Island Books

I didn’t make any resolutions this year, but a podcast I listened to in December about accomplishing big reading projects (War and Peace, Moby Dick, Shakespeare’s entire oeuvre) by breaking them into manageable chunks, reminded me that I do have an unresolved intention of incorporating more poetry into my reading life. I think about it when National Poetry Month rolls around or when I’m shelving/tidying in the Poetry section. Then I get distracted by the latest novel I’m reading and my intention goes by the wayside. Breaking it up into manageable sections, say reading one poem a day, even if I did this only some of the time, would still be more poetry overall than I’ve read in many, many years.

Then I finished my last audiobook and noticed that I had Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World by Padraig O Tuama in my “to listen” queue. Why not try listening to some poetry, I thought?

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If you’re searching for a fun fantastical read for your mid-January TBR, then look no further than Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett.

Set at the turn of the 1900’s in an alternate history where dryadology, the study of faeries, is the focus of entire academic departments, Professor Emily Wilde of Cambridge is on a field expedition to Ljosland to investigate the “Hidden Ones” rumored to inhabit the area. Accompanied only by her intimidating dog, Emily settles into a dilapidated rented cottage on the outskirts of an inhospitable village, made so largely by her own dislike of social niceties. Give Professor Wilde a brownie to befriend or a trek to a kelpie’s lake and she is perfectly content. Give her a pub filled with villagers to chat with and she’d rather hide away in her cottage with her books and papers. Enter Emily’s professional rival, Professor Wendell Bambleby, supposedly intent on “helping” Emily with her research, but really only achieving looking ornamental while doing a whole lot of nothing. Despite herself, Emily begins to take an interest in village life, especially the spate of young people being spirited off by the “tall folk,” and when her inquiries lead her into dangerous paths, it will take all of her wits and research to protect herself against malevolent enchantments and faerie kings.

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