Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić

I went through a bit of effort to track down this entry in the Canongate Myth series, and I'm so glad I did. Ugrešić was a Croatian writer who chose the myth of Baba Yaga for her novel.  It's structured as a triptych; the first section opens with a dreamlike section about all the little old ladies moving almost invisibly through the world before settling on one old woman and her daughter as they come to terms with the end of her life. The second takes place at a luxury spa run by a male scientist who is determined to defeat old age; he is no match, however, for the trio of elderly women who unwittingly disrupt his plans for his clients. (One of the clever things about this section is how sidelined and secondary-to-the-lot all the male characters are; it makes for a nice change of pace.) The last section is a disquisition on Baba Yaga and all the elements that have accreted to her myth. Through out it all, repeated images of birds and eggs recur, highlighting both the physical transformation aging bodies go through and the creation of new life. 

 Ugrešić absolutely nails the way old women (or even middle-aged women) are ignored, dismissed, and condescended to, even by loved ones who mean well. She movingly depicts the feeling that the world is moving on without you -- childhood homes are smaller, hometowns become unrecognizable, memories cannot be relied on. It's also a funny, bawdy tale, as befitting the way age forces all of us, sooner or later, to confront the reality of our bodies. Aging is hard and messy and sometimes ugly, but it can't be avoided, no matter what doctors and marketers tell you. And then there's the rage at having to deal with all of this.

The novel ends with a feminist cri de coeur for women to rise up and use all that rage, ugliness, and weirdness to reject patriarchy and find a new/old goddess, the Golden Baba, to worship. This is the weakest part of the narrative; Ugrešić (or perhaps just the academic narrating the last section) relies on outdated archeology and anthropology to posit that Baba Yaga and related figures derive from the goddess of an old, matriarchal culture in Europe. It's a theory that has been taken for granted in popular culture despite the lack of evidence supporting it, so I can't really fault Ugrešić (who was neither an archeologist or anthropologist). It certainly doesn't diminish the power of this novel, or Baba Yaga.

Book Round-Up: Emily Edition

 Twelve Percent Dread by Emily McGovern: I generally love McGovern's comics but I couldn't get into this one. I did appreciate her satire of modern technology  and relationships, however.

The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones: The Welsh mythology-based story -- about a gravedigger who has to figure out why bodies are crawling out of their graves -- was great; the overwrought, angsty, YA prose was not.

Funny Story by Emily Henry: It seems I'm destined to love every other Emily Henry novel, which means I found this one completely delightful. I really enjoyed the development of the main characters' relationship.

The Wood Wife by Emily Terri Windling: My second time reading this. It's a wonderful story about artists, fairies, and the desert, inspired by the art of Brian Froud.

The Museum of Lost Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini (pretty sure there was a character named Emily): The latest contemporary novel in the Elm Creek series (I've been skipping over the historical ones). It was fine. I admire Chiaverini's commitment to writing about social justice issues, particularly given how conservative a segment of her audience is, but her approach can be didactic.

Día de Muertos

 Much of my Día de Muertos handiwork was ruined last year by water and mold, so I made something new.

This was very loosely inspired by a project in Quilting Arts magazine from many years back, made using what I had on hand -- assorted milagros medals, cheap but all-wool flowers acquired from a big box store, two wool marigold flowers that I made for a craft fair booth, and, of course, lots of beads. All that's left to do is attach the panel to the backing with a blanket stitch (probably).

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Ain't that Just the Way

 Have you watched Over the Garden Wall? It's a wonderful series of cartoons telling the story of Wirt and Greg as they try to make their way through a scary forest. Gentle enough for all but the youngest kids, it's also witty and poignant enough to appeal to adults (it doesn't hurt that Wirt and Greg remind me of my youngest two sons). It's not just the story, though; the art and autumnal vibe are perfect. I liked the imagery so much I felt the need to memorialize it in thread and fabric.

I'm really proud of this. I used a mix of embroidery and wool and cotton applique I'm especially enamored of Enoch, the pumpkin guy at the top. For him I used long and short stitch which is normally too fussy for impatient me, but a messier, more impressionistic approach worked. The Beast (at the bottom center) was made with turkey stitch and was a total pain, but it was the best way to get the fringe effect. The glow of the Woodman's lantern is a mother of pearl disc bead; I bought a strand of them because I needed one to make a moon but they've turned up in other projects. Adelaide's stork scissors were intended for a cross stitch pattern I bought ages ago. I will need to hunt down another charm when I do stitch it, but that's Future Beadgirl's problem. 

Over the Garden Wall is brilliant, and that's a rock fact!

Spooky, but Make it Cute

 

Turns out, black felt is hard to photograph properly

 

This little bat was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. The image linked to a long-gone etsy store so I can't give credit where credit is due, however.

I like the interplay of spooky images and pretty florals; I had hoped this October I could make something with Woolly Petal's Ghost Party pattern (using pink and orange scraps for the background), but alas, life intervened (as it so often does for me). Next year!

Book Round-Up: Haunted House Edition

 It's no secret that the horrors in ghost stories almost always serve as signifiers for the horrors in society. Beloved's ghost is the legacy of slavery,* and Dracula represents the evil of aristocracy or Victorian sexual repression (depending on who you ask). The following three novels each tackle society's ills by literalizing those ills in creepy ways.

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher: In Kingfisher's contemporary Southern Gothic, the haunting Sam and her mother, Edith, are dealing with represents a legacy of prejudice and sexism disguised by good manners and polite behavior (and how easy it is for victims to become perpetrators). It's a Kingfisher novel, however, so the horror is mitigated with humor and a goofy familiar (a vulture, in this case).  

Lost Among the Living by Simone St. James: Set in England, 1921, the novel's Wych Elm House (and the protagonist) is haunted by the trauma of both mental illness and WWI. That trauma was heavy to read about, but St. James is rapidly becoming a favorite writer for her ability to combine mystery, romance, and spookiness.   

Starling House by Alix Harrow: the most explicitly horror-filled of the three, this haunted house represents not only slavery and misogyny but the ability of otherwise good people to look away rather than confront evil. This was a good story, and I appreciate how nothing played out quite like one would expect, but although the novel is not YA it read like it, especially in the behavior of the main characters and in the overwrought writing style. The latter in particular distracted from my enjoyment of the story.

*Don't get me started on the long-ago English professor who interrupted a really good discussion to ask if we thought ghosts were real.

In a Hole in the Ground there lived a Hobbit

It was the summer of the hobbit.

I convinced my youngest to read The Hobbit this summer (he loved it, except for a couple of "boring" chapters). That inspired me to buy a hardcover version of the annotated edition (not for my son to read, though; he's hard on books). It's a great version -- lots of notes on the creation and publication of the novel, plus numerous illustrations from Tolkien himself and dozens of other artists.

Coincidentally, Aimee Ray of Little Dear issued for her September Patreon pattern a trio of doors to make, including a hobbit door. So of course I made it:

I've built up quite the collection of small Tolkien crafts.

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

A lot of the books I read are about the power of storytelling -- to entertain, to understand, to heal -- but stories can also lead us astray. If we aren't sufficiently aware of our own biases, if we make too many assumptions, we end up creating a story that isn't true.

The protagonist of Pessl's second novel, Night Film, is a journalist recovering from a career-ending blunder: he didn't verify an anonymous tip accusing famed-yet-reclusive film director Stanislaus Cordova of unspeakable crimes against children. Instead McGrath, who was already suspicious of Cordova, blabbed the allegations on a talk show only to have the tip proved a hoax (done, McGrath is convinced, to discredit him before he uncovered the director's secrets). Years later, McGrath has an eerie encounter with Cordova's daughter shortly before her death that causes him to reopen his investigation, determined to both show the world the true Cordova and vindicate himself.

McGrath is an unlikeable character, full of himself and full of edgy nonsense about life in general and New York City in particular. But he is a determined (if occasionally careless) journalist who follows every lead, no matter how tenuous, in his quest to understand what happened to Cordova's daughter, and what Cordova did that led to her death. The problem is that he never stops to question the truth of his initial premise -- Cordova's deeply disturbing films are necessarily the product of a deeply disturbed mind -- which leads him to misinterpret what he learns. By the end, not only McGrath but the reader must call into question everything learned. I didn't love this book the way I did Special Topics ..., but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A Master Class in Stringing

Last year Kate Richbourg of the Beadshop ran a six-session master class in bead stringing based on the style and techniques of Helen Dietze; of course I jumped all over that.  The result:

The photo does not do it justice

This was a lot of fun to do. Kate's project centered around a large stone donut, but I did not have one in a color I liked. I did, however, have a giant brass replica of a Chinese coin, so that became the core around which everything else was built. I rooted through my stash and pulled every purple, burgundy, brass, and gold-colored bead I had and got to stringing. Some progress pictures:

This is not the first time I've done a Helen Dietze project; decades ago the late, lamented (by me at least) Bead & Button magazine featured her and a version of one of her ambassador necklaces. I made it but I never wore it -- it called for long dangles at the back to counterbalance the weight of the front. However, those strands were uncomfortable and set off my sensory issues. When I began this project, I knew I'd need to keep the front from getting too big and heavy so that I would not have to have too much hanging off the clasp. This necklace is much easier for me to wear.

The fun in a project like this is that it is completely improv; when I started, I had no idea what it would look like, just what colors I wanted and the fact that it should be a little smaller than Kate's to fit me proportionately. Playing with what was functionally a giant "bead soup" was a blast, and I'll want to do something like this again. It's a great artistic exercise.

Book Round-up

 A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett: This collection of Pratchett's early stories (mostly published under pseudonyms) had all of his trademark wit and whimsy. A quick, fun read.

The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman: The mystery in this, the third of Osman's delightful series, wasn't as strong or as interesting, but at this point I'm here for the wonderful relationships. I think there's one more to read.

Weight by Jeanette Winterson: Part of the Canongate Myth series, where modern authors reinterpret or retell a myth of their choice. Winterson's retelling of the Greek myth of Atlas and Heracles is a wonderful meditation on the weight (get it?) of expectations and responsibility.

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz: The second in Horowitz's series about the editor of a cozy series who has to solve not-so-cozy mysteries in the "real" world. I enjoyed the dual stories in this one, but I'm not sure how long Horowitz can sustain this premise.

Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith: Another novella in the Canongate Myth series. McCall Smith tells some of the stories surrounding the Celtic god Aengus, alternating with stories -- vignettes, really -- about love and dreams set in modern Scotland. The stories are not particularly profound, but they nonetheless touch on universal truths.

Jewelry Round-Up: I Can't Stop Edition

Months and months ago I received a newsletter from a bead shop (no idea which) that featured a beautiful project.  I could not afford the kit but I loved the mix of colors and finishes, so I dug through my stash, put a bunch of beads together in a tin, and promptly forgot about it. When I pulled out the tin in late June, I realized I never saved the email and had no recollection of the original project; I needed to figure out my own thing. I've been on a knotting kick and I wanted to try a knotted necklace made with a wide range of bead types like Candie Cooper often makes, so that's what I did. I'm very pleased with it.

The jewelry designer Danielle Wickes designed these nifty circular discs with holes to create beaded fringe, and Kate Richbourg of the The Beadshop did a tutorial on how to make tassel earrings with them.  The seed bead mix I used, "Mardi Gras," came from the bead store I worked at part-time in college; I had originally made a daisy chain necklace with it, but the thread was showing it's age. These earrings are so much fun to wear.

I bought these beautiful, deep purple crystal rounds but I wasn't sure what to do with them. I also had a tiny jar of shimmery raspberry chalottes for which I had not yet found a pattern. By pure chance I put the two next to each other while I was sorting through my work area, and I fell in love with the combination. To make the earrings I basically reversed engineered the pattern from lunasulmare1's cipollotti earrings (she and her tutorials have vanished from the internet).

I'd been wanting to make earrings to commemorate one of my favorite shows, Pushing Daisies, for years. I finally put them together: pie charms, bee charms, and daisy flowers made by me.

The Bead Place came up with a cute decorative project, attaching beaded charms to chicken wire in an embroidery hoop (really). My first thought was to make the wire base myself because why buy a kit when I don't have to? But I quickly realized chicken wire is sold by the yard and super hard to work with. So the kit it was! I had fun using all sorts of flower beads from my stash.

And finally, a simple necklace with an inexpensive locket from Michaels strung with pink tourmaline and lepidolite in quartz (that's a mouthful).

I need to start selling some of my jewelry again.

Book Round-Up

Camino Island by John Grisham: the best part of this novel was the beginning, specifically the description of the theft of priceless manuscripts from Princeton University and the federal investigation that immediately followed. Unfortunately the narrative fizzled out after that.

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin: a fun mystery, wherein the murder victim tasks her putative heirs with solving her murder if they want to inherit.

Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher: I continue working my way through Kingfisher's novels. The subject matter in this one -- patriarchy, misogyny, domestic abuse -- is bleak, but Kingfisher wisely balances it with fairy tale elements like impossible tasks and goblin markets, along with a healthy dose of absurdity (such as a demonic chicken).

PopCo by Scarlett Thomas: I don't know why it took me so long to read this given how much I liked Our Tragic Universe, not to mention the math, puzzles, and cultural commentary in this book. And, for the most part, it was really good! The only flaw was the reveal late in the novel of a plan that seemed to me (but not the characters, apparently) hopelessly idealistic and not at all well thought out. In that sense, it reminded me of The Absolute Book. 

Jewelry Round-Up: I-Keep-Forgetting-to-Post Edition

I participated in a bead swap way back in March (I swear I'll do that post some day), and the very first thing I made was a cute pair of earrings with lilac-colored flowers:

Cheap but colorful beads from Michael's + silver charms that had been languishing = an easy, fun necklace:

I'm such a dork I bought not one but two Middle Earth-themed candles. The second, by North Ave Candles, was their Shire Sweetgrass candle with a cute little mushroom charm. I made a bracelet with it:

(The first candle had The One Ring in it. My 10-year-old is mad I didn't give it to him, but it fits my fingers, not his!)

I love, love, love the fringe charm earrings I made from Susan LeGuyader's pattern in the spring issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry:

The "popcorn padre" beads at Beadshop.com have been calling to me. I finally succumbed and bought them, then made the shop's Tahoe wrap bracelet: 

I originally paired these silver charms with burnt umber beads; pretty, but I never wore them. Turquoise chips and ruby beads are much more my style:

Shell necklaces are in. I happened to have a shell with a hole right where it should be (a lucky beachcombing find), so I cleaned it to remove calcification, rubbed some mineral oil in it to bring back some color, and edged it with gold paint. Brass beads from who-knows-where completed the look:

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

 I've been a fan of Kelly Link's weird, speculative short stories for a very long time, so I was thrilled to hear she published her first novel. The Book of Love is about three teenagers (and something else) who come back after being dead for a year, only everyone now thinks they were studying abroad. They are told by two mysterious men to complete certain tasks if they want to stay alive, while dealing with false memories, magical rivalries, a dangerous goddess, rock bands, horniness, and what to do with the rest of their lives.

There was a lot to like about the story, but it never quite gelled for me. Much of the plot dealt with preventing the goddess from finding the key that would allow her to restore her faded power, and several of the magical people serving her were looking for escape, but the stakes as presented swung from preventing great evil (she feeds on dead souls and treats living people as marionettes) to simply obtaining one's freedom regardless of the consequences to everyone else. Teenagers can be notoriously self-centered, and Link particularly excels at capturing their wild swings in maturity and thoughtfulness, but the narrative itself did not seem too concerned with the broader consequences of the characters' actions for large chunks of the book. In fact, until the climax (which was tightly written and compelling), I feared that Link would, like Grossman, come to an amoral conclusion. Which isn't to say that the book ends on a simplistic note; it's quite messy in some ways, but it is clear that at least some of the characters are thinking about the right things.

The best parts of the novel were smaller elements: Mo's grief and loneliness, Susannah's struggles with other people's expectations, Carousel, the critiques of the romance industry, not to mention the weird imagery and absurd fragments (more akin to magical realism than straight fantasy) that Link is known for. I continue to be her fangirl, and I look forward to more of her writing.

The Needle Case that Jack Built

I got a hankering to do some English paper piecing, specifically The Maker's Stash's star ornaments. EPP lends itself to small, portable kits, so I placed the cut-out papers, fabric, scissors, glue stick, and thread in my favorite pouch. I needed a place to store the needles, though, and a square of felt seemed too boring. Why not make a needle case just for EPP? 

So I flipped through all my sewing books until I found a cute pattern in All Sewn Up by Chloe Owens. But I didn't really need multiple felt pages for just a few needles; maybe I could just sew a felt patch on one side and sew a kind of loop on the other to hold scissors. 

And then I started looking through patterns I've torn out of magazines, and found a needle book by Cindy Blackberg which has a cord cleverly sewn down the center to hold a spool of thread.  So why not add that?

The Owens needle book had a fabric collage on the cover; Blackberg's had wool flowers. Why not make a little hexagon flower, since this is a needle book for English paper piecing?

The result:

I'm contemplating adding an elastic loop to the right edge to hold the glue stick. I still haven't started the stars.

There's a Certain Satisfaction

 That comes from finishing a project you started 25 years ago.

The pattern is Liz Turner Diehl's Cider House Garden. I started it all the way back in law school, but exams, the theater group, and, uh, socializing kept me from finishing it. I found it again a couple of years ago and, determined to finish it, I began working on it every fall. This spring I did a final push to finish the borders and it's done!

I used the called-for threads, and now I have a bunch of Madeira threads I probably won't use again; I'm a DMC gal. I did switch some colors around (the red and green quits were too Christmasy) and used more specialty stitches than the pattern indicated. Finally, because I was ready to be done, I simplified the border. 

Let's hope it doesn't take me another 25 years to frame it.

Book Round-Up

 The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood: This is part of the Canongate Myth Series, and is a novella retelling the Odyssey from Penelope's viewpoint. Penelope proves herself to be aware of the inequities of ancient Greek life, but all too willing to make use of those inequities when it suits her, leaving me feeling ultimately indifferent to her fate. Far more effective was the Greek chorus: the twelve maids killed by Odysseus, who intersperse Penelope's narrative with poems, songs, trial testimony, etc. Their voices were haunting.

Happy Place by Emily Henry: I didn't enjoy this one as much as Henry's other novels; a good deal of the angst and misery would  have been avoided if the characters had had honest conversations with each other a lot sooner. Beach Read is still my favorite.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman: This is the delightful start to a cozy mystery series with a group of septuagenarians who solve murders. It was, by turns, poignant and funny, and I can't read to read the rest.

 The Man who Died Twice by Richard Osman: So I immediately got the second from the library! Osman does a good job balancing the silly (elderly Joyce's new instagram handle is @greatjoy69) and the melancholy (a random assault drastically affects Ibrahim). I will be requesting the next volume soon.

Stumptown by Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth: What a pleasant surprise to find this in my local Little Free Library! It's a comic book series centered on Dex, a troubled private detective in Portland, Oregon. My husband and I adored the show not just for its acting and stories, but also the presence of Anselm, Dex's brother with Down Syndrome. I'm still mad they canceled it after one season.

 

New Threads

 DMC recently came out with a line of wool threads dyed with natural substances, and I found them irresistible. I bought a set of 30 colors (needs more purple), and promptly sat down with all my crewel embroidery books to look for patterns; I settled on Catherine Shaughnessy's The New Crewel and The New Crewel: the Motif Collection. From the former I selected three floral designs and put them together on linen:

Those colors are lovely (not sure about that coral, though), but there was a gorgeous red I wanted to stitch with so I picked a sunflower design from The Motif Collection. It reminds me of the spirograph toy I had as a child; fun!

For this I used a feedsack dish cloth (new, not vintage).

I've yet to fully finish them (I think I will stretch the wildflower trio onto a canvas), but my woolly stitch itch has been satisfied. For now.

Spring Flowers

 I've been working on this on and off for the last few months. I started it in February, when I was desperately craving pretty colors and lovely flowers:

I used pearl cotton and silk ribbons on gingham fabric; I'm currently loving the interplay between organic stitching on checked fabric, and I am keeping an eye out for a gingham blouse I can embroider. In the meantime, this will do.

Bead Candy Eggs

Cath Thomas has a wonderful modification of her bolas tutorial to make beaded stripey Easter eggs. So of course I made a bunch (you can't stop at one!), playing around with colors and sizes: 

 I've got decades of experience in mentally flipping stitching instructions from left to right, because I'm a lefty in a world of righties. But this tutorial defeated me; there was no way I could figure out the join until I finally turned my beadwork inside out to force it to match the images in the tutorial.  The zipping up, though, is the best part 😍.

Spring!

 Cherry blossoms are beautiful and I wanted to make a little hoop of them:

I free-styled a branch with snippets of brown wool felt, then cut little flowers out of pale and very pale pink wool-blend felt and stitched them down with dark pink stitches. As soon as I find a wooden 5-inch hoop I will rehoop it, and maybe iron the cotton fabric, haha.

I work on this little hoop every spring, choosing a couple of the blooming trees and bushes in my neighborhood to represent:

Most recently I stitched the cherry blossoms and large yellow flowers at the bottom, above the pink knots. 

I'm lucky to live in such a pretty neighborhood.

Book Round-up

The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi: This was an interesting novel -- a mathematician devises seven necessary conditions for a mystery and writes seven short stories to illustrate them before disappearing from the public eye. Eventually a young editor seeks him out to get his permission for a reissue, and the novel consists of the seven stories alternating with their conversations about them. There are, of course, twists to be had and secrets to be revealed. It serves as a minimalist contrast to the maximalist Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone, which elaborated the (technically unnecessary) tropes that populate most mysteries.

The Little Village of Book Lovers by Nina George: an unexpected treat mailed to me by an acquaintance. That it was a sweet paean to good books and a simple life was a given; that it was also wise and funny was not. It's magical realism, too, so of course this was perfect for me.

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery: my next (out of order) purchase to replace my tattered paperbacks. As an adult I have a newfound appreciation for both Montgomery's characterizations and her sense of humor.

The Sinister Pig by Tony Hillerman: I didn't love these as much as the earlier ones; too much time spent with the bad guys and not enough for Bernadette Manuelito to do. I did enjoy it, though.

No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

This was a original and moving novel about reading; more specifically, how no two people will read a book the same way. It's tightly structured, taking us chapter by chapter through the creation of a book -- the author's inspiration and creation, the agent who recommends publication, the actor who narrates the audiobook, and all the readers who pick it up. Amusingly, not all of them actually read it; one artist resents its popularity and the fact that it was her mother who gave it to her; nonetheless, it becomes a part of her masterpiece sculpture.

There are other elements besides the book that link the stories together, such as a traveling nurse who knows several of the readers, an essay written by one that inspires another, the image of slipping under water. These are, I think, ultimately unnecessary, because the crux of the novel is how each character encounters the book and is affected by it. For one, it inspires hope, for another, it forces a change of perspective, for a third it represents a life-long achievement. One character finds healing and another wrestles with a long-buried trauma. All of them come out of their encounter on a new path. I can't think of a better way of demonstrating the power of a good book.

Honeycomb by Joanne Harris

 I discovered this book by pure happenstance; I had no idea Harris, most famous for writing Chocolat, had written a collection of fairy tales. There are fables and just-so stories, but the bulk are fairy tales of the kind that used to be told, with fairies -- called Silken Folk -- who are as capricious as they are beautiful. Many relate the adventures and misdeeds of the Lacewing King, a prince of the Silken Folk who steals the Spider Queen's crown, aids the Clockwork Princess, and spars with the treacherous Harlequin before finally meeting his fate. Linking all the stories are the motifs of bees and honeycomb, by which stories are transmitted through the nine worlds. "This is a story the bees used to tell ..."

The stories are elegant but also deeply cynical. Kindness is rare, and virtue is never rewarded. A set of fables inspired by Animal Farm illustrate modern ills such as fascism and influencers, and the morals can be heavy-handed; others simply reflect the cruelties of the world. Each story is by itself clever and amusing, but read collectively they wear on the soul. What a shame to see such beauty in nature, in insects, in storytelling, but not in humanity.

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

 The second in Fawcett's series was just as delightful as the first. The fairies in this novel are enchanting, dangerous, and illogical, just as in the old stories, and as a result humans take different approaches to dealing with them: some try to bargain with them, some placate them, some do their very best to ignore them. 

And then there are people like Emily Wilde, who want to study them. Emily makes for an unusual protagonist: she's a brilliant academic but a terrible people person, and often has to rely on her friend (and fairy prince in exile) Wendell to smooth things over. She's very good at getting herself into and out of danger, but she's no warrior princess and sometimes she needs to be rescued. She's dorky and prickly, and some of the funniest scenes are because of her own obliviousness. 

Emily is not the only scholar this time around (Wendell doesn't count, he's too lazy to actually learn anything); she's joined on her adventures by professor Rose, who is a welcome addition to the story. He is more experienced than she is but also more conservative and old-fashioned in his approach, making him a good antagonist who is nonetheless an ally when it counts. I don't think we will see him in the concluding novel, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

The covers of the American editions are gorgeous, and having embroidered a pendant based on the first novel, earrings made sense for this one:

Maybe a pin for the last one? Or a bookmark.

A Bit of Crochet

Well, more than a bit. I lost on the bus the wonderful hat my mom knit, and because of her arthritis she can't make me another (and I'm terrible at knitting, so that's out). It was big and slouchy and perfect for covering my ears, so I set out to find an hat to crochet that would be easy to adjust for maximum coziness. The "Ribbed Wonder" fit the bill; I especially liked that the rows are vertical, making it super easy to adjust for my giant head. Of course, I was so focused on the width I didn't pay attention to the fact that it is much too long for me, and I have to cuff it twice to avoid looking like "Dumb" Donald. But I love it!

 I find it amusing that as I've learned how to crochet I've gone from a ridiculously complicated hat to a moderately complicated one to the easiest possible style.

I also needed a way to store in my shower bars of soap that are likely to melt away if they can't dry properly. With only the vaguest idea of what to look for, I stumbled upon the notion of soap savers, and found an easy one to crochet. I didn't have any fancy linen yarn but acrylic seems to do the trick, and if it doesn't last I can always make another.

I still have to finish my sweater. Two years and counting!

Book Round-Up

 A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab: A month later, I'm still not sure how I feel about this novel, the first in a series (that can stand alone). There was a lot I liked about this book, including the concept of four Londons with differing levels of magic. And there was a little I didn't like at all, such as Lila's not-like-other-girls status and the unrelenting cruelty of White London. But either way, Schwab is a compelling writer. And I'm adding this to my imaginary shelf of alternate Londons.

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien: I read this first in high school, dipped in and out of it over the years, and finally settled down for a reread in January. To my surprise, it wasn't as challenging as I remembered (all that reading over the last 30+ years has paid off!), and the stories were still as melancholy and beautiful as I remember. Anyone who thinks Tolkien only writes simplistic, black-and-white stories with happy endings needs to read about Feanor.

The Clocktaur War by T. Kingfisher: This duology about a small group of ordinary people -- naive scholar, allergy-prone forger, traumatized paladin, and cynical assassin -- sent on an impossible task to put an end to unstoppable war machines was so much fun. Kingfisher has a knack for putting ordinary people in deadly situations without losing sight of her characters' humanity or sense of the ridiculous. She is rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers.

Annual Late Winter Jewelry Photo Dump

 My mom bought me a Riverstone bracelet for Christmas. It was lonely so I made two more:

Humblebeads had a cute, Spring-y necklace made with waxed linen and assorted charms and beads; I used dyed hemp cord (so rough, my poor hands) and beads and charms from my stash, making it the perfect easy project.

 

I bought this lovely Anne Choi bead decades ago and made it into a necklace that I really liked but never wore:

So I remade it as a chunky bracelet. I hadn't intended a Valentine theme but that's how it worked out; fitting, given the inscription on the bead: lux et umbra vicissim sed semper amor.

 I've been telling myself for two years to make a pair of small brass earrings to wear with brass necklaces. I finally did!

Book Round-Up: Better Late than Never Edition

The Shape-Changer's Wife by Sharon Shinn: Shinn's debut novel is about an apprentice wizard who studies under a powerful mentor and his odd wife. It's often (rightly) compared to Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn in style and vibe, but it also reminded me of Naomi Novik's Uprooted.

In Search of Lost Books by Giorgio van Straten: This is less a deep dive into known books that have disappeared, and more an idiosyncratic meditation on those books colored by Straten's tastes and experiences. Enjoyable as it it, but I would have preferred a more investigative work.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman: My battered paperback disappeared, so what better excuse to buy a lovely hardcover with Gaiman's preferred text? It's a gritty, magical, weird exploration of an alternate London that also forces us to think about the parts of society we'd rather not deal with.

Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter: The premise is that of a TV producer who creates a true crime show to explore a brutal death that happened in his childhood. The text, then, is a transcript of the shows, plus emails and research, that gradually reveal what happened. But transcripts are an awkward thing to serve as the bulk of a novel. The mystery wasn't hard to figure out, either, but it was enjoyable enough.

Cat Tales by James Herriot: A collection of some of his anecdotes and stories involving cats, and just as sweet and comforting as you'd expect.

This Bird has Flown by Susanna Hoffs

It took me a shamefully long time to realize Hoffs' debut novel is a riff on Jane Eyre. Jane, a one-hit-wonder trying to make it many years later as a singer-songwriter, flees a bad breakup and a bad gig by hopping a plane to London. On that flight she meets her Rochester, and their relationship develops astoundingly quickly while Jane also prepares for a musical comeback. The book is full of literary references and song lyrics, and I'm positive there are many more I missed (like, say, the really BIG one I almost did!).

Modern retellings of Jane Eyre sometimes flatten Jane's morality, misunderstanding her integrity as simply a certainty in the correctness of Christianity, and try to present a more inclusive point of view; this is partly why I think Margot Livesey's novel, while thoroughly enjoyable on its own, failed as an Eyre retelling. Hoffs, on the other hand, understands that Jane's integrity is what matters. Like Livesey's novel, the antagonists are not caricatures of evil. Tom's ex does some bad things, makes some poor choices, and even starts (accidentally) a little fire, but she is neither evil nor crazy, just suffering deeply. Tom's handling of the matter is terrible, but not because he is arrogant or misogynistic; he just truly doesn't know what to do. And when Jane learns the truth, she is compassionate and understanding, but it doesn't stop her from doing what she knows is the right thing, no matter the cost to her personally. It makes her a character to root for whole-heartedly.

And it's not just in love that Jane keeps true to herself; the B-plot of the book is about her comeback performance with the mega star* who wrote the song that made her a star. Jane wants the acclaim (and, more importantly, the steady income) that a collaboration will bring, but she can't quite manage to stop wanting success on her own terms, in a way that is meaningful to her. The novel is full of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but through it all Jane does not lose her core; as a result she gets what she wants, even if it doesn't quite look like what she thought.

*Clearly an analog for Prince, although I sincerely hope he was a better person to Susanna.

Book-Round Up: Christmas Edition

 Blackmail and Bibingka by Mia P. Manansala: I didn't love Manansala's third in the series as much as the first two, but it was enjoyable and I'm looking forward to the fourth, which I hear is very good.

Winter in the Air and Other Stories by Sylvia Townsend Warner: Not all of the stories in this collection were wintry, but they were thoughtful and melancholy, with hints of Warner's sly wit. Many of the stories depicted characters on the verge of a transition, looking uncertainly to the past and the future -- appropriate for end-of-year reading.

Another Little Christmas Murder by Lorna Nicholl Morgan: An old-fashioned Christmas mystery, complete with a snowstorm, impassable roads, eerie manor house, and suspicious characters trapped together. A fun read for the season.

The Little Library Christmas by Kate Young: I loved this mix of recipes, memories, and literary quotations, and I wish I had time this season to make some of the delicious (I assume) food. Next year!

Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh: This was a step above the usual Christmas romance, with endearing relationships (including the protagonists' families) and low-stakes but meaningful drama. I highly recommend it.

An Ex for Christmas by Lauren Layne: I wanted one last holiday read for the season and I found this on the Libby app. I enjoyed it while I read it, but the more I think about it, the more annoyed I get with some of the decisions the characters made.

Holiday Stitching Photo Dump

 Well, December did not turn out like I had expected. My oldest went in early on for surgery and ended up getting very sick after, not coming home until New Year's Eve. A lot of stitching got done in his hospital room, but very little social media and posting.

But before then, I participated in Wild Olive's ornament SAL in November, which gave me an excuse to finally make some of the designs from one of her patterns, which I bought ages ago.

Beatrice's 2022 Adventrees pattern was the perfect thing to keep my hands occupied during the long hospital stay. I had lots of fun choosing stitches and colors for each tree.

At night I got a little cross stitching done, enough to finish Praiseworthy Stitches' Snowflake Dreams and Elizabeth's Needlework Designs' Red Bird.

In early December I traced and cut out all the felt and fabric pieces to make a bunch of "bowl fillers" from Debbie Busby's Jingle all the Way pattern book; none of the stitching got done until January, though.

The mat is a design by Annie Lippincott, from an old issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.

Not a bad amount stitched for a crazy season!