MADreads

Sylvie Cathrall's debut is an epistolary novel - a novelistic style that sometimes works for me and sometimes does not. Here it mostly does. I was immediately drawn in by the dreamy, carefully anxious letter that E. is writing to Scholar Henerey Clel. E. (you'll learn her full name later) lives alone in an underwater abode called The Deep House. She writes to Henerey and her sister Sophy and an array of others to stay in contact with the world. This world is one that is about 99% covered in water and most abodes are on floating islands.

London was rife with spiritualists and otherworldly activity in 1873, so much so that entire societies were devoted to connecting the living with the dead. Exclusive men's clubs, like the fictional London Séance Society, were all the rage. Intended as a social club where gentleman met to play cards, drink, and hone their paranormal skills, the London Séance Society also provided outreach services by hosting lectures and demonstrations.

When Billie James inherits a little money, her grandmother's cabin and her dog in Greendale, Mississippi, she decides on a visit in hopes of re-connecting with her past. She has few memories of the rundown (even more so now) Mississippi Delta town and its inhabitants, but has always been curious about the events of her last visit when she was four years old. It was then that her father died in a drunken accident. Or so she was told.

It's fun to see trends in what books are being published, and recently I've noticed a bunch of new and forthcoming children's books about and inspired by bookish people! Authors, illustrators, editors, and especially librarians. 

Bookish people:

Good Books for Bad Children by Beth Kephart, illustrated by Chloe Bristol - A picture book biography of legendary children's book editor, Ursula Nordstrom.