Ride On by Faith Erin Hicks, First Second. Aug. 2022. 224p. Tr $22.99. ISBN 9781250772817.
VERDICT A “perfect ride” of a graphic novel that shows that there really is something special about horse friends.
Follow the link above to learn more.
The Force of Such Beauty by novelist Barbara Bourland
[A] smart, absorbing novel, with a heroine, Caroline, who’s naïve but strong-willed. A former Olympic-level marathon runner from South Africa, she’s seduced by her lavish life until the fantasy fractures and becomes a nightmare.
Follow the link above to learn more.
You write that when you went to space, “there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold... all I saw was death. I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness.” How surprised were you by that?
William Shatner: I was struck dumb. I was absolutely gobsmacked because I’ve been amazed by the miracles of space for a long time. And I saw none of that in that blackness. All I saw was what I described in that quote. And it came as a shock because I had just been looking at Earth as we were leaving it, and I was thinking, my God, look how beautiful it is.
Follow the link above to learn more.
Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder by William Shatner, with Joshua Brandon. Atria, $28 (256p) ISBN 978-1-66800-732-7
Shatner’s curiosity shines through as he leavens the seriousness of his lifelong quest for meaning with his signature self-effacing humor…The result is a refreshingly self-aware portrait of a man determined to live every moment to the fullest.
Follow the link above to learn more.
Barbara Bourland, The Force of Such Beauty (Dutton)
This is a fascinating novel about bodies, the way we use them, and the way we break them. It’s one of several works to come out this year concerned with the appropriation of female beauty by powerful men, and examines a harsh choice in the lives of women dubbed desirable by the patriarchal state: do you participate, or do you say no? But let’s backtrack here: what’s this book actually about? It’s about an olympic athlete failed by the same body that propelled her to success, who finds herself falling in love with the heir apparent of a small kingdom suspiciously similar to Monaco or Luxembourg, then falling under the sway of his powerful mother and ministers. She soon realizes her new life is just as regimented, and affords just as few choices, as her time training as an elite runner. Barbara Bourland is skilled at finding the noir in the everyday, and illustrating the mechanisms of control that keep us in our place.
Follow the link above to learn more.
Ride On by Faith Erin Hicks
Horse lovers unite! This sweet middle graphic novel is perfect for the equine fan in your life. Coupled with gorgeous illustrations, Ride On is a charming story of friendship, self-discovery, and of course, plenty of horses.
Follow the link above to learn more.
Essay by Barbara Bourland
Lately I have needed novels that not only keep but wholly command my attention, which means most books are out. I don’t have the emotional bandwidth for a tender friendship or the patience to follow a trail to a dead body. I can’t bear to hope for an alternate universe—and I don’t want to read about the one I’m currently in, either. None of the usual formats are even remotely sufficient. I need to be captured, made into an active reader, solve a puzzle from the get-go in a world that looks like one thing but is gradually revealed to be another. I want tricks of the light, sleight of hand—anything that keeps my eyes on the ball. I want to follow a primary narrative underwritten with a heretofore invisible girding, doubling or tripling the meaning of everything that came before it. To sense the mystery right up front—then never quite catch it, not until the last page.
Coincidentally, this is also what I try to write.
Follow the link above to learn more.
Rich in emotion and luscious descriptions, The Force of Such Beauty is a careful dismantling of royalty that leaves readers wondering if any fairy tale is worth our desire.
The Force of Such Beauty by Barbara Bourland
Bourland draws inspiration from real-life royalty and the fantasies that are constructed for the outside world, in particular the lives of Charlene, Princess of Monaco, Diana, Princess of Wales and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Rich in emotion and luscious descriptions, The Force of Such Beauty is a careful dismantling of royalty that leaves readers wondering if any fairy tale is worth our desire.
Follow the link above to learn more.
The Force of Such Beauty grips with the strength of an Olympian and holds it with the endurance of a marathoner. Bourland’s passionate storytelling transmogrifies into an insatiable urge to keep reading Caroline’s story even after its end — an ending that actually caught my breath, not once, but twice in quick succession.
The Force of Such Beauty by Barbara Bourland (Dutton)
The Force of Such Beauty opens on the night of Caroline’s second attempt at escaping Lucomo, the small European country in which she became a princess. But author Barbara Bourland quickly jumps back in time to reveal every excruciating and exhilarating detail that led to this moment. Once caught up, the story sadistically marches on to the very end of Caroline’s breathtaking story.
Follow the link above to learn more.
Here are a few new books to read under a beach umbrella or atop a hammock.
‘The Force of Such Beauty,’ by Barbara Bourland (Dutton, July 19)
This is not your grandma’s fairy tale. Former world-record-holding Olympic athlete Caroline marries Finn, the prince of an idyllic seaside kingdom. As she transforms into an international symbol of femininity, becoming the wife and mother her new homeland demands, the luxurious trappings quickly become a prison. Even her physical body, which once carried her powerfully through competitions, becomes something other people admire and control. Influenced by the struggles of real-life princesses, Bourland’s brilliant satire skewers the theatrics of power, excessive materialism and economic corruption.
Follow the link above to learn more.
Maybe you're the kind of person who doesn't pick their next read based on the weather. But some of us reach for a specific type of book to read in the summer. More than a genre, a summer read is a mood: A book that's breezy and transfixing, able to hold our attention as we enjoy the outdoors.
The Force of Such Beauty by Barbara Bourland
Falling in love with a prince is not a fairy tale, as the protagonist of this engrossing novel discovers. Caroline is a former Olympian-turned-princess of a small European country. Her role becomes more like a trap; her husband, more like a captor. Bourland said she was inspired by real-life royals when writing this novel set in pre-recession Europe.
Follow the link above to learn more.
Ride On by Faith Erin Hicks
Faith Erin Hicks (NAMELESS CITY trilogy) tackles friends and horses.
Follow the link above to learn more.
Though Victoria loves horses, getting riding time requires hours of labor at Waverly Stables to afford it, and she doesn’t care enough about high-level competitions to devote so much time. Edgebrook might not be as fancy a facility, but she can ride without pressure there, and Edgebrook’s regulars—Hazel, Norrie, and Sam—offer her a different, more expansive kind of friendship than what she was getting from her horse-girl friends. Hicks has a keen eye for facial expressions and body language, which she uses to great effect here, making the emotional turns of the plot feel deeply grounded. And of course, there are plenty of affectionate and graceful portrayals of horses. Even if readers aren’t obsessed with horses, Victoria’s realization that she won’t be able to sustain her passion at a competitive level will resonate, and it’s refreshing to see that reality played out on the page. Hicks, with colors by Fitzpatrick, vividly renders Hazel, Sam, and Norrie, who enliven the story, and their shared love for a geeky sci-fi TV show helps Victoria find a new way to connect with peers. Stories about shifting friendships for the middle-grade set are common, but Hicks gives her uncommon depth, thanks to multifaceted and distinctive characters, nuanced conversations about passion and privilege, and heartening emotional growth. A solid, well-wrought comic for fans of character-driven stories and, naturally, anyone obsessed with riding horses.
Follow the link above to learn more.
Strong characterizations and polished digital art distinguish Hicks’s pleasurable graphic novel of building friendship through shared devotion. As summer ends, best friends Hazel and Norrie, along with laid-back Sam, the only boy rider at Edgewood Stables, are intrigued by the arrival of a skilled new rider, Victoria, to Edgewood. Droll, quiet Hazel recognizes Victoria from a schooling show at upscale Waverly Stables, prompting chatty Norrie to conclude that Victoria was sent to infiltrate Edgewood. Indifferent to Norrie’s welcome (“I’m here to ride, that’s it”) and subsequent irritation and shunning, Victoria remains focused on training a young gelding while healing from a friendship breakup with a privileged and demanding Waverly rider. When the Edgewood trio discovers that Victoria shares their fondness for vintage sci-fi show Beyond the Galaxy, Victoria’s iciness begins to thaw, and the riders bond while discovering strength in supporting each other. Featuring funny dialogue (“Let the shunning commence!”) and Hicks’s (Comics Will Break Your Heart) signature art—including sharply rendered horses in motion—this attentively layered, low-stakes graphic novel is told with an insider’s understanding of both stable culture and fandom. Sam reads as Black, Norrie cues as South Asian, and Hazel and Victoria present as white. Ages 10–14. Agent: Bernadette Baker-Baughman, Victoria Sanders & Assoc. (Aug.)
Follow the link above to learn more.
As we head towards the peak of summer, it’s never been a better time to chill out in the A/C or poolside with a good book. Whether you’re looking for a breezy summer romance, a thoughtful novel spanning generations, or a fresh perspective on a true story, July’s book releases have plenty to offer every reader. Here’s what we’ve got on our TBR list this month.
The Force of Such Beauty: A Novel
Becoming royalty isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Inspired by tales of real-life women who married into royal families, only to find their lives strictly controlled, Barbara Bourland’s novel follows a former Olympian whose career ends with a single, devastating accident. She meets and falls in love with a charming prince, but she soon discovers the cracks beneath the surface in his tiny, hyper-controlled, glamorous-on-the-surface principality. Release date: July 19
Follow the link above to learn more.
The CrimeReads editors select the month’s best new fiction in crime, mystery, and thrillers.
Barbara Bourland, The Force of Such Beauty (Dutton)
I’d describe this one as “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” if it was written from the perspective of Grace Kelly or Lady Di. A former Olympic athlete, body broken from overtraining, meets the handsome heir to a small kingdom and becomes his blushing bride. Soon, her nuptial bliss turns to waking nightmare, as her husband and her mother-in-law conspire to control every dollar in the kingdom and every moment of the new princess’s life.–MO
Follow the link above to learn more.
Caroline, a former marathon runner who dropped out of school at fourteen to pursue an Olympic medal, was the perfect candidate for a tiara: shapely, disciplined, accustomed to public attention, and utterly uneducated.
After she meets Finn, the handsome prince of a small European kingdom, her fate is sealed. With a collar of pearls locked around her throat and a rope of diamonds leashing her to a balcony, Caroline uses her once-powerful body to smile, wave, and produce children with perfect grace.
But once she begins to open her eyes to the world around her—and examine her own reflection—Caroline discovers that she may have entered a bargain that cannot be undone.
Follow the link above to learn more.
Andrea Oliver, who featured in Karin Slaughter’s recent Netflix series Pieces of Her, has no sooner qualified as a US marshal than she gets a high-profile assignment protecting a judge targeted with death threats. But the job’s not as straightforward as that.
The forgotten girl is the judge’s teenage daughter, Emily, who was pregnant (father uncertain) when she was battered to death on prom night 40 years ago. No one caught the killer. And no one knows that Andrea’s father is an infamous psychopath now in prison. He just happens to have grown up in Longbill Beach, where Andrea finds herself, and to have been close friends with Emily. Girl, Forgotten neatly braids together events from 1982, when Emily and her clique took acid, with Andrea’s probing of small-town past and present.
Helped by her new mentor, the splendidly named Catfish Bible, she uncovers more bodies of women, as patterns of violence that have long been concealed begin to reveal themselves. Slaughter relies less on real surprises to hold the attention than she does on page-turning qualities, which this effortlessly accomplished thriller has in keen-edged spadefuls.
Follow the link above to learn more.