Cellar Door

This article in the New York Times discusses words that people find beautiful.  I read Tolkien's remark about "cellar door" years ago, but was surprised to find that those words have been mentioned by many others.

Beautiful words that I can think of right off-the-bat...murmur, wander, meander, peregrine, lilting, moonlight.  Poets and fantasy writers are especially likely to use and coin beautiful words, which may explain my love of both.

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New June Mystery/Crime Releases that interest me:

Jan Burke - Disturbance (an Irene Kelly mystery)

Craig Johnson - Hell is Empty  (Walt Longmire mystery)

New ARCs that have arrived in the last several days:

Monoculture by F.S. Michaels

Before the Last All Clear by Ray Evans

Daughters of the Revolution by Carolyn Cooke

What I'm reading now:

Nemesis by Jo Nesbo

Books I've ordered:

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sachs 

The Brain that Changes Itself  by Norman Doidge (I read a library copy 2 years ago; want my own copy)

Chime by Franny Billingsly (recommended by Nancy the Bookfool)

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (recommended by Carl of Stainless Steel Droppings)

Awareness Through Movement by Moshe Feldenkrais

I have several reviews scheduled and a few more to write, but I'm catching up!

Fairy Tales and Folklore

The Spring Equinox is a time for celebrating new life. The earth has warmed and is in a dizzying array of green and bloom. In Jakob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, he asserts that Ostara "is the old high German name for the Easter festival." Think of the fertility symbols associated with Spring and Easter: rabbits, eggs, baby chicks...

And in the spirit of of the Vernal Equinox and Jakob Grimm, please visit this terrific link to National Geographic's From Folklore to Forever and the brothers Grimm, where they would like to tell you "12 unvarnished tales, based on a 1914 translation."

Tell me a story about...and then you have choices. A wicked stepmother who has.... Then more choices, each leading to a specific story from Grimm's Fairy Tales.

The Goose Girl, an annotated version, can be found here on the SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages.

This video from Duirwaigh (pronounced doorway) is a lovely use of the illustrations by various artists on the topic of imagination. A beautiful site with original art and prints for sale, Duirwaigh Gallery is a pleasure to browse. My favorites include Larry MacDougal's Pumpkin Dealer and Terry Windling's work. I recently bought some of her prints, two of which will go to "our Mila" for her 4th birthday. Grandchildren can be a wonderful way to get back in touch with fairy tales.


Gerda and the Reindeer
illustration by Edmund Dulac
Fairy Tale and Golden Age Illustrators


And a blog I check daily is The Endicott Studio for Mythic Arts.
Here you can find illustrators and essays and much, much more.