Dream dressed in blue

[dolorosa_12]

Saturday was a day of motion, today is a day of stillness, which to be honest is my ideal division of the weekend. It suited the weather perfectly: yesterday was baking and cloudless — one of those days that feels like the last gasp of summer — while today has been covered with a thick blanket of greying clouds.

Saturday morning was spent in yoga at home, then two hours of classes at the gym, after which point I met Matthias and we walked into Little Downham, a village a couple of kilometres away, following hedgerows covered in blackberries, and newly-harvested wheat fields. Our destination was one of the village's two pubs, which is run by a Thai family who make really nice Thai food — a great change from standard British pub fare. We ate lunch outside in the garden, surrounded by flowering rosebushes, marigold plants, and chili, tomato and capsium plants covered with ripe fruit. Every so often, people would ride past on horses.

Today, everything was sleepy and slow — crepes with tea and coffee, a visit to the bakery to pick up fresh bread, and lazy hours reading in the living room. I did a 45-minute yoga class focusing on the upper body, and finished off a whole book in an hour. Dinner will be something slow-cooked, with chicken stock, and rice, and garlic and ginger: the return of autumnal food.

I've read three books this week:

Moon Dark Smile (Tessa Gratton), which I somehow missed was the second half of a fantasy duology, but was comprehensible enough on its own. It's the story of an imperial heir, who sets out on a coming-of-age journey, accompanied by the palace demon (to whom her family owes its authority), which she has allowed to possess her so that it's able to leave the palace. It's also about cycles of revenge, the power of names in shaping identity, and finding confidence within yourself by understanding others. I'm always drawn to stories of consensual possession and weird love triangles (particularly those that involve three people but only two bodies), and Gratton writes these things so well here.

Red Smoking Mirror (Nick Hunt), an alternate history novel in which Islamic Spain (i.e. Al Andalus) never collapsed, and instead went on to 'discover' and colonise the parts of our world that became the Americas. This book is set some time after the initial voyage and colonisation took place, and an uneasy equilibrium has been reached by both old and new residents of the region — but the seeds are there to rupture and then shatter this state of affairs. The narrator is an ageing Jewish man, and the emphasis is very much on minorities, people on the margins, and people who translate and move between cultures.

Goodbye Eastern Europe (Jacob Mikanowski), a social and cultural history of that part of the world, mainly focusing on the nineteenth century onwards, and drawing on strands of thematic commonalities across regions and/or countries, rather than focusing on the political history of individual places. I found this to be a refreshing approach, as it emphasises interconnection rather than looking at individual countries (or regions) in isolation.

I might have time to pick up another book this afternoon, but I suspect that will be it in terms of completed reading for the week.

Comments

[oracne]

Goodbye Eastern Europe sounds intriguing! I like books that give you context like that.

[dolorosa_12]

I thought it was really excellently done.

[chestnut_pod]

Red Smoking Mirror sounds very relevant to my interests -- and I've had the Mikanowski on hold for ages!

[dolorosa_12]

You're definitely one of the people I thought of when reading the book — so many of your intersecting interests! I hope you're able to get the Mikanowski book eventually.

[merit]

I actually have a copy of Night Shine by Tessa Gratton that I have yet to read. Waiting for me on my shelves. More or less purchased because of Gratton!

It sounded like a lovely weekend :)

[dolorosa_12]

More or less purchased because of Gratton pretty much sums up why I end up buying her books!

It was indeed a good weekend.

[lokifan]

Looovely! I'm so happy about the return of autumn.

[dolorosa_12]

Me too!

[hoarmurath]

*slaps Goodbye Eastern Europe onto the reading list*

One day I will probably scroll past a post of yours without adding a book(s) to the reading list, but not today. :D

[dolorosa_12]

You were one of the people I thought of when I was reading it!

One day I will probably scroll past a post of yours without adding a book(s) to the reading list, but not today. :D

Haha! That is partly why I write them, so it's always pleasing to know people are getting recommendations.

[hoarmurath]

Me: someone thinks of me? :3

Just imagine than Bryan Cranston gif where he is delighted and shocked.

But yay! I will try to circle back to tell you what I thought whenever I get to the book. :P

[dolorosa_12]

Well, the book started off with the author saying that no country in Eastern Europe wants to think of itself as Eastern European, and it reminded me of what you said about Baltic countries saying they were their own different thing, and more like Finland, and not really Eastern European ... and then coming to your own realisation that you felt Eastern European, and that you felt certain commonalities between countries in the region with similar histories and experiences.

Which is basically what the author ends up saying as well. (His parents are Polish but he grew up in the US.)

[svgurl]

Sounds like a good weekend! It's nice to have balance, with one day being more active and the other being slower. :D

[dolorosa_12]

That's definitely my preference, so I'm glad it was able to work out like that last weekend.