lory_enterenchanted's Reviews (582)

Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle

Very interesting points are raised but the legitimate science is minimal. Instead we get lots of personal experience, anecdote, and rumor. Clearly researchers need to take up this topic -- chronic disease is not addressed or is even made worse by modern medicine, and we've got to find another way to deal with it. Breathwork offers immense potential, although I'm skeptical about some of the kookier corners Nestor explores. 

The bit about people being left with "open nose syndrome" after unauthorized invasive surgery, then brushed off by doctors with their arrogant denial and shaming, was especially disturbing. What a lot of harm modern medicine does, under its banner of "progress". If breathing better can keep me out of the hands of such unfeeling doctors, I'm all for it. I'm definitely going to try nose breathing and regular slow breathing bouts and see what happens.

Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle

Well, that was ... different. The concept was intriguing, there was a fantastic double setting (spiritual/material world) and some endearing characters, but I found the execution lacking. The action veered all over the place, and at the end grew very hectic and choppy, leaving me with an incomplete and even cheated feeling. I'm surprised this was nominated for the Ursula K. LeGuin award, her name deserves better.

Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle
Readalong review appears on the blog.

Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle

The author seemed determined to convince us that sixteenth century Alsace was dirty, dangerous, and stinky. In this she succeeded. Every other sentence was about something smelly.

Not so successful was her portrayal of the inner lives and language of the people of the time. I could not believe that they would really have thought, behaved and spoken in the way they did, especially Lisbet who seemed to have no trouble bringing 21st century mores of religious, racial and sexual orientation tolerance into her unenlightened time, and her sensitive male love interest, who was waaaaay too good to be true, singlehandedly smashing anti-Turk bias and the otherwise rampant toxic masculinity to bits with his utter perfection. This constantly threw me out of the story. 

The writing style was too pleased with its own fanciness to be pleasing to me as a reader. I liked the parts about the bees the best. 

I think I would have preferred a 21st century story from this author that somehow transferred the dancing plague into modern times. That could have been interesting. But as a historical fiction writer I was not impressed.

Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle

Hard to do something fresh with a British WWII story, but Quinn kept me engaged with her characters and their fortunes. Lots of beautiful turns of phrase as she depicts a crumbling manor, central character a plucky stagestruck orphan turned intelligence agent, bohemian artists passing through, Land Girls and music on the home front, a near-romance with a German soldier, Paris under the occupation ... it kept me turning the pages.

Although the pieces were enjoyable, by the end the vignettes began to fly by so fast that they became a bit superficial and shallow, not adding up to a completely satisfying whole. There also could have been more about the theatre for my taste; the titular entity spent most of the time offstage. Also welcome would have been to spend more time in the Paris theatre where Anouilh's Antigone was performed. It went by in a mere blip, but what a fascinating setting that would be.

Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle

Reread for the 1929 club, but didn't finish in time to write a post, and I don't have much to say about it. I find Blandings amusing but I still enjoy the narrative voice of Bertie Wooster more.

Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle

Wish I'd had access to these concepts before I became a mother myself, went through undiagnosed postpartum depression, and spent years feeling like a failure and blaming and judging myself for the harm done to my child through interrupted bonding. I hope that more people can heal from mother hunger through this work and cut the cycle short. It's still worth it to me to heal at this late stage, but the earlier the better.

I appreciate McDaniel's calm, soothing presentation and her emphasis on healing the injury rather than villainizing "toxic" mothers. One of the most important points is made at the end: in order to nurture, protect, and guide, mothers need nurturance, protection and guidance themselves, not only in childhood, but throughout life and especially in the vital stage of early motherhood. May this work come to be valued and supported in accord with its true worth, which is immeasurable. Our culture has a long way to go but at least there are some voices speaking up for the healing of the mother wound, which damages us all.

As with I Don't Want To Talk About It, I wish this was not so narrowly focused on one gender. Men suffer tremendously from mother hunger, and women from covert depression (the subject of the other book). In fact, I think that lack of nurturance often causes the covert depression. This is not a gendered issue, but a human issue and must be foregrounded in our quest for better health. I understand the desire to support women (or men) in particular, but the other side has to be addressed too, at some point.

I also wish there were not such a narrow focus on sexual issues. Girls don't just need protection and guidance in that realm, but in the whole gamut of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual development. This, too, really needs more attention.

Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle

My review of The Tombs of Atuan appeared on Shiny New Books: https://shinynewbooks.co.uk/the-tombs-of-atuan-by-ursula-k-le-guin

Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle

"The weather is not just what we are subjected to outside, he thinks, we carry it within us. Passion, love, despair, male or female, it fogs all rational thought."

The Weather Woman is one of those historical romances (both in the sense of a love story and a heightened, not entirely naturalistic form of reality) that incorporates present-day concerns and mores into the trappings of the past. The central character Neva, who can predict the weather by "walking the clouds" and singing the rain, talks about how the weather is influenced by human activity, how people need to see it and themselves as a web of living activity and not a mechanism. But nobody wants to hear this, and her foster father fears she'll be laughed at, exploited, or thought mad. So he creates a mechanical woman to make her predictions, which becomes a sensation. Yet Neva chafes at the turning of her talent into entertainment rather than the life-saving information it could be. And she also chafes at her limitations as a woman, and devises an alternate identity that gives her freedom but also leads her into danger.

It was an enjoyable romp through an oft-visited time and place from a rather unusual point of view. The love story was a case of love at first sight, followed by agonizingly unnecessary separation and obstacles, which is not my favorite romance trope, so I wish that could have been different. At times the story rattled on too quickly from incident to incident; I would not have minded more thoughtful reflection about the weather and life, like the one quoted above. But otherwise I enjoyed spending time with Neva and her found family, and took satisfaction in their happy ending.

Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle

https://enterenchanted.com/tdirs22-the-sea-the-sea/