Sarah Jamila Stevenson's Blog: Blog - Sarah Jamila Stevenson, page 5
December 10, 2024
Big Yikes #156
you too can be a yike$coin gazillionaire!
[LATE POST DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES LAST WEEK]
November 24, 2024
On the Joys of Comfort Re-reading
(I made this post’s featured image using Adobe Firefly’s AI generator. To see the prompt, check out the alt text. I was rather amused, myself, since I was provided with Asian and Black versions too, after not specifying any particular race or ethnicity.) Anyway, on to the post!
One of my favorite fall and winter activities is cozying up with a book while I’m nice and warm indoors—and if I’m truly in need of comfort, I’ll often turn to a much-loved title and give it a re-read.
This is something I’ve done since I was a child, actually. There were certain books I turned to again and again—because I loved them; because they felt safe, like an old friend; because I could escape into them; because I felt as if the stories themselves understood me in a way I couldn’t articulate. In some fundamental way they had become real, and I wanted to inhabit that reality for a while.
I wanted to become part of the story, too.
Instead of being stuck at my dad’s during a required visitation after my parents divorced, I wanted to be James rolling away inside a giant peach, away from Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, going on adventures and finding friends who understood me. Instead of being plain old boring me, I wanted there to be something special about me. A psychic power like in The Girl with the Silver Eyes. (Don’t ask how many times I attempted in vain to move things with my mind.) The ability to commune with dolphins like in A Ring of Endless Light. There were so many more, too.
I also re-read books when I wanted to laugh.
There have been so many of those over the years. Anything Roald Dahl. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Good Omens. Numerous compilations of Bloom County and Life in Hell.
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I still re-read books when I’m in need of comfort. There are so, so many wonderful books that I’ve read over the years since my childhood and teen years, books which have been become loved and treasured. Books that I turn to when I don’t feel like reading anything else. Books that I want to hug close to my heart. Books that are more than just this one writer’s inspiration—that bring me somewhere compelling and vivid, that turn me into someone compelling and vivid, even if just for those minutes spent reading.
At the moment, I’m re-reading Connie Willis’s Oxford Time Travel books. This is my first actual re-read of these, and it just felt like the right time, as it were. (I’m glad I didn’t re-read Doomsday Book during the Pandemic, though…IYKYK.) I’ve re-read ALL of Tamora Pierce’s series multiple times. I’ve been through the Graceling books at least twice now. (Girls Who Kick Ass is evidently a theme I find comforting.) I’ve been through the President’s Daughter series a few times, most recently last month. I dip back into the occasional Diana Wynne Jones; doesn’t matter which. Any and all are terrific.
So there you go.
What are your go-to comfort re-reads?
Source: Dispatches From Wonderland
November 19, 2024
November 12, 2024
November 5, 2024
October 29, 2024
October 22, 2024
October 16, 2024
October 6, 2024
Reading Roundup: Spooky Season!
I meant to get this post out in September, but better late than never! In any case, this post makes for better October reading, since it looks at a few books that are most definitely appropriate for the Spooky Season. As you may know, neither Tanita nor I are particularly inclined to read horror (at least, not on any kind of regular basis) but I do occasionally read a fantasy or paranormal or thriller that could also be classified as horror. I guess, in certain moods, I’m fine with spooky, and occasionally even creepy…
First, a couple of reads in the “can you stay alive to tell your horrifying tale” category. I was pretty excited to read Under the Surface by Diana Urban, a tale of terror about being lost in the Paris catacombs. My husband and I missed seeing the catacombs in Paris because they were closed both times we were there, but we did recently see the UBER CREEPY (but also kinda cool) catacombs in Palermo, Sicily, so I was definitely in a mood to read a thriller in that type of setting. And it did not disappoint on that score—while on a senior class trip to Paris, main character Ruby and her best friend sneak out one night to a super-secret party in the catacombs. Everything seems deliciously spooky…until they get lost down there. And until someone—or something—starts chasing them….
Also a fun read, and definitely inspired by horror classics, was What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell. I’m not sure what made me pick this one up, given that it’s set in a scary supernatural corn maze where the two main characters keep finding dead versions of themselves. (I had a traumatic experience as a child when I accidentally walked in on my parents watching Children of the Corn, so you’d think I would stay away from haunted cornfields and such.) But it actually sounded sort of cool, more thriller-esque, and it’s not like I never EVER read horror, so I thought I’d try it out, because I liked the author’s earlier book A Dark and Starless Forest. And, well, I did end up enjoying it, and I didn’t think it was TOO terribly scary (fortunately)—to me, it was fun-scary and thriller-scary, and the speculative aspect turned out to be a really interesting part of the story. Anyone who enjoys scary movie tropes might want to check it out.
Last but not least, I particularly liked The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland, a serial-killer story packed with demons, witches, and occult goings-on. There are three main characters in this one: Zara, whose singleminded purpose is to raise her sister from the dead so she can find out who murdered her; Jude, who bonded herself to a demon but botched it—so now her soul is slowly going necrotic; and Emer, a witch and curse writer who lost her family to a group of mysterious killers. Zara and Jude are both in search of the only one they think can help them—Emer—and, in the process, they find out that someone has been killing Emer’s clients, the women who have been buying protective curses from her. Reluctantly, since they are all rather prickly and focused on their own agendas, the three team up to identify the killer before they end up in his sights. This one was rather dark, but I really enjoyed it, and the ending was quite satisfying (not to mention, it was a scene of spectacular destruction).
Here’s to Spooky Season!
Source: Dispatches From Wonderland
October 1, 2024
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