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Celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day on Sept 19 with The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi and A Pirate’s Life for Tea!

17 Sep

Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi
by Shannon A. Chakraborty
You might expect a pirate story to begin with a youth just starting on their adventure or a grizzled senior captain, but In Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, middle aged, Amina thinks her pirating days are behind her. She is quietly raising her daughter, when a woman comes looking for help retrieving her kidnapped granddaughter. I enjoyed how the story is framed with Amina telling her story to a scribe which adds some fun metafictional moments. She gets her old crew back together including my favorite, Dalila, an expert poisoner. Also in the mix are Amina’s ex, who is a real demon. The story includes diverse characters with Amina being Muslim and one character is exploring their gender identity as the story unfolds. There are a lot of characters and a lot of adventure going on in this first story which has a satisfying ending, but those wanting more will be pleased that this is the first in a planned trilogy. This reminded me some of two novels we had read previously for our Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Discussion at the library, Queens of the Wyrd and Kings of the Wyld.

A Pirate’s Life for Tea
by Rebecca Thorne
A Pirate’s Life for Tea is the second in the cozy Tea and Tomes trilogy which began with Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea and ends with Tea You at the Altar. If you are a fan of Legends and Lattes than this might pique your interest. Tea and Tomes follows the romantic relationship of Reyna, one of the king’s guards, and Kianthe, a powerful mage and their attempt to setup a charming book store/tea shop that keeps getting derailed by adventure. In Can’t Spell Treason without Tea they must bring to justice the pirate, Serina, in order to trade her for dragon eggs that are needed to save their home, but not everything is as it first seems. I found the beginning of the story a little slow, but it picks up steam in the second half. There is a sweet secondary romance between some of the supporting cast and a fun cameo of a nonbinary legendary pirate that will have fans of the Princess Bride swooning.

You can have fun talking like a pirate yourself with Mango Language’s Pirate Course, just one of their many foreign language and ESL courses. So don’t be lily-livered go from Landlubber to Swashbuckler smartly!

Stop by September 19 at 11 am at the main branch for a showing of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

Magic Academia: The Entanglement of Rival Wizards and Lessons in Magic and Disaster

27 Aug

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards
by Sara Raasch
If you are a fan of STEM Romance novels and Fantasy set at Wizarding Schools then The Entanglement of Rival Wizards, that merges the two should be a delight. This is the first in the Magic and Romance Series. The story follows two wizards, a human-Sebastian and a half-elf Thio. Sebastian has trained in Evocation magic which creates new objects from spell components. Thio on the other hand does Conjuration magic which brings forth already existing objects. Both think their brand of magic is superior so are displeased when the Mageus Research Grant is announced as not going to one of them but both of them to work on a joint project. Although not as whimsical as Raasch previous adult series there is still humor derived from both the academic field and magic world (I loved the fun little between chapter announcements about magic chaos going on around the campus like an escaped basilisk on magical creature adoption day). The rivals to lover romance between Sebastian and Thio is steamy, but what I really enjoyed is how they helped each other work through previous traumas; love can’t heal all but a loving partner can help you navigate healing. Also notable is the strong friendship between Sebastian and his best friend Orok and how they negotiate supporting each other without fostering a level of codependency that would stop their own personal growth. I’m already looking forward to the next novel in the series which follows Orok’s love story and merges sports romance with fantasy.

Lessons in Magic and Disaster
by Charlie Jane Anders
I enjoyed Charlie Jane Anders adult novel, All the Birds in the Sky, and Unstoppable, her Young Adult Space Opera Series, so was excited to read her newly released novel, Lessons in Magic and Disaster. In this novel Jamie is not studying magic, but literature, but she uses magic to help her with her research and teaching her classes in subtle ways by making offerings of food at places where the human and the natural world have met such as a former road being overtaken by grass. In this way much of the story has less a fantasy and more a magical realism feel to it since it is not completely clear how much is real and how much is the characters perception of reality towards the beginning of the novel. Those who enjoy Sarah Addison Allen and Alice Hoffman will enjoy both the magical realism elements as well as the strong female characters depicted in the novel. When Jamie attempts to teach her mother, despite her mother seeming to have a natural talent for magic, things unfortunately do not always go as planned when her mother’s desires are often cloudy and unconcise leading to unexpected consequences. As with The Entanglement of Wizards there is strong LGBTQ representation in Lessons in Magic and Disaster with Jamie’s moms being lesbians, her partner is nonbinary, and she herself is a transwoman. It explores the complex and sometimes heartbreaking relationship between both married partners and mothers and their children.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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