Tag: J. M. Barrie

Blog Hop: Five Books to Grab

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop, Ruminations14 Comments

I’m joining in with the Book Blogger Hop again today, when bloggers discuss bookish topics!

book blogger hop

This week’s question is: What are the top 5 books you would grab in an emergency?

I’m not entirely sure what this question means…I mean, the five books I would read during a personal crisis are not necessarily the same five books I would choose if I was only going to have access to five books for an extended period…  But let’s assume the point here is, which five books would you choose if you could only have five books.  Say, on an extended spaceflight to Mars.  I like that better than the idea of being stuck on a desert island, where I’d need books about survival on a desert island!

So if I was on a long spaceflight and could only bring five books…

1) The Bible, although that’s so obvious it almost feels like cheating.

2) The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (unabridged), because I read so quickly, I’d need something that would last.  Which is an argument in favor of the Bible too, apart from spiritual inspiration.

3) Susan Kay’s Phantom because, I mean, it’s Susan Kay’s Phantom and I just madly love it.

4) The Little White Bird by J. M. Barrie because it’s a wonderful, lovely, magical book.  Plus, even a spaceflight to Mars would probably have its alarming and homesick moments, and this would make a perfect comfort read.  George Davies, the boy who inspired David in the book, brought a copy with him to the trenches in World War I.

5) And finally, The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery, because I couldn’t possibly get by without any Montgomery, and this is my favorite of her novels.  Though I’d be tempted to bring Volume I of her journals instead.

And if, as I know I surely would, I decided to toss a pair of shoes out of my luggage and squeeze in two more books…

6) The Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce–there is an omnibus edition, so it could be counted as one.  Alanna is the most inspiring of heroines, and every so often, everyone needs to believe that they can do anything.

7) Something Terry Pratchett…possibly Night Watch.  Because of course I’d need something funny too.

And then I’d probably have to discard some more clothes so that I could bring something by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and also If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland, and a spaceflight to Mars really would be a good moment to read some favorite Star Trek books, and so we begin to see why I have three enormous bookcases in my small apartment!

So if you had to grab five books, for a spaceflight to Mars or maybe if you were on a desert island, what would you snatch up?

Saturday Snapshot: Knick-Knacks

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot22 Comments

I like everything I own to have a story.  That doesn’t extend to, say, my shampoo or silverware, but it does include my knick-knacks.

Shelf - Barrie Fairies

I saw these adorable fairies for sale in Covent Gardens.  Having just spent a week wandering around Kensington Gardens with fairies on my mind, I couldn’t resist.  Naturally I keep them in front of my J. M. Barrie collection.

Shelf - Fandom

Here you see the result of some of my fandoms…my shelf of Star Trek books also houses Trevor the Tribble, Kirk and Spock salt-and-pepper shakers, and a Data action figure that I bought at my first ever job, at KayBee Toys (for the record, I don’t recommend working in a toy store for the Christmas season).

On the next shelf, my Phantom collection, with a model of the Paris Opera House, and then my Pirate collection.  I bought the “solemn” Captain Jack action figure because the grinning one was terrifying (really), and I managed to get a Captain Jack Happy Meal toy without actually buying any food at McDonalds.

Shelf - Lucky Cat

A less obvious connection here…but I have a Lucky Cat figurine that I bought in Chinatown in San Francisco, and it’s on this shelf because Keladry, heroine of the Protector of the Small quartet, has a collection of Lucky Cat figures.

Those are my cleverest book-and-knick-knack combinations…but perhaps I’ll share other knick-knacks another day! 🙂  Do you have any with fun stories?

Visit At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!

Reveling in Revels Below Fairyland

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult8 Comments

I spent this past weekend reading The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente.  I loved it.  It’s my second contender for “favorite new book this year” which is not altogether surprising–since it’s tied with The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

I already reviewed the first book in the series, and all the wonderful things from that book carried over here–the magic and the whimsy and the beautiful, beautiful writing.  This series combines so much of the loveliness of classic children’s fantasy with more complex characters facing more complicated choices.

The last book promised us this sequel was coming, and I think it’s worth quoting that line again: All stories must end so, with the next tale winking out of the corners of the last pages, promising more, promising moonlight and dancing and revels, if only you will come back when spring comes again.

The second book begins with our heroine, September, eagerly looking forward to a return to Fairyland.  I’m drawn in right at the beginning, as Valente explores how hard it really would be for Dorothy to go back to Kansas–I mean, for September to go back to Nebraska.  It doesn’t take long for her to fall back into Fairyland, where she eagerly anticipates fun adventures with her friends–only to discover that something has gone awry.  September lost her shadow in the first book, and now she finds out that someone has been stealing shadows (and with them, magic) away from Fairyland.  September must go on a quest into Fairyland Below–and there we find “moonlight and dancing and revels.”  September meets old friends strangely changed and many new creatures and places that are decidedly odd indeed.  Fairyland Below is a darker, more mysterious place and September doesn’t always know who she can trust.

The Girl Who Fell still has L. Frank Baum’s whimsy and J. M. Barrie’s charming way of addressing the reader, with an added dash of Lewis Carroll.  September goes to a quite strange tea and coffee house, and we see chess references occasionally too.

Unlike Peter Pan (or really all the endlessly-young, never-changing children of classic fantasy), September is begining to grow up in this volume.  She feels things a little deeper, thinks a little more, and there are just a few hints of romance.  I love September; she’s a brave, resourceful girl who wants to solve the problems around her and do the right thing.  But she doesn’t always know what the right thing is, and she struggles to know who she is herself, and what role she’s meant to play.

Many major characters from the previous book, like A-through-L, September and the Marquess return in this one–but Fairyland Below is dark and mysterious and all may not be quite as it seems.  We also get to go to a Goblin Market, meet a minotaur and a dodo bird, and seek out a sleeping prince.  There’s philosophy and there’s lyrical writing and we even get to play a bit with fairy tale tropes.

It is perhaps not a perfect book.  There are a few time-jumps that are slightly disconcerting, and the ending is maybe a touch convenient.  Though the ending makes me happy, so I don’t actually mind that much.  And even if it’s not perfect, it comes very close.  Unquestionably one of the best new books I’ve read this year.

Really, I don’t know how to do justice to this book.  I loved it.  I really, really, really loved it.  I follow Valente on Twitter and she’s been referencing work on Fairyland 3.  I will be pre-ordering that one as soon as it becomes available!

Author’s Site: http://www.catherynnemvalente.com/

Other reviews:
Little Red Reviewer
The Book Smugglers
Books Writing Tea
Anyone else?

Saturday Snapshot: Fish and Chips

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot28 Comments

This may sound strange, but I love British food.  It gets a bad reputation–but what’s not to love about fish and chips, meat pies, yorkshire pudding and jammie dodgers?  I made a particular effort (and it wasn’t that hard) to find British food while I was in London.  After I got home, I started thinking about where I could find British food here–and what I could try making myself.

Meat pies seem complicated, but I thought I could handle fish and chips.  On my trip, I had fish and chips for lunch one day at The Black Lion.  First picture, here’s the pub:

It’s a great old place that dates back to the 1700s.  It’s on Bayswater Road, across the street from the Black Lion Gate, which opens onto the Broad Walk in Kensington Gardens.  I like to think J. M. Barrie may have eaten here, considering he lived just a few blocks away.

Here’s The Black Lion’s fish and chips:

The book, incidentally, is Temptation of the Night Jasmine by Lauren Willig, and very good.  So was the food!

And here’s my version of fish and chips–which also turned out tasty. 🙂

Check out At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!

Classic Review: The Little White Bird

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews2 Comments

A quick update today, to say that I just got back from my trip to London and Paris.  I scheduled posts ahead, but if you noticed a distinct silence in the comments, that was why.  The trip was amazing 🙂 and you will be hearing (and seeing) more about it soon!  While I’m getting back on top of things, I have another classic review today, very relevant to my recent trip.

My hotel in London was near Kensington Gardens for a variety of reasons.  It really was a practical choice.  But I also stayed in that part of town because of J. M. Barrie.  The author of Peter Pan, he lived near Kensington Gardens, where he met the Davies boys, the real life inspirations for Peter.  He wrote another book inspired by the Davies, featuring Peter in a cameo.  It’s really that book, The Little White Bird, that’s given me my fascination with Kensington Gardens.

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It really all began in the The Little White Bird.  It’s very possibly my favorite J. M. Barrie book, even over and above Peter Pan.

The Little White Bird; or Adventures in Kensington Gardens is a tale about a man who befriends a little boy, and has adventures with him in London and Kensington Gardens.  If you’re not already suspecting the autobiographical nature of this novel, the little boy’s name is David.  Historically, J. M. Barrie befriended the Davies brothers in Kensington Gardens.  Not too subtle!  He also has a dog named Porthos, as did Mr. Barrie.  The man in the story is left unnamed.  He’s referred to as Captain W–.  I somehow picked up the habit of calling him the kindly old gentleman.

A review in The Times said of the book when it was first published, “The peculiar quality of The Little White Bird…is it’s J.-M.-Barrie-ness…whimsical, sentimental, profound, ridiculous Barrie-ness…Mr. Barrie has given us the best of himself, and we can think of no higher praise.”

I couldn’t put it better.  The Barrie-ness is often the best part of Mr. Barrie’s books.  The charm, the whimsy, the flights of fancy, the sweet sadness…the book is funny and tragic, absurd and heartbreaking, and sometimes all at the same time.  The tragedy, for the kindly old gentleman at least, is that David doesn’t really belong to him, and will one day grow up and leave him.

And there we come to the Peter Pan connection.  Besides thematic connections, there are also four chapters in the middle of the book that are about Peter.  They’re almost oddly unrelated to the rest, other than by geography, but I think they’re meant to be stories that the kindly old gentleman tells David.  In Peter Pan, Peter tells Wendy, “I want always to be a little boy and to have fun.  So I ran away to Kensington Gardens and lived a long, long time with the fairies.”  And this is that story.

We read about Peter’s running away from home, find out why he doesn’t grow up, see him meet the fairies, and also meet a girl he knew long before there was Wendy.  This is before Peter went to Neverland (although an island features) and the Lost Boys and Tinkerbell are yet to come on the scene, but there are other wonderful magical creatures and adventures.  The four chapters about Peter, along with one chapter giving a Grand Tour of the gardens, have been excerpted and published as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, with lovely illustrations by Arthur Rackham.

The Baby’s Walk

The Grand Tour (and map) is especially wonderful, because if you’re ever in London, I highly recommend spending an afternoon in Kensington Gardens with The Little White Bird in one hand.  It’s what I’ve done, and I spent a couple of hours going, “Oh, there’s Mabel Gray’s gate!  And the Round Pond!  And that must be the Baby Walk!  And this is probably the weeping beech where Peter sat!”  Even a century later, I was able to find almost everything J. M. Barrie described.  And it’s a little easier to get to Kensington Gardens than to figure out which star is the second one to the right.

One more note on The Little White Bird–George Davies, who was the chief inspiration for David, took a copy of the book with him to the trenches in World War I.  I think that’s one of the saddest and sweetest things I ever heard.

Even in much less dire reading circumstances, it’s a lovely and enjoyable book–and, of course, magical too.