Mountain & Trees

One of the most amazing things about living in Washington state is the amazing nature we have here. We have mountains, ocean, and forests. Not just ordinary forests though, no, we also have rainforests.

My friend and I on our summer road trip stopped at the Olympic national park to visit one of the rainforests. It was so amazing to see. There are so many species of plants and trees that I had not seen before. While many of the trees were evergreen trees they often had visible roots because there was so much moisture in the air.

I have always loved trees even as a child. I wanted to grow up and be a scientist who studied trees. It was the only thing I thought about doing science for. I enjoy the forests and the shade. I love living in Washington where the trees are green all year round. I have gone to visit places where the trees are bare and brown during the winter and it is so depressing. Having green all year round all around us is so wonderful. I appreciate it more and more.

I also love the mountains. Nothing quite compares to them. They are majestic and rise above. I often think about versus and stories in the Bible that involved mountains. Where I live, there are also volcanoes so you know that this beautiful thing can also erupt and destroy everything. This used to terrify me more as a child but not as much anymore. I wonder if this is me getting too comfortable and easy with life or if my childhood anxieties have shifted to other things. More present worries about paying bills, stable income, and health insurance cause a more present and immediate anxiety than the distant possibility of a volcanic eruption.

Jane the Killer

The best summary I can give of this book is that is basically a Jane Eyre retelling except Jane is a serial killer. This book was classified under mystery at my library which I didn't understand because we know exactly who Jane killed. However, there is a mystery in the book. so I do understand why it was classified as such. Also, while I would best describe this as a retelling, the character of Jane Steele actually reads the novel Jane Eyre and is telling us her story because Jane Eyre's life is so similar to her own.

Jane Eyre is one of my favorite classic novels, so I was very interested in reading a retelling. I was both intrigued by the idea of Jane Eyre being a killer and also slightly disturbed. However, Jane only seems to kill men who hurt women which isn't really a good justification for killing anyone but I suppose revenge killings make her more relatable to the reader.

The novel does also discuss topics like colonizations with the East India company and how they invaded India. I am not sure the novel entirely covers the topic to satisfaction but I am also not sure that is the novel's purpose either. However, there is diversity in the cast of characters that is amazing. Many characters are characters of color and while not explicitly stated there is an asexual character and a lesbian character. The sexuality of the characters is not made a big deal of in the book and issues around sexuality in Victorian England are not covered and I actually like that. These characters just existed and that was one of the most refreshing things I have read. The words asexual and lesbian are not used to describe the characters in the novel but I think that is entirely appropriate to the era as those terms are fairly recent terms. To use those terms would actually have been historically inaccurate.

I want to speak about the love interest in the book which if you have read Jane Eyre you know exactly who it is. Though none of the characters' names are the same except for Jane's first name. Mr. Thornfield is wonderful. He is so much better than Mr. Rochester. There were questionable things about Mr. Rochester that make him a bit problematic and semi manipulative. Mr. Thornfield is not like that at all. He still has is issues and flaws. An interesting character is never perfect but Mr. Thornfield is just wonderful.

I honestly really want a sequel to this book so I can just read about Jane and Mr. Thornfield solving local crimes together. I am so bummed that there isn't.

Oceans & Infinity

This past summer I took a road trip vacation with my best friend. We visited the ocean and Olympic national park. When I stood beside the ocean, I could not help but feel how incredibly small I was. How the ocean is so powerful with the crashing waves.

When I looked at the horizon, it continued endlessly. There seemed to be no end to the ocean and it just continued on for infinity. No end. It began at my feet but continued forever outward. The beach I was standing on a mere beginning point to a journey.

One thing that scares me about the ocean is the depth. It feels infinite. I have nightmares of being thrown off a ship with hundreds of miles of ocean beneath me and not knowing where the bottom is. It feels as if the ocean is bottomless and that fills me with terror. It is perhaps a more irrational fear but it is a fear nonetheless. The most terrifying this to me about the Titanic sinking is how deep the ocean is and how the people freezing on the surface didn't know where the bottom was. There is also no way to know what exists in all those miles of ocean.

Perhaps the ocean is like a person. They exist infinitely within. Thoughts begin but never end. There is no truely knowing another person completely. It is what makes people so exciting and terrifying. With some people, you only map the surface and with others, you plumb the depths. If you want to know the depths of a person though they have to let you in.

It makes me think of that quote from Doctor Who when the TARDIS is in Idris and she said "Are all people like this? So much bigger on the inside."

Review: Vassa In The Night

This book can be described in one word: bizarre. I was originally drawn to it because it was a retelling of a Russian fairytale.  Thankfully it is not a long book and a quick read. The setting in Brooklyn was a bit weird to adjust too and there and I have mixed feelings about magical realism.

Most of the way through the book it confused me about what was going on exactly. There were scenes that were so strange they reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. There were other themes that were moving through. Vassa's relationship with her dead mother was complicated and the concept of grief. There was a scene that made me cry. I often cry when it comes to mother and child relationships. In a short despite the confusion and bizarreness of the story, I enjoyed it. I certainly wish there was more explained about the relationship between the character of Babs and the other witch. Much was left a mystery that it would have been helpful to understand better. I could see a sequel to the book to expand on this.

I would also like to note. that I ordered this copy of the book used online and was incredibly surprised to discover that it was a signed copy! I don't know why anyone would sell their signed copy of a book.

Reading On the Go

I have always felt it was important to have a book or two in my bag at all times. You never know when you might be able to catch a moment and do some reading. I have found places to snatch reading on the bus, in the waiting room, and while waiting to be picked up.

For the purposes of carrying a book, it is important to make sure that you have a bag or purse that is big enough to hold one very large book or 2 smaller to medium-sized ones.

I will admit that reading on the bus can be a dangerous game to play. One has to be careful what kind of book you read. It needs to be interesting enough to pass the time but also not so interesting that you lose all sense of time and place and miss your stop. Sometimes one must also be careful about the subject matter. It can be quite embarrassing if the topic is quite steamy to be reading it in a place of public transit. It is also embarrassing to read something very sad and end up crying your eyes out on the bus or in a waiting room.
However, one is not always able to tell from the cover or summary of the book what exactly the contents are so, in general, I try to avoid books that look of the romance novel or romance novelesc or books so summary hint at possible tragedy.

Lady Jane Grey Retellings

I am a huge fan of historical fiction and one of my favorite eras to read about is the Tutors and Plantagenet's in England. Lady Jane Grey is one of my favorite people to read about. Her story fascinates me with the political intrigue and drama. The tragedy of her story also makes it more compelling. Since I have read a few different retellings of her story I have decided to write a post where I list them so that if you are looking for books on the subject you can find them. Please suggest some to me if you know of some that I have not already read. I will probably add to this post as time goes on.

 Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
This was the first book I ever read about Lady Jane Grey and it is probably my favorite. Alison Weir is an amazing historical fiction writer because she writes amazing characters while following events. She does sometimes change things to suit the plot but she always has a detailed historical note in her book about what she changed. This book while centered around Lady Jane Grey's story does have different perspectives. There are characters with subplots that are sprinkled throughout the story. Even though you know how it ends you are still so devastated.

Three Maids for a Crown by Ella March Chase
This book covers the stories of the three Grey sisters Jane, Katherine, and Mary. Before reading this book I knew that Jane had two sisters Katherine and Mary but I didn't really know much more about them. Both of them had fascinating and also tragic stories. It has been a while since I read this book and it doesn't stand out as much to me as the other books did and so I don't remember much about it.

Her Highness The Traitor by Susan Higginbotham
I have to say that when I read this book I was mostly reading it because I loved the topic and I was a little skeptical that anyone could make the story interesting or tell it in a different way. Well, I was wrong. The retelling is told from the perspective of the two mothers Francis and Jane the mothers of Jane and Guilford.  It was also a very interesting way of exploring how Jane is held up as a saint when really she was a teenage girl. In fact, Jane in this book wasn't the most likable character and that was an interesting way of telling the story. I highly recommend this retelling. It is refreshing.

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows 
I was not prepared for this book. I had to completely separate this book from what I knew happened in history. First off, this book is also a fantasy book. I believe magical realism. Also, the book has a happy ending and in addition, the romance is heavy in this book. It was just so different. I absolutely loved the ending because I so want Jane to have a happy ending and this book gives on. My one critique is that I felt the authors didn't have a clear grasp of how titles work. Mary and Elizabeth would absolutely have not been addressed with the title of princess. They were legally considered illegitimate children of Henry VIII so they would have been called Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth. I realize this book is 95% fiction and 5% based on history but understanding British titles and the importance of birth.

This is the end of my list. Please, please, please tell me if you have any other Lady Jane Grey historical fiction novels.