Review - The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

 

It is 1918. The Great War is dragging on in mud and filth and blood.

In Halifax, Canada, nurse Laura is struggling with tragedies of her own. She had been a nurse in Belgium but was sent home after her hospital was bombed. She then lost her mother when a ship in the harbour exploded.

Her brother Freddie - a solider - is lost somewhere overseas, presumed dead.

However, Freddie isn't dead. Trapped in a pillbox with a German soldier that Freddie only knows as Winter, they fight their way out and across No Man's Land against extraordinary odds.

However, they can't survive alone, and there's a very bad man with a violin who is looking for stories ...

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a lot of things - it's a family saga in a way, as Laura and Freddie fight to find each other. It's a war story in the most intimate and tragic sense of the word, and it's a love story, with as many layers to that description as you can think of.

It's also a ghost story, and blindingly beautiful and tragic.

Katherine Arden wrote The Winternight Trilogy, which I did greatly enjoy.

But The Warm Hands of Ghosts is on another level of elevation, and I loved it.

Sunday Post 57; It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 57

 The Sunday Post - a chance for a catch-up - is hosted by Kimberly, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

So capitalism once again trapped me, and I also did not win Lotto. I mean, I didn't buy a ticket, but semantics.

We came second at quiz on Wednesday night, and my new shift has started so I worked Saturday and I have Sundays and Mondays off.

I went to my friend's place today for our usual reality TV show and stitching session and we may switch to Sunday afternoons for the time being.

Son of Mine had a friend over last night for a sleepover, and he's off at another friend's tonight for a party/sleepover combo.

I have big plans. I'm going to cook some dinner and watch the last two episodes of season two of Feud.

Maybe do some stitching.

I finished The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden and absolutely loved it.

I also finished The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie, which was a fun read.

I'm now re-reading The Fellowship of the Ring, and still picking my way through Wizards and Glass.

I also started The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell, a murder mystery which is proving to be very entertaining so far. 

How about you? How's your day? What are you reading?

Sunday Post 56; It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 56

 

The Sunday Post - a chance for a catch-up - is hosted by Kimberly, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

First, thank you for the kind words about Freya. Her ashes are now home with us, and I miss her greatly.

Okay. 

I worked 6 days last week as my roster is temporarily changing to Tuesdays to Saturdays. It means I'll have Mondays off and I am not upset about that. I don't mind working Saturdays - I hate working Sundays. 

Son of Mine turned 17 (somehow) this month and I feel VERY old. And tired. 

What else have I been doing? Working. Reading. Stitching. Getting colder as winter is coming. 

I've been watching Ripley on Netflix, which is very good and Feud Season 2 on Disney, about Truman Capote and his "Swans" which is also very good.

I finished The Hobbit, and The Warm Hands of Ghosts. AND The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie.

I've decided to pick up The Dark Tower again as well. I got part way through book 4 and stalled out due to the very extended flashback. I'm not a big fan of flashbacks in general and this one is something like 500 pages. But I do want to finish the series so I'm chipping away at 10 or so pages as often as I can. I've read about 100 pages that way so it is working.

I'm also re-reading The Lord of the Rings now that I've finished The Hobbit.

How about you? How's  your week? What are you reading?

Sunday Post 55; It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 55

 

The Sunday Post - a chance for a catch-up - is hosted by Kimberly, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

First of all, thank you all for your kind words. Unfortunately, Freya crashed and passed away under the anasthetic. The vet even did CPR, but it wasn't enough. He thought she had an underlying condition beyond just the bad teeth. And I agree - between the Thursday when I took her to the vet and the Monday she had the surgery, she was losing weight. And she was only 3.5kg to begin with when she was healthy. 

She was such a constant presence, small as she was, and we all miss her greatly.

Everything else has just been ticking over as normal.

Work has been busy and mostly I've just been super tired.

I'm re-reading The Hobbit, and I'm also reading The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden, which is very good so far.

How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?

Maree's Movie Night - the director's short cut

 

You know when you come home on a Friday night and you just want something short, fun and stupid but you want to watch a movie?

Right here. This is the one. Actually any of the Bill & Ted movies would work but this is what Netflix suggested so I went with it.

Uh ... something something, music. Something something time travel.

Dave Grohl and Kid Cudi are in it for some reason?

Lower your expectations. Lower than that. Lower. Lower.  There you go. Bill & Ted Face the Music is nothing but a good time. :)

And now, for a complete shift in tone. The Happy Prince was, apparently, a passion project for Rupert Everett. He stars as Oscar Wilde in his last, fading days in Paris.

There are flashbacks to previous times and the narrative of Mr Wilde's incredibly sad fairy story is woven throughout the narrative. There are a couple of surprising cameos from the likes of Colin Firth and Tom Wilkinson, but it's really Everett's film.

Colin Morgan takes on the rather thankless role of Bosie, and manages to restrain himself from chewing the scenery. 

The heart of the movie - for me - was Edwin Thomas as Robbie Ross, a long-time friend of Oscar Wilde's who stuck by him through everything. Definitely worth watching.

I'm trying to show Son of Mine some fun/classic movies he may not have seen.

Today's pick was National Treasure.

Nicolas Cage. The Declaration of Independence. Sean Bean with a bad dye job.

Honestly, what's not to like???

Sunday Post 54; It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 54

 

The Sunday Post - a chance for a catch-up - is hosted by Kimberly, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

Last week .... work set the same trap for me it always does, so I had to go to the office.

I also had to take Freya to the vet as she's been drooling a lot, and off her food. 

Vet: "Her heart is beating way faster than it should be. I want to test for hyperthyroidism.

Me, who is ALREADY paying out of pocket for Lily's hyperthyroidism (internally) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Luckily, Freya does not have it, she just has bad teeth which are making her feel unhappy. She already had teeth out about three years ago, but now her back molars have to go. I have tomorrow and Tuesday off work (pre-arranged, nothing to do with cats) so I'll be taking her in for surgery in the morning.

We came fourth at quiz on Wednesday, and I got drafted for a fundraiser quiz on Thursday. They're always for a good cause, but I hate fundraiser quizzes because they take so long and it's a gamble for how well they're organised. This one .... was not. I got dragged into it because a friend was one of the people organising it. I think we came third, but I left early as I had work the next day.

Friday night I completely powered down. I watched TV I think.

Saturday morning Son of Mine and I went to the library, and we re-watched some Good Place, and Golden Girls. Saturday night I went to my friend's as usual. We finished a show, so watched The Happy Prince, a Rupert Everett movie about the last days of Oscar Wilde.

Today Son of Mine and I watched National Treasure and I worked on a couple of blackwork projects I have on the go.

I had to DNF A Curse Dark as Gold - I was struggling with it more than I was enjoying it and life is too short. So now I'm reading Pet by Catherine Chidgey and I think I'm going to re-read an Agatha Christie, as I finished RuPaul's memoir.

How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?

Sunday Post 53; It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 53

 

The Sunday Post - a chance for a catch-up - is hosted by Kimberly, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

Let me see... work happened to me again somehow as I was not the lucky winner of the $30 million Lotto powerball at the weekend. I worked yesterday as well, filling in for a workmate who was on holiday. Six day weeks are no fun but the overtime will certainly disappear into bills and Son of Mine's birthday as soon as I blink. He'll be 17 next month, somehow. 

We came third at quiz on Wednesday night, so we're not having the greatest run but at least we placed.

My work bestie who moved away in February was down this week to visit her family and gather more of her stuff so we had a dinner date on Thursday night. It was absolutely the best to see her, but now I miss her even more.

Friday night I watched Bill and Ted Face the Music, which was exactly the 90 minutes of stupid fun I needed.

Today I was feeling a bit ... ehn. I think because of working six days, and Son of Mine had a friend over last night for a sleepover. I just needed to get out on my own for a bit. So I went and bought myself some new pillows and went to the library. It was exactly what I needed. 

I didn't do much this afternoon, some stitching while trying not to fall asleep.

I'm still reading RuPaul's memoir, and A Curse Dark as Gold. My endeavour this week is to make time for more reading and stitching, and less for Instagram reels which are my Achilles heel.

Anyway. How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?