Alana's Commonplace Book: Entry 015

My first book review here, plenty of poetry and a little night music about a Facebook game

Welcome to my Commonplace Book — a digest of the articles, videos, photos, music and/or ideas that I’ve saved and collected because I thought they were worth sharing — with you! But sometimes it doesn’t show up every week and I’m working on that.

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A Book Review!

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

I don’t know the last time I read a 400+ page novel but probably the only way to get me to do that nowadays is to 1. get it free or cheap on my Kindle and/or 2. not know it was a 400+ page novel when I started it.

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.

Official Summary

The summary is pretty misleading. I thought I was getting into something akin to a grown-up Harry Potter. Instead, this book is a wild ride through the pain, suffering and hardships of women over the last 100 years at the hands of cruel men - and there’s a nice guy named, Henry. These three main characters tell the story in their own, first-person narrated chapters. There are many clever moments, some hard-to-believe plot twists and a lot of time hopping. There’s also romance, death, an insane asylum, suicide and a lot of domestic violence so it is definitely not for everyone.

I’d give it 3 out of 5 stars. It definitely kept me coming back and became something of a companion for me. Having spent some time in Dublin, I really enjoyed the setting of most of it and, being a bit of a literary nerd/English major, I also enjoyed all the literary references to Joyce, Brontë, Shakespeare & Company, rare book hunters and so on.

Ultimately, I would rewrite the summary with a focus on the historical fiction, literary mysteries and oppression of women. There was no “world of wonder” that we were transported to. The bookshop was lost most of the novel! And most of what was uncovered were tragedies abuse, neglect, war and cruelty. If the summary had been more accurate, I would probably give it 4 out of 5 stars.

How do we feel about book reviews in the Commonplace Journal?

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A Poem

Laguna Blues by Charles Wright

It’s Saturday afternoon at the edge of the world.
White pages lift in the wind and fall.
Dust threads, cut loose from the heart, float up and fall.
Something’s off-key in my mind.
Whatever it is, it bothers me all the time.

It’s hot, and the wind blows on what I have had to say.
I’m dancing a little dance.
The crows pick up a thermal that angles away from the sea.
I’m singing a little song.
Whatever it is, it bothers me all the time.

It’s Saturday afternoon and the crows glide down.
Black pages that lift and fall.
The castor beans and the pepper plant trundle their weary heads.
Something’s off-key and unkind.
Whatever it is, it bothers me all the time.

I was clearing out old videos and came across a screen recording of a podcast episode of The Paris Review with this snippet of Wright’s poem:

If you enjoy it, you might also like this transcript and audio of a reading he did back in 2018.

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A Song

I also stumbled upon a screen recording of a video of a song I wrote. Yep. The music industry is a messy thing. Never straight-forward. And since I don’t have a say in what happens to this music, there is only one copy of it online since it was pulled from iTunes, that I’m aware of. A man in Malaysia uploaded the entire album to YouTube. Thank God for him.

Before you listen to this song - and make this man wonder why his video from ten years ago is getting more plays all of a sudden - let me tell you how it came to be.

Back when we lived in Canada, we became acquainted with a singer/songwriter who had a side hustle running a gaming studio. This studio created a passive Facebook game called Mouse Hunt. It’s like an RPG with “cards” for different types of mice, traps and bait. You’re hired by the king to set your trap and wait 15 minutes to see what mice you caught, if any. And, of course, you can purchase upgraded traps and bait and accessories with real money. Simple. Silly. BIG in Asia. People were spending thousands of dollars a day on upgrades. It was wild. Now you can also play it on the site or your phone.

So, being a singer/songwriter IRL, our acquaintance decided it would be fun to write a companion album for the game. He enlisted lots of talented folks to write and perform, including my husband, who co-produced and engineered the album in his studio. And somehow, I ended up writing lyrics for our dear friend Nathan Finochio to record on guitar.

The song is called, I Will Wait and it’s a sort of love story from the player to the mouse and uses themes from the game itself - traveling to different areas searching for mice, laying the traps, waiting the required 15 minutes and so forth.

I guarantee it’s not what you’re expecting.

I’d love to know what you thought of the song. Leave me a comment at the end of the post!

Listen to more reflections on this in my voice over for paid subscribers.

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Time for Reflection

Thanks to Substack’s paid subscription option, I was able to use those funds to start up an Etsy store! My writing is paying for itself, in a way. That’s exciting. It may have only been a few bucks but it feels like a milestone and I’ll take it!

And what am I selling, you ask? Well, a couple of years ago, I wrote out a reflection process that took its inspiration from many places and pastors and that my husband and I had been doing for years during the week between Christmas and New Years. We would sit down and go over everything that was “on our plates” and prayerfully consider if these things should remain and what should be added or taken away in the next year. We would do this at a hotel bar, a restaurant table or just on the couch. I thought it was worth sharing and since the first time I made it available, it’s been used by schools, therapists, married couples and individuals not only annually but even as a mid-year check-in.

Unfortunately, I decided a while back that my old website just wasn’t worth the money to maintain. I wasn’t doing anything with it. But I now needed a place for people to get this Annual Audit online that was more professional than just a Dropbox link. Considering I have some other resources I want to share as well in the future, I thought Etsy would be the perfect place.

Since it’s on Etsy, there is a small cost now but the worksheets are undated so you can reuse the pdf and even share it - although, I’d prefer you shared the link to purchase but my main goal is to get it in your hands. That’s why the price is so low.

Check it out and follow my Etsy shop if you’re interested in more worksheets in the future! Paid subs - reach out to me for a free download link!

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A Final Poem

Acquainted With the Night

by Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. 
I have been one acquainted with the night.