes needs a reminder that not all books adhere to a formula, it was the best! There were characters to root for, lots of plot to move them along for readers who just keep reading. Yes, I’m confessing that about 10% in I was wondering what in the world was going on, then at about 15% it clicked and the rest of the book was just a fantastic ride!

I’m also giving Cloud Cuckoo Land a 4.5 star review, rounded up to five. I was delighted by the linear timeline, and am even more excited to see what adventure Doerr brings us next! If you’re intimidated by structure or length in a novel, perhaps pick up the memoir first to immerse yourself in Doerr’s picturesque, gorgeous writing, and then see where it leads you.

What’s a novel that confused you until you connected the dots?

~Nikki

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First Monday

No Rules November 2022

November 7, 2022

The holiday season already getting you down as you think about all the things you should do? Us too, that’s why we are planning to revisit our friends Veronica and Stoker for Virtual Book Club on Friday, December 9 at 7:30 p.m. CST. Join us to find out what mystery will be posed for these two to solve, as we escape together to Victorian England to find out. Don’t forget to sign up right HERE and secure your copy of A Treacherous Curse (Veronica Speedwell #3). And consider if you want to reread, as we hear they make a fun listen too while you’re marking those tasks off your list!

Darling readers, you know what we enjoy in our reading lives on occasion? A good free for all, so here it is: No Rules November! That’s right, we said no rules, but we always have our guiding principles of course. Those included mostly the usuals, definitely not shoulding on ourselves, but only reading titles we both are interested in, bonus points for titles Nikki has on hold, and diversity in our authors. From there, we just went with it, and so far, I hope you’ve enjoyed it, because we sure have. It’s going to pair nicely with our Kindle Unlimited Free For All that will kick up very soon (after we get through our list below), and give us a nice comfortable ramp to slide into December’s Comfort Reads. As the planners, and overachievers we are, the rest of the year is planned out and readers, I’m so excited to share these titles with you in the coming weeks.

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno Garcia

How are you planning your reading life to support or compliment your real life during this season of the year?

~Ashley & Nikki

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Book Review•Women's History

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher

November 4, 2022

Now that we’ve left the celebration of witches behind, I am so ready to curl up with Veronica and Stoker for another adventure. While an adventure it will be, cozy is definitely the vibe of A Treacherous Curse, and it’s perfect for the hustle and bustle of the last month or two of the year. I’m planning a reread of the first two titles in the series before diving into our aforementioned Virtual Book Club title we’d love to discuss with you on Friday, December 9 at 7:30 p.m. CST. Don’t forget to sign up right HERE and secure your copy of A Treacherous Curse (Veronica Speedwell #3) with plenty of time for you to enjoy it beforehand.

Welcome to my confession dear readers. I was scared to read The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher. Our celebration of witches has been full of amazing tales of powerful women and I was scared this story of an independent woman in the 1920s was going to be gut wrenching and just plain sad. It was and it wasn’t, AND, truly, it was like a warm hug. To dive into a world of literature that was already vaguely familiar, and hear some of the (fictional) antics of the (very real) characters in a city I adore and long to return to was so special. And that doesn’t even get us to the real star of the novel, Sylvia Beach, our protagonist.

Miss Beach grew up in a household of sisters with a missionary father, and spent some of her most formative years in Paris, enjoying all the City of Lights has to offer. She adores a French bookstore she discovers in the Latin Quarter and finds much inspiration there and with its proprietor before her family returns to the US. After working hard to support the Suffrage movement, and during the Great War, she moves back to Paris, the city that’s always had a hold on her, and determines her true passion, the work her soul needs, is to run an English language bookstore in Paris, with the help and support of the proprietor of it’s French inspiration, Adrienne, and the friends she’s made there.

As one does in Paris in the 1920s, Sylvia befriends many literary greats of the time, the names we all know. Readers experience the journey Sylvia embarks as a female business owner in an enlightened city, living her best life, while the US goes through a moral experiment that feels all too familiar to this modern reader. That’s right, prohibition plus the continued restrictions on who is allowed to love who romantically, and what authors are allowed to say in books, none of which are factors in Paris. Please calgon, take me away!

Sylvia’s plights in The Paris Bookseller are real, and include family and romantic drama, business struggles, and even in an enlightened place and time, the patriarchy tries to keep a strong, independent woman down. But all throughout, her determination and perseverance are inspiring, as are the many lush descriptions of the sights and sounds of Paris. Reading this title made me long to return to the city and visit (or revisit) some of the places Sylvia frequented, attempting to see the city as it was a century ago.

I’m giving The Paris Bookseller 4.5 stars for a gorgeous story, picturesque writing, and an overall calm, uplifting reading experience. I am going to round up, as this has potential for one of my favorite books of the year. I may reread it, hopefully as I’m planning a future trip to Paris, and I will definitely continue to follow Maher’s work.

What’s a book that surprised you with the reading experience?

~Nikki

Let’s take a ride in my time machine to May of 2020 when Heart.Wants.Books. First reviewed a title by Kerri Maher, her 2018 debut novel The Kennedy Debutante. I discussed how author Maher lives with her family outside of Boston, how she had just published The Girl in White Gloves about Hollywood starlet turned Princess Grace Kelly, and how she was working on another title, The Paris Bookseller. So, here we are two and a half years later discussing that 2020 work in progress! Two things of note that have changed regarding her bio. There’s mention of a 2013 memoir called This is Not a Writing Manual written under the name Kerri Majors that chronicles Maher’s journey through the writing life for those budding authors who have lots of questions about what that’s like. Additionally, there is the fact that she’s the founder of the award-winning YA literary magazine, YARN. According to her website, Maher is also working on another historical fiction novel set to release in 2023, but we don’t have any other details besides that. Phew. All caught up.

Remember, Darling Readers, Paris is always a good idea. And so it didn’t take much effort (any at all really) to convince Nikki that we needed to armchair travel to the City of Lights. I have always felt that I ‘should on’ myself as regards literature of the 1920’s with the fact that I don’t feel I have read enough works or authors to be judgemental about it. Coupled with the few works or authors I have read and the fact I didn’t particularly enjoy them. (Here’s looking at you, Hemingway.) I thought perhaps reading about Sylvia Beach and her English language bookstore of Shakespeare and Company, where all of these American expat authors congregated for one reason or another, would give me a knowledge base and appreciation for the time period that I didn’t have before. I am pleased to acknowledge that it has. Reading fictional accounts about a bookstore owner and publisher, and the adventures and clout she had within the literary scene of the time was truly a delight.

While reading about Sylvia Beach’s daily small business struggles and the headaches of publishing such a writer as James Joyce in the times before digital backups (egads!), what really stuck out to me was the French cultural norms that Sylvia adopted. Like long lunch times where the shop was closed to customers and extended holidays, for weeks at a time, often multiple times a year. I am amazed how Sylvia did it with just one part-time shop assistant and whatever typists she needed for publishing James Joyce’s Ulysses. Reading about her private relationship with Adrienne Monnier and how that played out in public and professionally was an interesting hook that kept me going.

I’m going to give The Paris Bookseller a solid 4 star review, mostly because I don’t see myself re-reading this book. It has definitely re-ignited my desire to read titles by and about the famous authors of the 1920s and 1930s, and as always, made my desire to return to Paris to re-ignite ten-fold.

~Ashley

P.S. The current Shakespeare and Company Bookstore in Paris is NOT the same one that we read about in Maher’s work. But, there is a fabulous and short history of the current shop on their website here.

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