Word of the Week: Contumacious
From a "cozy" series; and a plug for a nonprofit online store that supports local bookstores
By Cathy Ryan
Last week, I discussed a book series that is considered “Young Adult” but is also enjoyable for adults. This week’s series is the opposite; the Shady Hollow series by Juneau Black is considered adult fiction, but many people feel it’s also great for middle-schoolers on up. “Juneau Black” is the pen name of authors Jocelyn Cole and Sharon Nagel, who write the books together.
All the characters in the Shady Hollow world are animals. The author points out at the beginning of each book that you really need to “let it go” and not worry too much about how a moose can bake scones and make coffee, and serve animals from bears to mice (do they have different sized coffee cups, chairs, and tables? Never mind – I must let it go!). The books are all murder mysteries (or in the case of the two short stories in the series, other crime mysteries), but nothing more gruesome than some blood stains, or discussing the pulling of a body from a pond.
The main character is a fox named Vera Vixen, a newspaper reporter who also somehow always becomes involved in the solving of the latest murder. The Word of the Week, contumacious, appears in this paragraph:
“Today’s headline story profiles the spelling bee winner, Ashley Chitters (mouse, eight years of age), and features a photo of the student proudly wearing a bright bee-shaped medal on a long ribbon around her neck. She has triumphed for the third year running, spelling c-o-n-t-u-m-a-c-i-o-u-s with no hesitation whatsoever to great applause. Her rival – a stoat who ironically was somewhat contumacious – tried to put an i in lachrymose, to his detriment.”
Contumacious means “rebellious,” “insubordinate,” or willfully disobedient to authority. The word is often used in legal proceedings, such as when someone is held in contempt of court.
The Shady Hollow series has six novels and two short stories. You should definitely read the novels in order (starting with Shady Hollow), but once you’ve read the first novel, you can read the short stories around the appropriate holiday: Evergreen Chase is set at Christmas, and Phantom Pond is set at Halloween.
These books are considered part of the “cozy” genre. Books and video games are “cozy” if they are relatively stress-free, have at least a somewhat happy ending, are relaxing, and fun. One might wonder how a murder can be “cozy,” but cozy murder mysteries are apparently a whole sub-genre. This PBS article discusses them.
Of course, if you’re considering buying this book, it’s best to support our local bookstores. But if you’re unable to get out, or don’t have time, and really want to shop online, one option that you can consider is the website bookshop.org.
Bookshop.org is a nonprofit bookstore. You can select a local bookstore to support with your shopping, and part of the purchase price goes to the local store. You can buy physical books and also ebooks, but note that the ebooks can only be read in the Bookshop.org app (on your phone or tablet) or in a web browser; you can’t read them on a Kindle or kobo ereader.
Happy Reading!