December 4, 2024

Book & Bramble - October and November 2024

But this past October was a hard month. I’ve been putting off writing a newsletter because my dad passed away suddenly, and I don’t know yet how to write about the complexity of this particular loss.

Right after he passed, I posted this: We lost a man who dedicated his life to music. He probably taught thousands of people to play the guitar, the banjo, and the fiddle, and he tirelessly created spaces to promote and nurture the talent of others. He made the most beautiful guitars. In this photo, he had just built me a treehouse in the forest he loved more than anything. He was my dad, and now he’s gone, and the world is less without him in it.

Interpreting:

I generally spend all year looking forward to my fall museum programming – the Beaconsfield Séance. I moonlight as Madame Evangeline Grey, Spirit Medium and Conduit for the Otherworldly, demonstrating the magic tricks and theatrics that the Victorians used to fake communicating with the dead. It’s such a fun program to deliver, and I enjoy revelling in the macabre nature of it all. But of course the whole thing felt very strange this year. I could have cancelled the shows (and was encouraged to do so if I wanted to), but I love this program so much that I opted to push forward, and I'm glad I did.

Traveling:

I slightly impulsively decided to make a quick trip to Ottawa for Cancon, which is a Canadian science fiction and fantasy writing convention. It was my first foray back into conventions since COVID, and I had a lovely time connecting with friends both old and new and getting to talk about my book in an official setting for the first time. Of course the true highlight was spending time with my dearest friends and fellow writers Amal and Claire, as it was also the first time we were all together in the same place since late 2019.

Crafting:

I really struggled to do October’s Wreath of the Month, but then I went for a beautiful walk through the woods one afternoon as the sun was going down, and I thought the ferns looked so beautiful in the golden light that I put some in my hair. Then in November, Claire came to visit me on the Island after the convention was over, and she obligingly agreed to participate in Wreath of the Month. I’d made two crowns out of hydrangeas back in September with this very collaboration in mind, and I was so impressed with how bright and colorful they remained as they dried.

What a gift it is to make art with such a friend. Claire is a fellow L.M. Montgomery enthusiast, so we chose the ruins of her Cavendish home as the setting for our frolicking. I think Maud would have approved.

Reading:

I feel like I’ve been reestablishing my relationship with reading since stepping back from book reviewing in the spring. I’d been chugging through seven or eight books a month since I began that gig eight years ago, and I think I was honestly a bit burned out. But now that the winter weather is setting in, I’m settling back into a rhythm.

My favorite October and November reads were The Pairing by Casey McQuiston and Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid. The Pairing tells the story of best-friends-turned-lovers Kit and Theo, who had a messy breakup on the eve of a food and drink tour of Europe. Now it’s four years later, and both of them realize their vouchers for the trip are about to run out. They accidentally end up on the same tour.

This is a really luscious, sensory read, full of vivid descriptions of food, scenery, art, and sex. There’s an almost languid quality to it, as Kit and Theo angst their way around some of the most beautiful places in the world, desperately pining for each other but terrified to admit it. The thing about it that I found the most interesting is the points of view. Like many romances, half of this is from Theo’s POV, and the other half is from Kit’s. But instead of alternating chapters like usual, the book is neatly divided in two sections. I was totally fascinated by the way that we get to know these characters so well from one perspective – and then half way through, we suddenly learn that we weren’t seeing the whole picture – and yet, everything we already knew is even truer than it seemed before. I’d been meaning to read McQuiston’s work for a while now, and I’m glad this is where I started.

Lady Macbeth is a very different kind of book – and a rather grim one, as you might imagine. It tells the story of Macbeth from the Lady’s perspective, entwining it with other myth and history to create a very sharp, gory, magic-forward retelling. It really takes the characters out of their usual roles and runs with it, and I ripped through it, intrigued to know if the tragedy would play out in the familiar way.

Musing:

There’s a bit of snow on the ground today and I’ve just finished decorating Beaconsfield House for my Victorian Christmas program. But part of my heart is still in October.

Until next time, wishing you the best books and the most berry-full brambles,

Caitlyn

(All opinions expressed in this newsletter are my own and do not represent my employer.)

I write this from the traditional unceded territory known as Mi’kma’ki, and I am grateful to call Epekwitk my home.