The Girdle of Melian

ini book reviews! But first, if you missed Misha Gerrick's blog tour stop here last week, please drop by! She's got some fascinating facts about spectacles and tea in history. Zan Marie 's great at these mini book reviews. I find them a relief when I'd like to showcase a book (or have volunteered to do so) but for various reasons can't go on at length. I've got four reviews today! Tolkien at Exeter College by John Garth Published as a monograph with the help of Exeter College, this new text on Tolkien's undergraduate studies includes previously unseen pictures by and of Tolkien. Vividly told, and despite its short length gives enough detail to ground the reader in the language and customs of the time. A great introduction for those looking to read biographies other than Carpenter's and move on from this monograph to Garth's longer work about Tolkien in World War I. There are some story possibilities surrounding one acquaintance of...

isha's guest posting today! Let me just slip in a quick ROW80 and CampNaNoWriMo update: The words are flowing! (Of course, I'm woefully behind on blog visits...) I'm only 9,000 words away from meeting my CampNaNo goal, and that's not counting the nearly 1,000 words on a completely separate side project: A murder mystery jointly written with some of my family. We've been working on it on and off for a while, passing paragraphs back and forth. None of us knows where the story's headed! It's titled The Horror of Horhor , and takes place in 19th Century Constantinople. What sorts of things would you hope to see in a mystery set in that time frame? Misha's blog tour is for the War of Six Crowns series. The first two books are out now: The Vanished Knight The entity living inside Callan's soul orphaned her at age eleven. By the time she's sixteen, it's ensured her being shunted from one foster family to another. Her thirteent...

rogress...not so much. I've got bloggers to catch up with, three book reviews to write, a short story to edit, and more words of the new story to draft to meet my minimum goal for CampNaNoWriMo. But we've been playing tourist again... A few random shots: Alpine Horn concert! Stained glass at the Ariana Museum View from a window at Ariana Swiss images: William Tell, and the Geneva coat of arms Tethys! Swiss alpine flora A pub sign The layout of Geneva in the 19th century View from the Maison Tavel, oldest house in Geneva A crib! Kakelorum, a child's toy from the 19th century More coats of arms The kakelorum is intriguing. It seems to be specific to the Swiss and Austrian alpine regions. What other ancient toys have you come across in museums or in research? In a related note, can you help identify this item in Bardstown, Kentucky ?

ooks! I've got two book reviews coming up, for Brenda Novak's The Secret Sister and Daniel Robinson's Death of a Century: A Novel of the Lost Generation . Another book I've ordered and am eagerly awaiting is cartoonist and illustrator Tom Gauld 's latest, a myriorama, inspired by the works of Laurence Sterne . "Myriorama, or 'Many Thousand Views' consist of numerous cards depicting fragments or segments of landscapes that can be arranged in a multitude of different combinations. This 'entertainment' for young ladies and gentlemen originated in France. The first English version in 1824 was a set of 16 cards which depicted Gothic ruins, castles, cottages, a lighthouse, a man fishing and a gypsy encampment. These landmarks had a backdrop of mountains with islands and a lake to add extra texture and depth. Whenever the cards were taken out and arranged upon a table, they produced a landscape of harmony which was variable, compatible and...

appy Canada Day! The above image is from the Activity Village colouring pages site. Round Three of A Round of Words in 80 Days begins on Monday. And I just realised that CampNaNo officially opens today! Luckily, I'd kept my goal for CampNaNo vague: I'd like to explore the story of Brother Arcturus, a secondary character in Out of the Water . My other goals for ROW80 are to keep up with blogging and commenting, transcribing the Alfred Russel Wallace letters, editing my new short story "One to Another", and beta and review reading. Today is also Insecure Writer's Support Group Day! In line with the fact that I haven't written any words for CampNaNo yet and still use phrases like "keep up" with my goals, my theme for today's IWSG day post is: Let go of guilt! Instead of feeling guilty for items we think we've missed or tasks we haven't accomplished (yet!), why not celebrate all that has gotten done? Those Wallace tra...

tick. I tend to save many many things -- names of intriguing books, links to interesting videos or podcasts, poems, images, words, etc. -- and then sometimes return to them, as my interests in certain fields wax and wane, and then other times I forget why I saved a particular item. For example, the poem If I Could Tell You by W. H. Auden. It's been floating in an email of To Do items, but I can't remember what the connections are. Perhaps it's linked to the fact that I'd like to read at least one poem per day, but this doesn't always happen. Rather, I think part of it was quoted in a novel I read last year or the year before (possibly Josephine Tey or Agatha Christie). Anyhow, here is a quote: If I Could Tell You ... If we should weep when clowns put on their show, If we should stumble when musicians play, Time will say nothing but I told you so. ... The winds must come from somewhere when they blow, There must be reason why the leaves decay; ...

ore mini reviews! I've been catching up on some beta reading, but I did finish my short story! Now I just need to edit it... In the meantime, I've recently read two intriguing books about relationships: Occasional Soulmates by Kevin Brennan These days, since I have to read on a screen in the evenings (baby in the room!), I tend to judge books by whether they hold my interest despite the annoyance of holding up my iPad and reading on a screen (I'm sure a dedicated eReader would be easier, but I don't need another device in my life and I still don't like the pause that comes when swiping from one page to the next. I especially don't appreciate the random things that happen, for example, the Kindle app recently updated and the fact that I've read most of the books in my Kindle library was erased; they all look new and unread now). Occasional Soulmates definitely held my interest. The voice and the locations are very specific and well-drawn. I ...