Friday thoughts and memes

Eva has a fabulous post on why she's not buying any books right now, and she would like to know if you do, or don't, buy books, and the reasons why. I commented on her post, but I thought it was a topic worthy of mentioning here: I buy books. I buy a lot of books. For a long time, I could only buy a few here and there, so when I was made permanent in my job - after years and years of being part-time and working two jobs at the same time - I decided that it was time. I was rich enough to buy books again. I have a sort of book allowance which I set myself, and tend to go over if we can, but at the bottom of my heart I realized that if I can buy books, then I feel I am wealthy. I have enough. We don't have lots of luxuries and I hate shopping unless there's a reason. Except for books. There are times though when I have bought enough (as in my TBR pile as a complete full bookshelf in itself!!), and then I go to the library to try new books and authors first. I think there is a place to be both a buyer and a borrower of books, at the same time. Let her, and myself, know what you think.

Kailana kindly gave me a letter in the Letter meme going around. My letter is "m". Here goes:

1. magic. I love reading fantasy books about magic, and' real' books on magic also. I say that with quotations marks because my definition of what's magical in life is my own. Life is magic. So is love, and the seasons changing, and all the things we each love, and chance meetings that lead to life changes - which I have also experienced, and the magic of creating something - a book, a painting, a song, a sweater, a garden, a beautiful meal. I think magic and beauty, and magic and nature, are intertwined. I think that 'magic' is something we all do; it involves being clear to ourselves about what we want - and why, and once we have really decided it's good, then the Universe turns to meet us. I still like the idea of being able to wave a wand or click my heels though!! And a lot of hard work on my part too, to make it happen. There is magic all around..... maybe I really mean a sense of wonder, of being surprised by life, too. Anyway, it's one of my favourite 'm' words and almost always the first one that comes to mind! We always joke at work about our private 'happy places', I think I've just given you a glimpse into mine!

2. mountains. I have loved mountains since I lived in British Columbia at different times in my childhood: Vernon, in the interior in the Okanagan Valley between the Rockies and the Selkirk mountain ranges, twice; Victoria, and Nanaimo, where we could look across at the Rockies on the mainland in both BC and Washington State. There is something about the grandeur of the mountains, their presence, that I am drawn to.

3. marigold - One of my favourite flowers. I missed planting them last year, and I felt so sad. They are so cheery and bright, and the bees love them. I like planting flowers that the bees and butterflies feed on. They also keep the slugs away!


4. mystery - another of my favourite words. Mystery books are my second favourite genre, after fantasy, to read. I love the idea of setting the world to right after a crime or some form of chaos. I also love this word because life is a mystery. We don't know everything, we can't know everything, and that leaves room for wonder and magic and mystery to be part of our lives. I also love it because it connotates exploring something unknown. I found more ways through the city centre of York when I lived there than my husband did in the four years he had lived there previously! I just love how when I say 'mystery', anything could be happening, and it could be about anything.

5. Moxy Fruvous, a Canadian music band, authors of one my favourite songs about books:
"My Baby Loves A Bunch of Authors" - there's 3 m's in this sentence! lol, I'm giving the M for two! Moxy, and the song title beginning, 'My' ....

I will add that I don't have a huge music collection, and I tend to like only a few musicians, but it covers a wide range from classical music to Duffy, the new blues singer from Wales covering everything from the 1960's to 2009. I use music when I'm feeling blue to cheer me up, to destress, to sing along to, to dance to with my children. I don't listen to enough of it, and that's one of my goals this year, to increase the time I spend listening to music. I hope you like the video and the words are priceless, to 'My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors'!

6. Blind Melon 'No Rain" I saved "m for music' for this one! Another long-time favourite song. I've just discovered You Tube and that it has videos from the dark ages! (according to my eldest who's 20) Does the second part of the band's name count as an M word? I think it does. I've included this because this was a video that came out way back in the 1990's and it's about a little girl looking for someone like her. It sort of describes most of my childhood, because I so rarely met anyone who even read books (outside my family). If you listen to the lyrics near the end, you'll hear what she does to escape....It's an odd video, and it's so cool that now I can see it whenever I like!!!


7. moon. Did you know that I plant my garden by the sign the moon's in? that according to the farmer's almanac, the best moons for planting are the water signs - Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio, followed by the earth signs: Taurus (that's me!), Virgo and Capricorn. It works, too. My peonies, notorious sensitive plants, both flowered the first year they were planted, which is almost unheard of! and my rose bush is thriving even though I keep forgetting to cover it in the winter.
I try to watch eclipses when they happen in our area, they are so fascinating. I love how the moon goes from new to full to old. I usually try to see where the moon is every night or day. I was born when the moon was very old, right at the end of the cycle when it is called balsamic. This is supposed to make me ahead of my time, mystical because I'm on the cusp of the new so I can see what's coming (I'm still waiting for this one. I'm awful at predicting trends, seeing ahead, guessing what changes are coming.), and subject to sudden changes and endings in relationships because most of them are karmic in nature. It is of course, the least understood of any of the moons, which makes me mysterious to some, and crazy to others. Did I say that my nickname at work is Crazy Susan, to distinguish me from the other two Susan's who work there?

8. maps.
I like maps. We have a wall map of the UK, and of Canada, downstairs in the basement, so we can look at all the places and remember where we've been. We sort of collect maps haphazardly, when the mood strikes us. So we have two smaller ones of York, one of the North Yorkshire Moors, a walking one of the Cleveland Way (in the UK), one of Ottawa, one of the recreational paths in Ottawa, one of Ontario, the South Pennines, Quebec City, A-Z Guide to Northern England, AND we own the National Geographic World Atlas, a huge book that was a gift to my husband one year, and that answers alot of our questions like, GNP (with a son who questions democracy, this does come up!), when the Berlin Wall came down, how far Ottawa is from everything else. My husband and I love to travel, and he loves to pour over maps when we are planning a trip. For London, we now own 6 specific guide books, complete with maps, of the city. It's not a large collection - yet. It will be, one day. I like to see where things are, and the shape of the world. The children do too.

9. Mint dark chocolate - mmm. More chocolate. The very best kind comes from a little shop in Stratford Ontario called Rheo Thompson Candies. This is all they make, various forms of chocolate and other candies. They are online, here and this is what they look like. Yum. My very favourite mint dark chocolate in the world. They also make the very fabulous dark chocolate covered salted peanuts, which I usually eat much too quickly because they are so very very good. MMMM. Getting hungry now.

10. myth What's the myth you live by? Michelle at Fluttering Butterflies has a marvelous post here on her Tlinglit heritage, giving one of her creation myths. Do you know what your family's creation myths are? Culture's? I have Polish, Welsh, Irish, English, and Scottish myths to look at. The hard part is that a myth is just a story until we find a way to bring it alive in our lives, and unless we leave bread out for the fairies, or carry a stone with a natural hole in it - and I found one long ago on a beach, and I gave it away about 10 years ago, still not quite knowing what I'd found! - or watch Raven or Wolf or Bear when they come into our lives, it's hard to know how to make a myth be a part of our lives. King Arthur is a good example, so is the Mabinogion for Wales, and that's just two. There's all the ancient gods and goddesses of Rome, Greece, China, the Aztecs, the Mayans.....the world over. Is there a myth you particularly like? The closest cycle of stories that really resonates with me is the story of Persephone and Demeter.
I always imagine how it was for Persephone to be taken away into the dark of the underground by Hades, and be surrounded by the dead, and why she chose to stay for part of the year. I also like that
spring is associated with her return.
This is a fun romance/fantasy that is about Persephone:
Goddess of Spring by P.C. Cast., link to publisher here. This is a fun romance/myth retelling of Persephone and Hades. I particularly like how Linnea relates to the ghosts in the underworld.

Doomsday Book - Connie Willis

The current cover and edition, the one I just bought two weeks ago.






Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.


Every once in a while you come across the perfect book. The one that takes your breath away, where every word is perfectly placed, where the story comes alive for you, and there is nothing else in your world as you read. Doomsday Book has been that book for me for well over 15 years. I have to admit to some trepidation when I bought a replacement copy two weeks ago (I lent it to someone and it's never come back), and decided it was time to revisit it. Would it hold up? Would I still love it? I think I was almost holding my breath when I opened it last weekend. And then I was swept away, and when I resurfaced late Monday afternoon (I was home sick but well enough to read!), when I put the book down, my eyes were red and puffy from crying and it was still a perfect book.

So what makes it so good? you ask. How can a time travel book back to the Middle Ages, from 2050 AD Oxford, be thrilling, moving, gut-wrenching, and sometimes funny reading? When you have strong characters who seem like they stepped out of life onto the page, when you have a story that is filled with love, and curiosity, and human errors, and determination, all that's best about people, and the very interesting idea of time travel and how it could work - in the hands of one of the US's best science fiction writers, it becomes a luminous novel.

What? you ask. A science fiction novel that's luminous? How can that be? Doomsday Book concentrates on people first, how they relate to one another, their relationships, and then how their actions affect others. The science is there, an integral part of the plot, but isn't the reason the book exists. The book exists because of Kivrin and Mr Dunworthy and what happened when Kirvrin travelled back in time to 14th century England. And this part is very well thought out; how could someone go back in time and not upset the time they landed in? How could a person be prepared for this kind of travel? How do you cope when you land there? Doomsday Book answers all these.

Most of all, 14th century England comes alive, specifically life in a tiny village. The first time I read this book, I had only a hazy idea about life in the Middle Ages and how people lived then. Since reading this book I have lived in England, and I have seen first-hand surviving 14th century houses and streets, so I have a much better sense of what life was like back then. Once again, Doomsday Book surprised me with its recreation of the Middle Ages in the characters, the locale, everything is thought out and planned and covered for.

The book takes place in 14th century England - to say any more would be to give a way a key plot point, so I won't! and 2050 Oxford. I certainly wish that half of what Willis envisioned, especially the phones that are actually video screens, would come true! All of the characters are wonderful, people that talk to each other, and are funny, or proud, or determined.

Here are a few of my favourite passages:
'She had been wrong about not recognizing anything - she knew these woods after all. It was the forest Snow White had got lost in, and Hansel and Gretel, and all those princes. There were wolves in it, and bears, and perhap's even witch's cottages, and that was where all those stories had come from, wasn't it, the Middle Ages? And no wonder. Anyone could get lost in here.'

"None go to Bath," the boy said. "All who can, flee it."

She put the lists at the bottom of her sheaf of papers and began passing the top sheets, which were a virulent pink, around to everyone. they appeared to be a release form of some sort, absolving the Infirmary of any and all responsibility.....
She handed Dunworthy a blue sheet which absolved the NHS of any and all responsibility and confirmed willingness to pay any and all charges not covered by the NHS in full and within thirty days.....
The sheet was distributing now ws green and headed "Instructions for Primary Contacts." Number one was, "Avoid contact with others."
"Record your temp at half-hour intervals," she said, handing round a yellow form. ...
She handed Dunworthy another pink sheet. She was running out of colors. This one was a log, headed "Contacts," and under it, "Name, Address, Type of Contact, Time."
It was unfortunate that Badri's virus had not had time to deal with the CDC, the NHS, and theWIC. It would never have got in the door.

Did I mention the lovely sense of humour like in the above passage, and for example, the head of the department who has gone away for the holidays, and can't be found? Most of Willis's books have this wry laughter along with a sense of sorrow. For me, this is some of what makes her books accessible to everyone. You don't have to understand any math or science to know how time travel works in her worlds!


Cover, 1st edition, hardcover. I used to have a copy of this version also, and it was lent out and got damaged. I love this book so much that I want everyone to read it! However, I've decided that from now on, I will just buy a copy when I want someone to read it!

This book is such a satisfying read that I haven't really been able to pick another one up yet. I can't recommend this highly enough. It's still, one of my favourite books.

Interview Me Meme

I was so lucky! I asked her to interview me, and Nymeth sent five questions she really wanted to ask me, for the 'Interview Me' meme. This is how it works:

The rules are:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Here are the five questions Nymeth asked me:

1. What's the one place in the world you'd like to visit the most? Why?
Great Britain. It was easy. I've lived there, and I still haven't seen all I want to see. Why? I love so much about it. The history, the old buildings, the landscape, they all fascinate me. My ancestors are from Wales and Scotland, and I'd really like to go visit them one day. York, London, Whitby, are three of my favourite places in the world. The North Yorkshire Moors has some of the most stunning landscapes in the world, and I swear that on the moor, there is nothing between you and the sky itself. It's all you and nature. If I could I would spend six months of the year here in Canada, and the other six in England, every year. My husband is in full agreement. We just have to win the lottery now.

2. Share a really good reading memory with us! It could be discovering
a favourite author, being really impressed by a book you had no
expectations about…anything.
My favourite reading memory is how Anne Frank saved me. When I was 12, I read The Diary of Anne Frank. I remember being gripped by the book. It was how I discovered about the Holocaust, about the Jews and Germans and WW2. And she wrote in such a chatty teenager way, that it was just like she was there, talking to me. I read the book in a few days, and was devastated at the end, when she died. I remember crying and crying, and thinking it was so unfair that she, who had believed so much in the goodness of mankind, had died so close to the Armistace. Across the years, she reached out her hand, and clasped mine. I even started a diary, in the same manner as she did, addressing it as Dear Kitty, though I very quickly thought that was copying and changed it to Dear Misty. And though things were very bad in my life over the years, it still was nothing compared to hers. What she survived for so long, gave me the courage to keep going in my own life. She really was, and still is, one of my heroines for my entire life. She is one person I do want to meet in the afterlife, and say thank you to.



3. You've mentioned a few times that you're also a writer. When did
you start writing? Do you find that writing you own fiction changed
the way you read? If so, how?
I started writing when I was about 11. At first it was poetry and short stories, and for a long time that is what I wrote. Recently I finished my first draft of my very first full-length novel. I don't think writing has changed how I read; but I have to be careful about what I read while I'm writing, because if I really like the author it might end up influencing my writing temporarily, although that is usually because I'm not certain about what I'm writing at the time - tone, or character, or setting. I did find last year while writing my novel that what i read didn't seem to affect my writing, so I'm hopeful this means my vision of the book is clear enough to keep influences out.
I usually know if reading a book is working for me if I don't rewrite a scene in my head! If I'm really unhappy with the book I'll rewrite the entire ending in my mind, or imagine what the characters could say or do instead if they are acting out of character for me. I don't like being jarred out of reading because something isn't right in the writing, and a really good book is one where everything is seamless and fits.


4. If you could pick one fiction character to be friends with, who
would it be? (I don't mind if you pick more than one :P)

-Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. She is so lively and opinionated, so caring and kind, and so honest and generous, that I would dearly love to be her friend!
-Thursday Next from the Next series. Her sense of humour, her frailty, her love for her husband and crazy family, and the wonderful job she has in books! I love her dodo too, and how she earns the respects of the Neanderthals, and how she outwits Goliath every time. she's clever, she's funny, and she never gives up.
- Anne of Anne of Green Gables. How could anyone not want to be her friend? I hated Ruby and Josie and all the other girls who made fun of her at school. Actually, I think I wanted to be Anne while I was growing up! She was chatty, imaginative, friendly, and as open-hearted a girl as anyone could have for a friend.
- Dorothea Brooke from Middlemarch. Fiery, outspoken, determined, just, and ethical - she sounds frightening, and she could have been, except she is gentle and caring and soulful, and I know why Will fell in love with her.


5. If you had the chance to talk to a favourite author for a few
minutes, what would you tell them or ask them?

Well, if it was Neil Gaiman, I'm not sure I could get any words out. I'd be fanning myself and trying not to blush too hard. When I get near an author I truly like (and a good looking one at that) my brain freezes and I say the most inane things. It's really awful. I get really nervous and start giggling so I look slightly crazy. Just the idea of being in the same room with Neil makes me hyperventilate. So I'd have to pass him a note, before I passed out, and I'd ask: do you find, that having lived in two different countries, that you have to alter the words you choose sometimes? that you use words that are English in your books set in the US, and vice versa? (see I told you, even the idea of communicating with him via paper, all intelligent questions have left the building).

My second author would fare no better. This would be Stephen King, and I'm afraid I'd fall to the floor and look like I was bowing, and once down there I wouldn't move until he'd left the room. Stephen King! *tries to breathe*

Next choice: ok, she's dead. So I can imagine this would work better: Jane Austen.

Except I can't ask the normal things people who don't write, would ask: how do you get your ideas? etc, because I'm a writer, and I know very well where ideas come from - everywhere. Conversations, words on a page, some scenery, an idea that someone else ruined - you pick it up and make it better.....so the questions I would be most likely to ask any author, and that would be: have you dreamed anything that made it's way into your writing?

Charles de Lint: I can add here that I am not completely hopeless. I have had the honour of meeting and actually chatting with Charles de Lint over the years. He is a charming, sweet, very friendly, quiet man, whose writing I thoroughly enjoy. He is one of my favourite fantasy writers, and I love the Newford books. In all the times I met him I didn't embarrass myself too much, although once at a writers' meeting - he was guest of honour at our small group, as a favour to myself and my friend Jennifer, who he was really friends with - I scared everyone by saying that having pictures of dead people on the wall would be creepy with the eyes of the dead people always looking at you, following you around the room. See? He didn't say much to me that evening either, as I recall, after that! To be honest, he was writing a horror novel, and somehow the topic got on to dead bodies from crime scenes. Honest. So I thought I was making a valid point! Jennifer said after that he looked a bit scared of me.
He is someone who I would like to ask now, "has anything you dreamed made its way into your writing?"

Probably it's better if I don't try to go near any authors.

I very much enjoyed this meme! Nymeth asked me some very interesting questions, and I hope she - and you, my Gentle Readers - enjoyed my answers!

Now, if any of you would like me to ask you 5 questions, just leave me a comment, and I will contact you by email with the questions, as the meme says at the top. I'd love to interview someone!

another essay, and Dark is Rising and Greenwitch

This is The Language of the Night, the book of essays by Ursula K Le Guin that many of you have been asking me about. I have the 1979 edition, which is trade paperback. I'm not sure if it is still available, I don't think so, at least according to Amazon.com, it is only available used. This book has a collection of essays and speeches given by Le Guin over her early career as a writer, because of course she has continued to write these past 30 years since this book came out!

I have been reviewing - or rather, writing about - the essays in her book, in some of my posts this month, because each one is so important to understanding why we all (or most of us in the book blogging community that I have met) read fantasy. In the wider world, of course, we are reading a genre that is treated as only slightly above horror, and barely tolerated as literate, never mind as great literature. This despite the efforts to recognize within the fantasy and science fiction book world excellence in writing. She extends this to children's literature as well. Le Guin addresses all of these concerns in her essays. She also talks about the act of writing. She writes about writing, and reading, and what we find when we go on a voyage into these books. Because I love fantasy first and foremost, her books seem to talk directly to me, affirming to me what I have long ago thought in my heart about fantasy, and what I discover in my soul every time I venture into a fantasy book.

Here is what I discovered in today's essay, "The Child and the Shadow". I read this over a toasted bagel with cream cheese, and a cup of tea, and about half-way through the essay I realized I had eaten most of the bagel without tasting it, because there was so much other food for my mind in the essay.
She opens with a quick retelling of one of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, about a man and his shadow. The essay asks, Is it appropriate for children to read? Because society - parents,school boards, etc, are always asking what is 'good' or 'appropriate' for children.
She writes about the Andersen story: "I don't know. I hated it when I was a kid. I hated all the Andersen stories with unhappy endings. That didn;t stop me from reading them, and rereading them. Or from remembering them.....so that after a gap of thirty years, when I was pondering this talk, a little voice suddenly said in my left ear, "You'd better dig out that Andersen story, you know, about the shadow.
At age ten I certainly wouldn't have gone on about reason and repression and all that. I had no critical equipment, no detachment, and even less power of sustained thought than I have now. I had somewhat less conscious mind than I have now. But I had as much, or more, of an unconscious mind, and was perhaps in better touch with it than I am now. And it was to that, to the unknown depths in me, that the story spoke; and it was the depths which responded to it and, nonverbally, irrationally, understood it, and learned from it.
The great fantasies, myths, and tales are indeed like dreams: they speak from the unconscious to the unconscious, in the language of the unconscious - symbol and archetype."
Isn't that somehow perfectly said? As if Le Guin herself had bypassed all the reasons why we should read fantasy, and said why we do read it - because it speaks to something deep inside us, the place in our hearts and souls that other books that are 'reasonable' and 'good' for us don't reach. I think the idea of morality is very important, and Le Guin goes on to make a much deeper connection between fantasy and morality in this essay: she says that instead of dividing good from evil, that we must learn, what our souls know, that good and evil are intertwined. Not mixed, but rather, in order to live a whole life, we must face the darkness in ourselves, in order to contain that darkness. If we don't face it, we become lonely, because we are cut off from our deepest source of creativity and understanding about the world. If we do face it, we show the world that evil can be contained in ourselves, and we show the way for others - for children, in our stories, how to do this. How to face our shadow, and win. She also makes the important statement that we can't cut off the shadow, we can't forget about it, or ignore it; it just grows stronger, until we, the conscious self, becomes the shadow of the Shadow, which is now corrupted with the evil we wouldn't admit to. It's not easy to say, I can be like her - the worst crimes committed, but if we can find a way to acknowledge the seed of the idea might possibly exist in us, no matter how dark, we are saved.

So how do we find our way to our shadow? "How do you get there? How do you find your own private entrance to the collective unconscious? Well, the first step is often the most important, and Jung says that the first step is to turn around and follow your own shadow."

And children, I believe, instinctively know this. Le Guin makes this point again and again: they see with an uncluttered mind, uncluttered with reason, logic, all the ways adults use to stop themselves from seeing. Even if the child doesn't understand all the facets of the story, they instinctively know it's true in its depths. Not just the battle between good and evil, which we all face every day as adults, but how we live our lives. They know if someone or something is true. So my favourite Andersen tale,

is one that I have both feared, dreaded and loved dearly. All at the same time. As an adult, I can acknowledge that the Snow Queen lives in me, that I have the fearsome and awesome capability to freeze my emotions if I have to, in order to survive. If I am in danger of doing this, my dreams tell me - I'll dream I'm in the arctic, or ice or snow is all around me. And the way home for me is to love, is to feel again, to be passionate. So, fairy tales are true. How did my child-self know all those years ago? The fairy tale is my guide and my instruction home again. So is The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, so is Beauty and the Beast, so are the best fantasy books and fairy tale books and our cultural myths we tell. Le Guin says fairy tales give children the chance to see yes, the world is full of danger, and yes, there is a way to survive. We do have to be careful with children, to not shatter them with too much knowledge too early. What we can show them, she says, is this: "And it seems to me that the way you can speak absolutely honestly and factually to a child about both good and evil is to talk about himself. Himself, his inner self, his deep, the deepest Self. That is something he can cope with; indeed, his job in growing up is to become himself.....He needs to see himself and the shadow he casts. That is something he can face, his own shadow, and he can learn to control it and be guided by it......
Fantasy is the language of the inner self."

Anyway, that's why I forgot what I was eating for breakfast, because her essay swooped me away into my deeper self, where I remembered that going within is the most important journey each person makes, and necessary to the well-being of the world. So, what is your favourite Andersen, or other, fairy tale? Is there a relation between that story and you?


So, with all that in mind, how does a classic children's fantasy series measure up?


The Dark is Rising and Greenwitch, books 2 and 3 in the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. This is a fantasy series written for children, and won two Newbery Awards - for The Dark is Rising volume, and The Grey King.
I read Over Sea, Under Stone last year, and my review is here. The next two volumes are even better.

Dark in Rising introduces Will Stanton, and what happens to him on his 11th birthday. It is a true fantasy story, filled with Old Ones, magic, items to find, protecting the world from Evil, and in this book, the wonder of a Christmas with the Stanton family with their 10 children. This is a classic book of good vs evil, with a delicious sense of danger and malevolence that I love: 'And then in a dreadful furious moment, horror seized him like a nightmare made real; there came a wrenching crash, with the howling of the wind suddenly much louder and closer, and a great blast of cold; and the Feeling came hurtling against him with such force of dread that it flung him cowering away.'
I love this bit, which Cooper does in all the books: weave in a bit of local lore, that grounds the books in Cornwall (Over Sea) or The Thames Valley (The Dark is Rising), using existing magical lore to deepen the connection of how to find your way in the land of magic and dream:
"Here," Old George said, appearing suddenly at Will's side as they all pushed the cart out of the gate. "You should have some of this." He thrust forward a great bunch of holly, heavy with berries.
"Very good of you, George," said Mr. Stanton."But we do have that big holly tree by the front door, you know. If you know anyone who hasn't -"
"No, no, you take it." The old man wagged his finger. "Not half so many berries on that bush o'yours. Partic'lar holly, this is." He laid it carefully in the cart; then quickly broke off a sprig and slipped it into the top buttonhole of Will's coat. "And a good protection against the Dark," the old voice said low in Will's ear, "if pinned over the window, and over the door." Then the pink-gummed grin split his creased brown face in a squawk of ancient laughter, and the Old One was Old George again, waving them away. "Happy Christmas!"

This book is filled with danger, and evil, and goodness, and light, and those that stand eternal guard against the dark. It's a wonderful story, and I really enjoyed it. I also really wanted to go and put some holly and berries over my doors and windows!!

Greenwitch brings together the children - Jane, Barney and Simon Drew from Over Sea, Under Stone, with Will from The Dark is Rising. They are again in Cornwall, and they are brought there under the guise of a week's holiday in April (a school break time in England). Really, they are looking for the Grail, which at the end of Over Sea, Under Stone had been placed in a museum. It has been stolen, and Merriman, the Old One who is the Merlin-like figure of aid to Will in the stories, knows they have a small window of time to find it before it is lost forever. Being the Grail, it is indispensible in the fight against evil. This story took a while to find a balance; it read more like an adventure in the Enid Blyton style, then when it was involving Merriman and Will, suddenly it had the more mythic overtones that The Dark is Rising contains. Over Sea, Under Stone had the same juxtaposition of adventure fun with mythic overtones. Cooper is a good enough writer that she in the end pulls it off, and Greenwitch works on a much deeper and better level than Over Sea, Under Stone does.

I think this is because Greenwitch is based on a Cornwall ritual of making an offering to the sea. Whether this is based on a real Cornwall ritual, I couldn't say, but it feels like once upon a time, it could very well have been done. It is very simple, the creation of statue of branches - for those who know their trees, rowan and hawthorn especially are used. How the Greenwitch figures in the story, I don't want to give away, but I do want to say that this is again a magical story, with old magic and Wild Magic, which are two different things. I like this too, that there are different kinds of magic in the world. It works especially because what Jane does crosses the divide between the Wild Magic and Old Magic, something no one else is able to do because it doesn't come from knowledge, but understanding, and sympathy. So often, the greatest fantasy stories are about this act of sympathy - remember, Bilbo doesn't slay Gollum when he has the chance, and so he saves the world. What Jane,Simon, and Barney do, make up the bulk of the story, and it is believable in the way adventure stories must be for children, as well as full of wonder, as magical stories must be. Will and Merriman are more watchers, seeking the Grail specifically; I think their story is the whole of the 5 books put together. I think Cooper put ordinary children into a mythic story to see what would happen, and it is fun, exciting, and dangerous, just like the best stories for children are.
"Barney felt again the power and the nastiness that had leapt at him from the canvas he had seen the man painting in the harbour; up on this ceiling too he saw the particular unnerving shade of green he had found so unpleasant out there. He said suddenly to Simon, "Let's go home."
"Not yet," said the dark man. He spoke softly, without moving, and Barney felt a chill awareness of the Dark reaching out to control him."

Very highly recommended. I have to buy the last two in the series, and that will be later this month. I have to know how it ends!

Battlestar Galactica, or, simply the best television

The world ended with no warning, and all that was left … was hope. opening description of Battlestar Galactica.

Ok, I can see you, rolling your eyes. "Gah!" you say. "Not that show, not the remake of the science fiction tv show from the 1970's."

Well, actually that was my original reaction when I heard 4 years ago that they were remaking Battlestar Galactica. I had watched the original show - my sister and I had even fought over the two leading actors, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict (I got Richard Hatch). But it was cute, and not very serious science fiction, even with Lorne Greene's deep, sonorous voice leading the way into the stars in the flight from the Cylons.

Cue the 21st century. As usual, I think I missed the very first episode, and my then 16 year old son asked me to watch the next episode with him. And since that very first episode that I watched, I have fallen in love with a great tv show. Note that I say 'great tv show', not 'great science fiction show'. I think BSG (as it's really known to those who watch it, much easier to say!) transcends the genre in every way possible. In tonight's episode, for example, "Blood on the Scales", there is a coup and it all looks very normal and fairly bloodless at first. Then, in true BSG style, every coup trope is turned upside down: a soldier breaks down as the episode progresses. What does he do? The President, dying of cancer, decides to fight back even though she has been told the Admiral (her lover) has been killed. I sat there and admired her fighting words, then as the commercial rolled, I thought, uh-oh, has she just doomed the rest of the human race to sure death by staying to fight the coup takers, rather than fleeing with the remnants of those who follow her, and the Cylons? Meanwhile, the small band of rebels take the ship back. And the one who was going to be killed by firing squad, executes instead those who removed him from power, in the last scene. It's not horrible, it's awesome story-telling. 55 minutes of 'don't look away' television. From beginning to end, it's breath-taking, on the edge-of-my-seat watching. Literally. I almost fell off at one point, and when Roslyn (the President) makes her stunning very short speech, I had my hands on my face for a full minute after, trying to think through all the directions the show could move now.

Every scene is fraught with tension - what will the characters do? Even now, 4 years into the show, Starbuck (in this updated version, she's a woman and quite a woman too) stays with her ex as he is critically wounded, even though they are still trying to take the ship back, for the first time revealing how much she still cares for Sam, even though he's a Cylon. And the vice-president in a very chilling scene, shows exactly why he was in prison for all those years.

This is the link to what the show is about, here , from Scifi.Com, a great website about science fiction media.

This is tv that goes where all the really great shows go, right into the heart of what it means to be human,and what it means to be in a state of war, and what trying to find a home does to a civilization. The writers don't blink from asking the hard questions, like in a state of war, should the military make civilians expendable? Who leads? What happens when you meet the enemy, and you can't tell yourself apart from the enemy? What if the enemy split apart and some wanted to make a pact with you? would you? What if you fell in love with the enemy? And all, all of the characters are fully rounded, written with depth and sensitivity, and the acting is so good, that every character is different, and every death means something. Life on board the Galactica and in the fleet feels real,even though it is set in the future, it seems to be happening right before our eyes.



I know i will not convert anyone, and I'm not trying too hard to! I wanted, while Carl's Sci Fi Experience is running, to write about Battlestar Galactica while it was still on the air. This is its last season, and I think it is a pity that more people haven't found their way to it, because it is some of the best writing on tv, and best acting. Oh, and Richard Hatch is back. And not a hero!!! In ironic recasting (and very deliberate on the part of the show, which I like!), he is most definitely dangerous and unpredictable. Still kind of cute, though.

So here are my top 10 reasons to watch Battlestar Galactica while you still can:
Susan's Top 10 Reasons to watch Battlestar Galactica:

1. Adults only. This is for adults. No cute robot dogs, no talking animals (which I do love!), this is a show about life and death in space.




2. Well-written, and gripping. What do you do with a science genius who discovers how to tell Ceylon from human, and then lies about how it works? Because he carries around a secret guilt that slowly eats away at him as he watches the fleet battle the Ceylons to stay alive.


Or when the human survivors discover that the Cylons have discovered a way to make themselves look human? Or the board that marks down the number of survivors left in the fleet, and if there are any deaths in the episode, the number changes in real time? Births too.
Storyline is continuous and refers to the past: actions in the beginning have repercussions later. Decisions have immediate results. And the characters refer to what they were doing before the Cylons came. They talk to each other, listen to one another, respond. The coup tonight is a direct result of Adama refusing to deal with the revelation of who the final 4 Cylons are, all of whom have infiltrated the ship and their lives. If someone is your friend for 25 years, how do you turn your back on that? what if they don't hate you at all?


3. Fabulous love stories. Some are very hot,



Oh, and it's also twisted. Very twisted. They argue, they fight, they hurt each other, they make up, they love each other.
In the midst of war, life goes on, and that mystical, magical ingredient that makes life worth living, love, is present in spades in Galactica.




4. Characters are people you probably grew up with: The range of characters is fantastic. Good characters, bad characters, characters who change sides, characters whose side you aren't sure they are on.....and they grow and change before your eyes.
Here is Starbuck coming to terms with her past:



5. Life in Space. How they adapt to life on the ships is fascinating. And realistic. They need water, fuel, to resupply, time to repair.

6. The theme song is haunting, and the opening montage is a riveting, no matter how many times i see it, I love watching it.

7. Admiral Adama. Tonight's episode made me realize that Edward James Olmos is the soul of the show. As admiral, he is the Battlestar, aged, a relic, and refusing to give up. He is man's best chance to survive. And he finds love in the unlikeliest person, the unlikeliest place, at the unlikeliest time.


8. Forgiveness. Love. Survival. All the human emotions, pitted against a pitiless enemy who reveal surprising capacity to feel, to need, despite being machines. Confused? Try being a Cylon! Or a human on this show! So are they, the characers don't have any answers, they learn as they go, so we learn too what it's all about as we watch it. This is what I consider one of the best characteristics of science fiction, that it reveals us to ourselves. This show presents all that is good and bad in the human soul. It's fascinating storytelling.




9. The ships of BSG.
Wouldn't you like to fly one of these:


I know I do!!! I really want to fly one! and this is who they fight:



Very cool ships, graphics, the fight scenes are realistic. What life in space would be like.


10. Adventure! Fire Fights! Lots of flying! Things move, it's fast-paced, and the hour never ever lasts long enough. Actually, this spot is reserved for all the actors and actresses on the show. If they didn't believe in the work, in the story, it would fail miserably. The actors have brought a high level of craft and commitment to their work here, and I wish it would get noticed by the Emmy committee. Oh, too late. Figures. If this had been on mainstream tv it still wouldn't have gotten a look at, because it's science fiction. So, this is my part to say, hey, science fiction is capable of the best writing; in television, as well as in books. I wish it would be taken as worthy literature/television/storytelling. Isn't it about time a science fiction writer won the Nobel Prize for literature? When the writing is this good, why is it overlooked?



There you have it. 7 shows to go before the series ends. Catch it while you can.

library! and the end finally of the bus strike

It has been well over a year since I last went to the library. Some bloggers had been posting after Christmas about the books they picked up, and it reminded me - I have a great resource for books! I had fallen out of use with it over the past two years.

Then, we had the bus strike. There I sat, compiling lists from bloggers of books I really want to read, and I couldn't get to the library.

Breakthrough!!! The bus strike is over!!! Now, we are not actually jumping for joy yet, because a) the buses don't actually start until this Saturday, and b) there will be a great delay in getting so many on the road because the mechanics were part of the strike, that they are recommending people still try to find alternate ways of getting around. Which means, we get one bus line back, but not our rush hour bus. The good news is, I can get to the library again!

So today, on my second to last drive home from work, we stopped at the library so I could renew my card (it had sadly lapsed. What kind of bookworm am I, that my library card hasn't been used in over a year?). and then, because we were there, and I'm planning on going with the kids on Saturday as part of our 'thank heaven the buses are back!' trip out of the house, I looked for books for myself, a 1/2 hour of just randomly wandering the shelves. I had a tiny list with me, and happily found one book on it:


bad Blogger #1: SHARED Eva and Nymeth
Nymeth: review here for
Castle Waiting, by Linda Medley. Nymeth's review and
Eva: review here made this book go right onto my to read list. Lo and behold, what do I find at my library today but a hard cover copy with the whole edition! Their reviews were so good that I might, just might, have to start with this one. Fairy tales and illustrations - my very first graphic novel.



bad blogger # 2: Geraniumcat
Geranium Cat's review here
The Autumn Castle - Kim Wilkins
As you can see by my comment to Geranium Cat, I did go get this book after all! It looks very good too...



bad blogger # 3 BookZombie
BookZombie's review here - her review is for Tales From the Crypts, which I was looking for. I didn't see it, but I did see: Swamp Thing! So, I remember reading some of this when I was younger...it's not quite the same horror as Tales From the Crypts, my all-time favourite comic book as a child, but it will do until I can get me some Tales. Thanks, BookZombie, because your review made me realize the Tales are still around!

I also picked up:

Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie, an author I have been wanting to try for a very long time. This is a collection of short stories.

Faerie Tales, ed Martin Greenberg

Just because I saw the cover, and it was irresistible, and I can't resist short stories about faeries and humans.

Nature of Balance - Tim Lebbon

This was in our new release books, but I guess it was newly bought by our library, since it turns out to be published in 2001. Who could resist the first line: 'The dead girl holds her mother's hand.' It looks quite good, and so another just because book.

One of the best things about having my library card up to date is that I can start reserving books again! that was the real reason I went in today. So some bloggers will be getting points in the coming months. For now, a special greeting to Chris, who ever since he reviewed Cherie Priest,
here, I have been longing to read her books. Chris, if I can get all three of her books, you get three points! I also have to say that Chris is very persuasive, as ever since he reviewed John Scalzi's Old Man's War here, I have been seeing and I almost bought, but I am trying to restrain my book buying until we get our new shelves in and I have space again. So this is another for the library.

So, our bus nightmare is over, and we are so anxious to have life resume in our city.I will have precious reading time again, although I will miss getting home early and being able to read before picking the kids up from daycare.

I have some books to put down for the library challenge, finally! And, as I searched the blogs for the bloggers who had made the original recommendations for books, I saw 4 more titles to request at the library! No, indeed, in my world, you can never have too many books to read.....just more time, please, to read them all!

Sunday Salon - fantasy weekend

No, not that kind of weekend, where all my wealthy, I can have anything I want and go anywhere in the world, all-my-dreams come-true kind! In true fantasy chick weekend, I have been quiet here because I have been reading and watching movies with my kids as we recover from a virus. I was home sick on Friday, and spent it finishing Horizons by Mary Rosenblum. I had to change our digital satellite box that day also since it died, so while I was at Rogers I looked around for some movies to rent, and came home with:
- Mirrormask - based on Neil Gaiman's book. very strange and I don't like the colours, so we didn't finish it. My daughter did watch some of it.
- Gotham Knight. We've watched this twice already. It's fascinating to see how Batman emerged from youngster to hero in this .
- Pan's Labyrinth. I have this for a week. I am very curious, having heard very good things about it.
- George and the Dragon. A direct to dvd movie, with James Purefoy, Piper Perabo, and Patrick Swayze, along with an uncredited appearance by Val Kilmer (I had to look twice, definitely him!). And so much fun. The dragon is obviously special effects, but it's a very sweet knight to the rescue adventure story for kids, so very little gore, and lots of genuine laughs for the adults. I really enjoyed this one and might get buy it.
- The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian. We haven't seen this one yet, that's tomorrow's viewing. since we enjoyed THe Lion, the witch and The Wardrobe so much, I'm really hoping this is good again.
- Scooby Doo and the Goblin King. Just out on video. My daughter watched this the first night.

All fantasy!!! all fun!

That's not all, though. I read. I finished Horizons, I'm halfway through Serious Concerns by Wendy Cope, and as a very special treat for myself, I read The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, vol 2 in her series The Dark is Rising, and have started the next one in the series, Greenwitch. I have to say that so far, I've enjoyed The Dark is Rising much more than Over Sea, Under Stone. I like Will and his family. So I am quite happy to see Will put together with the kids from Over Sea, Under Stone in Greenwitch.

I will reviw the books later, right now the Superbowl is about to finish (wah! since I didn't care, I was cheering for Arizona Cardinals, and they've just lost), and the one hour special The Office is just about to begin.

And I got my walk in today, as it was above 0 c finally for the first time since we got back from England. It was a very quiet weekend, as my daughter and I recovered from fevers, and very enjoyable with all our movies and my fantasy books. This is what I mean by a fantasy weekend!

I hope yours was delightful, too.