The clockmaker’s Daughter

I went into this book all wrong. I read the description which talked about a mysterious murder and thought I was about to read a lovely murder mystery.

It is NOT a murder mystery.

This expectation might have colored my whole view of this book. I found it ponderously slow. I kept waiting for it to pick up with the death of somebody but that doesn’t actually get mentioned in detail until much later.

Other reviews that didn’t like it mentioned the swapping between characters as the problem that they had with the book. That part to me was okay. It wasn’t confusing at any rate. It did limit the amount of time you were with any one character and I think this did a disservice to all of them. There was never enough time to really care about them. Except,perhaps,Birdie.

The resolution was not believable for me. I won’t go into it but I didn’t feel that the way that the important death came about was very improbable. Certainly not with the dominant characteristics of several of the characters involved.

The book did remind me of my favorite childhood library book, The Ghost of Opalina by Peggy Bacon. And despite it not pulling me in like I had hoped, I feel that it will linger and gently haunt me for some time.

The writing was beautiful. The author has an expert command of language and description. The house was lovingly and vividly described. In some ways it was the main character. With that being so, I definitely fell in love with it.

I am curious about her other works. This one was so weighty and ponderous though that I want to cleanse my pallet with something quick and fluffy first.

Traveller’s Journal

I haven’t posted a book review in a while. I have read a few and when I finished I just wasn’t in the mood to write about them. And then I would be into the next book and the last one wasn’t fresh anymore.

What IS fresh and shiny new is my traveller’s journal. It looks like mermaid scales and currently has three inserts: a calendar, a bullet journal and a blank journal.

I started out thinking I was going to write actual journal entries in the back and then I thought about the fact that I carry this to work with me and leave it laying around the frame shop so maybe expressing frustrations or waxing poetic about the meaning of existence would be a bad idea. So I painted over my one entry.You can see some of it still but that is okay. It wasn’t my craziest thoughts ever. The banner says “Draw Freely”.

The next entry was a random prompt. I picked the number 15 and then found something with enough words nearby. (The instructions on a set of stamps) The word was position so I chose “Up” which I suppose now that I think about it is a direction more than a position but it was my first thought and I went with it. Had I been a little more clever and not thinking about what color I was going to paint the girl I would have turned her upside down from the words…or turned the words the other way around.Anyway I have collected far too many things for this new little toy. I hope it becomes more and more useful as time goes on and not something that I abandon after a few months. 🤞🏼

D.I.Y Magic

I wasn’t sure what I was getting with this book originally. The section that it came from suggested that it was pagan or New Age but the description sounded more like a book on how to be more creative and didn’t seem to have anything to do with magic. It turned out to be both.The author is entertaining and the exercises are clearly explained with just enough back story to make it interesting and easy to understand.Some subjects were very much along the magical/new age line like tarot and other forms of divination. Others were more about inspiring creativity.I was also very pleased that this was a very secular book on magic. It wasn’t Wiccan, Christian, or even eclectic. It was about making magic and being creative. The exercises don’t mention deity at all. I think that widens the appeal and potential audience. You aren’t having to wade through beliefs that aren’t your own for the tidbits of knowledge that you are interested in. After all you can always add your favorite deity on your own. 🧘🏼‍♂️

You are Psychic

I read this years ago and it really spoke to young new witchy me. I am curious if it still does. I read the preface and chapter 1 which is an introduction into his ideas about areas of the body that he calls “psychic reception areas”. One of the things he says in the preface is that we use only 10% of our brain. That was a pretty standard and well quoted “fact” of the time that really doesn’t seem to be true.10% brain use…sadly not true. I suppose my problem with this is the author makes a big deal about his MIT background so that you feel safe in trusting his knowledge and research… Only now I have this little piece of doubt before we even get started. Since the book is about psychic ability and not brain surgery I think it is safe to proceed. With a grain of salt and a small portion of open-mindedness and hope.

I do still love the stories that are told throughout the book as real examples of these abilities in action. They are easily relatable to everyone. The phone call you knew was coming, the warning feeling you got from someone who turned out to be a scam artist, the instant connection you feel toward a stranger and more. Everyone has these stories.

A Man Called Ove

Ove is charmingly grumpy from the start. (Like the above quote about jogging). I figured originally that it was going to be about a man who looks grumpy to people who don’t know him but then once they do they realize he isn’t so grouchy after all.Not at all. Ove continues to be Ove and everyone around better find a way to deal with that. I liked the interactions between him and his neighbours. They are all very real and easily identifiable characters that everyone has seen and met. The computer guy,the lonely hipster, the annoying woman with a hand bag pet, a sarcastic seven year old. The only one that was a little over the top was Parvaneh but she is necessary to further the story and isn’t so far into the realm of unbelievable that she can’t be forgiven.Ove has many funny thoughts and moments and many heart wrenching ones. In the end, I wished there were more men like Ove around these days.I definitely recommend it and so does the cute little dragon. (Follow Me Dragon app)

The Gallery

This was a cute quick read. The plot was a little predictable but the story was going quick enough that it didn’t really matter. I liked the author’s addition of newspaper clippings at the end of the book. (No, that doesn’t give away plot)🖼

The frames in the picture are some from work. The two big ones are frames that customers didn’t want. I am almost done chalk painting the white one. (It was a brassy gold). It will be a bathroom mirror. The larger one will get to be a future project but the size is perfect for my mantle.

Outrageous Openness

This was a good little book that was a fast read with interesting stories in it. I enjoyed it. However…

I had a problem with the very Judeo Christian total humility thing. You know the ” I am nothing. God is everything. Anything good I have ever done wasn’t because of me but was because of God. To him be the glory.”. Perhaps I have heard this said falsely too many times or perhaps I just have a hard time with understanding how to be humble one minute and then be God’s perfect creation the next. Then again maybe I am just pagan and following deities that don’t want that. Odin picked great warriors and wise kings to show great favor. Not the most humble of dudes.

Another minor twitch was the giving everything over to the Divine Order suggestion but then saying an affirmation like “My perfect job is already out there. It will be mine when the time is right.” What if God doesn’t want you to have a job? What if he wants you to stay and change this job until it suits you? I suppose you could say then that the time was never right but it just seemed often very much like the affirmation practice that she actively putting down. Which gets to my final quibble.

I watched a video of her talking to Google people and checked out her website. You are immediately prompted to give your email. She talks a lot about having built a community of supportive people who share their advice and experiences with this practice. It sounds very loving and inviting…and it can be yours for the low low fee of $40 a month. It reminded me a little too much of all those supposedly successful people wanting to HELP YOU get your fondest dreams of wealth with this one time starter fee, webinar, or book.

So despite having enjoyed it very much while reading it I was left with a feeling of offness. I think the advice is sound and the stories are wonderful. I am ultimately glad that I read it but I don’t think I will go in search of her other books.

Spinning Silver

I *was* reading Snow Crash but this came in and I couldn’t just let it sit there taunting me while I read a long book that would seem that much longer for me wanting to read something else instead. I tried to make a deal with myself that I would read a certain percent of the other first and then go on to this each day…but once this got going that didn’t happen.

So, it is good. I love the story and how everything in the different parts tied together. I love how this and Uprooted both seem like fresh new fairy tales with bits of folklore sprinkled in to make you feel like you are reading something older.

I kept wanting more romance which is unusual for me but there it is. I felt the same in Uprooted also. I suppose though they have the right amount for a fairy tale. Prince Charming would do his heroic bit and if you were lucky there was one kiss at the end. Here the heroes are heroines but the result is still much the same.

All together a very clever light read that was enjoyable from the beginning to the end.

Witchmark

I am finding that my reading is outpacing the artwork…or I that have to choose to do one or the other. So instead of not posting reviews I will post and occasionally they will have artwork.

This book was quite cute. It is a quick read with sort of an Edwardian feel but with magic. The area has storms that are kept at bay by mages working secretly on behalf of the monarchy. Those able to control the weather are most valuable and everyone else is seen as secondary.

Miles wants to live his life away from magic and his family, to use his knowledge to help the sick. Of course that doesn’t work out like he planned.

It is a little trope heavy but if those didn’t work then they wouldn’t be tropes. It sometimes gave the book a feeling that I have read it before. However there was new things as well and in the end I am looking forward to the next one.

Space Opera

I will be honest and say that I wasn’t sure I was going to like this one. Books of overt silliness like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are books I can only take in small doses.

The first chapter or so of this one made me put it down for a day or two. It seemed like Valente was trying too hard to be Adams or Pratchett. It was overboard on the metaphors and long winded descriptions to get a laugh.

BUT

It did get better and it started to have some sense of plot in the silliness and I started to enjoy it. It still isn’t my cup of tea but I liked it enough to do a little sketchbook page and,really, some of the long winded descriptions were actually kind of funny.👽