Then and Now #37 (16/1 - 22/1/2023

Happy Sunday and welcome to the new year!  The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted @ Caffeinated Reviewer. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.  It is hosted weekly over at Mailbox Monday and every Friday they do a round-up of some of their favourite, shared reads!

Last Week

Happy Sunday! It's been a busy work week here, although mostly busy with really exciting things. For my PhD I need a second supervisor and last Friday I had reached out to the person I was dying to have say yes. And then this Monday she said yessssss! She is a professor in Iceland and is kind of ground-breaking/at the front of the emotions in Old Norse literature-field, so I'm super excited to have her on board. It definitely helped keep the fire lit. I also established a new title for the thesis: "Þu ert it mesta forað": The Role of Anger and Social Monstrosity in the Depiction of Women in Old Norse Literature. The Old Norse, Þu ert it mesta forað, is a quote from Njals saga, which is often translated as 'You are the worst monster', with forað meaning 'monster' and a man saying this to his niece who is trying to get him to avenge the murder of her husband. But actually forað is a much more complex word, so finding a good translation for that is one of the first things I wanna tackle.

I haven't had a very productive blogging-time, the past few weeks. I'm reading quote a lot (I'm 3 books ahead according to my Goodreads challenge xD), but it's not necessarily the books I'm meant to be reading for review. Putting "child locks" back on my social media apps was definitely a good idea and I've almost finished the His Dark Materials-trilogy. Straight up cried about The Subtle Knife yesterday, and while it's never fun to be sad, it was somehow also very encouraging and touching to be so in-tune with a book, so affected by someone's writing. Hoping to keep reading amazing books this year! Also, it's been non-stop snow and subzero temperatures here for the last week, which is both lovely and annoying. Love crunching through fresh snow, but I also can't feel my hands whenever I'm waiting for the bus. 

Posted since last Sunday post:

• Review: The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) by Philip Pullman
• Friday Friyay: The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials #1) by Philip Pullman

Recommendation

I heard this song for the first time a few days ago and since then it's been on my mind non-stop. There is something so soothing and yet mildly upsetting about it? Anyways, here's It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody by Weyes Blood.

Mailbox Monday

And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Rebellion; 3/28/2023)

Harry Bodie’s been called into the delightful fantasy world of his grandmother’s beloved children’s books. It’s not delightful here at all.

All roads lead to Underhill, where it’s always winter, and never nice.

Harry Bodie has a famous grandmother, who wrote beloved children’s books set in the delightful world of Underhill. Harry himself is a failing kids’ TV presenter whose every attempt to advance his career ends in self-sabotage. His family history seems to be nothing but an impediment.

An impediment... or worse. What if Underhill is real? What if it has been waiting decades for a promised child to visit? What if it isn’t delightful at all? And what if its denizens have run out of patience and are taking matters into their own hands?

Getting dragged into a fantasy world is at once amazing and probably also the stuff of nightmare. I'm super intrigued by this book and the way it seems full of fantasy and yet also full of family drama. I also like the cover, which is giving me Narnia-vibes with its wardrobe and snowy landscape! (Still haven't read the Narnia books though!)

The Wonder State by Sara Flannery Murphy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 7/18/2023)

Five friends arrive back in Eternal Springs, the small town they all fled after high-school graduation. Each of them is drawn home by a cryptic, scrawled two-word letter: You promised.

It has been fifteen years since that life-changing summer, and they're anxious to find out why Brandi called them back, especially when they vowed never to return.

But Brandi is missing. She'd been acting erratically for months, in and out of rehab, railing at whoever might listen about magic all around them. About a power they can't see. And strange houses that appear only when you need them . . .

Told in two enthralling time lines, The Wonder State is a stunning, immersive follow-up to Girl One. Sara Flannery Murphy has created another dazzling, genre-blurring novel—an adventure story laced with nostalgia and magic, exploring belonging and the lasting power of community.

What really attracted me to The Wonder State was this idea of a genre-blurring novel. I love books that borrow elements from different genres, that play with the readers' expectations without betraying them. And that cover is just super intriguing. 

What are you reading this weekend? And how has your week been?