vr_trakowski | Entries tagged with booooks

I re-read The Mouse and His Child today for the first time in ages.

I had forgotten just how weird a book it is. It is Russell Hoban, but still. It's marketed as a children's book, and while I haven't read much Hoban there's a distinct difference between Frances and The Medusa Frequency.

It's got all the charm of sentient toys, but they have almost no agency. The animal characters often imitate human behavior, and they talk to each other, but various characters are killed and/or eaten as the story goes on - sometimes in the middle of conversations with their killers. And the discussions of philosophy get a little intense for the grade-school level.

I imagine a lot of the subtleties are over the heads of young readers, but it works nonetheless. Though I have to wonder what a modern child would make of wind-up tin toys and tramps.

I'm sure there's plenty of discussion about its symbolisms and oddities out there - it's over half a century old, after all. But I still find it fun and entertaining, It's got a happy ending, and a terrific closing line, and it's always nice to see love win out over selfishness.

But it's still weird.

(Hoban clearly knew zip-all about actual rat behavior. The rats are straight up cartoon stereotypes. But it's forgivable, Manny is a hoot and I rather like his henchrats, poor sods.)

Just a little lonely, maybe/Thinking of you only, baby

Okay, so. Full disclosure to start out with: I read SF/F mostly. When I read classic-slash-historical literature it’s either Alcott/Montgomery/Burnett or somebody really obscure like Grace Livingston Hill. I know who Virginia Woolf was, but her impact on my radar was negligible.

That said, I’ve read a scrap or two from her letters to Vita Sackville-West, contained in a book about writing letters (lots of quotes). She sounded interesting, and kind of fun, but I didn’t really think about it for years.

Mind you, I have a fondness for certain epistolary collections, both fictional and real. Griffin and Sabine, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, 84 Charing Cross Road, They Stand Together. All favorites. So when Woolf came to my attention again recently, I thought I might as well see if there was a collection of her letters with Sackville-West, and maybe give it a try.

Here’s the weird.

There’s a collection, sure. The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf, dated 1992 (or 1984, depending). Edited by Louise DeSalvo and Mitchell Leaska. There’s also The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf, ed. same, dated 2001 on Wikipedia and 2004 on Amazon.

Note the slight change in the title.

DeSalvo’s Wiki page only lists the 2001 version (Leaska doesn’t have a page). ISBNs waver between old and new, paperback and hardcover. It’s worth noting that most of the copies I can find for sale start at $50 and go way up from there.

Now, I’m puzzled. Is this the same thing, reprinted and with a tweaked title? Or is it with fresh editing and notes? Does the later version have more letters, both sides of the conversation instead of one?

At this point, I’d like to buy a copy (but not at $130 plus shipping, thank you) but I’d like it to be the most recent version, if there is such a thing. They Stand Together is endless delight but it’s also tantalizing since it’s so one-sided. If Woolf’s letters have been added to the volume, all the better.

Can’t find the info, though.

I have emailed the 2001/2004 publisher, Cleis Press, in hopes that they can tell me something. When I looked a couple of days ago, there was no listing for the title (not surprising after twenty-plus years) but today a search for Leaska turned up a mention of it on the site.

It seems like it shouldn’t be this hard to find the data, but - even 2004 wasn’t that far along in the evolution of the Internet. I’m a little surprised that the title/s is/are so obscure, given the perennial popularity and interest of both writers - and there’s only one collection of letters? - but there it is.

It will be interesting to see if Cleis Press writes me back. One never knows.

1. The Adventures of Nicholas by Helen Siiteri - This is an old, old favorite. It’s a story about Nicholas - not the saint, nor yet the North American Santa - and how he went from orphaned child to the generous distributor of gifts to other children. It’s not meant to be a definitive version, just a good story, but that’s what it is - good. It’s a tender little book, sweet without being sticky, and I love to reread it every few years.

2. The Christmas We Moved to the Barn by Alexandra Day - Yes, that Alexandra Day. Gorgeously illustrated, this is a picture book with almost no text, but it doesn’t need it. It’s magical and beautiful and just perfect. There’s a sequel of sorts, Special Deliveries, but that one has nothing to do with the holiday.

3. A Woman’s Christmas by Arlene Hamilton Stewart - It’s published by Victoria Magazine, which means its intended audience is rich white homemaking women. Nominally Christian in this case, or at least not of a faith that precludes a secular celebration of the holiday. I am...some of those things, and really not at all into all the stuff the book talks about, but somehow I just enjoy reading about it. Can’t explain it. Of course the photos are beautiful.

4. How Lovely Are Thy Branches by Diane Duane - An interstitial story in her marvelous Young Wizards universe, full of fun and in-jokes and old friends. Probably confusing if you haven’t read at least one of the main series books, but don’t let that stop you. It’s a party I really wish I could attend.

5. A Wreath of Days by Tasha Tudor - this is kind of an honorable mention, because it’s really an Advent calendar wrapped in a couple of pages of book. The center is a delightful two-page spread of a scene of her corgi town, full of corgis intent on holiday business and the occasional troll or other creature, and this has all the doors for the calendar. Like my mother, I tend to prefer Advent calendars that actually focus on Advent, or at least the Nativity part of Christmas, but I have my exceptions. Unfortunately it is not available at any price I would call reasonable.

Rambling discourse ahead...

Back in 1997 when I was spending a year ~~dead for tax purposes~~ in Bath for grad school* I spent a lot of time, naturally, looking for books to read. I mean, I'd taken my most precious volumes with me, but there's only so much you can fit in two trunks and I'd read them all repeatedly.

Unfortunately, the SF/F sections of the local library and the Waterstones were lacking to my eye, trained to U.S. suburban abundance. The one used bookstore in town had one half-height shelf dedicated to the genre, and it was mostly Michael Moorcock. I can't stand Elric.** I got most of my used books from charity shops, of which there were several.

Somehow I managed to pick up a copy of Annie Dalton's Out of the Ordinary, though I don't remember now where I got it. I found it charming not only for its own, rather original story, which is sort of a lost stranger crossed with a portal fantasy, but also because the style reminded me of Margaret Mahy***, whose works I love.

So I bought a copy of my own. I've read it quite a few times in the intervening decades; it's still a favorite. But I have the odd habit of forgetting the title, maybe because it doesn't seem to me to really fit the story (personal opinion), and I have no hope of remembering most authors' names anyway.

Recently I wanted to re-read it, but my copy is currently inaccessible. It took me a couple of attempts to find someone online who knew what the title was (shoutout to r/whatsthatbook, it took about five minutes), and then, since I have disposable income now, I figured I might as well just buy myself another copy. I could give it away when I could get to my original one.

Now, I need to note that this is a British book. It was written by a British author and published in the U.K. (It's also out of print and not digitized, which does not surprise me.) I found a copy on Biblio.com, it arrived, I began reading with delight.

Some of the words are different.

I can't explain why my brain memorizes bits like this, but it does - though one of extra little reasons I love this book is because it introduced me to the word chuntering, specifically as regards guinea pig vocalizations. But I haven't even finished my read and I've noticed that there are a number of words that have been replaced. "Jumble" has been changed to "rummage" (as in sale). Odd additions of the word "period" (as in classes). There's a few others I can't bring to mind at the moment, but the one that finally tipped me off was "fries" instead of "chips".

I looked at the front, and yep. First U.S. printing.

Now, this is just insulting. Why the bloody blue blazes does a book, any book, need to have the Britishisms taken out of it? Do the publishers really think a teenager - this is a Y.A. book - can't possibly understand the occasional British term? That they'll toss it aside if "math" has an s on the end? Not only that, it dilutes the flavor and culture of the book. It's by a British author, about (mostly) British people, set in Britain (Yorkshire, I think). Substituting in American words hurts the story. If you don't think kids can handle a book from another culture, just stick with your own.**** Don't dilute it.

And for pity's sake, what on earth do they do to books that use words from other languages? I shudder to think.

Now, since I've been bitten by this before, I have no clue whether Annie Dalton knows about the changes, approved of them, or made them herself. For all I know it could have been her idea (though I take leave to doubt it).

I'll finish the copy I have, and I'll enjoy it! It's still as charming and interesting as it was when I first read it, even if my perspective is a quarter-century older.

But I don't think I'll feel it right to give the U.S. copy away (and I'm not giving up my original!). Maybe to an adult.

Maybe.

*It turned out to be eight months, for unrelated reasons.
**All he does is WHINE.
***Oddly enough, I read a couple of other books by Dalton, and they didn't have the same Mahy-like touches.
****Bad idea, I do not endorse it.

So a while back (good heavens, it's been over a year) a book I love went missing, strangely. To recap: I had been trying to remember the title, glanced over at the nearest bookshelf, and spotted it at the very second the title came into my head. The Piebald Princess. I recognized the spine, the binding, the height of it. But I was doing something else in a hurry, and couldn't lean over and grab it then, so I went back for it later.

It wasn't there.

I looked, repeatedly. I checked other shelves. Nothing.

Yesterday morning, I was doing some hasty tidying, and I glanced over at a different bookcase, a shelf near the floor instead of over my head. A shelf I had checked multiple times.

Guess what?

I have absolutely no explanation for its reappearance, but hey, I'll take it. And the story is still delightful.*

*Copyright 1954, so the exoticizing of a particular culture is era-typical if mild, and can to an extent be explained by [spoiler]. There is one somewhat objectionable illustration.

Battlestations! (Star Trek: Fortunes Of War, #2)

Battlestations! by Diane Carey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of the odder Classic Trek books, or at least it was when it was first published--it's in first person, and the main characters aren't canon. Piper is a Command candidate who finds herself scrambling to deal with dangerous situations, only some of which are her own fault, accompanied by her own nascent team of officers. It's good fun, mostly lighthearted, and while I would say it sometimes veers too close to the edge of silly, I still enjoy the story and the banter.

Also, Kirk's response to the damage to the Enterprise is still one of the funniest things I've ever read in Trek.

A couple of days ago, I was looking for a book I’ve had for decades, whose title I’d been trying to remember, off and on, for a while. I knew it had “princess” in the title, but I couldn’t recall the rest of it.

Then I glanced over at one of my shelves while I was doing something else, and remembered the title at exactly the moment I spotted the book. The Piebald Princess, by Joan Balfour Payne (it’s delightful, and delightfully illustrated. A lifetime favorite). There it was, and I smiled, but declined to grab it just then because it was out of reach (my bookroom is a disaster). I recognized the spine, the old blue-gray library binding of the hardcover, the print of the title.

Tonight I went back to get it and read it.

It’s not there.

I haven’t touched it since I moved all my books into that room. And while I’m not beyond saying my apartment is sporadically haunted--occasionally something invisible jumps onto the bed with me when my tangible cats are visibly elsewhere--this is different.

All I can say is, it had better turn up soon. I will take a very dim view of my books being hidden.

As ever, a listing is not necessarily a recommendation.

( Cut for length )

That's 180, better than last year but not as many as I'd like. *sigh* I don't even really have fanfic as an excuse this time.

Let me admit, first off, that I very much enjoy H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy series. They're somewhat outdated, but they're light and fun, and I like them enough that I was horrified when Scalzi "rebooted" the first book. (Seriously, who does that?)

So, since I enjoy Piper's style, I thought I'd try another of his books.

Space Viking...doesn't work.

For one thing, it's more of a synopsis in places than a story. Great swathes of time and activity are glossed over. For another, it's much more sexist than the Fuzzy trilogy, though to be fair everything on the cover warns that the protagonist's lady is fridged right at the beginning. I nearly gave up partway through, because I couldn't bring myself to care about the protagonist at all. He throws his entire life away to avenge the death of his wife, and then halfway through the book he finds he doesn't care about vengeance any longer. I suspect that this sort of thing is much more true to life than otherwise, but as a plotline it just makes him look like a twit. More of a twit than he is already, anyway.

It's also fairly racist without coming out and saying so, and pretty vehemently anti-democracy, though again to be fair the protagonist admits that there doesn't seem to be a better system to use instead. But really, the main failure of the book is that it zips past half the story without stopping to look at it. Most of the other flaws can be blamed on the time it was written; the lack of actual storyline, as it were, is solely Piper's fault.

However, I might try another if one comes my way. Perhaps there's a medium somewhere.

Mostly. I might have missed a few. (Also I refuse to italicize all these titles by hand.)

The Abbot's Ghost, or Maurice Traherne's Temptation - Louisa May Alcott
All Through the Night - Grace Livingston Hill
Anatole and the Poodle - Eve Titus
And So My Garden Grows - Peter Spier
Antiques - Sharon Gillenwater
The Anything Box - Zenna Henderson
Arrow's Fall - Mercedes Lackey
Arrow's Flight - Mercedes Lackey
Arrows of the Queen - Mercedes Lackey
The Art of Detection - Laurie R. King
Beaten by a Balloon - Margaret Mahy
Behind a Mask: or, a Woman's Power - Louisa May Alcott
Bently & egg - William Joyce
The Best Man - Grace Livingston Hill
The Big Blue Soldier - Grace Livingston Hill
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life - Anne Lamott
Black Fire - Sonni Cooper
Blackout - Mira Grant
Blood and Chocolate - Annette Curtis Klause
A Book by Georgina - Barbara C. Freeman
The Boy on a Black Horse - Nancy Springer
Bright Arrows - Grace Livingston Hill
Castle Waiting Vol. II: The Definitive Edition - Linda Medley
Cat in the Manger - Michael Foreman
The Catalogue Of The Universe - Margaret Mahy
The Cataract of Lodore - Robert Southey
Cats Know Best - Colin Eisler
Chalice - Robin McKinley
Changes - Mercedes Lackey
The Chickens Are Restless - Gary Larson
Children of the Seed Gatherers - Mary M. Worthylake
The Christmas Bride - Grace Livingston Hill
The Christmas We Moved to the Barn - Cooper Edens- Alexandra Day
The City of Dragons - Laurence Yep- Jean Tseng
Coll and His White Pig - Lloyd Alexander
Coming Through the Rye - Grace Livingston Hill
Cover Up - Lavinia Harris
Crystal Cove - Lisa Kleypas
Deadline - Mira Grant
Dear Enemy - Jean Webster
Demons - J.M. Dillard
Dogsbody - Diana Wynne Jones
Dreadnought! - Diane Carey
Duskin - Grace Livingston Hill
The Elfstones of Shannara - Terry Brooks
The Enchanted Barn - Grace Livingston Hill
Encore Provence: New Adventures in the South of France - Peter Mayle
A Fair Barbarian - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Feed - Mira Grant
A Fine and Private Place - Peter S. Beagle
First Tomato: A Voyage to the Bunny Planet - Rosemary Wells
The Four-Pools Mystery - Jean Webster
Froggy's First Kiss - Jonathan London
Fuzzies and Other People - H. Beam Piper
Fuzzy Sapiens - H. Beam Piper
Garment of Shadows - Laurie R. King
A Good Year - Peter Mayle
The Great Rip-Off - Lavinia Harris
The Green Futures of Tycho - William Sleator
The Green Lion Of Zion Street - Julia Fields
The Grey Horse - R.A. MacAvoy
A Haunting Air - Barbara C. Freeman
The High King - Lloyd Alexander
The Horse and His Boy - C. S. Lewis
The House Called Hadlows - Victoria Walker
The House on the Volcano - Virginia Nielsen
How Much for Just the Planet? - John M. Ford
I Am Puppy Hear Me Yap: The Ages of Dog - Valerie Shaff- Roy Blount Jr.
The Incredible Journey - Shelia Burnford
Irresistible - Mary Balogh
The Island Light: A Voyage to the Bunny Planet - Rosemary Wells
Juniper- Gentian- & Rosemary - Pamela Dean
Just Only John - Jack Kent
Kushiel's Dart - Jacqueline Carey
The Last Battle - C. S. Lewis
The Last Boyfriend - Nora Roberts
Leo the Magnificat - Ann Matthews Martin
The Lion- The Witch- and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Living Alone - Stella Benson
Love Bugs - David A. Carter
Love of My Life - Meredith Bond
Lucy Dove - Janice Del Negro
Maggie and Silky and Joe - Amy Ehrlich
The Magician's Nephew - C. S. Lewis
Many Waters - Madeleine L'Engle
The Mark of Merlin - Anne McCaffrey
Memory Prime - Gar Reeves-Stevens- Judith Reeves-Stevens
Merry Ever After - Joe Lasker
Millions Of Cats - Wanda Ga'g
Miss Bianca in the Salt Mines - Margery Sharp
Moonwise - Greer Ilene Gilman
Moss Pillows: A Voyage to the Bunny Planet - Rosemary Wells
Mr. Death and the Redheaded Woman - Helen Eustis
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Robert C. O'Brien
The Mystery Kiss - Judith Lansdowne
Necklace of Kisses - Francesca Lia Block
The Next Always - Nora Roberts
No One Noticed the Cat - Anne McCaffrey
Out of the Silent Planet - C. S. Lewis
Owl Babies - Martin Waddell
Paris in Love: A Memoir - Eloisa James
Perelandra - C.S. Lewis
The Perfect Hope - Nora Roberts
A Pocket of Silence - Barbara C. Freeman
The Porcelain Man - Richard Kennedy
Preschool to the Rescue - Judy Sierra
Prince Caspian - C. S. Lewis
The Prodigal Girl - Grave Livingston Hill
Provence A-Z - Peter Mayle
Pussy Meow - S. Louise Patteson
Romeo and Juliet - Andrea Hopkins- William Shakespeare
Rowan - Robin McKinley
The Runaway Bunny - Margaret Wise Brown
The Search - Grace Livingston Hill
Season of Ponies - Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever - Julia Quinn
Sector 7 - David Wiesner
The Ship Who Sang - Anne McCaffrey
The Silver Chair - C. S. Lewis
The Sleeping Beauty - Trina Schart Hyman
Snow White - Brothers Grimm
Soaps in the Afternoon - Lavinia Harris
Something Queer at the Ball Park - Elizabeth Levy
Special Deliveries - Alexandra Day- Cooper Edens
Starseed - Spider Robinson- Jeanne Robinson
Stealing the Elf-King's Roses: the Author's Cut - Diane Duane
Sten - Allan Cole- Chris Bunch
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life - C. S. Lewis
Tales from Moominvalley - Tove Jansson
Tam Lin - Pamela Dean
Tambourine Moon - Joy Jones
Teddy Bears Go Shopping - Susanna Gretz
That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis
Those Who Hunt the Night - Barbara Hambly
Tight Times - Barbara Shook Hazen
Time for Yesterday - A. C. Crispin
Together - George Ella Lyon
A Touch of Madness - Lavinia Harris
Traveling With the Dead - Barbara Hambly
Turtle Time - Sandol Stoddard
Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom - Jennifer Holland
The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams
A Very Young Circus Flyer - Jill Krementz
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C. S. Lewis
When the Sky Is Like Lace - Elinor Lander Horwitz
Where Two Ways Met - Grace Livingston Hill
The White Swan Express: A Story About Adoption - Elaine M. Aoki- Jean Davies Okimoto
The Willow Pattern Story - Alan Drummond
The Wind Between the Stars - Margaret Mahy
Windflower - Nick Bantock- Edoardo Ponti
The Winter of Enchantment - Victoria Walker
Wizard's Hall - Jane Yolen
A Woman's Christmas: Returning to the Gentle Joys of the Season - Arlene Hamilton Stewart
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet - Eleanor Cameron
Yesterday's Son - A.C. Crispin

Not too bad, but it doesn't seem like enough, somehow.

Also, please note that a listing is not necessarily a recommendation...

...Well, actually, I've finished. Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Season of Ponies, an old favorite; not quite as delightful as when I was younger, perhaps, but still a good story. Anything with magical ponies is usually fun, plus there's a riff on Circe--wholly evil, but it's still interesting to see the echo. Unfortunately the illustrations are poor.

Young girl in isolated house with elderly aunts finds magic over the summer...fairly standard, but a good sweet story. And it has enough mystery to leave one wondering. Recommended.

I was just reading up on ways to scan books into various cataloging applications. There was some discussion on the merits of OCR versus barcodes. One person noted that they prefer ISBNs despite the time required to type them in, because some of their books are too old to have barcodes.

Darlin', many of my books are too old to have LoC numbers, let alone ISBNs. Quite a few are older than, oh, Prohibition.

Still, scanning would make the process faster than scrabbling through the first few pages and squinting at the small print. Doing so makes me wish for a keypad.

To me, one of the true blessings of the smartphone era is the ability to carry a book catalogue in my pocket.

Comment to this post, and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

phdelicious kindly provided the following:

Dreams--I enjoy them, as long as they're reasonably pleasant. I have recurring landscapes in my head, including an entire mall that I revisit from time to time, and my sleeping brain also has an obsession with elevators (they rarely move in just one dimension) and, of all things, parking garages (no idea). I have obsessive dreams about trying to get to a store to buy scones and clotted cream. And nearly all my dreams have crowds of people I don't know.

Writing--What I do for fun, as anyone who's reading this should know. :P One of my two-point-five talents.† Actually, it's not writing in the strictest sense most of the time; it's typing. My handwriting is awful; I deliberately cultivated sloppy writing as a child, in a reaction to my peers dotting all their "i"s with hearts, but even now writing clearly requires effort and my mother theorizes that I have a learning disability.☎

Pets--The stuff of life. I can't imagine growing up without them! Five cats, two dogs, three rats, five guinea pigs, a gerbil, a turtle, and countless fish. Never let your father name the gerbil--Alphonse, really? And sometimes the nicknames are more fun than the formal ones--there was Squippy, Jack the Nipper☂, the Fluffbomb, the Calorie Pointer, Rupert, the dog we named after my great-aunt--and mustn't forget Mom's previous cat, whose given name was Saufie. It stood for Smart Ass Under Foot. Which she most definitely was.

Fairytales--Practically infinite resources for the imaginative. Even the most familiar and worn-out of tales can be refreshed into something new--take the concept and run with it, invert it, flip it inside out and dance with it. Check out those from other cultures, and see what's the same and what's different. Confound expectations. Play.☛

Monuments--I am rarely impressed by them. I saw Mount Rushmore and wondered why anyone had spent time on that.

Vacation--I keep thinking about taking a week off to get stuff done, and then realising✈ that I'd probably just sit around and amuse myself on the computer, and get nothing accomplished...

Laughter--To be expected, when my family gets together. We love to laugh. Sit us down to eat, and the puns start flying; leave us there long enough, and we begin uniting efforts to make my mother crack up (by no means an easy task). This can be somewhat daunting to guests. As

jeanniemac stated long ago, "Dinner at the [name redacted] cannot be described; it can only be experienced."§

†Reading, and I throw a decent pot with some practice.

☎I really predate the focus on learning disabilities. I'm not at all convinced she's right, and if I do it's quite minor, but it's true that I can't do much of anything that requires fine motor control in the fingers.

☂Almost.

☛The recent upsurge in fairytale TV amuses me, and I admit to being a fan of OUAT, but that ain't exactly quality stuff. Try Castle Waiting (thank you

cincoflex!) and Robin McKinley if you want the good crack. Or even Charles deLint, though his quality wobbles all over the place.

✈Still stuck between American English and British English. Sigh.

§We hand out magnets if they don't run screaming.

Crossposts: http://vr-trakowski.livejournal.com/344492.html

In which I talk about Anne McCaffrey. Among other things.

( I get to the point eventually, really I do! )

Crossposts: http://vr-trakowski.livejournal.com/327833.html

I am in the middle of Henry James' What Maisie Knew, but honestly, he's in the same category as Paul for sentences that one must stop and parse. It makes for a difficult reading experience, and detracts from what enjoyment I can squeeze from a narrative that lacks much show rather than tell and is mostly about a bunch of very spiteful, selfish characters.

Still, I'm curious to see what on earth he had in mind for an ending. At least, I'm still curious...

Crossposts: http://vr-trakowski.livejournal.com/324179.html

My power's back on, yayyy!

But being without is really boring. Not so much because all my electronics were down, as that it's really hard to read by flashlight and all my candles are designed for smell, not light. Though I'm not sure anyone designs candles for light output anymore, at least around here.

So I pulled some Laura Ingalls Wilder off my shelf half at random, and stuck with it in part because it has a larger font, though it's also enjoyment. I find the racism objectionable, though it is a product of the times, but it's interesting to note that in Little House on the Prairie the African-American doctor is not portrayed the same way as the Native Americans. Through Laura's eyes he is..."alien" has negative connotations, but it fits for a six-year-old who had seen very few people her entire life to date, and most of them relatives.

It's been so long since I've read them that there were bits I'd forgotten, and bits I remembered quite vividly. Leeches, yeck (that's Plum Creek, lest someone think I didn't). I've moved on to Farmer Boy--it's not like they're long books--and the differences are sharp. Almanzo's family was much wealthier, for one thing. And the food! There is so much food in Farmer Boy, and it all sounds so good. *snicker* I always wanted to try growing a milk-fed pumpkin myself.

Crossposts: http://vr-trakowski.livejournal.com/322638.html

I was thinking earlier about books converted to TV/movies, and how rarely it's done well. Many books aren't suitable for such treatment as it is, especially if the plot relies strongly on interior thoughts and emotions.

But it occurred to me that several of the works of H.M. Hoover could adapt very well, if handled properly. I've mentioned her before; she wrote young-adult science fiction, and is probably best known for Children of Morrow--or possibly This Time of Darkness, given how often it comes up on the "does anyone remember the title of this book" threads.

Those would do well as a film or miniseries. Children of Morrow is post-apocalyptic, and it and its sequel Treasures of Morrow would look good on screen without too many special effects required; come to that, This Time of Darkness is also post-apocalyptic, and could be done without special effects at all. They're all journey stories and could be constructed as episodes without too much trouble; the latter could also be done as a film without crowding. I'm thinking WonderWorks, though I know that no longer exists.

But then it dawned on me that The Lost Star, The Delikon, and Return to Earth would be fabulous as anime. Animation would solve the difficulties of showing many different aliens, and the style would suit The Delikon down to the ground. Though I suspect that the ending of that one would prove almost an irresistible temptation for changing--it's not exactly conclusive.

I can't decide whether The Rains of Eridan should be live-action or anime. Honestly, I don't think most cartoon styles would suit it properly, though perhaps Studio Ghibli could do it right. I also realize that while this one is a slightly creepy, very well-written story as it is, it could become extremely creepy--even borderline horror--on a screen. Not gory, but suspenseful--there's a good bit of paranoia in some of the characters, for one thing. But the vots would be adorable.

Not all her books are really strong enough, in my mind, for this treatment, but for some of them it could be amazing. Oh well, if ever I'm ridiculously rich...

The funny thing is, she seems to live in my brother's-and-sister's-in-love neighborhood. But I'd never know her if I met her.

Crossposts: http://vr-trakowski.livejournal.com/320713.html

• Comment with "Come at me, bro"
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

Because

mingsmommy was kind to me...

1. You are, bar none, one of the most talented and creative writers I've ever read. Where do you find inspiration?

*blush* Thank you!

Well, it's more like inspiration finds me, occasionally using bloodhounds and searchlights. I'm very intuitive that way, which sounds good but can be a real hassle; I usually have to wait for the idea to smack me upside the head. It's not that I don't sometimes come up with a plot through deliberate "what if"; but the best ideas usually come out nowhere and demand to be written down.

These days, inspiration seems to be nurtured by a really intriguing movie or TV show, but sometimes I read something and think "hey, what if it went this way instead?"

2. Obviously, you are incredibly well read. That somehow makes me feel justified in making this a two part question. What is your favorite novel? Under what circumstances did you first read it?

Oh, whine, you're going to make me choose? :P There isn't just one! I love the Chronicles of Narnia for its hope, and The Secret Garden because my mother read it to me after my brother was born, and the Secret Country trilogy because it's what I and my friends wanted to do as kids, and the Tale of the Five series because it's just fantastic. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and Call of the Wild were two of my early favorites. I wore out a copy of The Wounded Sky traveling across the U.S. and back when I was fifteen. The Rains of Eridan. Shards of Honor. Crimson Roses. Finn Family Moomintroll. Robin. The Spellkey, read at my grandparents' in California, along with Silver Woven in My Hair--had to get a long lease from the library for those. Dragonflight, which I've probably read over a hundred times, and was given to me by my mother's best friend, who also introduced me to the wonder of Pilgrimage and The People (see Ingathering for all their stories), among others.

I suppose if my apartment were burning, the first thing I'd throw out the window would be They Stand Together because I had such trouble getting a copy, but it's not a novel and it's probably easier to replace now.

3. I always say we shouldn't have regrets because even the things we see as mistakes or missteps have led us to where we are, and where we are is exactly where we're supposed to be. But, sometimes, I do wish I'd done a couple of thing differently. What is something like that for you?

I would have declined the opportunity to have a boyfriend, way back in my sophomore year of college. Some people may be able to make themselves fall in love, but I am not one of them, and I knew it then and went ahead anyway. I hurt him, and that is something for which I have not forgiven myself.

There's all kinds of excuses for it--I was young, love's always a risk, it was a necessary experience for both of us--but I knew better than to behave like that, and did it anyway. It still makes me a little sick.

4. Would you rather cook or clean?

Cook, most definitely! Or bake, if given the choice. Not that I'm particularly skilled at any of it. One of my small fantasies is to make enough money to afford a cleaner.

5. What is the oddest thing that ever happened to you?

Difficult to say! Probably it's a tie between knowing ahead of time that my brother would fall into my grandparents' pond when we were kids, and the whole haunted dorm thing during college. Oh, and there's the bit with my mother's earrings, but I promised her I wouldn't tell that story. Nah, the other two are weirder anyway.

Thanks for indulging me! ;)

Crossposts: http://vr-trakowski.livejournal.com/317272.html

I finally read the first of the Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood novels, Dead Until Dark. They really ought to put numbers on the covers; it took me a while to figure out which one came first.

Eh. They're so wildly popular that I expected it to be fairly good, but while the plot hangs together well enough, the characters' actions were a little too random or unexplained.

Also, I find Sookie stupid and annoying, and Bill a cipher. Why is half the male population of her town lusting after this woman? She can't make a decision and stick to it for two days together, let alone behave consistently towards the object of her putative affections. Bill pops up and just falls in lust with her for no discernible reason--at least, he never offers a word of explanation, and Sookie seems to take it for granted.

In addition, Sam was obvious.

I may try the next one to see if things improve; first books are often rough.

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Light in the Mirror

May 2025

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Tea and Dragons

(the muse in the mirror)

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