Anu Recommends #7

New music, new words, and three cozy fantasy recommendations

Hi and welcome to the Storyteller! It feels like much longer than a week since I sent out the last issue—I guess that’s what happens when many different deadlines, projects, and words are squeezed into a much shorter span of time. Among it all, this past week did give me my first football piece of 2023, and my first Arsenal-related work in over 1.5 years (thank you for the continued prayers; another late Sunday kickoff, another exciting win, and another gorgeous illustration by Shivani Khot). I hope this bodes well for the writing year ahead.

Article: We’ve Got Super Mik Arteta: An Alternative Match Report

Bundle up with these 3 cozy fantasies

What is a cozy fantasy, you ask? My definition is those stories which feel like hugging a warm blanket around you, a steaming cup of tea to keep you company even as it snows outside (or, if you’re in Bombay like me, there is a cooler-than-usual breeze, your hair isn’t frizzing, and you can actually use some of your longer-sleeve clothes). The key word in that sentence is feel, which makes it all the more subjective.

The stakes are low, the (eventual) comfort and feel-good factor is high. The setting is fantasy. The writing is routinely humorous, and the characters charming through the flaws and struggles. This isn’t to say some cozy stories won’t also deal with darker content, but the ending is guaranteed to be happy, even if not neatly tied up in a soft velvet ribbon.

Earlier this week I finished reading Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett (first mentioned in Issue 5) which I was kindly sent to review by her publisher, Del Rey via Netgalley. Following immediately after my first “loved” read of the year (The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton—more about this author and series closer to its April release date), this was a delight!

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde is a professor and foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is working on the world’s first encyclopedia on faerie lore, and the village of Hrafnsvik and its relationship with the surrounding Fair Folk might offer an insight into a previously unexplored area of faerie scholarship. But Emily prefers the company of her dog, Shadow and her research to, gods forbid, small talk and all such. But when her dashing academic rival, Wendell Bambleby arrives in town, charms the townspeople, and offers to collaborate with parts of her work, she is left utterly out of sorts.

This is a fairly low stakes story with unexpected flashes of darkness among the far-flung atmospheric snowy mountains close to the edge of the world. I haven't read many fae books and am not familiar with the genre, but the worldbuilding and lore here felt believable and interesting. The narration is first person which can be tricky but the journal-style entries work really well for Emily's voice, and all characters are well-defined.

If you enjoy witty, wintry yet warm fantasy with a slow burn plot (and romance), dry humour, and interesting characters, this one's a winner! There is no news on when the next book will be out, but this is the first of a series that I will certainly keep an eye on.

I have two more cozy recommendations for you today, one which I’ve already mentioned as one of my top reads for 2022 in an earlier issue.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Travis Baldree is a audiobook narrator and game developer, and this is his debut novel born out of NaNoWriMo. Published by indie Cryptid Press in February 2022, a second edition was republished by Tor Books in November 2022. The latter has a new linked short story and other bonus content such as an author interview.

Viv, an orc mercenary, is hanging up her old life (and sword) to open up the city of Thune's first-ever coffee shop. Coffee is a gnomish invention in this world and from the moment Viv had her first sip during her travels, she has never forgotten how it made her feel. Now, she wants to build a place and a new life that can provide that for others (and, in the process, put down roots and make a home for herself).

I went in with tempered expectations, but even if I hadn't this "high fantasy with low stakes" would have hit the spot. It's seriously such a glowing, charming story with immensely likeable, easy-to-root-for characters, and a plot that isn't super complex but not without believable (and relatable) challenges for our cast. It is also unabashedly wholesome but in a way that doesn't beat you over the head nor ignores life's harsher realities. That is what makes the moments of goodness, kindness, friendship, and community particularly push you into your happy feels.

By the end, there is not only all-round character growth for Viv and squad (succubus Tandri, the shy ratkin baker extraordinaire Thimble, all-round handy person Cal, even the direcat Amity, among others), but there is also just enough narrative closure that we can imagine more stories in this world with different protagonists (there is going to be at least one more book, according to the author). This also has sapphic characters, though the (sweet) romance was very slow-burn and in the background.

Fair warning: reading this is going to make you ravenous (I don't have a sweet tooth nor am I a coffee fan but even I wanted nothing more than to sample Thimble's delicacies).

The Very Secret Society of Unlikely Witches by Sangu Mandanna

31-year-old Mika Moon is one of only a handful of witches in Britain, forced to keep her powers secret, live a very discreet life, and avoid mixing with other witches so as to not draw attention to their underground-of-sorts society. As an orphan who grew up around a procession of tutors and governesses under the strict eye of head witch Primrose Beatrice Everly, Mika is used to being alone and following rules. Except an online account where she posts videos pretending to be a witch which she doesn’t think anyone will take seriously.

Until a cryptic message arrives from a place called Nowhere House, mysterious and remote in the English countryside. They want to hire her to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all the rules Mika has lived her life in accordance to, but something draws her to the house, its motley crew of inhabitants, and the three girls. There is a retired actor in his 80s, an old gardener, a middle-aged housekeeper, and an introvert, prickly librarian close in age to Mika; and, of course, her three charges, Rosette, Terracotta, and Altamira.

Found family, the comfort of belonging, actual magic, the lurking danger of discovery, eccentric, chaotic, but charming characters, and a sunshine/grumpy romance. This book can be tonally inconsistent in the second half—I don’t think the author fully figured out the balance between the cutesy charm and the weightier, more adult themes of the story; or how to navigate the romance between Mika and Jamie without it taking away page time for the further development of the three young witches. But still a very fuzzy socks kind of read that I’d recommend you giving a go!

What This Week

Currently reading:

I’m flitting through short story collections: Cathedral by Raymond Carver and Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice by A.S. Byatt while I decide which novel’s calling me to pick it up next.

Currently watching:

Season 2 of Abbott Elementary (on Disney+ Hotstar in India)

Currently listening to:

Any Hindustani classical music aficionados among my subscribers? If so, you probably know about esteemed maestro Pandit Ram Narayan, the now-95-year-old legend who popularised sarangi as a solo concert instrument in Hindustani classical music and became the first internationally successful sarangi player.

His daughter, Vidushi Aruna Narayan Kalle has been performing regularly in several countries in Europe, USA and Canada for over 3 decades. On this track, she is accompanied by her nephew, Harsh Narayan, a leading sarangi player of the younger generation who has been performing in India and abroad for the past two decades.

This is what Harsh had to say recently on his Instagram about his aunt,

“As a recipient of her father Pandit Ram Narayan’s musical legacy, she has consistently worked towards maintaining a highly respectable profile for her instrument. She has fully captured her father’s disciplined, serious style, yet has also developed a unique voice for her instrument with a warm and generous musical temperament.

She was a featured soloist in a unique presentation of music of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, performed by Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. This project was very well received in a series of concerts in Canada, the US, China and the Far East. An hour long documentary film about this project with an exclusive profile of her has been aired by the CBC and Bravo channels on several occasions.

More recently, the well known Kronos String Quartet commissioned her to write a piece of music that was performed by them in a number of concerts in the US and Canada. This project is under the Carnegie Hall music initiative.

I feel honoured, blessed and it is a huge learning experience for me to accompany Aunt Aruna Narayan Kalle here in this video where we present Raag Eman Kalyan.”

Happy listening!

And before you go, make sure to subscribe to a new newsletter. Notes from a Life in Fiction is intended to be “a pocketful of stories, recommendations, and starry-eyed observations from a bookworm in pursuit of magic” by a friend and publishing colleague. I cannot wait for the first issue!

As always, please feel free send in recommendations—books, movie, TV shows, authors to interview, ideas of what you’d like me to write on, rants/ramblings/excited monologues, GIFs and memes (especially them) and more. Just drop me a line and turn this into a conversation, even if just to say hi and let me know what you thought of the latest issue :) Or share this with someone you think might enjoy it.

See you next week!

Anu

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You can find me on Twitter at @AnuNande (follow for all the football chatter) and on Instagram at @booksinboston.