Book Round-Up: Eclectic Fall Edition

 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: I don't know why I didn't read this when it first came out. It is dreamy and romantic and perfect for cool fall nights. 

Sweet Alaskan Fall by Jennifer Snow: Part of a series of romances set in Alaska, I grabbed it because of the title (I'm a sucker for all things fallish). It's your standard romantic plot line, but I liked that both of the main protagonists were coping with temporary and permanent disabilities.

The Devil's Wedding Ring by Vidar Sundstøl: It's set in midsummer, but has a spooky vibe that makes it a great read now. I loved the Norwegian setting and the introduction to local folklore and customs, and the two protagonists -- a detective returning to his homeland and a nosy young librarian -- were a treat. I half expected them to form their own agency at the end, but alas, this is a stand-alone novel.

 Echoes by Ellen Datlow, ed.: A large collection of ghost stories. An excellent collection, with a number of stand-outs: "A Shade of Dusk" by Indrapramit Das (melancholy and touching), "The Puppet Motel" by Gemma Files (just confirms my desire to never use Air BnB), "A Burning Sword for her Cradle" by Aliette de Bodard (a novel take on assimilation), "The Other Woman" by Alice Hoffman (an impressive amount of story packed into just a few pages), and "Jasper Dodd's Handbook of Spirits and Manifestations" by Nathan Ballingrud (heartbreaking).

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M.R. James: these are classics for a reason: short stories that are spooky but not too horrific, with a bookish bent. There is an odd level of distancing to them -- each is told in the first person, but the narrator is relating something he heard happen to other people. 

 Toil and Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft: The first story was so stupid, I almost refused to read the rest. But then I was stuck in a doctor's office for hours, so I did, and some of the stories were genuinely enjoyable. Others were not. I am not a fan of young adult fiction.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

January's pick for the Inspired by Reading book club was The Starless Sea, a novel which I had fortuitously bought for myself as a birthday present the previous month. It's a story about stories and the truths they tell or hide. Grad student Zachary finds a mysterious book on the shelves of the library that contains several tales about a giant library below the world where all stories are kept, including the tale of how a young Zachary found a door to that library and almost went through it but didn't -- an event he never told anyone about.

I loved this book so much. It's a lovely paean to storytelling, filled with rich and vivid imagery -- bees and keys and swords abound, and honey lemon cookies and cats and dollhouses and trees and doors appearing everywhere. There's a millenia-old love story, and another sweet, more recent one. There are endings and beginnings and second chances and lost opportunities, and through it all the thrill of a well-told tale.

There were also some narrative problems. A sinister secret society becomes quite dangerous early on before fizzling out completely; another secret society ends up not having much of a role at all. One of Zachary's friends takes over part of the narration at the end of the book and she's wildly entertaining but she feels like she belongs in another novel entirely. And I would have liked some variation in the voice of all the non-Zachary tales, to reflect the fact that the underworld library is supposed to hold all kinds of stories told in all kinds of manners. But on the whole I could not get enough of the world Morgenstern created. Maybe a sequel centered on Kat?

I went with the obvious when it came to making the jewelry:

I attached a bee, sword, and key to a black filigree base, and attached that to a matching chain. A second strand of amber chips to evoke the honey of the Starless Sea adds a little textural interest.

But I didn't stop there!

Using a deep indigo strip of silk I picked up at Allegory Gallery a few years ago, I attached a big brass ring with a slip knot and added an assortment of charms, beads, and another hunk of honey-colored amber. this is my favorite of the two, and I will keep it for myself. The other I will list in my etsy store.