Don't you have an elsewhere to be?

Cordelia ,'Lessons'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


Strix - Apr 09, 2010 4:42:02 am PDT #11225 of 28344
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger

Oh, I had picked that up at the library (the Byatt) and not gotten around to it. Is it fun, then? I love big ol' Victorian era novels.

It's why I love Sarah Waters so much; I still like her WWI period stuff, but I adore the Victorian lesbian thrillers.


Kat - Apr 09, 2010 4:45:09 am PDT #11226 of 28344
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo

It is definitely thought-provoking, Erin. I was up for two days in a row to finish it. But, like all Byatt, it's unsettling. I think I still prefer Possession to The Children's Hour, but the doubling and the foils in the book are great. Extremely bleak though.

I have a Sarah Waters out right now (last years) but I think I need to be light for a bit. I'll still skim Moby Dick and instead read Mennonite in a Little Black Dress.


Strix - Apr 09, 2010 4:49:28 am PDT #11227 of 28344
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger

The new Waters is v. Gothic; I quite enjoyed reading it up late one night this winter.


megan walker - Apr 09, 2010 5:46:38 am PDT #11228 of 28344
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

I enjoyed both of those books so much, megan. I loved how what was set up as the abuse in the first book was not what I had anticipated. And I love how fierce Liz is.

I love how I completely misread the opening scene of the second book. I think Liz is a little too good to be true, but it's great to have such a strong female character. Which is true about The Hunger Games as well.

I'm excited to read the Sarah Waters as well, but I have The Help and a few others to get through first.

I'm just so excited that I've gotten into reading fiction in a serious way again.


Gris - Apr 09, 2010 6:22:33 am PDT #11229 of 28344
Hey. New board.

I've started the sequel to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and so far it is lovely. I could read any number of books in this protagonist's voice.


Kate P. - Apr 09, 2010 7:26:42 am PDT #11230 of 28344
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love

I just read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last week. I enjoyed it, but didn't feel particularly compelled to pick up the second book, especially since the first one ended with like 100 pages of Mikael's vendetta against Wennerstrom, which was not nearly as interesting to me as the story about the Vanger family. If I liked the Lisbeth parts more than the Mikael parts, should I give the second book a shot?


DawnK - Apr 09, 2010 7:38:47 am PDT #11231 of 28344
giraffe mode

Kate, I would say yes. The focus of the second book is much differnt (more on Lisbeth)


Kate P. - Apr 09, 2010 7:47:44 am PDT #11232 of 28344
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love

Thanks, Dawn! That's good to know.


meara - Apr 09, 2010 8:25:02 am PDT #11233 of 28344

Totally agreed--I liked the second book more, and it's more Lisbeth, I felt. I'm looking forward to the third book (...at some point. I figure I'll pick it up in an airport somewhere when it's in paperback and I'm all desperate for something to read and go "Oooh! I can read THAT! Yes!")


megan walker - Apr 09, 2010 8:27:52 am PDT #11234 of 28344
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

The second book was just way more developed, character-wise and plot-wise, which is often the case I think, but weird in Larsson's case since my understanding is he didn't submit them to a publisher until he had all three.