Monthly Archives: August 2020

Book Review: Charmed Life

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Book: Charmed Life (Book 1 of the Worlds of Chrestomanci)
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Release Date: 1977
Source: Borrowed audiobook from the library
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

As part of my 2020 “Storm the Castle” Reading Challenge, I needed to read three books that had been on my TBR list ten years or more. I read Solaris, and A Wrinkle in Time, and last for that part of the challenge, I chose Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones.

Charmed Life came out in 1977, and it is the first of the Worlds of Chrestomanci series (I think The Lives of Christopher Chant, which is probably the most popular of the series). I read Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle and its two sequels: Castle in the Air, and House of Many Ways ages and AGES ago. I had always planned on reading more of her books but never seemed to get around to it. So, I finally did it! (Admittedly, I “read” the book on audio, which is the only way I’ve been able to get any reading done lately, because it can often do it while I’m working).

So, Charmed Life follows the misadventures of young Cat Chant (real name Eric, but everyone calls him Cat), who is an orphan with his sister Gwendolen. Their parents died in a boating accident, during which Cat himself almost died but survived by clinging to Gwendolen who showed signs of being a witch at a young age and therefore could not drown. Cat spends all his time following behind his sister, who is older, talented, very bossy, and taking magic lessons from the local magician, Mr. Nostrum.

Gwendolen is very bossy, and strong, and often very mean to Cat (and others). At one point she turns Cat’s violin (he’s been taking music lessons) into an actual cat, who then runs away. And Mr. Nostrum is very happy to encourage these tendencies. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that it becomes clear very quickly that Gwendolen is going to be one of the main antagonists (dare I say villains) of the story.

By a series of incidents orchestrated by Gwendolen and Mr. Nostrum, Cat and Gwendolen are eventually adopted by the mysterious Chrestomanci – a tall elegant man who is clearly feared by Mr. Nostrum and respected by many others, though it is very unclear to Cat (and to the readers) exactly WHY. At Chrestomanci’s Castle, Cat and Gwendolen meet Chrestomanci’s wife Millie and two children, Roger and Julia, who have magical abilities like Gwendolen. The castle has strange magical properties of its own as well. Gwendolen immediately takes a dislike to absolutely everyone, and starts a campaign of childish but magically-fueled terror on Roger, Julia, Chrestomanci, and the rest of the household. She tries again and again to force Chrestomanci to react to her and notice her, but Chrestomanci mostly ignores her, until she finally goes too far and her magic is taken away as punishment.

Things don’t go TRULY nuts, however, until Gwendolen manages to remove herself to another dimension, pulling a replacement version of herself called Janet from another another dimension to hide her disappearance. Suddenly, Cat has a series of disasters on his hands: an evil sister gone missing to who-knows-where, a replacement who doesn’t understand that magic exists and needs constant watching over as no one else has noticed she’s not Gwendolen, several threats of magical retribution on his head for various misdeeds actually perpetuated by Gwendolen, and Mr. Nostrum who has come calling with some dark secret plan he expects Cat to help him with.

How all of this insanity gets resolved, I will leave to you all to read and see for yourself.

I really enjoyed this book quite a lot. It has Diana Wynn Jones’ signature charm, wit, and dry humor. It is not funny on a level like, for instance, Terry Pratchett, but there were quite a few parts that made me chuckle out loud. Chrestomanci, in particular, I found very funny in that dry, sarcastic, “I’m pretending I’m oblivious and don’t know what’s going on” way that I always appreciate and enjoy. On top of that, I routinely hit parts on the book where I thought “I don’t see how it could get more insane than this!” And then it DID. Cat does some things that frustrated the hell out of me, in that “no! Why! Don’t! Go tell an adult!” way, but it all made sense for the character. And it fits that very traditional way in stories in which children never feel safe to actually just tell an adult that they’re in trouble and need help.

Somewhat ironically, when I started writing this review yesterday, just a few hours after finishing the book, I had planned to get it a 4 out of 5. I really enjoyed it, but I was thinking “was it so great as to deserve a 5?” But then this morning, when I was getting a new audiobook loaded to listen to while I worked, I found that I really just wanted to listen to more Charmed Life – which, of course, I couldn’t as I had already returned the book to the library and my library doesn’t have any of the rest of the Chrestomanci series available. So that indicated to me that I had actually enjoyed it even more than I, at first, realized. And it has been lingering in my thoughts all of last night and today. So, it does deserve a 5 out of 5 after all!

If you, like me, have been intending to read more (or any) books by Diana Wynne Jones and just never seem to get around to it, consider this your sign to get started now! I highly recommend this book! And I fully intend to read the rest of the series when I can get them (either on audiobook, or perhaps in print, from my used bookstore).

Midnight Musing

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How many random new hobbies can one person pick up before it becomes silly and possibly stupid?

…asking for a friend…

Me. I’m asking for me.

In the last few months (and frankly, even BEFORE the whole COVID quarantine nonsense got started – like even as far back as a year ago) I have started re-picking up old half-started hobbies I had tried out as a kid, or dropped because of grad school, and picking up brand new hobbies that I had always wanted to try.

These new and renewed hobbies include:
1) puzzles (I am slightly addicted)
2) drawing (I have always wanted to be an artist but never had the talent or the patience to keep practicing)
3) cross-stitch (as mentioned before)
4) junk journaling
5) making miniatures
6) stamp collecting (I tried briefly as a kid because my dad was a bit of a philatelist, but it didn’t last, and I just randomly started buying bundles of stamps again a couple months ago because I totally have loads of surplus cash lying around… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Some other random hobbies I have thought about picking up:
1) I have always wanted to learn how to do paper quilling
2) making zines (as mentioned in my previous post)
3) sewing/making cosplay (I have always wanted to and I just recently started planning a cosplay outfit for the first time ever!)

And all of this is on top of my reading and writing habits I’ve been trying to reinvigorate the last 6 months or so…. (And on top of my day job…)

I just wish most of these hobbies didn’t cost quite so much money! Why must most hobbies be so damn expensive???

Ok, back to your regularly scheduled program. (I’m almost done with Charmed Life and will hopefully post a review later this week!)

Rereading books and making zines: a quick Update, Aug 2020

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Hello folks! I apologize for the long pauses between posts lately. I’ve been working a lot of hours and that trend is likely to continue through November at least. I am trying to get better at staying on top of things and using what free time I have productively, but alas, I’ve been so exhausted the last couple weeks that I usually get home from work, make (or order) dinner, take care of the dogs, and then crawl into bed to stare at the ceiling for a few hours.

Anyway! I confess I haven’t done much reading as of late, and what reading I have done has been mostly re-reading, rather than reading anything new. As I mentioned before, I am working my way through Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series, again. I recently finished the second book, Lirael, and have now started the third book, Abhorsen.

I am, however, also reading the first of the Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones, which is called Charmed Life. I have been meaning to read these books for AGES and just never seemed to get around to it. And I needed something a little lighter/funnier to listen to while I work, so I borrowed the first audiobook from the library. I’m about ⅔ of the way through it now and I really like it!

I am technically also reading Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente. I am reading that one in print, but I haven’t actually picked it up in almost two weeks so… Not much progress is being made on that front currently.

What little free (and conscious/lucid) time I have had lately has been devoted to a new project.

I am considering making a zine.

Well, I say “considering” – I am, in fact, already tinkering with/formatting one in a free publishing app. What I’m considering is whether or not I will actually try to print and sell it.

I love zines. Good ol’ fashion handmade DIY zines. Newer, more modern, glossy printed zines. Political zines. Personal/poetry zines. Fan zines. Art zines. ALL THE ZINES!

If you aren’t familiar with the zine as a genre, here’s a couple links to some useful explanations:

Wikipedia article

“What is a zine?”

“A brief history of zines”

(sidenote, there is some crossover and bleedthrough between zines and chapbooks…)

Zines are such a great way to make something with your own two hands (or computer), as an outlet for political ideas, fandom, emotions, creativity, whatever! And I have always wanted to try my hand at one. Or several. Eventually, I think I’d like to try making/collaborating on a fanzine or two, with other writers and artists and such, but for now I’m trying a personal zine on my own. I have compiled a collection of poetry and a few short creative nonfiction/memoir-ish essay-thingies that I’ve written over the years and didn’t know what to do with, in combination with a couple photos and a few doodles, and I am tinkering with putting them together into something semi-passable.

I’m still on the fence about whether or not I will try to print and sell it. If you look on Etsy there are tons of great, fun zines for sale! Some are totally handmade DIY old-school, and some are more glossy and professionally designed and printed, perfect bound instead of just stapled, and so forth. And they can range in price anywhere from like $5 to something like $15 depending on the quality and on the person selling them. If I did sell mine, it would probably only be for like $5-6 since it would be entirely handmade and all. But, we’ll see… *shrug*

Anyway, how are you all doing? Is the situation of the world-at-large freaking you all out yet? Here in Houston we are currently flipping out over the fact that there are currently not one, but TWO separate hurricanes forming in the Gulf! For the first time in recorded history! How fun! Only in 2020, folks… *cries*

Finishing Fairy Tail

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OK, so this blog is supposed to be mainly about books, with a bit about movies and such here and there, so really I probably shouldn’t be subjecting my handful of readers to a rant about an anime, but I’m doing it anyway. Because I can. Not sorry.

I finished Fairy Tail yesterday. And I’m feeling some kinda way.

So, some backstory: Fairy Tail is anime that started in 2009 (it was a manga first, like so many anime, but that’s a separate discussion). The original run was 7 seasons that wrapped up in 2014. I didn’t start watching it when it first started – I started it just as season 7 was ending, on the recommendation of my brother (who keeps up with more anime than I can name!), and had watched all 7 seasons by the end of 2015.

Then, a new season – a kind of prequel/in-between arc – came out in 2016. SO, I made a crazy decision to re-watch the whole series again, from the beginning and then go through the new season. This time I skipped a bunch of filler arcs and some dumb throwaway episodes, and I was watching it with my mother (we are whole anime-loving family!) and we BLASTED through it (we sometimes would sit and watch 15-20 episodes in a single weekend!). The season ended on a somewhat sour note and then the show went into a long hiatus. The manga author was writing an ending in the manga, so the anime producers said they would do a final season when they had an ending.

That final season didn’t come out until the beginning of 2019, and by then it had been three years since I’d watched the show (except for re-watching an episode here or there just for the fun of it, of course). So I made the insane decision to ONCE AGAIN watch the whole thing from beginning to end. This time, I would watch every single episode, not skipping a single one, and this time it would TRULY be from beginning to END. I started the re-watch in early 2019 – I THINK around February, though I can’t quite remember. I watched usually just a couple episodes per night, and sometimes would not watch for a week or several weeks at a time if I was busy, or too tired at night. So it has taken me about a year and a half. But I finished it, all 328 episodes, from beginning to surprisingly satisfying ending, last night.

I’m not going to try to explain or recap the whole show for all you non-anime folks, but I’ll just say: Fairy Tail is in a lot of ways your standard shonen adventure anime. It’s a fantasy, set in a fantasy land, and it focuses on the adventures (on might say MIS-adventures) of a guild of wizards (in a world of many guilds of wizards) called Fairy Tail. The MAIN main characters are the central five (later seven characters) Lucy, Natsu, Gray, Ezra, Happy, Wendy, and Carla. There adventures, of course, get bigger and bigger as the series go, until by the end of the series, they are dealing with literally world-ending villains and events. It’s full of (melo)drama, and humor, and kickass fight scenes, and its cheesy as hell! In many instances, the day is saved (and in the last couple episodes, literally all of reality) by the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. Literally. And I loved every single fucking second of it!

I found the ending surprisingly satisfying. So many shows (Western or otherwise) end the series in some depressing way in which all the characters go their separate ways, or everyone dies, or in some other way that feels way too FINAL. I much prefer endings in which we get a sense of “and their adventures continued! (You’re just not going to see them).” Fairy Tail had that ending. The bad guy was defeated, the world was saved, a few people died but a few more survived than I thought would, a couple of my preferred ships went canon, a few others were left ambiguous as ever (anime loves to do that!), and the main characters were all preparing to go on their next adventure!

But I am feeling some kind of way, folks! Endings always mess me up, especially after a very long series. And I have been devoting SO MUCH time and energy to it. I watched the whole series three times through, and this was probably the last time I’ll do that (at least for a very long time…). As Zaphod says in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “I need to go find something else for my entire life to be about…” (I’m currently considering re-watching My Hero Academia and catching up. I was watching it pretty consistently for awhile, but completely lost track at the beginning of season four).

If you like anime in a general sense, but haven’t watched Fairy Tail specifically, I HIGHLY recommend it. Especially if you enjoy a good, exciting, endearing shonen-style anime.

For now, I think I just need to sit with my feelings for awhile.

Ok, anime rant done now. Back to your regularly scheduled program.