On "Doomsday Book": A Book Review

Last book review of the year...

Title: Doomsday Book 
Author: Connie Willis
Genre: Science-Fiction

About the book….
Winner of the Hugo and the Nebula award, Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book is a story of time travel, of history, and of the ability to survive. There’s nothing more Kivrin wants than to go to the Middle Ages despite the adamant arguments of her tutor, Mr. Dunworthy, of how dangerous it is, not to mention that it’s off limits for traveling to because it’s rated a ten. However, in the absence of the regular department head and a period of preparation and inoculations she gets her wish. Things don’t go quite right, though. While she finds herself quite ill in the 1300’s, back in the present they’re dealing with a pandemic of their own and when the tech who helped coordinate the drop comes down with the mysterious illness after claiming something went wrong, Dunworthy takes it upon himself to do everything in his power to try to rescue Kivrin.

What I think… 
I’ve read this book about six times now and it’s still just as good as when I first read it. 

As someone who both loves books set in medieval Europe and stories about time travel this book really appealed to me when it was first recommended and continues to do so with each reading.

Connie Willis’ writing draws you in and keeps you captivated from start to finish. She masterfully balances the two storylines, swapping between the present and the past at just the right time to maintain the suspense. The parallels between Kivrin’s time in 1300’s and the mass amount of people falling ill in the present creates a world that is believable and that it takes place around Christmas makes the story even more compelling.

By the end of the book you become very attached to the characters and their lives. Dunworthy and Kivrin are both developed in such a way that you wish that you had more to read about them, as are the others they interact with as they become further involved in their current situations. 

This is the best of Willis' four time travel books, my most favorite of all the books I've read by her, one of my favorite modern day books (of which there are few), and one that I very happily look forward to reading again every year. 

(For those interested there is also a short story that was the basis of this book called “Fire Watch,” which can be found in the short story collection of the same title, as well as in The Time Traveler’s Almanac)

To sum it all up…

If you like time travel, the Middle Ages, or are just looking for a sci-fi book that’s exceptionally well written, this is the one to choose! ♥

On The Remainder of This Year’s Christmas Crafting

Aside from the pom-pom ornaments and the pixie ornaments in the last two posts, I managed to jam a few other craft projects in before Christmas.

This year I made two Putz houses from the patterns on Retro Renovation to add to the three I made a few years ago and the one that belonged to my grandma (which didn’t make it out this year). Both were scaled down by half, since I wouldn’t know how to store larger ones.

I’m not entirely sure what I think of my watermelon colored house, it just kind of happened in an unplanned sort of way. It’s not really a snowy weather looking house, which I didn’t decide upon until after I attached the house to the already painted base and I think I’m just going to leave it this way until next year. The cottage, on the other hand, I am perfectly delighted with!

Then there’s Fredrick the tipsy, red pin-nosed reindeer who has some very shiny antlers. Frederick, in case you didn’t know, is the 5 1/2 inch counterpart to Rudolph and he's quite the legend among doll house people and mice.

 

He does suffer from a slight alcohol dependency, which causes him to tip over frequently (well, at least until he was glued down), but he’s slowly learning to like eggnog instead.

The instructions for making him and the sleigh came from a 1958 New Ideas for Christmas magazine I found at a thrift store (after waiting a year for them to put out holiday items again because I didn’t buy it the first time I saw it).

I will readily dispute the claim "it takes only an hour to make."

I altered it by painting the corks instead of using gummed paper (not something I have handy), using seed beads for the eyes, and forgoing the ears. Sparkly paper was used to cover the sleigh and the presents are pieces of cardboard wrapped in wide curling ribbon. I also skipped making Santa because I ran out of the right size corks. I really love how it turned out and am sorely tempted to leave it out all year. 

And that sums up my Christmas crafting, minus a few presents. ♥

On an Invasion of 1950's Pixies!

A belated Christmas story (with apologies for the less than stellar photos, I kept missing the time when the lighting was good)...

We've been invaded by 50's pixies*.

They appeared on the tree the day after Christmas and seemed to be as equally shocked to see us as we were to see them.

Most are rather Christmas-y and we know they’re from the 50’s because almost every ornament they’ve touched now has atomic stars on it, which is quite nice as far as what you might expect when you suddenly find you have pixies in your house. 

We also discovered a purple one that we're assuming must be a New Year's pixie. Unlike the others he seems only to be attracted to the blue and silver ornaments.  

They aren’t bothersome, but we do wonder when they’ll be leaving. We tried explaining to them that it will have to be soon because the tree has to be taken down, but so far this hasn’t seemed to make any difference to them and they continue to merrily sit on the ornaments without a care in the world. 

At this point, we're perfectly willing to let them stay, but as we aren't sure as to how they'll react to being removed from the tree, we can only hope they’ll get homesick and go back to where they came from or that our tree is serving as a temporary rest stop on their way home.

♥♥♥

(*Pattern and instructions for pixies from Va-Voom Vintage. Thank you for sharing, Brittany!)