“Calling on Dragons” by Patricia Wrede

This is the third book in the Enchanted Forest chronicles, I talked about the first book here and the second book here. This book keeps the pattern of going with a different narrator, and for this one we get the witch Morwen! Which is incredible because that means that we can understand her cats as well.

Morwen lives in the Enchanted Forest, and one day her cats discover a huge rabbit. The rabbit’s name is Killer, and he was eating some innocent-looking clover when he started growing. So they head over there and discover evidence of wizards using the clover to change their size, as well as a small wizard that Morwen promptly melts. They take this to the King and Queen of the Enchanted Forest, Mendelbar and Cimorene. Kazul the King of the Dragons is visiting as well, and their magician friend Telemain. While there, they discover that the wizards have stolen Mendelbar’s magic sword that maintains peace and prevents the wizards from draining the forest of magic. As a result, Morwen, Kazul, Cimorene (who we learn is pregnant), Telemain, and the increasingly cursed rabbit Killer (who ends up a blue donkey) all set out to find it. Mendelbar wants to come, but he has to stay in the forest to maintain peace in the absence of the sword.

On the way, the group runs into a fire witch who helps them find the wizards’ lair. Once there, they steal the sword back. However, they are too late. By the time they get back the wizards have attached the castle with Mendelbar inside. Now there’s a bubble preventing anyone who isn’t a wizard from entering. The sword could disperse it, if the King of the Enchanted Forest wields it. But he is trapped inside. The group resolves that their best course of action is to wait for Cimorene’s baby to grow up and wield the sword, finally releasing Mendelbar.

Alright so the ending. That’s a hell of an ending. And quite the lead up to the last book in the series. It almost feels like… a bit too much for the series. Up until now, things have been able to wrap up so neat and tidy, it feels ridiculous that their best course of action is to do nothing and wait for another sixteen years or so. Having said that, the book does say that Cimorene never gives up trying to get to Mendelbar. So at least she’s putting in the effort.

There is a subplot about the witches being accosted by some guy who wants the witches to look “traditional” and things like that. I really enjoyed how Morwen bucks those trends, she has nine cats and none of them are black and wears what she wants and in general does not look like a stereotypical witch. And even though this is just a side-plot, the entire series is about characters rejecting the stories that are set for them and doing what makes them happy. It’s a really sweet and important message to bring along with the upending of fairy tale tropes.

There are few ways to make these middle sequels stand out, but that ending really does nail this one. I think I’ll be thinking about that one for a while. And it does make me really excited to finally get to the last book of this series.

This Is Beautiful: Not Going Into Work

 This should be obvious but it is so nice when you can stay home and not go into work. Two weekends ago I had to go in over the holiday but last weekend I got to stay home while my undergrad took care of it. It was so nice, I mean I still had to do work but at least I didn't have to go anywhere.

Marquette and the Upper Peninsula

Over the summer my partner and I went on a short trip up to the upper peninsula of Michigan. We drove up to Marquette first, and spent most of our time there. There were a surprising number of good restaurants and breweries to check out!

One of the highlights was the bookstore, Snowbound Books. It has used books and new ones! Despite the fac that the store is tiny, the shelves everywhere pack in a lot of product. There’s also a really cool spice and tea store, Spice Merchants. They have these lovely packs of pre-mixed soup spices that we grabbed a bunch of. And there’s a bagel place! With decent bagels! Incredible.

The best part, to me, was the couple of hikes that we went on. First was Echo Lake and then Presque Isle. Both are gorgeous, with lovely views of nature. At Echo Lake we even found wild blueberries! Presque Isle also has Black Rocks, which are these rocks that people jump off of into the water. We didn’t do it, it was freezing and windy the day we went, but it’ll be fun to do later.

We also took a short trip to Negaunee as well. Not as much there, but we found some caving grounds from old mine shafts and got pasties! It is interesting seeing how the town is incorporating mining and its history into how it attracts tourists.

Finally on the way back we went to Mackinaw Island. I had never been before, but my partner used to go every summer so nothing new for him. It was cool, I love a walkable city and this whole island doesn’t allow cars! If you want to see the whole thing you have to rent a bike or a horse. Having said that though, it does feel a little like Disneyland, with how cute and clean it is. Most of the shops are within a few blocks of the harbor and are crowded as a result. Beyond that there’s the fort (which we didn’t go to) and the Grand Hotel which is huge and fancy and all that. So really our visit only took a couple hours, but it was fun for that period of time. Any longer would not have been worth it.

All in all, I thought it was a good visit. We got to see nature, I got to see where my partner grew up, and we had a sprinkling of history and tourist sites throughout. Next time we go up I really want to check out Pictured Rocks so maybe we will make a dedicated trip.

This Is Beautiful: Staged Season 3

 Alright I have been a big fan of Staged since it first came out, but I was really late to finding out about the third season. I might have written about it before, but to sum up I thought that the first season was great, the premise for the second was fine but poorly executed. And I thought the third season was amazing!

The season opens with the boys getting back together to do a radio play, very similar to the first season. But then at the end of the second episode Michael storms off and episodes three to five are actually documentary footage of them working on the season, trying to pull it together with everyone leaving. A lot of it is about how to do new things while still staying true to the original idea/concept of the show. And it culminates in a live show where they improvise "A Christmas Carol." And very sweetly, they decide to end the show.

This was so fun, the season gives plenty of time to Michael and David while still letting their wives (particularly Georgia) and other minor characters shine. It hits a really good balance where the banter is funny and the other characters actually play a role in the plot. It also doesn't rely on Michael and David fighting the way season two did, instead has them trying to work together to pull off one last season.

It's so good, highly recommend the whole show, but particularly this season. It's short, only 6 episodes, but they're all excellently crafted.

“You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain” by Phoebe Robinson

This was a book that I stumbled on somewhere within the house since my partner had a copy. What with all the free time I had while recovering from surgery, I decided that I would pick it up.

The book is a series of essays roughly surrounding being a Black woman in the entertainment industry. Robinson covers many things from her hair (in the title) to her guilty pleasures. It ends, really touchingly, with letters to her recently born niece about being a mixed race woman in the world.

Now I’ve read a bunch of books that, broadly, speak about race and this one is definitely the funniest that I’ve read so far. Robinson is a comedian, and damn, she is good at her job! The book is sprinkled with jokes and pop culture references. (Keep in mind that the book was written in 2016 so some of the references are dated.) And should you think that the jokes are a bit too far, she even has an essay on the trope of the “angry, Black woman” and how that often makes her feel as though she has to cut any criticisms she has with humor.

More broadly than that though, as someone in the entertainment industry she brings up issues that I hadn’t heard of before. Or issues that I knew existed, but I didn’t know the specifics, such as casting calls that weren’t written by people of color. Sure, I can imagine that would be an issue, but I don’t frequently see casting calls so I couldn’t tell you how they are discriminatory and poorly written.

Anyways this is a hilarious and entertaining book. Even if you don’t pick it up wanting to learn about race and racism in America, you will likely still have a good time reading it. And hopefully, learn a thing or two!

This Is Beautiful: Mindfulness

 Some backstory to introduce this: I used to be a meditation and Buddhism nut. When I was in high school it was not uncommon for me to be reading things like the Tibetan Book of the Dead and things like that. I also used to meditate for close to an hour a day at my peak. But I fell off of that in undergrad and haven't been able to get back on. These days I feel exercise serves as my mindfulness, like dancing and yoga. If there was a meditation group I would join, I had one pre-pandemic, but it has been a bit.

Then a few things happened this week. A weekly mindfulness group popped up! Only thirty minutes, but it is virtual and I am pleased it's back in my schedule. Plus I read a book about yoga, I'll have a post about that soon, but reading gives me the space to absorb these teachings and think about them so much better. And I haven't read a book about this for a while! It was really nice to get back into it.

I know there's issues with mindfulness but it's helped me so much over the years. I hope this is the start of me getting back into it.

“Searching for Dragons” by Patricia Wrede

This is the sequel to Dealing with Dragons which I wrote about in this earlier post. Again, this is a book that my partner is reading to me, so I very funnily do not know how to spell most things in the book. But, it is an excellent sequel that continues to play with fairy tale tropes in entertaining ways.

The story follows Mendanbar, the King of the Enchanted Forest. He finds a patch of the forest that is totally destroyed, along with some dragon scales. He takes these to the witch Morwen and she figures out that it’s the scales of one dragon and suggests he take them to the King of the Dragons, Kazul. However when Mendanbar gets there, Kazul is missing and Cimorene is about to go look for her. They figure out that the scales belong to one dragon who isn’t around anymore, and deduce that the wizards are likely behind this. They go looking for Kazul, and on the way meet up with a magician who can help them, a wicked uncle and crown prince, and a few cats. Of course the book ends with Mendanbar and Cimorene getting married, but that’s the only spoiler that I’ll give.

So the highlight of this book is finding all of the vague fairy tale allusions. There’s a dwarf who can spin straw into gold, but only for other people, and no one can guess his name so he’s become parent to many first-born children. Mendenbar and Cimorene suggest that he start a school, and spin gold as a scholarship which is very cute. The wicked uncle never thought he’d be an uncle when he joined this Wicked Society but now begrudgingly has to do something wicked. And the crown prince is in on it and really wants to go have adventures. But Mendenbar decides to send him off to the dwarf’s school, which counts as something wicked because the prince emphatically does not want to go to school. It’s things like that where the fairy tale gets upended, but it also serves the plot very nicely.

The book is clearly written for children though. Of course the villains are the same and of course they’re after the King of the Dragons again. The aspect that most bothered me though was Mendenbar and Cimorene getting married after absolutely no romantic interactions. The most intimate is Cimorene putting her hand on Mendenbar’s shoulder. Which is all fine, I get that kids aren’t looking for a huge relationship leading up to a marriage, but it goes against the first book. The first book really deconstructed the fairy tale trope of people getting married without knowing each other, and here we are falling into it!

Overall though, the book is good. It expands on the world from the first one and the change in perspective is a really nice way to do that. We are now halfway through the Enchanted Forest chronicles and I am excited to hear the rest of it!