Five drops do not a rain make

When Shakespeare compared his love to a summer’s day, he had no idea what the hell he was talking about. Countries which only have to deal with pretend summers that come along for maybe a week or two, have no business writing poetry about it. Temperate!!! Lovely !!! We do not care if we are considered ‘insane minds’ by Terry Pratchett standards beacause of extra exclamation marks. After all who would remain sane with the kind of heat we have been facing and no rain for more that 150 days! The five measly drops that happened day before yesterday do not even count.

Bangaloreans are making plans to move to Dubai in droves. After all it rains a lot more over there. They had floods! Whereas we are scrimping on water. The reservoirs are dry, the river is dry, the lakes have been converted to concrete forests with towering pigeon holes. And no water! Our dearly beloved government is too busy fining us for washing cars and watering plants instead of digging new lakes and rejuvenating old ones. For heaven’s sake, bring down the pigeon holes and stop indiscriminately sanctioning new ones.

Did everyone really think that the builders’ mafia is stronger than nature? The backlash is now being felt by everyone, including said builders who are probably making plans to buy citizenship to a balmy European country. It’s not just El Nina and El Nino which have become a convenient excuse for the rack and ruin visited upon the city. It is primarily the sheer greed, voraciousness and short sightedness of the people in power which has made a perfect example in Bangalore of how to ruin a good city. A city which was once a stranger to fans cannot now survive without air conditioning.

We have heard that those in the city who are not heading Dubai wards are now heading to Sikkim for it’s gentler weather and mountain views. Does this mean the emptying out of the concrete towers? Will the tech industry shift to the north east? Will the concrete jungle lie as a barren wasteland until it is eaten up by the encroaching green jungle and slender lorises will once again be spotted in Bangalore? It may not happen in our life time but the thought is like a momentary cool breeze and six drops of rain.

A bubble of nice

Some books are more fantasy than fantasy genre books and that is probably because in a strife torn world everyone needs a bit of fantasy and niceness. We are not saying that nice does not happen in the real world but it is rather rare to find it with many people all at once. The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer is a book all about making wishes come true with a benevolent set of characters, a soft pace to the story and a lot of ‘nice’.

Jack Masterson is a renowned writer, famous for his Clock Island series written for children. After writing 40 books he suddenly stopped much to the disappointment of all his fans, not to mention his publishers. Jack is now a recluse who lives on an island off the coast of Maine, his only companion the illustrator of his book covers. Jack has turned the island into a replica of various regions mentioned in his books and he along with the island have become a legendary mystery for his fans and readers. Lucy Hart is a teacher’s assistant in a primary school hoping to adopt Christopher, one of the little boys in her school who is in foster care. Lucy and Christopher both love the Clock Island books and keep wishing for a change in financial circumstances which could enable Lucy to adopt. The story really starts when there is a sudden announcement by the publishers of the Clock Island books of a contest by invitation only and involving four contestants. The winner would get a windfall.

A contest on a secluded island with the reclusive author as the mastermind of it all could go in all kinds of dangerous directions. But this is not a Hunger Games style of book. No one is trying to kill anyone. In fact the contestants are all quite likeable people. Jack Masterson is a benign conductor of affairs. A little mischievous but well meaning on the whole. Clock Island is a fantastical place but the real fantasy is in the feel good factor of the book. Which is probably why it has been immensely popular. Cynics like us kept waiting for things to go wrong and back stabbing to happen and when it didn’t we classified the book as a fantasy. That doesn’t mean to say it is not readable or that there are no twists and turns. This is also novel about the importance of and influence of writers who write for children. Everyone who reads acknowledges that books provide a safe refuge in times of trouble and there is safe harbour for the reader in the pages of a book. Those who write for children therefore bear a greater responsibility because of the impact their books can have.

In its own way The Wishing Game perhaps tries to provide that refuge for the reader in the manner that it progresses. Enjoyable on the whole but the reader should not go in looking for any kind of skulduggery.

Connecting and healing through books

The Japanese novels, more often than not, tend to be, at least in translation, rather vague and yet strangely beautiful. Perhaps it is the pace which is usually gentle, meandering and carries the reader softly along with the story. On the face of it the writing may appear simplistic but when one stops to think, there are depths underneath with nuances which are not always anticipated.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa is one such book. A book about the healing power held by books and bookshops, even for someone who doesn’t necessarily read or like books. Takako is a young woman working in Tokyo. One day her boyfriend, in a matter of fact manner, informs her that he is marrying someone else. Thus leaving Takako distressed, depressed and with complete loss of self confidence.

Out of the blue, Takako’s maternal uncle calls and asks her to come and stay in Jimbocho where he runs the family’s bookshop. Jimbocho, we found out, really is the used bookstore district in central Tokyo. Takako is initially horrified at the thought of sleeping in a tiny room above the tiny shop but soon starts to interact with the strange customers and read the books lying around. So begins her recovery. Initially she finds her uncle quixotic and incomprehensible but it doesn’t take her long to realise that he has done her an immense favour. The story meanders through Takako’s recovery and through the narrow lanes of Jimbocho with a motley bunch of characters who hang out over there.

Basically the novel is about the healing that comes from reading and the connections one can make through books. It’s a short novel but somehow satisfying in a very Japanese way. Unfortunately most of the books that are referred to in the novel are Japanese and we haven’t read them so we can’t comment on the references. We do however intend to find out if any are available in translation.

Mapping hidden doors

We recently reviewed Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett which we had thoroughly enjoyed. The second book in the series released mid January. Since we had pre ordered it, we felt it had to jump to the top of the TBR(to be read) list. Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands is as mad, inventive and satisfying as book one. At least it doesn’t suffer from the middle book syndrome for which one should be immensely grateful. There is nothing worse than wasting time on a ‘wait for the third book’ book.

(There may be some spoilers for book one)

Emily Wilde and Wendell Brambleby set off to the Austrian Alps in search of hidden doors which lead to the faerie kingdoms of Ireland (rather a round about route, but so are the ways of Faerie apparently) to try and liberate them from Wendell’s murderous stepmother. They are accompanied, as always, by Shadow, Emily’s dog(seemingly), her niece Ariadne who has who is interning with the department of Dryadology at Cambridge and also by Professor Rose who is the head of department and feels Emily cannot handle the research entirely by herself. Wendell has been poisoned with a slow poison which keeps incapacitating him, and that too on his birthday which, according to him, is a misdemeanour worse more than the poisoning itself.

In order to find the doors and map the mists that lead to them, Emily needs to find another researcher who had disappeared in the same area many years back. She keeps seeing a man with various ribbons who keeps appearing and disappearing to make confusing statements and giving cryptic directions to Emily.

The fairies are mean, villainous and sometimes downright evil. Yet Emily manages, through her wit, knowledge and some help from Wendell to navigate the confusing mists and deal with the worst of the fae. Even managing to befriend a rather horrendous one whom she names Snowbell. She does however have a tendency to rush into places, that too at night, which stresses the reader out. As does her habit of stealing dangerous artefacts from museums and carrying them around as compasses. A faun’s leg being one of them. Mr Tumnus would not have approved of this. Not that the fauns in this book are anything like the ones in Narnia. We did like that Poe from the previous book made an important guest appearance in this one as he is one of the more likeable ‘folk’.

Like the first book, this one was enjoyable and fun, with a brave and rather reckless protagonist. Emily’s niece turns out to be as bad in some ways. True to her nature, Emily is initially awkward in her relationship with her hero worshipping niece, tries her best to dodge Wendell’s proposals and also the domineering attitude of Professor Rose. Ultimately she has to make her peace and come to terms with all three and face each situation head on with her usual bravery. It is always nice to read books where the women save the day.

Consuming gold

In the days of rampant veganism and strenuous efforts by vegans to somehow convince ( or con) others of its manifold benefits, leading to conversion and perhaps the access to a vegans’ heaven where rivers of soy milk and fructose honey flow, we remain unabashedly non vegan. Tea without a spot of milk is an apology of a tea. As is coffee made with some substitute. And please don’t tell us that soya , almond or oat milk taste the same or, shudder, even better. We had vegan curd once and the consistency was like an alien jellyfish. The joys of warm crunchy toast slathered with butter with a sliver of aged cheddar cannot be replaced by any fake substitute.

Butter and clarified butter or ghee are quintessentially Indian. For all we know it was created when the Universe was being churned out of the cosmic ocean. Lord Vishnu in Krishna avatar would not have spent so much time in childhood stealing pots of butter if humans were not meant to consume it. Navaneeta Krishna is worshiped in many places and the word navaneeta means fresh butter. So basically, he is butter Krishna. Butter is the “maya” or illusion which even the gods seek.

“Bene” Masala Dosa would not exist without butter. Hot idlys with butter on them are quintessential Sunday morning breakfast. The Punjabi aloo parathas with cloud sized dollops of white solidified, creamy butter are the stuff of dreams. Or nightmares, if one is weight watching. Dal fry with the onion and tomatoes fried in butter and finished off with a tadka of ghee has not just the taste but the aroma which can satisfy hunger.

Croissants are made with butter but taste better with more butter spread on them. Heaven is possibly made of shortbread biscuits and the best cakes are always made with butter, not to mention butter cream icing. A pot of butter is like gold (whether yellow or white) waiting to gild our insides and put a glow on our faces. So please keep any vegan ideas away from us. We are resistant to conversion. We had ordered scrambled eggs on toast for one of our Monday morning meetings, and couldn’t understand what was wrong with the taste until we realised that the toast had not been buttered! The horror of it continues to traumatise us a few months down the line. Let us not forget that independent India has had ‘utterly, butterly Amul’ coded into it’s DNA since the the 1950s.

We are totally in sync with the philosophy of Douglas Jerrold, 19th century dramatist and playwright who once said – ” Honest bread is very well- it’s the butter that makes the temptation.”

Zen for the fantasy reader

Some books just do that to you, put you in a space where one can get lost and the real world no longer matters. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett may have the title of a children’s book but it is definitely not one. The fairies ( fae or ‘the folk’) in this book are difficult, obnoxious, dangerous and elusive. Hence the need for an encyclopaedia.

The novel is in the form of journal entries of the eponymous Emily Wilde, a professor in the department of Dryadology at Cambridge, waiting for the one most important objective in any academician’s life – Tenure. She is also working on an encyclopaedia to catalogue the various types of fae creatures across the world. The story starts with her arrival at in Hrafnsvik, a small village on the remote island of Ljosland, somewhere near arctic Norway, to research the local fae folk about whom not much is known. Emily who travels with her huge dog Shadow has her trip and research planned, notes made and pencil’s sharpened, is met with resistance from the local populace . The people of Hrafnsvik have always lived in terror of the local fae and are not only sceptical of Emily’s reasons for being there but also worried about how it would impact them.

Whilst Emily starts attempting to make contact with the local fae, who should land up in Hrafnsvik but her colleague and tenured professor Wendell Bambleby. This is a person who manages to irritate Emily no end. For her he is the competitor who always manages to get all the attention of the academic world in their field even though he doesn’t do much work. She is very suspicious of his scholarship levels and feels he has a tendency to cut corners and makes excessive use of students to do his research. Plus, to irritate her even more, he has oodles of charm which he has no qualms about throwing around. Emily herself is the exact opposite, she is meticulous about her research, precise about her findings and very direct in her approach in dealing with people. She manages to rub everyone the wrong way. Except for Wendell, who seems to really like her brusqueness, mystifyingly so. He goes out of his way to help her out even though, according to him, she is made of ‘stone and pencil shavings’.

Emily is brave, kind, scholarly and at times impetuous. Her complete lack of social skills are made up for by her earnestness and with Wendell’s help and charm she is able to make some headway in her research. Wendell reminded us so much of Howl from Howl’s moving Castle which is his main appeal as a character on the pages of a book but he would be terribly irritating to deal with in real life. The story is scary and comforting at the same time. In a stressful world it is nice to, every once in a while, lose oneself in story that has elements of the 1900s of this world where receiving letters and writing journals is still happening. But the novel is obviously set in an alternate history where dryadology is a respected subject of study for research and there are lands such as Ljosland and women can aspire to be tenured professors in Victorian times. A book we would recommend for total escapism.

It’s all chemical

We had read Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus some time back but didn’t review it immediately. It has now been adapted into an Apple tv series and been watched and disseminated by many reviewers. The book also, possibly as a result of the series, has recently received a whole lot of new reviews. So we thought to add ours to the list. We didn’t initially review the novel because even though it had a lot of heart, yet at the same time it was quite sad and we weren’t very sure about writing a spoiler free review. Now that the series is out, it possibly doesn’t matter as much.

Elizabeth Zott is a single unmarried mother, a research chemist in the 1950s and 60s United States, she is immersed in her subject, she is a brilliant scientist obsessed with abiogenesis (the origin of life from non living matter), an atheist, she is also a woman who lives life on her own terms. This, of course, is something which is neither palatable nor acceptable to society. Society wants her to be a married housewife, concerning herself only with food, clothes, makeup, men and looking sexy.

The gap between what the main character is and what is expected of her forms the crux of the story. Elizabeth is constantly judged and not given any sympathy for the misfortunes she has faced only because she does not toe the line. The harshness of the life faced by Elizabeth is softened by some of the other points of view in the novel like that of Elizabeth’s daughter Madeleine (Mad) who is a very precocious child, much advanced for her age and the dog Six Thirty ( because he adopted them at 6.30 in the evening). Also the presence of the neighbour, Harriet, provides some comfort for Elizabeth.

Because of the time period in which the novel is set, misogyny in research chemistry is rife and Elizabeth after much struggle loses her job. She spends her days making nutritionally balanced meals from a chemist’s point of view for her daughter and ends up getting a tv show to do the same thing. The aim is to inspire housewives to look at the the chemical compositions of the meals created by them. Her show becomes immensely popular, despite repeated backlash due to her strong views on various aspects of life. Her strict adherence to atheism not only brings brickbats for her in the story but we have noticed that a number of reviewers have disliked the book on this ground alone.

The novel has been referred to as being ‘funny’ but we felt it was quirky, largely in part due to the character of Elizabeth and the way in which she handles things. Mostly though it was heart breaking but Garmus does resolve things quite nicely by the end. After having given it some thought we realised that the truly sad part is that sixty years down the line, things may have changed but not by much. Perhaps that too influenced our initial disquiet in reviewing the novel.

Another year and another lot of books

The good thing about a new calendar year is the anticipation of new book releases in the year. Also January has the post Christmas crash of online book prices which makes us rub our hands in glee. We have already downloaded a few which we have been wanting to read for some time now. Godkiller by Hannah Kaner being one of them. We are however still waiting for Brandon Sanderson’s secret project books to be a little less exorbitant.

At the start of the year, even before we could post anything, we have been accused of many things. We were told that we are ‘uppity ‘ about the books we read. We don’t agree and, in any case, the word no longer exists. Ask anyone below the age of 45. We have also been accused of reviewing only fantasy books which, if one scrolls through our posts, it is evidently not true. Also, we were told we don’t write about non bookish things anymore. This may be partly true because we get more response for the book reviews.

This year has one more reading day than the last 3 years which adds to the fun. Which is more than we can say for the writing part. Every Monday , at least for this month seems to have other things happening. No harm in making resolutions though. We shall do our best to write and review blog posts, particularly in a year which began on a Monday and we feel rather proprietorial about it.

We are looking forward this year to reading book 4 of Helen Lowe’ s Wall of Night series, the last book in Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward series, hopefully the next book in the Threads of Power series by V. E. Schwab, the second book in the Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia series by Heather Fawcett, another book by T J Klune, the next book by Holly Black and so on. We are hoping that both Maggie Stiefvater and Laini Taylor will come out with new books this year as we haven’t heard from them in some time.

As always, our hopes and wishes revolve around books, so we wish all our readers a Happy Reading in 2024, and wish all our favourite authors lots of inspiration and the will to write.

Antaris!

V E Schwab decided to go back to her shades of magic universe with its multiple Londons, world travelling Antaris and all the old characters like Lila, Kell, Rhy, Alucard and even, possibly, Holland. Basically, all the characters from the earlier trilogy with a few new characters added on. Tess being the most important of the new entrants.

The Fragile Threads of Power novel is set seven years after the end of A Conjuring of Light, which was the last book in the Shades of Magic trilogy. Kell has lost his powers and travels the world of Red London with Lila and her crew on Alucard’s old ship. Alucard is now consort to King Rhy Maresh and helps bring up his daughter and also snoops around Red London trying to keep an eye on conspiracies against the monarchy.

In White London there is a new and young queen and Holland who died saving the Londons from the dark forces of Black London in the last book, is now considered a saint. Magic seems to be slowly returning to white London. Grey London, which is our world, however, continues to be…. well, grey and devoid of magic.

An artifact is stolen by an anti Rhy group called the Hand and brought to the shop of Tess, a young girl who can repair magical objects. Tess has a rare form of magic which allows her to see the threads of magic and reweave them. As a character Tess is the most likeable and interesting. We had the feeling that she is what Lila Bard should have been in the first trilogy. The reader can emotionally connect with her and feel sympathy for her plight as well as admiration for her skill and pluck. Somehow those feelings were never attached to the character of Lila Bard, either in the previous series or in this book.

The story moves through the various Londons in search of the stolen artifact and the conspirators who seek to overthrow Rhy and his family. Reading The Fragile Threads of Power felt like a comfortable return to a well known world. The writing is classic VE Schwab, the story telling is at a rapid pace even though not much actually happens. There are numerous unanswered questions but we suppose they will be gradually answered in the following books. We just hope the second book in this series is not as burdened by the second book complex as the Gathering of Shadows was.

We are however mystified as to how the publishers feel the Fragile Threads of Power can be read without reading the previous trilogy when all the characters from the earlier books with their individual histories are present in this one. Boggles the mind. Mysterious are the money making ways of publishers.

Tentacles that connect

Stories written from the point of view of animals/ sea life have a charm of their own. Remarkably Bright Creatures is a debut novel by Shelby Van Pelt and tells the story from three different points of view. The first is Tova who is 70, has lost her only son, a long time ago under mysterious circumstances, and her husband, recently of sickness. She has a group of friends, the ‘knit wits’ with whom she meets up regularly for knitting and emotional support. Since she feels the need to be useful, she also works as a night janitor in the local aquarium, cleaning up the detritus of the day. The second pov is Cameron, who is close to thirty, abandoned by his mother and raised by his aunt. He is incapable of holding a job or a relationship and is basically a lost boy. Cameron decides to set out in search of his father whom he has never known. The third point of view, and the most interesting, is Marcellus, the giant Pacific octopus at the aquarium where Tova works. To call him intelligent would be a condescension. He has spent his years at the aquarium becoming an astute and keen observer of human nature as a way of passing time during his captivity.

Marcellus, who has learnt to slide out of his tank, and being a bit of a wanderer, often escapes the tank and wanders about looking for scraps of interesting food left behind in the garbage, to supplement his rather monotonous diet. One night he gets entangled in wires in the office area and is running out of time when he is rescued by Tova and put back in the water. Thence begins an interesting friendship.

Tova herself is fiesty, grounded, practical and kind. She doesn’t let her grief overwhelm her but instead tries her best to live with it. Her empathy for Marcellus is deep and their slowly developing friendship one of the most warm hearted relationships in any novel. The aquarium is the focal point of the story as Cameron too gets a job there and in the process he finds something that he actually likes doing.

Ultimately the three stories converge which is probably the most expected part of the book. After a while, the reader is able to connect the dots and one knows how the three central characters are connected. Nonetheless, the novel arrives at the convergence while holding the reader’s interest.

There are a whole host of side characters like the Director of the aquarium( whose left over Chinese food is the main attraction for Marcellus), the owner of the local supermarket, owner of the surf shop and the gang of knit wits, who all add to the charm of the story.

The book is a lovely read, more so because of Marcellus and his insights as well as his memories of when he was free. We would definitely recommend it although it is a little slow in pace.