BOOK NOOK; The Christmas Sisters by Sarah Morgan

 "It was a day for wearing thick socks and soft sweaters, for gathering around the Christmas tree and sipping hot drinks in front of a flickering fire."

Nothing beats curling up with a Christmassy romance at this time of year and The Christmas Sisters has no less than four romances going on, so you get a lot for your money.  It tells the story of the McBride sisters who were orphaned in a mountaineering accident over twenty years earlier.  The accident has left it's mark on all of them, but each has adapted and copes in a different way.

Hannah is the strong capable career woman, working in New York City.   Beth is the middle sister and the first one to marry and give up her career to be a full time mother, also in New York.  Then the youngest is Posy, an adventuress who is feeling trapped as she helps to run the family business in the Scottish Highlands.  In a way, these sisters reminded me of the three Halliwell sisters from the original Charmed TV show. (I haven't even watched the tragedy that is the reboot and I don't intend to!) They have similar characteristics to Prue, Piper and Pheobe. 

The three women have grown apart as life has taken them in different directions, but once a year at Christmas time they all gather together at the Highland lodge where they grew up.  It's usually a time fraught with tensions.  Jealousy is a running theme throughout the novel, as each sister assumes her siblings have a better and easier life, but over the course of the holidays they come to see that they have all been left traumatized by the accident and that it is time to start dealing with that trauma.

On the surface trauma is not a particularly festive theme, but as anyone who has ever experienced trauma will tell you, the pressure to be perfect is never more apparent than at Christmas, so if you are dealing with additional trauma too, it can make for a melting pot of emotional outbursts.  This novel deals with the long term effects of childhood trauma in a very sensitive way, using humour as a buffer so that the book doesn't become too heavy.

It is a festive mash-up of secrets, surprises, romance and snowy adventures.  The sisters must learn to overcome their past and move forward into a new understanding of themselves and each other.The Christmas Sisters is a lovely easy read to pick up and put down again as you work your way through your own festive to-do list and it is an entertaining chick-lit novel.  And as we can't get to enjoy Scotland in the snow for a festive break this year due to the Covid 19 pandemic, reading this book is the next best thing to a winter holiday in the Highlands. Happy reading!

Marie x

MUSICAL DOLL; Evermore

 I swear you were there...

MUSICAL DOLL; One More Sleep - Acoustic

Love this version...xxx

BOOK NOOK; Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige

"It is possible with enough time and imagination to break your own heart"

Stealing Snow is a retelling of the classic fairytale The Snow Queen.  It begins in an asylum in New York City where troubled teenagers are held for their own safety because they each hold a belief that they are somehow magical.  One girl believes that she can fly, a boy has an obsession with fire, while our main protagonist was confined because she walked through a mirror trying to get into Wonderland.  Her name is Snow and this is the tale of her dysfunctional family.

When Snow's best friend is kidnapped she escapes through a wall to rescue him and finds herself in one of the magical worlds her therapist has been telling her don't exist.  As you would expect from a Snow Queen retelling, this is a world of ice, snow and northern lights, but less predictably it is also a world of pink penguins and flying dresses; a world where the snow itself is magic, a commodity to be used by the heroes and abused by the power hungry. In this book even the golems and familiars are made of snow.

As Snow chases after her friend on a rescue mission, she meets many familiar characters such as Gerda and Kia, and the Little Robber Girl, but they are none of them what they seem and Snow has to try and identify who she can trust in this world that makes no sense to her and yet which feels like a part of her soul.  Here she meets a Snow King, a Fire Queen, a River Witch and a flirty lad name Jagger who promises to be her guide.  

Snow wrestles with her new feelings for Jagger which she thinks are a betrayal of her friend Bale and a distraction from her mission.  It is a lesson in seizing the romance that is before you, rather than holding onto dreams of a lost  love.  

As she learns more about her past she discovers that she has powers of her own that she must learn to control in preparation for the final snowy battle that will determine who the next monarch is to be.

Stealing Snow is a lovely little book that is full of wintry magic and while it can be a bit predictable at times, it is still a festive fireside read for December. 

Enjoy!

ONCE UPON A DREAM; Cosy Winter Reading Days

Today is a dull grey day and the sun is hiding away behind a thick duvet of cloud as the rain falls in drizzles.   Yesterday I put up my Christmas tree and decorated my house for the festive season so while it's dull outside, indoors is all aglow with fairy-lights gleaming and sparkling in every room.  It looks so pretty!  I've spritzed Festive Spice room spray from M&S all around the house and I have the matching oil simmering in the oil burners, so my home smells as festive and Christmassy as it looks.  I had all their Christmas fragrances delivered last month in sprays, oils and tealights and while I enjoy the Winter's Eve and Frankincense & Myrrh scents, their Festive Spice one is my favourite.  I use it every year.

One of the things I most enjoy about the dark season is that it gives permission for slow living and cosy days.  At this time of the year it is perfectly acceptable not to stir from your living room, unless it's to put the kettle on.  It's acceptable to enjoy being at home as much as possible, to draw the curtains and close out the night, light candles at noon and have the fairy-lights on all day.  This year especially we have an additional excuse for all this cosiness because we are all under restrictions due to the Covid virus pandemic.  Now we are forced to keep winter as it should be kept - by being as warm and toasty as can be and staying in with a  nice film or a great book.

Universities always factor 'reading days' into their courses.  This is time when students can catch up on any reading they might have missed, or do their extended reading around a particular topic.  It's good to get into the practice of setting aside a specific day for your reading.  It's isn't about being lazy, but it's essential to increase your knowledge and to give your brain fuel to burn.  A reading day is also an enjoyable form of self care, but many people think that they are too busy to spend a day reading books.  I would say that they are too busy not to! 

I have a few reading days on my university timetable coming up next month and I am looking forward to them.  In addition I have a pile of new books that I need to read and review for my blog, so that is what I plan to get to started on today.  The books I've complied are all snowy, wintry books that evoke the spirit of winter, so look out for Book Nooks on them coming over the next two or three months.  At this time of year, when the Christmas lights are twinkling and the fire is aglow, there is nothing better than curling up under a faux fur throw with a hot chocolate and reading a book of festive cheer, whether that's an old childhood favourite such as The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, a classic fairytale like The Snow Queen or a new festive romance you picked up at the supermarket.

Books are a part of everyday life, but never more so than in the winter months, when the imagination naturally leans towards tales of myth and magic and romance.  I like to make my reading days as atmospheric as possible, playing an ambient DVD and a CD softly in the background at the same time.  Today I have The Sleigh Ride on the TV, which is a long journey through the snows of Norway on a reindeer pulled sleigh and I'm playing The Box of Delights soundtrack.  The two together, along with all the Christmas lights, make up an enchanting festive reading grotto.  

I do encourage you to make time for your own reading days, because if you don't plan them and schedule them in you might not find the time.  It's a lovely way to spend a day, during a time when we can't actually go anywhere anyway, and if you create a pretty festive atmosphere you'll enjoy it even more.  So I'm off to get started on this pile of wintry novels I want to review for my blog and I'll be spending the next week or so curled up by the Christmas tree and lost in a book. 

Enjoy your cosy reading days because this is what keeping winter is all about.  

BB Marie x

ONCE UPON A DREAM; Lock-down Birthday

 Do you believe in magic?

So what does a birthday in lock-down look like?  Well, it's been very nice so far, despite all the things I had planned for today (and December) already being cancelled due to the pandemic - it's been rather lovely actually.   It began with a festive shopping trip - because there's not really anything else we're allowed to do.  The Christmas Markets have been cancelled, but some shops are open, including The Range, who have ingeniously shoved half a dozen chest freezers into a corner of the shop to sell food so that they can legitimately stay open!  I love that sense of adaptation and survival - what a genius idea!  Of course, the shop was busy, with queues waiting to go in - and no-one was actually buying the food from the freezers, everyone was heading straights for the 'non-essentials' - but they are managing to stay in business and maintain jobs which is the main thing.

I had my very first Starbucks Eggnog Latte and it was delicious; sweet and creamy, with a hint of festive spice.  Then we went to buy new trimmings for our Christmas trees.  I picked up a pretty mouse-queen ballerina, a sparkly ice skate, unicorns and an ice-skating squirrel.  I'm looking forward to putting the tree up soon.

I recieved some pretty gifts too, including Kylie's new album Disco, which is great.  Magic is my favourite song so far, and I also like Mary Mary.  I got the limited edition transparent vinyl in an aquamarine colour.  It's lovely and goes nicely with the jade vinyl double album of Kylie's I got last year.  I've been playing Disco this afternoon, as I found places for my new presents.

My Mum also bought me a stunning fountain pen.  The only thing on my list this year was a new fountain pen and she has found the prettiest one I've ever seen.  It's a pastel pink pen with gold nib and pocket clip from Ted Baker.  It's so special and I love it.  Plus she got me a musical carousel ornament, as the carousel is my favourite ride and I haven't been able to go on one at all this year, because of the corona virus.

Of course I got lots of sweets, chocolates, cards, scented candles and bath products to pamper with, plus a baby soft sleep mask to wear in bed.   I'm currently burning Snowflake Cookie, which is my all time favorite festive candle and my house smells amazing.  In addition I got the Too Faced festive Enchanted Wonderland eye palette set.  This is dreamy, with gorgeous woodland animals on the front of each book-style palette, all wearing sparkling crowns and tiaras.  There is a Swan Queen, a Doe Deer and a Raccoon.

I treated myself to a few bits too, namely a pair of beautiful stud earrings from Pandora, fashioned to look like Cinderella's pumpkin coach.  They haven't arrived yet, but they should be here soon.  I might wear them for my next graduation ceremony.  I also bought myself a couple of box-sets - Outlander 5, which has become an annual birthday tradition - and the ITV series Cheat, a work of dark academia/thriller, set in Cambridge University, so I think I'm going to curl up with a slice of my Belgian chocolate birthday cake and watch that this evening.  So all in all, despite the very best efforts of Covid 19 to ruin everything for everyone this year, I have had a very enjoyable birthday and I feel spoilt rotten!  But you're allowed to be spoilt on your birthday 😊

 

BOOK NOOK; The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane

 

I adore synchronicity and I always feel like magic is afoot when serendipity turns up in my life.  A few weeks ago, before lock-down, I came across The Lost Spells and after flicking through and reading some of the poetry I knew I had to get it.  It's a beautiful book of nature based poetry and stunning water colour illustrations.  The words have great musicality and the artwork is very dynamic and full of  movement.   It's just the kind of poetry book that has a universal appeal, because its not too heavy and the illustrations add another dimension to the word pictures that the poems create. 

I enjoyed reading the book and loved it's almost pagan elements of connecting with the natural world around us.  My favourite poems are Red Fox who is the main character overall and the book begins and ends with him;  Grey Seal with it's enchanting selkie connotations; and Silver Birch which is wintry and beautiful. I can see why The Lost Spells has been such a hit with teachers, parents and children alike. It is a gentle, fun way to introduce youngsters to the magic of poetry and the vanishing landscapes around us.  This would be a great book to read to young children at bedtime, or when out on a field trip as they learn how to recognize the wildlife they come into contact with.  

I read the book and then put it on the shelf with my poetry collection, and didn't think too much more about it.  So imagine my surprise when one of my tutors told me that the author of The Lost Spells, Robert Macfarlane, was one of our Visiting Professors from Cambridge and that he was giving our next class!   I just love it when that kind of thing happens - the magic in the everyday coincidence - because there are no coincidences really.

That class was held tonight and it was great.  I learnt so much about Macfarlane and his work, not only as a poet, but also as an environmental activist too,  as well as being a Fellow at Cambridge University.  He even played a significant part in saving the trees of Sheffield with his poem Heartwood, which is featured in the book and was written especially for the Sheffield campaign to stop the felling of old, but healthy, trees across the city.   Heartwood gave our trees a much needed, and well respected voice, because when the Fellows from the top Universities in the country speak - people tend to listen.  This I feel, is a remnant of the deference given to the old cultured class, and a natural result of how Fellows have been taught to hold an audience and respectfully command a room.   

His class tonight raised many questions about the legacy we are leaving environmentally and he said that we are unfortunately becoming 'bad ancestors' for future historians, who will uncover our blatant misuse of the landscape in their excavations.  I can image the remnants of plastic that some future Neil Oliver type will be digging up in disgust a few hundred years from now!  It's embarrassing to think about. 

Macfarlane's work gets this message across in a powerful, almost subliminal way, for how can we save that which we cannot name?  His poetry therefore, reaches out to children, teaching them to look around them at the birds and bees, to identify and name them - and so to love them and help save them.  Sadly, it is the younger generations who will be left to right our wrongs in nature.

The Lost Spells appealed to me because it explores the magic of words. Whether it's a poem or an incantation, they have much in common and all words have power.   I liked the sense of creating magic by speaking the poems aloud - for what is that if not an incantation, a spell?  As I spent over twenty years writing spells poems in one way or another, be it for books, music or magazines, I was drawn to the spell-speaker power of this book and found it to be quite enchanting.   

As you read, you will find the melody in the words, the musicality of the stanzas.  Again, it is a good example of the fine line between poetry, music and lyrics.  But then the author told us tonight that his main inspirations are Beowulf and Gawain and the Green Knight, so it's not surprising his work has a touch of bardic music about it.  

He also gave us several readings of his work, which was very enjoyable and entertaining.  I especially liked his rendition of Jackdaw, in his softly spoken Received Pronunciation.  He has the kind of voice that is perfect for readings and bedtime stories.  Even in normal conversation , he speaks poetically and builds landscapes with his words, comparing a forest of birch trees to a barcode as he was 'driving through grey half-light'.  Just beautiful!

I always enjoy being taught by our Visiting Professors from Oxford and Cambridge as they do bring the magic of those Universities with them and their classes are always full.  This is what people mean when the say that University will open doors for you.  I have met so many people - authors, agents, Fellows and Professors -  that I would never have had the opportunity to meet had I not been a Masters student and it is one of the most valuable things I've experienced so far in over seven years of studying.  When such authors and prestigious Professors and Fellows venture north, they are sprinkling their magic on all of us in class - you just can't get that anywhere else.  I hope Robert Macfarlane comes to teach us again at some point as his class tonight was brilliant.   And if you love magic and poetry and art, then you will love The Lost Spells too.  

Enjoy!

BB Marie x