#34// best wintry read for new year

hello new year

Dear Reader,
It has been a while, hasn’t it? How are you? I hope this email lands in your inbox right in time to wish you a lovely new year ahead.
 

Read

There is an added magic in picking up wintry cozy books when the air runs cold. Without beating around the bush, let me introduce you to the Greenglass House universe. Greenglass House by Kate Milford is a cozy, lovely, middle grade book about an inn that caters to pirates, smugglers and conmen. This 200-year-old house turned inn exists in Nagspeake, a shipping and smuggling city with its own quirks, mysteries and a magical history, under the care of Mr and Mrs Pine and their son. 12-year-old Milo is all set to enjoy his Christmas vacation when the bell rings and a flurry of guests arrive. The inn is usually closed for this time but then there’s a guy with mismatched socks, a cat burglar, and a handful more; people who pretend to be strangers (but maybe not), whose arrival leaves Milo very annoyed. Soon enough in this big old creaky house with tall staircases and stained windows, things go missing. The group is snowbound and locked indoors, there are stories shared over hot chocolate near the fireplace and there’s a mystery to solve.
 

Milo’s partner in crime (rather, crime solving) is the daughter of their cook, Meddy. Milo also comes in possession of a book of Nagspeake folktales The Raconteur’s Commonplace book, leading to some knowledge of the eerie history of his own house, and also a *game* which Meddy and Milo invent to solve the mystery of missing things. There’s role playing  and you imagine yourself as a character in the game, blessed with certain powers (like charm, intelligence), but of course you are limited by your powers. Meddy is Sirin and Milo is Negret in this make-believe game. I thought this was written rather cleverly. You’ll be reading about Milo and suddenly he switches to Negret mode—it is difficult to explain in words but this book would’ve made a GREAT animated movie. Oh, did I mention an old worn-down house might be haunted too and have attics hidden with the strangest treasures?  
Milford wrote this book as she was preparing for an international adoption herself and she hoped this book would also help her child to understand and come to terms with interracial adopted families. In the book, Milo struggles to come to terms with his Chinese heritage, and his white parents. He dreads the looks and questions from others because he doesn’t look like his parents. He also begins imagining a biological family for himself through his game.  
I really enjoyed how Milford doesn’t dumb down things in the book. That’s something that makes me disappointed in middle grade books. In the Greenglass House world, you are always thrust into new adventures and skills — map reading, map making, game role-play, lock picking. I didn’t think I would enjoy reading about the mechanisms of locks and keys (Ghosts of Greenglass House) or windows or maps. Nor did I think I would be so invested in waterways, canal systems and architecture in the sequels (listed below). Or that I wouldn’t mind so much info about knots (!). I love a big, creaky house with lots of secrets and legends of the old—trust me you are in for deep deep secrets.
 

The sequel, Ghosts of Greenglass House, is as charming as the first, and takes place in December of the next year. The setting is similar—snowbound uninvited guests, lots of con people, ghosts, and Christmas cooking! A troupe of midwinter carol singers arrive with the horned skull of a hobby horse and a chimney sweep. More stories by the fireside, more clues, a prized nautical map, more mysteries but this time, Milo isn’t the only one who thinks things look suspicious.

I loved how the folktales and carols of Nagspeake were incorporated here. It is more ghostly with vanishing people, folk songs that can awaken spirits and old, eerie stories seeped into the landscape. To be honest, there were several places in this book where the pacing dipped and I felt Milford added too many details. But the moment my spirits dipped, the story would take off on an unexpected turn and I would be like—my! that was TOO GOOD. Read these two books back-to-back and don’t tell me I didn’t warn you you’ll crave hot chocolate on every other page. Better keep a steaming cup by your side before you begin.
 
Next is The Thief Knot which is set in the Greenglass House world but does not star Milo in a prominent role. Our heroine is the clever, plucky, smart, highly bored Marzana (whom you will meet in Book 2) from The Liberty of Gammerbund. The Thief Knot is actually Book 4 (Book 3 is called Bluecrowne set in 1810, but you can read #3 and #4 in any order. I haven’t read Bluecrowne yet). In The Thief Knot, Marzana and her friend crave for something exciting in their boring city. They love reading and one of their favourite things is a certain book series where you have to solve the ‘mystery’ in the books by blackening passages, tearing pages, reordering paragraphs, gluing pages together, making stencils, and hunt for hidden clues in the story. If you’ve gotten a clue wrong in the earlier books, you might never solve the mystery in the latter books (I mean if you have destroyed a page, there’s no way around it other than to get a new copy!). I had no idea this was a real thing until I came across the Tiktok sensation of a book published in the 1930s that people are going gaga over. The book is Cain’s Jawbone by Edward Powys Mathers, who composed cryptic puzzles for The Observer in in the 1920s and 1930s under the pseudonym Torquemada. There’s a cash prize of 1000 pounds btw if you manage to solve the mystery (<5 people have solved it so far).

Back to our Marzana who loves solving book mysteries but is strictly prohibited from any real adventures because her parents have had their share of BIG adventures and they don’t want her to jump into any risks. But the spirit of adventure is passed on in blood. Am I right?—at least in books. So she goes in hunt of legendary smugglers, kidnappings (which also feature their favourite book series to make matters more soupy), secret passageways, abandoned train stations, old libraries where our amateur detectives (Marzana and gang) plot their strategy—you get the idea. I didn’t love The Thief Knot as much as the Greenglass house books set in the house, but I really enjoyed it especially for the lovely characters and their problems. I loved the quiet teen crush, innocent workers who might have sinister or exciting backstories (like who would think a cook could’ve been a pirate? That’s not a spoiler), and also the cameo of characters from the previous Greenglass house books. It is fun, exciting and knotted (pun intended). I also went in search of the revered The Raconteur’s Commonplace book which lists the folktales of Nagspeake that make their appearance in the series. Here a bunch of 15 strangers stuck in a tavern because of the rising flood waters share stories. There are astonishing inventions, cartography and machines (Milford makes this stuff very interesting!). Long version short, I loved some stories enough to keep thinking about them after months (Devil trying to exchange stuff, poisoning princesses, house whose rooms keep shifting on their own, the wishing story) but some were forgettable.
 
I read Greenglass House  last December and the sequels over this year. (I kind of read some chapters of Greenglass House again this month). Several scenes stay fresh in my mind—Milo rummaging the attic, Marzana’s cook throwing her glares because her dad took out the roast from the oven few minutes before the time she ordered, the eerie ‘head’ of the hobby horse, maps, villains that’ll give any Disney villain a run for their money. Milford arrests you with her humour, tantalizing clues and puzzles to solve. You might be tempted like me to read her other books (which are darker and not similar to the Greenglass house series I hear)—this is a good place to decide where to start. PS: Let me know if you love the snowy adventures of Milo and company.
 

Best Books

With all things in life taking weird turns, I have not put together any list of best books yet. I missed the mid-year list too. But they’ll make their way to you soon (hopefully) in the new year. I’ll add that Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel that I read too late, but loved too much is 100% worth a read. It was eerie, bleak, crushing. I read it in hospital waiting rooms, buses, kitchen and all around the city. But at the end of the book, it left me with hope that we’ll survive. You'll find more bookish treats here.
 

Watch

I’ve begun yet another viewing of Downton Abbey and I am hoping some new drama would whisk me away. Loved Money Heist and bawled my eyes out, and then spent a week humming Bella ciao while prepping dinner. I’ve this list of Holiday movies, good and bad, if you are in the mood for some. I crave for entertainers but everything that is being released right now is too realistic. BTW, I LOVED the new Superman movie (I watched it in theatre and I believe this was my first visit to the theatre after April 2019, if I remember right). I am now on a Marvel movie catch up marathon.

Giveaway

Here’s a new year’s gift to you. I am collaborating with Slightly Foxed to bring you five days of recommendations of what I love. Follow the #FoxedFive takeover on the Instagram account of SF. At the very end, you have a chance to win all my favourites. I’ve been reading the quarterly for years—excellent, well curated literary essays that are almost always about books I’ve never heard of but want to read asap, underrated gems etc—and I love the back list titles that talk of the charming, cozy (not always but often), difficult way of the old life. You are in for a treat. Good luck for the giveaway. Check out #FoxedFive here.

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I hope you had a good December. My Christmas week was marked with good food and really, that’s one thing that makes me very happy. The Covid spikes are at their worst after the holidays and the Omicron wave is too scary to read about, however mild the symptoms may be. Be alert—Remember you are helping yourself and also others. Please vaccinate; get your boosters if you are eligible (and if they are available). Let’s hope together that 2022 will be the year this pandemic ends.
 
I wish you all good days and smiles, and blinding rays of hope.
Until next time next year,
Resh x


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