Category: Ruminations

Stardust Read-Along, Part One

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations11 Comments

Welcome to the Stardust Read-Along!  As part of Once Upon a Time, we’re reading Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, a lovely semi-fairy tale about Tristran, who sets out across the Wall into the land of Faerie, searching for a fallen star…who turns out to be a girl, one who is very unhappy about having fallen out of the sky!

Carl sent around a number of great questions, and I’ve chosen several to discuss.

We have spent a little time with Tristran and even less time with the star.  What are your initial thoughts/impressions of our two protagonists?

I forgot how fiery (hee!) she is–and I love it!  But I had also forgotten how unfeeling Tristran is.  The star tells him she’s sitting there with a broken leg, and he does nothing at all until the next morning.  Really?  Not feeling all that fond of Tristran at the moment.  I can forgive him his infatuation with the annoying village girl, and I enjoy a nice, inept trying-to-be-hero type, but his lack of empathy is bothering me.  But at least he feels bad about it…so I trust he’s going to grow.

In Chapter Three, just after the section with the brothers in Stormhold, Neil Gaiman gives us a description of Faerie that includes “each land that has been forced off the map by explorers and the brave going out and proving it wasn’t there…”.  What imaginary lands do you then hope are a part of Faerie?

I loved this quote.  I flagged it when I came to it, and jotted it in my book of quotes.  I suppose I want all the obvious places to be there–Neverland and Wonderland and Oz, Atlantis and Tortall and Middle Earth, and Florin and Guilder, and the countries in Ella Enchanted whose names are escaping me…

We do not get to spend a great deal of time in the market but while there we are given a number of interesting descriptions of the wares being bartered or sold.  Which if any of them caught your eye, either as items you would like to possess or ones you would most certainly hope to avoid.

I think any time you’re in a fairy market, you have to be very, very careful about what they’re asking you to pay!  Mostly I wanted to comment how it reminds me of the market in Neverwhere as well.  It’s like this is a more rural version!

I suspect Neil Gaiman is influenced by a number of fairy and folk tales in Stardust.  Are there any elements of the story that made a particular impression and/or reminded you of other fairy stories you have read or are familiar with?

Stardust mostly strikes me as a book that has an air of fairy tale about it, rather than being any particular retelling.  A set of seven princes, a girl imprisoned by a witch, the hero on the quest…all very fairy-tale-ish.  And I love the Babylon Candle element.  I swear I thought up a magic spell involving the “How many miles to Babylon?” song for a story before I ever even read this book.

The first chapter especially feels so very fairy tale-like.  With possible tweaks to the very last page, it could almost exist as an entirely independent story, and make a lovely fairy tale.

That’s possibly my favorite part so far…so maybe we’ll just end there!  I look forward to seeing everyone else’s thoughts about the book. 🙂

Saturday Snapshot: Whimsical Wisteria

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot12 Comments

It must be spring again–the wisteria is back in bloom.  Such a very pretty flower–it’s too bad it lasts so briefly!  I haven’t managed to snap a picture yet this year, but it’s the right season to trot out a few shots from previous springs around my neighborhood…

Wisteria (1)

Wisteria (2)

I don’t suppose there’s anything TOO whimsical about the pictures…but I couldn’t resist the alliteration opportunity!

Visit At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots. 🙂

2013 Reading Challenges – First Update

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations6 Comments

Three months into the year already?  Really?  Must be time for an update on reading challenges…

All links go to reviews, and if you’re curious about any unreviewed books, just ask!

The Chunkster Challenge

In my efforts to overcome my fear of long books, I’m trying to read some of the LOOONG books I’ve been putting off…

1) Walden by Henry David Thoreau–on audio, but I’m counting it

2) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (reviews Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3)

My March Chunkster plans went awry when I discovered Good Omens is not nearly as long as I always thought!  I’m set up for more chunksters though, as I read The Hobbit as a prelude to Lord of the Rings.  I’m also midway through The House on Durrow Street by Galen Beckett, which comes in at nearly 700 pages.

FTSRC

Finishing the Series

I’m continuing to work through series, after great efforts last year to reduce my number of partially-read series.  I’m making a more reduced attempt in 2013, and have made some progress…

1) The Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig
Total books: 9 (to date)
When I began the series: February, 2011
Read prior to 2013: 7
Read in 2013: The Orchid Affair
Still to read: One book, though another’s due out in August

2) Ender’s Game series by Orson Scott Card
Total books: 6
When I began the series: February, 2012
Read prior to 2013: 1
Read in 2013: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide
Still to read: Three books

3) The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Total books: 2 (to date)
When I began the series: June, 2012
Read prior to 2013: 1
Read in 2013: Scarlet
Status: Up to date!

Books to Reread

Revisiting Old Friends

I have also been resolving to reread some beloved books, and have raided my own bookshelves here and there.  Some revisited favorites include:

1) Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat by L. M. Montgomery

2) A Voice from the Border by Pamela Smith Hill

3) Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey

4) Star Trek: Federation by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

5) Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

6) Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

7) Chalice by Robin McKinley

Stainless Steel Droppings: Carl’s “Experiences”

I had an excellent time with the January-February Sci Fi Experience, and went through a big stack of books.  Read my wrap-up post here.  In late March we launched the Once Upon a Time “Challenge,” and I’m already making my way through multitudes of fantasy.  I’ll post a complete list at the end of the challenge.

So far, it’s been a more low-key year in challenges…but I’ve been reading some excellent books in the process!

Stonehenge Post: Building a Fantasy World

On By cherylmahoneyIn RuminationsLeave a comment

Stonehenge 2New post today for my writing group blog, Stonehenge Writers!  You may have noticed a bit of a focus on fantasy around here recently…so in keeping with that theme, my post today shares a great resource for building a fantasy world.  Might be interesting even for non-writers, to think about all the elements that go into these fantasy novels we enjoy so much!  Come by to read the post: Building a Fantasy World.

Saturday Snapshots: Come Away to Fairyland

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot14 Comments

“Come away, O human child: To the waters and the wild with a fairy…” – William Butler Yeats

Spring has begun this month, and with it, the Once Upon a Time Challenge on Stainless Steel Droppings (my launch post here)…and so I have fairyland on my mind.  I’ve never climbed through a wardrobe, been abducted by the Green Wind, or fallen through a rabbit hole, so I can’t share photos from the various places those routes would take you 🙂 and cameras probably wouldn’t work anyway.  But as regular readers know, I have gone rambling about Kensington Gardens, where Peter Pan flew to when he “ran away from home and lived a long, long time with the fairies.”

Part of the fun of the Gardens is that there are no plaques or ceramic fairies or touristy things to point out the different sites of interest.  You have to take a quest, with J. M. Barrie’s The Little White Bird as your guide, and find the magic spots yourself.

Fortunately, the fairies seem not to object to cameras!

P1010296If you look closely, you can see one of the “paths which make themselves”–at night, of course, which is when everything really magical happens in the Gardens.

P1010608These are flowers along the aptly-named Flower Walk.  Barrie tells us that fairies caught abroad by humans will pretend to be flowers.  His advice on the best way to spot a fairy is to stare at a “flower” until it can’t help winking at you.  (I don’t know what that would look like either!)

18 Branch of BeechThis is the branch of the Weeping Beech in the Flower Walk, where Peter Pan spent the night immediately after running away from home.

P1010308If you can’t find some fairy dust, and reliable directions on how to fly past the second star to the right, you can at least go see the island in the middle of the Serpentine.  Peter spent some time living there too, until he built a boat and (eventually) learned how to fly.

The Gardens are not the most exotic or showy of fairylands, but they’re certainly the most accessible–and they are every bit as charming as J. M. Barrie.

If you feel like visiting fairylands, even in books, why not join up with the Once Upon a Time Challenge?  And of course, you can also find more Saturday Snapshots on At Home with Books!