Best wishes that your Christmas is a wonderland!

¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´) Tristan

Back in Blogland After the Longest Year of My Life

 

Hello and thank you for visiting me again and most joyous of holiday seasons to you and yours! It's been almost one year exactly since I have posted here at Enchanted Revelries. It's been a long 2022 here in New Haven ... but things are beginning to look up and I'm feeling more energized. So, I'm going to make a start at a return to my blog.

I'm not going to go into a long dissertation about the woes of the past 10 months. But, I'll give you a brief run-down of why I have been inactive and out of the loop. I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Large Cell Lymphoma; underwent 12 weeks of high intensity chemotherapy and radiation; contracted pneumonia; contracted Covid; due to the combined forces of pneumonia and Covid, I got a collapsed lung. During the 7 months I was in the hospital, my muscles atrophied from disuse, and was unable to walk (had to use a wheelchair).

AND, I've had to give up driving (permanent issue). So, not only is it inconvenient to get around, I don't just get up and run out to do an errand, since it requires a transport scheduling (they have to be able to wheel me into the van in my wheelchair).

That's it. But, the year is over, and I'm improving dramatically. My visiting nurse who comes daily to drain the catheter from my collapsed lung says that the volume is diminished noticeably by the week. I've done a little baking for the holidays (though nowhere as much as I used to do!).

And just to show you  how shallow I really am, the worst part of this whole ordeal is that the chemo took out my hair, beard and eyelashes. 

 I have managed to do a little decorating for the holidays. I decorated Christmas trees (seven this year), and put up a few displays - but, it's a low key holiday for us, so it's more than sufficient. Before I sign out for the day, I thought I'd share some of my Christmas trees and the decorations. (Oh! And I don't know if they've changed the program here in the past year - but I believe if you want to examine something closer, if you click the image it will embiggen!)

This is the Marilyn Monroe tree ...

 

 

I've always loved the Nutcracker Suite ... Here is our tribute tree to Clara and the rest

 

and a few of our Nutcracker Suite music boxes under the tree...

Here is our Valentines tree ... I should probably wait until Valentines Day to put it up, but I decided to go ahead as I was on a roll! That ugly cord isn't nearly as obnoxiously obvious and visible in real life!

And another holiday-specific theme tree - our Hallowe'en tree - these ornaments (almost all made by various craftsmen and artists) are too special not to be seen except for a week or two in October!

My favorite children's film from my younger days right up until today ... the Wizard of Oz! We have two trees with ornaments. And then a few of our Wizard of Oz music boxes and collectibles. There's just no way to get them ALL out at one time!

I've been a fan of the classic Disney films since I was a child. I've been collecting ornaments, memorabilia, music boxes and vintage (as well as a few newer pieces) figurines for almost 50 years.

...and quite a few of the music boxes, and figurines, and memorabilia. I only collect the three classics (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty) and only a couple of favorites of the newer ones (Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and 101 Dalmations).

Well, that's it for today. Again, thank you for visiting me again after all this time! I hope to be back soon as I continue to get back in the swing of things!

¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´) Tristan

 

Out with the old and broken, in with inspiration and hope!

 Wishes that 2022 will bring you peace, joy, contentment, good health, inspiration, and love,

¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´) Tristan

My "BFF" Nails It Again ... Though It Makes Me Sad

 I've been rather down in the dumps lately. More than that, perhaps, even in what might be labeled depression. The state of our nation and the division in our society has affected me as nothing else has since the days of the Viet Nam war and I spent my free time away from classes working with organizations to muster together marches and demonstrations. And at least then I was leading with hope. I'm not even sure I have that now. I have spent uncounted hours reading and watching lots of films - and many of them have been first rate. But, I've been in no mood to write reviews or rave rhapsodic over entertainment. I'll get back to it soon. I need to take a breather from this gloom and doom I've allowed to wash over me. However, this week's message from my newest BFF (who I have never actually met 😉) sums up my current disposition perfectly.

Yes World, It’s That Bad Here in America—and Worse

December 1, 2021 / John Pavlovitz

 

 

A reader from Australia texted me last night. He’d been watching the news and said he wanted to check on me.

We’re heartbroken to hear what’s going on there. he wrote. Is it really as bad as it looks?

Another sweet friend from England messaged me this morning, with similar concern for me and for our nation based on what she’s been reading and seeing in the media.

Over the past few months I’ve had many kind-hearted people from all over the world make similar inquiries about America, asking if it is as dire and alarming up close as it appears from a distance.

Yes, it is.

In fact, it’s far worse here on the ground, because all the ugliness you can see from thousands of miles away (outside of a few politician’s faces) is probably still rather abstract—a largely undefinable, faceless wave of malice and bigotry, something to be analyzed and studied later.

But here on the ground this malignant sickness has a face, one that is far too familiar:

It’s the face of family members whose newly revealed racism is regularly leveling us around the dinner table.
It’s the face of former church friends, who have completely abandoned the Jesus they claim faith in and chosen the vilest of idols.
It’s the face of once pleasant neighbors who casually regurgitate extremist propaganda in sidewalk conversations.
It’s the face of childhood friends spewing anti-immigrant filth on their social media profiles.
It’s the face of storeowners and hair stylists and restaurant workers, the interactions with whom, have become walks through minefields.

So yes, it’s the staggering cruelty of those holding the power here—but just as much it’s the people we know and live alongside who are so gladly empowering them.

Yes, it’s the complete bastardization of the rule of law and the systems of protections our forebears put in place to avoid putting our nation in such peril—but it’s our coworkers and uncles and classmates who don’t seem to give a damn about that.

Yes, it’s one political party’s sociopathic lack of empathy and their unrepentant viciousness—but it’s the people we’ve shared Thanksgiving dinner with and served on mission trips alongside, who share their venom and boost their signal.

Yes, it’s Republican politicians’ incessant attacks on LGBTQ people and immigrants and Muslims and the sick and the vulnerable—but it’s the once kind-hearted people we love, who have been so poisoned by partisan talking points and perverted Christian theology that they celebrate all of it.

That’s why this is all so bad.

We’re certainly losing the big things here: the integrity of our elections, the stability of our Republic, the faith in our systems, the illusion that our Republican leaders will put anything over power and party.

But we’re losing much more than that.
We’re losing the soft places we called home: our families and our churches and our circle of friends.
We are swiftly and almost hourly seeing the relational fractures that may have always been there beneath the surface, but are now visible and cavernous.
We’re trying to decide whether to fight for relationships we’ve spent our lives nurturing, or whether we need to severe those connections in the name of self-preservation.
These things will never make the news or make a global impact—but they are rocking our personal worlds to the bedrock.

So we’re marching and protesting and working and resisting in the face of this monumental and historically malevolent national political cancer—and while we’re doing that, we’re also trying to preserve our families and our friendships and our workplaces, which are also hanging by a thread.

This is a Constitutional crisis and it’s a family emergency.

We’re wondering what happened to our nation—and to people we once loved and respected; to our parents, grandparents, siblings, neighbors, and best friends.

Yes, our Democracy is in peril, but our most treasured relationships with people are in tatters too.

We are trying to salvage both and it’s exhausting.

So yes, friends around the world, thank you for caring about us in America.

It is as bad as it looks from where you’re standing.

But it’s far worse, too.

By John Pavlovitz

John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.

 

Thanks for stopping by Enchanted Revelries. 

I hope you'll return and I'll be more in the holiday spirit! Have a wonderful weekend.

¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´) Tristan

 

 

 

 

I’m Not Saying Conservative Christianity is Anti-Jesus. Jesus is.

 I’m Not Saying Conservative Christianity is Anti-Jesus. Jesus is.

 The steady stream of vitriol I receive from professed Christians who identify as MAGA or QAnon or Republican is completely understandable.

As they fire-off threatening texts, furiously tap out expletive-laden emails, and break into violent, performative histrionics on social media, I genuinely feel for them. They’re often getting some really bad second-hand news from me that blows up the story they’ve spent a long time telling themselves and depend on to validate and to justify them.

They’re coming face to face with the sobering reality that they are antithetical to Jesus.

Worse than that, they aren’t hearing that news from me—they’re hearing it from Jesus.

There are few things that confound and infuriate Conservative Christians quite like the simple, clear, unadorned words of Jesus as documented in the Bible they so loudly and frequently claim to love, believe in, and live by. It’s almost miraculous:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.  Matthew 5:9

When you’re part of an antagonistic movement built almost exclusively on a self-righteous battle posture: on a theology and politics that require an enemy, an adversary, an encroaching danger, a culture war foe to be defeated—the idea of being a peacemaker really pisses you off. MAGAs don’t like peace. They refuse to coexist with it. They cannot abide it. It’s not a compatible idea.

Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.  Matthew 25:45

The poor, the outcast, the hurting, the hungry, the homeless, the lonely. Jesus said he literally inhabits the most vulnerable among us, and that the way we treat them is the way we treat Jesus himself. That’s a really disturbing reality, when you spend so much of your time denying people healthcare and cutting social programs and assault voting rights and legislatively attacking people for their sexuality or their nation of origin or their pigmentation. The news that according to Jesus, you devote a great deal of your life treating Jesus like garbage—tends not to be received too well.

For God so loved the world…  John 3:16

The world. God loves the world. That includes the planet, the climate around it, the resources within it, the disparate humanity and expansive life upon it. No America First. No “Go back where you came from” nationalistic bluster.  No, “Don’t Tread on Me” middle-finger defiance. If you so love the world as God does, you fight for diversity, you welcome immigrants and foreigners, you demand environmental responsibility, you want more people to have voices, not fewer. When America becomes your world—you’re opposing God.

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.  Matthew 26:52

That’s the part of the oft-quoted story that gun-loving Christians never want to read: the part where Jesus reprimands his disciple who uses a weapon to defend him, reminding him and those listening, that his people will not be a people of retributive violence, that they will be those who shun force and turn the other cheek and resist harming others and de-escalate conflict. That is a really hard truth for the NRA, God and Guns, Come and Take It crowd, who really want Jesus to be cool with their instigating, posturing bloodlust—and who have to hear straight from Jesus that he isn’t.

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.   Matthew 22:37-39

Loving your neighbor. Jesus says unequivocally that this is the priority and the point, and the way we show our love for God: the way we treat other human beings. When Conservative Christians realize that this includes their Muslim neighbor, their transgender neighbor, their Jewish neighbor, their Liberal neighbor, their uninsured neighbor, their undocumented neighbor, their black neighbor—they usually don’t react very well.  When you aren’t able or willing to practically or tangibly extend love to such a vast portion of your neighbors in any meaningful way, that is a difficult theological pill to swallow.

Honestly, I empathize with people who want to be both Christian and MAGA, who think they can be devoted to Jesus and to Donald Trump simultaneously, who labor under the false assumption that their bastardized, territorial, self-centered white nationalist GOP version of Christianity is remotely of God.

And I know that the actual words of Jesus are the most triggering of any they could be faced with, and so the venom these generate aren’t surprising and neither is their scalding rage toward those of us who regularly share those words with them.

MAGA friends, I’m not saying this white Republican theocracy built on power, exclusion, and subjugation that you’re tethered to is anti-Jesus.

Jesus is saying that.

I know you really want to shoot the messenger.

That’s been going on for two-thousand years.

 By John Pavlovitz

 

John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.

On the Day Fascism Wins Here

The Day Fascism Wins In America 

October 27, 2021 / John Pavlovitz

What will you do on the day fascism wins in America?

Months from now, when you realize that the terrible things you always dismissed as virtual impossibilities have actually come to pass, how will you feel?

When it becomes sickeningly clear that January 6th, 2021 was not a final and resounding defeat of this malignant ugliness but merely a postponement of its eventual victory, what will run through your mind?

Will you regret not taking it all more seriously?

Will you grieve the loss of the nation you dreamed we could have been?

Will your heart break for your children and grandchildren and for the terrifying future they will now inherit?

Will you lament your silence, your inaction, all the times you abstained from the fight because you were too tired or too lazy—or simply because you never imagined this was even a remote possibility?

Will you desperately pray to rewind the world and have one more chance to do and say and give all that you did not before fascism won?

It will all be somewhat irrelevant, because on the day fascism does win you will have far fewer choices than you do right now. Your voice and your vote and your options will no longer mean what they mean as you read this.

Our Democracy is not guaranteed, our Republic not ensured to survive, the freedoms and systems that we always saw as a given are no longer fixed promises. The sobering truth, regardless of whether we want to believe it or not, is that we are perilously close to losing many of the elemental liberties we assumed could never be taken away.

The good news is that we are not quite yet there.

Fascism has not yet fully won, which means we do not have to grieve all that we did not do or say or give, if we do and say and give it now, if we use today wisely.

We still have this sacred and urgent present moment to engage in the fight and to sacrifice what we can and to leave no work undone—and to call upon our better angels to show up and spend themselves on behalf of the America we wish to see and the future we dream of leaving for those who will follow behind us.

America, we are a hair’s breadth from authoritarianism; from a conservative white theocracy at the hands of a small minority of the absolute worst human beings among us. We are at the precipice of forced submission at the hands of people who fully despise diversity and equity and empathy. This is not hyperbole or sky-is-falling histrionics, it is the sober and clear evaluation of what will be, if the kind and decent human beings of this nation choose to stay silent or procrastinate away our activism or assume that justice will prevail simply because we cannot imagine it failing.

History has shown us the cost and the consequence of good people underestimating hateful people’s capacity for inhumanity. What we have seen over the past five years should be all the evidence we need, that we cannot dismiss this viciousness or rationalize away why it cannot win, or turn away and anesthetize ourselves with social media and streaming binges and pray for the storm to spare us even though we are in its path.

On the day fascism wins here, I hope you will speak and work and fight like hell to bend the moral arc of the universe toward justice. We will need the good people here more than ever, then.

But since fascism has not yet won, I hope you will martial all of your energy and the totality of your resources and every bit of passion you have for this nation, the planet, for the people you love, and for those you will never know but care deeply about—and you will empty yourself to make sure that fascism does not win.

Don’t fall asleep.
Don’t turn away.
Don’t relent.
Don’t let someone else fight for you.
Don’t assume decency’s victory.

Don’t pray, wish, or hope that fascism does not win.

Make sure it doesn’t.

It’s all in your hands.

by John Pavlovitz

John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.
 

 

The Doll Factory ... and a weekend in Venice

 

 

☆☆☆☆+

What an astonishing book. I started to read it thinking it was going to be a murder mystery with an historical setting. What a surprise to discover that it takes place in mid-19th century London, and the characters are the reknowned Pre-Raphaelite artists Louis Frost, John Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rosetti and others. And that the principal character was none other than Elizabeth Siddal, the Pre-Raphaelite artist who is best remembered today as the model for the very famous Millais painting of Ophelia drowning in the pond with all the flowers around her.

I found it fascinating that this book - obviously well researched - took these people and completely fictionalized a story around them. Nothing taking place during the time period in the novel is factual. In fact, the novel would lead one to believe that Ms. Siddal was the wife of Louis Frost, when in real life she was actually married to Rosetti.

London itself is a major character in this book - and the events that took place in it. Especially events such as The Great Exhibition of 1851 (the precursor of The World's Fairs) and the venerated Royal Academy curated yearly "On the Line" exhibits by the finest artists in the nation, both of which play large roles in this novel. The author does a marvelous job of bringing the images and sounds and smells of the city fully to life. It's very easy to feel yourself living in the world of the novel while reading it...a special gift to me, as a reader! And she doesn't shy from making the squalid and brutal as tactile as the lush, beautiful and splendid. It was all part of that world and all part of this story.

 

Courtesy of Jeanie at The Marmelade Gypsy blog, who recommended them, I spent an enchanting weekend in Venice. I didn't get to fly over to Italy (darn it), but I read two terrific novels over the weekend by Donna Leon which take place in Italy. This is the post in which she discusses them.

The Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries are a series about a police detective in Venice and his astute ability to ferret out the evil-doers in that marvelous city. He has a splendid bevy of of cohorts in both the assistant policemen in the constabulary and his family which he heads with his wife, a socially conscious lady of independent means. Another major character in these books - at least the two I read - is the city itself. And Ms. Leon does a splendid job of dredging up all my fond memories of Venice from my college 3-month stay there as an exchange student. She has a way of bringing the unique way of traversing the city (you have two choices - get a boat or walk) fully to life. I was also amused that Commissario Brunetti started his day out with cappuccino and brioche from a sidewalk cafe/bakery every morning; that was just exactly how I started my mornings 50 years ago! Neither of these books took place during the magical event of Carnivale. I was fortunate to have spent my college time there during Carnivale, and I have since returned on holiday for Carnivale. I am hoping that one (or more) of these stories takes place during that fantastic and exotic time; I'm getting the entire boxed set, so I'll know by the end of the year!

The mysteries themselves I found intriguing and original. It was a fluke that the two I picked up happened to have the same sort of theme about them: the murders involved socio/ecological interests. I've read some of the other descriptions of the books and they're filled with more lurid subjects (greed, adultery, sex, dysfunctional families, etc. 😂). I really was rather surprised by the guilty parties - and the standard murder mystery 'chase' scenes in both books were raised a notch with the necessary addition of the Venice canals and boats and unique street layout.

The writing is sharp and clever. The characters are honest and sincere, but they also often have a touch of cynicism and dry humor that livens them up and makes them very urban and real.

These are fun - and quick - reads - and I thank Jeanie for the recommendation. I look forward to more.

Right now I'm in the midst of a most strange and unusual and rather wonderful book, The Perfume Thief, by Timothy Schaffert. I'll let you know about it next week!

Thanks for stopping by Enchanted Revelries. I hope you found something you think would be a good read for you! Be sure to stop by Beverly's Pink Saturday Blog Hop to see what other choice morsels are being offered ... and you might like to check out whatever is new over at Jeanie's Marmelade Gypsy blog!

... now go make something beautiful!

¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´) Tristan

 

 

 

When Your Personal Freedom is Killing People

All you regular readers know that I periodically - well, three or four times a year - will share a post from John Pavlovitz' Stuff That Needs To Be Said blog. This is one that I feel not only needs to be said, but is said extremely well...

When Your Personal Freedom is Killing People

Freedom is an unearned privilege—and you have it.

If you were born here in America you inherited it.

It came with your breath and your birth certificate.

That freedom actually wasn’t free though—it was quite costly and someone prepaid it on your behalf.

You never met them and you’ll likely never know their names.

They paid for your freedom in filthy, putrid trenches decades ago and half a world away.

They paid it on blackened beachfronts littered with the blood and body parts of strangers.

They paid it cold and alone on frozen countrysides, in places their bodies still remain.

Others paid in churches in Birmingham and on campus squares in Ohio and in streets of Chicago.

Generations of Americans sacrificed family and future and body and breath, so that you could be pulled from the birth canal nestled in the warm embrace of the easy liberty you’ve come to believe you deserve.

Which makes it all the more tragic and shameful how little regard you have for that freedom now, how much you’re squandering it over and over because you’ve decided the simplest of requests are too much for you to bear and constitute an assault on your personal liberty:

Putting a tiny piece of cloth over your nose and mouth while you’re at the grocery store.

Getting a free vaccine that has been carefully researched by people qualified for this very work.

What a stupid, selfish waste of the freedom people paid so dearly for.
What a brazen middle finger to those who gave everything.
What a squandering of the gift that is this nation you claim to so love.

Your courageous, selfless forbears were asked to fight and die on foreign soil in order to save other American lives—and they did.
They braved bombs and bullets to perpetuate this place where liberty resides and you were generously handed.
In times of war, people here went without for years in cause of the soldiers who were preserving the democracy we were born into.
Activists here gave up security and safety for your right to vote and marry and to live unfettered by tyranny.

Today, you’re being asked to simply make the smallest effort to accomplish the same noble task and you can’t manage that. You are interpreting your temporary, tiny, fleeting inconvenience as perpetual and inhumane persecution—that’s how soft and sad we’ve become, how small our battles now are, what we see as worthy causes.

That’s the way freedom works, though. No one gets to tell you how to wield it or what merits your indignation or what is worth your outrage.

But from where I’m standing, you’re making a mockery of the lives of Americans, who in trenches and on beachfronts and countrysides and churches and campuses and street corners, spilled blood and lost limbs and sacrificed life on your behalf. You’re showing stratospheric disregard for other human beings who share this place with you, all in the name of not wanting to be told what to do.

That’s the thing about the “personal freedom” you seem to be missing: it was never supposed to be just about you. It wasn’t purely about independence, it was about interdependence: about loving our neighbor as ourselves, about being our brother’s and sister’s keeper, about caring for one another because we’re all in this together. That’s what the anthems declare and the statues proclaim and the songs ring out.

You’re being asked to wear a mask and get vaccinated, not just for you, but for other Americans:
so that vulnerable people aren’t exposed to a virus their bodies likely cannot overcome.
so that already exhausted healthcare workers will not be overwhelmed by a continual flood of sick people.
so that thousands of unprotected children don’t get sick and disrupt the school year and kill their teachers and bring home a deadly virus to their families.
so that we aren’t hit with another tidal wave of sickness and death that we will be unable to come back from.

But if you feel like that’s asking too much of you, go ahead and scream and complain and protest and threaten and beat your chest like you are defending liberty: that’s what someone sacrificed so you could do.

I’m just not sure your politics and your preferences are hills worth them dying on.

I think you may be wasting your personal freedom.

I think it’s getting people killed.

That may be a you problem.

-- by John Pavlovitz

Just something for you to think about - and perhaps also share with others, if you're so inclined. 

...now go make something beautiful!

¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´) Tristan

John Pavlovitz
John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.

 

 

The Lost Pink Saturday Blog Hop Post

 As most everybody who has read my post with any regularity knows, I always credit people whenever it's appropriate. I started blogging almost 20 years ago, and it's just second nature to me.

Today, after almost 3,000 posts, I neglected to do so. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.

Well. Although I usually only receive about 5 or 6 comments on each post, my inbox was FILLED with comments from people letting me know that I hadn't given credit to the original author. And these were not pleasant informative posts; not every single one was nasty - but over half were ugly hateful snide and vicious.

I got so upset (and, admittedly, angry) at the tone of many of these messages (think bitter, lonely, disillusioned, and chip on the shoulder abandoned wives), I just deleted the entire post. I wish they weren't cowards and identify themselves so I could do something that would really make them vent their spleens - like maybe tipping over an outhouse on their front lawn.

So, no post this week. 

¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´) Tristan

 

 

 

A Pink Saturday Movie Star ... and Some Terrific Books!

Halfway through a marathon of Ann-Margret movies, I realized she must have worn pink more times on screen than any other actress! I figured she needed some representation on this week's Pink Saturday post!

I would say something obvious like, she's certainly pretty in pink! But, face it, she was pretty in just about any color!

I have some great books this week for you to think about when you're selecting a new read next! I've been a very lucky reader, with some very good ones this week!

☆☆☆☆

I'm not sure if this is one of the most fascinating and interesting books I've ever read; or if it's one of the most disgusting ugly and warped views of humanity I've ever read. Either way, it's at the top of the list.

It takes place in 18th century Stockholm, in the absolute destitute areas of privation. Squalor, filth and casual brutal violence are the order of the day. A body has been found in the sewage pit of a river: a corpse that has no limbs, no eyes, and no tongue. The watchman, Mickel Cardell, an amputee ex-soldier and Cecil Winge, a brilliant lawyer, dying of consumption, turned consulting detective to the Stockholm police, are teamed to ferret out the murderer. First, they will have to find out who the mutated corpse was.

In another street in the same hellish location, a young woman has been falsely accused of prostitution and is sent to a "work farm" which is little more than slave lodgings and torture.

To this horrendous milieu a young man comes from the rural countryside to make his fortune - and is swiftly led to his destruction.

These four people - and the corpse - intersect each other's lives and change them, sometimes without being aware of it.

This is a bleak, bitter and cold - both figurative and literal - world for this mystery and character study to revolve in. The characters are not pretty - they do not rub elbows with admirable people - they do not hope to save the world or even believe the world can be saved. They certainly don't believe they can be saved themselves. But they all struggle on trying to survive. There are elements of it that reminded me at times of the pathetic existence of those in the novel Angela's Ashes, but this always managed to surpass the horror.

And yet, it was fascinating. Perhaps in the way you don't want to look at a traffic accident, but can't stop yourself. I just kept reading - voraciously - to find out what was going to happen next; and yet I almost dreaded to find out.

So, take from that what you will. Perhaps it will intrigue you and you'll want to try it. Or maybe you'll discern it's not your cuppa. For those who love a good mystery, this is not ever going to be included on a list of 'cozies!'

 

☆☆☆

This was an interesting premise for a mystery/thriller. The setting is late 17th century Boston, and witchcraft trials are taking place around the New World settlements. Mary Deerfield, a young and beautiful widow decides to take a popular well-to-do man as her second husband. Unknown to her - or almost anybody in the city - he is a secret drunkard and violent wife beater who murdered his first wife in an unprovoked fit of rage. During one such rage, he brutalizes Mary and she decides she must divorce him; divorce at this time was no small matter and she was going to have her hands full. But, it gets worse when she is suddenly called out as a witch and she is not only fighting to get out of her marriage, but fighting to save her life from the bonfire execution decreed to all condemned witches.

This was melodramatic and passionate - and a ripping good story. There were chase scenes and hiding scenes and amazing surprises when characters expose parts of themselves I didn't expect at all.

If you want to have fun with an historical murder mystery/thriller, this is a good one. It's fairly short and a quick read. There's also a tad of romance in there, but not nearly enough to spoil it!

☆☆☆☆

Oh, my! I finished this thoroughly enjoyable mystery early last evening - and I'm still chuckling over some of the turns of phrase and astute observations on the human condition generally and the film business specifically.

Pretty As a Picture is written from the point of view of a nebbish-y, OCD afflicted, neurotic and fiercely loner female film editor. Marissa Dahl ("as in Roald, not as in Barbie") is hired to edit a prestigious film by current Hollywood artiste bad boy, Tony Rees and is spirited away to a resort island where the filming is taking place in a retro grand hotel which was the scene of a murder years ago. And the roller coast ride begins!

Marissa is obviously somewhere on the spectrum, though it's never stated outright. However, her quirks, neurosis and psychologically required daily rituals are treated not only with respect and compassion, but often with self-deprecating humor that is never insulting or offensive. Autism is not really in my wheelhouse, but I feel as if I understand it a bit better after reading this book. And the education comes with many chuckles and at least one hearty guffaw in every chapter.

The mystery is confusing, infuriating, deliciously scandalous, and compelling - and, I have to admit, the resolution was out of my reach...in fact, I thought I had it all figured out and couldn't have been more wrong. I love that in a mystery!

Add to all that a fantastic (in all senses of the word!) array of secondary characters - from the actors, producers, crew and director of the film, to the man mountain bodyguard who has been assigned to protect Marissa on the shoot, to a pair of teen internet influencers who have turned to amateur detecting.

I also love the way the author has created a multi race cast of characters with race never being an issue. Sometimes in a description she will state whether a character is black or white or Asian - sometimes she doesn't. I decided about half way through the book that Marissa was black. I don't know why I decided that - nothing STATED that she was - I just 'felt' she was. Then, by the end, I thought she must have been white. It doesn't make any difference. But, it added to the 'unknowns' in the book.

But, on top of it all - oh, so so so clever and funny. I recommend it to any and everybody. Even teenagers can be urged to try it - there is little in the way of cursing (I don't really recall any, but I don't want to say that definitely) and no sexual activity described, and the pacing of the action will keep any young person interested.

I'm keeping this on my Nook 'top' of the list because in a few months I want to read it again...I'm sure I missed a few quips or jokes in there! 

 

Well, that's it for this week. Hope you enjoyed a little Ann-Margret this morning - and perhaps found a book that you didn't know about that sounds interesting to you.Thanks for stopping by Enchanted Revelries - be sure to check in at Beverly's Pink Saturday Blog Hop and check out all the offerings there this week! And then, go make something beautiful!

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(¸.•´ (¸.•´) Tristan

Enjoy a little Ann Margret in pink with your morning cuppa!