Book Review:  The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

• Arranged Marriage: Stories (1995)
• The Mistress of Spices (1997)
• Sister of My Heart (novel) (1999)

I also had Palace of Illusions on my table for sometime with a great
pile of books from the library and had to return all of them to the library
because of an unexpected trip (and they hae not made their journey back from
the library to my house) though my unexpected trip’s journeys  hae ended long since!

• Anita
  Desai  – my review of her book Fasting,
  Feasting can be found here. ‘Papa’s stories tended to be painful. Mama’s had to do with
  food — mostly sweets — and family. But the stories were few, and brief. That
  could have been tantalising — so much unsaid, left to be imagined – but the
  children did not give the past that much thought because MamaPapa seemed
  sufficient in themselves. Having fused into one, they had gained so much in
  substance, in stature, in authority, that they loomed large enough as it was;
  they did not need separate histories and backgrounds to make them even more
  immense.’ – From Fasting, Feasting
• Kate
  DiCamillio – the author of the beloved ‘The Tale of Despereaux: being the story of a
  mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread (2003)’. I also started
  reading ‘The Miraculous Journey of
  Edward Tulane (2006)’ because my son wanted to read it and picked it up
  from the library. We love these books and of course, I enjoyed the movie of
  Despereaux as well.

For Wondrous Words Wednesday: From Bleak House by Charles Dickens: I am finally making a dent in reading this book. Here are a few words from the book that were unfamiliar(either the words or their usage in this book) to me:

• spar 1 n. a thick, strong pole such as is used for a mast or yard on a ship. the main longitudinal beam of an airplane wing. Middle English: shortening of Old French esparre, or from Old Norse sperra; related to Dutch spar and German Sparren.
  • Usage in the book that was new to me:  ‘watching the frosty trees, that were like beautiful pieces of spar, and
    the fields all smooth and white with last night’s snow, and the sun, so
    red but yielding so little heat,’
• beadle n. BRIT. a ceremonial officer of a church, college, or similar institution. – SCOTTISH a church officer assisting the minister. – HISTORICAL a minor parish officer dealing with petty offenders. Old English bydel ‘a person who makes a proclamation’, gradually superseded in Middle English by forms from Old French bedel, ultimately of Germanic origin; related to German Büttel, also to BID
  • Usage in the book made the meaning a little obious and the word a little familiar:  ‘very hot and frightened and crying loudly, fixed by the neck between two
    iron railings, while a milkman and a beadle, with the kindest
    intentions possible, were endeavouring to drag him back by the legs,
    under a general impression that his skull was compressible by those
    means.’