humouress ROOTing (and re-ROOTing) in 2025

I'm joining the ROOTs challenge a bit late this year; I spent the first couple of months visiting my parents, who live overseas, so I didn't have access to my physical books. I'm going to set a tentative goal of 25 ROOTs again this year. My tickers for 2024 have disappeared but I don't think I reached my goals; I was traveling for two months of last year (but I did get to do LibraryThing meet-ups in Vancouver, Seattle, DC and London) and once I got back, we were getting ready and then partly hosting a huge family get-together of my husbands cousins and their families with people coming in from Europe, Australia, Asia & North America.

   
With Familyhistorian (Meg) in Indigo (Chapters),   with Curiossquared (Natalie) in Brick and Mortar Books
Downtown Vancouver, Canada; August 2024         Redmond (Seattle), USA; August 2024

   
With norabelle (Nora), drneutron (Jim) & Mrs drneutron at Kramers Books   With Sakerfalcon (Claire) & SandDune (Rhian)
Washington DC, USA; September 2024                                                       at Foyle's, London, UK; September 2024

I'll start off with the same goals as last year but I may have to amend them as I go along; now that my eldest is in university in the UK I think we'll be doing more long-haul travel for the next couple of years.

My current thread layout:

>2 humouress: tickers (for total reads in the year, total ROOTs re-read in the year;
    total e-ROOTs read in the year + total physical ROOTs read in the year = total ROOTs read this year)

>3 humouress: ROOTs read this year (by type)

>4 humouress: constellation (my star ratings)

>5 humouress: 4th quarter ROOTs
>6 humouress: 3rd quarter ROOTs
>7 humouress: 2nd quarter ROOTs
>8 humouress: 1st quarter ROOTs

>9 humouress: Alphabetical ROOTs
>10 humouress: Acquisitions for the year

>11 humouress: just in case tracking the ROOTs in my library

>12 humouress: Welcome in!

📚 75 book group

thread 1: Humouress hops Down Undah in 2025 - first thread
thread 2: Humouress at home - second thread
thread 3: Humouress humming around Europe - third thread
thread 4: Humouress at home for the holidays - fourth thread

🐉 Green Dragon Humouress drops by in 2024
🐉 Green Dragon Humouress popping in and out of the pub in 2025

🌳 Past ROOT threads:

ROOTS 2024 thread   20 / 25   (total read = 68)
ROOTs 2022 thread   24 / 25   (total read = 53)
ROOTs 2021 thread   31 / 30   (total read = 92)
ROOTs 2020 thread   48 / 30   (total read = 90)

2 - tickers

Setting a ROOT goal for 2025 of 25 books, though I may amend it down the line.

  Total books read for 2025 (goal = 75)




30.11.2025

  Total ROOTs re-read in 2025 (goal = 12)

♻️ ♻️ ➿ ➿ ➿ ➿ ➿ ➿ ➿ ➿ ➿ ➿
(08.10.2025: 02/12)

  Total e-ROOTs read in 2025 (goal = 5)

🌀 🌀 🌀 🌀 🌀 ➰ ➰ ➰ ➰ ➰
(28.05.2025: 5/5)(08.10.2025: 9/5)

  Total physical ROOTs read in 2025 (goal = 20)

📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 💭 💭 💭 💭 💭 💭 💭 💭 💭 💭
(25.11.2025: 10/20)

  Total ROOTs read for 2025 (goal = 25)

🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 💬 💬 💬 💬 💬
(25.11.2025: 19/25)



Message 49 on ROOTs Ticker thread (again, this year)

  = physical book
   = e-book (Kindle)
     = e-book
      = re-read
  = LTER

December

 ROOT 20: The Star-Crossed Empire by Maya Darjani (2024)

November

     ROOT 19: The Camelot Betrayal by Kiersten White (2020)
 ROOT 18: The Witch Collector by Charissa Weaks (2021)
     ROOT 17: Whiskeyjack by Victoria Goddard (2018)

October

 ROOT 16: Morvelving by C.J. Switzer
     ROOT 15: Impossible Odds by Dave Duncan
      ROOT 14: Olive and the Dragon by Victoria Goddard (2025)

September

     ROOT 13: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)
     ROOT 12: Bee Sting Cake by Victoria Goddard 

August

      ROOT 11: Silver in the Woods by Emily Tesh (2019)

July

 ROOT 10: A Hero Returned by Eura Abrams (2025)

June

(no ROOTs in June)

May

 ROOT 09: Elven Blood by Mark Stanley (2024)
  ROOT 08: The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White (2019)
 ROOT 07: Foothills Fae Academy Book Three by Callie Woodridge (2024)

April

     ROOT 06: The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall (2011)
 ROOT 05: Other Aether edited by Greg Schauer and Danielle Ackley-McPhail (2024)

March

 ROOT 04: Stars Beyond Realms by Marie-Hélène Lebeault (2023)
  ROOT 03: The Call of the Sword by Roger Taylor (1988)
     ROOT 02: Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson (2019)

February

     ROOT 01: Blood Spirits by Sherwood Smith (2010)

January

(no ROOTs in January)

Total ROOTs read in 2025 (to beginning of April)

20   - all formats
10   - physical books
10   - e-books  

Of which:
02   - re-reads
08   - Library Thing Early Reviewer

(Message 49 on ticker thread)

The constellation:

  You have got to read this one!                           
  Really good; worth reading                                 
     Good, but without that special 'something' for me   
      Very nice, but a few issues                                    
         An enjoyable book                                                   
         Um, okay. Has some redeeming qualities                   
              Writing is hard. I appreciate the work the author did    
             (haven't met one - yet)                                              
                  Dire                                                                            
                  Rated only as a warning. Run away. Don't stop.              

Purple stars, from Robin's thread:

5.0
4.5
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5

4th quarter

October

63.

review posted/ rated/ written/ read

✔ /  / (#) / Title

December

November

October

✔   63) Olive and the Dragon by Victoria Goddard (2025)

3rd quarter

September

61.

August

53.

July

46.

review posted/ rated/ written/ read

✔ /  / (#) / Title

September

✔   61) The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1902) 📚
 59) Bee Sting Cake by Victoria Goddard 📚

August

✔     53) Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh (2019)

July

✔     46) A Hero Returned by Eura Abrams (2025)

2nd quarter

May

34. 30. 28.

April

23. 21.

review posted/ rated/ written/ read

✔ /  / (#) / Title

June

May

✔        34) Elven Blood by Mark Stanley (2024)
✔   30) The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White (2019)
✔          28) Foothills Fae Academy Book Three by Callie Woodridge (2024)

April

✔   23) The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall (2011)
✔     21) Other Aether edited by Greg Schauer and Danielle Ackley-McPhail (2024)

1st quarter

March

16. 14. 8.

February

7.

review posted/ rated/ written/ read

✔ /  / (#) / Title

March

✔        16) Stars Beyond Realms by Marie-Hélène Lebeault (2023) 
✔   14) The Call of the Sword by Roger Taylor (1988)
✔     8) Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson (2019)

February

✔   7) Blood Spirits by Sherwood Smith (2010)

January

(no roots for January)

Alphabetical roots



Last year (2024) I decided I would try to read books off my shelf alphabetically by author. I thought that f I could do two a month I should be able get through the alphabet by the end of the year ie A and B in January; C and D in February and so on. Of course there are some letters (like Q and X) that I don't have any authors for but it's just an experimental idea at this point. I didn't do too badly, getting down to P (especially considering that some sections of my physical library are currently quarantined for suspected mould).

A = Atwater, Olivia - Half a Soul : January
B = Britain, Kristen - The High King's Tomb : January (re-read)
C = Clough, Brenda W. - King of the Book : October
D = Duncan, Dave - Paragon Lost : March
E = Eloise, Roxy - Guidal: Discovering Puracordis : March
F = Fleury, Clive - Off Season : March
G = Goddard, Victoria - Stargazy Pie : April
H = Hambly, Barbara - The Time of the Dark : June (re-read)
I
J = Jones, Marty Kay - Girl Meets Horse: An Easy Introduction to Horse Care and Riding for Kids and Tweens : August
K = Kästner, Erich - Emil and the Detectives : July (re-read)
L = Ledford, Hannah - Elephant and Castle : June
M = Miller, Karen - The Innocent Mage : December
N = Novik, Naomi - A Deadly Education : December
O = Owen, Margaret - The Merciful Crow : February (re-read as a library book and then acquired)
P = Pierce, Tamora - Alanna: the First Adventure & In the Hand of the Goddess : December (both re-read)

Continuing on in 2025:

Q no authors beginning with Q in my library
R = Rogerson, Margaret - Sorcery of Thorns : March
S = Smith, Sherwood - Blood Spirits : February
T = Taylor, Roger - The Call of the Sword : March
U no authors beginning with U in my library
V
W = White, Kiersten - The Guinevere Deception : May
X no authors beginning with X in my library;
    adding an anthology Other Aether edited by Greg Schauer and Danielle Ackley-McPhail : April
Y no authors beginning with Y in my library
Z

Acquisitions for the year



14th January (Galaxy, Sydney):

1- Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (Murderbot)
2- The Man with the Golden Torc by Simon R. Green
3- Into the Fire by Elizabeth Moon
4- The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones

Well, these were all waiting for me when I got back from Sydney and I've now added them to my catalogue:

Books Kinokuniya (Singapore):

5- Marend of Marloven Hess (The Norsunder War) by Sherwood Smith
6- The Trouble with Kings by Sherwood Smith

7- Plum Duff by Victoria Goddard
8- Love-in-a-Mist (Greenwing & Dart) by Victoria Goddard
9- Blackcurrant Fool (Greenwing & Dart) by Victoria Goddard
10- Whiskeyjack (3) (Greenwing & Dart) by Victoria Goddard
11- Bee Sting Cake (Greenwing & Dart) by Victoria Goddard
12- Stargazy Pie (Greenwing & Dart) by Victoria Goddard

13- The Super Easy Carnivore Diet for Beginners: 1500 Days of Quick and Satisfying… by Jessica G Snider
14- The Carnivore Diet for Beginners: Recipes and Meal Plans for Weight Loss, Healt… by Chris Irvin MS

**********

15- Hundred Hindu Temples of Sri Lanka: Ancient, Medieval and Modern by Mr Sanmugam Arumugam - which my mum gave me; a re-run of a book by my grandad.

From Dymocks (Castle Hill, NSW):

16- The Work Wives - a freebie from the bookshop (for buying 3 books by a local Castle Hill NSW author for firelion to read)

And these were for firelion:
(Dymocks)
19- The Symbicate: A Roaring, Whimsical Adventure by Sean M. T. Shanahan
20- Necromancing The Rose - Book 1 of the Whim-Dark Tales by Sean M T Shanahan
21- Grim, Ghastly & Gripping by Sean M T Shanahan

(Galaxy)
22- Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners (Teach Yourself, 1) by Olly Richards (since he's started learning Spanish at school this year).

Bought by my husband from the airport bookshop:

17- The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
18- The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman

June 2025

I'm in London so I made my pilgrimage to Forbidden Planet where I picked up:

19- Paladin's Grace (The Saint of Steel 1) by T. Kingfisher
20- Paladin's Strength (The Saint of Steel 2) by T. Kingfisher
21- Paladin's Hope (The Saint of Steel 3) by T. Kingfisher
22- Paladin's Faith (The Saint of Steel 4)

23- Swordheart by T. Kingfisher

24- To Guard Against the Dark by Julie E. Czerneda
25- This Gulf of Time and Stars by Julie E. Czerneda

26- Relight My Fire (The Stranger Times 4) by C. K. McDonnell

27- The Sacred Hunt Duology by Michelle West

28- A Hard Day's Knight (A Nightside Book 11) by Simon R. Green

29- Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch

= @libraian

= @firelion, @superboy

Books owned:   735
  = physical book

        = e-book/ Kindle

  = LTER

Requested 61; won 31; reviewed 13

Own books rated:   183 (physical/ e-book/ LTER)

              📚50       🌀 02       🐦‍⬛ 00

              📚38       🌀 02       🐦‍⬛ 01

                📚32       🌀 07       🐦‍⬛ 01

                📚22       🌀 05       🐦‍⬛ 07

                    📚06       🌀 04       🐦‍⬛ 02

                    📚01       🌀 00       🐦‍⬛ 02

                        📚01       🌀 01       🐦‍⬛ 00





Total:
🌳          183            📚150       🌀 21       🐦‍⬛ 13

ROOT 01: 7) Blood Spirits by Sherwood Smith (2010)

first quarter ROOT

ROOT 02: 8) Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson (2019)

first quarter ROOT

ROOT 03: The Call of the Sword by Roger Taylor (1988)

first quarter ROOT

14) The Call of the Sword by Roger Taylor

{first of 4 in The Chronicles of Hawklan/ first of 12 in Chronicles of Hawklan Universe; fantasy, epic fantasy, adventure, sword and sorcery}(1988)



The prologue starts with a text which depicts a battle in which a great evil was defeated and imprisoned but not without cost to the defenders including the loss of Ethriss, one of the four immortal Guardians; and they know that they have only put off the inevitable and there will be a second coming of Sumeral.

But in His falling, two things He did. His mortal hand loosed the spear that struck down Ethriss, and His spirit shrank and vowed and learned and hid in the hearts of His most faithful until some future time would come.

The peoples who exist in the present time (as the story begins) don't even have any racial memory of that war or the expected resumption except for a few practices and superstitions that they hold onto though they don't remember the reasons for them.

Hawklan is a gentle healer who appeared out of the mountains above the Orthlundyn village of Pedhavin twenty years before the story proper starts. He has no memory of his life before that but he did have the key to open the long-sealed gates of the legendary castle-fortress of Anderras Darion. He has since made a life there and made good friends, among them the raven Gavor who is as intelligent as a human (although he might claim more intelligent).

After the tinker Derimot Findeel Dan-Tor (who may be a predecessor of Padan Fain of The Wheel of Time) visits Pedhavin, Hawklan feels impelled to visit the Gretmearc, the perpetual market in the neighbouring land of Riddin, where he may find answers - or great danger. Before he leaves his friends tell him he needs to carry a sword and, from out of the depths of Anderras Darion, a black sword falls at his feet

Hawklan stood up and wrapped his right hand firmly around the hilt of the sword. As he did so, he heard a sound like a distant trumpet. A faint, infinitely distant clarion call from another age. For an instant he felt a surge of recognition, also from times past, but it slipped away like a dream at dawn.
'My sword,' he heard himself say softly.

and has the effect of immediately transforming him from healer to warrior just in the way that he instinctively carries it.

Hawklan wore the clothes and the sword as if they were a natural part of him. The brothers saw before them the man they knew as a healer. A gentle, slightly innocent man, full of gentleness and light. But his healer's cowled robe had been laid aside and, standing armed, breeched, and booted, in a metal-buckled jerkin and with a long hooded cloak over his shoulders, the whole in black, his bearing was purely that of a warrior and leader. A warrior and a leader the like of which could be seen in the thick of battle in many of the carvings that filled the Castle.

Meanwhile, we learn that Dan-Tor has come from another neighbouring country, Fyorlund, where he has weasled his way into position as the king's right hand - although he is no native of Fyorlund either but owes his allegiance elsewhere - and he seems to be undermining that country's policies from the inside.

This was probably one of the first series I bought in its entirety for my own shelves, back in my student days and I really enjoyed revisiting this world. I'd say it's epic fantasy because of the scope but it has an intentionally gentle feel to it though it still had me on the edge of my seat (so to speak) at times - and there I was worried that it wouldn't live up to my nostalgia. It’s well written and I like the humour too, which had me chuckling a few times.

'I wonder what killed it? I can't see any injury. It looks healthy enough.'
'Apart from being dead,' chuckled Gavor, then, apologetically, 'Sorry.'

I do like the cover (Headline edition) by Mark Harrison (9) which shows Hawklan’s castle of Anderras Darion, built at the mouth of a hanging valley, and the picture is framed by what looks like the gateposts of the castle that is in the illustration; it takes me back to that time of life when I was just starting to discover the fantasy genre, and the covers of the books I was reading could transport me to another world. Just looking at them again now sends a thrill through me.

(March 2025)
4.5-5 ****

Litsy Notes

I love the cover of this book; I‘ll have to search for the artist‘s name.

The pedlar (Derimot Findeel Dan-Tor) seems to be a predecessor of Padan Fain (from the Wheel of Time series).

ETA: according to ISFDB the artist is Mark Harrison

Welcome back! Lovely pictures, and awesome stats.

>16 MissWatson: Thank you Birgit!

Welcome back, Nina! Good to 'see' you here again. I love the stats!

>18 connie53: Thank you Connie. Good to be back.

ROOT 04: Stars Beyond Realms by Marie-Hélène Lebeault (2023)

first quarter ROOT

ROOT 05: Other Aether edited by Greg Schauer and Danielle Ackley-McPhail (2024)

second quarter ROOT

ROOT 07: Foothills Fae Academy Book Three by Callie Woodridge

second quarter ROOT

notes:

slogging through this because it's an ER but I may DNF it at this rate. I'm a bit handicapped because this is the third book in the series and I haven't read the first two books though they are recapped for us at the beginning of this book. There is also a long list of the characters which would normally be helpful but there are a lot of them and a lot of different relationships so it's actually a bit bewildering. Once the book proper started (chapter 4), after wading through a welter of adjectives I was blindsided by an explicit scene, despite the content warning, since it came out of nowhere and right at the beginning - so please do heed the warning. I'm now up to chapter 18 (of 57) and all it seems to be is relationship angst between characters I have no interest in and who resent authority just because they are now (or almost are now) 18 years old. I don't understand who is related to who or whose parents are whose (since a lot of them seem to have had fake parents or are adopted) or who dated who or how the eight different realms are connected (or not) or how their magical powers work (though there isn't much of that).

I might have been a bit more invested in them if I'd read the first two books - though, given how choppy the quality of writing is, I doubt it. The writing is a bit simplistic and there is information missing although whether that's because it's covered in the previous books or just bad writing (also repetitive, overexplaining; needs editing), I don't know. If you're going to read this I'd recommend starting with the first book.

Maybe I'm the wrong age for this and it would appeal to teens better. Also, as a parent of kids a similar age to those portrayed, I'm not comfortable with the characters casual sex or use of drink and drugs. The aforementioned content warning mentions that the previous books (in book one the characters were 13 years old and in book two they were 16 going by the synopses) are more innocent so I don't know what the target age for this series is.

1st person, past tense, multiple POVs. No logic to the magic - sometimes it's spells, sometimes potions, no limits or restrictions. No real plot. Confuses sirens with mermen. Despite the series title, they don't ever seem to be at school or, when they are, they're at different schools.

Gritting teeth and slogging on ....

currently 2.5** at ch 18

Elven Blood by Mark Stanley

LTER win

1/4 way through. Enjoying it but the formatting is throwing me off; I'm reading it on my iPad in the iBooks app and it seems to have transferred to me as a solid document with no chapter divisions. So the chapter titles are there but I can't go to them from the contents page. I can't co-ordinate the page size of my app with that of the document and the footers (book title/ chapter titles/ page numbers) turn up randomly within the sentences of the text and in the same font, which is rather off-putting and is slowing my reading down.

Other than that, I'm quite enjoying the story. One (more) quibble; there's a lot of description but maybe a bit too much and it slows the story down. Tighter editing would have benefited the book.

So far, I've been introduced to the main protagonists (a dwarf, an elf, an Drogo & 2 humans) in different parts of the continent and they've all each just encountered a disaster. Before it's resolved, we've switched to another character, so I don't know what happens. I suspect it's to build the tension but the aforementioned formatting issues are interrupting the flow of my reading.

ETA: and, if I’m going to get niggly, the grammar and vocabulary could be improved. ETA 5: the author uses a lot of words but doesn't always pick ones with the right nuance and (less often) doesn't always pick the right tense.

ETA 2: at the 1/2 way point, we learn of a prophecy tying two of the characters together and I've finally got the gist of an idea of where this is going. The flowery prose makes it slow reading and hard work. It would be a better book without everything being constantly paraphrased in the next sentence; more concise, easier, faster, better quality of writing all round. At this point, maybe 3***

The glossaries at the beginning are useful but, as with the chapters, they all flow into one another since there are no chapter breaks with the formatting issue mentioned above and I found it too much information before getting to the story. It might have worked better for me if they had been at the end.

ETA 3: I was trying to give this book the benefit of the doubt but one LT review and several Goodreads reviews say it's AI generated ‼️😱. The first GR review makes a good case for it (since I wouldn't know) and lays out convincing (to me, anyway) evidence. In which case, no stars for this one and why the heck am I wading through this?

It needs to be edited down to 1/3 or even 1/4 of its length by taking out all the superfluous extraneous details. If it's not AI written, then I would like to gently suggest that the author uses his thesaurus less. Far less. There are a lot of repeated phrases and ideas eg a lot of 'steely determination' and weight carrying ('he/ she bore the weight of responsibility ...'). Wondering why, if the author is British, he's misspelled 'honour' as 'honor'?

ETA 4: the author does tend to throw every word in the thesaurus into consecutive sentences to describe the simplest idea, sometimes even repeating the same words. Consequently, having been battered by this onslaught of description, the effort of digging out what is - possibly - a decent story from this multitude of superfluous and repetitive vocabulary makes it difficult to discern the character of the characters and rather overwhelms the meaning and flow of said story so that I, personally, am left feeling exhausted by this rather soporific writing and am having to continue my reading in chapter-sized bites. Having to read the same, paraphrased information over again is not conducive to following the story so that my reading of this book is going very slowly. ... okay, I can't even manage to write a paragraph. This kind of writing goes on, undiluted, for 368 pages at my app's smallest font.

The narrative keeps telling us that the characters are feeling weighed down by responsibility and have feelings of doom and gloom but I don't understand what they're feeling so down about. A simple hike over rocky terrain has one character admiring another's resilience (even though she and their remaining companion manage the trek very easily) - and that is before they start climbing into the mountains which then seems to be a walk in the park.

ETA 6: blinkin' 'auto correct'

I started off intending to give this book the benefit of the doubt especially since my last couple of LTER books haven't impressed me too well, but I was struggling with it a bit and peeked at other reviews, when I discovered that some reviewers (on LT and GR) claim that it is AI generated. My notes I made as I read are at >23 humouress: but I'll try and be nice here.

ROOT 09 : Elven Blood by Mark Stanley

second quarter ROOT

ROOT 08 - The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White (2019)

second quarter ROOT

30) The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

{First of 3 in Camelot Rising trilogy; fantasy, Arthurian, King Arthur, magic, young adult, first in trilogy}(2019)



I borrowed this from the library when it first came out and loved it so much I bought the entire trilogy for my shelves. I'm re-reading this first book again (my own copy this time) and still loving it - and still a little anxious for our heroine. It's told from Guinevere's perspective (third person, past tense) and we meet her as she's riding to Camelot to marry Arthur. Except that she has a secret - which is that she is not the real Guinevere, who died, but has been sent by Merlin to protect Arthur.

Guinevere - she tells no-one her real name, not even us - has small magics without the power that Merlin wields and she feels inadequate for her role, especially as she has holes in her memories and an unreasoning fear of water.

She felt a pang at Merlin's name. It should be him here. He was so much better suited to this. Smarter. Stronger. But he was not exactly marriageable material for a young king.

Arthur realises that she has been sent by Merlin and it is a relief for both of them to be their true selves with each other with no need to pretend to the outside world behind closed doors. She is sixteen and Arthur is eighteen, and has been king for only three years building the dream that is Camelot since pulling Excalibur from the stone. And, of course, we meet some of Arthur’s knights including Mordred, Arthur's half-nephew, a year older than he is.

And Mordred, always watching. He was beautiful, smooth-faced, with mossy-green eyes. She was reminded of the elegance of the snake gliding through the grass.

(A little tingle of premonition there?)

We are given occasional glimpses beteeen chapters of the dark queen, defeated by Arthur but who still has a presence, who uses magic to try to spy on Guinevere and callously uses up the lives of wild creatures to do so.

Because there are gaps in Guinevere's memory (she struggles to remember parts of her everyday life with Merlin) there is a sense of mystery as we discover our narrator while she is discovering Camelot. Guinevere - and I - feel the opposing pulls between the worlds of magic, chaos and wonder and that of man, order and technology.

This book tugs on my heartstrings; I loved being in this world but I was trepidatious for Guinevere so there were times I had to put the book down for a bit. And couldn't wait to pick it up again.

I'm hoping, despite the signs, that this Arthurian tale might go against tradition and end happily.

(May 2025)
5 stars

Litsy Notes

Guinevere rides to Camelot to marry Arthur. Except that the real Guinevere died and has been replaced. She tells no-one her real name, not even us. She seems to be Merlin's daughter, sent by him to protect Arthur against some unknown imminent threat, but she has gaps in her memories so there is a sense of mystery as we discover our narrator while she is discovering Camelot.

Re-reading. This book tugs on my heartstrings.

Ch 11: I grew up with the Knights of the Round Table and was sad at the ending of the stories. I read takes on the Arthurian tales for a while, hoping for a different ending but gave up. Guinevere is already feeling Arthur‘s charismatic pull but he doesn‘t reciprocate the feeling. Wikipaedia tells me that the love triangle was a later addition to the tradition … so 🤞🏼

My review from June 2020:

{First of 3; Camelot Rising trilogy. Fantasy, YA}

I got hit by a book bullet for this book and I am not happy.

Sixteen year old Guinevere is on her way to Camelot to marry the eighteen year old king Arthur - but she is actually a changeling witch put in place by Merlin to protect Arthur against the danger that is coming. Unfortunately Merlin, who lives across all times, has not been specific about what type of danger it is or when it will arrive and so the girl - who deliberately loses her name to magic so as to be more convincing in her role - does not know what to protect against or for how long she will be required to play her part. Merlin helped Arthur defeat the Dark Queen - the embodiment of chaos - but Merlin and all other practitioners of magic have since been banished from Arthur's lands so that, should she return, she should not find a foothold within Camelot. So the girl will have to practise her tricks, which she feels have nothing like Merlin's power, in secret so that she neither undermines Arthur's position nor has to leave Camelot and be unable to protect him.

And so the new Guinevere, who has grown up in the forest, must navigate the city and make new allies while not giving away her true nature and trying to discover what dangers she has to protect Arthur against. Meanwhile, as she wields her magics, she discovers gaps in her memories - maybe Merlin did not tell her the whole truth?

“Did Merlin teach you this?” Arthur asked, curious.

“No, he—yes.” Guinevere paused, trying to remember. Merlin would never stoop to knot magic, even to demonstrate it. It was far too human. Frail and temporary. She tried to conjure a memory of Merlin explaining it to her, teaching her. It would have been at their sturdy table. Or in the forest? She remembered her neat bedroll, the cottage she kept tidy. The trees and the sun and the birds. Staring at her own hands in wonder. Night and day, sleeping and waking, hunger and food and everything swirling and obscured as though she were searching through fog…

Merlin, frowning, pushing his fingers against her forehead. “This should be enough,” he had said. “Do not look for more.”

She rubbed at the spot on her forehead. He had pushed the knowledge into her brain. Willed it to be there, rather than teaching her himself. He could be very lazy.

“Yes, he taught me, in his own way.” She finished the knot.

Satisfied, she turned and almost ran into Arthur. He had come up behind her to watch her work.

“Sorry!” Her hands were on his chest. She pulled them back quickly. “I am sorry. I should go. I am tired.”

He walked her to the tapestry, pulling it aside again and holding it for her. “Thank you. I am glad you are here, Guinevere.”

“Me, too,” she whispered, surprised to find how much she meant it. And surprised by how much she wished she had told him her name after all.

As the door closed behind her, leaving her holding a candle in the dark passageway, she closed her eyes and leaned close to the flickering light. She whispered her name directly into the flame.

And then she blew it out.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Guinevere is a very capable young lady but she has to discover the ways of her new world as much as we, the reader, do as well as uncover what may be missing in her own past. And she has to work out what her place is at Arthur's side as his queen. Arthur is charismatic and tries to be all things to all people so it’s no wonder that they all love him. His knights have come to Camelot because they share his vision of what it can be, a beacon for justice.

She and Arthur both come across as very human, facing the uncertainties that come with their huge responsibilities while having to present a strong facade to those around them despite their young ages. I appreciated seeing them able to be themselves with each other. The people around them have lives and personalities too, such as her lady's maid Brangien and Arthur's nephew Mordred.

I must confess that the romantic in me is hoping that the cautious attraction between Arthur and Guinevere develops into something a lot stronger. I devoured so many versions of the story in my youth (partly because I wanted to be a knight) in the hopes that the shining dream that was Camelot would not be destroyed until I finally gave up in despair and refused to read any more of them. However, reading this book, I am hopeful again.

At the end of the book, although Guinevere is starting to find her place in her new life, the mysteries of the past are still mysteries. I can't wait to find out what happens next - but the second book in this trilogy isn't due to be published until the end of this year. Thank you so much whoever it was that shot that book bullet in my direction.

5 stars

Reading (ROOTs or otherwise) is going slow because we've been travelling; we're taking advantage of @firelion's (my younger son) school holidays and @superboy studying in England to explore Europe a bit with them. Our first stop was in London:

This is the photo @Sakerfalcon and I took when we met a couple of weeks ago:

View from the top of St Paul's dome (you can see the edge of the dome, past the railing); looking across the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Gallery.



@firelion and I really got our exercise in that day; we had to climb all the way up by iron stairs - no modern day lifts - which go up within the inside and outside of the dome (so we were climbing between the ceiling and the roof). From the St Paul's website: There are a total of 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery, 376 steps up to the Stone Gallery and 528 steps (total) to the Golden Gallery.

Really? It felt like double that ...



This was taken looking back at St Paul's as we walked to the Millennium Bridge. We walked around the gallery at the bottom of the dome (above the pillars in a circle) and you can also see the gallery at the top of the dome (below the pillars in a square) from where the first picture was taken.

This is looking down at the floor below the centre of St Paul's from the top of the (inside) dome. You can see the reflection of bannister of the stairs going up to the outside. I usually take perspective photos of staircases but obviously I was too busy climbing :0)



This is inside St Paul's. You can see the floor - and you can almost see the centre of the dome at the top, which is where I took the first picture from.

>28 humouress: Sounds like a fantastic trip! Thanks for the photos!

Love the pictures and my admiration goes to you and your son for climbing all those steps.

I hope your tour through Europe will be awful and a happy trip. Enjoy Nina!!!

>29 Cecilturtle: You're welcome Cécile :0) (sorry - I missed you before).

>30 connie53: Thanks Connie!

I'll add some photos from our Spanish leg of the trip here

Alhambra, Granada:



Palace of Comares, Alhambra; by day and by night:

 

Court of Lions, Alhambra; by day and by night:

 

A few more photos from our trip, this time from the Northern Ireland leg (we went to Belfast then via the Causeway Coast and Giant's Causeway to (London)Derry then cross-country and (at some vague point) across the border into Ireland (Republic of) and so to Dublin). These are from Giant's Causeway:



These are the amazing rock formations of the Giant's Causeway.

The story is that Fin McCool built a causeway to go over to Scotland to challenge the Scottish giant (I'm sorry, I forget his name) but once he got there and saw the giant, he realised he was much bigger than Finn, so he ran back to Ireland. Unfortunately the Scottish giant saw him and chased him back. Finn (dropping his boot as he fled - though we didn't go and examine that rock formation; however we did see Humphrey the camel) rushed back to his cave and asked his wife 'What can I do?' and Oonagh said 'Go into the nursery and get into the crib.

So Finn, did so, squashing into the crib and plopping the baby's bonnet on his head. When the other giant came in and demanded to see Finn, Oonagh replied 'He's out, but stop shouting or you'll wake the baby'. Finn accidentally made a noise (maybe squeaked in fear), and the Scottish giant rushed into the nursery to see Finn in the cradle. Well, he thought, if that's the size of the baby, I don't want to meet the father - and he ran back to Scotland, tearing up the causeway behind him.

Humphrey the camel:



(I think this was Finn again.) So Finn had seven league boots and liked to go wandering but his wife said 'Make sure you're home for dinner or you won't get any.' One particular day, Finn had ended up in Egypt and suddenly realised he would be late back. So he looked around for some way of getting home quickly and bought a camel. He rode it home (and was in time for dinner) and the camel liked Ireland so stayed on to this very day.

The Causeway, formed when America separated from Europe and molten lava came up through the crust but cooled slowly allowing the columns to form, was initially miles inland until more movement of the Earth's crust allowed the sea to come in.

There are also similar formations on the Scottish coast facing Northern Ireland. We were lucky enough that the weather cleared the morning we went there so we could see the island of Islay from the Causeway.



(You can see Islay on the horizon.)

And we saw dolphins surfing through the bay!

ROOT 10: A Hero Returned

third quarter; ROOT

46) A Hero Returned by Eura Abrams
{first of ? in The Last Rae of Hope series; fantasy, portal fantasy, sword and sorcery} (2025)

   

This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewer win for me and generally I enjoyed it. There were some aspects of it that I found slightly confusing but it was easy enough to go with the flow and assume things would be explained later (though it didn't happen in this book - maybe in the next book?). I don't read manga or web serials and I get the impression that this book is written to match those styles, so I don't know if I missed out on anything. I don't know if this is an authorial debut (currently this is the only book listed on LibraryThing for this author) but I found this better written than a lot of recent Early Reviewer books I've been reading; most of the rookie mistakes are absent though not completely (if I want to be nitpicky).

We start with a prologue titled 'How Did I Get Here?' which jumps in at (presumably) the end of the story - but unfortunately doesn't tie up with the end of this book (I would have left it out altogether or written one that did tie in to this book), though the story obviously continues so I suppose it will tie up with the end of the story.

The story proper (narrated in the first person, past tense by Rachel (Emily Smith)) begins with Rachel and her best friend Nora in school as they are making their college applications. Rachel doesn't have many friends but she and Nora have bonded over reading the same ongoing serial web novel, 'The Last Rae of Hope'; however at this point, after a climactic battle (but no resolution), the villain causes Rae, the heroine, to disappear and then the author announces that she is taking a hiatus from writing which upsets the girls.

The story continues about five years later when the girls have graduated from college and are applying for their first jobs. They both get an interview at the same time for a job at a publishing company and it turns out that, following their comments and ideas on the last chapter of 'The Last Rae of Hope', the author Eura 'Euphridia' Abrams (yes, the same name as the author of this story) wants them to help continue the story. However on their first day on the job they go through a portal to the world of Sperenza (a play on 'hope'?) where Rae (actually, only Nora calls her that, to match with the heroine of the web novel) is mistaken for Raelynn Lightbringer, Seventh Appointed Hero of Legend. They meet Raelynn's former companions - Iron Tiger Tetora and Aleph the Ox-like - and decide to head for the city of Chairo to talk to the Holy Sage Relias, another of Raelynn's companions, finding friends, foes and adventures on the way. Although the book doesn't end on a cliff-hanger, it is obviously not the end of the story.

I enjoyed this story including the 'post-chapter omakes' that follow some of the chapters towards the beginning of the book where Eura, Rachel and Nora discuss the book they are writing (ie this one) about their adventures, including some input from the villain - who doesn't seem so bad.

There are some hints dropped that I couldn't fit into the puzzle, such as Rachel getting help from other iterations of the heroine (such as Raeonna, Third Appointed Hero of Legend) who speak to her within her mind but can take control of her body and speech if they require; or a secret from Rachel's past which is gradually revealed to the reader over the course of the book but not really explained; or Euphridia being the name of the Goddess of this world. I'm sure they'll be explained in future book(s). It also took me a while to get the hang of Rachel integrating her thoughts and the reactions in her head into the flow of the story (even though, admittedly, I often have my own running commentary going inside my own head) because I kept missing the transition from speech to thought, but I appreciated them.

I did not appreciate the sudden appearance of randomly italicised phrases from chapter 23 onwards. In the last couple of chapters the writing tends to jump a bit; for example, Rae & co. take shelter from the battlefield in a warehouse and when they decide to join the battle there's suddenly a convenient stable full of horses just there for them. And if I'm going to be nitpicky, I felt that some word choices (such as 'A lump formed in my throat, threatening to activate that awful cranial nerve responsible for tears of sorrow') were a bit awkward (especially in the prologue and in the chapters towards the end). There is a map provided (yay!) but unfortunately, in the format I received it, it was rotated through 90º so it was a bit too small to read. But these were small issues which did not throw me out of the story.

I enjoyed this book and I'm curious to see how the story ends.

(July 2025)
4 stars

Litsy Notes

Received this via LT Early Reviewers. Sadly the map is at 90º so it's a bit small. Narrated in 1st person, past tense. It took me 6 chapters to realise that we're reading a book she's writing about her experiences (still getting into the story); 'omake' is Japanese for 'extra' and ch 6 has an omake with her discussing the writing with her co-authors.

I'm still getting the hang of this story but enjoying it so far.

Now that I'm getting the hang of them, I'm appreciating the post-chapter omakes. It also took me a bit to get the hang of Rachel integrating the reactions in her head into the flow of the story (even though, admittedly, I often have my own running commentary going inside my own head) but liking those, too.

Ch 23: sudden appearance of randomly italicised phrases

Some word choices are a bit awkward, especially in the prologue & near the end. In the last couple of chapters) tends to jump a bit (as with less experienced authors) eg they take shelter from the battlefield in a warehouse and when they decide to join the battle there's suddenly a stable full of horses just there.

Though it doesn't end on a cliff-hanger it doesn't link up with the prologue, which starts at the end with 'this is how I got here'

I think, perhaps, book cover isn't matching title - unless it has 2 titles

>35 EGBERTINA: For my 9th root? Yes, it's a bit confusing. It's the first (and currently only) book in The Last Rae of Hope series.

>32 humouress: I've added photos from the Alhambra in Granada (we also went to Malaga and Madrid)

and >33 humouress: from Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

This is from Dublin (ROI):



This is the stunning Long Room in Trinity College, Dublin; where we went to see the Book of Kells (which has its own separate room and exhibition). Currently, they are emptying the books from the Long Room to digitise them and to clean the books and the shelves. There is an art installation called 'Gaia' which is a globe suspended in the room which is based on NASA's satellite imagery of the Earth

Great photo's, Nina. That was a worthwhile trip.

>38 connie53: Thanks Connie. It was a good trip.

Phew! I've caught up with my reviews (of all 9 of my ROOTs) for now.

>40 humouress: Job wel done, Nina.

>41 connie53: Thanks Connie :0)

ROOT 11: Silver in the Wood

third quarter; ROOT

53) Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

{first in Greenhollow duology; novella, TOR, fantasy, romance}(2019)

 

I got this years ago as a free e-book from Tor.com and am finally reading it now. Set in a parallel (presumably) Britain similar to the Victorian era, mainly in the countryside, this is the first of a duology. We see this story from the point of view of Tobias Finch, a reclusive woodman (though he does have a cat)

Pearl graciously crawled into his lap and butted his hand with her head to indicate he might have the honour of petting her.

and he is a conscientious guardian (I love the fact that he always looks after his socks. And, of course, his knives.)

Tobias sharpened all his knives, and darned all his socks, and checked and rechecked his crossbow, and patrolled every night through the woodsmen’s copse and around the boundary-stones of the village.

The story begins when he invites Henry Silver into his cottage, since he is standing outside getting soaked in the rain. Silver has come to Greenhollow to research the legendary Wild Man of Greenhollow (or 'Greenhallow' as Tobias pronounces it). As he does, he relates the folktales he collects to Tobias and we (as readers) slowly uncover the legend, piecemeal, although there's a feeling that the puzzle may not be complete. Until one day Silver's ogress of a mother turns up - and everything changes.

“And don’t think you can send me off with thorns in my ears,” added the voice tartly. “The very idea! I don’t approve of you using a dryad for a guard dog, either. She’s much too old to be running about this way; you’ll go peculiar, young lady, if you keep this up.”

I like Adela Silver and her practical, no-nonsense attitude. When Tobias finds himself at a loss:

He had thought himself a thing uprooted, like the great oak, ready to begin his death.
“Mr Finch,” said Mrs Silver, the one time he said anything about it, “you are not, in point of fact, a tree.”

I did feel bad for the poor old, innocent oak tree.

I thought this was a lovely little story but I would have liked more information about the legends and stories within it. I thought the perspective of Bramble, the dryad, was interesting:

“And you, my dear?” Tobias said after a moment. “You should choose yourself a tree, you know. Plant yourself. Else you’ll get peculiar.”
“I am peculiar,” said Bramble. ”
...
“Good,” said Bramble. “He’ll need you.”
“You won’t, though.”
“No,” she said patiently, “because I’m not a people. But I will still love you.”

I hadn't realised this was the first of a duology; now I'll look out for Drowned Country to read as well.

(August 2025)
4 stars

Quotes:

Cat attitude:
“Pearl graciously crawled into his lap and butted his hand with her head to indicate he might have the honour of petting her.”

Tobias makes sure his socks and knives are always in tip-top condition:
“Tobias sharpened all his knives, and darned all his socks, and checked and rechecked his crossbow, and patrolled every night through the woodsmen’s copse and around the boundary-stones of the village.”

and he feels like part of the woods:
“He had thought himself a thing uprooted, like the great oak, ready to begin his death.
“Mr Finch,” said Mrs Silver, the one time he said anything about it, “you are not, in point of fact, a tree.”

The perspective of Bramble, the dryad:
“And you, my dear?” Tobias said after a moment. “You should choose yourself a tree, you know. Plant yourself. Else you’ll get peculiar.”
“I am peculiar,” said Bramble. ”
...

“Good,” said Bramble. “He’ll need you.”
“You won’t, though.”
“No,” she said patiently, “because I’m not a people. But I will still love you.”

ROOT 06: The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall (2011)

second quarter ROOT

23) The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall

{third of 5 in Penderwicks series; summer, adventure, growing up, children's, seaside, music}(2011)



I love this series. Why don’t I have it on my own shelves yet? (ETA: I do now.)

The Penderwicks are off on their summer holidays again, a year after the events in the first book. This time, though, the senior Penderwicks are heading for England for conferences as well as a holiday and Rosalind, the eldest Penderwick sister at thirteen who has helped their dad look after the other girls since their mother died five years before, is going to New Jersey with her best friend while the younger three sisters go to Point Mouette in Maine with Aunt Claire. They're hoping that Jeffrey, whom they met in the first book and is an Honorary Penderwick, will also be able to join them but his mother keeps changing her mind. Twelve year old Skye is the OAP (oldest available Penderwick - not old age pensioner) and very apprehensive about her responsibilities, especially about taking care of Batty - their five year old sister - though eleven year old Jane will be there to help her (not to mention Aunt Claire).

Gaining Alec’s trust made her trust herself more. Maybe they really could manage all this on their own. “ ‘Sol, a needle pulling thread,’ ” sang Aunt Claire in her sleep. Or maybe not, thought Skye. Her work had just begun, and she was already worn out and wondered longingly if she dare take a nap. Of course not—what kind of a message would that send to the others? She needed to do something practical and soothing. “All right, troops,” she said. “Let’s have lunch.”

And never forget Hound Penderwick who is holidaying with them too (although Asimov the cat gets to stay at home). Fortunately Skye has made a list - though that quickly becomes a casualty with only something about Batty blowing up being discernible.

Of course they have adventures. Not wild, wacky ones but believable summery adventures like meeting new friends (even Hound) or rescuing a dog paddling in the waves and getting soaked in cold sea water or walking through the pine woods in the pre-dawn to spot a moose family on the golf course. Batty discovers the joys of music and gives her first concert - despite Skye's disbelief, she's actually quite good. Jane is obsessed with writing her next Sabrina Starr book (which the whole family love reading) and has decided that it's time that Sabrina falls in love. The problem is that Jane herself has never been in love and has writer's block for the first time ever so she has to do research and ask other people questions about love.

Jane had occasionally tried to develop her own hidden depths, but she never could decide what to hide and how far down.

The biggest adventure of all, though - that's a heartbreaker (in a good way) (although the coincidence was a bit deus ex machina, admittedly).

I read this with a big smile on my face; some adventures were as simple as giving Batty her nighttime bath which was complicated when Hound decided to get involved and then Skye, Jane and the bathroom all got doused in bathwater too. I liked the way that Skye - usually rather harum scarum - stepped up to her responsibilities and deliberately kept calm even at times like when she discovered that Jane had cut half her hair off, rather unevenly; I was amused to notice that Skye often resorted to meals (and rightly so) to get everyone back on an even keel. And she’s fierce in the defence of her family.

At last, and just in time, the proper reinforcement arrived. The screen door opened, and out stepped Skye—still rumpled from bed, her hair going in all directions.
“She’s in charge,” said Jane, sagging with relief.
The balance of power shifted immediately. Skye was not at all pleased to see the interloper from Arundel, and a displeased Skye could be a mighty force, especially when she hadn’t had any breakfast

I highlighted so many quotes in my e-library book that I was starting to wonder if I'd end up just highlighting the entire book.

Classic and timeless yet contemporary. I'm going to have to buy this series for myself ...

(April 2025)
5 stars

root 12 - bee sting cake

ROOT 13: The Hound of the Baskervilles

third quarter; ROOT

61) The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

{fifth of 9 in Sherlock Holmes canon series; detective, Victorian England, London, Devonshire, moors, murder, mystery, Gothic}(1902/ 2024)

 

As a teenager I read as many Sherlock Holmes books as I could get my hands on (until I got a bit fed up with Holmes's omniscience); I'm hoping to interest my children in this classic (and then, hopefully, other classics). The introduction to our edition (Puffin Classic) is by Judith Kerr. Rereading this now I found it actually quite funny, at least at the beginning.

'I presume that it is Mr Sherlock Holmes whom I am addressing and not -'
'No, this is my friend Dr Watson.'
'Glad to meet you, sir. I have heard your name mentioned in connection with that of your friend. You interest me very much, Mr Holmes. I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull or such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.'

The story (the third novel but the fifth book in canon) is narrated in the first person by Dr John Watson, self-appointed biographer to Sherlock Holmes the great detective. It opens with them pondering the mystery of a 'Penang lawyer' (an Anglicised misnomer), a type of walking stick, which was left behind by a potential client. Having made deductions about the owner (erroneously by Watson, as it turns out), the man himself - a doctor, Mr ('Mister, sir, Mister - a humble MRCS'*) James Mortimer, from Dartmoor, Devonshire - turns up to reclaim his stick and to request Holmes's aid (and skull) in a case regarding one of his patients; Sir Charles Baskerville, a baronet who had rebuilt his decrepit family fortunes to £740,000 after the legacies in his will (in 1889 - which would be worth somewhere near £100 million today (September 2025)!). He reads out to them the Baskerville family legend of a wicked ancestor who was eventually, according to the legend, killed by a supernatural hound and then tells them that the current head of the family had recently died from unknown causes with a look of terror on his face.

'I presume, sir,' said he at last, 'that it was not merely for the purpose of examining my skull that you have done me the honour to call here last night and again today?'
'No, sir, no; though I am happy to have had the opportunity of doing that as well. I came to you, Mr Holmes, because I recognize that I am myself an unpractical man, and because I am suddenly confronted with a most serious and extraordinary problem. Recognizing, as I do, that you are the second highest expert in Europe -'
'Indeed, sir! May I inquire who has the honour to be the first?' asked Holmes, with some asperity.
'To the man of precisely scientific mind the work of Monsieur Bertillon must always appeal strongly.'
'Then had you not better consult him?'

Mortimer wants Holmes's advice as to whether he should warn off the heir, Henry Baskerville, who is just about to arrive in London from Canada, or accompany him back to Baskerville Hall. Holmes's response - especially after noticing someone following Sir Henry - is to send Watson to Devonshire with the two men since Holmes himself will be tied up in London with some important cases, but Watson is to report to him every day. It wasn't until a third of the way into the book that we finally left London and arrived at Baskerville Hall - sans Holmes.

And so Watson describes to us the gloomy, spooky nature of the Hall and the moors that surround it while he investigates the servants and neighbours on Holmes's behalf. The case is further complicated by an escaped convict from nearby Princetown prison and another suspicious character seen on the moors as well as by rumours of the unearthly cries of a hellhound.

The story telling varies between narrative, letters and diary entries. Conan Doyle originally serialised this Gothic-style story in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 - April 1902 (according to Wikipedia) so this tactic would have stretched out the narrative and encompassed a few cliff hangers to keep readers coming back for the next instalments. (At one point I felt sure we had lost Sir Henry as well, for instance.)

I must say that I have memories of being spellbound (and slightly scared) when I read this as a child but as a sceptical adult (with some vague memory of the outcome) I didn't feel quite as apprehensive as it did the first time I read this fairly slim book, though it does build the brooding atmosphere well.

Word of warning - this is a book of its times and there are cases of abuse which are written about quite matter of factly but which I found a bit upsetting; several animals die over the course of the narrative and it's a bit startling to remember that women were still effectively property of their husbands with few rights.

It is still well written and mesmerising. Don't worry - Holmes does turn up to save the day before the end.

I read this for the September 2025 TIOLI Challenge 6: Read a book discussed in any September on the BBC Worldservice Bookclub and then listened to the podcast. Obviously they couldn't interview Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself but they had two Holmes scholars who answered questions sent in by Sherlock Holmes societies around the world. These are points that I gleaned from listening:

- Though Conan Doyle borrowed ideas from contemporaries such as Edgar Allan Poe and Wilkie Collins he differentiated the Holmes stories by adding Watson as a narrator.
- They suggested that Conan Doyle didn't dislike his creation but he didn't like the pressure of producing the stories to a schedule
- and pointed out that there are similarities between Holmes and the villains he battles, such as Moriarty of similar intellect.
- Sherlock Holmes was such a success that he has seeped into the culture and affects it even now, inspiring such modern day characters as House MD.

- After disposing of Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, Conan Doyle succumbed to pressure to write more adventures for him; The Hound of the Baskervilles was written after, though set before, The Final Problem. He put the villain in plain sight and then distracts us.

- Holmes is missing for first part of The Hound of the Baskervilles and it is more of a gothic novel than a detective story. It sets the paradox of Holmes's logical deduction against the supernatural; Conan Doyle made use of medieval legends of supernatural hounds from parts of the country such as Devon, Yorkshire and Norfolk.
- Apparently Conan Doyle was writing gothic stories 20 years before he authored this book so it was not really a departure from the norm for him.

* MRCS = Member of the Royal College of Surgeons; once qualified as a surgeons, practitioners revert to 'Mister' (or other relevant title) from 'Doctor'.

(September 2025)
4.5****

Litsy Notes & Quotes

As a teenager I read as many Sherlock Holmes books as I could get my hands on until I got a bit fed up. I‘m rereading this now and - 8 pages in, it‘s actually quite funny. Too many instances already but their visitor‘s 1st request on entering is to examine Holmes‘s skull. I‘m hoping to interest my kids in this classic. Introduction (Puffin Classic) by Judith Kerr. £740,000 in 1889 is worth £121,517,801.68 today

Finally, 1/3rd of the way in, we leave London and arrive at Baskerville Hall. The story telling varies between narrative, letters and diary entries (was this originally serialised in newspapers?). Very Gothic.

From the podcast

- questions from SH societies around the world
- borrows from Poe, Collins
- adds narrator (Watson)
- seeped into culture; basis of eg House MD
- written after, set before Final Problem
- Gothic; CD wrote gothic stories 20 years before HofB; paradox of detective vs supernatural
- Holmes missing for first part (more gothic than detective)
- medieval legends from Devon, Yorkshire, Norfolk
- similarity between Holmes and villains
- villain in plain sight, CD distracts us

I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull or such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull'.

Dr. Mortimer on meeting Holmes for the first time.

'I came to you, Mr Holmes, because I recognise that I am myself an unpractical man, and because I am suddenly confronted with a most serious and extraordinary problem. Recognising, as I do, that you are the second highest expert in Europe -'
'Indeed, sir! May I inquire who has the honour to be the first?' asked Holmes, with some asperity.
'To the man of precisely scientific mind the work of Monsieur Bertillon must always appeal strongly.'
'Then had you not better consult him?'

Oops 😲

ROOT 14: Olive and the Dragon

fourth quarter; ROOT

63) Olive and the Dragon by Victoria Goddard

{(currently) first prequel of 7 +6 prequels in Greenwing and Dart series, or eighth of 33 in the author's recommended reading order of The Nine Worlds; fantasy, magic, woods, dragons, empire, Astandalas, Alinor, Woods Noirell, Fiellan, adventure, quest, manners, fantasy of manners, e-book}(2025)

  

shared read with @bell7 and @alcottacre

This novella takes place before the main Greenwing and Dart series and about a year and a half before the Fall of Astandalas, chronologically. Goddard suggests reading it in conjunction with Bee Sting Cake or in its publication order between Plum Duff and Bubble and Squeak.

Olive, of the Woods Noirell, has the gift of Sight and can see all possibilities of a person's life and, more unnervingly for her, some of those possibilities collapsing as that person speaks - or as she speaks to them. She loves the Woods but foresees a terrible disaster coming which cannot be avoided so she makes her choices to mitigate its outcomes as best she can.

Olive did not like living so far from her Woods, did not like that her son was growing up without knowing the Woods as she had known them. He did not run with magic at his heels and fingertips as she had, learning the wonders in every tree and every secret spring, with the River running like honey or sap through his veins.

But every future where they stayed he did not survive, and nor did the Woods.

As the story opens Olive has dreamed a summons from the Woods. Fortified with family lore she sends her husband and nine year old son safely away and heeds the call, wondering what she will find.

Olive is, of course, Jemis Greenwing's mother and her husband is Jakory Greenwing.

Olive was the daughter of the Woods; Jemis was her son, her heir, and the Woods knew that and wanted to know him quite as much as she wanted him to know the Woods and their people.

I have just read Bee Sting Cake and having learned in that book the story of Jemis's family it was a bit heartbreaking to see them when they were all happy knowing that tragedy would shortly strike. The story, as we walk with Olive to and through the Woods, feels like following a trail through woods with each step and turn in the path hidden or uncertain. We learn how very different - and dangerous - the Woods can be to the rest of Alinor (and Astandalas) and why this is so.

The Woodlanders said the wanderer meets their way, which could be a promise or a threat or a warning or a gift. That was the way of the Woods.

I found this amusing (especially with reference to Bee Sting Cake, since Hal was so excited about them):

here and there stands of the lindens (which the empire’s scholars called Tillarny limes, after some botanist who was not of the Woods and had not asked their name for the trees)

The ending of Olive and the Dragon was beautiful and well worth the journey.

(October 2025)
5 stars

Quotes

“here and there stands of the lindens (which the empire’s scholars called Tillarny limes, after some botanist who was not of the Woods and had not asked their name for the trees)” - amusing if you've read Bee Sting Cake

“Olive was the daughter of the Woods; Jemis was her son, her heir, and the Woods knew that and wanted to know him quite as much as she wanted him to know the Woods and their people.)”

“Olive did not like living so far from her Woods, did not like that her son was growing up without knowing the Woods as she had known them. He did not run with magic at his heels and fingertips as she had, learning the wonders in every tree and every secret spring, with the River running like honey or sap through his veins.

But every future where they stayed he did not survive, and nor did the Woods.”

“The Woodlanders said the wanderer meets their way, which could be a promise or a threat or a warning or a gift. That was the way of the Woods.”

Hi Nina, finally made it to your thread. And there I found a book that I've read too.
Silver in the wood. What you told about it was very familiar. I've read it in 2023.

>48 connie53: Hi Connie! Thanks for coming over. I liked Silver in the Wood; now I have to look for the second book.

I have it on my TBR pile as a digital book. I could send it to you, but I need an email adres for that.