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On this episode, we discuss the eighth prompt in the Books and Bites 2022 Reading Challenge, novellas. These short novels of 200 pages or less are just the right size for reading in one sitting or trying something new. We've got something for everyone with cozy SciFi, a creature feature, and a dark fairy tale that both teens and adults will enjoy.
Books and Bites
JCPL librarians bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them.
BB 8_22
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[00:00:00] Carrie: Welcome to the Books and Bites podcast. Each month we bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them. I'm Carrie Green and I'm here with my co-hosts Jacqueline Cooper and Michael Cunningham.
[00:00:14] Michael: Hello.
[00:00:15] Jacqueline: Hi
everybody.
[00:00:17] Carrie: Today, we're talking about the eighth prompt in the 2022 Books and Bites Reading Challenge
novellas. And from what I've read, the definition from novella is based purely on length. Generally it's anything under 200 pages. So this prompt is fairly open as far as genre. I think you can pretty much find anything you want to read that's under that. Although it can be a little more challenging than just finding a regular novel, because I think a lot of publishers don't wanna publish a novella because it's shorter or something.
What do you all think?
[00:01:01] Michael: Yeah, I feel like most of the novellas you see, tend to be either small presses instead of these, you know, being a Random House and bigger publishers. I don't know why that is. Money?
[00:01:16] Jacqueline: Yeah. Yeah. I think so too. I, the book I actually found is only published as an ebook because it is like around a hundred pages and it wasn't there isn't a book edition, so I could see where that would be more economical for the publishers.
[00:01:33] Carrie: And
I actually, I think now that you say that, I think some big writers will self-publish their own novellas, you know, as like eBooks or whatever, or even short stories, they'll pub you know, self-publish those, and maybe it's because they're, they can't get a traditional publisher for it, but it does seem like there would be a market for it.
People like to read, you know, everybody's so busy, reading a novella's kind of nice cause it's
[00:02:00] Michael: oh, yeah
You could just read it in one seating or, I mean, you can get more done in a year. So you feel like you're reading
[00:02:08] Carrie: yeah
[00:02:08] Michael: a lot of books.
[00:02:10] Jacqueline: I think with the young adult genre, I don't know if maybe there's not as big a market for it, unless it's just like, so like the one I chose is like the 1.5 of the series and they, that tends to be what happens in the YA literature.
I guess, partly as I was looking around, I was kind of, you know, wondering about the definition of short story versus novella and it didn't seem like it was, there was a clear difference to me. What did you guys think?
[00:02:43] Carrie: Well, I think novella's kind of in between a short story and a novel, but I don't know what the exact page number is.
Yeah.
[00:02:52] Michael: I mean, I've seen some short stories that almost yo know, approach novella length. Like, you know, 60 to 80 pages, but, you know, I guess it just depends on the publisher. Cause sometimes they'll, they'll take that, you know, like a novel or something and place it with other short stories to make like a collection I've noticed.
So I guess it, I don't know. I think it's a very
subjective.
[00:03:21] Jacqueline: Oh, that's true. Sometimes I've seen where they've tacked it on to. The last of the book or something I have seen, I have seen that. Yeah. In the past.
[00:03:31] Michael: I know Steven King has like a collection of novellas that's published as, as a big book.
Mm-hmm but like, you know,
[00:03:41] Carrie: or it will be included with other short stories
sometimes too.
[00:03:45] Michael: Yeah.
[00:03:45] Jacqueline: An anthology of short stories. Is
[00:03:49] Carrie: just, well, usually by like by one author yeah.
[00:03:53] Jacqueline: By one author.
[00:03:53] Carrie: Yeah. And also, I think a lot of the classics you may have read in school are actually novellas, like Animal Farm that you were talking about.
We were talking about earlier, The Great Gatsby is a novella. The awakening is a novella,
[00:04:12] Michael: The Old Man and the Sea.
[00:04:13] Carrie: Yeah. The Old Man and the Sea. I think. And I think that's partly because that's what they choose for younger audiences is the shorter works. So you've probably read a lot of novellas even if you didn't realize it.
Okay. Well I can't believe that we're on the eighth challenge of the Books and Bites, reading challenge.
[00:04:36] Michael: This year is flying.
[00:04:37] Carrie: It is flying. So we have some good recommendations for you for this month. So stay tuned.
So the book I chose is A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. A Psalm for the Wild-Built is dedicated "to anybody who could use a break," which after two and a half years of pandemic life and social upheaval must include a lot of people. I know it includes me and I can say that this book was exactly what I needed to read right now.
You may have heard me or former books and bites cohost, Melissa Coulston talk about Chambers' Wayfarer series, which kicked off with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. That series of cozy sci-fi features an interspecies ensemble cast traveling through space. A Psalm for the Wild-Built has a similar cozy feel, but it focuses on two main characters, a monk and a robot. Dex is a monk from the only city in Panga.
Dex, who uses they pronouns, feels dissatisfied with their life even though Penga is "a healthy place, a thriving place, a never ending harmony of making, doing, growing, trying, laughing, running, living." More than anything decks wants to hear crickets. They decide to become a village tea monk and travel from place to place, offering tea and sympathy, or rather empathy to all who need it. With hard work Dex becomes good at this new job, but they still feel dissatisfied and empty and they still can't hear crickets. Dex learns that
one of the few places where crickets still exist is at the hermitage, the ruins of an old monastery. Though the hermitage is in a wild area uninhabited by humans, Dex decides to travel there. On his first night of camping in the wild Dex is startled by a robot named Splendid Speckled Moss Cap. Dex has never seen a robot before. Moss cap who lives in the half of Panga
that is designated for robots, has never seen a human before. Moss Cap has been sent by its fellow robots to learn what humans need. Moss Cap, who towers over Dex, is much more excited to meet Dex than Dex is to meet Moss Cap. Nevertheless, Dex allows Moss Cap to join them. And what follows is an inter-species buddy journey through a beautiful forest.
Dex and Moss Cap learn about each other and themselves along the way. And the book asks important questions about the nature of happiness, work and purpose, as well as about the ethics of human created consciousness. As in the Wayfarer series, the world building in this book is the kind I prefer, where you are dropped into this other world without too much explanation.
In fact, chambers purposely leave some aspects mysterious. We know for instance, that at some point in the past, the robots took over all the human factory jobs. And we know that there was some sort of transition where robots had an awakening and the humans allowed them to leave. The specifics are left unsaid--perhaps to be revealed in later books.
With A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Chambers, ask the questions, what kind of a world do I want to live in? And how do I want to live in it? Her answers offer a hopeful vision for all of us. The book's short length feels right for the subject matter, but I, for one, am glad that the second book in the series, A Prayer for the Crown Shy, just came out.
I look forward to spending more time with Dex and Moss Cap. In his life as a tea monk, Dex custom blends teas for his clients. While we don't have the Pangan herb mountain time, we do have other varieties of time that make excellent teas. According to the book, Homegrown Tea: An Illustrated Guide to Planting, Harvesting, and Blending Teas
and Tissanes, thyme may help with colds, coughs, stress, and depression. Fresh lemon and orange thyme make especially good teas, and you can blend them with ginger or other herbs and serve the tea hot or cold. I tried it with lemon thyme and ginger, and it was soothing and delicious. For specific instructions for ginger thyme tea, visit gastroplant.com.
We'll link to the recipe on our blog
[00:09:47] Michael: so that, so it's like cozy sci-fi?
[00:09:50] Carrie: Yes.
[00:09:50] Michael: Wow.
[00:09:50] Carrie: Sci-fi , it's, it's a whole genre within a genre.
[00:09:57] Michael: What? I didn't know
that existed.
[00:09:59] Carrie: Yeah. I didn't either until Melissa, I think talked about a, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet on the podcast and I later listened to it on audio and really liked it.
It kind of focused on, you know, the kind of issues that I like to read about, which is more like relationships and you know, how people communicate with each other. And, but, you know, it's like interspecies and in this other world. And I also like how in that book and in this book, you know, she deals with some topics like gender, you know, this character is non-binary.
And uses they pronouns and it sort of helps me to become used to some of those issues in this kind of you know, non-threatening way that makes you think about things, you know, like I said you know, she's really talking about the nature of like, what is our purpose here? And, and also, you know, this, this land that really, you know, they had something really awful happened.
We don't quite know what it is yet, but they came out from it on the other side and came out better. And I just feel like, you know, the news is so hopeless right now that it really helps to read something like that.
[00:11:26] Michael: Yeah.
[00:11:27] Jacqueline: That reminds me of a book that I, that kind of, that I just read. Mm-hmm it's, it's an older book, so it doesn't have
the pronoun is issues, but it does have the, the inter species and the taking over of like the elimination of planets and people trying to find love with, within other species and stuff. It'ss called. I Am Number Four. It is a YA book of Pitticus Lore. And that kind of, when you're talking about that, that brought that book into mind.
Of it wasn't necessarily cozy though. LIttle less cozy, more sci-fi but, but parts of it reminded me of that.
[00:12:10] Carrie: Yeah. Cool.
[00:12:20] Jacqueline: My recommendation for a novella is Holly Black's The Lost Sisters. Does the title sound like a fairytale from Grimm brothers or Charles Perrault? I think it does. However, unlike old tales, this author wrote these tales. Whereas other tales were told from person to person in the oral tradition. Black is a master storyteller.
She weaves the essence of fairy tales into these stories. She begins this story in very much the oral tradition. Often oral tradition, fairy tales, or folklores have animals with magical powers or tricksters. This novella begins with the main character Taryn, who is a human living in fairy land, recounting her tale to her twin. Taryn
is twin sister to Jude, and they also have an older sister Vivian, who is a half sister. And she's a fairy, unlike Taryn and Jude. In this story, Taryn says she's sorry about what happened between her and her sister. In the first book of the Folk of the Air series, which is The Cruel Prince. Both human girls worry about finding their place in this fairy land because neither of them have fairy blood.
They both choose different paths to find their place. Jude chooses to become part of the fairy guard, using her sword to be she wants to be a, a guard. But Taryn chooses love. However, her choice affects Jude in a major way. In an effort to win her place by marriage, she does not warn Jude that her lover Locke is using Jude to test her love by courting Jude.
The novel is Taryn's story of her and Locke's romance and her explanation of how and why she stood by and let Locke break her sister's heart. Although Black is, in my opinion, one of the best YA young authors we have right now in the fantasy genre. I'm not sure if this novella could stand on its own. Since I have read this series before I read this novella, I get all the references to the other characters from the book, but I'm not sure everyone would. That said, I still recommend this to anyone who likes books about fairies and fairy tales.
The book begins with the story of Mr. Fox as a tale that she begins telling her sister. Mr. Fox marries young women for financial gain.However, a young girl he's about to marry is curious and she visits Mr. Fox's house. When she enters the gate, she becomes across a message written throughout the grounds of the home.
The first message says, be bold, be bold, but not too bold. This tale is very much a warning, like many fairy tales. There is a lesson or a moral. The intelligent, curious, and bold girl discovers that Mr. Fox is a blue beard. Her curiosity, and her boldness helps her discover that her future husband is a murderer.
Taryn goes on to explain that the murder girls were also bold because they trusted the wrong people and died, but she doesn't think that Jude will feel that way. But because she chose marriage like they did, she relates to them. She says, she's sorry. And she wants to explain how everything happened. She says she will apologize when she can figure out how to have Jude accept her apology.
Black then has Taryn talk about her mother's story, another human woman who marries a fairy person. Taryn tells you that she will tell her a love story. Or she asks her, is it a horror story? Quote, let's start with a love story or perhaps a horror story. It seems like the difference is mostly where the ending comes in.
Taryn begins her explanation with her mother's story. She believes that they need to learn the lessons from their mother, Ava, who was bold, but not too bold unless your heart's blood run cold. The quote that runs throughout the story be bold, but not too bold. She tells her sister, Jude that she won't make the same mistakes.
She knows the lessons from the stories stay on the past. Don't trust wolves, don't steal things, share your food, but don't trust people who share their food. Taryn tells her sister that she won't be tricked like her mother and she knows what she wants. And she agrees to do what is asked of by Locke.
However Taryn's agreement to some of the conditions also affect her twin. She explains to Jude that she went through the situation with Locke with her eyes wide open, knowing that there was a possibility that she could be hurt. However, she never thought that anyone else would be hurt by the bargain that she made with her fox haired
fairy lover. I chose to pair this with a peach sorbet from Serious Eats, a smooth and easy treat with peaches as ripe as the peaches of the cheeks of the twin girls in the beginning of the story. Black weaves a fairytale within a fairytale. And I think this series is one of her finest works. It's pretty short, which is why I believe we were talking about that
it was an ebook and it, but it is available through Kentucky Libraries unbound.
[00:17:29] Carrie: Sounds good.
[00:17:29] Michael: Yeah. I've,
I've heard. I know that's a very popular series I've seen here. That is it the Cruel Prince series or what is it?
[00:17:36] Jacqueline: Yeah,
The cool prince is the first book.
[00:17:38] Michael: Okay.
[00:17:38] Jacqueline: But this series is actually The folk of the Air series.
[00:17:41] Michael: Oh, gotcha.
[00:17:42] Jacqueline: And there's it's a, it's a trilogy, but now she's, she's written this novella too that goes with it. And actually she, she wrote another novella, which is the cruel princess story of how he became the. Prince of Elphane, which is the fairy land. And it's beautifully illustrated. If you like to look at illustrations and with stories and stuff like that, that's, it's a beautifully illustrated one.
[00:18:12] Michael: I've noticed that how authors will, who have written a series, will create an ebook only novella that you can only get through Kentucky Libraries Unbound might offer it, or Amazon. You know, like a one, like you said, like years, like a 1.5. So it happens like in the middle, between you know, a couple of
books.
[00:18:32] Jacqueline: So yeah, I think she could cuz especially if she illustrated like the I believe the, the other book, the Nova is how the king of El phane learned to hate stories, which is an interesting title. And she just weaves stories inside of her stories. it's just fascinating, because there's like three tales within this one tale.
Which I find fascinating. Mm-hmm I don't know. I think there's probably a term for that, but I'm not sure
[00:19:05] Carrie: I mean, yeah, I don't know. I've just heard people talk about stories within stories, Michael, you like those too.
[00:19:13] Michael: Yeah. Yeah. I've read one
that was last month with a story within another story.
Yeah.
[00:19:20] Jacqueline: Within another story. I thought Michael would like this one because of the horror, like fairy tales often have that horror, which horror aspect to it, you know, like Grimms telling
[00:19:31] Michael: oh yeah. You know,
and the original Grimms are terrifying.
[00:19:34] Jacqueline: yeah.
And the blue beard, you know, like this actual story of
the story she starts with. The Bluebeard story is like, you know, he he's like cutting off the hand, the hand of the girl to get, to get the ring off of her finger and it's pretty gruesome.
Which is interesting about this also, is that the fairy land you would think fairy land would be all happy and, but there's a lot of fighting and a lot of, there's a lot of cruelty in fairy land,
[00:20:08] Michael: Very game
of Thrones, like? Game of Thrones,
like in fairy lan?.
[00:20:12] Jacqueline: Yeah. In this fairy land, in, in Blacks fairy land, of course and she's created this whole world, like this, this Elphane, and it has like all these islands and not so much, she doesn't talk about the, that as much in this story, of course, but there's also the whole ocean is another part of the story.
There's a whole ocean land. So I'll have to do The Cruel Prince, too. I guess , I've read these like over and I've read. They're so good. I've read 'em over and over. So,
[00:20:46] Michael: oh, wow.
[00:20:47] Jacqueline: Yeah, they're just, there's ones that you just don't. You want more. Like Holly, write some more
[00:20:55] Michael: That's how I am with Game of Thrones.
It's like, come on. It's been 11 years.
[00:21:05] Jacqueline: I wonder if that's why some some people write their own versions or known endings and they continue other authors off of people's stories.
[00:21:14] Michael: Yeah. Robert Jordan is another famous example where he passed away before he finished The Wheel of Time series. So Sanderson, Brandon Sanderson to come in and finish it.
Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, like that?
[00:21:25] Jacqueline: Yeah. Cool.
[00:21:35] Michael: I know, they tell you you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I totally did with my novella this month, Below by Laurel Hightower, I encourage you to Google it. It's absolutely stunning. You might recall. I recommended this Kentucky authors debut novel whispers in the dark. In a previous episode, this fast paced novella opens with Addie making a solo road trip through the West Virginia mountains to attend a horror convention with some friends.
It's her first big trip since divorcing her husband of 11 years, a husband that emotionally, mentally abused her over the years, making her feel worthless and not capable of doing anything on her own, making all the decisions for her. Traversing the mountains as it's about to get dark, she nearly hits a van head on that's
in her lane facing the wrong way. Her nerves shot, she pulls off at a nearby truck stop, where she meets a truck driver named Mads who witnessed her near accident. She experiences some weird electrical issues with her car as she tries to leave the truck stop, leaving Addy to warily accept a portable CV radio for Mads who expresses his concern for traveling the mountains alone in the dark with a snowstorm on its way.
So Addie follows Mads to the toll roads, talking to him on the CB, which helps to alleviate her anxiety some. That is until they're crossing a bridge. When something with red eyes flies in front of Mad's truck, causing it to jackknife and careen down to a deep ravine. Addie can't reach Mads on the CB. Her cell phone is at range and her car is also bizarrely dead, leaving her unable to go for help.
She makes one of the toughest decisions of her life. She must traverse the steep, dark hillside to help Mads, a stranger who was kind enough to help her out. And what she doesn't know is that she's descending into hell. Addie must battle with herself just as much as a creature or creatures pursuing here down the hill and into the cave of the truck now lies.
I don't think it's a spoiler, especially once you see the cover art, but this is a mothman story. If you don't know mothman, he's the famous Appalachian encrypted that hails from Point Pleasant West Virginia, who's really been experiencing a moment as of late in pop culture. This one is a fast paced read with a cliff hanger ending, almost every chapter clocking into 106 pages.
You could easily finish this in one sitting. This one is best described as you come for mothman, but stay for the awesome character development. Addie is a fantastic character who transforms over the novella and really comes into her own. I highly recommend this to fans of No Exit by Taylor Adams who want, maybe want a little more horror thrown in and fans of strong characters and creature features in general.
So I paired this with the West Virginian specialty, pepperoni rolls. It originated apparently among Italian Americans who migrated to West Virginia to work in the coal mines and eventually became a West Virginia staple. I found this recipe on the soccer mom blog. It cost for yeast, flour, eggs, salt, sugar, pepperoni, mozzarella, cheese, and butter.
I haven't. Made this recipe yet trying to, trying to track down the yeast, but it sounds absolutely delicious and looks delicious.
[00:24:45] Jacqueline: You're all making me
hungry now. And I don't eat pepperoni.
[00:24:47] Michael: I know, I like, I looked those pictures and my stomachs start immediately rumbling.
[00:24:52] Carrie: Yeah. I would like to try one too. I never have. My dad and his family were from West Virginia, but I don't know if that was later than them, although, you know, my grandpa
worked in the coal mines and he, you know,
[00:25:05] Michael: Oh, wow.
[00:25:05] Carrie: He mentioned that Italians, you know, were worked in the coal mines with him. So you know, maybe they did have pepperoni rolls then, I don't know, but , I know there's like specialty places in West Virginia, but like that's all, all they do.
[00:25:20] Michael: Yeah.
I know. I really wanna go to Mount Pleasant cuz they got a mothman museum and a whole statue.
[00:25:26] Carrie: Oh, really? Cool.
[00:25:29] Jacqueline: it's interesting, the food from different places, you know, around the world, like, you know, or in the United States.
[00:25:35] Michael: Oh yeah.
[00:25:35] Jacqueline: Like there's so much. Like you go down south. Of course, you're from the south.
[00:25:39] Michael: Oh, I get barbecue and all different kinds, types of barbecue. And then one podcast episode, I did a story, you know, I think it was a short story collection set kind of in New England or the author was from New England and did a Fluffer Nutter sandwich, which I'd never had or heard of before, which was, those are good.
[00:25:59] Jacqueline: Those are very
[00:25:59] Michael: terrible for you.
[00:26:00] Jacqueline: much Midwestern
[00:26:04] Carrie: And something like the pepperoni role, like, that's influenced by immigrant culture. And I think a lot of American food is like that too. Where, it's you know, other groups have come in and really influenced our food culture, which is fascinating, too. We could talk a whole podcast about that.
Thanks for listening to the Books and Bites podcast. For more information about the Books and Bites reading challenge, visit our website at jesspublib.org/ books-bites. Our theme music is "The Breakers" by Scott Whiddon from his album "In Close Quarters with the Enemy." Find out more about Scott and his music on his website, adoorforadesk.com.