Archive | June, 2018

Familial Magic: A Secret History of Witches, Daughters of the Storm, and The Rules of Magic

13 Jun

All families have drama, but these three terrific novels prove that families of witches really know how to brew up some trouble.  Stop in to the Hoboken Public Library today and borrow them for a spell!

A Secret History of Witches
by Louise Morgan
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Each section in the novel, A Secret History of Witches, focuses on a different witch in a long lineage starting in 1821 and going forward in time to 1937.  Although the women are witches, to me there is less a focus on the supernatural than on the relationship between mothers and daughters as well as the ways in which women who have attempted to wield power have been discriminated against and threatened through the ages.  This novel will appeal to those who enjoy historical fiction generally and not just fans of fantasy.  Sometimes the characters can lack distinction in multigenerational sagas, but I found in this work each of the women was unique in her motivations and her relationship with her supernatural talents.  Although I enjoyed seeing the varied histories of the Orchiere family, I enjoyed the last section focusing on Veronica and her efforts during the War to be my favorite.  Louisa Morgan is the pseudonym of Louise Marley who has also written historical fiction under the name Cate Campbell as well as fantasy works under the name Toby Bishop.

Daughters of the Storm
by Kim Wilkins
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In Daughters of the Storm, a novel infused with magic, the focus is not on mother/daughter relationships but on the relationship between 5 very different sisters.  Bluebell is a fierce warrior, Ash is just learning her full magical abilities, Ivy is vain and selfish, Ivy’s twin Willow is a religious zealot of a new religion, and Rose is carrying on a secret affair after being forced into an arranged marriage with a man she doesn’t love.  They must work together to save their ill father, a king, who has been cursed by a powerful spell.  Their step brother wants to stop them and have the kingdom for himself.  If you are a fan of Game of Thrones check out this fantasy saga which also has political maneuvering and familial drama a plenty.  This is the first in a new series.  The next book in the series Sisters of the Fire is scheduled to be published in the USA in January 2019 and is set 4 years after the events in Daughters of the Storm.  Wilkins is one of my favorite author’s and you can read more about her other novels in a previous blog post.

The Rules of Magic
Alice Hoffman
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Over a decade after Hoffman’s bestselling novel Practical Magic about two sister witches, comes the prequel, The Rules of Magic, which focuses on an earlier generation of the Owens family.  If you liked the quirky aunts, Jet and Franny, from the original novel then you will enjoy getting to see them in their youth at the beginning of the 60’s when youth rebellion is raging and they must try to escape their family curse along with their brother Vincent.  All three learn that love is impossible to hide from.  Although it is hard to top the magic of her earlier work, I still enjoyed the novel.  I relished the plot of the previous work more, but I found this work to be more mature in its characterization; Jet, Franny, and Vincent seemed more fully developed.  Besides print, you can also borrow an ebook or digital audiobook version of the novel from eLibraryNJ or eBCCLS.  You can also read my previous post about some of Hoffman’s other novels.

Written by
Aimee Harris
Head of Reference

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Limitations: Robert Frost’s“Neither Out Far Nor In Deep”

6 Jun

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How can a poem centered on metaphors call to the reality of one’s physical and emotional bar? “Neither Out Far Nor In Deep” by Robert Frost is – in my opinion – a very underrated poem. The poem was first published in the Yale Review in 1934 and was included in 1936 in Frost’s collection, A Further Range. The poem plays on the idea of the external vs. the internal by using the metaphor of juxtaposing the sea and land. Frost’s four-line quatrain uses metaphors to expand on the difference of one’s point of view. Indicating this through the narrator and the narration, the voice of the poem alludes on a metaphor of narrowmindedness. Delving deeper into what serves symbolically as the internal, the sea, that being which is out far and in deep. We see the meaning overlap in the third stanza of the poem, “but wherever the truth may be.” Even though the poem speaks of tangible things such as the sea and the land, the word used is “wherever” not “whatever” which indicates that this is about location. Location of what is the real question.

Continuing with this idea of location, the question being posed here is what kind of location this explores. Is it more metaphorical in the sense that it’s allowing the reader to connect with something deeper? Or is it purely taken at face value and is more of a straightforward view on how others may be perceived or even how a place may be perceived through someone else’s view? Both are as equally important observations and go hand in hand with each other.

First, the title of the poem plays on this idea that it’s neither one nor the other, “Neither Out Far Nor In Deep”, which can be interpreted to it either being both or none. Appearing to be about watchers of the sea, the theme has a very literal meaning, if taken at face value, that those who look out into the horizon at the sea do not have much expectations to see beyond what the natural eye can see. But based on the tone of the poem, the narrator challenges the reader to think deeper about the poem, thus dehumanizing the words “one way,” “wherever,” and “bar.”

In the context of the poem and the tone, it can be seen how the narrator looks down or even pities those being spoken of. The question is to why. It is both internal and external pity, as those who choose to look out only into what seems as “never-ending unconsciousness” are betraying what their external bodies are capable of. Stuck in the “quicksand” of narrowmindedness and low expectations, one can never hope to get anywhere in life.

It’s in the beauty of the last two lines of the last stanza that we are illustrated a more complex vision to this poem.

“But when was that ever a bar / To any watch they keep?”

This is what alludes to the reality within the metaphors that the poem is made of. Frost may be portraying a very literal meaning of the juxtaposition of being at sea and land. Or, the way I see it, he may be calling to the very reality of one’s limitations. The ones we place on ourselves as well as the one’s being placed on us, physical, emotional and even spiritual. Frost is basically saying since when is there a bar to how far one can dream, think, envision, and imagine, which therefore lets them be.

Therefore, I love this poem by Robert Frost. The title alone calls attention to this place in one’s reality that states, it’s neither one nor the other, and who says you must choose. It can be both, or it can be none, or it can be one, but the beauty is that even if it is either or, in reality, it’s neither nor.

Want to enjoy more of Frost’s poems for yourself?  You can borrow the Collected Poems, Prose & Plays by Robert Frost from the Hoboken Public Library; this includes an impressive variety of his work including all his collected poems.  You can also check out several ecollections of his poems on Hoopla including The Road Not Taken And Other Poems.  Robert Frost: Poetry for Kids features poems specially chosen for kids 8-14 by author and historian Jay Parini and accompanied by illustrations from Michael Paraskevason.  For a unique experience borrow Robert Frost: New England in Autumn, which features his autumn themed poems read throughout the farm country of Massachusetts and is available to stream from Kanopy.

Written by
Sherissa Hernandez
Adult Programming Assistant

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