Title: O Terrible Bird Author: Sandra Kasturi In: Black Feathers (Ellen Datlow) Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Horror, Poetry Dates read: 23rd January 2019 Pace: Slow Format: Poem Publisher: Pegasus Books Ltd. Year: 2017 5th sentence, 74th page: Was it you? Are they limp in your claws?
An incredibly dark avian poem that will leave tingles running up and down your spine.
I knew that the collection Black Feathers was a horror collection based around birds. I knew this, and yet, it wasn’t until I read the opening poem that I really clicked as to what this truly meant. And then I was just uncomfortable. And drawn in. And imagining dark shadows soaring above us. This poem took me on a complete journey of horror and wonder. And in such a short amount of time.
This is the second of Kasturi’s poems that I’ve had the fortune of reading. And man, is it worth it. this is an incredibly intense and dark poem. One that, like all good pieces of poetry, has layer upon layer of meaning. And one that I will probably reread again and again in an attempt to find more meaning.
Virginia needs to do a project for school, but what if she’s really discovered the truth behind Santa Claus?
I’ve noticed that over the past few years, my Christmas
spirit just hasn’t been all that… Christmassy. And I know that part of it is
the fact that I’m getting older and so not as deliriously excitable about Christmas
presents (plus, no one ever gets me books anymore)… yet, I think that the other
part of it is the fact that Christmas is so commercial.
There is this overwhelming idea that you have to have certain feelings, buy
certain things and do things in a very specific way.
Obviously, Knight kind of feels the same. Set in a future sci-fi world in which your every move is monitored, a young girl has to fight to understand the holiday season. What is going on around her and outsmart a computer system to find her own freedom. All in a very few pages. It’s needlessly fun and a great reminder that maybe we don’t all have to feel excited about Christmas. Or even celebrate it in the same way.
Title: Some Kind of Wonderland Author: Richard Bowes In: Mad Hatters and March Hares (Ellen Datlow) Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Contemporary, LGBTQI, Romance Pace: Slow Format: Short story Publisher: Tor Year: 2017 5th sentence, 74th page: Things I learned working on Wonderland led to my nice gig as a location scout and fixer for movies and TV shows shooting in New York.
Some Kind of Wonderland is being reshown after fifty years of being forgotten. But as an old film resurfaces, so do old memories and a love that lasts the measure of time.
I enjoyed this short story far more than I was expecting. I thought that it would be a slightly lame recap on the filming of a rework of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. And it was that. But it really wasn’t lame. The description of the film, the characters and their issues (both within and without the film), even the setting were such a beautiful contemporary and modern approach to an old classic.
I really enjoyed the mystery and layout of the romance
throughout this story. Especially since the retelling and unravelling come
about fifty years after the beginning of the tale. The slightly surreal story
and way in which it is told mirrors the incredibly tripped out feeling of
Wonderland. The finding of oneself and being true to who you are are so very
clearly reflected in both of the tracks of the story.
“The Day of the Dead” features Tomas, a character from the Cassandra Palmer novels, who was last seen cooling his heels in Faerie. He’ll show up again in the series, but what about in the meantime? What does a powerful, four-hundred-year-old vampire with a serious grudge against his old mass murdering master to do when he suddenly finds himself with too much time on his hands? Hang around Faerie, where there’s nothing to eat (Fey blood=nasty) just because our intrepid heroine parked him there?
Uh, no. Not so much.
Because Tomas is obsessed, and has been for pretty much his whole existence, with one thing: taking out Alejandro, the aforementioned murdering bastard. In “The Day of the Dead,” he slips back into our world to confront his nemesis, only to find unexpected help in the form of a band of magical mercenaries. Think the A-Team with spells and potions instead of (well, actually in addition to) guns and knives and things that go boom. It makes for a lot of mayhem down Mexico way.
I have had a slight obsession (alright, maybe not so slight)
with the Mexican tradition of Day of the Dead since I wrote an anthropology paper
on it in my Undergrad at University. So reading a story that featured this time
of year and festival made me kind of deliriously happy. Alright, stupid happy –
I read this story from beginning to end twice in a row to get my fix. And then
watched Coco. But that’s a whole other story…
I have only read the first Cassandra Palmer novel, so I don’t fully understand where this fits into the scheme of things. But even without having the background from the rest of the series, I still loved this completely. I vaguely recall Tomas from Touch the Dark and he seemed like a kind, if not slightly misled vampire. (And I honestly never thought I’d write that sentence in my lifetime…) So it was quite fun to read a short story that featured him. And, from the sense of the story, his new beginning and final freedom from the constraints of the slavery and society in which he has found himself.
Title: Journeys to the Other Side of the World: Further Adventures of a Young Naturalist Author: David Attenborough Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Conservation, Non-fiction Dates read: 7th December 2018 – 14th January 2019 Pace: Slow Format: Novel Publisher: Two Roads Year: 2018 5th sentence, 74th page: There seemed very few people around Kumburuf from whom we could recruit replacements, but Jim said that there would be plenty about in a day or so.
Following the success of the original Zoo Quest expeditions, in the late 1950s onwards the young David Attenborough embarked on further travels in a very different part of the world. From Madagascar and New Guinea to the Pacific Islands and the Northern Territory of Australia, he and his cameraman companion were aiming to record not just the wildlife, but the way of life of some of the indigenous people of these regions, whose traditions had never been encountered by most of the British public before.
From the land divers of Pentecost Island and the sing-sings of New Guinea, to a Royal Kava Ceremony on Tonga and the ancient art of the Northern Territory, it is a journey like no other. Alongside these remarkable cultures, he encounters paradise birds, chameleons, sifakas, and many more animals in some of the most unqiue environments on the planet.
Written with David Attenborough’s characteristic charm, humour and warmth, Journeys to the Other Side of the World is an inimitable adventure among people, places and the wildest of wildlife.
I almost screamed when I found out that David Attenborough had released yet another book. After all, the man is honestly my idol and I find it impossible to pass up anything that involves his work. Not only do I love finding out more about a man who has a lot to do with my choice in career path, but I also love the style in which he writes. He is funny and entertaining. And the beautiful way in which he writes transports you to another world and another time.
Where Adventures of a Young Naturalist takes you on the first few zoo quest expeditions and the animals that they encountered, Journeys to the Other Side of the World has more of a focus on the people that were encountered. And I loved this change of pace. Although it is the animal and conservation aspect of Attenborough’swork that I have always been obsessed with, the anthropologist in me is enthralled by the cultures that are encountered. Especially considering that this would have been at least fifty years ago, so the changes that would have occurred have made many of these places and peoples change entirely.
I’m so incredibly disappointed that this book is over. I loved going through the Pacific Islands, Madagascar and Australia. Especially considering it was such a different time, and even if I followed in David’sfootsteps, I wouldn’t be able to see half of the things that he had. It’s a different world, a different time, and a different place. And one that I found incredibly fun and intriguing.
Tanith Lee provides an alternate (and slightly disturbed) take on Snow White that will leave you thinking about it, and feeling incredibly uncomfortable.
Not all fairy tales have a happy ending, and in the case of
Snow Drop, there is most certainly not a happy ending. At least for Snow Drop… I’m
still not sure whether the ending was happy or just twisted for Cristena…
I honestly thought by the name of this short story that there
would be an innocent at some point throughout. Whether it was the reworked Snow
White, the reworked step mother, or some vague bystander. I thought that in
some way, there would be a purity and innocence to this story that would
contrast with the darkness.
I was wrong.
So very, very wrong. There is no innocence in this story. There
is no purity, and the depths of depravity throughout the story just kept on exceeding
my expectations. Not that I minded… it was just enough “huh” to make this story
impossible to put down and even more impossible to forget.
Title: Beloved Beast Author: Lois Greiman In: The Mammoth Book of Scottish Romance (Trisha Telep) Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect) My Bookshelves:Romance Pace: Medium Format: Short story Publisher: Robinson Year: 2011 5th sentence, 74th page: She turned her head slightly.
Swift is a pickpocket, but a chance meeting with a man of the clergy could change her fate forever.
This short story really made me think of Oliver Twist. There’s
a somewhat innocent pick pocket. A not so nice man in charge, and a protector
who ends up saving the day. Alright, I don’t think that a protector actually
saved the day in Oliver Twist… I remember a vaguely sad and disturbed ending
(although it has been a long time since I’ve visited the story).
Although this is a romance story in a collection of Scottish
romance, I didn’t find it to be that… well, Scottish. Sure it’s based in
Scotland and the man wears a kilt. But unlike some of the other stories in this
collection, it just felt a lot more modern and less about the highlands. Which
I thought was great. You need a break in the repetitive settings and themes
every now and again.
Title: Greylands Author: Isobelle Carmody Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves: Death, Fantasy, Mental health Dates read: 1st – 2nd January 2019 Pace: Medium Format: Novel Publisher: Ford St Year: 1997 5th sentence, 74th page: She stroked the bundle of rags tenderly, and a strange thought entered Jack’s chilled mind.
One wakeful night in the aftermath of his mother’s death, Jack enters a land devoid of colour or scent. Here he meets the tragic laughing beast and Alice, a strange girl with a secret.
Will Jack escape before the terrifying wolvers find him? Or is he destined to be trapped in the Greylands forever?
Only the cats know…
I really had no idea what to expect from this novel. I know that I love Isobelle Carmody’s writing, but this is the first truly young novel that I have read by her. It is also, weirdly enough, the first standalone story that I have read. And man, I wasn’t disappointed. This was one of those stories that left me thinking, contemplating and wondering long after I turned the final page. This is certainly one of those stories that lingers long after you finish, in the best way possible.
The fragmented nature of this story highlights Jack’s
misunderstandings and confusion beautifully well. As do the mystical and dreamy
scapes in which he moves – both the real world and the Greylands. The settings
are so incredibly vivid and yet vague that you can see the hazy contrast
perfectly in your minds eye, and it emphasises the symbolism behind Jack’s
confusion and grief.
Even if you don’t fully understand what is happening
throughout Jack’s adventure, the beginning, middle and end (literally named
this) give a great account as to what the symbolism means. And also the ways in
which this reality bisects with our own. Having the character write his own
story is a new-to-me ideal, and I loved how well it worked.
Dealing with grief and issues of mental health can always be
quite difficult. And there are few literary pieces I’ve found that deal with
such topics in an open, accessible way. The fact that this is done in a language
that young children can access is all the more impressive and is exactly what
helps this story to linger in my mind’s eye so strongly.
Title: Come to Me Author: Heather Clitheroe In: Evolve (Nancy Kilpatrick) Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Mythology, Vampires Pace: Slow Format: Short story Publisher: Edge Year: 2010 5th sentence, 74th page: Those days, she was glad to leave tiny Vauxhall – the short main street with the farm supply store at one end and the fire station at the other, the flat horizon that stretched out and away until it met the sky.
A voice keeps on telling her to go to the forest and never return. Will she obey the strange compulsion?
I’ve heard of the suicide forests in Japan. I’ve also read a
lot about the kitsune. So a
vampirific story that combines both of them? Well, that’s right up my alley.
Especially when written with the dreamy, wafty style of this short story.
There is a constant quiet voice throughout this story that
eggs on the unhappy lead. She is lost in her world and too stubborn to make a
change. So someone else decides to make the change for her… in an incredibly
negative way.
‘Four bestselling names in romance and fantasy come together in this collection of thrilling novellas featuring powerful women who know how to handle a hex or two…
New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews spins “Magic Dreams.” Shapeshifting tigress Dali Harimau finds herself in deep waters when she must challenge a dark being to a battle of wits or risk losing the man for whom she secretly longs.
In “Ice Shards”, New York Times bestselling author Yasmine Galenorn returns to the Otherworld as Iris Kuusi, a Finnish house sprite, journeys to the frozen Northlands to confront the crazed shadow of her former lover and break the curse that is keeping her from marrying the man she loves.
National bestselling author Allyson james takes you to Magellan, Arizona, where Stormwalker Janet Begay and her friends are trapped by a powerful curse. It will take every bit of magic simmering beneath her skin for the Stormwalker to survive being “Double Hexed”.
From national bestselling author Jeanne C. Stein comes “Blood Debt,” in which bount-hunter-turned-vampire Anna Strong is visited by three witches who ask her to right an old magical wrong. Anna will have to live up to her last name to make it through alive.
I absolutely adored this collection of novellas. And was
wondering why I didn’t pick this up much, much sooner. After all, it’s been
sitting on my bookshelf for a few years. Although, since I now have another two
series that I need to buy (I already had two), I’m beginning to think that that
may have been my reason for not sinking my teeth into this series too early on.
There was a healthy addition of romance throughout these
urban fantasy stories. But, mostly they featured kick ass women, curses and pasts
that they were trying to overcome. All of which are some of my favourite themes
and topics in any kind of story. The fact that I got to read four novellas with
these themes, well, that just made me even more happy. And made this collection
all the more difficult to put down so I could do something grown up and
productive.
