Happy Samhain, All Hallow's Eve and R.I.P. Challenge wrap-up

Happy Celtic New Year! :-)

Samhain is a Celtic festival that marks the end of summer and the beginning of the long cold season. It's all about the final harvest, preparing for winter and also about the dead. It was thought that the line between the worlds was especially blurry at Samhain and that magical things could happen.

I like thinking of Samhain as the start of a New Year and in the past we have marked this holiday in various ways. My favorite I think was a ritual of letting go of our baggage so that we could more forward. This involved writing what we wanted to get rid of on pieces of paper and throwing them into our fireplace. A bonfire would have been better but hey.

Halloween is the modern, secularised version of this old festival and I love the modern traditions too. Pumpkins and candy and scary things. And lovely little children going from door to door. What's not to love?

I already had some trick-or-treaters knock on my door on Saturday. I'm not sure they counted as lovely littel children, they were boys of about 12 or 13, they were not dressed up and they carried plastic chopping bags. They were going on holiday apparently and had to collect their candy a few days early. Lucky for them, I had just bought mini chocolate bars that morning. I forgot to decorate the house with all the spooky stuff I bought though. Ah well, you can't do it all, eh?

I can't say that I've been in the mood for much spooky reading this year. I think it has something to do with the fact that it's been around 20 degrees here lately, which really doesn't correspond to the atmosphere in which I wish to read my spooky books, i.e. in cold and rain and wind. While cozy inside obviously.





I did read some things that qualified for the R.I.P. VI challenge that Carl hosts each year:

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

I'm not doing so well with reviews, but they'll come soon. In a nutshell: I loved The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley because I love, love, love Flavia de Luce; I'm enjoying the Sookie Stackhouse series; I didn't finish either Soulless or A Discovery of Witches, which is a surprise to me.

I love the R.I.P.  challenge but I didn't really give it much attention this year and now I regret it. I should have taken the time to curl up on the couch with a Wilkie Collins or some ghost stories. I'll have to remember that for next year.

Anyway, Happy Halloween everyone!

One Day by David Nicholls

I don't know what to do about this review now. I read most of One Day in a state of love and admiration and the feeling that finally, at last, there is a book that understands my generation. I always looked for such a book but could never find one where the atmosphere was spot on. I found what I was looking for in One Day, not because of the story itself but because of the way the characters thought and acted and felt. I could see myself in this story like I've never been able to see myself in any other piece of writing.

First of all, they were lost for a really long time and I think that's one of the things that there is so much of. Because we don't have the obligations - legal or societal - to settle down at 20 we are allowed this period of discovering ourselves, of wandering, of not knowing where we're heading. It's easy to wake up around 30 years old and realize that this isn't where you want to be at all.

Then there's the way they're always just playing at stuff. Dexter is obviously always playing, at being cool and famous and young. But Emma is too, never quite belonging, never quite believing that she's up to the task.

This passage really rang true for me: Emma is on her way to an interview in a publishing house and she's accompanied by an aquiantance from college who got her this interview:

"They ride the next twenty storeys in silence. Beside her Stephanie Shaw stands smart, petite in a crisp white shirt - no, not a shirt, a blouse - tight black pencil skirt, a neat little bob, years away from the sullen Goth who sat next to her in tutorials all that time ago, and Emma is surprised to find herself intimidated by her old acquaintance; her professional demeanour, her no-nonsense manner. Stephanie Shaw has probably sacked people. She probably says things like 'photocopy this for me!' If Emma did the same at school they'd laugh in her face. In the lift, hands clasped in front of her, Emma has a sudden urge to giggle. It's like they're playing at a game called 'Offices'." (pp 237-238)

Oh, how many times I've felt this way! All those board meetings with a bunch of men in suits and now all these other meetings with public servants, so more men in suits. And women too actually, and all of them, irrespective of gender, seem to take themselves way too seriously. All those years ago, when I was young and ambitious, I would be asked to do things like meet with the company president and I'd think, 'but it's only me, why would you want to listen to me'. But I looked like I should know.

I guess the book made me think about how my outlook changed over the years. When I was younger; I would dress the corporate part but didn't believe that I belonged in that world, that I knew anything. I felt like I was faking it. Now, I dress and I act like me - no more suits, no more corporate behaviour - I'm the same person at work and at home and so much happier. Not everyone likes this, but I feel that I'm true to myself wherever I am and that's important to me.

I loved the way One Day was structured, I loved the writing, I loved the characters. I loved it all the way up until the ending and then I stopped. I hated the ending. (***SPOILER ALERT - HIGHLIGHT THE FOLLOWING LINES TO READ MY THOUGHTS ON THE ENDING***) I don't see why things had to be that way, I don't see how it made the story any better. In fact, I think it would have been better if Emma and Dex either ended up with each other period or if they ended up with other people and never got to find out if they would have worked or not. To me, that would have been more realistic and would have left the story as about two regular lives. I think the dying was too much. (***END OF SPOILER***)

So in the end, it's not one of my favorite books but I certainly loved reading it. Oh, and I think it'll make a great movie, can't wait to see it!

What did you think? If you haven't read One Day yet, did the ending ever totally ruin a book for you?

My week of reading

I actually had a week of reading as I was off sick. In fact, I'm still off sick until Thursday and hope to get even more reading in. :-)

Being sick is no fun of course and it was even worse than usual because Shane had the stomach flu at the beginning of the week and Joe had the stomach flu at the end of the week. I'm sticking to the good old regular flu so far, thankfully.

What did I do? I watched a lot of crap TV, which is what you're supposed to do in these situations, right?

And I read. Reviews will come later on, but I'll already say that I admit defeat when it comes to A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. I kept thinking of other things I needed to do while I was reading it and eventually I just switched books. I read Holes by Louis Sachar and One Day by David Nicholls instead. A much nicer experience.

Now I'm on Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I've been dying to read it since I saw the musical in London at the beginning of October. Have you read it? What did you think?