Couldn't Put It Down — Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton

When you're recovering from the flu and rediscover Aunt Dimity's Death jammed behind other books - that's a lovely moment. It's perfect recovery reading. 

Lori Shepherd thought Aunt Dimity was just a character in a bedtime story...

...Until the law firm of Willis & Willis summons her to a reading of the woman's will. Down-on-her-luck Lori learns she's about to inherit a siazable estate--if she can discover the secret hidden in a treasure trove of letters in Dimity's English country cottage. What begins as a fairy tale becomes a mystery--and a ghost story--as Aunt Dimity's indomitable spirit leads Lori on a quest to discover how true love can conquer all.

I'm not a lover of "cozy" mysteries as they are churned out today. However, this 1992 book is a charming mystery from before "cozy" was a category and it is far better than most. What sets it apart is the emphasis on what Lori discovers about herself in the investigation. This review hit the nail on the head:

This book, cleverly disguised as a cosy mystery, takes us into a world of adults looking at childhood memories through grown-up eyes. There are memories sweet and difficult, dark secrets, and finally, a love story or two. There's really not so much of a mystery here, but more a righting of past wrongs.

Certainly, when I was unable to continue reading and my thoughts whirled in flu-ish chaos, musing about this story kept me from focusing on how bad I felt.

Portrait of Emperor Napoleon I

Portrait of Emperor Napoleon I by François Gérard (1815)
via My Daily Art Display

Why Napoleon? Because suddenly he is in the background of my reading life in a weird way.

I have read half of War and Peace. The "war" part of that book is about Russia's part in the Napoleonic wars. At several points Napoleon is a character, actively influencing the young men whose stories we're following.

Now I'm taking a break from War and Peace. I've picked up The Count of Monte Cristo which I have been interested in rereading for a long time (sparked by my desire to rewatch the 2002 movie with Jim Caviezel). A key point of the book hinges on Napoleon being on Elba and the political struggles between royalists and Napoleonic supporters. So here we are again. Me and the Emperor.

Finally, I have begun listening to How to Eat an Elephant's series closely reading Les Miserables. Here we have a priest having a chance encounter with Napoleon which changes the trajectory of his life. We also have the Battle of Waterloo, which has an encounter that is key to characters later in the story. I've read the book before and won't be rereading it, but I am enjoying listening to the conversation about it. So, the Emperor is lurking in the background here and there again.

Very odd.

Books and Sharks

I do not believe that all books will or should migrate onto screens: as Douglas Adams once pointed out to me, more than 20 years before the Kindle showed up, a physical book is like a shark. Sharks are old: there were sharks in the ocean before the dinosaurs. And the reason there are still sharks around is that sharks are better at being sharks than anything else is. Physical books are tough, hard to destroy, bath-resistant, solar-operated, feel good in your hand: they are good at being books, and there will always be a place for them.

Neil Gaiman in a talk about libraries

It is true that some books do perfectly well on the Kindle. But there are others where a great part of the experience is in having a book in your hand, seeing where the text falls on the page, and (possibly above all) not running out of battery.

A miracle in Missouri? Body of Benedictine Sisters’ foundress thought to be incorrupt.

Truly amazing. This photo did it for me, especially after reading the conditions in which they discovered the coffin and that she hadn't been embalmed. Read the story at CNA.

A pilgrim venerates the incorrupt body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, OSB,
on May 20, 2023. Lancaster was recently exhumed
in Gower, Missouri. | Credit: Kelsey Wicks/CNA

Kantara (Deep Mystical Forest): A Legend

Shiva is a tribal vagabond who lives with his mother in a tiny forest village. He avoids participation in the traditional worship ceremonies due to an unforgettable childhood incident. He is happy loafing around with his friends and doing petty jobs for his landlord. When forest officer Murali enters the scene, it gives a fresh dimension to the man-vs-nature fight. Can Shiva save the forest from Murali? 

I especially liked the beginning which establishes the deep connection that the people have to their forest demi-god and land. And the end is simply astounding. It makes this film a cultural experience that is startling and also wonderful.

In between is a good story of a slacker, traumatized from an experience in his youth, who must deal with an officious forestry police official who is determined to take his people's land. This part of the story is more straight forward to the Western mind, although somewhat unfocused in a few spots. But it has it's own twists and turns. 

RATING — ADVANCED. As I mentioned the middle of the movie is straight forward. However, the beginning and end have cultural elements that you just have to accept and let flow over you.

Marriage is a colossal gamble, or rather, a very great adventure

You and I are faced with one of those situations (which fortunately are not very numerous in one lifetime) which cannot possibly be adequately judged beforehand. It strikes me as a colossal gamble, or rather, a very great adventure. And personally I am considerably exhilarated by the risks! ... The greatness of the adventure perhaps consists partly in the fact that as a Catholic I can marry only once! But, as with being born, perhaps once is quite sufficient! In the Church, you know, there is a great heightening of every moment of experience, since every moment is played against a supernatural backdrop. Nothing can be humdrum in this scheme.

Marshall McLuhan in a letter to his future wife, 

The Medium and the Light

I love the idea of being exhilarated by the risks of the adventure of marriage. We tend to cringe away from risk. But, as Marshall McLuhan says, think of how big this moment is, with the supernatural background. We've got to look past staying safe and and hedging our bets in the big things of life. Think of adventure!

Dinner Time

 

Dinner Time, taken by the talented Remo Savisaar

This is a photo extraordinaire! Click on the link to see it larger.

Pray for those being killed in Nigeria

Seemingly coordinated attacks began late Monday night on nine northern Nigerian communities. So far, at least 100 people have been killed, and the violence is ongoing.

The killings come amid years of violence in northern and central Nigeria, perpetrated by Muslim Fulani herding communities and Islamist terrorist groups, and the victims are mostly Christian farming villages.

... even while the violence went on for hours, police were not immediately on the scene – a common criticism of law enforcement forces in the region, who are often accused of looking the other way during attacks on Christian villages.

The Pillar has the story here.

Pray for the victims. Pray for the bereft families. Pray for the perpetrators to have a change of heart.

In Honor of Our 39th Wedding Anniversary

As Tom says, it is the couple that can laugh at this joke who will be able to survive the reality of it! We're not there yet, but we are still laughing together, 39 years into our journey through life together.

An old couple were having problems remembering things, so they decided to go to their doctor to get checked out to make sure nothing was wrong with them. After checking the couple out, the doctor tells them that they were physically okay but might want to start writing things down and making notes to help them remember things. The couple thanked the doctor and left.

Later that night while watching TV, the old man gets up from his chair and his wife asks, "Where are you going?" He replies, "To the kitchen." She asks him for a bowl of ice cream and he replies, "Sure."

She then asks him "Don't you think you should write it down so you can remember it?" He says, "No, I can remember that."

"Well," she then says, "I also would like some strawberries on top. You had better write that down cause I know you'll forget that." He says, "I can remember that, you want a bowl of ice cream with strawberries."

"Well," she replies, "I also would like whipped cream on top. I know you will forget that so you better write it down." With irritation in his voice, he says, "I don't need to write that down, I can remember that."

He fumes off into the kitchen. When he returns twenty minutes later he hands her a plate of bacon and eggs. She stares at the plate for a moment and says, "You forgot my toast."

The children and Aunt Enid

I am sorry that the first thing you should hear about the children should be that they did not care about their Aunt Enid, but this was unfortunately the case. And if you think this was not nice of them I can only remind you that you do not know their Aunt Enid.

E. Nesbit, Wet Magic

E. Nesbit is so funny and this sense of humor is strewn through all her children's stories.

Nibbler

Nibbler
taken by Valerie, ucumari photography
Some rights reserved

Lion Man

Lion man, from Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany,
40,000 BC-30,000 BC

A Movie You Might Have Missed #81 — The Lunchbox

It's been 12 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

Can you fall in love with someone you have never met?

A mistaken delivery in Mumbai’s famously efficient lunchbox delivery system (Mumbai’s Dabbawallahs) connects a young housewife to a stranger in the dusk of his life. They build a connection through notes in the lunchbox. Gradually, this connection promises to move past the confines of the lunchbox.

A nice concept that developed from the filmmaker thinking about a documentary about the Mumbai lunchbox delivery system.

This is a good film but it does at a deliberate pace. The story rests on the stars to powerful performances in roles that demand understatement. They deliver in spades. I also really loved the aunty upstairs who we never see but only hear coaching the young wife in her cooking and fills in with emergency spices and ingredients. There are a lot of touches of humor throughout that make this a very enjoyable movie.

This filmmaker is known for his ambiguous endings and I'm annoyed even after two viewings over his lack of giving us a solid happy ending. Here is the place where we don't want imagination, we want to see it play out for ourselves. That is a small part of this lovely movie.

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

The Three Bears

Arthur Rackham, The Story of the Three Bears, 1837
via Wikipedia

The Little Good Mouse

Himmapaan, Illustration for 'The Little Good Mouse' from The Red Fairy Book,
edited by Andrew Lang, published by The Folio Society, 2008.

I love fairy tale illustrations, especially when they're as charming as Himmapaan's.

Couldn't Put It Down — War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

I picked this book up recently to reread and was riveted all over again. I remembered the broad strokes but not so many that I wasn't surprised by some big plot twists, especially toward the end. I read it at every spare moment, carried it all over the house and just loved it all over again.

So I'm reposting this review from 2008 in the hopes that you'll pick it up and have just as good a time.

Eddi reminded herself that this was not the only bass player in Minneapolis. The ads hadn't even appeared yet. "Ahhhh ... listen," she said at last. "I'm not sure you ... that this is a good idea."

And he raised his eyes from his bass just enough to look at her. His eyes were more fluent than his mouth; they blazed contempt and hostility, they pleaded for her forbearance, her indulgence.

She winced and picked up her own guitar. "Ever heard Bram Tchaikovsky's version of 'I'm a Believer'?" He shook his head, but continued to watch her, his fingers poised over his stings.

"Start it," he mumbled finally, and Eddi shrugged.

The song did kick off with only guitar. Then Carla dropped in after a few measures with a series of snare drum punches, and Dan's synthesizer yowled across it all.

Then, in precisely the right place, the bass came in. It began as if the Rocky Mountains had begun to walk. It sounded like the voice of the magma under the earth's crust, and it picked up the whole song and rolled it forward like water exploding out of a breaking dam. They were suddenly tight, all four of them, as if they were a single animal and that monster heartbeat was their own. Eddi listened wonderingly as they played the complicated stop beats in the chorus with respectable precision. She was dimly aware that she was playing some of the best guitar of her life.

When they were done, Eddi looked around and saw her own amazement on Carla's and Dan's faces. "Well," she said, and, unable to think of anything to add, said it again.

No one declared the newcomer to be the band's bass player. It would have been beside the point. Eddi only wanted to see if they could make other songs sound like that. She had no idea if he could sing; given his willingness to talk, it seemed unlikely. But for bass like that, she could sacrifice a harmony voice.

I have never read any book before that so well made me understand the synergy and energy of a band until I read this book. I would think that probably holds for any band playing any sort of music, on varying levels.

If that were all that there were to War for the Oaks it would be interesting but not worth recommending. Not since Neverwhere by Neill Gaiman have I read such wonderful urban fantasy. The book begins with Eddi who is having a very bad night. She has broken up with her boyfriend, which also means their band is now kaput, and then she finds herself in the dark city streets fleeing a truly terrifying vicious dog ... who suddenly changes into a man. 

Thus begins Eddi's coercion into being the mortal being needed by the Seelie Court of Faerie for their upcoming war with the Unseelie Court. Ostensibly the Seelie Court are the good guys but as these beings all are operating under completely foreign rules it is often difficult to tell the difference. Eddie is left with the dog/man, otherwise known as a phouka, as a bodyguard as she goes about her regular life of forming a band while waiting for the war to begin.

This is all a pale description of a rich story that pulls the reader into the world of Emma Bull's making. We learn about champions, love, truth, honor ... and , of course, musicians.

Highly recommended.

SPOILER
Reader's note for parents of YA readers:
Eddi does have an affair though details are not described. She later has another with an encounter that is a bit more descriptive but not graphic. The first is excused due to undue "faerie" influence and she refuses to resume it based on moral grounds. The second other is from true love. Both are handled well and nothing that makes an adult reader blink twice as part of this genre. This is the sort of book I would have read quite eagerly as a high school student.

It is worth saying about America ...

It is worth saying [about America] once again that no nation has ever come into the possession of such powers for good or ill, for freedom or tyranny, for friendship or enmity among the peoples of the world, and that no nation in history has used these powers, by and large, with greater vision, restraint, responsibility and courage.

London Times, 1954

When all you hear is criticism of your country from both without and within, covering every time period in which your country existed - it is really nice to see praise like this, even if it is from way back in 1954.

The Princess and the Unicorn

Armand Point (1861-1932), The Princess and the Unicorn

TV You Might Have Missed 4 — Tale of the Nine Tailed

The nine-tailed fox is a magical creature that appears in the folktales of East Asia and legends of Korea. It can transform into a beautiful woman, often to seduce men in order to eat their liver. Korean television plays fast and loose with this idea, as television often does, to create an urban fantasy where the titular nine-tailed fox is an enigmatic man, Lee Yeong. 

He works on earth for the the gods' Department of Immigration of Life After Death — hunting down mythical beings who kill humans. A lovely television producer, Nam Ji-Ah, whose show investigates the supernatural, suspects that he is involved in a murder case. She investigates him and he investigates her. Ji-Ah's looking for her long lost parents and Yeong's on the lookout for the reincarnation of his lost love. Naturally they will work together. Just as naturally, nothing is as it appears on the surface.

The plot just gets deeper, more intertwined, and definitely more fun from there. With 16 episodes of over an hour long, there is plenty of time for the obligatory romance of the K-dramas along with the many adventures into the supernatural. The writers did an extraordinary job of skillfully leading us to expect plot developments and then yanking the rug out from under us with twists and turns for every episode.  We also really enjoyed seeing the supernatural creatures from Korean culture which were often really different from anything American.

Tale of the Nine Tailed is a sixteen episode roller coaster ride of that never fails to leave you wondering how they'll get out of each predicament, while the romance keeps things feeling cozy in the background.

The Espousal of the Rat's Daughter

The Espousal of the Rat's Daughter
Illustrated by Warwick Goble

Isn't this a wonderful illustration? You can read the story here.