Tag Archives: Adult Fiction

Powerful Trinkets: Jewellery in Fantasy

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The one Ring from The Lord of the rings
The one Ring. Image Copyright New Line Cinema.

Before anything else, thanks, Sumayyah, for the inspiration for this post! I’ve quickly gotten used to wearing a ring, which, thankfully, doesn’t attract the attention of any evil entities. It also doesn’t turn me invisible, which is a bummer, but that’s life I suppose. It doesn’t even have an inscription on the inside, though maybe that was a missed opportunity. Aaaand there I go, referencing The Lord of the Rings1. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before on the blog, and maybe as a librarian, I shouldn’t be admitting this… but I liked the movies more than the books in this case. Though I did read the books way back in high school. If I remember right, I read The Fellowship of the Ring, then started Two Towers, got annoyed by the lack of Gandalf and even Tolkien’s writing style at some points, and then just stopped mid-way through2. Then the movies came out. I watched the first but didn’t keep reading. Then I watched the second and decided that maybe I should finish the books before the third movie came out. I did that, but I still don’t have any desire to return to the books, whereas I’ll watch the movies again every now and then, even in their extended format. But now I’ve used a paragraph talking about the obvious choice for this topic… Without even introducing the topic within my intro, as I’ve just realized4. For those of you who don’t click on my copious links5 or read the titles of my articles, today I’m focusing on powerful jewellery in fantasy, and I’ll be introducing a few trinkets that, while maybe not as well-known as The One Ring, are perhaps shiny enough to draw your attention to their source material.

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Honour Among Thieves

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French Netflix poster of season 3 of the Lupin tv show
image via Variety

On October 5th, part three of the acclaimed Lupin series will finally air on Netflix. One of my favourite shows, Lupin is an adaptation of Arsène Lupin by Maurice Leblanc, a classic French story about a world-famous gentleman thief and master of disguise. (Heads up: the show is also in French, but since I’m pro-subtitles even for my native English, I don’t mind this.)

Lupin had me thinking about the allure of gentlemen thieves—criminals with hearts (and motives!) of gold—and I thought it’d be fun to feature media of similar noble crooks.

But first, let’s define the term. According to TV Tropes, a gentleman thief has “…roguish good looks coupled with a breeding and style that manifests as a suave and debonair manner. He’s usually a charmer, too—think James Bond without the government authorization. He steals for the challenge/pleasure of the job and generally avoids violence while restricting his targets to those who can afford the loss.”

While gentlemen thieves are usually male, that’s not always the case. No doubt, several examples of such thieves have jumped to mind, but first, let’s start with some real life representatives of this trope!

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Coffee Shop Treats for Your Fall Reads

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Is it technically still summer? Yes. Did we only recently come out of a brutal heatwave? Also yes. But these minor inconveniences won’t stand in the way of coffee shops purveying us autumn enjoyers with their fall-flavoured staples. It’s fall in our hearts, and that’s what matters. And what better way to enjoy a seasonal drink than to sip it alongside an excellent read? Below is a list of coffee shop staples paired with a matching book. Of course, my scientific metric for this is purely vibes, but as a connoisseur of café items this makes sense to me. If you need some fall reading inspo, find your favourite beverage below!

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Let’s start with the ever-iconic pumpkin spice latte (PSL), undefeated queen of the fall menu items (which other drink gets its own acronym?). Sweet, unchallenging, and universally appealing, I like to think of the PSL as the romantic comedy of the fall beverage lineup. It’s the drink you pickup on the way to an orchard for a wholesome (maybe even romantic?) day of apple picking, or to do a Caitlin Covington-esque autumn photoshoot. With that in mind, PSL lovers will want to check out You, Again by Kate Goldbeck. Luring in fans of both autumn and autumn-flavoured rom-coms a la Meg Ryan’s 90s oeuvre, they slapped a When Harry Met Sally inspired cover on the book and said come get your food! And if that’s not enough, it seems the plot is also a riff on the beloved movie: two people who initially didn’t get along accidentally  reconnect years later, spawning a friendship that just might develop into something more.

Flat White

Not technically a seasonal item, but it has the right spirit. Smooth, minimalist and dark (but not bitter), the flat white is the dark academia of beverages. It’s the drink to carry as you step onto campus–preferably a neo-Gothic one like the University of Toronto–amid the blowing leaves. It will also match perfectly with your neutral-toned plaids and sweater vests. And the perfect book to be reading while tucked into an aesthetic reading nook, sipping on a flat white, is Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, a novel I would also describe as smooth, minimalist, and dark. Like the architect after which it’s named, Piranesi features a labyrinthine “house” with endless rooms, statues, and flooding corridors. The protagonist Piranesi is the house’s caretaker and sole occupant–except when The Other visits. Told in epistolary format, Piranesi is a weird one for sure. But if you stick with it, you’ll unravel a compelling and haunting mystery.

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