Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 65
October 23, 2021
I think that I shall never see
Yesterday I went berserk in a nursery and purchased...
A ginkgo
A scarlet oak
A Bartlett pear
A stand of four birches
Also a Satsuma plum tree which I need to either return, exchange, or buy another of; post-purchase, I discovered that it won't fruit unless I have second Satsuma plum.
I also bought two raspberry bushes (currently fruiting!) and a blueberry bush. Also a bunch of bulbs.
And at that point I forcibly hurled myself out of the shop.
comments
A ginkgo
A scarlet oak
A Bartlett pear
A stand of four birches
Also a Satsuma plum tree which I need to either return, exchange, or buy another of; post-purchase, I discovered that it won't fruit unless I have second Satsuma plum.
I also bought two raspberry bushes (currently fruiting!) and a blueberry bush. Also a bunch of bulbs.
And at that point I forcibly hurled myself out of the shop.
comments
Four hours to sign up for Yuletide!
It's the final countdown!
Here's a countdown clock.
Here's sign-up instructions.
Any last-minute signers up or waverers?
comments
Here's a countdown clock.
Here's sign-up instructions.
Any last-minute signers up or waverers?
comments
October 22, 2021
24 Hours to sign up for Yuletide!
As of writing this post, you have have exactly 24 hours to sign up for Yuletide!
Here's a countdown clock.
Here's sign-up instructions.
If you ever wanted to get fanfic for the truck-eating 11'8" bridge, the Jacobean drama 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, the original painting of dogs playing poker, 転生したらスライムだった件 - 伏瀬 | Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken | Regarding Reincarnated to Slime - Fuse, or whatever else in the tag set that your heart desires, this is your chance.
comments
Here's a countdown clock.
Here's sign-up instructions.
If you ever wanted to get fanfic for the truck-eating 11'8" bridge, the Jacobean drama 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, the original painting of dogs playing poker, 転生したらスライムだった件 - 伏瀬 | Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken | Regarding Reincarnated to Slime - Fuse, or whatever else in the tag set that your heart desires, this is your chance.
comments
Marianne Dreams, by Catherine Storr
An unusual children's novel with elements of fantasy, horror, and healing via secret garden, about a girl whose drawings with a special pencil come to life in her dreams. It was very loosely adapted into the movie Paperhouse, and also into a TV series I haven't seen. This is the first Storr novel I've read, as her other books are very hard to find in the US.
Marianne begins drawing while bedridden for an extended period with an unnamed illness. She misses her school term, and gets a governess to teach her at home. Bored and frustrated, she quizzes the governess about her other students, and learns that she's also teaching a boy named Mark, who is partly paralyzed after having polio and is refusing to do the physical therapy that might allow him to to walk again. Marianne is baffled and fascinated by this: she's stuck in bed when she wants to get out, and Mark is supposed to get out but doesn't want to.
Marianne picks up a pencil that once belonged to her grandmother and draws a house in a grassy plain, with a boy's face looking out of the window.
That night she wakes and finds herself on the plain, looking up at the house. It feels more eerie than in her drawing, as her child's drawings with poorly proportioned flowers and grass look weird and alien when replicated in reality. She and the boy call to each other, but he can't let her in because the door doesn't have a knob and, he says, the house has no stairs.
The next day, Marianne draws in a doorknob and stairs. When she goes inside, she meets a boy who stays sitting on the windowsill, doesn't believe anything Marianne says, and refuses to come with her to verify some things (like the existence of stairs), not even when all he'd need to do is walk across the room.
Over a series of dreams, the boy is confirmed to be Mark. He eventually admits that he can't walk, but continues to deny that Marianne drew the house, and also denies anything Marianne tells him about things in the house that are out of his line of sight. Marianne gets obsessed with proving that she really can draw things into existence, and begins drawing all sorts of things that then appear in the dream. But when he still refuses to believe that she drew them, they get in a big fight. Angrily, Marianne draws some scary things into the picture to punish him...
There are sequences in this book that would have scared the living daylights out of me had I read it as a kid, and they're pretty unsettling even as an adult. Coexisting with that is the off-kilter comedy of the literal way that Marianne's drawings appear in dreams, with sausages on the floor because the drawing was getting too cluttered to put them anywhere else. There's also a delightful coziness and domestic magic in her ability to draw a cozy space.
The dream world is both a refuge from their real world, with comfort and companionship and even a safe place to practice physical therapy, and a reflection of it, reversed as reflections are, with the threats coming from without (Marianne's horrifying creatures) rather than within (illness). It's a short but complex work.
This unique novel is somewhat deniable fantasy, as it's never objectively confirmed that the Mark who appears in Marianne's dreams is the same Mark who exists in reality. He sure seems like an independent person rather than someone Marianne could dream up, though.
The illustrations are essential, as some are of Marianne's drawings, some are of her drawings come to life, and some are of the real world.
[image error]
comments
Marianne begins drawing while bedridden for an extended period with an unnamed illness. She misses her school term, and gets a governess to teach her at home. Bored and frustrated, she quizzes the governess about her other students, and learns that she's also teaching a boy named Mark, who is partly paralyzed after having polio and is refusing to do the physical therapy that might allow him to to walk again. Marianne is baffled and fascinated by this: she's stuck in bed when she wants to get out, and Mark is supposed to get out but doesn't want to.
Marianne picks up a pencil that once belonged to her grandmother and draws a house in a grassy plain, with a boy's face looking out of the window.
That night she wakes and finds herself on the plain, looking up at the house. It feels more eerie than in her drawing, as her child's drawings with poorly proportioned flowers and grass look weird and alien when replicated in reality. She and the boy call to each other, but he can't let her in because the door doesn't have a knob and, he says, the house has no stairs.
The next day, Marianne draws in a doorknob and stairs. When she goes inside, she meets a boy who stays sitting on the windowsill, doesn't believe anything Marianne says, and refuses to come with her to verify some things (like the existence of stairs), not even when all he'd need to do is walk across the room.
Over a series of dreams, the boy is confirmed to be Mark. He eventually admits that he can't walk, but continues to deny that Marianne drew the house, and also denies anything Marianne tells him about things in the house that are out of his line of sight. Marianne gets obsessed with proving that she really can draw things into existence, and begins drawing all sorts of things that then appear in the dream. But when he still refuses to believe that she drew them, they get in a big fight. Angrily, Marianne draws some scary things into the picture to punish him...
There are sequences in this book that would have scared the living daylights out of me had I read it as a kid, and they're pretty unsettling even as an adult. Coexisting with that is the off-kilter comedy of the literal way that Marianne's drawings appear in dreams, with sausages on the floor because the drawing was getting too cluttered to put them anywhere else. There's also a delightful coziness and domestic magic in her ability to draw a cozy space.
The dream world is both a refuge from their real world, with comfort and companionship and even a safe place to practice physical therapy, and a reflection of it, reversed as reflections are, with the threats coming from without (Marianne's horrifying creatures) rather than within (illness). It's a short but complex work.
This unique novel is somewhat deniable fantasy, as it's never objectively confirmed that the Mark who appears in Marianne's dreams is the same Mark who exists in reality. He sure seems like an independent person rather than someone Marianne could dream up, though.
The illustrations are essential, as some are of Marianne's drawings, some are of her drawings come to life, and some are of the real world.
[image error]
comments
October 18, 2021
And the winners are....
Two small green eggs from my hens on a bed of hash browns, pancetta, and mushrooms, seasoned with Trader Joe's umami seasoning which is mostly mushroom powder.
Apple cake with crumb topping.
Perhaps I'll do Mayak eggs tomorrow.
comments
So I have a lot of eggs.
Let me put it this way: my chickens are laying five eggs per day. Sometimes six.
It's a lovely, cold, rainy, misty day. Just right for cooking! And hopefully using up some eggs. I haven't had lunch yet, let alone dinner, so I can make more than one thing. The leftover stir-fry already exists. So do four cartons of eggs. I have all the ingredients for everything I've mentioned.
View Poll: #26253
comments
It's a lovely, cold, rainy, misty day. Just right for cooking! And hopefully using up some eggs. I haven't had lunch yet, let alone dinner, so I can make more than one thing. The leftover stir-fry already exists. So do four cartons of eggs. I have all the ingredients for everything I've mentioned.
View Poll: #26253
comments
The Book of Koli, by M. R. Carey
By the author of The Girl With All The Gifts.
Post-apocalyptic SF in which trees are out to kill everyone and remnants of pre-treepocalypse tech are rare, poorly understood, and much sought-after. Humanity has regrouped in very small, fairly isolated villages.
Koli, the protagonist, lives in Mythen Rood. The first half of the book is just his life in the village, with romantic troubles and friendships and work life - a coming of age story in an unusual setting. I absolutely loved this. The village has good points and bad points, the characters are very human and have different points of view, and it's just very fun. There's nothing here you haven't read before in some sf book or another, but it's very well-done and enjoyable.
Koli is a classic unreliable narrator of the type where the readers understands way more than he does. He also has a unique way of narrating, as he's illiterate and also language has moved on somewhat from our time. Here's a sample:
"In Spring the snow thawed, which was a mercy, but sometimes—maybe one time in four or five—it would be a choker Spring, and you would get something else coming alongside the thaw. Of all our mortal threats, I was most mightily afraid of the choker seeds, because they attacked so fast and was so hard to fight. If a seed fell on your skin, you had got maybe a minute to dig it out again before the roots went in too deep. After that there wasn’t nothing anyone could do for you save to kill you right away before the seedling hollowed you out.
In Mythen Rood, the way we answered that was to try to stop the seeds from falling in the first place. As soon as the warmer weather come, Rampart Fire (which in my day was Catrin Vennastin) would send out runners to check the choker trees for blossom. If they found any, she would strap on the fire-thrower and walk the forest with ten strong spearmen, burning out the blossom before the trees could seed. The spearmen was to kill or fend off any beasts that might come, watching Catrin’s back and her two sides while she played the fire-thrower across the branches and seared the seeds inside their pods. Against the choker trees themselves there wasn’t any protecting that would avail, so Catrin and her spearmen only went out on days when the clouds was thick and heavy, and if the sun ’gun to show through they run as fast as they could for the clear ground.
Summer was hardest, because most things was woke and walking then. Knifestrikes flying straight down out of the sun so you couldn’t see them coming, molesnakes out of the ground, rats and wild dogs and needles out of the forest. Anything that was big and come by its own lonely self was give to Fer Vennastin to deal with. Fer was Rampart Arrow. She would take the creature down with one of her smart bolts. And if it was a drone that come, dropping out of the sky and throwing out its scary warning, one of Fer’s bolts would oftentimes do for that too. But she only just had the three of them, which meant someone always had to go out to bring the bolt back afterwards. We couldn’t afford to lose none.
If wild dogs or rats or knifestrike swarms come, we had a different way, which was Rampart Knife. Loop Vennastin had that name when I was younger, then Mardew passed the test and it was give to him when Loop died. When a swarm attacked, Rampart Knife would stand up on the fence or the lookout and carve the beasts into pieces as they come. Then we would cook and eat the meat as long as there was no worms or melters in it. Wormed meat or melted meat we kept well clear of, for even if you digged out what you could see there was always more you couldn’t."
You get the picture.
I started this on audio, as I often prefer listening to books narrated by illiterate characters - otherwise they can be hard for me to read.
The audio was GREAT, and I was happily anticipating listening to all three books... up until about the 40% mark, when it went off the rails in a spectacular and unexpected way.
( Cut for mild spoilers )
At that point I switched to the written book. All else aside, I was curious whether this was as obnoxious in print. It wasn't - I still have caveats, but they're much more minor. Major spoilers from here on out.
( Cut for major spoilers )
First half is better than the second half, in my opinion, but I'm definitely continuing.
Currently $4.99 on Kindle. Well worth it!
[image error]
comments
Post-apocalyptic SF in which trees are out to kill everyone and remnants of pre-treepocalypse tech are rare, poorly understood, and much sought-after. Humanity has regrouped in very small, fairly isolated villages.
Koli, the protagonist, lives in Mythen Rood. The first half of the book is just his life in the village, with romantic troubles and friendships and work life - a coming of age story in an unusual setting. I absolutely loved this. The village has good points and bad points, the characters are very human and have different points of view, and it's just very fun. There's nothing here you haven't read before in some sf book or another, but it's very well-done and enjoyable.
Koli is a classic unreliable narrator of the type where the readers understands way more than he does. He also has a unique way of narrating, as he's illiterate and also language has moved on somewhat from our time. Here's a sample:
"In Spring the snow thawed, which was a mercy, but sometimes—maybe one time in four or five—it would be a choker Spring, and you would get something else coming alongside the thaw. Of all our mortal threats, I was most mightily afraid of the choker seeds, because they attacked so fast and was so hard to fight. If a seed fell on your skin, you had got maybe a minute to dig it out again before the roots went in too deep. After that there wasn’t nothing anyone could do for you save to kill you right away before the seedling hollowed you out.
In Mythen Rood, the way we answered that was to try to stop the seeds from falling in the first place. As soon as the warmer weather come, Rampart Fire (which in my day was Catrin Vennastin) would send out runners to check the choker trees for blossom. If they found any, she would strap on the fire-thrower and walk the forest with ten strong spearmen, burning out the blossom before the trees could seed. The spearmen was to kill or fend off any beasts that might come, watching Catrin’s back and her two sides while she played the fire-thrower across the branches and seared the seeds inside their pods. Against the choker trees themselves there wasn’t any protecting that would avail, so Catrin and her spearmen only went out on days when the clouds was thick and heavy, and if the sun ’gun to show through they run as fast as they could for the clear ground.
Summer was hardest, because most things was woke and walking then. Knifestrikes flying straight down out of the sun so you couldn’t see them coming, molesnakes out of the ground, rats and wild dogs and needles out of the forest. Anything that was big and come by its own lonely self was give to Fer Vennastin to deal with. Fer was Rampart Arrow. She would take the creature down with one of her smart bolts. And if it was a drone that come, dropping out of the sky and throwing out its scary warning, one of Fer’s bolts would oftentimes do for that too. But she only just had the three of them, which meant someone always had to go out to bring the bolt back afterwards. We couldn’t afford to lose none.
If wild dogs or rats or knifestrike swarms come, we had a different way, which was Rampart Knife. Loop Vennastin had that name when I was younger, then Mardew passed the test and it was give to him when Loop died. When a swarm attacked, Rampart Knife would stand up on the fence or the lookout and carve the beasts into pieces as they come. Then we would cook and eat the meat as long as there was no worms or melters in it. Wormed meat or melted meat we kept well clear of, for even if you digged out what you could see there was always more you couldn’t."
You get the picture.
I started this on audio, as I often prefer listening to books narrated by illiterate characters - otherwise they can be hard for me to read.
The audio was GREAT, and I was happily anticipating listening to all three books... up until about the 40% mark, when it went off the rails in a spectacular and unexpected way.
( Cut for mild spoilers )
At that point I switched to the written book. All else aside, I was curious whether this was as obnoxious in print. It wasn't - I still have caveats, but they're much more minor. Major spoilers from here on out.
( Cut for major spoilers )
First half is better than the second half, in my opinion, but I'm definitely continuing.
Currently $4.99 on Kindle. Well worth it!
[image error]
comments
October 13, 2021
It's never a bad time to link to the Newbery Award Generator
The Newbery Award Generator
The Western Rifle
In the beginning, a discontented child is run over by a school bus after her parents enroll in clown college. Things seem to be looking up when she befriends a boy without a face. But when her new friend is accidentally shot while cleaning a gun, she learns a valuable lesson about the Civil Rights Movement and that nothing is so bad that it can't get worse.
comments
The Western Rifle
In the beginning, a discontented child is run over by a school bus after her parents enroll in clown college. Things seem to be looking up when she befriends a boy without a face. But when her new friend is accidentally shot while cleaning a gun, she learns a valuable lesson about the Civil Rights Movement and that nothing is so bad that it can't get worse.
comments
The Redemption of Michael Hollister (Middle Falls Time Travel), by Shawn Inmon
I would not have read this one at all except the author strongly recommended it, because Michael Hollister is a serial killer in some of the other books and I really didn't want to be in his POV or get any serial killing scenes. There are zero serial killing scenes, and Shawn Inmon is right: it really is one of the best books in the series.
The book avoids any serial killing scenes by starting with a timeline in which Michael killed one person in a fit of rage and then went to jail, rather than becoming a serial killer. In that timeline, he kills himself in jail, after which he wakes up as his own younger self. Much younger self. Michael is seven years old!
This is a genius idea, as it both enables Michael to never be a serial killer at all in the timelines we follow, and instantly shoots him to the top of my favorite narrators in the series as once he settles into living the timeline through, he's an angry, sarcastic adult in a child's body. This is sometimes poignant, but often very funny.
Before that, though, he has to work through some anger. Okay, a lot of anger. It turns out that Michael was sexually abused by his father. This is very sensitively handled, IMO, with no on-page scenes of sexual abuse, but a lot of psychological fallout.
( spoilers )
There is also a prominent Universal Life Center plotline, which comes across as fairly sinister in this iteration, but also worked better for me than any of the other ones as the person there has a very personal stake in what she's doing: she's Michael's victim from his original timeline.
I'm usually not big on forgiveness themes as they often come across as victim-blaming, but it's a prominent theme in this book and in context I found it very moving.
This has moved to a surprising tie with The Empathetic Life of Rebecca Wright for my favorite book in the series so far.
[image error]
comments
The book avoids any serial killing scenes by starting with a timeline in which Michael killed one person in a fit of rage and then went to jail, rather than becoming a serial killer. In that timeline, he kills himself in jail, after which he wakes up as his own younger self. Much younger self. Michael is seven years old!
This is a genius idea, as it both enables Michael to never be a serial killer at all in the timelines we follow, and instantly shoots him to the top of my favorite narrators in the series as once he settles into living the timeline through, he's an angry, sarcastic adult in a child's body. This is sometimes poignant, but often very funny.
Before that, though, he has to work through some anger. Okay, a lot of anger. It turns out that Michael was sexually abused by his father. This is very sensitively handled, IMO, with no on-page scenes of sexual abuse, but a lot of psychological fallout.
( spoilers )
There is also a prominent Universal Life Center plotline, which comes across as fairly sinister in this iteration, but also worked better for me than any of the other ones as the person there has a very personal stake in what she's doing: she's Michael's victim from his original timeline.
I'm usually not big on forgiveness themes as they often come across as victim-blaming, but it's a prominent theme in this book and in context I found it very moving.
This has moved to a surprising tie with The Empathetic Life of Rebecca Wright for my favorite book in the series so far.
[image error]
comments
October 12, 2021
Moondust, by Thomas Burnett Swann
This short fantasy novel from the 1970s is set in Jericho around the time of the arrival of Joshua (as in Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho) and features a number of elements one would not expect from that premise. I don't think it's spoilery to say that one of them is winged women, as they're on the cover.
( peculiar spoilers )
Entertainingly weird; very seventies. Some of Swann's books are now available on Kindle but not this one.
[image error]
comments
( peculiar spoilers )
Entertainingly weird; very seventies. Some of Swann's books are now available on Kindle but not this one.
[image error]
comments
.jpg){kind=link}