To Read & To Write

"He knew what evil lay upon this land. It was in the sun-symbols on the nurse's apron, in that stupid woman's terror, in the fey, feral eyes of Pyotr's elder daughter. The place was infested with demons: the chyerti of the old religion. These foolish, wild people worshipped God by day and the old gods in secret; they tried to walk both paths at once and made themselves base in the sight of the Father. No wonder evil had to come to work its mischief." (p. 113) This passage, found one third a way into Katherine Arden's  The Bear and the Nightingale  (2017), tells of Konstantin, a monk from Moscow, visiting a small village on the outskirts of the kingdom. Konstantin believes he has a mission, a "duty", to save the village people from pagan beliefs and folkloric tradition, but, as the story goes, the collision of God and duty alongside enchantment and magic just make the sum of all parts a more potent whole. Though this story is set in Russia at...

The Loss of All Lost Things: Stories is a collection of fifteen short stories by Amina Gautier published in 2016. Each of the stories were featured in other publications, separately, before being collected and placed together within this evocative and meditative book. All of the stories, as you may have guessed, reflect on initial reactions, emotional and/or physical, that affect those who must come to terms, whether or not they'd like to, with loss. The losses in this book range from the disappearance of a child, the separation between partners, the dissolution of trust, the emigration of a family from a community, the broken bridge between friends, death itself... and so much more. Amina Gautier writes from an African-American perspective, offering words that share a glimpse into a world teetering on the edge of a particular subjective vulnerability, yet with such substance that I, while reading, had no doubt that I was secure in her worlds; I was on the inside, looking out. ...

Read my first review of H is for Hawk at this link:  https://feliciareviewsbooks.blogspot.com/2019/09/h-is-for-hawk-by-helen-macdonald.html When I read H is for Hawk for the first time, I was mesmerized by the tale of a human coming into contact with something wild and violent, the hawk. I knew that she, writer Helen MacDonald, was different than others who've told this story in that her story was not about the capturing of a hawk for scientific purposes, but rather a story about the experience of making of a bridge between two worlds that coincide in reality: the first, that of civilization, the second, that of the wilderness. At first reading, I was fascinated by her hawk Mabel and the relationship she shared with her owner, a relationship that can only be called such because of immense amounts of patience, expertise and knowledge, compromise, and dedication. To take care of and gain the trust of any wild animal is difficult, but a hawk especially. This mesmerizing effect a...