Amalia Gkavea

  This is most definitely NOT a collection of the finest ghost stories from Ireland. This is an array of classic 19th-century Gothic tales from extremely well-known writers (Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, W.B. Yeats, etc...) but first and foremost, it is an absurd shrine to the ‘'inimitable'' skill of Sheridan Le Fanu built by the editor who literally worships him. There are only two women included in the volume and 350 pages are dedicated to seven (!) stories by Le Fanu, a writer whose writing, imagery and dialogue have never managed to attract me in all my long years as a reader and a scholar of British/Irish/American Literature.
My favourite stories from an infuriatingly underwhelming collection were:
‘'The wood upon the other side was very thin, and broke the moonlight into long streams. The wind had arisen and had begun to drive the clouds rapidly across the face of the moon, so that thin streams of light seemed to be dancing a grotesque dance among the scattered bushes and small fir trees. The tops of the trees began also to moan, and the sound of it was like the voice of the dead in the wind; and the troopers remembered the belief that tells how the dead in purgatory are spitted upon the points of the trees and upon the points of the rocks.''
The Curse by W.B.Yeats: A story taking place in the era of the Civil War. A score of Puritan troopers finds an old curse awakened in the heart of the Sligo woods. A legend that makes use of the hag who washes the clothes of those who will soon meet their demise and the presence of the Sidhe from a time lost in the mists...
Hanraham's Vision by W.B.Yeats: Another atmospheric story by the great master who pays tribute to the Celtic past of the land. In this beautiful tale, you will be visited by Deirdre, Grania, Dervadilla and Dermot. If you don't recognise the names, it's time to brush up on your Celtic Mythology.
‘'It is absurd asking me to behave myself,'' he answered, looking round in astonishment at the pretty little girl who had ventured to address him, ‘quite absurd. I must rattle my chains, and groan through keyholes, and walk about at night, if that is what you mean. It is my only reason for existing.''
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde: The marvellous Gothic satire of a ghost who tried his best to frighten an American family but his ‘'guests'' were just too obstinant and rational. This beloved story contains one of the most tender and memorable bonds between a child and a desperate spectre.
The Old House in Vauxhall Walk by Mrs J.H.Riddell: A man that has found himself homeless and hopeless discovers the macabre secret of an abandoned estate and his life changes. An atmospheric, moving tale.
The Haunted Cellar by Thomas Crofton Croker: A man finds a Cluricaune Nageneen, a more mischievous and annoying cousin of the Leprechaun, in his cellar.




 

  ‘'Little lady, little lady'', said the boys, ‘'little Alexandra,listen to the watch, tick tick tick: mother in the room alldecked in gold.''
When Life is anything but a fairytale, Folklore is there to help you escape. This outstanding collection created by the inimitable Angela Carter is THE volume to grace every reader's bookcase. A plethora of tales from every corner of our world centred around female protagonists that represent all the beautiful and evil aspects of the human soul. Brave women, resourceful girls, virtuous maidens, witches, troubled matriarchs, strong minds and cunning tricks, women delving into black arts, mothers, wives, daughters, morality tales and cautionary myths. 
My absolute favourites in this be - all and end - all volume for every fairytale aficionado are:
The Search for Luck (Greek) Mr Fox (English) Kakuarshuk (Innuit) The Promise (Burmese) Blubber Boy (Innuit) Vasilisa the Priest's Daughter (Russian) The Three Measures of Salt (Greek) Now I Should Laugh, If IWere Not Dead (Icelandic) The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle (English) Tom Tit Tot (English) East O'The Sun and West O'The Moon (Norwegian) The Armless Maiden (Russian) The Girl Who Banoshed Seven Youths (Moroccan) The Woman Who Married Her Son's Wife (Innuit) The Juniper Tree (German) Nourie Hadig (Armenian) Nature's Ways (Armenian) The Twelve Wild Ducks (Norwegian) Vasilissa the Fair (Russian) Diirawic and Her Incestuous Brother (Sudan: Dinka)
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/



 

  ‘'Silent, grim, colossal, the big city has ever stood against its revilers. They call it hard as iron; they say that no pulse of pity beats in its bosom; they compare its streets with lonely forests and deserts of lava. But beneath the hard crust of the lobster is found a delectable and luscious food. Perhaps a different simile would have been wiser. Still, nobody should take offence. We would call no one a lobster without good and sufficient claws.''
O.Henry created stories about misfits. Ex-cons, middle-class girls, frustrated tycoons, people in the margin of society and affluent citizens whose life is just too disappointing. Above all, his stories compose an ode to New York, the Metropolis, the Giant, the Shelter and the Punisher of its citizens. 
It would be impossible to name every favourite story in this collection but the stories I returned were:
The Gift of the Magi - The classic Christmas story of unconditional and unlimited love. A Cosmopolite in a Cafe - A literary map of the soul of the USA. Springtime a la Carte- A lovelorn couple is united because of a typewritten card. The Furnished Room - A beautiful ghost story dedicated to the world of Theatre. The Trimmed Lamp - The contrasting ambitions of two girls reward the one and teach a lesson to the other. The Last Leaf- In the most moving story of all, the kindness of a neighbour brings a young woman back to life. The Third Ingredient - Sometimes, when all seems lost and impossible, the coincidences of Life - or is it Fate? - conspire to make your wish come true. The Door of Unrest - A haunting take on the legend of the Wandering Jew. The Marionettes - A despicable patient is no match for a wise Greek doctor. The Dream - In his last, unfinished work O.Henry creates a hallucination in which a man dreams of a crime he did not commit and the death penalty he did not deserve.
 

  ‘'I am now alone, in a non-place, surrounded by street signs with names that are only phonetics - empty signifiers.''
Two young people find and lose one another across the world. The narrator takes us into the heart of a beautiful and complex relationship that is fed by long conversations and Chinese folk tales. We experience his thoughts on love, loss, colonialism, western idols and appropriations, but most of all, his journey is an ode to a young woman who is as complex as the bond between the east and the West.
‘'Why don't you say something? The silence is making me uncomfortable.''
In moments of uneasy silence, miscommunication and emotional distance ou narrator contemplates issues of belonging, actions and consequences. Should we be defined by the place in which we had the fortune or misfortune to be born? Should societies like Macau sacrifice their identity to the altar of profit? Do we haunt the street of our childhood long after we died? And what about love? Where does love leaders? How do we retain our personality when we ‘'surrender'' our daily life to that special person that entered our lives?
Macau, Tokyo, Toronto, Taipei, Prague. Sheung - King creates a beautiful sense of place and time. The scenes in Prague will transport you to the Golden City. The trees, the evening lights, the street lamps in Toronto, the noise of a Mecca of casinos in Macau, the neon signs of Tokyo. And somehow, exquisite, haunting folk tales find their way into the narration to create a unique mixture. I loved the references to Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Haruki Murakami's After the Quake, Yoko Tawada's Persona, Han Kang's The Vegetarian and the acute criticism towards Coppola's horrible, offensive ‘' film'' Lost In Translation that is the epitome of Orientalist racial stereotyping. 
The lines between Fiction and Memoir are blurred to create the most beautiful, whimsical confusion and the story of an unforgettable relationship between a sympathetic, tender narrator and a striking, enigmatic woman. I loved every page, every paragraph of this novel and I can't wait to read more by Sheung - King.
‘'I am the one who waits.''
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ 

  In the Faroe Islands, nothing is certain. The unpredictability of the weather, and the harsh landscape make this beautiful corner of the world the Land of Maybe. Tim Ecott has prepared a wuthering journey in the North, in a country that still remains a mystery, creating all sorts of haunting images in our minds. 
He goes back to their Celtic roots, their Viking heritage, the complex History of the 20th century. He highlights the ancient tradition and ancestral ways that link the Islands with Ireland and the Outer Hebrides and explores the sagas that chart the course of the Faroese people who have learned to fight against all odds to survive a majestic yet inhospitable landscape. From snippets like the haunting painting Home from the Funeral by Samal Joensen-Mikines to stories about cunning souls like Annika Isaksdottir, legends about the huldufolk and Raven - Floki, we are taken into the heart and soul of the Faroe Islands.
However, I could not and WILL NOT appreciate the writer's emphasis on the numerous accounts of animal slaughter and his fervent and constant attempts to support the islanders' justification of barbarity under the vague and thin veil of ‘'tradition'' and ‘'survival''. And I am not interested in weak excuses such as ‘'respecting one's customs''...
So, read it at your own risk.
 

  ‘'Lopez means:son of Lope,son of wolf.But it's the Lopez womenwho have always howled the loudest.They had to be fierceand stubbornto survive.''
‘'They fled the pyres(the flamesfueled by hatred)devouringthe street corners,synagogues,cemeteriesof Spain,crossing the ocean with their faithand Shabbat candlesticktucked under their skirts.''
Ilana leaves Miami for Prague. She is a daughter of refugees from the Czech Republic and Cuba, a girl whose ancestors faced the torture of the Nazis and the tyranny of Castro's regime. Her parents have already planned her future but Ilana knows that she has her own course to take, her own restless spirit to follow. When they decide that a European summer in the company of her aunt will change her mind and make her more receptive to their parents, Illana leaves her friends behind. But Prague is waiting. Its streets are whispering. Its very air is alive with hundreds of years of History and Culture. llana only has to listen to its call...
‘'Praguethe golden city of a hundred towersand a thousand storiesfor the summer.''
‘'Prague is old,but her streets are dancing.''
‘'I dream about menwandering the streets of Prague,their lantern -eyes alight.The wind doesn't stirtheir coats;their throats barely flashas they breathe.''
This marvellous story needs to grace the bookshelves of every reader. It is an ode to one of the most beautiful cities in our world. Its pages echo with the lullabies of folklore, the steps of the vodnik, and the Golem. The sorrowful song of a violin, the starlight in Alphonse Mucha's works, the laughter of the witch puppets of Prague.
‘'Prague's always confusing itself.It doesn't know what's part of its true historyand what is a storypeople tell about it.
It can't remember if it was built by travellersor a woman named Libusewho could see the future,if Rabbi Loew was a scholaror a magicianwho made a soldierout of clay to protect the Jewish people here.
It doesn't know if the birch groves are sleentof if they're full of vila-enchanted women whose beautyhauntsthe minds of foresters
Prague believes in magic,Prague believes in itself.''
A city of ghosts that fall in love with the living. And the living cannot help but fall in love with them...This IS Prague.
‘'There aren't many Jews left in Prague;the Shoah(the greatest shipwreckof our People)stole them away,leaving their books,their songs,their stories behind.But the Jews of Pragueare all around me here.Their dust grows upthrough the earth;their hands reach for me.''
‘'Inside the Pinkas Synagogue        (built in 1535)there are names painted on the walls in red and black ink.
They're a chapterin the history of my People,but I can't read them all.There are too many -   78,000victims of the Nazis,  Czechs and Slovaksmurdered, all because   they were Jews.
This is what it's like to be Jewishin Europe.Every beautiful thinghas horror buried under it.                         I'm always walking on bones.''
This is a girl that hears the call of her past. A strong, courageous young woman who risks all for those she loves, for her heritage, for a desperate attempt to see a tiny moment of justice restored. Romero's story is a siren's song that doesn't tempt but urges us to open our eyes, to learn, to love. It is a cry to be brave when the time comes for us to fight against our dreams. A cry for us to understand that we must NEVER FORGET.
‘'Baruch ata Adonai,Eloheinu Melech ha - olam,asher kidshanu b'mitzvotavv'zivavu l'hadlik ner shel Shabbat.''
Many thanks to PeachTree Teen and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/





 

  February 1959. Switzerland has decided on a referendum to give women the right to vote and today is voting day. Once more, the women of the country have to depend on men to choose ‘'what is right and proper'' for them...
This novella is a quiet chronicle of how four women from different social backgrounds experience not only the day of the referendum but the circumstances that have defined their lives. A mother travels to Bern to meet her daughter who has found herself threatened by a despicable man, a young woman tries to find the means to provide for her son aided by a hospital administrator who is a fervent supporter of the campaign. In the faces and stories of Beatrice, Margrit, Vreni and Esther, an eternity of injustice, neglect, oppression, abuse and sheer tyranny is depicted. Motherhood and womanhood. Lack of opportunities and impossible choices. Life on the periphery of society because that is what the other half of the population has dictated.
Speaking in strictly literary terms, I was not impressed. The writing is simple, a bit dry at times, the dialogue ‘'sounds'' jarring and the characters are nothing we haven't seen before. But sometimes even books that can be called ‘'average'' must be deemed necessary reads.
Why? Because Switzerland decided to grant the vote to the women of the country in 1971 (which is unthinkable...) Because we do not have the luxury to take anything for granted anymore.
Many thanks to Fairlight Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
 

  ‘'We are still new to this field, and we walk through them with our baby carriage in a state of confusion, like two restless vagabonds. We look up at the windmills, the way they appear against the sky like visitors from a distant time, futuristic souvenirs from other planets. They shoot up around our house like cheerful weeds, and, on the rare occasions they stand still, it's as if the globe is holding its breath for a short second, bewildered by the wind's absence.''
A young family moves to Jutland. A new community, a new professional position, a new life. In a land where short sentences are required, our narrator tries to achieve the golden balance between being a mother and a wife and a successful journalist. From obstacles such as finally getting a driving license to worries concerning baby prams and day schools, she discovers that more often than not togetherness may help you move forward and scheduling is not the be-all-end-all in life...
‘'We are all born into a story that we haven't asked to be a part of, and our lives begin with a brutal decision that was made without our consent.''
Pilgaard weaves a story with a beautiful sense of place but her themes are universal and highly relatable. Told through a charming mixture of playful, tender irony and poignant confessions, our protagonist demonstrates the familiar confusion that comes with moving to a place that seems and feels ‘'different'', the pressure and demands of motherhood, the desired ‘'normality'', the boundaries of language, the possible loss of individuality when you sacrifice the ‘'I'' for the sake of a familial ‘We'. While providing advice, she actually conveys her own thoughts, memories and fears and we get to know a delightful heroine. Because every modern woman is a heroine. You don't need legends and myths. Our mundane reality is a constant battle.
Written in a characteristic no-nonsense style, direct and raw at parts, a trait of Danish Literature, Pilgaard's novel is made for spring morning and summer afternoons when the days are long, the nights are bright, and the clamour from children, colleagues, partners and whatnot finally subsides.
‘'Our generation knows that planes can come crashing into buildings, that people can throw themselves into the sky. We understand that cells can divide in the body, that people can wear bombs under their clothes, that cars heading in the wrong direction suddenly appear on the freeways. All things must pass, but see this is a relief. Sweet Sleepless One, life is not an orderly event, but a fleeting and pointless movement around a dark room. And yet beauty can appear to us like something from another realm. A lovely poem, an unusual painting, a view that leaves us breathless. Your task is to use your time in the best possible way while you await death.''
Many thanks to World Editions and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/

 

  ‘'In her coat, standing at the counter, Tove wrote: ‘'I've gone out.'' She then crumpled the note in her hand and wrote instead: ‘'Since you clearly weren't interested in herring - ‘' Here she ran out of worlds for a moment, before adding simply: ‘'I am not your fucking husband.''
These are haunting stories of women trying to stand up to the demands of Fate, and the complex relationships that shape their lives. Whether you are a girlfriend, a wife, a mother, whether you are patient or erratic, you need to convince yourself that you will get through this.
But sometimes, it is just impossible to forgive or forget...
Danish Literature keeps giving us gems that demand our full attention.Exquisitely translated by Martin Aitken. 
An Excursion: An accidental meeting leads to exalted expectations and marriage but more often than not, we do not understand our mistakes until it is too late...A story with a sensitive heroine and a beautiful sense of place within a small community. And a prick of a husband...
‘'Christmas decorations were festooned from the ceiling. It was she who had hung them up. She picked away the withered leaves from among the poinsettia plants they called Christmas Stars and was about to put the polystyrene bats in place in the new refrigerated counter they were all so proud of when she discovered blood had run from the meat and pooled in the bottom of the display.''
December is a Cruel Month: Two families face their own Hell following a tragic death and an accident, and two daughters are left to face the world without their mother. A story that will make you shiver as you try to connect the pieces of a cruel puzzle. Extremely powerful and so, so sad.
An Argument: A wife and a husband have distanced themselves from each other, burdened by the absence of their son. Where there was love, there is irritating politeness at best...On a side note, what is it about Danish literature and the bleakest portrayal of marriage? I'm sure I'm jumping to awful, unfair conclusions but marriage seems to be a tricky business in Denmark...I hope the Danes are better husbands than Danish Literature makes them to be...
Sorry.
A Postcard for Annie: Set in Aarhus in 1983 and 2002, this is a melancholic trip in the repercussions of a dark day and a terrible accident as Mie shares her memories of friendship, love and loss.
‘'The lighting candles cast reflections in the pitifully thin window panes that allow in a sleeping draught. Outside, the bins and bicycles are hidden by darkness. Across the courtyard, the elevator line ascends through the shaft.''
Mother and Son: If I had such a horrible son, I would go straight to the police and ask them to lock him up. Away from me, and away from society. And I'd spend every minute of every day trying to understand my own mistakes...
In My Hometown: The moving story of an enigmatic couple that used to own a book shop and the memories of a neighbourhood...
‘'Carefully, Marianne put down the star she was holding and went to the window. From where she stood, she could see a line of four lampposts along the street; she could see the road, the sidewalk, the long hedges in front of their houses. The empty air danced in the artificial light. Or was it raining? Marianne pressed her mouth to the pane. If she waited for her at the window, her mother would appear as she always did, emerging out of the darkness into the pool of light from the lamppost furthest away.''
Many thanks to Archipelago Books and Edelweiss for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/





 

  This beautiful (BEAUTIFUL, I TELL YOU!!!!) guide is an outstanding journey within the heart of Britain and Northern Ireland and all their magical, witchy, ritualistic, occult glory! From London to the Hebrides, from Cardiff to Belfast, this is THE source and a necessary gem for every folklore lover.

• Bodmin Moor and its demonic ghosts.
• The Merry Maidens of Boleigh.
• The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle.
• The haunting, devilish, beautiful landscape of Dartmoor, the legends of the Lych Way, the power of Vixen Tor. And the footsteps of a gigantic hound...
• The sacred mysticism of Glastonbury.
• Gerald Gardner's New Forest coven that tried to protect Britain from the terror of a Nazi invasion.
• The Devil's appearances in Sussex.
• The ravens of the Tower of London and the sacred London Stone. The occult journey in Bloomsbury, the churches created by the famous (and infamous...) Nicholas Hawksmoor, the frenzy of the Highgate Vampire.
• The innocent blood of the women who were murdered because they were ‘'witches'', the enigmatic George Pickingill, the eerie Osea Island's Causeway.
• The spirits of the fens of East Anglia.
• The mystery of Wychbury Hill, the presence of Molly Leigh, the legend of Wild Eric.
• The curse of Black Annis 
• The secrets of Alderley Edge, the strange legacy of Maxine and Alex Sanders, the saga of the so-called Pendle Witches, the Fairy Stepd of Cumbria.
• The cultural legacy of Whitby (I mean, can't you NOT love Dracula's Steps?), the ruins of Gisborough Priory, the ghosts of victims and attackers echoing in Lindisfarne.
• The Day of Judgement depicted in the Church of St Issui in Powys, the traces of Merlin and the battle between the Red Dragon and the White beneath Dinas Emrys in Gwynedd, the ghosts of Anglesey.
• The story of the Witches of North Berwick, the Horror of Glamis, the spectre of Ben Macdui in the Highlands, the legend of Isobel Gowdie, the mists of Iona.
• The traces of the Cailleach in Armagh, the English propaganda that attempted to link the fight for freedom with ‘'satanic groups and covens'', the cries of the Banshee.

  ‘'I'm a historian, remember? I'm the Rockind Fellow of St Mary Hall? If you wanted housework, you should have married one of those Clarissas your mother kept scattering at your feet?''
Sarah Moss takes us on a journey to witness the struggle of an academic to balance her career with the demands of being a mother and a wife. Within the isolated environment of a Hebridean island and under scrutiny from her husband, the locals and the police, Anna tries to find some bloody time to write and she really didn't need the bones of a baby unearthed in her garden...
Moss writes with humour - dry and acute- to communicate an almost unbearable situation but there are various eerie moments when you have the feeling that terrible twists and images are boiling underneath the chaos of family life. What should Anna do? Career, motherhood, housewife chores. This is her claustrophobic environment in the company of a good-for-nothing husband. What about her own mental health? Does anyone care about her? Should we give up our own wishes and ambitions when we become mothers? Is there nothing left of our own personality anymore? Should she accept men lecturing her on motherhood, wanting her to give up her job and research to become a fucking housewife, a mare giving birth by the dozens?
No!  Fuck you!
With every book I read lately, my teenage-old decision never to have children becomes stronger and stronger. My career is enough for me, thank you. And no, I don't need anyone's ‘'opinion'' to verify my decision. 
I liked Anna, she is a character I could connect with but I couldn't understand her docility. If I had a bunch of heathens breathing down my neck just because I happened to be an intellectually capable woman with a job (because in the eyes of the male characters of the novel ALL women are STUPID...), I would give them a piece of my mind. Police or no police...
Which is why I didn't like the book. The themes did not particularly appeal to me, the characters were indifferent, the repetitive motifs didn't really move the story forward, Raph's whining and Giles's bullshit drove me mad and what was that line about the Serbs as a slaughtering tribe? Give us a break! In the end, the story just wasn't enticing anymore and I skimmed through the final pages. May's letters that transport us to the 19th century gave a hint of Gaelic Folklore ( the selkies, the Grey People) but it was too little, too disjointed.
I loved Ghost Wall and Summerwater but Night Waking and The Fell disappointed me...
 

  ‘'A raven lands on the branch of a Jeffrey pine. Its feathers and beak, inky as a night without stars. I tried to take a photograph, but the dog barks it away.
                                          The Red-Tailed Hawk 
Very soon it is my birthday, and I go out onto the deck to straighten up the patio furniture for a party. A hawk circles above, soaring with its wings at a slight dihedral. It's October, I tell myself, autumn: the season of the hawk.'' 
A poignant memoir of loss - ‘'death'' is in the end of life, ‘'death'' is in the end of a relationship - teenage dreams, familial bonds, womanhood, and dreams. In essays that take us from Lake Tahoe to Spain, Southeastern Asia, and South America, Roberts talks to us as if to dear friend, through confessions communicated with directness, honesty and immediacy. Although I don't usually read memoirs with similar themes, I can certainly say that this one made me think. Despite the fact that I couldn't connect with the sexual and marital issues that play a central role in the essays, her musings on Death and the end of childhood struck a chord with me.
I leave you with two of my favourite extracts:
‘'Someone was playing bagpipes, and it has just started to rain. Spanish moss hangs in green shawls from the oak trees above our heads, and the resurrection ferns come back to life, remembering elasticity and shape. A crow calls from the rain-drenched sky. I craned my neck to see it in the elbow over a branch.''
‘'I am home, looking out the window, and it's raining again. The pine and fir trees shift in the wind. A silvery mist hides the lake and sky. The raven is back, croaks from a branch. I rise from a chair, walk through the window. Raindrops chart rivers down the glass. 
Another raven answers the call, then shoots through the wind and lands on the lower bough, the branches of a naked aspen are white, like bones. The dog sleeps by the fire.
It's nearly Christmas, and I think about the lighted angel we placed at the top of our tree when I was a child and how I always made sure the other angels hung from nearby branches below. That way, I told my mother, they are close enough so when they talk to her, the angel above will still be able to hear her friends. 
The rain turns finally to snow.''
Many thanks to Rosemary Sikora and the University of Nebraska Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
 

  ‘You are a queen. You are Lorde, Angelou, Simone, Walker, Hooks, Davis, Morrison, Knowles, Fenty, Robinson-Obama. You will shake the world, you will move the earth, you will be audacious with your essence, you will take up all the space, you will not stay in your lane, you will build new roads -''
Myths, legends and folklore offer hope and courage. They are made of magic and love and feelings. Bolu Babalola takes mythical tales from Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Persia, Greece, Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Lesotho, Mauritania, Gambia and breathes new life into millennia-old stories. And as detrimental as it may sound, the legends are resurrected to live again inside the hearts and minds of modern young women. To inspire and soothe and guide...
A goddess wants to be respected and seen for what she is, for love and not for beauty. Two sides of the spectrum meet risk all to love each other. An aspiring journalist confronts her ridiculous boss that also happens to be the sister of the man she loves in a delightful twist of the Psyche and Eros legend. An ambitious woman finds love in the most unlikely of places and another defies her family's principles to mark her own path in life and love. In my favourite story, a brave warrior leads her people to safety and freedom and falls in love with her champion. 
Nefertiti becomes a seductive, powerful source of justice and retribution. A young woman cannot appreciate her unique beauty until she finds the courage to stand up to a hideous bully. A pop star asserts her power over the ones who wanted to control her after a night under the stars. Thisbe and Pyramus become college lovers that overcome their fears over their feelings. A woman who doesn't let others dictate her destiny find the courage to accept her beloved's apology. 
Osun, Scheherazade, Psyche, Attem, Yaa, Siya, Nefertiti, Naleli, Z hiny, Thisbe, Tiara, Orin, Alagomeji. Names of women. Names of Love celebrated in all its tender and terrible forms in an outstanding collection by Bolu Babalola
If you don't cry reading the Author's Note, you are heartless and terrible.
‘'Time in love are intertwined, they are both measures of life, they are the two clocks. And, for love to operate as it should, it is imperative that the timing should be right.''
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
 

  ‘'Many years ago there stood at the corner of the street leading out of Upper Kennington - lane a great red-brick mansion, which one very wet evening, in an autumn the leaves of which have been long dead and gone, looked more than ordinarily desolate and deserted.''
An eerie collection of stories about ghostly children that expose every inch of the evil within human nature. Snippets of folklore, ghost tales and quotes about spectral children and customs associated with Death bring this volume of the Tales of the Weird series to a new level, not to mention the informative, lively introductions to each tale by Jen Baker.
The Dead Daughter by Henry Glassford Bell: A daughter dies under mysterious circumstances. Another daughter is born. She resembles her deceased sister in every aspect and the unknown terror that has fallen over the Wolstein household becomes more powerful. An eerie story that contains much more than It discloses.
The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell: A classic ghost story by one of the most exquisite writers about the silent spirit that demands justice and payment in blood...
The Ghost of Little Jacques by Ann M. Hoyt: A maid witnesses the suspicious circumstances of a boy's death and finds herself in the centre of a sinister plan conceived by a devious man.
Kentucky's Ghost by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps: A tale of cruelty and malice taking place at sea.


‘'Many years ago there stood at the corner of the street leading out of upper Kennington lane a great red brick mansion, which one very wet evening, in an autumn the leaves of which have been long dead and gone, looked more than ordinarily desolate and deserted.''
Walnut - Tree House by Charlotte Riddell: An atmospheric, tender story about a boy to whom a great injustice has been done and an heir who is determined to set things right and grant peace to the child's troubled soul.
Was It An Illusion? by Amelia B.Edwards: An inspector of schools travels to a small community in the north of England. A strange encounter with a silent lad haunts his mind but everyone is very eager to convince him that it is only an illusion. A haunting story that reminded me of TheWoman In Black.
Lost Hearts by M. R. James: A savage tale of Pagan rituals, cries and children who have met an unthinkable demise. Deeply disturbing and powerful.
The Doll's Ghost by F.Marion Crawford: A dollmaker develops an obsession with an enchanting doll named Nina. Little does he know that his own daughter is in danger. A dark story with very realistic and extremely contemporary undertones.
The Lost Ghost by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: A woman narrates the heartbreaking story of a child that fell victim to his mother's cruelty and the soul that was determined to shelter her through her own sacrifice. 
The Shadowy Third by Ellen Glasgow: At nurse finds herself as a witness to the demise of a well-respected doctor that is actually the devil Incarnate. Such is his malice...
Two Little Red Shoes by Bessie Kyffin-Taylor: Two little red shoes and two innocent spectres help a kind woman expose an unspeakable crime...
Anne's Little Ghost by H.D.Everett:  A bereaved mother believes she has found solace in the ghostly presence of a girl. But things aren't as simple as they seem...
The Curse of the Stillborn by Margery Lawrence: In a story that confronts the Western stereotypes and lack of respect towards indigenous culture, the lack of a proper burial according to customs sets a macabre scheme of punishment in motion.
‘'An evening light shone on the building, making the windowpanes glow like so many fires. Away from the Hall in front stretched a flat park studded with oaks and fringed with firs, which stood out against the sky. The clock in the church tower, buried in trees on the edge of the park - only its golden weathercock catching the light - was striking six, and the sound came gently beating down the wind. It was altogether a pleasant impression, though tinged with the sort of melancholy appropriate to an evening in early autumn, that was conveyed to the mind of the boy who was standing in the porch waiting for the door to open to him.''
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
 

  ''I have never seen a ghost so I cannot say for certain that they exist, but then again I have never seen the wind either yet I know that it is there.''
Joe Baker takes us on a journey down an eerie and moving Memory Lane. From the haunting presence of a cloaked man in Cavehill, ghostly warnings and premonitions of death to the tragedy of Lucifer's Match and the ghosts of the Belfast Workhouse. From the heartbreaking story of the Ghosts of Raglan Street to the mystery of the Belfast Synagogue. From the suicidal ghost standing on the Queen's Bridge and the jealous spirit of Glengyle to the legendary Galloper Thompson. Stories that will break your heart like the sorrow of Jubbie, the Tram Chaser. Stories that will make you shiver like the ghost of Ballymacarett. Haunted hotels, barracks that echo of unspeakable agony and pain, and ghostly nuns.
This is more than an array of ghost tales taking place in the atmospheric, haunting city of Belfast. This is a journey to the past, the history and the heart of Northern Ireland.
 

  ‘'Here in the rocky haunts of the islanders themselves are landscapes where ‘'the rocks are sharper than a coconut vendor's cutlass, and the waters lash with a vengeance,'' landscapes of swollen gullies and bush where monkeys can hide, where beauty and violence compete in scorpionfish and stingrays and captured, gutted shark. There are also the landscapes where lash fruit falls to the ground with the ease of summer ripening, where the clash of dominoes in the run shop provides the familiar auditory signal of men at play, and where preachers get the urge to go into the streets and warn of coming tribulations even as gunshots spatter.''
The Whale House by Sharon Millar (Trinidad & Tobago): A beautiful, sad story about the immense pain of losing a child.
The Science of Salvation by Dwight Thompson (Jamaica): An ex-convict returns and wreaks havoc to a community plagued by gang wars in a haunting, tragic story.
Cheque Mate by Kevin Baldeosingh (Trinidad & Tobago): An affluent woman exacts her revenge on a man who wanted to buy her silence in an almost twisted game of power. Undoubtedly seductive this one...
The Thing We Call Love by Ivory Kelly (Belize): A ten-year-old girl witnesses the love troubles of her community.
A Good Friday by Barbara Jenkins (Trinidad & Tobago): Well, if that isn't love at first sight...
All the Secret Things No One Ever Knows by Sharon Leach (Jamaica): This story is all kinds of twisted, disturbed and disturbing and haunting. I don't agree with trigger warnings because we are all intelligent, grown-up readers but this one contains every possible trigger alert you can think of. I loved it.
‘'There's no such thing as water under the bridge. Forgive and forget is just something pipe-dream losers, helpless victims, hang onto because they're unable - or unwilling - to do anything else.''
Amelia at Devil's Bridge by Joanne C. Hillhouse (Antigua & Barbuda): The spirit of a dead girl screams in desperation in a story that will make you shiver.
Waywardness by Ezekel Alan (Jamaica): The story of a criminal with commentary on sexuality, identity, and violence. This one managed to make me uncomfortable.
And the Virgin's Name Was Leah by Heather Barker (Barbados): A strange fusion of the Old and New Testament, of the Biblical era and our contemporary times, of Israel and Barbados produce a striking story about mental health, family and hope.
Mango Summer by Janice Lynn Mather (Bahamas): A small community is being plagued by the disappearance of young girls. Seen through the eyes of a girl's younger sister, this is a haunting, cryptic tale in which the line between reality and myth is heavily blurred.
Berry by Kimmisha Thomas (Jamaica): A tender story of desperate love and the prejudices of a macho community.
The Monkey Trap by Kevin Jared Hosein (Trinidad & Tobago): I am sorry to say that this one was disgusting...
Father, Father by Garfield Ellis (Jamaica): In a bitter story, a boy remembers his father as he's trying to cope with abuse.
‘'On an island nobody ever really, truly disappears without a trace. No, what we have here are bodies: a woman found in the bushes in All Saints, a tourist slain at Darkwood, a girl washed up at Devil's Bridge... They're few and far between. That's why they make the news because it always kind of shakes us up that there might be someone among us who could do such a thing. But there are no places to ide bodies, nowhere where they won't eventually reveal themselves.''
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
 

  ‘'A hundred years later, what would our bodies be used for? Would we be chair legs or sweaters or clock hands? Would we be used for a longer time after our deaths than the time we'd been alive?''
Sayaka Murata's stories defy genre, time and place. We are transported to an alternate reality and we move on to an almost psychedelic future before we return to contemporary Japan. The characters of her stories are women who are burdened - although they'd never confess it - by a desperate need to belong, to be liked. However, Murata's version and depiction of what we would define as ‘'Love'' is not only highly arbitrary but dubious, suspicious, oppressive. It is a mirror of society's projections, artificial aspirations, a strange kind of idolatry that leads nowhere.
Sayaka Murata marries the abstract, the eerie and the mundane and proves she is one of the most exceptional writers of our time.
A First-Rate Material: A couple is planning a wedding but the future spouses don't really see eye-to-eye in a story that depicts a time when it is acceptable, fashionable even, to make all kinds of objects from dead humans.
A Magnificent Spread: In a humorously absurd, yet poignant story the woman is about to meet her fiance's husband and his sister is there to help her with the dinner table. But the eating habits of the diners are strange. Too strange...An interesting commentary on how eating is a product of each culture and its significance in the forming of our identity.
A Summer Night's Kiss/ Two's Family: Another lady who has had her two children through artificial insemination contemplates kissing and sex while her best friend, her lifelong companion, is fighting for her life. The memories of society's prejudices are still painfully acute. Such a moving, tender story!
The Time of the Large Star: A girl and a boy meet in a land where the moon is adored, the sun is hated and sleep does not exist.
Poochie: If you have readEarthlings, Murata's writing won't come as a surprise. This is a (very short) story of a girl that decides to have a middle-aged man as a pet.
Life Ceremony: This is a world where sex for pleasure is frowned upon. Where pregnancy is a result of insemination during a ‘'Life Ceremony''. Will women have to produce the humans that will secure the existence of our species. When mourners consume the flesh of the deceased to conceive a child. This story is strange and twisted and beautiful, but proceed with caution because you may find it deeply disturbing.
Body Magic: Two teenage girls explore relationships and sexuality, ignoring the preconceived notions of their classmates.
Lover on the Breeze: A beautiful blue curtain watches a girl falling in and out of love.
Puzzle: A young woman newly arrived in Tokyo sees and experiences the functions of our bodies in a vastly different way than her colleagues. ‘'I could hear the voices of some people outside, but they were speaking in a foreign language, so I didn't understand what they were saying. As I listened, the voices began to resemble the calls of animals. In my mind they overlapped with the night presences I had sensed on the other side of the torn window screens during those childhood summers, and before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.''
Eating the City: The hunting for weeds in Tokyo and the simple act of eating become metaphors for navigating and experiencing life in the metropolis, for the memories of childhood.
Hatchling: A bride-to-be narrates the evolution of her five “personalities” that were created out of her desperate need to be liked by everyone. We all develop “faces” we deem appropriate to every interaction but Is there a real ‘'us'' buried deep inside us or are we truly vacant?
‘'Look, at this point in time, there are five me's existence. I can't choose which one to be by myself. So I want you to choose which one you want.''
Many thanks to Grove Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
 

  ‘'They imagine naked women running through the corridors, banging their heads against tilled walls, spreading their legs to welcome their imaginary lover, howling at the top of their lungs from dawn until dusk.''
Paris is the City of Light, of Love and Joy. But these words are forbidden to the women who are locked behind the walls of Salpetrière. Abandoned by fathers, husbands, brothers, forsaken by society, they have found themselves in the asylum where they are paraded and ‘'examined'' for the ‘'sake of Science''. Locked in a prison of a different kind, Geneviève supervises the wards, wearing an impenetrable armour, fighting her own demons. When a young woman, a member of the upper class, is brought to the asylum for communicating with spirits, Geneviève will have to question everything she has taken for granted.
‘'Place Pigalle. A lamplighter reaches up with his long pole to kindle the gas mantles of a streetlamp. The rain has ceased. The pavements are wet and water still trickles from the drainpipes. At the windows, people shake rainwater from shutters while merchants and cafe workers jab at canvas awning with their broom handles to disgorge the water that has collected there. The lamplighter crosses the square and continues his twilight rounds.''
In this marvellous novel, Victoria Mas highlights the dark side of Paris beyond the splendour and the wealth, two women represent Science and Spirituality, Reason and Faith. In their faces and in the personal stories of the women of the asylum, years and years and years of male cruelty are reflected. They are the Others, prostitutes, mad, disobedient, neurotic, hysterical, diabolical. Every adjective is used against them to denote that they are gangrenous limbs that have to be cut off the perfect body of society. Abandoned and betrayed by their families, left to rot. Geneviève, Eugénie, Louise, Thérèse. Each woman is one of us...
An atmospheric novel that doesn't fall into the trap of the “Historical Fiction grandiose complex”. Instead, it focuses on the dynamics between the women who have been ostracised by men, labelled as “monsters” and locked away to die in oblivion...
“The women of Salpetrière were no longer pariahs whose existence had to remain hidden, but entertainment, thrust into the limelight without a flicker of regret.”
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
 

  “There is nothing so merciful as love.”
The Umbrella: An umbrella becomes the metaphor for a young woman's unsatisfactory life in the hands of a cruel, unworthy husband.  The Cat: A husband feels threatened by his wife's adoration towards her cat. Why? This is for the reader to decide... My Wife Doesn't Dance: A woman finally understands the extent of her husband's patronizing (sic?) and manipulation.  HIs Mother:A young couple is haunted by the man's mother in a rather unsettling story. The Queen of the Night:A young girl is observing her family's dynamics, her mother's artistic flair (sic?) and her father's violent nature. One Morning in a Residential Neighborhood: A family is torn apart because of bad decisions and the victims are always the children. A Nice Boy: A boy who has been adopted finds his life changed by the coming of a baby and has to face a prejudiced society that considers him the result of “sin”. Evening:A lonely girl tries to stay sane in the mess her parents have made. Depression: A moving story about mental health and marriage. The Knife: An eerie story that is actually a sniper of the thoughts of a self-centred family man who feels suffocated by his wife and son, and wronged by society. A man who gives a knife to his son as a gift...  The Method:A surreal story in which a woman dissects her husband because she can't stand being married to an entire person... Anxiety:A woman has been turned into a docile, witless creature, scared out of her wits by her tyrannical husband. Mother: Now, it is the turn of a mother to become a tyrant oppressing her children. A Fine Business:A young couple is searching for the perfect house and finds a woman willing to sell her fortune following her divorce. Manipulation and exploitation shouldn't surprise us by now... The Bird: A man is dying and all his family can think of is a parakeet...  The Little Shoes:A woman tells it like it is to the young slut who threatens the balance of her household. The Best Joke:If this story had any meaning at all, I failed to decipher it... Two Women:A hairdresser and her client find out that they share similar ailments but there is no understanding or compassion between them. On a side note, what is it with women who spill the beans at their hairdresser's? I am like “just cut it and shut up, I am NOT going to talk to you!” Jesus! Perpetuation:A woman relives her childhood as she tries to grasp her husband's infidelity.  The Trouble With Happiness:The impending death of her aunt becomes the backdrop of a young woman's confessions on her highly dysfunctional family, on relationships and honesty.
These stories will utterly turn you away from marrying and starting a family. I have never encountered such encountered a bleak, almost hellish, depiction of family life and I can't help wonder as to the depth of Ditlevsen's sorrow. 
“Fight for all you hold dear.”
Many thanks to Penguin Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
 

  ‘'In the days of our forefathers, when there was nothing but wretched boats up in Nordland, and folks must needs buy fair winds by the sackful from the Gan - Finn, it was not safe to tack about in the open sea in wintry weather. In those days a fisherman never grew old. It was mostly womenfolk and children, and the lame and halt, who were buried ashore.''
The Forest Bride: The Story of a Little Mouse who was a Princess (Finland): A very well-known tale about an enchanted princess who was turned into a mouse until a young man became her husband willingly. Versions of this tale can be found in Ukraine, Russia and the Czech Republic.
East of the Sun and West of the Moon (Norway): If you love fairytales and folktales, this one must surely be one of your favourites. A young woman is given to a white bear as a bride but her curiosity makes her travel East of the Sun and West of the Moon to save her beloved. The Nordic version of the Eros and Psyche Greek myth is a tale about the forces of love and evil.
The Magician's Pupil (Denmark): When your son doesn't like any job in the world, make him an apprentice to a mighty wizard. ...or don't...
Hildur, the Queen of the Elves (Iceland): The queen of the elves has been cursed to see her people and her family only once in a year at the expense of a murder in the land of the mortals. A clever herdsman is the only one who can lift the curse in an atmospheric, bittersweet tale.
The Widow's Son (Norway): An inquisitive young man finds himself in the centre of unfortunate adventures...
Toller's Neighbours (Denmark): In this lovely tale, a farmer's family and the Mount - Folk live together in peace and prosperity until the sound of the bells becomes too loud...
Mighty Mikko: The Story of a Poor Woodsman and a Grateful Fox (Finland): Mikko sees his fortune turned following his father's blessings and aided by a delightful fox.
Old Nick and the Girl (Sweden): The Devil should have known better before he decided to mess with an intelligent, resourceful girl.
The Way of the World (Norway): A tale that teaches us that the ways of the world are unbelievably unfair and arbitrary.
Death and the Doctor (Norway): Death is willing to make a pact but when you try to trick him the end is not going to be in your favour. A whimsical, yet deeply sad tale.
‘'All I Possess!'' (Sweden): A husband's greed becomes his doom when his clever wife decides to put an end to his cruelty once and for all.
The Old Woman and the Tramp (Sweden): The sheer genius of a tramp rewards him with a hearty meal and a bright silver coin. Also, soup. Soup is magic, I tell you!
The Honest Penny (Norway): In this famous Norwegian tale, a boy is rewarded for his honesty and, for once, a mother's advice is horribly wrong. And cats. Cats always save the day.
The Boy Who Did Not Know What Fear Was (Iceland): A boy meets corpses, ghosts, goblins, dead warriors, hags and remains unperturbed in a classic tale from Iceland.
The True Bride: The Story of Illona and the King's Son (Finland): A magnificent, lavish tale about two siblings, an evil forest witch, the kingdom of the Sea and a brilliant dog.
The Giant Who Had No Heart (Norway): A clever boy stands up to a giant and saves her brothers and six princesses.
Jack of Sjöholm and the Gan-Finn (Iceland): In the most impressive tale of the collection, a young man is faced with the strangest of adventures, aided by a dark-haired maiden. Mystical, haunting, almost arcane like the Northern Lights.
Let us travel to the North in the company of beautiful legends...
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
 

  ‘'The streetlights were coming on, lining the sides of the river. The offices were going dark. At the river's edge,fog encircled the lights,one could not, after a while, see the lightsbut a strange radiance suffused the fog,its source a mystery.''                 Cornwall
When you find yourselves in the mystical company of Louise Gluck's poems, you will be asked to take a walk. A walk that reflects our long journey of Life. The Long Night.
‘'And snow fell upon us, and wind blew,which in time abated - where the snow had been, many flowers appeared,and where the stars had shone, the sun rose over the tree lineso that we had shadows again.''             Parable
The nights are thoughts. And the thoughts are hearts.
‘'Shadows moving. The ropes making the sound they make. What you hear nowwill be the sound of the nightingale, chordata,the male bird courting the female -
The ropes shift. The hammocksways in the wind, tiedfirmly between two pine trees.
Smell the air. That is the smell of the white pine.
It is my mother's voice you hearor is it only the sound the trees makewhen the air passes through them.
because what sound would it make, passing through nothing?''              The Past
The stars are the token of a childhood loaded with obstacles. They are the memories of a family that come alive in the silent night.
‘'Outside, night was falling. Was thisthat last night, star-covered, moonlight - spatteredlike some chemical preservingeverything immersed in it?
My aunt had lit the candle.''    Faithful and Virtuous Night
Nights are made of mist and silence as depicted in Cornwall, a poem whose imagery is outstanding. It is a sword in the stone, piercing a heart. Cornwall, London, Montana. The Horse and the Rider, the Cursed Artist. In the night, myths and Life meet.
‘'The street was white again,all the bushes covered with heavy snowand the trees glittering, encased with ice.
I lay in the dark, waiting for the night to end.It seemed the biggest night I had ever known,bigger than the night I was born.
I write about you all the time, I said aloud.Every time I say ‘I', it refers to you.''                     Visitors from Abroad
Whether in nightly walks, when the echoing silence is there to keep us company, or in the meeting of two strangers in a park, Gluck opens a door to our soul...
‘'I think here I will leave you. It has come to seemthere is no perfect ending.Indeed, there are infinite endings.Or, perhaps, once we begin,there are only endings.''       Faithful and Virtuous Night
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/

           
 

  ‘'Across the sea, however, was a dark country. Its residents, huge rats whose appetites seemed as great as the ocean itself, had been crafted by a wicked witch from shadows, and tears and ash.''
Karolina is a seamstress. She weaves starlight and wishes. When the Land of the Dolls is conquered by a vicious army of rats, she manages to escape to the world of the humans and finds herself in Krakow in 1939. Keeping company to the Dollmaker who fights his own demons, she realizes that his troubled soul and unique gift will lead them both to a perilous course as Poland is invaded by the Nazi monsters. When barbarity replaces humanity, when tortures replace toys, only magic can provide us with a possible escape...
Dear God, what can I possibly say about R.M.Romero's outstanding novel? When the darkest hours in the History of our world blend with the magical, when the Fairytale becomes one with the Terror, you can only read and try to strengthen your heart because it is bound to break before long. She combines Krakow's mysticism and culture with the unthinkable persecution of the Jewish people and the brave souls who helped them. The duality of the Dollmaker and the Rat reflects the battle between Peace and War, between Good and Evil, between Hope and Despair. The dolls come alive and the Polish myths provide the finest elements for Magical Realism to transform a tale of Terror into a tale of Hope.
Hoffman's Tales, the heritage of Polish musicians, the resilience and bravery of the Jewish citizens of Poland, the mythical characters of Lakanica, Jánošík, Dogoda and the Firebird. The unbearable moments of the ghetto, the starvation, the people's hatred towards innocent souls, the massacre, the Hell that was called ‘'Auschwitz'' are depicted with sensitivity, lyricism and utmost tenderness. This is a tale that will tear you to pieces before it lets you smile through your tears...
Perhaps the nobody actors should read such books before they decide to ‘'grace'' us with their ‘'opinions'' on race and persecution...And yes, I am still mad!
Please, read this book. Give it to your children, to every young person. And repeat ‘'Never again' page after page...
‘'You can destroy a person, Karolina, but destroying their story is far more difficult. No one is ever really lost as long as their story still exists.''
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
 

  ‘'Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and a talk beside the fore, it is the time for home.''
 Edith Sitwell
As we are preparing to say ‘'goodbye'' to this year's winter, this collection of folk tales will make us feel warm and cosy. And yes, this may sound cliche and meaningless but Taffy Thomas is like a voice guiding you through mysteries and songs and tales of the olden days. There are tales of St. Nicholas and the Holy Family. The night when Christ came into this world, the cat that wanted to sing a lullaby for Him, the young woman who gave shelter, the old man who led the Holy Family to safety while King Herod was carrying out his monstrous task, the robin and the spider and the fir tree that provided its wood to make a cradle for the Lord.
Tales of great liars and cunning farmers. The Christmas Truce of 1914. The curse of an innocent man convicted of petty theft, the eerie encounter of a driver with an avid chess player. The legend of the Mistletoe Bride, the Ghost Ship of Cumbria, and the cow that ate a piper who was too ‘'smart'' for his own good. From the Cumbrian Winter Dragon to wassailing and the flames of Up Helly Aa in Shetland, winter is a time of wonders.
  As winter is slowly preparing to bid us adieu, these lovely, moving folk tales remind us of the warmth within the cold and the light within the darkness...
‘'There will come a time of great plenty  a time of good harvest and songTil then pit your trust in tomorrow, my friend,  For Yesterday's over and done.
And the snow fallsand the wind callsand the year turns round again.''  John Tams
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
 

  ''Folk tales are not defined by scholars and students of folklore. They are, very simply, the stories that people choose to tell, remember and retell time and again and they come in all forms, shapes and sizes, but collectively express not only who we are, but also why, what and how we are.''
In County Antrim, home to the city of Belfast, we find the beauty and unique character of Northern Ireland in a nutshell. Cows are easily bewitched, puffins stand witnesses as enchanted islands appear every seven years. Witches, banshees, vengeful spirits, haunted books, men who are twice hanged and three times buried. 
Out of the otherwordly beauty of the Dark Hedges and the foreboding landscape of the Giant's Causeway, from the mountains to the coastline, the Children of Lir, Deirdre of the Sorrows, Fionn, Tuiren, Lugaidh, Oisin, Grainne and Diarmuid are waiting to tell you their stories of love, valour, strength, treachery and magic.
‘'We are world travellers and what we all carry with us, as we travel, is our identity - our history, our way of speaking, our way of socialising, even our way of walking into a room and introducing ourselves to strangers. And as we do so we exchange our stories and take new ones back home with us.''
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
 

 ‘'It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings.''

‘'To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman.''

A Scandal in Bohemia: The Woman who defeated the great detective in the funny hat.
(Sorry, I just could NOT resist the reference...)

The Red-Headed League: A suspicious league hires red-headed men to copy the Encyclopedia Britannica. Yes, something is definitely rotten...

A Case of Identity: Sherlock aids a distraught young lady whose fiance has mysteriously disappeared. This story was deliciously depicted in one of those perfect ‘flash cases' in BBC's Sherlock in the even more perfect episode The Empty Hearse.

Yes, I used the word ‘'perfect'' twice.

The Boscombe Valley Mystery: Sherlock is required to prove the innocence of a young man who is accused of the murder of his father.

The Five Orange Pips: A story in which Sherlock investigates a case of five orange pips sent in an empty envelope, a ‘'message'' of death, and finds himself dealing with the tentacles of the abominable KKK.

The Man With the Twisted Lip: The disappearance of a husband brings Sherlock into opium dens in a story that has always reminded me of Agatha Christie's The Disappearance of Mr Davenheim.

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle: A classic Christmas story in which Sherlock and Dr Watson find themselves involved in a peculiar mystery centred around a precious blue stone. And a goose.

The Adventure of the Speckled Band: Strange deaths plague a woman's family and Sherlock comes face-to-face with a horrible patriarch in a wonderful, atmospheric story.

The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb: An injured thumb leads Sherlock to a gang of coiners and London's underbelly.

The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor: When a bride disappears on the day of her wedding, Sherlock discovers secrets whose roots can be found years ago in San Francisco.

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet: An invaluable coronet reveals the secrets within a prominent family.

The Adventure of the Copper Beeches: In one of the most fascinating stories, a young woman asks for Sherlock's advice after she has been promised a generous salary. However, there is a strange condition. She has to obey her employers' requests which include cutting her hair short. Cruelty, obsession, love and Violet Hunter steals the show...

Always an immense joy to revisit Sherlock and Dr Watson's adventures. And this particular editiom is just beautiful!

‘'No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may take the flies, but not before.''