Howling Frog Books

It's Witch Week!  And this year we are reading Joan Aiken, one of the true greats of 20th century children's literature (not to mention some very fun other things).  One of my favorite go-to presents for children is Aiken's Arabel and Mortimer books, which are so funny and worth reading many times over.   But for this Witch Week I decided to revisit the alternate-history world of the Wolves Chronicles, which are set at the beginning of the 1800s under the reign of James III (often called Jamie Three).  In this world, not only are wolves the scourge of England in winter, but the industrial revolution is well under way, and the Hanoverians are forever plotting to overthrow King James and set the German Bonnie Prince George upon the throne. Aiken builds an amazing, adventurous, eccentric, and very dangerous world for her characters. Aiken is incredibly imaginative and inventive, so you never know what will happen next, and the language is wonderful.  Dido is the...

 Are you ready for Witch Week?  As all Diana Wynne Jones fans know, Witch Week runs from October 31st through November 5th, and is when magic is running around loose in the world.  Anything can happen!  As in the last few years, Chris at Calmgrove and Lizzie Ross are hosting.  Their theme is polychromancy, a lovely word, as we look for fantasy works by authors of all races.   There's a discussion of Zen Cho's Black Water Sister , and other fun scheduled!  Will you be joining in?  

 I have barely been at the computer for the past week or so, or else I would have talked a lot more about the fact that it is Witch Week .  To be precise, it's the last day, because as we know, Witch Week goes from October 31st to November 5th, and unleashes all sorts of magic and mayhem on the world.  Chris at Calmgrove has hosted this year and has offered a grand menu of posts on this year's theme: Treason and Plot.  I contributed to two of this week's posts: As a group, we read The Tempest and had a discussion, ably edited by Lizzie Ross. I wrote about a favorite story, Friday's Tunnel, and that is today's post.   I'll put it up here in a week or two, I suppose, but it really belongs over there at Calmgrove. The other posts are excellent, and I hope you'll go take a look!  Enjoy your Guy Fawkes Day...try not to get convicted of treason...

 Well, I'm going to call it good.  I've definitely read 20 books this summer, even if I didn't finish that exact list, and much of it has been very good reading!  The Popol Vuh was a highlight, and so was Piranesi .  I still have a couple of books to post about, too.   I only read one book for #WIT month, which is kind of disappointing.  I have another book of Urdu short stories, but so far I've only read one, so I can't exactly count it.  Oh well. In the fall, I'm very much looking forward to Witch Week , which will take place at Calmgrove this year, and I'll be doing a guest post. Plus RIP season is starting!  I have a couple of fun books for that, but mostly I want to focus on preparing for Witch Week.

 I hope you've been following Lizzie and Chris' Witch Week events over on Lizzie Ross Writer !  There have been some wonderful posts and today is the last day of Witch Week (which, as we know, ends on Guy Fawkes' Day). I participated in two of the posts; we had a really nice readalong discussion of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book .  I hadn't read it in a long time, and this time I got the graphic novels too.  I also contributed a post about the works of M. R. James, which was a nice experience for me.  I'm grateful that Lizzie and Chris were willing to have me as a guest blogger! I do so enjoy so many aspects of Gothic literature, and have loved reading all of the posts.  Go visit for yourself.    

 I pulled one of my periodic disappearances, just because everything (in the world) has been so overwhelming.  I have read virtually nothing but the fluffiest of Golden Age mysteries for the past couple of weeks -- mostly Georgette Heyer and Christie -- and I haven't found time to blog about the things I was reading before my sudden vacation.  I'm way behind on reading blogs, too!  I've done a good bit of embroidery, though, and I finished my lunatic labyrinth quilt project.  There are so many quilts I want to make, and so many embroidery projects to do!  Also, autumn has finally arrived, the smoke is gone, and the weather is glorious -- cool and breezy.  How lovely to be able to get too cold and put on a sweater!   I'm going to try to pull myself out of it this week so as to be ready for Witch Week, which is coming soon!  You'll find a post from me in the lineup, and I'm participating in the readalong discussion for The Graveyard Book. ...

Witch Week is coming up!  As we know, the days between October 31 and November 5 are Witch Week, when magic is abroad in the world.  To celebrate, Chris at Calmgrove and Lizzie Ross   will host the sixth year of Witch Week , and the theme this year is.....VILLAINS.  They'll be featuring posts about:  Shakespeare!  DWJ!  Joan Aiken!  Narnia!  and the readalong will be Cart & Cwidder , by Diana Wynne Jones.  Oooo, I'm getting excited just thinking about it.  Hooray for Witch Week!

Sister Emily's Lightship, by Jane Yolen Happy Halloween! I can't exactly call this an RIP read, but it has elements and so I'm going to round off the event by squeaking it in here, and incidentally segue into Witch Week!  Jane Yolen is one of the grand dames of SF/F writing, I think we can all agree (RIGHT?  *ominous glare*), and this collection of short pieces that were published all over the place is well worth tracking down. Many of these stories are twists on classic fairy tales -- "Snow in Summer," for example, is a version of Snow White set in Appalachia, or in a really genius bit, "Granny Rumple" is a realistic tale that could have been the seed for an anti-Semitic Rumplestiltskin .  "Godmother Death" is a wonderful version of a story found across cultures, in which a man outwits Death...but only for so long. There's a nice little series of stories about fey, where the characters are related or appear in various tales.  The y...

Witch Week this year is all about the Arthurian literature .  I hope you're following Lory at Emerald City Book Review to read the guest bloggers, enter the giveaway, and all that good stuff.  The readalong is of Kazuo Ishiguro's Buried Giant, which I read a couple of years ago.  So I decided not to read along, but I did really like the book, and if you wish to see my thoughts you can read my review. I've read a bit of Arthurian literature during the life of Howling Frog, so I thought it might be useful to collect some of the links.  If you're interested in reading some of the older material, this might be helpful.  Some random links: Yvain, by Chretien de Troyes Poor Heinrich, by Hermann von Aue The Fall of Arthur, by J. R. R. Tolkien Ritual and Romance, by Jessie Weston (old folkloric speculation, now totally discredited, but fun to read) In 2014, I ran a year-long Arthurian challenge and read some great stuff.  Here is what I said at the ...

Merlin and the Grail: Joseph of Arimathea, Merlin, Perceval , by Robert de Boron It's Witch Week!  The focus this year is on Arthurian literature, a favorite of mine, and so I read Merlin and the Grail , which I've been saving up for a treat.  This one was new to me, and I found out that it's an important piece in the Arthurian jigsaw puzzle, so read on. We don't know much about Robert de Boron, but he was writing right after Chretien de Troyes, around the 1180s, and he was the first writer to write the Arthurian cycle -- the whole story from beginning to end.  He managed to smush the important elements into just three tales (two, really), and he added a whole lot as well with Joseph of Arimathea .  He also converted the Grail into an overtly Christian relic. Chretien had a Grail that was a kind of platter, which served a host, and there was a spear dripping blood; these were obviously Christian allusions.  Chretien's audience would have immediately thoug...

I feel like such a dope--I've been kind of behind in the blogging and failed to do a post on Witch Week 2016 when I should have, but there's still time! Lory, our wonderful hostess, has chosen to do a "Made in America" theme this year.  She's got some goodies planned, like an interview with Kat Howard (author of Roses and Rot ), a Top Ten, a discussion of Oz, some talk about Neil Gaiman and American Gods , and all sorts of things. And I'm especially excited about the readalong, which will be Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes , possibly the iconic Halloween classic.  I've already put my copy on hold!  The discussion will be on November 5. I hope you'll join Lory, and me, and quite a few others in reading and discussing some great fantasy during Witch Week.  (If you're not familiar with the term, Witch Week is the week between Halloween and Guy Fawkes, referenced in Diana Wynne Jones' wonderful Witch Week. )

The Bloody Chamber , by Angela Carter   Well, I'm at least a week late with this blog post. Lory had a read along for Witch Week that featured this now-classic book of feminist retellings of fairy tales.  (I have my own ideas about the feminism of fairytales, and in fact just started reading a book...)  Anyway, this collection is from the late 1970s, and you can really tell.  There is a lot about sex, and blood.  More than I would prefer.  It's an OK book, I guess, but it's not really my kind of thing. I quite enjoyed some of the stories, though, or a good deal of them.  There is one about the last of the lady vampires that I enjoyed, and "Wolf-Alice."  "The Bloody Chamber" was mostly quite good, but I got hung up on a detail that about drove me mad; the narrator describes herself going to the opera in "a sinuous shift of white muslin tied with a silk string..."  Well, the sewist in me promptly objects, muslin is an evenweave cotton and...

Guess what, Witch Week is happening!  Lory at Emerald City Book Review is hosting again , and this year the theme is "New Tales From Old," so we'll be reading retellings of folktales and mythology.  Fun! There will be discussions and a readalong.  Head on over to Lory's blog to catch the early news so you can vote on what to read!