Anu Recommends #5
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Spotify playlists, and character studies
Hi and welcome to the Storyteller! Hope this Sunday is treating you well. My plan involves tea, my current read (more on that later), and lots of soothing, restorative music in the first half of the day, because the closer it gets to 5.30 pm India time, the more my Gooner nerves will be acting up at the prospect of Arsenal Women playing WSL defending champions (by a point—yes, I’m not getting over the away result to Birmingham City anytime soon) Chelsea Women; before the men make the short trip over for the new year’s first North London derby. If you’re the praying sort, please spare some of your offerings for my sanity.
Pausing to add an admin reminder. If you haven’t already done so, and wish to not miss any issue of the newsletter, add anushreenande@substack.com to your address books, so it’ll be delivered to the main inbox (especially for Gmail users).
Now, onward!
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
One of many exciting ARCs (Advance Reading Copy) to drop into my inbox this week was the above title, which had already been recently recommended to me by two book friends as a very funny and cozy fantasy novel. Here’s to hoping I can get to it later this month.
Out from Del Rey, Penguin Random House on January 10, 2023, the book’s publisher description says:
A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love, in this heartwarming and enchanting fantasy.
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.
So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.
Doesn’t it sound delightful? And will you just look at that cover!
There’s even an official playlist that her publicist sent to me—I’m not someone who likes music while reading but I love the idea of setting the scene with one, so to speak. I’ll definitely report back on the experience.
Character Study…or Fictional People I’ll Never Forget
Have a nosey around any bookish discussions and you’ll find one of them to be whether a reader prefers character-narratives or plot-narratives. Personally? I need both. That may sound like an obvious statement, but read it, then think about your favourite books. For me, the very best ones are stories where writers can effortlessly manage that finest of balance between the two - a clear sense of plot (and if not that, then at least a clarity of direction), along with three-dimensional characters, and enough world building to tie everything into a cohesive whole.
Given a choice of just the one, however, I’d pick character-focused narratives even if the plot is weaker—as I mentioned earlier, as long as the narrative has clarity on where it’s headed, give me all the interesting, fulsome characters. The ones who linger long after the last word, those who pop into my thoughts unbidden on a random weekday afternoon, and I wonder how they’re doing, what they might be doing at that very moment; hoping they’re happy. They who allow me to know myself better in ways I didn’t even realise I needed. These flawed, desperately human, achingly compelling people, crafted into flesh and blood by talented pens and imaginations, who feel like home.
But how often do we talk about our favourite characters as we do our favourite books? So, I wanted to introduce a new, ongoing sub-section of the newsletter, where, over the course of the year and beyond, I’ll discuss (try to sound coherent in the midst of general gushing) those fictional people I can’t shake even if I wanted to—which, I think I’ve made quite clear, I don’t, no matter how much they demand of me or how routinely I’m put through the proverbial wringer.
Here are a few of the books you can expect mentioned (in no particular order):
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Still Life by Sarah Winman
Beartown/A Man Called Ove/Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Jack Reacher books by Lee Child
Let me know if there are any you’d like to see first. And also what your list will look like.
What This Week
Those of you who are a part of the book instagram community (or Bookstagram, if you will) will know about “What This Week” where, at the start of a week, you’ll post about what you’re reading, listening to, and watching. Occasionally, you’ll see me share the same, albeit on here now. Let me know your version in the comments?
Currently reading:
An ARC of The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton (yep, another one of the exciting arrivals in my inbox this week—you may remember that the book made my list of anticipated 2023 new releases in issue #4). I’m trying very hard not to abandon all my work and inhale this delightful romp in one go.
Currently listening to:
Currently watching:
My parents and I are currently on season 6 of Superstore. Any fans among my subscribers?
That’s all for today, folks!
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.
I enjoy superstore. I think I’m on the last session? But haven’t watched it in a bit.