#myfanwy thomas

[chiropteracupola]

martin brody and wanderlust or myfanwy thomas and steady, steady if you please?

...in the flesh cube!

[myfanwy-thomas]

Any time anyone complains about having a bad show adaption I think back to the Rook tv series. I promise you. You think yours was bad? The Rook tv show was one hundred times worse.

[book--brackets]

The Wicked + the Divine by Kieron Gillan (2014-2019)

Every ninety years, twelve gods incarnate as humans. They are loved. They are hated. In two years, they are dead. The team behind critical tongue-attractors like Young Avengers and PHONOGRAM reunite to create a world where gods are the ultimate pop stars and pop stars are the ultimate gods. But remember: just because you’re immortal, doesn’t mean you’re going to live forever.

The Checquy Files by Daniel O'Malley (2012-2022)

"The body you are wearing used to be mine." So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.

In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.

Tea Dragon by K. O'Neill (2017-2021)

From the award-winning author of Princess Princess Ever After comes THE TEA DRAGON SOCIETY, the beloved and charming all-ages book that follows the story of Greta, a blacksmith apprentice, and the people she meets as she becomes entwined in the enchanting world of tea dragons. After discovering a lost tea dragon in the marketplace, Greta learns about the dying art form of tea dragon care-taking from the kind tea shop owners, Hesekiel and Erik. As she befriends them and their shy ward, Minette, Greta sees how the craft enriches their lives--and eventually her own. 

The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (1965-1977)

When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back, three from the circle, three from the track; wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone; five will return, and one go alone.” 

With these mysterious words, Will Stanton discovers on his 11th birthday that he is no mere boy. He is the Sign-Seeker, last of the immortal Old Ones, destined to battle the powers of evil that trouble the land. His task is monumental: he must find and guard the six great Signs of the Light, which, when joined, will create a force strong enough to match and perhaps overcome that of the Dark. Embarking on this endeavor is dangerous as well as deeply rewarding; Will must work within a continuum of time and space much broader than he ever imagined.

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter (1979)

In The Bloody Chamber - which includes the story that is the basis of Neil Jordan's 1984 movie The Company of Wolves - Carter spins subversively dark and sensual versions of familiar fairy tales and legends like "Little Red Riding Hood," "Bluebeard," "Puss in Boots," and "Beauty and the Beast," giving them exhilarating new life in a style steeped in the romantic trappings of the gothic tradition.

Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews (2013-2022)

On the outside, Dina Demille is the epitome of normal. She runs a quaint Victorian Bed and Breakfast in a small Texas town, owns a Shih Tzu named Beast, and is a perfect neighbor, whose biggest problem should be what to serve her guests for breakfast. But Dina is...different: Her broom is a deadly weapon; her Inn is magic and thinks for itself. Meant to be a lodging for otherworldly visitors, the only permanent guest is a retired Galactic aristocrat who can’t leave the grounds because she’s responsible for the deaths of millions and someone might shoot her on sight. Under the circumstances, "normal" is a bit of a stretch for Dina.

And now, something with wicked claws and deepwater teeth has begun to hunt at night...Feeling responsible for her neighbors, Dina decides to get involved. Before long, she has to juggle dealing with the annoyingly attractive, ex-military, new neighbor, Sean Evans—an alpha-strain werewolf—and the equally arresting cosmic vampire soldier, Arland, while trying to keep her inn and its guests safe. But the enemy she’s facing is unlike anything she’s ever encountered before. It’s smart, vicious, and lethal, and putting herself between this creature and her neighbors might just cost her everything.

The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley (2005-2012)

For Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, life has not been a fairy tale. After the mysterious disappearance of their parents, the sisters are sent to live with their grandmother--a woman they believed was dead! Granny Relda reveals that the girls have two famous ancestors, the Brothers Grimm, whose classic book of fairy tales is actually a collection of case files of magical mischief. Now the girls must take on the family responsibility of being fairy tale detectives.

Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta (2008-2012)

Finnikin of the Rock and his guardian, Sir Topher, have not been home to their beloved Lumatere for ten years. Not since the dark days when the royal family was murdered and the kingdom put under a terrible curse. But then Finnikin is summoned to meet Evanjalin, a young woman with an incredible claim: the heir to the throne of Lumatere, Prince Balthazar, is alive.

Evanjalin is determined to return home and she is the only one who can lead them to the heir. As they journey together, Finnikin is affected by her arrogance . . . and her hope. He begins to believe he will see his childhood friend, Prince Balthazar, again. And that their cursed people will be able to enter Lumatere and be reunited with those trapped inside. He even believes he will find his imprisoned father.

But Evanjalin is not what she seems. And the truth will test not only Finnikin's faith in her . . . but in himself.

Damar by Robin McKinley (1982-1984)

Harry Crewe is an orphan girl who comes to live in Damar, the desert country shared by the Homelanders and the secretive, magical Hillfolk. Her life is quiet and ordinary-until the night she is kidnapped by Corlath, the Hillfolk King, who takes her deep into the desert. She does not know the Hillfolk language; she does not know why she has been chosen. But Corlath does. Harry is to be trained in the arts of war until she is a match for any of his men. Does she have the courage to accept her true fate?

The Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook (1984-2000)

Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hard-bitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead. 

Until the prophesy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more. There must be a way for the Black Company to find her... 

[justforbooks]

In the childhood memories of more than one generation, Glynis Johns, who has died aged 100, will be best remembered as the Edwardian materfamilias of the hugely popular Walt Disney musical Mary Poppins (1964). Winifred Banks, married to David Tomlinson’s George W Banks, is the mother of Jane and Michael, the children in the care of the magical nanny played by Julie Andrews. A protester for the right to vote, Winifred delivers a spirited rendition of the song Sister Suffragette – “Our daughters’ daughters will adore us. And they’ll sing in grateful chorus: ‘Well done, Sister Suffragette!’” – as the children’s previous nanny tries to quit.

But the husky-voiced actor had other claims to fame from her more than 60 films and 30 stage productions. In 1973, Stephen Sondheim composed the song Send in the Clowns for Johns when she was cast in the leading role of the premiere production of his musical A Little Night Music, on Broadway. And she had won initial stardom in the British cinema as a mermaid.

In the title role of the film comedy Miranda (1948), she travels from Cornwall to London and causes romantic complications among the Chelsea set. Although the film’s whimsy may now seem strained, it was a great commercial success in its day, making Johns a top-liner in British movies. Miranda returned in a rather belated sequel, Mad About Men (1954).

By that time, Johns had moved almost completely from stage to films, where she was associated chiefly with lightweight roles, alternately fluffy and feisty. One of her most appealing opportunities came in the thriller State Secret (1950, released as The Great Manhunt in the US), playing a cabaret artiste in a fictitious Balkan country, and gamely singing Paper Doll in a wholly invented language.

It says something for her properties of youthfulness that at the age of 30 she could play a teenage schoolgirl in the melodrama Personal Affair (1953). The same year she played in two fanciful Walt Disney British productions, as Mary Tudor in The Sword and the Rose, and as the heroine wife of Rob Roy, and she went on to make her first Hollywood picture, the Danny Kaye comedy The Court Jester, in 1955. The following year she played a cameo role in the star-studded Around the World in 80 Days.

At the time Johns alternated between American and British films, generally in subordinate roles, but a rewarding one came in The Sundowners (1960), set in Australia, as a jolly barmaid who takes a shine to a visiting Englishman played by Peter Ustinov. It brought her an Oscar nomination as best supporting actress. Top billing came in a stylish horror movie, The Cabinet of Caligari (1962). She was well enough known to American audiences by this time to star in 1963 in Glynis, a TV sitcom series that ran for just one season.

In 1966 Johns returned to the London stage in The King’s Mare, as Anne of Cleves to Keith Michell’s Henry VIII. Her Welsh heritage came into play when she took the role of Myfanwy Price in a screen version of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood (1971) starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O’Toole, and two years later came her great Broadway success as Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, which brought her a Tony award.

Glynis came from a show business background: her mother, Alice Steele (nee Wareham), was a concert pianist who performed under the name Alys Steele-Payne, and her father was the prolific character actor Mervyn Johns. He was a stalwart in particular of Ealing Studios films: father and daughter appeared together in an Ealing drama, The Halfway House (1944).

Though her vocal intonations pointed to her Welshness, Glynis was born in Pretoria, South Africa, where her parents were on tour. She was reportedly carried on to the stage at the age of three weeks, and it was not too much longer before she was appearing there in a professional capacity, making her performing debut at the Garrick theatre, London, as a dancer in a revue called Buckie’s Bears (1935).

Educated at Clifton high school, Bristol, and South Hampstead high school and the Cone School of Dancing in London, she rapidly graduated to juvenile acting roles in both theatre and cinema. Her first screen appearance came at the age of 14, as politician Ralph Richardson’s troublesome daughter in South Riding (1938), and on stage she was the young sister, another Miranda, in Esther McCracken’s comedies Quiet Wedding (1938) and Quiet Weekend (1941).

That year brought the opportunity to appear in the film 49th Parallel, starring Leslie Howard and Laurence Olivier in a spy thriller intended to bolster second world war support in the US. When the prospect of playing a mermaid came after the war, she was able to draw on her theatrical versatility: “I was quite an athlete, my muscles were strong from dancing, so the tail was just fine. I swam like a porpoise.”

Johns returned to the London stage in 1977, as Terence Rattigan’s choice to play the murderer Alma Rattenbury in his well-received dramatisation of the Rattenbury case, Cause Célèbre. Her acting appearances became sporadic, though in 1989 she starred with Rex Harrison and Stewart Granger on Broadway in Somerset Maugham’s The Circle.

She was occasionally a guest star in US television series such as Murder She Wrote and The Love Boat, and played Diane’s rich mother, Helen Chambers, in the first series of Cheers (1983) and Trudie Pepper in the sitcom Coming of Age (1988-89). By the time of her final films, While You Were Sleeping (1995) and Superstar (1999), she was a characterful grandmother.

Johns was married and divorced four times. Her first husband, from 1942 to 1948, was the actor Anthony Forwood. Their son, Gareth, also an actor, died in 2007. Marriages to two businessmen followed: David Foster, from 1952 to 1956, and Cecil Henderson, from 1960 to 1962. She was married to Elliott Arnold, a novelist, from 1964 to 1973, and is survived by a grandson and three great-grandchildren.

🔔 Glynis Margaret Payne Johns, actor, born 5 October 1923; died 4 January 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[dxppercxdxver]

please tell us about "grantchester idiocy" I wanna hear about idiots

this is. Technically done so idk why i considered it a wip but it was a silly story about conrad grantchester haunting the hammerstrom building and seeing myfanwy and shantay be gross lesbians in His house and he's not adjusting well about it

“How… how long have you known?”

She shrugged. “Since the day Monica pummeled you into the dirt. Ingrid warned me about the building’s ghost issue and I figure there’s enough of your hair built up in all this shag I could make a Wicker Man style effigy of you and then exorcize that too, so… Figured you’d turn up.”

Grantchester sputtered for air he didn’t need, unable to think up any sort of retort.

“So what are you going to do with me?”

“We’re going to call Susan from Manifestation Management and let her take care of you, I think,” Thomas said casually. “And then Shantay and I are going to perform gross acts of lesbianism in your face until she gets here. Sound about right, babe?”

“Sounds perfect,” Petoskey smiles, kissing Thomas on the cheek.

There was a pause, a horrific, interminable pause, and then Thomas burst out laughing.

“Was that good? I did so good, right?”

“You did great,” Petoskey laughs, cupping her face. “We really scared that ghost-of-a-homophobe-who-also-used-to-be-your-boss.”

“That’s what I thought.”

The last thing Grantchester witnessed as he shuffled off the immortal coil was Thomas sprawling on top of Petoskey’s chest, blowing a raspberry at him while Susan from Manifestation Management blasted him into oblivion.

Fucking hell.

is grantchester Canonically homphobic. unclear. his vibes are Rancid tho

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 2.29

Beer Birthdays

Jessica Jones (1984)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Jimmy Dorsey; jazz saxophonist, bandleader (1904)

Tim Powers; sci-fi author (1952)

Gioacchino Rossini; Italian composer (1792)

Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri; Italian illustrator (1944)

Tempest Storm; stripper (1928)

Famous Birthdays

Fyodor Abramov; Russian author (1920)

Joss Ackland; actor (1928)

Jean Adamson; British writer and illustrator (1928)

John Byrom; English poet (1692)

Balthasar "Balthus" de Rola; Polish-French artist (1908)

Dennis Farina; actor (1944)

Phyllis Frelich; actress (1944)

Gene H. Golub; mathematician (1932)

Vance Haynes; archaeologist, geologist (1928)

John Philip Holland; invented first true submarine (1841)

Herman Hollerith; inventor (1860)

Naoko Iijima; Japanese actress and model (1968)

Rica Imai; Japanese model and actress (1984)

Jaguar; Brazilian cartoonist (1932)

Ann Lee; founded Shakers (1736)

Hermione Lee; English author, critic (1948)

Jack R. Lousma; astronaut (1936)

Sylvie Lubamba; Italian showgirl (1982)

Pepper Martin; baseball player (1904)

Patricia McKillip; writer (1948)

James Mitchell; actor and dancer (1920)

Michèle Morgan; French-American actress and singer (1920)

Howard Nemerov; poet (1920)

Antonio Neri, Florentine priest and glassmaker (1576)

Seymour Papert; South African mathematician and computer scientist (1928)

Bryce Paup; Green Bay Packers LB (1968)

Pope Paul III (1468)

Dickey Pearce; baseball player (1836)

Tony Robbins; motivational speaker, new age personality (1960)

Alex Rocco; actor (1936)

Ja Rule; rapper, actor (1976)

Antonio Sabato, Jr.; actor (1972)

Sugar Sammy; comedian (1976)

Augusta Savage; sculptor (1892)

Peter Scanavino; actor (1980)

Leonard Shoen; founder of U-Haul (1916)

Dinah Shore; actress and singer (1916)

Superman

Jan Svatopluk; Czech poet (1864)

Louie Myfanwy Thomas; Welsh writer (1908)

Howard Tayler; author and illustrator (1968)

Rakhee Thakrar; English actress (1984)

Karl Ernst von Baler; Russian naturalist (1792)

William A. Wellman; actor and director (1904)

Frank Woodley; Australian actor (1968)

[caribeandthebooks]

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Science Fiction, Adult Fiction, Paranormal/Supernatural

Setting: England

Description: "The body you are wearing used to be mine." So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves...Read more on Goodreads/Storygraph

Content Warning information can be found via the above Storygraph link.

[sebastianravkin]

Book recommendation for 2024

Back during the shutdown, I found myself desperate for a new book or two or ten but unable to go to my favorite bookstore and spend a day exploring. At wit's end, I searched online for "fiction novel fantasy horror funny mystery" all at once. I wasn't actually expecting a single book to fit all those needs, but The Rook by Daniel O’Malley did exactly that. I enjoyed it so much, I ended up gifting it to three different people that year.

Bonus if you enjoy it: it is the first in a triology-of-sorts.

[ael59]

〈Lecture〉 Au service surnaturel de Sa Majesté T.1 : The Rook - Daniel O'Malley

Éditions Pocket (2015) Lorsqu’elle reprend conscience dans un parc de Londres, entourée de cadavres d’hommes en costume portant des gants en latex, Myfanwy Thomas ne se souvient de rien. D’après la lettre qu’elle a trouvée dans sa poche, elle savait qu’elle allait perdre la mémoire et s’est laissé tous les indices nécessaires pour découvrir qui veut l’éliminer.Elle rejoint ainsi la Checquy, une…

[limejuicer1862]

To mark #UnderMilkWood emerging out of copyright please join me in exploring this October this poetic play by Dylan Thomas. 31 writing challenges based on Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas 1. Imagine you are a resident of Llareggub. Write a diary entry describing a typical day in your life. 2. Write a letter from Captain Cat to Rosie Probert, expressing his feelings and regrets. 3. Choose a character from the play and write a monologue from their perspective, revealing their innermost thoughts and desires. 4. Create a dialogue between Mr. Pugh and Mrs. Pugh discussing their secret fantasies and frustrations. 5. Write a poem inspired by the dream-like imagery in the play. 6. Explore the theme of memory in “Under Milk Wood.” Write about a cherished childhood memory of one of the characters. 7. Imagine you are a visitor to Llareggub. Write a postcard to a friend describing your impressions of the town and its residents. 8. Write a conversation between two of the deceased characters in the play, as they reflect on their lives and the afterlife. 9. Choose a minor character and write a short story that delves into their backstory and experiences in Llareggub. 10. Write a dialogue between Polly Garter and Butcher Beynon, exploring their complicated relationship. 11. Explore the symbolism of the sea in the play. Write a descriptive passage about the sea and its significance to the characters. 12. Write a letter from Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard to her deceased husbands, detailing her strict expectations for their behavior in the afterlife. 13. Create a modern adaptation of “Under Milk Wood,” set in a different time or place. 14. Write a conversation between Willy Nilly and Cherry Owen as they discuss their dreams and aspirations. 15. Choose a piece of dialogue from the play and expand it into a short story or scene. 16. Explore the role of dreams and fantasies in the lives of the characters. Write about a particularly vivid dream experienced by one of them. 17. Write a eulogy for one of the deceased characters, capturing their essence and impact on the town. 18. Explore the theme of isolation in Llareggub. Write a letter from one character to another expressing their loneliness and longing for connection. 19. Create a character profile for a resident of Llareggub, including their quirks, desires, and secrets. 20. Write a conversation between Mr. Waldo and Mrs. Waldo as they discuss their troubled marriage. 21. Imagine you are Captain Cat’s shipmate, writing a letter to his family after his passing, sharing your memories of him. 22. Write a dialogue between Organ Morgan and Mrs. Organ Morgan as they reflect on their shared love for music. 23. Explore the concept of time in the play. Write a poem about the fleeting nature of existence. 24. Write a newspaper article from the Llareggub Gazette reporting on a significant event in the town. 25. Writee a character and write a stream-of-consciousness narrative that captures their inner thoughts and emotions. 26. Explore the theme of loss in “Under Milk Wood.” Write a letter from a character to a lost loved one. 27. Write a dialogue between Dai Bread and Myfanwy Price as they discuss their unfulfilled desires. 28. Create a monologue for Captain Cat as he reflects on his life at sea and the people he has known. 29. Write a letter from Nogood Boyo to his estranged father, revealing his regrets and seeking reconciliation. 30. Explore the idea of dreams versus reality in the play. Write about a character’s disillusionment with their life in Llareggub. 31. Imagine you are the Rev. Eli Jenkins. Write a sermon that reflects on the spiritual aspects of life in Llareggub and the human condition.

[shieldmaidencreative]

If we could get past our past, what could we achieve? Semi review of The Rook

The title sounds a little larger in scope than I was going for, but I may explore that too.

I was recently reading a book, called The Rook, by Daniel O’Malley. I enjoyed it well enough, and may go on to read the other two in the series. If you haven’t read it, and you don’t want spoilers, you may want to stop reading (though to be fair, the book is largely used as a jumping off point for other musings).

The main character, as you will find out within the first few pages, is named Myfanwy Thomas, and she works for a supernatural intelligence agency in London. And she wakes up, not knowing who she is or anything about herself, surrounded in a park by dead bodies, all of which are wearing latex gloves. She finds a letter in her pocket from herself, saying that she knew this would happen in advance, and gives her instructions to find more missives, and we are off to the races.

I found this to be an interesting take on how to get the reader introduced to a complex world, though by the end it could get excessive (particularly since every time we read a missive to herself, at least in the Kindle version, it leads to pages of letters in italics, which was tough on my eyes). But what I found truly compelling, was the way that the main character’s personality is rewritten.

Having awoken in her “new” self, she has none of the shyness or timidity from her past. She has no memory of the life that made her who she was; she just has the skills and abilities from before, and the ability to progress on the path she was on.

I found this idea so intriguing. So much of who we are, and how we respond to things, is in response to the maps of our lives, and what we experience. That can be trauma responses, or positive responses…but either way, these lenses color how we react. Who could we be, if we could shed the skins of our past, and see things new? Wake up with the skills we’ve learned and the ability to use them, but essentially….get out of our own way?

The book, whether intentionally or not, makes the argument that we could be superhuman badasses. I like that idea. When I was a child, I was extremely shy. I’ve fought it my whole life, and also had a hard time trusting people. There are various pet reasons I’ve come up with for the reasons that I am that way, but the fact is, it’s never totally gone away. I’ve learned to adapt and overcome, but inside I’m still largely that child, and sort of have to convince myself to behave in other ways. If I had no memory of a lifetime of hesitancies around people, or having had my heart hurt by those that I allowed to keep it in trust, would I still feel shy inside? Or would that go away?

Over the years I’ve seen various papers that have shown me that much of the behavior I would assume is learned, is actually genetic. What a fascinating concept, to have bits of personality just be born into us via our genetic lotteries. But how much of that ends up being cemented into place later on by experiences and trauma responses?

Over the last few years, I’ve had the unpleasant experience that I feel many experience around this time, and that’s the death of friendships from our younger lives. Social media has given us the illusion that we can just find the people from our past online, pick up where we left off, and just continue to be friends, happily ever after. But as I’ve moved out of my thirties, unsurprisingly I’m finding that life is more complex than that. But as the branches of our trees of life diverge, and we become further settled into who we are as people, something odd happens. Sometimes it’s just that you realize you haven’t had communication in a while, and when you reach back out it feels…odd. Sometimes it’s that someone unceremoniously cuts you off. And sometimes as we see our paths take extremely different turns, we find ourselves not able to allow the same time to someone that doesn’t seem to have similar aspirations.

These transitions hurt. We can see sometimes where our trust and affection were unaligned with the person we directed them to, where we were taken for granted. And then we pick up and move on. But looking back through that experience, we can also allow ourselves to see in what ways we have changed, and I like to think in many ways it’s for the better. For myself, I think that I have gotten much better at realizing that not every person is worthy of taking my time. I no longer have that feeling of endless time stretching in front of me; I am cognizant of my own mortality, and fairly comfortable with it. And with that feeling, comes the recognition that I should not just waste the time I do have. I have also had enough experience with people I blindly trusted, to learn the hard way that I shouldn’t have, that I realize that even though I’d like to extend open arms to all who would seem to extend open arms to me…I cannot. That flame hurts, little one.

So in the case of refining my experience into distilled wisdom for myself down the road, the trauma that has resuscitated my hesitancy in some regards with people, has also served to strengthen the bonds with those I am closest with. I no longer give time and attention freely, but I am more generous with those that are worth it. That annealing of love for a more select few is a process of heat and pressure, but ultimately has resulted in relationships that are both stronger and more beautiful.

These situations have also made me truly appreciate how life is not black and white. For me, it is just full of seasons. Some relationships are good for a certain season of life, and it is good to embrace them before it turns, and then appreciate the time we were given. It’s equally important to realize that not all relationships are permanent, and that we can’t force them.

So if I could wake up tomorrow, and have no memory of my past, what would change? Well I assume I would be even more assertive. Perhaps I would not feel shy. But would I lose the wisdom that things like the trauma of changing friendships have left on me? Or would that wisdom be deep enough that it would sink in on genetic level? I don't know. Obviously it’s all just an abstract exercise of thought, but it’s been interesting to toy with it. Would I take the chance to shed the bruises of my history, to only take up the mantle of the knowledge and skills that I’ve earned? Would I still be me? I think no.

Although I might like to try for a day or two and see what I could accomplish.

[transkholins]

read the rook by daniel o'malley and myfanwy's category five woman moments enraptured me

[memes-of-the-rook]

The episode™️

[book-ramblings]

An under hyped series

I watch a lot of ‘BookTube’ - YouTubers who talk about books. A topic that often comes up is ‘under hyped’ books or series, books or series that don’t seem to get the attention they deserve. I don’t necessarily think about books in that way, but I realized today that there is a series I never hear anyone talk about.

Except once. I discovered it because the first book was the book of the week on one of my favourite podcasts, Writing Excuses. The series is The Checquy Files by Daniel O’Malley. The first book is The Rook, the second: Stiletto. The third book, Blitz, is coming out in October, I believe.

“Dear You, the body you are wearing used to be mine”. This is the opening sentence in The Rook. A woman wakes up in the rain. It’s dark outside, she’s in a park in what turns out to be London. Around her are motionless bodies. The letter which she reads to start the story was found in her jacket pocket. She remembers nothing about herself, her life, or even what happened here a moment ago.

Turns out her name is Myfanwy Thomas and she works for a mysterious organisation called the Checquy, the employees of which have strange skills.

I find this absolutely fascinating. I have listened to these two books twice on audiobook, and I’m not the biggest audiobook reader. I thoroughly enjoy following Myfanwy trying to figure out her life and what happened to her and discovering this remarkable, and at times disgusting world. Perhaps you could say that this is a spy/mystery series with a dash of body horror? And a sense of humor.

I tend to like beginnings and I do like The Rook more than Stiletto, but I certainly like Stiletto too. My goodreads-rating for both books is at four stars at the moment, but I’ve been debating raising it to five since I reread them this summer. I just realized when I checked my notes, that I actually read them for the first time last year. I like rereading books, but I usually wait a bit longer.

Oh, there is apparently a TV adaptation of this, but I have not seen it.

I can’t wait for Blitz to come out! It’s my second most anticipated release this year, the first was All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay. I read that too this summer and loved it.

[danamartist]

Myfanwy Thomas 

from The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

day 7 of favorite book characters

Myfanwy Thomas wakes in a park with two black eyes and no memory of anything, even her own name. But the name is provided by the letter she helpfully left in own pocket. Following a trail of clues from her former self, Myfanwy tries to figure out who attacked her while faking her way through her job -- not easy since it turns out she's a high-ranking official of a supernatural MI6.

The plot is what makes the book so much fun, but it’s Myfanwy that makes it stand out. A quiet, methodical young woman taking out monsters and then recuperating with tea and a bunny is a heroine I can sympathize with.

[dxppercxdxver]

don’t mind me i’m just sobbing about how myfanwy thomas couldn’t be bothered to give a single fuck about herself until suddenly she had to be a mother to her own amnesiac body and then put so much care into making her comfortable she put dust sheets over every piece of furniture she might not even find