pjthompson: review (weighing)
This was originally released under the title The King's Grave and reissued under the title The Lost King as a tie in to the excellent Stephen Frears movie based on this book. Ms. Langley's fight to be taken seriously by academia and officialdom in her search for Richard III's grave is a compelling story of a rare underdog victory. Her story is laid out in alternating chapters with historian Michael Jones' telling of Richard's life and milieu. It makes for a fascinating read, especially Philippa Langley's mysterious intuition (backed by meticulous research) that led her to the unlikely final resting place of a king
pjthompson: review (weighing)
It would seem that Thomas Maloney is an admirer of the novelist John Fowles and this work does have something of a lesser Fowles feel. I was a big John Fowles fan at one time though I haven't read any of his works for decades and have no idea whether they would hold up. My tastes have changed, my life experiences have evolved. (Or devolved according to one's POV, but this review is only tangentially about myself--as all reviews by anyone are tangentially about themselves. I'm moving on from that.) Initially I was going to give it 3 stars then thought 4 stars and bounced back and forth quite a bit.


From the start when reading The Sacred Combe (a phrase from John Fowles!) I felt it was a book from another era. Not Victorian, more recent than that, but not contemporary (though it was published in 2016). Modernist or postmodernist maybe. It's slyly self-conscious in that pomo way. 


This is a character and setting driven novel rather than plot-driven. I'm certainly okay with that, though the characters at times seem more like set pieces than fully fleshed works of the imagination. It's a tricksy novel, full of literary allusions, some more obvious than others. It has secrets that once revealed are more "Oh, okay," rather than stunningly revelatory. Things seem about to happen then they don't. The story is told in a wandering way with lush nature writing that at times walks the line of being over written.


Am I glad I read it? Well, I finished it. I no longer finish books that aren't giving me *something.* So that tells you…something. Am I satisfied with having finished? I don't know. It's not only a tricksy novel but pondery with a placid surface. Perhaps I should have done more pondering before writing this review, but I'm done pondering. I woke up with the need to write down my thoughts and move on. And I suppose that, too, tells you…something.

Heaven

Feb. 15th, 2024 05:24 pm
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)
Random quote of the day:

“There is indeed a heaven on this earth, a heaven which we inhabit when we read a good book.”

—Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop

heaven4WP@@@


Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Bert and Ernie, Celine Dion, or the Band of the Coldstream Guards. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
pjthompson: (all things weird)
My early teens were a tumultuous time, with loads of interpersonal drama. But it was also a time of "spiritual" awakening—or maybe an occult one?—when many lifetime practices began. From about the age of twelve I began to read every paranormal book in the Santa Monica County Library. I nearly succeeded, but that wasn't as impressive as it might sound. Paranormal books were looked down upon back then (still are in many circles). The entire collection at Santa Monica consisted of one bookcase: perhaps seven tall, five feet wide, crammed full of the classic titles of the time. There was Charles Berlitz's The Bermuda Triangle, Donald Keyhoe's Flying Saucers Are Real, The Philadelphia Experiment, The Search for Bridey Murphy, The Interrupted Journey, books by Hans Holzer and Brad Steiger, and scads of others. Everything topic was covered, some of it profound and some sensationalist junk: ghosts, UFOs, bizarre theories, metaphysics, and reincarnation. As long as it was strange, I was into it. I also scanned the book sections of the local drug stores for "weird books" and SFF to squander my allowance on. I didn't completely give up on critical thinking. Even back then some of this stuff seemed like junk. But I loved the mental adrenaline rush reading it gave me, the boundless what ifs.

This was also the time I began playing with the Ouija board—at first with my enthusiastic mom who bought it for us to play with and my friends. We'd have mostly hilarious, nonsense sessions. It was a lot of fun. Some "guy" kept coming through to flirt with my mom. He told her that her second husband would have the initials QZK and we spent many sessions trying to get the scoop on him. Answers on QZK never really showed up, of course. Mostly we got evasion and nonsense. Mom was still married at the time to my biological father, but they'd been estranged for years. She really wanted to believe in an afterlife of love. (She did eventually get it but not with QZK.)



I also tried working the Ouija by myself. At first the planchette was sluggish, then it moved more rapidly. I was not conscious of pushing it but I'm mostly convinced I unconsciously made it move and was mostly talking to my own right brain. I suffered no ill effects or demon possessions. The hysteria over Ouija boards conjuring demons really began in the 1970s after The Exorcist came out. Before that, it was considered a parlor game for people to fool around with. The The abominable Ed and Lorraine Warren also popularized the whole satanic panic/demon possession thing and still haunt the paranormal zeitgeist through The Conjuring movie franchise.

It didn’t take long for me to get bored with solo Ouija board sessions (no friends to play with) and I moved on to Tarot. I've done Tarot on and off ever since. I also tried my hand at automatic writing. Like the Ouija sessions, it began slowly and painfully, then became more fluid, then fast. The "spirits" would move the pen in big looping scrolls, taking up a whole notebook page with ten to fifteen words. The handwriting gradually got smaller, but never conformed to neat and staying within the lines. (Spirits don’t conform to the rules.) Again, I didn't feel as if I was pushing the pen, but I believe it was an exercise in unconscious talking to conscious. Later it developed into something more profound—a way of having meaningful dialogue with my Self. When I was in therapy, trying to dive deep down and clear out the programmed junk in my psyche, my Jungian therapist encouraged me to continue with the automatic writing. I still practice it. It remains a beneficial way of talking to my Self, divining how I truly feel about things, working through the decision-making process, et al.

Except sometimes. Sometimes, even in the early days, the tone would shift into something that felt outside myself, much deeper than talking to the wayward winds inside my brain. Something channeled from Elsewhere? I dunno. I get this now and again with Tarot, too, that feeling when a reading really clicks into place and seems more than wish fulfillment or facile projection. A few years back I asked "Them" if I was talking to my ancestors. They answered along the lines of "took you long enough to figure that out." "They" sometimes have a good sense of humor.

I continue to talk to myself and the ancestors. It's a great comfort when I need it, a way of calming myself when I'm stressed, or working through what worries me. The messages that come through are overwhelmingly positive. If negative things come through (almost always self-critical crap, as distinctly different in tone as the profound messages are) I say a little clarification/protection prayer and ask them if the negative things are true. They usually respond with something like, "No. That's interference from your Shadow or old negative programming."

But it all began back there in my early teens. I really needed to believe in "cosmic friends" or better angels or a realm outside the tough times I was going through. I'm glad I found those better angels—even if they were merely the better angels of my own mind and soul finding their way to the surface. They have sustained me throughout my life.

All Weird Things Index
pjthompson: review (weighing)
Have you ever read a book you found impossible to rate with conventional stars? You loved it but it irritated you. You couldn't put it down but you were reluctant to pick it up again. You know you'll think long about it but you really don't want to think about it anymore. You want to recommend it to your friends but you're afraid they'll hate you for it. It creeps into your dreams but it's rather like a dream itself—one of those clinging ones you're desperate to wake from—but once you do wake you can't wait to go back to sleep again. You give up and rate it five stars anyway because it's special and should be paid attention to but impossible to summarize with any coherence because plot happens but not in conventional ways and it really won't be everybody's cup of tea, although many cups of tea are consumed in the novel. It's a great swirling cup of many brews, many liquids, actually, that has you asking, "What the hell am I drinking?"

Thus ends my review of The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison.
pjthompson: (Default)
I have a Sun in Virgo and Mars in Virgo. I have a Moon in Pisces in almost pinpoint opposition to my Sun. I also have a Pisces Ascendant. The Pisces part of my brain spends a lot of time trying to trick the Virgo part into staying out of its way so it can get on with its creative work. One of the methods it employs is list making.

I am constantly making obsessive lists that keep track of things, from the mundane to the esoteric. Like a catalog of the books I've read or the books I started or the books I've completed. Or the first lines of books I pick up during the course of a year. Or lists of synchronicities. Or quotes--many, many quotes. Or screenshots from Postcards From the Past on Twitter of places I've visited myself. Or... Well, any number of lists that really no one should care about but me (and perhaps even I shouldn't care about).

But that Virgo part of my brain is rather like the legend of the mythological monster who can be tricked into stillness by throwing a bunch of seeds on the ground so that the obsessive creature is forced to stop and count each seed before moving on. Virgo has many fine qualities but its left brain proclivities tend to get in the way sometimes when I just need to go deep and dream my dreams and put those dreams on the page. With militant Mars in Virgo those tendencies can be rather extreme. Hence, the lists.

My mother, who was borderline OCD, may also have been some influence in this regard. There may be a genetic/nurture as well as an astrological component to my obsessive drive towards list making. Lists are a fairly harmless way of curtailing that dragon. Certainly my housekeeping does not benefit from this Virgoan drive. I could wish that it did a bit more as my current environment is suffering greatly from the Pisces tendency towards sloth and distraction and love of chaos.

The housekeeping also suffers greatly from my lack of mobility, of course. With my bad legs I can have a productive day of cleaning up but the next day will most likely be taken up communing with my heating pad. Maybe more than one day. I would like to say I have resolved myself to this but I have not. I was always strong and energetic and could work my way through a lot of crap in a short period of time (after spending a longer time letting things pile up) but those days are gone. I have to find a new way of doing things and I admit that I'm still flailing around trying to find it.

I am trying to be satisfied with my mantra of "do something then rest" but it's hard to accept limitations. Still, I don't have much choice in the matter. Accepting limitations is not accepting defeat and I am trying diligently to teach myself that and to work within my new parameters. It is a work in progress, and like any organic WIP it's making it up as I go, striving to reach the realization of the dream on the page.

Leaves

Feb. 14th, 2023 03:14 pm
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)
Random quote of the day:

“Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by heart; and his friends can only read the title.

—Virginia Woolfe, Jacob’s Room



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Bert and Ernie, Celine Dion, or the Band of the Coldstream Guards. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

2022 Books

Jan. 23rd, 2023 05:57 pm
pjthompson: (Default)
Finished in 2022

Another year, another list of mostly escapist reading. Last year I read a lot of historical romance, this year I didn’t read any. I did discover Scottish noir in a big way and fell in love with it, particularly the work of Ian Rankin. Once again, this year I read a lot of books by M. C. Beaton, also set in Scotland. Although Beaton has a dark sense of humor, her books are in no way noir. Humorous, cynical cozies—and they’re so short, usually no more than 150 pages—that I often used them as palate cleansers when I’d been on a kick of reading difficult or dark books. There’s a gazillion of them and I’ve gone through about half at this point, but I think I’ve burned myself out for the moment.

I also was inspired by the AMC series, Dark Winds, to go back to reading Tony Hillerman’s series. I read a lot of them back in the day, but stopped and still had a number unread. I’d read them so long ago that I went back to the last two I’d read and they were almost like new. I had only the vaguest notion of what happened in them. So, between Hillerman, Rankin, and Beaton I’ve been spending a lot of time in the 1990s—which is very weird indeed. Kind of like a half-remembered and not altogether pleasant dream.

1. In the Dark Places of Wisdom by Peter Knightley
(I finished all but a few pages of this in 2021 so I listed it with my 2021 books but technically I finished it in 2022.)
2. Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon (reread)
3. The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison
4. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss (I also probably reread Goodnight Moon but forgot to list it)
5. Abandoned In Death by J. D. Robb
6. Murder On Cold Street by Sherry Thomas
7. Death of a Dentist by M. C. Beaton
8. Witchmark by C. L. Polk
9. Death of a Script Writer by M. C. Beaton
10. Death of An Addict by M. C. Beaton
11. The Deep Blue Good-by John D. MacDonald (I'd never read him although he was big back in the day. I may not read any more.)
12. Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
13. Laidlaw by William McIlvanney
14. A Highland Christmas by M. C. Beaton
15. Death of a Dustman by M. C. Beaton
16. Death of a Celebrity by M. C. Beaton
17. Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin
18. The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves (Like her writing and her mysteries but the character of Vera is so irritating.)
19. Death of a Village by M. C. Beaton
20. Death of a Poison Pen by M. C. Beaton
21. Death of a Bore by M. C. Beaton
22. Coyote Waits by Tony Hillerman
23. Sacred Clowns by Tony Hillerman
24. Wychwood by George Mann
25. Hollowdene by George Mann
26. Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith (faux Scandanavian blanc and hilarious)
27. The Fallen Man by Tony Hillerman
28. Miss Moriarty, I Presume? by Sherry Thomas
29. Desperation in Death by J. D. Robb
30. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (reread)
31. Tooth and Nail by Ian Rankin
32. Dark Assassin by Anne Perry (another series I read a lot of back in the day and restarted)
33. Strip Jack by Ian Rankin
34. The First Eagle by Tony Hillerman
35. Waypoints by Sam Heughan
36. The Black Book by Ian Rankin
37. Hunting Badger by Tony Hillerman
38. The Talented Mr. Varg by Alexander McCall Smith
39. Fogou by Jo May (magical mystery tour)
40. Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin

Books I continued or started in 2022

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I read some nonfiction very slowly. Sometimes over a span of years. I also tend to read poetry slowly. It’s something to be savored, not rushed through. I’ve also gotten to the point in my life where if I’m reading a book, no matter how highly touted by critics, and have to force myself back to it, or I lose interest in what happens to the characters, or if it’s just too badly written, I abandon it. I usually give the books a decent chance—50 to 100 pages—but if something is badly written, I don’t bother. Too painful. Time is the most precious commodity and I also no longer feel the need to finish something because it’s “good for me” to do so. I guess that means I’m an intellectual lightweight.

There are other books I pick up and really like but have to take a break from and sometimes it takes me a while to get back to them. The weirdest thing is when I’m really loving a book, can’t wait to get back to it, but when I wake up the next day I just don’t want to continue reading. I can’t always tell why. Sometimes they are too something for the mood I’m in: too dark, too fey (or conversely, not fey enough), too something. The same thing happens with TV series. Love ‘em one day, not in the mood the next. I don’t consider any of these books or shows abandoned. I just need to “catch up with myself” and get back to them at a later date.

1. Orphic Poems by M. L. West
2. Heraclitus Fragments (tr. By Bruce Haxton (continued) (sort of poetry)
3. The Greeks and the Irrational by E. R. Dodds
4. Luckenbooth by Fagin (abandoned)
5. Gobekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods by Andrew Collins
6. An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris
7. A Grimmoire Dark by D. S. Quinton (abandoned)
8. Nocturne for a Widow by Amanda DeWees (abandoned)
9. One Lost Soul by J. M. Dalgleish (abandoned)
10. Field Guide to The Haunted Forest by Jarod K. Anderson (poetry)
11. The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham
12. The Living Stones by Ithell Colquhon (restart)(and so close to finishing!)
13. Open Season by C. J. Box (abandoned)
14. Powers of Ancient and Sacred Places by Paul Devereux (a sort of reread though I didn’t realize it when I bought it. This is a revised and updated edition of a book I finished many years ago under a different title.)
15. The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan (abandoned)
16. Dark Matter Monsters by Simeon Hein
17. Field Notes by Maxim Griffin (beautiful art and landscape book to be savored)
18. Ghost Month by Ed Lin (abandoned)
19. In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
20. Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen (close to finishing this as well)
21. Hokuloa Road by Elizabeth Hand
22. Spirits of Blood, Spirits of Breath by Barbara Alice Mann
23. Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (reread)

Books

Sep. 2nd, 2022 03:27 pm
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)
Random quote of the day:

“All books are either dreams or swords,
You can cut, or you can drug, with words.”

—Amy Lowell, “Sword Blades and Poppy Seed”




Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Bert and Ernie, Celine Dion, or the Band of the Coldstream Guards. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Library

May. 9th, 2022 02:27 pm
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)
Random quote of the day:

“When you are growing up, there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully—the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you.”

—Keith Richards, Life (with James Fox)



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Desus and Mero, Beyoncé, or the Marine Corps Marching Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Read

Dec. 29th, 2021 04:39 pm
pjthompson: (books)
I used to do a books read list every year, but I haven’t done one for a while. There is nothing particularly memorable or significant about this one. I just decided to do it. A pandemic snapshot, I guess.

I spent considerable reading time on escapist and comfort books. It was that kind of year—for many of us. I usually read a handful of romance novels in a year, but this year I went through as many as in the previous three or four years combined. Nothing wrong with that. They were good fun and what I needed at the moment. But before I said to myself, “All right, I’m good on the romance front,” I’d blasted through all eight of the Bridgerton novels, plus a Bridgerton related series (the Smythe-Smiths), plus two of the four Bridgerton prequels.

I also read an exceptional non-typical romance by Sherry Thomas before stopping (Not Quite a Husband) and loved her plotting and characterization so much that I looked up what else she’d done. This led me to her Lady Sherlock series (starting with A Study In Scarlet Women), in which Sherlock Holmes is the creation of a young woman who possesses Holmes’ acumen but knows she would never be accepted in Victorian English society for her talents because she is a woman. I admit to being skeptical of this premise because—let’s face it—these things are often quite lame. But Ms. Thomas showed such deftness and verve that these books have become a real pleasure for me.

Sometime earlier in the year while searching for something to stream, I came across a BBC Scotland TV show from the late 90s starring Robert Carlyle: Hamish Macbeth. It had that really quirky 90s vibe—sort of like Northern Exposure except set in the Scottish Highlands—and I binged all three seasons. Then I got curious about the source material, a long series of novels by M. C. Beaton, the author of the Agatha Raisin series. (I understand Ms. Beaton hated the TV show.) I also blasted through several of those. Fast, easy reads, humorous, interesting mysteries and characters, and a mordant eye towards human nature. But not particularly like the TV series.

I did dip into more serious stuff, but as I said, this was a year dominated by escape and comfort (à la Diana Gabaldon and J. D. Robb). As to the number of books read, I usually finish about 50 a year, not a spectacular accomplishment. I’m always picking up and putting down books and often have 3 or 4 going at once, which does tend to hold down my completion rate. But since it isn’t a contest, who cares? The list below is roughly chronological but doesn’t reflect the books I picked up and put down in between or when I started a particular book, just when I finished.

Books read in 2021 (with brief comments):
(I can't get the cut feature to work so you'll just have to look at this long gangly list.)

1. Clanlands by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish
2. Drums of Autumn (reread) by Diana Gabaldon
3. The Duke and I by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton)
4. Faithless in Death by J. D. Robb
5. Ring the Hill by Tom Cox
6. The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton)
7. An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton)
8. Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochhartaigh
(A searing memoir of growing up during The Troubles in Northern Ireland, interspersed with lovely nature writing—her refuge.)
9. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
(Probably my second favorite book of the year. Matt Haig does a flawless female perspective, so much so that I had to check that he really was a man. Great fantasy, philosophical and wise, lovely.)
10. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
(Far and away my favorite book of the year. Incandescent, wondrous, indescribable. Just give yourself over to it and go along.)(I tried to read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell after this and I enjoyed it but I got fatigued at the halfway point and put it down. It isn’t like Piranesi in the slightest.)
11. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton)
12. To Sir Philip With Love by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton)
13. Tovanger by Anne Galloway (listed on Amazon as Tovangar.)
(Research reading on the Gabrielino/Tongva/No-one-knows-their-real-name Indian tribe of Southern California.)
14. When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton)
15. It’s In His Kiss by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton)
16. Ghost Hunters by Neil Spring
17. On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton)
18. Death of a Gossip by M. C. Beaton
19. Death of a Cad by M. C. Beaton
20. Death of An Outsider by M. C. Beaton
21. Not Quit A Husband by Sherry Thomas
22. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
23. Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton adjacent)
24. A Night Like This by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton adjacent)
25. Death of a Perfect Wife by M. C. Beaton
26. Death of a Hussy by M. C. Beaton
27. Death of a Snob by M. C. Beaton
28. The Sum of All Kisses by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton adjacent)
29. The Secrets of Richard Kenworthy by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton adjacent)
30. Death of a Prankster by M. C. Beaton
31. Death of a Traveling Man by M. C. Beaton
32. IBS Relief Cookbook by Karen Frazier
(A great guide to the Low FODMAP diet which has transformed my dietary health. Also good for those with celiac disease.)
33. Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn (Bridgerton prequel)
34. Death of a Glutton by M. C. Beaton
35. A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas (Lady Sherlock)
36. The Sense of Death by Matty Dalrymple
37. The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas (Lady Sherlock)
38. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
39. Death of a Charming Man by M. C. Beaton
40. Death of a Nag by M. C. Beaton
41. Death of a Macho Man by M. C. Beaton
42. The Exile (reread) by Diana Gabaldon
43. Written In My Own Heart’s Blood (reread) by Diana Gabaldon
44. The Tongva by Mary Graham
(More on the Tongva tribe of Southern California)
45. The Art of Theft by Sherry Thomas (Lady Sherlock)
46. How To Stop Time by Matt Haig
(I liked this one almost as much as The Midnight Library.)
47. Olive, Mabel, and Me by Andrew Cotter
48. Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon
(I’m already rereading it but skipping parts. I’m a grown up and can do whatever I want.)
49. In the Dark Places of Wisdom by Peter Kingsley
(A brief book that takes a deep dive into the father of logic, Parmenides, and the roots of the lost Western shamanistic tradition. Recommended.)

Books Started/Continued Reading in 2021:

1. Honeytrap by Aster Glenn Grey
(I liked this one but it got shuffled around when I was doing a heavy duty cleaning in October and I haven’t found it again. This is not an uncommon scenario chez moi.)
2. The Dream Hunter by Laura Kinsale
3. Fairies by Morgan Daimler
(A good reference book that I often pick up and put down.)
4. Voyages Around My Room by Xavier de Maistre
(I’ve been picking this one up and putting it down for years. Enjoyable, but I’m shallow.)
5. Foucault’s Pendulum (reread) by Umberto Eco
6. Circe by Madeline Miller
7. Fogou by Jo May
8. The Witch Finder by Blythe Gifford
(Ridiculous.)
9. Portraits of Vestal Virgins by Molly Lindner
(Another reference book.)
10. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke
11. The Living Stones by Ithell Colquhoun
12. The Mad Monk of Gidleigh by Michael Jecks
13. The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
14. The Enchantment of the Trossachs by Louis Stott
(Reference: Rev. Robert Kirk)
15. The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
(I’m not a fan of so-called “Women’s Fiction.” And who the hell decided that it should be called Women’s Fiction anyway? Insulting.)
16. The Sense of Reckoning by Matty Dalrymple
17. The Brontës by Juliet Barker
18. The Witch Elm by Tana French
19. Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas (Lady Sherlock)

Unicorns

Aug. 4th, 2021 03:04 pm
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)
Random quote of the day:

“Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books. All too often, that’s more than Mummy and Daddy know; for, in denying their childhood, the adults have denied half their knowledge, and are left with the sad, sterile little fact: ‘Unicorns aren’t real.’”

—Ursula K. LeGuin, The Language of the Night



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Desus and Mero, Beyoncé, or the Marine Corps Marching Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
pjthompson: (Default)
Currently reading:



(Subtitle: The life and mysterious death of Scottish churchman and scholar Robert Kirk and his influential treatise on fairy folklore.)

*

I have two novels that are fighting it out for my attention, one about goddesses and one about Faery with a substantial appearance by the Rev. Robert Kirk of The Secret Commonwealth fame who has been after me for years to tell a version of his story. They have been team tagging me for months, first one then the other.

But both novels are wrapped in a cloud of ennui and exhaustion that is summer seasonal affective disorder, with a side of pandemic miasma. My health hasn’t been great the last few months, most especially the last two weeks, so that is adding to the funk. Nothing serious, I don’t think, but chronic. Which means that any progress I make on these two novels is sporadic at best.

I am so not alone in this. I know many creators who are facing similar struggles, but I do feel that I’ve slipped my mooring and am drifting in circles, becalmed in a Sargasso Sea.

I get occasional signs from the universe that it isn’t done with me yet, and the Sargasso, beneath its floating mat of seaweed, is a fertile region of biodiversity for many species. But I wonder if I have another novel in me? And if I do, is it only one? Will I be able to finish both of these projects? I don’t know the answer to that.

All I can do is to keep chipping away at the marble, hoping that the form within will eventually reveal itself and come to life: a real flesh and blood woman. Or man. I have no preferences. Only a forlorn hope. And two metaphors, neither of which I can choose between.

Creation

Jul. 12th, 2021 01:40 pm
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)
Random quote of the day:

“Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one.”

—Salman Rushdie, Independent on Sunday, 4 February 1990



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Desus and Mero, Beyoncé, or the Marine Corps Marching Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)
Random quote of the day:

“It is from books that wise men derive consolation in the troubles of life.”

—Victor Hugo, Toilers of the Sea (tr. W. Moy Thomas)



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Desus and Mero, Beyoncé, or the Marine Corps Marching Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Booklove

Mar. 2nd, 2021 02:13 pm
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)
Random quote of the day:

“There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love, and like that colossal adventure it is an experience of great social import. Even as the tranced swain, the booklover yearns to tell others of his bliss.”

—Christopher Morley, Pipefuls



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Desus and Mero, Beyoncé, or the Marine Corps Marching Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Critic

Dec. 14th, 2020 03:07 pm
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)
Random quote of the day:

“A critic can only review the book he has read, not the one which the writer wrote.”

—Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Desus and Mero, Beyoncé, or the Marine Corps Marching Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Librarians

Nov. 30th, 2020 01:57 pm
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)
Random quote of the day:

“Librarians are wonderful people, partly because they are, on the whole, unaware of how dangerous knowledge is. Karl Marx upended the political landscape of the twentieth century sitting at a library table. Still, modern librarians are more afraid of ignorance than they are of the political devastation that knowledge can bring.”

—Walter Mosley, The Long Fall



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Desus and Mero, Beyoncé, or the Marine Corps Marching Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
pjthompson: review (weighing)
Review (plus a personal note): Round in Circles: Poltergeists, Pranksters, and the Secret History of Cropwatchers by Jim Schnabel.

Mr. Schnabel wrote this book in the 1990s, an American post-graduate student living in England and specializing in science writing. He himself turned hoaxer after studying the phenomena and, more closely, those caught up in the excitement of the phenomena. What I really liked about this book is that he manages to show the parade of human folly and the will to believe—the need to believe—without being mean-spirited. There’s plenty of understated humor, but mostly he allows people to display their nature in their own words. He captures the awe while still showing the painful and hilarious lengths people will go to protect their pet theories (and continue to get media attention and earn dollars, to boot). Even when these theories are debunked, some still can’t let go, resorting to conspiracy theories and black magic tales to save face.

The book demonstrates, although this was probably not Mr. Schnabel’s intent, how Trickster manipulates us all. Whether that trickster is embedded in human psychology or an outside force I will leave to others to decide for themselves. Mr. Schnabel admits that there is something mysterious at work which compels people to go into the fields and make pictograms and other ephemeral art in the secret dead of night. He does quite a nice job of evoking that mystery and compulsion. And when something genuinely unexplainable happens—a tractor driver caught on film being buzzed by a mysterious metallic orb comes to mind—Mr. Schnabel doesn’t shy away from showing it and doesn’t try to explain things away with strained rationalization. Even if the vast majority of these circles are hoaxes, he allows wiggle room, a tacit suggestion that perhaps a few may have some other explanation. The cropwatchers, however, are so caught up in their own theories that it's an all or nothing for them. Mr. Schnabel lets us draw our own conclusions, and one of those is that many of the cropwatchers were missing out on a much grander mystery: that of the human imagination.

A Personal Note

I admit: I drank the Kool-Aid back in the day. I was swept up in the wonder and awe of the crop circles. To this day, even accepting the hoaxing, even after decades of serious disenchantment with the New Age, one of my regrets is that I missed seeing this formation by only two weeks:



Formed in July, it was harvested in mid-September, and I was at Silbury Hill in late September. I didn’t find out that I’d missed it until I was already back in the States.

But my awe didn’t need to actually witness one of these for myself to be caught up in the sensation of it all. Especially after this beauty appeared in a field near Alton Barnes in 1990 (a village I visited in 1988) and was broadcast all over the world:



The phenomena was evolving! The messages were getting more complex! I even incorporated a part of this one in some of the artwork I was making at the time:



And therein hangs a tale. Because it turns out most of the crop circles were all about art. Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, two 60-somethings, finally came forward and admitted they had started the craze and were doing circles as far back as the 70s “for a laugh” and for the pure joy of making large folk art in the fields. They never claimed to have made all the circles, although the newspaper that broke the story said they did, but D&D showed it was possible to hoax even the complex shapes that crop circle aficionados claimed (and still claim, some of them) could not have been done by the hand of man.

And that’s what catches Schnabel himself up in the hoaxing craze: the pure joy of being out in the English countryside in the darkness and making something bigger, grander, more magical than his individual self. And therein hangs another tale. These lovely things don’t need to be made by UFOs or earth spirits or fairies because all of those things live inside us, we complexly-layered human beings who often respond emotionally to things our intellects can’t grasp entirely. Trickster ties threads to our hands and feet, making us dance in the fields with crop stompers and think it’s all our idea.

Sure, it’s our idea. On the surface. But beneath the swirled grain of our imaginations lies a whole chthonic realm where other forces call the dance.

The Crop Circles

Round and round in a circle,
but not a circle: a cipher—
blank, yet potent with meaning,
universal and profoundly personal.
Each eye that falls on the corn
sees their own life rippling
through the wind in the fields:
their deceit, the circles deceit;
their pain, the circles pain;
their joy, their sorrow,
their wonder and fear
all caught in the circles' round
and etched in the corn.
And what is the true meaning
of the patterns in the fields?
Only the same meaning
that each day brings:
I know that I do not know.

—PJ Thompson

(If any of you are interested in seeing more of that metalwork piece, I’ve put the pictures beneath the cut.)

Read More )
pjthompson: review (weighing)
Chuck Kinder may be a metafictional wonder boy, but this book often tried my patience. I didn’t give up on it, though many times I wanted to. I would put it down, sometimes for weeks at a time, but I’d always circle back because I couldn’t quite give up on it. And these days, when I’m notorious for abandoning books because “life is too short” that’s something of a backhanded compliment.

You see, this book is what Chuck Kinder calls “faction”—that is, a memoir that’s even more loose with the facts than most memoirs. Mr. Kinder states repeatedly that he’s a storyteller above all else and never lets the facts of his life get in the way of a good story. Born and raised in West Virginia, he pays loving and cynical attention to his quirky home state, speaking of its history and its legends, everything from Matewan to Mothman. As fast and loose as he plays with the facts of his own life, when he’s talking about history and legends (as far as I can tell) he plays it fairly straight. Oh, he may insert himself into the headspace of the historical actors —which makes the narrative come alive in quite wondrous ways sometimes, if I’m honest—but he does tell the story down to its bones. In these days of the internet, it’s easy to call his bluff there, and some of these oddball characters have presences you can even look up on YouTube (Jessico White, for one).

I was good with all of that. Enjoyed that part of the ride. What Mr. Kinder had to say in these passages was often beautiful and heart-wrenching; or oddly, spookily, legendarily interesting; or downright funny. A lot of funny. When he talked about the history and legends of West Virginia (“Planet West Virginia” as he referred to it), you could feel his love for the place and its people and the craziness he grew up with.

Unfortunately, he frequently interspersed these bits with references to his own bad boy past and present, and those passages smelled of stale testosterone. I am so over reading about bad boys and posing tough guys, whether they are teenagers or fifty-somethings. He often doesn’t name the people in his life, or only by pseudonyms and nicknames—either to protect their innocence or to turn them into characters he can fudge facts about. Again, I wouldn’t have minded the faction about his relatives, but his wrenching everything back to stories about his bad boy status got tiresome, and interrupted the flow of the rest of the narrative. And that, as the saying goes, got on my last nerve.

But I did finish Last Mountain Dancer, so there is that.

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