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In Gilly's lonely childhood, the occasional visits of her older cousin Geillis were moments of sunshine and magic. Now Gilly is grown up and on her own, and discovers that her cousin Geillis has died and left her country house, Thornyhold, to Gilly. As she moves in and begins to get settled and meet her neighbors, she discovers that the people considered her cousin to be a kind of wise woman or witch, that the first owner of Thornyhold had an interested in herbs and remedies, and that some of Gilly's new neighbors expect her to continue the tradition. She has suspicious run-ins with the neighbor who lives at the gate-house, who claims to be looking for a special recipe hidden somewhere in the house (but it turns out she is looking for an old spell). Gilly also meets a young boy named William and his father (a handsome, divorced writer). And as the pigeons slowly return to the empty pigeon roost in the attic of the house, Gilly begins to receive messages-- mysterious, but encouraging.

The attitude towards magic and witchcraft is interesting here and a little ambivalent; it seems that Stewart is presenting different kinds of magic, because Cousin Geillis is definitely gifted in some kind of supernatural ways-- not only with her herbs and remedies for William's ferrets, but she also has some kind of foresight or prescience that's never fully articulated. However, Agnes thinks of herself as a witch, and even tries to recruit Gilly into her little coven-- which is almost more of a club, and seems harmless. But we discover, with Gilly, what means Agnes will use to accomplish her goals; for the love potion she is trying to make, she needs the hairs of a dead or dying dog, so she forces her dim-witted son to keep a dog tied up and starving in order to get her ingredient. When Gilly discovers, she is shocked and rescues the dog, nursing him back to health; it's clear that her attitude mirrors that of her cousin, who cared for all animals and life.

Enjoyable, quick read with engaging characters, a delightfully annoying villain, and a perfectly appropriate happy ending.

Title:	Thornyhold
Author:	Mary Stewart
Date published:	1988
Genre:	Romance
Number of pages:	289
Notes:	repeat reading

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I met him in the street called Straight.

How can you not love an opening line like that? It catches my attention right away and communicates so much with so few words.

Christy Mansel is vacationing in Damascus and runs into her cousin Charles. They decide to drop in and visit on their eccentric Great Aunt Harriet, who has been living on her own in a crumbling, isolated old palace, much like the legendary Lady Hester Stanhope. Charles is detained by business, so while Christy is out on a driving tour she decides to stop by and see if they can visit later. She finds things much stranger than expected, and ends up staying the night in order to meet her aunt, who keeps strange hours. But in the morning, the river is in flood and Christy is stuck. Christy's description of Great Aunt Harriet and the whole situation strikes Charles as being "a bit off", so he does a bit of rock climbing and sneaks into the palace, and they do some exploring and investigating together. Of course, they find that things are not at all what they seem; someone has been taking advantage of this isolated spot to smuggle drugs, which is both very lucrative and very dangerous.

I was surprised to find that this book reminded me of Touch not the Cat-- cousins discovering they love each other, a climax where the lovers are stranded in the middle of an exotic location (in one instance, a hedge maze in the middle of a flood, in the other, an island in the Seraglio garden while the palace goes up in flames), and then of course there are dogs and images of dogs everywhere instead of cats.

The "Gabriel" hounds of the title are a pair of china dogs that Charles admired and nicknamed, which Harriet promised to him (he was always her favorite nephew). As it turns out, this is another variation of the hellhounds of Arawn, like those in Diana Wynne Jones' Dogsbody [read in 2006 by Lark, 2007 by Sapphire]. Harriet also has a pair of Salukis, and missing in action is her beloved terrier Samson, whom Christy and Charles think is dead until they fail to find a grave for him with Harriet's other dogs. And actually, cats figure into the story too, because Christy has an unnatural loathing and fear of cats, and her encounter with one during her interview with Lady Harriet provides Charles with another clue to what is really going on.

A completely entertaining, engaging book. Plenty of danger and adventure, and, of course, love, since Christy and Charles figure out what their family has apparently expected for years (and what the reader probably expects from the first line of the book) figure out that they belong together.

Title:	The Gabriel Hounds
Author:	Mary Stewart
Date published:	1967
Genre:	Romance/Mystery/Adventure ?
Number of pages:	244
Notes:	repeat reading

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The first time I read this book I had an insight into what makes McKillip's writing so powerful for me. I've been wanting to reread it for a while, and then after Ash Wednesday was reminded of it again because of the image and the insight that stuck with me. The book starts with a young child surviving a fire that destroys his family and entire house by hiding in a marble fireplace. McKillip describes this child who has turned to ash in the fireplace and then is shaped and sculpted back into human form when he is discovered by an uncle, and because her books take place where real magic happens, it takes a long time before you know whether the child was literally turned to ash by the flames, or if it is more figurative description of the trauma experienced by a child who watched his family burn. This is masterful, and it works perfectly because the child himself doesn't remember who he is and runs from the flames in his memory for a long time, even refusing to play the harp because it burns in his hands, until he is eventually he faces his memories and returns to face the man who destroyed his family, the Basilisk of the title. Like some other McKillip books stories, this story is full of the power of music, both beautiful and deadly.

The orphaned child is taken to the school of the bards, far north of the city and the provinces on a rocky island near the hinterlands, where there is wild magic and strange musical instruments, and where the first Bard learned his power. As a child he is called Rook for his dark eyes, and then later he goes by the name his uncle gave him-- Caladrius, for a bird whose song portends death. Rook's family was destroyed in a war between the four great houses of the city of Berylon. Each family has a totem figure; the ruthless man who crushed the other houses and seized power is Arioso Pellior, known as the Basilisk both for the symbol of his house but also for his strange and deadly powers.

Caladrius eventually goes to the Hinterlands to discover the flames in his memory he has feared and avoided since childhood, and once he comes to grips with his past he decides to return to Berylon for his revenge. Much of the story ties in with music-- there is a music school, with collected instruments from the north, including some with strange and dangerous powers. There are some beautiful, amazing moments... Caladrius and his son Hollis both playing on the deadly fire-bone pipe to try to kill the Basilisk (and they succeed in summoning some kind of deadly white basilisk that makes Pellior very ill), but as a blind and insightful old woman observes, they fail because they were each playing out of love for the other-- not for revenge but each to protect the other. Then, once Caladrius is revealed as the heir to Tormalyne house and they are being hunted through the city, he plays another set of pipes to travel somewhere safe-- they are transformed and travel as sound itself to the Hinterlands and back, although my prosaic description doesn't do justice to McKillip's beautiful evocation of this.

Also fascinating is Luna Pellior, daughter of the Basilisk-- not his firstborn, but heir in power and magic. She is enigmatic and dangerous, with green eyes that might be those of a mesmerizing serpent. Until the end of the story reveals her motivation and depth, I understood her very little; she orchestrates things perfectly for an appropriate justice-- the raven blinds the aging basilisk in some mysterious way that even the main participants don't fully understand-- and finally brings peace and harmony back to the city of Berylon.

This book is worth reading again.

Title:	Song for the Basilisk
Author:	Patricia McKillip
Date published:	1998
Genre:	Fantasy
Number of pages:	306
Notes:	second reading

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A young boy is growing up in an Hasidic Jewish community, with all the rituals and traditions and expectations that go with that. Add to this the fact that his father works for the Rebbe (the leader of the community) .. and it becomes a real problem that this boy, Asher Lev, doesn't do well in school. Instead, he spends time drawing and looking at life through different eyes. Good boys are supposed to study the Torah, to understand at least a few languages, to do well in school, and not to be artistic. At a young age, he experiences the darkness of a painful truth, and gives up drawing because it seems futile, useless. But he cannot stop it, and a few years later this gift comes back with a vengence.

The Rebbe calls Asher in for a conversation that all boys at his age have. They talk about his art, and the Rebbe tells him that he will be apprenticed to another Jewish artist -- Jacob Kahn. In their first meeting, Jacob warns him that art is not something to be done lightly .. especially as a Jew. Asher looks into all the hard truth he is presented with, and still chooses art. He must take large steps out of his world, though .. spending hours at the museum, studying & copying and learning from masterpieces, at the library studying various works, working on various techniques, even drawing nudes. These are challenging for him, but he takes the steps because he cannot help himself .. art must pour out of him in some fashion and he chooses to hone his skills and grasp of what art really is. If these things are challenging for him, they are beyond comprehension to his father. When someone in a community challenges the status quo, his questions or wonderings also affect the rest of the community, either directly or indirectly. Because Asher wants to and can produce real, beautiful art, he causes his teachers and schoolmates and parents to ask different questions about what is and isn't proper and why. In being true to this gift that was given to him by the Master of the Universe, Asher eventually creates something that the community cannot accept because it is so far outside their comprehension and definitions. That feels true for some art these days as well. How rare it feels to have people who really follow God and seek His face also producing beautiful, good, true art that challenges conceptions and speaks to deeper levels of the soul. And when they come along, I wonder how well the faith community accepts them. This is a book I'm sure I will read again. At least once :)

Title:	My Name is Asher Lev
Author:	Chaim Potok
Date published:	1972
Genre:	Fiction, Art
Number of pages:	369
Notes:

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