Book Advent Calendar Day 7: Christmas tree

So it's Book Advent Calendar, Day 7 today.  18 more days til Christmas!  Not that I'm counting. Not at all.  It seems to be approaching rather quickly now.  For today's calendar, here are some pictures, as we put our tree up today.  I'm including photos of my family too after we decorated it. (You can click on the photos to get a better look). There is none of the five of us together, we haven't figured out how to do the timer on our cell phones yet.  If you look carefully, you will see tardises on the tree.  I love those Dr Who string ornaments!
 

And if you look carefully at the close-up of the tree, you will see on the book shelf a Hobbit Lego set.  A Christmas present last year for my daughter, who loves all things Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.  She's asked for Smaug this year, so we'll have to see what Santa brings her. The countdown IS on at our house for the next installment of the The Hobbit, opening here on Dec 17.  So very very excited......

Happy Easter! Cake and I won at Monopoly, and April fool's day....

                                                                 

  Happy Easter, dear book bloggers.  Above is a picture of the Easter cake I made this morning, from Nigella Lawson's cook book Feast.  Easter Egg Nest Cake.  Yum.  It's flourless, made with chocolate, eggs, sugar, and vanilla, with whipping cream and more chocolate for the icing.  MMMMMM.
                                                       

The Dr Who comes from the game of Monopoly we played after Easter lunch.  Dr Who Monopoly was a Christmas gift we gave to our family this year.  It's quickly becoming a big hit with us.  Dr Who lives at our family....I will be doing a post shortly on just how much Dr Who is alive here.  But first: I won!  I won the game!  Usually I am the first loser (which as you know is the BIG loser of the game), or second last. I use the scarf (from 4th Doctor Tom Baker), which my daughter says is because I am like him.  In the picture below are my eldest son's girlfriend, my eldest son and youngest son next to him, then my husband and my daughter.  The cupcakes were brought by Heidi, a wonderful surprise and very delicious too.

                                                               
Then, mother nature played a joke on us:
                                          
*sigh*  The temperature is going to plummet tonight, and very cold the next few days.

What Reading Time?
 I haven't been able to read with getting ready for Easter (Easter hunt, two meals, etc), though I am reading Of Blood and Honey and enjoying it so far.  Now I wish I had a day to just read!!!  We are about to watch The Hobbit to round out the evening.

Still, I made sure the bunny was good to me:
 Below is the book I bought for myself for Easter:  Candlenight by Phil Rickman.  It's his first novel published, and not available until recently.  It looks good, set in a remote Welsh Mountain village, with an ancient secret the villagers are hiding.  No one does atmospheric horror like Rickman.  Happy Easter, everyone!  I hope the bunny was good to you too!
                                                           

The Hobbit movie - thoughts

  I finally got to see The Hobbit  this weekend.  I went with a good friend from work, and my daughter Holly-Anne.  We got there on time for popcorn, except the theatre opens way too early in the morning - morning movies!  10:30 am!!  so there was already a huge lineup for popcorn ahead of us. At least our viewing of The Hobbit was at 11 a.m, which is semi-decent.  So, we missed the very beginning of the movie, which included the trailer for the new Star Trek movie (boo!  I am so looking forward to this!!!) , as well as the opening part of The Hobbit.  We arrived just as the dwarf kingdom was being destroyed by Smaug.  So I got to see the best of the very beginning part.  And from that moment on, I was hooked.  I managed to spill my popcorn right away - yes, after standing in line for almost 10 minutes and missing the beginning of the movie, for popcorn, I then spilled it all!  I thought I would sneak out to get some more.  But you know something?  I never wanted to leave the movie, I was afraid I would miss something.  That's how good it is. And my friend shared some of her popcorn with me, which was very kind.

I really enjoyed The Hobbit.  I was afraid going in that it would be muddled in some way with all the extra information added.  I should have known better.  It was coherent, and made sense, so that even my daughter who doesn't know the story yet, was able to follow it perfectly.  She has seen Lord of the Rings a few times now, so was delighted that Frodo and old Bilbo were there in the beginning, as well as Gandalf.  And she was so disappointed at the end when all we saw of Smaug was - well, that awesome suggestion of what he will be, when he is finally revealed.  Already we are counting down the days to when Part Two will be showing next December!!

                                                   

Except for Rivendell, which I found a  little slow, the pacing was excellent.  The almost 3 hours flew by.  It didn't seem that long at all. I liked the inclusion of Radergast  the Brown, and am very glad that Mirkwood is not here yet.  *shiver*  The scenes with Gollum were just right.  The ring coming to Bilbo, and how he escapes - so well done. 
                                
I really enjoyed all the dwarves, and thought Richard Armitage made a convincing Thorin
 Oakenshield, and I hereby confess to a crush on Kili.
 

Most of all though, are Gandalf  - Ian McKellen who makes this film real, as he did in Lord of the Rings, and Martin Freeman who plays Bilbo perfectly, from the bumbling, middle-aged,  contended and bored-though-he-doesn't-know-it hobbit, to the hobbit who finds the reason why he is accompanying the dwarves on the quest, by the end of the movie. 
                                   

It's an adventure ride, it has thrills and chills, it has a lovely song sung by the dwarves, and it made me remember the excitement of going on an adventure. Plus, it has a dragon.  Didn't you like, if you saw the movie, how Smaug is all covered in his gold? 

So what did you think, if you saw the movie?  Did you like it? 

You know, I really have to see the very beginning.  I can't wait for it to come out on dvd next Christmas.  I'm just going to have to go and see it again, don't you think?

The Hobbit and Alan Garner - some fantasy musings

The Hobbit 
 I completely missed the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit, yesterday.  I found this wonderful article on why The Hobbit has become so popular, over at The Telegraph: The Hobbit, What Has Made It Such an Endearing Success? It's quite a good article, with some food for thought on myths and legends and sources for fantasy.  The Hobbit was my introduction to Tolkien and the world of fantasy, it will always be dear to me for that, never mind that it is such a fun story, so well-told, so rich that I can read it over and over and never grow tired of it.  That makes it a special book, indeed.

Alan Garner
Over at Reuters, there is a lovely article on Alan Garner and why he wrote the newest book, Boneland, in the Colin and Susan series.  I have been reading The Weirdstone of Brisingamen for the last little bit.  It is even more suprisingly good and deep and dark than I remembered from my long-ago reading of it.  I am enjoying his use of setting, place names, and the people.  I can feel how much the sense of location and the feeling of myth around works its way through the book, and Garner talks about this in the article I linked you to.  He makes a valid point that landscape is necessary to people to not be alienated, that a connection to landscape is needed.  This feeling for how the land is, comes through in his books, and I'd forgotten how strong it is. 

Myth and landscape
Both article talk about myth, and how myth is needed for us as a civilization.  We need stories.  We need adventures and heroes, and to venture into the unknown and come back again.

Myth and landscape.....in fantasy, they are intertwined.  Place, the story of place, how the mountain got it's name, why the river flows in that shape, how long the old tree has been growing in the field. Do you look around your landscape and feel some connection to it? do you watch it through the seasons? Do you feel a sense of home when you come down the road to your place, do the hills and grasses and animals seem to welcome you back?

Animals
 We often have bears, moose and deer even here in Ottawa, when the animals come wandering in out of the fields and forests, looking for food. Here's  a story from two weeks ago, in the west-end of our city: bears chased from west-end neighborhood.  Is it any wonder that so many of our myths and stories feature talking animals, or shapeshifters, or ancestors who are honoured animals? We have skunks, raccoons, and rabbits as neighbors, even here in the middle of the city.  I have seen snakes, frogs and turtles during my many walks in my neighborhood, thanks to the Mud Lake Preserve two blocks from our house. Does a bog creature live in there? perhaps, the water is deep enough.....

Magic and myth in the world
Fantasy is about taking that first step out there, into the wild, out of the city, into the forest, the river, the nature preserve, the countryside, and into myth, and legend, folk-story, fairy tale, the story of encountering the other.  There is magic and myth in the world, and fantasy is our modern storytelling way into remembering it, and finding it again. It was reimagined for the modern age in The Hobbit.  I for one am always grateful for the wonder and imagination that fantasy brings into my life. 

The Hobbit doesn't use the sense of place in the same way that all of Garner's books use, and it's interesting to study them both and see the variety of fantasy at work in both authors.  Both have a rich use of language as well, Tolkien drawing on Norse myths and sagas for his world and frame of storytelling, Garner drawing on Celtic myths and fairy tales for his.  Tolkien is pure story, Garner is language and mood and landscape.  Different kinds of fantasy, both rich and delightful in each of their ways. 

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here on this Saturday night.  Mostly I am musing about fantasy, things being stirred up in my mind by both articles.  Fantasy is one of my delights in reading, and I wanted to share with you some of what I think fantasy needs to be successful, like The Hobbit is.

What do you think?  Have you read either author? Do you find fantasy stirs your sense of wonder and  imaginings?

Random notes on a Monday

I should be reviewing any of the books I've read this year so far and loved, or writing pithy comments about writing, or about my new sidebar for chocolate quotes.  I'm in a blue funk today, so here are some fun and random things from the internet that I found. 

Via The New Yorker, here is a link to some fabulous minimalist fairy tale covers.

Again via The New Yorker, here is a link to the collection of letters between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, online.  A word of warning, these are the scanned copies of the actual letters they wrote, and Robert's handwriting is not easy to read (though some might say his easier than mine to read!)

The Hobbit! news:  Here is a link to a post about The Hobbit film currently in production, with links to Peter Jackson's Facebook production blog.  I'm sure I'm the last person on the planet to know about this, but just in case I'm not, I've linked you to both.  I'll be following the production page!  I am just about to start crossing off the days until The Hobbit is released.  I do believe that I will be going on the opening day (because I can't wait any longer!) and will be bringing my daughter with me.  It's a bit more kid friendly than the long Lord of the Rings, which she has seen most of through the past few years.

Karen Davis at Moonlight and Hares has some wonderful new art up on her blog.  Sometimes there are no words, only images will do, and her art is whimsical and magical. I love all the hares she draws, too. I really like these pendants, above, from her blog. Her etsy shop is filled with wonderful artwork. Just looking at it makes me feel better.  And that is the wonder and power of art, isn't it?

I am bit late on linking this, but over at Katharine Langrish's blog Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, she had a recent post on Briar Rose, which is one of my favourite fairy tales.  Some of the different illustrations are beautiful. 

And in case you haven't seen this wonderful link yet, here, via Sam at The Book Chase, is his post on Saturday which has the marvellous, magical, beautiful recent Academy Award winning short film, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore on it.  See if you don't have tears in your eyes at the end.  It's a perfect film to show what we see when we see books.

Choosing Favourites

I missed this one, but I love the idea: what is your favourite book in your library, and why is it your favourite? what memories does it hold for you? Thanks to Carl at Carl's Steel Droppings
who brought this up in early March, from a blog at Stuff as Dreams are Made Of
I love what Dreams says: "I just love reading about the stories behind people’s favorite books in their collections. Even if there’s not much of a story, I love just knowing what they are. So I decided to invite everyone to share just that! What’s your favorite book or books in your library?"
No one seems to be able to pick just one - neither Carl nor Stuff were - and I can't, either.
So, at random and after some thought, are my favourite books in my library:

1. Ginger Tea boxed set - James Barber. Memories: About 1993, my mother had one of the books, Ginger Tea Makes Friends, on her bookshelf forever. I looked through it and saw a recipe for the ginger tea on the title, that I didn't think to write down. It sounded so good though. Several years later I asked about it. Lo and behold, this appeared under the tree for Christmas from her! I have been so delighted ever since, and make recipes regularly from the three books. A side note: James Barber is a Canadian cook, and lived on a sailboat on the west coast at one time. Many of these recipes, especially from the Fear of Frying cookbook in this set, are geared towards people who only have a two-burner stove to live from (students, sailors, etc). He took fancy recipes and made them simple. And, ginger tea is so-o-o good!!

2. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien I have the paperback Unwin books version, since I can't find the original copy we had, from Faber books. It had a pencil sketch done by Tolkien of Smaug flying over the dale. The book i have has the original watercolor of the Mountain (Smaug's lair) on the cover, the closest I can find. Inside, the book has the same maps as the version I grew up with, as well as the 4 colour sketches and various pen sketches by Tolkien. I love this version; we have since bought a hard cover copy, as the paperback was used and slightly water damaged when I finally found it. Whenever I look at the cover, I am instantly transported to when I first discovered the book. It was in Williams Lake BC, and my sister and I were staying with family friends while our parents took a holiday. Michael read the book out loud in the evenings to us. We finished the Hobbit and moved on to the Fellowship of the Ring, before our visit ended. I was hooked, and promptly read the copy once back at home, and have read almost everything Tolkien has written since. And Smaug is one of the best dragons ever created - smart, and dangerous, but oh so fiery with those eyes no one is allowed to look into.....

3. The Bluebird - adapted by Jan Vladislav. This is the oldest book I own from my childhood. I don't even know how I still come to have this book, since we have moved all over Canada, lived on a sailboat for two years, and over in England, and I left home at age 18, and I still, somehow, have this wonderful fairy tale with me. It is a French fairy tale translated into English by a Czech writer - Jan Vladislav, and the illustrations are by Mirko Hanak (also guessing Czech, since the copyright is 1969 by Artia, Prague). They are Eastern European in design, with adult faces on watercolour shapes. The story always moved me to tears, and the pictures are haunting, especially the one showing the cypress tree "hung with a thousand knives, daggers, swords and razor blades" below the tower where Rosebud is imprisoned, and I cry every time the blue bird flies into the tree. Even now. It is beautiful, and yes, it does end happily. I got this book for Christmas 1970, so I would have been 7 1/2 years old. The book is inscribed :' To Susan, Love Mommy, Christmas/70'. For a long time, when I lived with one or the other of my parents for the rest of my childhood (they were divorced by the following Christmas), I treasured this book partly because of my mother's rare inscription. My copy lost the dustjacket a long time ago, I only have the original hard cover underneath, and the binding is starting to crack, but it is by far one of the most precious books I own, and might come close to be irreplaceable. (By the way, I just checked on line - no images available on Amazon either Canada or UK; it is at ALibris, used for $83 Canadian! and still no images available....is listed as a traditional French fairy tale, which makes sense since the full title page says "The Bluebird, adapted by Jan Vladislav from the original story by Marie d'Aulnoy, illustrated by Mirko Hanak." Apparently I have a very rare copy, since the ones listed are all second impressions from 1972, and I believe I have a first impression and edition from 1970. Even more precious! And never ever for sale!) *I found a French site with a dustjacket - this is not the dustjacket my copy had, but at least gives an idea of Hanak's illustrations inside the book. Isn't the blue bird (at the bottom of the cover) spectacular?


4. The Faces of Fantasy - Patti Perret. This book is also a pride and joy! It sounds tame, a collection of photographs of writers of fantasy books. But from the first time I heard about the book several years ago, to finally seeing a copy with the incomparable Neil Gaiman on the cover, I was searching for it. When I finally had enough money for a copy, I was beaming so widely the store didn't need lights on. The photographs are playful, haunting in cases, moody, done in black-and-white photography so light and shadow are part of the photo and help capture a mood. Since fantasy writing is evocative and mythic (the best fantasy writing, anyway) and about good and evil, the black and white photography matches the subject perfectly. The authors range from the aforementioned Neil Gaiman - taken in front of his house, also a perfect home for a fantasy-gothic-horror writer, with its gables and octangular tower (see photo), deliberately blurred so that the window by Neil's head looks like there is a dark shape looking out - is this house haunted? - with Neil himself in focus. Writers featured are among the most important in the fantasy field, including some of my favourite writers: Charles de Lint, Patricia McKillip, Tim Powers, Neil Gaiman, Susan Cooper, Diane Wynne Jones, Delia Sherman, G.R.R. Martin, Peter Straub, Robert Jordan, Caroline Stevermer, Will Shetterly, Emma Bull, Terri Windling, LIsa Goldstein, Jane Yolen, and so many more. The incredible thing - besides getting photographs of these authors! - is that Patti tried to capture the essence of the writer - evoke the mood of what they write, within each photograph, so no photograph is alike. The photograph is on side, and words from the author about what they write, why they write, whatever they wanted to say for this book, are on the left side. So I get a glimpse of them, the person, in a setting that captures the fantasy tone they write about, along with some of their own thoughts on why they write what they write. Terry Pratchett, Madeleine L'Engle, Alan Garner, and here is what he had to say: "The job of a storyteller is to speak the truth. But what we feel most deeply can't be spoken in words alone. At this level, only images connect. And here, story becomes symbol; symbol is myth. And myth is truth."
I read this book to be inspired, to remember why I write, and what I hope at my deepest level to achieve - a connection between what I see and the world, a way to make myth and symbol real again to my readers. We embody myths in our lives, we are each storytellers (whether we write or draw or talk around the kitchen table about our lives), and symbols are how we connect to one another. This book encourages me, the photographs are images that speak to the non-verbal part of my mind, so my 'well' is filled and I can go write, imagining the circle of fantasy writers encouraging me from just beyond the darkness.

So, a few of my precious books for you to share in. One recent acquisition that is quickly moving up the near and dear to me scale, is This Year You Write Your Novel, by Walter Mosley. Since I got this for Christmas a year ago, it has sat by my bedside, and is the book I flip through at random, reading a passage here or there, final thoughts on writing before I go to sleep. It is a small book and so wise in how he writes about how to succeed in writing - no, he is not talking about succeeding, he talks about completing a novel in one year. Whether it is good or not is dependent upon the writer!! Wise words, indeed.

So, gentle Reader, what is the most precious book in your library? And the story behind it?