A place of wildly diverse book reviews sprinkled with frequent swears, opinions, and general nerdery
3.5 stars. Honestly, Goodreads, why can’t you give us half stars?
Let me first start by admitting I am woefully ignorant of Baba Yaga myths. So I’m not even going to touch on that, nor on whether this was a good/accurate/interesting addition to the body of Baba Yaga legends or not. I know my best friend recently read this and fucking loved it, and she does love Baba Yaga stories, but beyond that, I got nothing. For myself, I am indifferent in that regard. Continue reading “Uprooted”
November 8 marks the 673rd birthday of Julian of Norwich, the famed anchoress from the Church of St Julian in Norwich, England. Julian is one of my girls, the women I studied in graduate school. I was drawn to her various and sundry reasons which none of my 12 readers worldwide likely care about. But who was Julian, really, and why should we care? Continue reading “Mother Julian”
I used to be able to travel just about anywhere without a problem at all. Didn’t matter if I had connecting flights, layovers, you name it. It simply wasn’t ever a problem. Then at some point, I did something to anger the travel gods, and I can’t go anywhere without a travel curse descending upon me in some way. I no longer fly unless I can get a nonstop, because something will cause my flight to be delayed and I will miss my connection. Or I’ll lose my boarding passes somewhere between security and the gate. Or they’ll lose my luggage. Or the entire North Europe flight control system will crash and I’ll get stuck in Heathrow airport and all of the above will happen at once. True story. So yeah. Travel curse. Continue reading “Travel Curse – Denver Manifestation Oct 2015”
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who just wanted to explore. At first, she could really only explore a very small area, her crib, and she was very familiar with all the soft corners of her little world. She often observed the room about her, and had quite long talks with the friends who lived in the room with her. Some were on the nearby battered old dresser, and some were in the chest of toys that had held many previous generations of toys, and some hung upon the walls and kept watch over her as she slept at night.
As she got older, the girl began to explore the rest of the room, and then the whole house, learning all its nooks and crannies and wonderful hiding spots where she could tell her secrets to her best friend, the little stuffed blue-grey elephant who followed her everywhere. Eventually the girl got Big Enough to explore Outside. Outside included places like The Park and The Zoo and the remote and fantastical location called Disneyland. It also included places like School and The Doctor’s Office, and these the girl tolerated because her mother told her she must, although really she liked School because she could learn about all the Other Places she would be able to explore when she was Big Enough.
And so it came to pass that one day the girl rose from her bed and realised she was a Grown-Up, and that she had finished all her School and had done All The Things her mother said she ought to do. Now she was Old Enough to go explore the Whole World and see all the gardens and butterflies, and swim in all the seas and see all the bright fish, and sample all the tastiest foods and sweetest desserts from all the Other Places she had learned about. And so she did, and she wrote all her experiences down in a book and sold it, and kept living her life. And one day, many years later, her book made its way into the hands of another little girl who just wanted to explore.
Mistress of Mourning was the second novel I have read by Karen Harper. It was set in the earlier days of the Tudor dynasty, in the reign of Henry VII, and focused largely on the death of Arthur, Prince of Wales. The premise was interesting – a widowed chandler, Varina Westcott, is hired by the queen, Elizabeth of York, to carve effigies of her dead children and her missing brothers, the Princes in the Tower. Varina becomes the queen’s confidant and she is hired, along with the king’s man Nick Sutton, to go to Wales to investigate the death of Arthur, whom the queen believes did not die of illness but of foul play. Along the way, of course, are the requisite bad guys, traitors, and love stories.
The idea that Arthur was poisoned is intriguing. I am not sure I believe it myself, but Harper makes a compelling argument in favor of it. Given the prince’s poor health throughout his life, a Yorkist assassin slipping in a deadly herb that would cause symptoms resembling any number of illnesses isn’t too much of a stretch to be unrealistic. I suppose it could happen.
The issue with the Princes in the Tower felt a little rushed in the end. Henry’s confession felt a tad contrived, the explanation for their deaths too convenient. But I liked the homage to Henry II and Thomas Becket’s feud, and how Henry VII’s “confession” was similar to Henry II’s “order” to kill Becket.
In general, I liked the characters, though I felt they all needed more development. I thought that was a little odd since the other book I’d read by Harper had extremely well developed characters. Varina and Nick were, of course, the most thoroughly fleshed-out, though they still lacked some depth and had questions left unanswered. It wasn’t enough to detect from the overall plot, just something that was a bit strange considering the experience I had with her other book, Mistress Shakespeare.
Overall, a quick, fun read. Recommended for fans of Tudor history.
In honor of the Feast Day of Hildegard of Bingen, one of my favorite mediaeval holy women, I decided to see if I still had what it takes to write something semi intelligent. The jury’s still out, but what I came up with is below. I hope it will at least encourage the handful of followers I have to learn more about this amazing woman. Continue reading “Hildegard of Bingen’s Subversive Devotion”
Fangirl
by Rainbow Rowell
Once in a while, I encounter a book that seems to have been written just for me. Fangirl is one of those books. It had been on my radar for quite some time and I’d just not gotten around to reading it. One of my colleagues is moving house and very kindly gave me her extra copy, and I am very glad she did! Continue reading “Fangirl”
I felt like writing a Star Trek something, but didn’t want to go all-out, nor did I feel like writing an actual fan fiction. So I did a drabble, and challenged myself to write only 100 words. No more, no less. It was kind of fun. Here it is. Continue reading “100 Word Trek”
The Wild Girl was an unexpected delight. I loved Forsyth’s Witches of Eileanan series, and I loved the Rhiannon series even more. But those were both fantasy and she could do whatever she wanted in those worlds. I was a little bit alarmed? taken aback? Maybe even a bit worried? To see that she had turned her pen to historical fiction. Would her research be thorough? Would the tale be interesting, or would it fall flat, as happens with so many historical fiction novels? Would it plain old boring? Worst of all, would it be such an inaccurate history that it would actually make me love her fantasy novels less for it? I’d be lying if I said these thoughts hadn’t all crossed my mind.
Here be spoilers….
Now I want to read Harry Potter again. Nicholas Flamel, indeed! Continue reading “Shadow of the Alchemist”
Her Grace's Library 